their chess piece is the queen, the most powerful in chess, symbolizing irreplaceable strategic value.
They were forged by the War God Artosh himself, originally as the ultimate god-slaying weapon, endowed with near-eternal life, supreme adaptability to magic, and the power to lay waste to heaven and earth.
The descended Flgel slowly turned her blue-and-gold eyes.
Cold, efficient senseslike the most precise radarswept the boundless ruins below in an instant.
No fluctuation of energy, no sign of life, could escape her probe.
Soon, she seemed to catch something.
Those eyes, which looked as if they could pierce the essence of all things, brightened faintly.
"Found you, Jibril-chan."
She murmured the words, a smile tugging at her mouthan indulgent, playful curve that sat a touch at odds with her holy appearance.
Before the words had even faded
BOOM!
Her wings of light snapped once.
The air around her compressed and detonated in an instant, cracking with a sonic boom.
Her figure became an emerald streak, ripping the sky at a speed far beyond sound toward a fixed point.
She moved too fast for the naked eye to track, leaving only a slowly dissolving Mach cone in her wake.
Meanwhile,
in a valley that had survived comparatively intact and even showed a hint of life, one of humanity's last settlements lay hidden.
Compared with the deathly silence outside, this place was almost bustling.
Crude but sturdy houses climbed the slopes, thin smoke curling from their roofs.
In the valley's center, fields had been carved from the earth.
The soil was still poor, but hardy crops had already pushed up tender green shootsa fragile promise of hope.
At the settlement's edge, a tall young woman in fitted leather armor with short black hairCouronne Dolawas making the rounds of the fields with two companions who could not have looked more different.
One was a girl wrapped head to toe in protective clothing, hood and goggles on, only a hint of blue hair and cold mechanical structure visiblean Ex-Machina named Schwi.
The other, likewise bundled up, with pink hair, a simple geometric halo floating above her head, and white wings spread behind hera Flgel named Jibril.
If any of the other races still fighting the great war saw this scene, their jaws would drop.
Humansthe lowest and weakest of the Sixteen Races, dismissed as ants and dust
coexisting peacefully with a sixth-rank Flgel and a powerful, hyper-logical Ex-Machina?
And getting along, at that?
Even more surprising, the busy humans in the settlement, when they saw Schwi and Jibril, showed not fear or suspicion but genuine respect and gratitude.
All of this traced back to a recent catastrophe.
A pack of powerful Demonkind had besieged the settlement.
Annihilation seemed inevitable.
It was Rei Ao-sama who crushed the demons with overwhelming force and saved everyone.
According to the settlement's leaderthe boy Riku, young yet remarkably wise and resolute
Rei Ao-sama is humanity's true savior and great benefactor.
He not only sent Schwi and Jibril to protect the settlement, he has repeatedly helped humans avert disaster from the shadows.
Thus, thanks to Riku's tireless advocacy and the people's own firsthand experiences,
Rei Ao's grace and might have sunk deep into their hearts, becoming an almost faith-like presence for all surviving humans.
As for the "nonhuman" guardians he sent, the people feel only gratitudeand trust.
~~~
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Chapter 932: Azril!
"The soil activity here still isn't enough. We need to add more catalytic reagent we 'borrowed' from the elf race."
Schwi crouched at the edge of the field, her voice perfectly flat as she analyzed the data.
"Ugh, what a pain."
Jibril let out an enormous yawn, lazily fluttering her wings.
"With stuff like farming, why not just let me ripen it with magic~? Or we could just raid the elves' grain depots~"
"No."
Couronne refused without hesitation.
Hands on her hips, she had all the presence of a big-sister leader.
"We can't rely forever on Rei Ao-sama's protection or on your power.
Humans have to learn to survive on our ownthat's what Rei Ao-sama wants to see!"
"Yeah, yeah~"
Jibril waved her hand perfunctorily, her mind already drifting elsewhere.
To be fair, compared to the despair and ruin when Rei Ao-sama first saved this village, the place had been transformed.
Better houses.
Newly reclaimed fields.
Even simple defenses and some basic tech they'd "learned" from Schwi.
None of it would exist without Schwi's knowledgeand the moments when Jibril was willing to actually do some heavy lifting.
But it was still so boring.
Jibril idly kicked a pebble at her feet.
No battles.
No bloodshed.
Just spending every day with tiny humans while they farm and build
This peaceful routine was driving her up the wall.
Her thoughts drifted, unbidden, to that chat group linking countless worldsand to the master who was powerful and mysterious, yet someone she gladly submitted toRei Ao-sama.
Especially when she remembered that very first "exchange."
That unprecedented, bone-deep, shiver-inducing, addictive euphoria
It was like the sweetest poison; once tasted, impossible to forget.
More than once, she found herself replaying it in the dead of night, unable to let it go.
Should she send Master another trade request?
Say it was, um, to report progress?
Or to ask for guidance?
And then maybe
The daring thought made her heartbeat quicken, a faint, unnatural flush rising to her cheeks.
But she soon tamped it down, a bit anxious.
Would Master think she was being greedy?
Or assume her mind was in the gutter, thinking only about that?
While she wrestled with herself
both Jibril and Schwi suddenly froze at almost the exact same moment.
The languor and daydreaming vanished from Jibril's face without a trace, replaced by razor-edged focus and caution.
Her wings spread a fraction on instinct as she went on alert.
Behind Schwi's goggles, a red glow lit up as her eyes snapped into high-speed analysis mode.
"What's wrong with you two?"
Couronne felt the mood twist beside her and asked in confusion.
They'd been fine a second agowhy the sudden
"Detected: ultra-high-energy entity," Schwi said, her cadence a notch faster.
"Target is approaching the settlement at very high speed. Threat level confirmed: maximum."
Jibril's gaze locked on the distant skyline.
"Couronne, if you don't want these people to die, get them under cover!"
Her voice was low and grave, with a thread of tension even she didn't notice.
She paused, then added a line that made Couronne's heart seize.
"As for the one coming I can't guarantee I'll take her down cleanly."
"If you don't want everyone here wiped out, move. Now!"
"!!!"
Couronne's face went chalk-white.
If even Jibril was saying thatwhat kind of monster was heading their way?!
She didn't dare waste a second.
She blew the emergency whistle hanging at her chest with all her strength.
The shrill note rang across the settlement!
"Enemy attack!"
"Everyone! Into the sheltersnow!"
She shouted herself hoarse.
The once-busy, peaceful settlement plunged into chaos in an instant.
People dropped what they were doing in panic, scooped up the old and the young, and surged toward the shelters carved into the valley wall.
Children burst into terrified sobs, quickly smothered by adults' hands over their mouths.
Riku and several other young men hurled themselves into activating the simple defensive sigils Schwi had designed and set up.
They knew they were unlikely to help much, but it was all they could do.
And thenjust as the evacuation had barely begun
BOOM!!!
A deafening blast crashed in from the outskirts!
The magical barrier Jibril herself had raisedenough to withstand the charge of a typical Dragonkindshattered like brittle glass, scattering as a storm of sparkling motes!
Right after, an emerald streak fell from the heavens like a meteor and slammed into the open ground at the settlement gate.
KRA-THOOM!!!
The earth heaved.
A tower of dust roared skyward!
The shockwave flattened a few of the crude houses nearby.
When the dust finally thinned, the newcomer's form came into view.
Jade-green hair, a single horn, heterochromatic eyesone blue, one goldan intricate halo, and those sacred wings woven from pure light
The new Flgel's gazethose eyes that seemed to see through everythingbrushed past the panicked humans and even past the battle-ready Schwi and Couronne, pinning instead, with flawless precision, on Jibril, whose expression had gone very grave.
A smile bloomed on her facepure and angelic, yet laced with a teasing strangeness.
In that signature voice of hers, equal parts lazy and sing-song, she spoke softly:
"Found you, Jibril-chan~ meow~"
At the sound of that bone-deep familiar nickname and tone, Jibril's pupils tightened.
She drew a slow breath and, smiling faintly, spoke the other's name:
"Well now, it's been a while"
"Azril senpai."
Azril!
Chair of the Flgel Councilthe Proxy of All-Wings.
The first Flgel created by the War God Artosh, an ancient being over twenty-six thousand years old.
As a special Flgel, she can call upon the power of the Phantasma Avant Heim.
Her strength is among the absolute pinnacle of the Flgel.
Azril always wears an angelic smile, but beneath it lies absolute ruthlessness and a fanatical love of combat.
She sees herself as the big sister of all Flgel, yet because she often goes off-script and acts like a ditz, her kin privately call her a "dummy" (not that anyone would dare say it to her face).
She also has an almost obsessive fondness for Jibril, loves nothing more than to squeeze Jibril like a body pillow, and peppers her speech with a distinctive "meow."
Her appearance meant serious trouble for Jibriland extreme danger.
Every nerve in Jibril's body drew tight.
It didn't surprise her that Azril had found this place.
Chapter 933: Help us Rei Ao-sama!
A feverish tension spread across the entrance to the human settlement.
The air grew heavier, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.
The angelically pure smile on Azril's face made a hair-raising contrast with the icy cruelty in her words.
Her blue-and-gold heterochromatic eyes swept, with amused interest, over Schwiwho stood as if facing a mortal enemyand over the humans trembling in the distance like startled lambs. Then they settled back on Jibril.
"So then, Jibril-chan~"
"You've slipped out for days just to play this game?"
"Watching these weak little ants struggle on the brink of death? Sounds pretty fun, meow~"
Azril tilted her head; jade-green hair lifted lightly on the wind, her tone bright with childlike curiosity.
Jibril's heart sank.
The situation she feared most had come to pass.
Azril's thinking always revolves around battle, destruction, and god-slaying.
Jibril had once been the same.
So there was no way Azril would understand what she was doing now.
"Just out for a casual stroll, that's all, Azril-senpai."
Jibril worked to keep her voice flat and calm, even adding a trace of her usual lazy, careless air.
"Oh?"
Azril blinked those gemlike eyes, clearly unconvinced.
Her gaze slid to Schwi, who stood silent and on guard as faint magical sigils began to course over her frame.
"But, Jibril-chan~"
Drawing out the words, she tapped her chin with a finger, feigning puzzlement.
"If you're just strolling, why are you hanging around with an Ex-Machina?"
"And these human ants who aren't even worth warming up on?"
Her look raked across Schwi like something solid, steeped in the Flgel's innate arrogance and contempt for the Ex-Machinaa bias rooted in their very creation.
""
Jibril was momentarily at a loss,
mind racing for a way to deflect.
Admit she was protecting them?
That would be no different from declaring war.
Azril would instantly mark this place as an anomaly to be purged.
In the few seconds Jibril hesitated,
Azril seemed to have an epiphany.
Clap!
She smacked her hands together, and her smile bloomed even "brighter"beautiful, and chilling to the core.
"Ah! I've got it, meow~!"
She gave her light-woven wings an excited flutter, leaned close to Jibril, and confided as if sharing a secret:
"You think straight-up killing is boring, right?"
"So first you pretend to befriend them, watch as they build hope and a false sense of safety~"
"Then, at the happiest moment, you pinch out that pitiful little flame yourselfwhile they make the most despairing, most twisted faces!"
"And finallyboomwipe out everything!"
The more Azril spoke, the more animated she became, a cruel delight glittering in her eyes.
"Right? Right? That's it, isn't it!"
"As expected of Jibril-chanyou always come up with such fun ways to play, meow~!"
She spread her arms, as if to sweep Jibril into a hug.
"Wonderful. Let's play together!"
"It's been ages since I savored the pleasure of slowly tormenting the prey, meow~"
"Who should we start with?"
"This Ex-Machina? Or those humans hiding over there?"
Jibril could only sigh inwardly. Sure enough, everything was veering toward the worst-case scenario.
Meanwhile, inside a relatively sturdy stone house in the settlement,
Couronne clamped a hand over her mouth, peering through a crack in the wall at the scene outside, her heart pounding as if it might burst from her chest.
She couldn't understand what the newly arrived winged woman was saying, but she could feel, with terrifying clarity, the abyssal malice and power pouring off her.
A presence that existed for destructionnothing else.
Couronne had no doubt that a mere flick of that woman's finger, a single spell, could erase the settlementand every living soul in itfrom the face of the earth.
And if Jibril and Schwi fought that terrifying being to protect them
victory or defeat aside, even the aftershocks would be more than fragile humans could ever survive.
This place would be reduced to dust in an instant.
What do I do?!
What can I do?!
Crushing panic and despair seized Couronne.
