Teil Ein.

“I must go.”

“Id-”

After saying so, Engel left leaving a sonic boom and a single trail of white energy behind and a complain of a girl who hated yet loved that impulsive feeling of his….

“-iot as if I’d let youuuuuu!!!!”

Shouted Lene with all her strength and with the little [Mind] she had, she created some Ice Chains thanks to her [Create].

The chains were so fast that in a blink of an eye, these were able to caught Engel who was single mindedly going towards their world.

“Are you wrong in the head?! what the fuck are you doing?!” Scolded Lene while pulling the chain and bringing Engel back.

“Le-Let me go! I must help them!” Said Engel while trying to free himself of the ice chains.

“Of course I won’t! Think this thoroughly! You’re going to pointlessly die there!!” Added Lene while tightening even more the chains. Izaak was just at the sidelines, ignoring them and seeing through the crack in the dimension and spot what Engel had just seen.

“Eat this!” Said Lene as she made some ice with [Mana] and put it inside Engel’s mouth.

“Just cool down already! If you go you’ll die!” Said Lene with an angry look in her eyes.

Just as she said that, all the information Engel had blocked in his panicked state was released and mentally, he made a dimensional facepalm due to his actions.

“See! If you go out without protection you’ll die! We can’t resist that void environment without our armors! Also, who says that beast you saw would not attack you?! Moreover, you could have just teleported! There was no need to go flying like that you know!” Voiced Lene with a scolding voice and shaking Engel by his coat’s neck.

“I-I know! Just let me go already! I get it!” Said Engel while trying to take off the chains.

“You’re always so level headed… It annoys me when you suddenly jump like that... It’s been like this since Shirayuki’s…” Added Lene while muttering her final words. Engel was still trying to put himself together so he didn’t notice those last words even with his sharpened senses.

“And so what do we do now? Is that… I mean, the canyon, is it stable? The time fluctuations and all that is the reason we don’t stay there right? How many time do we have? I do acknowledge that thing is dangerous and all, but how do we… What?”

““........””

As Izaak was pointing out the main point of the situation, he was being stared at by Lene and Engel.

((He… He... He’s actually right?! Izaak is? He’s thinking this thoroughly? Really?))

Thought both Lene and Engel, as if their minds were one at the moment.

“Hey, hey! Why do I feel you’re thinking something mean ‘bout me? It’s not like I do everything rashly do I?” Commented Izaak as he pointed to his companions. After all, he lived up to his title of [Justice Idiot] and whenever help was needed, he would jump without a second thought; as if it were an automatic reaction of his.

“Well…. If I’m not wrong, that beast is affecting the flow of time around the dimension, so it will remain at a “fixed” pace around it- Around the part that it’s outside the dimension.” Explained Lene while looking towards the point Engel saw; there, she could faintly see the “tail” of the beast. The thing that caught Engel’s attention.

“Yeah- We don’t know how many time it has been there, but we don’t have to worry it being more than 1 day.” Concluded Engel.

“Ye~s; and you tried to rush out there without any second thought though.” Mocked Lene with a faint smug face.

“So, what we must do is to leave this place as soon as we can. For that, unfortunately we have lots to do.” Declared Engel as he contacted his companions.

[Shirayuki, how’s the cleaning going?] Asked Engel with the [Wake Up Call].

[Just fine. If my sense don’t betray me, thing they never do, there must be less than 500 [Asterisk]. Something like that I can manage just fine.]

(I see… Impressive as always, that perception of hers…) Said Engel in his heart before he continued.

[Alright. I’ll leave that task to you.] He ordered while changing the channel.

[Krestin, how is it going? I mean, the controlling process.] Questioned Engel as he was slightly worried they could still don’t make work the control of their [Lanzen] + [Mind].

[It’s okay. We just managed to do it. Also, I saw you were trying to leave, what’s going on up there?] Asked Krestin with an inquiring tone.

[I-I’ll explain that later. By now, just go and look around to help people.] [Isold, it seems I lost contact with Mr. Cole and co. Can you go to take a look?]

While asking Krestin about her circumstances, he also contacted Isold in order to look for the ones who might be affected by the sudden explosion of [Mind] force, namely their [Parallels] and Mr. Cole.

“Let’s go then.”

Added Lene as Engel finished the managing and they three teleported towards the [Triskelion].

Teil Zwei.

“I see… So Ártemize is with Mr. Cole. I’ll try contacting her.”

Said Engel as he left to see how the injured were doing and contacting Ártemize on the way.

“And so- Ye are?” Asked Lene while looking Frederica from head to toe. After all, Engel faintly mentioned to them (behind the scenes) about two companions, yet he never said one of them was actually a beautiful, matured-aura [Arche].

“Frederica Silber, nice to meet you.” She said with a gentle smile. Of course, Frederica had dark intentions behind her expression.

(Tch! Engel keeps doing it and doing it… Isn’t he getting tired of this?) Shouted Lene to herself with annoyance in her heart. She was fed up with the fact that Frederica didn’t react at all to Lene’s disrespectful behaviour; after all such tone and expression are not fit at all for a first meeting.

“Excuse me, but I must ask about something.” Said Frederica leaving behind her teasing mood. After all, she faked gentleness in order to upset Lene a little bit.

“Yes?” Lene, noticing the mood, also left her feelings apart and gave her attention to Frederica. At this time, Izaak had already left in order to check the airship’s functions.

“A while ago, I spent a little time with this girl… Autumn was it? How much do you know about her?” Asked Frederica.

“Autumn? Well, the usual I think? Respectable, honest, trustable, diligent, level-headed… Most of it, with a great mental strength and will. Why do you ask?” Replied Lene while slightly suspicious of Frederica’s intentions.

Why did she want to know? What’s she going to do with what I say? Do I tell her a more proper answer? Should I trust this new “companion” of Engel?

While such ramblings were crossing Lene’s head, Frederica bashed all them to oblivion.

“Calm down. I am not an intelligent person but I can see very well people’s intentions; and now, I can see how you’re struggling with you small thoughts there.

I’ll go straight to the point. I am no scheming nothing not trying to do anything behind scenes. By the moment, I just want to warn you about that little Autumn girl. She’s seriously bad news.” Said Frederica with a face of concern.

Whether that concern was for Autumn, Engel or Frederica herself, Lene didn’t have a mean to know.

“Bad news?” Asked Lene out of curiosity… And because she needed to know what Frederica meant with her words.

“Yeah; She has this weird aura around her that makes me feel unease. I know that is not convincing but let me explain- I interacted with her and saw how her reactions to certain words and situations were; I also heard a little of her backstory thanks to Engel, so, be careful with her.

It seem she’s really obsessed about Engel to a level of a church fanatic of the worst type. She’ll do anything under the pretext of aiding Engel, even throwing away her own life. That’s why, be careful.” While walking towards the direction Engel walked to, Frederica warned Lene about Autumn’s behaviour.

“Wha-Wait! In the first place, whether this is believable or not, why are you telling me this?”

(Why me and not Engel? Why is she doing this?) Thought Lene while asking Frederica her reasons.

“Well, let’s say it’s partners’ consideration. Even if we don’t know each other that well yet, due to our link called “Engel” we’re companions now. Don’t think too much about it and just keep an eye on that girl.” Added Frederica with a mature smile without any second thoughts and left, looking for Engel.

“Tch! If I could just do cold reading… Haaa…”

(I’ll trust Engel’s judgement. Also I bet she hasn’t told this to Engel due to him being too lenient and moreover, being the main source of this problem… Probably? I need to give some thought to this matter after all. Damn complications just keep popping in from everywhere…)

As she saw how Frederica left skipping, Lene put a hand on her chin and started to wonder about what was told to her while going towards Izaak’s location.

At this time, Engel had already contacted Ártemize and talked about what happened to her, and also checked on the injured. The injured were already alright; they were only napping for a while.

He was now walking towards the command room where Izaak should be. He was expecting some contact from Krestin and he was trying to reach Isold on his way.

[Isold, did you find Mr. Cole?] He asked; Ártemize had already informed him that they hadn’t encountered Isold at all, there’s where he realized his mistake.

[... No…] She replied. Engel then stopped and sighed. He knew very well Isold. It wasn’t in a way like knowing Lene as a best friend, or Krestin as a lover, but as a troublesome sister that always needs help.

[You’re lost, right?] He added while placing his hand on his head.

[... N-No…] Said Isold with a slight waver in her tone.

[Just as I guessed… Wait where you are, I’ll go get you. Also if there’s someone you can help, do so. It’ll take a while after all, I need to do something else quick] Said Engel as he cut off the talk.

(I dared to forget Isold is reaaly bad with detecting people… I gotta hurry now; it’s not like we have infinite time… We need to go there as soon as possible...) Thought Engel while teleporting directly where Izaak is.

Meanwhile-

“I get lost… Easily…” mumbled Isold while sulking amidst debris of a building.

Isold has low INT, which not only affects her [Mana] based attacks, but also her actual intelligence, which means that- Confusing things awe her.

She can’t move around too much or she’ll get lost, also things like math and logic are not her forte.

“Uh? … That is…” Said Isold as she directed her gaze towards her left. There was Mr. Cole flying along some poeple.

Incidentally, contrary to her INT, Isold’s Luck was almost capped.

“Oh! Is that you, Miss. Ähnlich?” Said Mr Cole as he landed next to her. With him was Ártemize who carried the passed out Engel and Lene from the normal world. The other pair of parallels was completely exhausted but still barely able to move. They seemed to be thinking about something whilst their heads were hanging down but Mr. Cole seemed to ignore their mental state.

*Nod*

Isold limited herself to nod as she was a person of little words.

“A question, Miss Ähnlich, have you seen your parallels? I’ve been trying to contact them but they don’t reply at all.” Questioned Mr. Cole.

“No. But if wait, they will come.” Added Isold with great confidence.

“What might you be-”

“Heeeeeeeey!!”

“Isold! I’ve told you co-??”

Suddenly, Engel appeared out of thin air and at the distance the other [Parallels] came running from a wide street at Isold’s right.

“???”

“See, everyone came.” Said Isold while nodding with her quasi-expressionless face to Mr Cole’s face of wonder.

In fact, this great strike of luck that reeks of “plot armor” is thanks to Isold’s extremely good luck. Engel had guessed this in his time with her at [Gargantúa] so when she got lost, he would usually get ordered by Engel to stay in place. This caused her luck to appear and being struck by good omens or being found almost immediately.

(I see… I even forgot about Isold’s Lucky Strike… Guess I’m really put off about that beast attacking Earth…)

“Anyways- We gotta be fast. I already have in order what we ought to do, as well as an outline of events. Mr. Cole, the two pair of [Parallels] and Ange, you’ll be coming with me. The others, I suggest you to leave and guide already evacuated people towards safer places; I won’t be needing you anytime soon.” Said Engel with an imposing tone.

Ange nodded and glanced towards her companions; although dissatisfied, they complied to Engel’s advice.

As soon as, sluggishly, Angel’s companions left, Engel teleported Isold and the others to the [Triskelion].

“Alright, I will be fast and franc. It’s been roughly half an hour since the gigantic beast was slain and there’s when I saw another one aiming for our world. I’m afraid I will leave as soon as I can, meaning, right after we finish our talk, in order to finish our goal, as well as aid our world. It would be complicated to explain the other factors that make us shorten our stance in this world, therefore- I’ll give my conclusions of what to do and you answer yes if you’re okay with it and object in order to discuss what we should do in said case. You all fine with it?” Voiced Engel as Mr Cole, Ange, the two pairs of parallels and the other gods were present in the room.

This time, they had left Shirayuki on ground in order to clean up the mess and Krestin was teleported right before Isold and co. Ártemize had left to search for Frederica who was wandering around the airship looking for Engel.

““““““Yes””””””

They all replied, though in different moods.

“Alright; Also, I apologize for the sudden impoliteness and all, but we really are hurried to go, but still we can’t leave as is without leaving tied knots.” Added Engel to what the outsiders nodded.

“First, the case of [Blau] and [Schwartz]; We’d like to take custody of him. I know they both committed serious crimes this time around, and you all need someone to put the blame in… But we actually need the intel they hold. I suspect they hide more than they actually said last time.” Proposed Engel.

In fact, what he wanted to do, besides a little more questioning, was to ask about their circumstances, as well as to look for a way to help their parallels. At this height, it did not even care if they were to meddle with their world as they have already traveled and dealigned many other worlds.

“Sorry but we cannot comply.” Voiced Mr. Cole.

“Indeed we need someone to put a blame on. Actually, we were fighting against a “Antimagic Civil Movement” or ACM, when these two arrived. While in the fight against the ACM the image of the… Of our gods was significantly reduced, so in order to have a card to repair said image, we need someone to blame for the recent chain of events.” Explained Mr. Cole with a somewhat bitter expression. He probably hated the idea of giving blame to random people, but it was for a greater good.

“I see. I did expect resistance but something like this…” As Engel tried to find a middle point for their issue, Lene gave her opinion.

“Don’t worry. We’ll give them to you; we just ask for a little of time in order to take their intel.” Said Lene with a poker face.

“True. We actually don’t need to have custody for them forever. You can just have your gods chase some ghosts for a while and later on we can give them back to you. How does a month sounds?” Said Engel with a slight smile.

“Sounds good. I’d like to bargain but that takes time and out of gratitude for you to help us with this recent event, I won’t say another word.” Replied Mr. Cole with a wry smile.

“Yes. Thank you. Now- This goes for the two of you there, the ones who look like your world is going to end.” Said Engel towards the parallels that came from a world very similar to the gods’.

“... Yes?” Replied the black haired Engel to the white haired.

“Did you received any contact from Ms. Cole? If not, I can take you to your world anytime you want; but if you want to leave now, you’ll come with us.” Declared Engel (white one).

“We do. Thanks.” Quickly replied Engel (black one) with no motivation whatsoever.

“... A-Alright? Very well, then-” As soon as Engel (white one) said this, a stone appeared in his hand. It was a nostalgic stone which had a terrific effect.

“[Banshee]” Chanted Engel as he threw the stone amidst the two sleeping [Parallels].

*SHRIEEEEEEEEK!!!!*

As if scratching on a blackboard, an horrendous, horrific sound came from the stone with a circuit on it. It was the very first stone Engel had created.

“AAAAHHH!!! DON’T KILL ME!!”

“YEEAAAHHH!!! MORE THRILL!!!”

And then the two sleepyworms woke up.

“.... Wha-What a difference in reactions… *Cough* Anyways; Are you two wide awake?” Asked Engel as the stone stopped working and he saved it inside his [Item Box].

“Ye-Yes.”

*Nod*

They both replied soundly.

“Alright, this is a quick and simple question. Sorry for doing this so sudden, but, do you want to go back to your world?” Voiced Engel with a serious expression.

““.........””

(They….)

While looking at their complicated expressions, he could vaguely guess they were a somewhat reluctant to going back to their world.

“Alright… You don’t have to choose today. Actually, we’re coming back to this world in a month, so you have that time to think about it- Okay?” Added Lene with a perfect support.

At this time, Izaak was quite surprised in how she handled what Engel had difficulty with; Isold held some respect for her as she herself was a non-intellectual person and Krestin… Was slightly annoyed by it.

Lately, Krestin had been showing more some annoyance in how Lene supported Engel to a quasi-perfect pace and this increased bit by bit as they continued their labor.

Even though it was an improper reaction towards a decade-long companion, she could not bury those feelings in her heart.

“O-Okay.” Replied the timid Engel as he slightly glanced at the overly excited popular Lene which seemed quite fired up and unable to answer.

“Alright- Then-”

After these three points, they discussed for 10 minutes straight on the [Command Room] about the unexplainable reason of these sudden events as the gigantic limb and the seemingly endless spawn of [Asterisk], as well as the one who brought all this upon them. That is, because besides Engel, Frederica, Ártemize and the other gods, no one else knew about the mouth-loosed Tsukuyomi and his grudge against “Amaterasu”.

After reaching the conclusion of blaming all on the evil parallels of Engel and Lene, as well as some other fine details, Engel and co. said their farewells to their parallels.

Right now, they were all in the dock. Engel had maintained open the crack on the dimension as he thought of using it to leave and give chase directly to the beast.

“Hey you two, this trip is going to be quite thrilling so hold onto something!” Said Engel with a half-smile to the parallels accompanying him. He was trying to cheer them up even though he sucked when he didn’t know the source of the low mood.

“Don’t be so down guys. Just enjoy the view; it may be enough to clear your thoughts.”

Added Lene who suddenly appeared from behind them and gave them a slight slap in their backs; added a gentle smile and moved to Engel’s side.

“You know, we should do something as we move.” Said suddenly Lene to Engel.

“What is it?” He inquired.

“Cut everyone’s hair.” She replied bluntly.

“......True.” He added while being in deep thought about it. It seems she wanted to relax the tense atmosphere that Engel was emanating, which also made him fail to calm his parallels.

“Let’s do it…” Mumbled Engel while he also prepared his next orders.

“[Let’s go]” Said Engel aloud and gave the orders to Autumn to speed up towards their world.

Teil Drei.

(How boring….)

Thought a young woman while gazing at the crowd.

(How many times has it been? I got bored already of these cheap imitations…)

She said in her heart as she gazed intensely towards the 5 people on the stage below her. She was sit in an exclusive VIP seat above all the excited spectators.

(Why are they so happy? Even though they know they aren’t the real deal… Have they actually forgotten how strong they were? I’m ashamed, thoroughly ashamed…)

The young woman moved dejectedly her head while criticising all of the people around her.

“Really… How conceited, these cheap imitations.” Suddenly added another young woman next to the first one.

“Oh my- I thought the same but I thought of not saying it. It could make them cry you know.” Replied the first woman without changing her bored expression.

“I don’t care, you neither. After all, we only care about the real thing.” Retorted the second lady.

“Yes, you are right. I wonder how much time they’ll take.” Said the first woman with a poker face.

“You still with that? I know you, it was fine before but no-”

*THUMP*

“Hey, what’s wrong? Yozora! What’s wrong?”

Asked the second lady to the fi- No; to Yozora who had suddenly stood up and gazed to the sky. The second lady, Aleksandra Götze, knew for a long, long time about Yozora so she knew when the [Dämon] was not pulling an act.

She knew Yozora had reacted so some serious matter. Suddenly, she also felt it.

“Wha-What is this?” Asked Aleksandra. She didn’t recognize the kind of energy that was suddenly increasing.

It felt faint to her senses but somehow it had a powerful force hidden.

“Something is… Coming?” Said Yozora while narrowing down her eyes. Though the two of them felt the strange energy, all the people around them was totally oblivious to it. They only stared at wonder why the two top heads of the [Camellia Academy] stood up.

Suddenly, a crack in space appeared.

Not only it appeared, but spread and-

*CRASH*

It crashed and as if it were a window, countless pieces of light rained.

A great commotion was formed in the audience as they saw what they believed would be an extra event of what they attended.

*ROOOAAAAAARRR!!!!*

Then, out of the crack a titanic-sized, oriental dragon roared and intended to enter the current dimension.

The spectators were stunned at the view, as well as Yozora and Aleksandra. They didn’t know what was going on after all.

“Aleksandra, evacuate the people, I’ll contact [Quarta] and the others...” Ordered Yozora as Aleksandra’s wings appeared in her lower back, her divine halo above her head and flew towards the security booth whilst issuing orders to evacuate people.

Somewhat dejected, the people slowly left the place as they thought that an VIP exclusive event was about to unfold.

At this moment, the five people on stage were on their knees, shivering. This was caused due to the pressure the gigantic beast was emanating and normal people were unable to detect.

“Just what are y……….. Eh?”

Just as she finished to call her reinforcements through [Quarta] and unfold her night-black wings; Yozora stopped her track, glared at the sky, far beyond the monster breaking into their dimension.

“E-Engel?” She mumbled while covering her mouth as tears fell down her cheeks.

She had suddenly feel a trace of his aura, which now was steadily increasing.

Behind the monster, a white dot was moving at unbelievable speed, approaching their dimension.

[Let’s go! It’s Showtime!!]

Then, when the white dot turned into a grandiose structure- an airship, a hacked communication was intercepted by their [Twin Call], an [Artifact] derived from the infamous [Wake Up Call].

At this moment, not only Yozora but everyone in possession of a [Twin Call] in range, doubted their ears.

After all-

“...... After 30 years, you finally appear… Idiot.”

It was a voice no one had ever heard from the source himself since the tragic day 30 years ago, an event known as [Lost Royalty].

Just after the interception of said communication, five strokes of light came out of the airship which was gradually moving away from the dragon.

[[Invernal Prison]]

Two of the stroked, an ashen and a whitish lights released a batch of energy towards the dragon, which created ashen and bluish ice around the dragon.

The other lights landed on earth and melded amidst the running crowd.

While watching the scene, the people who had lost someone important, recalled the unreasonableness, lack of common sense and weirdness of the people who had left once day. This, filled the hearts of these people with warmth and their faces with tears.

-End of [Equilibrium Arc]-