Back when Raven was trying to keep her alive, Uriel kept on muttering those very same words…

‘No way, could it be…?’

“Uriel!” Raven gritted her teeth and yelled loudly. “Look at me! I don’t have time for your breakdowns!”

Upon hearing her voice, Uriel… didn’t react.

Seeing that, Raven urged her skill: Soul Reaper, and pushed her control over Uriel’s soul, causing the latter to shiver even more severely.

Finally, Uriel looked up as she continued to cover glass-like body. However, once her chestnut brown eyes met Raven’s golden ones, it seemed as though she had seen her most terrifying nightmare. 

Instinctively, she opened her mouth like she wanted to scream as loud as she could, however, nothing left her lips..

Raven herself was slightly startled. Thinking that something very terrifying had appeared behind her, she quickly spinned and observed the area around and behind her.

“There is nothing but me and you…” she slowly concluded. “Why are you acting like this? Am I this horrifying in this form? But you look the same…

“Ugh, whatever. Listen, I’m not here to harm you,” Raven emphasized, trying to connect with her and knock her out of her terrible state. 

To her words, Uriel’s expression… still didn’t change. This obviously caused Raven to get impatient.

“I’m not here to harm you, why are you scared of me? Did I even hurt you? You were the one who tortured me, you b*tch!” Raven finally yelled in anger.

This surprisingly, or maybe not so, caused Uriel to regain her movements and start crawling backwards.

“Scary! Scary! Stay away! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!” Disorganized and short sentences started escaping her trembling lips.

“What the heck?” Raven did not understand the reason behind Uriel’s reaction which only made her lose the last bit of patience she had. “Is my soul so scary? Am I scary? Who’s scary? Ugh!”

Having had enough, Raven didn’t allow Uriel who was crawling away on all four as fast as she could to get any further from her.

With a thought, she pressed her skill further and heightened the pressure. Extending her hand forward, she tried to catch Uriel and force her to stop.

However, just as she was about to come into contact with her, a translucent barrier suddenly surrounded Uriel’s fragile soul. 

On top of this barrier, a young version of herself was standing expressionlessly.

Moments passed before the young Uriel blocked twice, as if regaining her awareness, and looked at Raven with wide eyes in a sign of recognition.

“Oh, kind lady!” The young Uriel said with a forced smile and a grimace, as if she was in deep pain. “I know that I said I’d help, but please don’t hurt me… it hurts so much… I don’t think that I can bear it…”

“Ah-” this sound was all Raven could make as understanding dawned on her. 

‘So, after experiencing her near-death, or rather actual death, Uriel got trapped inside this barrier which only allowed her to regain some of basic memories. 

‘And this new version of her who knows nothing about her old self, is this young girl.

‘With that being said, it seems that the other memories are still there, unscathed, but it’s just that she has lost the connection with them…’

“Please?” The young Uriel interrupted Raven’s thoughts.

Hearing her, Raven quickly stopped pressing her skill which caused the pressure to significantly subdue, causing the young Uriel to show an expression of relief.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t of help…” the young one replied.

“No, you’ve actually helped me without realizing…” Raven shook her head. “Well, um, kind of… I still need you to do me a favour.”

“If it’s something that I can do, then for sure!” She said enthusiastically.

“Can you wake her up?” Raven asked with a serious expression.

“Eh? I am not sure that I can…” looking at her older self, the young Uriel could only shake her head as she shivered at her horrible state.

“Hm, then I’ll have to destroy you…” Raven said.

“Excuse me…?” The young girl swallowed loudly. “You want to destroy me? But- I… I really can’t help it. 

“Without destroying this translucent barrier, she won’t wake up. And, I can’t destroy it, if I do, I’ll die… After all, I am this barrier…”

Narrowing her eyes, Raven gritted her teeth. “Well, that doesn’t really matter to me. If you die, then you die…”

Hearing those words, the young Uriel started to shake subtly, in fear. 

The moment Raven’s eyes glowed in their bright golden hue, as she started activating her Soul skill, the young girl’s expression suddenly changed into obvious horror.

Somehow, she managed to adopt the same expression that had appeared on her oldest self before.

Seeing the little girl looking up at her in such a fearful expression, Raven could only get her teeth and relax her aura. 

‘So weak, damn it!’ she scolded herself while averting her gaze away from the little Uriel. ‘She is my enemy, why can’t I- wait…

*Sigh* 

‘The little one is not really my enemy, and with that tiny face of hers, I really don’t think I can help it…’

“Ugh, listen little one, I won’t kill you, but you need to help me,” Raven touched the girl’s head, which prompted her to almost recoil backwards out of fear.

Seeing that, Raven could only shake her head and bite her lower lip. “Don’t give me that look, I’m not a monster! But I’m warning you, if you don’t help me then -although I don’t like it- I will have to kill you. Do you understand?”

Hearing her, little Uriel could only look up at her weakly. The moment she did however, her eyes quickly looked back down at her feet as she hugged herself.

‘Behind her… is that the kind lady’s true form? So scary… I can’t even make eye contact with her…’ Muttering to herself, she seemed to be able to see something that Raven was not able to.

“I said: do you understand?” Raven emphasized.

“Y- yes!” Young Uriel quickly stiffened and said. “Please let me know what you need my help with”.

“Uhm, I need you to look into Uriel’s memories and tell me whatever secrets you have on Michael, the head of the Four Seraphim of the End.”

“I- I will try,” the little one said with quivering lips. In her heart, she knew that this task may damage her constitution, but if she did not do it, she was risking her own complete destruction.

Painfully, she separated a part of herself to look through the memories as ordered. And as she was immersed in this task, time slowly passed by.

Throughout the passing of seconds, minutes, and hours, Raven didn’t have any obvious changes in her expression. That is until, one moment, the young Uriel found something…

***

“Hm, it seems that whatever your final trick is, it’s not a bad one,” Maya said to Michael who was sitting not far away from her. “I can see that your mama levels are being replenished at a fast speed…”

“Ahahahaha, this is simply nothing to what’s going to happen soon,” Michael let out a mad chuckle. “You just wait and watch, your death won’t be too far…”

“Huh, funny you say that-” cutting herself short, Maya suddenly disappeared from her spot as she unleashed a powerful mana blast that was aimed towards Michael’s face.

Grinning, the latter avoided it in a ghost-like manner as he disappeared without revealing his presence, and then simply reappeared somewhere far away from the attack.

To his surprise however, Maya’s attack didn’t simply miss its target, but instead followed behind with determination.

“Oh, a new useless trick that won’t help you?” Michael asked as he watched the attack heading towards him yet once again.

Narrowing his eyes, he calmly raised his hand and clenched his open palm into a fist.

With his simple move, the mana all around him moved and hugged the incoming attack tightly. Instead of a grand explosion, it seemed as though Maya’s attack simply got extinguished like a weak candle light.

“Did you see what you account for?” Michael said proudly. “Nothing-huh?”

Michael was quite occupied with the attack, it seems, that he hadn’t first realized how silent the place had become.

Looking around suspiciously, scanning everywhere, his grin dropped quickly as his pride turned into pure anger and hatred. “You dare deceive me!??”

Yelling as loud as he could, Michael was left with a pale face as his white blood rushed through his veins.

He could not believe that his opponent had just left him with a pathetic distraction and rushed away.

“Whatever, although you’ve hidden your aura quite well, I know your destination!” He said angrily as he charged somewhere into the distance. 

Although he hasn’t fully finished his recovery, nor did he undergo the ‘change’ he needed to, he could not let Maya get away from his clutches. 

Otherwise, it would be hard to catch her again. And that, he needed to do!