Chapter 12:

The price of victory; the taste of defeat

Fantaschiel!! The Legendary Rom-Com without Romance or Comedy in it


Taxel Fraudman is the type of person you should have in your contacts, because you never know when you might end up needing them later on in life. A man in his late sixties, suspiciously similar in appearance to a certain actor by the name of Morgan, wearing a very expensive looking suit. I wonder how he could afford it.

He is also the type of person you absolutely shouldn’t trust.

Taxel takes one of the coins into his hands, then bites down on it.

“Good gold. Soft.”

“They are not your snack, you know,” the angel replies with a hint of sarcasm.

The elderly man looks him in the eye, lifts an eyebrow, then proceeds to crunch down on the coin like it’s made of chocolate.

“Heyheyhey! That was a joke!”

“So, you’ve been traveling with that girl?” he ignores the panicked Dezechiel and nods in Fantastasia’s general direction. “Haven’t seen one of her kind ever before.”

The angel stares off into the sunset. The marble terrace they are situated on oversees a beautiful beach spreading out below them. Taxel Fraudman truly has one of the most expensive and beautiful villas Dezechiel has ever seen. It almost makes you question how he got it.

“She doesn’t really like talking about it.”

“Fair. There are things I don’t like talking about either. The IRS could tell you more about that, haha.”

Deze looks over at Fan-Fan. She’s absentmindedly chewing some gum, blowing large bubbles only for them to implode moments later. Her back leisurely resting against the railing, it’s like she doesn’t care one bit about the steep drop with a rocky landing behind her.

He takes one more look at the two chests worth of gold coins next to him and gets a one of a kind idea- a way to double his profit.

He quickly scraps it though. If the police were to investigate a murder case in the villa of Taxel Fraudman, chances are they’d find some other things too. And instead of adding a few numbers to his bank account, he’d be adding numbers to his prison sentence.

But we all know he doesn’t really want to kill Fantastasia. After all, if he wanted to, all he’d need to do is add some peanuts to her morning porridge.
Sometimes, he wonders though: what kind of burden is she shouldering?

\\

The tides of battle are ever changing, much like the ocean tides. A certain man by the name of Lacal Luth would have once argued these changes are caused by gravitational pull of the moon- a concept so wild he should probably get burned alive. Another man by the name of Dezechiel would argue that ’water simply flows’.

The battle-hardened veteran, Reiketsu Hen, walks out of the sea of flames. Finally, he’s met a worthy opponent. Dezechiel of Eden. Yep, that goofy and sleazy Dezechiel.

However, it isn’t quite Dezechiel he’s actually fighting. After all, whenever the brown-haired swordsman calls on his angelic powers, he isn’t really himself.

“Be not afraid, huh?” Reiketsu Hen chuckles. “That kind of firepower doesn’t match those words.”

Fantastasia slowly gets up from the ground, still struggling to breathe. True to the tradition of pink-haired girls in shounen battles, she isn’t of much use.

The angel ignores the taunt and looks at his opponent’s blade instead. The one that has taken many lives throughout the years. And tried to claim another one just a few seconds ago.

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Coming from someone who bitterly quarrels with his partner all the time, shittalking each other at every opportunity, it sounds a little conceited.

Another factor taking away from his seriousness is that his attire is… well, nothing but some colorful swimming trunks.

“Haha, you want me to toss this blade away? That’s fine with me!”

The old clan leader turns around, hurling his blade at the unassuming demon girl. She doesn’t really have the time to react- she thought would get ignored for the rest of the fight.

A wave of heat whooshes by. Suddenly, she finds herself getting princess carried out of harm’s way. The sword impacts the angel’s shoulder, crumbling to fine dust the moment it makes contact.

He looks down at the spooked demon girl in his arms. She isn’t aware how she got into this situation. She’s not sure if she consents to any of this. But damn, does he look dependable when he’s like this!

Dezechiel smiles at her without saying anything. Waitwaitwait, he’s definitely tall and slim in everyday life as well, but at this moment, he’s also very mysterious!

“Wait, you are…” he speaks, surprise written all over him as he comes to realize something.
Her face feels oddly hot. Eeeh, is she blushing? Because of Dezechiel…?

“Hen.”

Whoop. And just like that, she finds herself on the other side of the room. From there, an interesting sight presents itself to her: her angelic partner princess carrying the old clan leader, Reiketsu Hen.

Indeed, the seasoned veteran has a magical trick up his sleeve. At this point, it becomes obvious- he can swap places with someone else.

This sight has Fantastasia feeling confused- for some reason, the two men embracing each other is making her blush even harder than when SHE was in that position.

No matter how she may perceive it, with this spell, Reiketsu Hen manages to slide under the angel’s radar. From within his arms, he thrusts a dagger right into his chest at point blank range.

To his surprise, that is of no effect- the weapon crumbles to dust again, as if it was made of sand.

Dezechiel jumps back, letting go of the trickster veteran. A displeased grin fills his face, erasing the warm smile he had just a few moments back.

“The murderers and sorcerers, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

Wait? Sorcerers? Murderers? Fantastasia swiftly recalls the time she killed Tai Hen… with sorcery. She slowly starts sneaking out of the room. Maybe waiting until Deze goes back to his normal loser self is the correct play here.

Reiketsu Hen laughs. “What are you going to do, kill- ugh!”

He eats his words much sooner than he expected to. It only took one moment. He didn’t even blink and he still failed to catch the movement.

The angel is gripping him by the neck, lifting him off the ground with one hand. His demeanor has changed drastically- even a few seconds ago, when two blades aimed to take his life, he didn’t even flinch, carrying a wide smile on his face.

This time, the room is filled with nothing but the intent to kill.

“I take no pleasure in the death of anyone. Repent and live!”

Reiketsu Hen, struggling to breathe in the angel’s tight grip, smirks. With an agile kick, he breaks out of the chokehold. Dezechiel doesn’t pursue him. He merely frowns.

The old clan leader roars with laughter. “Alright, that one was good, but the real battle starts from-”

Suddenly, the room goes quiet though. Reiketsu Hen is no longer speaking. After all, a salt pillar has no way to speak.

“You! What have you done to my father!” Nekketsu Hen gets up, drawing her blade. Up until now, she was silently sitting by, observing the fight.

However, she’s met with the same faith. And Tekketsu Hen follows.

And, as luck would have it, they didn’t even buy enough time for Fantastasia’s escape.

The angel slaps his hands against the wall, trapping the perplexed demon girl between his arms. I mean, she could theoretically just crawl under. But Rom-Com laws dictate kabedon is a surefire paralyzing spell against main heroines.

Dezechiel stares into her eyes, only a few inches separating their faces.

Eeeh? Is she the only one feeling very hot? And this time, it isn’t because of the orb of fire behind him.

“I will allow you to go into the herd of pigs,” he says with the straightest face ever.

“Huh?”

Now, what could angelic Dezechiel mean by that? A wall slam followed by this statement is a rather unorthodox combo.

And the fact that they’re both still in their swimsuits, once again, doesn’t help.

Before she has time to think about whether he has some seriously weird suppressed tastes that only come up in this form, he grabs her by the neck and lifts her in the air, much like he did with Reiketsu Hen. And not in some romantic way.

Right- there’s a pretty good reason why Dezechiel tends to refrain from using his angelic form. For one, he doesn’t have control of what’s going on once he assumes it.

And the slightly more important fact is that angel’s aren’t particularly fond of demons, so he tries to murder Fantastasia sometimes.

The fact remains that he’s a guy though- and so, a quick kick under the belt takes care of that. Hurts no matter whether you’re a god or a peasant.

While Dezechiel is too busy recovering from the blow to his manhood, Fan-Fan picks her spear up from the ground.

Rule number 1 of fighting an incarnated angel: you don’t really want to look at them. They have a bad habit of turning people into salt pillars.

Rule number 2: ideally, she wants to freeze them before landing a strike. Or else her weapon will crumble to dust.

And finally, rule number 3, exclusive to Dezechiel: don’t aim for lethal spots. She doesn’t want to kill him, after all.

A wave of fire flies right at her. This time, she extinguishes it without any trouble. After all, she isn’t any weaker than he is.

He raises a brow. “Frost demon? That’s unheard of.” This is the first time he has broken his cryptic manner of speech. Just goes to show how he views the gravity of the situation.

She bites her lip. Not this again.

“Speaking of, I recall some angels entering hell got-”

No. With a swift swing, she shuts his mouth.

The demon girl pins the angel against the wall, a giant frost flower freezing him to it in an instant. Only his nose and eyes remain outside of the cold restraints.

She doesn’t need him talking about it. She knows.

Ice gripping him by the stumps left after his wings have been cut off, the two of them remain still within the frozen room. Fantastasia waits until the angel comes to and only then lifts the the spell of her frosty prison.

\\

Dezechiel, not very pleased with being beaten for something he doesn’t remember, walks a couple feet behind Fantastasia. Just in case. You can never be too sure when her emotions spill over again.

“So? You on your period or something? Why aren’t you talking to me?”

The girl groans. “Shut up. Just don’t use that stupid angel form ever again.”

“You don’t want ME using MY angelic powers, you don’t want to use YOUR frost magic… then how the hell are we supposed to defeat people??”

In a brisk motion, the demon girl turns around. Her hand lands on the cheeky angel’s cheek, sending ripples throughout his face.

He’s ready to retort with a sharp remark, but then notices her face. It’s not often he sees her eyes leaking like waterfalls.

Dezechiel has no idea what got her like this. This is not the Fan-Fan he usually knows. A sense of guilt overcomes him despite not quite knowing what he did wrong.

Whatever baggage you’ve got, Fantastasia, you don’t need to carry it alone.

He wishes her heart melted at least a little, even if only enough to let some of that anguish and grief flow out.