chapter 32

Castiel P.O.V.

Right now I am going together with Miku to the top of Towa Tower to face off against that shitty fatso and Serenity. I honestly would prefer never to have to face such a poor girl, but this is inevitable.

No matter how unwilling I am to kill such a pitiful girl if she stands in my path I still will have to do it.

With such thoughts in my head, I noticed in the corner of my eye that Miku was trembling slightly. I could understand why no matter how much she tried to stand strong here there still is a chance of her dying after all.

Releasing a small sigh, I decided to talk to her. Feeling a bit nervous is good but too much is not a good thing in this situation after all.

"You doing okay?" I asked.

She was startled for me suddenly talking to her. It was clear to see that she was not expecting it.

"O-Of course I am! I am Miku Okami and I am strong." She said and started giving that same smile of before.

I FUCKING HATE THIS SMILE!

"Stop that." I said, managing to control my anger for that smile.

"Stop what exactly?" Miku asked, still smiling.

"That fake as hell smile you are giving. It may manage to fool some, but it ain't fooling me. If you are worried or scared you must say it out loud, there is no point in keeping it to yourself." I explained my opinion to her.

The answer was that smile growing even bigger and she saying.

"I have no idea of what you are talking about."

"*sigh* you know what? Fine, keep lying to yourself as much as you want. But if you are feeling scared remember that I am here to protect you. And I WILL do it." With that, we continued our walk.

No further talks happened, but I heard she say in an almost inaudible whisper.

"Liar."

A few minutes later we finally arrived on the Towa Tower. In the terrace we found a few empty humans (I will put them out of their misery soon, it is better to die than live like a zombie slave), three weird men (probably some of those exorcists that were transformed, but their energy signature is especially weird), the fucking fatso that I WILL KILL, no questions asked, and last there is Serenity wearing a mask and a cape covering her whole body.

"Oh, you arrived. Good, good now we can start the experiment." The fat doctor said. I reacted by summoning Jirachi and taking out Kupriotes and took a stance in front of Miku so as to better protect her. "Do you still intend to protect this failure of a 'goddess'? Why bother with it?" he asked in clear confusion.

"Because it is my mission and I decided personally that I would do that." Was my answer, for the surprise of those around me. I don't really understand why is it so hard to understand that I am a willful person that, if I make a decision, I will follow it through to the end. That is how I was raised, to follow what I decide as long as it is not detrimental to the Tower.

"*sigh* And I had my hopes that someone from such a steamed research institute would be more than an ignorant brat. No matter, you will still die here today." He then turned his eyes to Serenity. "Useless bitch, go and do the one thing you can do right and kill that man."

Serenity did not hesitate. As soon as she heard the order she directly pounced in my direction with a dagger in hand. I sent a mental order to Jirachi to intervene only if someone from the outside tries to intervene.

If someone must take her down is me.

I sent the deathmatch crystal to the middle between the two of us. In the ensuing flash of light, all those that were in the terrace were taken to the arena.

Before I could analyze what the arena was like Serenity arrived. She went straight to a pierce to my heart using her dagger, but I lowered my sword in the right angle to deflect it to the side. Not being bothered by this fact she took advantage of the momentum to pounce forward and use her foot like a scorpion pincer aiming at my thigh.

Seeing this I managed to raise my leg enough so that her foot faced my knee, my reinforced knee, instead of my thigh. This way she ended up not getting to impact me nearly as much as she would have liked. Following up she let herself go so as to get a bit distance between us again before she started planning her next attack.

This may all have seemed complicated but it actually lasted no more than 4 seconds to happen. This is just how fast this all can be.

Taking my breath in perfection as Kuzuki-sensei taught me I cleaned my head of all distractions. Miku would be fine for some time due to Umbreon and Jirachi and if there is something that can bypass them I will be capable of feeling the powerful vibrations.

Now, all that is the enemy in front of me.

I decided to not activate any curse or my personal Gandr armor (using Gandr throughout the surface of my body) due to it not work on Serenity. Instead, I started activating some blessings that could work wonders for this situation.

"Ability Boost, Body Strengthening, Iron Skin, Strengthen Perception, Haste, Mental Enhancement, Flow Acceleration." With this plus the reinforcement that I could execute with my mana reserves, I was more capable to deal with Serenity than before. But even now I don't have 100% sure of my winning chances as when I looked at her memories of the past I saw how much she trained and her physique is very strange from the start.

This fight can go either way.

No time to waste, I need to kill her now, before that fat fucker over there have any ideas about making those puppets of his joining in. I used my augmented physical power to launch myself as fast as possible towards Serenity and she responded in the same fashion.

We started exchanging attacks at our max speed and power. I had the edge on the power department, forcing her to deflect my strikes, while she had the edge on the speed one as each attack of mine was answered by three of hers. We went at each other so fast that we stopped caring about the blood we were both releasing from all the cuts and wounds we could not deflect properly.

After no more than twenty seconds of this we both decided to get some space between each other to take a 'breather', but not before I delivered a strike with more power than the others by using both hands and charging Kupriotes with a lot of mana (almost enough to break the sword); and Serenity, while flying away due to my strike, released many small golden specks of dust from her fingernails that, while flying at me, turned into very thin but powerful needless that managed to pierce my body.

Shit this hurts. How the hell she managed to get Dragon Beard Needles? This things are fucking rare and are great assassination tools, one can become as thin as a hair but when it penetrate the body it cannot be removed without taking out a chunk of meat.

Seeing no choice, as I knew this needles were on some of my acupoints (Writer's Note: acupoints are the acupuncture points on the body that, when pierced, can block the flow of mana and energy.), I took them and ripped them out of my body. With this, I had 29 small holes in my body now and was full of cuts as well.

I am in a very sorry state, but I still have plenty battle capacity.

Serenity is the same. Her clothes are cut all over and blood is flowing from many places that I managed to cut. The difference is that instead of holes in the body she got an arm that is likely fractured due to my last strike.

We started looking at one another, analyzing, strategizing, making a thousand plans to then throw them away and refine some of those ideas. And in this state that a new development happened.

BANG

One of the empty humans DARED to attack Miku with me here. Thankfully Umbreon defended her in time, but it just means that I cannot ignore them anymore.

Sending a mental message to my two Cosmoems they teleported me to the middle of those humans. I have just about three seconds, which is the time needed for Serenity to reach Miku before I have to teleport back to where she is.

Plenty enough.

Activating Gandr all around me I released a wave of it so as to curse all of these empty humans and weaken them. Some tried to attack me with magic or some weapons, but they all failed miserably as I started teleporting all over the place with the help of Cosmoems and hacked 5 of them in half. Did I mention that my familiars are amazing? Well, they are.

I would have pressed forward but Serenity was getting too close for comfort so I teleported to the side of Miku just in time to put my sword in the path of Serenity's dagger.

CLANG

Our two weapons collided sending sparks everywhere. This was too close, if I was a second slower Miku could have died, even if Jirachi had made a barrier around her.

Our stare off and the battle continued.

Miku's P.O.V.

What the hell just happened? It was less than a minute ago that we reached Towa Tower. That fat bastard started talking, and before long this assassin jumped in to kill me. But Castiel defended me. (Liar) He then started fighting against that assassin and it was an amazing fight, so many attacks traded so fast, it was fascinating.

Then, one of those empty humans decided to sneak attack me when Castiel was fighting and I was distracted watching. When I felt the magic approaching I knew it was too late for me to defend.

Is this how I am going to end? Dead because I listened to one of those LIARS and was distracted by him? Is this really it?

But then something unexpected happened. The moment when the attack was almost touching me a small dog jumped out of my shadow and created a barrier to protect me.

Since when is such a dog in there? Who is this little one that is protecting me?

And it was one thing after another because after that attack Castiel disappeared out of thin air. The assassin took advantage of his disappearance to advance towards me.

This time I will not be taken by surprise. I immediately started using my song magic to create a sound barrier around me in all directions. It is extremely powerful and capable of protecting me against anything that is high high-class or lower, more than enough.

But reality likes to prove me wrong every time. The assassin reached the barrier and initially did not manage to penetrate it, but she had something on her sleeve in a literal sense as he took out two small metal balls and throw them both at my barrier.

Before they reached the barrier the touched each other and exploded liberating multiple needless and things like that at extreme speed. I tried hard in that barrier, but it was not enough as it collapsed after an instant.

The dog jumped in front of me, and a little kid that I saw Castiel summon did the same. (Is it possible that the dog was from Castiel to defend me?... No, it cannot be right. Castiel said he would protect me and he is a LIAR) Both of them used magic shields to defend but they barely managed to defend against it all.

Now they both are exhausted and the assassin is approaching me again. In my head, I thought 'don't worry little ones, I will protect you' and went to liberate a new sound barrier.

Huh?

Why is my voice not working?

Is it the backlash from my magic being broken earlier?

What do I do?

Is this it for me?

Dying alone because I decided to go with that troglodyte, a fitting ending for a life like mine.

As I see that dagger approaching centimeter by centimeter I see my life all over again.

The kids calling me names;

My mother explaining to me what I am;

My life in the sect;

The first time I met Suzaku;

The fight we had in that I won (a guilty pleasure of mine, remembering hitting his head makes me a bit too happy);

The talk we had later in that we agreed to be friends;

Our time together;

That mission that changed it all in that I was abandoned;

My time in the middle of that scary forest;

My return to the sect in that I discovered what that being I would call Darling really was like;

My return home;

Training for being an idol;

The competition and the first time I met the producer;

My work as an idol in the start;

That party that all those disgusting pigs saw me as just piece of meat;

My stolen first kiss;

The talk with the manager;

My discovery that as long as I have my voice I don't need anyone else;

My work as an idol since;

I guess this is it, my life was one bad spot after the other. And now I am going to die, but I suppose it was inevitable. My only worth was my voice and now that I can't sing I am worthless.

CLANG

What?

Why did he come back and protected me again?

Now that I can see him up close I see all the blood dripping out of him, so why is he still protecting me?

As soon as the attack failed the assassin retreated and I could see him more clearly. He was in front of me again, he was protecting me, he, he, he –

Did not lie.

Castiel P.O.V.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was dealing with those empty humans so as to not let them attack you anymore." I said to Miku without looking at her, my eyes firmly locked in Serenity. "Also, sorry for not telling you of Umbreon. I wanted to be extra sure that you would be okay but feared that you would refuse to keep him by your side." I explained hoping that she would not bitch out about this later.

Serenity was glaring at me from a few meters away, it was not a big distance and considering our speed it was no different than being centimeters from each other.

Suddenly a shout came from the distance.

"What you doing, your incompetent bitch? Finish him off already. Don't you want the cure from your curse?" the fat bastard said.

Hearing this Serenity trembled a bit, she knew this was her chance of a normal life. She knew this was her best chance. She knew it was her only chance.

And so she attacked.

Heavy, her strikes now are even heavier than before and her speed much faster as well. If it was not the many blessings and me activating my field at the last moment, I would be long dead.

How is it that she is getting faster and faster?

Suddenly my eye started reacting to something, mine mystic eyes properties that allowed me to see someone else's sin was reacting to something. As I was looking at Serenity I saw all the sins that she carried, but I also saw that there was something else there. A second soul that carried even more sin.

But the surprising fact is that I realized that both of the souls were resonating and partially fusing and with each passing second the fusion got more and more pronounced.

I must stop it now. I don't know why but I feel like if I allow this to go on will spell disaster for all of us here.

Realizing that I was fighting against the clock I used all strength I had to survive the barrage of dagger cuts and needless that were being thrown at me nonstop. I knew I would only have one chance to make this attack work and that it might even be suicidal of me to do this, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I was defending with all my capacity and then used one more ability that I developed after years being trained in the border between life and death (berserker being the response to most of those that got closer to death).

"Limit Release: mental!" With that, I flooded my brain and nerves with reinforcement and any power that I could spare so as to perceive the time in slower motion. It was like everything was in that movie 300 as everything suddenly got really slow-motion.

Now that I could react better I saw that there was no way that I could attack her right now. Her attack may seem aleatory but there is literally no opening at all and overpowering her right now is as possible as get Rin to give Luvia an honest compliment. Just not going to happen.

So I did the only option I could see, I let her get a partial victory.

PIERCE

I let one of her blows reach my side, perforating the place where my stomach normally would be. Key world is normally. During all those trainings I learned long ago how to get some of my organs out of their normal positions and in this case I draw my stomach to a few centimeters above his normal position.

Whit this I had her dagger locked and this gave me the chance to give one good strike at her. Her mind seemed to have cleared when she perforated my stomach if her eyes widening was any such indication. I would not give her time and with one swift motion I put my sword above her head and pulled it down with all my strength to cut her down.

I won.

I beat her.

'A little girl crying for warmth, wanting some contact with anyone but all she finds is death. Tears stain her face as she walks alone looking for someone while crying out. A sad and lonely girl. A girl that just wants something besides her.'

I- I can't.

When my sword was less than a hair away from cutting her neck, it stooped. I could not do it.

Damn. Where was all my conviction went? Why can't I just kill her and be done with it?

Why am I so human at this times?

"Why?" was the first word Serenity said after all this time that we were fighting.

"I know of your past." She released a gasp, she doesn't know how or what I know but it terrifies her all the same. "I can't kill an innocent. I just can't."

"B-but I killed so many. How am I an innocent? Papa, mama, the village, my dog and all the others that I intentionally or not killed. How can you say that I am innocent?" Serenity asked in the closest thing to a shout she has done in a long time. I know as I saw a lot of her memories.

"Because you are. You carry sins, a lot of them, but you never wanted for this to happen. You are just a victim here, not the criminal." Was my answer. Shit, blood started dropping out of my mouth due to the dagger in my guts. I managed to avoid a fatal wound but it still is a wound.

"But I am-" Serenity tried to continue but was stooped when a giant white hand swatted her away.

I turned with flames of wrath (figuratively) on my eyes as I saw that the fat bastard seemed annoyed by this all and ordered one of those freaks to partially transform and swat Serenity away.

"It seems like the plan failed. Oh well, the results will be the same anyway so it doesn't really change the outcome. Finish them all."

And with those words from the fat fucker, those three abnormal monstrosities started transforming.

The second round was about to start.