Faith and Wish stared in awe at the bizarre image displayed before them.

Thousands of tiny blue sparks composed of flowing electricity all gathered on a single point, taking the form of a large orb that rose into the skies.

This powerful concentration of energy had risen from deep within the ground and had enough force to take down an entire building in one clean hit.

“W-W-W-What is that thing?!” Viktor screamed, running away as far as he could.

Wish and Faith, however, stepped forward.

“Uuwah! That looks so scary and cool!” Wish reached for her pocket and pulled out a scarlet red tube shaped like the hilt of a sword.

“You can always go away if you are too scared.” Faith shrugged, snickering at the girl.

“As if!” Wish laughed, excitement was rapidly building up from within her heart. “This is a perfect chance to protect the city! You know, like a hero of justice or something! There’s nothing better suited for me than this! No way I’d pass out on this chance!!”

“Heh.” A grin spread across Faith’s face. He reached for his gun, the Scarlet Grimoire, from inside the pocket of his coat and quickly loaded it. “There’s no way I’d pass out on this either!”

The two began moving forward with a dash.

“Then, don’t fall behind, Number Two~”

“That’s rich coming from the person that needed to be saved just earlier!”

“S-Shut up! That doesn’t count!!”

The two continued their casual banter as they moved every time closer and closer to the otherworldly core of energy.

Faith aimed his gun at the large orb as he ran, ready to launch the initial attack. He released a consecutive barrage of bullets, but they were never able to hit the target. Instead, thin strings of lightning spread from within the orb, engulfing the bullets and absorbing them back into its core.

“Tch.” Faith clicked his tongue, he expected as much from an abomination like this. Moreover, there's something he was well aware of. That it was time for it to retaliate.

In response to the incoming attack, the surge of electricity started to make strange sounds. It was like listening to a tangled mess of electricity mixed in with the static noise from a dead radio station.

Wish and Faith gave each other a quick glance, both were ready and prepared. The sound was getting louder and louder. Something was coming.

With a powerful roar, the mass of energy released a large blast of lightning, it looked like a massive beam of destruction ready to engulf everything. It ran towards Faith at an incredible speed, illuminating everything in its path.

Since the blast was concentrated on a single spot, the black haired boy rapidly jumped to the side in order to dodge it. The roaring sound of thunder spread through the atmosphere, and even if the attack didn’t hit, a tingling sensation spread through Wish and Faith's bodies.

“Don’t you have stronger bullets than that?!”

Wish was fast to complain as she pressed the button on the hilt of her sword. Red ornaments that covered the top of her weapon, the Scarlet Satellite, all moved to the side, letting a sharp and long blade shoot out.

“Shut up, that was just a test! At least my weapon is still more useful for these kinds of situations!!" Faith gave her an annoyed glare. For once, he wasn't worrying about Wish taking the lead. He knew in the end he still had an advantage, he couldn't even image what it'd be like to approach that thing with a close ranged weapon.

Breaking apart their conversation, the core of lightning let out of a powerful roar once more... but nothing happened.

Or that was what Faith thought.

In seconds, a giant blade of lightning almost as wide as the plaza where they stood became visible. It appeared just centimeters away from Faith and it flew towards him at a high speed as it tore across the air itself.

The boy with red eyes had never accounted for it being able to make its attacks invisible like that. It must have released the attack the moment it made a noise just now, but Faith couldn't even feel anything coming until the very last moment.

Because of that, he found himself unable to react in time and simply closed his eyes tightly shut.

“You were saying?”

Wish's response was simple. She gave a step forward and swung her weapon. With a tight grasp on her sword, she released a slash forward that clashed head on with the incoming attack.

Faith who had already given up on escaping the attack opened his eyes. He came to the frustrating realization that he was the one saved this time. If that attack had hit he would have been sliced in half and then burnt into a crisp.

The blonde girl could feel an incredible pressure coming from the attack. It was slowly forcing her entire body back. Her feet were slowly sliding backwards across the solid floor, and she was barely able to keep her balance at all.

But she wasn’t about to give up.

“I’m glad these attacks aren’t as fast as actual lightning.”

Wish focused all her strength in her arms and forced herself to give one more step forward. As her left foot left the floor, she was forced backwards, but she didn't fall. Instead, she released another great slash with her blade, forcing her feet into solid ground. Small sparks of electricity scattered through the air as Wish cut the attack apart with a powerful strike. The sparks flew all across the plaza like fireworks, some dispersed in the air but some still landed around them like a tiny meteorite shower, cracking apart part of the ground around them.

“And I’m glad this isn’t a regular sword either!!”

“I… have to thank you for that.” Faith looked away.

He didn't want to admit how Wish was still one step ahead. But that's also why he wasn't in a position where he could back down.

As a shower of sparks from the previous attack rained all around him, he had used that opening to reload his gun with a new set of bullets. This time, he was using his special Burst Bullets.

The look in his eyes was different this time, it was a serious look. This wasn't the time to be playing around anymore.

He pointed at the core of thunder and released four gunshots, letting the bullets fly through the air with a roaring sound. Strings of lightning spread to engulf them once more, but the force of Burst Bullets wasn't something anyone could stop so easily. Not even this anomaly. The blast continued moving across its path, breaking apart the strings and sinking deep into the orb of energy with a loud, explosive noise.

Four small holes had opened, piercing right across the orb thanks to this attack.

“Not bad, not bad.” Wish nodded.

“Yeah, as strong as its attacks are, we can still handle them. Looks like it's not able to defend properly immediately after releasing an attack like that one. Whatever this is, it's not big deal.”

(Magnificent.) A blonde with glasses watched from afar. He stood almost by the entrance of the plaza, making sure to keep an eye on everything that happened while remaining safe. (It didn’t take you long to discover its weaknesses. I knew that you could do this much, it is simply amazing!! But…)

Even while competing against each other, Faith and Wish had a perfect coordination.

Despite the core releasing more consecutive blades of lightning like the previous one, Wish continued to break right through them while Faith damaged it more and more with his special bullets.

More and more holes continued to open on the large surge of electric energy until it started breaking apart. The powerful energy that had been threatening their lives faded away, only a few sparks that floated in the air remained.

(But this isn’t enough.) Viktor brought a hand to his face, trying to contain his laughter. (More, I need more!! I need you to shine more than this!!!!)

“There.” Faith lowered his gun. “We are done here.”

“Aw, I didn’t even get to have much fun.”

The two turned around and started walking away, ready to leave this place.

(Hey, did you know?) Viktor couldn’t contain his happiness as he watched. (Things like earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. They are all natural disasters that humans have no power over. Yes, exactly, we are all too weak against them! But what would happen if we had control over them? What would you do against a man-made disaster of the same- no, of greater level?!)

“?”

Wish stopped walking and rapidly turned around to stare at the spot where the orb of electricity previously was.

“What is it?”

“I’m not too sure.” She glared intently at it. Even if she wasn't sure why, something still bothered her in the back of her mind.

It wasn't the first time she experienced something like this. A feeling like something is off. A feeling like something might happen. Usually, no one would take Wish seriously even when she pointed these kind of things out. Her eccentric personality didn't help one bit either.

However, Faith knew about Wish’s intuition all too well. He knew that whenever she acted like this, there was always a reason behind it. For the always energetic Wish to go silent and doze off like that, he knew she wasn't playing around. So he stared at the same spot as well. Just what was calling her attention so badly? There was really nothing there anymore.

But Faith wasn't the only one who was expecting something to happen.

The blonde boy who stood far away had the answer they were looking for.

(Now, show me. Show me your radiance! Show me what you would do against this!!)

It was all over, they had won, but... at that moment, a tiny spark, almost invisible to the human eye, still remained on the spot where the large core of energy was before.

There was no warning, no signal, and no buildup.

A much larger, giant orb of lightning instantly flew high atop the afternoon skies.

Divine lightning rained from the skies, surrounding the plaza as the core came together once more, growing bigger and bigger in size each second.

This time, it didn’t stop at the shape of a simple round form.

The core had continued to grow, it had continued to evolve. And then, it gained a humanoid shape with large, beautiful and ethereal wings spreading from its back.

An angel of judgment whose body was held together by pure, concentrated thunder stood atop the heavens.

Faith immediately released another shot with a Burst Bullet at it, he didn't even stop to try and analyze what that was. If there is something that he knew was that all his senses were screaming danger at him. He had to do something before it was too late, but the moment the massive blast hit, it did no damage whatsoever.

In response, the angel simply pointed a finger at them. Just like that, it released a large blade of electric energy towards them, and another one, and another one.

Wish was fast to step forward and stop them with her blade, but... every time a new blast of energy would hit, it would force her body to step back more and more.

“Faith…” Cold sweat was rolling down her neck. “I don’t think… I can cut through this…”

Faith's eyes opened wide. For Wish to accept there was something she couldn't do, for her to be backed up into a corner like this and ask for his help. That scared him even more than the figure of the angel itself.

The blonde continued to put all her force behind her blade, but no matter how much she struggled, she continued being pushed back by attack after attack that came after them. At this rate it felt like either her blade or her very arms would snap in half if she continued to hold these blasts any longer.

The black haired boy bit his lower lip and forced himself to take action. As it was, if Wish failed to stop the attack, it was massive enough to slice both of them in half.

He rapidly reloaded his gun once again but a horrible image reached his eyes. He could see how the angel of lightning was charging up a stronger attack. Blue sparks reflected on Faith’s eyes as they gathered in a single spot in front of the celestial being.

Faith quickly threw himself against the blonde with a body slam. Wish was pushed down into the ground, releasing the grasp on her blade and letting the multiple attacks she was stopping to roam free.

In that moment, an intense beam of energy shot at full force right at the spot where Wish had been standing, blasting apart the solid ground itself and making the earth tremble violently.

Both rolled across the ground while clinging to each other, they barely escaped the attack but were still sent flying away by the shock wave.

As they did, the large blades of energy that Wish had been stopping cut across the air and tore down everything on their path. All the trees, benches and decorations in the plaza not only collapsed but were also burnt apart. By the time they fell to the ground, only dust remained.

“Thanks. That was a good reaction.” Wish smiled sheepishly without letting go of her grasp on Faith.

“T-There’s no point to our competition if you are gone, so you need to be more careful, you idiot!" Faith stared at the blonde’s eyes and rapidly looked away.

“What do you say,” Wish picked up her sword and stood up. “Let’s have a truce, just this once?”

“Yeah," His response was simple and straightforward. "There won’t be much of a city to save if we don’t stop this.”

The two stared at the radiant angel who began to charge up another powerful attack.

Even against such an impossible sight. They couldn’t back down.

“Then we are going to have to do that, aren’t we?” Wish slowly took off her necklace, the crossed out crescent moon. She held it in her left hand and offered it to Faith.

What was their drive to go this far?

Was it just the thrill of combat?

What is just their desire to best one another?

Or, deep inside, did they really care about protecting the city?

Was their real drive to save everyone?

The angel of blue lightning then blasted all its stored power high into the skies.

“We don’t really have an option. Let’s do it.” Faith grabbed the crescent moon necklace and put it around his neck.

This time, they would go beyond their limits.

☆

“...?” Eri opened her eyes. “Where am I?”

Everything was blurry, her body was numb, and she could barely grasp the feeling that she existed at all.

“Wait a moment, wait a moment!”

A familiar voice reached her.

“There are too many problems with that plan! How do we find out how deep this really is?! And how do we even climb back up?! We’d have more luck breaking down a wall and going out that way!”

“This is…” Eri stared at the scene before her. It was the same scene that happened not too long ago.

“Breaking down the wall doesn’t seem possible, not so easily at least.”

She saw Caroline reply to the spiky haired boy after she released a powerful kick against a wall.

“Of course not! What I meant is that we really have no options! And taking a dangerous one is just going to be an even worse idea!!”

“You do have a point,” she saw Caroline reply. “But I can’t let my co-worker stay in a dangerous environment for too long either.”

(Eh? That’s… me?)

Eri could see herself in that image, standing just beside Ryuusei with a scared expression in her face.

“Wait!” She could hear the boy cry out but it was too late.

Caroline had jumped off into the abyss that stood next to them.

A realization quickly hit Eri.

This is the same scene that had appeared in her head back then. It was a strange scene that had disappeared as fast as it arrived.

And this sensation... it was the same feeling she had the moment she had yelled at Caroline to stop so they could think of a plan. But in this image, she clearly saw Caroline jump down. No one did anything to stop her in time, and unlike before, the scene continued to run.

It wasn’t a fast image that would make her doubt whether or not she had seen it. It was an image that continued to move. This time it was all vivid and clear. Did this mean that Caroline was already…?

“Hey!” A voice that brought relief to Eri yelled from far below. “I made it!”

“D-Don’t do things like that again!!” Ryuusei yelled back.

“Don’t worry! My legs are very strong after all!” Caroline replied. “Let me try to see if I can get out, just stay there!”

“We’ll be here.” Ryuusei sighed and crossed his arms. “That girl is so stressing, always doing these dangerous things.”

He then turned towards Eri and spoke.

“Are you okay?”

“Eh?”

At that moment. Eri realized she wasn’t seeing the image from afar anymore.

She had become part of it.

“Eri?” Ryuusei called out to her.

“Y-Yeah!” Eri replied nervously as she realized she had become the "Eri" she was seeing in that strange scene.

She stared at her hand and clenched her fist. Everything felt too real, there was no way this could be a dream. Was everything that happened until now a dream instead? What was going on?

“That’s good to hear,” Ryuusei smiled at her. “I have a younger brother, this may be embarrassing to say, but I feel like I should take care of you like a sibling too.”

Eri couldn’t find any words to respond with and simply nodded.

“I’m back~”

A person Eri had never met before walked in from the kitchen room.

It was a girl with soft pink hair that ended in a snow white color. One of her most noticeable features was also a mole under her left eye.

“You were right, I wasn’t able to find an exit or anything we could use in there. Huh? Where did Rolly go?”

“Caroline? She’s just looking around.” Ryuusei sounded both stressed and annoyed.

“I see, I see~”

(Who is this person? She wasn’t there with us before.)

Eri couldn’t help but to stare at her. The girl stared back and smiled, making Eri quickly look away.

(Is this a dream after all? Am I just dreaming about what happened earlier? No but, then, who is this?)

Eri wouldn’t have the leisure to remain lost in thought for much longer.

An incredibly loud scream suddenly reached them from below the abyss.

“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!! DON’T- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”

Hearing this made Eri’s heart skip a beat.

Those were clearly screams of pain and agony.

“W-W-What is happening?! Ruru!! Ruru, Ruru!! What is happening?!”

The girl Eri didn’t recognize began to panic. She put her hands on Ryuusei’s shoulders and shook him back and forth as she yelled.

“I-I don’t know!!” Ryuusei yelled, panicking just as much. “But those screams! T-That was-!”

“Ruru!” Eri yelled at the boy. Her face was completely pale and she felt like she would faint at any moment. “That was…! That was Caroline! We have to do something!!”

Just as Eri finished speaking, the screams had come to an end. There was only silence for a few seconds.

“I-I’ll go.”

Ryuusei slowly stepped forward, his legs were shaking and he was just as pale as Eri.

“There is no need.” A soft voice reached everyone’s ears.

Someone was suddenly standing between them. They had approached them without making a single sound or being noticed at all. Eri couldn't even understand how they were standing so close at all.

It was a person wearing a black hospital gown, whose white hair covered their eyes.

“Why did you send someone there? You are not welcome here.” They spoke in a soft and monotonous tone of voice.

“W-Where is Caroline?!” Eri couldn’t help but to scream at this person as her entire body shook in terror.

“Oh? The intruder you sent? I would apologize, but you were the ones breaking the rules. The upper area is off limits after all. Don’t worry. I did bring you this.”

Something else became visible. It was something this strange person was holding.

This image was burnt into Eri’s mind. The moment she saw it, she felt sick and about to throw up.

What became visible in Raiko’s hand was a severed leg covered with blood. It was beyond obvious to everyone who the owner had been.

“These were dangerous so I have to remove them.” Raiko added without any emotion in their voice.

Powerful electricity then covered their hand, reducing the leg to dust in an instant.

Ryuusei and the girl with a mole under her eye rapidly stepped forward. Even as both panicked they were ready to defend Eri.

The black haired girl couldn’t help but to collapse, staring at the ground in total panic and disbelief.

“It seems you took quite the shock,” Raiko slowly stepped closer. “Don’t worry. You won’t be here for long either.”

Raiko didn’t give their enemies a single chance to strike back.

They stabbed a hand into Ryuusei, piercing right through his chest. Ryuusei screamed and used his remaining strength to try and release a punch against them. Raiko however, simply released an intense amount of electricity across Ryuusei’s body, rendering him powerless.

Raiko then threw away the lifeless corpse into the abyss behind him.

A disturbing cracking noise echoed through the room as his body hit the bottom.

They then reached for the girl with a mole under her eye. Raiko slammed her against a wall and buried their fingers deep into her neck. Screams of pain came out from the girl, but they were rapidly silenced. A fountain of blood shot up from her neck as Raiko pulled away their hand.

Eri couldn’t do anything but watch as they were massacred by this white haired demon.

“Oh, there is one left.” Raiko tilted their head and moved closer towards Eri.

The black haired girl was frozen solid in fear. She could do nothing but watch. She could only watch the demon approaching her. She could only watch as their cold hand reached for her forehead.

And then…

☆

Eri’s eyes opened wide.

She found herself drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily.

She wasn’t living that terrifying situation anymore.

Instead, she was witnessing another familiar scene.

It was the time she met a certain blonde girl while in the middle of the city.

A fight had broken between her and Faith.

It was when Eri had ran away to watch from a safe location.

But this time it was different.

Eri could barely watch thanks to the tears streaming down her eyes, but she remembered this scene very well.

Faith had pulled out his gun and stared to fire at the blonde girl that stopped all the bullets with her sword. At that moment, Eri could clearly see a glint of red light coming from their weapons.

“W…Why am I seeing this? Why am I here again?”

She couldn’t even focus on watching. The images of the people that tried to protect her getting killed one after the other lingered in her head. She could still hear the screams. The black haired girl closed her eyes, but the screams of agony would just become louder and louder, completely clouding her thoughts.

☆

And then… her eyes slowly opened once more.

“Where… am I…?” Her body felt sluggish and heavy.

It took her a few seconds to realize she was lying down on a cold metallic floor. Tears continued to stream down her face but she didn’t even have the energy to properly cry.

The first thing that came into her sight were two screens at the far ends of the room.

It was just like the screens she had been checking out with Ryuusei and Caroline before.

She slowly started to read the first screen unconsciously.

(There is nothing anymore. I am nothing anymore.)

Eri didn’t question what it said and then moved her sight towards the one on the left.

(Please save me.)

Reading these words knocked Eri wide awake.

The back haired girl quickly sat down and realized she was wearing Caroline’s scarf and Ryuusei’s jacket.

She immediately remembered everything that happened up until she passed out.

Eri looked around, only to see both Caroline and Ryuusei collapsed on the ground, their bodies all tattered and beat down as a faint trail of smoke came out from them.

And then, she saw the person who stood just before her.

A sensation of panic rushed through Eri’s body as she stared at the white haired demon.

“Oh” Raiko tilted their head. For some reason, they didn’t react to Eri waking up. Instead, they seemed to be focusing on something else while extending out their arms. “It is about to occur, I see. This is perfect. I get to test it right away. With this, I get to end our game in the most fantastic way.”

A malicious grin spread through the demon’s face.

☆

A holy angel made of lightning flew across the heavens.

It had no face and no expression, but it radiated a massive aura of authority.

The angel had shot an immense blast of energy into the skies.

“Let’s do it.” Faith put on Wish’s necklace.

“It’s been a while.” Wish grinned. “Don’t you dare mess up!”

“That should be my line!”

A wide beam of lightning began descending from the skies. Its trajectory was moving directly towards where Wish and Faith stood. This attack was immense and far stronger than anything before.

Even if they tried to dodge or run away, there was no escape.

It was a definitive strike capable of ending even the world itself.

But their limits weren't something so small. They were going to go beyond the very world.

Faith held his gun with his left hand while Wish held her sword with her right hand.

The two extended their arms up into the skies. Their weapons moved closer and closer to each other.

And then, a glint of red light could be seen coming from them.

The roar of lightning continued to descend. The sound of thunder spread across the destroyed plaza and a tingling sensation started to cover their bodies.

At that moment, Wish and Faith slammed their weapons against each other with a lot of force.

The glint of red soon became a radiant light that emerged from the point of impact between their weapons.

They were ready to put everything on the line for this.

Using all their focus, all their strength, steeling themselves with determination, their voices yelled at the same time.

“SCARLET OUTBURST!”

In that instant, the two of them were enveloped by a blinding red light. It continued to expand, letting a fountain of radiant red shoot into the skies as the sun had begun to set at their backs.

The scarlet radiance pierced through the blast of electricity, enveloping it and reducing it to nothingness.

The radiance continued to extend, passing by the clouds and piercing through the very heavens.

An incredible amount of energy emanated from the spot where Faith and Wish stood.

The strong energy surrounding them pulsated and released a powerful gust of air that pulled the remaining benches and the large fountain at the center off the ground, sending them flying into the air.

Viktor stared at the scene before him from afar.

He took off his glasses and extended his arms into the heavens.

(THIS IS IT!!)

He started to laugh from the bottom of his heart.

(This is what I wanted to see!! This is what I will take from you!!!)

The light dissipated. It surrounded Faith and Wish’s bodies, covering them with a radiant scarlet aura.

“Good. It worked just fine.” 『Wish』 spoke. Her tone of voice had become lower and more serious.

Her eyes glowed with a red color as she glared at her enemy.

“Of course it did! It was thanks to me after all!” 『Faith's』tone of voice was higher and unusually cheerful.

His left eye was colored with an emerald green, while his right eye had a sky blue tone.

“Ugh, I will never get used to this. This is why I hate doing it.” 『Wish』 complained before switching her weapon with 『Faith.』

“Eh, why?! It’s not so bad!”『Faith』smiled as he received the sword. He stretched out his arms and cracked his neck to the side. “Plus I don’t have to deal with annoying back pains with this body. It’s a pretty sweet deal.”

“I don't understand how you can move so fast like this.” 『Wish』sighed. “Let’s just get this over with already.”

“Fine, fine! Let’s do this!”

The two glanced at the enemy before them and started moving.

『Wish』and 『Faith』walked forward as a scarlet aura surrounded their bodies, the wind swayed their hair and clothes from side to side. Their aura matched the color of the very skies and the sun itself was at their backs as it continued to descend.

In response, the angel had begun to take action as well. Lightning descended from the heavens into the angel’s hand and took the shape of a giant lance.

A powerful confrontation beyond the realm of humanity was about to begin.

However-

“Faith!” The blonde girl reacted. Her voice had returned to her usual pitch and she stared at the boy whose eyes had returned to their usual red color. “Did you just-?!”

“No!!” Visible panic appeared in his face. “I didn’t cancel it out, it’s almost like we-!!”

“We were forced out of it?!”

The angel however, wouldn’t be so kind and the lance of lightning descended towards them at full force.

The scarlet radiance that had helped them just moments ago was gone.

It had drifted away and began to spread somewhere else.

It had drifted towards a certain demon.

☆

“You are all luckier than you think,” Raiko spoke with a soft voice. “You won’t be just sacrifices, you get to be test subjects too.”

The red aura slowly started to engulf all of Raiko’s body.

His white hair was slowly gaining a dark red shade.

Eri who had just woken up stared in panic at the scene before her.

She couldn’t tell if what she had seen before was real, but just looking at Raiko made her entire body tremble in fear.

“Are you okay?!” A new voice yelled from outside. “Is anyone there?!”

The tiny maid repeatedly turned on the handle of the door from the outside, only to realize that it was locked from the inside.

“Should I do something? Think! Think!!” The maid panicked.

However, Eri could not give her a reply. Eri could not even listen to the maid’s voice. She was too focused on the demon before her. She was too terrified to notice anything else.

The screams of terror from her visions started to resound in her head again.

She could see those images so vividly, so clearly.

“I can’t…” Eri’s hand slowly moved. It moved towards the pocket of her skirt.

The black haired girl slowly pulled out a silver metallic tube.

“I can’t let this happen.” Her hands were trembling uncontrollably, but she activated the silver memory, pulling out a megaphone.

“Ah, you woke up. It is a shame, I wanted to keep you around, but I don’t think you will make it after this.”

Raiko extended out their hand towards Eri. Electricity started to gather on their hand, blue electricity which rapidly got engulfed with a scarlet light.

“After all,” A faint smile appeared in Raiko’s face. “I don’t think even I can make it after this.”

“Are you… kidding me?” Eri’s voice was low and shaky.

“Right. There is an activation code.”

Eri wasn’t listening.

She simply stared at the demon before her. She had turned all of her fear into anger. The screams of panic, those scenes of terror in her head, they were just fueling her up enough to take action.

The black haired girl rapidly stood up. Her silver eyes shot a piercing stare at the white haired demon. It was a stare full of anger, it was full of hatred. It was full of determination.

“Are you kidding me?” Eri repeated in a low tone once more. Her finger slowly set up the megaphone to the highest possible setting. She rapidly began moving the megaphone in front of her mouth, she didn’t have a plan, she didn’t think she was strong enough, but she couldn’t bear to just stand there and watch anymore.

Raiko paid no mind to her actions. The demon was ready to release a new power, and with a decisive tone, they spoke: “Scarlet Outburst.”

“STOP THIS NONSENSE RIGHT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Eri screamed at the top of her lungs into the megaphone.

The moment she did, a glint of red light sparkled from her weapon and an incredible loud noise exploded from within. It was a noise beyond what the capabilities of her megaphone were.

The noise was so strong that the ground itself was starting to tremble and space itself was being torn apart by the waves of sound. The blue tubes that covered the room started to shatter one by one, allowing the noise of breaking glass to mix with her screaming voice.

And yet, even against a devastating power like this, Raiko was still unaffected.

Instead, the white haired demon released a giant blast of lightning engulfed in a red aura.

It shot straight towards Eri.

The attack was intense enough to envelop the entire room, obliterating everyone inside in one hit.

It was an attack with the same intensity as the power that had stopped one of the angel’s strongest attacks in seconds.

But this attack was never able to reach the girl.

As the last tube in the room shattered, the attack rapidly vanished in thin air. It vanished just centimeters before the destructive force reached her. It was not able to do any damage to anyone.

And as the attack vanished, so did the demon.

“Ah. I didn’t expect this. You broke one of my cores.” Raiko sighed as their body started fading away. “I guess this is it for now, then.”

Raiko had completely vanished.

Even though Eri was able to sense a strange presence as Raiko followed them before, this time, that presence was gone as well.

Eri slowly lowered the hand holding the megaphone. She collapsed on the ground with an expression of relief.

It was finally over.

At that moment, the locked door was blasted open with intense impact coming from the outside, finally letting the maid in.

The blonde maid stood speechless before the scene in front of her. There was broken glass everywhere in the room and three people were in the ground unconscious.

“W-What is this?”

The maid whispered to herself, placing a hand on her forehead. A small trail of blood was coming out of her ear and she was quickly attacked by a great headache. It looked like Eri’s scream had done more damage than expected and spread across the entire underground facility.

It was more than likely that this destruction that spread throughout the facility reached something that allowed Raiko to manifest.

However, the scarlet radiance did not return to its original owners.

☆

A girl and a boy stood in the midst of the wrecked plaza.

The two couldn’t do anything anymore. They were not even given time to react as a lance of lightning descended towards them.

They closed their eyes, there was no time for them to act.

But in the end, they remained unscathed.

Faith and Wish slowly opened their eyes only to see the angel vanishing apart into thin air.

Neither the sound of electricity, nor the imposing energy of the angel remained.

It had vanished and fallen apart at the same time the demon did.

The enemy that was about to take their lives was truly gone.

They were still not aware of what truly happened, but they had survived.

“Wish,” The black haired boy was the first one to speak. “Do you sense anything else coming?”

“N-Nope…” Wish replied. “I’d say it’s Mission complete!!”

“Is this okay?”

Even if she said that. It was way too sudden. Was it really over? Were they really able to survive such a predicament?

Wish was lost in thought for a moment and then simply smiled.

“It’s fine! We hadn’t done that in a very long time, we probably just messed up. Maybe we did damage it enough.”

“I hope that’s all there is to it. Our bodies wouldn’t last much longer if we tried it again right away.”

“Of course they wouldn’t! But it’s fine! It would have been fun to stay like that for a little longer though.”

“Of course not, being in your body is so weird!!”

“Why would it be weird?! You should be honored you get to experience what it’s like to be such a beautiful lady!!!”

“Ugh, don’t even make me think about it! I will never get used to it.”

“Aw, you are no fun! You aren’t even thinking of all the possibilities! For example we coul-!”

“NO.”

“You are truly no fun!!”

Despite how full of energy they sounded, the two sat on the ground exhausted.

This kind of chatter was helping them ignore the situation, but it was true that they were almost killed, and it was true that neither really knew how they survived. Even if they were safe now, they couldn’t shake the feeling of fear that the angel would rise back up and come after them.

“That was fun! But… tiring!!”

“Of course it was.”

The black haired boy removed the necklace with the crossed out crescent moon and returned it to Wish.

“Do you think the earthquakes will stop happening with this?”

“Of course they will! I’m sure that thing was totally causing them!”

Even while sitting in the midst of all the destruction, for a moment, they were at peace. A cold breeze ran through their bodies and the sun in the distance was nowhere in sight anymore.

“You know,” Wish stared into the boy’s eyes. “I’m glad you are here right now. That was scarier than I thought.”

Wish lied down, staring at the cape of stars that now covered the skies.

“Scarier than the moon?” Faith who knew her too well asked to tease her.

“No way!!”

Faith lied down as well, letting his exhausted body get some quick rest.

“I’m glad…” He was hesitant to speak and his voice became very low as he let out a whisper. “You are here, too.”