"Hmm … that might be it." I say with a deadpan expression.
"What? Did you figure something out?" Grey asks with an anxious look.
"I may have a theory for why Dues ex machina didn't let you help Irium and Roswaisa, which ended with Aknin killing Roswaisa – something we have assumed so far was bad for her plan."
"O-okay?" Grey asks hesitantly, "Why did she do that?"
"Roswaisa's most powerful attack was Frost Requiem. Maybe, with that being the case, Roswaisa could not kill the entire Demon race by whatever method Dues had thought of." I contemplate alongside saying so, "In that case, if she could, Dues would have wanted to change the past a little and make sure Roswaisa learns Absolute Frost Requiem. She made it so that can happen by Irium and Danny going to change the past."
"…"
"In fact, Aknin mentioned that Kaylith hypnotized her and made her leave Irium alive, didn't she? So, maybe Dues had tipped him about that and that is why he could arrive at exactly the right time to do that. Maybe, that is why, he could be in the past when he needed to be as well."
"Mr. Azazel," Grey says with despair in his eyes, "Are you suggesting that Kaylith and Dues are working together?"
"I doubt it. But, they maybe stealing each other's information and trying to get to their own goals, which happen to coincide in this case." I say.
"So they are involuntarily helping each other? That would make sense why everyone kept getting outsmarted by them. Whenever anyone tried to catch one, it was the other's plans that ended up coming in the way." Grey says, "And because they weren't actually working together, investigating both of them at the same time wasn't possible because that will lead to two completely different and large knots to untie."
"Hmm … that's what my thoughts are on the matter." I say. As soon as I do, I hear sounds of gliding and open the door to the garden, only to see Rain descending from the sky while holding Jessica.
"Dead end?" I question.
"Yes, what about you?" She asks in somewhat of a panic.
"Kinda same. Dues reached here before we did and so now the whole thing is hopeless." I say
"There still must be something we can do, right?" Rain asks with a troubled expression as she lands on the ground and lets Jessica off.
"I'm sorry but I don't think there is. It's just waiting for our doomsday now." I reply calmly.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Azazel? How can you be calm at a time like this?" Rain asks, "It's like you have accepted dying or something?"
"From your expression, it seems like you think that wouldn't be plausible." I say with a smile, "But what if you are wrong and that is exactly what has happened?"
"What!?" She finds herself surprised. She looks at Grey and he nods so as to say that I am telling the truth. "You can't be serious!"
"Hah!" I sigh, and stretch my back all the while the rest of the people there look at me with different expressions of astonishment. In this time, Aknin also comes to the place we are all in.
"What's going on?" She asks as soon as she arrives there.
"Nothing much. We just failed, completely." I say in a sardonic voice.
"Azazel! Are you actually okay with dying?" Rain asks with a deeply serious expression, one I don't often see on her face.
"Yes, I kinda am." I say without any dramatic nonsense, "I don't hold any attachments to life anymore. I mean, why would I?"
"…" All of them stay silent.
"I have lived for thousands of years now." I say, "To be honest, I am tired of living at this point."
There is nothing more to live for after all. Living feels more like a task than anything else. Dying might be the only possible way to rest.
"And … what about the rest of the demon race, will you let them die too?" Rain asks, in a surprisingly normal-pitched voice.
"Oh come on! I am a demon, you know. Caring for others isn't in me." I say with a smile, "Back in the time I was born, Demons were pure evil and Angels were pure good. While the changing times have definitely affected me a little, I am still someone who wasn't meant to have any good traits."
Changing times – it sounds almost ironic to say it. Over these thousands of years I have lived, I saw Angels start doing evil deeds and Demons start doing good deeds. And slowly and slowly, this spread so much that, at this point, it doesn't even surprise me if an Angel kills an innocent person or a Demon gives his/her life protecting one.
In that respect, and in that respect alone, I can understand how Dues feels and why she would want to turn things back to how they originally were.
"Azazel!" Rain yells my name, causing me to realize I was spacing out.
"Yes, sorry about that. Did you say something?" I ask.
"…" Biting her lips, Rain asks, "You don't mean to say Dues is right about wanting to destroy Demons, are you?"
"No, I don't mean to say that. Honestly, it's not Angels or Demon's fault that all these changes have happened. They don't deserve annihilation. And the one who is at fault, he is not someone Dues can even put a scratch on, no matter what she does. So, her plan is bogus."
"…"
"Something wrong?" I look at Rain, asking that question. And she looks down as she asks,
"What do you mean by 'the one who is at fault'?"
"Well, isn't it obvious? I'm talking about God. He is the one who made us, isn't he? So all of us changing like this is a shortcoming of him, not ours. He couldn't make Angels who could never be corrupted and vice-versa with Demons."
He is the one to blame for all of this. They all stay silent as they listen to that, silent and astonished.
"You know, I talked to him at length once." I mention something I have only mentioned to Lucifer before.
"You did?" Rain asks, surprised.
"Yes, I did. And he told me that he doesn't feel like there's anything wrong with these changes."
"…"
"So, maybe," Just maybe, "it's not a shortcoming, but he actually intentionally made us so we could be changed."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Still though, I doubt he will stop Dues from doing what she is trying to do. He would probably only look at it as just a change too."
He is, after all, completely impartial.
*****