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The Four Horsemen Arc
Kristof and Simoun continue learning how to focus their skills and survive the pains of formal education; Vincent continues to roam the world in the guise of a classical soloist.
Kristof and Simoun have both picked up the habit of reading the newspaper daily from Vincent, and when Vincent called their attention to it, they saw it immediately: over the past two months there have been a phenomenal number of calamities, wars and deaths all over the world.
Kristof suspects that Michael has something to do with it. Simoun rejects the idea. Vincent says it's a logical conclusion and goes with it.
With the unwitting help of Professor Chauviteau, the three trace the path of the strange disasters; they realize there is a loosely methodical pattern to the deaths, which would thoroughly touch every major city in the world.
Simoun has also been having dreams of a certain little girl, who sometimes asks him to teach her how to play the piano.
Somewhere else in the world, Sheila, an 11-year-old girl in a house in the middle of a vast wilderness wakes up, walks over to the piano in the bare living room, and plays a tune perfectly. A young woman, Charlie, who has been standing nearby softly remarks that she has never heard her play that tune before. What's it called? Sheila shrugs and answers, "He didn't say."
It takes the three time to correctly plot the next focal point of the deaths; it's as if whoever is behind the pattern of destruction is reading their minds. But they manage to catch up with two unusual individuals: a very thin young woman with melancholy eyes, and a very tall, pale young man who likes to smile. They seem to have expected that they were going to be found, and they manage to escape every time they are seen.
The three get closer to the source, then they receive a rather formal request for a meeting from a young man named Stephen. Stephen will only speak with one representative, and Vincent volunteers.
Stephen and Vincent confer. Stephen confesses: he and his three other "friends," whose identities he carefully withholds, are on a mission to bring about a new Paradise. He is convinced that they were born with this purpose, and he wishes to recruit Vincent's help. His argument is convincing: they have similar powers, they can cause similar things to occur - why should they not have been born to fulfill the same fate?
Charismatic and eloquent, Stephen presents his belief: he and his three friends are the Angels brought into the world so they could cleanse it. Until they have done this, the gates of Heaven will be closed to them. They are to pave the way for the coming of the Messiah; both the innocent and the guilty will perish in their wave - and those who oppose them will suffer the same fate.
Then he mentions Michael, whom they had tried to recruit before. They had failed, but Stephen believes it is only a matter of time before they manage to win him over.
Vincent takes this as a subtle cue from the absent Michael to step away from the offer. Vincent asks, how are you certain it is the Messiah you are clearing the way for, and not the Beast? There is no answer. Then Vincent says he will bring the matter to his friends, and Stephen lets him go.
Stephen tells Leon, the pale smiling youth standing in the shadows, that their plan didn't work: they'd lost Vincent's support. The next time they meet will be in battle.
As it turns out, Michael has been ignoring world affairs, focused as he is on wiping out the entire genealogy of the mob he had targeted before joining Vincent and the rest. Simoun gets a hunch about this and manages to track Michael down, to ask him to return. There are bad things going on in the world. This is no news to Michael. But he agrees to at least be presented the details.
Kristof and Simoun show Michael clippings and photographs of the deaths that have been going on in the wake of Stephen's onslaught. Michael remains unaffected until he comes to a photograph of a dead infant whose lower body had been blown away by shrapnel. This is the work of War.
Stephen and his friends Leon, Charlie, and Sheila continue in their work to "cleanse" the Earth. We see in the next several installments that they are less of a team and more of a family, watching out for each other like no one else. Stephen has more or less convinced them that they are doing the right thing even if they resort to murder.
Oddly enough it is Sheila, the only one with the power to end pain, who doesn't understand why killing is necessary. She is convinced that somewhere out there is the boy in her dreams, and the best that the other "Angels" could do is convince her that come the time, he, too, may be part of the cleansing.
Michael rejoins the four Angels and they plot a final engagement: they each intercept every member of the four "Angels" - except for Sheila, who never works alone. With the "Angels"' fanaticism, it could only be a battle to the death.
Michael engages Stephen without hesitation, but the battle ends in a draw and Stephen is left alive to see his friends fall. Vincent defeats and kills Leon. Kristof encounters Charlie, but needs to put an end to her as well.
Finally, there is Simoun, the weakest of Vincent's group, and Sheila, the strongest of Stephen's. Simoun recognizes Sheila from his dreams. Knowing by instinct that her friends are dead, her voice shakes and tears falls from her eyes, and she asks him to teach her how to play the piano. They sit together at the piano in the abandoned house in the wilderness, and start to play.
They play different pieces at first, and innocents everywhere experience sudden horrible deaths. Simoun realizes he can only counter Sheila's attacks by staying in harmony, and he does so, until he sees that Sheila is gaining the upper hand by forcing him out of his piece. Regardless of the deaths on his shoulders, Simoun works up a cacophony, and defeats Sheila, who finally falls over the keys lifeless.
Stephen feels Sheila's passing and doesn't even consider Vincent's offer to join them in rebuilding the Earth, after the massive destruction they have caused. He calmly says that in exchange for their lives, the "Angels" have done everything required of them, and surely they will be let back into Heaven. Stephen commits suicide in detainment.
In the grim silence that follows, Vincent tells the rest there is much work to be done.
And then the end begins...
