ch1-ch20 · 004-ch4

Chapter 4: Angel Lumiel

In Aoba Town, many residents were out walking the streets.

Most of them had their eyes fixed on their phones or the large screens, watching the situation in Akayama Town with bated breath.

"Hm?"

One of them, who happened to be looking at the sky, pointed.

It emerged from thin air, sliding into existence as if a hallucination were dissolving.

"...World Clock?"

It was the same kind of World Clock as the one in Akayama Town.

On the massive doors, 『00 hours 00 minutes 16 seconds remaining』 was displayed.

"Huh, what does that mean?"

"It's a prank... right?"

Many of those outside noticed the situation and started uploading photos and videos to social media. They still didn't realize what it meant — for a World Clock to appear here in Aoba Town, so far from Akayama Town——

"Wait. This is bad, isn't it..."

Someone's muttering was drowned out by a sound like rusty doors being forced open.

If the clock opened, a horde of monsters would be unleashed upon the town. But most of Japan's military power was currently gathered at Akayama Town. Creaking, cracking — the clock swung wide open.

A massive shadow fell over the stunned citizens, and a torrent of giant monsters poured down.

The people directly beneath the gate were crushed under the monsters, and those around them were devoured.

"Hi-yaaaaa!!"

"Nooooooo!!"

"Run! Get out of here!!!!"

The swarm of monsters burst outward across the town, and from every direction, screams and shouts erupted into utter chaos.

It was almost identical to the scene from the day the World Clock first opened.

"I'm not gonna let them run wild in my town...!"

The man who ran a butcher shop in Aoba Town was a former A-Rank Hunter, retired due to a leg injury.

Even if he'd lost his mobility, his physical strength was still intact. For his family, for his town, he picked up a weapon and started walking.

"Get the hell out of my town, you damn monsters!!"

The man swung an axe as tall as he was.

The giant gorilla-like monster caught the axe with ease and sent the man flying along with it.

"(No way... even a single grunt is A-Rank or stronger...!?)"

The man went crashing through buildings before he collapsed, his dimming vision watching the monsters vanish into the town as he fell.

Aoba Town had no forces capable of opposing the monsters.

Hoping for Hunters who might not even come, the town could only be ravaged.

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"What the hell is this..."

I could only stare dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before me.

Flames, smoke, and screams rising from every direction.

"Why is there a World Clock here?"

Black shapes were dropping one after another from the clock high above. As soon as they hit the ground, they locked onto targets and charged off.

I couldn't accept the scene before me as reality.

The bento shop I often stopped by had collapsed.

The supermarket too, the convenience store too.

I could see people buried in the rubble calling for help.

Defense failed? What about Akayama Town? Above Aoba Town? How? Why?

"(Could my sister and the others be...?)"

I almost started running, then stopped myself.

But what can I even do?

A G-Rank like me, the same as or worse than an ordinary person.

Tears started flowing on their own.

I don't know, I don't know, I DON'T KNOW.

"Koh."

Her voice echoed clearly in my head, so clear it made the surrounding chaos feel distant.

Lumiel, standing beside me, looked up at me. I dropped to my knees before her, as if clinging to her for support.

"Lumiel... my, my town is..."

"All you need to do is command."

Her voice rang out, clear and resolute.

"Command, but you're..."

The words "G-Rank too, aren't you" never made it past my lips. An overwhelming aura emanated from her — far stronger than the A-Rank Hunters I'd seen before... and ominous.

"Command me, Maeda Hagane."

Lumiel declared to me once more.

"Defeat the enemy."

I felt like she was telling me she could do it.

My mouth moved before my thoughts could catch up.

Just as she told me, I commanded her.

"Defeat my enemies, Lumiel!"

"As you command. My God."

With a rustle, her two pairs of silver wings spread wide, and Lumiel's body floated gently upward. Leaving behind a smile that seemed to say "Leave it to me," she soared high into the sky.

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The moment Lumiel rose into the air, the world's atmosphere changed in an instant.

The instant her silver wings unfurled, the sky transformed into a sanctuary. That radiance exuded an oppressive pressure unbearable to the monsters.

The monsters understood immediately — this was a being to be feared.

Beast-type monsters clawed at the ground in frenzy; bird-type monsters, driven by instinctive terror yet as though not permitted to flee, tore through the sky and began their advance.

The monsters' roars echoed through the air, but Lumiel didn't move a fraction. She simply gazed silently at the horde.

"...Pierce."

The angel's cold voice rang out — and in that instant,

the sun rose behind her.

A golden halo blazed to life, and from it, countless swords of light manifested.

One after another — the swords lined up like a great river of light, their brilliance shifting into a blinding flash.

And then, they were unleashed all at once.

A thunderous roar.

A shock that shook the earth.

A golden storm that split heaven and earth.

The released swords pierced through the monsters with pinpoint accuracy, as if each one possessed a will of its own.

They weren't even given time to roar.

The monsters impaled in the ground fell silent as if turned to stone, and the next moment — their bodies dissolved into fine particles of light and vanished.

Resistance was meaningless.

The battlefield was enveloped in silence.

With a single glance from Lumiel, the swords of light gathered back behind her, drawn into the ring of light.

The purified light of the monsters danced through the air, twinkling like stardust before fading away.

And then——

"Complete."

With every last monster defeated, the clock slowly began to close.

A grating sound echoed, and as it faded, only silence remained where the battlefield had been.

As if nothing had ever happened.

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"What the hell just happened...?"

I couldn't make sense of what had happened.

Lumiel flashed, swords rained down, the monsters stopped moving... and then?

The World Clock inscribed on the gate now showed 『736 hours 50 minutes 44 seconds remaining』. In other words, since all the monsters were defeated, that wrapped things up for this time.

The people around me were also looking around, equally bewildered.

"It's over."

I looked up at the voice from above, and there was Lumiel, folding her wings as she landed.

That blond kid... what a goddamn liar. This is G-Rank? She looks like S-Rank if anything!!

"Th-that was amazing. Um... thank you."

"?"

She tilted her head with an expression that seemed to say "I just did what was obvious." Was the attack just a trivial matter to her?

"Are you hurt? Feeling sick or anything?"

"I won't get hurt from something like this."

She took on a World Clock by herself and calls it "something like this"...

I saw her lick her lips ever so slightly.

"Then... I demand compensation."

Her eyes glinted ominously.

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Compensation for saving an entire town — what exactly was she going to demand?

...She wasn't going to ask for my life, was she?

She spread her arms wide and said, "Nn."

"...What's that?"

"An embrace. In other words, a hug."

I responded with a confused question like "Hug... meaning a hug?" and Lumiel, still expressionless, gave a small nod, then toddled over and buried her face in my chest.

"(Saving an entire town costs one hug...)"

With my arms still up in the air as she hugged me, I let out a sigh of relief at the townscape that had returned to peace.

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『...So, what's the situation in Aoba Town?』

『Well, about that...』

『I'm prepared for extensive damage. Can't be helped, I suppose — after all, there was no real fighting force anywhere outside Akayama Town...』

『Yes. To put it briefly, though we do have dozens of casualties, the clock is closed.』

『The clock closed!? That's absurd... The clock at Akayama Town hasn't closed yet, has it?』

『There appears to be someone who closed the clock. Take a look at this... The measuring instruments have maxed out.』

『Which means the 13th S-Rank was born at a miraculous time and place!?』

『We don't know that yet, but if so, the extermination power is staggering. Listen — the measurement only lasted two seconds. That means they possess the power to wipe out every single monster in just two seconds.』

『...The moment the clock at Akayama Town closes, we're heading straight to Aoba Town. Even if we have to use every penny of the Association's funds, we'll secure a contract——』

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