Looking at one of the wings that had gone bald, the owner of a gaze that seemed to feel something was missing left a silent comment on a face that, without speaking or drooping its eyes, should've looked rather cute.
Hmm?
Suddenly, he turned his head to look at the forest behind him—a cat had just leapt past. Nothing unusual.
Then, the owner of the gaze began removing and storing away the things on his body one by one, revealing a youthful, boyish figure. His entire body seemed to be steaming.
If you looked closely, you could spot a faint, hazy afterimage surrounding him—but it vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Alright then, come home with me, Icarus."
The boy picked up someone beside him who looked like a slumbering Sleeping Beauty, and gently spoke.
Then he left the place.
The scene shifted back to the place where the boy had looked just a moment ago. A small head peeked out from behind a tree trunk. It had silver hair, adorned with something resembling a horn-shaped accessory.
The chubby little face that appeared looked extremely young, like an elementary school kid with baby fat. And the part of a blue, clear eye that was visible was full of innocence and curiosity.
If you looked closely, a thin tail ending in something like a fluffy ball was twitching slightly.
After taking one last glance at the angel, the little head pulled back. After that, not a single trace of presence could be felt.
...…
Ugh—my head is spinning… Someone's shaking my body.
"Gabriel, Gabriel, wake up~"
She vaguely heard someone calling her name, then slowly opened her eyes. What came into view was Vignette's extremely worried expression that turned to relief the moment Gabriel awoke.
"Vigne, why are you—"
"Pfft—!"
The sound of laughter immediately made Gabriel's face darken slightly.
Behind Vignette stood that damned Satania, trying extremely hard to hold back her laughter like she'd seen something ridiculous, but in the end, she couldn't resist and let out a "pfft" before quickly clamping her hands over her mouth.
Likewise, beside Satania, Raphiel also had a concerned expression—though Gabriel felt it was more of a fake concern to hide her urge to laugh.
A familiar scene.
Gabriel immediately noticed something wrong with the angel wing on her back—one side felt cold, like it wasn't covered. Mechanical-like, she turned her head toward the wing that felt chilly—only to see it had turned into a giant chicken wing with leg hairs.
At that moment, Gabriel's head turned back with a creaking, robotic sound—like a rusty old machine about to break.
Then, she saw Vignette holding a handkerchief, about to wipe her face, but Raphiel was faster and held up a mirror to her instead.
Looking at her reflection, she saw that one side of her face had the words "500 yen per session" written on it. The other side had a circle drawn, with a horizontal and vertical line inside it (like the first two strokes of a kanji character for "正").
Gabriel then felt something in her clenched hand. Opening it, she found two 500 yen coins.
Didn't it say 500 yen per session? Why were there two coins?
Apparently, someone had decided to pay for a previous session she hadn't charged for.
What was this supposed to mean?
It made this angel look like she'd just come out of a hostess club.
"PFFT—AHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I CAN'T—HAHAHA WHAT EVEN IS THIS AHAHAHA—!!"
The self-proclaimed Great Demon Satania could no longer hold back and burst into laughter, holding her stomach, tears streaming from her eyes, her face twitching from laughing too hard.
"S-Stop laughing, Satania! Gabriel's releasing dark energy—she's going to fall and become a demon at this rate! She'll kill you!"
"BWAAHAHA—I can't help it! HELP—ME—HAHAHA!"
Satania obviously wanted to stop laughing—but how could she? It was way too funny!
Even though she'd heard Vignette's warning, she also noticed the terrifying aura Gabriel was now giving off.
"HAHA—I gotta go—HAHA—wait huh?"
As Satania tried to fly away, she suddenly found herself unable to lift off. Looking down, she saw that her feet were being held—by a Gabriel who had already turned into a full-on demon.
"AAAAAAUUUGHH!!"
A miserable scream echoed, followed by the sound of the ground shaking—it was the demon getting used as a giant hammer.
In the end, a pixelated-looking object (heavily censored) was flung aside. The broken-down fallen angel, Gabriel, then pulled out a golden horn.
"Wait, Gabriel!!!"
As always, Vignette dashed to Gabriel's side, tightly grabbing onto the horn she was bringing to her lips.
"Don't stop me, Vigne! I'm gonna kill that idiot!!"
"Calm down—YAAAH—!"
This time, Vignette failed to restrain Gabriel and was pushed away, falling to the ground. She looked up and saw Gabriel already pressing her lips to the golden horn. Her cheeks puffed up—and then she blew.
"FWWOOOO—!!!"
It was over. The trumpet signaling the end of the world had been blown.
In that moment, Vignette's face went pale. She had no idea what to do. This useless angel actually went through with it?! She thought she was just bluffing!
Gabriel had actually gone mad.
Who could stop her now? Raphiel? As a fellow angel, maybe she could—wait, where was Raphiel?
She looked around and spotted her—Raphiel was hurriedly flying away from the scene.
What the heck?!
The next second, dark clouds covered the sky as if the apocalypse had come. Blinding lightning flashed, followed by deafening thunder.
"AAAAAHHHHH!!"
"BWAAAHHH!!"
"WAAHHHH—!!"
Screams rang out from Gabriel, the unconscious Satania, and Vignette herself.
As Vignette lay smoking on the ground, she saw another angel falling from the sky, also charred by lightning—Raphiel.
And just like that, the dark clouds scattered as if they'd never existed.
Despite the tremendous thunder and extreme weather, it was as though no humans had noticed—like it had all been invisible to them.
What the hell just happened?
Wasn't that horn supposed to signal the end of the world?
"What just happened, Raphiel?"
Still smoking from her mouth, Vignette turned to the wobbly, returning Raphiel, who looked extremely annoyed.
"Geez… Little Gaby really went through with it, huh? As for why this happened—wasn't it obvious? There's no way the world ends that easily. Especially with her current impure state of mind, she was bound to draw divine punishment…"
Raphiel's voice was a bit resentful as she looked at Vignette—seemingly blaming her for not stopping it. And as for Gabriel—she really did it. She actually blew the horn.
Of course, Gabriel knew exactly what would happen. The reason she went through with it was to shock herself into calming down. As for why the others were struck too—it seemed like they were considered accomplices and punished as well.
As for Gabriel, she had now passed out, face down, completely charred—because her lightning was an upgraded version.
There was also a hidden motive: she hoped that by doing this, Heaven's divine punishment system would detect and involve the person who caused her rampage—so they would get zapped too.
That was the true reason Gabriel blew the golden horn.