Tale of Discovery

Once we get home, I open my laptop and look for another contract kill.

I do need to buy a house big enough to accommodate us after all.

However, while I'm surfing the web, I come across something that sends shivers down my spine.

"Mysterious beings spotted near Italia."

Normally one would think of this as some random article or something, but that's definitely not the case here. I'm sure of it.

Looking at the pictures taken from afar, I recognize the place. It's the very same place I saw in one of my visions. The ruined buildings, the eerie vibe the place gives off, and most importantly the figures that are frozen mid-air.

I can tell, those are the very same individuals that the one in my vision held off while the other guy was working on the circle.

What's going on? Why are there pictures of those very moments on the internet?

With the uneasy feeling inside of me continuously growing, I grab my laptop and go to the living room where all the girls are at, then turn to Koneko who is curled up on the sofa.

"Koneko, I need to ask you something," I say to her.

She gets up and looks me in the eye for a few seconds before nodding.

I create a small table and set the laptop down on it before asking,

"Do you know anything about this?"

Koneko curiously looks at the pictures displayed on the screen before nodding and saying,

"That's Italia."

Even she is calling it Italia instead of Italy.

The uneasy feeling inside of me keeps on growing by the second. I need to ask her properly,

"When were these pictures taken? I don't want a specific date, I'm just asking if the events in the pictures happened recently or a while ago."

She looks a little confused as she replies,

"The Heavenly War. It was fought by the gods. A long, long time ago. Now, Italia is frozen."

What? Heavenly War? Gods? An extremely long time ago? But the pictures are high-quality ones, so they cannot be THAT old.

"What do you mean by 'Italia is frozen'?", I press further.

She tilts her head to the side as she replies,

"Time is frozen? Don't know. Everyone is stopped."

Frozen time? Wait... Janus? Are they all related?

While I'm thinking, I suddenly feel a dense killing intent. Raising my head to see where it's coming from, I see Yuno who has a look of anger on her face.

Her irises are both red and glowing. Everyone has instinctively gotten away from her due to the thickness of the killing intent she's emitting.

"WHY?!", she suddenly exclaims as energy bursts from her, cracking the walls and other inanimate objects in the room.

This is really bad. I don't know what's going on with her, but there is something wrong. I need to get the others out of here.

Gift:

-Regeneration

-Absolute Evasion

"Everyone, get out of here now!", I exclaim.

"My Angels, come over to where I am at urgently!"

[Understood.]

Fixing my focus back on Yuno, I notice that she's started to float up from the sofa and now there is a red glow coming from the center of her chest.

The others seem to have realized the severity of the situation as they all safely rush out of the apartment apart from Sora and Krul.

"Sora, go! This isn't a joke!", knowing that she's but an ordinary human, I can't risk her life here.

Sora stares at me for a few seconds, meanwhile, the aura around Yuno begins to change, before she finally leaves.

"Krul?" I ask as I put my guard up against Yuno.

"I will help you out. Do you know what's wrong with her?", she says.

"No idea at all. This is too abrupt," I reply.

The next moment, Yuno raises her arm and shouts,

"Banishment!"

------

The scenery has changed. Krul and I find ourselves in the familiar ruined world. Yuno is floating in front of us and her appearance has changed.

Her hair is now blood-red colored, her arms are covered in red runes, and most importantly, her clothes.

The normal clothes she wore have gone, and their place is what seems to be an old and ragged black dress. At the center of the dress is a symbol a little similar to the one that appeared on the hands of my Angels when I converted them.

"Yuno, what are you doing?", I try to establish a conversation with her.

"WHY?!", she once again exclaims, "Why do you always go for her! Ever since time memorial, I've always been beside you, yet... yet... You chose HER!"

What is she even talking about? I don't remember doing such a thing to her. I was with her the whole time. We finished "the game" together and I chose to die. Then- Wait. Is this related to the scene I saw before I died? She was speaking with Juno...

"She's gone now!", Yuno continues to exclaim, "She's sealed away! Just when I could finally have you all to myself, you go looking for her again!"

Sealed? Who is? And what the heck is she on about?

{Father, the excessive energy she's releasing has allowed me to tap into information about her. I've found the real name of her Code. It's Sigilla.}

Wait, wasn't it Dominion?

{She lied.}

Then are her powers not related to space?

{No. She's incapable of doing that. In fact, from the energy she's releasing, she's far below such a Digit.}

Digit?

{A Digit defines how transcendent a Code is.}

This means that if we are to fight her, our chances of winning against her are not that low anymore, right?

{Affirmative.}

"Krul, she has lied about her powers. They're not related to space. Her Code is Sigillum, whatever that is," I forward to Krul.

Krul looks at me for a few seconds and says, "Sigilla? That's Latin, isn't it? If it is, it translates to 'seals'."

Seals? Her powers are related to seals? How does she form them and how do they work? My thoughts are interrupted by Yuno suddenly exclaiming,

"Now that Infi is sealed, no one can stop me from taking you away!"

Immediately after that, some circles with weird numbers and words as well as symbols on it appear on her hands.

{Those are Sigillum. The manifestation of her Code.}

After forwarding Irene's words to Krul, I take off from the ground using Flight and use Holy Slash.

Yuno looks at the incoming light slash and raises her left arm before exclaiming,

"Barrier!"

The Sigillum on her hand breaks into particles as a cyan orb forms around Yuno. My light slashes it, but it doesn't affect it at all.

Yuno raises her other arm which has another Sigillum on it and exclaims,

"Disintegration."

The next moment, the Sigillum on her hand breaks down and in the center of her palm, a familiar energy beam is released.

"Krul, dodge it!", I shout before channeling Destruction in my arms and punching the barrier around Yuno.

Fortunately, Krul dodges the beam with her extreme beam.

I knew it. That energy beam is the very same one that was used by Legion back in Project Charlotte.

My Destruction manages to break the barrier around her. As I'm about to punch her, she suddenly exclaims,

"Teleportation," before she disappears from the spot.

"I wanted to at least finish her off before doing this... " I suddenly hear her voice behind me.

Turning around, I see Yuno standing on a ruined building, blood flowing out from her eyes and mouth as she exclaims,

"Connect, Summon - Bind!"

The next moment, the symbol on her dress slowly dissolves into nothingness as a crack in space appears in front of Yuno.

"Come out and fight for me!", Yuno yells with vigor before coughing blood out several times.

Suddenly, a hand extends from within the spatial crack. Then, a shoulder is shown before finally, a girl is revealed.

The girl has red eyes and long black hair. She's wearing a black a sleeveless tank top with a red tie. On her hands are red gauntlets and black gloves. As for her lower body, she's wearing a black skirt and black boots.

Her expression is stern and her posture is straight.

Definitely a no-joke kind of person...

The most eye-catching thing about her is the black katana she's holding. For some reason, it's giving off a weird deathly aura.

Yuno approaches the girl and places her hands on the girl's back before saying,

"Flight, Regeneration, Speed, Strength Boost..."

I am aware that she's being buffed up and need to attack her, but I can't just rush there. She could have set up traps.

I focus my vision by Clairvoyance and see there are indeed several Sigilla around the building. No wonder the construction stood upright unlike the rest...

"Go!", Yuno promptly shouts while pointing at us.