--A narrow.

It was kind of similar to before, stone made out the streets.

Pitter-patters of water from somewhere.

But it was somehow contradicting,

.

Distinctive from before, it was said you won't go to another place. Never.

You won't find a road, garden, or something else.

It was more like--an absurd cluster of a complicated labyrinth of narrows that the sheer stone brick buildings acted as a wall.

What thing that made this more absurd was,

You could see the plain blue sky. It was merely the colors of a blue sky--No, not the sky.

You could barely see the very top of the building.

But if you tried, attempted to reach it, you won't go up there.

It will extend from your very eyes, it will go further and further away, higher and higher...

...Likewise, it was as you put the biggest number according to you.

There were always bigger, higher extensions of it that were unreachable to you.

And there walked a man in black.

However, his hair was an exception.

It was short and barely white--no it was uneven to be white, but nearby to be grey, which was most likely whitening.

There seemed to be strong pressure from him, yet it was unseen.

But still, it could be felt right away.

That man was none either than Ruel himself, based on the characteristics

He seemed to be walking serenely.

Casual, as if there was no haste of something.

But in fact, he was in a very urge.

He just never thought rashly and in a hurry.

Abruptly, from his hair, a pair of eyes were glowing dark purple

The glow itself wasn't even that bright, but either way, it was visible

It seemed he had sensed something.

It was the presence of something ominous, maybe.

Behind him, a shadow emerged on the stone streets

It quickly went unfolded longer and longer, until it reached his body.

But, it wasn't showing any signs of fear, he just sighed.

"I see."

He said as he sighed calmly.

-------------------------------------------------

On the rooftop, it seemed their conversation had been done just a minute.

But it was a bit strange,

They were supposed to be together at that time.

Now on the rooftop, stood there only Nami and Endou

Also, a long-haired figure was none other Hiruko.

He just leaned on the black fence with glass.

And he suddenly moved to another place.

Not knowing what did he do,

He just moved onto that place,

Faster than the tick of the hour hand.

A park.

Even though it was currently morning,

The sky was dark like it was a dreary night.

And the lamps weren't lit up the park.

It made that place more dreary.

Through the deep, dark park,

He walked casually with no fear nonetheless

As if--no--he knew what was it from the beginning

He knew something that made this odd.

"...Hehehe...A drip of the void, huh?"

Said he as he laughed silently.

His hair then fluttered by the breeze, it was long and black.

He lit up his smoke, put it onto his lips.

Soon the emerging fire from the smoke gradually became a light,

It went brighter and brighter as it lit up the entire garden.

Actually, it was caused by a rune.

A magical arcane rune.

Back when he inhaled smoke, the dust apparently formed a rune.

It was inscribed in a shape of six lines which formed some three mountains

Also, a line below it.

...He activated the curse--no the catalyst of the miracle

Words that lit that up onto a miracle,

From his deep heart.

He chanted.

Sol--contritione pervalida et splendorem tuum, in terramSun--let thy brighten this land

He continued...

...sit tua firefly fac hoc, terra sancti...let the fireflies brought upon its holiness

He finished.

It was a chant.

It was some flooding words of a chant.

Come to think of it, if we dive deeper...

If we know what's inside that 'mere chant'...

...It was one of many forms of old magic, could be said as the one of the ancient magic that was made up by those gods.

...If that just so-called void didn't appear,

He won't need to spit those words, even from his heart.

But, because of that...

...He got some sorts of protection from that chant

And it helped him to discern more in that void he didn't suppose to know

...As well as to unravel things behind the dark curtains.

Suddenly, he realized.

No, it was from the start.

He realized if he wasn't alone right here.

He sensed some multiple presences.

And absurdly, he had already known of it.

At the park's other side sat a man down on the stone,

Instead of the bench that was nearby him, he absurdly sat on the rock on its left.

And he also sat in a weird position.

It wasn't a prevalent way to sit so.

From that side, he could discern Hiruko walked slowly from a distance, due the stone was quite immense.

And Hiruko, he turned his gaze around, and accidentally it went onto David's direction.

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Afterward, David went back to focusing on his light meal as it was appeared out of the blue.

It was a small bag of potato chips.

And it had been opened on the top as if something sliced the top entirely

He took a single piece of it

And he took a bit of that single chip...

...Suddenly, Hiruko appeared before him and stood before the nearby bench.

"Ho...So you are currently here. I see." Said Hiruko to him.

"Yes, what's wrong with that?" David sounded impertinent as he ate up his chips

"Oh, it was about before. You. I want to ask you. Lately, I felt something from you. And from those details from your

bar table case whatsoever, I also sensed something there..."

"...You are the one who embezzled those things, aren't you?" his tone sounded higher, quite unlikely normal.

A meek cackle that went louder was bursting out from him, but that mere cackle gave the more impertinent to the atmosphere around. "Yes, after all, it was me. And it was also for his sake. I just wanted to surprise him."

"...I see, then--"

Not yet finished, suddenly a young woman appeared before the two.

She was worth as a teenager girl, which her long, blood-red hair fluttered by that so-called void winds.

Her red eyes were staring bluntly onto them.

She was utterly Reine, the girl before from the Arcane.

Distinctive from usual, she seemed to be so casual by now.

Currently, she wore nothing fancy nor weird but a simple white dress.

And there was only a black handbag on her shoulder.

In order not to perform some rash acts, they put the girl above things that were recently happened.

They turned their sight upon that girl.

"...As I thought..." Hiruko's thoughts were resounding in his mind.

His mind now was continued to whispering his thoughts thoroughly.

His gaze went back on David, yet himself was flung back to the garden's pathway, as he was seemingly wary of her.

And then he put his stance, yet it was uneven to be called the right way of how to perform a stance.

And he gave Hiruko some sorts of signal,

Even though it was barely meaningless,

and Hiruko himself was seemingly retreating from that place,

Hiruko managed to grasp that meaning.

Because after all, he had known many.

'...Goddammit, what should I do?!"

That was one meaning of those so-called signals that David give up on him.

'...Ee shan't speak so loud, 'ee twit!'

Also, this was another meaning of the signal.

Though those signals meaning had reached him, he was merely stretching his mouth's edges, which revealed his jaws. When people saw it, they were a bit frightened to see such things so.

And then, his eyebrows were changing a bit. Now, his expression went smug by his intention to be a signal for David.

'Hehehehe...'

'...You got balls,'

Those were meanings that David received. Without further, he let out his sigh, and his expression was seemingly worsened.

That did indirectly give a signal to Hiruko.

'...Fine. I'll do it. After all it was for him.'

Hiruko casually walked away from them,

And now, the other two walked to each other as they were also talking about some things.

"You..." Reine was also a bit frightened upon gazing at him.

Her expression by now was likely having a drastic change from before. Following her opened mouth, her pair of thick eyebrows also frowned.

She was already wary and ascended her guard, despite without equipment.

But before that, she asked first.

She won't be fooled by his appearance.

If some discerning people had come to the case now, they would like to ask--or even they would settle this with words, not with guards whatsoever.

"Are you...It seemed I had met you somewhere before--"

"--" Silence descended from David, gave the atmosphere to be more dreary.

But it didn't stop her ask more--

To ask once again, at least.

"...Is that you? The man who nearly killed me?"

This time, David gave his answer to her by grinning indirectly at her.

"--Yes. It was me. The man that you seek."

He said that utterly with no second thought at all.

However, in truth, he had known of someone who Reine used to encounter.

Still, apparently he didn't even care of what happened next,

While Reine frightened, utterly lost her composure upon hearing those,

Her eyes were glowing ruby as it lit up her entire face--like a fear-inducing laser that strikes through its very enemy.

As her verity of beautiful long red hair now overflowed backward as if it was a reversing-flow river of blood.

She frighteningly said if 'If you said so' or something sorts.

Alas, in front of her gaze suddenly appeared silverware.

It was close to being said as a knife, rather than a fork.

For time being, she had discerned the knife. It was no different than the ordinary one in her discernment.

But, as she also had been wary of invisible threats,

Such as she had already known there was a tip of poison on its' end.

As she was trying to react with it swiftly, it still moved faster than she could perceive.

Faster than she could comprehend.

Even faster than the flow of time itself.

...

And fortune tampered out of the blue for her.

No, in truth, she wasn't lucky at all, but it was David's sort of foolishness.

After all, he couldn't throw things perfectly with his own.

In other words, he couldn't do it naturally

...

That was just absurd.

Because after all, it didn't seem and sounded like him.

Moreover, what things made it more absurd was just for now.

His thrown silverware then landed on the sidewalk, and it caused some sorts of small fireworks on it.

Reine was a bit laughed upon seeing this, but it also seemed that she had no time to do so.

She snapped back onto her very reality, where she was again rained upon by those multiple silverwares.

Same as before, it moved faster than her, and each of them was outstripping the flow of time.

But none of it was happened to hit her, it was missed and even caused slight damage in the entire park instead.

She seemed to dodge it all by doing some acrobats, like handspring and roll.

But supposedly, at any rate, those weapons should accurately hit her--she was supposed to die.

Or at the very least she had some lethal wounds that were barely impossible to heal.

Well, the truth said it normally could blink someone from existence permanently, as well as the non-existence itself.

Away, didn't come back.

Higher mortals have also had the same impact, but it just had a vaguely smaller chance.

It was as if reality said "No" when it reached those ends of her body, either way.

But it was all again, started by a mere rune.

Seemed there was a rune left on her body,

It didn't have an obvious shape, or there was no valid information concerning so, but it also had an impact on its

user or her enemy.

People called it The Red Arcane.

Actually, it was just one of many.

In other words, Red Arcane was more than one--even it was countless.

This one had some power to bring misfortune to the enemy, even so, it was later worked at the end.

It didn't change the fact from the start, but--

--Its end led him to misfortune or foolishness.

For simple, your starting line won't change, but your finish line said your resolve led to misfortune because so.

Now, David had figured how things work.

But he did not change into another technique but keep fighting with that more and more of his silverware.

He then cast barrier magic on the knife--it was more than a barrier.

It also enchanced its' attack.

--Suddenly, Reine emerged beside him,

Her hand then clenched, stretched out swiftly with a speed that said barely matched him, and at the end, when her fist barely touched his cheek, she spun it.

At first, David was still able to react by blocking her fists with silverware.

--Even though it had a tremendously massive power that was unthinkable by people.

In fact, it would crumble the infinite multiverses, as well as infinite dimensions that included every hierarchy, regardless of every infinite possibility and such.

Still, he managed to react at his same speed from before and block it barely casual, as if it absorbed the entire damage without any side effect.

Then, with his other hand, he attacked and blocked her again and again, but her punch gradually became stronger so he struggled harder to block those, even he barely dodged them at last,

repeatedly until she jumped and apparently perform her mid-air axe kick.

--But, it was a cheap trick.

She jumped again on her mid-air position, then she stretched out her hand.

Upon gazing up, he wickedly grinned.

"...Heheheh...Interesting..." said him.