'He's truly so chuunibyou,' Seiji thought to himself.
"Can I ask you why you think I'm a 'divine envoy'?"
"You're currently using a divine power. I can see it," Voidfire replied.
'He can see that I'm using the White Sakura Goddess's power… I understand now. That's why he mistakenly thought that I wasn't human when he saw me?'
"Let me ask again. Why do you think that I'm not human?" Seiji decided to directly ask.
"You have inhuman qualities. I can see right through them," Voidfire replied in his raspy voice.
Then, his "flame" contracted completely and formed into a robe. Voidfire's actual physical appearance could finally be seen.
He appeared to be a youth with short orange hair and a pale face. He had bright red eyes and incredibly dark circles under his eyes, making him look rather sickly.
"If you release your power, you'll become an incredibly powerful existence. Yet, you've restrained yourself instead of doing so, giving you your current form," Voidfire continued talking while beginning to float in midair towards Seiji. "You actually don't need to be so kind… Restraining yourself to protect humanity and the world will only benefit humans and the world, but not yourself. You'll become weaker and suffer when you shouldn't. But precisely because of this, I can tell that you're foundationally the pure type, someone far too holy for this wicked world with its ugly humans… That's why I'm quite happy to meet you."
Seiji felt somewhat affected by Voidfire's words as he watched Voidfire land in front of him.
Although Voidfire's words were indeed quite chuunibyou, it also sounded somewhat like Voidfire had seen through the nature of the world, making it difficult to determine if he was simply insane or not.
Voidfire was a high-ranked member of the Messengers. How likely was it that he had a case of absolutely delusional chuunibyou?
Seiji felt that would be relatively unlikely.
Maybe Voidfire indeed suffered from delusional chuunibyou, but he would still be no simple person.
And what he said about Seiji holding himself back… it was indeed quite true that Seiji had always been "restraining himself". However...
"I'm restraining myself in order to protect myself, not to protect humanity or the world," Seiji stated sincerely.
Protecting humanity or the world? That was far too serious a topic for him.
Rather than saying it was for humanity or the world, Seiji was restraining himself for his own sake.
Voidfire looked directly at him.
"This way of thinking also proves your holy purity."
Seiji was rendered speechless.
He wanted to comment on this somehow, but didn't even know what to say.
"What did you want from me, divine envoy?" Voidfire asked him a question.
"As I said earlier, I would like to know what exactly happened." Seiji paused for a moment and then clarified, "About what you did, and why the world out there became like this…"
"Foolish humans have always been making mistakes. I was trying to prevent them from making yet another huge mistake. However, their foolishness plus the wickedness of the world was too much of an obstacle for me to overcome, so I failed," Voidfire replied in his raspy voice. "There's nothing much to say about the process. The world becoming like this is because of my mistake plus failure creating an even bigger mistake. But, perhaps this will actually be the correct development for the world…"
Correct development for the world? Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.
"You mean that even without this current incident, such a catastrophe would eventually happen?"
Voidfire remained silent as he lifted his head to look at the spiritual cherry blossom tree in the sky.
Was that tacit admittance?
It felt like Voidfire's words contained much information, but also like he was trying to shift blame onto others. Seiji didn't really understand.
"According to Kamitani, eliminating the Sakura Catastrophe Goddess will resolve this incident and return the world to normal," Seiji stated. "There's apparently a plan to combine all the remaining factions' combat strength to slay the goddess, although the success rate might be rather low… Will you be participating in this plan?"
"Even if the goddess is slain, the mistake still won't be fixed," Voidfire told him.
Seiji was rather surprised to hear this.
"Even if the Catastrophe Goddess is killed, the world still won't be returned to normal!?"
"Yes, the world will be returned to normal, but humanity won't be. At the very least, several hundred thousand people in this city will have died because of this mistake," Voidfire said in a light tone.
Several hundred thousand people… Seiji deeply furrowed his brows.
He had known that there might end up being a tremendous number of deaths, but he hadn't thought about the specific numbers before, because he didn't want to think about it.
The catastrophe had already happened. Even if the Catastrophe Goddess was slain, there would still be countless people that had died already!
Unless…
"What should be done if it's possible to prevent this catastrophe before it started?" Seiji reflexively asked such a question.
Something flashed in Voidfire's eyes when he heard this question.
"Are you able to return to the past, divine envoy?"
Seiji instantly knew that he probably made a mistake right after saying that question out loud. He now felt complex emotions within himself when he heard Voidfire asking this question back.
"It's just an if… if it was possible… what could have been done to prevent all this?"
Voidfire took a long look at Seiji.
Seiji felt rather tense as he faced this high-ranked member of the Messengers.
Seiji himself didn't understand why he had suddenly exposed his own ability to go back into the past. Was he simply not careful enough? Or was it because he had been moved by Voidfire's words?
"If the divine envoy can truly return to the past, before this mistake occurred, then you should go look for me," Voidfire said raspily. "Tell me about the future mistake that's about to occur, and change my action."
"…That's all?"
"That's all."
"Then how would I find you? And how would I have you believe me?"
"Call my phone number and tell me the password."
"Password?"
Voidfire nodded and told Seiji his phone number, along with a password that was a long series of numbers and letters.
Seiji recorded both of these down.
"That's all?"
"Yeah. I'll believe you when I meet you."
This could all be resolved so easily?
No, this would be simple at all. Going back to the past was no simple matter.
Not only that, he would need to contact a high-ranked member of the Messengers and talk to him about the future. That would expose Seiji's secret power all over again!
Rather than contacting Voidfire which would likely expose Seiji's ability to travel back in time, maybe it would be better to contact someone else… such as Yui.
"I solemnly swear to protect your secret." It seemed as if Voidfire saw right through what Seiji was thinking. "You can also request this of the past version of myself."
"…I find it quite difficult to trust you so easily," Seiji said directly to Voidfire.
"That is indeed the case if you insist on maintaining your current form." Voidfire also looked directly at him.
Both remained completely silent for a while.
And then, both sensed something simultaneously as they both turned to look towards the right.
They saw mist swarming in with red flashes as numerous giant spiritual creatures began to swiftly form!
"We've been spotted." Voidfire's robe began burning up and transforming into flame again. "You should leave this place."
"What are you going to do?" Seiji inquired.
Voidfire didn't reply. The flames around his body started floating upward, forming numerous fireballs that shot towards the Sakura Samurai mist demons that appeared!
Seiji detected a tremendous amount of danger as if a giant invisible presence was watching him. He could sense that remaining here would be dangerous.
Voidfire flew up and began a fierce battle against all the mist demons. Flames and lights exploded everywhere… Snake Demons and Samurai Demons also began appearing as monsters started swarming from every direction!
Seiji speedily broke out of the encirclement and left this area.
Many monsters were chasing after him, and even more were materializing around him… Seiji didn't slow down as he ran at top speed. He also channeled even more Mana into the White Sakura Goddess's invisibility power to try and go invisible as quickly as possible!
He felt that he was likely discovered by the Catastrophe Goddess because she considered Voidfire an important existence.
Seiji didn't know how Voidfire was going to escape this… but he figured that a high-ranked member of the Messengers likely wouldn't die so easily.
*Boom!!!*
After Seiji ran a certain distance, a loud explosion suddenly came from behind him, along with a powerful heat wave.
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