“I’m sorry… your daughter, Ari, won’t make it.” “Doctor! There has to be a way! Please… save our daughter.” “I’m sorry, sir, but there’s nothing we could do.” The constant beeping wave had finally stopped. A long beeping sound has started to sound, filling the room with tears. “I’m sorry, but her time has come.” Lights were appearing before my eyes. Many bright colors that form the shape of nature. I neared the end of the path only to be sent to the clouds.

“Huh?! Where am I?” “Oh? You have arrived, Ari! Welcome to the New World!” “New World?” “Yes, the New World! Ari, you have died and have been sent to this world! People who die unfairly get sent here! Take this boy for example. This boy, Rin, was killed before he met his own daughter. Rin was then sent over to this world also!” “So… what happens if you die here?” “You die here? You will then be reincarnated in the real world as a new being. Oh… I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Ken!” “So… Ken, is there any specific rule in this world?” “Hehehe! That’s for you to find out!” Ken snapped his fingers sending me to a random town.

“Great… now where am I? That damn Ken!” I started walking around town asking questions about this world. “Hey! You! Where do I learn about this place!” The man looked at me in a weird way. “Demon!” “Huh?! I’m not a demon!” Guards ran towards me latching onto my arms. “Get off me! I only asked a simple question!” “You’re coming with us!” I rolled my eyes and slipped through their arms. “This is one way to be welcomed in a new world, Ken!”

I ran to a new town to get away from the guards. In the town there was a place that looked like a registry. “Excuse me. I would like to know what this registry is for.” “Name?” “I don’t know what the name is.” “Name?” “I said, I don’t know.” “I’m asking you for your f*cking name!” “Oh! Haha! My name is Ari.” The lady handed me a sheet of paper with a stamp on it. “There… you are now registered as a wizard.” “What does it mean to be a wizard?” “You are now able to legally use magic and, or, use a melee weapon of your choice.” After being registered I heard a voice in my head. “Hey, Ari, it’s Ken. I forgot to tell you, but in this world, murder is prohibited. You may kill someone in a duel but, it’s only if you both agree to a fight to the death! Also, try not to mention the real world, most people in here aren’t from the same world as you.” “You old man! You are so creepy!”

I found a blacksmith shop a few kilometers away from the town. “Hey! Make me a sword!” A man sitting in his chair stood up towering over me by about 4 feet. “Excuse me?” My skin crawled at the sight of him. I pat him on the shoulder with dotted eyes and a nervous smile. “Hi, mister! I would like to have a sword, please.” The angry blacksmith dropped a magic staff on the table. “People who don’t show me respect don’t deserve swords!” I took the staff and waved it around. “How do I even use this!” The blacksmith took the staff and aimed it at me. “Water!” A stream of water came out of the staff and hit me in the face. “What was that for! You know what? Gimme that! Fire!” A thick cloud of smoke filled the shop, forcing us outside. “I’m so gonna kill you, little girl!” The smoke disappeared and so did my body.

“Man, that guy’s panties must have been crawling up his ass.” I looked at the sky and noticed that the sun was setting. “God dammit!” “You called? Your friendly neighborhood Ken is right here!” “Actually, I do need you now. What bad things come out at night!” “Well… there are large beasts and monsters that roam around. You may want to find an inn or something.” “Yup! I’m leaving. F*ck those monsters! I’m not dying today.” “You already died earlier… remember?” “I’m not dying again today!” On my way to the next town, I found this girl sitting at a campfire. “Hey, why are you just sitting out in the middle of nowhere?” “Me?” “Obviously, who else is here besides us?” The girl lifted up a stuffed pig. “This is Oinkers.” I covered my face with my hands. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” “Oinkers say Hi!” “May I ask how old you are?” “I’m 15!” “You’re my age and you are acting like a child… why?” The girl stood up and grabbed onto me. “My name is Touka! Be my friend! You’ve already started talking to me, so why not?” I hesitated to give a response. “I-... I don’t even know the slightest thing about you.” I made an excuse not to call her a weird freak. “That’s okay! I don’t really have friends since everyone thinks I’m weird. That’s why I always sit alone in fields or the sides of roads.” I started to feel bad, so I made a deal with her. “Touka, if you bring me to the next town, I will be your friend.” Touka’s face lit up. “Really?! Thank you!”

“Hey, Touka?” “Yes?” “I believe I haven’t given you my name. My name is Ari.” “Awww! That’s a cute name for your size!” Touka struck a nerve. “Are you making fun of my height! I would have you know, I am not short, I’m fun sized!” She signaled  the height difference with her hand. “F*ck off!” “Ari, I see that you’ve gotten registered, so what’s your type?” I hid that fact that I got denied a sword, so I played it off as if I picked mage. “Oh, y’know, I’m a mage. I thought it suited me most, so that was my choice.” “Oh wow! That’s amazing! This is mine!” Touka took off her cloak and revealed a sword on her back. “Oh, so, you use a longsword?” “Nope!” She pulled the sword apart and revealed twin swords. “I’m a dual wielder!” My jaw dropped with jealousy. “You’re lying to me… right?” Touka swung her right sword and sent out a shockwave of dust. She then stabbed her left sword in the ground creating a fissure. “Nope! Not lying.” Touka left me in awe. “Y-y-you better not abandon me ever! I will forever be your friend, Touka.” I bowed down before her. “Hahaha! That was nothing.” She swung both her swords at once in an X shape. The ground started shaking. One by one, rocky and fiery spikes started growing from the ground. I was scared to even stand up. “Please tell me that’s the strongest you could get.” “No, would you like to see more?” “F*ck no! I already need new underwear!” “Here!” Touka started to take her underwear off to hand them to me. “No! No! No! Keep them! I was kidding!” “Oh?” “Touka… just lead the way to the next town.”

Before reaching the next town, Touka stopped me. “Ari, you’ve never showed me your magic, have you?” My heart stopped for a second. “Ahaha, erm… well, this is what I do.” I waved the staff in the air. “Fire!” A ball of fire shot out and exploded in the air. “Oh! So, you use fire magic! As you saw, I could use earth and fire! Sometimes healing too. Actually, I have an idea.” Touka grabbed her sword and cut herself with it. “Ari, aim your staff at me and chant ‘heal’.” I did what she said and waited for things to happen. “Heal!” The wound on Touka’s arm started patching up and healing. “Okay, so, you can heal. Now, I want you to chant all the other element names.” I chanted all the names and all of them worked. Touka was surprised. “Ari! You are one of the only people who could use all elements! You may be a candidate to fight the king!” “The king?” “You’ll learn more about him later, I don’t really know much myself, but I know you could do it!”

We finally arrived in the town. “So, where’s the inn we need to go to?” Touka grabbed my arm and brought me to a barn. “Here we are!” “That’s a barn… I asked for an inn.” “This is an inn, Ari! An inn that anyone could afford!” I fell to my knees. “You mean… you have no money… at all?!” Touka stuck her finger up. “Remember, you found me alone outside of any town. I’m just as broke as you.” “Ugh, fine. Let’s stay here for the night and tomorrow we find something that will get us paid.” The next day, I woke up to sudden laughter. “Mhm, Touka? What the?!” “Ahaha! Hahaha! Stop it! Hahaha!” “Uh… I’m going back to sleep.” I started to walk back towards the barn, but Touka grabbed the back of my shirt. “Hahaha, you’re going to be part of the fun!” “No! Please!” “It’s too late!” “No!”

After the barn shenanigans, Touka and I went farther into the town. “I can’t believe you did that to me, Touka.” “Hahaha, we’ve got to have fun sometimes!” “Whatever. Hey, look! It’s a quest board!” We walked over to the quest board and found monster bounties. “Hey, Touka, this one rewards 15 copper coins. Is that good?” “With that, we could stay a night or two in the cheapest inn.” “What’s the most expensive inn’s cost?” Touka had a grin on her face. “An amount we will never get to have. It’s 50 platinum coins.” My mouth dropped to the ground. “I’m scared to know how much copper makes up that amount of platinum.” “It’s about 100 thousand copper coins. Maybe even more, I don’t know.” I remained silent for a bit then, finally spoke. “I don’t think we will ever get to stay at that inn anytime soon.” “Yeah, most likely not. Anyways, let’s do this quest.” Touka and I went to a field and found the correct monsters we needed to fight.

The bounty we had to fight was a giant scorpion the size of a small house. “Hey, Touka… mind killing that while I get a change of clothes?” “Why do you need a change of clothes? We haven’t even gotten dirty yet!” “You haven’t gotten dirty yet, but I for sure have.” “Okay!” Touka swung her sword creating a massive shockwave. “Done! We could go get our rewards now! Ari?” Touka looked down and saw me wrapped up in a ball on the ground. “At least warn me before you do that!” “Haha, sorry about that.” The two of us reported to the hall that had the quest board. “Hey, Touka, how do they know we killed the bounty?” “Ari, we live in a world of magic, it automatically fills out once complete.” I forgot that I was reborn in this world because of that stupid Ken. “We would like to redeem our reward for this quest, please!” “Here you go! You’re 15 copper coins.” “It’s that easy, Touka?!” “Well, yeah, if you could complete the task required.” I became very excited that I accepted over 20 random quests to complete.

“Here you are. 14 silver coins.” Touka and I went back to the barn to rest for the day. Touka was just as excited as I was so she placed all the coins on her body. “We’re not poor anymore!” Both of us looked at each other with a bright smile. “Ari… I’m glad we’re partners.” “I feel the same, Touka. At first, I thought you were going to be a nuisance, but in the end, I like being around you.” “Ari, let’s fight the king together.” “Yeah!”

Day after day, Touka and I did quests and were finally able to afford to stay at a decent inn. One day, we were given a special quest from an anonymous person. The quest description was written in blood and had an unusual warmth coming from the paper. “Hey, Touka? This one’s different.” “Hm? What’s wrong?” “This quest is telling us to slay the priest of the central church. Wait, what?! The reward is 100 platinum coins and hidden magic!” “Ari, I don’t know about this.” “Come on, Touka! We could challenge him to a duel and it will be legal. We could be rich! We coul—.” “Ari! Enough! We can’t kill him. Even if we wanted to… we can’t.” I lowered my arms to listen. “Ari… the priest is immortal. It’s impossible to kill him.” “We have to try! We need this…we are nothing.” “Ari! We can’t kill him! Do you not know what immortality is?” I grew frustrated with Touka and left the inn.

“Who does Touka think she is missing out on dozens of coins.” “Hey, little one.” I ignored the spoken words since it mentioned my height. “Don’t ignore me, brat!” “What?! Who are you and where?” “I’m just your friendly neighborhood Satan speaking from your head. I was the one who sent you that quest.” “Okay, Satan. How do you expect me to kill an immortal person?!” “That’s for you to find out, if you manage, I will grant you the power of a demon!” “I’ll do what I can! I won’t let you down Satan!”

I walked over to the central church to look around. I peeked through a window and saw the priest standing near a fountain with blue liquid. “Does this give him his immortality?” The priest turned towards my window barely spotting me. “Shit! I’ve got to go.” I made my way to the exit and saw Touka leaving the building. “Touka’s here too?! Hm? A quest paper?” I followed after Touka to see where she went with that paper. “Shit! She’s going to the inn.” I managed to get ahead of Touka and went back into the inn. “Ari! I’m home and I have a quest we could do.” My heart stopped for a second. “For both of us?” “Yeah, the priest had a quest that we could do. He rewards angel magic and some platinum coins.” “What is this angel magic?” Touka was surprised I didn’t know. “You mean, you’ve never heard of it?! This magic is one of the most powerful magic there is!” “What’s the most?” Touka hesitated to say it. “I-it’s demon. Demon magic is the strongest. They both counter each other out, but demon has the capability of destroying and repairing villages. An angel’s magic could only repair damages.” “Do they grant immortality?” “Yes, Ari, they do. Both of them do. It’s part of the package.” “I’ll think about it.”

The next day, Touka said she had an errand to do, so I took Satan’s quest. “I need to do this, but I also need Touka to complete her’s! This is gonna be a pain!” “Ari, how could you betray me!” “Oh, it’s you, Ken.” “I bring you to this world and you betray me! Why?” I thought for a bit. “Evil is more fun, I guess.” “I grant you a second life as yourself, and you betray me to work for a demon!” “I only have his quest. I’m not working with him if I don’t do it.” “Sorry, but if you do Satan’s quest, we are going to have to cut ties.” I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s fine by me.”

A few hours later, I grew impatient and went to the central church. “Sorry Touka, but this needs to be done.” I ran into the church and stood face to face with the priest. “Hi, you must be Touka’s friend.” I smiled at him and aimed my palm at him. “Freeze!” The priest’s body froze completely. “All right! Now I need to find a way to shatter the entire body. Wait… what if I try this?!” I thrust my palm into the ice block’s center with a high magic output. The ice and the priest shattered into ice crystals. “I did it… I killed the immortal priest.” I turned around and saw Touka staring at me. “Oh… shit.”

“Y-y-you killed the priest! You’re a dem-.” The ground started to shake and the air started to heat up drastically. “You have completed the quest, Ari. You are now one of us.” Touka looked at the hole in shock. “Ari’s a demon now… she’s really a demon.” From the ground, a giant beast started crawling out. “Drink this and you will be granted your demon power.” I looked at the label and laughed. “Haha! This says ‘Demon Blood. Manufactured in Hell’!” “Shut up and drink it, Ari!” “Fine!” Touka ran up to slap the bottle, but missed. After drinking the blood, my body started to heat up. The demon blood replaced my actual blood, giving me the power of a demon. The beast started descending into the the pit. “Enjoy your new power, Ari.”

“Ari… why would you do this? You’ve killed the most important person to this town. Why? Why? Why?” I looked down in regret. I started walking towards Touka, but she stepped back. “Touka?” “Don’t, Ari.” I took another step closer. “Ari! No!” Wings expanded from Touka’s back. “Touka? You’re an angel?!” Touka nodded her head slowly. “We were going to become angels together, but when I saw that you were killing the priest, I completed it without you.” “I’m sorry… Touka. Please forgive me.” Touka left without a response. “Dammit!” I punched the side of the church cracking the stone. “Okay! Really, demon powers!” I walked back to the inn. Touka was packing her stuff in her sack. “What are you doing, Touka? We are supposed to be partners!” “Why would I be partners with a demon? You have the power to destroy entire towns!” “I-I’m… sorry. Please, we need to stay together. Without you… we can’t fight the king together.” “Is that all you care about?! Killing people? You want to kill someone so bad, then kill me! I won’t hold back my power and neither should you! We are going to fight to the death!” Touka challenges me to a fight, allowing the fighters to kill. “All right, if I can’t kill you and you give up, you will be my partner again!” “I will avenge the priest, Ari!”

“Ari! You should back down now since you are a weakling!” “My combat skills may be inferior, but I will still win this fight!” Touka unsheathed her sword and split them into two. She rest one on her shoulder and the other was aimed towards my head. With her shouldered blade, she swung it causing a wave of rocks and dust flying towards me. I pulled out my staff and used my spells. “Fiery Tornado!” With all magic types, I could combine the elements and use them to my advantage. A spiral of flames formed in the middle of the battlefield creating a fiery path towards Touka. Touka crossed her blades, blocking the attack. “Ari, just give up, you’re not winning this!” Touka charged at me with one sword in the air and the other by her stomach. A few inches away from me, I used my next spell. “Time Warp!” Time Warp slows down time, allowing the user to move at regular speed. “Sorry, Touka, but I’m winning this. Freeze!” Time Warp ended, returning everything back to normal speed. Touka’s body was frozen solid. I placed my palm in the middle of the ice block to shatter it. Before letting out a high magic output, I noticed a tear in Touka’s eye. “Touka?” I used a fire spell to melt the ice. Touka fell to her knees and looked sad. “Ari… you’ve defeated me. Even with immortality, I nearly died right there. What was going through my head when I challenged you to a fight to the death? Well, a deal’s a deal. I will stay your partner, Ari.” My face lit up with joy. I jumped onto Touka, giving her a hug. “Touka! I’m sorry I almost killed you! I was just following the rules set for the match and since I know how to kill immortals, it just went to my head again!” “Ari, it’s fine… you were just following the rules.”

“Ari! Wake up!” “Hm? Touka?” “I want to test something on you.” I sat up in bed and looked at Touka. “What is this?” “It’s so you can show how much magic output a spell has. I want you to use that magic palm of yours on this.” “How much does it max out at?” “It can withstand even the most powerful magic ever. Don’t worry about breaking it, it will survive anything.” I placed my hand lightly on the magic scale. When Touka signaled, I forced my palm down onto the scale, sending out my magic. The scale was completely destroyed after my magic palm. “What? How?” I looked at Touka completely confused. “Was that not supposed to happen?” Touka looked at me with shock still on her face. “I-I can’t believe this spell has more power than my swords! This is impossible!” Touka grabbed my arm and brought me to the field again. “Ari, I want to test something else. I want you to use your forcepalm regularly on me. Think of this like a spar, but if we kill each other, nothing happens.” I was scared at first, but I pulled through.

“Touka, are you sure about this? I don’t want to kill you.” Touka nodded her head. “It’s fine, if I die, I die. We are going to be going all out, similar to how we last fought, but this one is a spar.” Touka unsheathed her swords like normal. I didn’t summon my staff this time since I was supposed to use my palm. She ran up to me with a slash attack, but I dodged and placed my hand on her back. “Should I do it?” “Go for it.” I forced my palm into her sending her flying to the dirt. “Touka? Are you okay?” I flipped Touka over and saw her covered in dirt and blood. I tapped my boot on her side to see if she reacted, but nothing happened. Slowly, she opened her eyes and her wounds started patching up. A soft, whisper-like voice came from her. “The power of immortality kept me alive. You’re strength could easily wipe out the king.”

After bringing Touka back home, Ken started to speak to me. “I see you possess the power of a demon now.” “Yeah, it’s kinda nice y’know.” “Ari, with this power, you won’t ever be able to return back to your own world.” “That’s fine, I’m already dead in the real world anyways. There’s no point in going back if I’m not going to be me.” Ken materialized himself in front of me. “Are you sure you want to live in this world forever? You will not have anything electronic that you would have in the real world.” “I will just make them. I know how some things are made, I wasn’t that stupid in the real world.” “Fine… but say you do happen to die in this world, what is your wish for when you return?” I thought for a bit. “Um, I want Touka to be reborn as my twin with our memories of this world intact.” “I don’t know how that would be possible, but I will see what I could do. Well, I shall be going, I have some people to watch over. Good bye, Ari.” Ken vanished leaving a horrible smell. “Ken… you’re disgusting.”

The next day, Touka and I spoke about the demons and angels. “You know how the angels are the ones who rule over the churches, right? Where do the demons rule?” Touka looked at me. “I’ve never really thought about that. Maybe they rule caves or something like that. We could go find one, but I don’t know what they’d do to me.” “You’ll be fine if I’m with you since I’m a demon and all.” Touka rolled her eyes. “Great! Sacrificing me again… like always.”

The two of us set off on our quest to find the demon shrines. The sunrise just started, so we were given extra daylight to find it. “Can we take a break? We’ve been walking for hours!” “Ari… we’ve been walking for 15 minutes. Calm yourself.” “I feel like I’m going to die if I continue walking!” “You won’t die.” “How do you know, Touka?” Touka pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re immortal, remember?” I spoke under my breath. “I’m going to invent the car in this world.” “You say something?” “No.” A few hours have passed and we still haven’t found the place. “Can we take a break now?!” “Shut up, Ari. We will find it eventually.” “I can’t handle this walking! I’m taking my anger out on this mountain. “Volcanic Rain!” The sky started raining magma rocks blowing up half the mountain. “Um… Ari, you revealed something.” I looked over at the mountain and saw a shrine made from fire and solid blood. “That’s pretty disgust— and she’s off.” I ran over to the shrine calling for Satan. “Who are you people?!” “I’m Ari, a demon and this is Touka an Ang-.” Touka covered my mouth and whispered to me. “Don’t tell him I’m an angel! We may be immortal, but they could still kill me somehow!” “Right… forgot.”

The demon took a closer look at Touka and sniffed her. “You smell terrible, but look quite beautiful.” Touka’s face turned red and slapped the demon. “Touka, I have a question I need to ask once we get in.” Touka nodded her head at me and spoke to the demon. “Hey Demon? Can we go inside?” The demon got really close to Touka and screamed. “Nope! No angels allowed.” “Shit he found out! Ari! Now!” I used my magic palm on the demon and ran inside. “Okay… after we… catch out breathes… I need to ask something.” After a few minutes of sitting down, I asked Touka my question. “So, you know how the demon called you beautiful? What happens if an angel and a demon breed? Would there be a demon angel, or one specific race comes out?” Touka tilted her head and wondered. “My guess would be that the baby would die since demon and angel blood can’t mix.” “Hm… there has to be a way to test this theory.”

Touka and I got even farther into the shrine and discovered a dungeon entrance in it. We entered the dungeon the second we discovered it. “Oh… this is… something.” Touka shot a little fireball to light the dungeon path. The dungeon was filled with the bodies of angels and ashy bones. “Touka? Don’t you think we should head out? I’m a demon and I’m even getting creeped out by this.” Touka shook her head. “No, we need to get through this.” “Why?!” Touka held up a sheet of paper with her thumb sticking up. “I kinda accepted a quest that involves going through here.” I dropped myself to the floor and pouted. “The one time I want to leave, you want to stay and fight!”

We made it even farther into the dungeon and discovered a giant, throne-like room. When we entered the room, torches lit up simultaneously leading a path to a throne of skulls and solid blood. The place smelled like rotting bodies and expired blood. “This is disgusting.” “I swear if you throw up, Ari!” I looked over at Touka and smiled. “I’m goo— blagh.” “You did not just throw up on me!” Seconds later, a giant rumble sound happened and rocks started to fall from above. “What was that?” Touka started to walk slowly towards the throne. “Ari, do you know what that was?” “How do you expect me to know?! I’m laying on the floor here throwing u— blagh!” “I guess I’m on my own for now.” Touka reached the throne. “Oh? I think this is what I need! Ari! I fou— agh!” A shadowy creature attacked Touka knocking her back to the entrance of the room. “Ari! Cure!” My sickness was cured by Touka’s magic. “Ari, we need to fight!” “Why didn’t you cure me before?!”

“We’ve got to kill this! Touka! Pull out your swords!” Touka tried splitting her swords, but they were jammed together making the blades inseperable. “Come on, Touka! Split them!” “I can’t! They won’t split! I think when I was knocked back they got jammed!” I stomped my foot from annoyance. “I guess I’ve got to do this.” I closed my eyes and used a spell that allows me to sense invisible objects. “It’s straight ahead!” Touka ran towards the shadow and swung her sword. “Hah! What?!” The blade phased through it allowing the monster to attack Touka. “Agh! I can’t attack it!” I closed my eyes again to find the monster. “All right, I’ve got this!” I tried to use my magic palm, but my hand went through it. “Touka, I may have figured it out! This shadow can’t be hit by physical attacks, maybe we should try magic!” I aimed my staff at the shadow and chanted a spell. “Ice Spike!” The shadow evaded the magic spell also. Touka had one last idea. She walked up to the shadow with a torch and it vanished. “Killed it… Ari.” The two of us stood there with no expression. “Did you seriously kill it with light?” “I guess I did? I don’t really know, but it’s gone.” Touka and I walked over to the throne and saw a bottle of light blue liquid. “What is this liquid? It kind of looks like the one from the fountain in the church.” “That’s because it is that liquid, Ari. I drank this liquid when I turned into an angel. We should probably head home. I don’t like this place.”

The bottle of liquid we found turned was angel blood. Similar to the demon blood, if you drink it, you gain the power of the race. Touka and I both agreed to not touch the blood, but it was so tempting. She caught me trying to touch it countless times. “We can’t let you touch it, you’re a demon, you might die from it.” “So what if I’m a demon? If I die, I die.” “Don’t drink it. Just leave it there.” “Okay, mom!” Touka turned around and gave me a dirty look. I smiled at her and ran away. A few days later, Touka and I discussed about finding our own house to live in instead of this inn. We went to a carpentry place and paid for a house to be built for us. “How many floors do you want? How many bedrooms?” I looked at Touka and she answered the man. “We would like two floors with two bedrooms, please. The rest is up to you.” “Your house will be done within two weeks. Please stand by.”

A few days before our house was built, Touka and I started packing up our things. “She didn’t take the angel blood yet… I might as well take it before we leave it.” I took the bottle and hid it in my sack. “Hey, Ari?!” “What?!” “You left your panties all over the place!” I ran upstairs with my face all red. “Now everybody knows… thanks!” “Hahaha… next time you’ll learn. Oh… look at these frills.” “Stop it! Gimme that!” “Hahaha! Okay, here, but you need to hand me that bottle you have there.” “I don’t have a bottle. What bottle?” I placed the bottle in the back of my skirt. “Whatever, just please don’t drink it.” “I won’t!”

The day has finally come. The day we get our house. “Oh wow! This is actually quite spacious. Ari come check this out… where are you?” Faintly in the distance, Touka heard me shouting. “I call this room!” Touka shook her head and walked upstairs. “Look at it, Touka!” Touka peeked her head into another room. “You do know the other room’s the same, right?” “This one is closest to the bathroom though.” This world surprisingly has showers and toilets for how outdated it is. I thank Ken for this. “Ari? Ariii! Ari!” “Huh what?” I spaced out. “You have the bottle, right?” I grew tired of her asking for the angel blood. “Touka… stop asking about the bottle. It may hold immortality, but we already have that so why does it matter? Just leave it be.” Touka took a step forward to grab it from me, but I pulled the cork and drank it. “Ari!” “See nothi—.” I dropped to the floor and blacked out.

A week has passed. I was still knocked out from drinking the angel blood. “Ari? You awake?” No response was given. Touka has tried dumping water on me and slapping me. Everyday she would shake my body trying to wake me up, but not a single self movement happened. “Dammit, Ari! I told you not to drink it! Why couldn’t you just listen to me! We are immortal yet you still managed to kill yourself! You were such a small, young, girl who I was able to call my friend. Why did you have to be so stupid?!” A fiery crevice appeared in the ground. “Ari! Do you now see why Angels and Demons can’t be together? You two raided my dungeon! You took my angel blood and look what happened when you drank it! You died! You’re a useless pipsqueak who can’t even manage to live with immortal powers!” “What did you say, Satan?” Touka started to unsheath her sword, but before she could, Satan’s legs started turning into stone. “Don’t call me useless! Don’t call me a pipsqueak! Don’t underestimate my power! I am the one who can kill immortals! And you’re on that list, Satan!” Satan’s body turned completely into stone and exploded into a billion pieces. “Ari!?”

Touka looks over at my face and sees that one eye is dark blue and the other is completely red, surrounded by a dark purple virus. I stood up and looked at Touka. She couldn’t take her eyes off of me. “Ari… your w-wings!” One of my wings were a demon’s and the other was a black angel wing. Touka went to touch my wing, but was burnt the second she was near. “What happened to you?” “Touka… I’m dead.” “What?!” I dropped to the ground and didn’t move. “What… just… happened?”

“I’m so confused! You were just alive! You killed Satan!” Ken appeared in my consciousness. “Ari, you see what happens when you don’t listen? You got yourself killed twice. You were immortal! Sorry, but you are going to be sent back to your own world.” “That’s not happening… I’m staying here. I will complete my journey and I will fight the king!” I start slapping myself, trying to wake up from the blackness. “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Ken stopped me from slapping myself to tell me what happened. “Ari… the chances of you waking up is very low. When the angel blood circulated in your body, it fused with your demon blood which turned your blood into a gas, temporarily since you managed to live. Once that happened you ended up using all of your power to kill Satan. You overload your power leaving you with nothing left to keep you alive.” “Ken! I’m not going to die today! “Stop… please. You won’t come back. As we speak, your body is filled with gas instead of blood.” “You’re lying!” With the last of my strength, I forced my eyes open.

“Ari?” I opened my eyes for the first time. The sight of a girl with light purple hair filled my vision. Her smile widened the more I open my eyes. “Touka? Am I dead?” Touka went in to hug me, but was stopped by extreme heat coming from my body. “Ow! Why are you so hot?” She grabbed a thermometer and put it towards my mouth. Once it touched my mouth, it started to melt. “Okay… I guess I’ll try this?” Touka tried to draw a little blood from me. She noticed that a gas was coming out from my finger. I look over at my finger. “I guess he was telling the truth.” “Ari! I have one last idea! Give me a second!” Touka rushed out of the room to set up her plan. “Ken, come here.” Ken appeared in front of me. “This was your doing wasn’t it? You were one who turned my blood back into gas.” Ken kept on smiling at me. “You defied me. You shall suffer. I brought you to this world and I can take you out of it, but I won’t do just that. I will leave you to suffer in pain and weakness while your immortality keeps you alive.” “I-I will kill y-you… just wait.”

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“Hey, I’m back!” Touka came back with a bunch of ice. “Please don’t burn! Please don’t burn! Please don’t burn!” Touka carried me to the bathroom and placed me in an ice cold bath. Instantly when I went into the bathtub, steam was created. Moments after I was put in the bath, I started to cool down. “You’re still hot, but at least you aren’t a torch.” “Hey, Touka?” “Hm?” “What if I killed God?”

A few weeks have passed, allowing me to move on my own again. The purple virus was still on my face and my eyes were still oddly colored. My body is still filled with abnormal heat, but it’s tolerable and won’t melt things. Every so often, I let out my wings and wonder why they are two different race wings. Touka thinks it has to do with me being half demon and half angel, but I think it’s more than just that. More days have passed by, Touka and I decided to see what I have become. We visited a church far away from the town since I kinda killed the priest here. At the church, we found a priest who favors demons over angels who could help. “Hm… I’ve never seen this before. Could you explain to me what happened once again?” “I was already a demon and then I decided to drink angel blood which put me in a dead, but powerful state. I also managed to kill Satan.” “I have one test, Ari.” The priest brought in a demon. “This is a basic demon who can’t go into a human form. Order it to do something.” “Okay…? Jump.” The demon jumped. “Erm… I was kinda hoping you’d say something a little more demanding.” “Fine, go destroy that tree over there.” The demon destroyed the tree and returned to me. “Well, that test worked, so let’s try this one.” The priest called over an angel and told me to do the same thing. “Hm, these are weak tests, but it’s enough to tell that you can demand some demons and angels.”

Touka and I left the church. “Ari, I want to test you also.” Touka grabbed my arm and brought me to a town of angels. “Where are we going?!” “We are going to see if you can rule human form angels.” I rolled my eyes and stood in front of a group of angels. “Okay! Listen up! I’m ruling over you guys and you will do as I say! We are going to make peace with the demons and that’s final!” The angels started to cheer. “The queen has spoken!” “The queen?” Touka and I looked at each other. “Is this who I am now? Am I the queen of demons and angels?” “I guess so…? That’s kinda weird, but I guess it can’t be helped.” I looked back towards the angels. “The celebrate peace, we shall have a festival! You all better give me gifts as your new quee—. What?!”

Behind the crowd of angels, Ken stood with a sinister smile. I froze time to run to Ken without being noticed by the angels. “What do you want?!” “Hehehe, I just came to congratulate you on your new role, Queen Ari.” I tried to use my palm on Ken, but he grabbed my wrist. “That won’t work on me. Your hand will just shatter the second you make contact.” “Tck. Freeze!” Ken slowly started to freeze into a block of ice. “Sorry, that won’t work either.” The block of ice cracked open. “Well, if you are going to attack I guess it’s my turn. Gravitation Field!” Ken’s gravitation field sends a strong pull towards the ground. “Ack! K-Ken! I will kill you!” “Hahaha! You’re not going to be able to move after this! Sword Rain!” A bunch of swords started raining on top of my body, piercing through everything. A puddle of blood started pouring out of me from all over. “I rule this world! Your goal to fight the king is pointless and so is your existence!” Ken restored time and vanished.

“Ari, why do you always get hurt?!” Touka pulled every sword out one by one. “I’m gonna kill him!” “Who’s ‘him’?” I looked at Touka and told her the entire story. “You’re not from this world and why does Ken want you dead?!” “No, I died in my world and Ken brought me here. I was basically given a second chance at life, but I was sent to a world of magic. To answer your question about Ken, it’s because of the demon blood if I were to guess.” “But Ken’s a god! He could easily kill you!” I looked towards the sky. “He can try all he wants, I’m not letting it happen. This world will be in my hands. I’ll kill the king and then kill Ken.”

“Touka, are you sure you should be doing this? I have more strength than you, so you could easily get hurt from what I do.” “It’s fine, you need to kill Ken and that’s what we are training for.” I sighed. “I’m not going to go all out.” “Ari, go all out, you won’t get any stronger if you don’t show your skill.” I pulled out my staff and Touka pulled out her swords. “You ready, Ari?” “Let’s do this!”

Touka swung her sword, creating a cloud of dust and rocks. I took the hit without flinching. “My turn, Touka. Meteor Strike!” Giant, fiery, rocks started to rain from the sky. Touka dodged the meteors and caused a fissure by stabbing her sword into the ground. She started to attack from close range, so I put away my staff and used my own magic. “Hiya! Hah!” Touka rapidly swung her swords at me. I grabbed the hilt on her left sword and punched her in the stomach. “Ack! Okay… that hurt.” With the magic coming from my fist, Touka was sent flying. “I forgot how powerful your punches are.” “You still want to continue?” “Y-yeah, I could s-still fight.” Touka’s sword was being used to support her. “Are you sure you could fight? You can’t even stand on your two feet.” “I’m fine.” She finally stood up and swung her two swords which brought herself to the ground. “Yeah, we’re done here, Touka. You can’t stand up.” Touka wasn’t happy when I stopped the fight. “I- agh can fight.” Touka threw up a bunch of blood. “We are supposed to be helping me train, yet you were the one to get hurt.” She finally gave in. “I think you’re ready to fight the king. I’m almost positive he isn’t immortal, so that punch you did to me would kill him.”

A month has passed since Touka and I started training for our future fights. “Ari, I’ve never got to ask you why you have a staff, yet you only use your hands.” “I guess I’ll show you why.” I pulled Touka outside the house, into the field. “Well, let’s demonstrate my staff’s magic. Fire!” A small fireball shot out of the staff setting the grass on fire. “Water! See, all this staff does it make small attacks and then when I use my hands, this happens. Fire!” A huge fireball started forming between my hands, draining more power the longer I hold it. Once I release the fireball, it created a crater in the ground. “Does that answer your question?” Touka was in shock. “I think I’m going to need to train much harder before I could fight you again.” “No need to fight me, we need to fight the king. Ken is my fight though, so don’t worry about that. I’m determined to take this world.” “Ari, we need to start figuring out our plan and the location of the king fight.”

Easily enough, Touka and I found a map for the towns that lead to the kingdom. “This one’s from our town which leads to the town leading to the kingdom!” “Ari… you could have just said ‘this path leads to the kingdom.’” “Shut up, Touka! We’re heading out!” Touka and I ventured towards the kingdom which took four days to reach. During the trip, we constantly had to fend off monsters that tried to attack us, but they died the second they touched me. Slimes were Touka’s weakness since they explode all over her making her feel uncomfortable. The wall surrounding the kingdom was so tall that planes wouldn’t be able to fly over except they can’t anyways since they don’t exist in this world. “Ari! Stop drooling over the kingdom!” “Huh? Sorry, let’s go in.”

Upon reaching the gate of the kingdom, two guards stopped us. “State your business for being here!” Touka stepped forward to deal with the talking. “We’re here because we have business with the king. We are low on resources in another town. We run the town we are from and would like to keep it from dying.” The guard took a closer look at the two of us. “You two don’t seem important enough to have business with the king! Step away.” “Okay! Look here buster! I am the queen of the demons and angels! I am more important than your entire kingdom!” The guards looked down at me with anger. “Did you say demons?” “Yes, yes I did. What are you gonna do about it?” The guards grabbed my arms and started to drag me in. “Hey, I wouldn’t do that to Ari if I were you.” Touka and I winked at each other. I managed to put my hand on one of the guards and used my magic palm on him, sending him into the ground. I looked at the last guard with a sinister smile. “You either let me go or you end up like him.” The guard quickly let my arm go, but I punched him anyways. “Touka! Let’s go!”

The two of us ran through the gates, escaping extra guards from capturing us. “Ari, h-how could you r-run so much.” “You know how I said I wasn’t part of this world, right? I used to run a lot in my world.” “I hope one day I could see your world.” “You say something?” “N-no! I didn’t! Let’s hurry and find the castle.” We finally found the castle over all the buildings, but we haven’t found the entrance. “What kind of kingdom has their castle on the side of the wall! Aren’t they supposed to be in the middle?!” “Ari, let’s just keep running, I’m sure the guards will eventually find us if we stop.” We kept on running until we found a dead end. “Um… Touka? Turn around.” Touka turned around and saw a group of guards surrounding us. The guards grabbed onto us and brought us to the castle’s dungeon.

“Get in there!” “Hey! Don’t touch us with your grubby hands!” “How could you put Ari and me in a cage! We’re two cute, innocent girls! Ari may be short, but that adds to the cuteness!” “Okay, Touka! Once we’re done here I’m beating your ass!” The guards slammed their clubs on the cage. “Shut up! If you don’t, I’ll send you to the squid tank!” Touka’s skin crawled. “Ari, let’s be quiet until he leaves, I don’t want squids to touch me.” “Okay, whatever, but I have a plan.” “And that is?” The guard has finally left the area so I proceeded to speak. “We are underneath the castle. I can bust through this cage and we can explore the castle.” “I dunno, these cages seem to—.” I busted through the cage in one punch. “You were saying?” “I… okay then. Let’s go I guess.”

We escaped the cage and found our way out of the dungeon. “Finally! Royal oxygen!” Touka started to suck in a lot of air. “Stop that! We have a mission to complete.” “You’re right, my apologizes.” The two of us started to search the castle until we discovered the king’s bathroom. “Hehehe, hey Touka, what do you call a toilet in a castle?” “Ari, I swear if you—.” “A royal—. Ow!” “Don’t even say it!” “Fine, let’s keep searching.”

“King! You have two intruders in the kingdom!” “What do you mean?! We have guards at the front gate!” “Turns out they beat the guards and broke in! They might even be in the castle right now!” The king pondered for a bit. “This brings back memories… my heroes, my guardians.” “Yuki? What’s the matter?” “My heroes fought the king in my world. They did exactly what these two are doing, they went into the castle to fight. These two also remind me of Asuka and me. We killed the king… sadly, I lost Asuka when we fought. I had to avenge her.” The king started to cry remembering his past.

“This way! Ari! Come on!” “Carry me… I stubbed my toe on the stairs.” “Suck it up! This way has to lead to the king!” Touka started to drag me down a long hallway that lead to a throne. “Welcome to my palace, ladies. I knew you two would come here, my past self did the same as you two. You may know me by just King, but I am King Yuki.” My eyes widened. “Did you have a friend named Asuka by any chance?” “I have, and she’s—.” “Right here.” Standing before me were two former assassins from a book I’ve read. “I thought you guys only existed in legends! There’s even a game about you!” “I don’t understand… why am I a ‘game’? I have lived once before, thousands of years ago. That doesn’t matter, you guys are here to fight me aren’t you?” Touka stared at Yuki. “Y-yes, we are.” “Well then, let’s get this started!”

Yuki looked at Asuka and nodded their heads. The two of them unsheathed their swords. “T-Touka! His sword!” Yuki pulled out a blue sword and a black sword. Asuka unsheathed a red and black sword. Looking at their swords terrified me, but I also felt very honored to see the famous swords. “Touka, it’s time to do this!” “Right!” The both of us charged at the two. Touka swung her right sword at Yuki, but he stopped her right away. Yuki wagged his finger and swung his sword in return, sending Touka across the room. “Ari, go… get them.” I went to attack Asuka, but she swung her sword downward on me with her sword while I was in the air. Her force caused me to leave a hole in the ground. “Ack! This is way harder than I thought.” “So much for being a demon angel if you can’t even fight!” Asuka started to taunt me whilst kicking me on the ground. Touka started to inch herself back to her feet. “L-leave, Ari… alone. Leave Ari alone!” Touka combined her swords back to one and stabbed it into the ground, creating a fissure. Rocks started to fly towards Yuki and Asuka. The fissure in the ground separated the two leaving the fight to a one on one for each side. “Asuka! Keep your guard up!” “I w— agh.” “Yeah, Asuka. Keep your guard up.” I punched Asuka in the stomach with most of my magic power. “Asuka!” “Yuki… I’m fine, keep fighting.”

“Touka! Asuka’s down! Get Yuki!” Touka nodded her head and charged at Yuki. Touka’s blades started to become surrounded by large, purple, flames. “My blazing swords will cut you in half and cauterize you at the same time!” “Hmph, good luck with trying, I may be old, but I’m still faster than you!” As soon as Yuki finished his sentence, he appeared behind Touka with his blade sticking through her. “You might want to have skill that backs up your words. Oh? I sounded like Calem, didn’t I?” Blood started pouring out of Touka’s mouth rapidly. “I-I-I… c-can’t continue.” “Argh, dammit, Touka. I guess it’s up to me.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ve never attempted this spell, but it better work.” I raised both my hands into the air. With my power to combine magic elements with any spell, I shouted a chant. “I may die from this, but I have no other option to win this fight! Scorching Sword Rain!” A magic circle appeared above me aiming towards Yuki and Asuka. Swords made that were red hot started to shoot out, piercing through Asuka and Yuki. The two former assassins were lying on the ground with swords sticking out of them. “I think… I won… hopefully.”

I started to walk towards Touka only to hear someone laughing maniacally. “Hahaha! Hahahahaha!” I looked over in the direction of the laughter and saw Yuki sitting up. “This fight will never end!” Yuki lifted a flap of hair from his eye. “You have the same virus as me!” “That’s right! We’re both demons!” “Tck, dammit, he will be immortal too. I don’t know how I’m gonna kill him.” Yuki and I kept on staring at each other. The room was so quiet, you could hear the fire crackling. I took a deep breath and then ran towards Yuki. “Hah! Kyaa!” I threw my palm out at him, but he dodged each time I tried. “Too slow! Hah!” His sword landed on my arm, cutting through it. My eyes widened from fear. “M-m-m-my a-arm! It came off… so… easily.” “These demon blades are not something you mess with. They were forged by the best blacksmith from the best materials.” Yuki approached me even closer. “Let’s agree to call this a draw and I will forgive you. I will even let you stay at the castle to allow your arm to heal after being reattached.” “Tears started to evaporate from my face. “Okay, it’s a draw.”

A couple of days have passed since the fight between the ex assassins, Touka and me. King Yuki allowed us to stay in the castle until we recovered from the fight. He also told us about his past and what actually happened firsthand. “How long did the Mystic War last?” “Ah, well, it started when my hero assassins were 15 years old. I believe 60 years later, they were killed by my brother, Calem, who was known as ‘Mystic Assassin’. He’s also in this world, but you won’t find him since I locked him up in the ocean. Anyways, my heroes fought in this war for 60 years even though there was a major gap in major fights.” I stroked my chin. “In the book, it said you and Asuka fought and killed the king, what happened then?” Yuki started to tear up. “I won the fight… but I consider it a loss since Asuka.” “Asuka was shot wasn’t she?” Yuki nodded his head. “She was poisoned and that damned hospital said she would be fine and she would live.” Asuka put her hands on Yuki’s face. “You’ll be fine, I’m still here with you now. We are immortal, we can’t die.” Touka interrupted their moment. “Um, excuse me. Yuki, you said you were old, but why do you guys look a little bit older than us?” “Well, in this world, we don’t age much at all. We stay young if we die young.” “How did you die? I was born in this world, so I never was able to read that story.” “Well, Touka, it all started after my heroes died. Everyone I cared for died. I couldn’t handle being alone. Despair hit me hard and I ended my life.”

Touka looked at Yuki in surprise. “You don’t seem like someone to do that. If you haven’t said how you died, I would have always believed you fought to the death.” “Okay, I think this is enough about my death. I think you deserve something, Ari.” I looked up quickly when he said my name. “Hm?” “You always fight with your bare fists. I think you deserve to get a free set of iron fists from my kingdom’s blacksmith.” I questioned Yuki’s words. “Are you being serious? I got destroyed by you. You finished me once you sliced off my arm.” “Yes, but you also managed to knock us down. You managed to get me to unleash my demon form.” I finally accepted what Yuki said. “All right, where is this blacksmith?”

Yuki brought me to the blacksmith’s shop and ordered my iron fists. “Are these fists going to be thick?” “Haha! No, not at all, they are light with the same metal used for my swords on the knuckles.” The blacksmith’s shop was surprisingly clean for how popular it is in the kingdom. It didn’t even reek of oil. “Here you are! Your fists!” “Now, Mr.Blacksmith, why are they called iron fists if they aren’t iron?” “Haha! Just call me Michael, and they are called that because the metal I use is very secretive and rare. I only found out about this metal because of the original owners of King Yuki’s swords.” Yuki and I left the blacksmith shop and started to head back to the castle. “Now, am I able to use magic in these?” “Well, yeah, obviously, your magic power is one of the strongest in this world. Even if it was magic proof, your magic would still be able to be used due to its power.” I looked at my hands with the fists on. “Am I really that powerful? I went from being very useless in the real world to becoming the demon-angel queen. I even managed to knock down one of the greatest assassins who turned out to be a king.” Yuki pat my head. “Don’t worry, Ari, I know you could defeat Ken.”

We eventually made it back to the castle. Touka and Asuka were talking about the real world, thousands of years ago, in their time period. Yuki stood in front of the table to give a small speech. “Okay! Ari and Touka! You guys have a big quest ahead of you! You will need to have clothing that will make you fight better and will let you fight in style!” Asuka started walking towards a closet. “I’ve had Asuka make these for you guys after the fight.” Asuka handed the two of us a box, each with our names on it. “What are they?” I opened my box and saw a red and dark blue cloak. Touka received a purple and dark pink cloak. “I-I. Thank you, Asuka.” Touka bowed down to Yuki and Asuka while I stood there looking at my box. “These are like your cloaks! You designed mine and Touka’s like yours!” “Well, actually, I designed these after mine and Yuki’s masters’ cloaks.” I couldn’t stop smiling at them. Happiness and excitement filled my entire body. I looked Yuki in the eyes. “Once I complete this quest, me and you, we have a rematch!” Yuki put his hand out for a handshake. “That’s a deal. A rematch it is.” The two of us smiled at each other with a serious expression.

Every day, I wondered what Yuki meant when he said ‘you managed to make me unleash my demon’. I even asked Touka what he meant by it, but she didn’t know either. When Yuki unleashed his demon, his virus was glowing. Mine has yet to do that, so I kept trying to unleash mine. Since Touka’s only an angel, she didn’t have a cool power. I decided to talk to Touka about it more to see if we can come up with something. “Hm, I can’t do anything since I’m an angel right? Yuki said he was a demon which allowed him to unleash his demon, obviously. So… what if since you are half demon and half angel, you can’t?” “That’s what I was thinking, but I have the virus on my eye. Not all demons have that, so clearly I’m a chosen one.” The two of us kept on thinking back on the fight. “Touka, do you think it has something to do about me knocking him down? Right after I knocked him down, that’s when his eye started to glow.” Touka started looking at me like she had a question, but noticed I was grinning at her. “You want me to test this theory out don’t you…?” “Hehehe, you know me so well, Touka.”

30 minutes have passed since we planned the test fight. I told Touka not to hold back while I attack using weak magic. For this fight, I didn’t use my fists, so I don’t hurt Touka too bad. “Ari, are you sure we should do this, again?” “We’re fine, Yuki said our cloaks are durable enough to withstand sword attacks and penetration.” Touka sighed. “All right, let’s go.” The first attack I went for was a plain fireball from my staff. Touka was running straight towards me, deflecting each and every bit of magic I shot at her. She finally got into attacking range and started to swing. The first blow hit me in the chest. I took the hit without even flinching in the slightest. “Touka, harder! Attack with more speed and power!” Touka backed up and went for a stronger hit with her fire magic. Her swords were both covered in purple fire that burned me on impact. “F*ck! That burned! I’m a demon and that still burned me! My skin is always burning too!” Touka kept on swinging while I kept on standing there, taking hits like nothing. “Touka! Now!” Touka put her swords together and gave a giant swing towards my stomach. The impact on my stomach sent me flying. With Touka’s speed, she caught up to me and slammed her sword downward, bringing me to the ground.

“Ari! Are you okay?!” I slowly started to sit up. “Not even that managed t—.” The virus on my eye started glowing. “Ari?” Touka went to grab my arm, but her hand started to burn. “Ow! Why are you so hot?!” I looked up at Touka. She noticed that the coloring in my eyes were dimmed out and seemed like I had no control. Touka steadily unsheathed her swords and held them in her stance. “Everyone shall burn!” I raised my hands up and caused holes to shoot magma out of the ground. “Dammit, Ari!” Touka tried to jab her sword into my chest, but I grabbed it with my hand. “Huh?!” Touka’s sword started melting from my hand. “Turns out, you managed to unleash your demon and it happened to be bad.” With Touka’s melted sword, she wasn’t able to dual wield them. She left the longer one, which melted, on the ground and fought with the shorter half. “This’ll be hard.” I started shooting shards of ice at Touka. Each shard was deflected, causing crystals to fly all over the place. The more shards she deflected, the bigger the shards became. The shards became so massive that Touka’s sword broke. Touka gazed at the blade without looking away. “My… it’s…. broken. I was given this blade from my grandparents… you broke my precious belonging.”

In rage, Touka punched me in the face, breaking my jaw from the blow. She continuously punched me until she was eventually stopped. “Calm down, Touka!” Touka turned around and saw Yuki holding onto her. “It’s her angel side mixing with her demon side, making her act like this.” “Then how do we fix her?” Yuki shook his head at Touka. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that. My only option is to hit her in the head and knock her out, but that’s still fatal for immortals too.” Touka looked at Yuki with a serious expression. “I’ll do anything. I want her back to normal and to unleash her demon properly.” Yuki nodded. Yuki unsheathed his sword and hit me in the forehead with his sword’s hilt. I dropped to the floor and was knocked out.

“Where am I?” “You’re in my castle. I had to knock you out after your fight with Touka.” My head hurt from trying to remember the fight. “Where’s Touka?” “I sent Asuka to take her to the blacksmith to repair her sword. You ended up destroying it in your fight.” My face turned all gloomy. “I destroyed her sword? I-I’m sorry, Touka.” Yuki pat my head. “It’s fine, we are having it repaired with the secret metal. It won’t be breaking anytime soon.” “Sometimes I wished I’ve never decided to drink the vial of angel blood. It causes more harm than good.” Yuki looked right at me. “You are one of the most powerful people in this world. You are the only demon angel living in this world. Fight! Fight until you reach your goals! You hurt your friends on the way, it’s because you want to help them! Ari, defeat Ken. Become the new god. Fight me once the mission is over. I will be your final challenge.”

“I’m sorry for destroying your sword, Touka.” Touka kept on ignoring me, even though she knew it wasn’t my fault. “Come on, I didn’t know what I was doing. My demon came out and I couldn’t control myself.” I went to tap her shoulder, but she grabbed my arm, tight. “Ow ow ow! That’s my bad arm!” Touka looked at me with dead eyes. “You broke my precious sword. This sword was given to me before my grandparents died. They used it in their fight. The sword together shows their bond with each other. Separate, it was like they held each other in their hands.” I looked down towards the ground. “I’m sorry, Touka.” “Ari, my sword was made by themselves. No metal could reforge it the same again. This secret metal the blacksmith used is nothing compared to the old metal.” I looked back up at Touka. “Hit me.” “W-why?” “Relieve your anger, Touka. Hit me with your sword. Do it as hard as you can. Don’t hold back.” Touka separated her sword. “Haaaaah! The long sword was lodged into my stomach, creating a burn feeling in my heart.

I dropped to one knee clenching my heart. “Y-you really care for your grandparents, don’t you?” “Well, yeah, they were amazing people.” “As my apology, let’s go visit their grave.” Touka reluctantly agreed. “Fine, let’s go visit them, but there’s one problem.” I looked at Touka so she could continue. “They were buried where they were killed. They died fighting undead beings and their king.” “Then, let’s travel to the undead territory.”

We made it to the land of the dead, which reeked of rotten bodies. “Touka, how were they able to withstand this place?! It smells like sh*t!” “Well, Ari, 10 years ago, it didn’t smell this bad. Remember, this was a battlefield where a lot of humans died. Since it’s the undead territory, they obviously don’t clean up dead bodies.” I reached into my bag and grabbed an air freshener. “I want fresh air!” Touka started shaking her head. We kept on walking and stumbled upon a patch of flowers. Touka started to smile with tears falling from her face. “Grandma, Grandpa.” She took a step towards them, but then skeletons started assembling around us. “Dammit! She was trying to have a moment!”

The army of skeletons started to make loud chattering sounds almost resembling laughter. “You’re that little girl from before, right? These are your grandparents, right? You miss them a lot, right?” One skeleton started to dig up the grave. “Touch them and you’ll regret it!” The skeleton continued to dig, but Touka swung her sword, shattering the skeleton. “Don’t touch them!” Touka started swinging her swords in rage, hitting every skeleton around. “I’ll avenge you! I will put an end to the undead race!” Eventually, all the skeletons around us were gone. Touka’s heavy breathing caused her to blackout on the ground. I started to examine Touka’s body and when I checked her eyes the blue angel eyes started turning red. “That’s not good.”

I brought Touka back to the castle to ask Yuki what was wrong. “Hm, you said she went on a rampage?” I nodded at Yuki. Yuki kept checking her eye color. “They aren’t completely red yet, so she’s not completely a demon yet. Keep her away from battle for a while. I know you need to train to fight Ken, but keep her out of it for now. If she fights or rampages again, she will turn into a demon.” I didn’t know what I should have done, so I left Touka with Yuki and Asuka.

“I guess it’s just me for now.” For the next week, I’ve decided to go out in a canyon and train. I would break rocks with my palm and boil the lakes with my fire magic. I also cooled it down with my ice afterwards. “This is gonna be a long week ain’t it. Well, I guess I could have some fun after training.” After training, I took a trip to the first town I went to when I was first brought here. I visited the blacksmith that refused me a sword. I kicked open his door and yelled at him. “Hey, Bitchf*ck! How ‘bout you give me a sword now!” He stood up and looked at me angrily. “What did you call me?! Wait what?!” He noticed my virus and my wings. “Y-y-your a demon?!” “Haha, I’m not just a demon, I’m a demon angel!” “I don’t serve demons! Get out of here!” I grabbed the collar of his shirt and lifted him up, despite my short body and arms. “Hahaha! How does it feel now? I’m the one picking on you, you weakling.” “Lord save me!”

Mist started to appear in the shop. “Uh oh!” I dropped the blacksmith and turned towards the mist. “Ari, Ari, Ari. Have you not learned yet? It is forbidden to hurt people unless you initiate a duel.” “Pfft, like I’d ever follow your rules, Ken.” “Haha, that’s a shame. Looks like I’ll have to do this to you.” Ken roundhouse kicked me into the wall. “Come on, Ari! I thought you’ve been training to fight me! You felt confident enough that you even fought with my people. You even fought King Yuki!  Y’know, he was the first person to ever fight me and damage me.” Blood was gushing from my mouth. “Oh yeah, you know that kick I did? It was a parasite that constantly makes you vomit blood.” “Ack! Blagh!” The puddle of blood was enough to fill a bucket. My vision started to fade. I slowly began to fall down on my side and pass out.

I finally woke up and saw Ken aiming a light green blade towards my face. “This blade you see here is capable to kill all immortals with the slightest cut. It’s your job to test it for me.” Ken started to swing the blade downward. “Hah!” A loud ringing shook the entire shop. In front of me was a girl with light purple hair with dual blades that burned with a purple flame. The girl look at me with her red eyes. “I’m sorry for turning into a demon, Ari.” Touka swung her sword, knocking Ken out the door, so she could take me and leave. “Ari, we need to bring you to safety!”

“T-Touka, why… why did you come? You were an angel… but you turned yourself into a demon.” “I did it because I didn’t want to lose you. I knew you were going to do something stupid, so I followed you. Please… don’t fight Ken until we are both ready, okay?” I slowly nodded and closed my eyes. “What did Yuki and Asuka say about you coming?” “Hahaha, they tried to stop me, but I managed to sneak out.” I smiled at Touka. “You’re such a reckless girl. ...Hey, Touka?” “Yes, Ari?” “Our story has only just begun.”

“You two need to be careful out there, he’s nothing to joke about when he fights. I’ve learned from experience.” Touka and I had serious expressions on our faces while listening to Yuki. “We promise to fulfill this task. Touka and I will strategize our fight.” “Yuki, I have one request I would like you to keep note of. When things get a little out of hand, I want you to come rescue us.” Yuki nodded his head and begun to look at me. “Ari, are you sure you could fight? Have your scars healed up yet?” I grabbed my stomach and looked at Yuki. “I will be fine, my parasites are gone.” Asuka came walking in with a bag. “Here, Touka, take this.” She handed Touka a bag filled with bandages and recovery potions that were homemade. “You will need these during your fight for whenever you have time to make decisions.” Touka ran and hugged Asuka. “This may be the last time we see you guys. You two acted like our parents and took care of us. If we make it our alive, will you take us in?” Asuka and Yuki smiled at Touka. Yuki pat both of our heads. “You guys are already my children in my book.” I looked at the sun outside. “I guess it’s time. We need to go.”

“How far is this place?! We’ve literally been walking for hours!” “Well, Ken is a major god, Ari. I don’t think his shrine will be that obvious to find.” “But he’s a god, like you said! His shrine needs to be obvious for people to worship him!” Soon after we complained, we heard faint chanting that was spoken in a weird language. A marble shrine started appearing in front of us. “Ari, get ready.” At the top of the shrine was a man holding a long black sword with streaks of blood running down the side. “You girls ready to meet your fate?!”

“This fight ends with me becoming god and you dead!” Ken started rolling on the floor. “Hahaha! You really think you could kill me? I am the god of this world! I am immortal! I’m Ken! God of the Underworld!” Touka and I stepped back. “Touka, we need to watch his every move.” Ken’s eyes were on fire. He started to shoot fiery swords with every swing of his sword. “Shit!” One of the swords skimmed Touka’s cloak. I shot water at Touka, she she wouldn’t burn. “Ari, now!” I ran up to Ken and punched him in the leg to knock his balance. “Shit, that hurt you little bitch!” Touka jumped up behind Ken and made a diagonal slash from shoulder to hip. “He’s taking a lot of hits! We’ve got to keep this up, Touka!” Ken stood up showing weakness. “Y-you guys are no joke.” Ken straightened himself up and shrugged his shoulders. “But I am a joke!” Ken swung his sword upwards catching Touka’s hair. “F*ck! He’s quick!” Ken kept swinging his sword with great speed until he landed a solid hit to Touka’s abdomen. Luckily, our cloaks we durable, so it didn’t cut Touka. The force of the sword knocked Touka into me, sending us both flying down the shrine stairs. “We need Yuki… I don’t think we can pull through.” “Nonsense, Touka! We have been waiting for this fight! We need to keep fighting for our goal!” Touka stuck her sword into the ground to pick herself up. “Okay, let’s fight!”

“Haaaaah!” The two of us ran up the stairs and charged Ken. I jumped on Touka’s shoulders to boost myself towards Ken. “Impulse!” I hit Ken with my palm and sent him towards the wall of the shrine. Touka set her swords on fire and shoved them into Ken’s shoulders, sticking him to the wall. “Ari! Keep punching him!” I rapidly punched Ken all over with my iron fists. I sped up my punches with my magic, allowing me to deal lots of damage. “Let’s finish him off, Touka! Blazing Sword Rain!” A storm of fiery swords fell from the sky landing on Ken. Touka grabbed onto one of the flaming swords and threw it into Ken’s chest. “Eck! You guys are good… but not good enough.” The swords from Ken’s shoulders fell, freeing up his hands. Ken yanked out the sword from his chest and stood up straight. “You guys have done enough. It’s my turn to fight back.”

Ken raised his hand up, summoning a long green blade in his hands. “Shit! This is the immortal killer! Keep on your feet!” I looked over at Touka and nodded. Ken swung towards Touka, but she managed to parry the first attack. He lifted his leg up and kicked Touka down the stairs. “Ice Spikes!” I shot a cluster of icicles towards Ken. He deflected all of them and sent them back towards me, landing the hit. Barely able to get up, Touka and I looked at each other. “Was he just playing with us at first?! With all of our attacks, he still managed deflected my ice!” Anger filled inside Touka and me. “We will not die here! We can’t afford to lose this fight! Touka, let’s unleash it!” Our virus started glowing. Our blood started boiling. The wings on our backs started to show. Ken looked at us with shock. “That’s the power of the demon! How do you both know how to do that?!” Will full speed, Touka touched her sword to Ken’s neck. “You should know, you’re the god, aren’t you?” His eyes widened. While still looking in Touka’s eyes, Ken jammed a dagger into Touka’s side. “Hahaha! Die! Die! Die! This dagger is made the same way as the immortal killer!” Touka’s face was full of fear. “Y-y-y-you.” Touka dropped to the floor, staining her clothes with blood.

“Touka! No!” I fell to my knees. “I’m gonna f*cking kill you. I’m gonna to kill you. I’m gonna kill you, Ken!” Flames enveloped my body. The virus on my eye spread towards my chest and to my left arm. “You killed my best friend! She was all that mattered to me throughout this whole world! My wish doesn’t matter anymore because I wanted to live in this world with her!” Ken grew tired of me speaking, so he threw the dagger towards my face. A loud ring came from the dagger. “Sorry, Ken, but you’re not killing my children.” Standing in front of me was a man in green and black with a woman wearing red and black. “Asuka, grab Touka and Ari! Bring them to safety!” Asuka nodded and ran. “Long time no see, King Yuki. You want that rematch?” “I want you dead! You’re no god, you’re a monster!” “We’re all monsters here, Yuki. Have you not looked at yourself, Touka and Ari? You’re all demons. Demons that could transform into a more powerful demon at will. You guys let pain and suffering get to your heads which caused your demon powers to actually take effect.” Yuki looks back at us and back at Ken. “We’re going to fight to the death! If I win, give me the powers of God. If you win, you can take what I love most.” Ken tapped his cheek. “I guess that’ll do.” “Then it’s settled.”

Yuki and Ken stood 10 meters apart. The two readied their swords. “This ends here, Ken!” They lunged at each other with full force, swords clashing, sparks flying everywhere. The speed of the two men outmatched sound. Ken tried to throw off Yuki’s balance with a kick to the leg, but Yuki cut Ken’s leg. “I’m not letting you take them away from me! I will be taking the role of God!” Yuki went in for the final blow, but Ken swung his sword and sent Yuki’s black demon blade flying. “Too slow. You’re mine now, Yuki!” Ken thrusted his immortal killer into Yuki’s stomach. “The king has fallen! The king has finally fallen!”

I heard Ken’s shouts from a mile away. I started running towards the shouts and saw Ken ripping apart Yuki’s body. “You’re sick. You disgust me. How do you call yourself a god when you treat people like this?” Ken started laughing crazily. “I do whatever I want! I am the god after all!” Rage built up inside me. “I’m sick of you, Ken! I thought you were a good guy when I first met you, but you’re horrible! Just horrible!” I turned into a torch again and my virus spread to my arm again. “Are you really going to fi—.” My fist went through Ken’s chest. His heart sat in my hand, slowly beating, blood gushing out of it. The inside of his body started boiling from my heat. “Burn! Burn! Burn! You don’t deserve to be a god! This role is mine!”

Ken’s body started to turn into ash and fall apart. Ken stuck out his hand with an orb of magic. “A deal’s a deal… my godly powers.” I accepted the powers. A wisp started to form around me, removing my virus, my flames and my wings. I finally looked like a regular human being again. Asuka looked up in the sky and saw a golden light shining in my direction. “She did it… she reached her goal. She finally became a god.” I started descending next to Touka’s body. “I will see you on the other side… Touka.” I saw a slow movement coming from Touka’s mouth. “A-Ari… it takes more than an immortal killing weapon to end me. I will not d-die until we die together.”