Death... and me

Chapter 2198 Heaven's Awakening

Meanwhile, in the Heavens, Arcadia City, countless Angels were gathered around the city. Arcadia City was already the biggest city in the Angels Realm, but it had never had that many Angels staying there at the same time. By now, the city was already over ten times its full capacity, with almost no space whatsoever.

The reason for that was pretty obvious. The Holamenor Clan's first targets were the biggest cities in the Heavens. As the Angels woke up, they obviously noticed how their behavior wasn't as it should be. Of course, the drawback was more severe for the top experts at the Space-Time Realm and above. 

That's because once you reach the Space-Time Realm, you are basically immortal. There is no more lifespan. That means most of the Space-Time Realm Angels had been living before the Soul Worms were introduced in the Heavens. They understood better than anyone else just how ridiculously weird their own actions of absolute loyalty to the Heavens had been so far.

Soon, the leaders of their own cities, sects, and organization went out to check everything. They quickly found that others at their level experienced the same thing. After that, they started to check the angels who were born after the introduction of the Soul Worms, which was basically every single angel in the Elemental Space Realm and below. That's how long the Soul Worms had been working.

For those who were born after the Soul Worms, the sudden disappearance of the Soul Worms from their minds didn't make much of a difference. After all, they had been 100% loyal from the moment they were born. Now their minds had been shaped around the loyalty they had lived with their entire lives.

Yet, most of them soon noticed something wasn't quite right. Sure, they were still loyal to the Heavens, but their passion for its overall well-being simply wasn't as strong.

The first noticeable changes started during training inside the Angel Beast Territories. Just like any other realm, adventuring into these places was a great way to develop one's strength, and angels were no different. However, when the Soul Worms were in place, the angels considered their companions to be of utmost importance.

There was no such thing as giving one of their party members to save oneself in moments of danger. They always did everything in their power to make sure everyone could come back alive. That often led to many deaths as their loyalty couldn't forgive them for dumping their companions. 

Yet, now, situations where Angels were caught in periculous situations still happened, but their companions started to have second thoughts. Was it really worth risking their lives to save someone who was pretty much guaranteed to be dead? First of all, why should they do that if they barely met each other to make these groups of exploration?

In the end, although it was still pretty rare, several angel groups broke apart when the push came to shove. Even the angels themselves were surprised by their own actions, knowing that they never felt fear of dying as long as it was for the sake of others. Now they did.

That was one such situation. There were resources distribution that had always been equal to all sides, regardless of the contribution of each member of the group. Now, when such parties returned from their exploration of ruins, beasts' territories, dimensional realms, and things like that, the feeling of getting more than others obviously appeared in their minds.

Soon, fights about who contributed the most should get the best amount began to happen right and left. If anything, these fights turned out even more fierce than you would see in the Underworld or the Realm of Gods. The reason for that was simple. Different from the other two Higher Realms, these Angels had never experienced greed. They didn't know how to deal with it. Rage that would usually be in check in the minds of Devils or Cultivators was simply let loose as the Angels felt it for the first time in their lives. 

It didn't take long until the Space-Time Realm and above angels, who had lived in the time when Soul Worms didn't exist, understand that something or someone had tampered with their minds. They quickly began to spread the message, warning everyone in their fields of influence of their discovery.

That led to the situation in Arcadia City. Even the Archangels themselves, like Gabriel, began to seek answers. It was obvious that they now had an entire Angel Realm that was growing impatient as the angels started to realize the problems. They themselves wanted to know how they ended like that.

It was during one of these days in Arcadia City when the Archangels gathered with many of the Space-Time Experts to investigate exactly that. Obviously, all the angels who could afford or had the means to go to Arcadia also came to see why things were like that. As for the attack on the Underworld, they couldn't care less about it at the moment.

All the Twelve Archangels, the pillars of the Angel Realm, gathered around a round table. There were obviously a few others who were not part of the original twelve archangels, but they reached that realm as the years went by. As for the Space-Time Angels, they gathered near it but didn't approach the table. In their case, there were over a hundred at the moment. It wouldn't be wrong to say that 90% or more of the top experts of the entire Heavens were in Arcadia at the moment.

"Is everyone here?" Gabriel started the meeting while looking at everyone with a grave expression.

Haniel, one of the twelve originals, immediately shook his head. "No, we are missing one Archangel."

Everyone looked around, and it was true. One Archangel was missing. Still, it wasn't one of the twelve. Gabriel narrowed his eyes as he knew who Haniel was talking about. However... "I... still don't know what his name is."

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