Silva watched as the crawler ripped through the celestial island. He wanted to at least allow them a chance at life, but he was already pissed at what had happened with the golden celestial. Still, wiping away an entire race was not just right.
So Silva unsummoned the crawler, with only five islands standing at this point. Silva was still not going to let it be; he would drag all the celestials out, but not until he found out what secret was being hidden.
He took flight toward the last island, with Terra and Lucy following behind. He shot there at top speed, but when he got into the airspace of the tenth island, beams of light were fired at them.
Silva looked down at the celestials, who were in a desperate struggle now. They didn’t know what was happening; all they knew was that some enemy was in their realm.
Silva ignored the beams and landed on the ground. The celestials were shocked by his invulnerability to their attacks.
Silva looked at what the celestials used to attack, and it piqued his interest. They looked like sci-fi guns that channeled mana instead. They were white and had golden glows all around them.
The celestials fired at him, trying to at least bring him down, but Silva took the shots without even flinching.
Seeing this, most of the celestials dropped their weapons and fled, while some stood strong, firing like their lives depended on it—because they did, or so they thought.
But Silva didn’t pay attention to them. All he cared about was the golden castle sitting at the center of the island. He started walking toward it. The celestials felt he was coming to kill them, but Silva, Lucy, and Terra moved past them without looking at them.
But the pressure the celestials felt as those three passed caused them to lose control of their legs, falling to the ground and sweating all over.
They couldn’t muster the strength to get up and fight anymore.
Silva walked at an unhurried pace, not because he didn’t want to get there fast, but because he was using his vibration sensing to get a full mapping of the entire castle—every hidden chamber and everything unusual.
He spotted several places that seemed suspicious. He wanted to go there and see what it was about. He would rip this castle into bits as long as he found the secret that was hidden there.
He got to the castle gates, and there were several celestial guards there. They attacked all at once with their swords drawn, but Terra created hundreds of light swords and attacked them.
She killed all of them in an instant and cleared the way for Silva to keep walking. As Silva reached the door of the castle, one of his minds spoke.
“Have you noticed? There are no children.”
Immediately, the mind made this deduction, and Silva turned to Lucy.
“Wrong. I saved all the demons that were left in hell. There were kids amongst them, right?” he asked.
“Yes. Why wouldn’t there be? The demon race still procreates, after all,” she said.
“I thought as much. But have you seen any child here?” Silva asked, and that was when Lucy also realized this fact.
“I have a feeling that whatever secret the celestials were hiding has something to do with why there are no children,” Silva said. He pushed the door open and walked into the castle.
Inside, the castle was grand and magnificent, as anyone would expect, with beautiful statues of the celestials in the hallway and one grand one supposed to depict Ophelia.
But as Silva looked at that statue, he got an indescribable feeling from it. Something was off with it. Without hesitation, he threw his sword at the statue, obliterating it. Then he approached the rubble, only to find a deep hole.
Shockingly, when he used his vibration sensing, he couldn’t sense this place. He could feel that same strange energy coming from the hole.
“I think we might have found a link to what we are looking for, but we can’t be certain. Terra, Lucy, check the castle for anything unusual. I’ll head into the hole,” Silva said and jumped in before they could even react.
Silva didn’t know how long the hole would go for, but he allowed himself to free-fall until he saw a faint light at the bottom.
The closer he got, the brighter the light became, and soon he could see the ground under shallow water.
He landed inside the water and cast a splash. He looked up to see where he was, and what he saw immediately sent chills down his spine.
He was standing inside what seemed to be a massive lab with glass tube machines in multiple rows, lined up with a light green liquid inside.
But the tubes were not what shocked Silva—it was what was inside the tubes. Inside the tubes, humans floated in the liquid, some shriveled, some cut into many parts.
Silva couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening. Why did the celestials have several humans inside tubes? What did they do with them?
Silva walked close to one of the tubes. He placed his hands on it, and immediately he felt the horror as the voice of the child inside that tube reached his mind, begging for mercy.
Silva removed his hands immediately and stepped back from the tube, his eyes widened. In that short moment, he had felt the pain the boy was in, and he couldn’t believe it.
“Inhumane, right?” a voice spoke. Silva turned around to see an old celestial standing behind him, wearing an ankle-length white coat. The man had all gray hair and an overgrown beard.
His four wings were broken at unusual angles, yet he didn’t seem to be in pain.
Silva wondered how this man had come to his back without him noticing at all. He didn’t feel any presence, even now, as he spoke to the man.
“This is what happens when people with power become desperate for a solution,” the old man said.