Kanzaki Kaori and the Power of God were facing off ten meters away from each other.
But for a believer of Christianity, this could only be described as stupid. It was not that Kanzaki was too weak or the archangel was too strong; it was not that kind of simple dimensional question, but an even more basic and simpler paradox.
Basically, all the religions in human history had a rule.
It was the decree that they couldn't go against God.
It would be different if it were the pagans who believed in different gods, but the Christians believed that they couldn't go against the Christian angels. On thinking about it, that was something obvious.
In other words. Since Kanzaki was affiliated to the church, she wouldn't be able to beat the Power of God.
In terms of rock-paper-scissors, the believers were scissors, and angels were rock. It was obvious to see who would win.
So Kanzaki's action was really comical.
But the angel girl didn't say anything, or even show a smile of pity.
Power of God raised one of its water wings. Though they were about ten meters away from each other, it didn't matter to the seventy-meter-long water wing; instead, it may have been too close.
The water wings that were infused with Telesma from tip to tip could each send out a Judgment that could wreck a city. Once it sent that, this beach would vanish completely, forming a crate like cover, like how in legend, God shaped the earth.
Power of God didn't hesitate.
Even though it knew the devastation this would cause on a human.
The archangel that controlled the color blue raised the seventy meter water wing in the air without hesitation.
Such a scene gave a look that a tower was collapsing. The air that was ripped became a fist of air as it scattered about, until the wind itself collapsed due to the water wing. The water wing came swinging down at Kanzaki Kaori with shocking speed.
It was all over.
Everything should have been over.
BAM! With a clear sound, the water wing was sliced in half by a horizontal flash.
Who could have predicted such a scene?
Power of God was stunned, and Kanzaki merely took a deep breath in response.
The over two-meter-long nodachi that was hanging from Kanzaki Kaori's waist.
The moment she drew the sword, the seventy-meter-long water wing was sliced easily like a bamboo tube. Also, the remains of the sliced water wing immediately scattered into powder like an explosion and vanished into the darkness of the night sky.
Kanzaki didn't say anything.
The long blade of the nodachi had already been sheathed silently into the black sheath.
The bangs of the Power of God trembled slightly. The glass-ball-like eyes behind the bangs rolled about, seemingly looking for Kanzaki's weakness. Power of God raised another water wing from its back, as if it were an experiment.
This time, the water wing swung over, and the storm it whipped up seemed like it would flatten everything.
But the same thing happened again.
ZZSSTT!! Kanzaki Kaori's slash easily sliced that fifty-meter-long water wing in half.
And Kanzaki's body hadn't wavered from the speed of the unsheathing nodachi or the weight. The moment the blade was drawn, it was sheathed back silently.
Ten meters away, Kanzaki Kaori calmly stroked her hilt.
The angel stopped.
It seemed to be thinking of a new tactic to deal with this prey.
"I think that" Kanzaki taunted, "you don't have to be shocked about this level of counterattack. Seems like you underestimated this being called Kanzaki Kaori."
Power of God didn't respond. What replaced it were two water wings that crossed each other like pliers.
BOOM! The two water wings struck at Kanzaki with a boom.
But Kanzaki flipped her body like a tornado, slashing the two water wings in half at the same time with one strike.
"..."
The bangs swayed about in the air, the eyes behind them rolled about, seemingly confirming something.
It wasn't just one or two, four water wings had been sliced. It was obvious that this wasn't a random coincidence. But if so, this formed a paradox, Christians couldn't possibly oppose Christian angels.
On the other hand, Kanzaki looked rather casual.
"You believe that I'm just a simple Christian, and that's the beginning of your mistakes."
Kanzaki confidently explained.
"My spells belong to the Amakusa Church. That's a Japanese Christianity sect that got persecuted during the Edo period and created out of the necessity to maintain our belief."
In that cruel era, when merely holding a cross or a statue of the Virgin Mary resulted in painful executions, the believers could only use the wooden plates Shintoism and Buddhism to use as cover, and ended up mixing with other religions until they couldn't even tell which parts were Shintoism's, which parts were Buddhism's, and which parts were Christianity's. Thus, they ended up creating a new religion.
The multi-religious aspects Christian system, the Amakusa.
In other words, since Christian spells couldn't beat an angel, instead of using Christian spells, she should use Buddhism or Shintoism spells or any spells from religions that didn't have any angels to attack the angel.
If Christian spells wouldn't work, she'd use Buddhist spells.
If Buddhist spells wouldn't work, she'd use Shinto spells.
If Shinto spells wouldn't work, she'd use Christian spells.
The Amakusa could use other sorts of spells to make up for the religions' weaknesses. So the fact that the Christians couldn't beat angels didn't exist for Kanzaki.
Power of God looked frozen. Three water wings came swinging over the left and right.
But the water wings were still easily sliced by Kanzaki's nodachi flash.
"And Japan's Shintoism is one that has many gods. It has the belief that all things on earth have a divine attachment of many gods to it; any tool that doesn't have any value will become a part of God's will after a long time. There are many gods that are created by human means, like the dog gods, monkey gods and serpent gods that protect the house. Perhaps among all the religions, Shintoism has the most gods."
Kanzaki deliberately stroked the Shichiten Shichitou.
"Thus, it may be hard for an angel with only one god to imagine. Shintoism has many gods, and there are even interaction spells between humans and gods, human spells that are meant to take on Christian spells. In many Japanese folklore, there's a lot of stories about using an ordinary nodachi to kill an evil god who lost its mind or request for a girl as a sacrifice. Shintoism has a taboo—one mustn't harm gods. Think about it, why is there such a rule?"
Kanzaki Kaori said that casually.
She was declaring to the angel that this wouldn't be a one-sided battle.
"..."
Power of God stared at the enemy silently. Absorbing new seawater, the sliced water wings were restored to their old shape and size.
But for Kanzaki, she didn't need any preparations. She just needed to use her fingers to lightly stroke the hilt of the nodachi at her waist. Using the unique breathing to refine the magic energy within her, she could turn herself into the Breaker of God.
Silence.
After a tenth of a second of silence that an ordinary human couldn't feel.
The Power of God and the Breaker of God started their duel with their lives on their line.
BOOM! A roar could be heard.
The archangel sent a fifty-meter-long water wing sliding down from above, and it was sliced in half by Kanzaki, who was 10m in front of it.
But the Power of God didn't mind. No matter how many water wings were cut, it could repair them. This time, the water wing swung over from the left, trying to use the time Kanzaki was undefended while she was sheathing her nodachi.
After Kanzaki sliced this attack, the next attack from the right was aimed at Kanzaki's back.
The Power of God and Kanzaki were about ten meters away from each other. The angel seemed like it wanted to maintain that distance and continued to attack Kanzaki with the water wings to prevent Kanzaki from getting close.
Kanzaki spun her body and turned her head around, slicing the water wing behind her with one slash. Seeing this, three water wings of the messenger of God attacked from the air, each with a slight time interval between them.
Even though there was a time interval, the difference was measured by a hundredth of a second. An ordinary person couldn't really sense that somewhat godlike speed. A human needed 0.18 seconds to process the command from the brain to the fingers, but Kanzaki in the Breaker of God mode could enter superhuman territory for a fixed duration, thus such logic didn't apply to her. Her blood vessels, muscles, nerves, organs and bones had obtained the God Breaker ability under the spell.
ZAN! The first water wing of the trio was slashed by Kanzaki's Battojutsu technique.
Before the next hundredth of a second arrived, Kanzaki had already sheathed the Shichiten Shichitou and prepared for the next attack.
Too easy, Kanzaki smiled in that time, but at that moment...
The second water wing actually exploded by itself.
Numerous blades that looked small broken pieces of glass were fired at Kanzaki.
"What...?"
Just as Kanzaki was trying to deal with the torrent of blades, the third water wing rushed over at a speed faster than the torrent of blades.
"...Ugh!"
Kanzaki was barely able to slash that unexpected third wing, but Kanzaki didn't have enough time to sheath the nodachi. If she sheathed it, she wouldn't be able to deal with the torrent of blades that were coming at her. Kanzaki gave up on the iaido and used the drawn nodachi to deal with the torrent of blades.
But it was impossible to block all the thousands of the blades with a nodachi.
Seventeen of the blades landed around Kanzaki (Though being able to knock them all away was already an unbelievable skill on its own). The boom caused a shockwave like explosion, and the sand surrounding her to whipped up.
Her vision was completely taken away by the wall of sand, like a storm in a desert.
At that moment, the water wings attacked from the left, right, and front right direction, ripping through the sand wall like paper doors.
At that moment, the trend for the battle was set.
Kanzaki and the Power of God were ten meters away from each other. In other words, Kanzaki couldn't attack the Power of God, but the Power of God could attack Kanzaki.
And under the quick attacks of the angel, Kanzaki didn't even have time to put her drawn nodachi back into the sheath. She couldn't use her Battojutsu, so Kanzaki could only swing her nodachi desperately. Anyone could tell that Kanzaki was at the disadvantage there.
Kanzaki gritted her teeth.
She was one of the ten strongest magicians in London.
In Kanzaki's lifetime, the number of times she had lost in a one on one matchup could be counted with less than the number of fingers on both hands. And also, the 'one on one' didn't just mean human vs. human. Sometimes, it had been human vs. beast kings or even human vs. weapons.
But such a record seemed like it was going to be tested heavily today.
The record that could be counted with only the fingers on both hands seemed like it was not going to be enough.
However...
There was a huge question mark over whether the battle against that angel, who surpassed all logic, should count.
DOGAGAGAGAZAZAZAZA! Every second, there would be four or five water wings sliced apart in sparks.
The just-hardened nodachi seemed to lose its sharpness as they continued to be sliced.
The angel didn't want to give Kanzaki any time to rest. It continued to swing the water wings at a terrifying speed, intending to let the battle become a battle of attrition and wear Kanzaki down. Kanzaki didn't even have a hundredth of a second to rest. The numerous water wings seemed like creatures with a life of their own as they attacked Kanzaki with all sorts of angles, directions, speed and time intervals.
At that moment, there seemed to be something shining in Kanzaki's hand under the moonlight.
Hiiun! With the sound of the air being ripped, seven steel wires shot out.
Nanasen.
Of course, facing the water wings that were thoroughly infused with Telesma, mere steel wires wouldn't work. Even though they were steel wires of global historical value, made from a swordsmith named Hidarimoji, they would be easily cut like a spiderweb.
But the moment the steel wires were cut, the speed of the water wings would decrease.
Even though the feeble resistance would only cause the water wings to slow down by a tenth of a second.
However...
In this battle, that instant was enough to give another four or five blows.
"—lkCHE!"
Power of God rolled its eyeballs. It got careless and cut the steel wires, causing the water wings to slow down. Of course, Kanzaki Kaori wouldn't let that tenth of a second gap off. She raised her nodachi horizontally and quickly dashed forward—
—But at that moment, Kanzaki's legs lost their balance.
(...?)
The angel used that time to readjust its attacks and swung out three consecutive water wings attacks, but Kanzaki still managed to slice them with terrifying speed and accuracy. But at that moment, Power of God realized something.
Kanzaki Kaori was sweating as if she had a fever.
Even though the God Breaker ability existed, it didn't mean that anyone could use it. Besides the issue of talent, the more important point was the huge burden this spell exerted on the human body.
Actually, Kanzaki didn't really have a soft spot for Battojutsu.
It was just that if the spells she used couldn't decide the victor immediately, the huge burden would wreck her body.
The angel continued to attack mercilessly with the water wings as it stared at Kanzaki's face. Kanzaki was definitely moving far more than a normal human could, but not only was her face not turning red, it looked extremely pale as if it had been soaked in ice water. The hand that was holding onto the hilt of the nodachi was trembling.
The price of overworking had already started to wear Kanzaki's body down.
Power of God continued to swing the water wings as the effects of this battle of attrition were finally showing. If it kept the battle going, Kanzaki would wear herself out. Under the fast and slow attacks of the Power of God, Kanzaki's body finally started to waver.
The blue angel ordered the water wings behind it, intending to deal Kanzaki the final blow.
But Kanzaki stared at the Power of God with such sharpness in her eyes.
"...TOO SLOW!"
What was supposed to be the last water wing released by the angel was hacked in half by Kanzaki.
The continuous movements that were beyond an ordinary human body's capabilities caused Kanzaki's body temperature to rise abnormally, her blood flow was pulsating crazily, she was severely lacking oxygen, and her muscles and bones were creaking. That pain went beyond the fever; it could be said to be worse than taking poison.
But Kanzaki didn't stop.
With such savage and suicidal intent, she continued to hack at the water wings one by one, not letting up.
Kanzaki Kaori was holding off the angel's attacks, getting closer to death.
Every move she took, she could clearly feel her body being eroded. Every time she swung the Shichiten Shichitou, the overwork would rip her joints and twitch her blood vessels. The organs that were unable to get enough oxygen were prompting Kanzaki's brain in pain.
There was no way to know how long Kanzaki could last. If an artery burst because of overwork, Kanzaki would die.
"But—"
Kanzaki gritted her teeth, ripping the two water wings that attacked in a tornado like manner.
She said with a bloody mouth, "—So what?"
Kanzaki continued to swing the nodachi like a storm, slashing numerous water wings.
She definitely couldn't let the Power of God get through.
The Kamijou father and son were trying to prevent the Sweep from activating. If Kanzaki fell, they would be attacked by the Power of God.
She definitely couldn't let the Power of God get through!
She slashed the water wings from outside and endured the corroding of her body. Even if she was scarred thoroughly, Kanzaki still gritted her teeth and held onto the nodachi, making numerous slashes every second when it was supposed to be impossible; she was slashing the water wings multiple times within a single second and preparing for the next attack.
The smell of blood and her gradually hazing consciousness caused Kanzaki to remember a distant memory.
At the time, Kanzaki had still been the Priestess of the Amakusa. For a twelve-year-old, such a position and respect had been too much for her. But Kanzaki had always wondered. One of the priests would always read a scripture of the Bible. But there was one chapter that Kanzaki never understood.
Heaven and Hell.
It was said that when humans die, God would decide whether a person should be sentenced to Heaven or Hell. So humans had to do a lot of good things in order to prepare for Heaven.
However...
If God had the power to save everyone, why did he need a Hell?
If God could save everyone without exception, why didn't he do so? Couldn't he just guide those who went down the wrong path? If he really had a pair of divine hands, why couldn't he just let everyone have happiness and let everyone smile happily?
Why was it that only a few people could earn that happiness?
Why must the people who weren't chosen be sent to Hell?
Kanzaki had always been one of the chosen ones. However, that ended up causing the people around her miss out on getting chosen. When a plane Kanzaki had taken crashed, Kanzaki was the only survivor. When Kanzaki was hunted by an assassin, the bullet missed, but hit someone else beside her. When Kanzaki's room was blown up, many people had covered Kanzaki to block the impact, one of them a child less than ten years old.
The people who never got chosen until the end still smiled when they saw Kanzaki.
"Ahh, that's great."
"It's okay if you're alright."
They said that as they squeezed out their last ounces of breath, reaching out their hands to pat the young crying Kanzaki on the head to comfort her.
And then closed their eyes with that peaceful expression, and the comforting hands gradually lost their strength.
All that was Kanzaki's fault.
When God assigned happiness, he would mess up. So people like Kanzaki who weren't strong would be cared for, and numerous people would suffer for her. Thus Kanzaki didn't want to use her power for people who were chosen like her. That was because those who were chosen could live on with their own power, and that power shouldn't be hoarded among those chosen.
If Kanzaki's power was taken from those who weren't chosen, she should return it to them.
Because those who helped others, would always be the people who weren't chosen and were mercilessly abandoned.
So Kanzaki couldn't kill. Even if she had such tremendous power, she couldn't kill. There was once a time when Kanzaki had fought against a boy because of a certain situation. Anyone could have predicted the outcome of a fight between an expert and an amateur. It had been decided in mere seconds. However, the battered boy asked Kanzaki why she didn't kill him. The answer was simple, it was not that she hadn't wanted to, but that she couldn't. It was because those that Kanzaki wanted to protect were people who provided help to others like how the boy was beaten up.
So Kanzaki had made up her mind.
She would focus her only belief into her blade and use it to force open her own path.
God, if you're only willing to save the people you chose...
Then I'll save the people who weren't.
"—Ha, AAAHHH!!"
Kanzaki exhaled, and the Shichiten Shichitou swung out, slicing two water wings. The retracted blade lashed out again and attacked a third water wing. After defending against numerous attacks, Kanzaki was gradually beginning to feel that this battle would not last for long.
Kanzaki would most likely lose. Even though she had managed to obtain the God Breaker body through the Amakusa spell, she couldn't possibly remain unharmed through the vicious attacks of the water wings.
But Kanzaki wouldn't give up her life for naught. The moment her body got worn down, the water wings of the Power of God would slow down. If she used that chance and her remaining strength to infuse the God Breaker power into the Shichiten Shichitou and threw it at Sasha Kreutzev, maybe she could kill the archangel inside Sasha Kreutzev.
Kanzaki's face ached in pain.
But that wasn't because her defeat could be easily predicted.
But because Kanzaki didn't want to kill the Power of God as well. She just wanted to hold off the archangel. The Shichiten Shichitou Battojutsu Yuisen was different from the wire spell Nanasen, which was used to trick the enemy; she couldn't hold back. Thinking that her nodachi may accidentally hurt the Power of God, Kanzaki felt the strength gradually seep away from her fingertips.
But Kanzaki knew that she couldn't stop her blade. If she didn't go all out, Kanzaki would be ripped apart by the Power of God in an instant. Once Kanzaki lost, the Kamijou father and son would die.
If she wanted to save their lives, she couldn't relent in her attacks.
But if this kept up, Kanzaki would still have to choose to kill the Power of God.
And that was one of the reasons why Kanzaki had wanted Kamijou to get away from the battlefield as much as possible. If the amateur Kamijou went up against the Power of God, the chances of him dying immediately would be more than 99%. However, Kamijou's right hand had the Imagine Breaker that could erase any supernatural power. If he actually managed to touch the Power of God that was formed entirely by supernatural power, it was likely that the Power of God would be erased.
All those who weren't chosen were among those Kanzaki wanted to save.
Viewing it from another perspective, the archangel in front of her didn't want to be put in that situation.
When Angel Fall had been activated, among all the angels, only it had been affected, which was obviously another misfortune.
So...
(...If I want to settle this and prevent anyone from getting hurt or dying, I can only hope that Kamijou Touma can remove Angel Fall. I beg of you, Kamijou Touma, before this stupid battle lasts any longer—)
Kanzaki gave a painful expression as she continued to swing the Shichiten Shichitou.
Even when she was about to die, Kanzaki still prayed for the Power of God who was forcing her to her death. Kanzaki was praying deep inside like a terrified child.
(—I beg of you, please save this angel, Kamijou Touma!)