Where there's heat, there has to be shade.
Where there's motion, there has to be stillness.
Where there's water, there has to be land.
Where there's life, there has to be death.
It is the natural order—the balance with which the world continues to exist.
Without it, it will crumble on one side. Too much of the same will stretch beyond the limits of what was thought to be limitless.
Where there's light, there has to be darkness.
This was the imbalance in Heaven—for there was only light, and no darkness.
Without balance, there was no clarity— and without clarity, there was no reason to exist. Without reason, nothing would make sense—and without sense, nothing could be made.
Creation itself was at risk of vanishing from existence, all because there was no balance.
So Heaven divided itself into two; light and darkness. Most call it, The Dark Side of Heaven.
Now that they were both there, all that was left was to keep them from merging, because if they did, they would erase each other from existence, undoing everything and taking us back to square one.
So all of Heaven came together as one, and made the Valley, which divided the two, acting as the one guarding the balance.
However, no one guarded the valley, exposing it to the risk of collapsing under the weight it bears.
Luckily, Heaven was quick enough to notice it, and the dark side sacrificed its own power to the Valley, giving it strength to hold its own.
However, just as there is balance between light and darkness, so too is there balance between perfection and imperfection.
The light side is the one known as perfect in every way imaginable, but that's not the case with the dark side, which although very close, isn't as perfect as the light side.
So it made a mistake, and gave the valley too much of its own power, leading to the birth of a new consciousness.
Out of fear, Heaven sealed it away, to let it continue with its purpose while also protecting others.
Some might ask, why not just take away the consciousness that they so fear?
That's because Heaven only creates. It does not destroy.
But it does give others their fate.
However, the fate chosen for the new life form has never been laid bare—not even to the angels themselves.
"That's the equivalent of being called a failure in the modern world."
"Huh?"
"Anyway... You keep referring to Heaven like its some kinda living being. What's up with that?"
"That is because it is. Though it does not breath, nor does it have a normal body like other creatures, it is still a living being. It is not some spiritual being like some theorize, but physical. Up in the sky. You just can't get inside it unless you meet certain conditions which I am sure you know by now."
Black and I were having a conversation around a small fire I lit. After the fight, time seemed to be moving normally again. Without even realizing it, the 'sun' had gone down.
Since nothing else has been happening, I thought to take the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity by asking Black a couple of questions. Some of them he answered without me even having to ask them.
"By the way," I looked at Uzzaran's new appearance. "Why do you look like that?"
"I figured why not? At least now I won't look horrendous every time I'm visible."
"Yeah but, why that?" Her new appearance was a copy of the angel I fought earlier. At least her body was. She was able to create some new clothes using magic. Still, "Since when could you do that?"
"I could always do it. I just didn't."
"R...Right." I continued talking to Black. "While we're on this topic of that angel..."
"About that..."
His explanation made sense.
After that fight, I got concerned about something—it felt way too easy.
When I first heard that my opponent would be an angel, I got quite the fright just from my imaginations. It's only natural to think that beating an angel in a straight up fight would be impossible. This was what I thought as well.
But it barely lasted ten minutes and only a few attacks were unleashed. And even though Black assured me that it was all over, I still kept my guard up.
"I'll be as blunt as possible. It is impossible for a human, or any kind of 'mortal', to beat an angel. Even for you at your current state."
"I figured as much."
"What you fought was not a real angel. You fought a copy, most likely made using the 'Faceless' skill."
"Faceless?"
"A skill that produces a soulless copy of the target or the one that activated it. The copy produced is considered to be significantly weaker than the original. Most of the time only managing to unleash 10-20% of the original's power."
"So, you're saying that they're still after me? The ones that sent to me the copy? What was the point then?"
"No idea. What I'm guessing, is that there's a specific someone who's after you and they sent someone else to come get you. But it seems that whoever was put in charge of killing you disobeyed orders. Do you know who this individual is?"
"Actually, I have a guess."
"Oh..."
There shouldn't be any divine being after me since I haven't gotten involved with any of them. But there is one, one who resents me, one who I'm after.
The goddess.
"Do you have any other questions?"
"Yes actually. I've been thinking. Why are you so willing to answer my questions? Also, why are you even sticking around? Are you one of those poorly written characters in stories that do things only for their entertainment?"
"I can assure you there's a reason. Otherwise I'd have escaped Heaven as soon as you released me. It has something to do with what you have inside you."
"Inside me? By the way, I just remembered. Its you. Black Death. You are the one who's power is inside me."
"Allow me to explain."
It all began when the first Heaven's Tower fell on the world around 60,000 years ago.
Never before had such an event happened again. When it activated, the way it worked caught all existing beings by surprise, since it literally tore a hole through Heaven.
The only other way to peer into Heaven from the physical world is when a Tower is falling, because once it touches the ground, the hole patches itself up.
But that doesn't take away the fact that in that small moment, as the Tower falls, Heaven and the physical world is connected.
That gave Black an idea of how he can get his freedom.
But since he was sealed inside the Valley, he could only manage to slip a small amount of his body out—and at the exact same time, another Tower was summoned.
Thanks to his unusual magic, even the small amount of him that escaped had its own consciousness.
Ever since then, it lived in the world without a body, with its major goal for thousands of years being to find a body it could take over that could handle it.
"You mean to tell me that there has never been any other person besides myself for all those years that could handle it?"
"That's not quite the case. It did find a few. But they were too strong for it. We are talking about a piece of me."
"That makes sense, I guess."
So there were others who were strong enough to beat that fragment.
"That doesn't answer the question though."
"Well since there is a part of me inside you, that makes us... connected in some way. I do have to apologize, but I can't go into further detail."
"Of course you can't."
'Entertainment, huh.' He thought. 'Hmm. That doesn't sound too bad either.'
"Why are you smiling like that?"
"No reason."
He's obviously hiding something.
After a short pause, another question came to mind.
"Why are you called, Death?"
"...Just like balance is maintained between light and darkness, so it is among those with power."
For one to become a Deity, they had to cross the Valley in order to get into the light side. That is where the Heavenly Trials are held too.
Basically, if Deities can only come from one side, there would be imbalance.
"I get it. A new type of being came to existence. One that can act as the opposite of Deities."
"And one that can balance between the dark side and the light."
"Thus came the Deaths."
They are the opposite of Deities—although none are particularly good or evil. They simply exist and can act according to their own will.
"Usually, in order to become a Death, you must have obtained mana from the Dark side. This is usually done either by completing the Death Trials, or defeating another who holds the title.
"For me, since I was created directly by the dark side, I naturally became a Death. Though back then, such a title as Death or Deity did not exist."
"Then, if there are more of you, that makes you the first of all Deaths, is the idea I'm getting from this."
"Correct."
That explains a lot of things.
"Actually, I was just thinking. If you were the one holding the Valley together, which separated the dark side and the light—and you said that if they were to mix, bad things would happen, doesn't that mean that without you, all of existence is at stake?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
"..."
"..."
"Well, I'm sure a new solution would come."
"R...Right."
"Do you have any other questions you would like to ask?"
"Yes. That 'angel', she called me Heaven's Favored."
"Oh. That. I'm afraid it is not up to me to answer that question. If I were to guess, I'm pretty sure you'll learn soon enough."
"Of course."
"It would seem that you're time is up."
"Why?"
At that moment, loud alarms echoed through the skies. Really loud. The winds stopped blowing, but the fire was still put out.
TRIAL SEQUENCE COMPLETE.
"That voice." Echoing together with the alarms. "Its Clara!"
PLEASE STAND BY. ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS ARE RESETTING.
"We shall see each other later. Nerezza Vingar."
"You're not coming along?"
"Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to come with you in the other trials. Same case for your phantom. She'll be staying with me."
"Huh?!" Uzzaran got triggered. "I didn't consent to that!"
"It is not possible to go any further. I'm actually surprised that you were even able to get here in the first place. But it is simply impossible to follow him any further. If you try, there will be consequences."
"I don't care! I'm going with him! Besides, there's now way I'm staying with you for who knows how long!"
"It shouldn't take long as long as he cane finish the trial quickly. Then you can reunite in the third one."
"But—"
"Listen to him Uzzaran. There must be some kind of risk of danger if you follow me. Do what he says."
"No!"
Light from the sky fell on the ground like a flashlight was just lit. It was big enough to fully cover one person.
"You'll be fine. And there's no need to worry about me, you know that."
She looked angry and didn't respond.
STEEL YOURSELF—THE NEXT TRIAL SHALL COMMENCE SHORTLY.
I walked into the light and was ready for something to happen. Uzzaran looked from a distance together with Black.
Something confused me. How come I could finally hear Clara after so long? And she wasn't in my head, but all over!
That was something else I needed to figure out.
And just like that, I disappeared, and so did the light.
"So... What now?" Black asked Uzzaran. She didn't seem to like the idea of staying with him. Even though she didn't have much of a choice.
Meanwhile—
In the domain where gods reside.
A visitor came in through the big doors, her long white gowns dragging across the clouds on the floor.
The wings on her back glowed brighter than the light in the domain.
She had a short magic stuff with wings on its top, and an earring on her right ear.
A Primordial.
She stood before the one and only goddess, who sat on her usual throne, keeping her usual confident demeanor with her constant smiling.
"Looks like you failed." The goddess started.
"That I did. 'Tis a shame indeed."
"Yes."
They maintained eye contact without speaking.
The goddess knew that she intentionally didn't give her all in the fight.
"And what happened to the Ophanim?"
"About that, it met an unfortunate end in the hands of Black Death. As you know, he was recently freed."
"What are the odds that he joined the side of my enemy?"
"Honestly, it isn't that surprising that it happened when you think about it."
"I guess that is true."
"Might I ask, how are your heroes doing? Are they growing in strength?"
"Yes. It would seem so. Let us wait for the future outcome."
"Lets."
All this had been happening literally in the night sky, a sky filled with stars—
Stars that Nyla was admiring out her window, completely oblivious to what's to come.