Where was this?
Everything was dark.
He recognized this as a dream he had had before. And once he
realized that, his mind grew oddly clear.
He “woke up” in the dream.
Over the past five days, he had not been able to sleep
peacefully what with being kidnapped and everything.
So he had not dreamed the entire time.
He had not once had that recurring dream.
“Adam.”
A woman stood before him.
She almost felt empty with her transparently white skin and
the way she seemed to blend into the darkness. Her hair had looked blonde in
the room’s lights, but in the darkness, its color faded to a silver instead.
And yet he could not tell it apart from the darkness. That woman,
Lilith, carried an odd impression.
“Tell me. Why didn’t you choose me?”
Deep sorrow filled her words as she leaned toward him and
guided his hand to her crotch. That sexual red flower looked quite vivid on her
white skin and it was soaking wet.
“Why did you choose Lucya over me? Why did you have a child
with her?”
“…”
He suddenly found himself in that wheat field from his
dreams.
A brown-skinned girl was surrounded by a sweet wheat scent
as she slept in a bed made of post-harvest straw. The core of the apple they
had shared had been tossed aside and two sets of clothing lay next to that.
“Avalon…why didn’t you choose me?”
“…”
Avalon was him.
He somehow knew.
He stroked the sleeping brown-skinned girl’s cheek. That
girl with unkempt blonde hair looked somehow similar to Lucia. No, it was
Lucia. He also somehow knew that and it did not surprise him.
He could no longer see Lilith, but he could guess where she
was. He looked even further out than the distant village. Apple trees, grape
vines, and fig trees were growing there and being harvested with large boxes.
Lilith sat on one of those boxes with her long, long blonde
hair falling behind her. She sulkily held her knees in her arms and snacked on
a few of the grapes.
Mutsuki walked toward her.
All of a sudden, he felt like his body was melting.
It had not actually melted. It was more like he had broken
free of some kind of membrane.
He looked back and saw a fit and half-naked young man.
He did not recognize the man, but the face somewhat reminded
him of the one he always saw in the mirror.
The young man returned to the straw bed and once more
embraced the girl named Lucya.
Mutsuki left the two of them to walk toward Lilith.
“Is that the previous Adam?” he asked her. “The one called
Avalon?”
“Yes. That is Avalon. That is you.”
“…”
Was it his past life? He kind of felt like it was.
This was probably the period of time Shuntarou had mentioned
when humanity had previously faced the rivalry and had their numbers greatly reduced
and civilization greatly regressed.
The previous Adam known as Avalon had chosen the Eve known
as Lucya and had a child. And those genes had created the current human race.
But another girl had not been chosen by Adam back then.
“Have you been waiting all this time?”
“It has been so long. So very, very long.”
He accepted Lilith as she nestled up against him.
In that instant, the wheat field vanished and darkness
closed in around him again.
“Fujita Mutsuki. Is that your name?”
“Yes.”
“An excellent name. Fujita Mutsuki, please remember my name
as well. I am Lilith, your wife.”
She wrapped her arms around to his back.
Her rustling blonde hair’s color had faded as if by exposure
to the great gulf of time. But her silver eyes retained their light and her feminine
beauty seemed to have been recognized by god himself.
She was more beautiful than any other woman on the surface
of the earth.
She was the ideal pursued by all men and he could tell she
loved only him.
He was trapped…he was swallowed up.
He felt some fear from that, but…
“Come here…you know what you must do now, don’t you?”
“…”
What was he supposed to do?
He recalled Ren and the grim reality he had seen over the
past five days.
He had been wondering for a while how he could comfort Ren.
No, he had been wondering something else even before that.
“The world was created from discord.”
God was the only perfect being in the world.
He had been wondering this ever since he had received something
that came from god.
“The human world has naught but discord. Civilization can
bring naught but discord. In all of recorded history, conflict has never
vanished from the human world. No human in this world is without sin. All life
is born into the crucible of natural selection.”
“…Yes.”
“But if there is one – just one – form of harmony that can
exist…”
“It must be…”
“Huh?”
Ange and Machina came to a stop after cutting through the Bioroids who kept
attacking even after 100 of them had been defeated.
The Enjus filling the hallway had suddenly stopped moving.
A moment later, their bodies turned into black Succubi and
melted away. All that remained were the mechanical skeletons.
“Wh-what just happened?”
“…Unknown.”
Burning away people who looked just like her had been weird,
but it was also creepy to see them melting. Ange was naturally bothered by
this, but Machina was confused as well.
The demon part of those demon-machine hybrids had given up
on living. Almost like they had lost the demonic power keeping their bodies
stable.
“Lady Lilith decided they are no longer necessary. Tch. It
would seem she has captured the Adam boy.”
“Miss A?”
Alice and Schwarze ran over to join them.
“Lilith? You mean the Queen of Demons?”
Ange must not have been informed of that part because she frowned.
“She had apparently contacted the Kurosaki Family. You have
grown careless, angels. A deal between demons and humans is the kind of thing
heaven should really crack down on.”
“If that is true, then we really were careless, but this is
the first I’ve heard of her being here.”
She accepted the fault, but she must have been frustrated
too because she made an upset jab of her sword.
Alice did not respond, but Schwarze’s eyebrows twitched.
“You really hadn’t heard?”
“Huh?”
“Stop it, you two. The Fujita boy is more important now.”
Miss A stopped the impending conflict between those two and
had the four of them head deeper inside.
But they stopped when the transmitter location began to
move. At the same time, they heard Lucia and Ren’s voices from up ahead.
“Mis B! Are you okay?”
“I am. But Fujita was captured.”
Ren briefly came to a stop, but Lucia ignored the others and
ran outside. The others decided he had the right idea and turned around and
followed him outside without asking for a detailed explanation.
“You saw Lady Lilith, didn’t you?”
Alice tossed a golden thread toward naked Ren. The thread wrapped around her
body and formed her preferred knight outfit. Machina handed her the short sword
she was carrying with her.
“Lilith captured Mutsuki? Why would she do that?”
The FeTUS members must have had some knowledge of the situation, so Ange alone
was left in the dark. She asked about it while following after Lucia.
“It is said Lilith pursued Avalon, the Adam from several
thousand years ago,” replied Schwarze. “The legends say it was her who gave
Adam the Serpent’s Eye to mark him. It is not actually known why she pursued
Adam…but FeTUS supports the theory that she fell in love with him and we have
not discussed that point very much. The problem is…”
“That Lilith is the source of all demons and a monster who
ate the Fruit of Life?”
“Exactly. If she unites with Adam who possess the Fruit of Knowledge, it will
give birth to a perfect being who possesses both of the origins of life
provided by god.”
Panic finally appeared on Ange’s face.
But she must have felt embarrassed being the only one
shocked by this information, so she tried to hide it.
“B-but who says I can trust anything you say?”
“Mh…”
She brought that up again.
FeTUS appeared to have some kind of plan here, but for an
angel like Ange, Miss C was the one who had abducted Fujita Mutsuki. It was a
bit of a gray zone whether or not she should work with someone like that.
Schwarze decided making excuses would be pointless and
sighed.
But she could not help from making one quiet comment.
“And I am not sure I can trust you angels.”
She seemed to be talking to someone other than Ange.
“I just hope that is the only traitor.”
“What happened, Miss A!?”
When the six of them ran out onto the burnt remains of the
golf course, they found Miss D who had stopped helping evacuate the hall.
All seven of them turned toward the boy and woman embracing
directly above Shuntarou’s room.
“Now, come to me, Adam…Fujita Mutsuki. Become one with me
and become perfect.”
The two were kissing.
Mutsuki shut his eyes with a peaceful look on his face.
His skin was gradually dissolving into Lilith like he was
sinking into water.
“Don’t, Mutsuki-kun! Pull yourself together!”
Lucia’s cries did not reach the boy.
He threw his scythe, but it passed right through their flesh
just like before. At the same time, Schwarze’s flames enveloped the two of
them, but it did not burn them or even warm them.
“Kh…”
They were helpless. Lucia cursed his powerlessness and
clenched his teeth.
“Angel, you’re all we have left.”
“Eh? M-me?”
“That old hag is a legit demon, so you should be able to
burn her.”
“Oh…r-right.”
As a fellow demon, Lucia was overpowered by Lilith, Queen of
Demons. FeTUS science was not enough to bend her will.
But what about an angel? What about the divine light meant
to oppose demons?
“Corona!!”
It would not burn Mutsuki, so she attacked both of them with
the blue flames growing from her back.
The divine light of her angelic flames surrounded Lilith and
Mutsuki as they mixed together.
“Gh!”
Only Lilith grimaced.
It was working. She was a demon, so she had no way of
defending against heaven’s flames.
“Gooooooooooo!”
Ange knew she could do this, so she poured as much mass into
her flame wings as she could manage.
The blue flames surrounded the two of them.
“Eh?”
But red flames enveloped the two before the blue flames could reach them.
The red flames were also holy flames. Those were the ones
used by normal angels.
The temperature was far lower than Ange’s, but since angel powers
only affected enemies, angel flames could not break through other angel flames.
The heat was blocked out as well, so Lilith’s expression softened and she
focused on kissing Mutsuki once more.
Ange was confused.
Meanwhile, the five FeTUS Witches must have been aware of
this possibility.
Schwarze in particular had been aware from the beginning.
“Jiyuuni Micha.”
“Heh heh heh.”
The source of the red flames casually dropped from the sky
above those two to land in between them and the other seven.
It was Micha.
“Eh? Eh? Micha? Why?”
Why was her one and only partner in the human world getting
in her way here? Ange was utterly confused.
She was working with FeTUS right now, so did heaven have
some other plans? She considered various possibilities, but rejected them all.
There was only one conclusion she could reach based on this
situation. But she was too young and trusting of her partner to be sure of it.
“Is that what this is, Micha?”
Her understanding finally caught up when she saw who else descended from heaven
after that woman.
A total of 14 angels slowly descended to the earth. She did
not recognize the 13 red-robed figures in the back, but she knew the one in the
front better than anyone. It was Rapha, her brother.
And since she did not recognize the 13 he led, she could
guess who they were.
“Is that Dante, the Chant Unit in charge of divine
punishment?”
Dante was heaven’s strongest combat unit.
When all 13 were gathered, their firepower was second to
none and they were the greatest fighting force heaven had to offer.
Since Ange was known as the strongest and unbeatable as an
individual, she had never actually worked with them or met them.
Sending in this unit meant something had happened to put
heaven on the highest alert level.
And if Ange had not been informed…
“Stand back, Ange. There are those in heaven recommending an
inquiry for you as well since you worked with Micha. I doubt you betrayed us,
though.”
The 13 surrounded Micha and Lilith.
“An angel who sides with Queen Lilith deserves punishment
classification Nemesis 66!!”
The flames used by Dante did not come from their backs. They
were focused from their palms for ease of use. Their flames had a golden vanilla
color similar to Metatron and they took the form of arrows.
Ange watched it all in disbelief.
But this situation could only mean one thing. And she knew
better than anyone who it was that had stopped her attack.
So she knew better than anyone that her partner Micha had
sided with Lilith.
“It seems your sister, Riselle Baran, was telling the truth,”
said Schwarze while readying her claws.
“That girl never could lie,” said Lavriel while drawing her
sword.
The other Witches also prepared for battle. Battle against
Micha.
FeTUS had received a communique during summer break. Riselle
had given them some information in exchange for Shuntarou’s safety. She told
them that a few percentage points of FeTUS’s data had leaked to the Kurosaki
Family.
An internal traitor had seemed unlikely. Riselle’s
information being false had seemed more likely than that. But the information
leak she described had begun just before summer break. That perfectly coincided
with the destruction of the sanctuary inside FeTUS headquarters. That had forced
them to share their information with the angels and Mutsuki, so they had begun
to suspect that one of the angels had a connection to the Kurosaki Family.
Ange had trusted Machina’s request for cooperation and had
even shown off her secret technique of Metatron, so it had seemed unlikely she
was the informant. But suspicions only continued to grow that it was Micha or
some angel she was in contact with.
That was the primary reason Schwarze had relied on Shuntarou
during the attack on the cultural festival.
Due to the lack of hard evidence, they had only had
suspicions before, but now there was no doubting that Micha was connected to
Kurosaki and Lilith.
“Micha…why?”
Only Ange had trouble believing it even with the truth
displayed so clearly before her.
Whatever her thoughts of this partner who had never at all
doubted her, Micha smiled a little.
“How did you like the human world, Ange? Fun, wasn’t it? I
bet your time with Mutsuki-kun was so much fun that life in heaven seems
downright boring in comparison.”
She spread her arms.
“This is the same.”
Three golden arrows were launched at once.
At the same time, the red flames surrounding Micha and
Lilith swirled around and twisted vertically.
The air current produced a whirlwind that easily redirected
the arrows into the sky.
The 13 members of Dante were clearly shocked.
And FeTUS Witches Misses B, C, and D leaped over their
heads. At the same time, Alice and Machina sent out golden threads.
But those strings snapped with the sound of melting steel.
Black Cat was known as FeTUS’s fastest, but her claws sliced
through empty air and clashed with Ren’s sword.
They briefly lost sight of Micha, but she soon reappeared
standing atop the crossed claws and sword. The two attackers’ eyes widened just
before they were kicked away.
Miss D threw a punch with a muscular arm that stretched and
swelled to 3m long, but Micha blocked it with a single arm.
She blocked the five human Witches’ strongest attacks with
speed surpassing their greatest.
Her high heel caught Miss D on the jaw and she staggered
back.
“Michaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
That was when Ange attacked.
She launched herself forward with Metatron’s flames erupting
from her back and made a slash with her giant sword.
There was no intent to kill here, but she did not hold back.
It was partially due to the blood rushing to her head, but she also trusted
Micha to be able to escape.
That blade contained enough power to bisect her if she tried
to block it. Ange’s intent was to get Micha to dodge so she could slice through
Lilith behind her.
But the blood really had rushed to her head.
The FeTUS Witches had spent centuries working out methods of
opposing angels. Even Ange, the strongest modern angel, had been caught off
guard back in April.
Micha had once been the strongest, but she was past her
prime. She should have been no match for those Witches, yet she had treated
them and Dante like mere children. Ange should have considered why that was.
She should have noticed something was odd about Micha’s
strength.
“No way.”
She only realized her mistake once Micha caught her sword in
a single hand.
“You’re an incredible kid, Ange. I never expected someone to
control Metatron at your age.”
“Kh! Gh!”
Her sword would not budge.
But that should not have been surprising when her charge had
been stopped with pure arm strength. That should have told her that Micha’s arm
was stronger than her entire body.
“Micha…no.”
Ange was the last to realize something was off, but she was
also the first to realize why.
“Is this how strong you were in your prime?”
“I thought I wasn’t so young anymore, but that’s Adam for
you, I guess.”
She laughed and looked over at Lilith and Mutsuki who had
almost entirely fused into something like a golden cocoon.
When a woman worked to protect Adam, they could draw out
100% of their power.
Ange had experienced it twice herself.
Michael had once been the strongest angel in heaven’s
history, but had she ever actually drawn out all of her power?
This explained why her power was on another level entirely
from Ange, who was only the strongest in the modern age.
“And you know what this means, don’t you? Adam is taking my
side. Mutsuki-kun wants this. He wants to become one with Lilith.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Micha! What about your duty to protect
Mutsuki!?”
“I am protecting him. I am protecting his decision as Adam.”
Micha raised her left hand with a smile.
She actually raised it before Miss A threw the knife. She
easily caught the knife between her fingers and tossed it to the ground.
Alice and Machina stared in shock.
She had blocked Alice’s surprise attack and then used the
knife to slice through the golden thread Machina had been secretly sending her
way through the ground.
She had more than strength and speed. She had even predicted
the actions of Alice Arc who used her human knowledge to create a supposedly
unbeatable foresight.
Micha did not seem to care as she cheerfully viewed the
glowing cocoon.
“Mutsuki-kun wants to become ‘perfect’. This world is too cruel
a place for an adolescent boy. Because it forces you to throw out everything
you want in order to become an adult. Although…”
Her smile contained the hint of innocence that it always
did.
“I will admit this was a fairly convenient turn of events
for me.”
thank for new chapter
ReplyDelete