Several people had gathered in the middle of the street. There were three conspicuous people on the spot, and the rest were nothing more than obscure figures. Those were a girl—Reine, and two men who were Marquise and his friend. Of course, the sound of their voices chatting with each other reverberated throughout the air.

“Oi, oi, seriously? Fine.”

“Well, I’ll help you then.”

“Everybody, listen! I brought a new friend to join with us.”

Marquise said to him and attracted the attention of the others. Yet, they didn’t seem to care, except one person among them. Henceforth, the man beside Marquise introduced himself:

“...Crowley here. Looking forward to work with you guys.”

“Well, welcome.”

The exception among those guys that didn’t care about him answered as he drew a grin on his face. This man had a dark skin, bald, and grotesquely high. Even though not as muscular as Marquise, he was quite the terrifying among them.

People call him Matthew, and in fact, he was Reine’s friend as well as another member of Schtarz. He had mastered many techniques that surpass humans’ understanding, and because of that, people also call him:

“...King of Salt. Nice to meet you.”

“...”

Crowley left no word after that, and it was the time for Marquise to continue. In contrast, Marquise had a cheerful look on his face today as he shrugged his shoulders. He heaved a sigh and clenched his fist before starting. As everyone there noticed his manners right now, they turned their attention to him.

“Alright, this will be fun. Last night, I dreamt about randomly challenging a great figure of this world. And coincidentally, that was Ignatius, the seventh. Even though I never have such achievement to challenge such person, it mayhaps worth a try.”

And then, Reine talked to him.

"So, we gonna defeat him?"

"Probably like that. But, we must be wary, just in case the others will come to help. Or something unexpected happen. We must be ready."

Not yet finished, he continued. "If we succeed, we could take the advantage of being overseer in this chaos. Oh, after all the seventh is one.”

“W-wait, you mean the seventh place in the pantheon?! Seriously?”

“If that’s so, then I won’t. When it comes to Pantheon, I won’t do anything with them. Sorry.”

Matthew asked in surprise, suddenly changed his expression drastically as Marquise answered, heaved out a sigh.

“It’s fine. I see not anyone of you want to participate this. Then, three of us will do it.”

“Hehe, this is way more challenging now.”

Reine said in great gravitas, and she hinted a joyous smile out of her face. Maybe, to bring down even a mere single person that of a pantheon was a very experience. She had trained much more than before, now she could master more techniques, utterly said surpassing Marquise’s...

On the other hand, nothing could be hinted out from the expressionless Crowley. Now, he was polishing his swords, and put it back behind his shoulders. The radiance of the sword will blind forth the enemies, and the keenness of the sword could silently tear down the enemies to nothingness, erased them even from the very core of the world. Probably, that’s why he kept it clean and keener.

“I swear I can do this well...”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

On top of several electric poles, myriads of birds converged in line as if the street below them was an opera stage. Those birds emanated a dark, deep aura of misfortune as they flutter their wings. Exactly, those were the crow, and those were rather familiars’ or some sorts.

Come, my crow demon.

In a sudden, inside their minds spoke a deep voice of a man. It apparently changed their instincts, perhaps it was their master’s voice that ordered them to flew away. As they already left those electric poles, they converged again on atop of a building, and shaped a figure of men.

He stretched out his hand. Inside it, appeared a long-shaped shadow out of nowhere, formed into a japanese sword. With his modern special intelligent outfit right now, his sword was completely out of the place.

“Aah. Splendid.” He murmured as he looked upon it, even though an eyepatch covered his eyes.

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That man in hair’s breadth spotted Marquise’s party location, as he didn’t gaze around at first. As if he didn’t send anything there at the first place. Suddenly, he recalled something as he gazed more thoroughly towards Marquise —

“Ahhhh...the day when first time I see your face. Marquise, son of Raphael. I admire you. Yet, you have turned out to be my enemy now. I, Jules Schweinorg must add you in killing list.”

Actually, what happened within them? Why are they fighting in the first place? And why did Jules want to revenge? Who was Jules actually?

Eons of years ago, a certain hero from a distant land on the Far East has summoned as a hero by someone. The man, he was devoid of special characteristics. In that case, why was he summoned?

A crow demon, the icon of misfortune, was hiding behind his sword’s presence. As he made a contract with the Demon, his abilities abruptly raised, far surpassed that of mortals. It could even slay such beings as gods and immortals. As expected of an angel, the summoner has already known about it. Because of that, he sent that hero to battle countless beings in the Universe as if an experiment. And that time has come —

— He must face the Thunder Emperor. One of the strongest beings in the entire existence. That was all because of the hero’s immense power. However, he had reached his limit. He died as the crow demon within him flew for thousands of millenias. Before his death, he was impaled by electric spears. At that moment, his hatred towards the angel started to leak from his very heart.

He realized; he shouldn’t have made a contract with the wicked angel in the first place. In responsibility, he wouldn’t remain silent and wait for the afterlife. Instead, he chose to live again in the future. Thanks to that, it made the hero reincarnated, brought him the name of “Jules Schweinorg”.

Back at the roof, Jules bursted out laughter as fell from the building afterwards.

“Hehe...Hahahahaha...”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

On the other side, Marquise looked on the buildings around him, as Jules jumped down. Noticed, Marquise hinted a command to the two and momentarily leapt to the air as he chased the figure of Jules. The surrounding land shattered as Marquise’s leg pushed the asphalt.

“Oh ho, so it was you, Jules?”

Following him were the two, they also leapt to the air as they prepared their gears. A pair of painted pistols projected in Reine’s hand and Kunais suddenly appeared between Crowley’s fingers.

Jules, on the other hand, he was still mid-air. He held his sword, uttering some unknown words that was most likely a spell. As his head was nearby the ground, Crowley somehow appeared behind him. On his face was a scheming grin and —

“Haa!”

It has already begun. The Purity and The Impurity cried in unison, clashed their swords one after another. Crowley tried to defend himself by his twin swords as Jules suddenly pushed the ground, made an acrobatic move and tried to cut him from above.

“This isn’t enough yet! ____________!”

Crowley uttered an unknown word, as suddenly several kunais came above Jules’ head. Yet, Jules without getting distracted in slightest cut those kunais off with a blinding speed. Crowley himself couldn’t perceive even a bit of his movement.

In fact, that was neither ability nor a magic. Was that a tool which helped him? No, his speed had already exceeded billionth — trillion times faster that of his enemies. Even at the moment Crowley created his own concept of speed and distance, however, Jules can always reach it with ease.

In a tick of time for Crowley, Jules threw his sword to the air, suddenly gave a shocking movement to Crowley. The result, it sent Crowley flung backwards as both of his swords fell to the ground. Likewise, it caused walls behind him shatter into pieces.

Crowley landed on top of a car, remade his stance as he readied his swords once again. He spit out and unveil his jacket from his body. A soothing red blood leaked out from his very mouth. He scowled, as a thought suddenly spoken into him.

“Hmph. I don’t even know your name, but you’re truly impressive.”

Crowley threw dozens of shurikens as if was a blazing, flying iron petals towards the air before him. Jules, from afar, had anticipated the movement. He would take the advantage of that defenseless Crowley who threw those petals to nowhere. In a split second, Jules ran off before him as his sword suddenly emanated an ominous aura — exhibited a darkness that of a crow's feathers —

"I'm looking forward to this moment! Time to unleash my power...Karasu-Tengu/Hand of Crow Demon!”

Jules made out a slash to the air. A shadow had unleashed out from the sword, it made a shape of a blazing crow. As if a phoenix, it flew quickly and in hair’s breadth, it entered Crowley’s field of view and it did eventually hit him.

“Gyaah!”

It didn’t give any impact to him, so he could change to offensive. At first, he leapt high to the building before him, as something suddenly —

“Augh!”

— hit him. It was a misfortune power that let him punched by that wrecking ball, flying to the blue skies, as Jules momentarily slashed the air. It was a mere single strike, however,

“You are done with me, knave! Weaklings like you are a fucking jester in my face.”

From the very sheath of his sword, he pulled it quickly as it slashed towards Crowley’s head from afar. Its’ shockwave with the speed that of him before —bested his enemies' eons of times faster — tore the skies apart, and opened the gate of the Crow void. Before that, it had already brought a great impact to the surrounding world.

That slash wiped out the moon, the sun, the surrounding planets —even almost the entire universe — without any traces left in this world. Only the town remains in this catastrophe, and it was before the tore gave an impact.

Next after it destroyed the surrounding universe, the hole started to suck everything in its’ stead without any process — it sucked infinite multiverses —or even the infinite layers with each size infinitely surpassed that of multiverses —as it left nothing behind.

The space had already turned blank now.

Now, it had left Jules alone.

Inside his very heart, a soothing—perhaps a calming jubilation— came to embrace him. A smile had crawled on his face. He might think that everyone couldn't survive that tremendous attack, including Reine, and Crowley, who had already been permanently from the world. Furthermore, no one will defeat him. In actuality, he didn't think about it even the slightest, because he never wanted to underestimate his enemies. In his eyes, it was all a mere warming up, and he said more of this fact:

"To think of it, it was all nothing compared to my fight with the thunder emperor. Mayhaps, that mongrel was my opening banquet. But if they turned out to be alive and become far stronger than I expected..."

He abruptly closed his mouth, as he somehow walked casually inside that blank, starless space without any stop—

—until he was arrived at a certain land.