The intruder – a redheaded girl who looked identical to Ange – narrowed her eyes that shined a pale green.
“I am the real Kagari Enju. Though some do call me Ange.”
Black Cat’s claws aimed for the attacker’s heart without a moment’s hesitation.
Based on her previous movements, she was sure to dodge this. And even if she could not dodge it, they could question her after she was half-dead. Those bestial blades could slice through anything and they aimed straight for the redheaded girl who was smiling fearlessly.
“Uuh…”
And they pierced her small chest.
It was Schwarze who was shocked by this. The girl was entirely unfazed. She had not even tried to dodge.
And her fearless smile remained even with a hole in her heart.
Black Cat shuddered. She knew what this girl was. The only creature that could shrug off having their chest ripped apart was not a human or an angel.
“A demon…!”
“That’s rightd”
The girl who had called herself Ange actually walked toward the blade. She approached Black Cat by having the blade pierce her heart even deeper.
Glittering silver claws extended from the back of her hand.
They were identical to the ones piercing her chest, so Schwarze was forced to
jump back to avoid the same tool she herself liked to use.
The color silver drew a large arc in the burning red light of the setting sun.
Black Cat collided with the school gate with the force of her swayback. The three claws had easily torn through her battle suit and left red lines along the white skin of her belly.
But what made Schwarze and Lavriel tremble was the fact that a demon – and an intelligent, higher-level demon – was using a FeTUS tool.
“The Bioroid Plan…was completed?”
The redheaded demon calmly approached.
“~~”
Schwarze’s instincts told her they were outmatched.
She did not know why this girl had taken the form of an angel like Ange, but if she was the completed form of the Bio Springloaded research that had stalled twenty years before…
A Bioroid was a demon with a human will created by converting a human body so it was compatible with demons. If that was what this was, there was no way they could win.
After all…
“A failure like you is no longer needed, Elisabeth.”
“Gwah!”
Schwarze stopped the gently swung claws with her own claws.
And that settled it. Just as Lucia had once done, the demon girl’s body passed
through the claws like water.
She then grabbed Schwarze’s arm, twisted it, and pinned her down.
“Dammit! You-!”
Schwarze struggled, but she only succeeded in hurting her twisted shoulder.
———There really was no way to win.
She was an incomplete version created from the stalled research twenty years before, so this completed version’s basic abilities would be on an entirely different level.
“Miss C! Kh, Kagari Enju…has been designated an enemy…”
“Don’t move.”
“————”
Lavriel’s movements were sealed at the same moment.
In her case, physical strength was not necessary. She tensed up after simply hearing a voice.
She could no longer move.
“You were commanded by the Serpent’s Eye not to fight, weren’t you? You won’t be able to move properly for a while after that.”
“…You.”
“I don’t want you getting hurt, Lavriel.”
Out of the blue, a girl with light purple hair had appeared behind her.
Simply seeing her face and hearing her voice was enough to keep Lavriel from moving. Nothing had actually been done to her, but she was effectively paralyzed.
“Riselle…”
“Long time no see, Lavriel.”
The smiling girl looked left of Lavriel and seemed like she had entirely forgotten they were under attack.
Lavriel looked on the verge of tears and like she was trying to smile. A great many expressions flashed across her face.
It took nearly ten seconds for her to settle on a grim look.
“…So it was true that you’ve sided with Kurosaki.”
“Sorry. But I’m happy where I am now.”
Hearing that indifferent comment, Lavriel placed a hand on her sheathed sword.
But she did not draw it. Even if this was a traitor and an enemy, she could not bring herself to look at her hostilely.
This was who she had been searching for: the cousin she viewed like a sister
named Riselle Baran.
“A sisterly reunion, hm? How movingd Hee hee. Come to think of it, we kind of count as sisters, too. Don’t we, Elisabeth the Failure?”
“Shut up! Kh, don’t use that name…!”
Schwarze continued to resist even as her shoulder joint was held so tight she thought it would break.
But unlike a demon, she could not escape her human form, so there was nothing she could do about this perfect joint lock.
“Heh heh. They’re so weak. What is with this? Was FeTUS really this weak?”
The redheaded demon cackled happily after they so easily restrained both Miss C
and Miss B of FeTUS’s main fighting force.
Seeing that drove home that this really was not Jiyuuni Ange.
She was not that proud angel.
“A demon created by embedding the Fruit of Life in Kagari Enju’s physical body. …A single human’s soul and body given to an angel and a demon respectively. That violates the Angel-Demon Detente.”
“!?”
“Lilith clearly has no intention of following the rules.”
A pillar of fire suddenly rose from behind the school gate.
Despite how impressive it looked, it tapered to a sharp pinpoint and extended toward the redhead who was restraining Black Cat.
The golden circle of a heat-reduction tool appeared from the girl’s extended claws and formed a shield, but…
“Hot!”
The sharp point of fire bent around, avoided the circle, and pierced her thigh.
Enju’s flesh was demonic, so it turned to ashes the instant it was touched. Her only choice was to flee before the burn reached the rest of her body. She threw aside Black Cat and jumped into the sky.
The pillar of fire from beyond the school gate attacked the girl like it had been
waiting for that.
She continued to defend with a magic circle, but when this flame struck it, the flame scattered like syrup and enveloped the girl from every direction. Even if the Springloaded protected her from harm, she could not move.
At the same time, someone rushed out, chose a route that placed them in front of the setting sun and the fireball surrounding Enju, and rushed toward Riselle.
The figure was hard to see within the reflecting light and they grabbed the girl.
Instead of being strong or fast, this person fought by perfectly seeing through to their opponent’s weaknesses.
While Schwarze and Lavriel watched in awe, Micha, the angel who had captured both attackers, slammed Riselle against the school’s outer wall. She then raised a leg and aimed for that cute face.
“St-…”
Lavriel started to yell “stop”, but she quickly shut her mouth.
That incredible kick had enough force to nearly tear the wall from the ground.
Riselle had dodged by bending her head just barely out of the way and her face paled when she saw the high heel stabbed into the wall a mere two centimeters to the side. Some of her purple hair had failed to escape and it floated to the ground.
A strange silence ruled the scene.
In a look she rarely allowed to the surface in front of Mutsuki or Ange, Micha’s face looked like an expressionless Noh mask. Finally, she breathed a sigh.
“I’ve been searching all over Japan every night to find Enju’s stolen body. I never thought it would just show up at the most obvious place.”
She gave a cynically bitter smile.
The fireball enveloping Enju began to lose to the heat reduction tool. Realizing that girl was about to recover, Micha pulled her foot out from the wall. Riselle blinked
her droopy eyes and Micha gently stroked her cheek.