"T-Travel?"
Michiru looked even more bewildered.
Rei Ao smiled, his gaze seeming to pierce space itself and land on that scorched-earth world. "I've got a little mess to take care of—and I'll show you all some different scenery while we're at it."
"Um…" Michiru hesitated, worry written all over her face. "B-But I'm just an ordinary person. If I go with you, won't I just hold you back? And it… sounds kind of dangerous…"
"A burden?" Rei Ao gently shook his head. His tone was mild but carried an unquestionable confidence. "With me around, no one will lay a finger on any of you. Michiru, you can have a little more faith in my strength."
Kanna set down her spoon. She squared her small shoulders and thumped a fist lightly to her chest, playing the dependable grown-up as she told Michiru, very earnestly, "Don't worry, Michiru. I'll protect you too."
Seeing Kanna's adorable, serious, little-adult act, Michiru's heart melted on the spot—touched and a little amused. Being told she'd be protected by someone who looked so young… it was a strange feeling.
Under Rei Ao's absolute confidence and Kanna's pure-hearted promise, her hesitation and fear slowly ebbed away. In the end, Michiru took a deep breath, cheeks flushing, and gave a tiny nod, her voice barely above a whisper.
"O-Okay… then I'll be in your and Kanna's care!"
Meanwhile, back in the world of Disboard, outside the human settlement, the air had turned to ice.
The carefree, angelic smile on Azril's face gradually faded, replaced by a heavy look— probing, and tinged with a pain almost too faint to catch. Her blue-and-gold heterochromatic eyes locked onto Jibril. The teasing was gone; her voice dropped low.
"Jib-chan… tell me—did you really… betray us?"
She wasn't here just to retrieve a wayward sister. The War God Artosh himself had told her Jibril's presence had vanished from his senses for a long time—and suspected there might be betrayal involved.
At first, she refused to believe it. Jib-chan might be mischievous, obsessed with knowledge, sometimes stepping out of line—but betray the One who created them and gave them meaning? Impossible.
So she volunteered to find Jibril herself, to ask her face-to-face.
But as she tracked her down and saw this scene—Jibril living peacefully with the Ex-Machina, even… seemingly protecting those fragile humans—everything pointed to the answer Azril least wanted to accept.
For the first time, her heart was a storm of contradictions: a deep, instinctive love for Jib-chan, and an unshakable loyalty and duty to Artosh.
If Jibril truly had betrayed them, then she must… she must—
Jibril was silent for a moment. She didn't say "yes" or "no." She drew a long breath and spoke with a gravity Azril had never heard from her before. "I'm sorry, Azril-senpai. I've simply found the freedom that truly belongs to me—and a new master worthy of my fealty."
The worst fear crystallized.
Boom.
It felt like something clamped around Azril's heart and squeezed, a sharp stab of pain. The next instant, all feeling was crushed flat. Her face went cold and blank, like the most precise, merciless engine of slaughter. In a flat, almost mechanical voice, she pronounced:
"Confirmation: individual Jibril exhibits treasonous conduct. By the authority granted by Artosh-sama and the Flügel's iron laws… I, Azril, Full-Wing Proxy of the Flügel… will execute the traitor."
Duty overruled affection.
Almost as the words left Azril's lips, Jibril moved first. She knew exactly how terrifying Azril was—and that, once they fought, the collateral damage would be unimaginable. She could not allow a single shockwave to touch the Couronne human settlement.
"Schwi, initiate auxiliary computation!"
With a sharp cry, Jibril unleashed the spell she'd been holding ready.
A deep hum rolled out.
A gigantic, semi-transparent, cube-shaped spatial barrier exploded outward from her position like a colossal glass dome, sealing herself, Azril, and Schwi—who had instantly entered combat mode—inside. It was a space-isolation barrier Jibril had studied for a long time, designed specifically to contain internal energy impacts—prepared for a worst-case showdown between the mighty.
"Space isolation? You plan to keep the battlefield in here?" Azril watched, expressionless, making no move to stop it. "Fine. Less chance for the ants to get underfoot."
She slowly lifted her hand. The intricate halo above her head began to spin at a speed unlike anything before. A vast, ocean-deep power gathered.
"Then show your senior how much you've grown while you were away, Jib-chan. Heavenly Smite—"
Azril spoke almost lazily. A lance of emerald light, compressed to the absolute limit as if it could spear straight through the stars—a spear of God—blasted toward Jibril.
Jibril's pupils tightened. She didn't dare slacken for an instant.
"Codex—open! Apocrypha: Heavenly Smite!"
Schwi's mechanical voice rang out at the same time. Arrays and mechanical constructs bloomed all around her, furiously parsing and emulating Azril's energy architecture to bolster Jibril and throw off the attack.
The wings of light at Jibril's back flared, and she fired her own Heavenstrike to meet it.
A thunder like the tearing of a continent crashed through the confined space as the two Heavenstrikes slammed together. An indescribable energy storm detonated point-blank. The entire spatial barrier shuddered violently; hairline cracks skittered across its surface. Blinding light swallowed everything.
Huddled behind a stone hut, Couronne clamped her hands over her ears. Even with the battle sealed off, the roar and the tremors made her dizzy with terror. Staring at that alien, blazing dome devouring the world outside, she prayed with everything she had:
"Rei Ao-sama—please, hurry!"