“Alright, come at me then... I’ll show you a punch that can create miracles.”

It was a line that sounded good at the time, however, there was one problem with it… that deflection was a total fluke. I kept missing any time I aimed at her, so I had thrown out a wild reaction with no direction intended and it had worked.

“Shut up!” the angel roared, her wings propelling her towards me in a burst of blue energy.

Time seemed to slow down for me, as my brain tried to calculate every angle of her approach. I had to break through her ability, her Saocant Urvan. It was the source of this insane speed… wait, that’s wrong. Her speed is her speed, an ability granted by her spiritual energy alone, not a unique skill only she possessed.

That power, that special ability is why I can’t hit her even if I speed up to as fast as she is, as I had been doing. But what was it, what was her secret? I had to crack the code, I had to break her down in order to pull her out of this sludge she’s trapped herself in.

She flew at me, there were three seconds between us. One, she grew closer to me. Two, she raised her sword, and I prepared to dodge at the last second. I began to move to the left to avoid the telegraphed angle of her slash. But her sword slashed into my side at exactly two seconds into her charge. Two seconds, when her speed would bring us into contact at three.

“I knew it, it was just a mistake, you didn’t escape my Godspeed at all!” she laughed, sliding to a stop behind me, about four seconds away from me. I had to distract her longer while I figured out the trick, so I did what seemed to work best, talking to her.

“You’ve never killed anyone before, have you?” I asked, turning to face her. My body was covered in wounds, some lethal to a normal human, but I wasn’t human anymore, and she knew that, she knew these wouldn’t kill a Daeva, and definitely wouldn’t kill me. “Not really, at least. Berserk Shards, they lose their humanity, their personalities. You can slay them without blinking… but what about me?”

“What the hell are you talking about, you vermin?!” she dashed forward, her sword biting into my right thigh as she passed me, three seconds into what I determined to be a four second lunge.

“That’s just it, you have to justify it, call us vermin, lower than rats… you wouldn’t feel bad killing a rat, would you?” I laughed, shrugging off the pain in my leg, the final point I was about to hit her with right there. I slapped my leg, emphasizing the new injury. “You’re right, I can’t see past your Godspeed, I don’t know what’s going on at all. You have free reign to kill me, any time, hundreds of times over. I can’t keep up, never even came close to hitting you a single time… so why am I still standing?!”

“H… Huh?” She stopped, looking confused. She looked at me, covered in blood and cuts, though many of them were already closing up with my accelerated healing factor. Then she looked down at her hand that gripped her sword, and I noticed a slight shake in her body.

“Come on then, kill me!” I shouted, holding my hands out to the sides. I was an open target, literally asking to be skewered by her blade. “I’m in your way, aren’t I?! I ruined your reputation with your precious Father, stained your honor, right? So come on then, kill me!”

“Shut up… shut up, SHUT UP!” she screamed, her silver eyes flashing with a violent fervor.

Five seconds between us, even with her insane speed. She charged me in a rage, flying in a straight line. My mental assault would prevent her from doing any tricks and changing her angle of flight. No, she was sure to come right for me.

Four, as she approached, I pulled back my left, armored hand. The purple energy of my aura surged around my fist, concentrating it all at a single point.

Three, my vision is nothing but her lunge, I’ve blocked everything else out. In two seconds, I’ll be dead, her sword is aimed for my heart. Except that’s not right, is it? What happened, every single time I tracked her speed?

Two, I threw a punch towards her. A blast of purple flame shooting from my gauntlet, forcing my fist into hyper speed. Faster than I could move, faster than I could react, faster than she could react.

Her golden sword scraped against my silver armor as we flew past each other. My feet dug into the ground, forcing myself to stop before I crashed into an old unused school building.

“Once is a fluke, so is twice… but a third time? That’ll be concrete proof.” I smirked, rushing back towards her. She recovered from her charge and thrust her sword out towards me. I threw a punch just a moment too soon, before I was in range of her.

I landed behind her, her sword flying out of her hand. The blade twilled through the air, sticking into a nearby tree trunk. Saraviael stood behind me, motionless, frozen in shock.

“It was a good trick, but that’s all it is, a trick.” I turned back to her, my arm curled and ready to throw a heavy straight punch with my dominant left hand. “I don’t know exactly how you do it, but I can figure out the outcome of it… you’re always one second faster than me!”

“..!”

She reacted wordlessly, proving I had assumed correctly. Her body shuddered, but she quickly recovered, her sword magically flying back into her hand. She turned back towards me, her expression unchanged.

“What does it matter if you figured it out? You still have to execute on it, and you can’t even see my movements after I’ve shifted my time axis forward!”

Like a soaring eagle, Saraviael leapt into the sky. Her shining golden longsword, a sword that could only exist in fantasy filled with divine power. Holding it above her head with both hands, she swooped down to strike. Three seconds, a mere three seconds to react, I barely had time to throw a punch, but I had to do it.

The demonic power of Ahriman flowed through my arm, gathering in my left fist. My dominant hand curled into a ball, and with a swift thrust I threw a punch towards the free falling angel. Not at three seconds, not at two, but at the first second of her dive. An absurdly early, destined to miss blow.

But my fist, my weapon of choice, scraped against her sword. Showered in sparks, my armor slid across the edge of her blade. The silver armor tore apart, my arm’s flesh ripping to shreds, but I didn’t stop my body’s movements. Crashing against her armored chest, my fist rang out with a thunderous crash. Her breastplate began to splinter, and she stared at me in disbelief.

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“Maybe this will wake ya’ up, idiot!” I shouted, pouring more energy into my fist.

A sound like a gunshot echoed across the school grounds. Her armor exploded off her body, her body pushed back with an intense force as my aura erupted from my fist. A shockwave rocketed across the area, and the angel was sent tumbling across the field. Her body bounced hard against the ground three times, before being slammed into the abandoned school building’s outer wall, and then she fell to the ground.

“Fa-ther…” she mumbled, mentally broken on the floor. Even if she could still fight physically, the battle was over. The angel rose to her feet, unsteadily. Her shattered golden armor fell to bits around her, completely broken apart. “Help me… please…”

I looked at the angel, her pittable state hard to watch for me, but I had brought her to this point. The bruises and scrapes on her body, the blood staining her pale skin and white hair, I had caused that at this moment, with this fist of mine.

“No, please don’t abandon me! Your voice, let me hear your voice one more time… let me bask in your glory again!” she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she stared up at the sky, her hand reaching out to the open air.

I walked towards her, barely able to stand as the adrenaline bagan to wear off in my body. I reached out my hand to touch her, but she quickly shrieked back from my touch.

“G-Get away from me, I don’t need your pity!” she screamed, throwing a weak punch at my face. I didn’t dodge it, and it caught me on the cheek. I barely felt the impact at all, her power was completely spent.

“Die… die... die!” she desperately pounded her fists against my body, but her tired arms hardly caused me any discomfort. “If you just die… then Father will, father will!”

“He won’t do anything, because he’s a cold and uncaring bastard.” I responded, and she froze at my words. “You angels have it easy, you weren’t reborn with the memories of that hell we lived through. After Awakening, I can’t unsee it… those atrocities he committed, He is not a just god!”

“Y-You’re lying, you’re the devil, a deceiver!” She shouted, pushing me away weakly. She was completely distraught, unable to listen to what I was saying. I didn’t expect her to go along with me so easily, but I have to do this, I need to save her, however...

“I…” I tried to think of anything to say, but I wasn't able to find any words that could help her. Not while she was like this, she needed time, probably. “You’re right, I’m just the Lord of Destruction, Ahriman, all I do is ruin everything, so get the hell out of here before I destroy you too!”

“You… I’ll make you pay for this, scum!” she cried as her broken wings spread out behind her. She slowly floated into the air, and then she shot up into the sky rapidly, disappearing into a low hanging cloud.

I turned around, dragging my incredibly messed up body towards the unconscious body of Yuuki Raza, who only stirred slightly as I knelt down next to her. I had intended to pick her up and carry her to safety, like some sort of superhero, but that unfortunately did not happen. My head hit the ground, and I blacked out.

“Urgh… the fuck happened?” I looked up, groggily. My body was stiff, but the pain of my wounds was nearly gone. I looked around my surroundings, I was in Raza’s apartment.

Folded on the coffee table in front of me was a set of clothes that looked newly bought, and they matched the uniform I just wrecked. I wonder when she had the time to buy those, or how she knew my size?

I began to sit up through my fatigue and injuries, but I noticed a heavy weight on me. And there she was, my classmate and fellow warrior of darkness, Yuuki Raza, asleep on my shoulder.

“A-Ahriman-sama...” she spoke softly in her sleep, her voice was calming and at the same time it made my body feel strangely warm. I wanted to get up, but In the end, I decided to let her sleep, and closed my eyes alongside her.

It had been a long day.

-

Partially due to the unexplained destruction of a third floor hallway, but mostly because of what the news was reporting on right now, school had been postponed for at least the day. On the television before me, a tv anchorwoman discussed the disappearance of one of my classmates, Sugiyama Kouta.

Of course, I knew what had really happened to him, and he wasn’t going to turn up any time soon. Even if they found his body… wait, what ever happened to his body? Anyways, he had been twisted beyond recognition at the end, so they wouldn’t even know it was him unless he had his ID on him or something.

We hadn’t been friends, I don’t even remember talking to him. His final words to me echoed in my mind, not because of the actual words, but the meaning behind them. He told me to die, and asked if he was finally giving me a challenge… for someone I hardly interacted with, he really had some hangups about me.

I had almost forgotten about him during my own fight for my life, but reality came knocking, as did someone at our actual door. For some reason, I didn’t move. Maybe the news program scared me, part of me thinking it might be the police at the door, thinking I was responsible for him disappearing?

So the task fell on my very sweet and caring mother, who hurried to the door with a “coming, coming!” call, and once she answered it she looked back to me and called out.

“Takeru…they’re here to see you, why didn’t you tell me you had a guest coming over?” she smiled, not used to me bringing any friends over… because I didn’t have any. Which means, the person at the door was...

I jumped up immediately, a pain shooting through my body… looks like I wasn’t fully healed yet, but I soldiered on and ran to the door. When I saw who was at the door I wasn’t sure it was her at first, since I had never seen her wearing anything but her school uniform, even at the bakery.

Standing there was Raza, wearing a shockingly frilly pink and white dress. It was so cutesy it reminded me of the costumes of cartoon magical girls I had watched as a kid, and it was a stark contrast to the vicious armor her Daeva form sported. Nervously, she stood in the doorway holding a bag, not sure if she should come in or not.

“Hey… what’s up?” I asked, hoping to break the ice with her. She fidgeted and then shoved the bag into my arms.

“S-School is out, but I told you I’d make it next time…” she blushed heavily for some reason as I took the bag of lunch boxes. She averted her eyes from me, nervously rubbing her arm. “I-It’s probably bad, I don’t do much cooking… w-why are you looking at me with that weird expression?!”

“Huh, oh, I didn’t realize…” I replied, not sure what sort of face I had been making. “I just… your dress. It um, it looks… cute on you.”

Her face turned even redder than it already was, and she ended up running out of the apartment before saying another word. And I was left standing there, dumbfounded. I had had similar encounters with fangirls before, but never in my own living room.

“I see, I understand why you’ve been late so often recently, Takeru.” My mother laughed softly, closing the door behind the fleeing Raza. “What a lovely young lady, is she your girlfriend?”

“As if!” I snapped, my face flaring red as I turned away from her. “She’s just a school friend, we started walking home together because she was scared of everything that was going on in the city, you know… cause I’m like, strong and stuff.”

“Yes yes, you’re my big strong girl who always picks fights with boys.” she smiled at me, wrapping her arms around my back in an awkward hug. “But I’ll always love you, no matter what you are, you know that right? You don’t have to hide from me if you want to bring home a girlfriend...”

“I’m serious, we’re not dating! We’re not!”

But I couldn’t stop thinking about Raza’s dress, my heart beating ever so slightly faster than normal. I continued to deny it, but the claim was starting to feel rather weak… no, I really am straight, right? I’ve never liked other girls before, why would it start now?

Dammit Ahriman, this is your fault somehow, I know it is.