The particles in that realm dissipated and restored once more.

This time, we were on a cliff. I looked around to realize that it was the same cliff where Black offered me the Pandora's heart and the box. Little Black was gazing upon his wing with a sad smile as he gently caressed it as if he was caressing a baby. His wing had turned into a darker shade of grey.

"Guess we have one month left."

"Yeah."

Little Eve was standing behind him. She too was doing the same thing as Black. But unlike Black, she was lost in her thoughts. After a while, she looked at Little Black. She could see that the lifeforce fighting the darkness within him was weaker than before. And he never complained about it. He was always fighting like a brave. Little Eve smiled, and then tightly held her wing.

She pulled off her wing as forcefully as she could. The blood that drenched her shirt appeared like a blooming flower. I could imagine how much it must have hurt. She bit her lower lip in an attempt to stop the pain, but the pain was too much for the little kid. She couldn't take it and let out a cry. As that cry reached Black, he turned around.

Little Black saw her holding her wing in her hand, separated from her back. As she held her wing in her hand, blood slowly seeped towards the farther regions and stained the wing.

"What the hell have you done? Didn't we already decide?" Little Black roared. He felt betrayed.

"Come here," she uttered in a low voice. He ran to her as fast as he could, like a madman. As he reached near, Little Eve's legs went weak and she fell into his embrace.

"Take it," Little Eve said as she tried to pass on the wing in her hand to Black. He held her wrist and stopped her.

"I will never take it. Not from you. Not like this!" He refused.

"Do you want it to go in vain? Please accept it," Little Eve begged, and my memories evoked the deja vu of the time Black asked me to accept the Pandora's heart. Black accepted that wing even though he didn't want to. I forced it upon him. No wonder he said that I was selfish back then too.

"But I don't deserve it."

"You consider your wing a curse, right? I am giving you one more curse then. You will not die and live on as a complete angel. I have passed on my ability to you. But there is a price. You will have to forsake the rage, the darkness inside you. You have to be the kind angel that you have always dreamt of. You will no longer have any excused for not using your power for good. And I hope that you bear on to this curse forever and ever."

Tears started to fall out from Little Black's eyes.

"This curse... I accept."

What other choice did he have?

Without caring for her pain, little Eve pushed that wing on his back and it slowly merged with him. Little Eve then tapped on the centre of her brow with her bloody finger and a shining box emerged out of her head. She then offered the box to him next.

"Gaia will take away my memory to preserve the balance, but I hope that you will return them to me later. Don't peek, okay?"

"I sure will return them."

"I want to see that your stigma is cured before I start to lose it. I want to see you fly."

And little did I know that the next moment, my memories will disappear. He nodded and walked further to the cliff. He let out his wings. The greyness faded away in a speed visible to naked eye. Black then flapped his wings and disappeared among the clouds, the same way I've always seen in my dreams. After that, Little Eve lost her consciousness. And he never returned.

The particles dispersed.

"Why did he not return?" I asked Little Eve. I could not understand that. There was no reason for him to not return.

"It was equally painful for him to fly to Gaia with those newfound wings that he had never used before. But he persisted because he didn't want to disappoint you. When he reached Gaia, he lost his consciousness. We both were unconscious in different worlds. When he woke up, he returned here, but by then we were gone. He searched everywhere he could, but he couldn't find us no matter what he did. The world was too vast, and he didn't even know our name... He later met Raziel and decided to work on Gaia. For years, he wandered from place to place hoping he could find us again. And it was exhausting.

"Do you know? On that day we were the reason he could find the light. But we also became the reason for the darkness to exist. One day, a demon assaulted him from behind and cut off his wing. He felt that he had lost the last connection he had with us. He felt horrible thinking that the life you sacrificed so much to protect would end again. And he raged. Darkness took over him and made him the person that he never wanted to become."

The surrounding particles turned reddish in hue. I looked around and saw the most horrible scene I've ever seen.

There were mountains of corpses decorating the land of demons. So much blood was flowing out of those dead bodies that it had turned into a river. That stinking smell assaulted my nose and I felt nauseous. I covered my nose with my hand and looked around. Atop one of those mountains stood Black, covered in blood and slashing the longsword in his hand towards the oncoming horde of demons. The dead demons were slowly piling up beneath his feet. His wing stained in the droplets of blood was grey at that moment.

He killed, he killed, and he killed some more. What he did in central park was child's play compared to this. I just looked at him with numb eyes. A while later, a blue light descended down the red sky and fell upon him.

"Mother! Don't stop me! Today I'll kill every last one of these filthy creatures," Black roared in a rough voice that didn't seem his. He destroyed that pillar of light with a swing of his sword. Next moment, another light descended down and this time, he couldn't stop it. He vanished from there.

"Eden forcefully summoned him back and made him regain his senses. But the damage was done. Because of the darkness, Eden stopped talking to him. And ever since that day, he had blamed himself for everything. But in truth, it was us who harmed him. It was all our fault for requesting him that shitty thing without knowing of his circumstances. It was our fault that we asked him to go to Eden that day."

Little Eve cried out and I once again heard Black's voice.

"Eve, do you remember that night Asmodeus seized you? That night, I wanted to finish all the grievances with the demons. I wanted to atone for every pain I gave to them. I just wanted to live a peaceful life with you, never worrying about anything that might hurt you. And I let them wound me. I let them hurt me. But when I saw that they had dragged you along with them, I lost myself to the monster inside... I made you cry. That was my sin, love. The greatest sin of them all. And I atone by bestowing upon you the gift to talk to the lifestream. You will become the angel of creation. Oh, and when you talk to mother, tell her that I'll always be grateful to her. Tell her I am sorry. Tell her that I love her... What that should have been yours shall now be yours.

"The things I've bestowed upon you are not enough to make up for my mistakes. Ha, most of them belonged to you only. But that was all I had. I am glad that you, who possesses the true angel's heart, is going to inherit them all. I am sure that you will be the better angel than I could ever become.

"I don't know what will be your reaction when you wake up. I don't know if you will forgive me. And I am not brave enough to face your decision. But if you forgive me, then come find me. I'll be waiting for you."

No!

What the hell? Why was he running away again? Forgive him? It was my fault that horrible things happened to him in the first place. I had already lost him before. I didn't want to lose him again! And how was I supposed to find him this time?

"Little Eve! How am I supposed to get out of this place?"

"The memories are restored. The realm will break on its own," Little Eve answered.

Not much later, I could see cracks made of light appearing in the darkness. The cracks spread in all directions, and like shattering glass, it broke up. When I opened my eyes, I could see the stars in the sky shining down upon me peacefully. But my heart was in chaos. I didn't want the past to repeat itself.

He couldn't have gone far. I quickly stood up and started walking towards the way back. After five steps, I stumbled. When I looked down, I saw Black lying among the grass, unconscious. I was so relieved at that moment. I was happy that this idiot didn't have the strength to run away from me.

I kneeled down and saw a bloody gash in the centre of his back. Blood was seeping out of his wound and drenching his shirt. Something didn't feel right. I touched him and realized that his skin was cold. He was supposed to be hot when he uses the healing slumber. It didn't take me long to understand that he could not use his ability.

He had given them all to me. Perhaps I could heal that wound. I closed my eyes and I could feel the presence of the healing ability. I touched near his wound with my hand and said 'heal'. But it didn't work. Nothing happened. I tried to imagine it and thought of the time when Black had used it, but it still didn't work. It wasn't fucking working and the blood wouldn't stop coming out of the injury.

I brought out some cloth from the space zero and wrapped it around him to stop the bleeding. I then picked him up. Black was heavier than always, but at the same time, I felt stronger. I could lift him up more easily than before. I hung him up on my shoulder and carried him on my back. I needed to take him to a hospital quickly.