Chapter 2 - Micha and Ange (1/?)

"Pant… Pant… …Ah."

Mutsuki had never imagined it would be this difficult to walk with his legs weak from fear. It felt like he had sat on his legs for hours on end, so he was not even sure he was really standing. He unsteadily headed home while leaning on nearby telephone poles and guardrails.

The way home normally took less than fifteen minutes, but it felt horribly long now.

(What…was that?)

His head was spinning and he felt sick. It felt like all of his blood was flowing backwards. He felt a chill yet could not stop sweating and his head was filled with nothing but heat.

He could only imagine the events in front of the train station had been a dream. First, a car had stood up and started to walk and then the fountain's water had turned blood red. Finally, a girl had appeared out of nowhere and sliced a boy in two.

However…

"…"

He gently held his right eye.

A mirror was attached to a nearby guardrail to give a view around the corner, so he hesitantly peered into it. He saw his own face there, but his right eye was proof that those events had been all too real.

It was black. A black smooth object was located where his eyeball should have been. It looked like a nontransparent plastic panel had been placed over the eye.

And yet he knew better than anyone that he was looking at his own eye. The covered eye had no pupil, but the faint outline of the iris was there and he was able to see through that spot.

His right eye could see and his sight was much clearer than before.

He tried covering his left eye, but that only closed off a bit on the left side of his vision.

It truly had not been a dream. That scared him, so he looked down at his upper arms, legs, and inside his clothes. He found no injuries.

There were no red marks. There was no sign of any kind of burns.

"Fwah… Ah…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

The girl calling herself an angel grew wings from her back to prove her claim.

Instead of the white wings told of in legends, they were made of dull blue flames. Still, they were not actually burning and they moved in accordance with her will. They bent just like wings and wrapped around Mutsuki as he was pinned to the wall.

He screamed as the blue flames burned him, but Ange maintained a look of composure.

"Calm down. An angel's flames are a purifying light. You shouldn't even feel warm. I'm only getting rid of the Succubi."

Once she mentioned it, he realized the flames were not even hot, as if they were a mere illusion. However, that was not enough to calm Mutsuki's panic. There was no way he could relax while flames enveloped him.

Instead of burning him, the flames burned the black liquid soaking his clothes and turned it to ash.

The liquid fell away, freeing Mutsuki's body from the wall.

He fell into the wall fountain below him. The flames seemed to affect normal water too because it began to boil into steam, but even amid the oppressive steam, the flames showed no sign of weakening.

"How pathetic."

The angel girl named Ange watched in obvious exasperation as he flailed around in the water.

But when he looked up in search of help, his right eye met her blue eyes.

"…"

She quickly looked away.

"Except for the Serpent's Eye, it seems."

She faced the side, revealing a cheek that was so flushed it was noticeable even in the light of the setting sun.

"Ange of the Double Flame, hm?"

A moment later, her face stiffened at a voice.

The voice was Lucia's. He had supposedly been sliced in two, but he looked entirely unharmed as he sat on the hood of the scrap metal that had been the Porsche.

"Even among the angels born from the purifying light of flames, your flames were much hotter than normal. You are the maiden born from blue flames of 2000 degrees. …Is that big thing the rumored Prominence?"

"I'm glad to hear I'm so famous."

The girl clicked her tongue, turned around, and pointed her large sword at the boy.

Even if it was hollow except for the core of support in the center, the panel of metal was wider than she was, but she easily swung it around in one hand. It was an unbelievable sight.

The slightly damp-looking black surface was made of metal and covered in the luster of a black pearl. It looked just as gorgeous as the Japanese swords that were given as deep a shine as platinum despite being made of steel. Just looking at it was enough to feel the solemn weight of the metal inside.

"Oh, god. What a pain."

Lucia jumped down from the hood.

He pulled out the large red scythe stabbed into the vehicle. His arms were far skinnier than Mutsuki's, yet he not only easily lifted the giant scythe, but he tore apart the Porsche's red body like it was made of paper.

They both seemed to possess the same mysterious and abnormal power.

"—————!!"

"—————!!"

All Mutsuki could tell was that they were enemies.

The giant sword named Prominence sliced through the air and the two of them collided.

"~~Gh…"

The massive sword was going to strike the long scythe. The sword had more weight, so it would push the scythe back.

However, the boy ducked down before the blade arrived, dodged the slash, and sent the force of his blow to the other end of his weapon. He sent the handle toward the girl's torso.

"Ah."

The high-speed exchange did not even last two full seconds. Mutsuki's eyes caught up, but only after the girl used the momentum of her charge to jump away from the boy and avoid the scythe handle.

Mutsuki was not even given time to gasp before the exchange accelerated. When Lucia's fingertips danced like he was waving a conductor's baton, the pieces of black water scattered across the ground formed hands and assaulted the angel.

"Didn't you know?"

The battle was over.

"An angel's body cannot be defiled."

The liquid demons approaching the girl turned to ash the instant they arrived within a certain area around her.

Lucia's eyes grew wide because the girl's body was now surrounded by blue flames so thin they were nearly invisible. The film of fire had created an inviolable barrier around her.

"A Corona!?"

The boy's shock created a brief opening. In that instant, Ange ran right up to the boy while protected by her burning fire.

She unleashed a full swing of her great sword.

Lucia somehow managed to catch it on his scythe, but his slender body was launched several dozen meters as if a large truck had hit him.

"Dammit… You really are strong."

Despite his surprise, Lucia placed his feet on a building's wall to recover. However, he did not immediately make a counterattack.

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