"I have a question." I looked at Professor Emilia, who kept her gaze fixed on me.
"Go ahead, you can ask me anything," she nodded calmly.
"Can you manipulate the Fragment of Life, or something like it?"
"Hmmm." Emilia pursed her lips for a moment. "I can do it, but for the fragment to function, it needs life force. Alternatively, it can be manipulated with the soul, but that method is much worse because it causes your soul level to drop drastically, which is not feasible at all..." Professor Emilia fell silent for a few moments, as if debating whether or not to say something.
"What's wrong?" Arthur tilted his head slightly, frowning a bit. "I think I have the right to know." Seeing how she hesitated to speak, it was clear she was hiding something.
Professor Emilia looked at Elizabeth. She adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Do you really want to know?" she asked, placing her hands on the table with an amused tone.
"Of course I do, but if it causes some kind of problem..."
"No, there's no problem in knowing it," she shook her head with a smile. "So, since you agree..." She briefly glanced at the wooden box. "Demons can use it without any problem."
"Wait... are you talking about all of them? Is that really true?" My eyes widened. "Isn't the Divine Rune of Life supposed to be a sacred object?" I asked nervously.
"I misspoke," Elizabeth smiled. "Only the Seven Deadly Sins are able to manipulate the divine rune. If another demon dares to touch the Rune of Life, they'll burn to death—soul and body. Simply put, it would be more of a curse." She nodded. "But"—she raised her hand as she saw I had another question—"I can't tell you why only the Seven Deadly Sins can handle the Rune of Life without issue."
"I-I see..." I nodded. "I guess I'll have to ask Lilith about this," I murmured to myself.
"Then, with all that said, do you accept or not?" Brynthia smiled, staring at me. "Do you think it's fair or not?"
"Well, it's not exactly fair. I still have to wait until Seraphine gives her confirmation, and there's a chance she'll refuse and keep the fragment of the Rune of Life for herself. But... it's still a fragment." I weighed my options... I could still feel the blue flame churning inside my soul, trying to reach the Rune of Life. Thinking of the pros and cons, this really is a one-time opportunity... so: "Is it going to be painful?"
According to them, they wanted to extract a small part of the blue flame from my soul, and even though I knew the answer...
"It's going to hurt like hell," Elizabeth nodded with a serious look.
"Damn it," I cursed mentally.
"Or it would hurt like hell, but luckily for us, we have this!" Elizabeth opened her small hands, revealing a tiny golden trumpet. "With this object, most of the pain will disappear and the process will be much easier." She gently caressed the little trumpet in her hands.
The Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse, sacred-level artifacts with a single purpose: to bring death upon humanity, to punish it, and to fill it with despair. The seven Seraphim are the beings responsible for sounding the trumpets by God's command. Since their creation, they have never been used. It is said they remain sealed, waiting for the right moment to unleash God's wrath. But why would God create seven artifacts to destroy His own creation?
The answer is simple: because of the demons, the fallen angels and archangels who were banished to the depths of Hell. But before the trumpets could be used to completely wipe out the demons, God and Lucifer died—or so it's said. But it's clearly true, since even the Thrones in Heaven confirmed it. As for Lucifer, according to Lilith, he too is either dead or in a deep sleep, just like God.
The war in the heavens was massive. Several Thrones died, hundreds of millions of angels fought each other. The skies turned gold, and the earth trembled. Hundreds of sacred and divine artifacts were lost—among them the Runes of Life and Death. The Blue Flame and the Red Flame vanished entirely. And at the end of that war, God and Lucifer disappeared. In the aftermath, by a twist of fate, the Seven Seraphim and the Seven Sins were born to create a new balance.
With the birth of the Seven Seraphim, the trumpets were forged from the blood of all the angels who fell in battle—or at least that's what I know. But of course, the story has some flaws. Some say God created the Seven Trumpets before the Seraphim were even born, or that the Seven Deadly Sins were created at the same time as the Seraphim in Heaven. Likewise, not much is truly known about how real the war in Heaven was. Even the Seraphim and the Sins themselves don't fully understand it...
But putting all that aside... Arthur swallowed dryly, nervously. The trumpet Elizabeth held... it shouldn't be here now. It's far too early for a trumpet to appear. After all, those artifacts only showed up near the end of the story... "I don't understand anything anymore." He already knew trusting the story he knew was a big problem, so he stopped thinking about it. But seeing the tiny trumpet of the Second Seraphim made him feel nervous...
"Oh!" Elizabeth's eyes sparkled at my reaction. "So you really do know what this is!" She smiled and extended her hand. "Do you want to touch it?"
Her voice was full of deafening charm, but... as expected, I didn't fall for it.
"It's not going to work." Emilia frowned, seemingly annoyed.
Arthur looked at her with a smile. She was clearly upset because Elizabeth had tried the same thing with her legacy [Beneath the Queen's Feet].
Elizabeth opened her eyes slightly, apparently surprised, then pouted. "Alright, I get it."
"Can we begin now?" Brynthia was tired of waiting and looked at the three of us with a serious expression. "There's not much time to waste."