Chuuya used his gravity to jump sideways and grab you and Dazai as the three of you tumbled into the forest. The darkness calmed down a bit as something radiated from the black torrents. It wasn't much of an attack, rather, it was as if a piece of the universe had suddenly appeared on Earth.
The ground was split in half as a strike of black lightning hit. It passed right through the earth and reached a group of buildings that were further away. A few of the building lights flickered spasmodically before finally going out.
"What the..."
You were speechless. The three of you were quite far from the city. Although you'd gotten lucky this time, if it were to get a direct hit in the middle of Yokohama, thousands of people would have died in an instant.
"Was that... a release of gravity?" Your face grew stiff. "That's impossible. It can reach even farther than before."
The monster started to transform. A head and a pair of shoulders appeared, and though it's head was similar to the demonic beast Guivre, the number of eyes it had were different. There were two blazing red eyes situated on its face like human eyes. It had big, thick arms and a gigantic torso.
The figure gradually emerged from the black mass. While it was emerging it pulsated, and every time it pulsated, it's body grew substantially.
"Don't look at it," Dazai said, his voice as quiet as a whisper. "It reacts to human emotions, so don't give it any attention. Look somewhere else."
Chuuya slowly moved his gaze to the ground, while you stared deep into the remnants of the forest, squeezing Dazai's hand to calm the two of you down.
The beast's enormous body began to block out the moonlight that illuminated the ground. At first it was only a part of the ground, until it finally covered all of it.
"It can't be burned with flames." Dazai said while looking at the ground. "It doesn't matter how big a gifted weapon's flames are. Not to mention, while it may look like a giant beast, it's not even an entity. It's merely a singularity with an infinite amount of energy stored in a condensed space. It has no organs or weak points and will continue to move until all of its energy is expended."
"It'll keep moving until it uses up all its energy, huh... How long will that be?"
"Maybe a week, maybe a year." Dazai said, looking at Chuuya with a stiff smile on his face. "Or maybe it'll keep moving until the world ends. However long it takes for its energy to run out."
The beast started to move.
You looked up as the beast took a step forward, it's whole body trembling. It was already even bigger than before and outside the realm of a living being with a mouth big enough to swallow a house. It had a gleaming pair of eyes and broad shoulders, and excitable lightning strikes were created simply by it moving due to the after-effects of energy. It's monstrous claws dug into the earth, and trees were toppled over and submerged by a single step. The way it looked seemed to go beyond that of even the human imagination.
This monster was the true form of the demonic beast Guivre.
"It could have absorbed the singularity energy found in that ball of heat." Dazai muttered in a blank daze. "There's no way the authorities in Europe would have experimented with clashing two weapons of singularity together."
Chuuya looked at where the beast was walking. "That bastard. It's heading for the city."
"It'll be able to see that from the city soon. It started walking in response to our gazes, which means it won't stop until there are no more people left to look at it."
Chuuya grabbed Dazai. "Then why are we just standing here?! Yokohama will be destroyed and the Port Mafia will disappear!"
"Then what should we do? You want to bring that ever growing giant over and have a fist fight?" Dazai looked at Chuuya through cold eyes. "It's impossible. Can't you see it? This is a singularity, something that takes on a form through the loopholes in this world, something that shouldn't exist. It's not something you can beat like a human."
"That's not true." Chuuya stared back at him for several seconds, his eyes passionate. Then, he let go of Dazai and said, with vigor in his voice, "I know there's a way to defeat it. There's gotta be."
Dazai half-fell, half-sat on the ground as if he had lost his strength. "Hahaha, how interesting. What makes you say that?"
"Verlaine. When I was inside of him, I saw his memories."
"His memories?" You gaped, to which Chuuya nodded.
"Memories of when he had taken me from the research facility. He and Rimbaud had a fight over me before it turned into a full-fledged battle. It must've been right after that where he fought Arahabaki and lived to tell the tale."
Dazai narrowed his eyes. "I see. So it's like that, huh?"
"Yeah. There's a way to erase Arahabaki's—a singularity's existence. He showed me that memory in order to tell me what it was."
"Shall we talk about this over a cup of coffee, then?" Dazai grinned meaningfully.
A long discussion later, you were stationed with all the soldiers once more, waiting for Dazai's signal again. The idea was to unleash Arahabaki, and have it clash with Guivre in the hopes that the beast would die down upon that impact. Either this plan would work, or you would lose your closest friend and your boyfriend on the same night.
"Chuuya's off to attack. All members, prepare for battle." Dazai informed.
The two exchanged multiple punches and attacks, each getting closer and closer to death by the minute, until Chuuya was close to collapsing.
"Squad 2, fire!" Dazai's voice echoed on the walkie-talkies. "Don't worry about firing at the same time! No matter what, whoever has the capability to fire, should!"
Countless mafioso held cylindrical weapons over their shoulders, firing up at Guivre from buildings, roads, and transport vehicles.
They held portable rocket launchers. It was the strongest weapon an individual person could have with enough firepower to demolish tanks, aircrafts, and even enemy facilities. If they just aimed and pulled the trigger, the rocket launcher would automatically destroy a target. It's explosive power was truly incomparable to hand grenades or other thrown explosives.
This was a swarm of mafioso who had gained too much individual power through an underground weapons deal. It was a battalion strategy that not many people, ability users included, could withstand.
However, when the smoke cleared, even after all that Guivre didn't have a scratch on it.
"Don't worry, this is fine!" Dazai shouted into the walkie-talkie. "Just keep it's attention focused on the ground!"
You grit your teeth and sent wave after wave of flares just above ground level, accompanies by the shining light of explosions bursting. The black holes of Guivre fired down in a counterattack that ripped across the ground. The darkness tore through the earth and turned the mafioso to dust before they could even let out a scream.
However, the mafioso didn't flinch. The survivors readied their rocket launchers and fired at the beast.
Guivre was the incarnation of energy, it had no personality. It was nothing more than a mass of hatred that moved accordingly and fought hostility with hostility. Because of that, it didn't have the capacity for risk awareness and couldn't prioritize which opponents it should attack first. Therefore, if they focused its attention on the numerous mafioso attacking it on the ground, Chuuya could move freely.
From behind Chuuya's back, two sensory organs that controlled gravity grew from both his left and right side. It was Arahabaki's tail, a manifestation of the godly beast that burned black. But, since it was coming from Chuuya's back, it looked like a pair of wings.
The winged Chuuya shouted and lifted up his hands. That was the command for his spinning black holes to continue growing. The halo shone bright like a supernova and sliced Guivre's body in half from the inside. The spinning black holes were wider and bigger than the beast and completely crushed it's shoulder, all the while a single halo floated over it. It lit up the Yokohama night sky and burned deep into the people's eyes.
"So this is Arahabaki's... Chuuya's true form?" Dazai coughed, his voice delirious from the heat, as he looked up.
The halo stood atop his raised arms and black wings blazed behind him. Chuuya's eyes were closed and just like that, he looked like a malevolent god. A dark, demonic beast.
Underneath the halo, Guivre collapsed and got sucked in. It was the process of infinitely positive and infinitely negative energy cancelling each other out. It's giant body broke apart, it's flesh turning into snow-like particles that gently danced towards the epicenter of the halo.
Because time slowed down in high gravity regions, the beast's destruction seemed to move terribly slow from an outsider's perspective. One could even call it graceful.
Guivre wasn't shooting anything at them now. Now only its mouth remained open while it stood completely still, like it was coming to terms with its own existence. The halo on his chest swallowed its waist and chest, arms and legs, and finally, its head.
It didn't make a sound, just peacefully disappeared.
The moonlight was oddly fitting for death on this terribly quiet night.
Chuuya limply drifted in the air for several seconds before the black wings on his back slowly lowered him. Dazai caught his body.
The minute he touched his body, Dazai's ability nullification activated. The self-contradictory singularity energy that sustained him retracted in on itself as the singularity's power outlet decreased. He eventually returned to normal and his gate closed. The red marks plaguing Chuuya's body pulled away.
The field of gravity disappeared and the stillness of night was restored.
"Good work, Chuuya." Dazai looked down at the fainted Chuuya and laughed a little.
"You're lucky I forgot to bring my fountain pen or else you'd have doodles all over your face."