The Second Tower (5)
We were attacking Gabriel, yet the title of archangel was clearly no empty boast. She stood on an entirely different plane from every other angel we had faced so far.
The moment our tension eased even a fraction, she would already be behind us, thrusting with the jet-black spear in her hand, or she would twist through the air in leisurely acrobatics and slip past every strike.
While we kept our eyes on her and pressed the attack, her feathers would somehow drift close without our noticing and threaten us all over again.
Hyeonseok had to gather those feathers with wind and fling them elsewhere, so he could barely mount a proper assault of his own. I forged Flamberge or Ardbhar and hurled them at her, but her speed was simply too great; landing a clean hit felt nearly impossible.
Yeonseo rode her summons back and forth, hunting for any opening, yet even that was child’s play to Gabriel. She dodged with casual ease, then turned the tables—swooping in to drop Yeonseo’s summons or strike the summoner herself, steadily eroding her mental strength.
“How about this!”
Hyeonseok used the wind to close the distance, gathered Gabriel’s own feathers, and flung them straight back at her. Gabriel only snorted.
“Hah! Gathering my feathers and throwing them at me means nothing!”
One casual sweep of her hand, and the feathers racing toward her vanished. In their place a swarm of new feathers shot toward Hyeonseok like arrows.
“Kh—!”
“Hyeonseok!”
He threw himself backward on a blast of wind and tried to raise a whirlwind wall, but the feathers were already flying too fast. The barrier never fully formed—yet the feathers slammed into the Atlantes I had just deployed and exploded on impact. Hyeonseok was spared serious injury; the blast merely flung him farther than expected.
“Haa… thank goodness. I wasn’t too late…”
Remembering how many of our wounds so far had come from those feathers rather than direct strikes made my heart drop all over again. An attack that erased body parts on the lightest graze… even weakened, it was still a brutal fight for us.
Partruna… you said we could win…!
Losing pieces of myself no longer fazed me—I was used to it—but the first time Hyeonseok and Yeonseo suffered it, they had panicked hard. At least I could fully regenerate them now. That was the only mercy.
While treating them I had confirmed it: Gabriel’s present form was clearly corrupted by the evil god’s power. Faint traces of holy power still lingered inside her attacks, tangled with that dark energy. I finally understood what I had to do.
The problem is… after I purify her, my body can’t heat up the way it did last time…
But what choice did I have? If I wanted to save Gabriel without killing her, I would have to get close and purify her myself.
“Tch! Even that doesn’t work?”
Yeonseo rode her summon Marinarion, leading the Chaos series in a fresh assault, yet Gabriel slipped past every strike with ease, deploying every technique the lesser angels had shown us—only now those techniques were woven from ominous jet-black energy.
“Hmph. Did you truly believe a mortal’s petty tricks could touch me?”
The instant the words left her mouth she formed a spear of pure black light and shot toward Yeonseo.
“I have to dodge this fast— Wait… what is that?!”
Yeonseo spun to evade, only to find a black feather already floating right in front of her—when it had appeared, no one could say. The moment it touched Marinarion a high-pitched whine rose, and a pillar of black light swallowed both summon and rider.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Yeonseo!”
The explosion tore the summon’s head clean off and hurled Yeonseo through the air. I flung Atlantes open and sprinted after her.
“Yeonseo! Are you all right?!”
“Hnnngh…”
I scanned her body at once. The place thickest with the evil god’s power was impossible to miss: everything below her right elbow had simply vanished. No bleeding—just clean erasure from an attack laced with that dark energy.
“Th-this…! Hang on, I’ll heal you right now!”
I poured holy power into her, purifying the corruption and regenerating the arm in the same breath.
Thank goodness. If I’d still been the old me… again…
“Cha… Charlotte?”
“Yeah, I’m right here. Can you move?”
“Haa… sorry. I don’t think I can. While I was out the link to my summons snapped too…”
“Got it. Don’t worry about anything—just rest, okay?”
Yeonseo clung to my arm, breathing hard, guilt written all over her face.
“Can you beat that thing?”
“No idea. We’ll have to try. Ah… about that…”
I trailed off. Yeonseo shot me a sharp look.
“Spit it out already! We don’t have time!”
“I… I think I’m going to have to purify her again. You know what that means, right?”
Her half-lidded eyes flew wide; she let out a long sigh.
“Haa… honestly. You’re something else, and that goddess of yours isn’t much better. After purification you always end up…”
“Ugh… what else am I supposed to do? I never expected it either!”
“Fine. I’ll stay well out of the way. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will!”
I carried her to a safer spot, then looked up at Gabriel. She seemed to feel my gaze; she looked down, spun the spear once in her hand with a sharp whirrr, and dove straight at me.
Gabriel’s spear came down; I caught it on Durandal and immediately loosed Flamberge and Ardbhar. She answered with a spray of feathers and slipped backward.
“Tch! Still not enough…? Wait—what’s this?”
Just before the feathers detonated I caught a faint current of pure holy power. Gabriel was corrupted by the evil god, yet she had once been a divine messenger; holy power still lived inside her, buried now in the abyss of that dark energy. Following that thin stream, I finally understood how she forged her feathers.
Unlike my Flamberge, Ardbhar, or Atlantes—shaped from Holy Fire—she drew holy power itself into impossibly fine threads and wove them into form.
It’s a little hard… but not beyond me now…!
Still, I needed a clearer look, so I watched her next attacks carefully.
“Hmph! For a mortal, your command of holy power is impressive—yet in the end you remain only mortal!”
“You’re one to talk. You can’t even use holy power properly—you’re drowning in the evil god’s energy and still spouting nonsense?”
“What are you saying? This is the power bestowed by the gods themselves!”
What? She recognizes my holy power, yet she doesn’t realize the evil god’s energy for what it is?
Her words told me everything. The corruption had twisted her senses until she mistook that dark power for holy power. In a way she wasn’t entirely wrong—both holy power and the so-called “magic” of the evil god originally sprang from the same divine source.
I launched another Flamberge and Ardbhar. She answered with feathers. The two forces collided between us in a thunderous explosion that sent wind howling outward.
At that exact moment a blade of transparent wind sliced in from behind her.
“Wh—what?!”
Hyeonseok had been waiting for precisely this opening. Triumph lit his face.
“Got you!”
The wind blade sheared through the wings on her left side and carved a deep gash across her back.
“Kh… you insolent mortal!”
She spun away from me, barely staying aloft on the remaining wing, and began forming another jet-black spear aimed at Hyeonseok.
That was her mistake.
“Hey. Eyes on me. I’m your opponent.”
I slipped into the tiny gap she had left, swung Durandal, and severed every remaining wing on her right side in a single stroke.
“Khhhk!”
Gabriel plummeted, black blood spilling from her mouth under the shock of the severed wings. She glared up at me from the ground.
“Well? Ready to talk now?”
I stepped in front of her and leveled Durandal. She only snorted and glared.
“Don’t make me laugh… just because you cut off my wings!”
Energy began gathering along her back—thin, precise threads drawing a single thick line, then branching outward into the shape of feathers. This was the method of wing creation I had never fully seen.
“Wings, huh… I was a little jealous, watching Hyeonseok fly.”
I glanced back. Hyeonseok was supporting Yeonseo, both of them watching me. I gave them a soft smile, then faced Gabriel again.
“Thanks. Because of you, I think I can do it now too.”
“What… are you talking about…?!”
My method differed slightly from hers—my holy power was most efficient in the form of flame—but that was fine.
With a soft whoosh, a pair of wings unfurled from my back: transparent yet blazing like living fire, utterly unlike any angel’s wings.
“Hmm. Let’s call them ‘Hippogriff.’”
Toward the final clash, Gabriel and I rose into the sky.
“Hey, how high are you planning to go?”
“Hmph! Getting cocky just because you can fly!”
“Yes, yes, whatever you say.”
Gabriel climbed higher still, then began flinging feathers in every direction.
“Even if you can fly, you won’t dodge attacks coming from all sides!”
She looked triumphant. She had no idea that the moment I could form wings, this level of assault was already trivial for me.
“Haa… attacks like these don’t work on me anymore!”
I spread holy power in a wide net. Every feather laced with the evil god’s energy was purified on contact, turning pure, milky white. Now they were nothing but condensed holy power—mine to command.
“Here, have them back!”
One sweep of my hand, and the feathers reversed course, streaking toward Gabriel.
“Khhhk!”
She tried to bat them aside with her black spear or shield herself with her wings, but she was already a wreck. The holy feathers cracked the spear and, wherever they struck her wings, began turning those wings white as well.
“What sorcery is this?!”
She wrenched up every scrap of the evil god’s power, leveled her spear, and charged.
“Gluon.”
With a roaring whoosh I gathered Flamberge along Durandal’s blade, forged Gluon, and slashed horizontally through her spear.
Krik, krrrik, shhk! The spear split in two and vanished. I closed the last distance, drove my hand straight into the dense knot of dark energy in her chest, and began the purification.
“Hnnngh!”
The moment my hand touched that concentrated corruption it began to rot and blacken, yet holy power flooded out just as fast, restoring the flesh even as it drank the darkness in.
I no longer knew how much time passed. My hand turned completely black; Gabriel’s form began to change. The darkness that had dyed her hair bled away until silver returned. Her wings became pure, radiant white. The black sheer garments she wore shed streams of dark water and transformed into a pure-white dress embroidered with gold.
“Wh… where…? What on earth…”
“Are you yourself again?”
“You are…? Judging by that power… a messenger of the gods.”
“Hnn… yes… for now… let’s go down and talk properly. Ugh…!”
The familiar heat of purification’s aftermath was already rising through my body. I descended with Gabriel to where Hyeonseok and Yeonseo waited. Whatever remained was for Partruna and the other gods to handle. I simply collapsed into Hyeonseok’s arms and let consciousness slip away.