IV.

Cripple

"Therefore, my spirit languished upon me;

within me, my heart is desolate."

—Psalm 143:4

Naoki wasn't allowed to enter his own school.

Of course he wasn't, he looked like he was an organized crime group's errand boy! The young man was standing by the side of the road while his old teacher talked to the stern security guard. The identical looking woman behind her was giving him a once over. There wasn't any malice in her eyes, in fact, she looked at Naoki what seemed like a look of pity. The look didn't bother him, but he did stare back at her in return. He did not remember Ms. Takao having any sibling, let alone a complete twin.

"He is an old student of mine, okay? Please, just—"

"I get your angle, Takao-sensei. But I can't let anyone in just because you know them." The guard stole another glace at Naoki. "Especially if something were to happen and they'd know I let a shady looking kid in?"

"Oh, for the love of—!" Ms. Takao hissed at the guard; her patience looked like it was wearing thin. But the other woman gently pulled her away and apologized to the guard on her behalf. Naoki looked at the two and it seemed they really do know each other. The two women walked towards him; the other woman looked like she was still chiding Ms. Takao.

"I apologize for that, Naoki-kun." Ms. Takao had her brows furrowed, not looking directly at him. "There is a restaurant over there, it's not the most private place to talk, but—"

Naoki looked at her straight in the eye. "It's alright, Yūko-sensei."

She still wasn't looking directly at him. "Or we can talk back in my apartment! I'll just need Yuko to cover for me…"

Naoki let out a breath and a half-smile. "Sensei—"

"Yūko, calm down." The woman, whose name apparently was Yuko, clasped Ms. Takao's shoulder. "Let's—"

"No!" She finally looked at Naoki, and she could barely hold her tears. "No…I need to talk to him…"

"How does it look?" Naoki steered the subject away. "The world, I mean."

It looked like those were the only words she needed to hear. Because the woman who seemed so unsure of herself back in the vortex world after she fully realized the weight of her sins was looking a lot better than she did back then, even better when she was before the conception. She was smiling brightly at him now, looking at him in earnest. "I wouldn't have expected anything less from you, Naoki-kun."

She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "I've been in this world for so long. I thought you wouldn't come back. I had so much to say! I—"

"Not a half-bad restoration job, huh?" He huffed out a laugh. She let go of Naoki, the young man continued. "For a high school student, at least."

Her face fell. "Naoki-kun, you need to know something…"

White marble pillars divided the church into three sections. Each thirds accommodate two rows worth of dark wooden pews that face a large altar housing statues and relics. Two smooth white statues of identical looking angels were kneeling facing each other, between them a class cover containing a pure golden solar monstrance signifying the blood and body of Christ. Gabriel had already talked to a caretaker of the church and asked for a priest which had a way to contact the Three Factions. For the meanwhile, she was basking under the rays of light illuminated against the colorful stained glass barring each side of the church's walls. She walked along the red carpet draped between the rows of pews, looking over for anyone else inside the church. Today was a 'weekday', or so the caretaker told her. People were living their lives; students were schooling, adults were working, and the church was empty because of it. But she hoped to at least have a nice conversation with someone, however briefly. She considered asking the young boy she came with to go inside the church with her, but she could never bring herself to chain him with the crisis in heaven.

"This is a catholic church…" Gabriel hummed.

Between the religions that worship their faith—mortals often refer to it as the Abrahamic faith—the Catholics were the largest, even among the Christian religions. This, coupled with the fact that among all Abrahamic faiths Christianity was largest faith by population, it was no wonder Gabriel already knew about them. The system left by her father was heavily reliant on the collective faith in humanity for it to function. It was a rather parasitic system, if she were to be honest. But the way it held the balance of the material realm, the nether realm, heaven, and even the gods' spheres that held each pantheon's realms? It was a horrible truth those in-the-know needed to address the importance of. Even the fallen angels, who hate the faithful with a burning passion, have the sense to see the system's significance.

Gabriel noticed the same caretaker come out from a door on the side of the altar. She easily found her and walked her way.

"It seemed the Father is currently in contact with the underworld, he told me they will send someone for you." She was a rather young-looking girl, but then Gabriel was not the best judge when it comes to age. "Please, excuse me."

Gabriel found herself with nothing to do for the meantime again. With unmatched elegance, she sat down one of the pews and before the caretaker left, she called for her. "Wait…"

"What is it, Miss Gabriel?"

"Ah, would you mind accompanying me, young man? For the meantime?" Gabriel smiled.

"Of course, ma'am."

She stole a glance at her before nodding and sitting beside her, Gabriel didn't like how nervous the caretaker looked around her. But she understood, even if she didn't want to be put in any form of pedestal it was unavoidable. Even in the ranks among the choirs of angels the seraphs were highly regarded. But then again, earning one's trust beyond her title was one of the few activities that Gabriel didn't find dull.

"Have you been taking care of this church long?" Gabriel hummed.

"Five years now? I think…The Father took me in after I came of age." The caretaker's raven hair was tied to a bun by a large nail looking ornament. It looked cute.

"Took you in?"

"Yeah," She paused. "I was raised in an orphanage."

Gabriel let out breath and looked down. "But, don't they keep taking care of you after—"

"They do!" She waved her hands. "And some stay, but it gets embarrassing after a while. Most of us find work wherever. The Father found me job hunting one day, offered a part time job here in the meantime."

"Found you…?"

She laughed softly. "I walked past this place more than a dozen times, or so he told me. He thought I was in trouble—well, I was. But, you get what I mean."

Gabriel giggled. "You're a very determined girl."

"Girl?"

Gabriel blinked. "I'm sorry if I offended you—!"

"Oh no, ma'am." She waved her hands again. "It's just, I haven't been called that for a long while."

Gabriel sighed at herself. "I've never been one for age, to be honest. Mortals have a hard way of determining age."

The caretaker laughed. "For an angel's point of view, huh? I never thought of it like that."

"Yes, mortals are very linear aging creatures. It's a trait I often forget." Gabriel smiled. "Though there are figures in Christianity that transcend it."

"Transcend?"

"Exceed being mortal, I mean." Gabriel looked at the altar. "Christ is a significant figure in Catholic churches, is he not?"

"I've never been big about religion, Miss Gabriel." The caretaker shook her head. "I usually just clean up after a mass, then I take care of the garden outside. I listen to the Father talk about it a couple of times, but, I don't know…it never really clicked for me."

She then became wide eyed. "No offense to you, of course!"

"Oh, no no no. It is completely understandable!" Gabriel smiled at the worried girl. "I didn't ask you to accompany me so I could measure your faith."

"I just…" The seraph looked straight down. "I felt like I needed to talk to someone."

The girl clasped her hands. "I'm a pretty good listener."

Takao Yūko deemed herself a very composed person, even back in the vortex world when she was fulfilling her role as the Maiden of Creation. But ever since she arrived in this new world her former student created in his best attempt to bring back the world she destroyed, their old world, she had been a wreck. For the first time in her life, she appreciated being alive yet she felt even more lost than when she killed the old world in a selfish attempt at reforming the world.

Just thinking about the delusion she convinced herself, Yūko wanted to crawl inside the deepest hope she could find and burry herself dead!

"I know how it looks, Naoki-kun. But ever since coming to this world, I've been trying to come into terms with this too." Yūko was holding out her phone, a single picture was over the screen.

"Compared to how she was when she first met me? Whatever you did for her, Kashima-kun, must really be life changing." Takao Yuko added. "I've never seen her so happy seeing someone."

Takao Yuko was Takao Yūko. She was her self in this new world Naoki created. She was also a teacher in the all-girl's school behind them, which was a co-ed school in their old world. The new world Naoki created and the old one had distinct differences: from shops and buildings in the old world not being there anymore, to bigger changes like having people who are you, only they lived in this new world without being influence by its more supernatural side. Of course, this applied to Yūko's former student as well. The picture she was showing was Naoki himself without tattoos and his golden eyes, wearing a school uniform he never wore in his life.

The Naoki in front of her was remained blank.

Yūko bit her lip. "You're strong, I can help you meet him if you want."

She didn't want to be the one to tell him. She had more than enough sins she showed to the young man before her. But she didn't plan on wasting her life again.

"No." Naoki hissed. "Have you gone and tried to make contact with him?"

"I thought he was you when I arrived here…" Ms. Takao closed her phone and put it away. "But when he turned to look at me, he didn't recognize me. I left him alone since then."

Naoki nodded. "Keep it that way."

The two women looked at him.

"My parents—no, his parents, I guess." Naoki paused. "And everyone in his life doesn't need to get pulled into whatever hell I dipped my hands into."

"Naoki-kun…"

There it was again. The brilliance of the young man who took on a dead world to recreate the one he knew still had potential. The potential of which she simply could not see herself. She even had the gall to be his pillar of hope when she first told him about her plans. How she would not abandon him even if she would kill the world. In the end, he killed pantheon's worth of gods and demons alike just to survive, all because her was not strong enough.

"You are welcome to stay with me." She offered, her voice was almost a whisper.

To the new world, Naoki was a tattooed young man who does not have any record of his birth and education, a young man who no longer have any parents to go home to, and no old life to live. It was taken away from him. She took it all away from him.

But before any of them said anything else a horrible presence appeared seemingly from nowhere! And another! Yūko turned to its source, it was the church opposite of the school. These felt like the pressure of demons. It wasn't as terrifying a presence as the stronger ones in the vortex world. But knowing her former student was around—

"Naoki-kun, please stay away from it." She kept her eyes over the church. "You can stay with me; you'll be safe there."

"There was a half-winged angel I was with, she's inside the church right now." He started to walk. "I owed her one."

Yūko didn't grab his arm, as much as she wanted to. There was no force in this world that could stop him.

Naoki didn't restore his world.

What a joke.

He made one that resembled the old world. The one he lived in before the conception, however? That was well and truly dead. He knew that now.

…was this your idea of revenge, you sentient disco ball?

His parents. His classmates. They were all dead.

Forever.

It's what a demon like me deserved, huh.

And the ones he considered friends? He killed them with his bare hands, only to make a world he didn't even have a place in.

"DAMN IT!"

Naoki was already by the church's entrance by its side and mindlessly slammed his fist over the doors in anger, only for it and the entire narthex of the church to get blown away by his blow! Entering the church, Naoki was losing himself. He closed his eyes in hopes to keep his anger together. But all it did was flash a memory of the vortex world being broken down; it was the last memory he had before he fell into this new one. The memory only made him angrier.

That feeling was creeping closer again.

He needed to concentrate.

Just one goal to keep himself from feeling the same euphoric mood when he lost his last shard of humanity. He needed to cling into something, anything. The memory of the lady in black and the older blonde man pierced his surface thoughts as he tried to control his urge to let go if his humanity. He remembered the older man's smile as he finally became a complete demon. If everything he truly wanted restored was already dead, why not let it all go and assume the place he was supposed to take beside the one who gave him life?

No! Remember everyone else!

He just needed to remember his companions! The king of Kabukicho, Jack the Black Frost. He wouldn't want to see his superior in this sorry state, would he? That'd be doubly true for Gouto-douji. All that time being trained in concentration and a single incident's going to undo all that? What would that nosy cat think seeing him now? Now that he was recalling, he was supposed to get Jōhei a compact camera. One that'll make his investigations a breeze. What's more, his score with Dante was still tied in the end, wasn't it? If he couldn't keep himself in check, the old man wouldn't count his win again.

And I never got to walk around Yoyogi Park with Pixie, huh. His heart sank.

There was so much to do, even if his old world was no more. But how was he supposed to do all that now when they're not here?

"Damn it all."

Why was he still here?

"Gabriel."

She was in trouble, wasn't she? He needed to keep her safe first.

I only need to do that, then I'll find a way to see everyone again. Nothing else matters.

Facing something that had been relating to one's past is never an easy thing to do. Especially if that matter had been still ongoing after a millennium. The last notable memory Azazel had when he was in the Heavenly realms was a time when he tried to enter Seventh Heaven and have a little peek at the System Michael offhandedly mentioned to him once. He never really gotten around to ask his father for a tour and when he tried to pry, a defense mechanism sent him tumbling down to the material realm! Every time he had the opportunity to tell the story he always added the tidbit of God being stingy for not letting him in.

The truth?

He tried to sneak in before God had actually finished the thing and had every intention on telling everyone. But it didn't really matter then, because when he finally came back everyone was already informed about the thing. Worse still, every single angel felt the disturbance and when they investigated, they all found out—including his father—that he was blasted off to a corner of the universe for trying to be slick. His father even laughed, much to his dismay, when Azazel resigned to tell him the details.

It was one of the last fun memories he had with his father. Regardless, the hands of time waits for no one.

With the last flash of his memory the teleportation finally ended and he reached his destination. He was in some random looking altar along with his companions: Baraqiel, a fellow fallen angel, and Vali, a Sacred Gear wielder.

"You look reminiscent, brother." The Lightning of God mused. "Feeling a little old all of a sudden?"

"Hah! Don't even joke about that kind of thing."

"Blade Governor!" Azazel turned towards the voice and found a man wearing casual shirt and trousers yet bearing an exceptional magical pressure.

"Former, I'm afraid, for quite a while now."

He blinked, but kept his composure. "Nevertheless, I welcome you to our humble parish."

"Are you a priest? That's an impressive spell you're pulling off."

He nodded. "I was expecting a representative of the nether world, so I was holding off the church's shields. It seemed to be unnecessary."

"We are still fallen angels." Baraqiel gave a pointed look.

"But you are powerful enough to resist it on your own."

Azazel's brow rose. "For a priest, you're quite an accomplished one, aren't you?"

"I'll accept that as a compliment." The priest smiled. He gestured for them to follow and they walked through a stone hallway. "She is waiting for you upstairs."

The two fallen angels looked at each other.

Gabriel was the strongest woman in the realms of heaven. It should be a triumph of sorts to the fallen, knowing she had been reduced to calling for aid from a remote church in the orient after heaven had been invaded. But after everything that had been happening: the attack on the Three Factions and their ongoing resistance against Qlippoth, a renegade faction that had a more malicious intent than any of the Three Factions combined, it was a change in priorities for everyone involved. Heaven suddenly became a bastion for the Three Factions, instead of an old enemy's base like after the Great Heavenly War, and the Seraphs became strong allies once again.

Azazel laughed at himself as they went up the church's depths and into an altar; these thoughts were excuses, weren't they? He didn't want to see Gabriel so vulnerable again.

"Baraqiel? Azazel?" Her singsong voice echoed in the silent halls of the church.

The fallen angels looked at their sister. She flew to them; half of her wings were gone. Even the fallen had not been reduced to such a state in the Great War, their holy brethren honored them a warrior's death than humiliate them and further! Azazel grit his teeth as he hugged his sister. Her small frame was wrapped around by his arms. He missed her.

She jumped and hugged Baraqiel next; he hid his expression a lot better than Azazel.

"What happened up there?" Their third companion finally spoke.

Azazel noticed Vali eye Gabriel's scorched back as she talked with his other brother. The fallen angel could only frown at the monster that had the power to burn a Seraph's wings. It seemed the Vanishing Dragon was thinking the same. At his question Gabriel took a step back, facing the three of them.

"I already relayed most of what I experienced." She looked down. "The Beast was a creature that favors brute force when attacking. It showed little technique, but it had ample raw power to compensate. It really is nothing but a walking apocalypse."

"Was it controlled?" Vali asked.

"I—"

"Why don't we all go back to the underworld?" Azazel suggested. "It'll do little good wasting time here. She can answer all of your questions there. Better do it in front of the Four Satans too so we can keep everyone up to speed."

Vali frowned but nodded.

"Wait." Gabriel looked back into the entrance of the church. "I have someone I need to talk to first."

"That woman?"

They looked over to the middle of the church and found a woman standing just shy before the altar, clearly not wanting to interrupt them.

Gabriel smiled at her. "No, I had someone guide me to this church. They might be worried—"

"I can do it on your behalf, Lady Gabriel." The priest offered. "They can stay here for as long as they would like, should they want to wait for you—"

With a reverberating crash the entrance of the church exploded from the outside!

"Father, take your caretaker inside!" Gabriel commanded.

The priest called for the caretaker and hid with her beyond the church's altar doors and into the hallways inside. Azazel wanted to suggest the same to Gabriel—it looked like the two had the same plan from the way they were looking at her—but the strongest woman in heaven was already brandishing her spear of light.

"I will not abandon anyone again." Gabriel had venom in her voice.

Azazel let out a breath. "Yes, sister."

He summoned a golden spear of light not unlike Gabriel's, Baraqiel summoned a golden sword of light, and Vali produced his beautiful glass wings.

What stepped out of the rubbled entrance of the church was a young boy.

He looked no older than Vali but had raven black hair. He was half naked wearing nothing but tight looking pants and a worn looking pair of black-blue sports shoes. Though, like the others, all of them first noticed his deathly pale skin, piercing golden eyes, and tattoos all over his body. They were sprawled around his body, black intricate looking markings with glowing greens on the edges, pulsing wildly as if they were alive.

"Gabriel." His voice uttered one word, and it was enough to send a shiver down a fallen angel's spine. "Where is she?"

What the hell was this kid? He looked like someone the church experimented on, but there was something in him that just knew the contrary. As the boy uttered their sister's name it felt like a monster's growl, whatever he wanted with Gabriel it was no good!

But Gabriel dematerialized her weapon causing the fallen angels to widen their eyes.

"Naoki?"

The three of them stepped in front of Gabriel.

"You know this kid?"

"He was the one I meant." Gabriel looked confused. "He wasn't like this earlier."

"What the hell…"

A sinking feeling washed over Azazel—no, he knew the rest of them felt it.

"Move."

The boy was already in front of them? Azazel didn't even blink, and it escaped the fallen angel how the tattooed boy managed to move so fast! Battle instincts kicked in; Baraqiel and Azazel landed their light weapons over him, stabbing his torso and neck. Vali then rushed him with a flurry of hard punches. The blows shook the ground and blew the pews away with just their shockwaves sending them across the stained-glass windows of the church, but the boy's body barely budged. Vali's last punch was then caught by the boy, his fist slowly crumpled from the tattooed boy trying to crush it!

"Son of a—let go!" Vali tried to kick the boy in the face.

The boy also caught his leg and, holding him by his limbs, proceeded to slam the Sacred Gear Meister into the altar's ground! The shockwave toppled the closest pillars over. Azazel and Baraqiel let go of their weapons and materialized another. The Thunder of God wasted no time summoning his signature attack. The air around them crackled, bluish light particles formed and concentrated from his already bright yellow sword and shot out a single bolt of lightning!

"Argh!" The fallen angel threw the bolt towards the tattooed boy, the bolt then scattered into a net of lightning converging into its target. But, as if a transparent mirror was between the lightning and the boy, the whole attack that bounced back into the three angels! Azazel summoned a barrier for the three of them that was broken almost instantly by Baraqiel's reflected attack.

The boy never left the spot and Azazel's spear of light was still lodged in his sides while Baraqiel's sword was also still jamming his neck. It was almost comical how two heavenly weapons were stuck yet were doing nothing to harm him.

The boy then pulled out the sword of light and crushed it with his hand, his flesh melded back together as if the cut never happened as the golden blade's edge left his neck. The broken pieces of the light blade then stopped midair and flew into the boy's body as if they were being absorbed.

"What the hell is this kid?" Azazel muttered under his breath.

Gabriel was at a loss of words.

Their weapons were negated, there was no other way of putting it. Baraqiel's lighting was reflected by a mirror-like barrier that appeared when he was attacked by a ranged magic. What's more, he was strong enough to physically outmatch Vali's strikes. All of these feats and there was no indication the boy even cast a single spell. There were similar set of abilities the tattooed boy had been showcasing, they were nothing new. But these skills were scattered among vastly different balance breakers, one of which was in the possession of Vali. And yet they were witnessing a single individual dishing them out like some balance breaker vending machine?

Azazel's life's work in researching sacred gears was insulted!

"It doesn't matter." The Vanishing Dragon's voice echoed; Azazel didn't like the silver haired boy's tone. "I think I found a powerful enemy today."

Vali stood up from the small crater he was slammed into. But this time, his body was armed with his Scale Mail. The silver sheen of the Divine Dividing gleamed even brighter inside the church's illuminated indoors. Vali flexed his fist and an unseen force materialized around the boy.

"Half-dimension." He declared.

The space around the boy's body began to contort; his hand curled into a painful looking angle and he was forced to take a step back.

The boy looked at Vali and hummed. "What kind of demon are you?"

"Akuma? A devil? Do I look like the average devil to you?"

"Then, are you a dragon?"

"Bingo."

"Like the ones after her…"

"What?" A worried voice escaped Vali.

Azazel noticed it too. Divine Diving was a balance breaker, an anomalous weapon that can contort reality into folding something to nonexistence. For this boy to physically resist its effect was horrifying. Yet there were four witnesses of this impossibility. And all they could do was to keep silent as they saw the boy punch the contorted space, shattering the balance breaker's effect around him—as if the balance breaker's effect was tangible—and crawled out of the distortive effect like it was nothing but a hole in a wall.

"We need to take this guy out fast!" Azazel summoned three magic circles under the boy: one was from the spell set by the priest he hijacked, the other two were his own binding and sealing spells—ones he made and used during the great war to bind beings like the Great Satans.

Vali cursed under his breath and summoned every ounce of his strength. His armor flashed, transforming its already bulky body into a stronger form. His helmet changed, showing an even more aggressive visage. His power swelled, to the point the ground below him crumbled and fell into the lower hallways.

"Lady Gabriel!" The priest and the caretaker were by the end of the hallway, hiding.

"Stay back!" Gabriel ordered.

"Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive!" Vali huffed. "Let's see you tank this."

Azazel timed Vali's movement with his binding magic circles. This sealing magic was supposed to be a trump card, for him to be able to use this in such a seemingly random newcomer was a horrifying reality. But hesitation could cost him their lives. "Eat this!"

Not even in a blink of an eye, Vali flew and looped around the boy five times while striking a flurry of blows each heavier than the last all the while casting his Compression Divider! It was more powerful than his Half-Dimension, but he could not handle keeping this form for long. It was a gamble, but the prospect of dealing with this monster of a boy was too much for any of them to handle without using drastic measures.

What the hell is he?! Vali could feel from each of his blows, they weren't affecting him. His balance breaker was doing its job, but it was reducing his ability to move rather than outright halving him to nonexistence. Even Pluto crumbled from the pressure of this attack!

"Finish him off!" Baraqiel casted his Holy Lightning, Vali felt his body getting lighter!

I'm…

"Rrraaaaaagh!" Vali screamed as he threw another thousand punches within a fraction of a second. What more could he give? His punches were voided, his balance breaker was nothing more than paperweight over this boy's shoulders!

"Here."

As if a mirror was between Vali and the boy, every single one of his punches were reflected back into his body! The Vanishing Dragon felt all of his blows as fast as he threw them not a fraction of a second ago. Vali fell down and landed on his knees.

"If you're curious…"

The boy lifted Vali up, grabbing him by the neck. Without warning he landed a single blow piercing over the Vanishing Dragon's gut. With that single punch, the armor around his torso crumbled. Vali felt his body get turned into much. He couldn't even let a scream out.

"—this is what my punch feels like."

But an unsettling feeling washed over Vali. The boy's fist was still digging through his torso. The pain rushed like a scorching wave across his entire body until he blacked out.

All that happened in no time at all.

Azazel and Baraqiel were wide eyed at the sight, but they didn't want to waste Vali's balance breaker. It was still keeping the boy slightly immobile. Azazel didn't know if his spells were actually doing anything, but it would be wise not to undo them just yet.

The boy hummed, looking at the unconscious Vali. "Was that all you could do?"

It looks like his seal isn't going to be lifted anytime soon if they need to keep this boy in check.

"Sister, you need to go get help!" Baraqiel flew over to the blonde angel, he clasped her cheeks. "Bring reinforcements."

"I'm not—"

"Whatever this guy was when he helped you out," Azazel gritted his teeth. "He's out of control now!"

Gabriel blinked, she looked back at Baraqiel and nodded. "I'll go get help."

She flew down into the hallways leaving the two fallen angels with a being that rivaled the strength of the terrifying Satans during the Great War.

"You think she was tricked by this boy earlier?"

Azazel looked at the boy, specifically his eyes. "Do you?"

The fallen angel frowned; as much as they wanted a black and white answer, the tattooed boy's half lidded clouded eyes told them everything they need.

"If he was, he is not doing a good job of it."

"He could not hear her call out to him earlier too, and she was right with us here."

"He doesn't really look like he's really seeing us right now too, is he?"

"It stands to reason. It is not an uncommon thing to happen with the likes of us." The ones who survived the war. But that begs the question, what event led to this? That was a question they weren't going to answer at the moment, not unless they wanted to stay alive. "But if we can get through to him, would the boy be as stable sounding as our sister made him seem to be?"

"That's the question"

"If Gabriel is right, this boy is a possible asset for the Three Factions." Baraqiel huffed. "Granted, it is a very big if."

Azazel grinned. "We're on the same page then, Vice Governor."

It's been a while since the fallen angel made a bet he knew would cost nothing less than his own life. And this gamble was going to be an expensive attempt too, considering the monstrously strong boy was already looking at them with full attention.

"Are you two his allies?"