A young child was standing in the center of a forest, around him, what should have been a green and luxurious forest was now nothing more than a sad picture of stagnation, stillness and death. Absolutely nothing around him was still alive. The trees, the grass, the animals, and the bugs.

The kid stood with a blank expression, tears streaming down from his face as he gazed at his surroundings. He couldn’t understand, couldn’t accept.

It was then that he was pulled in a warm embrace, a beautiful woman with twelves wings and a halo above her head, kneeled and hugged the face in her bosom while caressing his head,

“I am sorry, so sorry that you have to suffer. This isn’t your fault. None of all that is your fault. Sleep, when you wake up, everything will be alright.”

----

‘That dream again.’

A memory he hated remembering. One he buried in the deepest part of his heart. At the same time it was one that brought him great happiness. Live was really full of contradictions.

‘I must have been really tired if I made that dream.’

Azrael slowly opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling, his blurry eyes rapidly came back into focus as he tried to remember everything that happened.

It didn’t take him long to do so, and once he did, he simply slumped back on the bed, unwilling to move.

‘How long was I asleep?’

After Vali asked him to fight, he remembered that shock from the absurdity of the situation made him lose the tight control he had on his mind. The outcome was him falling unconscious. Still, while it was completely understandable, it was rather shameful to faint in front of someone a few years younger than him.

‘*Sigh*, now is not the time to whine. I need to assess my current situation..’

He began to think about everything he learned, everything he understood, and how much he earned. If you forgot all the destruction and the pain, and the hate, it was a rather productive night.

After all, at the end of it, he not only used Eve for the first time, but also obtained a balance breaker, albeit an incomplete , time-limited and madness-inducing Balance breaker, but still a rather powerful one.

Balance breaker. The power to break the balance of the world. A failure or a bug in the seemingly perfect system created by god. He didn’t know much about this power.

‘I need to do some research on this subject later. All the other three have their own sacred gears. Now they can’t brag in front of me anymore.’

Chuckling as he thought about the incredulous face his three friends will have, he folded yet another thing to do later in his mind, he brought his hand in front of his face and could see many bandages on it.

‘*Sigh* If Dielthem was here those wounds would be history. Well, it doesn’t really matter.’

He didn’t mind being wounded, even though they were infected by the power of the Longinus, the fact that he was an angel made him immune to holy power. Still, it was rather funny when he thought about it,

‘An angel burned by the holy flames of a witch’

This was truly an ironic situation. Of course, it becomes less funny when he remembers just how close to death he had been.

‘Sigh. I simply got done in.’

Now that he was a little less hurried, there were so many ways he could have better handled this situation. Even more so with his interrogation on Seijiro. Even though he was tired, he could have asked Evermillion to simply transform in her beast mode and bring them away. This would have allowed him to avoid many problems.

‘I am still too immature.’

One should never let stress cloud his mind when under duress. Rather it was exactly in such a situation that one should keep his head cool and think of different solutions possible.

This wasn’t all, using his balance breaker even though he could have won without it was one of the stupidest things he ever did. He groaned as he covered his face with his hand. There was nothing more stupid than using all one own energy before even facing the true threat.

If he simply beat Eleanor and Seijiro without balance breaker, he could have used it to show Augusta that he wasn’t a pushover. At the very least, he wouldn’t have been burnt so badly when she activated [INCINERATE ANTHEM].

A small smile full of confidence formed on his face as he thought about all this. He was in no way disheartened. He fucked up badly, he rushed, he was scared and he acted without planning enough. He showed a deep lack of maturity and experience. But, so what?

‘I survived.’

Yes, he survived, survival was always paramount. As long as you were alive nothing was set in stone.

So what if he wasn’t strong enough? He simply had to train hundreds of times more than he did in the past.

So what if he failed? Failure was the mother of success.

No one ever lived without meeting a stepback in life. The biggest difference between the loser and the winners is that the losers stay down once they fail, while the winners grit their teeth and get up. No matter how many times they are knocked down, they continue to struggle.

Of course, life wasn’t easy. Life was never easy. Sometimes, one could continue to struggle and struggle and never succeed. This is sad but it was life. The success of a few is built on the failure of countless people.

But, no matter how low the probability it is. You still have a chance as long as you never give up.

‘It’s time for me to get up.’

He slowly got up from the bed and began to walk toward the door and touched the handle.

*Inhale* *Exhale*

He took a deep breath as he tried to keep this memory in his mind(AN: help for a better expression) right now, he was walking toward a wider world.

“It’s time to go.”

*Clack*

The door refused to open.

{Pfft…}

Azrael immediately went red from shame.

{Stop laughing!!}

He couldn’t help but scream internally and scold Evermillion.

{Sorry...It’s just that. You were so gun oh. Thinking about such an inspirational situation, creating a perfect scene. But in the end, the door won’t even open. Ahaha!}

‘I wish to die’

When someone whose sole goal in life was killing, openly laughed at your expense, then it showed just how ridiculous your actions must have been.

In order to keep some remaining pride. He stopped listening to her before finally turning the key in the keyhole and opening the door.

What greeted him was a very beautiful sight.

An impeccable beauty was facing the door. It was a woman with lustrous jet-black hair and the face of a goddess. She had golden irises and vertically slit pupils; on her left and right temples, two thick horns were protruding crookedly. As for her clothes, she wore a pure white dress with silky gloves covering her slender hands and a golden spiderweb necklace that covers her shoulders and chest.

She seemed to remark him, but, just as she was about to open her mouth, she closed it and tilted her head to the right. Then she slowly lowered her gaze and said with a rather mature and sensual voice,

“Hello. I hope you woke up well. By the way, I didn’t know that angels were into exhibitionism nowadays. Still, for your age, you are pretty well endowed.”

Azrael froze like sculpture after hearing those words

‘No, it couldn’t be.’

Azrael, slowly began to lower his head after hearing those words.

‘Holy father above please.’

Sadly, when he fully lowered his head, he saw that he was totally naked. He grew bitter at this situation. He didn’t mind an unknown woman seeing his body. He was already used and numbed to such a situation.

It was just that imagining himself, having deep thought about the meaning of life and hardship while being butt naked was such a deep humiliation.

Finally, he simply sighed and said,

“I am sorry if I startled you with my display. Still, seeing your reactions I guess it thankfully didn’t bother you that much. Could I ask for a change of clothes please.”

The woman was obviously a little surprised at his reaction. Still she simply pointed towards the interior of the room and said,

“You must have not paid attention. The clothes were close to the bed.”

{Pfft. Ahahahah!!!!}

Azrael looked toward the direction she pointed with a deadpan expression. He obviously ignored the laugh sounding in his head.

“...I see…”