Under the gray sky, in the middle of a white land, in front of the colossal pillar, eleven humans stood motionless.
A few minutes later, Michael sighed and stepped forward, a human heart held carefully in his hands, the heart still beating in his hand, but the heart wasn't red but white like ice.
He reached the great gate, holding up the beating heart like a sacrifice, a second later the heart stopped beating.
After a deep breath, the once frozen heart now turned red, blood poured down Michael's hands, drops of red tainted the white grounds.
Michael muttered "Yes" then the heart disappeared like air, leaving nothing but blood painting Michael's hands.
A massive white line, as wide as the great gate appeared, extending from the top of the great gate to the tip of the colossal black pillar.
The gate opened slowly, accompanied by the loud sound of marble scraping against the hardest, most solid ice of the floor.
A few seconds later, the gates were open to them, the inside of the pillar was dark and empty.
Everyone was silent, none wanted to say a thing, and that was for more reasons than one.
"Looks like an over-sized prison to me." The guy who said that was the only guy whose name Azreal never learned, there were also the two girls with him.
That was the only group that Azreal avoided, but for some reason that guy was supporting Moroni.
Moroni was injured, and he didn't want to die just to get a new body, and everyone understood his reasons.
Weirdly enough, Moroni asked help from that guy... Azreal was shocked to see Moroni leaning on that guy's shoulders.
The world was full of surprises.
"Just walk already!" Moroni replied with impatience.
The entire group started to follow Michael into the colossal pillar, and as they got closer they started to hear the echoes of their footsteps, clapping all around them.
When they all got inside, the giant door closed behind them, and the world turned black... then... darkness spoke-
(Welcome to the trial of faith. You must answer three questions correctly.)
Silence...
In that silence, the voices and presence of everyone disappeared.
Then darkness continued-
(First question...)
The darkness turned bright, and slowly, all around him, a new structure surrounded him.
"What?!!"
A low ceiling, a dirty living-room&kitchen in one room, a fridge that was almost empty except for pickles, and its door hung open.
There was a salt jar, but it seemed never used, and beside it is an empty dish.
There is a framed photo that was ripped, hung not far away.
There is a chair in the middle of the living room.
(Who are you?)
The voice came from every direction, and never echoed off of the walls, as if existing only in his head.
Azreal sighed, and looked around the dirty apartment...
After a while, he started to trace the walls of the apartment with his fingertips, a sour expression on his face.
Until he reached his bedroom.
Placing his palm onto the door handle, he thought-
'Who am I?'
His expression hardened, and he let go of the door, he took a step back.
"I'm Azreal."
(Very well.)
Suddenly, the world turned dark... then darker, then darkness spoke-
(Second question...)
The dark world stayed dark, but in front of Azreal now lie a dead body... blood poured down from a hole in its chest.
The dead body, loosely, held a knife in its dead hand.
Azreal paled, and fell back onto his rear, as he saw the corpse, he was shocked... and afraid.
(What are you?)
'What?! Is that what this is about?
Am I here in this hell just because I killed that bastard!!'
Azreal's expression turned bitter, as he slowly stood up, but before he answered, something happened.
Right behind the corpse, stood three, an older man with a face veiled by darkness, an older woman with her face veiled by darkness, and a young man his eyes staring at Azreal with disturbance...
Azreal knew them very well.
The older man spoke-
"How could you?! How dare you show your face after killing him?"
His voice cracked with suppressed anger and sorrow.
"Just leave! I don't want to see you again."
The old woman spoke, her voice laced with anguish, she forced herself to speak-
"What you did was terrible!" Her voice shivered with sorrow.
"We didn't raise a murderer, we never raised you that way!"
Her voice cracked, and shivered, and she fell silent.
The young man only showed an expression of disgust, disturb, and... pain...
He turned around, hiding his expression, while his shoulders shivered.
Azreal's already pale face was now like snow, and his composure cracked, his eyebrows shivering with pain.
He stared at them with a weak meak gaze, his hand reached forward, but his parents... took a step back.
His mother spoke-
"Just... leave"
Azreal looked down at the corpse with a dark expression, his hand fell by his side, and he... took a step back.
"I'm... innocent."
Darkness did not respond for several seconds.
Then, it spoke-
(Very well.)
Then the darkness subtly changed, becoming less... dark.
And he, now can only see the other companions, the ten who walked in with him... each one of them had a different expression, and they changed every second.
Their bodies didn't move... but he could hear some of them muttering things like 'Moroni' , 'I was just... angry' , 'thief' , 'no' from two, and 'What?'
(Third question... what do you want?)
Looking at them with an un-specific expression, his eyes veiled by shadows.
... After a long pause, he replied-
"I want to die."
Then, suddenly he felt the weight of something solid, and cold, and metallic, fitted into his hand.
He lifted his hand, and saw a gun in his hand, and he was slightly shocked, raising an eyebrow.
(Very well... then, if you truly wish that, then kill them all... ten bullets, for your wish.)
Azreal stared at the gun, he had so many thoughts, and so many feelings... he pointed the gun at Michael, who for some reason was smiling... then,
BANG!
Michael fell to the ground, and blood painted the black floor.
BANG!
And another one fell to the ground, and blood splashing from her head.
Suddenly, some of them moved, they turned their head, and saw the scene... they looked at Azreal with dark expressions...
His heart raced, he pointed the gun at Moroni, then,
BANG!
Everyone fell into horror, they jumped trying to run away, but to their surprise, the darkness was a small room,
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
one after another, they fell onto the floor, in the darkness of this hellish world.
Raphae, who was still, and unmoving muttered 'no'
Then she started to move, and as she saw the horrible scene, and the fallen dead bodies, her face paled,
BANG!
The bullet went through her heart, and she fell onto the floor, her body convulsed desperately, to no avail.
Her eyes locked onto Azreal as he pulled the trigger again.
BANG!
Uriel fell against the locked door, her blood tainting the black with red.
Then...
BANG!
And Jeremie fell beside her, his blood made a red mark on the door.
Raphae didn't look away from azreal, as she muttered "murderer!"
Her voice was weak, and pained, and deep from the depths of her bloodied lungs.
Her eyes stopped twitching, and her body fell limp.
Ten dead bodies filled the dark room, their blood traced from the floor to the gate, and the room reeked of blood.
The already small room seemed smaller around him, he struggled to breathe.
"Why? Why... aren't their bodies dissolving? The corpses should dissolve and disappear!"
He took a step back, his face paled, as he saw the corpses turned to a sludge, and slid through the floor towards each other.
The flesh merged together and slowly turned to one giant creature that looked like giant menacing ostrich, with the stench of gunpowder.
The creature's neck bared it's bone-protrudings like metal fins.
Its head had no beak, but a gun barrel instead, and because of the size of the ostrich, it looked like the barrel of a tank machine-gun.
The creature was a giant, it stared at Azreal for a fleeting moment, then it turned around, and walked away.
Azreal didn't notice when the black room disappeared, but he was already back in the chamber of the colossal pillar.
And its giant gate was ajar, the giant gun ostrich walked out, leaving a trail of smoke stench.
Azreal was left speechless as he saw everyone turn into a monster... and he got nothing.