- Neo-kun, I would... I wanted... I want to tell you something!
Under a tall sakura tree, covering the ground with millions of light pink petals, there were two reasonable people: a young brown-haired guy in the uniform of the Ke Academy and a beautiful girl with two fox ears on a light head and a pair of nervously twitching tails behind her back.
The young girl blushed and tried not to cry – it was so hard for her to confess her love to her beloved.
What if he refuses? What if he doesn't understand? What if he has another one?..
Hundreds of thoughts quickly replaced each other, winding up the already difficult condition of the girl. Mizuki wanted to scream and growl from emotions and her "childish" fear, but she firmly decided to end everything today.
She confesses. No matter what! Neither to the possible words of her grandfather, nor to the fact that the guy standing in front of her is a man, nor to a possible refusal... she has to end everything today.
The girl understood that she was already delaying it too much. She understood that she could not stand these strange, stupid and very painful emotions anymore.
First love... she's like that. Stupid, unbearable, sometimes fleeting, and sometimes insanely all-consuming.
For Kitsune, this is much more difficult. If they have chosen a partner, then he is for life, and they endure rejection or breakup of a relationship very, very difficult. But time can heal even a broken heart.
Even a broken soul.
- Yes, Mizuki-chan? The guy smiled. Lightly, like a breeze. Softly, like a warm spring ray. The way he smiled just for her. For a silly girl in love with soft fox ears.
Mizuki sincerely believed that this attractive smile belonged only to her. She didn't want to hear the signals and arguments of reason, and why? Now the girl's heart was trembling from any memory of Neo. She received her dose of happiness, standing just next to her beloved.
And that was fine.
"I wanted to tell you something. – The girl repeated again, looking firmly at Mori with golden eyes. – Will you listen?
The guy raised an eyebrow questioningly and nodded, then walked a few steps closer and adjusted his glasses.
- Neo, I am... I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time. For a long time I picked up words, phrases and much more. Oh, I even came up with a verse, then tore it up and burned it, tried to write a letter, well... I did a lot of things. – Kitsune winced at her trembling voice, after which she sighed wearily, releasing all the accumulated tension with a sigh.
A breeze flew over the head of the girl and the guy, picking up hundreds of petals and whirling them in a magical dance around two intelligent ones.
- I am... I love-!..
Mizuki interrupted Neo's ringing phone. The harsh melody of the orchestra frightened the girl, out of the corner of her mind she noted that the melody belonged to Mozart, "Requiem of Kyrie", to be more precise.
The girl immediately discarded stupid thoughts and cursed in her mind, because someone interrupted such a magical moment.
The perfect moment!
Just when she gathered her strength, she even used wind magic to twist the sakura petals in the air. Just like in the TV series that she watches. It was this magical moment that had to be interrupted!
She wanted to kill the unknown caller!
The guy answered the call, listening, as Kitsune's animal hearing noted, to a man's voice. A somewhat worried and sad voice, slow and even.
Here, Neo's face slowly turned pale, forcing the girl to furrow her thin blond eyebrows even more, the phone fell out of the guy's trembling hand, hitting the ground with a loud bang. The lid flew off, and the glass cracked, but the voice was still talking, asking something and shouting.
Mizuki realized something was wrong when she saw two tracks of tears springing from her lover's eyes.
- N-neo? – The girl's heart began to beat with great speed from the slowly beginning panic. Even a stupid person would have realized that something was wrong. - What happened?!
"Mizuki... me.".. – The guy took off his glasses and abruptly turned in the opposite direction, starting to run. – I'm sorry, I need to go home right away!
- Neo! – Kitsune reached out to the guy with her hand, ran a couple of steps after, then stopped and sat down near the phone.
- Hello! Hello, Neo, are you listening to me?!
- Hello, my name is Mizuki, what happened? Neo Mori just dropped his phone and ran headlong somewhere!
- Mizuki? Miss, listen to me carefully! If you are nearby, then catch up with him and don't let him do anything stupid! A man's voice said seriously. – I am from the law enforcement service, I am responsible for psychological counseling of victims. We have an emergency, hundreds of dead, including Neo's parents, if you are nearby, support him and bring him to us!
- The dead... The girl whispered, her eyes wide. –H-okay, I get it!
Kitsune strained ayakashi's paranormal abilities and quickly found Mori by her mark. In the next second, she rushed down the steep slope at superhuman speed, jumping from tree to tree and catching up with the guy very quickly.
He needed her more than anything right now. And love... she'll wait.
-= Ke. An abandoned church. =-
- How... who could have done such a thing? Issei whispered, looking at the pieces of torn, disfigured bodies.
He had already vomited bile more than once or twice, the smell of blood and waste products caused fog in his eyes, and his body staggered.
The guy has already seen corpses, but to have so many mutilated, disfigured and so much blood... meat. No, he would have nightmares about this for a long time to come.
- Carnage. – Kiba said gloomily, stepping over someone's head, after which he crouched down near the torso torn in half and, creating a blade in his hand, carefully picked up the wound with the tip. – It feels like it was torn by hands. The skin is stretched, but here it seems to have burst, unable to withstand the tension. Claw marks and bruises from long fingers, longer than pianists. A laceration, a long painful death.
- Who could do this? What for? Eva asked, lifting someone's head and starting to look at it with interest. – Why kill these people? Why bring so much evil and pain? – The girl carefully covered the eyelids of the corpse with two fingers and did not hold back tears. – So sad...
- Churchmen. Akeno said, looking at the hand with the tattoo of the cross. – Not surprising. And this one," she pointed to another tattoo, in the form of black wings with three vertical eyes. – the sign of the Fallen.
- I don't feel anything. Rias spread her hands to the sides, trying to recognize auras or traces of magic. The very presence in the holy place brought discomfort and brought down the girl, especially since the abandoned church was blackened by a huge number of deaths. Heavy deaths, no one died easily. It all contributed to the background of this place. – Wait, there's something... alive!
Gremory pointed her hand at the bloody altar, after which the demons looked at each other and silently began to walk around it from different sides.
Perhaps the culprit is still here, we must not lose vigilance.
- No, please, I will never betray God, please stop! – Exclaimed a broken female voice. – I promise, I will never betray Him, just stop...
Under the altar sat a sobbing young girl with an empty look. Her dirty-gray hair was smeared with blood, and the nun's black cassock was almost completely smeared with a huge amount of blood mixed with waste products.
- Shh, don't be afraid. We've come to help. Issei was the first to come out of his stupor, immediately kneeling down in front of the girl and gently, as if afraid to scare her off, stretched out his hand to her. – My name is Issei. Hedo Issei, everything is fine now...
The girl raised an empty look of reddened green eyes at the guy, continuing to whisper requests for forgiveness. She didn't seem to see anyone. It was as if only she and the metal cross remained in the world, which she clutched in her hand until it bled.
- A man. And she has a sacred mechanism. Rias said, frowning. – She is... she has suffered a lot and now she won't tell us anything. – Gremory put hypnosis on the girl, plunging her into a healthy sleep. - Akeno, Eva, do any of you feel the magic that was used here?
"Apart from the magic of the Fallen, there was no magic here anymore... Akeno shook her head negatively, then gasped. – Although no, wait, there is something, but I do not know what kind of magic it is!
- The blood runs cold in the veins. Eve said, shuddering all over. – Something dark. It seems that my blood is about to leave my body.
- Blood? Rias frowned. A memory of the phrase of her new acquaintance, Neo Mori, flew through her thoughts. About how he saved Sophie from a vampire. "The blood runs cold in the veins." – We're leaving. Right now. We need to discuss everything with Sonya.
Issei carefully picked up the light body of the sleeping girl in his arms, suppressing the rage that flared up inside him at the monster that could do this to an ordinary beautiful girl.
Someone who could kill so many people...
- Has Koneko come yet? Akeno asked frowningly, creating a teleportation circle.
- She said that Neo's house is nearby. – Kiba replied, shaking his head negatively. – I couldn't stop her.
Gremory nodded and stepped into the crimson runic circle. She mentally sent her familiars after her Rook with an order to return to the club.
Something is happening and Rias is to blame for it. This is a territory controlled by her and she did not notice a small war... unilateral destruction.
After that, how can she call herself the heiress of an ancient clan? Just an ordinary stupid girl.
The demoness perfectly realized one thing – it will not be possible to hide it and it is necessary to contact her brother as soon as possible, explaining the situation to him. And tell about Eve. He should know, the girl sincerely believed that he would not do anything to her, on the contrary, he would help protect her.
But first you need to meet with Sonya and discuss everything that happened, if possible, interview the survivor.
Rias squinted at Issei's burden and lowered her head dejectedly.
Yes, she failed...
-= Evening of the same day. Surroundings of the city of Ke. =-
A black-haired guy in a priest's cassock looked with interest at the discordant rows of bloody creatures. Nosferatu.
Tall, bald, gray skin was covered with festering sores and looked more like a disfigured skull with pieces of hanging meat.
Terrible creatures and beautiful killers.
In broad daylight, they made their way through tunnels located under the city to an abandoned church – the local base of the Fallen. They slaughtered everyone, as Jophiel ordered, leaving only Asia alive.
Then they imposed a barrier of night and silence from the category of blood magic on the nearest block, erasing the remnants of auras and allowing night hunters not to be afraid of the light of the sun, after which they continued their task.
The Fallen didn't have a chance.
- Lamork, he's happy with your work. – The guy said, taking off his glasses and puffing the golden glow of his fiery eyes. – Your nest has coped. It is quite expected, for former knights, inquisitors and court magicians, cursed with a single curse of Eternity.
The tallest of the Nosferatu stepped forward and fell to his knees in front of the Archangel.
Now he felt the holy energy that the Archangel was filled with. Nosferatu did not pay attention to the changed color of the guy's hair or the aura of a person, more like an Angel. Even the priest's cassock, embroidered with crosses and symbols... Paladin, did not surprise the vampire.
The Archangel Jophiel could appear before him in any guise. The beauty of God chose this... perhaps not for nothing. In honor of the upcoming ceremony? After all, he, Sir Lamork of Wales, will finally find his beauty.
He will return the long-awaited humanity, stop feeling pain, endless hunger and disgust for his own reflection!
And his friends, his brothers and sisters, his children will follow him. Into a new life, without the horrors of the night, without suffering... under the light of the endless sun!
The archangel slowly pulled off a chain with a black cross, as if created from obsidian, from his neck. He was hanging obliquely and a very strange energy was flowing from him, like which Nosferatu had never felt.
- My children, you have coped with the task assigned to Them. They did not disobey His order. – The guy said slowly, holding up a black cross, gradually changing color to snow-white. – He is pleased with your Faith in Him. I am pleased with your following Him. And He... forgives your sins. Forgives the sin of your progenitor!
The vampires listened to Jophiel's words with bated breath.
They did not fully believe in the words of their master, Lamork, even now they could not believe that everything that was happening was reality, and not someone's evil joke.
They did not believe that the creature standing in front of them with a strange aura and the smell of a man was an Archangel sent down by the Biblical God.
They did not believe that they would regain their humanity.
But they had hope. The only thing that has not died out over the years and centuries.
Each of those present had their own story, sometimes sad, sometimes cruel, but they were connected by one thing – blood ties that they dreamed of breaking. To stop his torment, having regained his humanity.
And for this they were ready for a lot. The monsters didn't even think to challenge the Master's orders, even if they were crazy, stupid, or ridiculous. They were ready to tear anyone apart, burying this town in blood, just to make a ghostly chance of restoring humanity a reality.
Therefore, they were silent and looked with tears in their eyes at their Master, who kissed the holy cross. As the wounds slowly heal, the skin takes on a pale human hue, and the bald head is covered with short black hair.
They watched as Nosferatu's body broke with a wet crunch, under which a black puddle of blood and rot formed. How he screams, sobs and laughs at the same time, realizing that this is not a terrible dream. That this is reality.
That He fulfilled his dream. He kept his promise, forgiving the creatures of darkness, fear and hatred.
In the eyes of the former monster, and now a happily laughing man, slowly lights of Faith were born. Faith in Him and in His cause. Not ordinary, human, but infinitely fanatical, befitting a holy blind man.
- My children, come to me. Five pairs of golden wings slowly flashed behind Jophiel's back, causing the monsters to gasp with delight and holy awe. – He forgives you, his children!
Nosferatu approached one by one, falling on their knees in front of Jophiel and touching the holy cross with their toothy mouths, each time intensifying its soft white radiance.
One by one, the monsters turned into people. In adult men and women. In the elderly and children.
Into their long-forgotten shells of the past.
And now people were happily crying, hugging and kissing, shouting various nonsense and each other's names, from time to time praising Him, shouting thanks to Him and prostrating themselves before the archangel, sending Him prayers.
- Don't thank me, His children. – said the guy, hiding His wings and removing the halo. – Thank Him for the sacred moment of finding. After all, He forgives you... I forgive you.
- Thank you!
- Glory!
- God has forgiven us...
- Jofiel, thank you! Thanks for the vs-!.. Lamork exclaimed and immediately interrupted himself, looking questioningly at the hands that shone with a golden glow. - what?..
In the next instant, the black-haired man turned into a cloud of golden dust, along with the rest of the people.
Dust fell like snow on the bloody ground, mixed with blood, and a light evening breeze picked up the remains of people, sending them on a new journey...
"Humanity and the soul that God gave you existed," Aizen said, clearing the lenses of his glasses from the golden dust and putting them back on his face. – but, unfortunately, they crashed over time.
The guy looked up at the risen moon, smiling at him with a crooked horn:
- The time allotted to you has long passed, only a curse restrained the golden grains of time in you. You were born human. They became monsters, but at the end of the way they regained their humanity. And you died as people. – Aizen looked at the newly blackened cross dangling from a silver chain. – Is this the secret of man? Is that the point?
The guy closed his eyes and lowered his head dejectedly:
- Only by losing the most valuable things, we become people... Losing humanity.