And for the first time in nearly a decade, we crossed the Veil and stood at the edge of the Heavens.
It burned.
Not because it rejected us — but because itknewwho we were.
Jisoo, still part angel, endured it silently beside me, gaze fierce and proud. “You’re sure about this?” he asked, his voice low.
“Yes,” I said. “This is for her.”
We stepped through the gates — and the sky lit up with the hum of celestial choir. And there — at the center of a throne of clouds and stars —
Stood the Almighty.
Eyes like galaxies. Presence like gravity itself. And he looked at me — not with anger, not with hatred —
But withrecognition.
“You’ve come to bargain for the soul of the one who loved my daughter,” the Almighty said, voice both terrible and tender.
I dropped to one knee, heart thundering.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ve come to bring him home.”
Jisoo
A spark in the stars
I’d seen a lot in my time — demons ripping through realms, celestial gates collapsing, blood offerings that turned the skies red.
But nothing…nothingcompared to standing before the Almighty. Even I — once an angel, now cloaked in shadows and sins — felt it in my bones. The weight of divine judgment. The echo of ancient light.
He was everything and nothing. A shape made of eternity. A gaze that made your soul tremble.
And Rheon stood before him — unflinching.
“I know why you’ve come,” the Almighty said, voice like thunder cracking through silence. “You seek theone who should not have existed. The Archangel who fell in love with a demon queen. Who bore the child that straddled realms.”
Rheon’s jaw clenched.
“His name was Elarion. And he wasSeori’s father.”
The Almighty’s expression did not change.
“He was never meant to bear a child. Let alone with her. He disobeyed every law written in Heaven.”
Rheon stepped forward, fury crackling behind his eyes.
“Then if you are truly Almighty, all-seeing,all-forgiving— why can’t you forgivehim?Why must Seori suffer the price of a love that was never hers to pay?”
The Almighty didn’t speak.
The silence felt like the sky had stopped breathing. Then Rheon raised the scroll. His voice rang out, clear, low, determined:
“A soul of divine flame may be summoned from the beyond through the gate of starlight, should one of equal blood and intent, bear the weight of his sacrifice.”
I felt the words ripple through the stars. Even Heaven paused to listen.
Rheon stared up at the Almighty, shadows dancing in his irises.
