At dusk.
The setting sun laid a warm golden sheen over the street.
Akira Mado stepped out of the Anteiku café, her feelings a knot of mixed emotions.
All afternoon, her attention kept drifting to that corner.
The man named Rei Ao—his figure and his smile—felt imprinted on her mind.
A pity… he already had a girlfriend.
She let out a soft sigh.
Burying that spark of fondness that had barely sprouted and already had to be snuffed out, she walked on down the street.
Just then, as she passed the mouth of a narrow alley, a silhouette slipped out of the shadows and blocked her path.
Akira stopped.
She looked at the person warily, and recognized her at a glance—the green-haired woman who'd been sitting with Rei Ao and his girlfriend that afternoon.
Eto Yoshimura noticed the lingering turmoil on Akira's face and let a meaningful smile curl her lips.
"Akira Mado-san," she said, her voice tinged with a mysterious allure. "Care to talk?"
Akira frowned. "Do we know each other? What do you want to talk about?"
Eto took a step forward, lowered her voice, and offered Akira a world-shaking secret.
"Let's talk about this world's… 'truth.'"
…
The world of No Game No Life.
High above a barren land scoured by war into nothing but ash and ruins, space quivered—like ripples spreading across a calm lake after a pebble's splash.
An instant later, a figure appeared out of thin air.
She hovered in the sky.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, yet radiated an awe that made the soul tremble.
Her long hair gleamed like polished jade, and a crystalline single horn peeked out from between the strands.
Most striking were her eyes—one as limpid as the blue of the sky, the other a resplendent molten gold.
That heterochromia seemed to hold endless wisdom—and chill indifference.
From her waist unfurled a pair of wings not of feathers, but woven purely from light, shining with a sacred glow.
Each gentle beat scattered motes of radiance.
Above her head floated a geometric halo, far more intricate and exquisite than that of an ordinary Flügel—
nested magic circles rotating in slow layers, pulsing with vast waves of mana.
A Flügel.
In Disboard, the world created by the Old Deus and stratified by race, they rank sixth among the Sixteen Races—
their chess piece is the queen, the most powerful in chess, symbolizing irreplaceable strategic value.
They were forged by the War God Artosh himself, originally as the ultimate god-slaying weapon, endowed with near-eternal life, supreme adaptability to magic, and the power to lay waste to heaven and earth.
The descended Flügel slowly turned her blue-and-gold eyes.
Cold, efficient senses—like the most precise radar—swept the boundless ruins below in an instant.
No fluctuation of energy, no sign of life, could escape her probe.
Soon, she seemed to catch something.
Those eyes, which looked as if they could pierce the essence of all things, brightened faintly.
"Found you, Jibril-chan."
She murmured the words, a smile tugging at her mouth—an indulgent, playful curve that sat a touch at odds with her holy appearance.
Before the words had even faded—
BOOM!
Her wings of light snapped once.
The air around her compressed and detonated in an instant, cracking with a sonic boom.
Her figure became an emerald streak, ripping the sky at a speed far beyond sound toward a fixed point.
She moved too fast for the naked eye to track, leaving only a slowly dissolving Mach cone in her wake.
…
Meanwhile,
in a valley that had survived comparatively intact and even showed a hint of life, one of humanity's last settlements lay hidden.
Compared with the deathly silence outside, this place was almost bustling.
Crude but sturdy houses climbed the slopes, thin smoke curling from their roofs.
In the valley's center, fields had been carved from the earth.
The soil was still poor, but hardy crops had already pushed up tender green shoots—a fragile promise of hope.
At the settlement's edge, a tall young woman in fitted leather armor with short black hair—Couronne Dola—was making the rounds of the fields with two companions who could not have looked more different.
One was a girl wrapped head to toe in protective clothing, hood and goggles on, only a hint of blue hair and cold mechanical structure visible—an Ex-Machina named Schwi.
The other, likewise bundled up, with pink hair, a simple geometric halo floating above her head, and white wings spread behind her—a Flügel named Jibril.
If any of the other races still fighting the great war saw this scene, their jaws would drop.
Humans—the lowest and weakest of the Sixteen Races, dismissed as ants and dust—
coexisting peacefully with a sixth-rank Flügel and a powerful, hyper-logical Ex-Machina?
And getting along, at that?
Even more surprising, the busy humans in the settlement, when they saw Schwi and Jibril, showed not fear or suspicion but genuine respect and gratitude.
All of this traced back to a recent catastrophe.
A pack of powerful Demonkind had besieged the settlement.
Annihilation seemed inevitable.
It was Rei Ao-sama who crushed the demons with overwhelming force and saved everyone.
According to the settlement's leader—the boy Riku, young yet remarkably wise and resolute—
Rei Ao-sama is humanity's true savior and great benefactor.
He not only sent Schwi and Jibril to protect the settlement, he has repeatedly helped humans avert disaster from the shadows.
Thus, thanks to Riku's tireless advocacy and the people's own firsthand experiences,
Rei Ao's grace and might have sunk deep into their hearts, becoming an almost faith-like presence for all surviving humans.
As for the "nonhuman" guardians he sent, the people feel only gratitude—and trust.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 220+ Chapters Ahead of Others!
Also, get 50% off your first month on every membership tier this December! Take advantage of this offer and join. Thank you!