Past Arc ④

Mission: Protection of primordial life.

Sariel has fulfilled this duty since distant antiquity.

Shielding organisms from natural disasters, protecting them from gods who arrive from beyond the stars—Sariel has always acted with only primordial life in mind.

Countless lives have been saved.

Yet, among the lives Sariel could not save, the number is infinite.

Each time, Sariel reflects.

What was optimal?

Where did failure occur?

Simply fulfilling the mission.

This has been Sariel’s constant contemplation—long before humanity developed civilization.

Dealing with external threats—gods—is straightforward.

Sariel is of Upper Seraphic rank.

Combat capability is high. Ordinary gods cannot withstand Sariel’s power.

This holds true even against dragons.

The reason dragons do not dominate this world is due to Sariel’s presence.

Defeating Sariel requires summoning a superior dragon to this world—nothing less will suffice.

Even that is not certain. If things go poorly, even the dragon above might fall.

The upper echelon of dragons on this world knew it.

Gyuliedistidies did not know it.

Thus, she acted without knowing the true nature of its terror.

The opposite hand reaches toward Sariel.

The act of grabbing rather than striking—whether due to the faint remnant of reason still clinging to Guryedistidies's mind, or because instinctively recognizing defeat, he hesitated before committing fully to hostile action—

In any case, the outcome of not launching an attack was what ultimately preserved Guryedistdies's life afterward.

Gyuliedistdies' hand, reaching out to seize, is brushed aside.

A simple motion, almost audible as a *pssht*—yet to deflect the hand of Guryedistdies, a being of divine status, was beyond ordinary capability.

Guryedistdies’ grasp moved faster than sound, easily exceeding Mach one. Attempting to block such motion with bare flesh would result in a catastrophic explosion from the shockwave alone.

Yet Syriel ignored the laws of physics.

He contained the collateral damage that should have scattered across the surroundings, forcibly compressing it within a barrier as if it had never occurred.

This was precautionary—preventing collateral destruction—but in the midst of combat, such restraint was meaningless.

Yet the fact that he could do it revealed the gap in power between Syriel and Guryedistdies.

"Reiteration: physical interference with protoplasmic entities is prohibited. Violation triggers mission conflict. Proceeding to elimination."

The words repeated exactly as before.

"No third warning."

Yet the following words were a more merciless directive.

A clear statement of intent: any further action would result in immediate elimination, no discussion.

Yet Guryedistdies did not know this was still a lenient response.

Syrilis had already been informed through a specific source, and understood the matter's underlying circumstances.

It was not commendable to threaten ordinary civilians, but he also knew that the dragon lineage perceived humans not as individuals, but as a species.

That was precisely why he had chosen not to eliminate immediately.

Under normal circumstances, an alien species attempting to interfere with native lifeforms on this planet would be eradicated on sight.

Compared to that, the current response—issuing a warning, overlooking a minor transgression, then issuing another warning—can be considered quite lenient.

Had Sariel been unaware and present here, or had Gurielidstidies attacked instead of attempting to seize him, his fate would have ended there.

And that precarious luck continued.

“Mmm!?!”

A strained groan escaped Gurielidstidies’s lips.

But it was not directed at Sariel. His eyes bypassed Sariel entirely, fixed on another location.

The place where the captured dragon child was imprisoned.

In Gurielidstidies’s vision, armed humans were entering that location.

He also perceived that these armed individuals were members of the nation’s正规 military.

Gurielidstidies watched them without distraction, observing whether harm would come to the kidnapped dragon child.

The concern proved unnecessary. The invading正规 military captured the abductors.

The dragon child was secured unharmed.

Gurielidstidies, having observed the scene through his千里眼, exhaled lightly, marking the child’s immediate danger as past.

Then, remembering still being held by someone, he finally realized, for the first time, that he did not know what to do.

Gurielidstidies recognized, without expression, that the woman holding his hand was the rogue angel Syriell, as spoken of in tales.

He had heard the stories.

That rogue angels existed on this world, and that the dragons’ passive behavior was due to their presence.

Yet, some things could not be known until seen with one’s own eyes.

Guriedistadies realized, upon seeing the object firsthand, that his prior understanding had been profoundly inadequate.

The dragon lineage possesses a unique barrier ability accessible only to members of the same lineage.

A barrier that, to deities founded upon the very existence of magic as an extraordinary phenomenon, functions as a celestial nemesis—rendering all magic ineffective.

The barrier is also effective against Guriédistdies.

Yet the barrier was currently being forcibly suppressed.

Had been overwritten by Sariel's erected barrier.

The dragon-blooded barrier nullifies even divine magic.

Yet Sariel scoffed at such conventional logic, pinning Gyriedis Todis under a barrier output too potent for the barrier to fully neutralize.

Absurd. Even by absurdity's standards, relying solely on raw force is beyond reason.

The disparity in power is too great.

Here, Guryedistadies became aware that he had been acting with considerable recklessness.

If he had ignored the second warning and pressed the attack further?

Undoubtedly, the dragon known as Guryedistadies would have ended there.

He had been distracted—fortunate timing had allowed the nation's正规 army to infiltrate the criminal's stronghold and rescue the dragon's offspring, which prevented him from acting on his impulse.

But had that not occurred, could he truly claim he would have refrained from attacking at that moment, when blood had already risen to his head?

Contemplating such a possibility, Guryedistadies felt his blood recede.

"Suppression is complete. Let us go."

Still holding Guryedistadies’s hand, Syriel began walking toward the scene.

Guryedistadies followed Syriel, pulled along without resistance.

Guryedistadies could do nothing but submit in silence, overwhelmed by fear.

The dragon child, once seized, was safely returned to Guryedistadies’s hands. Salier, having reported the criminal’s stronghold to the nation, declined the military commander’s offer of celebration.

Left.

The young dragon, watching Salier’s departing form, had not imagined—nor could he have foreseen—that he would one day fall for that very person.