I was going to escape with the others since a monster that destroyed all of the world other than this city, and staying means death... but apparently, A new problem appeared
{Notice: The Trader cannot leave the current world until 24 hours have passed in the visited realm.}
My stomach dropped.
[Adam]: What? But I've made trades with less time before.
{Correction: Time flow and departure intervals adjust per the world's dimensional stability. This world's barrier is unstable. Additional condition: All caravan members must agree to initiate departure.}
I slowly turned.
Vlad, Silk, Lilith… and Tyrant.
They weren't panicking.
They weren't even thinking about leaving.
Vlad's crimson eyes gleamed with a savage excitement.
[Vlad]: A city on the edge of ruin, monsters at the gates, and a nightmare marching our way? Brother… this is where legends are born, Adam.
Silk adjusted her cloak, voice calm as ever.
[Silk]: Observation: escape probability—43%. Victory probability—7%. Emotional preference analysis: group desires confrontation. Recommendation: remain.
Lilith was bandaging a child's scraped knee, her hands trembling—but she didn't stop.
[Lilith]: I'm not running, Adam. Not when there are still people who need help.
And Tyrant…
He simply turned toward the horizon, where the sky pulsed red with fire and shadow. His jaw tightened, the hiss of steam escaping his mask.
I looked at my people—my strange group of friends.
[Adam]: What can we even do against a man who's destroyed six nations? Look at us… a tired office worker with a gun, a sword-wielding vampire who thinks he looks cool, a spider hybrid who can barely pass for human, a witch who throws potions instead of fireballs, and a golem who doesn't even talk properly. Tell me, Vlad—what can we possibly do?
Vlad sighed, his red eyes softening for once.
[Vlad]: The same thing a certain crazed man once did—defend a village he built from nothing, full of lifeless NPCs, and fight for it like it mattered.
He smirked faintly.
[Vlad]: We'll do what you did, Adam.
The words hit harder than I expected.
I stopped, inhaled slowly, feeling the burn of exhaustion mix with something.
[Adam]: Fine. No choice, then. Since I can't make you leave, we fight. Vlad, Tyrant, Silk—you three go for Lee. Stop him, slow him, break him, whatever it takes.
Lilith's voice cut in, sharp and indignant.
[Lilith]: Hey, what about me?!
I turned, half-smiling despite everything.
[Adam]: You're with me, Lilith. Stay at the wall. Heal whoever you can—and keep the kids alive. I'll be up top, sniping anything that dares to get close.
Vlad stretched, a predatory grin spreading across his face. His twin blades pulsed with crimson light, veins of energy running along their edges like molten blood.
[Vlad]: Finally. I've been itching to test my new swords. Let's make this fight worth the song they'll write about us.
[Silk]: Probability of survival—ten percent. Data incomplete. Awaiting further input.
[Adam]: Stop it, Silk. It's not like we're going to fight right n—
BOOOOOOM.
The ground shook. Dust rained from the walls.
A horn blared—deep, terrible, echoing through every bone like a war drum from the heavens.
[Knight]: LEE IS ATTACKING! HIS ARMY IS HERE!
[Silk]: Analysis: Adam is a crow mouth.
Her tone was painfully calm, which made it worse.
I ignored her snark and sprinted with the knights toward the ramparts. My heart hammered in rhythm with the tremors rolling through the city.
When I reached the wall, I froze.
I was expecting a demon—a beast cloaked in shadow, dripping with blood and malice.
But what I saw instead—
—was light.
A radiant halo floated above a man's head, shining like a false sun.
Two wings of blinding white unfurled behind him, each feather shedding golden sparks that fell like embers.
And beneath him, an army marched—an army of knights clad in mirror-bright armor that gleamed like molten gold.
Their banners bore no sigil, only a single word etched in light.
"Purity."
Behind them crawled beasts of every kind—twisted monsters, half-fused with armor and flesh, their eyes glowing with divine fire.
[Adam]: …What the hell.
An angel leading monsters? I've seen messed-up stories before—but this?
This was new.
From a distance, a voice rolled across the battlefield—smooth, calm, and terrifyingly human. It was not like a shout, but like a whisper in every ear at once.
A voice that didn't need to be loud to command fear.
[Lee]: Ah… the great city of freedom and wine. Jean, how's your sister? Oh… right. I forgot. She died screaming your name.
Jean's knuckles went white around her sword. The air around her trembled.
[Lee]: And Diluc… how was the mask I sent you? Ah—silly me. You didn't like the smell of your brother's skin, did you?
Diluc's single eye twitched, the fire in it almost erupting. The knights behind him faltered, horror creeping in.
[Lee]: And Aether… my friend. I'm sorry about your sister. I didn't realize she'd… break so easily. All that talk about toppling the divine and bringing balance—and yet, she shattered like glass.
Aether's grip on his spear shook. The air around him sparked with unstable energy.
[Lee]: As for the rest of our dear companions… don't worry. I've kept them close.
He reached out into the empty air.
And the air answered.
Light distorted—ripped—and two shapes formed in his grasp.
In one hand, he held the head of a girl with a rabbit-shaped bow still tangled in her hair, her smile forever frozen in terror.
In the other, the head of a golden-haired girl—her lifeless eyes dim, but still faintly glimmering with the trace of divinity.
Aether stumbled back, color draining from his face.
[Aether]: Amber… Lumine…
[Lee]: Yes.
His smile widened, soft and serene, like a priest giving a blessing.
[Lee]: They screamed your names before they died. Isn't that beautiful? Friendship so loud it echoes even in hell.
Silence.
No one moved.
Even the wind held its breath.
Then Lee raised both heads to the sky.
Then Lee raised both heads to the sky.
[Lee]: Let's make some more memories, shal—
{BING.}
A sharp, metallic crack split the air.
Lee froze mid-word. His smile twitched.
A thin line of crimson dripped down his cheek… then burst.
He dropped one of the heads.
His fingers clawed at his face before he screamed—raw, unfiltered agony ripping from his throat.
[Lee]: AAAAHHHHH—MY EYE! IT BURNS! IT HURTS—AAAHHHHHHH!
He yanked something from his ruined socket—a small, smoking slug, glistening with divine blood.
Across the battlefield, the smoke still curled from my rifle.
Crescent Rose gleamed red in my hands, its barrel glowing faintly from the shot.
I exhaled slowly through clenched teeth.
[Adam]: That's for opening your mouth.
Rage simmered through me. Everything about him—his voice, his smile, his existence—made my skin crawl.
Silk's voice came from beside me, calm and monotone even as the world trembled.
[Silk]: Analysis complete. Classification: Angelized Human.
Everyone turned toward her. Even Aether and Jean froze at the term.
[Jean]: Angelized…? What—what does that mean?
Silk tilted her head slightly, her many lenses flickering.
[Silk]: It's a divine infection—a corruption in reverse. Unlike demons, who twist men through despair, angelization occurs when a human consumes the living flesh of an angel. Not fallen. Not dead. Alive. They devour their wings while the angel still breathes, forcing them into despair until their grace collapses—and the human takes it for themselves.
Her voice never changed tone.
[Silk]: Side note: angel wings are extremely sensitive. Tearing them from a conscious angel produces agony equivalent to prolonged soul dissolution. In simpler terms… eating them alive is worse than killing them.
Silence.
Even the knights who had faced monsters without fear stepped back.
Lee lowered his bloody hand from his ruined eye, grinning through the crimson.
His halo flickered, cracked—then burned brighter.
[Lee]: Oh… you hurt me. You actually hurt me.
He smiled wider, teeth shining red. Lee smiled like a man reading the final line of a cruel joke.
[Lee]: I haven't felt pain in a long, long time. Thank you for reminding me I'm still human. Now—your reward: I'll add your head to my collection after I watch you die in agony.
The words were still in the air when a long spear of pure, white light slammed toward me. It cut the dusk like a blade through silk.
Tyrant moved before thought. He lunged, a living battering ram, and took the spear full against his chest. The impact jarred the ground. Metal groaned. Steam screamed out of his mask like a kettle about to explode. His joints complained—Iron gears creaked and strained under pressure. For a sick second, I thought I'd see him fall.
Instead, his fists flared red-hot, veins of molten light running up his arms. He held. The spear stuck in his armor like a stake in a mountain, and the light shivered and snaked away, useless against that iron will.
Vlad was already moving—fluid, furious. He stepped through the smoke of Tyrant's impact as if the air owed him a favor. His twin swords were a bleeding blur, arcs of red that cut grooves in the sky. Where his blades passed, the golden knights staggered, their chrome plating cracking and flaking like brittle paint. His smile vanished; the calm predator showed his teeth.
Silk slid into position behind them. Her rifle hummed as she found firing angles, micro-adjusted for wind and motion, data streaming through her lenses.
[Silk]: Analysis complete. Winning probability: 47%. Tactical recommendation: prioritize neutralizing Angelized vanguards and severing command conduits. Adam: high-value target detected. Best engagement range—medium.
I didn't have time to argue with probability. The spear that had missed me whined from Tyrant's back and tried to re-form in midair—Lee's will knitting it whole. I slammed my boot into the flagstone and launched myself forward. Crescent Rose sang, then spat fire. The scythe-barrel barked once, and the shot lanced out, nicking the halo that burned above Lee's head. The light sputtered like a candle in the wind, and Lee hissed—more surprise than pain.
He laughed—sharp and delighted. [Lee]: Oh, delicious. It hurts. Keep it up.
Vlad's blades danced, and where they passed, monsters fell screaming into ash. Tyrant swung, a tree-trunk of a fist, and cleaved a mounted knight in half; the golden horse was a geyser of silver and light.
But the cost showed quickly. Tyrant's joints smoked with every movement now; his gait shortened, like a clock with too many months stuck in one spring. He took another blow—angled, vicious—and for the first time, I heard a metal groan that sounded like pain. He didn't fall, but one massive shoulder sagged, creaks exposed and hissing.
A golden knight—command-ranked—rose up, its banner bursting into white flame that erased two of our knights in a breath. Diluc cursed and stepped in, blade like a red comet. Aether bellowed orders that turned chaos into a bitter, coordinated machine.
I ducked under a sweep and felt hot wind throw dust into my face. My vision narrowed to the man in white and the curve of his grin.
Silk's voice was stone-cold in my ear.
[Silk]: Tyrant's structural integrity at forty-two percent. If he fails, withdraw protocol Alpha-Three: protect civilians and collapse the eastern archway to slow the approach.
I didn't want a plan. I wanted to tear Lee's smile off and feed it back to him. But Tyrant was the fulcrum — if he went down, the whole line folded like cheap paper.
[Adam]: Vlad—Lee's yours. Leave the east to me and Silk.
I reloaded on instinct, fingers slick with blood and sweat. A spear of holy light whipped past my face; I rolled and lunged for cover, but another lanced through my shoulder like a cruel thread. Heat flared through my bone; the world narrowed to the metallic taste of blood and the hiss of air in my lungs. If this weren't Minecraft logic — if flesh actually worked the way it used to — that spear would have taken my arm clean off.
I gritted my teeth and forced breath into words that sounded nothing like courage.
[Adam]: Still… breathing.
Vlad answered with the violence of a man who'd been honed into a weapon. He slipped through the melee, a shadow with crimson teeth, his twin blades singing in twin arcs of red light. The blur of his movements was almost beautiful — a dance that lived somewhere between a surgeon's cruelty and a butcher's joy.
He reached Lee like a ghost slipping through a sermon — close enough that the angelized commander's smile faltered. Then, Vlad's swords bit.
Metal screamed. Flesh followed.
An arm — gilded and radiant — spun away in a burst of divine light, scattering molten drops across the field. Lee staggered, shock flashing through his perfect, hateful face as blood like liquid silver ran down his body.
And then—
Two streams, one red and one golden, tore across the sky.
Vlad's blood magic burned like a dying sun, twisting in furious arcs, while Lee's divine essence poured upward, molten and radiant, as if the heavens themselves were bleeding.
When they collided, the air split — the clash was soundless at first, then came the boom that ripped through the clouds and turned the world white for an instant.
Angels and monsters alike froze mid-charge, watching the duel of colors stain the heavens — crimson defiance against divine gold.
Below, Silk's mechanical voice broke through the roar:
[Silk]: Energy levels surging. The collision point is unstable. This is no longer a battle—it's a storm.
And in that storm, two forces — one born of blood, one forged of light — began to unmake the sky.
No, literally, the sky shows cracks...., IS THAT A FREAKISH EYE LOOKING AT ME.
[Chapter End]