Chapter Text
Chapter 25: Infiltrating Eden
At Eden, Fiore was walking down a large hallway all the way to a big brown door which was Joshua’s room. Once she opened the door and entered the room, she saw him sleeping on the sofa, in peace. This surprised her as she expected Joshua to have woken up by now. “Master Joshua, the guests will arrive soon and all of the other masters have begun their preparations. Master Joshua should begin as well and quickly!” Fiore announced to Joshua urgently as he then slowly woke up. “Fiore!” Joshua yawned out her name. “Yes Lord Joshua, what is it?” Fiore asked and walked towards him. “I had a dream, a dream about my big sister. Tell me, will I see her soon?” Joshua asked in a tired tone. “I am sure that you will Lord Joshua! I am sure of it!” Fiore reassured him as she walked towards him and touched his hand while looking at him affectionately.
Meanwhile, the teleportation gate had succeeded in teleporting Rosette and Chrono to what appears to be Eden’s gate. It was a circular cement ground with a Star of David drawing on it and a straight cement plank protruding through it. “We’re here Rosette!” Chrono said. “No way, that fast?! What kind of machine was that?” Rosette asked astounded since she could not believe that they reached Eden so quickly. She began to cough due to the dust that had accumulated during the teleportation. “Well, this is Eden!” Chrono said to Rosette after she finished coughing. They looked around the room in amazement of the fact that they really were in Eden. “I can’t believe it’s been fifty four years.” Chrono said in disbelief. “That’s right, you lived here. Considering you used to be a Sinner just like Aion, it makes perfect sense.” Rosette pointed out as Chrono looked at her with a slight grin. “So, what should we do now?” Rosette asked. “First of all, we have to find Satella.” Chrono stated. “Right, and once we meet up with her, we’ll then find Azmaria, Joshua and the rest of the Apostles along with Maria!” Rosette agreed. “So, which way should we go?” Rosette asked Chrono. “Hahahaha, settle everything huh?” Genai sinisterly remarked as he was sitting on a narrow ground ledge beside a huge window. Just then, Rosette and Chrono heard a loud gulping sound across the large room and looked around to see who was there. Rosette started to become somewhat scared as she had a feeling that one of the Sinners might have already caught on to them. “Who is making that noise?” Rosette asked nervously as they heard someone drinking out of a bottle. The sound came from the Sinner Genai who was drinking a bottle of red wine. When he was done drinking, he pulled out a cigarette out of his coat pocket, lit it up and placed it into his mouth. Rosette and Chrono turned around and saw Genai smoking as he was looking straight at them. The Sinner took his cigarette out of his mouth and blew the smoke out of it as well.
“I’m Genai! You’ll regret it if you open your big mouth you bitch!” Genai vulgarly warned Rosette, much to her displeasure. Genai jumped towards the circular ground the two were standing on and turned his attention to Chrono. “Genai?!” Chrono said in disbelief. “Hey Chrono, I’ve been waiting for you! I’ll be your guide! However, I’ll have to take care of something before we begin!” Genai welcomed Chrono. “But you’re no good brat! I am going to kill you right here!” Genai pointed to Rosette with his cigarette. She pulled out her new gun and pointed it towards the demon. “Did Aion invite you too? I don’t care! I am going to get my revenge for the demon that you have defeated! Rizel! The same goes for the demon that Chrono killed, Viede!” Genai bitterly explained his desire for avenging both Rizel and Viede’s death. Rosette immediately remembered her battle with Rizel on the train as well as her brutal death. “Hahahaha, when a person dies, they put coins in their eyes as a boat fare to the Underworld.” Genai said to Rosette while taking off the mask that covered his eyelids and took a nickel out from his eyelid. This scared Rosette as she could see the opened bleeding stitches on the demon’s closed in eyelids. He took two nickels out of each eyelid and showed them to the young exorcist. “Use mine!” Genai said mockingly to Rosette and threw the coins at her. She quickly started shooting at the coins but her aim was off and missed them. She lifted her hand to block the coins from hitting her. Once the coins dropped onto the ground, Rosette pointed her gun with both hands towards Genai but to her surprise, he wasn’t there. “Damn it! He disappeared!” Rosette said frustratingly as she was sure that she was going to be able to shoot him. “Rosette, look out!” Chrono warned Rosette as Genai suddenly landed on the ground behind her in his transformed demon form. Rosette turned her head facing towards the demon and began to vigorously shoot her Gospel bullets at him. Genai however managed to evade the Gospel bullet shots by moving very quickly. He then used his sword transformed arm to smite the cement ground they were standing on, which caused the ground to crack. As the crack grew bigger and bigger, Genai smite the ground in two halves and the ground finally collapsed. Rosette and Chrono fell off the circular cement ground all the way down to the very bottom of the dark floor underneath it. Rosette began to cough again due to the huge accumulation of the dust from the bottom floor while Chrono was holding her. “Well, I can see the fun had just intensified! Shall we continue?” Genai mockingly asked the two once he flew towards them.
Just when the Sinner was about to charge at them, Chrono promptly took out a crucifix barrier in front of him and a big green like laser cross began to form which caused the demon to be repelled. “Ha, you always do that! It’s the same pattern every time!” Genai chuckled with amusem*nt since he found Chrono’s tactics to be very predictable and repetitive. Once the huge laser cross had disappeared, Rosette pointed her new gun straight at Genai while giving him a dead serious look. “Then I’ll show you my specialty!” Rosette said in determination and fired her gun towards the demon with a huge bang. After the smoke from the bullet had cleared up, Genai however was found to still be intact, much to Rosette’s surprise. “That was nothing special.” Genai remarked unimpressed. “What? The Gospel didn’t work?” Rosette exclaimed out of disbelief. Chrono threw three more crucifix barriers towards Genai which again formed a huge laser cross. The Sinner promptly moved back from the laser cross as the power of the barrier was too strong for a demon to bear. He then flew towards a pile of ruble where he witnessed the barrier disappearing, much to his relief. “What’s wrong Chrono? If you want to save that brat, you should fight me too!” Genai mockingly challenged Chrono as he was straightening his arms high up while Rosette looked at him with frustrating impatience. “That’s right. You try not to use too much energy by sealing your power in order to protect the life of your precious contractor. If you’re going to do something that stupid then what is the point in fighting?” Genai asked Chrono in a mocking tone as he began to laugh his heart out sinisterly. “We’re here to save Joshua!” Rosette shouted at the Sinner. “Hahahaha, that brat forgot your face so easily! He did it happily! He’s not worth risking your life for, you fool!” Genai mocked her as he continued laughing wildly. Rosette then remembered the time at the carnival when Joshua acted as if he was talking to a stranger as well as pointing her gun at her. Before Rosette could fire at the Sinner, Genai abruptly charged towards the two and sliced Rosette’s machine gun in half, much to her frustration. Just as Genai was about to smite the two with his sword like arm, Chrono promptly took a barrier crucifix and used it to shield themselves from the demon. Once the Sinner had been repelled, Chrono then opened the weapon backpack on his back and he took one of the hand guns. “Rosette, catch it!” Chrono shouted out and threw the gun towards Rosette and she was fortunately able to catch the hand gun in one piece. “Hurry, shoot him!” Chrono loudly commanded Rosette and she then turned around facing Genai. As she was looking straight towards the demon, she then pointed her gun towards him and shot him with an enormous bang. Genai tried to escape the explosive shot, but his sword transformed arm got severed from the huge gunshot and blood started to come out of his mouth.
Meanwhile, Joshua was telling Fiore about the dream he just had when she interrupted his sleep. “I had a dream that I haven’t had in a long time. A very nostalgic dream which involved an important promise I made with my sister a long time ago.” Joshua explained as he remembered Rosette and him standing in front of their parent’s grave on a cold winter day when they were really young. “But I can’t remember my sister’s face. That person I met in San Francisco called herself my sister, Rosette. Still, I can’t connect the two faces.” Joshua explained disappointed as he remembered the carnival event as well as imagining the face of his younger sister as a toddler disappearing away like that of a puzzle. “All of the important things have slipped away. By morning, I’ll forget more. But if I don’t check, what should I do Fiore?” Joshua desperately asked as he so badly wanted to see if the nun who called herself Rosette was really his sister. Fiore walked towards Joshua and started to look at him with great sympathy. “One more time, let’s meet her one more time.” Fiore suggested with a soft tone. “That’s right, if I don’t check once more with my own self conscience, we can’t take another step forward! The truth doesn’t come down to words alone.” Joshua said to Fiore as he then stood himself up from the sofa and looked at Fiore with a slight grin.
Back at the gate of Eden, a huge puff of cloud dust emerged throughout the chamber. The gunshot was incredibly large to the point that it even created a huge hole on one side of the wall. “Amazing! What is this? There’s not even a backlash!” Rosette commented out of amazement of the bullet’s strong powers. Just then, Genai slowly got up from the ruble on the ground as he was grunting which alarmed both Rosette and Chrono. “This isn’t over yet! I will avenge Rizel and Viede one way or another!” Genai angrily shouted out. “Stop!” A familiar female voice loudly echoed across the chamber and Rosette along with Chrono turned their heads around. They looked towards the upper wall and saw that the woman who was standing above was Maria. “Maria!” Rosette and Chrono shouted out her name with gladness and relief. “That’s enough Genai, I won’t let you harm our guests!” Maria scolded the Sinner. She suddenly jumped all the way to the bottom of the gate area and walked towards Genai. “What is it that you want? Can’t you see I’m trying to avenge Rizel and Viede?!” Genai snapped at her. “I see! In that case, I’ll put an end to your misery!” Maria said coldly and without emotion as she extended her hand towards the demon. All of a sudden, Maria’s Stigmata activated and the holy blood from it sprayed towards Genai’s waist which then started to disintegrate. Genai screamed in agonizing pain as the power of the Stigmata’s holy blood was literally melting his waist. This caused his body to tear itself apart in half. “Rizel, I’ll be meeting with you in the afterlife. Please wait for me there!” Genai helplessly pleaded as he was saying his last words. After his severed body fell to the ground, Maria looked at the corpse with satisfying relief. She then turned around facing Rosette and Chrono. Both of them looked at Maria with a huge shock on their faces as they never imagined that Maria’s Stigmata was capable of doing such a thing. “Come with me! The curtain will rise shortly!” Maria said to them and grabbed their hands. Maria then jumped high up towards the upper narrow edge. By the time they got back to the narrow edge, Maria began to walk towards the cement plank to what appeared to be a dark stairway. “There is something strange going on here, don’t you think so Rosette?” Chrono whispered. “Yeah, she’s on Aion’s side again and yet she saved us from that demon Genai! Just what she is up to, I wonder?” Rosette curiously commented as she was now confused by Maria’s intentions. Chrono and Rosette started following Maria around the circular narrow edge all the way until they had reached the staircase that was connected to the cement plank. The stairs they were walking on were shrouded in darkness, so they had to be careful to watch their steps. A few minutes later, they saw a bright light from outside and shortly afterwards, Maria had exited the stairway which led them on the top of Eden.
By the time, Rosette and Chrono got to the outside of the floating fortress, they saw a horde of winged demons in various shapes and forms flying across the sky towards Eden. Both Rosette and Chrono were taken aback by what they were seeing. They couldn’t imagine that the Pursuers had actually decided to form an assault on Eden. Just then, the three saw an enormous Pursuer holding a smaller, gruff looking, black haired Pursuer who just so happens to be their general. In the meantime, Aion was observing the skies from his own personal room while he was sitting on the chair beside a huge window and looked at the sky with a sinister smirk on his face. “Well, it appears that everything is going according to plan! What fun this will be, an assault on Eden like none other! May the battle begin!” Aion remarked with amusem*nt as he looked at the whole thing as it was some kind of a game. “Sinners, what you take is not enough. Those who have committed treason shall be put to death! The reason you have been able to survive on this filthy planet is because you are not worth me personally coming to stop you. That is, will you once more bare your fangs against Pandemonium?” The Pursuer sternly announced to the Sinners. “Chrono, who is that demon?” Rosette asked. “He’s a Pursuer by the name of Duke Duffau. He came from Pandemonium to eliminate the Sinners. He’s the elite among the elite.” Chrono explained to Rosette.
He looked at the Pursuer surprised that the general of the Pursuers was showing up in battle. “Isn’t it great?! I’ll have used just enough strength to crush you all!” Duke Duffau said with excitement as he couldn’t wait for the battle against Eden to begin. The Pursuer then raised his arms up towards the sky as a sign that the assault against Eden was permitted to begin. All of the winged Pursuers present began to charge towards Eden. Just when Chrono pulled out a crucifix barrier, a force field had suddenly started to form across the fortress with the purpose of preventing the Pursuers from attacking Eden. The fortress formation was so loud that Rosette was compelled to cover her ears while Maria was just simply standing there as if nothing was happening. “It has started. I’ve prepared a force field just for today. It’s on a new level compared to my previous work! It should hold for approximately twenty minutes. Hopefully the Pursuers will be gone by then!” Shader said to herself in complete satisfying confidence while she was in the control room. Just then, Shader saw a huge Pursuer coming towards the force field, much to her surprise as she thought that using the force field would surely make the Pursuers go away. The large Pursuer spread out its entire body and placed itself onto the force field, which it then began to weaken significantly. “Impossible, the Pursuer is using his body!” Shader shrieked out of disbelief. The Pursuer punched the force field aggressively several times until the force field had finally started to crack.
Once the crack had formed, the Pursuer punched the cracked portion of the force field which allowed an opening to make way. Duke Duffau, who had transformed into his demon form, flew towards the broken area of the force field and made his way to Eden. The crack on the force field began to crack even more in such little time in that a few seconds later, the force field across Eden had completely broke apart like glass felling on a floor. The fact that Eden no longer had anything to protect itself meant that the Pursuers could now begin their attack. The winged Pursuers charged towards Eden in huge numbers as they began to attack the fortress. Some of them used their powers, like that of a bomb, to create huge amounts of damage which caused fires in the various areas. In a short amount of time the fires that were spreading around the fortress intensified as the Pursuers continued their assault with Duke Duffau observing the destruction. “Don’t think you have won just yet, Duffau!” Aion said loudly from behind Duke Duffau as he was standing on the ruble, transformed into his demon form. His voice caught the Pursuers attention as he then turned around and saw Aion holding his sword. “The game has just begun! Why don’t we relax and have fun while we are at it?!” Aion said in a mocking tone and started to swiftly charge towards Duffau with his sword. Duke Duffau however crossed his two fingers which created a shield against Aion’s sword attack just as he was about to strike him. Just when Aion pulled his sword away from the Pursuer he punched Aion in the stomach so forcefully that Aion coughed out blood and crashed onto the ground. Aion slowly lifted himself up from the ground while he was still coughing up blood as Duffau’s punch was so strong. The Pursuer walked towards him and looked at the Sinner with a satisfying grin. “Stand up! I’ll show you that your little tricks are no match for me!” Duke Duffau challenged Aion as he was pointing his finger at him.
In the meantime, the damages across the floating fortress had become worse and worse. Chrono and Rosette had to run for cover into a nearby building as the arson attacks felt like that of exploding bombs. “I can’t believe it has come to this.” Chrono said in disbelief as he never imagined that Eden would be experiencing yet another destruction. Rosette however continued running away from the fire attacks. “Rosette!” Chrono yelled out her name as the arson attack was getting closer to her. She then tripped and fell on the ground. Just then, Maria calmly walked right in front of Rosette with her arms straightly positioned and with the power of her Stigmata, holy blood started to come out and sprayed at the several incoming Pursuers whose bodies began to disintegrate. “Maria!” Rosette shouted out her name. “Now, save yourselves before it is too late! Go before the Oratorio begins.” Maria commanded them. “Oratorio, what does that mean?” Chrono curiously asked. “There’s no time to explain. You two should hide for cover while I take on these Pursuers! Hurry, their attacks are intensifying.” Maria commanded them as she continued to fight off the incoming Pursuers. Rosette and Chrono looked around themselves and saw that the Pursuers were swarming all over the place. “Wah, what should we do? To be in a situation like this?” Rosette frustratingly yelled out. The amount of Pursuers around Eden and the destruction of the floating fortress overwhelmed her to the point that she didn’t know what to do. As Chrono was witnessing Rosette’s frustration, he stood up from the ground and saw that the tower on the building in front of them was still intact from the attacks. “Rosette, are you able to run to that tower in the middle there?” Chrono asked while pointing the tower to Rosette. “Sure, I guess!” Rosette nervously answered. “Good. Now then, what’s our goal?” Chrono asked as he placed his hands onto Rosette’s shoulders. “To search for Joshua and Azmaria. After that, we search for Satella as well.” Rosette answered. “That’s right.” Chrono said. “We can’t lose sight of our goals because of our surroundings. The decision has already been made, hasn’t it?” Chrono explained to Rosette as he was reminding her about their current goals.
Rosette then suddenly got an idea and she stood up from the ground. “We can’t hold on for much longer. Just a little longer. Just a little longer and Oratorio will begin!” Shader said to herself in the control room as she was watching Maria using her Stigmata against the Pursuers. Despite the fact that Maria had already killed a great deal of Pursuers with her holy blood, there were still loads of them that continued their way towards Eden. Just then, a loud gunshot was fired from the center of Eden which took all of the Pursuers, Maria and Shader by surprise. They were all wondering where the gun shot was coming from. As the dusty wind was blowing through the fortress, all of the Pursuers stopped at what they were doing and gathered around Rosette and Chrono. Maria and Shader looked at Rosette with an astounded look on their faces. Rosette was the one who fired the gunshot. She had her hand high up, holding the gun which proved that she was the one who abruptly pulled the trigger. Rosette then grabbed another gun from her side pocket and crossed her arms together as she was directing both of the pistols towards the Pursuers. “That’s right. Instead of trying to understand this, I’ll do the opposite!” Rosette yelled and swiftly moved her arms as she was ready to shoot at the demons. “I’ll make you understand!” Rosette shouted out and started to shoot at the demons with both of the guns she was holding while Maria resumed with using her holy blood from her Stigmata against the Pursuers.
Unfortunately, the shooting attacks from Rosette had no effect on the Pursuers. This meant that Maria had to fight the Pursuers all by herself again. “Alright Rosette, hurry and make a run for it while you and Chrono still have the chance.” Maria strongly advised Rosette. “But what about you Maria?” Rosette worriedly asked. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Just make sure you and Chrono run through the center building before it is too late!” Maria told Rosette who then nodded and ran off together with Chrono. “Break through the center Chrono. Run!” Rosette urgently commanded as she was shooting at the Pursuers as a way to stall them. Once the two had reached the center, Chrono broke through the large window and into the inside of the building. When he got up from the floor, he suddenly saw by the window on the left corner, through the dust, that Duke Duffau was choking Aion who had blood all over his face. “Is that your so-called audience Aion?” Duke Duffau seriously asked him while Aion was struggling to breathe due to the Pursuer choking him. “Aion!” Chrono said his name in shock as he was surprised that Aion was in such a vulnerable position. “Hurry Chrono! The door ahead is going to close.” Rosette warned him as she could see that the door at the end of the room they were in was about to close at any minute.
Just when they ran towards the door and into a long metal hallway, a huge Pursuer abruptly burst into the room and charged towards Chrono. He was able to swiftly dock the demon’s attack just in time. Once Chrono landed on the ground, he opened the weapon backpack and grabbed from the bottom a medium sized thick combat knife. With it he began to swiftly attack the Pursuer in the room. Rosette in the meantime continued shooting at the demons vigorously as a way to repel them as they were trying to get their way through the door. Fortunately for the duo, the giant metal door began to close which meant that the Pursuers would not be able to reach them, much to their anger. The door finally shut tight with Rosette and Chrono sitting on the ground panting in relief that the Pursuer battle was finally over for now. “Phew, that was close.” Chrono exhaustedly remarked. “Yeah, tell me about it!” Rosette agreed. “What about Maria? Will she be okay?” Chrono asked Rosette concerned. “She’ll be fine, I am sure of it! If anything her Stigmata powers will definitely help eradicate that Pursuer army at a much faster rate than the Sinners could ever do! Besides, she herself decided to stay behind so we could get to Azmaria and Joshua as soon as possible!” Rosette reassured Chrono. “Yeah, I suppose your right. I just do hope that she doesn’t get killed out there while eliminating them.” Chrono commented. “I hope so too! Now let’s hurry before those Pursuers break down the door.” Rosette commented as she got herself up while offering Chrono her hand.
Chrono took Rosette’s hand and they both ran their way towards to what appeared to be a huge window. Behind it was a room with a gigantic organ player on the wall. When they reached the window, Rosette became mesmerized by how large the room along with the organ player was. “What is this?” Rosette curiously asked as she never would have imagined that such a room had existed in Eden. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen this before.” Chrono answered and just then, something caught his attention. “Rosette! Look!” Chrono shouted out and they both saw the horned Joshua in his black suit standing in front of the organ. Azmaria and the other Apostles with their wings spread out were standing on one side of the room on huge circular plates while the organ was playing. “I can’t believe it! Joshua, Azmaria! Just what in God’s name is going on here?” Rosette asked in shocked disbelief as the sounds of the organ continued filling the room.
