Myths Reawakened

Hesione and Hestia had raised their weapons against each other, one to protect the Śār, and one to protect the Anointed One. Both were planning on making the other disappear under the guise of fighting evil.

Auriel, who had just stepped through the door, stopped dead.

What on earth could have happened to make Frey try to kill Hesione, and Hesione to show Frey no mercy? What had he missed? Had demons sown discord between them?

Behind Auriel, Fred and Olga were equally stunned. Fred, especially, was beyond confused.

“Śār... why is there another reincarnated angel here, and why is she fighting Frey?”

“What are you talking about?” Auriel said with certainty. “There are only seven reincarnated angels. That is Hesione.”

“That-that can’t be right,” Olga said, bewildered. “Where did Frey get the courage to raise her weapon against Hesione? And she’s always been a loyal one!”

Good question. I have no idea, either!

Auriel didn’t have an answer. With a frown, he said, “If I had to guess, it’s probably because of a trick of the demons. They could always come up with convincing lies.”

“Śār, she’s not Hesione. Mr. Wayne is.” Frey pointed at the distance. The man with black, slicked-back hair standing at the floor-to-ceiling window of the High Reverend’s office was Hesione, one of the Four Śārim.

Auriel looked over. Amid the cluster of women, he spotted the conspicuously male Wayne, who stood out like a sore thumb.

“Nonsense. He’s not Hesione, but he does have Hesione’s divine power. He must be the Pope’s gift for Hesione, her... her...”

He trailed off, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.

The Papal State had maintained an unofficial tradition that was considered a magic bullet for the Church, but a deadly poison for the angels. Specifically, it was the tradition of giving a reincarnated angel an attendant of the opposite sex, who was meant to do everything in their power to secure a hostage against the angel.

Before his own awakening, Auriel also had a clergywoman assigned to him. He had been uninterested in women before his awakening, and after, he lost all worldly desires. The Pope’s depraved scheme thus got nowhere in his case.

Among the other reincarnated angels, the unawakened Archibald was always accompanied by a young clergywoman, which suggested that they had crossed the line. Fred, Olga, and Frey were all devout clergy members before their awakenings and had kept their distance from the opposite sex.

What about Kael?

He was a special case. Before the Pope could even assign someone to him, he asked for a companion. Upon hearing about Kael’s particular taste, the Pope had gone silent for a moment before promising to do everything in his power to satisfy the angel and his unorthodox way of sinning.

Kael was so unreliable that the awakened angels kept their distance from him. Even Archibald, who hadn’t awakened, actively avoided him, worried about being associated with him.

The Pope’s scheme had a low success rate. Auriel never imagined that Hesione would fall for it. However, there was so much angelic divine power in Wayne that it was alarming. The stigma on the tip of his tongue, especially, could only be so perfect with countless careful readjustments.

It was flawless enough to pass for the real thing!

Regular angels wouldn’t see through it, but Auriel, a fellow Śār, could immediately tell that it was fake. Wayne wasn’t Hesione. He had simply been marked by Hesione. As for the method by which a stigma could be carved...

Auriel’s composure broke.

“You embody Purity among the seven Virtues, so you represent the purity of all angels in Heaven. Please... Please don’t let that be true.”

He took a deep breath and stared at Hesione with golden light pouring from his eyes.

He stared in silence.

Closing his eyes and then opening them again, he took another look.

No! He couldn’t bear it! His head was splitting!

As Hesione’s political rival, it was politically correct for Auriel to dislike Hesione. But when it came to maintaining Heaven’s dignity, there was no faction among angels. Hesione’s purity was every angel’s purity. Even Mikhael would have guarded it.

But Auriel could see clearly now that Hesione had lost her purity.

The moment he imagined the news reaching Hell, making the Seven Demon Lords laugh to death, his face darkened, and his body trembled with fury.

“That damned Pope!!”

He wanted nothing more than to march back to the Papal State and kill the Pope. It was fine for the other angels to leave descendants in the mortal realm since none of them embodied purity, but not Hesione. Once she lost her purity, the Seven Sacred Virtues would be short by one. It would be as absurd as the Lord of Lust swearing celibacy and making the Seven Deadly Sins the Six Deadly Sins.

The world seemed to spin around him. He felt genuinely unwell.

Meanwhile, Hesione had noticed Auriel’s arrival. She had never expected to encounter him here. Putting away her greatsword of Holy Light, she informed Wayne telepathically.

The second Śār descending to the human world had arrived.

Hestia also spotted the three distant figures. When she saw the wench lower her weapon and stand down, she stopped attacking. She took out the last succubus with a casual wave, standing by the secretary’s side with a serious expression.

Whatever their differences, they were on the same side facing outsiders.

“Everyone, stay here. I’ll go have a look!”

Wayne gave the others an order. Then, spreading his pristine white wings, he flew down from the window, landing in front of Hesione and Hestia.

Hesione was still talking to him telepathically. At rapid-fire speed, she told him that Auriel had most likely followed the succubi here. As fellow Śārim, her disguise wouldn’t fool Auriel. It was possible, very possible, that her loss of purity had already been exposed.

She let out a mournful cry. It was music to Wayne’s ear.

He was proud to have taken the Śār’s purity, which was what even the Seven Demon Lords hadn’t managed to do. Were he in Hell, the achievement would’ve made him a royal!

“Don’t panic,” Wayne reassured her. “There’s still hope. As long as you deny everything, I am Śār Hesione. I’ll shoulder the infamy for you.”

“Shameless! You’re the one who did this to me. You know that perfectly well!”

Meeting a social suicide before her fellow Śār shattered Hesione’s composure. She hurled insults at Wayne through her thoughts. When she saw the pleased—even delighted—look on his face, she almost drew her sword and cut him in half, but then she remembered that he was the Anointed One. She might have been ruined, but nothing could happen to him.

She groaned inwardly. She couldn’t stop.

Wayne nearly laughed himself to death. He told Hesione not to shut him off. They needed to work together to keep Śār Hesione’s purity intact.

“But you aren’t pure, either...” Hesione sighed. She was an experienced enough angel to know that things like this required both parties to participate. Denying the facts would be pointless.

“Let’s try!” Wayne said confidently. “I’m good at playing a demon. Playing an angel isn’t a challenge!”

The demons are pretending to be you! Hesione swallowed her comment. It was an irreverent thought that was disrespectful to the Anointed One and the Holy Father, essentially a general insult for all of Heaven. She didn’t dare say it out loud.

Wayne was already opening his mouth.

“Auriel, you’ve come all this way to find me. Why are you just standing over there?”

“...” x3

Olga and Fred looked at Auriel in confusion. Wayne’s tone would suggest that he was Hesione, so which was it? Was he or was he not the Śār?

The two Thrones didn’t understand what was going on.

Auriel’s eyes twitched. He dragged his feet forward like someone attending a funeral. “You’re Wayne, aren’t you? Fred talked about you. In Prussia, you drove away Wrath and Gluttony, foiling Hell’s conspiracy...”

He started in a measured tone and highlighted Wayne’s achievements, praising him while making clear Auriel’s own stance and principles. However, he kept avoiding the actual point.

“Ahem!” Wayne coughed into his fist. “Auriel, we’re among friends. We’re all reincarnated angels, so let’s not use our mortal names. Just call me Hesione.”

“...”

“Auriel?”

“Apologies, but you are not Hesione.” Auriel grimly pointed at the quiet woman who was trying to disappear with her head bowed. “You... you are the Seraph Hesione I knew in Heaven. What happened?”

“Huh?!” Hestia blurted out in shock.

“Śār Hesione, no wonder the one Fred described is completely unlike you, and you were said to have reincarnated into a man when you leaned feminine in Heaven. I thought I was overthinking, but now I see that I haven’t thought far enough.”

Auriel’s tone took on a hint of contempt.

“You’ve committed a great sin. You’ve brought dishonor to Heaven!”

Hestia blinked in confusion. What was going on? Was the wench... Secretary Mona the actual Śār?

Impossible. It couldn’t be true!

The Śār she knew was pure and flawless. She would’ve never become a depraved woman who shamelessly flaunted her sexual appeal.

Thinking back to how the wench had straddled Wayne and kissed him, Hestia nodded to herself. Yes, she was certain of it.

With golden light glinting in her eyes, she glanced at the secretary. She was completely drenched, going beyond a cream puff and resembling oats soaked in milk.

Disgusting!

When Hesione lowered her head wordlessly and continued to pretend to be invisible, Auriel showed a rare arrogant side. Setting aside the possibility of making the Seven Demon Lords laugh to death, Hesione had committed such a great sin that he might just have enough leverage to subdue her.

“Answer my question honestly, Hesione. If you have even the least bit of honor and shame left, you should face your sins!”

“You got the wrong person,” Hesione said with a poker face. “I’m Mona. I’m not Hesione, the Śār.”

“...”

Hesione, you’ve fallen!