The girl who opened her eyes was breathtaking, like moonlight spilling on fresh snow.

Slowly, the light around her chased off the darkness that seeped into every corner, like dawn burning dew from the grass.

She looked up—a face only half a likeness to Angela, like a reflection blurred by ripples.

She stared at the sky and fell into long, deep silence, like a stone sinking through a still lake.

She knew she’d fallen again into the inner darkness set by that reincarnated Hero, a snare woven of shadow.

She’d almost wandered there forever, like a moth circling a cold lamp.

She let out a scornful laugh, thin as frost cracking on glass.

This was something even Zero hadn’t foreseen, a pebble in his perfect plan.

He only wanted tighter control over this Angel. It was his first time using that method; he never expected the net to have a torn mesh.

And now, the Archangel’s long-suppressed power erupted, like a volcano breaking winter’s crust.

She felt a presence of immense affinity and a vast, familiar force, a warm tide returning to shore.

The Celestial God was finally waking amid the chaos about to break, thunder rolling over a once-quiet sea.

The stronger that power swelled, the more her shackled strength slipped free, chains falling like rusted rain.

Akenachel smiled. “My Lord, you’ve finally... finally awakened!”

Divinity flared across her like sunrise, and she stood radiant as a blade of light.

Yet behind her, a jarring silhouette stood, a thorn snagging silk.

A faint ghost of a little girl stood there, lost and helpless—Angela, wavering like morning mist.

As Angela’s image appeared outside that massive body, it began to fade, like ink bled away by rain.

She seemed to know she was about to vanish, a candle guttering in a draft.

She crouched, aggrieved, sobbing without stop, like a bird shivering in a snare.

Akenachel let out a long, drifting sigh, wind through old pines.

It couldn’t be helped. A mortal soul taking the Celestial God’s baptism—lasting this long without shattering to dust was a miracle.

Now the soul, unable to bear the pressure, was scoured straight out of the body, like a flood washing soil from stone.

Without Angela, the host soul, the giant body began to grow, to mature, like a tree surging in a storm.

Slowly, it returned to Akenachel’s former state, an old crown settling on a rightful brow.

The girl could only watch, helpless, and accept it, driftwood on a black tide.

Akenachel reached out, wanting to gather the timid girl into her arms, but her hands passed through the transparent body like grasping moonlight.

The girl stared blankly, then wailed with even deeper helplessness, a reed-cry in a cold wind.

“Sister... sister... save me... ugh... sister... sister... Brother Eli... uh...”

Akenachel clenched her teeth and turned away, as if dust scratched her eye. She couldn’t bear to keep watching.

“Damn it...”

In her heart, a thorn of a thought sprouted—one an Angel should never have, a black seed in holy soil.

Eli, show yourself! Hero, come—come help this poor little one!

Hero, don’t you claim you can save everyone? Didn’t you once stand unflinching against the Celestial God for the people, a blade in the storm?

And now? Come out! Beat the drum in this cold night!

...

Back on the high dais, Zero came out of meditation. He looked around and, sure enough, found Janus tense and panicked, like a bowstring thrumming.

Zero vaulted off the dais and landed, then patted Janus lightly. “Demonic Lord, easy. This is our last fight before we go under. Are you ready?”

“But... but... I don’t know where my sister is. She was sleeping in her room. Now, now, I can’t even see her shadow! I... I...” Janus dropped to her knees, knees thudding like stones.

That special bond between sisters screamed warnings through her, bells clanging in a temple.

She knelt back on her heels, hands over her chest, teeth clenched, holding back a storm.

Zero nodded. “Relax, wife. We’ll go save that silly kid next.”

“...Okay.” Janus leaned into Zero’s arms, grief heavy as rain.

“Next, we face the personification of the Celestial God’s gathered will. Akenachel. She isn’t complete, and the Abyss has dulled her edge. But she’s awake, and the buff to non-humans is huge,” Zero said with a smile.

“Wife, one more time—are you ready?”

“Obviously!”

...

Meanwhile, the present-day Eli inside Birand’s memory-space couldn’t break free. To tear off the unseen chains, he sank into the bloodshed Birand had tailored for him, wading a scarlet river.

Outside, Edlyn clearly felt Angela’s call, a thread tugging her heart.

She shut her eyes tight and ground her teeth. “Future me, please. She’s our only family. Please. Please.” Her words rose like incense smoke.

“Mm... where is this...?” Raphael rubbed his head, surfacing from a deep pool.

Right then, Edlyn, angry beyond words, snapped her black sword up and hurled it, a raven streak splitting the air.

It landed between Raphael’s legs, a guillotine’s shadow.

One millimeter shy of disaster, a hair’s breadth from oblivion.

Raphael jolted, then fainted again, a candle snuffed by a gust.

“Damn it. Eli, what on earth are you doing?” Edlyn snapped, voice striking flint.

She stalked to the Tree of Life and gave it a kick, like striking an ancient bell.

The Tree of Life ignored her, still basking in the Elf Race’s crafted underground sunlight, leaves whispering like green silk.

It tended the elves, who were starting to stir from their swoon, like dawn nurses rousing the ward.

...

Angela had gone almost transparent, on the verge of vanishing, frost under a climbing sun.

Still, nothing moved around them. Akenachel and Angela fell into silence, the air taut as a drawn bow.

The two girls just stared at each other, mirrors across dark water.

At the moment the tears in Angela’s eyes began to evaporate, a round sphere of blue energy streaked in and wrapped her fading figure, a tide shelling a pearl.

The sharp-eyed Akenachel saw with a shock that Angela’s body was condensing again, no longer nearly invisible, snow packing under a gentle hand.

Then a voice with a thread of madness came from not far away, wind whining through a cracked door.

“That’s twice. I won’t allow it. I won’t let any of you die in front of me again.” Zero dragged his battered body out of a black passage, blood like dark paint, and everyone froze in shock.

Zero smiled. “Akenachel, you thought hiding here in the Abyss would keep me from finding you?”

Akenachel blinked. What? She was in the Abyss, ground slipping underfoot.

“Oh? So what if you did?” A gaunt woman stepped out from behind Akenachel’s shadow. “So this is the Hero’s reincarnate? I’ve heard so much.”

Zero tilted his head. “Well, if it isn’t the Holy Angel, Lady Bernice. What, you awakened too?”

“Eh. The Abyss kept me caged for years. I can’t carry the title Holy Angel anymore,” the woman chuckled.

“You’ve had it rough, hiding in the Abyss all these years.” Edlyn stepped out behind Zero. She wore fewer injuries than he did, bruises like wilted roses.

Her man always shielded her more. It twisted her heart, so the culprits would pay, debt collected with steel.

“...Bernice? Why are you here? And why am I here?” Akenachel asked, puzzled, thoughts a tangle of reeds.

“I saw you about to awaken, Akenachel, so I brought you to my hideout in the Abyss. You don’t mind, do you?” the woman said with a smile.

“N-no.” Akenachel was lost in fog.

Janus hurried to the blue energy sphere, pulled off her mask, and revealed Edlyn’s pretty face. She said, worried, “Angela, don’t be afraid. Sister and brother are here. Don’t be afraid.”

Inside the blue sphere, Angela felt a force warming her soul, spring sun on ice.

She looked at them, elated yet wronged. “Mm-hmm, sister... Angela almost...”

“Mm. Don’t be scared. Leave it to us,” Janus said with a small smile.

Then Janus came to Zero’s side. “Eli, this move... you started practicing it back then, didn’t you?”

“Yeah... Back then I had power, but couldn’t save her. I feared it would happen again, so I forged this power myself.”

“Then can my sister still... have a body?” Janus swallowed, throat tight.

“Relax. I’ve prepared everything.” Zero came to Angela, took off his mask, and smiled. “Don’t be afraid, Angela. We’ll take you home soon, okay? For now, a little nap.”

“Okay.” Bathed in the energy’s gentle nourishment, Angela’s eyelids grew heavy, petals closing at dusk.

He shrank the little sphere and slipped it into his portable space, tucking a star into a pocket.

Eli looked up at the two archangels. “All right, you two. Time to settle accounts.”

Akenachel narrowed her eyes. The private matter was finished. Now came the public one, blades unsheathed.

For the Celestial God, the Hero must die!

“Well, well. I didn’t expect a chance to fight the Demon King Hero,” Bernice smiled. “Shame it’s not the original body, but a... mm, neither-here-nor-there reincarnation.”

Edlyn narrowed her eyes. “I’ll show you the price for insulting the Demon King... the Hero... the Hero’s wife!”

Eli looked at Edlyn and laughed, delighted. “Ah, wife, I love you to death.”

“...Still flirting? Die!” Akenachel’s voice cracked like a whip.

She thrust with a sword, a lightning flash.

Eli fell back fast. The clowning was just to buy recovery time, seconds like stolen breath.

The backlash from tearing open an Abyssal passage didn’t fade so easily, thunder echoing in the bone.

“Ah, let’s settle this properly,” Eli said, smiling, as he drew the Holy Sword from his hip.

The Holy Sword Tias flared with fierce light, and the two Angels felt a crushing pressure, like a mountain dropping from the sky.