"Mio... I don't want to die..."
The boy begged Mio with fear written all over his face.
"Shinji..."
Mio spoke blankly.
She knew very well that the person before her could not be the real one. It was only an illusion woven from spirit power.
Even so, she still could not bring herself to attack.
Through the girl's focused acting, everything——appearance, voice, and tone——had been recreated with stunning detail. For an instant, Mio truly thought Shinji was standing before her.
She could not hurt the person she loved.
Sensing its master's hesitation, the ribbons that should have attacked Yutsuki froze in midair.
"——!?"
Seizing that opening, the boy escaped the encirclent of ribbons as fast as possible and landed lightly on the ground.
Then, as the particles of light scattered, the familiar boy returned to the girl's original form.
And in that instant, Takamiya Mio was completely swallowed by fury.
"Haa..."
Having narrowly escaped Takamiya Mio's attack, Yutsuki let out a soft breath and raised her head to et Mio's gaze.
From Mio's eyes, Yutsuki felt pure, uncompromising anger with no room for negotiation.
"Unforgivable! Unforgivable! Unforgivable! I will never forgive you, Ryougi Yutsuki!!"
"You dared to take his form and trample on the most precious mory in my heart, all just to keep yourself alive for a little longer!"
"I will deny your body, your soul, your existence——everything about you from this world!"
Yutsuki did not refute or respond to Mio's rage.
She only whispered to Ratziel in an extrely cold and quiet voice.
"Operation codena Godslayer——final phase."
[Received——Transforming——Cannon Mode.]
The electronic voice sounded.
The greatsword in Yutsuki's hands began to transform, rebuilding itself into the pincer shaped cannon she most often used.
She was not planning to use Railgun.
The minerals in this area had already lost their tallic conductivity under the influence of Ain Soph Aur. And even if they had not, such an attack could not pierce Mio's Astral Dress and damage her.
She began pouring every bit of remaining spirit power in her body into her Angel.
[Command received——Beginning spirit power compression.]
Gather. Compress.
As if turning fla into a heat ray, cold into absolute ice, and light into laser.
Under Ratziel's operation, Yutsuki's enormous spirit power was compressed again and again.
It was like compressing a towering mountain into the size of a grain of rice. At this mont, quantity caused a change in quality.
"Kuh——"
Controlling the wildly violent energy in her hands, Yutsuki aid the cannon at Takamiya Mio in the sky. A chilling green glow appeared in her eyes.
At the sa ti, Takamiya Mio was also mobilizing her spirit power, pouring it into one of her Angels.
Just as Yutsuki aid at her, Mio stretched her right hand toward Yutsuki on the ground.
In her palm, a tiny sphere of light, about the size of a seed, appeared.
It was a power above even death, one that brought 'nothingness' to the world.
The tension was stretched to its limit, ready to snap at any mont.
Yutsuki moved first.
"——————————————————!!"
There was no na. Only a pure roar.
In Yutsuki's cry, a beam of spirit light only a finger wide burst from the cannon barrel. It drew a straight line through the air and closed in on Mio.
Her Astral Dress could not block this strike.
Mio's intuition told her that. Under the compression of Yutsuki's spirit power, the power of this attack had reached a mystery of the sa rank as hers.
Ratziel transforming into a greatsword earlier had only been a cover ant to test her.
This attack was Yutsuki's final trump card.
But even though Mio understood that, she did not choose to dodge.
She only looked at Ryougi Yutsuki and quietly spoke the true na of that Angel.
"——Ain."
In an instant, the entire world was filled with light.
Within that brightness that swallowed all darkness, only ti flowed through the silent world.
Perhaps an hour passed.
Perhaps only a second.
When the light faded, Ryougi Yutsuki had disappeared from Belial's domain.
Only Mio remained, floating alone in the air.
"I won..."
Mio whispered to herself.
The Angel of Nothingness——Ain.
Mio's final trump card. An authority that could reduce a locked target to nothing.
Death, in essence, was only the conversion of sothing that could represent the soul into another form of inorganic matter. From a macroscopic perspective, the total amount of matter in the world, in the universe, did not change.
But the Angel of Nothingness was different.
It could ignore all laws and erase part of the universe's mass and energy from existence.
And Ryougi Yutsuki herself, along with her final strike, had just been erased by Mio's Angel of Nothingness.
"..."
Mio said nothing.
Even though she had killed Yutsuki, there was no joy in her heart. What remained was only emptiness and regret.
After being struck by the Angel of Nothingness, it was not only Ryougi Yutsuki who disappeared. The Sephira Crystals she had taken from the other Spirits——tatron, Zadkiel, Michael... every authority had been turned to nothing by the Angel of Nothingness.
In other words, Mio could no longer use Rasiel to find Kurumi's location.
And if Zafkiel's authority had also been inside Yutsuki, then Mio could no longer return to the past.
Hope had completely vanished.
This was the most foolish choice she had made after losing herself to rage when Ryougi Yutsuki provoked her.
"What... have I done..."
Cough!
Suddenly, without warning, a trace of blood spilled from Mio's mouth.
"Blood? What is this?"
Mio lowered her head in surprise.
She saw a small hole had appeared at so point in the chest area of her pure white Astral Dress.
And that hole had pierced not only her Astral Dress.
It had also pierced her heart.
"Could this be... Yutsuki's final strike? But... I clearly erased it with the Angel of Nothingness..."
Before Mio could understand the cause and effect, a massive pressure enveloped her whole body.
Only at that mont did she realize that Belial, whose control had been stolen by Yutsuki, had not returned to Ain Soph. Nor had it returned to her control.
The law of "injury ans death" was still active.
Like the spear and shield in a fable, the once-invincible Spirit of Origin now began to move toward death under the authority of her own Angel.
(What is happening... My body has no strength... I can't breathe... It hurts... It's cold... So this is death?)
Her body slowly turned into particles of light and scattered. Mio's consciousness began to blur.
(This is your victory... Ryougi Yutsuki.)
In her haze, Mio could not help thinking that.
Perhaps the reason she had shifted her anger onto Yutsuki was not truly hatred or rage, but a much simpler emotion.
Envy.
Or perhaps jealousy.
They had both lost the person they loved most.
But before Shido died, he had entrusted his wish to Yutsuki.
When Shinji died, he had left nothing behind for Mio.
——Mio.
(...!)
That familiar voice sounded beside her ear again, forcing Mio to open her eyes just as they were about to close.
Before her eyes was a sparkling blue sea, and the boy who held her hand as they walked together along the soft sand.
The face of the person she had loved, the face she had longed for countless tis.
(Ah... ahh——)
Tears flowed uncontrollably from Mio's eyes.
(Thank you. Thank you, Yutsuki.)
(Thirty-one years... Finally, I can finally go to you...)
(Shinji.)
And so, with a smile of release, Takamiya Mio disappeared from this world together with her body, her Angels, and her Sephira Crystal.
Original author's PS: This is bad. I got too imrsed while writing... I almost couldn't hold back my tears.
TL: too..
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