Akira Fudo is just an ordinary high school student until his childhood friend Ryo Asuka asks him to 'save the world.' Dragged to a demonic rave called a Sabbath, Akira fuses with the powerful demon Amon, becoming Devilman—a hero with a demon's body but a human heart. What follows is a story that explodes with forbidden love.
While Akira fights hidden battles, Ryo's suppressed feelings for him burn like a fever. Ryo has always loved Akira, not just as a friend. But he's forced to watch Akira's k
Devilman: Apocalypse of Love - Summer Morning, Three Vows — Amon's Seal and a Life Shortening
Asuka Ryo lay collapsed on the road.
Blood from his abdomen had spread, forming a dark stain on the gray pavement. His skin, once white as porcelain, was now smeared with dirt, blood, and soot. His pale silver hair, drained of its luster, fanned out in the pool of blood.
Even so, Ryo's eyes were open.
Those deep blue eyes, the color of the ocean depths, were growing unfocused. Yet they still strained to fix upon a single point.
Beyond the flames, a shadow stood.
A humanoid aberration, over two meters tall. Dark blue carapace covering its entire body. Enormous bat-like wings spreading from its back. Two curved horns jutting from its forehead.
Amon.
The demon that had seized Ryo's — Akira's — body.
But now, its appearance was different.
It was on its knees.
Forehead pressed against the road surface, its entire body trembling. As if it could barely endure something happening within its own form.
A massive tremor ran through the ground, and the scattered rubble around them bounced and clattered.
In the deepest reaches of the mental world, Fudo Akira's ego had begun the final battle against Amon.
* * *
It was a space like a desolate ruin.
No color.
No sound.
Only an endlessly expanding gray wasteland. The crumbling remnants of buildings dotted the landscape like decayed grave markers. The sky was covered by heavy, turbid clouds, blocking out every trace of light.
—This was Akira's mental world.
At its center, two beings stood facing each other.
One was Akira.
In his usual high school student form. Short, unruly black hair. Deep black eyes. But within those eyes now dwelled a quiet resolve he had never shown before.
The other was Amon.
Overwhelming.
Easily over three meters tall. The carapace covering its body was a deep blue-black, so dark it seemed to swallow light. Its bat-like wings spread leisurely, and the two horns thrusting skyward from its forehead seemed as if they ruled this world itself. An invisible, tremendous pressure radiated from its massive frame, making the very space tremble and shake.
"[cold] Boy."
Amon's voice shook the entire mental world. The deep bass crawled along the ground, traveled up the ruined walls, and vibrated through the air.
"[sarcastic] What do you intend? You challenge me with that fragile ego of yours?"
Its golden, reptilian eyes narrowed, appraising Akira.
"[cold] Don't make me laugh. Do you think that 'love' of yours can defeat my two hundred million years?"
Akira silently looked up at Amon.
He was afraid.
The overwhelming mass of the being standing before him. Two hundred million years of murderous intent. It was on a different dimension from any enemy he had ever fought.
His heart pounded like a frantic drum.
(*Can I win?*)
But.
Akira closed his eyes.
What floated up on the back of his eyelids was the image of Ryo.
His childhood friend, collapsed in a pool of blood, yet still reaching out with a trembling hand, calling his name over and over.
"I couldn't say I loved you."
That confession, sobbed out through tears.
Everything, for his sake.
Twisted. Wrong. But all of it, directed at him.
(*Ryo is calling for me.*)
Akira opened his eyes.
There was no hesitation left in them.
"[gentle] Amon, there's something I want to ask you."
Amon's golden eyes widened slightly.
"[gentle] In two hundred million years of living, have you ever wanted to throw your life away for someone else?"
"[angry] What nonsense are you—"
"[gentle] I have."
Akira took one step forward.
"[gentle] Ryo put his life on the line for me. So I want to answer that feeling. That's all."
Something inside Amon spat out an error.
—Incomprehensible.
Ryo's actions were completely contrary to the instinct of self-preservation. Zero selfish elements. Calculation, fear, betrayal — it fit into none of the categories in a database spanning two hundred million years.
And now, what Akira was saying.
Fighting for someone else, even at the cost of his own life?
(*That is weakness.*)
Amon desperately tried to categorize it in its mind. But the very attempt generated noise within its mental structure.
"[angry] Silence, boy!!"
Amon raised its right arm. With that single blow, it intended to crush Akira's ego along with the entire mental world.
But.
CLANG!!
Akira looked straight at it and caught the blow with both hands. That massive arm, many times larger than his own body — caught by sheer force of will.
The impact raced through the entire mental world.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the ruined walls.
"[angry] Gu... ugh...!!"
Heavy. His bones, his muscles, screamed in protest.
But Akira smiled.
"[gentle] Hey, Amon."
Clenching his teeth, yet unmistakably smiling.
"[gentle] To defeat you, I don't need techniques, or strategies, or anything. I just want Ryo to live. That alone lets me stand."
That was the moment.
Within Amon's mental world, emergency alerts blared.
—Warning. Unclassified thought pattern. No match in database.
Amon accessed the database of Akira's past memories. To search for this human's weakness.
What spread out before it was.
Dinner with Miki.
Meaningless conversations with Ryo.
The day they sat side by side in Higashimurayama Central Park, looking at the sky.
The time they argued for thirty minutes at the Maruei convenience store over which ice cream was better.
Ninety percent of his memories were filled with such trivial, everyday moments.
—Unable to process.
—Such insignificant things. Such worthless memories. Why.
—Why is this the basis of his strength?
Amon's mental structure emitted an intense dissonance it had never experienced before.
—An intelligence of two hundred million years cannot comprehend the ordinary daily life of a seventeen-year-old high school student.
That fact was shaking Amon's dominion from its very foundation.
"[angry] Boyyyyy!!"
Amon unleashed its power. A torrent of two hundred million years of pure malice and murderous intent swallowed the mental world like a tsunami.
Akira's ego creaked, screamed.
(*I'm being crushed—*)
His consciousness began to fade.
But.
—*Akira.*
He felt like he heard a voice from far away.
Ryo's voice.
(*Ryo... I'm here.*)
Still gripping Amon's arm, Akira took one step forward. Then another.
He charged head-on into Amon's pressure.
"[serious] U... oooooohhh!!!"
It was neither a technique nor a tactic.
Just the wish for Ryo to live.
A pure mass of will, focused on that single point.
In two hundred million years of experience, Amon had never once encountered this method of attack.
Not fear, not anger, not calculation, not a desire for control.
(*What is this—*)
Amon had no countermeasure for that motive.
Slowly, inexorably.
Amon's gigantic body was pushed back.
"[angry] Impossible... this cannot be...!!"
With every step Akira advanced, Amon retreated one step.
The entire mental world began to be enveloped in white light.
"[angry] I... two hundred million years of I... to a mere boy...!!"
As if in a final desperate struggle, countless black tentacles extended from Amon's massive form. They coiled around Akira's ego, trying to drag him down.
"[serious] Amon, it's over."
One by one, Akira tore those tentacles apart with the force of his will.
"[serious] You said humans were weak. But—"
The last tentacle snapped.
"[gentle] For the sake of someone precious, to acknowledge your weakness and still move forward. That is the true strength of humans."
Amon's golden eyes flew wide open.
In that instant, a decisive crack formed in its absolute confidence, built over two hundred million years.
(*So this is a human—*)
Amon's will finally broke completely.
The entire mental world was enveloped in pure white light.
"[angry] You fool—"
Amon tried to say something at the end, but the words cut off.
Silence.
It was the silence of defeat.
* * *
In the outside world, a change occurred in Akira's body.
A pale blue light began to seep from his entire form.
It was the immense life energy torn away from Amon.
The light, like a living creature with a will of its own, slowly flowed into Ryo's unconscious body, lying several dozen centimeters away.
The gaping wound in Ryo's abdomen.
The light gathered there, and cells, tissues, regenerated audibly.
The wound closed, little by little.
His nearly stopped breathing became deep and slow. His heart began to beat strongly once more.
(*Thank goodness...*)
Akira thought this, sensing the scene from a hazy corner of his consciousness.
At the same time, he felt the strength rapidly draining from his own body.
His skin color visibly worsened.
The trembling in his hands wouldn't stop.
His lifespan was being shaved away.
He knew it clearly, himself.
Whether he had even a few years left.
(*But.*)
What came to Akira's mind was gratitude toward Ryo, an apology to Miki, and the simple feeling of wanting to talk more with both of them.
There was no calculation, no desire to be a hero, anywhere.
(*I'm fine with this.*)
He was satisfied.
* * *
Just before dawn, in the darkest hour.
A bicycle raced at full speed down a street in eastern Tokyo.
It was Makimura Miki.
Her long black ponytail whipped violently in the wind. She was gasping for breath, large beads of sweat on her forehead. Her large brown eyes were drenched and messy with tears.
Over an hour had passed since she had followed the entire event on a live stream and rushed out of her house.
The trains were no longer running. So she had no choice but to come on her own two feet.
(*Akira, Asuka-kun, please, be safe—*)
Her legs had no strength to pedal. Even so, Miki didn't stop.
And finally, she arrived at the scene.
Collapsed houses, burned-out cars, smoldering flames.
Amidst it all, she spotted two figures.
Akira's back, collapsed on the ground, and Ryo's form, lying a few meters away.
Miki's feet stopped for an instant.
—*Don't come near me, monster!*
Her own scream echoed in her head.
(*Am I going to run away again?*)
But the next moment, seeing Akira's shoulders tremble faintly, Miki's legs moved before reason could catch up.
She threw down her bicycle and ran, nearly tumbling, to his side.
"[scared] Akira!!"
She dropped to her knees beside him.
Gently, she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"[gentle] ...Miki-chan."
Akira slowly raised his face. His skin was sallow, blood seeping at his lips. But they were unmistakably Akira's gentle, black eyes.
"[crying] Akira, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Miki shouted through her tears.
"[crying] I said such horrible things to you back then...! Calling you a monster... when you're not! You were just trying to protect me...!"
"[gentle] No, I'm the one who—"
"[crying] No, it's not! I was wrong! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry...!"
"[crying] That's why I'm saying I'm sorry too—"
They both started apologizing at the same time, their words overlapping, and a strange, awkward silence fell.
Beside them, Ryo, who was beginning to regain consciousness, looked in their direction with unfocused eyes, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly.
(*What are you doing...*)
No voice came out. His vocal cords still lacked the strength. His face was still a mess of blood, tears, and soot, but his expression was tinged with a somewhat goofy bewilderment.
"[gentle] ...Miki-chan."
Akira spoke quietly.
"[gentle] Is it okay if I touch you?"
Miki's shoulders flinched.
—*Don't come near me.*
Akira still remembered the words she had screamed in that warehouse. That's why he was afraid, why he had to ask.
That single sentence pierced Miki deeper than anything else.
"[crying] ...Yeah."
Miki nodded through her tears and threw her arms around Akira herself.
"[crying] You're warm... Akira, you're alive..."
"[gentle] ...Yeah."
Akira gently wrapped his arms around Miki's back.
"[gentle] ...I'm sorry, Miki-chan. For worrying you."
"[crying] Idiot! You're such an idiot! Honestly, Akira... *sniff*... you make me worry way too much!"
* * *
By the tim
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