https://youtu.be/5XubWLh3PVE

Accept.

My surroundings warped into a mess of colours. My stomach twisted into incorrigible shapes, a disorientation that far surpassed anything I had experienced when riding a roller coaster assailed my body.

For what felt like an eternity, my feet finally touched the ground.

GGRRRAAAAAAWWWWW!!

KABOOOM!!

The shockwave shook my body.

Lowering my stance, I gaze upon the sky.

A red giant fighting against an angel?

Red light gold light. Their clash continued, explosions erupted.

“Hey, this is no place for a fledgling. Where are you from?”

An approaching demon came up to me and asked.

There were always slight variations to the crown. The different characteristics to it delineate the class of the individual. Since I didn’t memorize the shapes, I couldn’t tell if the demon elf is a submarine, corvette or something else.

“If you got called on a whim, you should exit The Boundary. You’re still young, don’t end your life just yet.”

True.

What exactly did I come here for?

Who are my enemies, who are my allies?

I was called here by angels.

And here I was receiving advice from a demon.

Ding.

I turned towards the sound of the bell.

That angel in the air with the thick halo rings behind her.

Don’t tell me that little angel is The Seraph?

Xe grabbed my shoulders.

“Come on. We don’t want to lose any unnecessary lives. Go.”

Xe shoved me to the edge of The Boundary.

“What exactly is going on here?”

I don’t understand why.

I just felt that I can’t leave yet.

“We’re trying to capture the core. It’s war, simply put. Not something you should participate in.”

“So this is Zone 21?”

“Yes.”

The Boundary was no more than 5 steps away. A wall of black ripples swirling into a beehive of vortexes.

Core capture.

If ALPINE fleet contacted me, I would’ve assumed that it was an error on their part since I’m only a temporary member.

However, Areais also contacted me personally. Which means that something happened.

Or, if the time had rewound itself to before the incident, something will happen.

“Sorry, I need to go. Thank you for the advice.”

I bent my knees and shifted my body to the side, dodging hirs grab I moved past hirs.

“Hey!”

I made a mad dash towards the center of astral bubble. The size of this monochromatic domain was much larger than what I was used to.

The sounds of battle were thundering, the closer I got, the more dreadful it became; the buzz of light which flashed from lasers and explosives.

The monochromatic plaza was flashing in colour, on both sides of the wide avenues lined with shops with Christmas decorations frozen in time.

A chill.

I pulled out Arondight:Twilight and drew an arc.

An angel came out of hiding, the moon arc missed him and hit the wall.

A bullet came from the roof.

Two-on-one.

What is my objective here?

I’m not supposed to kill any angels.

The male angel charged forward.

He sprinkled small objects on the ground and swiftly jumped away. Those small objects began to beep.

Bombs.

The angel on the roof fired at them.

I lept.

{WARNING: EROSION VALUE: MODERATE}

Already took damage so early in the battle. That’s sad.

[“Rieen, we’ll take that guy in the blue shirt together.”]

[“Up top at the spiral tower, sniper.”]

[“Be careful of those on the roof. The red one.”]

Messages came pouring in.

Sniper?

I wasn’t sure who was writing what, but I did recognize that one of them is from Areais.

Intercepting the angel who came at me, this time with a sword, I noticed a blue marker appear in my vision.

I don’t know where exactly the ALPINE fleet is fighting. I suppose I can only make a blind guess that it's nearer that tower?

I shifted Arondight to Arondight:Day and threw a weak pillar of light against the angel on the roof. She was getting annoying.

I wasn’t sure if it’s due to the skill ‘Echoing Into the Abyss’, but I’m now able to control the output of the moon arcs and light pillars. For Arondight:Day, that being the thickness and intensity of the light column. For Arondight:Twilight, it’s the size, density and speed of the moon arcs.

I gave the angel in front of me a good roundhouse kick. He was sent tumbling.

I don’t intend to waste my time on them.

Let’s find the sniper.

Angels against demons. Demons against angels.

There were desperate struggles on both sides. Sometimes I would get caught in between.

It became a situation where I had to choose. To support the angels or demons?

I had no time for any dilemmas.

I created a thin pillar of light to intercept the demon who was trying to end an angel.

I drew a moon arc and kicked an angel away to protect a demon.

I forced a ranged angel out of hiding when defending a demon who was in the midst of drinking a healing potion.

I saved an angel that got stuck in a pool of explosives.

Incapacitating them costed their erosion value. Even a simple kick can reduce around 5 points.

And if I saved an angel, it would increase the chances of a demon dying because the angel had been given the chance to return to the fight.

I wasn’t doing anything good.

I’m only prolonging their time of death.

Nevertheless, I got to see some pretty interesting variations of weapons. Integrations don’t necessarily turn it into part of the body. Take Lucifer for example. Her integration is a katana. And instead of it replacing her arm, it fuses with it.

Similar characteristics could be found for some of them involved in the battle.

A cool one I found is a demon who had an artillery strapped to his back.

I had to destroy those explosives while they were mid air of course.

I closed in on the blue marker when it suddenly disappeared from view.

Now what?

An angel came from behind me, thinking that I didn’t notice her.

I turned around and pointed the sword tip at her throat.

She deftly maneuvered away and slid over to my flank.

I jumped backwards.

Drones poured in from above and rained hell down on me.

I threw moon arcs in succession.

{WARNING: EROSION VALUE: DANGER}

Inevitably, I couldn’t avoid them all.

The agile angel twirled her batton. It suddenly extended, exposing a small knife at the tip.

I tilted backwards and did a backflip. Kicking her away all the while twisting my body to dodge the drone fires.

This is absurd.

I swept Arondight:Day upwards and a light pillar came from the ground up. Destroying the drones.

Yes. The light column can come from the inverse position. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from the sky. The only downside is that there’s a slight delay to the activation.

The angel recovered quickly from the kick and rushed forward.

I was preparing to either dodge or parry the strike when she began emitting a blue glow and she blew up.

My body froze in place, convulsed. I felt as if I had just been electrocuted.

She knocked me to the ground, straddled me.

Paralyzed, I tried to move, I couldn’t.

The sharp end of the batton brought down to stab my head–

I thought it was the end.

But it didn’t happen.

The angel was forced into a retreat for some reason.

My body began regaining sensation and I pointed Arondight:Day forward to create a pillar of light while I did my best to get up.

“Are you okay?”

“Thanks. I almost died.”

“You’re welcome.”

I forgot what her name was. But she’s from ALPINE.

“Priale? Why?” the angel that almost killed me yelped.

“He’s part of our fleet. Sheesh. Sorry about dragging you into the fight. You should’ve just left, why did you stay?”

“I would’ve gone if it was ALPINE. But, Areais also contacted me,” I said.

“Areais?”

“If the time loop theory makes sense then xe probably called from the future. Is anyone in danger?”

“At the moment no.”

The time loop theory. I actually accepted ALPINE’s contact, not Araeis’. So I jumped into battle as soon as the rest of the ALPINE fleet did.

Assuming that Areais’ contact came later, I can only deduce that xe called me in the near future.

“Hold on. If he’s part of your fleet, why doesn’t he have the angel’s coronet?”

“You have to ask our admiral. I’m only doing what I can to protect my teammates.”

“What the.. then don’t blame me for the misunderstanding. I don’t trust demons!”

“What should I do now?”

“Let me fill you in on the current situation. This is the first time you’re participating in a battle of such a scale, correct?”

RRRAWWWWWWKKKKKK!!!

The ground rumbled.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go somewhere safer first.”

Priale dragged me to a secluded alley.

To start, this war happened because the demons want to capture the core for Zone 21. The angels are doing their best to defend it from being captured.

She didn’t tell me the condition for capture, I didn’t ask about it either.

ALPINE is in charge of guarding the inner cirque. Priale left the team to terminate the sniper, which she failed. So she decided to return. On the way she encountered me.

“So what’s my role? I’m a demon. The angels will misunderstand.”

“I don’t know either,” Priale gave me a troubled look.

This is going to be messy.

“Where’s Arieas? Can you bring me to hir?”

“Xe’s probably in a battle dense zone. Are you sure you want to go there?”

“Xe’s the one who called for my help.”

Priale narrowed her eyes before nodding.

“You’re responsible for protecting yourself. Follow me but don’t get too close.”

“Roger.”

A few paces behind Priale, enough distance to make it seem that we’re unrelated, I trailed her from behind.

Intercepting fire from angels. Providing support fire for demons that were in the midst of their end.

Priale got caught up in a pickle.

Her weapon was a drone-command quarterstaff.

But up against an entire fleet of demons, it didn’t matter.

I didn’t need to debate which side to help here.

Columns of light erupted, rotating moon arcs flew through the air.

Priale and I took the chance to escape during the downtime of the demon fleet’s recovery.

“Trisha wasn’t lying when she said you have some ability. Thank you for the support.”

“You saved me earlier. It’s mutual.”

[“Someone help bring Trisha out of the battlefield.”]

Priale and I flinched in reaction to the message.

Another blue marker was pinned in my vision.

[“On it.”]

Priale and I made our way to the marker. Weaving through building, fights between the two sides and traps that seemed to grow more dense the closer we got.

“There.”

A demon was carrying Trisha.