“Such a powerful feeling… no. That is not it.”Ares Valence stood beneath the dull, lifeless sky, his breathing slow and steady. From the outside, he looked calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that made others uneasy. Inside, however, it was a different story entirely.Power roared through him like an uncontained tide. It was vast beyond reason, dense enough to crush cities, maybe even reshape the land itself. It pressed against his bones, his blood, his very soul. Yet no matter how hard he tried, it refused to answer his call.The power existed. That much was undeniable.But it would not move.It was like gripping a weapon forged for gods, only to realize the blade was sealed inside its scabbard. No matter how tightly he held it, no matter how badly he needed it, he could not draw it.He felt it clearly. The ability to erase everything in front of him.And the unbearable frustration of being unable to release it.That helplessness settled in slowly, quietly. The sort of feeling that cle

“What…?”The thought struck Ares Valen like lightning splitting the sky.There was no warning. No gradual unease. One moment his mind was steady, and the next it felt as though something had slammed directly into his consciousness, hard enough to leave him breathless. His heart skipped a beat. A strange pressure tightened around his chest, sharp and restless, as if his instincts were screaming long before his reason could catch up.Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.Before he could even begin to question the feeling, a cold and emotionless voice echoed within him, mechanical and absolute.Ding… Aretine has fallen.For a single heartbeat, the world around him ceased to exist.Sound vanished. The wind stilled. Even his own breathing seemed to stop.Ares’s pupils shrank. His jaw tightened. He did not hesitate, not even for an instant. Years of battle and command took over as his mind reached outward, summoning the strategic interface embedded deep within his consciousness.His awareness

“Try it.”The words did not echo through the air.They did not ride the wind or shake the heavens.They went straight into Casimo’s chest.The four-winged fallen angel felt it the instant the soundless command settled within him. It was like being hurled headfirst into an endless abyss of ice. The cold was not sharp, not sudden. It crept. It spread slowly from the crown of his head, down his spine, into his limbs, freezing every nerve, every instinct, and even the arrogance he had carried for centuries.His pupils shrank violently.For the first time in a very long while, fear took root.Casimo turned around.Someone was standing there.A human youth.No footsteps had announced him. No divine fluctuation had warned of his arrival. No distortion of space or ripple of power had betrayed his presence. He had not walked in, nor had he descended from the sky.He was simply there.Casimo searched his memory and found nothing. No moment of appearance. No transition. It was as though reality

No one truly wakes up wishing for death. Not in their right mind. Not when there is even the smallest fragment of hope left clinging to their heart.But for ordinary two-winged fallen angels, hope was never something they could afford. It was a luxury denied to them the moment they fell. Death was not a choice they made. It was a sentence imposed upon them. Cold. Final. Inevitable.And disobedience did not simply mean execution.It meant something far worse.Their bodies would be destroyed, reduced to ash and nothingness. But their souls would not be granted rest. There would be no rebirth. No redemption. No ascension to any higher realm. Only endless erosion, their very essence dissolving slowly in the abyss until nothing remained.That was the rule.The kind no one needed to announce.The unspoken law governing the Alliance of Darkness.The Alliance of Light loved beautiful words. Salvation. Faith. Illumination. They wrapped fanatic belief in comforting language and called it mercy.

It had finally reached this point.Ares Valen released a slow breath, the kind that came when a man understood that the road behind him had vanished. No retreat. No second chances. Only what lies ahead.As the air left his lungs, the overwhelming divine presence surrounding him began to dissolve. It did not vanish all at once. Instead, it retreated gradually, like a tide pulling back after a violent storm. The War Sacrificial Rite, a power capable of shaking heaven itself, shut down completely.The abyssal darkness that had consumed his eyes faded. Color returned. White replaced black. In that moment, the terrifying image of a god of slaughter disappeared, leaving behind a young man once more.Human.Mortal.The vast plaza sank into silence.It was not the peaceful kind. It was heavy, pressing against the ears and hearts of everyone present. Tens of thousands stood frozen, unsure whether to breathe or blink.Ares took a step forward.His boots struck the stone steps, sharp and clear.