“Master! What happened?!”
She quickly asked, worried about my state.
It wasn’t too serious, though, just a few broken bones here and there… and a few messed-up internal organs… and a heavy concussion. Wait, is this considered a serious injury?
As she was chiding my recklessness, she started to heal my wounds. It only took an instant before she completely fixed my body. As expected of the Void Healing skill!
After a complete recovery, I decided to head back to where the gods were. Worried, Ember decided to tag along, despite me telling her that it was dangerous.
“I need to watch out whether you’re pushing yourself or not!”
Or so she claimed, making me unable to stop her.
With Ember in tow, we teleported back to the sky above the southernmost wall. There, the three of them were still standing, as if nothing had happened at all. When I looked ahead, however, I felt puzzled.
“Where’s the angel?”
The beyond-god-level angel, Azrael, was nowhere to be found! It should’ve been in the middle of the battlefield, smashing the empire’s troops without allowing them to retreat, but right now, I can’t even see a shadow of it and the empire’s army.
“Will, you’re back.”
As if just realizing my presence, God Zeshion turned toward me and greeted me with a wry smile.
“You missed the events after that, so I’ll just tell it to you. The beyond-god-level monster left as soon as the entire army got wiped out by the explosion. I bet not even the ashes of them remained.”
“It left? Where did it go?”
To my follow-up question, God Zesion could only shrug.
“We don’t know, but I’m sure it didn’t return to the Otherside.”
I pondered for a while. Azrael didn’t return to the Otherside, meaning it’s still somewhere on this planet. And for where it would want to go, there’s only one possible answer. Still, I can’t be sure without proof.
“Ember, can you show me the Empire right now?”
If my guess is correct, then…
Ember quickly flipped out a portable terminal and changed its display to show a bird’s-eye view of the empire. There, in its capital, a cloud of dust was rising… No, it was smoke!
“Zoom in on the capital!”
When the view became closer, we all saw what was happening. There, Azrael was laying waste to the empire, one little person after another.
“…”
“That’s…”
“How horrible…”
The three gods reacted differently to the scene. Only Vermeil was completely indifferent to what was happening to the empire right now.
“Looks like that guy’s pretty pissed, enough that he’s laying waste to the whole capital of the empire.”
I could see the attempted attacks firing at the angel without rest and the crying residents of the capital running to safety. However, not a single one of them was able to survive. With a single sweep of its wings, everyone and everything that was along the way got cut in half.
“…”
When I imagined that happening to our country, Heaven’s Republic, I could feel goosebumps running across my arm. Such senseless destruction should only be left to the demons to make. Seeing someone with a proper mind commit senseless killings made me feel sad.
“The empire literally reaped what they sow, though.”
I am completely clueless about how they possessed the necklace that triggered Azrael, but from its description, I immediately knew that it was impossible to possess it through normal means. .
“A necklace that would give immortality to the wearer…”
And a weak, kind girl that was in possession of it. If it were me, I could simply kidnap a few kids and kill them before her, shaving off her will, until she offered to give me the necklace in exchange for the kids being freed. This is just my wild guess, but I believe the empire did something along those lines long, long ago.
“Master?”
Ember, seeing the somber look on my face, quickly turned to me with a worried look. I shook the dark imagination in my head away and put on a simple smile.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
Although I dismissed her worry, at the same time, I resolved myself deep inside. If Azrael doesn’t stop with just the empire, then I’d be willing to do everything in my power to put him to eternal rest!
“God Zeshion, Goddess Vermeil, Goddess Blanc, can I have a moment?”
And to do that, I need to prepare my cards early.
“What is it, acting so formally? Come on, just ask away.”
Zeshion smiled, his hands on his waist, as he urged me on. After I took a deep breath, I then explained the plans to them. Plans to defeat Azrael on the off chance that he did point his anger at our country.
“… And that’s it. Well, I do hope that it doesn’t come down to us using this plan, though.”
Although I said “plan,” it’s nothing that grand. Basically, it’s just all the tamers in the entire kingdom working together to fight Azrael. With a quick guesstimate, I think that about 90% of the tamers would end up losing their lives if we did battle a beyond-god-level monster.
“Aren’t you overestimating that angel’s abilities too much, Will?”
Vermeil suddenly asked, her face grim.
“No matter what, it’s still a living being. Given enough time, it will get tired and fall.”
Of course, I believe that too. However, I know how powerful it was before when it was just released from the seal, and now, a few months after that, it came to our world. I’m pretty sure that my estimates are accurate.
“I’m not overestimating Azrael. Rather, I value his strength highly. That’s why, in the off chance he did attack us, we could only rely on you four god tamers to reliably damage it.”
Although I could also inflict damage on god-level beings, I’m not really sure how it will go against beyond-god-level.
Anyway, as we discussed our plans, the empire’s capital fell. However, instead of returning, Azrael moved to the next town nearest to it and repeated the same tragedy. The number of deaths went over hundreds of millions today alone.
𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮