The Kind of Evil-Chapter 259: Cosmic horror.
Astrea ascended as the glowing golden wings made of light spread even wider, mesmerizing everyone who looked at them. Kiel and Yaza began to ascend as well as they spread their tar-like wings, putting terror on those who looked at them. The three of them were up high in the sky, two demons against an angel in the body of a mortal.
Astrea made the first move, flying toward them with the shield right in front of her body while her right hand spread open with the light sword in it. Kiel and Yaza used their wings to attack the light shield, and the impact created a mixed energy of demonic and divine energies. The clash and the energy it released snapped everyone back to reality. However, they were affected by the energy, and it gave them an intense panic attack where they thought about nothing but their existence, which didn't matter in the eyes of the cosmic.
Rasmus wasn't affected by the energy because he had seen hell, and he had experienced it long before them. He knew that humans weren't even on the food chain, not even matter in the universe, only a speck of dust in the world of existence.
Astrea tried to push Kiel and Yaza away, however, the limitation of her body prevented the angel within her unable to extracting more of its power. The moment the angel tried to push a little bit further, the body would break, be smitten, and disappear from existence.
"What's the matter? The body can't accept your existence entirely?" Yaza asked, smiling through his eyes as he kept pushing his wings at the light shield, trying to pierce through the divine energy.
Astrea didn't say a word, her glowing golden eyes were focused on eliminating Kiel and Yaza. She didn't falter or show any hesitation or fear, not even a slight discomfort. A seasoned cosmical being that had gone through countless wars against the fallen, the one and only angel that they both were familiar with.
"Ah, that gaze... it has been a while, Gabriel, the destroyer..." Kiel's glowing eyes grew larger and brighter.
Astrea added more strength to her left hand, cracking her whole left arm, leaking divine light and energy through her cracked skin. She pushed both of them and instantly swung her sword at them, but Kiel and Yaza used the tar-like swords made of demonic energy to block her sword. Each clash worsened the state of the mortals, screaming and crying because of their insignificant and existential crisis.
Rasmus and Aris noticed the cry of helplessness of the soldiers, and even Novia was screaming hysterically, covering her ears and eyes shut tightly. One of the knights began to grab his sword on the ground and began to slit his throat. He didn't expect the effect would be that severe, but he didn't care about their lives, he only cared about the important figures.
Every clash that those three had, more and more knights and mages killed themselves in various ways. One who strangled themselves, lit themselves on fire magic, or even decapitated themselves. The moment Thalior grabbed his sword and pointed it at his chest, Rasmus ran toward him and slapped the sword away.
"Even that isn't enough?" Rasmus narrowed his eyes, shocked by Thalior's lack of response after he slapped the sword away.
"Let me try," Aris imbued blue energy into her right fist and then punched Thalior right in the face.
Thalior fell on his back, and suddenly he began to gasp for air with a terrified expression and widened eyes. He finally snapped back to reality and began to scream in pain as his nose started to bleed. He grunted in pain as he covered his face, and that alone was enough to put Rasmus at ease.
"Can you do it to the others? I don't want them to die," Rasmus said as he looked at Aris. "I don't care about the soldiers, just Lenin and the others," he pointed out.
"Alright," Aris nodded with understanding as she walked away to wake Lenin and the others.
Thalior slowly lowered his hands, and the first thing he saw was Rasmus standing in front of him, staring down with a cold and stoic expression. He looked so confused as if he had lost his memory for a few seconds until he remembered what was going on. Suddenly, Rasmus offered his hand to Thalior, and without hesitation, Thalior grabbed Rasmus's right hand and got up.
"What... what's going on..." Thalior asked, but then he heard a massive shockwave and sound blast in the sky. When he was about to look up, Rasmus grabbed his face and pulled it down. "What?!" He was so shocked that Rasmus's hand was on his face.
"If you looked up, you would end up like those men," Rasmus forced Thalior to look behind him, showing Thalior the number of soldiers killing themselves in various ways. "Don't you ever look up or you'll go insane again," he warned.
Thalior was so shocked that he couldn't blink or make a noise when he saw the soldiers ending their own lives. He hurriedly ran toward the soldiers who were about to end their lives, preventing them from harming themselves.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Thalior asked as he took away the sword from the knight in front of him. "Hey! Are you listening, soldier?!" He shook the man's shoulders aggressively, but the man's eyes were focused on the sky.
Before Thalior could snap the soldier back to reality, the other soldiers had killed themselves. He was petrified by what he was seeing, and why they ended their lives. He knew the answer, and it was right above him in the sky, the thing that Rasmus had prevented him from looking at.
Thalior was shocked and panicked, but when he saw Aris snap Lenin and the others back to reality, he realized that Aris could save the soldiers with her power.
"Lady Aris! Please! Save these people!" Thalior shouted, begging Aris to his knees.
Aris glanced at Thalior with a cold gaze, and then she walked away, ignoring his plea. At that moment, Thalior was lost for words, and then he looked at Rasmus, who was standing there, staring at him with a stoic expression. He then narrowed his eyes when he saw Rasmus's left hand bleed with a dagger pierced through his palm.
Thalior looked at the sword that he had taken from the knight and thought for a moment as he stared at the knight's hand. He closed his eyes and stabbed the knight's hand, hoping the knight would snap back to reality. When he opened his eyes, his eyes trembled so that the knight didn't show any reaction, still staring at the sky with empty eyes.
"It's too late for that," Rasmus said calmly. "Their minds are no longer here with us. They're in a trance, devoured by their own thoughts," he pointed out.
Lenin and the others watched the soldiers kill themselves and realized what was going on. Lenin the Great Sage, with immense knowledge, had questioned the existence of God and had pondered it for more than half of her age. She knew that divine beings were beyond her understanding, and she didn't expect her to be in a dilemma about her existence in the vast universe.
"Move! Get away from the soldiers! I might be able to save them!" Lenin shouted at Thalior and the others.
Thalior and the others ran away from the crowd and stayed behind Lenin's back.
Lenin formed a magic formation that was pointed at the soldiers. A translucent dome covered the soldiers, and then she created another magic formation. They didn't know what she was doing until a minute passed and the soldiers fainted. Rasmus noticed what she was doing, it was a vacuum space where no air existed inside the dome. She removed the air and made the soldiers suffocate until they passed out.
Lenin broke the magic formations as soon as the last soldier fainted, letting the air back in for them to breathe. Rasmus could do it, but he didn't want to, and he didn't have to.
Rasmus looked up at the sky and watched Astrea fight relentlessly against Kiel and Yaza. He couldn't see the movements, only demonic energy and divine energy clashing. The others were in disbelief that he was capable of witnessing the ultimate truth about the universe in front of him and kept a stoic expression. They looked at his bleeding hand and how he prevented himself from being enchanted by the terror of cosmic beings.
"How did you do it, Count?" Novia stared at Rasmus with her brows furrowed and eyes narrowed. "How can you withstand what you're seeing right now?" She asked.
"If I cared so much about morality, empathy, and humanity, I wouldn't be able to," Rasmus answered as he glanced at Novia. "I have forgotten and ignored the humanity within me. I have been seeing everything through the lens of reality without any form of illusions, including hope," he continued.
At that moment, everyone looked at Rasmus with a train of thought. They had seen Rasmus as the heartless and most unorthodox person they had ever met. However, if Rasmus was the only one capable of seeing the truth about cosmical beings, the terrifying truth that no humans could comprehend, was he the wrong one, or were they the ones who had been living wrongly?
"This isn't the time to think about your understanding," Rasmus turned his head, staring at Nephia, who had freed himself. "We need to take care of that thing while Her Holiness is buying us time," he said calmly.
Thalior, Lenin, Uriel, Xena, Novia, and Agnesia looked at Nephia standing still and stared at them from a far distance. The seven of them against a colossal being, seven ants against an elephant.
