IRM Chapter 19
As soon as the little undead stepped into the church, he rushed toward the sleeping angel. He half-knelt on the ground, anxiously shaking the angel’s shoulders. “Brother Reize, wake up quickly! I brought them here! They’re all light mages and can replenish lots and lots of light elements for you!”
When the little undead threw himself onto Reize, he was too anxious and accidentally pressed down on Reize’s softly glowing white wings.
The angel’s white wings were condensed from light elements and should have caused severe burns to dark creatures, but Reize’s wings were quite the opposite—they cushioned gently under the little undead’s knees, slowly absorbing the dark elements from his body, and then one feather gradually turned as black as the night.
The little undead caught sight of this scene from the corner of his eye and frantically scrambled to one side, distancing himself far from Reize. “Sorry, sorry… I didn’t notice…”
Reize was awakened by the commotion. His thick golden eyelashes fluttered, and his eyes slowly opened.
Those were a pair of light purple pupils, and the occasional flashes of electric arcs in the center of his pupils made these eyes appear even more dangerous and mysterious.
Reize turned his head slightly, his voice carrying weakness. “Andy… you’re back? Don’t go to the royal city again next time. Everyone is very worried about you…”
Andy, that is, the little undead, quickly shook his head. He looked longingly at Reize’s black wings. “You can’t absorb any more. If this continues, you’ll completely fall…”
Reize struggled to lift the corners of his mouth. “Children shouldn’t worry about such things. Well then, go out and play. I have something to discuss with our guests.”
Andy really wanted to stay, but he could see Reize’s seriousness and determination. He pressed his lips together and shuffled out of the church with his short legs, looking back every three steps.
When the church door closed with a bang, Reize turned his gaze back to the three mages before him.
“Ah, students from the Magic Academy…” Even with their cloaks covering them, Reize recognized their identities at a glance. A starlike smile appeared in his eyes, his face full of nostalgia. “It wouldn’t be good if Professor Joseph caught you coming to such a dangerous place…”
Seeing the former academy’s glory reduced to this state, Evan felt very uncomfortable. He could still recall the proud and envious expression on that senior mage’s face at the tavern when he mentioned Reize.
He ran forward and knelt beside Reize without a word, placing both hands on Reize’s soft wings as a stream of pure light elements flowed from his fingertips.
Reize closed his eyes and felt the light elements within his body gradually filling up. Although it wasn’t enough to offset the torment of the dark elements, the extremely pure light elements restored some vitality to his complexion.
He recognized this magical power and chuckled softly. “So it’s you… When Andy came back that day, he kept telling me he met a very, very good light mage.”
Evan shook his head and asked dejectedly, “Why did it become like this…”
Reize looked up at the church dome, where intricate and beautiful angel paintings had once been drawn but were now violently erased clean. He remained silent for a long time, then let out a long sigh. “It’s all my fault.”
****
Thirty years ago, the newly adult angel left the Angel Kingdom for the first time. He descended joyfully into the quiet little village directly below the kingdom, and upon looking up, he collided with a pair of mysterious and enchanting purple pupils.
That was a human mage girl.
They met, got to know each other, fell in love, and finally received a special gift—a little bundle with purple eyes and golden hair. They named the bundle Reize.
The bundle grew up freely in Bien Village. Except for his slightly distinctive appearance, he was no different from other human children.
When the bundle grew into a young man, his parents were conscripted to the distant frontier and never sent back any news.
The villagers pitied and protected the increasingly dejected youth, raising him, giving him joy, and even sending him to the Magic Academy for testing, where he became a promising young mage.
Gradually, Reize began to forget his parents’ faces. He studied magic diligently, wanting to repay the villagers who had always cared for him in the future.
So a year later, he was held back a grade.
Reize: “…”
Reize was very angry, with electric currents crackling chaotically all over his body. He couldn’t understand why, despite working so hard, his magic power still wouldn’t obey him!
The unwilling anger kept burning until he participated in another entrance ceremony. That day, the headmaster’s bald head reflected light particularly glaringly, and Reize’s anger reached its peak, breaking through some kind of restraint in an instant.
Headmaster Harvey’s intoxicated speech was interrupted by a dazzling light. He looked up to see a golden-haired youth floating in the air above the auditorium, his entire body shrouded in holy light, with two large, pure white wings slowly spreading from behind his back.
All the little mages in the auditorium were stunned.
The news that the Magic Academy had produced a thunder-light dual-system mage with half-angel bloodline spread throughout the entire Saint Trilley Kingdom and finally flew to the Angel Kingdom in the clouds.
The Angel Kingdom, which had known of this child’s existence for a long time, could no longer sit still. Although his bloodline was impure, his exceptional talent was enough to compensate for this flaw.
That’s right—they viewed Reize’s bloodline as a kind of flaw.
Reize originally didn’t plan to accept the olive branch extended by the Angel Kingdom. He had always known that those arrogant angels discriminated against him, and he didn’t want to go nor felt it necessary.
But when the villagers of Bien Village learned of this news, they were overjoyed! They hung lanterns, decorated the streets, and celebrated enthusiastically because they deeply revered angels.
Reize had no choice but to eventually agree to the arrangement of returning to the Angel Kingdom after graduation.
After awakening his angelic bloodline, Reize progressed rapidly. He graduated from the Magic Academy with extremely excellent grades and within just ten years, cultivated his second pair of wings, earning a nomination for lower-level angel status from the kingdom.
On the surface, everything seemed to go smoothly, but in places where sunlight couldn’t reach, jealousy, unwillingness, and disdain grew in the shadows.
What right does an angel with impure bloodline have to compete? How dare he try to climb above us? The angels competing with Reize for lower-level angel status thought this way.
The ostracized Reize wasn’t particularly upset. He had anticipated this scene the moment he arrived at the Angel Kingdom. He knew this was his bloodline, this was his fate.
But what he hadn’t anticipated was that the angels whom Bien Village revered and loved would do such filthy and despicable things for the sake of competing for a mere lower-level angel position.
Bien Village was contaminated with dark elements. Over a hundred villagers turned into broken undead overnight. They had no consciousness and wandered through the village in confusion, wailing as if searching for the light they once knew in complete darkness.
Reize collapsed when he saw this scene. He stood woodenly at the familiar village entrance, allowing those familiar figures to pounce on him, bite, and attack him.
In that instant, he thought of many things. He wanted to kill his way up to the Angel Kingdom regardless of everything. He wanted to find the culprits and scatter their feathers over Bien Village to bury the villagers.
But in the end, Reize calmed down. He had missed his chance once, and this time, he wanted to surrender to fate.
Reize no longer wanted to be entangled with his angelic identity. He set up a magic barrier around Bien Village to protect the villagers within the barrier and the passersby outside it.
He spent several months finding and learning purification magic, but his power wasn’t sufficient. He could only do his best to absorb the endless stream of dark elements into his body, allowing the villagers to maintain their original consciousness.
The villagers who had regained their consciousness remained silent for a very long time. They didn’t blame Reize but sighed as they erased the traces of angel worship from their village.
Life continued precariously in Reize’s decline. The villagers felt sorry for the torment he endured day and night but didn’t try to dissuade him. They just worked hard to live, creating the same normal, peaceful atmosphere as before.
But illusory beauty was always destined to shatter. Reize could no longer sustain such consumption—he was about to fall.
“It’s all my fault…” Reize’s purple eyes were dim and lightless. He repeated in a low voice again, mixed with endless regret and hatred. “If only I hadn’t agreed to them…”
Evan had already output a large amount of magic power, but it only restored the whiteness to a few feathers at the wing tips. His face was pale and covered in cold sweat. Hearing these words, he rarely got angry. “What fault do you have! Aren’t those angels with filthy hearts the ones at fault!”
Saintess Coralie glanced at Evan and muttered softly, “He sees others quite clearly…”
She walked forward without further hesitation and knelt beside Evan, placing her hands on the wings as well. Another stream of pure light elements surged into Reize’s body.
All their attention was focused on Reize before them, so naturally they didn’t see Ji Chi’s suddenly clenched fists behind them.
Ji Chi closed his eyes, hiding the confusion that flashed through them.
Although he had sensed that the hidden truth might differ from the game’s main storyline, he hadn’t expected such a vast difference that would turn all players from respectable heroes into filthy accomplices.
With Reize’s recollection filling in the gaps, Ji Chi completely remembered the task he had undertaken at that time.
Player Ji Chi had played the role of an adventurer in the game. He encountered the Holy Knight Order preparing to leave the city on a mission in Harris City and accepted their commission—to investigate Bien Village.
At that time, Bien Village had already been completely eroded by dark elements, becoming a village filled with deathly energy where numerous undead wandered.
Following the task’s guidance, he immediately reported this discovery to the Holy Knight Order and came to the village with them to eliminate those threatening undead.
When the last lower-level undead crumbled to ash under Ji Chi’s attack, he seemed to touch some invisible trigger. A piercing shriek suddenly rang out from the center of the village, and a fallen angel with pitch-black wings burst through the church wall and attacked them!
The extremely realistic scenes from the holographic game overlapped with the real world. Ji Chi could still recall the sensation of his sword piercing through the fallen angel’s chest and those crystal-purple eyes that suddenly became clear before death.
The fallen angel didn’t disappear immediately when his health bar hit zero. He slowly knelt on the open ground in front of the church, his black wings scattering like ash behind him.
The fallen angel’s pale lips moved slightly as he silently said “sorry” to the scattered remains on the ground…