Chapter 4

Even though it was clearly right before her eyes, even though it was staring at her with those eerie stone eyes, and even though she knew that the moment she blinked, it would snap her neck...

Yet as long as she did not focus all her mental energy, she would simply ignore its existence.

This feeling of extremity in its eeriness was the first time Angel Yan had ever encountered it, even with her nearly 7,000-year lifespan. This made her extremely uncomfortable.

When Angel Yan realized that it took mobilizing her entire computational capacity to barely manage not to ignore SCP-173, she decided to request remote assistance from Meleon Celestial City!

[Attempting to contact Queen Kaisa... Establishing dark matter communication... Warning: dark matter communication is being interfered with by unknown energy...]

[Warning: Dark matter communication cannot be connected. Beginning attempts to analyze unknown energy...]

[Warning: Unable to analyze!]

[Continuing attempt to analyze... Warning... Unknown energy does not exist in the known universe database...]

[...]

As Angel Yan attempted to establish dark data communication with Queen Kaisa, a series of alarm sounds rang through her mind like a surging tide...

This guy actually blocked dark energy communication?

This...

Upon hearing the endless stream of warning sounds in her mind, a look of shock finally appeared on Angel Yan's incomparably exquisite face.

You must know that dark energy was a communication channel built on the foundation of dark data.

Even the Angel Civilization could only conduct long-distance communication by using Queen Kaisa, who possessed a fourth-generation divine body, as an information relay station.

Yet now, a statue made of concrete and rebar could forcibly block dark energy communication.

This was simply too unbelievable.

Since this SCP-173 could block dark energy communication, did that mean as long as it was placed beside Queen Kaisa, all warriors of the entire Angel Civilization...

would be unable to connect with Queen Kaisa?

At that time, all angel warriors would be unable to timely invoke the Holy Knowledge Treasury or obtain authorization for god-slaying-grade weapons, let alone launch Flame Judgments.

Without the Holy Knowledge Treasury and God-slaying-grade weapons, the combat effectiveness of Angel warriors would be equivalent to that of ordinary divine bodies.

Their combat power would be greatly weakened.

The reason Angel warriors could roam the universe and even suppress the Demon Civilization was largely thanks to dark energy communication, through which they promptly obtained authorization for the Holy Knowledge Treasury and God-slaying-grade weapons.

SCP-173 had to be destroyed.

It must never be allowed to fall into Morgana's hands, otherwise the next war between angels and demons, even if the Angel Civilization won, would pay a painful price.

Thinking of this, amid the startled gazes of the live-stream room audience, Angel Yan summoned her Flame Blade. Then, without the slightest hesitation against SCP-173...

she launched a god-slaying-grade strike: Flame Judgment.

Ordinary angel warriors who wanted to launch a god-slaying-grade strike needed to obtain authorization from Queen Kaisa through dark energy communication before they could launch it.

Yet Angel Yan was Kesha's Holy Left Wing.

With authority second only to Angel Queen Kesha and Heavenly Foundation King He Xi, she naturally had the right to directly launch a god-slaying-grade strike without needing to ask for instructions.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Angel Yan would also report to Queen Kaisa when launching a god-slaying-grade strike.

Yet now that dark energy communication was cut off, she had no choice but to launch it directly without asking for instructions.

As a thought stirred in Angel Yan's mind, a ball of orange-red flames suddenly burst forth from the Flame Blade in her hand, and terrifying high temperatures surged in all directions...

The sci-fi-style corridor of the Gluttonous Battleship melted rapidly like a candle the moment it came into contact with the orange-red flames.

With such a high temperature, SCP-173, whose body was constructed of concrete and steel bars, should logically have been melted instantly. Yet not only did SCP-173 not melt...

even the Krylon brand spray paint on its body was not affected in the slightest.

Seeing this, the wariness in Angel Yan's eyes grew even more intense, and she began to mobilize maximum energy to pour into the Flame Blade, fortunately, the characteristic of SCP-173 was that it could not move within direct line of sight.

This gave Angel Yan sufficient preparation time.

[God-slaying-grade strike: Flame Judgment preparation progress 10%... 40%... 90%... Preparation complete. Target locked: SCP-173!]

[Launch strike?]

Hearing the mechanical prompt in her mind, Angel Yan's beautiful eyes narrowed.

The Flame Blade in her hand was raised high, an unprecedented high fighting spirit surged in her gaze, and then she slashed fiercely toward SCP-173 not far away.

Following Angel Yan's action, a hundred-meter-long streak of orange-red flame light fiercely chopped onto SCP-173's slightly slender, peanut-like physique.

Where the flame light passed, Gluttonous's rock-firm flagship instantly vanished and turned into dust.

And SCP-173's figure was also directly swallowed by the Flame Judgment.

The moment Flame Judgment made contact with SCP-173, wave after wave of aftershocks rippled out in all directions.

Everything the ripples passed turned to dust.

Even a small asteroid in the distance burst violently after being swept by the ripples.

The violent orange-red flame ripples whipped Angel Yan's golden hair into a continuous frenzy, setting her off like a god of war stepping out of ancient mythology!

And the location where SCP-173 stood was already empty!

The powerhouses from various planets in the live-stream room showed looks of shock in their eyes upon seeing this scene. There was no help for it; the power of this god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment...

had already exceeded their cognition.

No matter how confident they were, they would not dare pat their chests and claim they could withstand this blow.

[Sengoku: Is this the combat power of angels? This single strike is enough to sever the Red Line. This... Fortunately we didn't expose our world coordinates.]

[Garp: Rest assured! The Angel Civilization's Order of Justice will not strike the Red Line.]

[Whitebeard: Correct! Angel warriors won't lay a hand on the Red Line. But that bunch of scum the Celestial Dragons... that's hard to say.]

[Ash: Big sis is so pretty! The power of this strike is already comparable to a tier-one divine beast. When will I be able to own such a powerful Pokémon?]

[Misty: You win a championship first before talking!]

[Ash:...]

[Miko: If I had power like this, I'd say every day: I can see it!]

[Aizen: SCP-173 should have been eliminated. I don't believe any living being could survive this strike! Of course, whether SCP-173 is a living being remains open to debate!]

[Momo Hinamori: The captain is right!]

[...]

It was not just the powerhouses of other indigenous planets; as Angel Yan launched the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment, Carl of the River Styx Galaxy, Morgana of the Demon Castle, Hua Ye of the Barren Galaxy...

as well as Kesha of the Angel Galaxy and Ducao of Juxia, were all staring fixedly at the live-stream screen.

They all had some understanding of the power of the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment.

So to speak?

There were powerhouses in the entire universe who could withstand the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment—it wasn't that none existed, but they definitely numbered fewer than a hundred. Such a formidable god-slaying attack...

was now being used on a sculpture constructed of concrete and rebar.

This could no longer be described as using an anti-aircraft gun to shoot a mosquito; it could only be described as using an anti-matter bomb to shoot a mosquito. Yet having witnessed SCP-173's eerily extreme ability, no one thought Angel Yan was making a fuss over nothing.

On the contrary...

Everyone's heart hung in suspense.

They silently prayed in their hearts that SCP-173 would be reduced to ashes under this god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment.

After all...

If a strike like this failed to harm SCP-173, the consequences would be severe.

Fortunately!

When the flames receded, aside from a patch of void, there was nothing else left at the location where SCP-173 had been. Seeing this scene, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet just when everyone thought SCP-173 had been reduced to ashes, the subsequent scene in the live-stream room made everyone's scalp tingle and cold sweat pour...

Just as the powerhouses from major planets in the live-stream room were marveling at Angel Yan's astonishing combat power, SCP-173—which had already vanished without a trace under the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment—

appeared behind Angel Yan at some unknown time, and then, amidst everyone's horrified gazes, placed its arms constructed of concrete and rebar...

upon Angel Yan's slender and fair neck.

Normally, with Angel Yan's perceptual power as a third-generation divine body, even an existence standing at the pinnacle of the Super God Comprehensive Anime Universe while residing in a fourth-generation body would find it nearly impossible to appear behind her without a sound.

Yet SCP-173 accomplished this without a shred of reason.

Even though it had already placed its arms upon Angel Yan's neck, Angel Yan still had not the slightest awareness of it. She still held the blade wreathed in orange-red flames...

standing in the void like a goddess of war, staring fixedly ahead at the space reduced to nothingness under the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment.

She was searching for the remains of SCP-173.

Angel Yan intended to bring the remains of SCP-173 back to Meleon Celestial City and hand them over to Heavenly Foundation King He Xi for research. Once they could figure out a method to block dark energy communication,

the combat effectiveness of the Angel Civilization would undoubtedly receive a massive boost.

Of course, even if they couldn't figure it out,

they could not leave the remains behind for that bitch Morgana.

Otherwise, what if Morgana researched something using the remains? Then the Angel Civilization would be in danger.

Just as Angel Yan was still striving to search for the remains of SCP-173, Holy Kesha—who had been resting somewhat lazily and leaning obliquely against her throne within Meleon Celestial City of the Angel Nebula—

saw through the live-stream screen that SCP-173 had arrived behind Angel Yan via unknown methods and placed both hands upon Angel Yan's neck.

She instantly put away that aloof appearance of looking down on everything and being indifferent to all matters.

With a sudden bounded leap, she sprang up from her throne.

Then the black pupils in her eyes instantly vanished, and her silver-white pupils stared fixedly at the live-stream screen while attempting to prompt Angel Yan via dark energy communication.

[Attempting to establish dark energy communication with Holy Left Wing * Yan! Warning... Affected by unknown energy... The dark energy communication channel... cannot be connected.]

Hearing the warning sound in her mind, a trace of anxiousness flashed across Kesha's silver-white pupils.

She then directly exercised her authority.

Activating maximum computational power, she attempted to reconstruct the dark energy communication.

[Invoking computational power of Meleon Celestial City, invoking the Holy Knowledge Treasury, invoking computational power of Sky Blade VII...]

[Attempting once again to establish dark energy communication with Holy Left Wing * Yan... Warning: computational capacity has reached its limit... Warning: unable to establish communication channel due to unknown energy interference.]

[Warning: Computational capacity has reached its limit...]

[Warning...]

[...]

As Kesha made another attempt, a series of warnings echoed continuously within Holy Kesha's mind, causing Kesha's expression to grow increasingly solemn.

After multiple failed attempts, Holy Kesha chose to give up.

Furthermore, she also understood why Angel Yan had so decisively launched the god-slaying-grade Flame Judgment against SCP-173.

Because leaving other things aside...

SCP-173's eerie ability to unilaterally sever dark energy communication alone posed too great a threat to the Angel Civilization if it were allowed to fall into the hands of her good sister Morgana.

Wait!

Why did she realize that the connection between Angel Yan and herself had been unilaterally severed by SCP-173?

Ever since she upgraded to a fourth-generation divine body with the help of Heavenly Foundation King He Xi and obtained the Holy Body, she had maintained a constant connection with all angel warriors across the universe.

She timely assisted them in battle using the Holy Knowledge Treasury and god-slaying authority.

Logically speaking...

the moment any angel warrior lost her connection, she would perceive it immediately. Moreover, with Angel Yan being the Holy Left Wing, her connection with herself was something she paid special attention to.