An enemy from the stars above

To keep Artifacts from falling into outside hands and causing incalculable destruction, the Angel Alliance had chosen to gather as many as possible and store them in secret warehouses around the world. Angels were not their only guardians; the Alliance's armed forces guarded them too. Short of open war with a nation, these security measures could have been considered foolproof.

Elorie had never expected Devils, who were not known for their prowess in head-on combat, to overrun a "fortress" guarded by the Angel Alliance. It came as quite a shock.

But she still did not understand what this had to do with the disappearance of Devils and Angels.

The consul seemed to read her thoughts. She released Elorie's hand, took a square metal box from inside her clothes, and opened it. "You should be very familiar with what's inside."

"This is... a Mind Ring."

Elorie sounded surprised. More precisely, it was a Mind Ring from her own era. If Second New Paris really existed a century later, this ring qualified as a hundred-year-old antique.

It was essentially identical to the ring Raphael had given her: a brass band with a raised center and the word "guardian" engraved in Latin on either side. The only difference was that Raphael's ring had copper foil covering its center, while the century-old ring had an actual crystal set into it.

"Yes, old stock. They're very rare now. A complete classical Mind Ring like this can fetch twenty thousand euros on the black market. The one I carry with me was passed down through my family for generations."

Twenty thousand!

Elorie inwardly marveled at the price. Back then, a ring had cost only a little over a hundred euros, so most people bought one for themselves and their families. If she could trade rings between