"Holy hell..."
Zephyr's voice echoed through the shattered skyline. "Ahjma'il, Ragna— secure the blast zone. I'm heading for the point where we sensed the Saint."
Ahjma'il stepped forward, robes flowing like living silk, his angelic beauty almost out of place against the charred ruins. He bowed, one knee touching the ground.
"Understood, Master."
His body dissolved into a radiant pillar of light.
Ragna— scarred, young-faced, a walking contradiction— exhaled sharply and nodded. Lightning crackled around him before he vanished in a razor-thin spark.
Zephyr rolled his neck, stretching. "I'll need to let the master know..." He stepped off the spire— and before he touched the ground, a massive shark formed from water chi erupted beneath him. Zephyr landed on its back effortlessly as it surged forward, cutting through the air toward the ruined battlefield.
—
Ahjma'il and Ragna were the first to arrive.
The earth here was dead.
A ten-mile expanse of scorched earth. No trees. No soil. Just blackened glass, drifting ash, and a silence so deep it felt carved into the bones of the world.
And standing at the center of it, alone, unmoving—
was Heartz.
Ahjma'il approached slowly, almost reverently.
"No way..." Ragna muttered, wide-eyed. "This guy did it?"
Ahjma'il placed a hand over Heartz's chest, eyes softening with recognition.
"Ragna... this one accessed the Zero-Hope Ignition."
His voice, smooth and melodic like woven silk, floated over the wasteland.
"This guy? An Ignition user?" Ragna teleported closer, arms crossed, scanning Heartz with disbelief. "He doesn't look the type."
"I wouldn't call him a user," Ahjma'il replied. "Ignition isn't learned. It's... arrived at. Born from despair. And he touched it—just barely at that—when cornered."
The two Court Angels looked around at the devastation stretching endlessly around them.
"What kind of Aegis could cause something like this?" Ragna asked.
Ahjma'il only shook his head.
"Hurry up and heal him," Ragna sighed. "Last thing we need is corpses messing up this year's contestant list."
Ahjma'il nodded. Divine gold light wrapped around Heartz like a second sun—
and the charred skin, the cracked flesh, the death clinging to him all evaporated.
The glow faded.
Heartz collapsed to the glassy ground, fully healed... and fully naked.
"Damn," Ragna snorted. "He seared his clothes off too? What the hell was he fighting?"
Ahjma'il lifted a hand, expression stiffening.
"Do you smell that?"
Ragna squinted. "Smell wha—"
It hit him.
A stench so foul it felt alive: thick, rancid malice, old as plague and deeper than rot.
Ragna staggered back a step.
"Oh hell no... that's—"
Ahjma'il nodded once, eyes narrowing.
"The Black Death."
A freezing chill crawled up Ragna's spine.
"That... that thing is back?"
His voice was barely a whisper.
...
Zephyr dropped down beside King Ape's corpse, the enormous body charred, smoking, and completely missing its core.
"Ah... so some kids actually managed to beat it?" he muttered, crouching as he examined the remains. "God, that smell is awful."
Ahjma'il and Ragna appeared behind him, Ahjma'il carrying the unconscious Heartz over his shoulder.
"The—" Ragna began, but Zephyr cut him off with a dismissive wave.
"Yeah, I smelled that beast from a mile away. I know the Black Death is back."
Without hesitation, Zephyr plunged his hand deep into the monster's thigh.
"But this," he growled, "is much worse than that."
He pulled out a shifting shard—obsidian-like, but unstable, rippling and crawling across his hand like living liquid.
A cold pressure washed over the forest. Ragna and Ahjma'il stumbled back, their instincts screaming at them to run.
"Fuck man... and some kids came into contact with it..." Zephyr muttered. "I gotta go find them."
He stood, his massive form dwarfing his two Court Angels.
"Take that guy to the infirmary. I'll handle this."
Ragna and Ahjma'il nodded and vanished.
Zephyr sighed. "Now... where could they have gone?"
A moment later, the scent hit him—faint, but unmistakable. He followed it, though the trail kept slipping, fading in and out. Nearly two hours passed before he reached a collapsed cave entrance.
He raised a hand and blasted the rubble away, stone vaporizing under the force. Inside, three unconscious bodies lay scattered across the ground.
The moment he stepped in, Zephyr scowled.
"Dammit... he got his hands on one of my contestants."
He knelt, checking each face—until he flipped over Loretta's limp form.
"Dammit. Uriel's kid? This is gonna be a nightmare."
He gathered all three into his arms with ease. Standing at the cave mouth, he grimaced.
"I'm not walking all the way back with three people..."
Power leaked off him in waves, the air warping, cracking like glass under pressure.
"Open."
Reality split in front of him—shards of air peeling back—and Zephyr stepped through.
...
Erenyx, Rui, and Heartz lay unconscious in the infirmary, their bodies wrapped in soft bands of divine light.
Watching over them was the man known as the Weeping Angel, Ahjma'il Crowell. His gentle face shimmered with a single trailing tear as he kneeled beside their beds.
"Oh... what hardships they had to face," he murmured. His voice trembled with sorrow. "Why must such young souls endure trials like these?"
He stood slowly, lifting a hand over the three.
"One last round of healing should do..."
A warm, shimmering radiance washed over their bodies once more, closing the last traces of their wounds.
Meanwhile, Zephyr and Ragna watched over Loretta, who lay sealed behind a reinforced quarantine barrier.
"So... what exactly contaminated him?" Ragna asked, jaw tight. "He wouldn't need to be quarantined like this if it were just the Black Death's influence."
"And even if it were," he continued, frustration rising, "how the hell are we supposed to pull his influence off someone?"
Zephyr only shrugged. "I'll have to ask my master."
Ragna nodded sharply and left the room.
Zephyr exhaled and pressed two fingers to his temple.
"Hey. It's Old Boy. Patch me through to Master Caelus."
But the voice that returned wasn't Caelus— it was Orion.
"Caelus is unavailable right now," Orion said, sounding both curious and confused. "What do you need, Old Boy?"
Zephyr's tone darkened. "We've got two major problems. Someone—or a group—is trying to awaken the Black Death. And... we've had our first contact with the Saint again."
There was a long sigh on the other end.
"We're aware of the Saint," Orion replied. "We're already working to deter him. Worst case scenario, we'll have to deploy you again—and if that happens, bring anyone even remotely close to your strength."
He paused.
"But the Black Death... that's another matter. Depending on how fast it's reviving, you might not need to step in yet. Keep us updated."
Zephyr nodded. "Understood."