"Oh, is this yours?"

  Even though Evangeline's eyes seemed to almost threaten to suffocate his entire existence, the Man still used Evangeline's supposed feather as some sort of toothpick to clean his already immaculate teeth; and even though the Man's face is mostly covered by his hair, Evangeline still did not fail to see the similarity he had with Van.

  "It's been so long since I got this from wherever. You know, when one of my pocket galaxies went poof because someone decided to speed things up," the Man then dramatically opened both his hands, before waving his fingers in as he returned Evangeline's glare,

  "Don't you know how empty I felt, watching what should already be an evolved species once again return to stick and stones?"

  "So, you've been… watching?" Evangeline breathed out, "I figure that will only be a blink of your life, now hand me all the feathers you have—— they are mine."

  "……Why so serious?" The Man raised an eyebrow before once again slowly cleaning his teeth with the root of Evangeline's loose feather, "You should lighten u——"

  "Are you the creator of this universe?"

  "Wow. We haven't even kissed yet and you're already moving on to the personal questions," the Man then stood up from sitting on the white floor; and as he did so, it started to ripple; the circles growing bigger until it could no longer be seen in the horizon.

  "I have no time for jests," Evangeline then said as she took a step forward; but as she did so, it seemed like the Man was also moving back; and no matter how many times she took a step towards him, the distance between them remained.

  "Well, that's too bad… because all I have is time."

  "……I'll play your game, then."

  And as soon as Evangeline said that, the Man snapped his fingers. Evangeline was a bit wary as the floor beneath her started to bubble up, but the only thing that emerged from it was a chair.

  "……Who are you?" Evangeline said as she sat.

  "I am no one, but if you must call me by a name… then call me Sage," the Man breathed out as a chair also emerged from behind him, "And you?"

  "I am a fragment of Azrael, Evangeline is the name I chose for myself."

  "Not Azrael herself?"

  "There is a difference, I am but——"

  "Is there?" Sage looked Evangeline straight in the eyes, "You have her memory, you have her face, you have her experience, and you have her will. Does that not make you Azrael herself? A reincarnation, so to speak."

  "……I am not here to debate my existence," Evangeline took a slight pause before once again looking at Sage, "Are you the creator of this universe?"

  "I was born alongside it."

  "Why do you look like my son?"

  "You mean why does our son look like me?"

  "……Explain."

  "That's not a question."

  "……How is he our son?"

  "Well…" Sage waved his son, and as soon as he did so, the figure of Hermes appeared, "A little thief came to my house and stole my precious egg. I believe his name is Hermes?"

  "……That's him," Evangeline's eyes slightly flickered as she saw Hermes's figure, "But how does anything of that make Evans your son?"

  "The Egg Hermes stole contained my essence," Sage's voice slightly became weak, "I have been hatching that for almost a billion years, you know? And then this Hermes guy just swoops in and steals it. Don't you know how heartbreaking that is?"

  "A… billion years…"

  "I planned for the Egg to replace me once it hatches. But that Hermes guy used it as some sort of catalyst to amplify his own eggs or something, I don't know the full details but… weird, right?" Sage let out an awkward chuckle, "Must have come from a weird universe, you went to their universe, right? Must have been smelly."

  "……"

  "Your son died a few years back, did you know that? Was that part of your plan?"

  "……No."

  "My god, you're a terrible mother," Sage rolled his eyes, "It's a good thing he is also my son, if not, I would have just let him die."

  "……Considering the power I feel seeping from you; you could have stopped Hermes when he stole your Egg. Why didn't you?"

  "And you said you didn't have time for jests," Sage muttered, "Have you seen how fast that guy is? I mean, I could teleport but if I try to block him then that's goodbye to my Egg."

  "……"

  "And when I caught up to him, the two of you were already doing the deed," Sage then started moving his hips, causing Evangeline to slightly twitch an eye. For a being that has probably lived as long as their Creator, the god in front of her does not seem to act as ethereal.

  "How awkward would it be if I suddenly arrived while you two were——"

  "That's enough."

  "Eh… I was getting to the good part," Sage let out a small but deep sigh; before his eyes once again turned to Evangeline, "The World Eaters… how dangerous are they?"

  "Enough to wipe out my race," Evangeline quickly answered, "The Seraph are supposed to be my universe's greatest warriors and guardians, and they made us flee to another universe."

  "Hmm… Wipe out your race?" Sage then slightly tilted his head to the side, causing his hair to sway towards his unusually long eyelashes, "That doesn't seem so hard to do, is it? I can probably snap your neck from here."

  The white floor rippled violently as Evangeline's wings suddenly materialized from her back; causing the chair to erupt in pieces, only for them to turn into a white liquid and return to the floor once more.

  "In fact…" Sage then also stood up from his seat, "I should kill you right now for doing all those things to my son. All your prophecy bullshit, so old-fashioned."

  "Then why didn't you interfere?" Even with the pressure crawling through her skin, Evangeline did not back down as her eyes still remained filled with fire.

  "Because I shouldn't," Sage breathed out, "I never show myself to the inhabitants of his universe until the time is right."

  "When the time is right?" Evangeline let out a small scoff, "You seem to be doing whatever you want with my feathers. You've been sending him gifts that strayed the path I made for him. I… had to improvise because of you."

  "Well… let's just say I got bored so I tried to help here and there."

  "Could you stop the World Eaters?"

  "Oh, we're moving to that conversation already?" Sage's chuckle whispered throughout the endless white horizon as he once again took a seat, "Please don't break another chair."

  "……Can you defeat the World Eaters?" Evangeline muttered as she also took a seat as soon as another chair emerged from behind her.

  "Maybe, maybe not."

  "Are you not afraid that your universe will become like ours? Barren and completely dried of its life."

  "My universe will rebuild, as it has for eons," Sage shook his head, "Those that matter are no longer here in this universe anyway; so I actually welcome them to come swooping in so I can restart again."

  "Those… that matter? Are there others like you?"

  "What? No," Sage once again chuckled, "I send people to different universes. Give them a new life and when they die, I absorb the unique essence they accumulated from the other universe; it's more complicated than it sounds, really."

  "……"

  "……"

  "……You're not going to talk anymore? This is getting quite awkward."

  "Can you send my son away?" Evangeline then quickly said, "Let him start over in another universe?"

  "……Now why would I do that?" Sage squinted his eye, "I thought it is our son's sworn duty to defeat the World Eaters and save this uni—— Oh, are you not confident that he will be able to defeat them?"

  "……"

  "And here I thought you didn't care."

  ***

  "Are these all of the Scavengers?"

  A whistle whispered through the air as Van's whole body began to vibrate, allowing all the blood that was covering him to smoothly fall to the floor; the puddle of blood, flowing across the knees of the person kneeling closest to him.

  Van then walked around, hopping over the dead body that was blocking his path.

  "……At least the ones in the main base, King Evans," Captain Ameera was following him from behind, her eyes moving across the thousands of people kneeling on the ground. Looking at them like this; even though she knew that these men all committed heinous crimes; right now, they just looked… pitiful.

  But they should consider themselves lucky—— Ameera thought as she turned her head to the side, where a thousand more Scavengers littered the ground; but unlike the other side, none of them were breathing.

  "Why haven't any of you cleared them out when this is all they are capable of?" Van then breathed out as he walked to where Queen Vivati was.

  "Members of the Scavengers are scattered everywhere in the galaxy, King Evans," Queen Vivati answered as she strayed her eyes away from the dead bodies, "There was the threat of them retaliating if we tried to order them to dissolve…
……but since you wipe them out in less than a day, I don't think they will be showing themselves again."

  "……I see."

  "……"

  "……"

  "……You're planning to leave our galaxy after we run the tests on you, aren't you?"

  "Yes," Van quickly nodded, "I do not see the point in staying since you are here. You can deliver the message in my stead."

  "Can't you stay at least… until we find a way to break through the Barrier?" Vivati muttered, "That way, we can help you deliver the messages at an even faster rate. You said it yourself…
……Hyperspeed is still faster than you. Maybe… Maybe you can find something here that would increase your speed? Study our technology?"

  "Hm…" Van placed his hand on his chin as he turned to look at Ameera's ship,

  "You mean……

  a race?"

  "……What?"