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Bokue Keikain hadn't embraced her for some sappy shonen manga moment—trying to awaken Kanon Kanase's consciousness through the power of friendship or familial bonds or whatever.
What he needed to do was twofold: restrain Kanon's movements to prevent further attacks, and more importantly, locate the device inside her body that was forcing her into this angelic state.
At least from what he'd seen two days ago at the chapel behind Saikai Academy, Kanon clearly couldn't control her own spiritual circuits, let alone freely activate her angel transformation.
And judging from these two encounters, when Kanon transformed, it wasn't so much another consciousness controlling her body—it was more like consciousness itself being overtaken by raw power, leaving only instinct.
The instinct to plunder others' spiritual circuits.
If this continued, Kanon's personality would be completely devoured, leaving only a shell possessed by angelic power.
"Bokue, watch out!"
"Bokue...!"
Just as Bokue had restrained Kanon, cries of alarm came from Sayaka and La Folia below, accompanied by the whistling of something cutting through air.
Hmm?
Sensing something amiss, Bokue glanced back and down. The magical cannons that had fired earlier hadn't collided with his barrier—instead, they'd curved around like controllable tentacles and were now racing back up.
Aimed directly at his back.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
In an instant, six concentrated beams of high-density magical power converged on a single point. The violent explosion in the sky shook both sea and earth, flames instantly engulfing both figures.
"Checkmate."
On the armored transport ship below, Kensei Kanase sat slumped on the deck, gazing upward. The red flames reflected in his round glasses as the corners of his perpetually tight lips finally curved upward slightly.
"Though she hasn't reached the stage of true ascension through divine calling, the energy intensity of pseudo-angel transformation far surpasses ordinary human power. The gap between you is already the difference between mortals and gods. If Kanon wished, you couldn't even touch her, let alone defend against her attacks. You're not even in the same dimension anymore—"
Pride comes before a fall, as they say. Before Kensei could finish his triumphant speech, his smug expression froze on his face.
At the same moment, with a casual wave of the youth's hand, the explosion's smoke that should have taken time to dissipate vanished instantly. What appeared before everyone's eyes was Bokue Keikain, completely unharmed.
And equally unharmed—Kanon Kanase in his arms.
Under the brilliant sunlight, a thin golden barrier surrounded them both. The exact same defensive technique that had protected the entire island last night.
The most basic defensive barrier in Onmyodo.
"What... h-how is this possible?!"
Kensei's mouth fell open in shock.
He'd remained emotionless even when Bokue had called him a human trafficker, but this time he was genuinely shaken to his core.
"This... this is impossible! How could you block an angel's attack? Absolutely impossible! Your powers aren't even in the same dimension! Your defense couldn't possibly work against Kanon's attacks!"
"Is that so?"
Bokue's voice drifted down from above.
He held Kanon in his embrace, magnetic field power circulating around him in slow, regular rhythms like celestial bodies in a cosmic system—radiant and warm. From below, he looked like a second humanoid sun in the sky.
He glanced down at Kensei, golden light flowing through his eyes like a solar core.
"If we're really discussing whose power ranks higher, I honestly couldn't say."
With that, Bokue gently placed his palm on the silver-haired girl's head.
[Magnetic Field Rotation!]
[Matter Reconstruction!]
Without any dramatic display, the control chip in the silver-haired girl's brain instantly dissipated under matter reconstruction, transforming into blood matching Kanon's type and flowing into her circulatory system.
"..."
Without the chip's control, Kanon—who'd been filled with killing intent moments ago—finally stopped.
Held in Bokue's arms, her silver-blue eyes still swirled with chaos, but the murderous intent had been replaced by confusion.
Still consciousness overtaken by power, huh...
One glance told Bokue everything.
Kanon's situation was like a noob playing a MOBA game with scripts, except the script was so powerful it completely took over the game. The noob couldn't even fight the script for mouse control—couldn't even click to walk around safely.
Looks like I'll need to purge the angelic power from Kanon's body...
Bokue thought to himself.
But he didn't have any power-draining abilities himself. The only option was to take a risk and try... something he'd personally experienced before.
It was the only way, especially since Bokue had no idea where that person was right now.
So Bokue once again embraced the consciousness-lost Kanon, stroking her hair as if soothing a small animal while closing his eyes and focusing, attempting to activate the power called "Divide."
[Divide!]
As the golden magnetic field around him pulsed, the six-winged silver-haired girl in his arms trembled as if most of her strength had been drained, her arms falling limply to her sides.
But this wasn't over. The former Kanon couldn't even control two wings, and now she had six. Just counting wings alone, that was at least triple her previous power.
He had to continue!
[Divide!]
[Divide!]
[Divide!!!]
The continuous halving rapidly diminished the angelic power within Kanon—from full to half, then a quarter... an eighth... a sixteenth...
Until finally, with the angelic power approaching zero, the wings behind the girl became translucent and ethereal, then shattered and dispersed with a crisp "pop."
❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁
At the same time, in the Vatican Church of Northern Europe—
Michael, performing routine maintenance on the faith system, suddenly let out a soft "huh," blinking as if his eyes were tired, then rubbing them.
"Hmm~ Did I see that wrong?"
He could've sworn he'd just seen the number of angels in the faith system fluctuate for a moment before immediately reverting.
Was there a new bug in the maintenance?
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