Yeah, when did I ever forget?

When did I forget?

…When, exactly, did I forget something so simple?

Who knew snowball fights could be this much fun…………

Laughing, Merka picked up some snow that had just settled on the ground and packed it into a snowball between his palms.

He ran along, cheering as he threw the snowball in his hand at Turing.

Merka couldn’t possibly outrun Turing, who was trained for this, but Turing clearly wasn’t trying to put distance between them.

She ran, then paused, a little way from Merka, swaying happily like a tiny, shining star.

Baotu Spring gushed without pause. Before long, a rippling layer of snow had gathered across the broad stretch of black earth surrounding the spring.

Merka trod on the scattered snow, his spirits soaring almost to the heavens.

His heart, so tightly bound to deep suffering, had never felt this light.

He was in an amazing mood. The weight of his thoughts lifted, and memories from long ago began to ripple through his mind—

That day, at Soul-Calming Lake.

I’d been focused entirely on Maria’s orders, with no time to pay attention to anything else.

But I’d completely forgotten that, amid the lake’s snow-covered scenery, I’d gained more than just Turing’s smile.

I hadn’t noticed that amid all that white ash falling from the sky, I’d found rebirth too.

“Haha! Turing! Look out!”

Chasing after Turing, Merka waited for his chance and threw a snowball.

The snowball seemed to move slowly, yet it landed squarely on Turing’s head as she ran, as if it had predicted her path.

“Ow!”

Turing let out a soft yelp and sped up a little. She quickly bent down, scooped up some snow, packed it into a snowball, and threw it at Merka from the opposite direction.

But Merka didn’t dodge. Instead, he charged forward, quickly scooped up a snowball from the ground, and hurled it at the snowball Turing had thrown.

Amazingly, the snowball in Merka’s hand seemed to have eyes. It struck Turing’s snowball dead on, and the two fell to the ground and melted away together.

“Heh. When it comes to snowball fights, just being faster on your feet won’t beat me!”

“You’ve forgotten what happened back at Soul-Calming Lake…”

As he spoke, Merka rolled aside to dodge another snowball from Turing, then kept rolling until he reached an open patch with plenty of snow.

Meanwhile, Merka’s movements had somehow boxed Turing into a confined area.

After throwing snowballs rapidly again and again, she’d run out of snow on the ground to replenish her supply.

But she wasn’t worried about that. Instead, she seemed to freeze in place at the two things Merka had just said.

“Soul-Calming Lake… What about Soul-Calming Lake…?”

【Soul-Calming Lake… What is Soul-Calming Lake?】

【Why do these words, which I see everywhere, feel so familiar and yet so strange?】

【Could it be…】

【Memories from when I was still a boy?】

Seeing Turing freeze, Merka stopped moving too.

He dropped the snowball in his hand and took two concerned steps toward her, calling out loudly.

“Turing…”

In that instant, the whole world shattered like a block of ice struck with tremendous force.

The alarm announcing that the energy supply had run out rang through the heavens.

Space collapsed into countless tiny fragments. Merka and Turing fell out of the world of illusions and returned to reality.

“Ah, did the power run out?”

Merka rolled out of the cramped machine. Seeing that the indicator light had gone dark, he said glumly,

Turing also squeezed her way out of the machine, gripping its edge.

With a dark look on her face, she awkwardly stepped out of the cylinder inside the machine, then sprawled onto the ground—like a baby struggling out of the womb and into the world, bawling.

Having her beautiful dream forcibly cut short left Turing incredibly irritated.

A rush of hot, violent anger surged into Turing’s head.

Boiling blood mist, thick with murderous intent, flooded her chest in an instant, whether she wanted it to or not.

The violence unique to angels ran rampant through Turing’s entire body, then burst forth in a thunderous strike.

“Aah!!!”

A tentacle suddenly burst from Turing’s back and swelled in size. Like the venomous stinger on a scorpion’s back, it swept forward with terrifying speed and sliced the huge machine in front of her in two.