Chapter 628: Above The Fallens
“Who are the ones above us, Fallens, huh?” Old Jack said as he removed the cigarette from his lips before puffing out the gas.
Then he turned to Ryuk and asked him,
“What are we called again?”
“Fallen Angels?” Ryuk replied.
“Right. Now, look at it. Fallen… Angels…”
“What do you think is above us… fallen… angels?” he asked as Ryuk furrowed his brows before responding.
“Rising… Angels?”Old Jack almost choked on his cigarette, coughing intensely while wheezing with laughter.
“You’re an idiot… COUGH! COUGH!”
“You know COUGH that, right!?” he asked.
Ryuk shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
“What? It’s my best shot,” Ryuk replied.
Old Jack finally stopped wheezing and then dipped his hands into his pockets, bringing out another cigarette and preparing to light it.
“You do know that thing will be the death of you one day, right? You just almost died choking on one, and now you’re lighting up another one,” Ryuk said, looking at Old Jack as he lit his smoke, inhaling before exhaling the smoke in relief.
“Hey kid, I’ve been smoking before you were born.”
“And yet you still choke on a cig even after all these years and experience,” Ryuk said with a click of his tongue.
Old Jack shrugged.
“You’re the one who almost made me choke to death. So far as I steer off your bad luck, I’ll be fine…” he said as he puffed another smoke, and Ryuk could only roll his eyes.
The man can’t be helped.
“And what were we saying?”
“Something about Risen Angels?” Ryuk asked.
Old Jack nodded.
“You’re right. Except they are not called Risen Angels. Remove the ‘Risen’ part and you’ll get what you ask for.”
“Angels, huh?” Ryuk mused with a thoughtful expression, but then Old Jack paused as his eyes gleamed.
“That reminds me of some articles I saw here on Endearth during the early days.”
“Records of ‘Angels.’ Hahahaha”
“There were a lot of speculations the humans had about us. What I’m most surprised by, though, is how they even laid their hands on anything about our existence.”
“You know about Angels too, right?” Old Jack asked. Ryuk shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Tsk, Of course, blockhead. You never went to school after all…” Old Jack said as Ryuk’s eyebrows twitched.
“Just so you know, Old Man, I went to the same school as your daughter.”
“Yet, you’re not even a quarter as smart as her. Seems like you were flunking class all year long,” Old Jack said as he took another inhale whilst giving Ryuk an angled side glance.
He then finished, by exhaling it out before adding,
“Why am I not surprised, though?”
He watched as Ryuk’s gaze trembled repeatedly until the air around him began shaking wildly.
But he only grinned even more mockingly at him, watching as the young man seethed, but eventually he exhaled deeply, before turning his back.
“I’m done here. Thank you for the annoyance, Old Man,” he said as he pocketed his hands, continuing into the distance.
Old Jack chuckled mockingly, watching as he stepped off the building and shot into the sky.
“Don’t break a leg, okay?” he shouted after him as Ryuk, in the air, squinted once more.
‘I didn’t even break a leg fighting Zarkull—a Knull Calamity. And you think… tch,’ he muttered before continuing far off into the distance.
____
Hours later
Ryuk did nothing but wander through the sky, eyes scanning here and there.
Most of the conversations below were about the other races talking about how they would be leaving soon.
It was quite popular and joyful news since they were taking it through many grades.
But then, he soon found himself back in Grade B moments later, and that was when he stopped flying around erratically, moving toward a particular building.
A large mansion.
In an instant, he weaved through all the scanning security beams and camera footage before he mysteriously faded into thin air as if he never existed.
_______
SHUFFLE
In a well-lit library-like room, the sound of rushing breeze could be heard, along with the flapping pages of books. Its source: a standing fan at the side, facing one of the available seats on the library ground.
And sitting down was a man, white-haired, with various books on the table, most closed but reopened by the breeze.
In his hands lay another grimoire-like book, which he studied with a more-than-focused expression as he quietly flipped the pages, his eyes locked on the contents.
Then, without raising his gaze from the book, his hand shifted to his left.
A light coalesced before a pistol appeared in it—and then…
BAAANG
BAAANG
BAAANG
Three loud shots rang out through the library.
The shockwave was so powerful that the entire shelves were blown to ashes from the resulting force, the various books disintegrating into dust.
But then…
DIIIIING
DIIIIING
DIIIIING
The sound of metal colliding with metal rang out as the man finally raised an eyebrow, lifting his head from the book he was reading before turning to look at where he had shot.
And standing there, reclining on the wall, was a figure who was half-covered by the darkness, preventing his features from being seen.
And by the side where the bullets that seemed to have come in contact with a wall, falling to the ground by his feet.
Old Jack raised an eyebrow.
“To think you can still sense me. Still as scary as ever, MadWhite,” the figure mused as Old Jack slowly lowered his outstretched gun and turned back to the book.
“I didn’t sense you. Just sensed an unexpected disturbance in the air,” he muttered, focusing back on the book.
“And you blew half the library away because of a sensed disturbance?” the figure asked.
“I don’t like ‘Unexpecteds’—so yes.”
“Also, you’re trespassing on my property… uninvited.”
“Do yourself a favor and leave as quietly as you came…” he said with the same bored expression.
But then, the sound began reverberating through the entire library as footsteps echoed closer.
MadWhite sighed and turned his gaze back—but then…
THROOOOOMMMM!!!
The sound of a gunshot, which sounded more like the howl of a demonic creature, rang out.
In an instant, he vanished, and the table and the seat where he sat were instantly vaporized into nothing but ashes.
But MadWhite himself reappeared at the side, five meters away, his second hand moving to the side as golden light coalesced, and then, a second pistol appeared in his grasp.
But then he paused slightly when he sighted two abnormal things.
“Hmmm…”