In a distant location beyond time and space, beyond all known universes, was a place that had been filled with darkness for an inestimable amount of time, a length of time so distant or could as well be called forever.
Recently in this place beyond time, there have been changes. Light had begun to appear in the darkness, at first there was one of such glow, then three, then a hundred, and now there were thousands.
This event was causing the darkness inside this place to shift as it was beginning to be slowly broken, yet this space was so vast, that you could fit thousands of universes inside it and it would not even fill up a fraction of its size, so this light was still lost in the darkness.
Every time Rowan awakened an Angel, a bright sun would be ignited inside this place, and slowly the light from so many new suns was beginning to disturb a delicate balance that had existed here for so long.
From all the new suns that were burning inside the darkness, four of them were especially bright, and the intensity of the light began to increase dramatically until something inside the darkness began to stir. It was incredibly distant from that location, and what could reach this entity could barely be referred to as a sensation, nonetheless, it was beginning to wake.
However as the light from the four suns increased to a feverish intensity, it simply vanished. The entity that was stirring in the darkness settled back into slumber.
It was unknown if this was the result of Rowan's growing luck or by pure chance that he managed to escape a disaster.
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Rowan eyes widened in awe. These four suns that appeared in his Mental Space were not projections, they were real, their light and heat were astonishing and with his connection to them, he understood that these were the heart of an Angel, the source of their strength and the seat of their power, and they would exist as long as this sun kept burning.
Their sizes were smaller than he had expected, with each of them being only a thousand miles in diameter, and the light from them was not just white but mixed with a golden hue.
Rowan felt a tremor in all of his consciousness, as a deeper connection between him and the mature Angel was created. The four suns began to drift apart as they escaped into the distant regions of his Mental Space, carried by invisible currents of Aether.
Rowan watched them sail away, and he smiled as an epiphany came to him. He looked at the Primordial Sea of darkness below and the sailing suns above and they reminded him of the creation of a universe. Yet this one was also different in a manner. The knowledge of that difference was at the edge of his memory but he could not touch it.
The four mature angels appeared before him and they went on one knee, their forms were bigger, Suriel and Erudiel stood at fourteen feet tall, and Nezrakim and Dora at thirteen and a half. Their wings were folded behind them, and the armor was retracted, leaving them with only a white strip of clothes around their bodies.
Each of the four angels was perfect in their form as every single inch of their bodies had the perfect proportion without any single defect, their eyes burned like flames and the hair on their heads was as white as snow, even their lashes were white.
Unlike the Sovereigns who had not merged with any mortal, Dora and Nezrakim was shaking with barely disguised happiness, as the thought of being one of the first to become an Archangel had driven their minds to the edges of bliss and beyond.
The thought that they could serve their Creator in a more direct manner made their angelic hearts beat a thousand times a minute, and it was an intense struggle for them to maintain decorum.
Rowan felt a tremendous sense of happiness and fulfillment, it was like seeing your child grow up, with the connection of their suns being placed inside his Mental Space, a love for these Angels before him bloomed.
They were no longer just a disposable part of him, now they were almost like his children, in the real sense of that word.
"Rise," Rowan said and they rose, "Pick out the side of you that was lost, and Ascend, my beloved children."
The four Angels rose and spread their wings wide, from behind, four armored figures came out from the two thousand newly awakened Angels and floated to the four hovering Angels, their Armor was stripped away and their appearance was revealed to be very similar, almost identical to the matured Angels except for the fact that they were smaller.
They floated up to their respective partners and their bodies began to collapse into flames and light that were shot into the eyes, nose, and mouth of the matured Angels.
The flames they transformed into seemed unending and poured into the bodies of their matured selves, and it almost seemed as if they were inhaling an entire star.
Rowan was keen to observe this process, as he merged his senses with the Angels so he could deeply understand everything going on inside their bodies.
Inside the bodies of the Angels, great changes were happening. If their bodies were previously filled with blank spaces, now that space was being quickly occupied and perfected.
Trillions of cells were separating and merging in trillions of different configurations as every part of the Angel was fundamentally transforming. The rush of flames ended and the Angels floated in the air with their eyes closed. The flames were gone and the Angels that were just created had disappeared.
They had appeared for a brief moment and now they were gone, the true purpose of their existence was fulfilled, and the merger with their matured bodies was a mysterious phenomenon, as it was simultaneously a merger of bodies and also a sacrifice.
Everything was silent for a few moments when suddenly the wings on the backs of the Ascending Angels simultaneously spread out and wrapped around themselves. Covering their bodies entirely, in a few short moments another set of wings emerged from behind them and covered them also. Once again the Mental Space fell into silence.
