chapter 34

Castiel P.O.V.

I am tired.

So fucking tired.

As I look at the scorched earth that was left after Clarent's strike I could not feel anything but tiredness. This attack was my strongest one, the only true attack of large-scale destruction I have.

And the effects are incredible as always.

As I was appreciating my work I heard a small sound.

I turn to look and I see that it was the ice wall crumbling as Glaceon returns to his primal form and Eevee pass out. Poor thing, he must be dead tired due to all the magic he was using to protect Miku. Ice wall, controlling shadows and creating barriers are all things that spend quite some power and he still is young, far from his full potential.

Jirachi floated to my shoulder and dropped there, not a single wish for moving anymore. My two Cosmoems were also the same, even more so as they were teleporting me like crazy for quite some time there.

I wanted to send them all back to the Tower, but there were things that I needed to do before it was possible.

Looking to the side I see that Miku was looking at me with an intense stare. As if she could not decide something. I ignored her doubts and decided to simply talk to her what I believe I should.

"Thanks for your support there Miku. Without it, I would probably have died." I said with a smile on my face

Her face blossomed into a smile, this time being an actually beautiful and pure one, before she recomposed herself and turned around, refusing to look at me.

"Hmph, of course you would. I am a goddess after all." She said in a haughty tone.

I chuckled a bit at that reaction.

Was she always this cute, or is the blood loss making me see things?

I then heard soft steps from my side, almost inaudible in fact. As I turned it was Serenity that was there.

She was still using that skull mask but her eyes were clearly focused on me as if trying to memorize my appearance and see if there is something there.

"You are not afraid of this body." Were her first words after her staring at me.

"Why should I be afraid of your body? No poison can affect me after all." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. It was true, even if she was dangerous to be around for everyone else for me her presence was no danger whatsoever (as long as she was not trying to put a dagger on my guts again, they are still hurting).

"…prove it." Was what she said.

I simply put my hand on her shoulder making direct contact with her skin.

She trembled a bit, not knowing if I would survive or not. I simply kept my calm and kept my hand there.

"See, no problems. Your poison means no threat to me whatsoever." I said with a smile to her.

She kept staring at me. And continued so for about a minute, and when I started feeling uncomfortable with her stare she started trembling more than before and, as if her previous act was a mask crumbling, she throws herself at me on a hug.

W-what is going on here? Why is she suddenly hugging me like this?

"W-warm." Was the only thing she said before she started sobbing.

Ah, that is right. Her wish was to be able to feel human contact again, to feel the warmth of another without fear of the other dying.

I braced myself and stayed in that position, petting her back gently as she kept crying, letting out all her stress and repressed emotions that she kept in herself all this time.

Miku was looking on the side while all this was happening, at the start she seemed to be feeling doubtful about my decision of sparing Serenity, but after seeing her reactions the doubts she had seemed to have evaporated. She simply kept looking with a warm smile, even if I felt a hint of something strange in her eyes for an instant.

After a while, Serenity calmed down, took a deep breath and pushed herself away from Castiel. She knew what she should do next, what she should do for the one that gave her that moment of warmness.

She took out a dagger and positioned it directly above her heart and with one push she pushed it right through her own heart, ending her life.

Or that was her plan.

I say, fuck this plan.

Before she could even pierce her skin I held the dagger with my right hand using all of the strength I had left. My hands were bleeding due to this, but I would not let her go through with this stupidity.

She turned her eyes to me, and asked.

"Why do you stop me? If I don't die you can't leave this place, so why do you still refuse to let me die?" She said with a tone that was devoid of emotions, but the desperation she was feeling was palpable.

I looked her in the eye and simply said one sentence that answers what I think of this whole situation.

"Shut up." Was what I said.

Why do the girls around me are all so extreme? Is it my nature and elemental affinity manifesting? Or is it the genes of my father that makes my luck with women be this messed up?

"I said I don't want to let you die, so I won't let you die. So SHUT UP AND STOP ACTING LIKE AN FUCKING IDIOT!" I said stunning both Serenity and Miku. I meant every word I said, I decided on this course of action and I will keep going at it.

I felt a wave of acceptance and agreement from Clarent, as if the sword spirit was agreeing with me.

"B-but if I don't die the death arena will not fall. You will stay locked on this place; why won't you listen to what I say?" Serenity asked.

"We wait then." I said dropping to a sitting position on the ground, too tired to even keep standing. "If there is no winner after some time the guys from the Tower will probably send someone that can release us from it. It may be known as something impossible to escape, but I doubt that there is anyone that would make this sort of things with no failsafe attached somewhere." I said surprising both Serenity and Miku.

Miku then also sat down and relaxed a bit, but it was clear to see that she was still a bit warry of Serenity as she moved to be as close to me as possible while glaring at Serenity the whole time.

Serenity just stayed frozen on her spot, almost as if she could not believe on what was happening. I got annoyed with her standing there while staring and so I took her hand and pulled her down so that she would sit down.

"Kyaa~" was the sound that she liberated when I touched her hand and pulled her close, unfortunately during her fall she ended up touching the tip of her middle finger on Miku's shoulder that was almost glued to mine.

Serenity's eyes went wide and she started despairing, thinking that she had killed unintentionally one more time. I simply smiled as I liberated my left spirit leg bone and released Purity Sky.

A halo of pure light spread around the three of us and an amount of poison was being expelled from Miku's body before she even felt the effects manifesting.

Sighing in relief as I saw that scene I turned back to Serenity to explain to her what was happening, but all words escaped my mouth.

Serenity skin is getting whiter.

Her skin is no longer that weird tone of grey that was ever there, but it was closer to a normal human skin's tone, and if anything, she is too pale.

I then started thinking about multiple possibilities, one more crazy than the next, to explain what is happening.

As I kept staring at Serenity she started fidgeting in embarrassment. It was clear that she was feeling embarrassed with me staring at her, not that it really mattered to me as the mystery of why her skin was turning back to normal was that much more important on my head.

"C-can you stop looking at me like this?" was what she said, but it did not really enter my ears, an idea that I formed was much more important. If I was right the repercussions would be truly important for her future.

While keeping quiet I took her hand and, before either of them could react, deactivated Purity Sky and then used Serenity's hand to touch Miku.

Both of them jumped away almost instantly, terrified for an instant and them started yelling at me in an extremely loud tone about why the hell I wanted to kill Miku. I simply stared intently at her, waiting to see if there would be any signs of hurting or poisoning on her.

There was none.

Smiling after seeing that my theory was proven right I put my hand in the air requesting to talk.

After a few more insults they let me.

"I am sorry for doing that to you Miku, I know it could be dangerous but it was the only way to prove a theory I had. But n apology is in order." I said as I went Dogeza and put my head on the ground towards her, this time she was truly shocked. "I will listen to any request you may have so that I can apologize to you later, but please let me explain why I did what I did."

She gave a twitch when I said 'any request' and after a moment she asked.

"Any request? No matter how embarrassing or strange it may be?"

"Yes!" I said looking straight at her.

She stayed looking at me some more before sighing in defeat and relenting.

"Fine, but the explanation of why you did that must be a good one." She said pointing a finger at my face before giving a 'Humph' and sitting down.

Serenity was looking confused at all this, not knowing how to react to another person surviving her touch.

"First, I want to explain my theory of what exactly happened on Serenity's body to make her liberate poison all the time. I believe it was a mutation related to something that I am not sure of the nature that transformed her glandules to liberate poison at all times. If I am correct then it would explain why my ability had this effect on her." I said, trying to explain what I believe was quite likely.

It would also explain how those assholes from Iscariots could replicate her ability to produce poison in large amounts throughout her body.

"B-but that still doesn't explain why I could touch someone without they dying." Serenity asked.

"It is due to the secondary effect of Purity Sky, that allows me to clean curses and impurities. I think it may have allowed for a cleansing of Serenity's body of all those poisons and the curse she was going through. It is likely to be just temporary, as I doubt a curse that strong could be eliminated that quickly, but it may help mitigate its effects for a time." I said what I think, and most likely is the truth. In the end, I doubt a curse so strong that made Serenity immune to other curses would stop that easily, but if it can be stopped for some time then that is good too.

Serenity looked at me in pure disbelieve, not being capable to process what I said. But Miku did understand it well enough and decided to ask.

"So that was the reason behind you wanting to make her touch me? To see if you were right?" She asked with some anger in her voice.

"Yes." I said immediately. "I know it was a cruel and hasty decision, but I needed to know the answer."

"Hmph, so you wanted to use me as a lab rat. I knew that I could not trust you." Miku said.

"I will say it again, and as much as you want in the future, that I am sorry. I shouldn't have done it, but I want you to know that I will never do anything to really hurt you. I was ready to launch a new Purity Sky on the smallest signal that you were poisoned." I said to her, she still looked doubtful so I decided to tell her again the same truth I said so many times now. "As long as you are by my side I will try my best to protect you, I said this before and I will tell you a thousand times more if that makes you feel any better. I will not hurt you."

The effect was instantaneous as she simply lowered her head and did not talk anything more to me.

Serenity, on the other hand, started hyperventilating a bit, clearly thinking about all possibilities that this skill of mine can give her.

"W-what does it mean exactly?"

"That I can make you normal for some intervals of time. It is not perfect, but with this you can be a normal girl from time to ti-"

And that was as far as I could go before Serenity jumped at me in a bear hug. This time I could feel that she was in the purest happiness she has been for a long time, the tears of happiness that left her face was clear to see.

And so she stayed there for a while, refusing to move even a bit. I was thinking that it was enough time spent like that, but when I tried to move her I heard a soft sound escaping from her lips. When I looked I saw that she was sleeping, an innocent smile on her lips.

Today was a stressful day for everyone so it was not a surprise for her to end up sleeping before she herself noticed.

*sigh* I wonder how long before we can get away from this arena. I want to get out right now if possible after all.

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And so we got out.

My eyebrow must be twitching because I understood the meaning of getting out of there that easily.

The one that uses the death arena crystal is the one that marks who is the enemy and who is the ally. I should have decided subconsciously due to the moment I used (was about to be impaled by a dagger after all), but to think my subconscious mind had marked a girl with a dagger aimed at my heart as an ally… it makes me wonder how messed up I am.

An image of Yuno crossed my mind, and I decided to not think any more about the possible repercussions of this way of thinking.

As I had that passing thought I transferred back to the Tower all my familiars and started trying to concentrate to absorb the energy granted to me by winning on the death arena. It was not that giant of capacity but it did give me a boost on the total amount of energy I had. Wait, is this for real? Did I finally manage to break that damn bottleneck between the mid-class and high-class? Fucking finally, I had been struck by the utmost limit of the middle-class since I was 12 and now I finally reached low high-class. If It wasn't because my legs can barely move I would start dancing in happiness.

Before I pass-out out of sheer exhaustion, I need to communicate with the others and see if they were fine.

"Hey, is anyone there? Are you guys well? Answer me." I said in a message.

After a few moments, I heard an answer.

"Castiel, is that you?" It was Emily on the other side. "We are all fine, except for the Sister, but she will be resurrected in the Tower anyway. There was some serious amount of injury, but due to Okuyasu The Hand we are all fine now. It is mostly just dead tired. And you, are you fine?"

"Yeah, I and Miku are just fine. The three of us are not that seriously wounded mostly due to Miku's healing powers. She is amazing at it; she must be truly talented to get to this level." I said to Emily in a good mood, knowing that they are mostly fine. It is a shame that Sister died, but as a Sister, they can be resurrected without any problem back in the Tower so she is likely there relaxing at this instant. We usually leave ready a few bodies just waiting to receive a soul after all.

"Castiel, can I ask you something?" Emily said.

A few moments later I would regret my answer.

"Sure."

"Who is the third person that is with you there? Is it a girl?" Emily asked in a tone that would not be strange on a pissed Yuno.

I

HATE

MY

LUCK!

3° person P.O.V.

In the hideout of Iscariots on the city, the priest was reading a report given to him by Bao.

"So? What were the results?" the priest asked.

"The missions mostly failed, but we got an idea of how the mutated exorcists work so it was not a total loss." Was the answer that Bao said in an absolutely military fashion.

"And those three special models?"

"Those three worked fine, in the way that was expected of them with no glitches and responded to orders with no signs of their previous personalities." Bao answered. He had put some of his cells inside those empty humans so that he could understand whatever they did.

He would have entered the fight in the best moment to eliminate all targets, or that was the plan. Unfortunately, Castiel's use of Clarent killed all of the empty humans and obliterated them. He only got some of his cells to survive due to sheer luck.

"What was your opinion on those three models?" The priest asked.

"They will work perfectly for what we intend to use them for. Doctor Shuu Tucker-sama really is a genius." Bao answered.

"Yes, those three models are the keys. Our very own weapons for mass destruction, I can barely wait to release them in the underworld. Imagine those devils faces when we rain down light bullets and poison on them. And even if they are lucky enough to survive and defeat them, we can self-destruct and eliminate them all afterward. Oh, the world will be much cleaner when we use a few dozens of them all across the many devil cities of the underworld, just thinking in how many of the devil-kind we will eliminate with this makes me understand that all of use will receive special treatment when we go meet our great supreme God. And we will even eliminate the children and babies so that there won't be any orphans, we truly are good at heart." And with an evil grin that would make anyone say that this man was pure evil inside he concluded. "Their screams of pain and anguish are sure to please our Lord. This is what we as Iscariots were made for, elimination of all evil in the world." and putting his hands on a praying position he said. "Let's pray."

And together with Bao, they both said together words that they did not deserve to say, as even God's forgiveness would not accept those like them.

""Dearest Lord, bless us as your loyal subjects as we are one with your light and your light shine through us. Grant us the glory that we so desire and lead us to do as you see fit. AMEN!""