The magicules within the chamber began to swirl with feverish intensity, as though something long dormant had suddenly awakened after centuries of slumber.
Frey felt a substantial portion of her strength simply vanish.
It disappeared so completely that it was as though it had never belonged to her in the first place, and for the first time since entering Angelus, a faint crease appeared upon her brow.
Holy energy, or rather, Spiritrons.
The realization settled heavily in her mind as she observed the violent currents gathering around the sarcophagus.
She had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that Angelus would be incapable of fully harnessing such a power.
The sight before her made it clear that assumption had been mistaken.
The golden light that had once been Angelus was nearing the end of its journey.
Fragment after fragment flowed into the corpse golem resting within the sarcophagus, each piece settling into place like part of a puzzle that had been waiting centuries to be completed.
The transformation was impossible to ignore.
Where metal, machinery, and desecrated flesh had rested moments ago, something far more cohesive was beginning to emerge.
The artificial wings adorning the lesser Artifact Angels suddenly seemed crude by comparison.
Frey hovered above the wreckage of forty-seven shattered Artifact Angels, her wings beating slowly as she watched the process unfold.
Any trace of patience had long since vanished from her expression.
Beside her, Claire drifted closer. "Mother."
"I see it."
Around them, the remaining priests had abandoned all semblance of composure.
Several had fallen to their knees in worship. Others had turned and fled for the exits.
Apparently, their devotion to King Angelus did not outweigh their instinct for self-preservation.
Within the cage, Kaede had finally stopped tapping on the glass. "Frey." The seriousness in her voice immediately drew attention.
"That thing is getting bigger."
It was.
The sarcophagus had begun to crack. Thin fractures spread across its surface before widening with every passing second. Chunks of stone and enchanted crystal broke away, unable to contain the force building within.
Pale white light bled through the gaps, as the entire structure trembled.
Frey narrowed her eyes.
Whatever Angelus had been moments ago... A king... A fanatic... A human wrapped in golden robes and divine delusions, that creature no longer existed.
His fate was sealed.
With a deafening crack, the sarcophagus split apart completely.
The creature that emerged from the shattered sarcophagus no longer resembled the king who had stood upon the throne only minutes earlier.
Six enormous wings extended from its back.
Its body possessed the same pristine whiteness as the Archangel whose corpse had formed its foundation, though traces of Angelus remained visible beneath the divine features.
Its eyes slowly swept across the chamber. Then it looked down at its own hand. The transformed king flexed his fingers once.
Twice.
A faint pulse of spiritrons spread outward, making the air tremble. "I see." His voice was quiet, and devoid of excitement, of pride, of emotion. "The calculations were correct."
Slowly, Angelus closed his hand. "The realm of the divine."He nodded once. "I have reached it."
Frey's expression hardened. Beside her, Claire had unconsciously moved closer.
The transformed king slowly turned his gaze toward the priests gathered throughout the chamber.
Many of them had already fallen to their knees. Some were crying. Others laughed with joy. Their god had finally ascended.
Angelus regarded them silently. Then he raised a hand.
The first priest suddenly collapsed. The second began clawing at his throat. A third aged decades in an instant. Another simply burst apart.
Within seconds, the chamber held nothing but empty robes settling slowly across the marble floor.
Sumire stood frozen at the edge of the room, her mind refusing to fully process what she had just witnessed. Brother Aldric. Sister Helena. Dozens of others she had spent the last year growing up among.
Their bodies dissolved into pale particles. Their souls followed moments later.
Streams of light converged upon Angelus from every direction before disappearing into his body.
"Why did you do that?" Sumire raised her sword shakily toward Angelus. Both of her hands trembled around the hilt, threatening to betray her at any moment.
"Daughter." Angelus slowly turned to face her.
The instant his gaze settled upon her, [Overcomer] surged once more. Strength flooded through her body in violent waves, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Is he going to kill me too? Is he going to absorb me just like everyone else?
"Calm yourself." His words did little to soothe the terror gripping her heart.
Why? Why had she allowed things to reach this point? She took an involuntary step backward.
Angelus merely tilted his head, as though unable to understand her reaction.
Frey, who had already reached the end of her patience, clicked her tongue in irritation. "Lady Kaede, if you would."
Kaede nodded. "Sure thing." Her haki erupted outward. The white glass cage imprisoning her shattered instantly, exploding into countless glittering fragments that scattered across the chamber.
Kaede paid it no further attention. She simply snapped her fingers.
A translucent green barrier appeared around Frey and Angelus, resembling the one once used to isolate Clayman and Rimuru during the Walpurgis Council.
This one, however, enclosed only the two of them.
Then it began to expand.
"Claire." Frey glanced toward her daughter.
Claire gave a single nod in affirmation before diving from the air. In an instant, she reached the trembling Sumire and wrapped an arm around her waist.
"W-Wait!"
"Let go of me!" Sumire struggled desperately, but she barely managed another word before Claire burst through one of the palace windows, carrying her into the open sky.
Meanwhile, the barrier continued to grow. It slammed into the palace walls without slowing.
The entire structure groaned before exploding apart as the expanding barrier consumed it. Debris was hurled in every direction. Within moments, the palace had ceased to exist.
The barrier continued expanding still, climbing higher and higher until it reached the clouds themselves.
Only then did it finally come to a halt.
Angelus slowly looked around. Within the barrier stretched an enormous empty space, spanning several dozen meters in every direction.
A battlefield. One with nowhere left to run.
"Tell me, Queen Frey." Angelus drifted toward Frey at an unhurried pace, six wings extended fully now, his presence radiating spiritrons in waves that made the very air around him tremble. "Do you understand yet what it means to face something that exists beyond mortal limitation?"
Frey hovered high above him, her wings beating in slow, measured strokes as she regarded the transformed king with quiet disdain.
"Oh?" A delicate smile curved her lips. "And would that something be you, perhaps?"
She sighed. "Ordinarily, I do so enjoy conversation." Her golden eyes swept over his transformed body. "Regrettably, I find this one rather tedious."
"You offend my eyes."
"So be a dear... and remove yourself from existence."
"Even now, you continue to look down upon a god?" Angelus' expression remained perfectly composed, almost devoid of emotion.
Only the faint irritation creeping into his voice betrayed the first cracks beginning to form.
"Heavenly Lance."
Two dozen brilliant white apertures blossomed into existence behind him, suspended high in the air like fragments of a miniature heaven.
From each opening, a lance of pure white light erupted.
They crossed the battlefield at hypersonic speed, converging upon Frey's position from every conceivable angle.
Each beam struck nothing.
They pierced only empty air before crashing into the distant barrier, sending ripples racing across its green surface.
Frey was already gone. She had folded her wings and dived the instant the spell was released, descending faster than Angelus could follow.
By the time his attack reached where she had been... She was already before him.
Her foot buried itself into the center of his chest. The impact rolled through the barrier like thunder. Angelus staggered backward a single step.
Angelus looked down at the faint imprint left upon his chest.
His fingers brushed over the spot almost absentmindedly before his gaze drifted back toward Frey.
"So this is physical combat." He sounded less like a warrior and more like a scholar making an observation. "The force was considerable."
His six wings spread slightly wider, and without warning, he vanished.
The air where he had stood erupted. His fist appeared before Frey's face an instant later.
She tilted her head.
The punch passed harmlessly beside her cheek, stirring a few loose strands of silver hair before continuing onward into empty space.
The pressure alone split the clouds behind her.
"Hm." Angelus looked at his own hand. "So this is the extent of my physical strength."
He disappeared again. This time he reappeared above her. His heel descended like a falling mountain.
Frey folded one wing, her body slipping aside by the smallest imaginable margin.
The kick carved through nothing.
The resulting shockwave slammed into the barrier below, causing the emerald construct to ripple violently.
Hundreds of white apertures unfolded behind him.
"Heavenly Lance."
The sky disappeared beneath an endless rain of light.
Lances crossed over one another from every direction, weaving together into an inescapable lattice that swallowed the battlefield whole.
Frey simply flew. Unexpectedly, she neither accelerated recklessly nor attempted to outrun the barrage.
Instead she moved with elegant precision. A slight turn of one shoulder. A single beat of her wings. A gentle twist of her waist.
Every lance missed by the width of a feather. Several even grazed her cloak, yet failed to touch her skin.
From outside the barrier, Kaede stared with wide eyes. "...Whoa. She's just like Sally."
Angelus continued increasing the density of the barrage.
The apertures multiplied. Two hundred. Three hundred. Five hundred. Light consumed nearly every direction.
Yet Frey remained untouched. She drifted between three converging lances before landing lightly upon one of the larger fragments of floating stone left behind by the destroyed palace.
The stone exploded beneath her feet as she launched herself forward.
Her claws raked across Angelus' shoulder. A shrill screech echoed through the barrier, as sparks erupted.
His pristine white exterior bore only the faintest scratch.
Frey clicked her tongue. "So." She drifted backward once more. "It isn't merely decoration."
Angelus examined the mark she had left. The shallow groove sealed itself before her eyes.
"I see." He raised both hands. Spiritrons gathered around them with astonishing speed.
This time no apertures formed.
Instead, a massive spear of condensed white light slowly emerged between his palms. The surrounding space distorted beneath its density.
"So these abilities need not follow fixed formulae." His fingers tightened around the weapon. "I merely need to imagine the outcome. Divine Prominence."
The spear disappeared.
Frey's pupils contracted and she twisted sideways.
The spear flashed past her shoulder, close enough that she felt the heat washing across her skin before it continued onward and struck the barrier.
The entire construct shook.
Frey narrowed her eyes now, a frown marring her expressions of beauty. She vanished again.
Angelus reacted immediately, his arm sweeping across his body.
Their limbs collided, detonating the surrounding air.
A second exchange followed. Then a third.
To anyone watching from outside, neither combatant remained visible.
Only expanding shockwaves and bursts of white light marked where they met before vanishing again.
Frey's talons struck his ribs.
His elbow narrowly missed her temple.
A wing swept toward her.
She stepped onto it as though it were solid ground, vaulted over his head, and drove both feet into his back.
Angelus flew forward several dozen meters before stopping himself in midair.
Outside the barrier, Kaede suddenly cupped her hands around her mouth. "Frey!"
The Harpy Queen glanced toward her without lowering her guard.
"He's got about as many magicules as Charybdis!"
Silence lingered for only a heartbeat. "I see." Frey's gaze returned to Angelus.
Oddly enough... She wasn't particularly surprised. Perhaps she should have been.
A creature possessing magicules comparable to Charybdis would once have been enough to unsettle even a Demon Lord.
Instead, the revelation barely registered.
She supposed spending so much time around monsters like Kaede, Rimuru, Milim and the others had quietly distorted her sense of perspective.
How unfortunate.
It seemed she had grown accustomed to absurdity.
Her golden eyes settled once more upon Angelus' pristine white body.
"So." A faint smile returned to her lips. "All those exchanges..." She slowly flexed her claws. "...and I still haven't found the proper place to tear you apart."