On a small island, remote from all the others, two people were fighting, using only magic spells without relying on close quarter battle style often seen between warriors. One was the Demon Titan, Ash, and her opponent was the Testament of Fear, Angst. Both had flown over in that direction with Ash leading the way with the guidance of her Sacred Spirit, Freed.

“We need an appropriate place to do battle without the interference or disturbance of the others,” she had said to her master in her mind when question why she had led them in that direction with a creepy expression on her face.

“You just want to enjoy defeating your opponent and devour their souls without any witnesses,” muttered Ash in response, her expression darkening.

Freed cackled with high laughter of exhilaration and said, “Ah…! You see through me, master! However, if you do claim that, then doesn’t that mean master is also a witness? Are you implying that I am allowed to devour your soul too?”

Ash curtly replied, “Sevedant will destroy you if you don’t watch your mouth.”

“Ah! Only joking, master! I’m only joking!” Freed replied quickly and laughed some more.

The two women fought against each other using fearsome magic spells that had various dangerous effects. The first to launch their attack was Angst, who fired her spell the moment they landed on the island by saying its name out loud.

“Death Vapour!”

In an instant, many magic circles appeared all around them before wild billowing smoke came out of them as they spun rapidly on the spot. The smoke quickly spread and began robbing the life of the island due to its toxicity with the grass instantly dying from its touch and withering away to leave the land bare.

Seeing the effects before they reached her, Ash retaliated by clapping her hands together and said, “Willow Wind.”

A large magic circle appeared beneath her feet before a whirling wind formed like a barrier around her. For a moment, it stayed there to protect its caster from the dangerous smoke before it spread quickly in all directions. The smoke instantly dispersed with the wind blowing everywhere, destroying the toxicity and making the air breathable again.

Undaunted, Angst tapped the ground with the sole of her foot and said, “Flash Slayer.”

Multiple magic circles appeared around her before copies of herself began forming on the spot. They were transparent looking, their bodies glowing lightly with particles coming off of them. All of them gathered their energies and raised a blade comprised completely of light elemental energy and charged rapidly towards their target.

Freed, who had guessed their movement the moment they made their move, quietly said in her master’s ear, “This is troublesome, master…”

She was right as they were very fast because they reached Ash within a second of moving from their original spot. Now, after surrounding Ash, they raised their swords into the air to cut her down. Forewarned of the danger, the Demon Titan merely clicked her finger and spoke the magic spell name out loud.

“Motion Blur.”

In an instant, the area she was in seemed to fizz as if something had effected it and, at the same time, the movement of the enemies slowed down drastically. It looked like they were moving bit by bit with each second. The Demon Titan ignored them and waked past them wearing a serious expression as she stared at the startled expression on her enemy’s face.

“Don’t think for a second you got me,” she said, her voice carrying loud and clear to her enemy and, at the same time, she raised her hand and clicked it while saying, “Bling.”

Small magic circles appeared where the slowly moving light warriors were, before forming into a small light ball of energy. In an instant, it began to suck in its surroundings and took the individual warriors into its depths until they vanished before it too disappeared on the spot.

“Try something stronger against me,” finished Ash with a deadly serious look on her face.

Angst opened her eyes in a momentary surprise because of the effective spells her enemy had used, before extending her hands out and shouting, “Boom Crash!”

In an instant, a black ball of energy gathered in front of her before it got launched and it soared straight towards Ash. The Demon Titan was about to retaliate when, to her surprise, the ball came to a sudden halt a few seconds after flying and remained motionless while hovering a meter off the ground. Then, it pulsated, causing the ground to shake and the pressure in the air to thicken dangerously.

The black ball of energy began to pull everything in its surroundings towards itself as it acted the part of a powerful magnet. Trees got uprooted and flew towards the ball before disintegrating on the spot while mountains crumbled as rocks flew to be consumed by the ball. Ash, who was radiating an energy aura of a powerful demonic form, widened her eyes in surprise when her form began to get sucked in by the ball. At the same time, her feet were also getting dragged towards it.

“Maga Distrab!” She shouted by aiming one hand at the ball in order to cancel it out.

A whoosh of the wind was felt as the power flew towards the ball of energy but nothing happened upon impact. Ash was amazed by her spell not working and gritted her teeth in irritation.

“Oh, my goodness! Your spell failed! What will you ever do, master?” Freed said in her master’s mind, letting out a cold mirthless laughter that did not reach her eyes.

“Oh? You sound confident despite the trouble you’ll be in as well!” Ash said firmly as she fought hard to keep her energy aura from being sucked in by the destructive ball. “You do realise you’ll be the first to get sucked into it if I let go of this aura! Remember! You’re tied to this aura!”

Freed looked down at her master with a bemused expression on her face and replied with a smirk, “Master, please… Don’t threaten me needlessly to see me shiver, sweat and cry for your help. Besides, I have confidence in you , so stop wasting time and fight back!”

Ash glanced up at her Sacred Spirit, who was smiling serenely down at her, before shaking her head in defeat. It was true that she wanted to see her dangerous and vile Sacred Spirit tremble in fear, but she realised it was not to be on that day.

“Right!” She said, breathing a little quickly as her heart raced from the tension of the spell she was going to use. Making sure to use a spell to keep her feet tied to the ground so that she would not go suddenly flying, she aimed both of her hands at the ball and shouted, “Particle Crusher!”

In an instant, the pressure in the air, that had already thickened, intensified, two magic circles appeared to surround the black ball. A moment later, a larger black sphere came out of the magic circle and completely surrounded the smaller black ball. Once it closed itself on all sides, it shrank rapidly to a minuscule size in order to disappear while successfully destroying the magnet ball but unfortunately that proved to be impossible as a sudden spark erupted from the ball before an enormous explosion occurred.

It quickly spread in all directions and reached the spot where the two women were standing. Realising that there was no time to use a teleport spell to get away from the blast radius, the Testament of Fear cast several barrier magic spells on her surroundings before being enveloped by the blast. As for Ash, she was too stunned to react as the blast surged forward and seemingly consumed her. The blast continued to spread beyond the island in all directions, disturbing the ocean and shaking their surroundings.

Several seconds passed and the explosion slowly died until it finally disappeared, leaving not a single trace of the island behind. The ocean waves slowly calmed down as a figure appeared hovering above with a magic barrier protecting them. Angst did not immediately discard her barrier, but looked at her enemy with a blank expression on her face.

Several meters away from her hovered a glowing ball of light hung above the ocean that seemed to show no sign of any movement. A moment later, the ball began to expand and went through a transformation, releasing a radiating aura with a familiar figure positioned at the centre of it. The Magic Titan’s eyes were closed as her aura completed transforming, opening them a moment later with her enemy wearing a look of astonishment on her face.

“Even one of the strongest canceller spells Sev taught me failed against it,” she muttered, her shoulders slumping in sadness.

“Ah, master! Rejoice because your spell managed to destroy an entire island! That’s something to be proud of,” replied her Sacred Spirit, who was slowly moving around her master with a gleeful smile on her face. “I’m sure Sevedant will be quite pleased with the result.”

 This caused Ash’s shoulders to slump once more as she imagined how furious Sevedant would be at the thought of the destroyed island. Before departing from the Demon Continent, Sevedant spoke privately to her through telepathy and specifically told her to keep the destruction level down, but he also wished her to do her best to defeat her opponent. Now, as the island had vanished from her failed attack, she felt depression washing over her in large waves.

At that moment, her enemy’s voice was heard speaking calmly as it managed to reach her ears and penetrate through her depression.

“You are powerful. I am impressed.”

Ash looked up and stared at her while blinking in confusion. It was the first time since she and her enemy managed to speak to one another after an extensive period of silence. Thinking that the enemy was trying to sow confusion in her, Ash made a frown and replied in a curt voice.

“I won’t appreciate compliments coming from an enemy,” she said and folded her arms with a stern look on her face.

Angst nodded, registering the fact and shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Perhaps, but I wanted to make it obvious. You are strong. I am glad. That is all.”

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Ash blinked, not quite sure what she just heard and asked, “What?”

At the same time, her Sacred Spirit whispered in her mind, “Something off, master… This person… She tastes different.”

“Different?” Ask asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“There isn’t a single radiance of animosity coming from her to towards us,” said Freed, raising one eyebrow in amusement as she stared at their enemy. “All that she had before is gone. I don’t know why, but it’s weird.”

Ash heard those words and because she could not make any sense out of it, she decided to ask her enemy directly.

“I don’t understand. Why are you complementing me and what was it that you said just now?”

Angst was taken aback for a moment before she said, “I was saying that you are strong and that I am glad you are my opponent.”

This time, Ash blinked her eyes with a quizzical expression and asked, “Huh? You’re glad? Why?”

Angst smiled sadly and replied, “It is simply because I will finally see my wish come true,” and when she stalled and saw the irritable look on her enemy’s face, she shrugged her shoulders and finished by simply saying, “Death.”

For a moment, there was silence in the vicinity as the two hovered over the ocean with the wind blowing smoothly in their direction. Ash let out a deep sigh and stared at her enemy disparagingly and spoke in a merciless manner.

“Then… Why don’t you just die instead of wasting my time?”

Her Sacred Spirit began making “tut” sound a few times and said in an indignant voice, “Ah, master. That’s harsh. It’s supposed to be my line. You stole it!”

Freed looked hurt as she stared at her master, who seemingly ignored her as she stared at her enemy and continued speaking.

“Honestly, if death is all you wish for, then go ahead and kill yourself. That’ll solve my problems.”

“But it won’t solve mine,” replied Angst in a sorrowful voice. “I am not allowed to do that to escape my hell.” When Ash stared at her quizzically, Angst smiled softly and asked, “Will you listen to my story?”

“No!” Ash replied without hesitation, which made her enemy become crestfallen. “Everything you’re telling me sounds fishy and even your behaviour just now, is very concerning. I get the feeling you’re trying to trick me and I’ll let you know, that I will not be tricked so easily. I know you’ll attack when I drop my guard.”

“If I wanted to attack, there is actually nothing holding me back from doing so,” replied Angst and instantly began to surge with an enormous power that caused the area around them to shake violently and made the wind blow wildly. As Ash was about to power up, her enemy suddenly powered down as quickly as she powered up and said, “Yet, I refuse. I decided to talk with you. So, please, just this once, will you lend me your ear and listen to my story?”

Ash was confused, but her distrust made her want to immediately refuse, when, all of a sudden, Freed floated to face her master and demanded in a loud voice, “I WANT TO LISTEN! I WANT TO LISTEN! I WANT TO LISTEN! I WANT TO LISTEN!”

“Argh!” Ash said, annoyed at the sudden yelling voice from her Sacred Spirit. “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden? Why do you want to listen to the story of our enemy?”

For a moment, Freed made a posture as if she was thinking before she smiled brightly and replied, “It’s because I want to know the full story of someone that I will soon devour. I’m sure the taste will be rich and tasty after knowing her background.”

At that, she licked her mouth wistfully and Ash muttered, “You’re crazy.” When her Sacred Spirit fixed her with fearsome look on her face, Ash sighed and decided to relent this once and said to her enemy, “Go on.”

A soft smile appeared on Angst’s face and she began to recount her story from when she used to live in the ancient times. She had been the wife of a warrior that served under a clan during the time when the people were divided into many different clans. Often, their clan engaged in combat and returned victorious from the battle and she loved her husband greatly to see him return alive and well from the battlefield.

One time, when he left for the battlefield, he did not return immediately and several days passed before a report arrived with the news of their imminent defeat. The image of her husband popped up in her head, causing a gush of worry and concern to wash over her as she desperately began fearing for the life of her husband. That was until something strange occurred to her, or rather, she had an encounter with a higher being that chose to meet her.

“I will grant you your wish to protect your husband,” he had said in a smooth voice that rang with power and authority.

At that time, when he said those words, she felt her wish was granted and she instantly accepted his conditions without once listening to them. In return, he granted her power, a kind of power she had never had and a kind of power that was destructive. Accepting it, she went out onto the battlefield without knowing how to fully control them, nor did she think of asking him how to.

“I wanted to help my husband, and I wanted to save him at any cost!” Angst said to Ash, who was staring at her in disbelief.

Using her powers, she arrived at the battlefield and began to kill everyone while desperately searching for her husband. What she did not know that overuse of power can be dangerous, which was what happened in her because she lost control. After killing numerous warriors, the sense of loss and the hopeless situation broke her mind and she went on a rampage, taking all those that moved.

“Yes… I killed everyone and, when I opened my eyes, I found everyone dead and I saw my husband lying in front of me; the last of my victims,” she said slowly, her eyes becoming warm, but no tears appeared with Ash staring at her in disbelief with widened eyes. She extended her hands out and looked at them while saying in a sorrowful voice, “These are the hands that took the very life of whom I wanted to protect.”

There was a moment of stunned silence between them as Ash digested the story with Freed becoming very tearful.

“Oh, my goodness! That is so sad! To kill the one, you’re trying to save… oh…! This is such a sad story…! I’m totally crying from it!” Freed said, her voice breaking as she wiped tears streaming down her face while making great loud sniffing sounds.

“Why…?” Ash asked and trailed away, feeling her tongue catch on something that made her gulp nervously because it was one of the saddest stories she ever heard in her life.

“With great power comes great destruction,” said Angst, making a sad smile on her face while facing the Demon Titan. “I had not realised that I… I was used by the very being that granted me my powers. It was part of his conditions; to kill all those that are his enemies, or whom he sees as his enemies. Having lost myself, the power took control and I…”

She trailed away, unable to bear to say the awful thing she had committed, but she decided to continue speaking.

“After that, I was forced to fight his enemies for him, be used by him as his pawn, but the terrible memory of my deed still remained to haunt me. I… I could never forget the hell that I made and continue to live to this day.”

“Is… Is that why you wish to die…? Because you want to escape from those memories?” Ash asked, finally managing to speak properly again after the sense of grief she felt moments before.

To her surprise, Angst shook her head and smiled bitterly as she said, “No. That is not the reason.” She hesitated for a moment, pondering whether to speak or not, but she suddenly shrugged her shoulders indifferently and said, “I requested off the higher being to free me from this curse; the hellish memory that still haunted me today. He told me that he will free me from it only when I successfully please him or perish in battle.”

Ash was a little taken aback by the simplicity of such a condition, however, she sensed that there was a catch to it. Sure enough, she learnt about it when Angst explained further about the conditions that bound her to fighting forever.

“He told me I must obey his every command and please him by successfully by defeating all of his enemies, and told me that I cannot kill myself and that I must do battle against and eliminate anyone that threatens my life. So, no matter what I do or try, I have to live to keep fighting and, if someone were to raise their weapon against me with good intentions or bad, I will fight them back and take their life.”

When she finished speaking, Ash nodded in understanding and asked, “So, is that why you aren’t attacking me? Is it because I’m not your ‘enemy’ at this moment?”

Angst nodded and stated, “When I lost track of you in the explosion, I became myself again and decided to speak to you since you are powerful and I hoped that, maybe, you could finally release me from this hellish life of mine.” Now, bowing her head deeply, she asked in a firm voice, “Please! Save me by ending my life at any cost! I beg you!”

The Demon Titan was silent for several seconds in which her Sacred Spirit, who was tearfully wiping her eyes, said unexpectedly, “Master, spare her life.”

“What?!” Ash exclaimed, turning to look at Freed as if she misheard her.

“I’m serious, master! Save her life!” Freed said, her voice sounding firm and strong. With the tears gone, she made a never-before-seen serious expression on her face and said, “Her soul is sad and, if I were to devour it now, it’ll taste bad! I don’t feel like eating what isn’t going to taste good, so let’s save her, master!”

The Demon Titan, who was the only one would could see her Sacred Spirit’s astral form, remained silent before saying in a quiet voice, “So, even a being as evil and twisted as you has a heart to feel with.”

Those words caused Freed to burst out laughing hilariously while saying, “You are right, master! I am evil and twisted, but…! I have something to add to that.” Then, much to her master’s surprise, he suddenly recovered and said with a serious expression on her face, “If you weren’t moved to tears after hearing her tale, then you are probably dead inside!”

Her last words were uttered in a firm voice that bored deep into the Demon Titan, who had not expected her Sacred Spirit to utter such emotional words. It made her realise she knew very little about her Sacred Spirit and, realised that she and Angst were similar somehow. Both received support from an unknown being at a critical time, but one turned out to be helping with good intentions while the other had ulterior motives.

This small but significant similarity between them finally made her decide on a course of action, which she declared by saying, “Okay! I will save you.”

Angst, who was prepared for the worst, looked up in surprise and smiled brightly while saying “Thank you very—!”

“I’ll let you live!” Ash added, realising the Testament of Fear might misunderstand her previous statement to the wish she had.

Those words removed the smile off of Angst’s face and replaced it with worry as she said, “Um… No. I want to die, not live. Please understand. I have lived through so much pain—!”

“In that case, so have I!” Ash retorted, flaring up at once to drown her out. “My parents were killed at a very young age, betrayed by the very clan we belonged to and I was about to be killed when I was saved mercifully by my master! He taught me that our life is ours to live to the fullest that we have no right to take it as we please. In war, we do what we must to survive by killing our opponents, but you are not an enemy; you are a victim.”

As Angst stared at her in with an awed expression on her face, Ash continued on speaking, retelling the quote that she often heard her master telling her.

“The past is the past, it cannot be changed or altered, but you can learn from your past and move forward towards the future; towards a better life.”

While she was speaking, she heard the echo of her master speaking in synch with her as if he was right next to her. She knew he was not there, but this small imagination made her feel a little more comfortable to help someone in need.

“I still think—!” Angst began, looking doubtful.

“You are the Testament of Fear because of the fear for your husband’s safety that led you down this hellish path, so let’s take a new step forward; a step towards hope,” said Ash, forming a smile after a long while of putting on a serious face.

Angst hesitated for a second longer before finally resigning to her fate and allowed a small smile to form on her face. Ash smiled back, but a question formed in her head and she decided to ask the Testament of Fear about it.

“By the way, who was this higher being you made the contract with? Did he disguise himself, or have you seen his face? I mean, you keep calling him a higher being, but were you sure he was one of them?”

Her question made Angst hover in mid-air in silence for a few seconds before replying in a sad voice.

“Yes. I have seen it, many times in fact, and I cursed myself for believing in him. He is the last person in existence that one should trust,” said Angst and seemed to hesitate for a brief second before finally sighing and saying, “It’s the God of Calamity.”

The Demon Titan’s eyebrows shot up in alarm as well as her Sacred Spirit’s eyebrows and they both exclaimed at the same time, “The God of Calamity?!”

As Angst nodded, both of them suddenly stared in shock and turned in the direction that they sensed an enormous amount of energy was coming from. Soon enough, a massive wave of light soared high into the air and seemed to rip the sky apart with its destructive power. It was so bright, the word seemed to light up in shock from the release of such a powerful attack.

“Wow! Now, that’s one massive power that puts yours to shame, master!” Freed said, smiling brightly as they stared at the light soaring high into the sky.

“W-What’s happening over there?!” Ash exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.