As the gray storm clouds began to gather, the first drops of rain began to fall, and the villagers were quickly ushered into the emergency shelter, they arrived.
It was a party of three. Two of them were clad in hooded robes with their faces covered by what looked like gas masks, which caused their breathing to be slow and loud, able to be heard by anyone who approached them. Slightly concealed but still visible grenades and batons were attached to their waists.
“Hello, madam. I trust that we didn’t disturb you at a bad time. We would just like to have a quick talk with you.”
The third person, standing in front of the two gas mask people, looked more normal, if not for the unnaturally wide smile and eyes that seemed like they were closed and didn’t seem to change as he spoke. He was dressed in a military uniform, complete with a pistol that was holstered by his thigh.
He was also holding something in his right hand, a cylindrical-shaped object covered by a black cloth.
“…”
Jori raised her right hand, and the hunters beside her pointed their weapons at the trio immediately.
“We have no business with you here, leave now!” she ordered.
The man laughed in response.
“I was hoping we could just have a nice chat. Once we’re done, we can leave your village alone. Otherwise…”
He gestured, and the two behind him walked forward, hands on their batons.
“…I wouldn’t want to spill unnecessary blood. Would you?”
“…”
The hunters flinched, and one of them turned his head towards her and spoke.
“Are you sure about this, Lady Jori?”
“…”
Seeing their doubt, she hesitated for a bit before putting her hand down.
“We’ll talk in my hut, but I’ve got my eye on you. Try anything funny, and I will make sure you never leave.”
The man bowed.
“I would expect nothing less.”
**********************
True to her word, as they walked through the village to get to the chief’s hut, she made sure the hunters’ weapons were still fixed on the three newcomers, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
“Ah, new people? Welcome to our village!”
When they entered the hut, her father came out of his room, arms outstretched and wrinkled face smiling.
“No, dad. Just some guests who have come to talk with us.”
“Oh, guests? Then we must have some tea!”
“No, wait…”
Before she could stop him, he had already shuffled off.
“Damn it, he should have been in the shelter,” she mumbled under her breath as they heard soft humming and clanging from the kitchen.
“You have a nice place.”
“Don’t move!” she turned around and barked at the mysterious guy, who had started to roam around the house, looking at the walls and furniture without paying any attention to the hunters fixed on him.
She turned again and moved to her table, pulling out a chair and gesturing before she sat down on her chair.
“Sit.”
The man bowed again before walking to the chair and sitting down, with his hand still holding onto the covered cylindrical object.
“What is that thing under the black cloth?”
“It is nothing,” he replied with his wide smile, “just a precaution.”
“I would like to know what it is first.”
“I’m afraid it would ruin the surprise.”
“Then, we’re done talking.”
The hunters stepped forward and raised their weapons again, but this time he raised his hand and interrupted, causing them to stop.
“I would just like to ask one question. All you have to do is answer truthfully. Then, I’ll answer yours.”
She glared at him as she motioned for the hunters to lower their weapons again.
“Go ahead.”
“It’s a very simple question.”
He leaned forward and placed his free hand on the table.
“You and I both know this world is full of bizarre phenomena ever since the end came. Beasts, crazy weather, the existence of paradise, all that stuff. However, I believe that you, if not your whole village, has seen something that could be considered… stranger than the other things.”
“Get to the point.”
“Very well.”
He paused for a bit before he finished.
“Have you seen an angel and a devil?”
As soon as the question was dropped, there was silence. She continued to glare at him, and apart from the loud noises coming from the old man in the kitchen and the quiet murmuring of the hunters next to each other, no one else spoke.
Eventually, after about a minute, she replied coolly.
“I have no idea what you are talking about. It sounds absurd.”
The murmuring grew louder, and he raised an eyebrow, the smile on his face faltering a little before returning to full force a second later.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Your soldiers don’t seem to agree.”
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“I disagree on that.”
“Why don’t we ask them then?”
One of the hunters who was murmuring took a step forward, but she shot a look at him, causing him to back away.
“That won’t be necessary,” she declared.
“What a shame. They might have had some interesting things to say.”
“It seems like you have wasted your trip.”
“Possibly,” he remarked as he leaned back, “But like I said, if you were telling the truth, you would have learnt so much more, and both of us would have been satisfied.”
“I think we’re done here. Hunters—”
“BANG!”
In a split second before anyone could react, he had stood up, grabbed the pistol holstered on his thigh and fired a shot, which pierced through the wall of the hut a mere few inches away from her head, leaving behind a prominent hole.
“You!!!”
As she and the hunters’ gazes temporarily shifted to the wall, he raised his right hand and with one swift motion, he pulled the black sheet away, revealing the cylindrical object.
Their eyes shifted back. It was a glass container, somewhat resembling a lantern. Floating in the center was a glowing orb of green light, emitting a radiance more powerful than a light bulb, forcing them to turn away to avoid being blinded by it.
The hunters moved, but the two gas mask people moved as well, pulling out their grenades and pausing with their fingers on the pins. Both parties froze with no one daring to make the first move.
“Now.”
His smile widened as he pointed both the pistol and the container of green light at her, completely ignoring the stand-off behind him as his gaze remained fixed on her.
“Let’s try this again, shall we?”
**********************
In the end, they did not get any helpful answers.
As they set up camp just a short distance away from the village, he consolidated the little evidence they did find regarding the question.
“So, they have seen them, but they have no idea where they are now,” he mused to himself, “I bet if I had pushed the head lady a bit more, she would have given me the clue.”
“Excuse me?”
As he was deep in thought, sorting out the clues, one of the gas masks spoke, his voice muffled and gravelly.
“What? Can you repeat that?”
“I said, not to ruin your day or anything, mister, but me and Nirade talked it over, and we have decided… we don’t want to help you anymore.”
“What?”
“You don’t pay us enough for this,” Nirade chimed in with an equally muffled but lighter-toned voice, “and frankly, we don’t see how doing… all of this is the best use of our talents. We want out.”
“…”
He glared at them angrily for a few moments before suddenly changing his tune, tilting his head and putting on a nice, friendly tone, all while his hand silently reached for his pistol that he had placed on the ground earlier.
“Come on. I promise, if we catch those two and bring them to her, you’ll be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams! I will pay you more than enough and you can go back to your clan all loaded! Wouldn’t that sound nice?””
“Nah,” came the quick reply, “I think we’re done, sorry.”
“Is that so?”
As the two gas masks stood up, he prepared to aim his pistol and fire at them. It would be messy, but it would be easy if they were unprepared.
“See you, mis—”
In an instant, the ground turned red with blood.
But it was not from a gunshot.
A flash of orange flames, and in an instant, the gravelly-voiced gas mask’s left arm was gone. It had fallen to the floor where it caught fire.
“……..AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! AAAAA!!!”
It took a second for the three to process it before the gravelly-voiced gas mask began to scream and clutch his stump. Nirade panicked and pulled out her baton immediately as he looked around in confusion.
“…”
Standing just a few feet away from them, a sword made from fire in one of its four hands, was a monster. No, a devil, in the flesh.
As the three of them looked at the being, it slowly turned around. On its face, they could see a grimacing mouth filled with pointed teeth. Its eyes were narrowed, and it was staring at them with what felt like murderous intent.
Yes.
Normally, anyone who saw that would have run away or cowered in fear, but he was ecstatic.
Yes!
It spoke in a low, yet menacing growl.
“Let me guess, you’re the ones who did it.”
The two gas masks gulped at the sound of the voice and stepped back, but he stepped forward towards it, causing it to turn towards him.
This is it!
A real devil. One who was willing to kill without justification, unlike that stuffy lapdog.
“Devil! Yes, I was the one who did it! Come at me!” he declared, aiming his pistol at it while preparing the container with the orb of green light in his other hand.
“…so be it.”
It charged at him with its sword ready to strike. In response, he dodged out of the way before its attack could connect and fired a few shots at him. Some of them wildly missed, but some had hit, and he could feel it flinch at the impacts, but it didn’t stop and continued charging.
“…?”
However, it was beginning to slow down. Originally moving super quickly at him, it was getting slower for some reason. He smirked as he watched the sight.
“Having trouble there, devil? You should be. After all, you don’t know what I hit you with.”
He aimed the pistol at it again, and this time it had to dodge out of the way as it tried to process what had just happened.
“You must have not learnt about Anti-Angel bullets yet, have you? Strong enough to kill a human, but also weaken beings like you!”
“Agh!” it exclaimed as it ducked and weaved, trying to avoid getting hit again.
“And that’s not all. Nirade! Prepare your gas!”
Nirade, who had laid their injured companion down onto the ground in an attempt to stabilize him, silently nodded. Removing a grenade from their waist, they unhooked the pin and threw it in its direction, where it began to spray a black gas, causing it to slow down even further as it began to choke and sputter.
“A specialty of the Gas Mask clan,” he gloated as he savoured every second of its suffering, “once breathed in, it shuts off your divine energy and causes your inhuman stamina to drop. Pretty neat, isn’t it?”
“H-how?” he could hear it say as it collapsed to the ground, the fire sword disappearing in its hand.
“Let’s just say, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen your kind around.”
“Our… kind?”
“But I’m getting too ahead of myself. I do still want to try my ace.”
As the gas slowly wafted away, but the effects were still present for it, he casually walked towards it, stopping just before it and revealing the container.
“This is what you’ve been looking for, hasn’t it? It’s a real beauty.”
As it struggled to get up, he reached towards a small door attached to the side of the container and opened it, exposing the green orb of light in all its glory.
“Let’s see how it does against you.”
As he pointed the container at it, the light grew brighter, and it began to struggle even more as it tried to move away from it.
And yet.
Despite the light shining as brightly as it could get, that was it. Nothing happened, and it began to dim.
“Well, I had expected this, but this was still disa… whoa there!”
Seizing the opportunity to strike, and having slightly recovered, the devil quickly recreated its fire sword and swung at him, forcing him to step backwards, but not fast enough, as it left a burnt cut on his face.
“Well, no matter. This is fine enough!”
He readied his pistol and fired again, forcing it to jump to avoid the bullets.
“Too slow, too slow! I thought you could give me a better fight, but seems like I was wrong!”
He readjusted his aim and fired at it in the sky, and it jerked out of the way, landing on the ground with a not-so-graceful landing.
“Tsk, tsk, you still have much to learn, devil. Especially fighting! Nirade! Another grenade!”
However, Nirade didn’t respond.
“Nirade?”
As he turned his head to look, he saw them lying unconscious on the ground. Sticking out of them was an arrow seemingly made out of light.
“Ah, right.”
"..."
Floating above them, with a loaded bow in hand, was the other one, the angel. Before he could aim at it, it released an arrow from the bow, which struck his left shoulder.
“Guess I forgot about you,” he snidely remarked before he collapsed.
The devil had finally reached him and with one swing, it had chopped off his legs, forcing him down to the ground. As he did so, it immediately kicked his pistol away and stepped on his arm, pinning him down, while the angel, still in the air, reloaded its bow and pointed it at him again.
Yet, despite all that pain, he still smiled.
“Silly me, I got caught up too much in the excitement.”
“You alright?” he heard the angel ask the devil.
“I… think so… I don’t know what the hell that was, but I’ll manage,” it replied. He could see that it was still wincing at the pain of the Anti-Angel bullets in its body.
“Heh heh…”
As soon as he let out a soft laugh, both of his aggressors focused their attention back on him.
“Who are you? What are you doing here? Why do you have all these things?” the angel barked at him.
He ignored its questions completely.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” he continued to laugh, “you two having fun playing house with these villagers when your real mission is going unchecked, that’s a serious breach of responsibility, you know. How do you think he will feel about you two goofing around?”
“Answer us!”
“It doesn’t matter for me anymore anyway. I’ve definitely upset her now, so I couldn’t care less about what happens to you two.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I had fun.”
Before the devil could speak again, he smashed the container with his hand and grabbed the green orb of light.
“Good luck.”
Those were the last words he said before there was a bright flash of light, and he was gone.
“No... no, no, no!”
As the light slowly dimmed again, all they could see was a lifeless body. An empty shell of the man who had attacked the village.
The realization slowly dawned on them. The one who most likely had all the answers on the whole situation was gone.
Anten had quickly flew down and, pushing her companion aside, pounded on the lifeless corpse in anger, in some vague hope that it would bring him back to life.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do anything, and she watched as he lay there, smile still plastered onto his face.
“Damn it,” she growled as she moved to his hand, pried the green orb away from his fingers and held it up, “we only have this to go on. And I have no idea how this thing works.”
“What?” her companion blinked in surprise at her last point.
“You heard me,” she exasperatedly replied, “I don’t know anything about the Particle at all.”
“…”
After everything that had happened over the past few hours, they finally had one of the Particles.
The first step of their journey was complete.
But at the same time, their confusing and difficult road filled with pain and despair had only just begun.