EverenVale

  Lucifer’s crimson eyes burned with rage and sorrow as he stepped toward the gates. His hand, glowing with unearthly fire, pressed against the barrier.

  The gates groaned under his strength as he pushed through, the light of Heaven spilling over them, a stark and merciless contrast to the smothering shadows of Hell.

  With a mighty roar, he pushed forward, carrying Shay through the threshold.

  The fmes on Shay’s wings extinguished with a cruel abruptness, leaving behind the skeletal remains of what had once been their celestial grace. Relief came like a fleeting and hollow mockery as the fire leapt onto Lucifer’s dark, majestic wings.

  It ignited with a brilliance that tore the air apart, consuming his strength and beauty with relentless fury.

  Their heart clenched at the sight, a visceral ache tearing through their chest as they watched his wings—their darkness a testament to his defiance—burn in blinding white fmes.

  Heaven’s fire, bound by the will of the divine, could not allow a banished soul to trespass where he had been forsaken. God’s decree made manifest, a brutal reminder that no exile could return without consequence.

  “No!” The scream tore from their throat, raw and unrestrained, their body trembling with exhaustion and anguish.

  They tried to move, to crawl toward him, but their limbs refused to obey. Pain rippled through them, a brutal reminder of their torment. Tears streamed down their face as their outstretched fingers cwed at the ground. “Lucifer... Stop! Please!”

  Figures began to gather above them, shadowed against the gring light of the celestial gates. The angels stood silently, their wings pristine and untouched by fme, their faces impassive as they watched the torment unfold.

  Not a single voice rose in protest, not a single hand reached to intervene. Their gazes, void of emotion, bore witness without compassion.

  Lucifer fell to his knees, his cws digging into the scorched earth, carving deep furrows into the stone. His powerful frame trembled as the fire ravaged him. A guttural scream ripped from his throat, reverberating through Hell and beyond, a sound of defiance and despair.

  Shay’s eyes darted toward them, desperation mingling with disbelief. “You see this!” they cried, their voice cracking under the weight of their anguish. “You see what he’s enduring, and you do nothing?”

  The angels remained still, their golden eyes gleaming with a hollow light. They were sentinels of order, their purpose unyielding, their obedience absolute.

  The sight sent a shiver down Shay’s spine, a harrowing realization cutting through their despair.

  They are witnesses to cruelty disguised as divine order.

  Lucifer’s guttural scream echoed through the air, resonating against his heavenly audience’s cold, unyielding stares. A violent sh of his tail struck the earth, cracking the stone beneath him.

  The divine fire consumed him, racing along his wings and searing through his core. His body writhed, his tail shing violently against the ground in a futile attempt to fight the inferno.

  “Forgive me, Shay,” he gasped, his voice barely a whisper beneath the roar of the fmes. His eyes sought theirs, their fiery depths dimming but still alight with an apology too profound for words. “I… I promised to protect you...”

  The fire climbed higher, devouring his dark wings with merciless fervor. The wings crumbled into ash, scattering into the abyss like shattered fragments of his defiance. His body colpsed, and his head bowed low as his strength gave out.

  For a moment, all was still.

  “No! Damn you! Damn all of you!” Shay’s voice cracked, their screams reverberating against the stoic assembly of angels above.

  They dragged their battered wings open, wrapping them protectively around Lucifer’s burning form. Tears dripped onto his charred skin as their arms encircled him, trembling from the weight of his agony.

  “Can’t you see his sacrifice?” they screamed, their voice shaking with rage and heartbreak. “Are you blind to his heart?!” Still, God didn’t answer. Nor did the angels move. Their silence was deafening, their inaction damning.

  Shay’s fingers cradled him, their grip desperate as they pulled his head to their chest. “Hear me, God!” Their cry pierced the heavens, rising above the crackling fire. “Isn’t sacrificing yourself for another the virtue you demand? Isn’t this what makes an angel?”

  The heavens remained mute, their silence a judgment in itself.

  Lucifer stirred faintly, his charred fingers brushing against Shay’s arm with the barest whisper of movement. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried the weight of eternity. “Go... leave this pce... before it’s too te.”

  Tears streaked their soot-streaked face as Shay shook their head, clutching his frail form closer. “I will not leave you,” they cried, their voice cracking under the strain of their resolve. “Not now. Not ever.”

  The silent witnesses—the angels hovering just beyond reach—watched with cold, detached eyes. Their pristine forms radiated celestial light, but their presence offered no comfort. They made no move to intervene, their wings still and silent, their faces etched with a stoic apathy that stabbed deeper than the fmes ever could.

  They see his suffering. They see his sacrifice. And yet, they do nothing.

  Shay’s fingers dug into Lucifer’s charred shoulders as they shifted their weight, their battered body trembling as they forced themselves upright. Every motion sent a fresh wave of agony rippling through them, but they gritted their teeth and pressed forward. His ruined form sagged heavily in their arms, each step dragging like an eternity.

  Invisible chains seemed to snake around their ankles, pulling them down with every agonized movement. The weight of the angels’ judgment pressed heavily on their back, a silent condemnation that burned as fiercely as the fmes.

  Their frustration spilled into cries, cries twisted into screams, and screams erupted into an unrelenting roar of defiance.

  Shay’s knees hit the ground before the gates, their strength nearly spent. The celestial figures above loomed closer, their eyes like pools of unfeeling light, watching their struggle with dispassionate calm.

  Why do you not see him? Why do you not stop this madness?

  With one final, desperate surge of energy, they pushed Lucifer’s body through the threshold, casting him back into the dark sanctuary of Hell.

  Their own body crumpled to the ground, muscles quivering as their breath came in shallow, ragged bursts. Their vision blurred, the world's edges dissolving, but through the haze, they saw movement.

  Lucifer’s body stirred, the bckened remnants of his form regenerating as hellish energy surged through him. His wings, unfurling in powerful arcs, recimed their dark majesty.

  The grinding sound of the gates closing thundered through the air. Their slow, inevitable motion sealed the divide between Heaven and Hell. The angels did not react, their vigil unbroken, and their judgment delivered in the finality of their silence.

  Lucifer rose, his towering form restored, his crimson eyes bzing with rage and grief. His gaze locked on Shay’s fading form, the once-bright figure now crumpled in defeat. “You fool,” he growled, his rasp filled with anguish and fury. “Why did you defy them? Why did you choose this?”

  Shay’s lips trembled, their voice barely more than a breath. Their gaze met his, their love burning brighter than the fmes ravaging them. “Because I love you.”

  Before Lucifer could reach them, divine fire erupted around Shay, engulfing their form in a bze so intense it stole the breath from the air.

  Above, the angels lingered for just a moment longer, their expressionless gazes fixed on the gates. Then, as if on a silent command, they turned away, their wings cutting through the air as they ascended into the halls for another praise singing. Not one word, not one gnce back, as if the pain they had witnessed had never existed.

  Shay’s scream of agony shook the gates of heaven.