"Hoo... this is truly interesting."
In the office of the DEM Japan Branch, Westcott was sitting in his office chair, his feet resting on the desk, legs crossed. He looked to be in quite a good mood.
In front of him, a massive leather book floated in the air. The ominous aura surrounding the book was enough to make anyone shudder just looking at it.
"Changing history, huh... What a magnificent feat."
The corners of his mouth rising involuntarily, as if reading a captivating novel, Westcott stared intently at the contents of Beelzebul.
Interesting. This was Westcott's only thought at the mont.
Beelzebub—the omniscient Demon King that knows all things in creation. From sothing as small as an ant being stepped on sowhere, to sothing as vast as the demise of a star in the distant universe, everything that has happened in the world up to this point is recorded within it.
And right now, what Westcott was browsing through was sothing that had never occurred in this world—the history existing in another worldline.
"I see. Tobiichi Origami, after becoming a Spirit, used the power of Nightmare to return to the past, accidentally killed her parents, and then inverted. And Itsuka Shido, to change this fact, traveled back in ti and tampered with history."
Changing history. That is a colossal lie that even gods would fear.
After finishing reading, Westcott let out a soft breath, and said with a tone carrying a hint of admiration:
"Ah, I was completely played."
After history was changed, even Westcott naturally couldn't know what happened in another worldline. Realizing that he had unknowingly missed out on a perfect Inverted Spirit, Westcott felt genuine regret from the bottom of his heart.
"..."
After resting with his eyes closed for a mont, Westcott opened his eyes again, flipped Beelzebub back a few pages, and reread the history of the other worldline once more.
—Ding dong!
"Co in."
Westcott said without looking up.
The automatic doors of the office slowly opened to both sides. Firm and rhythmic footsteps approached. Ai Mulian walked up to Westcott, straightened her back, and gave him a military salute.
"Adeptus 3—Ai Mulian, reporting for duty!"
"Haha—No need to be so formal with . This is different from the military you were in, just be casual. Otherwise, even I feel uncomfortable."
Shifting his gaze from Beelzebul, Westcott looked at this newly recruited rookie, waving his hand with a wicked smile.
"Understood."
Hearing Westcott's words, Mulian smiled slightly, released the tension in her shoulders, and the surrounding atmosphere suddenly changed. Supporting her plump, firm breasts with her hands, she looked at her boss with a leisurely gaze.
One second she gave the impression of a ticulous female soldier, the next she transford into a lazy, sexy office lady who had seemingly just gotten off work.
"And then, how is Ellen's situation now?"
"Ah, Ellen-san is fine now. She's currently using the Realizer in the infirmary to heal her wounds. Just in case, Artemisia is watching over her."
"I see. It's good that she's fine. If an unexpected accident befell my precious subordinate, I would be very heartbroken."
Mulian couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Pfft—Boss, you're really wicked. If Ellen-san died, you'd probably be even happier."
Hearing Mulian's words, Westcott raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, then shook his head with a bitter smile.
"How is that possible? She is a partner sharing my grand, long-cherished wish. I couldn't bear for her to be sacrificed just like that."
"Well, true."
Mulian nodded in strong agreent. Pressing a finger to her dimple, she looked with interest at the Demon King floating beside Westcott and asked curiously.
"This is called... Beelzebub, right? AfterEllen-san touched this book, so many fatal wounds suddenly appeared on her. What exactly is the principle behind this?"
What had just happened had really frightened Mulian.
Originally, her boss was happily playing with his newly acquired loot. Then, after placing his hand on Ellen's shoulder, two grueso slash wounds suddenly appeared on Ellen's chest. A hole appeared out of nowhere on her abdon as if shot by a sniper rifle. Her wrist beca a bloody ss as if injured by explosives.
Honestly, at first Mulian mistakenly thought Westcott was psychotically using his subordinates to test out his newly acquired power.
"Regarding this, I can only say it was an accident. I didn't expect that upon learning the mories of another history, the injuries sustained would be reproduced."
Westcott shrugged helplessly.
If it were an ordinary person, this probably wouldn't have happened. But a Wizard's ability is to reproduce the fantasies in their mind into reality. And as the strongest Wizard, Ellen, upon receiving massive amounts of information from another world, seed to have unconsciously manifested that information in her brain.
"I see." Mulian nodded, half-understanding. "But I must say, as expected of Ellen-san. When those wounds appeared, she wasn't shaken at all."
Perhaps those wounds, considered individually, were still within a bearable range. But stacked together, they were definitely fatal. Yet at the ti, Ellen didn't even furrow a brow. The killing intent radiating from her was overbearing, so fierce it would make anyone back away. It was impossible to associate her with soone injured.
"Of course, she is the ace our DEM Industries is proud of."
Chuckling and shrugging, Westcott turned his gaze back to Beelzebub.
"Boss, you've flipped back and forth through this book several tis. Is there sothing in it that warrants such attention from you?"
"Well... I don't know if it's because the Demon King is incomplete or for so other reason. Information on a specific individual has been consistently unsearchable. I can only make deductions and judgnts based on the surrounding people and her conversations with them."
"That person, is it Ryougi Yutsuki?"
"Oh? How did you know?"
Not expecting the other party to actually guess right, Westcott looked at Mulian with an expression of surprise.
"Haha—Pure intuition. After all, she is the person I love. Even if she's a Spirit, she's definitely an extraordinary Spirit."
Saying this, a joyful smile arose on the corners of Mulian's mouth. Gazing into the distance through the window, her eyes were filled with pure, dazzling love.
"Ah~ I learned a new side of her again. Today was truly wonderful. One day, I will make the purest color—the color of despair—bloom on her face."
That was an emotion completely different from the common sense and values of the world, twisted beyond saving.
Kindred spirits. Looking at the slightly out-of-control Mulian right now, Westcott couldn't help but reveal a delighted smile.
"Ahem—Excuse . I lost my composure a bit, Boss."
"It's fine. My company doesn't restrict freedom of love. I'll tactfully pretend I didn't see that just now."
"Ahem—"
Mulian coughed sowhat awkwardly, speaking with the intention of changing the subject.
"By the way, Boss, you just said the Demon King is incomplete? What does that an?"
"Ah, about that."
Saying this, Westcott sighed softly. Commanding Beelzebub, he flipped to a certain page.
"This is..."
Mulian's eyes widened in surprise.
She clearly saw that among the pages of Beelzebul, one page had been forcibly torn out.
"Incomplete ans exactly this."
In the past, when Nia was imprisoned by DEM, she had also fallen into inversion. However, because the inversion at that ti was not thorough, Westcott didn't absorb her Inverse Crystal.
Therefore, he decided to release Nia, letting her properly experience the happy life of an ordinary person. Waiting until she was lifted to a high place, and then slamming her ruthlessly to the ground.
If before it was an impurity of "quality," then this ti it was purely an insufficiency of "quantity."
(Even if she lost, she wouldn't lose completely, huh... Ryougi Yutsuki.)
Westcott had to admit that the Spirit favored by this newcor indeed had her extraordinary aspects.
——————————
So cold.
This was the impression Honjou Nia's body gave Shido right now.
There wasn't the slightest warmth belonging to a living creature. Her skin was chillingly pale, no breath could be felt from her nose or mouth, and her heart had completely stopped beating.
Honestly, even if soone told him that what he was holding in his arms right now was a corpse, Shido probably wouldn't be able to find any evidence to refute it.
"Hurry, Shido! Back to everyone's side."
Ahead of him, the brown-haired girl was urging him to keep moving forward.
"—!"
Shido gritted his teeth, suppressed the unease in his heart, and pushing Raphael to its limit, rushed towards Tohka and the others while protecting Nia's body.
Honjou Nia could still be saved.
Shido didn't know what basis Yutsuki had for saying this, but earlier, she also ntioned she had a way to at least save Nia's life.
Then the only thing he could do right now was to trust Yutsuki.
"Yutsuki! Shido!"
Soon, amidst the ssy ruins, Shido and Yutsuki saw Tohka and the others waving at them. Although they looked disheveled and covered in dirt, they didn't have any serious injuries.
"Everyone! Shido and I need to perform first aid on Nia right now! Please keep watch over the surroundings during this ti, don't let anyone get close."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, everyone initially showed puzzled expressions, but after seeing Nia in Shido's arms, they understood the situation. They ford a circle protecting the three of them, keeping a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
"Shido. You must save Nia!"
"Mhm. Leave it to ."
Shido nodded firmly, answering Tohka's request.
Finding a clean, flat patch of ground, Shido gently laid Nia down.
"First are the external injuries. Shido, you heal the wounds on Nia's body first."
"I understand."
Hearing Yutsuki's command, Shido exhaled slowly, steadying his emotions.
"Partial deploynt—Camael."
Following Shido's call, a wisp of pale white fla burned quietly in his palm.
Carefully cupping this flickering light, Shido placed his hand over Nia's mangled wound.
The healing flas spread evenly over the wound, repairing Nia's flesh and organs at an unreasonable speed.
Quickly, the wound pierced by Ellen was completely healed, not even leaving a scar.
However, Itsuka Shido's expression didn't soften in the slightest.
The body's wounds had healed, and the bleeding had stopped, but Nia's body still showed no signs of reviving.
No matter how strong a healing ability is. It cannot bring the dead back to life.
(No, it's too early to make that judgnt now!)
Discarding the negative thoughts in his mind, Shido exhaled. After confirming there were no missed wounds on Nia and that everything was healed by him, he nodded to Yutsuki.
"Yutsuki, what do we do next?"
"The blood loss was stopped within a safe range, and the internal organs have also been repaired. Then, the reason she hasn't woken up yet should be because the Sephira Crystal belonging to her was taken away."
As if to check if her dislocated hands had been correctly reset and recovered, Yutsuki slowly opened and closed her hands.
Then, like a surgeon performing an operation, Yutsuki calmly observed the changes in Nia's body. After Shido finished healing Nia's body, she exhaled slowly and softly called out the true na of her Angel.
"—Ratziel."
The light of Spirit power slowly gathered in Yutsuki's hands.
Shido's eyes widened in surprise.
It wasn't the chanical bow Angel that usually appeared. What materialized in Yutsuki's hands right now was rely a piece of white paper shimring with a faint fluorescence, seemingly a page torn from a book.
Shido knew what that was. After all, he had once used Natsumi's Angel to create a replica of this item.
Honjou Nia's Angel—Rasiel.
He watched as this torn page slowly shrank in mid-air, turning into a gray crystal the size of a grain of rice, and drifted to Honjou Nia's chest. Like snow falling into a lake, it rged into Nia's body.
Then, Shido realized in surprise. Nia's originally ice-cold body was gradually gaining a little warmth, and her pale skin regained a bit of color.
"Yutsuki, that just now was..."
"As you thought, a torn page of Rasiel... Earlier, while Nia was fast asleep, I separated it from her body."
Seemingly understanding what Shido wanted to ask, Yutsuki explained with a sowhat complex tone.
"I had thought about it before... a thod to solve the problem of Spirit spacequakes even without sealing them. This can be considered a small result of that. Well, let's talk about this in detail later."
Yutsuki turned to look at Shido.
"Shido, kiss Nia."
"Eh?"
"That bit of Spirit power just now is a drop in the bucket, at most acting as a spark. After you kiss a Spirit, while sealing them, a Spirit power pathway is established between the two of you. If things go smoothly, the Spirit power sealed within your body should be supplied to Nia through the pathway."
"Oh, oh—I understand."Although being ordered to kiss a girl was sowhat embarrassing, since it was a matter of life and death, Shido lowered his head and gently kissed Nia's lips.
It was completely different from any kiss before. Nia's lips were cold and stiff, like inorganic matter.
(Nia, please... accept it. It's okay if you take all my power.)
Shido prayed in his heart.
Fortunately, it didn't take long. Soon, Shido felt that, although very weak, the sealing between him and Nia was successfully completed.
"That's enough. Shido."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, Shido moved his lips away.
He noticed that, although very weak, Nia's heart was indeed beating, and he could feel breath flowing from her nose and mouth.
"Yutsuki, it's suc—"
"Not yet."
Before a second of joy had passed, Yutsuki's voice poured cold water on him.
"Although her bodily functions have recovered, that's all. Perhaps she thinks she's already dead, or maybe she wants to die. Her consciousness shows no signs of awakening."
Pinching Nia's cheeks hard, just as Yutsuki said, Nia seed completely dead to the world, showing no reaction to external stimuli.
'Please... kill .'
That was the plea Nia had made at the ti.
"If this continues, it's highly likely Nia will spend the rest of her life in a vegetative state."
Yutsuki's words made Shido's heart drop to the freezing point.
Only then did Shido rember what Yutsuki had said initially.
She could only save her life.
"I will try to wake Nia up again."
Yutsuki said in a heavy tone.
"My Spirit power and hers are fundantally very similar in nature. By using my Spirit power to stimulate the Spirit power inside her body... perhaps... while stimulating the Spirit power's activation, it can influence her consciousness."
Spirit power is an energy easily influenced by emotional fluctuations. Then conversely, changes in Spirit power could possibly influence the host's consciousness.
Although it was a hypothesis without any basis, as long as there was even a sliver of possibility, Yutsuki had no reason to give up.
Saying this, traces of blue-white lightning flashed across her palms, and Yutsuki placed both hands on Nia's chest.
—Thump!
A sound like a struck drum echoed in the empty ruins.
—Thump! —Thump! —Thump!
Just looking at this scene, one might be reminded of an ergency scene using a defibrillator for CPR. However, in reality, Yutsuki was injecting her own trace amounts of Spirit power into Nia's body with each strike, continuously stimulating the Spirit power within Nia.
With each electric shock, Nia's body would instinctively twitch due to unconditional reflexes. But Shido and Yutsuki didn't see any signs of Nia waking up.
—Thump!
(Live!)
There was nothing Shido could do now, but he still tightly held Nia's hand, closed his eyes tightly, and kept repeating it silently in his heart.
Suddenly, for so unknown reason, Itsuka Shido saw an image.
It was a deep, impenetrable darkness. In the depths, Nia seed to be enjoying the tranquility of this world, sleeping very peacefully.
Because that sleeping face was so full of bliss, seeing it made one want to just let her keep sleeping like that.
And at the edge of the darkness, Yutsuki was constantly knocking on the wall, trying to make noise to attract attention.
Hearing the knocking, Nia seed to be having a nightmare. Her face contorted in pain, and her hands covered her ears.
For so reason, at this very mont. Shido felt a hint of sympathy for this Nia.
If she really doesn't want to go out, wouldn't it be fine to just let her keep sleeping? Forcefully waking soone up from a sweet dream is a very unpleasant thing to do.
Perhaps it would be a very distant future, but if it really didn't work out. Shido was willing to take care of Nia until the day she chose to wake up on her own.
"Live! Nia!"
"—!"
The shout that reached his ears abruptly pulled Shido back to reality.
He saw Tohka standing beside him, shouting loudly at Nia.
And it wasn't just Tohka.
"Honjou Nia. I fought for you with all my might. I absolutely will not allow you to run away and fall into eternal sleep just like that!!"
"Plea. Yuzuru hopes you can survive."
"Go! Go! Don't stop, Yutsuki-chan. Keep up this montum and pull the sleepyhead out of the covers."
"Nia-san... please try your best to wake up..."
"Do your best, Honey! I'll sing for you to cheer you on!"
"Ah... I can't get used to this kind of atmosphere... I'm really terrible... um... please wake up quickly..."
Before he knew it, everyone had gathered around Nia.
"Everyone..."
"Shido."
Gazing at the side of Shido's face, Origami spoke in a gentle tone.
"Back then, you told you wanted to live on. This ti, I hope you can say the sa words to Nia."
"...I understand."
Nodding firmly, he gripped Nia's hand with renewed strength.
—Thump!
(Live!)
Perhaps in this world, there really are people who see death as a release. But after spending these past few days with Nia, Shido was certain that Nia wasn't that kind of person.
—Thump!
(Live!)
As if to convey the beauty of living, the will to live, Shido desperately repeated it in his heart.
—Thump!
(Nia! Live!)
"Ah... so noisy..."
Suddenly, a voice reached their ears. It made everyone involuntarily hold their breath.
They saw Nia slowly open her eyes. Wearing a deeply bitter and resentful scowl, she climbed up from the ground.
"Ah... I finally managed to get a good sleep... Forget it... Hm? I rember it was after the convention ended, in the park... Biri-chan, boy, and the other Spirits are all here too. Did sothing happen?"
Seemingly not fully awake yet, Nia groggily scratched her hair and asked everyone blankly.
—Drip.
Unable to hold them back, two crystal clear tears overflowed from Yutsuki's eyes.
"Biri-chan, why are you crying? Eh? Wait—"
Before Nia could finish speaking, Yutsuki hugged her tightly.
Then, like toppling dominoes, everyone's faces were covered in tears.
"Too tight! It's too tight! Boy, hurry up and pull Biri-chan off —Damn it, why are you hugging too! Wait, don't all of you hug at once! Soone explain this bizarre harem situation to !"
What on earth is going on? Nia looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh. After a long while, she spoke softly.
"Really... thank you guys."
Original author's PS: I changed the story quite a bit, I'm feeling a bit nervous.
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