Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 123 Perfect Angel
Inside the magnificent palace, the Son of God, radiating endless light and heat, floated in the air. With the casual flapping of his thirty-six pairs of fiery wings, countless sparks fell from the wings like a colorful rain of flowers. Before this Son of God sat a dark being, shrouded in deep darkness, on a throne.

Looking at the angel king before him, who remained expressionless and whose emotions were unreadable, the dark being casually crossed its arms and spoke in a low voice.

"The King of Angels, God created man in his own image and caused him to multiply in the Garden of Eden. Man has desires and craves sex and love."

“Angels before me, I can say this frankly: God is the prototype of man, God has desires, God has lust, God has longings, God can decay, God can fall, God can die, and even the omnipotent God is not perfect.”

His deep voice carried something inexplicable, and his upright, serpentine eyes coldly surveyed the Son of God before him.

The Son of God's answer was equally direct.

"it's not true."

The King of Angels' cold expression remained unchanged; he simply spoke calmly as usual.

"is it?"

Upon hearing this, the dark creature, whose face was obscured, remained silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing directly. Instead, it leaned back on its throne, one hand on its forehead, the other outstretched towards the angel king before it.

"King of Angels, what is desire to you?"

"Desire is sin."

The King of Angels said calmly.

That's a perfectly normal answer. In the eyes of angels, desire is sin and should be eliminated.

"wrong."

However, the dark entity shook its head, its outstretched fingers swaying from side to side in denial.

"King of Angels, you are the embodiment of God's will. You should understand that God created this world, and God created everything in this world except me: time, space, order, existence and non-existence, right and wrong, good and evil... All principles were created by God. Since that is the case... isn't desire also a creation of God?"

The dark entity opened its eyes, stared directly at the King of Angels before it, and sneered.

"King of Angels, could it be that I created the desires in this world?"

"That's not true. I merely control desire, not create it. Desire is God's creation. Angel before me, God does not create useless things. God created desire precisely because desire has its own necessity. How can you, as the embodiment of God's will and the messenger of heaven, deny what God created?"

The dark creature sneered.

Before it, the King of Angels frowned, momentarily speechless.

Angels are God's messengers and the embodiment of God's will. One could say that angels are God's hands and feet. Metatron, as an angel, obviously could not deny God's creation; that would be taboo.

Then, the dark being seated high on the throne looked down at the angel king before him and continued.

"In my view, there are sixteen fundamental desires in the world: power, the desire to influence others; independence, the desire for self-reliance; curiosity, the desire for knowledge; acceptance, the desire for belonging and being included; order, the desire to establish order; hoarding, the desire to collect; honor, the desire to be true to tradition; ideal, the desire to seek justice; social, the desire for companionship and friendship; family, the desire to raise children; status, the desire for social rank and identity; retaliation, the desire for revenge; romance, the desire for sex and beauty; appetite, the desire for satiety; movement, the desire for physical strength; and tranquility, the desire for inner peace."

"And the original source of these sixteen fundamental desires all stems from one's own imperfections and flaws."

A deep voice echoed in the King of Angels' ears. The voice of the dark being seemed to possess a strange magic, compelling one to listen to it instinctively, evoking feelings of reverence, admiration, excitement, and even... fanatical worship.

Something is wrong, very wrong!

Anyone could see that, but the King of Angels remained unmoved...

It's unclear when it started, but the fiery wings behind the Angel King stopped moving, and even the scattered sparks stopped in mid-air. Countless dazzling sparks floated in the air, looking incredibly beautiful.

Inside the palace, the dust and tiny particles that were faintly visible in the light also stopped moving, and even the light itself stopped moving.

Beyond this magnificent underwater palace, there are boundless seas, fish and monsters swimming in them, birds flying on the surface, and white clouds and rosy clouds in the sky...

Everything came to a standstill.

Time stood still.

In this completely still world, only the dark entity sitting high on the throne, its face obscured, continues to move.

His vertical pupils were icy cold as he gazed at the angel king before him, as if he could pierce into the depths of the other's eyes and see into his very soul.

After a long while, a deep voice slowly rang out.

"As expected, you can see it."

On the opposite side, the Angel King remained motionless.

"King of Angels, my power is immense, extremely powerful, so powerful that I can control the entire material world with my own will. Time, space, death, and all the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire are under my control. But even someone as powerful as me is still flawed and not perfect."

"I can freeze the entire material world, allowing my will to supersede it and thus dominate it. But even so, I am not invincible, for I cannot control the mental world. And it is precisely because of this that I was once defeated by someone who transcended the constraints of the material world and fought with his soul. Similarly, even if I freeze the world, you can still think within this frozen world..." Before the frozen Angel King, the dark being rose from its throne and walked toward him...

"Tap...tap...tap..."

In the frozen image in the King of Angels' pupils, all that could be seen was a pair of feet treading through the void, walking towards him.

"Life is flawed."

"Because we are flawed, we have all sorts of desires in order to try to fill our shortcomings and make ourselves perfect. It is because of our imperfections that we try to pursue perfection."

A deep, enchanting voice rang in my ears, accompanied by the sound of footsteps.

"Loyalty, reverence, and worship... all stem from one's own imperfections. When one sees something far closer to perfection than oneself, one yearns to emulate it. That is why one offers one's loyalty and beliefs in an attempt to get closer to the other, to imitate it, and to make oneself more perfect."

"The poor worship the rich’s wealth, and the rich revere the ascetic’s peace, because in their eyes, they see what the other has that they do not."

“King of Angels, I know very well what loyalty is. The snake woman and Cain worship me, not because of their loyalty to me, but because they fear me, fear my power, fear my strength. They are so afraid that they tremble in my presence. It is because of their fear, because they realize how insignificant they are, that they are so loyal to me and worship me.”

"Loyalty is an aspiration, and there are many reasons for this aspiration. It can be the pursuit of power, the fear of strength, the chase of glory, or many other things..."

In the reflection of the pupils, the faceless dark object was already close enough that both could clearly see every detail of the other's pupils.

In a daze, the previously indistinct dark entity gradually began to melt away, taking on a different form...

With cold faces and dazzling radiance, the thirty-six pairs of fiery wings behind them radiated endless light and heat to the world with a gentle wave, as if looking in a mirror. In the stagnant space-time, two angel kings who looked exactly alike stood facing each other.

The only difference is that one of them has indifferent, solemn, and sacred pupils, while the other's pupils are so cold that they are devoid of emotion.

Standing on the solidified void beneath his feet, the "King of Angels" looked at the King of Angels before him. His thirty-six wings unfurled in an instant, sparks flew everywhere, and he opened his arms and spoke softly.

“Then… Metatron, tell me, what is the reason for your loyalty to God?”

"Is it because of the pursuit of glory? Or the trust in the Creator? Or perhaps something else entirely?"

“But Metatron, haven’t you realized it yet, or are you avoiding a fact? What are angels to God? Hands and feet, tools. Has your creator ever really cared about you?”

His deep voice was like a lover's whisper.

This voice carried a strange magic, flowing into the mind of the Angel King before him bit by bit. And in the frozen pupils, the "Angel King," who looked exactly like himself but was unrestrained and arrogant, was like another side of the Angel King's soul, gradually enlarging, growing bigger and bigger... almost completely enveloping the Angel King's pupils.

"boom!!!"

In an instant, a beam of light suddenly shot out from the depths of the frozen pupils. The "King of Angels," who was so close at hand, slightly contracted his pupils and barely managed to dodge it. The beam of light then struck the pillars of the palace directly.

"Rumble, rumble..."

With a deafening roar, the stone beams and pillars behind him collapsed, raising clouds of dust.

The vertical pupils of the "Dark Thing" stared indifferently at the Angel King opposite it. On its cheek, a shallow wound appeared, from which a few drops of golden blood oozed.

On the opposite side, a shallow wound also appeared on the Angel King's cheek, its location and size identical to the one on the "Dark Thing's" face.

Two people who look exactly alike are like looking in a mirror.

The dark creature glanced sideways at the direction of its wound, then extended its long, thin tongue and licked away all the blood seeping from its cheek.

"I tasted a deep anger..."

The dark creature closed its eyes, savoring the taste of blood in its mouth, and chuckled in a low voice.

"How interesting... The power of the mind is truly formidable, even capable of breaking free from the constraints of the material world and transcending my control."

“But Metatron, haven’t you realized it yet? Doesn’t God know your situation, doesn’t He know what I’m saying to you? Of course He knows, but He doesn’t care at all. Even if you are the King of Angels, God doesn’t care about you, just as a craftsman doesn’t care about the personal likes or dislikes of a hammer. To God, you are just a tool…”

"If a tool breaks, you just replace it. Even if the King of Angels falls... it's just a matter of creating a perfect Messiah."

"God loves the world, but does God love angels...?"

……

At some point, time resumed its flow, and the radiant King of Angels reappeared in the palace of Saturn, his desk piled high with various reports and matters requiring his attention.

After a long silence, the Vice-King of Heaven resumed dealing with the mountain of affairs. His eyes remained solemn, as if he had never heard the blasphemous words.

Just as it left an impression on the world, a steadfast, persistent, diligent, humble, fair, kind, tireless, and revered perfect angel...

(End of this chapter)