I have a vision of where I want the story to end up and I believe that the story is only going to last 39-52 Chapters all together so I am nearing the halfway point to the story. So thanks to the ones who have been with me since the beginning and thanks to those who bothered reading up to this point.

Chapter 21: The change in tides

Volume 2 Chapter 8

(Note: I forgot to add to the last chapter that I was leaving Ares behind to protect Brooke with Paul, and Shiro)

The Angel with the red mohawk and red eyes, stood before myself and Anastasia who was hiding herself, In his left arm he was holding the girl missing her right leg and in his right hand he had picked up his giant battle axe off the ground

The situation reminded me of the situation that happened not even 2 hours ago, I laughed at the coincidence of the same situation happening twice so soon

The angel laughed hysterically at the sight of a weak human laughing before him, he must have thought I was insane laughing in front of him, and I assume he was laughing because he didn't believe humans would be so brazen and have the audacity to approach him with the mentality that a human had the power to rescue someone he was holding in the palm of his hand

"You think you can hurt me?" The Angel said as he started to squeeze the woman's neck

the woman screamed in pain as tears and blood fell to the ground and she desperately scratched at his hands hoping to relieve the pressure from her neck.

"P-please help me!" The woman missing a right leg screamed as her voice softened

"Just hold on, I will save you!" I yelled back at her

I then motioned my left hand forward and yelled "Soul corruption" I flew out of my body flying faster than I used to, I had become quite accustomed to this form over the past week.

This grey desolate version of this world, in contrast to the normal world where color was everywhere, here in this form all color had faded and all that was left was grey, it was cold and dry, almost impossible for life to exist in this dimension.

(Note: I never quite explained what it was like for Gabriel when he was in his soul form)

The angel apparently noticed my distortion and attempted to dodge left however I was fast enough to shift my course as well, however it didn't matter as I was shot back to my body.

"Damnit I was hoping he was dumber than that last angel!" I shouted angrily and then a split second later my eyes grew wide as I saw a something appear behind him

It was obvious to me it was Anastasia who attacked while he was distracted however to my great dissatisfaction he turned really fast and with the back of his right hand hit anastasia and sent her flying into the wall of the alley.

"Now that was something I hadn't seen coming, I had sensed another presence here but who knew it would be such a fast assassin. I assume she is your friend." He said while pointing at her with his battle axe

"I honestly didn't expect you to react that fast, that was terrifying." I said looking at the fallen Anastasia who seemed to have become unconscious

However I was wrong, I am always wrong so it doesn't surprise me anymore

Anastasia coughed and raised her head towards the angel before disappearing, half a second later she appeared behind me on her feet hunched over like she was going to throw up

"You're scared? I believe I experienced more fear than you, I was completely caught off guard to have been targeted with a spell I have only ever known our gods could use, and then a second later a woman appears behind me with a blade inches away from my neck. The angel said as he wiped his forehead

"Did you just say the spell Gabriel used was a spell your gods used?!" Anastasia shouted by what the Angel just said

"Gabriel, you have to mean this man here as he is the only one who is a man here besides me, and yes he used a spell I have ever only known our gods could use."

"Well that's weird, first time I am hearing of this... must be a coincidence, then again maybe I was given this ability to kill the gods with?" I laughed as I drew my sword from my holster

"Haha that is incorrect, our abilities are not given to us, they manifest based on who we are, for instance teleport girl I take it you were trained by assassins or have a personality that resembles a loner, you don't let anyone get close to you and stick to the background like a ghost, only making your appearance when it is most beneficial to you and only when you know you won't be noticed. As for you soul corrupter, you probably have an ego or god complexion in which you have to be the best, and you act as a leader controlling others, I wouldn't be surprised if you were very manipulative. As for me I am straightforward and have no problem with confrontations which is why my abilities are physical reinforcements!"

He finished explaining before he activated an aura that devastated us, it was an overwhelming force and of course his aura that surrounded his body was as red as his eyes and hair, it stretched past his wings embracing all of him.

He threw the woman with one leg towards us before readying his weapon to split her in half, However Anastasia used this opportunity to appear behind him again in the hopes of killing him

However to Anastasia's surprise the Angel was so fast that he simply cleaved the poor civilian in half while intending to cut Anastasia in half as well, Anastasia's blade had scraped the Angel's neck before the battle axe reached Anastasia's stomach

"Wow you cut me, not a lot of people have... If you hand't teleported we could have died together." The Angel said as he looked at where Anastasia had teleported to

"Well isn't that sweet, but for what you did to that poor girl I plan on making you die alone..." Anastasia said while readying her dagger

"Anastasia why aren't you using your tier 2 and 3 skills y-" I asked before being introduced to a red energy wave

"Gabriel!" Anastasia screamed as the energy wave had caused a lot of dust to invade the area I was standing in

"Well that was anti climatic, he died way too fast." The man said as he rested his battle axe on his shoulder

"By the way 'Anastasia' that was my tier 3 skill, "Blood wave slash" it is quite convenient as all I need to do is swing my battle axe in a general direction and send my aura through it and anything in that direction is destroyed!" He said before beginning his annoying laugh

"*Cough* *cough* I think you meant "and USUALLY anything in that direction is destroyed!" I don't normally like arguing with psychopaths, but I feel offended you thought something like that would kill me." I said coughing and emerging from the smoke, my left arm covered in blood

The Angel had used his Aura in his wave slash attack, so the red aura he had disappeared

"Anyways Anastasia after killing Giro you should at least be above level 15 and that's when you learn your first skill, Yui told me on the first day in case you are wondering."

"Did you say you killed Giro, yeah right he wasn't weak enough to get killed by humans?" The Angel yelled in anger and confusion

"Yeah bald guy, dumb face. You should have seen it, now that death was anti-climactic." I said laughing

"I will rip you both limb from limb and then when you beg for death, I will rape you, BOTH OF YOU!" He yelled as he tightened his grip around his battle axe

"Woah, calm down big guy, overreact much... I just slit his throat is all, no big deal." taunting him hoping he would attack me and let Anastasia level up.

He dashed at me, faster than before and with an overhand motion he brought the battle axe down on where I was, but I had performed a dodge roll to the left and rushed to my feet as I backed away from him

The wall I was just standing next to had a giant crack going vertically and his battle axe rested at the bottom of the crack, he forced the battle axe through the wall throwing debris at me and causing me to fall to a knee, the cause was a piece of concrete had hit me dead center in the middle of my stomach and made me breathless

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Anastasia take a knee and activate her status window

Status WindowNameAnastasia AnnikovAge24GenderFemaleLevel6 (3282%)ClassThe Dangerous and Beautiful HeroStrength65(20)Vitality80(-5)Agility160(30)Resistance10(-5)Endurance180(40)Intelligence20(20)Magic Resistance[5(-5)]Skills

Shadow Blade Mastery(passive)

Passionate Hero(passive)

Unfortunate hero(passive)

Ken-Tensu(Active)

Tensei Haru(Active)

Mushoku Ren(Active)

Sousei Nir(Active)

Special Skill

Shadow Master(Active)

3182% wow Giro shouldn't have been worth that much

Status WindowNameAnastasia AnnikovAge24GenderFemaleLevel38 (82%)ClassThe Dangerous and Beautiful HeroStrength2520(570)Vitality1750(545)Agility3130(580)Resistance1430(545)Endurance2845(590)Intelligence20(570)Magic Resistance5(545)]Skills

Shadow Blade Mastery(passive)

Passionate Hero(passive)

Unfortunate hero(passive)

Breaking the Mold(Passive)

Shattering the Seal(Passive)

Ken-Tensu(Active)

Tensei Haru(Active)

Mushoku Ren(Active)

Sousei Nir(Active)

Special Skill

Shadow Master(Active)

Shadow Dance(Active)

Shadow Puppets(Active)

Darker Than Black(Active)

"What the fuck!" She yelled

"Wha-What?" I said after I caught my breath

"My stats, they are so broken! S-Shadow Dance!" She looked so surprised before shouting out what I believed a new skill before jumping toward the angel

The look on her face gave me the impression she thought her new skill gave her immense strength, she flew towards the Angel like a bullet

The Angel raised his battle axe in a defensive manner, before Anastasia clashed into him and sent him skidding backwards on his heels, when he stopped being forced back he took a step forward and used his upper body strength to push Anastasia away, and shouted "Raging Aura" as this crimson red and black aura emerged from his body and had tainted his wings to a blackish color, his aura was significantly darker than the last aura and much more violent

"Very original" I shouted back at him

Apparently he didn't hear what I said and looked towards Anastasia before turning into a blur of red moving towards Anastasia, it wasn't that much faster than when Anastasia had rushed towards the Angel

I turned my head and all I saw were blurs between Anastasia and the angel

Anastasia's perspective

I was caught off guard by the instant movement of this Angel clad in dark red, but his swing was slow enough for me to follow with my eyes, I backed up just far enough for the battle axe to swiftly swing past me before I stepped forward and thrusted my dagger towards his neck.

He easily moved to the left and turned his body so he could speed up the momentum of his axe swing, however I instantly used Shadow Master and appeared behind him and thrust forward towards his right kidney,

however he dodged yet again and crouched while rotating his body some more so he could continue his swing, making my dagger enter into his left shoulder before I used Shadow Master another time to appear behind him again.

I wanted to end it fast so this time I had jumped up because his wings were in the way and so I attempted to stab downwards with both hands, this didn't work as well as I wanted because the angel just tuck and rolled on the floor so his wings would hit me...

I had a bad feeling about letting these flimsy wings hit me as the Angel was about to take a fatal blow and his counter attack was to hit me with wings?

So I teleported back by where Gabriel was as I was out of breath and didn't feel very safe teleporting around the Angel while he was in a frenzy

my other skills were called shadow puppet and darker than black right? I thought to myself, I don't have time to read the descriptions so I will just experiment.

"Shadow Puppets!" I yelled and to my amazement 3 shadows rose from surrounding shadows looking exactly like Anastasia except pure black and moved like they were on strings while holding 2 small black shortswords in each hand and staring directly at what Anastasia was staring at, "do they have consciousnesses?" I said out loud

"Course we do, right?" One Shadow asked the other two

"Yeah, I think" The other Shadows in unison

"What?" Anastasia said speechless

"We can think for ourselves but we are also linked to each other and your subconscious so we have a specific task in mind or can communicate without talking" Shadows speak in unison

"Cute trick but they are just shadows what can they do?" The Angel taunted

"We're shadows and so we can do a lot, in a place that is basically one big shadow" Shadows in unison before vanishing into the shadows they spawned from

Within a split second they all emerged around the Angel and thrust their shadow shortswords towards him

The Shadows had appeared on his left, right, and Behind, they all aimed for his heart, the angel stepped to his right and raised his axe and cleaved the shadow on his right, smacking the shadow on his right away, both shadows behind him now lunging for his heart, the one on his left was dispatched by his black wing as it tore through the shadow with no resistance, and jumped up to dodge the last shadow however the shadow was much closer than he realized and stabbed him, with the tip of the black sword coming out of the front of his stomach he laughed,

"haha you missed!" He laughed as he flew forward and let the shadow sword come out of his stomach

"Is it possible to call my comrades back, milady?" The shadow said

"Shadow Puppets!" I yelled it out and 2 more shadow Puppets came out of different shadows

"Thank you, milady" Shadows in unison

"Let's attack together this time" I said before casting "Shadow Dance" as I assumed it would make me significantly faster however the shadows started acting strange

The Shadows just started swaying left and right and started swinging their swords as if they were dancing elegantly and then they said "thanks Milady, we're ready" In unison

"O-okay let's do this." I said getting ready to dash at the Angel

However before I dashed towards him, he slashed his axe towards the sky sending out this giant crimson blood wave into the air and lighting up the sky like a beacon as it kept going and going before dissipating into nothingness

After staring at the crimson wave fly up into the sky for a couple seconds I looked back at the Angel and decided that was a bad sign so I quickly dashed towards the Angel with the intention of stabbing him in the neck and the rest of the shadows moved in accordingly

The Angel had attempted to jump and fly away however the shadow furthest away appeared above him and swung downwards with both shadow swords hitting the angels battle axe in which he moved to defend against the attack, however this left him open as the two other shadows appeared next to him and impaled him with their shadow swords, the Angel coughed up blood and dropped his battle axe after being stabbed in the forehead with Anastasia's dagger...

"Whew its over..." I said breathing heavily.

"Not quite" Gabriel said looking at the sky in the opposite direction

I looked at Gabriel and then in the direction Gabriel was looking before panting some more, with two Angels watching us with scorn on their faces.

It was obvious I didn't have time to rest.

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