She avoided the tip with shocking reflexes and squeezed the wing pendant that was already in her hand.
“Prominence!”
It grew into a large sword that deflected the enemy’s weapon.
There was nothing inside the transport plane except for 12 black cylindrical objects standing in the back, so they had plenty of room to fight.
That was perfect for Ange who was confident she could win any fight.
“Loop!!”
She split the sword in two, spun around, and sliced at the masked girl waiting for her there.
Prominence was a heavy sword, but the enemy easily blocked it and made a counterattack.
That was not possible with human strength. And based on the horrific weapon she used…
“A demon. …You’re one of those rumored Bioroids, aren’t you?”
The human organization known as Kurosaki had developed the Bio Springloaded, a new variety of Springloaded that incorporated demons into their design.
Micha had mentioned that one had shown up that had grown to the level of a greater demon that possesses human-level intelligence.
So it made sense this girl could match an angel’s strength like this.
“Wah!?”
The floor suddenly tilted. Ange quickly worked to regain her balance, but she could not keep up the attack and had to move back.
The airplane was rapidly descending. She had forgotten that the ground they fought on was the loyal servant of this demon.
The enemy was both a demon and a human who could freely control machines.
That was a Bioroid.
“Tch…what a pain.”
Whoever this enemy was, the situation was not in Ange’s favor.
The plane rapidly descended and ascended. She was naturally tossed around by the unstable footing and the rising and falling gravity. As long as the enemy had control of this place, fighting here was too reckless.
That said…
“Perfect. I had wanted to test this out, but I didn’t want to use it on Ibekusa.”
She had plenty of options.
Metatron’s golden glow filled her blue eyes.
“Let’s see how useful this is in practice. …Helio!!”
Golden jet streams burst from her back and then formed particles.
“Gyah!”
Those balls of light exceeded a million degrees and they all flew toward the masked girl. Mere contact was enough to vaporize her flesh and they filled her body with holes.
A human would have been killed instantly…but she only flinched back a bit and did not seem to take much actual damage.
She really was a demon. Ange prepared to continue the fight. The girl’s body began filling in the holes and regenerating the scorch marks as if that were
perfectly normal.
“Eh…?”
But the mask could not be regenerated. The fact that it melted and dripped away was enough to decide the battle.
Ange found the girl’s face was the same as hers. She also realized the red hair was the same as hers, albeit cut to shoulder length.
“Kwah…! Waaaaahh!”
The girl released a golden thread in that moment of hesitation and it wrapped around Ange’s arm. Electricity immediately passed through it and filled her with an angel’s greatest weakness: a heat-radiating current.
But that pain was not the worst part.
“M…me?”
“Nee hee hee hee hee. I had heard we looked a lot alike, but it look like that’s true.
I’m cuter, though.”
The girl’s smile contained a mixture of playfulness and toxicity not found in Jiyuuni Ange. She was Kagari Enju.
The structure of angels and demons could be seen as two sides of the same coin.
An angel was born from a dead human’s soul (i.e. the Fruit of Knowledge) and a demon was born when the Fruit of Life resided within an empty shell of a body.
That meant it was theoretically possible for a single human’s soul to become an angel and body to become a demon.
It was possible, but the odds of both being reincarnated were so low that it was astronomically unlikely. Unless the process had received some outside help, that is.
That aside, it was impossible not to be shaken when “what you used to be” suddenly appeared before you. The thread was tangled around Ange’s hand before she could even struggle.
(Wah…gh! Oh, no. I need to focus…aaaaah!)
Angels were weak against heat reduction, so she was neutralized before she could even tremble in fear. Once she had challenged an enemy to combat, she had known that even an instantaneous opening would cost her her life.
“Hee hee. We just met, but I guess it’s goodbye already. The world only needs one of us.”
Enju mercilessly aimed her sword at the girl who could only writhe from the electricity.
With both her hands restrained now, the angel had no way of dodging it.
So the sudden intruder saved her life, no matter how much she hated that fact.
“Uuh, I’m glad this thing descended so much… Oh? So she was your pair.”
Lucia had kicked through the opposite door from Ange and jumped inside. He must have caught on earlier because he was not shocked to see two identical faces wielding deadly blades against each other.
His burns had already healed and his insect wings had been replaced with large wings that were probably based on a bird of prey. Those wings provided decent speed while gliding, so he had easily caught up with the airplane as it wildly descended.
“Oh, dear. Your friend showed up.”
The airplane had descended too far, so it began to rise once more to stabilize its altitude. Meanwhile, Enju aimed the tip of her sword at him. Ange was already neutralized, so she ignored the angel and made sure she did not show an opening
to Lucia.
“She’s no friend of mine. Why not go ahead and finish her off?”
“Hmph.”
“Why wait? Just go ahead and do it.”
Lucia shrugged and it was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.
But after waiting for the plane to return above 500m, he snapped his fingers.
“Wha-!?”
When had he gathered this? Blobs of black water vapor burst in through the broken doors.
“You must be crazy to challenge a demon to a fight here.”
“Kwaaaah!”
All of the cumulus clouds at this altitude had been turned to Succubi and sent inside the plane.
A greater demon like Lucia could bring all water within eyesight to his aid – and water vapor was no exception. The cargo bay was quickly filled with black vapor.
It did not approach Ange because the flames bursting from her body shielded her, but the other girl was easily swallowed up.
And the attack had yet to truly begin.
“Gh…! Gah…hah!”
Scythes identical to the one which had shot from the juice were now filling her surroundings. They shot out from all of the Succubus-possessed air, including what was in her lungs. There were far too many to deal with, so her entire body would
be sliced to pieces in an instant.
The entire plane made a wide turn to shake free of the black cloud. The vaporized Succubi were not sticky, so that maneuver managed to eject them.
“Hee hee?”
Except for the black fog that moved with a will of its own.
The extra-thick mass of cloud gained flesh color while still tangled around Enju’s body. Lucia reconstructed his body after having fused with the black cloud.
“How amateurish.”
“What…?”
He appeared behind the girl.
Enju could not turn around even though she heard the voice.
“As your senior, let me tell you something: we are not savage angels or humans.
Only an amateur demon would get so delighted about swinging around a weapon.”
Lucia must have worked his way into the moisture in the girl’s cells. His arms stabbed through the girl’s body without harming her.
Perhaps it was better to say they sank through her. His right hand sank into her right elbow and his left hand sank down to the wrist inside her shoulder blade.
“A demon needs to start by attacking the heart?”
He grabbed her heart with his left hand.
She was now restricted from more than just turning around. The slightest movement would tear an artery.