As the figure known as Adam finally descended, Jack flashed a look towards his allies.

A forty thousand year-old woman once hailed as a goddess of the wind.

A trained assassin with a giant shield who lived inside him.

An invisible spirit of a tortured angry girl hatching a daring plot.

And a megalomaniac body snatching man who wore the guise of a person proclaiming to be his father.

All of this versus the being known as the first Awakened who even the mighty archangels feared.

Eyeing him, Adam looked like an ordinary man, yet to his angel vision, he was a black spot in the shape of a man.

An echo in the world, one that sent shivers down Jack's spine in a way he hadn't felt in a long time.

Fear?

Excitement?

Jack didn't recognize the emotion, all he knew was that his survival was in the balance.

Micheal was silent, no doubt contemplating on how he would sacrifice Jack and Sahaqiel. With his goal only a few feet away, all he'd have to do is reach the grey metal sphere.

Jack narrowed his eyes, feeling the Black King weaving mana around Jack.

It wasn't debilitating, nor did it seem like a prelude to an attack. However, Jack wasn't taking chances.

“Try it,” Jack said as he ordered Ruby to be on standby.

The archangel's eyes shifted between Jack and Adam, calculating the odds.

“You would do better to focus on Adam rather than me,” Micheal smiled before a blur appeared beside Jack.

“JACK!” Sahaqiel yelled, her warning too late as Jack's elevation changed.

Jack winced, suddenly bouncing off the ground with his body, an unwilling ragdoll that his assailant made into a club to hit the archangel Micheal in the back attempting to run.

The pair tumbled, separating as Jack's boot found Micheal’s chin and sent the archangel away from the grey metal sphere.

“Tch!” Micheal let out, rolling backwards and spinning to fire a beam of golden energy at the caustic wave of mana unleashed by Adam.

Sahaqiel took to the sky, unleashing an electric net at both Micheal and Adam as Jack opened fire with a gunblade.

Micheal backpedaled, taking control of Jack's bullets and arcing them around himself to strike at Adam who ignored the attack and turned his attention upwards to Sahaqiel.

He was gone.

Replaced instead by a boom with Sahaqiel finding herself planted into the ground.

“Sara!” Jack yelled as Micheal soared past.

Suddenly chains, black iron wielded by Ruby and amplified by Lilith that obstructed the archangel's path.

“Begone shadow,” Micheal spat, raising his hand to cut down the specter only for his attack to clang against her shield augmented by gehenna. “Hm?”

Caught off guard, Micheal retreated, evading and batting away the chains belonging to Lilith that supported Jack's shielder.

Meanwhile Sahaqiel was screaming, pulsating with lightning as she kicked at the man holding her with an indifferent expression.

“GET OFF OF HER!” Jack snapped, descending from above and slashing with his gunblade only for the blade of the weapon to shatter as Adam lifted his hand.

The man turned, black eyes now focused on Jack before a fist imprint appeared on Jack's chest armor.

“UhMP?!” Jack let out, flying backwards and into Ruby who caught him with her body.

With Jack and Ruby entwined, Micheal seized the opportunity to rush towards the Infinity Machine but Jack, bleeding profusely from his mouth reached out, throwing what few feathers he had at Micheal’s ankles that latched on with a crisp clasp.

The archangel looked down then back up at Jack with a brow raised.

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“Really?”

“Yeah!” Jack hissed as the silver feathers let off loud bursts of light from the flashbangs going off. To make them more effective, Jack empowered the skill, supercharging the flashbangs with as much mana as possible.

But Jack didn't stop there, he charged forward, using Ruby's shield as a springboard to tackle the archangel while activating mana release.

Micheal blinked and frowned, completely undisturbed by the detonations of mana and unmoved by Jack hugging his waist. “And what did you intend-”

Wide-eyed, the archangel realized too late what Jack was doing.

The sudden burst of explosive energy and Jack unleashing a gush of mana besides Micheal was more than enough to take Adam’s attention away from Sahaqiel.

Adam was beside them now, using Sahaqiel’s body as a weapon with her throat as his handle.

Jack ducked low, avoiding the impact of Sahaqiel hitting Micheal and delivered two jabs into Adam's face.

It didn't blink.

But upon Jack activating Gehenna the man took notice, spinning to face Jack and avoid the palm that reached out for his wrist.

Adam released Sahaqiel, instead targeting Jack directly.

“Oh fuck-” Jack said before a hand entered through his stomach.

Jack blinked once...tThen twice as Sahaqiel screamed his name.

“What… are you?” Adam said, his voice so cold against Jack's skin as his insides bled from his body. “So much pain. So much suffering… I see you.”

A storm began to brew, Sahaqiel summoning her bronze lightning bolt to smite the first Awakened.

“SAHAQIEL! STOP MICHEAL!” Jack roared, halting the Archangel in her tracks as Micheal smacked Ruby away.

Jack grabbed hold of Adam's arm, pulling himself closer as he dug his heels in to pin the man turning his attention towards Sahaqiel who had become the biggest source of mana.

At least until she threw her lightning bolt.

Micheal spun, catching the grandiose bolt of lightning with his hand and absorbing the energy with his own Gehenna before catching Sahaqiel's symbol.

“Sic em boi,” Jack hissed with Adam sliding his arm diagonally through Jack's body as if cutting a cake and rushing off to attack Michael.

[-355 HP]

[Warning! Fatal Damage!]

Jack fell, his eyes blinking repeatedly as he felt a sickness take root with an overwhelming urge to vomit.

Yet instead of bile, blood flowed, red ichor leaking from his wound and mouth from the severe damage of Adam's arm sliding out of his body.

“Jack!!!” Sahaqiel screamed, appearing beside Jack now struggling to hold his internal organs into his body.

“L-lilith. Lilith's at the…gh buy. Time!” Jack let out, struggling to communicate as his injuries refused to heal thanks to the corruption from Adam's arm eating away at his body.

“Jack! Jack! Stay with me!” Sahaqiel yelled, her voice seeming to echo in the space around him.

Laying in his own blood and staring into the white emptiness around him, Jack could feel the pull of the Infinity Machine.

A call like no other that sung to him a sweet melody of peace and harmony.

This wasn't Jack's first near death experience, but it was the first time he felt the pull of the Infinity Machine so strongly.

It whispered to him, a muffled chorus of thousands, no, billions of voices that invited him into the collective.

All that he was. All that he experienced. Every action and inaction. Jack could see his entire life passing by like a movie.

A movie that was being read by the Infinity Machine.

“Breathe! Just breathe Jack!” Sahaqiel said, her shaking hands coated in blood as Micheal fought off The Adam.

“Sarah… I'm tired…” Jack whispered, his vision darkening.

****

Deep within the object known as the Infinity Machine, Lilith stood frozen, unsure of what to do as Jack lay dying on the floor.

He had sent her towards the machine in hopes that she could tamper with it or block the Black King, but she didn't have a clue what she was doing as intricate lines of code streamed by into a funnel that was the Infinity Machine.

Unknown to the naked eye, the little grey machine was connected to… everything. Every action, reaction, change in temperature, airflow, everything, was funneled through the sphere.

Lilith hesitated, as close as she was, she could feel it calling to her, pulling at her. Would she survive if she touched it? Was it safe?

She didn't know, but if she didn't do something soon everything would be over.

“Fucking hell.”

Lilith reached out, her corporeal form lighting up with tattoos as she activated Gehenna.

The data stream parted ways, opening like a door to warp the world from a white void to a canvas of symbols.

Her consciousness melded with the machine, her soul, completely pulled in alongside the tidal wave of data.

Drowning in the sea of existence, Lilith activated Gehenna, her glowing body repelling the information that threatened to devour and consume her.

Standing at the root of reincarnation, Lilith couldn't make sense of the numbers.

Until she could.

Suddenly the data warping around her began to change, painting images, showing equations, and creating a sort of translucent interface before her.

So much power. So much data that could be used to harm or to heal.

Her thoughts turned to Jack, resulting in the interface displaying an image of the dying man as Sahaqiel wept.

Lilith frowned, her thoughts shifting to Ada which then made the screen display a live feed of the woman along with Selfia and a crowd standing in a depilated throne room.

Then it clicked, the machine was reading her thoughts and reacting!

Jack and Sahaqiel needed help. That much was certain, so Lilith directed her thoughts into bringing them aid.

A fissure opened up, the same tunnel that would draw Selfia's warriors into the fight.

Suicidal? Fruitless? Maybe.

But she needed time. Time to understand the Machine. Time to figure out how to use the incredible source of power before her.

Fortunately, she knew what to direct it at as the interface showed the image of a wounded Jack.

"Lets-" Lilith began before she froze in place as a figure in white abruptly manifested and approached her.