Rei Ao didn't take Albedo and Shalltear through Nazarick's usual exits. With a mere thought, the three of them appeared soundlessly above the Great Tomb—high in the cloud layer.
A vast, lush forest stretched beneath their feet. In the distance ran winding rivers and rolling mountains. The air was fresh, scented with earth and green things. Sunlight poured down with a warmth that felt truly real. It was nothing like the fixed background textures of the game; this was alive—uncertain, vivid, real.
"So this is… a real world?" Albedo drew a deep breath. She could feel faint currents of magic in the wind, and the presence of life far away. Shalltear, eyes bright red with curiosity, glanced about excitedly at the new sights.
Rei Ao's gaze swept the land below as calmly as a god surveying a board. His perception spread like invisible ripples, racing outward to an extreme range.
His brows lifted a fraction, and he looked toward the edge of the forest. "Noisy over there," he said mildly—and his figure was already drifting forward. Albedo and Shalltear followed at once.
An instant later, the three of them were floating over a small village: Carne Village. But its peace was gone. Thick smoke rolled up; cries, harsh laughter, and the clash of steel tangled together.
Soldiers in crude armor were rampaging through the streets—burning houses, looting, and cutting down any villager who dared resist. It was a scene that would be unbearable for most.
"Hmph. A bunch of lowly human ants—slaughtering each other over scraps. Utterly repulsive." Shalltear curled her lip, showing naked disgust and contempt, as if watching insects brawl.
To her, humans were no different from bugs. Albedo said nothing, but her violet eyes were cold and indifferent. To her, the lives of such weak beings were no different from weeds trimmed in Nazarick's gardens—nothing that could stir her heart. She cared only for Rei Ao-sama's will.
Rei Ao looked down on the carnage without a ripple. He had no interest in these villagers' fates. The wars of human kingdoms were as dull to him as ants' quarrels. But the emotions spilling off the soldiers as they burned and butchered—brutality, greed, cruelty—were stains on the first tableau of this new world he had just arrived in.
"Noisy," he breathed.
He didn't even move; he merely willed it. In that same instant, every soldier committing atrocities below—those lifting blades, those setting fires, those chasing women—was crushed by an invisible force. Not one had time to scream. With a soft pop, they burst into misted blood, then their armor and weapons alike unraveled to base particles and drifted away.
A heartbeat ago, the village rang with violence and wailing; now, it was dead still. The survivors stood dazed, staring at where the savage soldiers had simply ceased to exist. Only the ruined houses and the bodies of their loved ones proved the horror hadn't been a dream. Shock, fear, and the hollow confusion of those spared filled their faces.
Rei Ao didn't spare them a glance. To him it was no more than brushing dust from a sleeve. His eyes turned to a band of open ground farther on. "There are energy fluctuations over there," he said, and took the two Guardians toward that direction. The episode at Carne was nothing more than a footnote on his path—not even worth a pause.
…
On a broad mining flat, a hunt was underway. A dozen figures in white, gold-trimmed robes were driving at a battered squad of soldiers, siccing upon them strange beings woven from light—"angels." The robed men were clearly well drilled and coordinated, using a power that wasn't of the YGGDRASIL system but was magic all the same.
At the center of the encircled group stood a burly, hard-faced middle-aged warrior with a greatsword in both hands. Even cornered, his fighting spirit roared.
"Oh? The magic of this world?" Albedo arched a brow in mild interest. "The energy structure is crude, the application quite primitive." "Such feeble glimmers," Shalltear scoffed. "Not even fit to serve as trim lights for Rei Ao-sama."
Rei Ao's gaze swept the battlefield and recognized the quarry. Gazef Stronoff—the Warrior Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom. He bore the Kingdom's four secret treasures—the Gauntlets of Vitality, the Amulet of Undying, the Guardian Armor, and the Razor Blade—marking him as its strongest fighter. Their pursuers were the Sunlight Scripture, a special unit of the Slane Theocracy. None of it was hidden from him.
"They at least have some standing in this world," he said lightly.
On the field, the tide turned harder against Gazef. His men fell one by one. Though he hewed several angels apart, the enemy's spells and the ceaseless press of summoned angels left him reeling, wounds multiplying.
"Let's go down," said Rei Ao.
Like gods descending, the three of them appeared between the warring sides with no warning at all. The battle froze, as if someone had hit pause. The Sunlight Scripture's captain eyed the three oddly dressed, extraordinary intruders with sharp suspicion.
He couldn't read them—but bolstered by numbers and "divine" favor, he barked, "Who are you? Reinforcements from the Kingdom?" He leveled a hard glare. "Whoever you are, if you dare obstruct a mission of the Slane Theocracy—kill without mercy!" He had taken the trio for Gazef's allies.
~~~
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