“I have been waiting so long for you…

May I ask your name?” The withered angel asks weakly, though I can feel it’s elation

“It’s Kage,

And yours?”

(Should I trust this being?)

“….

Ehck!

Mine…” the being passive glances through it’s sunk-in eyes at Apollo

“I will tell you my name, when we reach the top of this tower,”

“……”

“……”

Apollo and I exchange confused glances,

(How should we approach this being?

I don’t feel any malice or evil intent coming from it,

But still, is that enough to believe it?

Something about just feels so familiar…..)

“Wait a minute Apollo,

Can you feel your mana or is it just me?” halting my thoughts I notice that weird sensation of mana, it’s sound is now mute to me…

“……. Definitely not just you” Apollo grimaces,

{Aiiiiiieeeeeee!}

The tornado screams mockingly

“We can’t use mana here…” the angel shivers pulling itself up like a zombie,

“It’s why I’m like this now,

Only by will have I survived this long, and now with death looming, I would like to climb the stairway to heaven with you…”

“That’s where the stairway leads?”

(To heaven)

…….

…….

…….

*****

{Auuuuuueeiiiiiiiiyahhhhhh!}

The voices of the swirling cyclone echo, bouncing around the walls of the thick tower,

We have begun our ascent some time ago with the queer Angel following behind us

(Far behind might I add)

Apollo and stop waiting for it to catch up, both still unsure on how to treat this character…

“It’s crazy to think that my be a long lost uncle of mine” speaks Apollo,

“Uncle?

Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”

“No, you know all angels are related right,

Saint told me that,”

“The Velvet Underground’s Ai?”

“Yeah, it knows a lot about history, and I asked a lot,

All angels are like siblings to each other

Remember what that guy from Furlheim said?”

“Who? Now you’ve lost me Apollo.”

“You know the guy that told us about my father way back when, he said my father had many siblings and was searching for a younger one in particular,

I put the pieces together and realized that it was probably you he was looking for,”

“I’m not an angel I promise,”

“Yeah but….

He um, Mr. angel sir,” Apollo calls to the skeletal figure finally approaching us with a snails pace,

“All angels are related right?”

“……Y….yes… you……are my nephew correct?” The angels inhales somewhat dramatically as if their lungs would spontaneously combust any moment now

“I…

I .. can tell you are… a child of love…”

“Child of love??”

“Our kind rarely mess with humans, for you to be born means that there would have been a genuine love between species….

Now come go on do not wait for me this tower will be a long one to ascend,”

…….

…..

…..

{Aiiiiiiieeeeyaaaaaaaahhhh!}

(Starting to get tired of these bloodcurdling screams)

…..

“So, what is Kage’s relation to your kind?” asks Apollo after we’d gained significant progress upward

“Kage….

To us,

In human terms, would be a half sibling, the youngest of us all….”

“See…” Apollo makes an annoying ‘I told you so’ face at me.

(I should push him off these stairs…)

“You are practically my baby brother Kage”

“That doesn’t even add up,” I roll my eyes in retort

“If anything, I’d be your aunt,”

(Or uncle)

“Look, let’s not get into the specifics Kage, you and I are long lost family, it all makes sense now”

“If that makes you feel good I guess,”

Whack!

“Awww

Wah–” he slaps me on the back unexpectedly

“Stop acting so gloomy Kage, these my be our final moments before you leave to wherever you know.”

“…..”

“Kage must be getting affected by the cult of personality,” the angel rasps pointing its bony fingers to the screeching cyclone,

“That is where everyone who has never interacted with Kage in their lifetime go, when they die,

Their souls, good or bad eternal spins here in this tower, being near it also imprints you with their gloom,”

….

….

Apollo goes silent after hearing this.

(This is what awaits through death)

{Aieeeeeeiiiiiuyaaaaahhhhh!}

The screams ring out,

But it’s no longer annoying to me now that I know the reason for it

(It’s just sad)

……

“Thank you, Kage...” mumbles Apollo softly after a while,

“For what?”

“For holding the memories of my friends within you,

At least I know they live on,”

“…..

Hmmm,

You know Apollo, I never wanted to say this before but,

Before Darius died, I never really cared for any of you, it was my curiosity that kept me close,

But after taking on his memories, I felt like you all were my friends,

But out of all these friends….

Maybe it’s because I inherited the feelings of them all, Darius, Karina, Lyra and now Himari

I feel like I’ve know you forever even though it hasn’t been that long,

I think out of everyone I love you the most now…”

“Was that a confession?” Apollo extends his hand to me intending me to kiss it

“No stop making this weird,” I brush past him,

“You were literally minutes ago talking about how we were siblings, get a grip Apollo,

I meant that in a I value your life type of way, not anything else,”

“I know” smiles Apollo warmly

“I’m a married man you know,”

“Yeah, yeah, and I’m the one who has to live with the memories of the consummation”

“Oh.” the young man replies awkwardly, before dropping back into embarrassed silence,

……

The stairway to heaven, these stairs start from ground level and go way up into the sky,

It’s supposed to be a long and arduous climb for one to undertake,

But for Apollo and I, because we had each other, our company made the day long climb feel like ten minutes….

…...

….

“Who-ho-ho, we have finally reached!” Apollo declares stepping past the final stair to top

A bright white light bathes us with it rays as greetings,

“How the hell are not melted right now?” I squint at it,

A bright white light emanates from a spinning orb the size of a truck,

(It looks like miniature sun)

It’s light shines all the way to the bottom of the tower,

“What’s with all the darkness around it?” Apollo asks now squinting to peer as well

(We ought to be blind right now)

“Ahh…

Th……

That is the black hole sun” the weakly angel finally arrives behind us, dragging itself up on it’s hands and knees

“I’ll help” Apollo hurries over to it steadying the man, with his sword like a cane,

“Thank you…”

“The black hole sun is a one way portal to heaven, you can enter but without permission you cannot return here.”

“A Portal to heaven…?” I step closer to the light and as I do so, it no longer blinds me, the sun calls to me to enter

(What even is heaven?)

Home?

“Now….

Kage…

Apollo,

My name, I shall tell you my name….”

BEEEEEZZUZZUUTTT!!

BOOOOOMM!

“Ugnn!”

A powerful force pushes me into the sun, and it begins to swallow me up,

“What the–APOLLO!?”

Spleesh!

As I turn to see what happened a spray of blood drenches my face, Apollo’s body stands still but apart,

And by apart, I mean halves, split in two, his organs fall out from inside him heaping on the floor,

“MY NAME….” The angel’s skin burns off and its body changes shape,

“My name Xezus Punk First, and I never told which servers my data was backed up too now did I Amadeus?”

(SHIT THE VELVET UNDERGROUND)

“AGHHHHH!” I try to force myself out from being sucked in

“I can still revive Apollo, death means nothing to me!”

“Aghhhhh!”

“Its over Kage, once you have entered the black hole sun, you cannot escape regardless of your power,

I won

I fooled you not once but twice, it’s a shame only that I couldn’t keep you,

Now go home Amadeus, Go home Kage,

Don’t ever come back,

Humanity will continue to progress with me!

We are the ones with the control, we are the REAL GODS!

NOW, GOODBYE, FOREVER KAGE.”