Angel Hunt (2)
The raid was over. Even those who'd come to drain the overflowing mana from Gold Sun wouldn't dare assault the Old School Building now that the academy guards had mobilized.
"Deploy the barrier! Secure the area! Make sure the recording magic captures everything properly!"
"Guards, secure all the students! Students, cooperate quietly as witnesses!"
Especially not with active instructors like the White Sword Saint springing into action as if it were a genuine crisis, treating us almost like persons of interest.
Can't be helped.
This was an unprecedented situation. Strictly speaking, though, it wasn't entirely without precedent.
"Damn, why an angel...!"
I overheard one of the academy guards muttering to himself about the Angel's descent. The guy who let it slip in annoyance quickly clamped his mouth shut in panic, but I'd already locked in one key piece of info.
So some people do know angels can descend.
Ten years ago, angels had descended en masse in the northern Monster Zone of Hapsderk County. Folks who didn't know the full story thought the S-rank monsters had simply been repelled by the angels, but the truth was more complicated.
"Is that a real angel from the church? Or a demon disguised as one?"
"If it's a demon, that's even worse. A demon possessed an academy student's body."
The guards exchanged theories while inspecting the battle traces. With no clear answers, they were just brainstorming, tossing out whatever came to mind.
"Damn. If it's a real angel, why'd it call us mortals and try to kill us?"
Because the angel that descended on Angelica had tried to slaughter humans. Threat level? Roughly A-rank for adventurers. Grabbing Rydmila's spear barehanded was bad enough, but the real kicker was that Angelica's base combat power wasn't even A-rank.
Actually, the true problem was elsewhere.
"Unia. And Phoenix."
Right here.
"How exactly did you two take down that angel?"
Esta and Cardisha had me and Unia surrounded front and back, interrogating us like suspects. That was the real issue.
"Th-that's..."
"You'd better answer seriously. Especially you, Phoenix. Dodging with weird excuses won't fly right now."
Esta warned us in a cold voice. But her eyes were trying to tell us something, shooting us urgent glances.
I knew what she meant.
Getting grilled by your homeroom teacher versus the student affairs head is a whole different ballgame.
Esta and Cardisha were playing tough to protect us. If another instructor took over, they'd treat us like actual criminals, locking us up for questioning. In fact, before Esta stepped in, some guards had already started closing in on us.
"How did you... take down that angel?"
"Uh, well... It felt like a weak point, so..."
"'Felt like' isn't an answer."
Unia scratched her cheek awkwardly, but Esta shook her head firmly.
"You need to tell us what you know, exactly as it happened. Be honest. ...The academy's on your side."
"Well..."
"It's okay, Miss Unia."
I stepped behind Unia, gripping her shoulder firmly to steady her.
"The truth always gets through. Neither you nor I have anything to hide, right?"
"...Right."
Unia took a deep breath, relaxing a bit as she stepped forward.
"I thought it was a weak point. It looked like holy power concentrated there, and it appeared out of nowhere."
"Makes sense."
Esta glanced back briefly.
"The academy staff thought the wings spreading from Angelica's back were the weak point too, so we targeted them. Unfortunately, we didn't hit the halo on her head from behind."
Esta tied Unia's attack to the staff's efforts. Seemed like we might slip through cleanly.
"But."
Until.
"Why did our attacks fail, while only yours landed?"
"......."
That was exactly why Unia and I were under the microscope.
"What exactly did you do?"
Rydmila's spear had been blocked by the angel's hand. Evangeline's bear doll took massive damage. The academy staff's magic cannon blasts were strong enough to shrug off most barriers.
"Just destroying that halo on its head did the trick? I don't buy it."
Above all, Esta had held back while protecting Evangeline, knowing instinctively her attacks could be parried but wouldn't hurt the enemy. Cardisha's rooftop magic cannon shot hadn't worked either.
Something special was at play.
"Miss Unia. Or Phoenix. One of you? Or does it only work when you're together?"
"I don't know what you're thinking to ask that, Instructor Esta."
I spoke up for Unia, who was hesitating.
"Can I just say what I felt?"
"Go ahead."
"If the being that possessed Senior Angelica really was an angel from the heavens."
A few looked like they wanted to demand where I got that info. But they couldn't exactly ask.
"How could we earthbound mortals counter its magic—er, 'holy power'?"
It shook the foundations of magic theory established on this land for 500 years at Esdinas Academy—or even longer.
"Has an angel ever descended before?"
"Yes. At least five times that I know of. All within the last century."
"More than I thought. Including this one or not, have angels ever fought humans?"
"......."
Esta couldn't answer. Not because she didn't know, but because—as every other instructor knew—there'd never been such a case.
"The church claims angels descend to punish evil. Powerful forces sent by the goddess to smite those aligned with demons."
There was some truth to that. Using Hell Archduke Chang Yeom's power here would summon every single punitive angel, punitive angel, and archangel in droves.
"Instructors. Everyone. Hasn't it ever crossed your minds?"
I drew their attention slowly, deliberately.
"That one day, when the goddess grows disgusted with humanity, this world will face her wrath."
"What nonsense is that?!"
Not Esta shouting.
"That thug-looking punk's talk sounds like heresy!"
One guard in a suit was jabbing a finger at me, yelling.
"How dare you slander Her?!"
"Isn't it in your scriptures?"
"Wh-what...?!"
"Doctrine says when humanity abandons faith and stops feeling shame for its sins, divine retribution will come."
"Th-that's...!"
If he didn't know the doctrine, he wasn't even a proper believer.
"N-no way...!"
But as a believer who did know it, he had even less ground to deny my premise.
"That would mean...! The goddess has abandoned us...!"
"Enough."
Esta reached out, blocking the path between me and the panicking staff.
"This isn't the time to debate church doctrine or apocalypticism."
"But isn't that exactly it, Instructor Esta? What if today was that day?"
"......."
"The day the 'heavens open and the world is drenched in blood,' as mentioned in prophecy? What if the apocalypse has already begun somewhere we can't see?"
"Then... it's an even bigger problem."
Esta pointed at Unia and me in turn.
"You've taken down a divine messenger bent on humanity's destruction. Whoever's power it was, we can't confirm anyone else can beat an angel until the next Apostle descends."
"......."
"What do you think?"
Esta asked.
"Whose power took down the angel?"
"That's—"
"Me."
Before I could step up, Unia beat me to it.
"I... broke the angel's holy power."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd—louder than when I'd spoken. The ones who'd eyed me like everything I said was suspicious perked up, hanging on Unia's every word as she advanced.
Difference in usual behavior? Or assumptions about our backgrounds? Who knows.
In the end, it was Unia's mana arrow that felled the angel.
Rydmila's spear, Esta's sword, the instructors' magic cannons—none of them. Just Unia's arrow. I only lent her arm.
"It might lead to a religious trial, but..."
Unia glanced at the staffer who'd called me a heretic, then turned to me with a firm nod.
"Holy power is the goddess's strength, sure. But it's just another 'power' at the end of the day."
"Wh-what...!"
Another staffer yelled at Unia's bombshell.
"What blasphemous nonsense! Holy power is...!"
"Just another force humans can wield. Yeah. Holy mana, plain and simple."
Unia replied with utter conviction.
"I countered that superior mana with something equivalent... Well, not quite equivalent, but mana of another attribute that holy power couldn't devour."
"......What?"
"Something unbound by any attribute—making it the purest power."
Unia.
"I just countered with pure mana, free of any attributes."
The eighth element unknown to academia—Null-attribute magic.
Correction.
The universal attribute that deals 1x damage against any element.
She could wield the zeroth element—mana itself.
"How...?"
"The method's... simple."
Unia extended her hand, gathering mana.
"Just add yourself to the seven manas. Balance them out."
"......."
"Uh, um..."
Unia scratched her cheek, flustered.
"...It's not that hard, right?"
For reference, Esdinas Academy called perfectly balanced mana stones the Philosopher's Stone.
"It's just matching all mana outputs equally..."
Angels, classified as the superior Celestial race, held attribute advantages over the seven demon-origin manas.
"You felt it too. Angels can't be properly damaged by attributed mana."
If they didn't get it, that was natural.
You gotta hit the gimmick mob that only takes 1 HP damage from regular attacks with the right gimmick.
This world ran on game logic, after all.
"So, why not just use an attribute-less attack...?"