Long before the time of the Apocalypse Cleaners, before Dauma and Anten, over 300 years ago to be more precise, legends spoke of a girl who fell from the sky.
Other than the fancy titles of Goddess, Angel or Overseer that she was commonly known by, she was also referred to by a select few as Hikari, the Japanese term for light, a fitting name for the ‘saviour of humanity’.
As it was allegedly recorded, she came down to Earth from the pillars of above unannounced, in a chariot of light almost as bright as the sun, to a world that initially did not welcome her at first.
Together, with a devil from the underworld who went by the name of Lucian that she bravely tamed and recruited along for her journey, the pair encountered monsters that roamed the wasteland and endlessly tormented the surviving humans, giant beasts mutated by the extreme climate shift.
Crabs, bears, spiders, whatever had survived the end of the world apart from the humans had plunged the surviving civilisations into misery, and would therefore disrupt and pose a threat to the angel’s mission, so she and her devil companion got to work.
To say the duo easily dispatched all the beasts was an understatement. According to almost every witness who had been saved by them, it took only seven days for them to travel all over the world, ridding almost all of the giant creatures from the surface.
Needless to say, they were both incredibly powerful in their own right, having great powers that normal humans could not wield. While her devil companion was said to be impervious to any and all attacks against him, it was the angel herself who had the more powerful techniques, both mentally and physically.
As they continued to exterminate the giant beasts, it was also noted that they were on a separate mission to collect eight orbs, all scattered around the world and immeasurable in their potential to change the fabric of reality.
Based on the abilities a user had when they were able to wield the said orbs, historians gave them several names. Whether they were labelled as Particles, Sources, or Weapons, the list went on, but regardless, there was always a general consensus on the powers they could grant.
Soul, the most straightforward and yet most difficult to understand one, capable of affecting the very essence of a human life.
Belief, the one that did not just rely on its user but the people around them, as both parties were equally benefited and affected by its power.
Desire, which tapped into the deepest, rawest wishes of a person and gave them whatever they needed, although with several caveats in place.
Energy, the most basic thing to keep anything running, giving them the stamina and power they needed to have and more.
Intelligence, the great repository of wits and smarts, with all its wielders able to solve the unsolvable problems and create the unthinkable.
Strength, the most powerful in terms of offensive capabilities, it could only be wielded and mastered by the worthiest of humans.
Love, the ‘strongest force of all’, that protected and cared for the people the wielder had feelings for, and that would also punish those they did not.
And Authority, the capability to control everything that could be controlled, to run what had to be run, and to achieve total dominance above all others.
Whoever had even just one, let alone all eight of these orbs, would have a power that could rival that of a divine being, but the pair had no such plans to overthrow anyone. Instead, they used all of their powers for the good of mankind, protecting and helping them whenever they could.
After the great purge of the giants, and the gathering of the orbs, now came time for a very important and crucial question for the two of them: How could the surviving humans be protected even further for the rest of their lives?
For that, the angel had a solution. She would create a utopia, a paradise of freedom and joy, a perfect society where no one had to suffer from the burdens of the harsh world any more. To achieve that purpose, she made several decisions that would forever change the world’s balance and struggles in the process.
She created a grand army to protect herself and her civilians from any emergent threats. She distributed the eight orbs she had painstakingly collected to reputable people or groups that she trusted. Last but not least, she made the ultimate proclamation that would decide the people she deemed worthy to live in Paradise.
“For the ones who have faced terrible hardships in their lives, for the souls who have lost their way, for the people who want their existences to have great meaning, come to Paradise and join us.”
And so it was, the angel and devil together, in charge of the last safe sanctuary for humankind, making sure they were safe, overpowering and defeating anything that disrupted their goal, and giving the world a shred of hope after an era of darkness.
For the last 300 years, that was what they did, and they never stopped, not even when talks of dissent from the rebellious groups outside Paradise began to circulate among the people.
As long as they were still around, still capable of fighting back, and still having immense powers of their own, nothing could ever change their mission, for better or worse.
**********************
Bzzt.
“Dauma, are you okay?”
Yeah, I am for now, but this is going to be bad.
The writing was not only on the wall but also spelled out in big, bold letters for all to see. Even though they were still free and able to attack, both Dauma and Anten knew that they were not prepared for the brutal fight that was about to ensue if they continued to push.
They had previously consulted with both Kara and the god Michael over what kind of powers the angel Hikari and the devil Lucian both had, and the conclusion they had all derived was clear: If they faced them at this stage, given their unpreparedness, they would lose badly, and it would be painful to watch.
Michael had even previously suggested to them that they should have ideally obtained most of the Particles before they had a chance to fight them, but even though they had two of them now, the fact remained that they had not even mastered control of either one yet, meaning they were next to useless in their hands.
In addition, they already knew what Particles their opponents were carrying, and what they could likely do based on past reports from multiple sources, and unlike them, they already had about 300 years’ worth of experience using the powerful orbs.
With those factors added together, there was only one option the Apocalypse Cleaners could take at this point.
“You ready?”
Yeah.
Bzzt.
Coming to an agreement inside their heads, Dauma nodded quickly to Anten before taking a deep breath and shouting a simple and easy to interpret order to both Yuu and Blake.
“RETREAT!!!!!!”
“… what?! Why?”
“… huh…”
“You heard Dauma, retreat!” Anten swiftly concurred as they watched the other two members’ faces fill up with confusion and doubt, “we can’t beat them! We have to run!”
“… pathetic.”
Having already primed himself up for the impending fight, Lucian snorted with deep loathing upon hearing the order, unable to believe what he was hearing. Regardless of what they said, he knew there was simply no way he was going to let their escape happen without his consent.
No matter where they went, no matter how hard they tried, he would always go after them. He had to finish the job that his trusted angel mistress had entrusted to him, and to fail her would be extremely shameful to him to the point that he would be willing to give up anything just to make up for his loss.
To that end, at the cost of his own life which he valued so little of, he would not be letting them out of his sight, nor would he be letting anyone harm a single hair on her head.
“Hmph,” he therefore grunted as he retracted his bony wings and landed on the ground, deliberately making it loud and clear so as to draw the group’s attention back onto him, before swiftly holding his breath, taking a step back and readying his blue fire sword.
The next person who moved out of the four was going to get a full-on charged attack from him, regardless of whoever it was. There would be no mercy given to any of them, and he had a feeling they knew that too.
“… you know what. Fuck it!”
And rather unsurprisingly, that person was Blake, the reckless one-eyed young man who was fuming with rage over the fact that he did not get a good night’s sleep and who would not take a full retreat from the fight as an answer.
He was not entirely clueless about the situation either. He had realized earlier how his attack had failed to hit the devil, how the bullets did not even come close to penetrating his flesh. As a result of that observation, he merely shrugged before coming up with a new plan on the fly.
OUTPUT: 30%
“How about this?!” he declared as he suddenly did a quick 180 spin and, much to his companions’ shock, took off explosively in the opposite direction, away from them and towards someone else sitting in the main square.
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“You little rat!!!”
Noticing where he was going, Lucian immediately figured out who the new target was, and with that quick realization, his surprise instantly turned into anger, and he roared as he gave chase.
“Damn it!”
At the same time, both Anten and Dauma also knew who he was heading towards. For Anten, she naturally began to panic after a split second of hesitation, before also going after Blake in an attempt to stop him, even though he already had a huge head start on all of them.
“…”
On the other hand, Dauma did also follow after the three of them, but he knew that it was futile to chase Blake at that moment. If he had to make sure what the god Michael had told them was true, he had to let him reach her under any circumstances.
On top of all that, he still had to find Lucian’s weakness, any vulnerability that he could exploit, and in order for that to happen, he needed to do something fast.
Therefore, even though he did not know how to stop him, he had to at least try his best to stall the other devil as much as possible, no matter what happened, in order to kill two birds with one stone.
Making much larger and longer strides than the others as he ran, he soon caught up with his target before going in front of him and sticking his arm out, blocking his path without any warning and giving him no time to dodge the sudden and rapid intrusion into his space.
It was a simple stopping technique, not too different from how school bullies normally would trip up their potential victims with their legs. That was the only tactic he could come up with in order to deal with Lucian for now, and if it failed, he would be at a loss of what to do next.
This has to mean something!
Something had been bugging him ever since earlier when he was getting his consciousness choked out. Now, he had to prove his theory to scratch that itch in his brain, and what he needed to find out was how the devil would react to his sudden action.
“Ha!”
“!!!”
His outstretched arm moved, as though it had hit an wall and the inevitable pushback had made it jerk away. Lucian had failed to dodge in time, and his chase abruptly ended. He had not stopped just before the obstruction, but rather he had made a uncontrollable action.
“THUMP.”
With an unmistakable sound of collision, the devil’s body had involuntarily jolted backwards and his head tilted upwards in response, almost like he had hit a wall as well and was recoiling from the impact. From what Dauma could see with his own two eyes, he had not made contact with his arm at all, and yet he still reacted as though he did.
… I knew it.
“If I can hit him…”
Dauma tightly clenched his fist as he began planning his counterattack from the new knowledge that he had been given based on that lucky hunch. There was indeed a weakness, and now he just had to exploit it.
…
…
…
At the same time, Blake cracked a gleeful grin as he cocked his gun, ready to fire at the unarmed and mysterious winged lady sitting on the big marble throne seemingly without a care in the world.
“…”
Watching him as he slowed himself down before aiming at her head, she remained silent, with her eyes hidden from the light and the smile staying on her amused face as he squeezed the trigger.
“Mister Blake! Don’t do it!” Anten shouted, but she was no longer able to stop him.
“BANG!”
His bullet flew on a straight path to the angel’s forehead. There was nothing in its path preventing it from reaching his target, that was what he believed. Surely, he knew that even if the blue fire devil could not be harmed, the smug-faced angel lady could.
Out of sheer anger and impatience, it never crossed his mind that she was lulling him into a false sense of hope, and that her apparent defencelessness could have been a trap as well.
With his enhanced eyes slowing time down for his visual perception, he had clearly seen it travel on its merry way, without halting at any point in time. However, in the next second, it had disappeared, and he had suddenly stepped backwards as a piercing, stinging pain suddenly ran through his body.
“Guh!”
As he grunted and looked down in confusion at the sensation he felt, he could see the dented bullet right below his feet, having fallen to the ground after hitting him squarely in the chest cavity.
The fuck? was all his mind could think about as he tried to figure out what had just happened to him.
It was not that the bullet had just stopped in mid-air thanks to some invisible shield. It was that it had stopped, turned around, and went back towards him at a blazingly fast speed, so fast that he could not even see it before he felt it.
And throughout all of it, the angel continued to sit on her throne, looking to have not lifted a single finger of her own to do something to the bullet, let alone reflect it back onto her attacker. As much as it was unlikely, the reversal of his attack had not seemed to be her doing.
“Fucking…”
In an even worse mood now thanks to the unexpected attack, Blake furiously lifted his gun again, not bothering about the potential ramifications.
“MISTER BLAKE, STOP!!!”
But before he could fire again, Anten had finally caught up to him, having deliberately kept up her speed before ramming headfirst into his body without decelerating, pushing him down to the ground in a flash.
“Angel lady! What the fuck—”
“Don’t,” she replied, her panic still present in her tone as she lay on top of him, “I told you not to attack her! We are not prepared for this right now! We need to come up with a plan first!”
“But she’s just sitting there! Surely I can…”
“It doesn’t matter!” she shook her head before explaining it as clearly to him as possible, “we can’t fight her! She has the power of two Particles protecting her at all times!”
“Two Particles?!”
“We have to move, now!”
“Heh.”
For the first time since they had first noticed her, the angel Hikari slowly moved her hand up to her mouth and laughed, a soft yet cruel sounding noise that reached the both of them and sent an involuntary chill down their spines.
**********************
The Eight Particles.
Despite having given them away once they had collected all of them for reasons only they themselves knew, it would be foolish for anyone to believe that the first angel and devil had not at least retained some of them in their possession.
If there were very few things on Earth that were more powerful than these eight orbs, all they had to do was to hold onto them, and they would almost certainly be unstoppable.
Neither Kara nor the god Michael were absolutely sure on it due to certain circumstances preventing them from doing so, but based on the unique effects they had both heard, witnessed or observed in the past, it was clear which ones among the eight they had kept for themselves.
The first Particle was carried by the angel Hikari, and it was one that was suited for her job as the de facto leader of Paradise. It was supposedly based on Authority, and its main purpose was to control and oversee everyone and everything.
No one could hide from her reach so long as she continued to use it. With just a few simple verbal commands, she easily brought even the strongest beasts to the ground, rendering them completely unable to fight against their will.
Her eyes, her ears, her mouth, her hands; everything that she could utilize she did, and it was with her kind and gracious façade combined with the ability of absolute control that gave her the well-known nickname, the Overseer of the Wasteland.
It was nearly impossible for one to not be affected by the Authority Particle. Even if they were eventually able to break free of that control, it would require a tremendous amount of willpower and strength in order for them to even do so, leaving them weakened as a result.
In addition, they would have still most likely been caught unaware by any of her given commands, as her recorded tendency to keep to herself made her an unpredictable being to assess, even for the people who knew her the best.
Because of that unpredictability, she was still currently the biggest threat to the Apocalypse Cleaners, even bigger than her devil companion or the supreme commander of her elite military force.
When they had learnt of her ludicrous powers, both Dauma and Anten had been on tenterhooks even before they had met her, constantly wondering over when she would use it against them and bring her under her control.
For that reason, because they both knew they were not ready, they both had made it a point to avoid any possible conflict with her if they could, and to try and focus on making a quick retreat as much as was possible.
As for the devil Lucian, the Particle he was using for his own benefit was more difficult to accurately deduce, but the common theory by Kara and Michael was that it was most likely the one that dealt with Love, the ‘strongest force in the universe’.
“Love?” Blake asked incredulously as soon as Anten had helped him up and told him of what they were facing as they ran into a house close by to hide from Hikari’s sight, “I can understand Authority, but Love? How the fuck is some cheesy romance gonna help her?”
“You don’t understand,” Anten panted in fear as she closed the door before holding it tightly shut with her body, “Love isn’t something you can take lightly. In the right hands and with the right mindset, it can be incredibly powerful.”
“How so?”
“You’ve seen what the devil did, haven’t you? How he talked about her and how he reacted when he saw you trying to go after her? That’s the kind of person we’re dealing with.”
“… oh,” Blake replied, finally calming down his blind rage and understanding what she was attempting to get at as he raised his finger up to his chin and his face grew more pensive.
“Yeah…” she nodded grimly, letting the reality of their hopeless situation settle in for him.
It was not hard to realize it after some thought. Given the personality of the man they had just tried to fight, it was evidently clear that his relationship with Hikari was not the healthiest, to say the least. Needless to say, that insane obsession only served to make his control over the Love Particle even stronger.
“The Love Particle,” Anten slowly explained, “gives its user the power to protect his loved ones, and anything they feel great attraction, affection or are close to in any way will be included. Anyone who attempts to harm them will be considered automatic enemies and will be stopped, one way or another.”
Redirecting any and all attacks back to the source and ensuring that their love would remain unsullied was all part and parcel of the package for the user of the Particle. So long as their affection remained, the target of said affection could never be harmed anymore.
“And what about the devil himself?”
“He’s not under its influence, otherwise all of our previous attacks would have immediately returned back to us as well. However, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t protected either, as we have unfortunately found out,” Anten added with a solemn look in her eyes.
An invisible shield that could not be bypassed. Possession of the Authority and Love Particles alone could not explain that phenomenon, so the only other explanation for that was much more simple.
“It’s his technique,” having come to the realization himself, Blake finished her statement, “much like our devil’s fire powers. A shield to protect him at all times, like he does for the angel.”
“That’s right.”
In order to even get any attempted attacks through to the angel, they had to strip the Love Particle’s powers away from the devil first, but his own personal shield prevented any attacks from reaching him as well. It was a horrifyingly perfect synergy, truly a match that was made in heaven for the two enemies they were expected to beat.
“So… that’s it then?” Blake spoke with visible frustration after brooding to himself for a while, “we’re just supposed to fucking retreat, like what you and the devil suggested? We can’t even beat them? We’re running far away and hoping that they don’t catch us?”
In response to his claims, Anten shook her head after a short pause before stepping away from the door she was leaning against and calmly responding.
“As much as I hate to admit it, we can’t run away either. The only thing we can do now at this point is to fight and win.”
“What?” he remarked, repeatedly blinking at the visible contradiction in her answer.
“Think about it? If you were them, would you let us go? Or would you keep relentlessly chasing us until we learn in the end that fighting is the only solution left? This is a test for us, Mister Blake, they’re assessing us.”
“A test…”
At the mere mention of the word, Blake tensed up, his eye twitching as his body language shifted from being frustrated to a strange mixture of open fury and panic. It was a disgusting and atrocious word that had been perverted beyond measure in front of his eyes, and one that he could not stand for.
“Mister Blake? Are you okay?”
“Not on my fucking watch,” he loudly swore, startling Anten, “I will not be assessed by some fucking formal-looking lady and her little bitch. Never… fucking… again!”
“…”
However, even though his rage was boiling once again, this time he hesitated before charging out again, remembering what he had learnt. So, as much as he hated to do it, he begrudgingly did what he had to do to win.
“We need to come up with a plan, angel.”
“Oh.”
Initially worried about his returning state of anger, Anten gave a small smile before sucking in her lips as she began to brainstorm, trying to come up with any kind of strategy, something that was available for them to use at the current moment.
“Uhh…”
Something I could use… I don’t suppose my Unbroken Truth would cut it, not as long as his shield is still up…
“Angel,” Blake continued as he also dug deeply into his own mind to find his own solution, “before I can come up with anything, I need you to confirm something for me. You told me that you guys still have stamina limitations, so the devil’s shield will run out eventually, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, assuming he doesn’t have that other Particle…”
Something, something…
“Then, what about that?”
With a snap of his fingers, Blake had come up with an idea. Based on his predictions, there was a highly likely chance that Hikari and Lucian already knew about it, but regardless, it was no surprise that Anten still had hidden tricks up her sleeves, extensions to her existing capabilities that she could still deploy.
In particular, one of them was a technique that she had been taught by the god Michael, something that she had told the Cleaners but had never used before, considering its possible collateral damage.
But more importantly, it was an offensive ability that could potentially level the playing field for all of them, and bring the untouchable enemies sitting atop their lofty throne back down to Earth.
“It has come to this, huh?” Anten muttered to herself as Blake gave her his strategy. The golden opportunity had presented itself to them in their time of need, and now they had to formulate their counterattack with intense focus.