While Yunia, Ludmila, Evangeline, Yurha, and Seia engaged in battle—
“Uh, um… Phoenix? What should we do?”
“Hmm. How about we eat some popcorn?”
“W-What?!”
Shuri, a non-combatant, asked me about the course of action for those not fighting. However, my response left her flustered as she pointed at the halo of the rampaging Angel, Lieze von Stein.
“Uh, we…?”
“As long as we maintain this illusion without getting hurt, that’s enough. This place is both a battlefield and a barrier.”
The battlefield was an illusionary world created by Shuri.
Technically, it was the clearing of the Old School Building, but the Angel perceived this illusionary space as a prison.
BOOOM!
The Angel deflected Ludmila’s attack.
Her wind spear was knocked off course and flew toward the forest, shattering trees. However, the Angel moved as if gliding along the wreckage, treating the destroyed forest like a solid wall.
“As you can see, the Angel currently believes that clearing is a Domain. And the ones maintaining that Domain are Miss Shuri and myself, who is supporting her.”
“In other words…”
“If either Miss Shuri or I fall, the Angel will realize that her battlefield is not just the clearing, but the entire Old School Building.”
Through Illusion Materialization, we created a perception-based Domain that confined her movements to a specific area.
The ones sustaining this illusion were Shuri and me. But if she became aware of us outside the Domain, the illusion would collapse.
Think of it like an SRPG with a fog of war.
Imagine the battlefield is covered in a dense fog, restricting movement.
But suddenly, an enemy unit moves outside the fog-covered area.
The first reaction would be: “Is this a bug?”
However, if the player realizes it’s not a bug but a deliberate mechanic, an experienced gamer would instantly understand the situation.
The battlefield itself is a lie.
There’s some special gimmick here tricking the player.
Right now, we are doing the reverse of that.
We created a special battlefield, and the Angel cannot perceive those of us outside the illusion—thanks to non-attribute magic.
“Be careful not to get hit by stray attacks. I’ll block as much as I can, but—”
“B-Block?! You mean—”
“Ah, wrong choice of words. If an attack does come flying our way, like this—”
I gently pulled Shuri aside, keeping her from getting caught in the trajectory of a magic sphere fired wildly by the Angel.
Whooosh!
The Angel’s attack landed right next to us.
It instantly shattered the trees and tore through the ground, leaving deep scars across the Old School Building’s clearing.
Shuri shuddered, genuinely feeling the looming threat of death.
“Ack…!”
“Look forward.”
I grabbed her shoulders firmly and spoke.
“We are not supposed to be perceived by the enemy.”
That was true for Shuri, for me, and even for our allies momentarily distracted by the battlefield.
“Shuri and I will handle evasion ourselves. You just focus on the Angel.”
There was no response.
But that was expected—because the best course of action was to maintain focus within the battlefield and communicate only between those fighting the Angel.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
“You okay?”
“C-Could this be happening because of my illusion…?”
“It’s true that your illusion caused the Angel to go berserk, but the fact that an attack flew toward us just now? That was purely coincidence.”
Would someone playing a strategy game worry about an AoE attack hitting off-screen?
No, they wouldn’t.
“And if you really think about it, most of the Angel’s attacks are actually missing us and flying past us toward the others, aren’t they?”
Boom! BOOM!
The Old School Building’s forest was vast—
Vast enough that I thought, “You could build a whole resort here,” but right now, it was getting obliterated by explosions and crumbling earth.
“Miss Shuri, the battle is actually going in our favor, so—”
“In our favor?”
“Of course. The fact that an Angel has been held off for more than ten seconds by mortals is already humiliating. And not only has it been ten seconds, but it also hasn’t even landed a single meaningful hit.”
From an outsider’s perspective, the fight seemed evenly matched.
But in reality, under Yunia’s command, our team was deliberately allowing the Angel to use its full arsenal.
“To extract as much combat data as possible, we’re dodging its attacks by a hair’s breadth and pretending to struggle while blocking its strikes. If we wanted, we could have taken it down within ten seconds.”
“…You could take down an Angel that fast?”
“We have Ludmila, Yunia, and even Evangeline. What’s there to worry about?”
We had specialists in non-attribute magic, capable of piercing through an Angel’s defenses, and Ludmila, who could fight better than an Angel.
With a team like this—what was there to fear?
“Because the Vermilion Bird Class has become much stronger than I originally expected, an Angel of that level is easy for them to handle. But that shouldn’t be the case. Just because the Vermilion Bird Class of the Old School Building can defeat an Angel effortlessly doesn’t mean the same applies to ordinary people.”
“We can win easily, but that doesn’t mean others can?”
“Exactly. That’s the point. Academy students need to stay vigilant.”
I subtly gestured toward two people standing by the Old School Building—Esta and Instructor Kadisha.
“Angels are a regular topic in faculty meetings. The faculty hasn’t stepped in directly yet, but word spreads through them regardless.”
“Y-You’re right. Even though I didn’t know much about this place, I’ve overheard faculty members talking about the incredibly powerful beings the Vermilion Bird Class has defeated. But…”
Shuri pulled up an image from her magic pad.
“I thought they were demons.”
The illustration depicted a sinister-looking demon straight out of Hell, grinning wickedly behind an ordinary woman. The woman appeared to be in agony, as if she were about to be consumed by despair, with ominous words like “hopelessness” and “despair” forming around her.
“But to think they were actually Angels… And that the Angel was even…”
“A yuri-obsessed fanatic?”
“Yes! Ah—wait, I mean—”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality.”
I figured it was about time to speak frankly with Shuri.
“Miss Shuri, before I give you a little quiz, let’s analyze why the Angel that possessed Lieze von Stein went berserk. Do you have any ideas?”
“C-Can I just say what I’m thinking? It’s just my guess, but…”
“Anything’s fine. Go ahead.”
“Maybe… it thought the girl it possessed was a pure and chaste maiden, but then—ah—upon realizing that she had secretly been engaging in—umm—indecent acts, it lost control?”
“Correct. But only half correct.”
“Half…?”
“There’s a crucial issue here—perception.”
I gently held Shuri’s head, directing her gaze toward Lieze von Stein.
“From your perspective, does Lieze von Stein seem like that kind of person?”
“Uh, um…”
“She’s a beauty, right? Well-built, too. If she had been in a normal relationship with a man, she would have engaged in natural activities. But do you think she was actually so depraved that an Angel would go into a frenzy over it?”
“B-But the Unicorn coughed up blood…”
Shuri’s gaze slowly returned to me, and I eased my grip.
“Could it be… a lie?”
“Exactly. A misconception. Lieze von Stein is undoubtedly a virgin. Not only am I the Phoenix, but I also have the perceptive abilities of a Unicorn—I can guarantee it.”
“G-Guarantee…?”
“You can tell a lot about someone’s purity just by sensing the residual mana that lingers around them. Whether someone has shared intimacy with another is fairly easy to detect.”
This was a trait of mine as the Phoenix, but it was also an ability stemming from Regif’s remnants within me—his expertise in hypnosis, mind control, and illusion magic.
“And even if I didn’t say anything, Instructor Esta’s summoned Unicorn could confirm it as well.”
“That Unicorn from before…”
“I subtly embedded my illusion into the illusion Shuri created. Just enough to blend seamlessly with the masterpiece of a Domain she crafted, without disrupting it.”
“So the Angel went berserk simply because the Unicorn coughed up blood—without actually confirming whether Lieze von Stein was pure or not?”
“Exactly. And that makes it even worse.”
The Angel, having possessed Lieze von Stein, should have been able to perceive basic traits of the human body.
It could tell whether her body still held the symbol of purity or not, but it had no way of confirming what she had actually done in the past.
It simply saw a Unicorn rejecting her and assumed the worst—flying into a blind rage.
“It’s a misunderstanding, but just look at how it reacts to that misunderstanding.”
“…”
“There are vampires who demand a pure virgin as a sacrifice, right? Imagine one of them bites a victim, only to find out the blood isn’t pure.”
“The village that offered the sacrifice would be massacred.”
“Exactly. This is the same.”
“But an Angel isn’t a vampire. Surely you don’t mean…”
Shuri gulped, eyes wide in shock.
“…That an Angel is no different from those purity-obsessed vampire freaks?”
“If anything, they might be worse.”
“…That’s—”
With a conflicted yet resolute expression, Shuri flipped open her magic pad.
“I need to confirm something.”
“What is it?”
“I want to see just how far an Angel can break down. With this.”
Rustle.
She turned to a particular image.
A stunningly beautiful Angel.
Yet, its divine power was weak—perhaps due to its small mana pockets—but that only enhanced its mystical and reverent beauty.
“Can we project this illusion in real-time to make it seem like this Angel is supporting them?”
“You mean… inject it into the battlefield? It’s possible, but do you think the berserk Angel will abandon Lieze von Stein to possess this one instead?”
“I’m not sure… But if it does, it will completely expose its true nature. Because the name of this Angel is…”
Shuri moved her magic stone pen toward the hidden inscription inside the drawing’s dress.
“Kaviel—that’s its name.”
