32 Chapter 30

A reaction called 'consequence' awaits us every time we perform an action.

There are no exceptions.

This rule applies to everyone.

Even simple things like waking up early in the morning and choosing to have breakfast or not. Or simply if you choose to be crazy and play with space-time. All of this has ramifications.

Yes, exactly this.

My body still aches, trails of blood running down my lips, but now I finally know something.

Even if only a little understanding, as there is still a lot of information missing.

In a future unknown to me, I will discover some power that allows me to see the ramifications of possible pasts and possible futures.

A power similar to Ancient one and Doctor Strange who carry the infinity stone of time.

Not only will I be able to see the future/past ramifications, but also send my mind to the past.

And that's when I reborn as Julian di ser Piero Da Vinci, Angelie's brother.

My goal to go back in time?

I don't know.

I still don't have all the memories. All I know is through my future self sending me dreams to remind me of what I haven't experienced yet.

The information submitted by myself in the future is limited.

Ignorance is a virtue depending on the perspective.

Anyway, my time to experience the past would still be in my future.

But after all, where did the name Hikimage come from??

In my life as Julian, I chose this codename to refer to myself and it fits well who I am. Angelie just stole it and introduced herself as Hikimage.

The term Hikikomori didn't exist in 1498 and this term defines well how I got my powers until now...

Self recluse in home, 'Hikikomori and Mage'.

"Don't take me for a fool. You're not heir to the Da Vinci house," Cassiel said, pointing the spear in my direction. "The heiress was a woman, I remember. Angelie, isn't she? The power-hungry sister who killed her own brother in an unholy ritual. All to gain more power. Her final fate was tragic and she lives cursed like a monster until today, so sad... Did you shed a tear killing your brother? Huh?"

"Cursed?" I asked scornfully, "This is our creation. She's not cursed."

I looked at the giant figure that was Angelie, before saying, "Kill him big sister."

"Little brother," Angelie said towards me, before turning to the fallen angel, "Your sin was to hurt my dear little brother. Even if it was his plan to happen... I can't forgive you. Even if you are a puppet chosen by him for his grand plan...I can't forgive you...AGRRHHHHHHHH!!"

Angelie's giant figure claps both hands together as if saying a prayer.

And the giant formerly known as 'Hikimage' began to grow.

3 meters.

5 meters.

12 meters.

20 meters high.

Seeing the purple cloaked giant grow wildly, Cassiel flew away to catch his breath.

Cassiel was tired from his earlier attack, wielding St. George's spear put too much weight on him. This weapon had not been created to be in the hands of angels, but of humans.

Taking advantage of the angel's detachment, I look to my right.

I looked like an insect next to that monstrosity, but instead of cowering... I hobbled towards the giant's boots.

A part of the giant's cloak broke into strips of cloth and as if it were a tentacle, grabbed me around the waist before pulling me into the cloak.

Cassiel who saw the scene frowned. What was happening? he thought.

What the fallen angel didn't know was...

Inside the giant is actually hollow.

"Little brother, you're still hurt, try not to move too much," said a blonde girl who has both arms and legs attached to a control device.

That giant figure was actually no different from a Megazord made of cloth and magic.

Angelie is a blonde girl, with a slim build, gray eyes and complementary flat. Her skin looked like it was made of porcelain, flawless and without any signs of aging. She was a beauty in flat is justice mode.

"You shouldn't be worrying about me," I turn to the giant screen in front of us and say, "You have a cadre-class fallen angel to face."

She nods and returns to focus.

Outside.

The battle begins.

The purple giant figure slams his feet on the ground, causing cracks and a slight earthquake.

A magic circle of at least a few kilometers has formed in the sky, a consequence of the previous actions.

"Ehhhh??" Cassiel blurted out in surprise to feel his body at least 50 times heavier and his wings seemed to be being interfered with by some anti-flight spell.

The fallen angel reacted faster and wouldn't allow himself to fall carelessly like the last time.

His body snatched the edge of a building as he fell, sliding and dragging a fingernail mark along the structure of the walls.

All construction and objects within a few kilometers were also very heavy. This was gravity control over an immense area.

"If you~" before the fallen angel could complete.

The purple-cloaked giant disappeared from his field of vision.

A few meters to his right a fist the size of a locomotive came towards the fallen angel, that the only possible escape was to cross his arms and...

*BANG*

The fist slammed into Cassiel, hitting the part of the building he was grazing and sending his figure flying like a cannonball.

*BOOM*BOOM* *BOOM*

Cassiel passed through various structures while being thrown away like a doll.

Until the last structure interrupts Cassiel's trajectory, which was the impact of his back hitting the walls of another building.

From the crater Cassiel lies in the building's wall, he summons the power within himself again.

"Die," cried Cassiel in madness as he poured his power into the spear.

A golden laser that carries sacred energy came towards us, which was as large in diameter as the giant we were standing on.

The glow engulfed us, making the cadre grin in joy and relief.

He didn't want to continue this fight for long.

As the explosion subsides and a cloud of smoke has formed, the fallen angel looks in the direction of his attack with a tense face.

Did not take too long.

In the midst of the dissipating smoke, we appear, the same giant, intact.

This 'giant' is a magic item called 'Moiras', a mage cloak that covers the full body, which could expand and serve as armor/megazord, but not only that...

Through the internal controls perform magic, using the giant's high absorption capacity and also choose an elemental resistance according to the controller's preference.

Unfortunately for the fallen angel, the odds weren't favorable for him.

Angelie had chosen the giant to have holy damage resistance, all damage from this element was nullified.

The only 'Moiras' weakness would be if there were multiple enemies to cast different types of elements

From there the battle was one of resistance.

Even at the disadvantage of his attacks being ineffective, Cassiel did justice to being a cadre and fought valiantly.

The scenery in fake Tokyo was utterly desolate and completely unrecognizable.

If it were in the real world people in other countries would say that Japan was under attack by bombings constantly.

Luckily this was just an artificial dimension.

"Haha," Cassiel's pitiful sight is seen lying inside a crater. "I wonder if crying now is a bad choice."

He had been punched several times in this stalemate.

Seeing that there was no way to harm us, at some point he even tried to escape the dimension. Needless to say, Angelie had countermeasures to stop him from achieving this and his end was inevitable.

Angelie has no mercy and raises her fists once more and...

*BANG*

The fist that looked like a meteorite impact and destroyed Cassiel.

Again... And again he was pulverized by incessant attacks, until the last breath of Cassiel, the angel who carried the tears, was given.

Outside now, I walk around still bruised and I crouch briefly on the floor to pick up my prize.

A spear that gives off a brief golden glow rests in my hand. It was hard not to be pleased with such a precious treasure.

Although the spear isn't a Sacred Gear Longinus, that wasn't far from power.

...

Elsewhere, to be more specific... In an old house in the Italian countryside.

"So this is where you've been hiding," I say to myself, as I'm sitting on a bench, posing for a painting of a certain girl who loved painting.

The house around me is simple, nothing luxurious or anything like that. We were in a room with a single sofa, white walls, ceiling with a small chandelier and a bench in the center on which I sat.

The blonde was painting my portrait on a board and she said, "Please stay still, sweet brother."

Angelie wore a red French beret, yellow T-shirt with flower details and black pants. She also had a slightly displeased face because...

"You always seem to complain that I move," I laughed as I remembered seeing it in the dream.

"How much do you remember?" Angelie asked a little tense and hopeful.

"Actually I lied to you," I said in an apologetic tone and seeing her sad face wasn't nice. "All I know is that we're going to meet sometime in the future. I know your name from my dream and that we'll be siblings, but… I'm not Julian per se. Not yet."

"A hopeless case. You're still just as much of a liar as ever," she pauses briefly in silence and continues, "but I still love you unconditionally. I've waited nearly 500 years for you."

It was weird to hear someone say they love you when you don't even know them.

"It's funny to think that your future is actually my past," she said dryly aloud to herself.

At some point in my future, it is inevitable that I will take a trip to the past and finally be able to meet the younger Angelie.

I don't know why I would go back in the past, but for things to be as they are... This means that this is an irrevocable point in my story.

"Why Rias? Why did you try to get me closer to her? The books you left with her are an attempt at that. The harpies you left me to 'die', this was all planned too, wasn't it?" I threw multiple questions into the air.

"Ugh. I don't really know either," Angelie said a little tired of trying to figure out the puzzle.

"You're the mad scientist, not me. You're supposed to give me the answers. I just follow my gospel." She said again.

"Gospel?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," Angelie said as she removed a book from her back, which I honestly didn't know where she got it from... But I preferred not to imagine things.

"This is the gospel. A book left by you for me. It says everything I need to do and everything I need to remember or forget."

"I can see a little?" I ask with my outstretched.

"Of course," she smiles and hands me the 'gospel'.

I start flipping through the pages and reading the contents written there.

It was a book that contained dates and places where Angelie was supposed to be or what she was supposed to be doing.

The book told Angelie 6 months ago to Summon Rias and gift her magical books. Even the choice of books was not random, the gospel chose the titles that should be placed in the redhead's hands.

Silly details like, The name Hikimage97_human needed to be placed on the cover of each book were also described. It was as if every detail and action were a play. Everything had to act according to the script.

The gospel book was not common, it had the function of erasing Angelie's memory at the right times so that she would act in the right way.

Pages could also change and new words would emerge alone over time.

The truth was... For the last 500 years, all Angelie has done or lived for is follow the gospel.

She relentlessly persisted, with an unhealthy, unrelenting faith in the one who means everything to her, her dear brother.

Even the blood that night I saw in the abandoned house was premeditated.

It was a ruse to make me think she was the killer and get me into the circumstances I did.

My hate for 'Hikimage'? A way to make myself stronger and to seek power.

The harpies that were chosen as my challenge? Gospel Choices.

"You will stay away from this book," I ordered immediately. "This is cruel. Living your whole life surrounded by what a book tells you? This is cruel beyond measure. I don't know what went through my head to~" Before I could finish venting my frustrations.

"You didn't want to do that either, Little Brother. I was the one who chose to live for you." She smiles and looks at me with a look I'm all too familiar with. It's the same look my harpies give me. "Living under your dominion is exactly what I want. What I need to."

For seven hells.

I was mistaken.

That girl doesn't love me.

She's obsessed with me.

"In the past by my mistake I almost killed my little brother, which in this case will be you," She said as she ran her hands over my cheeks and caressed. "And yet you forgave me and made me feel loved. The world might catch on fire, but if I'm with you --- I'll sing and laugh while everyone screams into the flames."

Ugh. So scary.

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Warning: [Index] has detected a presence hiding 10 meters away.

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I look towards a half-open door, Angelie follows my gaze and smiles. She opens her mouth and says, "You can come Valerie-chan."

I widened my eyes upon hearing that name and from behind the door a blonde shyly emerged.

"Let me get this straight," I say sarcastically, "another Gospel request?"

"Of course," Angelie replied with a pearly smile in my direction.

That was Valerie Tepes, User of the Longinus Sephiroth Graal and a childhood friend of Gasper.

"You tried to kill Rivezim during the Devil's Civil War and you managed to injure him," Angelie explained. "Unfortunately he ran away and managed to survive. You said I couldn't allow him to reach her for some reason."

Okay, that was a lot of information.

If that were really true...

Things weren't looking good.

Rivezim could act even more aggressive and dominating.

I had an enemy to eliminate.

"What happened to Julian? I mean, ummm, me?" I asked.

"Julian died. You went back to the future, or at least that's what you told me before you left," she explained with a sad look.

Ummmm... That left me with some theories to think about.

It seems my go back technique just sends my mind and if I die... I go back to the point where I activated the technique.

For example...

If I chose to go back in time now and send my mind to the past and possess the body of an 'A' guy.

If I died in the 'A' body guy...

My mind returns to moments after the spell is activated.

I gonna call it mind return for now, as I don't know how to refer it.

Seems like Professor Who, the Time Lord is an apt term for me.

What does the future hold for me? I still do not know.

I only know that I now had a spear almost as strong as a Longinus and the Sephiroth graal.

I hope this is enough for the coming chaos.

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Author Note:

I'm leaving for a doctor's appointment and that's why I posted the chapter earlier. I will read and respond to comments later.

Send Power Stones Hehe.

Thanks everyone