Teil Ein.

Going back a little while, when the otherworldly Lene successfully woke up from the state of awe the other parallel were…

“Hello?”

Someone arrived from the broken, panoramic window. It was Ártemize.

“Excuse me; you must be Mr. Cole, right?” Asked the Arche.

“Yes? Can you wait a moment please?”

Replied Mr. Cole as he was talking with [Quatro] in order to make all the participants of the tournament to help with the movement and evacuation of the few people in the city.

“Alright- What can I help you with?” Asked Mr. Cole after half a minute.

“I came here to find Engel, but I can see him fighting, so I decided to check whether anyone was alright and heal you; after all, I can’t ask Engel about the things that had happened here as it would distract him.”

Voiced Ártemize in quite a stiff way. She wasn’t that acquaintance with Mr. Cole so it was a matter of fact that she’d act in such a manner.

“By the moment, no one here is injured so there’s nothing to worry about… But…”

“But?”

For a moment, Mr. Cole stopped his words, as he was hesitant to ask something from the female Arche in front of him, but as she urged him, he decided to voice his request. The worst could be her brushing aside his petition after all.

“... But I and two of the children there are going to leave this place in order to help the people outside. It shouldn’t take that much time as others are helping too, taking into account that there are few people in this academy that can’t take care of themselves, and the civils outside our facilities. And so, I am ashamed to ask if you could protect the other two who will staying here. They do not posses any battle power so it could be dangerous to leave them alone. I was thinking on guarding them but as I see you came, can you spare some minutes of your time to aid us?”

Said Mr. Cole with all the respect he could muster.

Ártemize then tilted her head unconsciously while thinking about Mr.Cole’s proposal.

(I can’t ask Engel about this- He’s giving his all to fight that guy… Tch! That’s why I never got used to be a higher up…)

Thought Ártemize as she lightly scratched her head.

(The others in the boat are okay- They have Frederica after all… With the main guy held by Engel; I have no reason to say no if I know that those in need are being helped…)

“Alright… I mean, I agree. I will guard the non-combatants here so you can go and help people. Aside from me who doesn’t know the layout of the city, it’s better if you go.”

Replies Ártemize as she took out her sword as if to declare she would take care of them thoroughly.

“Many thanks for accepting this proposal. Alright- You, the ones who have the battle gear, follow me.” Said Mr. Cole as he sighed in relief and called out to the two parallels who came from the world similar to them.

“Wait…” Then he made them stop.

“Can you two fly?” Asked Mr. Cole with a wry smile.

“O-Of course we can’t!” Replied the black-haired Engel as if he was stating the obvious.

“Oh… That was surprising in another meaning. Anyways; I’ll help you jump from here so you can aid where I tell you. After that you’ll be on your own- I assume you also know this city as I do.” Voiced Mr. Cole while gazing at the pair.

They both nodded and so Mr. Cole jumped out of the broken window, as the others had done it. The pair, as if he was the Ms. Cole they knew, trusted in him and jumped too.

After a mere second, they both floated. Carried by Mr. Cole, they moved along the nearby streets and landed, so they could look for people to help.

“.... Very well; you two, it’s too dangerous to be here, so let’s move…. Hey.”

And as Ártemize suggested to move from the place, and walked towards the door followed by the popular Lene, the timid Engel stood still.

“Hey. What are you doing there? Move.” Said Ártemize as she felt that she didn’t have to be polite with the Engel in front of her.

“No. I don’t want to.” Replied the timid Engel bluntly.

(Daaaarn…) Thought Ártemize as she realized she had hit with something troublesome.

Teil Zwei.

[Normal Engel’s POV]

“I want to help.” I said with a strong tone of voice.

Actually, I don’t think I have ever talked back to someone in my life. I’ve lived leisurely and peaceably until now. Of course I’ve been bullied, yelled at and humiliated so many times since I have use of reason, so I highly doubt I’ve been able to develop something called self-confidence… Yet- I’m here, opposing this person.

“I-I want to help the people out there!”

I see it. I can see it in her eyes. I have seen those eyes countless times. She’s been annoyed by me. But… I feel I can’t give up here.

“Haaa… I’ll be honest kid. This is troublesome. You can’t even lift a finger against anything here, so you better move your weakling self where I tell you so you can be safe, as I was requested to.”

The “angel” then said that to me directly and without any option to retort.

And it’s not as if I can oppose her. I mean, what she says is true… Is so true… But… But.. Still!!!

“So-Sorry! I-I won’t be heading whe-where you say!! I-I’ll help those people! It’s just wrong to not to!!”

I said it!

I said completely what I thought!

I don’t know why, but I feel this tightening feeling in my chest; that if I don’t do anything here, I’ll regret it the rest of my life.

There’s people out there in trouble, and I want to help them.

No… It’s not only that…

It’s as if what I’ve just thought and said… Are a mere excuse to something more selfish… But what is it?

(Why in this moment I became unable to think in a simple way as I always do? I’m such an Idiot!!)

While resisting the Angel’s oppressing gaze, I decided to continue talking. I need to forget those superficial words… I must open up my heart.. I have to! If not… I feel like I’ll explode…

And so, I clenched tightly my hands and while sweating buckets, I talked to her… No; to them.

“I-I… I am Engel Falsch! I’m a loser that has been bullied all his life and doesn’t have any self confidence! And then.. And then it was me who was summoned together with the most popular girl in my school! I got chosen by a god of something and then he asked me to come and seal this people! But why? Why was I chosen? Why, the weakest and most useless person in the whole world was chosen by this god? It would have been better if Izaak, the most popular and awesome guy in the school was chosen…

But then it happened… That happened! I saw him! I saw… This strong and weird and awesome Engel! He was.. He is me! I am him!

I-I don’t know how to say this, but… After all that happened- Blacking out, thrown into an office with strange people and finding people alike to us… I thought everything was just so weird and strange! I didn’t get what happened at all! Yet, this “Me” came and in a moment he put everything in order and talked to us and explained how he traveled dimensions and…

What I want to say is… That me!! I… I am him! He is so powerful and focused, and looking at him… And looking at the female “Me”... and also that other muscular “Me”... I feel like a big… Ginormous piece of scum.

All my life, I’ve lived as a weak person, but these other “Me” are so strong and cool… That I feel I’ve betrayed myself.

What have they done to be strong? What has happened to them so they are so awesome?! I-I want that too! I want to grow! I want to stop being weak! If “I” am “They” and “They” are “Me”... What’s the difference? Of course, except the one with different gender… What is so different from “Me” to “Them”?

I.. I feel ashamed! Why am I this weak?! Who is actually the true “Engel”... “Me” or “Them”?

And the obvious response is… “Them”. And so… A-And so that means, that… That I’m being unfaithful to myself.

I am not myself. Engel Falsch is not this… Weak, puny and fragile existence… Engel Falsch is a strong and weird yet cool person… And that means that I have to change.

I have to change! I have to move on from this weak “Me” to a strong “Me”!! And the way to do that… Is… To help that people! All those other “Me” are there helping people fighting, doing all what they can! They are out there saving people and fighting as if this were a work of fantasy and everything is a bet in his fight… So, as my world has also changed to this… Warped fantasy thing, I also need to change. I need to act as myself and save the people out there...

That’s the first step I have to take as “Me”...”

And so, while blurting out all I wanted to say… I tried to give the first step as “Me”.

[End of Normal Engel’s POV]

Teil Drei.

(This got really deep in a mere second…)

Thought Ártemize as she watched how the timid Engel blurted his resolution outloud.

It seems he hasn’t noticed that midway his speech, he started to shed tears.

(Really… They are the same yet not the same… How many times these words have to come true…)

The Arche realized how this Engel was no different from the one she knows. She knows the Engel she’s affiliated to is strong and resolute, yet is also someone who holds doubts and griefs.

How many times she didn’t hear him being restless in his dreams, or mutter about how the world he left behind. About how hard it has been to attain the power to go back and in a mere moment everything took a turn for worse. How he felt guilty about leaving one of his companions suffer for years without he able to do a single thing… Or how was so easy for him to change someone’s heart and feel disturbed by it after realizing his actions…

Engel, either strong or weak, was the same; doubtful, a little coward and a simple, weird person.

So, Ártemize smiled wryly and looked straight to the timid Engel’s eyes.

“Alright kiddo. You’ve successfully convinced me with the cowardly tears and the fist-tightening just like a comedy in a plaza. I accompany one of the “You” you talk about, so I can ascertain you’ve given the first step to become a weird and strong Engel.

I’ll let you help people, but I’ll be overlooking you as you do it, ‘cause if not you’ll die in a second out there.” She said while scratching her head and moving towards him.

Engel let out a half-smile as he wiped his tears and looked Ártemize in admiration.

Then Ártemize held timid Engel and popular Lene by the neck of their uniforms and said-

“Don’t faint!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Then she flew out of the window at full speed to look for a place with less [Asterisk] than the rest.

“This is getting more and more exciting…” Muttered the popular Lene in joy as the timid Engel screamed his lungs out.

Teil Vier.

At this moment, Ange was teleporting people to a safe place together with Liam.

“HEEEELPPP!!!!!”

*Swoosh!* *Swoosh!*

“Ange, are you okay?” Asked Liam as he just saw how Ange moved an entire floor of people inside a collapsing building. This was the last one with people inside in the vicinity.

“Yeah… Somehow…” They both slowly floated as Ange drank a mana recovery potion.

“How was on your side? I felt you were a little startled a while ago.” Said Ange as she searched the area with her [Demonic Eye].

“We-Well… I noticed something strange in this beasts. These strange beings still move while I stop time. I don’t know why, but they move as in slowmo… Yet I’m sure I stopped time completely.” Voiced Liam in doubt.

“Yeah… And it also counts that we can barely damage them.” Said Ange as she found some people trapped under some fallen debris.

(And still, these puppets can easily cut them like a sharp knife cutting hot butter…)

Thought Ange as she looked around her- After all, despite all the tremor and destruction these black beings were causing, the black, white and brown puppets were eliminating them one by one.

(What is so different between the energy the puppets use and what ours? I can feel this heavy and oppressive aura from them and some of it from the black beings... But… Really… What is so apart from the energies?)

The [Asterisk] that were obeying their orders- to destroy and kill anything in sight, were being repelled easily by the puppets Engel, Izaak and Lene created.

With their fin-like limbs, floating amidst the chaos, they cut apart the asterisk. The fin-like limbs acted as sharp swords made of mind and easily cut the asterisk which weren’t completely made of [Mind].

Ange and Liam, as well as the other gods of this dimension encountered a couple of times their genderbent versions. These gods, like nothing, completed their tasks of “aid and destruction” with complete accuracy and so fast that they could barely perceive them.

It wasn’t only because they were much more faster, but because of their cooperation skill and experience. The “traveler gods” had lived more than them, so as individuals, they had lots of experience, and in their secluded training, they also worked in their cooperation.

Years and years of amassing strength lead to a cooperation with minimal to none margin of errors.

(We still have a long way to go…) Thought every one of them while watching them rescue people.

“Haa!”

As the two were trying to help the people trapped, they saw how, in cooperation with the puppets, one of the gods, Isold, was running and blowing the black beings with her fists. A single one of them killed three and suddenly she met with another god, Krestin, as with her spear, she pierced tens of them.

They couldn’t help to look in admiration to what they can become if they could resolve their differences and cooperate as a group they had become.

Suddenly-

An unimaginable pressure assaulted Ange and Liam from above and after they fell to the ground the moment they were able to free the people under the debris.

(Wha-What is this?! This pressure…) Thought Liam as he tried to detect what was the monster that produced such aura.

They didn’t know, but because the influence of the [Skyfall Tear], they were able to feel some mind, even if a little of this crushed them.

This also happened to the “traveler gods” when they met with the [Yotse] long time ago.

As they both were barely able to lift their heads, they could see how Isold and Lene were still and without any signs of feeling the deathly oppressive aura they felt.

(Really… How much of a monster they are…)

Thought Liam as he almost passed out due to the pressure.