The Laughing Swordsman

Eden was at a loss for words. She really didn't have any intentions of harming Apollo, but that was hard to communicate. After all, she had not only been killing people left and right, but also directly hit Apollo in the head with a black axe just now.

Granted, that black axe and the wound from it was nowhere to be seen. However, that was still a fact and many people knew that.

As for Apollo, he didn't seem to be concerned about all the commotion around him. Instead, he nuzzled his head in Eden's grasp, letting out soft sounds almost like he was a cat purring.

"Ivy..."

Now that they knew an angel was with them, the crowd suddenly gained a lot of courage, daring to confront Eden who was murdering wantonly just now.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Don't think we will just watch you take away the angel!"

"The heavens have not abandoned us, yet you continue with such blasphemous actions!"

Eden's expression twitched. She simply stood still, not knowing what she was supposed to do. The crowd gradually got closer and they definitely weren't afraid of getting violent.

Right when Eden was about to pull out another black axe and start a massacre, Apollo spoke up.

"Quiet!"

A shockwave rippled out, directly blowing the nearby people away and off their feet. The occasional arc of lightning rippled across the ground and on those that were launched away. Eden's jaw dropped, shocked at Apollo's new display of power.

As for the people that were knocked away, they were confused. A middle-aged woman spoke up, with a slight grimace from hitting the ground.

"Angel? But why?"

A middle-aged man furrowed his brows as he sat up.

"It appears the angel doesn't want us to bother him."

There was a young man that pressed his lips together.

"But why?"

A little kid spoke up.

"I don't think the angel needs our help, right? If he is an angel, he can already do whatever he wants!"

The crowd made various sounds of agreement. And as such, they backed off, but did not leave the general area.

However, the ground surrounding Apollo was electrified. The charge was not only spreading further, but growing in intensity. In the end, the crowd had been forced to get away so as to not be zapped.

Apollo seemed to be sleepy. Granted that he hadn't slept in quite a long time, this could be seen as natural, or strange.

He murmured as his eyes slowly opened.

"Mm... you don't look like Ivy."

A bitter smile formed on Eden's face.

"Sorry, I'm not sure who Ivy is, but I'm not her. My name is Eden, do you still remember me?"

Apollo put a finger on his chin.

"I remember! To me, you feel a lot like Ivy."

A silly smile formed on his face. In response, Eden smiled slightly as well.

"Ah... Do I?"

The crackling of lightning around her was gradually getting louder as massive arcs of thunder gradually formed nearby. Yet, she didn't seem to notice it.

Instead, Eden smiled slightly.

"Could you tell me about Ivy?"

Apollo tilted his head to the side and began to think.

"Well... Ivy is a really nice person. Really, really nice!"

Eden's eyes brightened up slightly.

"Oh, what makes you say that?"

Apollo giggled.

"She would always take care of me, making me feel less sad."

Eden blinked a few times.

"That is nice. Um, y-you were sad before?"

Apollo nodded with a small smile.

"Hehe, yeah."

He closed his eyes.

"A lot of the time I would be crying. So much crying."

Eden held him a little tighter when she heard that.

"Oh no..."

She couldn't help but be a little surprised that angels could be sad. For the longest time, Eden thought that angels were beings that never felt these aggrieved emotions and were happy all of the time. From her perspective, angels and humans were extremely different things, even though their appearances were similar.

She began to feel a little strange. The resistance Eden felt from Apollo's status as an angel began to melt as she realized how similar they actually were to each other.

Though, despite the glowing yellow halo, Apollo wasn't an angel.

So Eden's thoughts weren't exactly the most correct.

As for Apollo, he was not aware of all the thoughts going through Eden's mind because of his offhand comment. He just continued on with his story.

"Many times I would cry so much that I couldn't stand up. I would hit the grass, getting myself all dirty because of it."

His expression softened.

"But then Ivy came to me. She didn't care that I was all muddy and tried to comfort me."

Apollo giggled a little mischievously.

"Um, but I didn't really listen to her. As she tried to calm me down, I hit her several times."

He cleared his throat.

"Ivy wasn't too happy about it, so she grabbed onto my arms really tightly. I couldn't even move because she was so strong!"

Apollo waved his bokken around excitedly.

"I really tried to move my arms, but I couldn't at all. And then, Ivy put my head down on her leg."

He mumbled.

"It felt really nice."

Apollo closed his eyes and let out unintelligible sounds, kind of like a baby. Under normal circumstances, it would be cute to a certain extent, but the extremely loud sounds of lightning more or less ruined it.

It got so intense, that it became hard to see from the outside.

Apollo let out a soft hum.

"I was always really dirty, and moving around a lot on the ground. So Ivy had to get down on the ground too if she wanted to hold me. It always got her dress really dirty, but she did it anyway."

Eden lightly brushed his forehead.

"What made you so sad?"

Apollo put a finger on his chin.

"Well, there were a lot of things, but I just dealt with it."

He tilted his head to the side.

"Unlike the other me."