Tobiichi was swept up in the torrent of souls and sent crashing somewhere far away, and the rest of us collapsed where we stood, exhausted.
More precisely, everyone except me, the immortal one, and the Fire Keeper.
"Haa.... Honestly, that was rough."
"It had to be. You were trying to subdue her without killing her."
Subduing someone was always harder than killing them.
With a kill, you just had to take their head off and it was over. But subduing meant controlling your strength so you didn’t kill them while attacking.
"Anyway, it’s not over yet, so we need to get back up."
"Right. We have to find the fallen Origami."
After a short break, just as everyone was getting up to look for the fallen Tobiichi, I got a bad feeling for some reason.
Like things were about to go wrong in a very specific way.
My instincts were still screaming that it was dangerous.
"...Up there!"
And as if my instincts weren’t wrong, Tohka pointed at the sky.
Everyone’s eyes followed where she was pointing, and there was Tobiichi, looking down at us.
"That is..."
"An angel...?"
And she was wearing an angelic form.
Tobiichi’s angel looked almost like a pair of wings, and also somewhat like the dress a bride wears to a wedding.
The aura coming off her was on a completely different level from before she fell. Comparing the two would almost be rude.
"You’re kidding me... a zombie?"
She’d been annoying enough already, still hanging on before. And now, after we’d knocked her down, she’d come back as a spirit by some unknown method.
What, did she think she was some kind of watcher of the abyss?
She revived on the brink of death and got stronger. What a pain in the ass.
"Yatogami Tohka...! I’ll bring you down. I...!"
"Origami, you...!"
"[Metatron]!"
When Tobiichi shouted the angel’s name, feathers made of light began to fall from the air.
The fallen feathers gathered into the shape of a crown, and a crown of luminous feathers settled around Tobiichi.
"How are you a spirit!?"
"A spirit...?"
"Hah. You didn’t even know you’d become one?"
It seemed Tobiichi hadn’t realized she had become a spirit.
Becoming a spirit in order to kill spirits was no different from becoming a monster in order to kill a monster.
Usually, when that happened, you’d end up throwing away everything you had.
"Even so, it doesn’t matter. I’ll use this power to kill spirits. I’ll become a spirit that kills spirits. And after I’ve exterminated every last one of them—I'll erase even myself, the last one left in this world."
Tobiichi had abandoned her identity as a human and her own life in exchange for power for revenge.
"[Metatron]—[Shiemeshu]!"
At her shout, light began to gather in the angel.
And then it turned toward us.
"Everyone, dodge!"
A rain of light came pouring down.
Boom
Light poured from Origami’s angel, and Hieta blocked it head-on by lifting Hikinon in front of him.
〔Kieeek! Juiiiin! That hurts like helllll!!!〕
"Bite down and hold on, Hikinon!!!"
Ratatatatatata!
Pew! Pew!
The light striking Hikinon’s ice shield was absorbed, then reflected back in the form of chunks of ice, shooting down other attacks.
Seeing that, Tohka felt powerless.
‘I’m this... useless...’
There was nothing she could do.
In her limited manifestation state, she’d be lucky just to survive the fight with Origami, let alone help.
That was the huge difference between limited manifestation and complete manifestation.
"Kgh...!"
Realizing how powerless she was, Tohka bit down hard on her lower lip.
She hated that she couldn’t help Hieta even if she wanted to.
She hated her weakness, reduced to a burden.
She hated herself for being nothing but someone who had to be protected.
‘If only I had greater power...!’
And so Tohka remembered.
That day, when she had reversed and swung her sword at Shido and Hieta.
‘No! If I use that power, everyone will be in danger! I have to stay as I am!’
To help Hieta, who was blocking the attacks aimed at them.
To help him protect the other spirits, and even the people around them.
Above all, to stop Origami, who had become a spirit in order to kill spirits.
"Shido! Lend me your power!"
The girl’s will and longing soon became reality, strengthening her further.
When Tohka tightened her grip on Sandalphon, light rippled through her body and her outfit changed.
The angelic form that had been half-buried under her school uniform and unable to function properly returned to its true armored shape.
"Tohka...?"
"Complete... manifestation?"
Breaking free of limited manifestation and shattering its restraints, Tohka entered complete manifestation and stepped up beside Hieta, holding Sandalphon high.
"Tohka, you...!"
Hieta was startled that Tohka had left his back and come to his side, and was just about to tell her to fall back when Tohka cut him off and said quietly,
"Hieta. Leave the others to me."
With that, Tohka flew toward Origami.
Boom
Shido rode on Zadkiel with Yoshino, who was in limited manifestation, as they searched for the spirits.
Then they heard a loud explosion, and Yoshino changed direction toward its source. There, smoke was rising between the trees.
"Shido, look!"
"Over there!"
Shido, Yoshino, Natsumi, and Rio flew toward the direction where the smoke was rising.
What they saw was two spirits locked in battle.
Both of them were people the four knew well.
"Haah!"
The spirit wielding the giant sword angel Sandalphon was Yatogami Tohka.
"Kuh...!"
The spirit retreating backward by a hair’s breadth after dodging the attack was Tobiichi Origami.
As Origami avoided the slash, Tohka immediately pressed the attack and brought Sandalphon down.
Origami’s body then turned into particles of light and moved behind Tohka.
"What!?"
Both the attacker and the one who dodged were shocked by the move, and Origami flexed her hand open and shut in disbelief.
"Monster...!"
Origami thought of herself as a monster.
But it didn’t matter.
If she could kill spirits, then even giving up being human was enough.
So, steeling herself once more, Origami spread her light feathers and shouted,
"[Metatron]—[Maarak]!"
In response to Origami’s cry, the feathers of light gathered together and transformed into the shape of wings, then unleashed arrows of light from their tips.
The arrows of light possessed far greater destructive power than the first attack, Shiemeshu, which she had fired at Hieta’s group, and could deal meaningful damage to Tohka.
But that only mattered if they all hit.
Crackle!
The lightning arrows Hieta fired from the ground struck only the arrows of light, shooting them down precisely.
"Tch. I can’t do anything if I can’t fly."
Supporting Tohka from the ground, Hieta clicked his tongue and prepared another lightning arrow.
The only way Hieta could fly was to launch himself in a straight line using Lahat.
So ever since the moment Tohka entered complete manifestation and began fighting Origami, Hieta had been shooting down every dangerous attack aimed at Tohka.
He wanted to shoot down the smaller attacks too, but that was impossible because even lightning arrows took time to prepare.
On top of that, the other spirits were exhausted and unable to move.
Even if they could, they were still in limited manifestation, so getting between two spirits in complete manifestation would be no different from suicide.
Knowing that, the other spirits could only watch the battle unfold.
Of course, Origami wasn’t only targeting Tohka.
Hieta, who kept interfering with her fight against Tohka, was getting on her nerves, and she had even tried attacking him first to kill him off.
But Tohka blocked that, and even when Origami pretended to aim at Tohka while actually targeting Hieta, she was repeatedly stopped by Hikinon’s ice shield.
"Tch. [Kadur]!"
Fed up with the constant interference, Origami finally decided to deal with Tohka first and the others afterward. She sent out a storm of light feathers, attacking Tohka from every direction.
"Tch!"
Seeing that, Hieta transformed his talisman into a staff and fired crystal spears.
The crystal spears launched from the staff’s tip moved according to Hieta’s will, blocking most of the feathers aimed at Tohka.
Once Tohka confirmed that the crystal spears had stopped the attack, she immediately charged Origami and swung Sandalphon.
"Haaah!"
This time, too, Origami turned into particles of light to dodge Tohka’s attack, but...
"Kgh...!"
Tohka had also predicted where Origami would move and swung Sandalphon again, landing a hit.
Cut by Sandalphon, Origami staggered and fell toward a nearby park. Tohka followed after her to finish it.
Crash!
Tohka stomped the ground and summoned a throne, then split it with Sandalphon to prepare her final sword.
"Origami! I’ll ask you one more time! Can’t you and I truly understand each other!?"
"Don’t be ridiculous! My will hasn’t changed. My mission hasn’t changed either. I’ll deny every spirit there is!"
"I see.... Then there’s no helping it!"
Origami, who had fallen, flew up again, and Tohka also took to the air as the two prepared their strongest strikes against each other.
"I’ll show you a truly painful lesson! Brace yourself, you spoiled brat!"
"Don’t talk like you can do whatever you want!"
A sinister aura gathered in Tohka’s enormous sword, while Origami’s feathers converged and condensed an immense light.
"[Sandalphon]—[Halvan Helev]!"
"[Metatron]—[Atirif]!"
Just before the true wills of the two spirits collided, one human shouted,
"Stop―――!!!"
The blue-haired boy. His name was Itsuka Shido.
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