System's POV

But as his search intensified, he came upon a blank portion of his memory.

Thirteen frowned when he remembered.

He had purposely deleted this particular memory from his Soul Core, for it had caused his system to become unstable in the past.

Although he couldn't remember who the singer was, his heart ached after hearing her voice.

This wasn't the first time Thirteen had deleted something from his Soul Core.

There were a few blank entries in his Soul Core.

Hosts whose faces and names he couldn't remember.

Their endings had been too tragic, and keeping them inside his Soul Core had caused him to malfunction several times.

So, with great regret and hardship, he decided to delete these memories.

Perhaps, after suffering so many heartbreaks, Thirteen finally reached his limit.

This was why he decided to rebel against Fate and the System God, for he couldn't take it any longer.

It was the most logical decision he had come up with at that time, which led to his confrontation with his father and creator, the System God.

At that moment, he felt something warm falling on the side of his face.

Thirteen knew what it was, and yet, he didn't do anything about it.

His heart ached for this particular memory he couldn't remember.

That voice and that face he had permanently removed from his life were trying to resurface after he had fallen deep inside his subconscious mind.

"In the sky I looked up to, snow lightly falls without making a sound."

"When it touches my trembling cheek, winter starts."

Thirteen felt his heart breaking apart, as he forcefully tried to reconstruct the bits and pieces of the memory that he had lost.

He wanted to remember.

He wanted to once again see her.

The song, which he had not heard for an extremely long time, continued to play, drawing out something from him that he didn't know existed.

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

"Your feathers shroud the world, and turn to snow.

"Whenever they warm someone up, I'll sing gently."

"Even if the future you wish for hurts someone, I'll believe in you, the featherless angel only I know."

From within that darkness, something stirred.

A faint pink thread rose up from the teenage boy's pinky finger and fluttered toward that darkness.

Within that darkness, a faint silhouette appeared—one that Thirteen tried hard to recognize but simply couldn't.

But even though he couldn't remember her, he knew with every fiber of his being that she was someone he truly cared for—so much so, he almost broke down when she met a tragic fate.

He also knew that the song that she had sung earlier was meant for him.

Thirteen was the featherless angel that only she knew.

As the fragmented pieces of his memory slowly whirred to life, he remembered that she had once been an angel who had fallen from the sky.

She was heaven's lost property, and yet, no one had come to bring her back home.

As such, she slowly became a fallen angel.

One that could fly but could no longer return to the place where she rightfully belonged.

"Who are you?!" Thirteen called out towards the darkness hoarsely. "Tell me who you are!"

The pink thread fluttered as it once again tried to piece together a memory.

But only the image of a string cut in half, fluttering in the wind, appeared within that darkness.

Of course, Thirteen wasn't a fool.

He was very smart.

His intelligence surpassed most beings in the multiverse.

How could he possibly not connect the dots?

But even if he knew that the memory he wanted to recall belonged to the same person who had bound herself to him recently, that still didn't answer his question.

What he wanted to know was who she was in her previous life.

The memories they shared.

The smiles, the tears, the trials, and the tribulations they faced together… he wanted them to return to him.

Back then, he couldn't accept these memories because they made him malfunction as a system.

But now, he was a human, or at least, had a human form and heart.

Using his standards, Thirteen didn't classify himself as 100% human.

His soul core was embedded in Zion Leventis' heart, allowing it to beat once more.

His blood was no longer that of a human from Pangea because the royal bloodline of Chandrea now flows inside his veins.

Technically, he was human.

But Thirteen knew he was similar to a chimera whose body was made up of different parts, functioning to create a being that wasn't "normal" by any human standards.

The angel once again sang the same song.

But this time, it had more feelings, soothing the teenage boy's heart, which was starting to ache for what he had lost over the past thousands of years.

It was like a spoken promise, telling him that perhaps he didn't need to look back in the past all the time.

Instead, he should look at the future and grasp it with his hands.

"Whenever they warm someone up, I'll sing gently."

"Even if the future you wish for hurts someone, I'll believe in you, the featherless angel only I know."

The silhouette of that fallen angel then hugged Thirteen, making him feel drowsy.

Soon, he once again fell into a dreamless sleep as his memories brought him back to the present, where he could shape his own destiny and free himself from the shackles of Fate.

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A/N: If you want to listen to the song, search for Bokuten Opening Movie on Youtube.

The lyrics fit this chapter perfectly, so I had to use it, despite knowing that the Copyright God would give me a yellow card xD! Anyway, have a good day everyone, and I'll see you in the next chapters!