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Well, I am sure some people here will be very happy to finally see this one updated as it has been over a freaking year already.

Well, what can I say except I am sorry. Of course I could go on and on and list excuses for why that's been the case but I don't wanna be that guy who rambles on forever. Long story short is that I finally managed to get a full-time job around last summer which was good for my money situation and quite bad for my free-time situation. With my free time now drastically reduced, I barely find opportunities to keep writing as much as I once used to. There are also other minor factors that added to this huge delay such as a dropbox "conflicted copy" issue that ate away a great chunk of my work...and there is my recent obsession with Wakfu as well...

But regardless of all that: I just want to make clear that my passion for Guilty Crown and this story has not died down. I love this franchise and what it allowed me to do with it, love the small community I even managed to build around RtT and I want to thank everyone who keeps returning to read more of it every time, no matter how long it takes. A special shoutout goes out to everyone who keeps reviewing new chapters and is an active member of my Discord community. You guys rock and are the reason I will never give up on this story, as time consuming as it may be.

I will keep the rest of this rant for the A/N at the end so you can get around to finally read this very delayed chapter.

This chapter is 17.624 words long. Enjoy.

39. Fallen Seraph

Souta yawned tiredly as he kept staring out of the window and into the former school yard. Lots of untypical things you could see there these days. Patrolling soldiers, trucks transporting stuff around, an Endlave walking by…

Huh, if you compared it to the last days of the Tennozu he had known, perhaps it hadn't been all that different after all.

The soldiers had changed their school uniforms for the Da'ath colors, but all in all, it was still a militaristic view.

Might make him feel right at home. He fought back the urge to spit out his disgust on the floor.

Next to him, two Da'ath guards stood, looking straight ahead and not moving a single muscle in utter discipline. Those two were quite a joy to have as well. Quite chatty, too. Let him show you:

"So, any idea how long they will continue to be in there?" He asked them both with a wide and goofy grin, to which neither of them seemed to even acknowledge his existence. As if he had never said anything in the first place, they just kept staring straight ahead. Sort of like these tourist attractions in front of that certain palace in Great Britain. Unmoving, unfazed, like toy soldiers, they would stand guard and keep watch. Souta wondered if he could pass the time by playing tricks on these guys, too. He had always wanted to do that once he were to visit England, now he wondered if he ever would.

"…"

As he was receiving the silent treatment yet again, the dark-haired man could do little but sigh in a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. Well, see? Such a sheer collection of joy and excitement at his disposal. Man, if at least Arisa would finally come out of that darn former teacher's lounge again. She could treat him like air all she wanted. At least staring into her eyes was soothing. And they came in various emotions too. Angry, amused, embarrassed…and all of them stunningly beautiful, the latter being especially cute. These guys, however? He wasn't even sure if they had any eyes at all, hidden under their stupid visors as they always were.

"Good talk." Souta said jokingly as he faced away in disappointment. "Tell me again why we work for Da'ath…?" He muttered the last part under his breath as he put his hands into his pants' pockets, kicking away a crystal pebble with a "Tch."

"The pay is good." One of them suddenly responded, causing Souta to whirl around to him in utter bafflement.

"Did you just talk?"

Now finally realizing his mistake, the guard began sweating and stiffened up. "My apologies…"

"No, no. Keep talking, big guy. Finally some good damn conversation! I was about to go crazy here." Souta quickly eased up the situation and offered the man some soothing hand gestures to signal him it was quite fine. "I was starting to think you guys were all robots or something."

"That's quite rude, comrade." The suddenly talkactive soldier responded with what seemed to be a frown. "I was just trying to follow protocol."

"Then you shouldn't have started talking, idiot." His colleague next to him suddenly chipped in, sounding quite bored himself.

"Like you are one to talk now."

This made Souta laugh heartily. "Ah, I like you two far better when you are like this, you know."

"We are just lucky not to have been born as Da'ath subjects. Some of the guys I have seen have been raised to be robots since they were kids."

"Yep. And if we won't shut up soon and someone hears us acting all friendly, we are sure to get quite some disciplinary actions as a reward, so will you finally shut up?" The second one replied angrily before adding: "Also, don't mention payment, idiot. We are supposed to do this for evolution, remember?"

"Right." The first one nodded in acknowledgement.

"You don't believe in their ideology?" Souta found to be surprising, which earned him a shrug.

"Eh, it's not like I don't believe it when I am surrounded by superhumans, it's just…"

"I'm already in it for fifteen years. No promotion. No evolution. This is a dead end job." The grumpy guard finished the other one's sentence. "Good pay, but considering their training and doctrine, I would hardly call it worth it."

"Can't put that shit on your resume, either."

The grumpy guard hit the talkactive one against the back of his head.

"Don't even think about quitting. They'll kill you. They tell you when you get to quit, not the other way around."

"Sounds like you guys have it rough…" Souta noticed with a frown as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Well, not everyone can be the executive's favorite plaything now, can they?"

"P-playth-" Souta nearly choked on the word itself, shocked to hear it as he had been.

"Oh please. Lady Arisa specifically asked for us to keep an eye on you while she was in there." Grumpy, as Souta now dubbed him in his head, said while nudging his head into the direction of the room Arisa was currently inside of.

The friendlier guard nodded at that. "No idea who you are, but you must be important for her to be so worried. Either that or you are prone to get into trouble if she isn't around."

"Or both." Grumpy added, as you would expect, grumpily.

"Oh stop it you…" The dark-haired assistant laughed happily as he scratched the back of his head dreamily. He, being important to Arisa. How nice that would be.

"Still I can't bring myself to envy your position." Happy, as a direct counterpart for Grumpy (Shut up, Souta was really proud about that one!), stated worriedly. "I prefer being a lowly yet overpaid soldier than being stuck being surrounded by all these important people. Lady Arisa is one thing, but then there is that envoy…"

"Right?" Grumpy agreed, looking around nervously to check if anyone could hear them before continuing. "That guy gives me the chills just by passing me by. Makes me happy I am too old to have one of these voids. Just imagine I actually had a good one and was kept around like some sort of personal tool…"

"Could be worse…" Souta couldn't help but look away in disappointment. "It's better to have no void than having one that is utterly useless."

"Sounds like you have it rough in your very own way there, comrade." Happy offered Souta some sympathy.

"We didn't choose the Da'ath life. The Da'ath life chose us." Souta replied jokingly, attempting to look at the whole situation optimistically.

"Aye. Well, it beats living off the streets as an orphan boy, so I can't complain." Grumpy stated casually.

Happy grinned at that. "Or being dead, for that matter. Don't ever anger the Yakuza, kid. My life's advice for you. Unlike me, you might not happen to stumble upon Da'ath as you try to run for your life." For someone who implied he barely dodged getting killed by gangsters, he took it rather happily. Souta's nickname for this dude appeared to be spot-on.

"Don't anger Da'ath, either, of course. Might be even worse than angering the Yakuza." Grumpy added in his infinite wisdom. "Just do your part and someday you'll get your reward. Be it evolution, money, status or a combination of all three."

"Sounds like you guys have a dream." Souta said with a grin. A gesture Happy matched as he was about to share some details when Grumpy elbowed him and put a finger on his lips, followed by gesturing to the door that was now opening up at last.

Sure enough, Arisa Kuhouin stretched her body contently as she exited the former teacher's lounge together with the notorious envoy of Da'ath who, for some reason, didn't seem to quite share her satisfaction at all. With eyes filled with nothing but annoyance, he just kept glaring at Arisa while trying his utmost to keep a professional attitude.

"Miss Kuhouin…why did you have to do this?" He wanted to know from her as he gulped back down the annoyed growl he was about to utter.

"You ask that as if I had brought the end of the world myself. Shouldn't you be happy? It's an honor, isn't it?" She merely told him while keeping an eye out for her knight whom she had had to leave outside again. However, knowing how well that had turned out for him the last time she had done that, she had insisted on him to be accompanied by two additional Da'ath guards to make sure a certain kind of vermin wouldn't dare to lay their dirty hands on him again. Souta may have been her knight, but even a knight stood little chance when being outnumbered by demons. Plus, she wouldn't want that idiot of hers to get himself into trouble by acting like the hero he wasn't.

When she finally spotted Souta and gave him a quick once-over, she was relieved to see that he, apparently, had been lucky enough to not run into Nanba and his goons this time. Good. As one of her only true allies, she would make sure to have his back so he could have hers when she needed it. This was important, since she knew the envoy wouldn't do the same for her. He had lost her trust long ago.

"Welcome back, Arisa. Did it go well?" Souta greeted her back happily. If he had had a tail to waggle, she was sure he would have done so as well. It almost made her want to pat his head and tell him how much of a good boy he was. Almost. Instead, she merely chuckled and hid her smile behind her fist, not wanting to let him see it and get the wrong impression.

"Nothing went well, Mr. Tamadate." Yuu replied instead of his boss. "Miss Kuhouin sure likes to make my job harder than it has to be…"

Arisa met the envoy's accusing eyes with pure arrogance, looking down on him with folded arms. "Perhaps I wouldn't have to take matters in my own hands if you would actually work together with me. Instead, you refused to kill Ouma Shu when I told you to do so and then I need to learn that there used to be an executive meeting prior to this one in which we specifically discussed your proposal to replace Mana with Inori which I suspect you deliberately didn't inform me of to keep me out of it, knowing full well that I would have opposed it."

He frowned. "There never is a meeting in which all executives are present. Attendance is not mandatory." Given the sheer amount of people present in the council, such a thing as mandatory attendance would have been impossible anyway.

"And you used that fact against me by keeping me in the dark while I was still busy with my company. Well, too bad that I closed the Tokyo branch down for the time being so I can offer Da'ath my undivided attention now. It was high time to bring up some of my ideas as opposed to only doing things your way, don't you think?"

"I had the situation under control. My plan would have ensured the best possible outcome with the least possibly casualties. Yours will only cause grief for Eve, her Adam and myself. I implore you to please reconsider your stance regarding this matter before it is too late. Surely it is not in your best interest to worsen your already strained relationship with Eve?" Yuu appealed to her sincerely but was only met with her cold back as she turned around indifferently.

"So Inori's gonna cry some crocodile tears. Boo hoo. Poor thing. All of us have made enormous sacrifices to bring the apocalypse only for her to throw a hissy fit like some moody teen. It's time for her to make some sacrifices as well. I can't un-make her Eve and I will have nothing but disadvantages in my life as soon as she ascends the throne but until that time comes, I will make her feel what it's like to be a helpless, powerless girl that gets everything she cherishes stolen from her." She clenched her fists and looked down in a mixture of sadness and anger. "She shall know what it's like when your own will and desire means nothing and you simply do what is expected of you. I was raised like that…who knows? It might be a valuable lesson for our precious Eve as well."

Then she turned around to face Yuu once more and smiled. However, Souta immediately noticed how fake it looked. Another one of Arisa's businesswoman habits of donning masks to hide her true emotions.

"As for you, I am sure you will be fine. Being the capable man you are, I have no doubts that you will make Da'ath proud in your new position. And isn't this good for you as well? This way, you will get to fulfill your mandate at last. You've been waiting long enough, have you not?" She performed an elegant bow in front of him and added: "We will watch you with high expectations, Adam of the apocalypse. May your reign be long and fruitful. Now if you will excuse us."

With this, she wordlessly hooked Souta's arm with her own and began walking off. The Da'ath guards, now unsure whether their previous assignment was still valid or not, decided to trail behind her until dismissed by her personally, thus leaving the envoy to himself.

"Arisa, what did you do, exactly?" Souta whispered worriedly as he threw a look behind him where Yuu was seen sending a troubled look back at them. The troubled knight had never actually seen the envoy so worried about something before. Whatever his boss had done, it had been serious. Also, what was this about Adam?

"Something I should have done long ago. Everyone in Da'ath took me for a fool, including that envoy. No more." Arisa replied with a proud smirk. Yuu had made Inori Eve behind her back because he had thought to be so goddamn clever. Well, this game could be played by two. Eves may not be easily changed, but Adams,…

She chuckled.

Adams were easy. It had been the most devastating blow she could have pulled off in her current position. If the position of Adam was transferred over to Yuu, Inori would have to make him her king which would suck for her. And him, knowing how his control over her would end as soon as the apocalypse was done and dealt with. And the best thing about it all? It freed up Shu. No longer an Adam candidate, there would be no problem in putting him on the kill-list. It would no longer be considered betrayal towards Da'ath in any way. This opened up possibilities she didn't have before.

"The moment of my revenge is coming closer and closer." She said amusedly, obviously quite happy with herself. Soon…

-GC-

Yuu watched the blonde executive trail off angrily until he no longer could bear to look at her and had to turn around, gritting his teeth.

Unable to contain his anger, he smacked the nearest wall with his fist with enough force to let the crystal surface crack and shatter apart.

Curse this woman! Curse this woman to hell!

All his careful planning. All his perfectly calculated steps. Gone. And all of it because of this blonde, arrogant, stubborn…

No…

He took a deep breath and sighed, allowing himself to calm down ever so slightly.

It had not been Arisa's fault, after all.

It had been his own.

He had been the one who had fed her the lies about Shu being Gai's killer. He had been the one to deliberately put her on her path of vengeance that had been meant to keep her closer to Da'ath instead of making her shy away. That aspect of his plan had been a complete success…it's just that it now had led to a problem far worse than Arisa's possible defection.

He frowned bitterly as he looked forward, the gears in his mind already turning in order to fix this mess somehow.

That's when he heard the sound of someone hitting the floor which made him snap out of his trance for a moment to spot Harune who looked at him with eyes opened up wide from shock. She was shacking like a leaf as she was sitting mere millimeters next to the spot of the wall he had punched just now. Counting two and two together, Yuu immediately registered his blunder for what it was and retracted his hand, kneeling next to her worriedly.

"Comrade Harune, are you alright? Forgive me, I did not mean to scare you. Can you stand?"

"Y-Yes, sir. I was just shocked when you suddenly punched that wall so close to me. I hope I wasn't the target?"

"Of course not, comrade. Rest assured, if I actually needed to kill you, I would at least choose a more humane method."

"That's not funny at all, you know?" She told him with tears in her eyes as she smacked his shoulder. "And all of that after I work so hard for you, too." She told him with puffed up cheeks.

This made him smirk. "Then you shouldn't ask stupid questions. We both know you have ways of knowing one's true intentions, therefore you should have already known I didn't mean to hit you."

"I am not reading minds ALL the time, you know?" She told him defensively. "I would turn crazy."

"Hoh? Are you implying my mind is sick and twisted?" He asked her amusedly.

The brunette woman blushed ever so slightly. "No. It is actually quite structured and straightforward. You hid nothing from me so far which made me all the more willing to put my trust in you." She told him truthfully while averting her gaze shyly. To her, Yuu had been an open book from the day she had first discovered her void's power. He had showed her everything she had wanted to know, told her all there is she could possibly be interested in. The first person in her life that had laid out his cards to her willingly. Perhaps because she was insignificant compared to him, nothing to fear even if she were to become an enemy. Or perhaps simply because he simply had nothing to hide to begin with. What he said and what he thought were in complete alignment with each other. He was a man who spoke his mind truthfully and followed his chosen path with conviction. In front of her, at least.

This honesty, accompanied by the things she had seen in his mind, had made her choose to follow him on the spot. The future he envisioned? It was paradise. She was aware that his vision might not be the real future after all but at the very least this man was convinced that this was what awaited them after the apocalypse. And if a person as strong and smart as Yuu thought that, that alone was enough reason for Harune to believe in his vision as well.

She nodded. There was no doubt that Yuu, Shu and Inori were the key to end the endless cycle of death plaguing the world. She lacked the foresight of the envoy to see how exactly things would end, but she at least understood that it all would end with them.

They were the heroes in this story. The light that should guide the lost through the darkness, like Yuu did with her. She was aware, though, that she might not actually make it. The paradise envisioned by Yuu…it might not be for her to live in, but that was quite alright. As long as the cycle finally ended, Harune would be content.

After all, if the world could not move forward, what worth was there in living anyway? Whether she died trying to bring an end to the endless cycle or continued to live in it forever, the result was the same. You might as well be dead.

But enough of that.

"Anyway, I just wanted to give you my report on Eve." She told him after straightening out her uniform carefully.

Offering her a curious smirk, Yuu told her: "Let's hear it."

The brunette's eyes began glowing brightly, reflecting a screen no one but her could see. Of course, Yuu, being the one who had equipped her with her void, already knew that the weird light's origin had been her contacts which projected an augmented reality interface directly onto her retina.

"Like we assumed, her state of mind was rather irritated and worried when she arrived. She is very distrusting and defensive, also looking at exploitable material at every corner." Her eyes moved quickly through her gathered material, which may have looked funny to onlookers who couldn't see what she saw, yet was totally natural to her.

"Hardly surprising." Yuu told her with a shrug. "We knew about her stance towards us beforehand."

"Yes." Harune agreed. "There was a slight change which I found to be unexpected, yet quite welcoming, though. After we visited the late Lady Mana's throne room, Eve's mood seemed to have somewhat improved. It's hard to say, but her earlier sluggish and unmotivated thoughts became very hopeful and eager for some reason. I cannot quite tell why."

"Hoh? Did something happen?" Yuu couldn't help but ask, accompanied by a faint sound of amazement.

Harune, however, shook her head. "Nothing of note. But there apparently were many sculptures embedded with voice recordings of Lady Mana. Even with my void, I couldn't listen into them, so their content is a mystery to me. After listening to some of them, Eve took a seat on her throne but immediately seemed to be out of it for several minutes. She was unresponsive and her thoughts were obscured from my view. Her mood was better right after that, but could it really mean something? Maybe she was just tired and had a good dream?"

"Maybe." Yuu humored her as he folded his arms in front of him, smirking. "But you never know with Eves. They are a mystery to the very core, even after all this time, the answers to these mysteries are only slowly unraveling themselves to me. One could study them for an entire lifetime and still never comprehend them fully."

Harune was seen narrowing her eyes at that. "No offense, Yuu, but that just sounds like a typical thing to say for a man. None of you seem to comprehend the fairer sex."

This caused him to laugh. "Is that so? How is it then, Harune? Should I strap you on a desk and dissect you to solve all your mysteries?"

"I am afraid that is not quite my fetish, sir." The girl merely deadpanned as if this whole conversation had simply been another regular occurrence in her new daily life as the envoy's assistant. "But if you wish to know more about me, feel free to ask me over a parfait or two. Haven't had any sweets in ages."

"Why wouldn't I just take your void and read you like an open book, then? Would be easier and faster." Yuu chuckled with a shrug.

"Killjoy." She sighed but then returned to the glow in her eyes. "We then had a tour around the base. Although her spirits were now lifted, she still cared about nothing but potential weaknesses for her to exploit. She considers me one as well. Thinks I might be brainwashed." The glow in her eyes faded and she huffed angrily as she averted her gaze in frustration. "Say, isn't that quite rude? I just want to befriend her and she thinks I am a weirdo for following you. She. Thinks I am the weirdo. Me. Simply unbelievable." She had been quite popular in high school, you know? She had gotten along with everyone, could befriend anyone. If anything, not wanting to be her friend was what made Inori the weirdo, not Harune. In her humble opinion at least.

"Well, your sole remaining family member died and then the twins merely call you big sis and you are already head over heels in love with them, even going as far as to join Da'ath on the spot. Perhaps you really are an anomaly after all." Yuu offered her with an amused chuckle which she met with narrowed eyes.

"For the record: I joined you for way more than that and you know that full well, Yuu. You offered me a chance to help correcting the wrong in this world and I am willing to do what it takes. Abby and Zoe were just a welcomed bonus."

"Is that so?" Yuu smiled and nodded, pleased with her answer. Now if only Adam and Eve were this easy to convince… "Anything else about Eve?"

"She has returned to the throne room and begun trying her hand at forming her own crystal sculptures. I think it's a good thing she tries to find a new hobby for herself. Might keep her mind away from the darker thoughts she had when she came here."

"Sculptures, you say? Smart." Yuu gave himself impressed.

Harune couldn't help but eye him with a raised brow. "What do you mean?"

The blond man shrugged knowingly. "She can't properly use crystals in here due to me blocking the signal crystals normally use to communicate with Eve. As a result, she can't hear them anymore, which makes controlling them harder. To compensate for this, she tries to master crystal usage even without the ability to feel them. She wants to be ready for the time she will break free." He told her, still smirking.

"But wasn't she unable to feel the crystals due to Lady Mana's interference?"

He shook his head slowly. "No. Mana did once build this fortress with the intent to lock her rival out, should she ever come, but think about it: Eve is the highest instance in Genesis society, the sole person to control crystal manipulation. The absolute queen herself, being locked out of her own dominion? Do you think that should ever be possible?"

Harune frowned. "Well, from a logical standpoint, if her regency is legitimate, she should inherit everything from her predecessor, rights as well as duties."

"Precisely. Hence why all previous limitations established by the predeceasing ruler become void. So I had to fix it manually…and have Mana as a fitting scapegoat to take the blame for me. The less hate Eve feels towards me, the better for me."

"And doing this will eventually help convincing Shu and Inori to join our cause?" The brunette asked curiously, not yet entirely comprehending the greater scheme the envoy was slowly unveiling.

To her surprise, the normally so descriptive envoy who would love to go into detail about his ideas, instead simply narrowed his eyes in disdain and looked into the direction Arisa disappeared into.

"It was supposed to…" He mumbled with an annoyed sigh, bringing his hand up to his forehead and shaking his head slowly in frustration. "I had it all figured out. Everything was supposed to fall into place gradually…"

Harune said nothing, but threw a glance at the gaping hole in the wall her boss had casually produced shortly before their conversation had started. Even just remembering the sheer menacing anger present in his eyes back then sent shivers down her spine. A harsh contrast to the usually so calm and composed man she chose to follow around and work for.

"Come to think of it, I have never actually seen you this angry before, Yuu. Did something happen?" She thus asked him worriedly while pointing at the destructed structure to her side to make clear what she meant. A message the envoy clearly understood.

It made him return to his earlier expression, full of bitterness.

"Yes, indeed. Miss Kuhouin has offered a suggestion to Da'ath today…a very bad one, if I may say so."

"What did she do?"

"…She convinced the executives to make me Adam." He told her with gritted teeth, obviously not happy about the situation. Harune only blinked at him for a few second before she actually registered what that meant.

"Wait, what?" She eventually asked him with quite some shock in her voice. "Why would they do that? Haven't they specifically changed Eves because they wanted to respect Shu's wishes…? And now they simply choose to discard him anyway? What kind of logic is that?"

"It's not that simple, Harune…" He told her with a sad sigh, then shrugged helplessly. "The council is getting old. One of the members was even hospitalized a few days ago. The situation might be very serious. Evolution is their chance to extend their life spans. They want the apocalypse to commence while they still are alive or else they might run into danger of dying before it happens at which point it would be too late for them…it's the reason why everything has gotten so hectic the last few days…"

"Even so…to force Inori and Shu apart for such a reason alone…" Harune could do little but frown in displeasure. This was wrong on so many levels.

"Not to mention nobody asked me about my opinion to begin with, although that's nothing new, I guess…" Yuu grumbled to himself. He had been considered Da'ath property since the day he was born, after all.

"Huh, that's surprising. And here I thought you would gladly become Adam, if only to build a better world with your own hands." There was a teasing tone hidden in her voice, perhaps an attempt to lift his mood. A nice gesture, he found, albeit it did nothing.

He shook his head slowly as he looked down. "As much as I would like that, I would never be able to."

"Wow." Harune gasped in exaggerated shock. "I thought I would sooner see hell freeze over before the almighty envoy of Da'ath gives up on a task given to him." More mockery.

"Oh, don't get me wrong for even just a second there." Yuu thus decided to humor her with a knowing smirk as he looked up into the air where he undoubtedly saw a bright future ahead of him. "I have not the slightest doubt that I could build a world in which humanity could progress enormously. Economy, science, society, art, culture, infrastructure, politics. All aspects of human life, I am sure I could have improved to perfection." His grand way of speaking had been accompanied by pride and eagerness, yet still, by the time he had neared the end of it, all his conviction and motivation seemed to have been sucked out of him as he sighed and let his head hang low. "However, there is but one thing…one simple element that would forever disqualify me as Adam… "

Raising a brow at that, Harune couldn't help but ask: "Which is?"

Yuu smiled sadly. "Eve. No matter who Eve is, no matter what her personality is. Whether she is malicious, kind, smart, dumb, dominant, passive, interested in reigning or not, in the end, there is one thing every Eve has in common. One thing they ALL greatly desire. And ultimately one thing I cannot possibly give them." He chuckled weakly and shrugged. "Their Adam's love."

Harune brought both her hands up to her now reddened cheeks as she excitedly repeated: "L-Love? You mean, like…" She formed a circle with her left hand and pushed her right index finger into it embarrassedly, making Yuu chuckle in amusement.

"Well, if it was just that, I am sure I could deliver just fine. Copulating isn't exactly rocket science, you know. The problem, however, is far more complex. You see, there is a special emotional bond between Adam and Eve. Eve can receive Adam's feelings and get stronger through them. To receive his affection is, therefore, Eve's highest goal, as it is immensely pleasurable in every way possible. In fact, it is so important to them, when Ouma Mana continuously got rejected by her Adam before, she grew fiercer with each rejection, only ever calming down once she actually changed her Adam who, at last, granted her the love she had always yearned for." He explained to her as he began walking down the hallway, Harune following suit.

"I see, so if you don't love Eve, she will get angry."

"Not necessarily angry, but definitely displeased. Depending on her character, she will first try her hardest to make her Adam love her, however, when all else fails,…"

"She changes Adams." Harune finished his sentence with an understanding nod.

Yuu smirked. "Normally, yes. But everything changes after the apocalypse, you see. Eve is expected to find and choose her Adam to bring the apocalypse. Therefore, changing Adams freely is normal. However, once the apocalypse has concluded, there should no longer be a need to find a new Adam since he already helped bringing the apocalypse. As far as the system is concerned, he is the one Eve chose. In a way, you could say the apocalypse is their wedding ceremony and there is no divorce option at all. There is no switching afterwards."

"Oh, that's somewhat romantic, to think the apocalypse is binding Adam and Eve together forever." Harune could feel her romance addicted heart beating strongly in her chest. It was a wedding ceremony for the whole world to witness…well…and die for, but details, details…

He raised a finger warningly. "And also problematic. So, let's say Adam and Eve made a deal and brought the apocalypse with no love involved. It's possible, after all. Adam is not required to be head over heels for Eve to empower her enough to bring the apocalypse. Considering how Adam and Eve are supposed to theoretically be able to meet and instantly bring the apocalypse the moment they see fit, it would be too hard of an obstacle to force them to be deeply in love from the start. Rather than that, it is expected for them to simply deepen their feelings afterwards. That means all Adam has to do is think very positively of Eve, which I could do. I respect Eve greatly, after all. But what comes after?

Harune shrugged. "I guess Adam falls in love with her?"

"That's what Eve would hope as well, right? I mean, she originally agreed to bring the apocalypse to finally get it over with, but eventually she will start craving the love every Eve wants to receive. Something I, for one, can't give her."

"Why not, though?" Harune asked him curiously before blushing and then getting really excited for some reason. "Don't tell me your heart already belongs to someone else?" Oh my, she sure was getting worked up by the sheer idea of there being drama potential. This girl sure loved her TV shows.

"I cannot seem to comprehend the idea of love." Yuu instead chose to shatter her expectations with an annoyed sigh. "Never in my life have I ever felt it towards anything nor have I received it from anyone. As far as I am concerned, it is merely a chemical reaction caused by our brains releasing certain hormones upon seeing a desirable mate. However, once you understand how it works, you can avoid falling in love quite easily. At this point, I have done it for so long, I don't think I could stop even if I wanted to."

"Why would you do that!?" Harune seemed to forget herself and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him while having tears of sympathy sparkle brightly in eyes from how sad this made her feel. "Love is the single most precious feeling in the world. I cannot fathom how living without it must feel like."

Not minding her antics either way, Yuu only shrugged indifferently. "I was trained to be an assassin originally, you know? It would have been inconvenient if I couldn't kill my targets because of some annoying feelings." He then began mumbling something under his breath as he looked away casually. "Although I never ended up attending the job in the end anyway…"

"That's the saddest thing I have ever heard, really. I pity you from the bottom of my heart." She offered him her honest condolences. In fact, the mere idea that one of the heroes of this tale was to be doomed to live his entire life utterly unloved and unloving made her feel like her heart was breaking into many pieces. It gave Yuu quite a tragic vibe which wouldn't do. In her fairytales, all heroes needed to get a happy ending. This had to be fixed somehow…but how…

Oblivious to the brunette's worries, Yuu merely folded his arms in front of his chest, accompanied by a big grin being spread on his lips. "Like I need your pity, comrade. Once the apocalypse is done and dealt with, my mandate will be fulfilled at last, making everything I went through up to this point entirely worth it."

Hearing that unfamiliar word, Harune could do little but tilt her head in confusion. "Mandate?"

Yuu chuckled knowingly. "An envoy may be a servant of Da'ath, but in the end, all he needs to do is carry out their will. Normally, it is up to him to decide how to carry out that will. It is actually really rare for the executives to get involved directly with the envoy to tell him what to do, knowing that there are many higher ups and too many cooks do spoil the broth. So instead, when appointing an envoy, they demand to hear his possible plans for the future. After reviewing them, they choose one which the envoy receives as his mandate. The envoy then promises to fulfill that mandate, not resting until it is met. In exchange, once it actually is met, Da'ath promises to free the envoy of any responsibilities and ensures them a good life afterwards, giving them access to a certain Da'ath fond for the rest of their life for them to use as they please." He closed his eyes in silent anticipation. "Just imagining all the breakthroughs in scientific and economical researches I could be partaking in warms my heart. There would be so much time I could use for myself when I no longer need to manage Da'ath."

She raised a brow at him. "You mean to tell me you regain your freedom and the first thing you do is work more?"

"What else is there to do?" He wondered, blinking at her, visibly puzzled.

"You know, take a break, go to the beach, get a tan…" She blushed at all the images her mind was providing her with. A tan and bare-chested Yuu with his cheeky grin and confident demeanor could actually be quite handsome in its own regard. The fact that his blond mane and crystal blue eyes were quite the exotic sight around here to begin with would certainly ensure him to get a lot of attention. Whichever girl could walk next to him would be able to show him off like some sort of prized trophy for sure.

But then her mind had to ruin the image by going a step further and giving him a surfboard, a flower garland thrown around his neck and a cheap pair of sunglasses placed on his sunburnt nose. He then proceeded to give her the cheesiest mock salute while going "Aloha!"

The sudden urge to laugh was overwhelming. So much, in fact, that she barely managed to contain it.

"Well, I suppose I could try that as well once I get bored." Yuu responded casually in the meantime, not really noticing his assistant's struggle behind him. But then his expression darkened.

"Except, with things progressing as they are, I may never get to actually enjoy my freedom." He said bitterly.

The sudden seriousness in his voice helped her to snap out of it. "How come?"

"Given how Adam and Eve become inseparable until death does them part and due to my inability to love anyone, there is only one thing Eve will be able to do in order to get what she wants." The envoy frowned as he used his finger to gesture for it to slice off his own head. "Which may seem like it isn't big news, given how said Eve in this case is Yuzuriha Inori who would likely kill me on sight anyway for using the rings in the first place, but it's one thing to merely hate someone enough to kill them on sight and entirely another to literally being bound to a person you desperately hate and needs to be removed so that you can become happy. If I force Eve to make me Adam to bring the apocalypse, she would not rest until I am dead to get rid of me and make Ouma Shu her real Adam again. And this time, I wouldn't even be able to hide since she would always be able to receive my feelings. She would hunt me to the depths of hell and back if she had to."

"That sounds horrible." Harune actually had to gasp at the mere imagination of being relentlessly hunted by Eve. Suddenly this wasn't romantic at all anymore. More like a psycho thriller or something. Not her kinda tea, at all.

"Right, which puts me in a delicate spot." Yuu thought out aloud, holding his chin calculatingly. "Becoming Adam is a death sentence, yet I was ordered to do it by Da'ath and as their envoy I have to comply or face termination. Either option means certain death." A frown formed itself on his forehead. If only the executives hadn't gotten so restless and would let him do his job his way. You know, the way being an envoy was supposed to be…

His brunette assistant worriedly mimicked his expression when she heard that. "Surely there has to be another way?"

"There always is a way, comrade. You just have to find it." He told her seriously, then chuckled as he shrugged. "I wouldn't be here if I gave up when faced with hurdles, as oppressing as they might appear. Nature is all about adaptation, so, naturally, we will have to adapt." A smirk spread itself on his lips. "As a matter of fact, I already have an idea."

She blinked in surprise. "Already? That was way too fast."

He pointed at his forehead playfully as he grinned at her. "It's way easier to find solutions when you have the whole picture in mind. Da'ath's sole reason to make me Adam lies in their impatience to wait, so it shouldn't matter to them who actually becomes Adam as long as he brings the apocalypse, right? In other words, we will have to speed up things, bring Ouma Shu here sooner."

"You already took Eve from him, I doubt he isn't doing his utmost to come here and get her back, you know. How would we get him here sooner?"

He raised a finger and smiled confidently. "Simple. We bait him."

"What could be a better bait than kidnapping Eve?"

Yuu levitated with folded arms, laughing knowingly. "A damsel in distress. We have a damsel, but distressed, she is not."

Harune frowned worriedly, not really liking where this was going. "I am not sure I understand what you are trying to say."

He sighed and massaged the back of his neck. "No, you understand just fine, you just don't like it. Neither do I, for the matter. What I am trying to do is risky, cruel and, considering my earlier plans, also entirely unnecessary as well, but now that Da'ath has brought me in this position, I hardly have a choice now, do I?"

"What is it you plan to do, exactly?"

He looked at her seriously, then replied: "We kill Ouma Shu."

The brunette's eyes widened in shock and she stopped walking on the spot. "WHAT!" Then Yuu saw anger in them for the first time since he had met her, undoubtedly a sign of her loyalty towards Adam. Admirable, he thought, since barely anyone would ever dare directing hostility towards the envoy and expect to walk away from it afterwards. He wondered if Ouma Shu even knew that this girl cared enough about his wellbeing to endanger her own.

Well, be that as it may, it was not like he would put his own assistant down due to a mere misunderstanding, right? He would run out of assistants fast that way, after all.

"You can't be serious! I joined you because you said we would help Shu, not murder him. I will never support this, Yuu."

"So you would rather die yourself than to kill Ouma Shu?" Yuu asked amusedly. "After all, defiance against me is treason and treason means death."

The young woman froze up for a second, but then eyed him determinedly. "If that's how it's gonna be…" It's not like it actually made a difference if she died today or a short while from now during the apocalypse. But be that as it may, if she couldn't change the fact that she would die regardless of what she did, at the very least she would like to die as a woman who did what she thought was the right thing to do. Bringing the apocalypse was right, killing Shu was not. The first was a necessary evil, the latter just plain murder.

However, contrary to her assumption, Yuu merely chose to give her an amused shrug as he landed in front of her, chuckled and turned around, leading the way once more.

"Amazing. Even though he pushed your helping hand away before, your devotion to him is still unfazed. I am sure you will serve him well in the future to come."

Surprised by that response, she could only blink at him. "Wait, what…"

"Of course we are not going to kill Ouma Shu for real, stupid. We will just have to make Eve believe we did." He told her the last part by turning around to her halfway and tapping his head with a smirk.

Blood began rushing into the cheeks of the clearly flustered girl who was now running after the envoy, screaming at him. "Y-you deliberately worded it in such a way to trick me, you…you…!"

He smirked at her knowingly. "It's your own fault, comrade. You have a void that helps you to see through deception. Use it."

She narrowed her eyes on him angrily and stuck out her tongue. "Meanie! I hate you!"

"Oh boy, if only I had a dime for every time I heard that. I would be a very rich man." His voice was playful, seemingly enjoying the girl's reaction. Sticking her tongue out at him? The envoy of Da'ath? How novel. He found it ironic that she would complain about Inori seeing her as a weirdo when she clearly was one herself. No sane person would treat him like this. Which made it all the more interesting. Deviation from the norm may lead to exciting results, after all. Being surrounded by people who would always follow protocol was efficient, but boy was it getting boring. There was no progress in stagnation. At least switch things up every once in a while, would you?

Harune frowned at him, still visibly angry, but calmer regardless, now that her main issue had been resolved. "But why would you want to trick her?"

The envoy's expression became serious as he began piecing together the various fragments of his new plan, albeit he didn't seem very happy with it either. Probably not least because he already had had a plan that had been perfectly fine before he had been forced to change it all. Still even as he was pondering it carefully, he did not fail to lay it out to his assistant at the very same time, although without bothering to face her, deeming the nothingness in front of him a more suitable thing to stare at.

"If Eve gets fooled into believing her Adam was dead, he will notice straight away that something was wrong. In the meantime, if Eve were to change Adams, the new Adam would not be legitimate because his entire claim rests on a lie. If he brings the apocalypse but Eve finds out that she had been fooled, the new Adam will be stripped off his title immediately and the real Adam will ascend the throne instead. Normally that would be bad for the false Adam who would want to make sure the real Adam dies beforehand, but in my case, it is just what we need. That way, even if Da'ath forces me to become Adam, as soon as Eve finds out Ouma Shu is not really dead, everything gets reverted back to the original state and I will be able to slip back into the shadows like I originally intended."

Excitedly clapping her hands together, Harune's mood brightened up almost immediately. "That is just perfect!" After all, it meant all heroes of her fairytale would end up with a good ending, right? But when she saw her superior's dark expression, she immediately noticed that something wasn't right. "And yet you seem troubled…"

The look in Yuu's eyes had indeed become worried and distant. His assistant wondered if he was, perhaps, pondering the consequences of tricking Eve. She doubted it could be very advantageous to do so. And she was right to think that. They might have seized control of Eve temporarily, but as they both knew, it was inevitably meant to slip their hands. And once that happened, every crime committed against Eve would surely lead to retribution.

"It would be the perfect solution to our dilemma, but it comes with a heavy risk…" He told her with a deep sigh. "The power Eve holds is hard to imagine. Few will ever see her true potential and live, after all. That is because it is normally locked away. Being utterly destructive as it is, Eve would generally not need to use it unless pushed to her very limit. If Eve is treated well, she would never willingly make use of it, but there is a surefire way to awaken her wrath, which is killing her Adam. If humanity were to succeed in the assassination of Adam, Eve is sure to punish them vehemently by slaughtering them all indiscriminately for months on end. She is meant to show them a fate even worse than the apocalypse could be by delivering them true and pure terror so that they will never dare to harm her next Adam ever again." He explained to her darkly, causing her to grin nervously.

"Surely you jest? What could be worse than the apocalypse?"

This, in return, made the envoy smirk at her. "Comrade, if you think the apocalypse is the worst that could happen to humanity, I pray that you never witness the despair of Eve." Humored by her ignorance, he began levitating again, leaning back on an invisible chair, head leaning against his fist as he asked her curiously: "Tell me, what do you suspect the apocalypse is?"

The brunette girl raised a brow and blinked at the envoy, looking into his piercing blue eyes nervously. "What do you mean? Isn't it the end of the world?" It might as well be, for all she knew, seeing how it would mean death to a significant portion of humanity's population. Even if prevented, it would always return. An inevitable doom that loomed over mankind until it was met with open arms…

That's when she saw him offering her a knowing smile as he shook his head with closed eyes.

"Apocalypsis - The revelation of that which has been hidden. The path out of darkness. That's what the greek called it back in ancient times."

"So it's different?"

He raised his right index finger in an all-knowing way. "An apocalypse is not necessarily the end, but can instead be a new beginning. Humanity will die, yes, but it will not be gone. The world will remain intact, and when humanity is reborn with the help of Adam and Eve, it will reveal the potential it didn't even know it had before. Potential that had previously been hidden. And as they will lead the newly born Genesis race into a new dawn, a golden age of technological as well as cultural discoveries, wouldn't you say a new world had been created as a whole? Even if it was built on the ruins of the previous one?" He chuckled and turned around again, continuing to lead the way on foot again, silently expecting the girl to follow him as he kept talking.

"As you can see, the apocalypse is in no way supposed to be the end, but…" His worried look returned as his hand found his chin again. "Should Eve succumb to despair, she will make sure to teach humanity despair as well. In fact, if we hadn't stopped Ouma Mana when she had been afflicted by wrath, half of Japan would have been already slaughtered by now. She would have become the incarnation of death and despair, rampaging through the land and killing everything on sight until the power inside her would grow even too strong for her to channel properly anymore. In the end, she would self-destruct in a catastrophic explosion so vast that it would have made Lost Christmas appear like child's play next to it. It wouldn't be weird to assume she could possibly cull humanity's total population by half…and all for the simply reason of killing her most precious person." He faced his assistant again, smiling evilly. "A lesson for humanity to learn for when Eve eventually returns from the void realm to try again."

Harune turned white from shock as she realized what Yuu implied. "Mess with my Adam and I will make you wish you had chosen the apocalypse instead?"

"Exactly." Yuu told her with a nod shortly before she overtook him and forced him to stop, instead having to look in her sharp, yet panicked eyes, looking at him as if he had lost his damn mind.

"And yet you plan to fool her into believing Shu was dead? Yuu, are you out of your mind?"

But the envoy could only smirk at her with narrowed eyes as if this was all just a mere game to him. "Hoh, have I lost your trust already, comrade? Even though you showed so much faith in me when you accepted my offer to join Da'ath."

She flinched and took a step back, unable to look him in the eyes for a while. "But that's…" It was true that he had managed to earn her absolute trust back then. His goals and hers had aligned perfectly, and the future he had envisioned and showed to her was utterly beautiful, but…

"I do trust you, but…if the price is for Eve to bring humanity a fate even worse than the apocalypse, then…"

The blond man sighed. "Haven't you gotten something quite wrong? My objective is not for Eve to fall into despair, but now that Miss Kuhouin has brought me into this position, the only way for Adam, Eve and myself to survive this mess is to risk for Eve submitting to it…"

Harune shook her head angrily, clearly confused.

"Why? I don't get it at all…!"

"Because there is an exploit we could make use of." Yuu told her, although showing uncertainty for the first time since the brunette assistant had met him. It was unsettling to see the usually so confident man struggling with his own decision. Yet, despite his insecurity regarding his plan, he still explained it in his usual manner. Raising a finger, he told her patiently: "There is a rare occurrence for certain types of Eves. While most Eves would certainly lose all reason and rampage blindly, there are some which would hesitate even after having lost that which they couldn't bear losing. If there happens to be something left for them they are still unwilling to destroy, even by accident, it is possible for them to stay rational, maybe even halt the transformation midway and lock them into a state in between sanity and insanity. For some, it is their beloved offspring that could already exist, for others perhaps a very much valued friend. It could be anything as long as it is important. And that, Harune, is what we need."

The brunette girl eyed the envoy worriedly and with eyes still full of puzzlement. Realizing that there was only one way for her to understand fully, she decided to take a closer look at him, a faint glow appearing in her eyes, only really noticeable if you were looking out for it. Knowing what her void could do, Yuu naturally understood what she was doing and waited patiently for her to finish, even spreading his arms casually to his side as if to imply he was but an open book to her. When he could eventually see her gasp and take a step back, he knew that she finally understood.

"I…I see…so that is your plan…!" She realized, unable to hide her shock and still trying to sort out her newfound knowledge. "If you manage to get Eve into that state, instead of becoming a chaotic force of wrath, she could become lethargic and depressed, uncaring about anything at all."

He nodded. "I wouldn't have to force her to make me her Adam, If she didn't care what happened around her anymore anyway, she might just go with the flow. Then we just have to proceed as usual until Ouma Shu arrives. Whether that's before or after the apocalypse is of little relevance as long as he just shows up. I can proceed with my original plan as soon as he does. Unfortunately, though, the current plan holds many dangers…" He folded his arms in a troubled manner, appearing to ponder his options deeply once more.

Harune who now understood his reasoning could only offer him an agreeing nod. She, too, was worried. "Whether Eve will actually manage to halt the transformation in the first place."

"Yes, if I am wrong, this base is done for. I will lose control of her and she will rampage without restraint, possibly destroying half of Tokyo before realizing that her Adam isn't really dead...and even if she succeeds in halting the transformation, there is no telling how her behavior would change afterwards. Unlike fully transformed Eves, those who only transformed halfway become entirely unpredictable. Their personalities shift, behavior becomes erratic, as they succumb to their uncaring state, willingness to uphold their previous virtues could become nonexistent. An all-powerful Eve that's given up on life is a dangerous one to keep around…"

"Not to mention what Da'ath would do to you should they find out you used a roundabout way instead of a more direct approach of forcing her to make you Adam…"

"Aye…I would probably be purged on the spot…and I refuse to die so close to finally achieving my goal…" He groaned and held his forehead as if fighting a headache. "So many unknown and unpredictable variables. So many unfavorable outcomes."

"Why do you even assume Eve will not fall into despair in the first place?" Harune asked doubtfully. This caused him to smirk confidently. For all that it was worth, the brunette was happy to see his confidence returning. It suited him and, of course, was also reassuring to have.

"There is no way to tell for sure, but I have good reason to assume she stands a decent chance. But explaining why I think so would be harder than simply showing you, so tag along. I will show you something astonishing."

Or so were the words he used as he finally came to a halt in front of his destination, the former student council office which was now his office. A natural development, given how it had been the previous owner's command center. Yuu pushed open the door and waited for her to follow.

However, the brunette girl, for some reason, couldn't help but hesitate, a strong blush creeping up on her face. A man, inviting her into his room? Offering to show her something astonishing? She had a vague feeling she knew where this was going.

"H-hold on, isn't this quite s-sudden? I do not think I am ready for such an abrupt development. I mean, at least take me out for dinner first." She managed to say nervously as she tried to hide her mad blush under the hands she brought up to her face.

The envoy for his part only regarded her with slight puzzlement. "You can always eat something later if you want. While I am sure that witnessing my greatest treasure could be quite daunting, there is nothing to be afraid of. And besides, there would be many people standing in line to see what I am about to show you, so just get in here already before I change my mind." And with that, he merely made a quick hand gesture before Harune could feel herself being lifted into the air by an invisible force and shoved into the room with no way of resisting it.

"Eeek!" So this was it then, huh? The day she would finally become a woman. Not exactly as romantic as she would have expected it to be, but, eh…there was a certain charm in Yuu's pushiness at least. Besides, he did make it sound like she was in for quite a treat and he wasn't all that unattractive either. Still, when she had offered him her assistance, she would have never thought this would be part of the job…ah, the troubles of being a young and attractive woman…couldn't be helped that she would catch his eye, right? Surely she would have managed to get a good reaction out of Shu as well, had he only not been afflicted by blindness back when she had been nothing more but a salesgirl.

In front of her, the envoy chuckled amusedly. "I can see how much you are looking forward to this from the way you are smirking already."

"Well, you were hyping it up quite a lot, so…" She told him, fidgeting around nervously, heart racing wildly. Thinking about it, this would have to be quite the exclusive experience, given the envoy's abilities, right? Uuuuu~, it sounded exciting, but she wondered if she was up for it…

"Then I shall let you wait no longer. Behold, my greatest creation!" He announced to her proudly as he led her through the room only to make hold in front of a huge floating mirror attended by a couple of other people. It was, in fact tall enough that you would have to walk up the stairs in the middle of the room halfway to be exactly at its center point. The mirror itself was quite beautifully crafted with many lavish ornaments adorning its frame, not unlike an object a European aristocrat would have possessed back in the day, even if not in quite that enormous size. From the silver threads it emitted off its sides, it was clear that the mirror was a void, too. Oddly enough, despite standing directly in front of it, no reflection could be seen in the mirror…instead, it appeared to show them the vastness of space…stars upon stars upon stars…it was, indeed, quite beautiful, but…

"Oh…it's a void…." Harune noticed with an empty smile, her eyes now being similar to those of a dead fish. Of course he would have meant a void. Why would she have assumed anything else? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She wanted to die. Boy was she happy it was her who read minds and not him, otherwise she might have gone over to Inori to piss her off enough for her to go on a killing spree herself and erase everyone around here simply to make the shame go away. How embarrassing…

"You seem oddly disappointed for some reason…" Yuu noticed with quite some concern. Surely he had expected a different reaction coming from her.

"Ah, no…I guess I have expected something…different." And the worst part, perhaps, was that she had sort of been looking forward to it, too. Given how she was actively helping to bring the apocalypse, she wasn't particular fond of the idea to die a virgin…

She grabbed her head and cringed. What the hell was wrong with her…had she spent too much time in the head of Tamedate Souta? She hadn't been this pitiful a person before…!

But then again…that was before everyone else had died and left her to fend in this world all by herself.

She blinked at that realization. Was she…lonely? She frowned. Guess she was, huh…Abby, Zoe and Yuu were now the closest things to friends she had left. Even Shu and Inori were acquaintances at best…her entire social circle, once having been vast and impressive, was now reduced to not even a handful of people. For a social butterfly like her, this was akin to a small apocalypse in on itself.

She looked down sadly. Yup, she really was one pitiful girl, wasn't she? Even going as far as to throw herself at the first chance she got to be held close by someone again. But she couldn't help it, you know? To die all alone….it was a scary and sad fate to imagine for oneself. And as they all knew, the current life expectancy may not be all that long for any non-Genesis left in this world now, was it? The clock was ticking down mercilessly…

"Now, now, there is no need for you to be that disappointed, comrade. Yeah, it may appear less exciting than it is, but that's only because you haven't seen what it actually does." Yuu tried to get rid of her sadness he misinterpreted as disappointment. A knowing smirk appeared on his lips as he began levitating in the air, arms folded in front of his chest proudly. "But first, let me ask you something. Are you familiar with the theory of the multiverse?"

She looked at him, part of her curios, the other half not quite capable of shaking off her sad thoughts from earlier. "Wasn't that the theory about alternate histories existing as parallel universes?" It was a genre she had encountered in a couple of fantasy novels and movies before.

"I see, you have had an interest in it as well." He praised her with an acknowledging nod. She didn't have the heart to tell him she had just learned of it by chance.

"So what of it? It's just science fiction." She told him with a shrug.

"Ah, but what if I told you it wasn't?" He spread out his arms excitedly. "What if I told you that for every decision we didn't make, another world existed parallel to ours?" His grin widened when he saw her shocked expression. His eyes narrowed themselves down halfway as he delivered his finishing move: "What if I told you I could show them to you?"

"Eh? That's utterly impossible. The sheer amount of universes would be…"

He closed his eyes and nodded knowingly. "Endless. Whichever alternate outcome you would desire to see, this void could show it to you. Amazing, isn't it? Ever wondered how the world would have turned out to be, had the Axis won WW2? Or how the world would have turned out, had there never even been a world war to begin with? What about WW3? Was Einstein right about how it would end or not? Curious to find out?" When Yuu saw the sadness in the girl's eyes being replaced by a curious spark, he allowed himself to look down on her in victory. He knew this void could get anyone hyped. It had not been his most prized creation for nothing.

"What about a world…in which the meteorite never fell?" She asked him hopefully. Would her life have been any happier?

But the blond man scratched the back of his head awkwardly. This had not been a request he had been expecting. It certainly wasn't one he had been particularly interested about, albeit he had seen them out of curiosity.

"There used to be quite a few, to be honest…" He told her truthfully, but then sighed and shrugged as if it couldn't be helped. "But as time went on, they became less and less. While the apocalypse meteor didn't always land on the same day on the same spot across the worlds, it appears to eventually fall on them all sooner or later."

"But there are universes where it didn't happen, right?" She refused to give up hope. He eyed her with a troubled expression but eventually nodded.

"Yes, there are some."

"Really?" Now she was really excited to see it. "Could you show me, please?"

"I could, but…" He shook his head slowly and offered her a somewhat apologetic smile, knowing full well it would disappoint her. "It probably wouldn't be interesting for you to see."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "Because nobody you know exists in those. The ones still unaffected by the apocalypse virus are those in which history vastly differed from ours. The events that led to your existence or the existence of everything you know didn't come to pass. Could be that some of your ancestors married someone else, or your bloodline simply ended earlier than in our reality. I kept track of some of these universes but eventually lost interest because there were so few parallels to our world that it became meaningless to watch. There was nothing to learn, nothing new to experience that would be relevant to our world."

"So what about worlds in which the virus didn't start spreading in Japan? At least then it shouldn't have affected us that much?"

"Not at first, but…every Eve eventually brought the apocalypse or at least attempted to, so…"

"So everyone I knew still died." She realized sadly, letting the shoulders she had momentarily lifted in high hopes slouched down in disappointment.

"Some might have made it through evolution, but if the majority of the people didn't make it in this world, I doubt they made it in any other either…"

"Figures…" She sighed but then looked up at the huge mirror and offered Yuu a small smile. "Still, I can see why you would be proud of that void. If it really shows every outcome there is, it would be quite powerful. Whose is it?"

Levitating in the air, the envoy chuckled proudly. "It is a combination of countless voids carefully put together by me over the years. You would not believe how much time I have spent into creating it. I have become quite a good voidsmith as a result. I can create any void I can think of as long as I have the right voids to fuse at my disposal. Maintaining this one can be tiring, but the things I could potentially learn from it make it worth the effort. Many things I would have otherwise not been able to know were revealed to me that way, such as the exact dosage required for Ouma Mana's poisoning. All learned by observing universes in which others had attempted to do it as well. With no reference to use, most of them failed, but since I could compare the results, I could calculate exactly how I needed to mix the poison." He explained to her while chuckling to himself, apparently quite happy with himself, but then he frowned and looked away in shame. "It was also though this void that I learned that I can never be successful as Adam. Every known version of me that has attempted to be Adam eventually was killed by Eve. There was no escape."

That's when Harune couldn't help but look at Yuu in realization as well as amazement. "Wait, so that's how you know so many things. You actually saw them happening!"

The envoy grinned at her, guilty as charged. "While not everything I know has its origin in this void, there is quite a lot of knowledge I was able to extract from it. Like this." He flew over to the mirror and touched its reflective surface before saying: "List me all Eve candidates, limited to universes very similar to ours."

He hadn't even finished talking when the mirror flashed up, the endless cosmos it had originally displayed being replaced by a neat list of names along with pictures to match them. There were surprisingly many before some of them were removed from the list again, probably sorted out due to not matching Yuu's given criteria. The remaining women were sorted by the probability of them having become Eve, calculated by the number of worlds in which they actually had been Eve divided by the total number of worlds relevant to the search. Unsurprisingly enough, Mana was on the top of that list, followed by her mother. The rest were people Harune didn't recognize neither by name nor from the looks of their picture. She did try to find Inori among them but if she had been there, she hadn't been one of the candidates with higher probability.

"Mark all who fell into despair at least once during their life." Yuu ordered next. Sure enough, little more than half of them lit up, displaying exactly how many worlds said individuals fell into despair in, thus calculating the probability again. Having a high one was a good indicator of seeing how bad Eve's life must have been in her respective worlds. Again, Mana topped the list.

"Discard them, of the remaining, highlight those which only transformed halfway." Half of the list disappeared and only some of the remaining were highlighted. Since the list was now smaller, Harune finally managed to find Inori on it. Her probability of becoming Eve was minuscule, but so was also her transformation chance.

"Ah, I see. You already checked if Inori was prone to transform. Since she doesn't transform often, we have good chances?" The brunette girl thus concluded, but the envoy shook his head at her.

"While these worlds can vary in almost every aspect, there is one constant element in all of them. Time. This void cannot see the future because it does not exist yet. All its data consists of events that already have occurred. Yuzuriha Inori rarely transforming could mean she is resistant to the despair state, but could also be a mere byproduct of a lacking sample size. Considering how she is a fairly young Eve with only few worlds in which she even became Eve, that data is next to worthless. Still, we have enough samples to come to a different result that might be interesting."

"Such as?"

"If we look at Eves like Ouma Mana, assassination of her Adam always causes a transformation. As I said, it is a surefire way to make her mad beyond belief, not unlike kicking a hornets' nest. But for Yuzuriha Inori…well." He ordered the void to make a list of every world in which Shu died after Inori became Eve and mark the ones in which Inori transformed. Not many entries lit up…

"As we can see, there seems to be a different trigger for her transformation than merely Adam's death. If it were merely his death, she would always transform fully. Since she didn't, we ought to look at the conditions more closely."

"Which I assume you already did."

He grinned at her. "Naturally. What I was able to conclude is that Yuzuriha Inori has a strong disgust for betrayal. Every time the blow came from someone she trusted, she went berserk. Same happened every time there was a clear culprit to pass judgment on. On the other hand, if Ouma Shu's death was caused by an accident or if the culprit had already been brought to justice, her transformation was always only partial, meaning…"

"If the murderer is dead by the time Shu dies, or if there never even was one to begin with, she won't transform." Harune followed up on his logic. He smiled when he saw her understand, but still frowned in the end.

"Well, probably. As you know, the sample size is not big enough to be entirely sure. I might have come to the wrong conclusion, overlooked a minor detail. A mistake that could end up being devastating…still, it is my only bet at this point…"

Seeing his uncertainty made Harune reluctant to agree on this plan, either. The envoy was one of the heroes in this tale. If he died, the ending would already be doomed to be sad. "I don't like this, Yuu. It is too risky."

"I agree. But in the end, such is the will of nature. Always presenting you with obstacles you need to overcome to survive, adapt. Everyone seems to agree that you need to be strong, smart and agile to not be selected out. Only few realize that sometimes, when all else fails, it is all up to luck in the end." He muttered worriedly. "I have always refused to be selected out. I passed all tests regarding strength, intelligence and agility. Perhaps this shall be my ultimate test of luck."

The brunette eyed him regretfully, but immediately saw that he had made up his mind. He wouldn't have chosen this path if there had been a better way. He either tricked Eve into a partial transformation to give him a faulty Adam candidacy or he was sure to be killed by Eve or Da'ath regardless. There was no escaping either side, unfortunately.

And if flight was no option, all you could do was fight.

If Yuu was going to fight, as his assistant, all she could do was offer him her support.

"So what's the plan?" The brunette asked him determinedly.

Liking the strong look in her eyes, Yuu smiled and said: "First, we will have to find a world in which Ouma Shu died but there being no clear culprit left to judge." He faced the mirror and ordered it to list all worlds in which Shu had found his demise, listing first the most recent ones. The former salesgirl couldn't help but be astonished by the sheer amount of entries.

"There are so many…" She gasped in shock.

"Is that so surprising?" Yuu asked her with an amused chuckle. "He finds himself to follow a very dangerous profession, surrounding himself with very dangerous people. Opportunities to find death are endless, but if you ask me, considering he is still alive in our world shows that at least our version of Ouma Shu is a very tenacious one. In fact, most of us are. You, me, the twins, Nanba,…we all did well to stay alive for so long, considering the hardships of four apocalypses and our close proximity to kings and queens." He nodded in a pleased way, acknowledging each persons' worth, giving credit where credit was due.

It made Harune smile, realizing that perhaps she really had been stronger than she thought she was. Her life had been harsh and full of deaths, but at least she was still standing. It may not be clear to her whether or not that was a good thing, exactly, but at least it proved that she had made it further than most people she had known. As far as nature was concerned, she had been the most fitting among them all.

Even if it had just ended up being nothing but luck…

Shaking off that thought, she looked back at the mirror where Shu's various dead ends were listed. Causes of death seemed to be treason mostly, but sometimes there were deaths in battle as well. The killers listed seemed to be familiar names mostly. Hirohide Nanba or one of his goons appeared frequently…not all that surprising considering Shu was about to come here and look for a fight. Sometimes even an SDF soldier managed to make the list. And sometimes, death seemed to come from even the closest of friends. Still, none of these were particularly useful to their cause. Even if the assaulter had died in the particular world Shu had died in, as long as they were still alive in this one it was still meaningless. Likewise, they could also only use a death that had occurred while Shu and Inori had already been separated for obvious reasons. They couldn't use one which caused continuality issues with their own timeline. Inori would never fall for that.

However, eliminating the ones they couldn't use only left them with hardly a handful that weren't causing logical flaws to their own history. It was somewhat amazing how a sheer endless list of possible deaths had been culled down to only a couple ones that were actually relevant. Harune sure hoped one they could actually use had been among them.

"This one might be the one." Yuu decided as he pointed at a particular timeline.

The two of them patiently watched the scenery of Shu's demise unfold, the mirror painting them a tragic story about a king fighting a hopeless battle with no chance of survival. They saw pictures of gruesome battles, of a man refusing to accept defeat. A king who kept fighting to the bitter end, unleashed hell and, only after exhausting the last of his body's reserves, eventually succumbed to a slow, agonizing and lonely death on a battlefield littered with corpses. Until his very last minutes, he had kept his eyes focused forward, desperately reaching out with his hand into the direction of Tennozu. Even the very last words he had whispered had been dedicated to the queen he had so deeply loved.

It was the end of a king who, even as death had approached him, had never stopped thinking of his queen. Rather than dying, the only thing he had seemed to truly regret had been his inability to see her one last time…

Harune's eyes teared up as the mirror's image faded back to the endless cosmos, marking the end of the heroic, yet tragic tale of Ouma Shu, or at least a different version of him.

"How horrible…" She voiced her thoughts as she sniffled and carefully wiped away her tears. "I know this did not happen in our timeline, but it's still heartbreaking."

"Good." Yuu merely said and nodded approvingly as he turned around to her halfway. "It's supposed to break Eve's heart, after all. Let's just pray we break it in just the right way…" Or Eve would make sure to break them. He frowned worriedly.

"How are we going show this to her?" The brunette girl asked him.

"His death occurred at night and given how flashy he chose to leave this world in his timeline, we will have to make sure Eve actually sleeps tonight or else she might grow suspicious once she won't see any of the signs of his demise in our timeline. Do you think you can make sure she goes to bed in a timely manner, comrade?" Yuu asked of her, smirking confidently once he saw her saluting at him.

"Leave it to me, Yuu. I will put Inori to sleep, even if it's the last thing I do."

"Excellent. I will make preparations for tomorrow, then. We will have to make absolutely sure she believes our bluff. If she has but the slightest doubt about Adam's demise, we will be done for. There are no second chances." He folded his hands behind his back and approached the mirror once more, letting its glow reflect in his hopeful eyes. If he was right about Inori, they would all avoid a catastrophe. If he was wrong, however…

He shuddered to even just imagine the outcome. Never would he have thought he would actually resolve to be the one to drive Eve to the edge of madness and back. To even just attempt this was nothing short of madness in on itself! And yet here he was, hardly having another choice. He looked down on his own hands, noticing that they were shaking. Before Harune could notice this, he quickly clenched them into fists and put them away in his pockets. A grounded and intelligent man of science like him was far too reasonable to believe in superstitions such as gods and fate but if he were a weaker man, he supposed this would be the moment he would forsake all reason and pray to his celestial being of choice.

He could little but shake his head and sigh in resignation.

May fate have mercy on them all for what he was about to do.

"Go on, comrade Harune. Take back your place at the side of Eve and watch over her tonight." He dismissed her without turning around to face her. She nodded dutifully.

"If there is anything I can do to assist you, please do not hesitate to summon me." She made sure to offer him her undivided support. Then she merely turned around, leaving silently without awaiting a response from him. He waited for her to close the door again behind her before he faced the mirror once more, saying:

"Show me the transformation of Yuzuriha Inori once she has succumbed to despair."

Following his command, the void mirror was soon to show him an image of a young woman with pink hair and crimson eyes, sitting on a crystal throne with her right leg thrown over her left and her head casually resting on her right hand. Six enormous wings adorned her back, all formed by crystals as black as death itself. They were as beautiful as they were deadly, given how razor sharp the crystalline feathers seemed to be, their edges dangerously reflecting their surroundings like a well-polished blade.

At first glance, you would easily be able to tell that this was Inori and yet you would also hesitate at the same time and ask yourself if this could really be, for although she might physically look like the same woman, the whole aura around her was vastly different. There was no kindness left in her eyes, no faint smile present on her lips. Instead, her crimson eyes glowed eerily in the dark with an impression as if she was looking down on something that didn't even classify as dirt in her eyes. Her appearance created a stark conflict where her angelic wings would make her a being of the divine, yet the sheer aura of maliciousness and hatred was quick to eradicate any possibility of that being the case. Rather than looking at an angel, Yuu got the feeling he was looking into the eyes of a demon instead.

Those eyes…they were different from Mana's when she had been afflicted by despair, too. Mana had been furious, vengeful. Heartbroken.

But Inori's…Yuu wasn't even sure what to see in them. That woman before him was broken in a different way entirely. There was no fury, no wish for revenge. Maybe there had been for a brief moment before realizing that nothing like that mattered anymore. A short-lived fire that had tried ravaging her, only to realize that this girl had nothing left to use as fuel. And so it had quickly died out, leaving behind this broken shell of a woman that only had one more thing driving her.

Pure hatred. And she hated everything.

She hated humanity for having taken her precious Adam from her.

She hated her vassals for being unable to protect him.

She hated her crown that would force her to live the rest of her life without Shu.

She hated ever having allowed herself to learn about emotions, for it had only ended up filling her heart with pain and grief. Now it was destroyed. A shattered apparition that could only feel hatred anymore. She hated the feeling, too.

She hated that she couldn't even remember how it had been like to love Shu, hated that she even had come to hate him for having left her all alone in a world she hated, too, for being unfair and cruel, unwilling to change even when there had been people who really did try to change it. And believe her, she had tried.

But most of all, she even hated herself. This pitiful, worthless queen who held all. This. Power. And yet, she had managed to achieve nothing with it. It had not been able to protect, not been able to preserve peace, had never created anything beautiful…

All it had ever done was erase. Ironically enough, the only thing she had wished to erase was indestructible. This gift of life she had once viewed as most precious…had lost all value to her. And yet she was not allowed to cast it away, forever punished to keep it until she would fulfill her destiny as Eve which, too, had lost all meaning to her.

Why should she rule over a world that had brought her nothing but grief? Why should she grant humanity a better life for having ruined hers? Why should she choose a new Adam when she already had had the perfect one? Why would anyone assume she would be able to find a new, better one?

The broken queen looked down on her red hands, covered in dried blood as they had been. To Shu, these hands had been the hands of an angel. He had viewed her, not like the monster she had always been, but the human she had once hoped she could become. She clenched her hands into fists as another wave of hatred overcame her.

That had been his undoing. He had been blinded by her false light, had seen beautiful wings he had always assumed to be white, never realizing that their dark color was not merely caused by shadows, no. They had been black all along. This pure and beautiful angel of his…she had been a fallen one from the start. Her light? Nothing but an illusion. Darkness in disguise. It had been her futile attempt to live the life of a human. To mask her monstrosity. A wolf among sheep, so to say. Her foolish hope of attaining happiness, even though she had never deserved any.

She wordlessly got up, levitating rather than using her legs at this point. Now that she no longer had reasons to hide her dark wings, why not use them, after all? Slowly she flew over the corpse-littered throne room, not even deeming them worthy of her attention. Known faces were mixed among them. A blonde princess, being royal no more. Her fallen knight at her side, now protecting nothing anymore. The two young twins that had been forced to embrace the cold death they had been so afraid of, and the envoy's brunette assistant whose eyes would never see into a person's head again. They all had cried, begged for her to stop, to show mercy, to at least spare their most loved ones if not themselves, but Inori had not cared about their pleas. Mercy was at least as worthless as revenge was. Nothing in this darn world mattered. Life, death, nothing but different words describing the same state. After all, she may be alive, but was she really living? If life really had been precious, why had people been killing each other since the dawn of time? It had appeared like humankind had merely existed to be killed, over and over and over again. Who was to say that erasing humanity as a whole wasn't the actual act of kindness here? After all, at least then the dying and cruelty would stop for good.

But it was not like she really cared either way at this point. It was all worthless now anyway. She was not out to make the world a better place anymore. She knew it couldn't be done. She was not out to save humanity from itself. It did not deserve saving. She merely killed because she hated everything. She killed because that was what she had been created for. She killed because the one she wanted to kill the most was cursed with immortality. Herself. And so she would just kill everything else instead.

She flew over to a crystalline cross carrying a certain blond man clad in Da'ath colors, not that you could make out much of the white from how bloodied his torn clothes were. He was bound to the cross by thorny crystalline vines and his blood covered almost his entire body, which was hardly surprising seeing how riddled with injuries he actually was. Once he noticed her approaching, he lifted his head, eying her tiredly.

"Eve…" He chuckled weakly. "Did you come to finish it at last?"

She eyed him indifferently and shrugged. "You are already dead, envoy. Everything is, they just don't know it yet. Life and death, two sides of the same coin, yet the same coin nonetheless. Take yourself for example. Your heart still beats, yet living you are not. And you never will be again. Whether I rip that worthless muscle out of your chest or not is of little consequence. Your body will rot here no matter the outcome."

"Is that so…" The Yuu in the mirror said as he lowered his head again. "You really are a cruel woman, Eve. Dooming humanity just because one misguided man thought killing Ouma Shu would please his mistress." He nudged his head into the direction of Souta's corpse, resting among the pile of countless others.

"It may have been him who pulled the trigger, but it was you who set him on that path, was it not?" Inori eyed him knowingly, her glowing eyes shining in an ominous red light.

"Yes, it was I who filled Miss Kuhouin's mind with lies about Ouma Shu being Tsutsugami Gai's killer. I knew she would make a move, but never would I have assumed it would not be her to act, but him. He didn't strike me as a man with the guts to step over his disgust with Hirohide Nanba and form an alliance with him to plan an ambush. And neither did Nanba seem like the man who would work together with someone like Tamedate Souta. If I had even had the faintest clue that this could have happened, do you seriously think I would not have taken steps against it? I was the last one to wish for your Adam's death." He told her, visibly exhausted.

"Little does it matter now, does it?" The fallen angel said, eying him sternly. "I don't care about your intentions. All I know is that he was guilty." She pointed at Arisa's corpse. "So was she." Then at him. "And you." She raised both arms to each of her sides. "Everyone is guilty. Everyone must die."

"A shame." Yuu shook his head slowly as if disappointed. "You were meant for greatness, yet one pitiful fool has ruined it all. And once more, love is the reason why humanity is barred from progress." He eyed Arisa's corpse. "A handsome prince charmed a princess so he would get her grandfather's support. The same princess then seeks revenge for the prince once he gets killed, never even realizing that she had only been used all along." His gaze travelled to Souta lying next to her. "Enter the good-hearted, yet weak fool who so desperately sought the princess' approval, he would go as far as to cooperate with his greatest enemies only to bring down the foe of his mistress, even if he was his best friend. All for the name of love." His voices was full of scorn as he said all that, then looked forward again, offering Inori a sad smile. "And here we are, a queen who was meant to rule the world, is instead destroying it because she loved a man who is no more. And people honestly say love was the greatest emotion of them all." He laughed quietly as his head sunk again, shaking hopelessly. "What a joke."

"There is one thing I want to know from you." Inori stated, her harsh eyes unwavering as ever. "Tell me, Yuu. Why did you create me?" Why she asked this of him, she herself wasn't even sure. Perhaps she had hoped for him to tell her that her painful existence hadn't been entirely pointless. That she had come to experience this pain for a reason. It would do little to soothe the pain, but maybe….just maybe, at least something good had come from her being born. Maybe her misery had brought something good. Anything?

He chuckled quietly. "You were just meant to be one of Mana's three bodyguards. When she died early, I repurposed you to be her vessel instead. That was all you were ever meant to be. Needless to say, you exceeded my expectations only to disappoint them all greatly in the end."

She lowered her gaze, letting those words sink in. "I see. As I thought. I am failure then." Not even her creator was happy she had come to be. She had suffered for nothing. Her entire existence had been meaningless. Worthless.

If only…she had never come to be…

"You and me both, Eve." He sighed in defeat as he witnessed the pinkette spreading her black wings. Countless feathers came forth from that action, whirling around in this throne room of death and decay. They were beautiful to behold, but in the end, they were all weapons regardless. Everything Eve produced was nothing more but a tool to kill, after all. And so these feathers, too, were only there to herald death. Yuu closed his eyes in resignation as he repeated himself one last time:

"You and me both…"

The feathers then stopped flying midair as if they had been stopped in time, each and every single one of them directing their shining, razor-sharp edges at the envoy who kept silently hanging on that giant cross of his. He knew what awaited him, he had seen it countless times already. Soon these crystalline feathers would come flying at him like a hail of daggers. There would be no escape for him in his current state. This was the end. He had lost this round of chess this time.

There would never be another.

"Farewell, O fallen seraph." He muttered with a defeated smile.

"Farewell, Will of Humanity." Inori responded in kind, bringing her hand forward, directing it at the blond man before her. The suspended blades hesitated no longer. All at once, they shot forward, finding their designated spot in the envoys body. Blood found its way on the merciless queen once more, now adding a fresh layer onto her already tainted clothes. But even when some of it landed directly on her face and hair, she still never flinched…with nothing but indifference she just watched the now lifeless pile of flesh hanging in front of her, being punctured by feather-blades from top to bottom. If she hadn't known it had been Yuu, she would have never been able to guess so at this point.

She knew that there had been a time where she would have rejoiced over this guy's demise, even very much wished for it, but now…as she had already assumed, there was still nothing. Her heart may still beat in her chest, but it still refused to be moved again, not even by this. And she knew now more than ever, that it never would again.

For she, too, was already dead. Like everything.

She would make sure of that eventually.

The real Yuu frowned bitterly and used his hand to sweep through the air dismissively, signaling for the mirror in front of him that he had seen enough. It had been far from the first time he had seen another version of himself perish, but it sure never got any easier. Naturally he knew that these versions of him existed, for every success in this life must mean that there had been failures in alternate ones, but it was still shocking how close those calls sometimes appeared to have been.

There was a bit of solace to be gained from all of this, though. Namely the fact that the mirror could not show the future, so everything seen had already happened. That meant if he could see it happening in the mirror, that specific event could no longer occur in this timeline as the moment for it to happen had already passed. So, you could say, every death depicted in that mirror was a death that could no longer befall him, or anyone for that matter. But that didn't mean there wasn't a similar one which fate could have in store for him.

And that was the potential risk he would be taking now, he realized. He would have to be the one to turn that woman into a compromise between her current version who still held hope for a better life somewhere in that darkness-afflicted heart of hers and that absolute menace of a monster he had just seen in that mirror. A life-loathing abomination that had forsaken hope to such an extent that she become the embodiment of death and hatred herself. The bane of humanity.

He looked down in worry, visibly troubled by all this.

He really didn't want to do this. It was such an unnecessary and horrible gamble that could potentially destroy human society as they knew it. As someone who had devoted his life to see humanity progress into the next stage, this would be a huge step backwards at best, and complete annihilation at worst.

Still, he was willing to offer humanity many things, his life, however, was not one of them. If the only alternative for humanity to avoid suffering the despair of Yuzuriha Inori was for him to die, then he supposed humanity would just have to close its eyes and wish for the best. Just like him. Turns out that this time, the fate of the world would entirely depend on his luck. A coin flip determining whether humanity would experience a golden age or a dark one.

He had to chuckle weakly at the irony. He was Da'ath's envoy. Da'ath was the will of humanity.

And now the world would end with him, if he were to fall, that was. It was somewhat fitting, albeit a heavier burden than he had ever expected to be carrying. He had always been meant to be the figure in the shadows, manipulating events so that the people in the spotlight could end up doing the things he deemed to be most favorable for humanity as a whole. Never had he been meant to be one of these people in the spotlight, deciding humanity's fate himself.

"Guess we all will have to keep adapting to new challenges, even if unforeseen ones." He mumbled with a deep sigh. He supposed he just had to prove once more that humanity was not so easily selected out, he himself least of all. He would prevail, like he always did.

He turned around, heading for the door Harune had vanished though earlier. He had some things to prepare now, after all.

But if he was still worried, you would not be able to tell by looking at him. Sporting a confident smirk on his lips yet again, he appeared to be certain of his success.

Arisa Kuhouin had thrown a curve ball at him, but so what? Let her throw as many as she wanted. He was not the envoy of Da'ath for nothing! He had overcome worse odds already, he would overcome this one as well.

Still, he better made sure to keep a closer eye on her and that Tamedate Souta fella from now on. If there was anything good about watching that other version of himself dying in that alternate timeline, then it was learning that he was better off not underestimating those two too much. After all, when it came to critical things such as Eve and the apocalypse, even the smallest mistake might end up in an utter catastrophe, as he had clearly been able to see firsthand.

He frowned as he realized how stressful his job had become ever since he had brought back Mana from the void realm all those weeks ago. Perhaps Harune was right. Maybe he really could use a break after the apocalypse was done and dealt with. He sure as hell could use some peace and quiet for once. And no more Eves, ever! Just him, a cup of hot, delicious coffee and maybe one of these parfaits Harune would never shut up about to go with it. He wondered how those even tasted. He never had one before.

Huh, there were many things to try out once he would finally have some time at his hands and freedom to boot, he realized. Another reason to make sure not to die, then. And it wasn't all that hard now, was it? All he had to make sure was that he clipped the wings of that fallen seraph before they grew. Simple.

However, as he told himself all that and closed the door behind him, he still never failed to notice…

That fist in his coat's pocket…

It had never stopped shaking.

As promised, here is the rest of my A/N. The original plan for this release used to be quite different. I wanted to give out Yuu's complete plan to you which would have included this chapter, the timeline depicting Shu's demise he is planning to show Inori as well as her reaction to it. It was supposed to be a three-chapter release at once which I assumed would have been way more impactful than giving you three separate chunks which by itself wouldn't be all that exciting to have, given how there was hardly anything I could have used as a cliffhanger to keep the suspense going across chapters.

Well, turns out I have no time to do that without letting people start wondering if this was dead, so separate releases it is then. If I had known things would turn out like this, I could have posted this chapter here ages ago, as it had been written before I got my new job and therefore been done for a looong time. The next one, in fact, is nearly complete, too, and would have been by now, if not for me losing a good chunk of it due to a stupid Dropbox conflict issue...

This was probably the first chapter truly showing how much shit Yuu has to deal with and him not simply being so unstoppable due to being godly and everything merely going his way. He works hard to let things go the way they do but sometimes shit just hits the fan and he has to improvise. The fact that Arisa is starting to antagonize him doesn't help and proves to be a variable he needs to be aware of from now on. As if he hasn't got his hands full enough as it is with Adam and Eve already, huh?

Oh yeah, Harune's void reads minds which I didn't quite try to hide but never officially confirmed either. Some may have figured it out before, others will have found out now. It has other features, too, but mind reading is the main purpose of it and one reason why Yuu considers her to be a very useful asset to have.

I also added a scene in which you could see Inori's despair form. Those are an Eve's most powerful form and yet also the one in which they are the most broken. They differ from Eve to Eve. Mana's had a black widow motive, Inori's one is a fallen seraph. I know the biblical version of the Seraphim is incredibly boring, only existing to praise the lord, so don't even bother trying to make any connections to that. The reason why I picked a seraph was simply because I had decided on the fallen angel theme already and wanted the highest ranked order of angels with three pairs of wings, nothing else. I also wanted to give you a quick glimpse of what Yuu was so afraid of. A despaired Eve is no joke. The characters managed to make short work of Mana only because there was a fake Eve opposing her as well as two kings to assist her. Inori would not have to face such odds now that Mana is gone and Shu would never fight her. And a simple fight Yuu vs a juiced up Inori would end very unfavorably even for someone like Yuu. Hence why Yuu will try hard to avoid Inori turning into that abomination. We will see if and how he succeeds with that in later chapters.

Just a bit of background info about the timelines shown. The one Yuu and Harune saw of Shu dying is not the same Yuu later views when he sees a fully transformed Inori. The one in which Inori transformed was one in which Souta ventured down a darker path, choosing to forsake the honorable path of a knight and instead resolving to allying with devils in order to achieve a higher goal. The Souta in this story normally would never cooperate with the likes of Nanba, deeming them to be absolute scum and trash. In that timeline, however, Souta came to realize that he alone was weak and could not possibly hope of fulfilling Arisa's wish of getting revenge against Shu, so he decided to conspire with Nanba by offering to bait Shu out via a secret meeting outside loop seven. However, Nanba and his goons were to lie down in wait there beforehand, ambushing him. Either Shu would die to them on the spot or Souta would use the chance of Shu lowering his guard around him to shoot Shu during the confusion of battle. Nanba initially had little interest in assisting Souta but the conspiring knight was able to convince him by telling him it was the easiest and probably his only chance to ever secure a void genome for himself. Power hungry as Nanba is, he eventually agreed to that in the end. He never realized Souta had already resolved himself to become the same kind of scum Nanba was and betray him in the end as well. He never intended for Nanba to keep the genome, simply killing him soon after he was about to acquire it with a shot to the head, then vanishing into the night with the help of an invisibility cloak before anyone could have chased him down. However, Souta had no idea that Inori would fall into despair because of that. When he returned to Tennozu and Inori eventually learned of Shu's demise, there was no escape for him or Arisa. Inori eventually massacred them all in her grief and sorrow.

The one Yuu intends to show Inori is an entirely different timeline and will be explored next chapter. I hope you will be interested despite already knowing how it's about to end. I, for one, enjoy coming up with alternate fate chapters going down a darker path. Makes you value the canon path more when you realize how easily it could have turned out differently. And, well, I always love tragedy. The darker routes in certain Isekai LN's were always the ones I enjoyed the most, such as the Oldeus storyline in Mushoku Tensei or the ones where Subaru becomes an archbishop of sin in Re:Zero. Call me sick and twisted, but I enjoy seeing shit hit the fan. And writing a version of Inori that is so clearly broken and different from how she is supposed to be is hella exciting, let me tell you.

That being said, I am sorry that updates will be even slower than they usually were. I hope you guys will stick around regardless. Finishing this story will be a whole lot more fun when you know there are still people reading it, after all.

If you want to stay in touch, feel free to write PMs or join my Discord. It is dedicated to RtT but can also serve as a place to discuss current anime and the like. I know for a fact we have a very...dedicated group of Fate-fans chilling around in there and a certain Neptune-obsessed Asian sitting in a corner and chanting weird prayers every now and then. We are a weird bunch but it sure never gets boring imho. Come check it out if you are curious.

The link is as follows: discord . gg/EcF823z

Oh, and reviews will always be appreciated, too, of course.

Either way, hope to see you all again next chapter. Hopefully sooner than later. Take care!