Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 9

(PART 3)

"Shit, this is insane!" shouts Niomyo as she desperately tries to avoid the numerous floating spheres that can so easily destroy anything in its path.

By now she has run so far away from Ubica and the rest that they are completely out of sight. In fact, she was most likely the first to run away; judging the way that Mammon made his appearance she knew he had to be someone dangerous, so in order not to be a victim of any kind of collateral damage, she hastily fled.

Not wanting to miss the action however, she decides to try and get up on top of one of the three story housing complexes to give herself a safe view point. The problem is that there are more than a dozen bubbles floating in front of the front door of the building.

"Damn it." she mumbles, but then makes a break for it and runs in between them all until she kicks open the door of a house.

After running through the living room, she proceeds past the kitchen and starts climbing up a twirling staircase that leads up to the second floor, once there she makes a break down the hallway that leads to another staircase when in her peripheral vision she spots a family cowering in fear in a room on the right.

As a natural reaction she stops and goes into said room; she instinctively wants to help, but when the time comes to do so she can't find the next best course of action in her head, and instead stares at them in a confused silence. She can't even tell them to run away, because it most certainly isn't safe outside, and she can't tell them to hide somewhere else because the chances are, the event of a bubble hitting either of those places are the same.

All she does is stare at the pitiful scene in front of her, a husband, wife, daughter, and son, all huddled up together in fear.

A typical family that just moments ago were likely getting ready for bed.

(That is...) she thinks to herself, (If it were not for him.)

She grits her teeth and readies to leave them when from right behind her comes the ugly gray of a very large sphere ominously floating towards her. The bubble hasn't imploded yet but it has already engulfed at least one third of the second story of this him, and like a bubble caught in a breeze it comes upon her quickly. A cold sweat runs down her temple and she flops onto the ground and tries to stay as flat as possible while the bubble floats just inches above her face. Fear rips through her body as the warm sensation it emanates is felt radiating on her skin.

It narrowly passes her by and enters the room where the huddled family is; the bubble is so big that it takes up the mass of 3/4 of the area. The family bundled together in one of the three quarters of the room that's surrounded have no chance of escaping, and they begin to scream in panic upon realizing that they’re trapped.

Niomyo's face goes numb when she shouts the only thing that comes to mind.

"STOP IT!!!"

But the bubble keeps moving until it is completely encircled over half of all their bodies, as if having a mind of its own, the bubble stops, and then comes the innocent sound of the 'pop'.

Just like before, only the upper halves of the family's bodies are seen, cut perfectly in the shape in which it surrounded them.

Niomyo's eyes are wide open and glued to this horrific scene, the walls behind the family, and the entire room for that matter are completely gone; the sphere took it all along with the lives of the helpless family.

She sits there speechless rubbing her head upon seeing such a traumatic sight, her mind starts racing on the topic occupying it a few moments ago.

(All of it, this tragedy is all his fault... If he wasn't here, none of this would have happened!)

Her instinct compels her to stand back to her feet, and understanding that sitting here isn't safe, she runs up the second staircase. The third floor is an attic, lots of different trinkets and old furniture, plus some random old family photos are laying around. This adds to the horrid pain she feels after watching them all die so miserably. All of the memories that are held in the photos and items here have lost their meaning, no one in this family is left alive to cherish them; making her way through their belongings in this attic adds even more bitterness to the already chalky taste of this trauma.

She climbs up a ladder and opens the hatch door to the roof, she makes it to the top and quickly rushes to the edge to see the battle, but what first catches her eye is the utter destruction of the encircled town. Screams can be heard, fires can be seen, and houses that have taken on the shape of Swiss cheese stand helpless as the sight of hundreds of those bubbles float into and through them like a ghost would float through walls.

"Oh no... all those people."

Chances are, each popped bubbled resulted in someone’s death, it has become obvious to her that they don’t pop unless they make contact with a living person, and by how many more spheres there are left, it is expected that there will be many more deaths to come. Niomyo sits there zoning out until she hears the voice of Tsubiri pierce through the rest of the screams below her.

"UBICA!!!"

She looks down and there she sees Ubica, face first on the ground and covered in blood.

---

"What?" Messor asks herself when she sees the giant sphere that looks like a barrier of some sort.

She reaches out her hand and touches the outside of the barrier, but it's as though he had just made contact with the smooth impenetrable surface of a giant diamond, there's no way she can get in.

"Is this... Mammon?" She grits her teeth and clicks her tongue. "Shit, I shouldn’t have let Ubica chase after that girl, now he’s in danger and I can't do anything about it!"

She slams her fist into the barrier.

Angered and alone, all she can do is stand there and hope that Ubica will somehow make it out safe.

---

"Hahahaha what the fuck was that?" Mammon shouts, letting out a laugh from deep within his chest, "I guess the rumors were true, he really is a hundred times weaker now!"

Tsubiri huddles over him; ignoring the presence of the demon next to her, she rips a big piece of her clothing off, revealing her navel all the way up to the beginning of her chest and starts to put pressure on his wound. She becomes blue when the bleeding doesn't stop, she shouts his name a couple more times before checking to see if he’s still breathing.

To her relief he’s still alive, but she doesn’t know what to do now or how she can possibly help him.

Mammon chuckles and walks to the front of them so he is facing them both and when he says, "Come on little lady, that isn't going to work... so back off of him for a second so I can end this mess."

Tsubiri frowns and looks at him with eyes full of fury. "I won't let you kill him."

"I'm not going to kill him, as much as I really want to, I can't. So I'm just going to turn him into a vegetable so he can't be such a pain in the ass anymore."

She grits her teeth and points her hands at the demon. "I won't even let you touch him!!"

Mammon spreads his arms out and smiles, "Quite a big threat coming from you, just what do you think you’d be able to do to me?"

Out of Tsubiri's hands come blue lightning bolts that swirl and fly towards Mammon at an incredible speed, so much so that he literally has no time to react to it. The lightning bolt hits him in the chest and his whole body is put in a heart stopping shock as he is jolted off of his feet and propelled all the way into the nearest building to him.

He was flung with so much force that once he hit the stone house it caused his body to crash through the walls and sent rubble out onto the street in a loud thud.

Tsubiri breathes hard after she used her new ability in action for the first time, using this attack really drained her strength and it leaves her wondering how she'll be able to keep this kind of activity up in the near future without completely exhausting herself.

Her attention quickly goes from Mammon to the downed Ubica, she turns him onto his side and slaps his face a little to wake him up. When once again her efforts go fruitless, that hopeless feeling of not being able to do anything for him hits her; but that's when she realizes something.

(Maybe I can jolt him awake?)

She puts her hand on his chest and says, "I hope this works... please let this work."

With what remaining strength she has, little blue lightning bolts come from her fingertips and courses into his body. He jolts his body upward and takes a deep breath, then he falls back down.

"D-Did it work?" she asks.

And when she does, she sees Ubica open his eyes slowly.

She smiles and then excitedly slaps his face again. "Are you okay! Are you okay!"

His eyes are now completely open and he tries to answer her when his face is slapped again, "I'm oka---gggbbhh!?"

SMACK!

"Hey I said I'm fin----bbbggaahh!?"

SMACK!

She is so happy that she is subconsciously hitting him repeatedly, and rather hard at that.

Ubica's face is starting to get red and in order to not get slapped anymore he grabs both of her hands and shouts, "Alright already!"

She smiles and starts to tear up. "Y-You really are okay..."

Ubica's frown turns soft when he sees her like this, “As much as getting electrocuted awake was a little jarring, I don’t know how long I would’ve been out for if not for that. Thanks, Tsubiri.”

He stands to his feet, still feeling the fuzzy sensation in his chest from the electricity, the pain from the cut in his back begins to subside as his body starts to heal. Despite the severity of his injury and his body’s subsequent shock that knocked him unconscious upon receiving such a wound, he seems to be completely energized and relatively unaffected by it.

Taking Tsubiri’s hand and lifting her to her feet, he glances at her ripped shirt and says, "Nice belly button."

Her relieved smile quickly fades and is replaced by a wince.

"Haah?"

She looks down to her belly button and starts to laugh, “Is that really the first thing you notice after waking up?”

“Well, I’ve never seen it before so it’s noticeable to me.”

Tsubiri wipes the tears from her eyes and says, “You can see it as much as you want after we’re done here if you’d like.”

Ubica smiles, slings his fallen sword back into his hand and looks towards dusty rubble where Mammon is buried before saying, “I just may take you up on that offer.”

"Oh wow, I think that attack of yours stopped my heart for a moment there girly." said Mammon, who is slowly making his way out of the rubble he was pressed into.

“You should really try and get away this time Tsubiri.” Ubica said with his bloody back facing her.

"No." she calmly replies, putting her hand on his shoulder, she walks to his side and says, "I'm going to help you."

Ubica takes a deep breath and blows an air of resignation out of his nose. "I was worried you'd say that..."

"Well now I know what I'm capable of, there's no way I'm leaving you behind now. What kind of soldier would that make me?"

"Hmph, alright comrade, let's win this fight then."

"Right!"

"Aww how touching, you are way too soft Ubica, I definitely like the old you better." Mammon said as he cracked his neck.

Ubica lifts his sword and points it at him. "You aren't the first person to tell me that."

He runs at him at full speed and jumps up when Mammon gets back on a bubble and floats into the air. Once he gets close, Mammon smiles and again sinks into his sphere and it disappears; Ubica, still in the air, is left having no choice but to land on top of one of the buildings and wait for his return.

Literally out of nowhere Mammon's voice can be heard loud and clear saying, "Hahaha, you're looking a little nervous there old pal."

Ubica clicks his tongue and looks around the area vigorously.

Mammon's voice once again rings. "You know what all of my bubbles actually are right?"

"Why would I know? You weren’t able to do this the last time I saw you." Ubica responds bitterly.

"Don't be so tense, if you hadn’t forced me to start over I wouldn’t even have this ability y'know? So I should thank you for my Antimatter."

"Antimatter?"

"That's right, it isn't just a scientific anomaly ungraspable in a physical sense."

Ubica frowns in impatience and says, "Get to the point."

"How could something so powerful that it literally shapes the physical world, remain untouchable and unseen?"

Ubica twitches his eyebrow as his eyes switch from all of the numerous spheres around him to get any kind of hint as to where Mammon is hiding.

"Wouldn't that kind of thing be under God's realm of work?" Ubica asks.

"Exactly! Have you ever heard that Heaven was once infiltrated by Greed? Well when that happened, I was small enough to go unnoticed, and not noticeable enough to steal a little something to take back with me."

From behind Ubica comes a sphere the size of a small ball, he turns around and quickly postures his guard while it grows from its small form all the way to its regular size. Out of the bubble steps the little Mammon wearing a big smile on his face.

Sitting comfortably on top of the ball, he hits it with the hilt of his sword and says, “Antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to Matter. You see, everything in the observable universe is made up of regular Matter, so there are other separate places made entirely of Antimatter. Places created by God and unseen to everyone else, I’ve taken one for my own and have cultivated it for a thousand years."

The sphere he's sitting on becomes transparent and what can be seen are a dozen people, all scrunched in close to each other with scared looks on their faces. Their screams can't be heard but it is obvious that they have their voices in a fever pitch in panic.

Tapping his circled sword against his forearm, he jumps off the sphere and shoots Ubica a menacing glare.

"Isn't that the ultimate form of greed? For God to have control of an unseen universe like that, isn’t one more than enough? But he has many, he’s a greedy piece of shit that laughs at the inhabitants of his world, and now I’m just like him, I decide who lives and dies in my very own universe!"

The bubble behind him begins to slowly shrink and the people become more and more pressed together; within a few seconds their bones start to break and they are being pressed together as though they were trash in a garbage disposal.

"But I prefer my universe to be full of souls that won't complain, they won't protest to better their pathetic lives, they won't succumb to their natural greed. Is a world full of the dead not the perfect world? You were born of the same sins as I, you should know the answer to that!"

"Don't do it!" Ubica shouts.

But the bubble keeps getting smaller and smaller, and with Mammon's grotesque laugh they are compressed into the size of a golf ball.

"Are you proud of yourself for proving your point like that?" Ubica says through gritted teeth and a scowl.

"Oh come on Antichrist, don't go acting holier than thou, it's enough to make me sick. It's not something you wouldn't have enjoyed in the past. And besides, it's not like these people are worth a damn anyway, in the end the majority of them have rotten souls that end up in Hell."

"It’s still not your right to decide what to do with their lives."

Mammon laughs loudly as he puts his foot on the small sphere, slowly applying pressure on it he says, "This saintly attitude of yours is the worst! The person you are now is just as useless as these pathetic humans being crushed under my foot."

He violently stomps on the sphere and it explodes with blood that sprays so far that it comes flowing like a waterfall off of all four corners of the building they are standing on.

"It never ceases to amaze me just how much blood is packed into a human body!"

As soon as he says that, Ubica rushes him and sends a vicious kick square in his face, Mammon is sent flying until he crashes into a building. As relentless as the kick, Ubica keeps his attack pressing forward at such blinding speed that he is right on top of top of the demon immediately after impact; he swings his sword down at Mammon's chest but it is quickly wrapped up by the circled sword.

Mammon swings it away and shoots out a little bubble that hits Ubica's stomach and explodes, creating a lengthy gap between the two. Ubica flies into the air, leaving a smoke trail in his wake.

"Tch!" Ubica hisses in pain as he holds his gut.

While the pain distracts Ubica, Mammon appears out of a sphere behind his back just like before; but this time he doesn't go for a slash, instead he hurls another bubble that hits Ubica on the wound from earlier and explodes again.

"Hahaha you're like a damn ping-pong ball!!"

Ubica is sent hurling to the ground and he lands extremely hard. Once on the ground, he coughs up a little blood and squints his eyes, the reverberation of the impact stabbing at his body like a million needles.

Seeing him struggle to get up, Mammon decides that this is the time to secure his victory by using an exceptionally powerful attack. He lifts his sword and a building sized sphere forms atop of it.

"You are a thousand years too weak to even dream of defeating me now, Ubica! Allow my sword Ebuillo to end your miserable existence once and for all!"

Mammon readies to swing down when he is suddenly electrocuted, lightning bolts speed through his body, stealing all forms of control in his own movements.

Like he is some kind of magnet being pulled, he is flung to the ground and lands far worse than Ubica did, so hard in fact that he created a three foot deep crater in the stone street.

Once the electrocution stops, he finds himself feeling very nauseous and his body is still tingling all over. Shifting his eyes to his left he sees Tsubiri standing there with the palms of her hands pointing at him, she is breathing hard and the blue lightning fades away.

"Y-You..." Mammon's normal cheerful face turns sour and he has eyes full of blood lust. "You fucking bitch... that's twice.." He stands to his feet and gingerly holds his shaky posture, "I swear to all that I am... I'm gonna fucking kill you."

Tsubiri's knees are trembling, she used all of her strength in that last attack and now she is a sitting duck. She looks over to Ubica, who is bloodied and desperately trying to stand, his expression of dread he has as he looks at her makes her even more nervous. This situation she's found herself in is dire, she knows that all chances of victory have been destroyed, but she won't give up without a fight.

She shows him a strained smile that tells him that she's ready to do the unthinkable. "As long as you're okay... this is okay, right?"

She takes a deep breath and turns to the angered Mammon, putting out her hands once again, a thunderstorm worth of blue lightning surrounds her.

"None of your electricity is going to touch me again."

Mammon spreads his arms and an ugly gray light churns around his body until it forms a perfect sphere, he takes a step and the ground he walks on breaks off and orbits around him like little satellites caught in orbit.

Tsubiri sees this and becomes more frightened, this along with the wear on her body from the attack is making her vision blur and she is starting to lose consciousness.

(Damn it... not now,) she yells in her mind, her heart's desire filling her with a determined fervor. (I have to win!)

She wants to look in Ubica's direction but she is distracted by the sound of all of the structures that surround the area breaking and orbiting around Mammon. With all her might, she uses what little energy she has left and sends a massive lightning bolt hurling towards her enemy, but to her dismay, it collides with his sphere and joins all of the rest of the debris that orbits him. The gravity of this sphere along with the new energy source of electricity causes the orbit to heat to such a level it begins melting the rock on the ground around it, buildings close enough to be caught in the orbit’s sphere of influence combust into flame as well.

Mammon's face stays stern when he explains, "This is an ultimate defense. Greed is like the sun, it tempts people into its warmth but turns them to ashes if they get too close. And from what I can see, you and I are getting awfully close to each other."

He keeps walking closer to her and the heat is already starting to feel overwhelming on her skin; in a last ditch effort, she sends her biggest bolt yet in hopes it can break through and hit him. Knowing full well that her efforts will be in vain, she looks over to where Ubica is, hoping to see his face one last time.

When she turns to him, she finds something that surprises her, he is gone, the only thing there is the puddle of blood he once was lying in.

(W-Where is he?)

She scopes the rest of the area trying her best to at least get a glance at him before her impending doom when she senses a horrible presence just a couple feet in front of her.

(Damn it... I was hoping I wouldn't have to regret never telling him.)

She turns to face what she thinks is her death when she catches the sight of the one person she wanted to see, Ubica is standing between the two forces of electricity and gravity.

He grabs Tsubiri's electricity with his hand and tosses it like nothing into the sky, Tsubiri falls to her knees and watches in amazement as he walks toward Mammon's sphere as if there were no danger to it.

"Oho!? Just what the fuck is this?" Mammon asks with a frown and a smile, "What do you think you’re gonna do? Give me a break, like I said, you are way too weak now."

Ubica has his head leaned downwards and his silver hair is cascading over half of his face; just by looking at the line of his bloodied mouth one can tell how serious he is.

The two are walking toward each other, and when he sees that Ubica is not going to stop, Mammon's mouth turns wide with a devious grin. He knows that even Ubica will die if he gets any closer.

"Keep coming towards me then! There's no way you ca---"

Mammon is interrupted by Ubica's hand gripping the entirety of his little kid-like face.

(Impossible!!!) he immediately thinks to himself.

Not only did Ubica break through such an impenetrable barrier, but he is completely unscathed. Just by looking, one can see that if someone were to somehow get through, there is no doubt that he'd be torn and shredded by all the debris or melted by the intense heat the sphere is creating.

Ubica lifts his head and shows a face that shakes Mammon to his core, the sclera of his eyes are as black as the darkest of skies, and two black lines start to fall from them and slowly reach all the way down to the edge of his jaw.

Ubica frowns and says, "I’ve heard enough out of you."

A green light glows around his arms and like a cannon being fired it shoots out his hand and screams into Mammon's face. The beam shoots into the sphere, instantly destroying it and exits out into the surrounding buildings, it blasts through those buildings, and never stops until it reaches the edge of the massive sphere they are entrapped in.

Once the beam vanishes and the smoke dissolves, Ubica mercilessly drops Mammon to the floor.

From behind him, the cracked voice of Tsubiri is heard saying, "U-Ubica..."

He doesn't turn around nor say a word, instead he steps on Mammon's charred head and presses his weight down rather hard.

“Now you are as useless as the humans you killed. It’s your turn to be crushed under my foot.”

But before he can deliver the final blow, a sharp and excruciating pain rips through his neck and rises into his head.

"Guuurraaaaaghhh!!!!!!!!"

He screams while gripping at his skull as if trying to relieve the horrible pressure. He steps away from the downed demon and writhes in pain, this feeling is brought to him by the little tattoo of the fly from Beelzebub. The poison from it is affecting the evil that Ubica has allowed himself to be swallowed by, and with each pulsation on his neck, his entire body is sent into a wretched agony.

Waking from his temporary coma, Mammon opens his eyes to the sight and the sound of Ubica in a terrible state. "You weren’t even supposed to be able to use Dantega again..." He stands up and cracks his neck, he opens one eye and smiles, "Damn that Beelzebub, his poison took a while to set in, I almost got my head taken off there."

With widened eyes full of rage, Ubica glares at Mammon, he can’t even talk or move in the state he’s in.

"Hahaha, awwh how sad, such a shame that you can’t even go back to your true self without going through this torture."

Ubica’s eyes are filled with so much hate that it even surprises Mammon, but he gets a pleasure in this and taunts him even more.

"With you like this, there’s no fun in attacking you personally, nothing I can do to you would make you feel more physical pain than you already do right now.”

He menacingly turns to Tsubiri and walks toward her.

“But your friend here, killing her in front of you should be enough to crush the soul of that little bit of humanity you’re clinging to.”

Tsubiri can't move, she's pretty much completely paralyzed, every last drop of energy has exited her body, so much so that any normal person would have passed out by now. But despite the approaching danger, she is more worried about the state Ubica is in, she has never seen him in so much pain and she most certainly has never seen his eyes look like that.

"Are you okay Ubica?" Tsubiri shakily asks.

"If I were you, I wouldn't pay him any mind, you're in deep shit girly."

Mammon takes another step in her direction when Ubica's voice rings through his ears, "You will not take another step."

"Oho? You aren't in any shape to make demands. This girl is going to die, and you are going to watch!"

Mammon swings his sword at her, she flinches and shuts her eyes, only to find that after a second or so, nothing happened.

She opens them and sees the sword he calls Ebuillo being held firmly within Ubica’s grasp.

"I told you not to move."

Ubica knees Mammon in the gut and sends him into the sky.

“Gbhh!?”

Flying through the air, to Mammon it is painfully apparent who is the stronger one here, even in a state of excruciating agony caused by Beelzebub’s poison, Ubica is far superior than he is. He can’t believe that it’s possible, the poison was supposed to completely incapacitate Ubica if he ever were to use his true powers.

Shocked, confused, and now desperate, he looks down on Ubica casually holding his round tipped sword.

Without so much as a second thought, Ubica snaps it against his knee, breaking it right in half.

The devastation in Mammon's face can be seen as plain as day, he clenches his fist so hard that his fingernails dig into his palms. "I'll kill you for that."

He raises his hands and every bubble he released earlier, all gather and form into one giant black sphere below his feet. He lands on it and floats a hundred yards above Ubica and Tsubiri, peering down on them in rage.

"Mixing Matter and Antimatter will cause the two to annihilate each other..." he says.

With his free hand, he points at a street that holds a cluster of houses and other shops, they all crumble and collide together, and begin to take the shape of a huge ball. And that massive ball makes its way to him and picks up more and more mass as it gets closer to him.

For an odd reason, Ubica is letting this slow process of Mammon's attack go by without any hindrance, if he wanted to, he could easily attack, but he isn't attempting to stop the demon.

Instead, he turns to Tsubiri and looks at her with the green glow of his pupils flowing through his black eyes and asks, "Seeing me like this… does it scare you?"

She doesn’t know why, but his presence in this state is causing her to have a terrible migraine, and just like it was for Trojia during the battle with Nero, her consciousness begins slipping away.

Struggling to keep her eyes open, she replies, "Of course I’m not afraid..."

"Why not?"

She smiles at him and softly says, "Because it’s you..."

She grabs his sleeve and shuts her eyes, she leans her head on his shoulder and with a voice gradually weakening with each word she says,

"I told you didn’t I?... What you think you are… is good enough for me."

She passes out and slides down his arm, before she hits the floor Ubica catches her and gently lays her backside on the ground.

The tips of his lips faintly rise before he turns away from her and looks up to the demon floating in the sky above him. He shows his adversary a wide confident smile, one that shows Mammon that there is no way he’s going to lose.

"Come then, let’s see the results of a thousand years of hate."

"Hahaha finally! This is the Ubica I'm familiar with, I’m going to wipe that smile off your face!!"

The two massive spheres mix with each other and an incredible light show can be seen as it brightens everything around into an almost blinding white light.

"When these two form into one, high energy photons rise to an unsustainable level, and when that happens it creates a little thing called a Gamma Ray!!! Even for you, this is unstoppable!!"

A huge yellow light zings toward Ubica and Tsubiri, it is obvious how strong this beam is, it is obliterating everything it passes and the heat from this light turns even stone to flames.

He looks back to Tsubiri and says to himself, "Even for me huh? This me is different... this me has people to protect."

He raises his arms toward the beam and takes a huge breath, using all of his strength, he sends a green and black light to clash with the Gamma Ray. The two collide and the light show increases, now the upper hand goes to no one and the two powers are stuck in the middle of the two men, pushing at each other violently.

Ubica frowns and shouts words that boost his attack's intensity, "Because of those people... I will never lose again!!"

With that, the green and black swirling light rampages through the Gamma Ray at an immense speed.

Knowing that his time is drawing near, desperation starts to show in Mammon's face. "No!! This isn’t going to end the same way!!!"

He screams at the top of his lungs trying to find some more strength but it is too late, Ubica's light hits him and he instantly starts to disintegrate.

With his body literally melting in the light, he shouts,

"This little life you've come to enjoy isn't going to last old pal! Your friends are all going to die!! If we don’t kill them, you will!"

Mammon dissolves like sugar in water and Ubica's beam hits the overhanging sphere and shatters it like glass until it fades away.

The battle ends as abruptly as it started, but just because the fight is over, doesn't mean that the pain that Ubica feels is gone. He is desperately trying to bring himself back to his normal state but it isn't working, every time he tries the pain gets worse, and it gets to the point where he starts to panic.

Fearing that he'll be stuck like this forever, and fearing that he will lose the will to fight it, he drops to his knees and stares at Tsubiri.

His vision becomes blurred as he crawls to her, he gently touches her shoulder and smiles, and upon making contact with her his black eyes start to go back to its regular color and the black lines fade from his cheeks.

He lays down, slowly slipping into a deep sleep and says, "No Mammon, that’s not going to happen… because the who is person good enough for her… will not ever lose."

Ubica passes out and the two lie next to one another in peace, as if it were meant to be that way this entire time.

---

Someone doesn't find their sleeping faces peaceful at all, looking around at the utter destruction and death, this nightmarish landscape could only be caused by pure evil.

The person thinking this walks out of a dark alleyway and stands over the two, she is wearing a face full of hate and disgust.

"All of this tragedy…” Niomyo says, clenching the handle of her sword. “It all could have been avoided if you weren't here."

The royal guard pulls out her standard issued Trojian sword and points it at Ubica's neck.

"Everything bad that has been happening is all because of you… we were brought here because of you, we’re being hunted by these monsters because of you, that family was killed… and so many others keep dying because of you."

She then lifts her sword, her brown eyes gleaming in intensity under the night sky as she peers down on him.

"For the families of the future you will destroy, for the sake of my friends at home, and especially for the sake of Princess Trojia’s life, I will kill you myself!"

"What are you doing?"

This girl's voice interrupts Niomyo's action, she looks at the source and sees Messor standing there underneath the last flickering street light.

Without any hesitation in her voice she replies, "I'm going to kill him."

"Oh? Why would you do that?"

"Because without him, the world can finally be at peace. There won’t have to be any more nights like tonight."

Messor's eyes glow and she smiles when she says, "He doesn't look too dangerous to me, sleeping so helplessly like that."

Niomyo frowns and shouts, "Well you haven't seen what I've seen!! If you knew what he is, you’d understand why he has to die!!!"

"So you think you know who he is, huh?"

"I do, he is the---"

"Antichrist."

“Then you have to be able to see why this must be done!"

Messor takes slow soft steps towards Niomyo, she almost seems to be floating towards her when she says, "The Antichrist isn't all that he is, he’s more than just that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the person he shares his power with. The person who was by his side since the beginning, the person who is as much a part of him as the very power that makes him so strong. Do you not know who that is?”

Niomyo is confused as to why she’s bringing this up and remains silent.

"This person helped him turn the world to ashes, battled alongside him against Heaven, and she willingly allowed herself to be devoured by eternal flame to avoid being separated from him."

"What does that have to do with this now?”

Messor takes a step closer to her, "Did you honestly think that the False Prophet wouldn’t be here to protect him when his life is in danger?"

"Huh?"

Messor takes a sharp breath and exhales as if sighing, she spreads her arms and starts to chuckle, "I've had a hard time keeping myself from killing those of you who have corrupted his heart… they have made him kind and weak, and in turn you have all made me weak as well, so I haven’t acted upon my better judgement just yet.”

By now, Niomyo is starting to see this person as a new threat in front of her, and her face is beginning to turn blue. The girl steadily getting closer to her has a presence so strong it far surpasses Mammon, and she doesn’t know what to do about it.

“But no matter how much weaker I am due to all of your affections for him, I haven’t grown near as kind."

Trying to remain resolute in her convictions, she scowls and shoots her a look like she isn't phased one bit when she demands, "Stay back!"

Messor stops in her tracks and glares at Niomyo pressing her blade onto Ubica’s neck.

“This is far enough anyways.” Messor holds her hand out towards Niomyo and says, "As the False Prophet, I'm condemning you to death."

Niomyo's heart skips a beat and almost cripples her already frayed senses, as she stumbles back and away from Ubica, she feels a violent thrusting from within her chest as her heart beats faster and faster. Holding her chest and gasping for air, she now realizes who the person in front of her is, and the fear upon understanding what she’s up against hits her.

"It can’t be… he never told us about you!"

"And that’s a weak part of him, to keep my identity hidden in fear of losing the acceptance of all of you, even I struggle not to find it pathetic."

In a frightened state, Niomyo shifts the blade of her sword from Ubica to Messor.

With that action, the False Prophet can feel an immense pressure weighing down on her shoulders when the royal guard starts to charge her. Literally, the air is so heavy that it could break someone's neck if their head was leaning to the side.

This is Niomyo's new ability.

"If you’re as weak as you say, I'll use the power you gave me to crush the both of you!" Niomyo says as she moves closer.

Her ability focuses on the gravitational force surrounding an item or person, she can make it so the air around them can grow heavy and weigh an incredible amount or she can make it so light that it would be an impossibility to breathe. In a way she’s not too dissimilar to Mammon, but as a human her grasp on such a formidable power is extremely limited.

Understanding this, Messor smiles.

Even though the weight of the gravity around her shouldn't allow her to even lift the corners of her lips, she defies its laws and then raises her hand. She presses her fingers together and flicks, a simple 'snap' sound leaves her finger tips and in that instant the pressure is gone, and along with it, all of Niomyo's strength.

Niomyo falls to the ground and reveals an expression of shock; with eyes full of terror she watches a passing gust of wind blow through the silky white hair of the girl in front of her.

"You are no different from them, the humans of the past. I'd perform a simple miracle for them and they would soon grovel upon my feet. When they got used to my miracles, they became greedy and spoiled. Not long after they would complain that it wasn't enough and that they'd demand more and more until eventually they'd come to despise us, just like you... venture to guess what I'd do to the ungrateful ones?"

Messor snaps her finger once more, and with that simple action, Niomyo's heart jolts in a body cringing pain. She drops her sword and writhes on the ground, clasping at her chest as she shrieks through her dry throat.

Messor walks a few steps closer, her eyes glowing in a more intense white gold than ever before.

"I took everything away from them."

Now lying in a fetal position, Niomyo is looking at Ubica through the tunnel vision of her bloodshot eyes, with each agonizing second she’s becoming more afraid. Death is coming and it's coming fast, she is fading away and all her hopes of protecting Trojia are slipping down into oblivion along with her.

Her voice is shot and raspy when she mutters, "P-Princess."

She reaches out her hand toward Ubica in desperation, even in this dreadful state her instincts are calling for her to attack him, but final attempt at reaching him comes to a screeching halt with the vicious stomp of Messor's boot.

"Not even a finger..."

Messor said as she twisted her heel and crushed a few bones in Niomyo's hand.

She presses even harder, the disturbing cracking noise under her foot mixing with the malevolent tone in her voice, "Not you... and most certainly not your little Princess."

Niomyo tries to scream but her voice is gone, and this time her voice will never return.

With the visions of memories with Trojia and the rest of the royal family racing through the last working portion of her brain, her heart explodes and blood comes spraying out of the mouth that was trying so desperately to speak.

She turns limp and lies there on the ground lifelessly.

Messor mercilessly kicks her hand away and walks to Ubica.

She leans down and strokes his fringe with a gentle smile. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner..."

She stands back up and the gentle smile turns frigid when she looks down at Tsubiri. Glancing at the dead Niomyo and then back, her eyes glow once more when through her gritted teeth she says,

"As much as I hate you for what you’ve done to him, I’m still far too kind to kill you now. But not for long... not for long."

Trust: (END)

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