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"Those damn giants… they're huge, but such cowards. Seriously."Flying through the air, Jibril grumbled with an annoyed look on her face. Even when pissed off, she still looked stunning—her beauty almost made her anger feel elegant.
If any of those giants had heard what she just said, they'd probably explode with rage. She showed up to mess with him every single day. At first, the fights were kind of exciting. But the Flugel were like slippery eels—their spatial magic was insanely overpowered. Even if they couldn't win, they could just teleport away. Meanwhile, he always ended up getting hurt.
And of course, Jibril would run off, heal up, and then come right back for more. It was absolutely maddening.
"Sigh—!"Out of nowhere, Jibril's whole body jolted like she'd been electrocuted. She couldn't stay in the air—she started plummeting straight down.
THUD—!She slammed headfirst into something insanely hard, and a massive lump instantly swelled up on her forehead. The pain made her hiss through her teeth and scrunch up her face.
But it wasn't a rock or anything like that—it was a magical barrier, glowing with elven energy. And as the barrier revealed itself, what had been hidden below became visible too.
A beautiful scene full of blooming flowers, trees twisted into the shapes of homes, and a bunch of humanoid figures going about their daily work. Their pointed ears and other features made their identity obvious.
Ranked seventh among all the races—the forest elves, famous for their powerful magic!
"You actually set up a no-fly zone? You forest-dwelling monkeys!"That huge bump on her head, plus her already foul mood, sent Jibril into a full-blown rage.
In the next instant, her face twisted with fury, she summoned a massive, pitch-black energy sword made of pure magic. Without hesitation, she brought it down hard on the defensive barrier.
CLAAAANG—!
CRACK—!
A thunderous noise tore through the air, painful enough to make eardrums ring. The barrier, under Jibril's merciless assault, actually started to crack!
"What the hell is going on?!"
Down below, the forest elves were in a panic—equal parts shocked and furious.
At that moment, a high-ranking forest elf woman with beautiful golden hair narrowed her eyes as she looked up at Jibril floating in the sky.
"Damn it, a Flugel?! And not just any Flugel, but that crazy one—Jibril the war freak!" she growled through gritted teeth.
"Lady Shinku! What do we do now?!" the forest elf next to her asked, clearly panicking. The elves were ranked seventh among the Exceed, just one rank below the Flugel at sixth.
But that single rank might as well be an abyss. One was a living species, the other... practically a conceptual existence.
"Seal the chamber! Protect the grimoire! Full defense, now!" Shinku ordered, her face dark with tension. Even though she was a prodigy among the forest elves, becoming an eightfold magic user at a young age—capable of casting eight high-tier spells at once—she was still no match for a Flugel.
Against a Flugel, she was still just prey waiting to be crushed.
In an instant, the forest alarm systems blared, and thousands of elves jumped into full defensive mode.
"Hehehe, hiding in your little turtle shell, huh?" Jibril chuckled from above as she slashed down several more times. But the forest's magic had reinforced the barriers pretty well, and ordinary attacks weren't cutting it anymore. She frowned.
Then Jibril sneered, and her wings started glowing with intense spirit energy. The glowing rings on the sides of her head spun faster and faster as she raised her right hand, gathering power.
"Oh no... That's the Flugel's ultimate move—Heaven's Strike! All forces, defend with everything you've got!" Shinku shouted in horror, eyes wide with shock. She'd seen it before. She knew what was coming.
All the elves around her panicked and began wildly pumping their spirit energy into the barriers.
"Heaven's Striiiiike!!!"
But it was all useless.
With a cold smirk, Jibril hurled the devastating blast—powered up with more than 90% of her strength—straight at them.
And just like before, she warped far away the moment she released it, so she wouldn't get caught in her own blast like last time.
In a flash, the first layer of the barrier shattered like paper. Heaven's Strike lit up the sky, growing even brighter.
Then BOOM—massive energy exploded out, tearing through the forest elves' defenses like they were nothing.
Even with every elf giving it their all, they only managed to block part of the blast.
The shockwave still tore through the capital, wiping it out completely. Nearly half the forest elves were turned to ash on the spot.
The other half managed to escape with Shinku, carrying the grimoire as they fled in a rush.
"Hah... Guess those jungle monkeys were good for something. That felt so refreshing." Jibril stretched lazily in the distance, her voice seductive, admiring the massive explosion she'd just caused.
Once the smoke had cleared and the sky was full of rising black clouds, she swooped in, ready to dig through the rubble for the grimoire.
To her, the forest elves weren't completely useless. Their magic tomes and grimoires were actually pretty helpful for improving her powers.
Meanwhile, Riku still had no idea that his earlier fight with Jibril had set off a butterfly effect—changing her original plans and causing the forest elves' capital to be wiped out half a year early…
"....."