"...Esther-sama, why are you taking that?" Elizabeth asks urgently as she sees me running through the mansion with a sword. The blade is a dark red, and instead of being straight, it has slight undulations like a snake. This is a quite powerful relic I have here in my mansion.

"I need to... forget it, run to the castle and tell my father that I saw an angel flying over the kingdom. An elite angel, I'd say he belongs to the 6th Layer, possibly strong enough to devastate cities," I say, rushing towards the window.

The reason I left my conversation with Evelyn so abruptly, though I pretended to leave normally, was because through the window I saw an angel, and the angel saw me.

Somehow, this angel was concealing itself so perfectly that none of the kingdom's detection systems found him, meaning he's dangerous. I only found him because I glimpsed him through the window and our eyes met.

If he hasn't been shot down yet, it means not even our father has noticed him. An angel this close is dangerous, so as the first one to see him, I need to go after him before he flees for being spotted.

"!!!"

"I'll go immediately," Elizabeth says as she starts running towards the castle. In times like these, I really wish I weren't so perceptive. Evelyn must think our conversation just ended, but I still had things to say.

'An elite angel capable of hiding from the Demon King himself...' A genuine threat to my life. I quickly shoot forward, leaping hundreds of meters at once using magic, seeking to find the angel who must have already flown far away.

"[Stellar Hunt]" I use detection magic to find the angel. I know he won't escape this magic.

[Stellar Hunt] A darkness magic that momentarily obscures several kilometers around the user. Everything within this area is affected by the Mark of the Star, allowing the user to see the mark amidst the darkness and locate any living target within range.

'Found you, you worm.' He's trying to fly upwards, since many demons don't know how to use flight magic and don't have wings. However, although I lack natural wings, I know how to use flight magic.

"[Flight Magic: Bloody Cascade]" I use the magic, and immediately large, blood-red wings form on my back. I begin flying at high speed, chasing after the Mark of the Star.

[Flight Magic: Bloody Cascade] A blood magic that creates red wings with high flight capability.

Within seconds, I ascend several kilometers into the sky, spotting the damned angel. He's a blond man with green eyes and large white wings. His strong physique makes it clear he's a soldier rather than a spy or a reconnaissance scout.

The angel stops ascending and begins flying straight, trying to escape. I have magics capable of stopping him, but I don't use them. I decide to wait for him to leave the kingdom's area so I can fight freely.

'The farther away, the better...' I grip my sword firmly as we spend several minutes flying. He's impressively fast, almost faster than me; I almost lost sight of him.

'Being as fast as me means in terms of adventurers, he'd be at least Rank X... but why is such a strong angel so close to our kingdom?' I don't understand it. It makes no sense for them to target the same kingdom where the Demon King is; this is pure madness.

Because if they attack this kingdom, the Demon King will become so furious he won't hesitate to use magic to bombard the angels' continent, something he refrains from doing only due to basic diplomatic war rules.

'The only answer is... he's after something or someone, and isn't here to attack us... Could it be... he's after some traitor? Or are they after Grace again?' I try to think of the most logical answer, but it's complicated.

"..." The angel suddenly stops. He seems to realize he can't escape me and decides to go on the offensive. He charges at me with a silver sword, part of the blade golden and emitting a dull white glow.

"..." Our swords clash, and I'm pushed back as the air current shifts with the impact of the blow.

'Physically, I'm weaker.' I quickly acknowledge this, so I redirect his sword downward and try to use magic, but I receive a direct, fatal cut to my torso.

"..." My body plummets through the air as the angel seems to want to descend to finish me off, but he stops upon realizing it's a fake, just as I appear in front of him, nearly decapitating him.

[False Death of Shadows] A passive that erases your presence, makes you invisible, and creates a false replica for 3 seconds, allowing you to generate a temporary, deceptive false death.

"Hmmm, you reacted to that..." I say with a certain disdain as the angel finally seems to decide to take me seriously.

"A demon from the elite, from what I see," he says with a tone that truly displeases me.

'Angels are so disgusting.' He sees the disgust on my face, and his eyebrows furrow in clear anger directed at me.

"Invading the Demon King's personal space is unprecedented madness. Tell me what you seek here, and I will grant you a merciful death," I say, entering a battle stance.

I point my sword at him, ready to cause an agonizing and painful death, the exact purpose of this sword.

[Flesh-Consuming Sword] A dark blood-red sword with a blade that has undulations like a serpent. It is a relic that nullifies any regenerative effects in the area of the cut temporarily, with the secondary effect that any wound inflicted by this sword causes bleeding that won't stop and wounds that open wider if left untreated.

"I refuse. [Arrow of the First Judgment]" He uses magic, firing an arrow of light that I deflect with my sword's blade as he appears behind me, trying to cut me.

I quickly look back, seeing him out of the corner of my eye, and with speed, I defend against his sword strike with my sword's guard, pushing him back.

"[First Storm Wave]" I use lightning magic to fire a bolt at him, which he evades without much trouble.

[First Storm Wave] A lightning magic that fires a bolt in a straight line. When it hits the target, it generates an electrical explosion that spreads in waves.

"..." He takes advantage of the opening while I stand still conjuring the magic to get close and try to decapitate me. I barely dodge, receiving a small cut on my neck.

I create distance, touching my neck, seeing that although it wasn't a serious wound, he still injured me with great ease.

'What a powerful blade... but three more centimeters and it would have cut a vital point...' I use magic to completely heal the small cut as I enter another sword stance.

He advances, our swords colliding and generating a slight explosion of air, but I sidestep, using his force to make his sword descend, then immediately thrust forward dozens of times, which he barely dodges, receiving a cut on his cheek.

"..." He backs away as I see blood beginning to flow from the wound.

'Now we both know the strength of each other's weapons...' When he looks at the wound, he seems to realize what my sword is capable of, and with that, we both know neither sword is poisoned.

"A rather cowardly weapon, as expected from a demon," he says, seeing there's no way to close the wound, which slowly grows a little larger.

"In a fight to the death, what matters is who kills first, not the means," I raise my hand with my palm open.

"[Heaven-Devouring Thunder: Ryū-ki-Shi]"

[Heaven-Devouring Thunder: Ryū-ki-Shi] A black lightning magic, a destructive element that corrodes flesh and causes burns that slowly expand. The magic creates a large storm cloud in the sky and takes the form of a giant, serpentine black dragon that descends from the cloud downward.

As soon as the black cloud forms in the sky, a giant serpentine dragon is fired at the angel, who is caught by surprise and is swallowed by the attack as it descends downward.

'...' I notice the attack stopping as it tries to descend but can't, and I see a powerful, compressed golden barrier, showing he defended against it with some magic or ability.

'It seems this won't end so easily...' The attack slowly dissipates, leaving only black sparks flickering in the sky, remnants of the electrical attack, as the angel appears so fast in front of me that I'm caught off guard.

He tries to thrust to pierce my heart, but I grab the blade with my left arm. The blade cuts deeply into my palm, but I manage to stop the thrust just before it hits me.

Even the angel is surprised by my physical strength, but honestly, it doesn't hurt. I've always wondered why I feel so little sensation regarding pain, and it turns out, thanks to my mother, I now understand.

Ghouls have dulled senses regarding pain, so I, who am also a Ghoul, ended up inheriting this, though it still hurts, possibly because I'm a hybrid ghoul of some other race.

"..." I take the chance to try and pierce his head with my blade, and when the blade touches his eye directly to pierce it, an amulet on his neck shines so dazzlingly that I lose sight of him. When everything returns, he's slightly distant, completely fine, while the amulet shatters.

'I know I hit, so it was... a relic...' A relic that saves from one fatal attack.

"You are a member of the angels' Royal Guard." When I say this, his wings tense up, and I get my answer.

'Sent directly by the Queen or King of the Angels... very suspicious...'

"I've changed my mind. I won't kill you. You must be captured alive for information extraction." The Demon King would undoubtedly love to have such an angel as a prisoner. A direct member of the Royal Guard means a servant who only follows the orders of the Angel King and Queen.

Naturally, a wellspring of important information that can be extracted.

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