Heaven Be Kind

‘’Hong Yue.’’

A voice called.

‘’Do you regret it?’’

Feet as pale as paper yet dotted with bruises and tainted with blood arrived at their final destination. They paused at the edge of a rough cliff that overlooked the Nine Tailed Reincarnation Pool.

An exhausted breath trickled out of his pale lips and mingled with the poisonous cold air that surrounded him. His torn divine dress blew fiercely in the wind behind him. His hair was long and pure white—a grave sign of a dying god and immortal.

There was a long pause around him, one that gave him a moment to not only catch his breath but to see how far he had come to the end of a miserable existence.

The voices hiding somewhere in the dark, raging clouds above talked to him on his lonely journey to death. They sent multiple thunderbolts to beat his back and tear his meridians into pieces, breaking his divine cores apart. Still, the immortal remained steadfast to push ahead in this heavenly punishment.

This divine punishment that wasn’t his from the start.

‘’You have come so far yet haven’t reached anywhere but to a dead end.’’

‘’You have suffered so much in the name of love and forgotten who you are.’’

The divine being revealed his eyes. They were beautiful pairs of diamonds that shone brightly in the darkness and peril.

‘’Don’t you know that you are the first born of heaven and earth? The great pillar of the underworld and the strength of the seas?’’

‘’You are a divine being,’’ one voice thundered and multiple flashes of lightning tore the sky at once, adding to the misery of the god that stood at the edge of the rough cliff.

‘’Chaos itself in physical form.’’ 

‘’Our child and the heir of all pure and impure forms.’’

Hong Yue said nothing as his eyes fell weakly to the ground, exhausted and begging for a quick death. His legs and body were shaking no matter how still he tried to stand. His eyes were there but no light passed through them anymore. It had been days of torture and begging.

He just wanted to fall and let it all go behind him.

At least she was safe and well-protected by him at last.

At least she wouldn’t have to go through all this and suffer this much.

‘’How did you get yourself involved in the tribulation of love and dare to offer yourself as the ultimate sacrifice?’’

‘’If you love her so much, then why won’t you let her pay for her sins and answer to the heavens herself?!’’

More darkness covered this world and the wind rose and moved about restlessly, overwhelming the dead god so much. He wished they didn’t spend that much time trying to make him regret it before he died.

‘’Don’t you know that she will be reborn in the mortal world, free of her sins and with no memories of her devilish acts.’’

Hong Yue smiled weakly, a part of his dimples revealing as they mentioned it again. They tried so hard to call her a devil even when so many parts of the story were yet to be known or even clarified.

They wanted her to be the devil by all means.

And she became one.

Another thunder across the sky shook the earth on which he stood as he took a step closer towards the cliff and sighed.

She became the devil of the Four Realms and now, they wouldn’t even let her die in peace or let him bear the punishment of her sins.

‘’She would live, grow up, love and marry again.’’ A part of him reacted to that even if he didn’t want to.

‘’She would live a normal life with a family and lover to call hers and die and continue on to the next life without any regrets or guilt.’’

That’s exactly what he wanted for her. How her life was supposed to be. The kind of existence he owed her from the very beginning they met.

‘’And you?’’

Silence.

‘’You will become a fallen god with no memories of your divine existence and perish like you never existed in the abyss.’’

The voice paused again as if they were giving him another chance to rethink it all and realize how foolishly in-love he was with a demon that once destroyed everything.

He only smiled again. This time, his smile was so bitter and strained—it hurt.

‘’Was it worth it at all?’’

His heart ached as they asked him a question he wished no one would ever ask him. He consulted within himself and peeked through the memories of his life one last time.

He remembered her beautiful face. Her carefree nature and how she always managed to grab his attention when far or near.

How good-hearted, pure and lovely she was.

The smile that made him write those terrible poems she found exciting. The time he tried to entertain her with a divine instrument and embarrassed himself.

The time he taught her the secrets of the heavens and showed her the real path to enlightenment.

When he became her master and got to give her a divine weapon of her own.

‘’... Hong Yue.’’

He gasped at the memory of her voice. No one called him better than she did. A tear trickled down his left cheek in regret.

He would never hear that name and voice ever again.

‘’No…’’

He answered his fathers, the ageless, formless Ieons that formed Chaos and the Four Realms with their breaths and divine skills.

‘’No…’’ he said again, holding back his tears this time as the pain rolled over his heart like the first time.

It wasn’t worth it when what he was doing was going to separate him from his love until the end of time.

And when was that?

Even his invisible fathers all around him couldn’t assure him when.

Forever was a very, very, very long time for anything that exists. But it is a long moment even the dead can’t tell when it began or know when it will end.

‘’Good,’’ one Ieon said in a solemn voice.

They were satisfied that he was still aware and not completely blind in love or hopeless in it. Which was a very good thing.

It meant that there was hope and redemption from this…

A way out to preserve both the existence of their son as well as respect his wishes to be punished and his love spared for life.

‘’Very well.’’

The ground shook and the Divine God Hong Yue was swept off his feet by an invisible force and fell into the turbulent pool without his memories.

As he died and his entire body and divine form were torn into shreds and particles of bright light by the violent waves of the pool, one Ieon said to all things that lived and breathed under the sound of his voice.

‘’Hong Yue.’’

‘’Your death can’t be the only punishment.’’

The divine god closed his eyes and slowly accepted his fate.

‘’We would show you why a god without obsessions is a real god.’’