Her golden eyes, vast and ancient, held his, glittering with a terrifying, possessive delight. The seductive purr remained in her voice, but a flicker of intellectual curiosity, perhaps piqued by his attempt to deflect, entered it. She tilted her head, the halo pulsing gently.
"Oh?" she murmured, her smile serene and dangerous. "What is it, Riku?" The use of the title, a direct address, felt like a physical assertion of ownership, tying back to the kiss, the straddling, the horrifying intimacy of her presence still perched upon his lap.
Riku swallowed, the phantom taste of starlight still on his tongue. His mind raced, sifting through Rio's memories, Disboard's lore, the System's fragmented hints. He had to ask something that mattered. Something that could provide leverage. Something that could define her, the System, their connection. His life, and the lives of his village, might depend on the answer.
"Can… can I trust you?" he asked, forcing the words out, the vulnerability a raw edge to his voice. It was a direct question, a challenge thrown into the face of her absolute power and unsettling behavior. Could a being capable of erasing reality, a being whose motivations were dictated by anime plots and a sadistic System, be trusted?
The Flugel's smile didn't waver. Her golden eyes, deep as the cosmos, held his, reflecting his fear, his distrust, his desperate need for an answer. The air around them, thick with the scent of magic and disturbed earth, seemed to hum with anticipation.
"Of course" she asked softly, her voice like distant chimes, unsettlingly gentle. Her gaze remained locked on his, unwavering, ancient, seeing everything. "You can trust me… with your life."
The answer was immediate. Absolute. Utterly convincing in its delivery, yet completely devoid of logical reason. Trust her? A being who just violated him, sat on him, and offered to teleport his village casually? It made no sense. But the sincerity in her tone, however terrifying, was undeniable.
She shifted slightly on his lap, a small, almost playful movement that sent a fresh wave of unwelcome sensation through Riku, a stark reminder of his predicament. "Besides," she added, her voice gaining a confiding tone, "the question isn't necessary at all. If I were your enemy, if I meant you harm… wouldn't I have simply tried to kill you by now?" Her halo pulsed, a silent, terrifying 'yes' to her rhetorical question. "I could have erased you the moment I arrived. Or when Levi attacked. Or when you sent your knight away." She gestured vaguely with a delicate hand. "See? No attempt. Therefore… not an enemy."
Her golden eyes softened, focusing solely on Riku, filled with a strange, almost reverent light. "And… I don't want to become a bad person… in your eyes, Riku."
Riku blinked, the shift in her tone bewildering him. "I… I don't understand."
A genuinely delighted smile spread across her face, a breathtaking, terrifying spectacle. "Of course you don't! How could you?" She leaned in, her face just inches from his, her golden eyes vast and deep as the cosmos, filled with an ancient intelligence and something that looked terrifyingly like genuine affection. "I know what you went through," she whispered, her voice soft, reverent. "The pain. The loss. The way you carried the weight of the world on your shoulders. The sacrifices you made. The love you lost." Her gaze swept over his face, a hint of playful disapproval entering it. "It's really a shame, though. The anime didn't mention how handsome you are. Or how… intense your eyes are, even when they're scared."
"By the way," Riku seized on the slight shift in topic, needing more data, needing to keep her talking, to delay the inevitable, "what… what should I call you?" His gaze flickered to her halo, her wings, her impossibly beautiful face. "And… what was your name… back on Earth?"
A delighted gasp escaped her lips, a purely cheerful sound. "Oh, you want to know my name?" She shifted slightly on his lap, a small, almost playful movement that sent a fresh wave of unwelcome sensation through Riku. "My name… back on Earth… was Anna." A hint of a wistful smile touched her lips, a fleeting glimpse of a seventeen-year-old American anime fan layered over the ancient power of a seraph. "Anna. Anna… well, last names are complicated here, but just Anna is fine!"
Her golden eyes sparkling with renewed enthusiasm, she continued, "And this body," she gestured to herself, "this exquisite, powerful vessel… this is Serabil. A truly exquisite specimen, don't you think?" She preened slightly, a touch of casual vanity, radiating a power that made the air hum. "You can call me… well, whatever you want, Riku" possessive and deliberate, echoing the lingering taste of the kiss. "Whatever you think is… attractive!"
The contrast was jarring. The ancient power, the terrifying body, the casual offer of intimacy, and the suddenly revealed identity of a teenage anime fan named Anna. Riku's mind struggled to reconcile the disparate pieces, clinging to the logical framework of Anna's Earth life as an anchor in the chaos.
"When… when did you… when did you come to this world?" Riku pressed, trying to gather the timeline, the context of her arrival. Questions tumbled out, a desperate barrage fueled by his need for understanding, to keep her talking, to keep her mind engaged on narrative and data, not on him. "How… how did you get your System? What was your first mission? What… what do you know about other gamblers?"
Anna/Serabil seemed delighted by his questions, settling more comfortably onto his lap, radiating an aura of a storyteller eager to share, her terrifying power momentarily sidelined by the sheer thrill of conversation with her hero. "Oh, so many questions! You're so curious!" Her golden eyes sparkled.
"Well," she began, her voice taking on a conversational tone, layering the casual chatter of a teenage girl over the ancient resonance of a Flugel, a peculiar, unsettling blend, "My name was Anna, like I said. I was seventeen! Just finished my junior year, getting ready for senior year! I was from America, born and raised!" A hint of a genuine smile touched her lips, a flicker of nostalgia for a world of concrete and screens. "I was a pretty smart student, you know? Straight A's, mostly. Honors classes! But my real passion… anime!"
"How did I get here?" she continued, her voice dropping slightly, a fleeting shadow crossing her features. "Accident. A really… stupid accident." The light in her eyes dimmed for a second, a flicker of a traumatic memory, before being quickly masked by her usual cheer. "One minute, I was crossing the street, headphones on, completely absorbed in the new episode of my favorite show… the next… poof! Just… light. And then, here! In this body!"
"When did I come here?" She tilted her head, calculating. "Hmm… about two weeks ago, I think? Time is weird here, but yeah, roughly two weeks. Woke up as Serabil, with all her ancient memories and power, and my own! Talk about an info overload!"
"And the System!" Her enthusiasm flared again, golden eyes shining with the thrill of the memory. "Oh, it was amazing! When I woke up, everything was… different! My body was totally changed! This incredible power!" She gestured to her wings, her halo. "And then… the memories! Everything! My Anna memories, and Serabil's memories! All at once! It was… a lot!" She shivered slightly, a brief, involuntary reaction to the overwhelming influx of information. "But then… the System appeared! A floating screen! Just like in the isekai I used to watch! It was so meta!"
"My first quest!" Her golden eyes sparkled with the thrill of the memory. "It was amazing! A Dragon! A massive, terrifying ancient Dragon! Not just any dragon, mind you! An A Class Ancient Dragon!" She gestured with her hands, describing its colossal size, the sheer destructive power she had to face. "The System said: 'Kill the Ancient Dragon on your own'. A Solo Kill! On the first quest! Can you believe it?! They just threw me right into the deep end!" Her excitement was palpable, the sheer scale of her first task dwarfing Riku's own initial missions, putting his struggles into terrifying perspective. "It was… difficult! Took me ages! Days! Tracking him down across continents! He was so tough! His scales were like mountains! But I did it! I finally… finished him off!" A hint of grim satisfaction crossed her face, a brief reminder of the seraph's inherent capacity for destruction, even framed by teenage enthusiasm and System objectives. "That took up most of my time, just tracking him down and fighting him. It was like a boss raid on the first floor of an MMO!"