Tale of Discovery

Exiting the Enhanced Cerebration state, I slowly set Aurora down on the ground as I keenly observe the battlefield in front of me.

Gazef is at the center on his feet, while his horse is lying on the ground and writhing in agony.

Obviously, the beast has been hurt and is no longer able to serve its owner.

Behind Gazef are his men, quite a few of which have gotten injured, be it lightly or fatally. And it's just one type of injury either, but various ones ranging from burns to clean cuts.

Half a dozen of them have already fallen.

That is not surprising though, considering what they are facing off against.

Looking over at the enemies, I notice that numerous robed men are standing far back while casting spells at their targets. Among them, a blond-haired man stands tall in much better clothes as he coldly watches over the battle.

He is most likely the one leading this assault.

Leaving them aside, the ones that Gazef and his men are directly facing aren't human.

Having bodies twice if not thrice as large as a human's, the creatures are flying in the air thanks to two giant wings of light protruding from their back.

Covering them from head to toe is a thick metal armor with red outlining near the joints and face.

"Angels?" I subconsciously mutter while observing the odd creatures and their equipment.

All the 'angels', apart from one, are equipped with a long lance that reminds me of the ones I had seen back in Project Future while watching a documentary about medieval ages.

"Hooo!!" A deep growl escapes from Gazef as he charges forth at two of the angelic-like creatures and swings his sword at the air.

Following his actions, the sword in his hands glows in red as an arc of energy forms in front of him and launchers toward one of the two foes, directly splitting it in half.

"Go!" one of the robed men suddenly shouts as the angelic creature in front of Gazef quickly closes the distance between itself and Gazef before attempting to pierce Gazef's body with its lance.

As a response to this, Gazef hurriedly steps to the side, dodging the lance by a few centimeters, before gripping his sword tightly and lunging at the creature.

Gazef's sword which had dimmed down begins shining once again as he swings it at the creature with all his strength.

Sensing danger, the creature raises its arm to protect itself, but it turns out to be futile against the powerful force behind the sword as the blade easily slashes through its arm and body.

Dropping to the ground, Gazef takes a moment to hurriedly look around until he spots me and Aurora.

"Mr. Vincent!" he exclaims while before casting a concerned look at his men.

During the short confrontation of the man and the two creatures, six more men fell under the attack of the enemy.

"Guess it's our time to shine," I say with a smile before placing my palm atop Aurora's head.

"You go take down the ones that are attacking the soldiers while I go deal with the big one."

That's right - a big one.

Different from all the other angelic creatures present on the battlefield, there is another angelic creature that's much larger than the rest.

Its general appearance is the same, but its equipment is not.

On the creature's left arm is a circular golden shield while its right hand is bare with no weapon being there for it to utilize.

Could this be specialized in close-quarter combat? Only one way to find out.

Beaming a smile at the giant creature, I lean forth before leaping at it.

"Principality of Observation!" the man which I deemed as a leader suddenly shouts as a nervous look appears on his face.

Responding to his words, the giant angel quickly turns to face me and raises the shield on its left arm.

As I close in on it, I draw my arm back a little before directly punching the center of its shield.

What follows is a loud noise as the shield shatters like brittle glass and the angel-like creature gets knocked away in the distance.

That's not the end of it, as the impact resulted in a shockwave that's spreading and destabilizing everything.

This results in the rest of the angel-like creatures losing control of their flight and fall to the ground while Gazef, his men, and the human enemies all either drop on their butts or forward.

At this particular moment, a hazy small figure approaches the angel-like creatures on the ground and continuously strikes one after another.

The force behind the strikes is nothing to scoff at, with each creature immediately ending up as motes of light.

"You! Who are you!" the man that yelled earlier questions with an anguished look on his face as he gets up from the ground.

"Vincent Victorianul, Crown Prince of the German Empire," I tepidly respond as I land on the ground.

Standing in place, I peer into the man's eyes, only to realize that they're completely black.

This guy… Could he be an inhuman creature?

"It doesn't matter who you are, step back, or you're going to die miserably!" the man continues to exclaim after taking a moment to recollect himself.

At this point, everyone on the battlefield has risen back to their feet, but neither side attacks.

"Are you sure you want to say that when your strongest fighting force got knocked out by a single punch?" I mock the weakling while pointing at the giant angel that's currently lying on the ground, twitching as if it's going to pass away any moment now.

Perhaps realizing that my words are the truth, the man's expression contorts as he glares at me.

"So you're not going to leave?" the man asks after a brief period of silence.

"What do you think?" I ask back with a smile while crossing my arms.

"Fine. I did not expect that I would actually have to make use of this…" the man utters in a hateful tone as he reaches his hand inside his clothes and pulls out a giant blue crystal.

A little alarmed, I turn around and gesture to Gazef to step back along with his soldiers.

[Master.]

Along with Aurora's voice in my head, she suddenly appears beside me with an excited look on her face.

This little girl…

Earlier, I assigned the job dealing with the odd creatures to Aurora in order to gauge her overall power. Little did I expect her to be this powerful already…

Anyway, I focus my sight back on the man that's holding the crystal as I prepare for whatever he might throw my way.

A few seconds later, the crystal shines rather brightly as dense energy begins to slowly exude from it.

All of a sudden, the crystal explodes into small shards as an immense amount of energy escapes from within it and begins to take a deformed humanoid form in the sky.

At this point, Gazef and his men have retreated back quite a bit, so I can fight without holding back.

Soon enough, the light fades, revealing another angel-like being, albeit one that is incomparably larger than the one I just took down.

Suddenly, a peal of maniacal laughter reaches my ears, which just so happens to be coming from the man that summoned this creature.

"Yes! This is it! Are you already at the gate of death, you insolent human?! Are you already trembling at the mere sight of the strongest angel, Dominion Authority?!"

The heck's up with this guy? Isn't he getting a little too excited?

Though, I suppose I understand why he would be so excited. However, unfortunately for him, I sense absolutely no threat from this 'strongest angel' of his. At most, this thing is on the level of Asia back in the Rift.

"What's wrong?! Why aren't you saying anything?!"

Hah~ This weakling is too cocky for his own good. Like, can't he see that I am unfazed, or is he too caught up within his own delusions?

Either way, he isn't very bright.

[Master, kill it?]

Sensing the nervous yet excitement in Aurora's tone, a small smile forms on my lips as I open my mouth to give my consent.

However, something odd happens, preventing me from doing so.

The giant angel trembles immensely as energy from all over it begins to move toward the center of its body.

Oi, don't tell me this thing will self-destruct...

Oh well, even if it does, I am not sensing any danger, so it most likely won't affect me. As for Aurora... Well, it would be better for her to step back, I suppose.

"Aurora, move back," I command, which she goes through with immediately as her figure turns into a blur and hastily moves away toward the retreating figure of Gazef and his men.

To my surprise, the angel doesn't explode, but the condensed energy suddenly shoots out from its head and moves toward the sky.

An attack-on-everyone type of attack?

Wrong, once again.

The beam of light in the sky takes a turn in a direction that is nowhere near us.

Before I can think of what this means, Nora's voice suddenly reverberates within my head as a system window appears in front of me.

{Holy Essence Awakening condition met: Fulfill the next two conditions to awaken Divine Essence.}

'What? I am confused... There are other forms of my current Essences?'

[Affirmative. Father has currently progressed through Holy the most and Mahesvara the least.]

'The least? Even though I have been using it so much?'

[The awakening of other forms of Essences is unrelated to usage, but comprehension and certain conditions.]

'Then what just happened? What condition did I just fulfill?'

[Come into close contact with true divine energy.]

'Huh? Wouldn't that mean that that beam of light was much more powerful than the ones I can make?'

[Affirmative.]

'Then why didn't I sense that?'

[The ability used by the entity was an unoffensive one and wasn't directed at Father, making it difficult to analyze.]

That makes sense, I guess. But then if it wasn't an offensive ability, what is it?

[Information transition.]

Shit. Good thing there isn't much to provide other than there being a young-looking man with powerful physical abilities and a little girl with horns.

Although not good, it's not too bad anyway.

Well then, time to destroy this thing.

As soon as that thought crosses my mind, what's left of energy inside the angel's body converges toward the center once again, albeit much more chaotically compared to before.

Damn, looks like this time it's really going to explode.

Having found out that this thing possesses energy more potent than my own, I hastily utilize my full speed and get as far as I can.

"Dominion Authority, kill him!" the man exclaims as he sees my retreating figure.

Unfortunately for him, the angel doesn't respond to its orders as its body slowly begins to glow and cracks begin forming on certain parts of its body.

"Dominion Authority!" the man exclaims once again, this time sounding a little anxious.

The next moment, the angel's body bursts forth as chaotic light energy explodes from within it in all directions, destroying anything in its path.

Before the leader and the robed men can realize what's happening, the energy washes over them, completely obliterating their bodies as well as the land beneath them.

Good thing is that the energy doesn't reach too far and slowly diminishes, so the only casualties that 'our' side has suffered are the men that got injured by the smaller angels.

And so, the assault has been dealt with, though the means and the outcome is something I completely didn't expect.

This is going to be problematic if I just let it be, so I can only hope that Gazef will have some information to provide...

At this moment, I noise reverberates within my head which appears to be coming from a mental 'message', as I sense something moving toward me from the back.

Turning around, I am met with the sight of Aurora dragging a certain man by the chest plate he is wearing toward me with an excited look in her eyes.

Shortly, she reaches me and casually throws the man in front of me before looking at me with an expectant expression on her face that's practically begging to be praised.

"G-good job," I utter with a stiff smile as I step forth and pat her head while gazing at the pitiful Gazef on the ground.