"I'll take the Heavens!" Pryce declared, slapping one palm against the other like he'd just won a street bet.
His voice rang across the endless field with the kind of cocky certainty only a dead teenager could muster.
He wasn't raging. He wasn't even bitter anymore.
Why would he be? Everyone knew the rule: when an innocent soul died as collateral in a hero fight—especially one torched by a "savior" like Sylas Stormveil—they got fast-tracked to the Heavens Garden.
Not some metaphor from generations ago before the fall.
The Heaven Gardens were a real thing.
Lush eternal orchards, crystal rivers, fairies (actual fairies, not the cutesy Guild mascots on TV)hand-delivering trays of glowing fruit, spiced wine, and whatever else a man's heart desired.
No labor.
No judgment.
Just endless lounging, maybe fucking too, but surely feasting, and losing your virginity a hundred different ways if you still had one to lose.
These weren't stories told to kids like they were fairy tales to keep them quiet during blackouts.
The Heavesn Gardens were very real.
Real, and reserved for the "righteous" and the truly blameless—like a street rat who'd just used his body as a human shield for his little sister.
So yeah. He was good. He was golden.
He was about to spend eternity balls-deep in paradise.
The angel stared at him for one long, perfect heartbeat then he burst out laughing.
Not a polite chuckle but a full-bellied, doubled-over, clutching his stomach and howling. His wings trembling too. Radiance flickering like bad wiring.
Tears—actual golden tears—glistened at the corners of those amber eyes as he wheezed.
Pryce's triumphant grin froze. Then slipped. He took a half-step back.
"…Dude?"
The angel tried to speak. Couldn't. Just waved one hand helplessly while the other pressed harder against his abdomen like he was afraid his divine guts would spill out.
Pryce's bare feet shifted uncomfortably in the grass.
The only reasons this would be funny were—
The only reasons this would be funny was it the Heaven Gardens weren't real and just stories like the old stories in library called Bibles from the last two civillations before the Fall, but the Heaven Gardens were real.
The only other reason could only be—
"Dude!" he managed between fresh peals. "You're going to the Abyssal Wells!"
Pryce's knees buckled. He dropped straight onto his ass in the perfect grass, mouth open.
"No way."
The angel lost it again—head thrown back, six wings flaring wide as he roared with laughter.
"No fucking way," Pryce repeated, voice climbing. "I'm innocent!Collateral! Hero collateral! That's the rule! I died from your hero golden boy! I qualify!"
The angel wiped his face again, grin wide and wicked. "Oh, the life you've lived… even a demonwould blush, Pryce."
Pryce opened his mouth to argue—then shut it. He couldn't really. Not convincingly. And the handsome bastard in front of him clearly knew it.
The angel leaned forward, eyes gleaming with pure, sadistic delight and decided to go all the way and rub the salt where it exactly hurt...
"Because looking at the stats—and trust me, I've seen the full playback—buddy, I would say Sylas Stormveil was justified to kill you. Really. Do you disagree with that?"
Pryce sucked in a breath to answer.
The angel cut him off instantly.
"Dude. You stole his girlfriend."
Pryce groaned, dragging both hands down his face. "Bastard, why even ask if you're not gonna let me speak? It's like those assholes who post 'change my mind' memes then ban anyone who tries—"
But yes, the Angel was right about that—
"And nope! I did not! The girl just sneaked up on me when I wasn't exactly in the position to say no to a well presented laid, alright?"
The angel laughed even harder. "I wouldn't exactly call fucking one's girlfriend on the man's veryparty, a very presented laid. Although yes, the very situation where she sneaks up on you in Sylas's bedroom was a really good presented cunt!
"But Pryce please, don't play innocent because you didn't just steal her. You fucked her on his bed. At his own victory party. Surrounded by every hero figurine and signed poster he'd spent two milliongold collecting."
Pryce cheered with a yes, finally someone gets it. "You now see how I couldn't say no; there I am admiring all these hero charactersthe rich bastard has been gathering and had spent millions of golds coins and she enters and as a cultured man I wouldn't exactly say so so I just—
"Just tooook a very well-presented lay," the angel finished, smirking.
"Yes! Exactly! I am a very cultured man I couldn't exactly say no to her when she had that unsatisfied sadness in her eyes... I took it upon myself to answer to prayeers, so I just—"
"Fucked her on his bed and—"
Pryce threw his hands up. "Okay, fine! But what did you expect? She was there and I was there too, literally standing there admiring the collection—those limited-edition resin statues... but man, the detail on the thigh gap—and suddenly she's in nothing but lingerie, pressing up against me like—And yes, we went on to everywhere on his bed,"
Pryce finished automatically. "We came on all his characters, yes—"
He froze mid-sentence.
"Wait. Aren't you an angel? How are you throwing around 'fuck' and 'cunt' like you're auditioning to write dialogue for a succubus? You're supposed to be—"
"Holy. Yes. I know." The angel waved it off. "But when dealing with a man of culture such as yourself, I'm allowed to speak the language you understand. Moving on. You didn't stop at one. You fucked the next four girls he had after her. How do you justify all that?"
Pryce rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish for maybe the first time in his life. He wanted to scream he was defending his honor.
"Yeah… that's on me. But also—she started it. First girl went around school preaching the gospel of my cock like it was holy scripture for the very starved girls in misery of unsatisfaction...
"Just because I fucked her so well and made her cum eight times in one hours. Fucking his other four girls was a bit complicated...a man's pride if you may. I was just… defending my reputation. Showing the ladies the gospel wasn't exaggerated at all.. if anything; Less told!"
The angel laughed again—genuine, delighted. Pryce couldn't help it; a reluctant grin tugged at his own mouth. Old memories. Good days. Complicated history with Sylas that went all the way into Sylas's mother'spants.
He'd always been a cultured man who wouldn't deny a beauty her needs.
Now that he thought about it, the Sylas might've just a tiny bit of a good reason to kill him.
'Just this small.'
The angel's smile slowly faded.
"And that, my friend—and a dozen other reasons—is why you either accept the offer to become a hero… or go directly to the Abyssal Wells."
The field went quiet. The perfect breeze died.
Pryce's grin vanished too. But the real reason why he was even still skeptical about this whole thing was—
Before he could voice it, the angel raised one hand.
Golden light coalesced between his fingers, then expanded into a perfect, floating screen.
The image snapped into focus.
Lulu.
His sister—alive—cradled what remained of his scorched body in the smoking ruins of the fringe. Half her face and one arm were blackened and weeping, but she breathed. She wept. Great, wrenching sobs that made no sound through the silent vision. Around her, the carnage had stilled.
The fight was over. Or perhaps his corpse had simply stopped drawing breath. Either way, she was alone now. Tiny. Broken. Clinging to him like he might still wake up and pull her to safety.
Pryce's heart—whatever ghost of it still existed here—lurched hard enough to hurt... he'd thought she'd died too!
The angel's voice came soft. Almost gentle.
"Your sister is alive. But how long do you think she'll stay that way? Do you think Sylas Stormveil is going to let anything that reminds him of you keep breathing? Trust me when I say it—his aim is total annihilation of your entire existence.
"Let's say she survives a few weeks. Maybe a month if she's lucky and hides well. How does a timid girl like Lulu survive by herself without you now that even half of her body is burn too?"
Pryce stared at the screen. Couldn't look away.
The angel lowered his hand. The image held.
"Accept the Supreme Angel's offer. Become her champion. In reward, you're allowed to do whatever you want—so long as you complete her missions. The moment you accept, your sister will be healed. Fully and instantly when you finish your first mission… she'll also be given powers of her own. But unlike you, she won't be bound to anyone's fate. No champion contract. No hero mantle.
"Just power enough to protect herself in this broken world."
"Wait," he said slowly, leaning forward. "You're saying the one who wants me to be their champion isn't your male ass… but a very very very hot angelwho commands all the female angels? The second strongest angel?"