The sun was already setting. In the summer, the hour still meant it was quite late, but the time had finally come.
Only a few days remained before the wedding. Before, the fate of this world would move in a completely new direction. Before the first true immortals were born,
Right now, I was finishing the last details of the immortality spell with Qetsiyah. Once this final step was completed, I hoped it would push me past my first major synchronisation threshold.
"So, are you excited?" I asked her.
"Of course," she replied immediately. "I've waited for this moment for so long. Not to mention the effort we put into it. The reward will be incredible. Spending eternity with the one I love… my dream is finally coming true. Don't tell me you're going to reveal your true colours now and stop me cruelly."
"That's not it," I said with a small smile. "I'm excited too. After completing this spell, I can finally relax a little. The last two years haven't been easy."
"Indeed," she said. "But it was worth it."
"Yeah…" I paused for a moment. "Too bad I won't be able to witness you take it. I need to leave for a few days. Something came up."
"You're leaving now? Why?" she asked, almost shouting in surprise.
"It can't be helped," I said calmly. "But don't worry. I'll see the result in a few days, right?"
"…Yeah," she said slowly. "You're right. Just don't take too long. I hope you can still come to the banquet after my wedding. You know… right now, you're one of my few friends. You being there would make me happier."
"Of course," I said.
But my smile didn't quite reach my eyes. And she didn't notice.
I looked at her—really looked at her—and wondered how the next few days would break her so completely that she would spend the rest of her life seeking revenge. Even her afterlife would be dedicated to it.
Finally, just before night fell, we finished the last part of the spell.
There was no explosion. No shaking earth. No lightning came from the sky.
But for me, the change was already beyond anything I expected.
I could feel my body strengthening more than ever. New ways to use my abilities appeared in my mind, along with a whole new set of memories.
I suppressed my excitement and opened the panel.
╔══════════════════════════════════╗
║ TEMPLATE SYSTEM ║
╠══════════════════════════════════╣
Current Template:
Archangel — Michael
Age: 18 (Immortal)
Race: Angel (Archangel)
Vessel: Divine Body
Synchronization Rate:
10.3%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Power Tier:
Current Vessel — Tier 9-C
True Power — Tier 8-B
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Abilities:
• Weak Divine Power
• Smite
• Telekinesis
• Perception of Truth
• Dream Walking
• Flight (Wings)
• Void Invisibility
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sigils — Basic Tier:
• Protection Sigil
• Anti-Supernatural Barrier
• Detection Ward
• Concealment Field
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Equipment:
• Michael's Sword — Sealed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Notice:
"Divine authority restricted.
Output limited to preserve world stability."
╚══════════════════════════════════╝
A smile slowly appeared on my face—one that I couldn't suppress even if I tried.
I was just about to examine everything carefully when a voice beside me pulled me out of my thoughts.
"What are you smiling about?" Qetsiyah asked. "It's just an immortality spell. We don't even know if it will work yet."
Even as she said that, the same large smile was on her face.
"It will work," I said. "Don't worry. And it's already night. I need to go home and prepare before I leave, so this will be a short goodbye for now."
"Alright," she said. "We'll know the result in a few days anyway. It will be a surprise when you return. Let's wrap up for the day. And be careful, alright?"
"I will. See you soon, Qetsiyah."
"See you soon, Michael."
With that, I left and returned home.
— At My House —
I was currently sitting and slowly running my hand across my wings.
Yes. My wings.
They were pure white, with faint golden energy flowing through the feathers like light moving through water.
The changes were enormous.
First—Weak Divine Power. This was something I had expected. My divine energy had increased significantly, and more importantly, my control had improved. That alone was a huge advantage, especially in prolonged combat.
Flight was the most exciting change. Just as I had suspected two months ago, achieving 10% synchronisation brought my wings back. Even though I expected it, when it actually happened, I still felt something close to excitement.
My flight speed was extremely fast. Crossing the entire city took only seconds. If I had to estimate, I could probably fly at around 400 km/h with just 10% synchronisation. I could cross Greece in an hour or two, Europe in a day, and the entire world in about a week.
My biggest problem for the next two thousand years—travel—was solved.
The wings could also hide within my body, which I assumed was standard for angels. It allowed me to walk among humans without standing out.
Then there was Void Invisibility.
It wasn't just invisibility. It was more like stepping into another layer of space. I could walk through people and walls, and nothing in the normal world could touch me.
For convenience, I decided to call this second layer "the Void".
Only angels or demons could see me there—which meant no one in this world. Powerful supernatural beings might feel that something was wrong if I stood next to them, but they still wouldn't be able to see me.
In other words, the perfect observer ability.
The sigils did exactly what their names suggested. Protection, barriers, detection, concealment. Basic tools, mostly used by lower angels or humans who were under angelic protection.
I decided to stay in Athens. With Void Invisibility, I could observe everything from the front row without being seen.
— Three Days Later —
I saw Silas in the distance.
With my perception of truth, I could feel his intent. Betrayal. Deception. Determination.
I knew what he was going to do.
Then I realised something.
I could stop this.
One smite. One decision. One moment.
Silas would die.
Qetsiyah would live.
Immortality would never be created.
Vampires would never exist.
The Originals would never be born.
Thousands of future deaths would never happen.
One smite.
My hand moved slightly.
Then stopped.
I am not human.
I am Michael.
I do not act because I feel like it. I act because it is necessary.
And this… this was necessary.
Immortality had to be created. Nature would respond. Balance would be created. Doppelgängers would be born. Vampires would be born later from a modified version of this spell. The entire supernatural structure of this world depended on what would happen in the next few days.
Even so…
It still made me uncomfortable.