Yui's entire body began to radiate—
Light pulsating from every inch of her skin.
But unlike the pristine, golden glow of an angel, hers carried a deeper, almost corrupted tone.
It shimmered with power, but its hue was shaded in darkness.
It wasn't gentle like the angelic light.
No—this was wild, untamed, like a star trying to collapse in on itself while still shining as bright as ever.
A glow meant to inspire fear, not comfort.
"H-How?!" Gabriel gasped, her voice shaken as her wings fluttered in disbelief.
A fallen angel… awakening Divine Justice?
There was no way a being who had been cast down could invoke a power so holy.
It defied every law, every decree written in the heavens.
The thought itself was heresy—and yet… here it was.
Gabriel's eyes trembled as she stared.
It wasn't just a trick or an illusion.
Yui really had done it. The sacred light wrapped itself around her like a crown… like it belonged to her.
"It's not that divine anymore if someone like me can wield it," Yui said with a smirk, her tone soaked with sarcasm.
She might as well have spat in Gabriel's face.
Every word was like a slap and a mockery.
She was taunting not just Gabriel—but the entire angelic race.
Gabriel clenched her jaw so hard, she nearly cracked her teeth.
The faint aura around her flared, wings rising high.
"You'll regret that."
With the glow of Divine Justice still building but not yet fully ignited, she burst forward, slicing through the air like a bolt of holy lightning.
"Fufufu~ So hasty," Yui murmured with amusement.
She met the attack head-on, lifting her arm with calm confidence, and blocked Gabriel's strike like it was nothing more than a gentle breeze.
Gabriel didn't let up.
She moved like a dancer caught in a storm, her strikes flowing one after the other, each more ferocious than the last.
Her divine strength surged, speed multiplying with every passing second.
Her wings flashed behind her like blades of light, cutting the wind itself.
But even with all that power, she wasn't enough.
Yui stood like a monolith in a storm.
Her posture relaxed, eyes half-lidded, lips curved ever so slightly in a smug grin.
She parried every strike with ease, her movements fluid and precise, as though she had already read every step Gabriel would take.
She wasn't just defending—
Gabriel's breaths grew heavier.
Her limbs moved with fury, but her attacks landed nowhere meaningful.
No matter what she did, it was never enough.
Her face twisted in frustration.
A wave of energy burst outward from her chest.
Her Divine Justice finally activated in full.
Her eyes burned with white-gold fire, her blade erupted into blinding light, and waves of mana exploded from her body like a storm breaking free of a cage.
The ground trembled beneath her as she rose higher, wings spreading wide, radiant and terrible.
But she wasn't alone.
Yui's power flared up in response.
Her own Divine Justice ignited like a sun going supernova.
The dark radiance wrapped around her surged higher and higher, licking the heavens with claws of shadow and light intertwined.
The air became thick. It had become unbearable. It was alive with tension.
And then—they collided.
It was as if the sky itself split.
Their wings beat with explosive force, shaking the very atmosphere.
Each clash of blade against blade sent shockwaves strong enough to ripple the clouds and peel away the air.
Down below, Yuuna and the others watched in horror and awe as the battle unfolded above them.
Yui was fighting an angel.
An actual, divine, heaven-sent angel.
If an angel was here, it meant the heavens had noticed.
They had discovered the anomaly.
They wanted to erase Yui.
If Yui died… Kouhei's soul would be lost forever.
They couldn't allow that to happen.
"Aria! Nagisa! Don't let Himeno-san lose!" Yuuna yelled, urgency thick in her voice.
The two immediately sprang into motion.
Aria gripped her sword and pulled all of her energy into it—the blade began to glow violently, vibrating with power.
Nagisa knelt down, placing her palm against the earth as she summoned her strength. Glowing veins of mana ran up her arms as energy pooled into her palm.
They didn't hesitate.
Aria stepped onto Nagisa's cupped hands, and Nagisa launched her upward like a projectile—her legs tensing, her body straining, every ounce of strength poured into the throw.
Aria shot into the sky like a comet of fire and steel.
Gabriel noticed the incoming attack.
Her body shifted mid-air, twisting away.
The blade missed—barely.
But even as she praised, Gabriel felt her skin crawl.
She looked down—only to see a massive, dark sphere barreling toward her, spinning with malice.
She looked up—and her breath caught.
Hundreds of crimson nails hovered above, each one shining with murderous intent.
They were all aimed at her.
And then… they struck.
Both attacks crashed down at once.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Gabriel screamed as she twisted her body, trying to dodge and trying to evade.
She avoided some—but not enough.
The nails pierced her defenses.
The sphere swallowed her legs.
She was ripped out of the sky by sheer force alone.
Her body spiraled downward.
She hit the snow like a meteor, carving a crater in the ground.
"G-Guh…" she groaned, blood dribbling from her lips as her teeth cut into her gums.
Her limbs trembled. Her wings twitched, bent and broken.
She had been defeated.
"I-I have to… do something… or else…" she whispered through grit teeth, pain flooding her voice.
Suddenly, her body was enveloped in light.
And not just her—so was the stoic angel beside her.
The light wrapped around them, swirling like a protective cocoon.
Yuuna's eyes widened.
"A teleportation spell?! They're escaping!"
Nagisa roared and launched herself forward, blade drawn, eyes burning with resolve.
Aria sprinted forward with urgency, snow crunching violently beneath her feet as she pushed her body to move faster.
Yuuna and Hina, without hesitation, summoned their spells.
Bright incantation circles lit up beneath their feet, glowing with radiant power.
Bolts of raw magic burst forth from their palms and arced toward where the angels were.
But they were too late.
Before any of the spells could reach their mark, the angels had already slipped away, fading into shimmering light, their presence erased as if they had never been there to begin with.
All of them stared in stunned silence at the empty space where their enemies had disappeared.
She wasn't looking like the others.
Her eyes were fixated on something else—something on the ground directly beneath her.
The aftermath of the intense battle had disrupted the heavy snow, scattering it and melting parts of it away.
And just beneath that disturbed patch, something etched in the frozen earth glimmered faintly in the low light.
"…A symbol?" Hina whispered, her voice quiet, barely audible over the wind.
She crouched down, brushing away the rest of the snow with her trembling hand.
Her breath caught in her throat.
She recognized it instantly.
It wasn't just a symbol.
It was the symbol—the crest of the Primordial Succubus.
Her chest tightened, her pulse quickening.
Why was that emblem here?
"Hina?" Yuuna called out, her voice slicing through the tense silence. She had noticed her friend staring at something, and as she stepped closer, her eyes widened. "Is that…?"
"I see…~" Yui's voice echoed from above, sultry and amused. She descended slowly from the sky, wings spread like a dark silhouette against the pale winter clouds. As her boots met the snow-covered earth, the wings shimmered into nothingness, vanishing as though they had never existed. "It seems… we're close. Very close. And thankfully, we happen to have a Primordial Succubus with us."
Yuuna turned to her. "What's the meaning of this, Himeno-san?"
"Well," Yui said with a little shrug, "I don't know the details myself, but… Primordial Succubi have an ability. Something not everyone understands. You might call it empathy, but it's far deeper than that. They don't just sense emotions. They feel souls—living or dead."
She stepped toward the emblem, her fingers brushing against it as she smiled faintly.
"In the ancient days, the heavens feared them. The Primordial Succubi were powerful enough to disrupt the balance of the world itself. Their presence alone could tip the law that held existence in place. The cosmic scales... unable to even measure their weight."
Her eyes gleamed with mischief as she added, "Luckily for us, we have the last and only one in existence right here."
Yuuna blinked and looked back at Hina. "Did you know about this?"
Hina, her gaze still pinned to the symbol, shook her head silently.
"That's not surprising," Yui said with a light scoff. "The rituals tied to their power go back to the beginning of the war between heaven and hell. Way back. There's no way she'd know."
The war had begun in 1000 BC.
There was no way Hina could have remembered something so far removed from her own life.
"This is… the place with no name?" Yuuna asked, her voice heavy with uncertainty.
"No," Hina responded after a beat, standing up slowly. "I don't know where that place is. But… this isn't it."
Yuuna clenched her fists. "Then… there's still a chance we might not make it?"
Time was running out.
This was the final day.
If they didn't find the right place soon, Kouhei's soul would vanish. He would be gone completely from existence.
But Hina looked calm.
"Don't worry," she said gently, yet firmly. "I might not know where the place is… but I can feel them."
She turned her head, her long hair catching in the breeze as her eyes narrowed.
Far off in the distance—beyond the stretch of white—something was calling to her.
Not a voice. Not a sound.
She turned to the left, staring at the horizon.
That was where they needed to go.