Before Yui came crashing down from the heavens, unconscious...
She and the angel were locked in a clash so violent, so awe-inspiring, that it tore the clouds above asunder, ripping the sky into fragments like torn parchment under divine fury.
Their movements were incomprehensible.
One moment they were visible—blades colliding in a flash of brilliance—and the next, gone in a blur, leaving behind sonic echoes and gusts that howled like screams from the heavens.
They soared up, dived down, then clashed again with unstoppable rhythm, like a chaotic waltz of destruction performed mid-air.
Over and over, without pause.
Neither side willing to relent.
Yui's eyes locked unwaveringly on the angel before her, that ever-so-smug grin glued to her face like a permanent scar.
Not even once had that smug, mocking smile left her lips—not in the face of pressure, nor pain, nor divine punishment.
The angel gritted her teeth.
Yet no matter how relentless her assault became, she still couldn't penetrate Yui's guard.
There was a reason Yui was feared.
Feared not just by mortals, but by angels themselves.
She was one of the first generation, an original angel, born of divine will long before the newer generations ever existed.
That alone placed the current angel at a crippling disadvantage.
She lacked not only the raw experience but also the ancient wisdom Yui had gained over her millennium of existence.
Yui wasn't just old. She was ancient. A relic of heavenly power that refused to decay.
And she had carved her name into history as one of the most dangerous fallen angels to ever descend from grace.
She had taken the lives of countless angels—each one executed without an ounce of mercy or hesitation.
Her hands were soaked in celestial blood.
Heaven itself had branded her as a blight.
She was a cursed memory it longed to erase.
Countless subjugation efforts had been dispatched over the centuries to eliminate her.
Every single one had ended in failure.
Because Yui wasn't just formidable.
She was the strongest of her time.
She was unmatched in skill and unparalleled in power.
She wasn't just a fallen angel.
She was the worst nightmare of heaven's golden age.
The angel now before her, despite her conviction, had no clue how to bring her down.
"Why did you let yourself fall?" the angel suddenly cried out, voice trembling with a mixture of disbelief and fury. "If you had stayed in heaven, this world could've been cleansed of demons! Why—why did you have to fall?!"
"I don't know," Yui replied nonchalantly, her tone light as a feather. "Ask the Creator. I was cast aside just because I got bored and played around a little. That's all. I never thought I'd fall over something so trivial."
Her voice was like velvet soaked in venom—soft, but infuriating.
That smug grin didn't waver for even a second.
It gnawed at the angel's pride.
It made her blood boil.
The angel struck again, this time with renewed hatred.
Her sword danced in a dazzling blur, divine energy crackling as she launched a flurry of vicious attacks.
Every clash of their blades burst into blinding sparkles of light, sending shockwaves across the sky, dispersing clouds like shattered glass under pressure.
Each blow between them screamed of power.
"Careful now. Don't let your anger consume you," Yui said calmly, effortlessly deflecting the angel's attacks. "Fall too deep into wrath, and you'll tumble just like I did."
Anger alone wasn't a sin. But wrath—that was a different beast.
Wrath gave birth to anger. Just as boredom gave way to sloth, and jealousy bred envy.
Every deadly sin had its seed. All it took was a little push.
"You can't expect me to fall..." the angel snarled through clenched teeth. "I've always held pride in being an angel, and I always will. Filth like you—staining your wings and spreading corruption—you deserve to be eradicated. You need to be purged before you infect the heavens further."
"Sure," Yui replied simply, her voice dripping with sarcasm, that infuriating grin still haunting her lips.
The angel let out a cry and charged once more, blade glowing, slicing through the air as she delivered blow after blow with each one fueled by desperation and pride.
Yui moved with ghostly grace, parrying each strike, dodging with ease.
But then... something shifted.
Yui suddenly winced in pain, her body halting mid-air as if struck by an invisible force.
The angel saw her opening.
Her hands lit up with divine fire.
Without hesitation, she conjured a fireball—its core blazing with concentrated holy energy—and hurled it straight toward Yui.
Yui's instincts kicked in.
She raised her hand, trying to form a barrier—but her palm trembled, and the magic fizzled into nothing.
'I'm... out of mana…'
Her reserves were dry.
She was drained completely.
She had been using her mana to shape this illusionary world from within Kouhei's subconscious… to fight these divine pursuers… and to move with the council in the real world—all at once.
But it left her wide open.
She couldn't even try to block.
It consumed her in a burst of divine flame.
Then... she began to fall.
Her wings folded in defeat.
And the sky let her go.
Meanwhile, back in the real world…
With a soft gasp and a shaky breath, Yui collapsed into the thick, unforgiving snow.
Her slender frame sank into the powdery white, swallowed by the freezing cold like a lifeless doll discarded in the midst of winter's wrath.
Her limbs sprawled, her strength stolen by the frost biting deep into her bones.
The group accompanying her immediately stopped in their tracks, alerted by the sudden thump of her fall.
"What happened?" Yuuna's voice cut through the cold air, sharp with alarm.
Her eyes widened, the color draining from her face as she turned toward the fallen figure.
Without hesitation, she darted toward Yui, kneeling at her side in the snow, watching as Yui's body trembled uncontrollably.
The girl's fingers twitched, her breath came in uneven wisps of white steam, and she struggled to lift herself—barely able to move in the icy clutch of the snow's embrace.
The cold out here wasn't just inconvenient—it was absolute.
It gnawed at the flesh, crept beneath clothing, and sought out every weakness with cruel precision.
It was the kind of chill that could kill.
If they didn't act quickly, one of them—no, any of them—could freeze to death out here.
"Fufufu…" Yui let out a low, breathy chuckle, her voice so faint it was barely audible over the wind. Her lips curled into that same grin she always wore, as if nothing could ever touch her. "It's nothing. I just felt a little cold, that's all."
But they all knew it wasn't just the cold.
It was true that the rest of the group had been using their mana to shield themselves.
They were coating their bodies in an invisible shell of warmth, pushing the biting wind away with thick, protective auras.
She had none of that now.
Her mana was gone. Completely drained.
Because at this very moment, her soul was fighting in the subconscious realm with her desperately holding the line, defending Kouhei from something far beyond what anyone else here could see.
That effort came with a price.
And right now, that price was stripping her bare before the elements.
She had no defense. No mana shield. No warmth.
Just flesh, blood, and bone—against nature's killing cold.
Yuuna noticed it almost immediately.
Her sharp eyes caught the flickering signs of mana depletion—
Yui's weakened aura, her sluggish movements, the way she trembled despite trying to hide it.
And in that moment… Yuuna hesitated.
For a heartbeat, a dark thought crossed her mind.
This girl lying helplessly before her—this fallen angel—was their enemy.
She wasn't one of them. She wasn't an ally.
She had manipulated others, tainted innocent minds, and sent those twisted souls toward Kouhei like arrows aimed at his heart.
She was dangerous. A threat.
And right now, in this vulnerable, powerless state… Yuuna could end it all.
Just one motion—a flick of her wrist or a slice through the air—and Yui's life would be snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
"Himeno-san…" Yuuna's voice broke the silence. "You're low on mana, aren't you?"
"Fufufu… I'm surprised you saw that, senpai." Yui's grin didn't waver, even as her body trembled from the cold. "Well? What will you do? Will you kill me?"
Yuuna looked at her, her expression unreadable.
"No." She shook her head slowly. "Right now, you're preserving Kouhei-kun's soul, aren't you? That's why your mana is draining so rapidly. Because you're doing that. I don't usually pry into people's business… especially not the business of a fallen angel like you, who's supposed to be our enemy."
Her gaze hardened slightly.
"But I need to know. What are you hoping to gain from this?"
Even though her body was visibly pained with her trembling and breathing shallowly—
Yui still managed a twisted, almost amused smile. Her teeth chattered slightly, but she forced her words out.
"I have no benefit from this, senpai. I'm just here to… you know… find something really interesting."
The words were vague.
But Yuuna sensed something else behind them—something genuine. Something true.
Maybe not everything. But something.
And so, after a long pause, Yuuna reached into her coat, pulled out a small charm laced with mana, and gently placed it on Yui's shoulder.
A subtle warmth radiated from the charm, spreading slowly across Yui's body.
"I don't know if this will be enough… but it's better than letting you freeze to death out here."
Yui stared up at her, surprised. Her smile remained, but it softened—just a little.
"I see… Thanks for this, senpai," she whispered.
And with nothing more said, the group pressed onward—leaving behind their footprints in the snow, the storm still howling above.