From his face alone, I could tell that he cannot be reasoned with anymore. Being only able to obey God's command. Acting on that instinct, he'll eliminate anyone in his way by all means.
The bright red stigmata glowed bright red, now recognizing me as an obstacle.
[Dad, you're really too much sometimes…leaving everything to me… good grief…]
Having turned into a black angel, my voice could no longer reach him. Nothing but a breeze of wind that blew in the capital to him.
『Fate! It's coming』
The moment I turned my attention back to the black angel, it disappeared.
Was it the space leap used by the Sacred Beast Gemini!? Or perhaps it's just an extremely fast movement that looked like teleportation.
Did the two pairs of extra wings have something to do with the increased speed!?
My eyes could not follow its movement properly. Only its afterimages, which mean its real body was already ahead.
Switching to black shield was all I could do to protect myself. The black angel didn't even hesitate, attacking me with its spear.
[Heavy.]
The black shield actually creaked. This meant that a single attack was almost comparable to Myne's Noir Destruct. Did that mean it also had power in addition to its speed?
The black cube afforded me no stable footing, which caused me to be blown away from taking the spear attack. My body crashed through several buildings before the ground stopped the momentum.
I spat out a large mouthful of blood. The attack should've been blocked by the black shield, but the shock still somehow penetrated through and damaged my innards.
I pushed away and crawled out from the rubble.
The black angel seemed to be concerned about Eris' magic bullet, which was suppressing the movement of the Black Cube. Every time it tried to draw a magic circle, a magic bullet canceled it.
After a short glance, it swung its spear.
[Eris!]
The air seemingly froze along my voice. I couldn't move.
I could barely tilt my head around, only to find the entire capital covered in frost.
Fortunately the core of my body had not frozen yet. I circulated my magic power, turning it into heat to thaw the frost.
[What about Eris…?]
She was closer to the black angel than I did. She must've been affected by the frost more.
『No need to worry. She's tougher than you think. We should move.』
Greed once again told me that Eris will be alright. I also believe that she'll be fine. What was Libra doing? Don't tell me he's still waiting comfortably in the green zone. That guy was so enigmatic, I couldn't really expect anything from him.
『Worry about yourself first. It's coming again』
The black angel, who showed the ability to freeze the imperial city, seemed to have set its aim again.
With the disruption from Eris gone, the Black Cube resumed the construction of the magic circle
The black angel moved once more, leaving afterimages in its wake. I tried to protect myself with the black shield, but the coldness slowed my reaction time.
High-pitched metallic screech followed the collision.
This time I managed to defend against the spear attack without being blown away.
[『Good grief, you're always like this』]
Greed was speaking through my mouth.
[『This is what you get by trying to fight alone, fool.』]
[『Greed… did you just do a forced crossing?』]
[『Fate is my companion. Moreover, by doing this, all of us can fight now』]
[『What do you mean』]
Yeah, it's as Greed says. Until now, we've been fighting together for things we can't do alone. It's really new.
[『You're here, I'm here. Heck, even Kairos is here as well』]
[『Isn't it feel great?』]
Now that our souls were temporarily merged together, I could feel Greed's feeling. He's obviously very excited.
Even though he made fun of this situation where the fate of the world hung upon a father-child quarrel earlier.
[『Time to counter attack』]
Pushing back with the black shield, we immediately switched to black sword. Not forgetting to imbue poison into the blade.
The black angel responded by swinging its spear again as soon as it noticed our moves.
[『Not this time』]
We shimmied through the swing and continued moving forward. The spear's one main weakness was its length that's not suitable for extreme close quarters combat. We're attempting to make use of that.
The black angel flapped its wings, trying to escape. But we wouldn't let that happen.
Thanks to crossing, both our accuracy and efficiency had increased. Our black sword struck toward the black angel's flank.
[『Not yet huh』]
Our timing was perfect. The attack should've hit the flank. But, the black angel had dexterously used the handle of the black spear to alter the trajectory of our stab.
The Black Angel was about to retaliate, but seemed to have felt something wrong with its body and chose to take a distance from us instead.
The poison infusion was still working.
Although the effect might be minimum, Dad still hated it.
It cannot afford to engage us in close combat. Realizing that, the black angel pointed its spear at us, starting to use its freezing power at us.
The power that could freeze the entire capital was now concentrated toward us. The frigid cold rushed to the extent that it affected buildings that should be far from us. Frozen buildings were swallowed by the waves of cold air and shattered.
We could feel the handle of the black sword in our hand growing colder by the moment.
If we got engulfed in all that, no doubt we'll end up like those shattered buildings.
Even so, we didn't intend to run away.
Our status wasn't some sort of inexhaustible resource. So we had to resolve ourselves to finish it once and for all.
Changing the black sword into the black gauntlets, we immediately went for our strongest card.
[『Dimension Destruction』]
With resolve we shouted.
The black thread that emitted golden light branched innumerably and collided with the cold air of the frigid cold.
The thread cuts through the cold air together with the space. Then, the cold air was drawn into the empty space.
Great! This secret technique was effective against the cold air. Let's push for the kill.
At that time, the black angel uttered a voice that couldn't possibly belong to a human being. Immediately, the amount of cold air released increased at once.
Not even the secret technique was enough to hold that back. We could feel heaviness on our hands.
The cold air started to freeze the black threads. Were Dad's feelings that profound…?
[『Even so!』]
As long as he considered me his son, then I'd like to respond to that feeling. Thus, I increased my opposition.
A part of me――Kairos, responded by flowing in more power. The crimson flame engulfed the black gauntlet and mixed with the golden glow of the black thread.
It evaporated and canceled the cold, allowing the threads to once again cut apart and send it away via the tearing of space.
With this, it should be possible. This time for sure.
When the black thread approached the tip of the black spear, something went wrong.
[『Reverse!』]
It changed from cold air to a pale blue-colored flame. This was… it's the complete opposite of the cold air so far.
The spear power that Dad told me should've only been the cold air and the space jump. Was there more?
No, Dad told me one more thing. That he used to have a completely different power.
Perhaps the stigmata made the black angel able to use it…
[『So it's still messing around』]
The cold disappeared. Now replaced by the flame that the angel used to control.
The power to freeze everything… perhaps that power manifested because Dad didn't want to return to being this black angel. I don't think Dad would tell me even if I ask. But that's what I felt during this battle.
The momentum of the blue and cold flames kept increasing. It burned through the secret with the crimson flame as fuel.
The air became filled with raging heat.
The secret was still intact though. I could still go on. However, the pale blue flame continued to spread through the threads.
The pressure seemingly made my hands stiffen. The approaching flame caused my clothes to smoke a little.
[『This is..』]
We were attacked by the sensation of boiling blood. Maybe my body is on fire.
Just when I couldn't handle it anymore, I could feel someone was supporting me.
(What are you guys doing? You guys have your own flame)
Then I heard Kairos' voice. It was firm but kind.
(Not the one from my power. The one that only you could create and no one could extinguish)
No way… can I actually do that?
Could I actually use it alongside the secret of the black gauntlet?
(I couldn't. But you are different from me. You can do it. Show me… Fate, Greed)
[『UOOOOoooo』]
Our crossed souls overlap. Fourth form――summon the power of the black wand here.
From the fingertips of the black gauntlet, a black flame began to make a crackling noise.