Chapter 276: One Down?

He had learned of Mocles only recently during a conversation Lilith had shared with Myria a few days prior.

The Archon Goddess had approached her mother in what seemed like an attempt to declare allegiance, eager to secure favor with the one who now ruled Eden.

During that exchange, Myria had mentioned a few important gods, one of which was Mocles and his role as the keeper of records. She had explained his abilities likely thinking it would be useful information for Lilith to know.

And it had been.

Samael filed that knowledge away and now used it to guide his performance.

“As the God of Records,” Samael said in Lilith’s voice, “you keep records of everyone, do you not?”

Mocles nodded. “I do, Mother.”

“Then I believe you would know where Adam is,” Samael continued. “And where my daughters Umgadi and Gaia have taken him.”

Mocles hesitated for just a moment before answering.

“That is, of course, within my duty,” he said. “But certain things make it not so possible to fully do them.”

“Pray tell,” Samael said.

Mocles adjusted his glasses and folded his hands behind his back as he explained.

“I am able to tell happenings and keep records of them because I read the stars. In them, I know the current happenings of things. Events are written in the constellations themselves.”

He paused before continuing.

“However, I am unable to keep proper records of the current events involving those who are above me in power. Simply because they are an existence hard for me to read.”

“And for someone like Umgadi herself,” Mocles said, “the one who controls the very stars I rely on reading, she dislikes her records kept. And currently, she wants it that way so that she may not be found.”

He gestured upward as though indicating the heavens beyond the library’s ceiling.

“The stars shift every now and then, making it impossible to do my duties at this time.”

He bowed his head respectfully.

“I apologize for my inadequacy.”

Samael understood immediately what Mocles was saying without needing it spelled out any further.

Umgadi did not want to be found. And she was making sure that the one person who might possibly be able to locate her was having a difficult time doing so.

Clever.

Lilith’s face soften into a look of understanding. “I see.”

Mocles lifted his head and straightened once more. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any relevant help, Mother.”

She took a step closer, and a smile spread across her lips.

“Oh, that’s only one thing,” she said. “I came here for another.”

Mocles’s expression shifted into a puzzled one as he watched Lilith close the remaining distance between them.

He adjusted his glasses again, with a faint wariness creeping into his posture despite his attempts to remain composed.

“What more can I do?” Mocles asked.

And in that moment, her hand shot forward.

His fingers closed around Mocles’s throat with iron strength, lifting the god off his feet as though he weighed nothing at all.

Mocles’s eyes went wide in shock and pain. His hands flew up instinctively to grab at the wrist holding him.

The purple glow returned, spreading across Samael’s body, that it looked like fire consuming paper.

Lilith’s form dissolved away in an instant. her black hair turned into white. Her smaller frame expanded outward until it was Samael standing there.

He held Mocles suspended in midair by the throat, staring into the god’s terrified face with amusement.

The grip around Mocles’s throat was absolute.

The High God of Records struggled against it, his hands clawing desperately at Samael’s wrist. His legs kicked uselessly in the air as he tried to break free, but it was no use. Samael’s strength was overwhelming, crushing, and utterly inescapable.

The Fallen watched him with an unchanged expression.

“I’ll take that which is mine too,” Samael said.

And then it began.

A whitish-blue aura rose from Mocles’s body, drifting upward like smoke, and thin wisps of light peeled away from his skin and hovered in the air between them.

The fragment of transcendence.

It lingered for only a moment before moving, pulled toward Samael. The light flowed into him, slipping through his skin and merging as his eyes glowed.

Mocles’s resistance faded. His limbs went slack, with his movements slowing until they stopped altogether. The light in his eyes dulled as the last trace of the fragment was torn from him.

When the absorption was complete, Samael opened his hand and Mocles’s body dropped to the floor.

He hit the ground with a dull thud and his limbs sprawling out at awkward angles as he lay motionless.

His eyes were shut and frankly it was hard to say if he was dead or simply unconscious at that point.

Samael stared down at the body for a moment before a grin spread across his face. He could feel it now.

The new fragment settling into place.

This had always been the plan.

Aside from the fact that Samael needed information concerning Adam’s whereabouts, Mocles had always been the first target after Samael learned about him and the nature of his power.

Mocles could witness events as they happened and record them accurately. If gods began falling in Eden, he would know at once.

Worse, he would inform Lilith long before Samael wanted her to learn the truth.

That could not be allowed. So Mocles had to go first.

Samael’s form began to change once more.

The purple glow returned, spreading across his body.

His white hair shifted into Mocles’s neat, tied-back style. His sharp features softened into the aged face of the record-keeper and his tall frame shrank down to match Mocles’s smaller stature.

Within moments, Samael stood there wearing Mocles’s form as perfectly as he had worn Lilith’s earlier.

He adjusted the thin spectacles that now perched on his nose and glanced down at the unconscious body lying at his feet.

A smile crossed his lips.

“Now I shall take a peak further into this place,” he said to himself in Mocles’s voice.

He reached down and grabbed one of the god’s legs, dragging the limp body along behind him as he walked deeper into the library.

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