He was in a cold place, although it wasn’t the wasteland he had found himself in when he had woken up. It was a snow-covered land, as white as a freshly laundered bedsheet.

This was a place that he was awfully familiar with, even though he was sure he hadn’t been in it before.

From a dry empty wasteland to a dry empty snowfield. What was going on?

He tried to move, but he was unable to do anything. He could only observe.

“…”

There was a figure in the distance that was walking towards him. As it came closer, he could see more of its details.

It was a person, similar to the hooded figures that he had met earlier. Instead of thick cloth wrappings, they were dressed in what appeared to be a military attire, complete with a cap.

Their facial features were unable to be seen, but it wasn’t because they were obscured by the cap or the snow. They were literally incomprehensible, a mishmash of obscurities.

As he continued to stare at the unknown person, they stopped just before him.

Before he could say anything, the person spoke in a garbled, deep voice.

“Did you think you could forget?”

“What?”

“I said, are you alright? You haven’t said anything in a while.”

The unknown person was gone. In their place was the mysterious angelic girl, tilting her head in confusion as she messed around with a crackling fireplace behind her.

Perhaps by some miracle, they had found a dilapidated house in the middle of the wastelands and were now resting inside it as the roaring winds of the night continued to blow outside.

“Uhh, I’m fine,” snapping himself back to reality, he quickly mumbled a response.

“Anyway,” the girl continued, “if you have any questions now, I’ll be happy to answer them. Although if you ask me something like who you are or were, I’m afraid I can’t.”

“Ok, um, when you said ‘reverse the end of the world’…”

“Ah, my bad. I didn’t mean anything ridiculous like time travel or anything like that. What I meant was I needed your help in fixing the end of the world.”

“…I think both of them sound equally ridiculous. After all, when you say end of the world, anyone would think it was unfixable. How can we even fix something as large as that?”

“Boy,” the girl pouted, “you sure are talking a lot now, aren’t you? And here I thought you were mute when I first saw you.”

“Sorry about that. I guess I couldn’t help myself.”

“Well, you are right, it does seem quite impossible to do. But that’s because I haven’t told you who we are.”

The girl stopped poking at the fireplace and stood up. As she raised her hands to her sides almost theatrically, the white wings that he had seen earlier emerged from her back once again.

“You see, I’m an angel. And you… are a devil.”

The fact that she was an ‘angel’ was obvious to anyone witnessing that amazing sight, but the fact that he was a ‘devil’ was something new, though as he thought about it more, it made sense.

The horns. The energy. The terrified people. The sword made from fire.

It definitely seemed like that was the case. But that revelation had brought about more questions that he had to ask her.

“So, if you are an ‘angel’, and I am a ‘devil’, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean we were sent down by some higher power? Were we perhaps from… heaven or hell?”

“Well,” the girl replied, much more slowly this time, “I don’t know the full details of that. All I know, and this is what he told me, was that we were chosen to carry out that duty.”

“Him? Who’s him?”

“God, of course.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The both of them were silent for a moment before he let out a dry snort. Even though he had indeed speculated on the existence of a higher power just now, the notion that such a being did indeed exist as she was implying was quite hard to believe.

“Is it that far-fetched? I mean, look at us, we’re clearly not human, and it’s obvious we don’t look like those creatures out there, so if we’re clearly something else, it makes sense that he sent us down here,” the girl retorted.

“I’m sorry,” he composed himself and calmly replied, “I’m still trying to wrap my head around the ‘angel’ and ‘devil’ part. Give me a while to process this.”

“You seemed pretty sure that you were a devil just now. What’s the difference now? After all, everything has to make sense even if it doesn’t.”

“Yes, but even if everything has to make sense, that doesn’t mean we could make it make sense.”

“ANYWAY,” the girl loudly replied, her tone a little more flustered than before, “let’s assume that what I’m saying is correct. That means that we were specially chosen to fulfill this duty, and that of course means that we have a responsibility to finish what we were sent out to do.”

“And… what exactly is it I need to do?”

“Good question.”

The girl perked up and began to rummage around the house looking for something. Eventually, she picked up a long wooden charred stick and began to scratch on the wooden floorboards, drawing a crude circle and pointing at it.

“This is the Source.”

“The Source?”

“He doesn’t really have a name for it. One Particle, God Particle, The Source. Regardless, this is a very important thing. They say whoever wields it… gains the power to be his equal. And… it’s right here in these lands,” she explained, with a few pauses for dramatic effect.

“If this is such a powerful object, why hasn’t anyone used it before to be him? I’m not surprised if anyone wanted to have that kind of power.”

“That’s the thing. He said that the people who last used it were too foolish. That they couldn’t understand its full power and paid the price. In the end, that caused the end of the world.”

“Wait, so you’re saying that this… thing ended the world?”

“Yup.”

“And we’re supposed to get it and hope that it can turn everything back to normal?”

“Well, that is the plan. However, I forgot to mention something.”

She drew a few more circles on the ground, along with several arrows linking back to the first circle.

“This Source doesn’t exist as one particle. It is actually made out of lots of smaller particles that are combined together. As far as I know, there are 8 of these smaller particles, each with a separate component of the Source’s full power. All of them have different properties and powers. We need to collect all of these particles and combine them to create the Source again such that he could use it to fix the apocalypse.”

“Why can’t he do it?”

“Uh, well… he didn’t tell me. He said it was up to us to do it.”

“Right, but,” he interjected with a question, “even if that’s what we need to do, how exactly do we do it? Surely it isn’t easy to find these 8 particles by just roaming around.”

The girl responded with a smug smile.

“You forget, the two of us are an angel and a devil that he sent down to do this. It would be weird if he didn’t give us any powers to help us with this,” she remarked, her wings flapping behind her in an attempt to prove her point.

“Powers, huh?”

“Yeah. Since we’re different from humans, that means we don’t need any sustenance to maintain ourselves, and we can also regenerate from any serious injuries.”

“I see.”

“We should also be able to do other special stuff as well. That reminds me, I’ve shown you my wings, but you haven’t shown me yours. I’m sure you have them, don’t you?”

“Uhhh…”

“Come on, show me. They’re probably not as majestic as mine but I bet they’re cool!”

She was getting more and more excited as she waited in anticipation for the reveal.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to do it.”

“It’s ok, maybe you can learn now. Just start by imagining that you want to fly and they might appear.”

“…alright.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the thought of flying, soaring through the air like a bird. He clenched his fists and squeezed his face, putting all his willpower and determination into the idea.

However, even after he opened his eyes, nothing came out of his back.

“Uh, that’s ok! Surely you must have some other powers. Who needs wings anyway, am I right?” the girl hurriedly tried to divert the subject while her wings quickly disappeared behind her.

“Well, I think I can make a sword out of fire. I’ve only done it once though.”

“Ooh, show me!”

Considering he had already subconsciously done it before, and he had seen what it looked like, it was much easier for him to imagine the sword in his hand. With a swooshing sound, the sword was once again in his hand, the light from the fire surrounding it illuminating the dim house.

“Cool! You’re definitely a fire manipulator. That sword looks pretty nice for offense. Maybe you can even create other weapons too.”

“I guess,” he shrugged as the sword once again disappeared from his hand, “I have to get used to this sword first.”

“Well then, now that we know each other’s powers, I guess we can—”

“Hang on,” he interrupted, “I’ve seen your wings, but what about your weapon?”

“Eh?”

“If I can make one, surely you can too, right?”

“Err, umm…”

For the first time since they had met, she was quiet. Noticing an opportunity, he decided to have a little fun.

“Or is it perhaps that you still haven’t figured it out yet? Imagine that, the only weapon an angel has is her ability to fly away,” he sarcastically teased her.

“S-shut up! I’m still learning, ok? Besides, y-you can’t even fly!”

She was getting flustered again, her hair straightening up like an angry cat while she tried to hide the growing blush on her face.

“You know, for a supposed angel who wants to be all serious, you sure are an open book.”

“I-I said shut up!”

As she tried to desperately cover up her embarrassment to no avail, he laughed. It was a hearty laugh, something he couldn’t stop himself from doing as he watched her reaction. It was genuine and full of emotion.

This girl was something else. She was honest and serious, yet emotional and naive. She gave off the air of someone he wanted to protect, yet also someone who could hold her own in a fight.

Despite her angelic traits, she was still human. And with that fact in mind, he took a liking to her.

“Alright, I will help you,” he declared as a result.

“Huh?”

“I said I will help you. Even if you turned out to be lying to me, at the very least, I could tease you more.”

“Hey!”

“So,” he stood up, brushed his lap, and asked, “where do we start?”