"..." I advance with my sword against him; the angel dodges, only to be struck by my wing, which carves a deep gash into his left arm. Unlike real wings, mine are magic—and like any magic, they can be used to attack.

"[Fallen-Slaying Blade]" He unleashes a spell that fires a blue slash toward me. I try to block it with my sword but am violently thrown back by the attack, which is far stronger than I expected.

''...'' I disperse the attack with a swift motion of my sword as he lunges forward, aiming to impale me. I block with my sword's guard, trying to redirect the strike, but he lands a knee to my chin—too fast for me to evade.

"..." I create some distance, spitting out the blood that pooled in my mouth from the blow.

'How inconvenient...' From afar, he fires a volley of golden arrows at me. I evade them, moving side to side at extreme speed.

"[Giant-Hunting Spear: Hoaria]" He casts a high-level spell, forming a massive golden spear, as large as a mansion's structure. Despite its size, it's launched with extreme speed, leaving me no time to dodge.

"..." I realize I can't evade or block it—the force is too great. If I try to defend, the spear will push me back, and I won't be able to disperse the attack, leaving an opening for him to strike from behind. That seems to be his plan.

'I need to destroy it with an even stronger attack'

"[Frenzied Bow Onslaught: Destroyer Ice Harpy]"

[Frenzied Bow Onslaught: Destroyer Ice Harpy] A high-level ice spell, generating a giant, frozen bird that collapses into an icy explosion upon impact, with a secondary effect of slowing everything within a 50-meter radius.

The bird I launch collides with the spear. The impact creates a massive ice explosion, but the spear pierces through the bird and continues forward.

'Did he overpower me!?' I try to cast another spell, but there's no time—the spear reaches me. I defend with my sword's blade, but it begins pushing me downward. It's slowed somewhat, but it's still too strong and heavy for me to stop or escape.

'Ice magic, lightning magic, blood magic—none of them work against this angel...' I think of other high-level spells I know, but most are too situational. Even my blessing won't help much right now.

My blessing isn't yet fortified enough to aggressively affect a being as strong as an elite angel. And since we're in the heavens, there are few things that can work against him.

'I only started fortifying my blessing recently... What rotten luck... Once this fight is over, I urgently need to increase my personal strength.' I see him advancing—just as expected, he plans to move past the spear and strike me now.

'I also didn't bring almost any relics with me... The situation couldn't be more irritating...'

"[El Casqueida: Environmental Shredding Typhoon]" As I recite the spell, the angel looks surprised. A massive dome of water forms around us.

[El Casqueida: Environmental Shredding Typhoon] A high-level water spell, generating an immense water dome wherever the caster desires. Immediately, the water inside begins spinning at immense speed, indiscriminately shredding everything within the area.

The water spins rapidly, covering the entire area around us. The reason this spell surprises the angel is obvious—it will injure me, too.

I begin to receive cuts. They're "superficial," but they cover my entire body and start to deepen. It's like being inside a bubble where blades whirl at high speed.

The cuts all over my body feel strange. Even my dress is shredded to pieces, barely holding together. The spear pushing me down is also quickly torn apart by this spell.

Finally, the spear stops. It's taken so much damage it's lost all momentum, leaving only its weight—but even that means nothing, as the cuts slice the spear into tiny pieces that plummet downward.

"..." I look at the angel, who's received as many cuts as I have—no, even more, since he doesn't know how to handle my magic.

'Who would have thought a spell I used to cut down trees would come in handy now?' Even though it's a high-level spell, it's not exactly meant for combat—at least, I didn't learn it for that. I learned it to clear large forested areas, since it stays static in a specific area and doesn't deal high damage, only continuous damage.

"Demons truly are a plague," the angel says, using an ice spell. The entire dome freezes and shatters, stopping my attack.

"I feel the same way, Angel. You've just made my night even worse." I start using healing magic. It'll take a while to close all the wounds, but none of the damage is permanent—they're quite superficial.

"..." The angel seems to want to come at me but stops and looks toward the kingdom. His wings bristle as if he's noticed something.

"Seems you've finally noticed, you little worm." I smile—a devilish smile. I never expected to win. It's not impossible, even if he's stronger, but it would've been a drawn-out fight where I was at a disadvantage from the start.

So, all I did was stall him—delay him until the Demon King received Elizabeth's message. I knew my father would come personally once he learned an angel was this close.

"You have no idea how terrifying the Demon King can be when he's angry."

"YOU WHORE!" He desperately tries to fly away, turning his back to me and fleeing the fight.

'Running now won't help.' My father's aura is moving. It's like watching a mountain suddenly shift places. For someone like me, who can perceive magic with exceptional ease, seeing the Demon King move from one point to another is disturbing—so much magic is moved along with him.

"[Grand Mausoleum of Sacrifice]" I use another spell to keep him here even longer.

[Grand Mausoleum of Sacrifice] Profane Barrier Magic. Its primary effect is to generate a barrier if the opponent feels fear. The barrier only manifests as long as fear remains in the opponent's heart. Its secondary effect is that it grows more resilient the more fear the trapped opponent feels. Its tertiary effect slowly drains the trapped opponent's strength based on their current fear. The barrier takes the form of a black dome filled with dense fog.

"!!!" The angel is trapped and tries to break the barrier, but his fear only fuels it. The closer the Demon King gets, the more his fear intensifies.

"RELEASE ME! UNDO THIS, DAMN YOU!!" He screams at me, lunging with a slash. I dodge—there's no need to fight anymore.

"You're so pathetic... And you made a mistake deciding to fight me, Angel. Because I... specialized in area-of-effect spells designed to affect my enemies as much as possible..." I evade another of his strikes.

"All my spells so far have had quite useful secondary effects, don't you think? Made specifically to slow down any enemy forces as much as possible." Using his desperate attacks as openings, I punch him in the face, sending him stumbling back.

"..." Blood trickles from his nose as he finally realizes—even without the Demon King, I would've eventually won. Because he fought me by defending and blocking my attacks instead of evading them completely.

"I'll show you the terror of fighting me." I vanish from his sight, blending into the barrier's mist.

"...SHOW YOURSELF!?! YOU COWARD" He starts swinging wildly around him, trying to hit me. I quickly make a small cut on his throat, and when he strikes behind him, I pierce through his thigh from one side to the other.

He tries to use magic, but I slice his arm off. His scream is muffled by the barrier.

'I should be calmer... I don't want to kill him...' I could've killed him long ago if I wanted to, but capturing an enemy alive is much harder than killing them.

Yes, I'm weaker than him, but my magic allows for a strategic victory. He's strong, but not nearly clever enough to understand me.

'Even so, I could've died...' This is the first time I've faced an angel this strong.

Since I've fought on battlefields and have the goal of committing global genocide, I've specialized most of my magic into spells that affect massive areas, targeting thousands of enemies with effects that accumulate and weaken them rapidly until death.

It's a fighting style where my enemy grows progressively weaker with no chance to evade, while I remain completely fine.

'I should focus on learning more diverse spells beyond this type. I felt the lack of single-target spells.' I've always relied on my blessing for single-target focus.

But I realize here that I can't depend solely on my blessing for that—I should also learn spells for these kinds of situations.

'It seems he's arrived...' I undo the barrier and fly away. I quickly spot my father. The angel looks in the same direction and sees the Demon King flying toward us. The angel turns to flee, but the Demon King instantly appears above him, ready to strike him down.

"Father, he's useful." When I say this, my father alters his strike, merely knocking the angel out with a magically charged blow to the head. The angel's head almost exploded from the impact.

"...We'll talk at the castle in a few hours." The Demon King says only this before vanishing with the angel, too fast for me to even perceive his movement.

"..." I begin descending, focusing 100% on healing quickly. If I return to the mansion now and Evelyn sees me injured like this, she'll worry.

"...Would she... worry...?" I feel strange thinking about it. I stop healing completely, lost in thought for a moment.

"..." I heal only the wounds that would leave scars if left untreated and leave the superficial ones.

"This should be fine..." I start flying back to the mansion, covered in wounds. For some reason, I want Evelyn to see me like this. Even if appearing injured makes me seem weak, I want to see her reaction.

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