One winged angel

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Beyond the crows up above you will find an angel. This angel has a pair of wings with gray fluttery feathers, and long curly black hair with eyes the color of gold. During the night, the angel would cast blessings over the snoozing animals and humans leaving behind a trail of sparkles wherever they flew, creating a symphony of beautiful illuminated specks that shortly dispersed into the air like envisioning a fleeting gift.

During the day, the angel watched over the land from up above, gliding by all the rowdy villages on their firm, yet fluffily cozy white cloud. The angel has an unwavering sense of duty and determination to protect the species of the lands all alike, with their silver bow and hasty arrows fighting off any malicious intercosmic entity who dares to disturb the eternal peace the angel believes is deserved and seeks to defend. The angel has been repeating this cycle secretively, for hundreds upon hundreds of years.

One gloomy day, a figure from out of that world fell into the atmosphere at an unimaginably swift rate. It ripped through the clouds, not so far from where the angel was lounging on their own while overseeing a village. Alarmed, the angel hurriedly rose up and flew down to figure out what had entered.

Just as the angel arrived and set their wings, the people of that village were already crowding around the massive crater the figure was in, dust and debris from now demolished tiles created a puff in the surrounding air making it hard to see just what is inside.

The people were in a state of confusion, then suddenly noticed the angel's appearance.

“Look, is that a massive bird?”

“No, that's an angel of course!”

“Is that seriously an angel?”

“Angels don’t exist you idiot!”

Numerous murmurs and noises emitted from the confused crowd.

The angel, in a state of urgency, sighed and spoke up to the crowd.

“Please, move away from the crater! There’s a mysterious being in there, and it may very well be dangerous!”

The people, now all frightened and exclaiming, heeded the words of the angel and backed away from the crater.

The angel moved closer, bow in hand and arrow in the other, aiming at the moving figure inside of the crater, ready to strike.

Just before the angel let go of their arrow, the dust had dispersed enough for everyone to see who was inside.

The figure took the shape of a human with wavy blond hair and eyes the color of night, tattered black clothes, and bruises from the fall all over their body. Slowly, they raised up, coughing and dusting themselves off.

The angel, still aiming at the figure, spoke. “Who are you and where have you come from?”

The figure glanced at their own hand, then up at the angel.

“My name is Angus,” Said the figure. “You already know exactly who I am.”

“That's not true, how would I have known who you are? You broke into this atmosphere, and you haven’t answered my second question.” Says the angel, growing even more wary by the second.

The people were all quiet in fear, watching the scene before them play out.

“Yes you do!” Exclaimed Angus, jumping out of the crater and landing a few feet before the angel, surprising them.

“Stay back or I will shoot you! State where you came from now.”

“Relax, dear angel, or should I call you Ciro?” Angus said crossing their arms, but not moving an inch.

“How do you know my name?” Asks the angel, eyebrows raised but still not wavering.

“That's because…” Angus mutters, facing the crowd of people watching. “This “angel” before you all, is a fraud! I am the real angel!”

The crowd, now shaken again, starts looking back and forth at Ciro and Angus.

“What nonsense are you sputtering? You are clearly no angel!” Ciro exclaims. “You better stop this right now, my patience is wearing thin.”

“Entities who can steal the abilities of other entities exist.” Explains Angus. “You, Ciro, stole my abilities and ripped my wings off of me to put them on your own body. And are now posing as a true heroine? Despicable!” Angus exclaimed with knitted eyebrows, pointing an accusing finger at Ciro.

“Liar! I haven’t done such a thing! You clearly are trying to accuse me falsely of fraud. Enough of this, i’ll shoot you right now and-”

“Wait!” A guy shouted from the crowd. Everyone stopped and turned to look at who interrupted the dispute. “Don’t shoot them, or we’ll just think you're lying! If you really are the true angel then prove it!”

“Exactly!” Angus triumphs at the suggestion and points at Ciro. “Prove you're the real angel!”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Asks the angel. “You’ll claim that anything I do is a stolen ability, won't you?”

“No, there's a way. Let's compete. A true angel has 3 exceptional traits, determination, strength, and creativity. Why don’t we see who can win by the end of the day? And whoever loses should accept being captured and punished as a fraud. And well, you give my abilities back.”

“You think I'm gonna lo…” The angel mutters angrily, glaring at Angus. Finally, the angel lowers their bow and puts it away. “Fine, you cannot beat me anyway.”

“Then it's final! Since you're ever so confident in winning, you won’t mind me choosing our battles, will you?” Angus asks, smirking at Ciro.

“Go ahead.”

“Very well. First, for determination, there's a deep river south from here right? Why don’t we jump in and see who can hold our breaths the longest?” Asks Angus.

“Fine by me, let's all go there together, and the people can judge who wins it or not.” Says Ciro, already heading to the direction of the river. “And you, Angus, stay in front of me. I don’t want you running away or secretly creating havoc.”

“Fine.” Angus hurriedly walks in front of Ciro, as the people from the village follow along behind.

It wasn't before long until everyone arrived at the river.

“I will count down, and then we both jump in at the same time.” Angus suggests.

“Alright, do so.” Ciro mumbles, walking up to the river.

“3, 2, 1!”

Both Angus and Ciro breathe in and jump into the river.

A couple seconds later, Ciro vision finally adjusts, and looks around, but Angus is nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, Ciro feels something around their ankle, and looks down.

There, Angus is gripping onto Ciro’s ankle, pulling them down deeper into the water.

Ciro, surprised but cannot lose breath and shout, tries arduously kicking at Angus, who looks back up at Ciro with an evil grin, seemingly being able to breath perfectly fine under water.

Then, Angus let go, and before Ciro could swim away, punched Ciro in the chest.

Ciro then understood what was happening. Angus, who could breathe well underwater, was trying to make Ciro lose and quit sooner.

But the more Ciro tried to move away, the stronger the urge of needing air, yet if they didn't try to move away, Angus would continuously beat them. Ciro couldn’t win this one.

In the end, it was Ciro’s whos head was the first to emerge from the river. Then, there was a clear victor.

“Well, looks like there's a winner!” Shouts Angus, whose head emerged second. Everyone cheered, but eyed Ciro now with suspicion now planted in them.

“You cheater! You fought me underwater! You could clearly breathe too!” Shouted Ciro. “This isn’t fair!”

“No, you could’ve fought back. And either way, I could’ve still been out of breath. I was both moving and fighting you, which drains more energy and uses more breath, after all. Clearly you're just weak, you fraud!” Angus shouted.

“Please enough!” Someone from the crowd shouted. “It's already decided because you came out first so Angus wins, so onto the next one okay?”

“You know what, it is fine. I agree, onto the next challenge.” mumbles Ciro.

“Well now that that's settled,” Angus smirks, “The next one should be creativity. Why don’t we simply paint, and the people can judge whose painting is the beautifulest? The village can provide the paint, right?”

The people of the village nodded, and everyone started heading back.

While everyone was heading towards the village, Ciro saw something in the sky and stopped. It was too far to make out what it was, but before Ciro decided to take flight and check out what it was, Angus called back to Ciro.

“What, are you nervous already? Hurry up!” yelled Angus.

“Enough, I'm going.” Said Cirus, fluttering back to the crowd.

In the center of the village stood 2 massive canvases across and facing away from each other, paints of all colors next to them.

“Here we are. Now, how long must we paint for?” Asks Ciro, standing in front of a canvas.

“Hm…how about an hour?” Asks Angus. “Should be enough time, no?”

“Okay. Then, I’ll agree, let's begin then.”

“3, 2, 1.. Go.”

Both Ciro and Angus picked up their paint brushes and got to work.

Though, Ciro didn’t know what to paint. Hesitantly, Ciro dipped their paintbrush into a random color, but still had no idea what to paint.

As time passed, 10 minutes, then 20, Angus seemed to be working well, and people behind them awed at their progressing work. On the other hand, Ciro was still struggling to envision something to paint.

Soon enough, 30 minutes had passed, and still, Ciro’s canvas remained blank, not a single streak of paint on it.

Suddenly, Ciro’s eyes widened.

It was like they had a blessing themself casted on them, and Ciro began to paint on their wings.

The people of the village who were mainly behind Angus and their canvas, peaked over at Ciro to see what they were doing. And were shocked, doing so.

Every feather of their wing Ciro had painted, it would be pressed onto the canvas. More and more people started to crowd behind Ciro and their art, muttering and marveling at the sight.

Angus, who looked around perplexed, wanted to see what Ciro was doing but couldn’t, so they continued their work, confused.

Soon, the hour was over and both participants were done.

“Now, let's push the canvases side by side and look at them.” Says Angus.

Both pushed their canvases, and the people once again cheered.

On the right, there was a painting of a rift, inside was the opening to the universe with stars and an ombre of purples, blues and blacks. This was Angus’s painting.

On the left, there was a painting using white, grays, and gold, depicting a grand castle with detailed looking feathers on the wings of numerous angels surrounding it. This was Ciro’s painting.

The people who gathered before both paintings started chattering, deciding and judging on whose painting was better as Angus and Ciro stood next to each other, one whose wings were covered in paint, and the other’s whose hands were covered in paint. Both stood together as Angus grinned at Ciro, and as Ciro glared at Angus.

Waiting for the announced winner, Ciro looked up at the sky. Being able to tell what was in the sky now, it looked like there was a fracture up in the sky, and had seemed to have gotten larger than before. For some reason it looked familiar, a lot like Angus’s…

“Okay! We’ve made up our mind!” Someone shouted from the crowd. “We think the winner should be...Ciro !”

“Ah! Thank you! Very much!” Cheered Ciro. “You all will receive my blessings!

“Ahem, you mean my blessings?” Mutters Angus. “Well anyway, congrats I guess. It's a tie now, but you're not beating me this time. Because this last challenge will be a battle.. In the air!” Angus exclaims, crossing their arms and suddenly rising into the air. “This way, dear “angel”. Let's fight outside of the village’s radius!”

“Wait!” Shouted Ciro, who spread their wings and dove upwards into the air following Angus.

Ciro withdrew their bow and Angus revealed piercing claws, both in the air, a couple feet from each other.

“Well then, for this last battle, you can count down.” Says Angus, slyly grinning at Ciro.

“...Alright. Once you lose, I'll give you the honor of leaving instead of being captured. And if you don’t I will make you. All of this today has been a complete stretch.” Ciro spoke, glaring at Angus and preparing their bow.

“Ooh, why, you're so magnanimous, our dear angel! And yet so bold. Sure then! We’ll see the outcome.”

“3..2..1..!”

Ciro and Angus’s battle had begun.

From up above, barrages of arrows and the motion of swiping claws can be seen, yet it was too fast to actually understand what was happening.

A few minutes have gone by, and both Ciro and Angus separated from their duel, a wide range of space between them as they caught their breath, the ombre of an orange and red sunset encapsulating them.

Ciro had only tiny scratches, as Angus was bleeding from parts of their arm and torso made from arrows that flew by, but never actually got hit by one.

It seemed to be quite a fair duel, yet a clear victor among them.

That was, until a cannonball was fired from below, aiming at Ciro.

Ciro quickly turned and managed to dodge it, but just as they did, Angus used that time to claw Ciro's face, and knocked Ciro using a kick with all Angus’s might down, to the village below crashing against a fruit stand.

“What happened?” Asks Angus as they repeatedly claw at the defenseless Ciro, still bleeding from their face.

Ciro grunted in pain, as they were pushed again and flew back onto the wall of a cottage which shook it entirely.

“What's wrong, dear “angel”? Can’t speak? Does it hurt that bad? Well, I'm sure we can see who the clear victor is now, right? Lock that fraud of an angel up!” Angus said, raising their hand in triumph, blood on their claw from the barrage trickling down.

The people of the village were stunned and quiet. But shortly, a clap was heard. Then another. Then another, and everyone, once again cheered, as it was now clear to them who their fierce angel truly was.

Ciro, still bleeding and in pain, shakingly rose up, and watched how everyone clapped, and clapped for Ciro’s very own fraud.

Then, some people with chains and bats started running up to Ciro in anger. “You're a liar!” They called out. “Get them!”

Ciro, dazed by what was happening and shocked by all the yelling and shouting that was coming after them, immediately rose up into the air and tried to fly away.

But before they could get far, they felt like something had teared off from them. Ciro tremblingly turned their head to their side and realized one of their wings was ripped off, and they crashed back down into the village.

Ciro, devastatingly in pain had pulled out their bow and was ready to face Angus again, fleeing for the time being or fighting was a choice, but backing down certainly wasn't.

As Ciro turned around, they heard the angry shouts now turned into ones of cries. Ciro's eyes widened to the scene before them.

There, up in the sky, vast amounts of entities were coming from the massive fracture in the sky that was barely so visible before, and so many were crashing and gliding down into the village or dispersing into other places of the world.

The sky was polluted with entities, and the village was polluted with chaos, and the wounded Ciro could only watch, as there were far too many to even be a threat to the violent beings.

Angus slowly emerged back down from the sky in front of Ciro, laughing at the sight of them.

“While I kept you distracted with the challenges, that fracture that I ripped into the atmosphere and crashed down from was growing larger just so they could enter in.” Says Angus cheerfully. “Many beings have wanted to infiltrate this world for so long, but you chased and fought them all away, haven’t you, dear angel? Well take a look around now. This is finally ours! Oh, and shout out to the cannonball user, they snuck in after I fell and you didn’t notice a thing because you were so concerned about me. Hahaha…”

Angus takes a couple steps closer and looks down at Ciro, who is avoiding their glance.

“Well anyway, you’ve spent all this time so lonely, right? I mean seriously, looking after humans day and night… But you have a ton of company now. Will you graciously join us and be spared, dear angel?”

Ciro shuts their eyes tightly for a moment.

Then finally, looks up at Angus, fiercely in their eyes.

“No.” Speaks Ciro weakly. “I've been entrusted to this world by a deity greater than you and I, a very long time ago. I've fulfilled my duty to the lands of this world, and so you all will soon perish as well.”

“..Hahaha.. Foolish angel” Angus giggles.

“Sure.. whatever you say. Suit yourself then..” Angus mutters, now raising their claws at the frail, wounded angel.

Ciro, defeated, takes one final glance at the havoc around them before their execution, centuries of effort and dedication deceased. Now, they could only kneel solemnly but in misery. The blessing of eternal peace diminished, and the world in pure chaos, a cataclysmic curse.