Chapter Eleven: You Are the End

                                    

                                          
Chapter Eleven: You Are the End
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair, and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. 
Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh, their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the Earth in those days- and also afterward- when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
—Genesis 6:1
     There are moments in life when time itself seems to grind to a halt. For Kanato Suzune, this was one of them. He could do nothing but watch, paralyzed as Shizuka Hikage was skewered through the stomach and left to suffer. He was helpless as she flailed and screamed in agony, bleeding out all over the iron rafters. The injured Lilin could only spectate in horror as her mangled body was lifted up high into the air and dropped into Tabris' gaping jaws. And with that...she was gone. A single loud swallow, and she vanished entirely. 
     Kanato realized it now. This had been his plan all along. He never planned to use her to create a new race...he wanted to make her newfound ability his own. Kanato had promised to protect his best friend with every last bit of strength in him...and he failed. 
     They were right. He really was just a worthless doll. Try as he might, no matter what he did, he could never be what the others were. He could never be a human, capable of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and free will. Neither could he be a Nephilim, a god in the form of a giant that could summon and shape his own soul into the form of a psychokinetic weapon. He was merely a servant and nothing more. A simmering cocktail of pure rage boiled over deep within the Lilin's anguished soul. 
     Meanwhile, Ramiel and Samael whipped out their psychic weaponry. "I...I worked so hard to create the Seraphim, and that's how you treat her!?" Samael snapped. "Forgive me, Master Tabris, but this is not the world I wanted!" 
     "You bastard!" Ramiel bellowed. "I'll tear you apart and cut her out of your disgusting belly before I let you have your sick ways!"
     The two Nephilim charged Tabris head-on, but thanks to his newfound power, he halted them both with a single thought. He waved his palm and unleashed a blast of energy that sent the giants careening across the Core. "I have no need for you," Tabris growled. "Your very existence would poison my new world. What I plan to create is for me alone. You could never understand what it truly means. And now...destiny awaits me..." 
     A cloak of warm, lurid light enveloped the blue-haired Nephilim. It clustered at his back, where new pairs of wings spread. He donned six angelic wings, the radiant white feathers ruffling and twitching as though they possessed minds of their own. A massive red orb bloomed from his chest, surrounded by a fringe of bone-like spikes. The light within the crimson orb churned and swirled like a sea of blood. 
     He began a rapid increase in size, growing so quickly that the iron girders creaked and warped beneath his feet. At his command, the domed ceiling crumbled away, revealing a blood-red sky cloaked in clouds. Soon, he would grow too large for the mothership to even contain him anymore. This was the power of the Seraphim...the true strength of the Seed of Creation Shizuka Hikage gave birth to. 
     While the winged god continued his ascension, Kanato slowly lifted his head. There had to be something he could do...a way to save Shizuka from that beast's clutches, even if only for a moment. Even if it cost Kanato his life, if it meant she and the rest of humanity could live on in peace...then he would have finally proved to himself that he indeed had a soul...as well as a purpose for his own existence.