She Belongs To The Devil

Ariel blinked her eyes several times so that she could see who was talking to her. She couldn't recognize who it was based on the voice of that man alone.

She opened her eyes to see an old man standing a little far away from her. But she knew that he wasn't an ordinary man right away. Ordinary men weren't capable of producing light from their bodies.

"Are you feeling okay, my child?" that man with grey hair and bear asked her in a worried voice.

Ariel felt around the place where she had a hole. Her stomach was already healed.

"I'm… okay!" Ariel replied in surprise.

She then instantly got up on her feet to see if Joyce was the one who had healed her. But she was still with Kenneth. She then checked for Damien. He was still lying down on the ground, a little further away from where she was at the moment.

"Everyone will be fine," that old man said to Ariel in a consoling voice when he saw how worried she was for everyone.

Ariel suddenly realized that no one around her was moving. She looked around again just to confirm that. And her eyes hadn't deceived her the first time. Even the flames of the torches weren't flickering at all.

Ariel now knew who the old man was.

"Grandpa?"

A subtle smile appeared on God's face. He took a step closer to Ariel and said, "I was worried that you wouldn't recognize me."

Ariel gave an awkward smile and pointed her palm around their surroundings. "I would be a fool not to recognize you after all this."

"Right." He laughed at how casually Ariel was talking to him. But he liked it considering how he had seen several futures where his granddaughter didn't talk to him at all.

God's laughter sounded really mellow. He looked like a really warm being who would never hurt a soul.

Ariel looked at her grandfather and thought how that kind-looking being could do things that made him hated by so many of her loved ones.

But at the moment, she was grateful towards him. She gave a gentle bow to her grandfather and humbly said, "I believe that you were the one to heal me, grandpa. I am really grateful towards you for healing me."

"Believe it or not," He took some more steps towards Ariel. "You are my beloved granddaughter. How could I let you fall into slumber when you are very dear to me?"

He stopped when he was standing right in front of her. And he held out his palm to reveal the necklace with a wing-shaped pendant. "I believe this is yours."

"Yes!" Ariel happily took the necklace from his hand and instantly took it closer to her lips.

But God stopped her before she could kiss it. "I don't think your father would be happy to see me here. Especially when everything is in disarray. He will immediately blame this all on me without giving me a chance to speak."

Ariel pursed her lips when she heard her grandfather. "You two don't see eye to eye, do you? Will it always be like this in the future as well?" she innocently asked.

God heaved a sigh and replied to that innocent girl, "I definitely hope that things won't always be as it is now. But I can't really blame your father for our estranged relationship. I hurt him. And a lot of my loved ones. It's hard to maintain a relationship when you have unlimited time on your hand. You are bound to quarrel one day or another."

"You are also bound to make amends one day or another. Isn't it so?" Ariel said with a hopeful smile.

And God gently caressed her hair and replied, "I sure hope so, child. I am currently trying to make amends with your grandma. She was really furious with me."

"Ah, right! Where is she?" She looked at her grandfather hoping he had some answers. "If it was any other day, she would have come to save me before things could have escalated to this point."

God gave a sad look to Ariel. He was feeling immensely guilty for what the Goddess had done. "Asherah abandoned her physical form and scattered herself around the universe so that I wouldn't be able to bring her home even if I wanted to."

Ariel kept on staring at God because even though he was speaking in the language she understood, she felt as though he was speaking in some ancient language that she didn't understand.

And seeing how dumbfounded Ariel was, God tried to explain in simpler terms. "Your grandmother and I are pure and raw energies of this universe. We stay in this physical form because it is easier this way. But your grandma got angry at me and she reverted back to her raw form. Now she became one with the universe."

"Wh-What? She became one with the universe?" Ariel was shocked to her core. "Does that mean… I will never see her again?"

"No, that's not how it works." God consolingly patted Ariel's shoulder and said, "You will definitely see her soon. I guess she will return when I will make things right up there in the Heaven realm."

"What's happening over there?" Ariel furrowed her brows and complained, "Uncle Michael tried to kill me and the others. Why was he behaving like that? Did I do something wrong to him? Am I not aware of something that angered him so badly?"

God was silent for a few seconds. And he answered her, "You did nothing wrong, my child. It's his soul that has started to corrupt. Maybe it's time that I punish him. I have been lenient for too long."

Ariel didn't try to stop her grandfather when he said that. She wanted Michael to get punished for almost killing the one who was very dear to her.

But she did plead for Tobias. "Grandpa, I think you already know this but… Tobias was forced to take part in whatever he did today. Uncle Michael was forcing him to attack me saying something about his mother. My cousin only pretended to attack me. Else he would have never done something like that to me. I am sure of it."

"I am aware, Ariel. I didn't intervene right away because I trusted him to make the right judgment. He did what he could." God calmly replied to Ariel. It looked like he truly wasn't angry with Tobias.

Before things got awkward again, God looked into those familiar pair of amber eyes. He lovingly patted Ariel on her head and said, "I wished to meet you in a quaint environment. But because of Michael, I had to see you now. I'm sorry that our first meeting was under such bad circumstances."

"It's okay, grandpa. I am glad that you came all the way here to save me. That's all that matters," Ariel replied with a smile of gratitude.

God admired how Ariel had grown up to be the exact copy of his imagination. She indeed was the epitome of perfection that he had hoped for.

He smiled and said to her, "We will meet again, Ariel."

God then snapped his fingers before disappearing in the blink of an eye.