“Welcome, other devil.”
“What… the hell?”
As Dauma blinked and his vision slowly adjusted to his surroundings, he realized where he had suddenly been brought to by Hikari, a familiar area that he had not seen or had unwillingly entered for quite some time.
He was standing in an empty field completely covered in snow, with his legs buried inches below the surface by the thick layers of white powder. In the far distance, somewhat blotchy and blurry but still recognizable, was a forest, appearing to be made up of the same type of fir trees from left to right, as far as his eyes could see.
The landscape was just as he remembered, down to the very minute details. However, the only thing that set this landscape apart from the last time he had been here, one that he had quickly noticed, was the absence of the mysterious person in a soldier uniform, the one who was always talking to him without fail, even if he did not know how to respond to them properly.
The only beings who now occupied the wintry space were him and, once she began to speak to him again and he noticed her presence, the fallen angel herself, who had already been standing right beside him without him realizing.
“Interesting place,” she remarked as she moved her head from left to right, taking in the white snowy surroundings, “your mind truly has a lot of potential to explore. A lot of… repressed trauma, if I’m using the right word for it.”
“… you!”
As soon as he laid his eyes on her, he instinctively attempted to move away as quickly as he could, but as his legs were currently still buried inches deep, he could only fall backwards and land on the soft ground hard, causing him to immediately sink downwards and trap himself even more in the layers of snow.
“Oof! Agh…”
In hindsight, that was clearly not the best move he could have made in the situation, and though he knew the area slightly better than her, somehow the tables had turned, and she now had the environmental advantage over him by doing absolutely nothing.
“My, my. Seems like you might be having trouble,” a light smirk appeared on her face as she bent down to look at him with her golden eyes, all while he struggled to get up from his awkward position and sufficiently recover from his careless mistake.
“You… I don’t know how you did this, but…” he spat back at her with slight indignation at her taunt, “I won’t listen to anything you say. Not until you bring me back, and I can see Anten again!”
“Oh, other devil. As touching as that is, I am not the one who gets to decide whether you can go back,” she shook her head and tutted in response.
“What?”
“I have opened the door for you and forced you to see this place, that is true, but you can’t move forward until you have stepped through it, that is the true nature of it all. You have to see it for yourself.”
She was still not making any sense to him, so he had to ask again, determined to hear the clear and precise explanation from her.
“What the hell are you talking about? What do you want me to see?”
“I’m sure you’re familiar with the Unbroken Truth, aren’t you? The technique that your companion has, the one that she used on poor Simon Bailey from the Church of Enlightenment?”
“… yeah, what about it?”
“This is it, other devil. That’s as clear as I can make it. You are in your Unbroken Truth,” she concluded as she gestured around the wide landscape they were in, using the emptiness and uncanniness of the area to illustrate her point.
“Wait, so—"
“Exactly,” she confirmed his suspicions before he could finish them, with a smug expression on her face as she did so, seemingly having expected his response, “this only ends if you face the truth, your truth, so sooner or later, you’ll have to accept it.”
“The truth…” he muttered to himself as he looked down at the white snow beneath him, watching it slowly shift and scatter with every little movement he made.
If what she was saying was true, and he had a strong feeling it was, it could be his chance to find out what the god Michael had been hiding from him all this time, what Anten did not have the chance to tell him earlier. His past that had been locked away from him.
There did not seem to be a way out for him, not at that point. Anything he could do now was all up to her whims, since she was the one controlling him. No matter how much he could fight back, it had to happen in the end, whether he liked it or did not.
There were no more misdirects. The hope that he could finally put all his questions to rest lay firmly in his mind, and gradually, it convinced him to accept the situation that he had found himself in, even if he was still not comfortable with the way that he had been brought into it in the first place.
“Alright, do what you have to do then. But no funny tricks.”
“Excellent,” Hikari’s smile widened in response, and she promptly raised her hand up to the sky before snapping her fingers, causing the landscape around them to shift in the blink of an eye.
Dauma slowly stood back up, and together, the two of them watched as the fallen angel’s technique got to work. Simple and meaningless shapes joined to create complex and identifiable structures, ones that rang a bell in his memories, even if he was not quite sure what they were just yet.
The cold and heavy sensation of the snow that he could still feel below him did not change. On the contrary, it was the only part that stayed consistent throughout the shift, indicating that whatever the memory he was about to see was, it had to have taken place outside, not inside a building or house.
Still, he was patient, and he waited for the scene to be fully constructed before he could make any proper assumptions. As the structures finally settled on the ground, and everything stopped moving around, he could finally see what he had been wanting to see the whole time.
“This is…”
Both he and Hikari had ended up in the entrance of an alley, a narrow passageway between two isolated walls that seemed to connect to buildings beyond what they could see, but it seemed that the memory was not accurate enough for them to be fully complete, leaving only the two vertical structures.
It was snowing heavily, causing the white ground below their feet to only grow higher and much denser, and the wind was blowing loudly in their ears, in a way that was not too different from what they could feel in the real world at the current moment.
Moreover, there was a foul, pungent smell of something that wafted from the alley that they were looking down, an odour of filth, of unwashed things, but more importantly of death, a smell so powerful it permeated against the direction of the wind and entered their noses without any warning.
And, as they stared, they could see where the odour was coming from, a distressing sight that lay in front of them, something that was clearly not for the faint-hearted or the weak-minded to see.
“…”
Human bodies, piled up and lining both ends of the alley. Corpses that were fresh, corpses that were soon to be, and corpses that had long since expired. Skeletal people who had given up in that small, narrow, dingy space, and who had let the brutal elements take full possession of them.
Although they were rapidly being covered and buried by the fierce snowfall, their clothes could still be made out, or rather the dirty, torn rags they had on their bodies that posed as them. Their features had degraded to the point where they could no longer be seen as normal, healthy humans, buts more like a mass of loosely-connected bones, sinew and flesh.
There was truly nothing that could have prepared Dauma for witnessing the terrifying sight first hand, and he felt sicker the longer he gazed upon it, but instead of looking away, he was instead focused on something else, someone that he had spotted just a short distance away from the both of them.
Standing in the middle of the alley was the soldier, the one who had been talking to him the past few times he had ended up in this place, only this time their face was no longer obscured, and could now be clearly seen, even if it was to the side.
“…”
It was himself, there was no doubt about it. The reality quickly settled in, and though he was not fully convinced, deep down he knew it was definitely him in the scene, the soldier standing over the rotting bodies, staring intently at them and not saying a single word.
“What… is this?”
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”
Beside him, Hikari nonchalantly shrugged, forcing him to continue watching the scene as it played out, all while dreading anything that was about to come next, a sinking feeling that only grew more prevalent once his projection began to move again.
“…”
Still remaining quiet, the Dauma projection began to raise a pistol in his hand towards the wall in front of him, towards someone lying in the jumbled mass of corpses.
Based on the speed of his breathing, it seemed that he was unsure, uncertain of what he was about to do next, the fact of which only became more obvious once his finger moved to the trigger and stayed there, trembling in place.
Considering that the body he was pointing his weapon at was still moving slightly, it only made the problem that was being shown much more painful to watch. To Dauma, it was almost like he was witnessing a car crash in slow motion, an unavoidable tragedy that was going to happen, and that he could not stop.
Still, something was amiss about the whole situation. He had no prior context on why he had done such a thing, but more importantly, he was unsure why he was being shown this scene from his memories above all else.
Perhaps this had been his first kill? That seemed unlikely, considering the amount of dried blood he could see on his projection’s military fatigues. The fact that he seemed to have been a soldier only served to prove the hypothesis even more wrong, as it was only evident that he had to have seen death before this, in some shape or form.
Then, if it was not just what had happened, what if it had been who he had done it to? Who had he been pointing his gun at? Was it one of his comrades that he had betrayed, or that he wanted to mercy kill? Given the target’s ragged clothes and dishevelled appearance, that did not seem to be the case.
Or could it have been an important person in his life, a loved one or someone he had sworn to protect? If that had been the case, the delay in his projection’s actions made sense. However, that was the only indicator of reluctance that he was seeing from him, so that theory could not be proven 100% true either.
So, who exactly was it that he was going to kill? Who had he chosen to end the life of so violently? Why did that person affect him so much that it was such an important memory to him?
At that moment, the person that his projection was about to fire upon lifted their head up weakly, and as their long, messy hair parted, one word came out of their dried, cracked lips.
“Please…”
It was a voice that he knew all too well, one that he could say he was too familiar with at this point. A tone that, at its core, sounded cheery and light, if not for the severe dehydration causing it to become strained and raspy.
“No… no…” he gasped in shock as he immediately realized who was speaking to his projection, and slowly, he backed away from the alley, but he still could not tear his eyes away from the scene.
“Yes. I believe that is what happened,” Hikari bluntly remarked as she looked at it as well, completely unfazed by the upcoming outcome, “you might not like it, other devil, but this is your truth.”
“This can’t be…”
“Unfortunately, this is the way it is. You killed people. You committed that cardinal sin among many others, and as a result, you became a devil.”
“NO!” his denial grew into a shout as he backed away even further, trying his best to force his eyes away, “there is no way… no damn way I killed her! I… I…”
“I can see now why he chose the both of you, truly poetic” she continued as her eyes smugly darted between him and the scene, “although I think it’s pretty cruel, the way this has to end.”
“Wha…”
Relishing in his confusion and panic, she pointed back down into the alley and replied, “isn’t it obvious? Once you finish your mission, you will die. If you didn’t realize it yet, that basically means that she will die too.”
“Haa… haa…” his breathing was erratic, and his sweat started to run profusely as she dropped the last bombshell on him.
“Essentially, you will be killing her again. Do you really want that on your conscience, after what you did to her before? After you murdered her in cold blood, in a place where she would be forgotten, lost to the world?”
“I…”
“Or perhaps, this sort of thing gives you a kick as a devil? Maybe you find pleasure from killing innocent girls? Well, I won’t judge.”
“…”
It was all too much for him as he collapsed onto the snowy ground once again, gripping his head tightly and mumbling to himself, as he futilely tried to get the horrific image out of his head.
As much as he did not want to admit it, as much as he knew she could have been exaggerating, the fact remained that what she was saying was most likely true. It was the genuine truth.
“You good, other devil?”
“No…”
“What’s that? Sorry, I couldn’t quite hear you.”
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“… no… I don’t want to kill her,” he lifted his head up and finally admitted.
“That’s my boy,” Hikari cruelly smirked in response before snapping her fingers again, causing the alley scene to disappear and leaving the both of them alone in the snowy field once again.
“I can’t… I can’t do it… I can’t do this to her…”
“Now,” the fallen angel continued, “shall we head back to reality and tell her the good news? I’m sure she’s probably worried sick about you at this point.”
“…”
And just like that, it was done.
**********************
“What did she show you, Dauma?!”
“Ahhhh…”
Dauma clutched his head as he kept away from Anten, in a panic to immediately get away from her. The abrupt pull-out from his own memories, coupled with the first thing he saw being her gently holding him, was sending his mind into disarray as his thoughts and emotions ran wild inside.
He had no idea what he could say to her. There was no going back from the fact that he had killed her in the first place, and that she was likely here because of him. There was no undoing his mistake, his grave sin, her blood was on his hands, and he could not bear it.
However, despite all of his scrambled feelings, he still needed to confirm one thing with her, something that would turn his dilemma and the whole situation around, for better or worse.
“Did you know?”
“Huh?”
“Did you know about me?” he managed to get his words back together before asking her in a desperate plea, with his loud voice causing her to flinch in fear, “did you know about my past? About who I was?”
“…”
Much like their conversation before the attack, Anten was silent as she looked away, unwilling to respond to his question, but after a while, she took a deep breath and turned back, giving him her honest, reluctant answer.
“… yes, I did. I was going to tell you, but…”
“… I see,” he lowered his head and replied, his worst fears all coming true at once.
“Uh…”
Seeing his depressed reaction, Anten quickly panicked. Desperately racking her brain, she hurriedly tried to save the situation by attempting to soothe him as best she could.
“Listen, Dauma… I don’t know what you saw exactly, but none of that matters right now. The most important thing is to continue with our quest, and keep doing our best. We can just… pretend that this whole thing didn’t happen. How’s that sound?”
“… are you kidding me…” he raised his head up as soon as she finished her suggestion and asked bluntly.
“What?”
“How… can you… even suggest…”
He could barely finish his sentence now, his own mind stubbornly trying to prevent him from saying anything else hurtful to her, with everything negative that was coming out of his mouth towards her making him feel sick, almost as though he was holding in bile that he did not wish to spew.
“Dauma…”
“Hold on, angel. What the fuck are you doing, devil?”
As Anten unwillingly pulled back, unsure of how to respond to this crisis, another one entered the fray and confronted him.
Blake, who had fully recovered from his paralysis, had regained consciousness as well, and seeing their conflict as soon as he woke up, he instantly began giving his two cents even though he was none the wiser.
“Look, I don’t know what the fuck is going on right now, but shouldn’t we be going after the fuckers who did this to us? Why are you guys gawking stupidly at each other like idiots? Chill the fuck out, and let’s move!”
“Mister Blake, please…”
“No! I don’t fucking care! We got humiliated, and we’re not fighting back? That’s fucking weak! What say you, devil? Huh?”
Listening to him blindly argue his point across, Dauma slowly shook his head in response before giving his simple answer.
“… no.”
“No? What the fuck does that mean?!”
“…”
“Hey! I’m talking to you! Don’t ignore me!”
His continued silence only made the young man more incensed, and as he loudly swore, he began to stomp his way towards him, determined to force a cooperative agreement out of him no matter what.
“You… will not… ignore me!”
“S-stay back!”
Dauma quickly noticed him approaching and yelled, but he did not stop. Nothing was going to stop him at all.
“Fwoosh!”
However, as soon as he got closer, he saw a bright red flash, and the ground in front of him suddenly exploded into flames, preventing him from going any further.
“What the fu—"
Stopping just before he stepped into the blaze that stretched way over his head, he quickly shielded his face from the scorching heat, all while continuing to angrily shout at Dauma amidst the roar of the fire.
“What do you think you’re doing!? You almost fucking burned me!”
“I…”
As he stood frozen with the flaming sword in his hands that he had used in a panic, Dauma’s breaths were coming out in shaky gasps. He had just pulled a sword on one of his companions, nearly hurting him in the process, and he had done it out of his own free will, with no one forcing him to do so.
It was the choice he had made for himself, and just like the memory he had been shown, it was something he could not just undo. Searching deep inside himself, his stressed conscience could only come to the conclusion that there was no going back for him now.
Every moment he spent with the group from that point onwards, with the new knowledge he had, seemed like a hollow dream to him. He knew he could not bear spending any more time with Anten without his mental state completely shattering.
The longer he stayed, the longer he knew he would eventually snap and go insane, which would force the others to take him down at great expense, and he did not want that to happen.
As such, he did the only logical move he could think of, something that could solve the current problem at hand and ensure that everyone remained safe and unharmed.
“… I’m sorry. I can’t do this anymore.”
Before the fire had completely subsided, Anten, Blake and Yuu heard his remorseful apology from behind the wall of flames before there was silence. After the smoke finally cleared, he was already gone, leaving no trace of him behind but the dying embers of his attack and his shawl.
“Fuck!!!” Blake yelled as soon as he saw the empty space where he used to be, and promptly began running down the street in an attempt to catch up to him, but he skidded to a halt as soon as he heard Anten speak again.
“No, Mister Blake. Stay here.”
“But… that son of a bitch fucking bailed on us! You really want to let this go? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you guys?!”
“…”
“How can you be so calm about this? He’s your friend, aren’t you gonna fix this? Hello?”
“… just leave him,” Anten hesitantly replied as she turned her head away from him, her face shrouded in shadow. However, although she hid her expression from him, her body remained trembling, and she could not stop herself from biting her lip in silent frustration.
As the pair continued to stand where they were quietly, Yuu, who had also been recovering her lost stamina in the background, piped in with her own question, something that was currently ruminating in all of their minds.
“… so… that’s it… is he…?”
To that, Anten closed her eyes, took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, before begrudgingly answering, “I don’t know. I’m not sure if anything between us will be good anymore. I just… need to think.”
“So, that’s it?” Blake remarked incredulously, “that’s all? That’s the end of your friendship? Next, maybe you want to tell us that the Apocalypse Cleaners has been disbanded, and that we should all go our separate ways? Is that it?”
“I need to think, alright?!”
Her response came out as a sudden shout which slightly startled him, and his protests were abruptly cut off. After a while, she grew quiet again, and amidst the intense stares from both him and Yuu, she slowly began to walk away from the both of them, making her way back to one of the still-intact houses, where she immediately shut and locked the door the moment she went in.
“…”
With the two of them left standing in the middle of the destroyed, charred street, Yuu turned her attention to Blake, who angrily clenched his fist and snorted derisively in response.
“Fuck her then. Fuck the both of them. I give up.”
“I…”
Finding no way to rebut his decision, the spirit girl just watched as he stomped off into another house before fiercely slamming the door shut, leaving her as the only one remaining who was still attempting to decide how she had to respond to this conflict.
The only thing she could do now was to head inside a house on her own and process what had just happened. However, even as she turned and floated her way down the street, she could not help but look back in the distance, at the devil who was no longer there, the man who was no longer with them.
I don’t like this, but perhaps, she thought to herself, perhaps he is right. Maybe the Apocalypse Cleaners… is in trouble.
Four members, all in some form of conflict with one another, but there was no simple solution that came to any of their minds. Nothing that could easily remedy their situation and allow them to work together once again as though everything had all been magically fixed.
As far as everyone knew, the future of the ragtag group of misfits that had been created and formed out of needs and lofty aspirations had been thrown into jeopardy, broken and torn to shreds.
And all of it, caused by the words and actions of a fallen angel and her loyal devil companion.
**********************
“Hm hm hm…”
As she flew back to the land of Paradise, the area where she reigned supreme, Hikari was humming a soft melodic tune to herself as she loosely carried Lucian in her arms.
It was a song that she could not even remember even if she tried, but that was still familiar enough that it had stuck to her head long enough for her to keep thinking about it at the most random intervals, such as the current moment.
“You seem to be in good spirits. Did you succeed, ma’am?”
“Hm?”
In no time at all, she had landed beside the entrance of the promised land, where someone was already waiting for her in front of the pearly-white gates that led to the Holy City.
The man who stood at attention and greeted her as she came in was imposing in stature, standing at a lofty height above the ordinary human, and intimidating in appearance, being intensely bulky and built to the point whereby he would automatically be noticed, even in a crowded room.
To add on to his dominating look, his facial features were not pleasing to look at either, his shaved head fitting a face that looked as though it had been squashed like a toad, being covered in several burn scars and hastily stitched-up wounds.
Finishing him up was the outfit he wore, a full military uniform complete with insignia and stains of all kinds, and something beneath that layer around his chest area was glowing black, a harsh colour that seemed to envelop him in an ominous darkness.
Therefore, it was only fitting that he had a rank that perfectly complemented his outward self, something that established authority and control over all others and that instilled unrelenting fear in them as soon as they heard it.
“Supreme Commander Borra. Are there any issues in Paradise?”
“None whatsoever, ma’am,” Borra boldly replied as he quickly saluted her, “what about your mission? Has everything gone according to plan? Have you convinced the weak ones to join us?”
“We faced a couple of hiccups,” she remarked, lifting Lucian up to indicate his current injured condition to him, “but nothing that we can’t fix. Regarding the others, I easily took care of them, so they won’t be a problem for us.”
“Well, if I may be permitted to ask, where are they then, ma’am?”
“Patience,” she pointed her finger towards Borra as she casually walked past him and through the gates, “I was not able to drive them over to our side, but that doesn’t matter anyway.”
“I… suppose I understand, ma’am,” he responded with conviction immediately, although he began mumbling to himself soon after, eliciting a smug smile from her as she gleefully watched him follow closely behind her while puzzling over her answer in confusion.
“The Goddess has returned!”
“All praise the Goddess!”
“Please heal me, dear Goddess!”
Passing through the streets of the city that lay beyond the gates and attracting cheers and cries of worship from the citizens who lined them, she did not help him. Instead, she waved, greeted and entertained her followers, all while letting him agonize to himself.
It was not until they had reached the top, right in front of her palace steps, that her amusement ran dry, and she finally relented as she explained her reasoning carefully to him.
“You see, it might be easy for me to dissuade them, but where’s the fun in that? It’ll surely be way more interesting if they continued to oppose us, don’t you think?”
“Ah, yes, of course ma’am!” he saluted her again and quickly remarked, trying his best to save face, “that makes perfect sense. I’m always itching for a good fight as well! Truly, you’re a genius, ma’am!”
“Supreme Commander.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Do me a favour and grab him for me,” she continued as she let go of Lucian and he fell to the ground limply, “then bring him down to the hospital and make sure he recovers. I need to be alone right now. Can you manage that for me?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Without needing to turn back and see that he was following her order, Hikari made her way towards the palace, all while the sounds of slow, heavy footsteps and the dragging of her companion’s unconscious body echoed behind her.
“… alright then.”
Once she had entered the enormous structure, with the polished ornate doors ceremoniously closing behind her with a resounding bang, she made sure she was well and truly alone.
Once done, her smirk only deepened even further as she began talking to herself, to no one in particular, inside the grand and profoundly empty space.
“So, did you catch all that? Huh?”
“…”
“I know you can hear me.”
However, despite the fact that she seemed to be addressing no one at all, she was, in fact, talking to someone, and that someone was closely listening to her every word and reacting to them in kind.
…
…
…
In a separate dimension that was connected to the human realm, but that no ordinary human could ever think to reach in their singular lifetime, there was a majestic kingdom hidden inside the clouds.
Within its borders were otherworldly sights, sights that changed their appearances based on the perceptions of humans and even its denizens, but once the layers of illusion and power were stripped away, what remained at its core were simple things that one could normally see in the human realm.
The said denizens who populated the kingdom could only be described by human eyes as divine and beautiful in appearance, not to mention all possessing great power within themselves that they would use regularly.
Due to their divine nature and the very aura of the kingdom itself, humanity generally only had one name for the place; Heaven, with other looser terms such as ‘the Afterlife’ or ‘Paradise’ being commonly used to describe it as well.
However, despite its shining reputation and title, the kingdom was now just a shell of its once-prosperous and thriving self. Inside it, only one denizen remained, the last holy being left standing in a silent graveyard of corpses.
He was the last god in Heaven, the sole overseer of the human realm, and although he did not wish for it, the last line of defence between the two realms, with every otherworldly event or problem that was not supposed to happen to the humans all falling on him to manage and fix.
“What do you think about my message, hm? Did you like it? Personally, I think I did a great job.”
“…”
He did not utter a single word in response even as he listened to Hikari’s unrelenting taunts. Instead, he simply grimaced and trembled with concealed fury as she continued to brag about her progress in the human realm to him.
Above all things, this was one of the biggest problems that he was currently facing, one that had the chance to ruin everything he had painstakingly gambled on.
However, most unfortunately, it was something that he had also unwittingly kickstarted in the first place, and he could never forget that fact for as long as he was still around and in charge.
“I have to say though, you have picked some interesting participants for our little game. They are certainly very promising, and who knows, they might actually stand a chance of defeating me the next time.”
“…”
She, along with her devil companion Lucian, were once entrusted by him to fulfil his one and only desire, the only thing he could think of to go forward and fix the irreparable damage caused by the end of the world.
But now, she was his biggest obstacle to reach that goal, a persistent thorn that he could not get rid of himself, lest he destroy the entire realm and send all the humans into an endless limbo.
The newest angel and devil he had sent down were his second chance, and possibly even his last hope to stop the both of them from achieving their own goals, to finish what they had abandoned in the first place.
“It’s such a shame then, that they have to be my enemies. This could have gone a whole lot simpler, you know, but you have forced my hand. From now on, it won’t be easy for them, these so-called Apocalypse Cleaners that you favour.”
“…”
Regardless, she had made her move. In one fell swoop, he watched as she singlehandedly disbanded the group he had staked the future of the realm on, alienating its members and, most importantly, fracturing the close relationship between the new angel and devil.
It was a risky move to pull off, but she had managed to do it, which thereby complicated the whole situation even further, and was consequently driving him even further into a corner, with the existing problems becoming much larger than they had ever been before.
“Trust me, I will make them hurt. I will break them down. All so I can watch your reaction as they beg for mercy. That is what I’ll do to your precious subordinates. And who knows, maybe they’ll even come to my side once I’m done with them. What do you say?”
“…!”
Although it was just words coming from a being who at the moment could not physically reach him, she had inadvertently struck a nerve inside him, and with a soft growl, he made his response known to her in the human realm with an impulsive action.
“Krrkkkk…”
Using a raven scout that he had sent down in advance, and with a quick flick of his wrist, the palace she was standing in was split cleanly down the middle, creating a crack in the floor and walls that was as thin as a hair but still very noticeable to her.
“Didn’t like that, huh? Too bad. If you really want to come get me, you can always do so.”
“…”
“Go ahead. Try it. I won’t resist.”
But that was all he could muster. In this state, with this much power he had at his fingertips, it was too dangerous for him to fully respond to her taunt. He simply could not do what she dared him to do, and her boldness indicated to him that she knew that fact as well.
“That’s what I thought. You can’t handle it. Perhaps you might want to reconsider your real value if you can’t even stop me.”
“…”
His frown grew even bigger, and he bared his teeth, unable to do anything more to her beyond risking even more collateral damage.
“Well, this was fun. As much as I love to continue talking with you, I have some arrangements I need to make. See you around, god-failure.”
And so, as fast and sudden as she had established the connection, she terminated it, leaving him to get upset by himself, which he quickly began to express with the violent grinding of his own teeth and a tightening of his fists.
He was so close, yet still so far from her, and while he could quell the growing conflict by himself before his enemies could even retaliate, that was not what he wanted to do.
The only thing he could think to do now, at this critical juncture where anything could happen, where sides could be switched and alliances could either be broken or reformed, was to have hope.
And so, he made a firm promise to himself, a determined vow that would undoubtedly continue to shake up the foundations of both the human realm and Heaven for the future to come, ever since the very first time it had been implemented.
“I need the Apocalypse Cleaners back.”
With that vow, he immediately got back to work, trying his best—even if it did not ever seem to be enough—to resolve all the new issues that had suddenly arisen for him over the past few hours.
“Please…”
For what was only the second time in his immortal lifespan, he desperately pleaded for his vow to be fulfilled, no matter what or how long it took for him to do so.
In the end, it was all up to him, alongside Dauma and Anten, if their relationship could be fixed again, to clean up the human realm and restore it back to its former self.
There was, quite simply and straightforwardly, no alternative that he could accept otherwise. It had to be done, and he was absolutely sure he would carry it out as the last god.
“… but how can I fix this?”
That was the most important question both he and Anten had in their heads following all the rapid developments that had occurred to them, and it had to be solved as soon as possible, lest it was too late, and they could no longer turn back.
“How?”
But the perfect solution to that question, like most others that came before it, still remained an elusive mystery for the both of them.
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ACT 1 COMPLETE
STAY TUNED FOR THE UPCOMING INTERMISSION