“Aw hell… damn it… damn it all…”

As the Elder stumbled out from the staircase leading to the underground chamber clutching his bleeding side, his mind was filled with confusion and sheer panic.

He was sure he had done everything right. He had diverted the true enemy away from the Goddess’ Gift and had chosen someone who he believed to be the worthiest candidate to receive it who would then take care of the present threat facing the Church.

And yet, here he was, about to die alone, with no one around to help him. Limping out of the alley, he could only think about why he did not have any contingency plans for his current situation.

In his haste to give Simon Bailey the Gift and eradicate the enemy, he had told his Circle that they needed to prepare for the fight against Anten and her team, but he had not in fact asked them to be his backup in the chamber if things went wrong.

“Ugh… damn…”

Slumping against the wall and leaving a large blood stain on it, he cursed himself for his hubris, in believing foolishly and making the wrong judgement. At the same time, his mind flashed back to Simon’s last words to him.

“I don’t need you either.”

What had the line meant? Why had Simon said that? He had no clue. The most likely explanation his mind could think of, or rather the one he wanted to believe, was that something had changed the young man before or during the second trial.

“That’s right.”

No matter what he came up with, regardless of whether he had any real information or evidence to back him up, he still believed that Anten or someone else close to Simon had influenced him negatively.

It only made sense considering that the last time they had talked, he still seemed to be completely loyal to the Church and the Goddess, showing no signs whatsoever of dissent or betrayal.

“They must be gotten rid of… I must make sure of that.”

And just like that, he continued to be dead set on Anten’s death, steadfastly believing that all of the problems would disappear once she and all her accomplices were gone. For him, that was the only way this could go.

“… right.”

Now that he had reaffirmed his belief, he felt a little better, and his side had stopped hurting as much as before. With his regained strength, he had to now decide on what he could do to tackle the situation.

Based on the noises that he could hear in the distance; he was sure that Simon was currently engaging in a fight with the enemy. In that case, he just had to make sure her accomplices were also taken care of at the same time, to avoid any further complications after.

“I guess it’s time, then.”

He hated to do this to them, but he knew that if he called upon his followers, they would gladly take up weapons and confront the threats themselves. He had trained them up for such an occasion after all.

But how would he get their attention in the first place? It would take too long for him to hold an address, and so would gathering them up in one place for it. There had to be a more efficient and quick way to talk to them.

“Wait…”

As soon as he walked back into the open, his eyes chanced upon the answer. A handy tool of communication that he had not used in years, the public address system.

If he could activate it, he could reach everyone in the compound at once and say what he needed to say to them. It would be loud and prominent, a surefire method to get their attention.

On top of that, precisely because it had not been used in a long time, the broadcast room’s location was only known to a select few followers, including him and his trusted Circle, so it would be hard for anyone, especially Anten and her friends, to find it and stop the message in time.

“I have to get there… I have to tell them…”

It did not matter if he died afterwards. As long as he got the message through, he knew that it would be received, acknowledged, and acted upon as soon as possible.

The belief that his followers, the loyal servants of the Goddess, would surely not let him down, persisted in his mind as he stumbled towards the broadcast room, desperate to fulfil his new objective.

**********************

“… my followers, I implore you to use everything you have, and make sure you do anything you can to stop all of them!”

As the Elder’s message continued, Dauma, along with Blake and Renare, had already fled the main square in order to head towards the place within the Church that was supposed to give them their needed privacy to talk.

Successfully squeezing past the attentively listening and hence sufficiently distracted crowd, they began going deeper into the compound, taking multiple shortcuts and turns based on Renare’s precise directions.

“This way—”

As they ran past multiple alleys, with Dauma carrying her in his arms for convenience and speed, her instruction was suddenly interrupted by a loud and angry shout.

“Filthy usurpers! Die!”

“Hold on.”

“BANG!”

“Guh!” the Church follower who had spotted them and was ready to attack grunted in pain and fell as Blake reacted first, pulling out his loaded shotgun and firing back at him, with the bullets quickly striking the man’s torso.

“Alright, carry on.”

“…”

“Another one.”

“You devils—”

“BANG!”

“Done.”

The scene unfolded repeatedly as they went further in and encountered more followers. Renare had a lot of inner thoughts inside her head as she watched it happen over and over again, but she could only suck them all up and continue giving the other two the right directions.

After all, if what she heard from the Elder’s message was true, she was already culpable in whatever they were doing right now and leading them down the wrong way would certainly doom them all.

They had to reach that place as soon as possible. She could already hear the raging chants of the crowd growing louder and closer, and given their size, it was only a matter of time before they caught up with them.

“Hm.”

Hearing the chants of death as well, Dauma and Blake took the hint and quickly picked their speeds up, making their way through the narrow alleys much faster, although they had to still slow down at certain times to allow her to get her bearings back and reorient them.

Is it my fault? Am I to blame for this? Did I do something wrong?

Throughout it all, she still had no idea why any of this was happening. The only logical conclusion she could reach in her head was that it had something to do with her or Simon, but she currently needed answers more than anything before she could jump to conclusions.

“Down there.”

Before she realized it, they had already reached the secret place, an area that she knew all too well and visited often. All they had to do now was to go down the staircase and they would be safe and hidden for at least a while.

“… fuck.”

However, right at the end of the very same alley where the steps were, someone else was already present and waiting there.

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“Hey.”

It was an Enforcer, with his weapon already raised and ready to fire. They could not hesitate or stop.

“BANG! BANG!”

Dauma hurriedly dodged out of the way with her in tow, ducking down and moving to the side as the bullets whizzed past them. However, at the same time, he had instinctively activated his sword, accidentally grazing Renare’s arm with it as they hit the wall, though it only left a minor burn on her.

“Ow.”

“Sorry.”

“You fuck—”

“BANG! BANG!”

“Clang! Clang!”

At the same time, Blake responded by firing back, but they were too far, and the shotgun pellets simply ricocheted off the Enforcer’s armor and landed on the ground, promptly forcing him to use another method at once.

OUTPUT: 70%

“Devil! Take her and go downstairs! I’ll take him myself!” he roared as he threw his gun down and cracked his neck in preparation.

“Right!”

“Come on, you fuck!”

As he charged towards the Enforcer bare-handed, Dauma acted as well. Positioning himself in the direction of the staircase that she had pointed out, he quickly dove towards it, tucking Renare into his body and cradling her.

In an instant, he bypassed the steps entirely, crashing down into the underground space as quickly as he could before finally releasing her from his improvised protection.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh huh,” she nodded, a little shaken by the dynamic entry.

“BANG! BANG! BANG!”

Although they had both successfully made it, she could hear multiple gunshots coming from above them, leaving the ultimate outcome of the above fight still in the air.

“Aren’t you going to help him?”

“Nah,” Dauma shook his head to answer her, “if I go help, he’ll be disadvantaged, so I have to leave him to do it on his own. Regardless, I think he’ll pull through anyway.”

“Oh.”

Sure enough, the shooting quickly stopped, followed soon after by a squelching, squishing noise. After a few seconds of waiting in pure silence, Blake finally walked down the stairs.

He had removed his helmet, showing his real face to her for the first time, and his armor was almost completely covered in blood.

“Hm,” he remarked as he attempted to wipe the blood off and looked down the steps as he scanned the underground area slowly, “what is this place anyway?”

“Well, it’s the Church’s Garden. Very few know about this place, including me, so we should be safe,” Renare immediately responded, and he pursed his lips in acknowledgement.

“I see. Nice place.”

“…”

The sarcastic remark flew past her head as she walked towards the dirty, stagnant pond before turning back to look at the other two.

“I have already brought you to my private place,” she implored them with a straight face, “now, please tell me what is going on.”

“That is what we want to ask you as well.”

“Huh?”

“I hate to break it to you, but we can only know so much,” Dauma bluntly replied as he slowly walked to her, with Blake quickly following suit and joining up with him, “you have to catch us up on what has been happening here first before we can tell you anything else.”

“Right, I guess that is only logical.”

With the looming threat of the angry mob potentially surrounding them soon, she had no choice but to give them a summary of the past few weeks, condensing and summarizing details whenever she could.

“I suppose it all started with my best friend…”

**********************

“… Brother Simon…”

As much as she did not want it to happen, Anten could see no other options available to her or Yuu in the current moment.

She had heard the Elder’s message, loud as day, and below them, the angry followers had already begun to storm the dorms, and they could hear them gradually making their way up to the roof.

Talking them all down was certainly not possible, and neither was calming Simon down, as she had already found out. The only thing that they could do now was to fight until one side went down.

Still… what powers does he have with the Particle? What are they??

Despite their determination and resolve, neither side knew what the other was fully capable of, and that was the main problem. They could not go all the way, lest some new ability popped up to turn the tide of the fight. All they could do was to figure it out as they fought.

Think, think, think. The Goddess’ Gift… worthy candidate… similar look and powers as me… gah, this is too stressful!

“Hah!”

She could not dwell on her thoughts for too long either, as Simon had begun to make his move again. Uttering a shout, he leapt high up into the air and descended towards them with both his staff and his sword aimed towards her.

“Look out!”

In response, Yuu grabbed her scythe and leapt up as well, swiftly targeting and quickly intercepting him in the air as her weapon contacted his sword with a loud and resounding clang.

“Tch! You stupid—"

He clicked his tongue and shot a disgusted glare back at her. As she moved her scythe backwards and attempted to attack again, he focused all his current attention on her and easily parried her next strike with his blade again, coming from below and trapping it.

“Ugh…”

Hearing her grunt with effort, he did not hesitate with his next action. Keeping her weapon locked in place, he repositioned his staff and pointed it towards her exposed body, deliberately aiming at the Particle in her chest.

Come on, Anten. Help her!

“Zing! Zing! Zing!”

Finally snapping out of her haze as she witnessed the upcoming attack towards her friend, Anten quickly loaded her bow before sending several light arrows flying towards him, forcing him to divert his attention again.

“Hmph, too slow.”

“Ping! Ping! Ping!”

However, although they were travelling at as fast a speed as she could manage, Simon merely sniffed in response before moving his staff back and spinning it, creating a whirling ring that acted as a shield, and he stopped them before they could hit him.

“Damn it!”

Much to her shock, he had done it completely naturally, his eyes never shifting from his current opponent Yuu, almost as if he had acted instinctually or had even seen the attack coming before she even did it.

How is he so strong? Can my arrows even work on him?

She knew one of his weaknesses at the very least, considering that Yuu had successfully landed a hit on him when he was unaware, but that possibility seemed unlikely now.

He was on high alert for the both of them, and any surprise ambushes by them, even if they could greatly hurt him, did not seem like they would be able to work on him anymore.

Another glaring weakness was the visible Particle attached to him, considering what she had learnt from Edelweiss and Yuu. However, given the current situation, it was definitely not possible for her to reach and forcibly take it from him either.

Whatever happens, we need to break through first. And to do that…

“Angel,” she instantly recalled Blake’s advice to her, “you seem to be focusing mainly on staying far away from the fight, and that is fine. However, you must also remember that if you’re ever in a pinch, you have to know how to fight close as well. There’s no guarantee that your enemy is always unguarded. Brute force is always my go-to, as it rarely goes wrong.”

“Oh man…”

Seeing Simon once again point his staff towards the unprotected Yuu, she bit her lip and muttered to herself before deconstructing her bow, leaving only one arrow in her hand.

Close-range, close-range!

As she focused all her mental strength into that single thought, the structure of the remaining arrow began to change. Within a second, thin, razor-sharp blades had formed horizontally all along the shaft before fusing together and joining up with the tip, with the end result being something akin to a double-bladed sword.

“Hyah!”

With her new makeshift blade, she did not waste any time in unleashing her wings and flying up towards the two combatants fighting in the sky, aiming to come at Simon with quick and accurate strikes.

“Tch!”

Clicking his tongue in annoyance again, Simon had no choice but to respond to the approaching angel, using his staff to block her incoming attacks. Despite the minor setback however, he did not seem to be too disturbed or fazed, and still appeared to be taking all of it in stride.

“Zzzt!”

Scythe clashed against blade on one side, and blade collided against hard, embossed staff on the other repeatedly, creating sparks that flew between them. It was a close two-way battle, and neither party was about to give up anytime soon.

“There they are! Fire!”

To make the situation much worse, the Church followers had already made it up to the dorm roof, and from there, they began to aim their guns and other ranged weapons they had taken from the armory at the three of them.

“For god’s sake!”

She was still unsure of whether Simon or Yuu could be hurt by normal or Anti-Angel bullets, but Anten knew she had to dodge out of their way as soon as she heard the cocking of weapons, that were too many for her to accurately tell, and were all dangerously close to her.

“BANG! BANG! ZING!”

Sorry, Yuu!

As arrows and bullets flew towards her, she quickly shifted her bladed arrow away and let herself fall towards the ground, avoiding them by a significant distance but also leaving the fight at the same time.

The unimpeded projectiles continued on their path until they struck Simon, but as she feared, he was not affected by them either, and they passed through his body without any blood flowing out.

“Ow,” was his only response as he did not turn his attention towards the followers, but instead looked down at the free-falling Anten and swiftly pointed his staff downwards at her.

“Hah!”

Taking the opportunity while he was distracted, Yuu removed her hands from her scythe and let it fall, unhooking it from the blade lock, before grabbing onto it once again and coming in with a swing from below.

“You…!” he cursed in response as he spun his sword around and moved it down in order to counter the curved blade once again.

“Nice, Miss Yuu!”

At the same time, Anten had stopped her fall in mid-air as the followers on the roof began to aim their weapons at her again. In the split second when he had to change the position of his sword, she pushed her body upwards with more strength in her wings that she had ever used before, and she sped towards him with one clear objective in mind.

“BANG! BANG! ZING!”

Even though more projectiles whizzed past her, she did not stop, greatly closing the distance between him and her before reaching her hand out and grabbing onto her main target, the powerful staff that she had been trying so hard to avoid.

“Guh!” he grunted as she held on and did not let go, despite his active struggling.

Come on, come on…

She knew that she was completely out of the firing path, so she was safe from any of the beam attacks, and her plan was that if she kept tugging, sooner or later she would potentially be able to disarm him and possibly even use it for herself.

Just a little more…

Indeed, with her strength, and despite his still unknown stats, she could feel his grip beginning to loosen, and pulled it even harder as a result, gritting her teeth and letting her circular hair strand stand on end as she exerted all her available power into making her plan work.

You will listen to me, Brother Simon! I will make sure of it! Just—

“ENOUGH!!!”

All of a sudden, she found herself quickly travelling downwards, but it was not her doing. Simon had, seemingly in a last-ditch attempt to regain control of the fight, stopped hovering in the air and immediately settled on going down as fast as he could.

Much like the staff, there was no time for her to react as he slammed her down to the ground at a tremendous speed and force, instantly creating a large crater in the dirt and concurrently pushing her in.

“Aghhhh!”

Feeling the resistance of the layers of dirt combined with the extreme downwards force of his strength, she yelled as her body continued to go down deeper and deeper into the ground, her hands eventually slipping off the staff before he finally released her and zoomed back up.

“Gack… ack…” she coughed up loose dirt from her mouth as she found herself several feet below the surface, no way to easily get out as he disapprovingly looked down at the hole he made before readying his staff.

Damn it… this is very bad… how exactly am I able to stop him?

Once again, the hopeless prospect of there being a peaceful resolution to the fight rose up in her mind. The foolish optimism she had at the start was quickly dwindling away, replaced only by the inevitable outcome.

How… how… h—

Bzzt.

Just as she began to sink into despair as she watched the tip of his staff light up again, she heard a familiar voice speaking to her.

Anten!

“… Dauma?”

I think I’ve figured it out.