While Xion would like to abstain from killing, she wouldn’t hesitate to take a life when the situation meets any of the conditions she has set for herself. One of them states that everyone who attempts to kill her must die unless the consequence of eliminating them outweighs their deaths. And at the moment, there’s no such consequence restricting her from killing the human invader - yet she hasn’t taken action.

The reason for that however didn’t lie with her changing personality. Sure she was developing habits that her former self would never have, but at her core she was still the same. She was still the monster who could kill thousands without batting an eye.

What truly stopped her from retaliating was the existence of another soul within the human’s body. She noticed the anomaly even before the first bullet was released, which was why the man didn’t drop dead the moment he shot at her. She became curious and therefore allowed him to live long enough to chat with her companion. Unfortunately her curiosity has now come to an end. It was time for punishment.

Before the man could reply to the prinny, the shadow between his chest and clothes formed a spike which pierced his heart. He shuddered in surprise and the prinny perceived it as an opening. It ran to him like a madman then stabbed both his heart and neck. It didn’t seem satisfied and proceeded to slice his arms off. “That was surprisingly easy, dood.”

It jumped back shortly, landing beside Xion who was silently observing the diminishing soul and the other that was starting to flare up. “That went better than I expected. Looks like I’ll continue serving you sweets, dood.” As if realizing something, it immediately hid its toothed knives and stared at her anxiously.

Somehow knowing what it was going to say, she smiled in reassurance. “If you’re worried about what you did, don’t be. I’m totally fine with it. I’m amazed actually. I didn’t expect you to be good at combat. You did mention you weren’t strong earlier.”

“Oh, that, haha...” it meekly scratched the back of its bald head, unsure how to explain itself.

Their conversation was cut short when the corpse began to glow. In a blink of an eye, the light intensified and separated from the human’s body, turning into a sphere of light which dropped beside its former host. The light diminished afterward, leaving an unconscious woman on the ground. The woman was of angelic lineage with long pinkish hair and white feather wings larger than an ordinary angel’s. She was also clad in a pure white dress, “an archangel.”

Xion considered the angel a separate individual so she didn’t punish it for the human’s crime. But it would suffer the same fate if it dares attacks her or the prinny... ‘Huh? Why would I fight for this guy?’

After a momentary pause, the prinny took out its weapons and ran towards the angel, determined to kill it before it gets the chance to hurt them.

A few steps in however, Xion picked it up, sandwiching it between her slender arms and small yet glorious chest. “Don’t,” she said as its brain went haywire. It dropped its knives asking “M-Miss Xion?”

“She would’ve killed you if tried to attack her.” ‘I can tell she’s an experienced fighter. She isn’t a threat to me, but to you it’s a different story.’

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To prove her point, she summoned a shadow-like hand and made it throw a random pebble at the woman. As she expected, the projectile failed to reach the target. The angel instantly woke up, deflecting the pebble with the back of her hand. She then stood up, looking at Xion and the penguin plushy in her arms.

As the prinny tried to process what just happened, Xion and the angel exchanged looks, the latter turning to glare at the corpse and pull a golden staff out of nowhere. Brimming with hatred and rage contrasting her ethereal appearance, she slammed her staff onto the human’s head, pulverizing it and producing a deep fissure on the land. She swung her weapon again to get rid of the stain, and then she dropped it, letting it dissipate just as it reached the ground.

“I hate to say this but I’m indebted to you, demon.” The angel spoke with a mix of arrogance, annoyance, and gratitude. Not that Xion could understand. Unless the emotion was clearly written on someone’s face, she’d take everything at face value. There were only a few cases where she saw beyond that.

“No, you’re the overlord are you not?” the angel asked confidently. She could most likely feel Xion’s power to an extent and jumped to that conclusion. “I’ll be sure to remember your assistance today, your majesty. However I’d like to make request. I know you already did a lot for me, but please, allow me to join the war. I wish to get revenge on the humans who deceived us and used our race to reach their goals. We’re angels, not a lowly power source!”

“You asked the wrong person for that. I’m an ordinary citizen, not an overlord,” Xion revealed.

The angel widened her eyes... only to narrow them at Xion in rage, “nonsense! I’m the right hand of Seraph Ophelia,” her voice cracked as she mentioned the name, “and yet I can’t fathom the full extent of your strength! If you’re not the overlord then nobody deserves that title!” She became teary eyed. “Not even the fool who died with Seraph Ophelia.”

Thinking the angel would bring trouble for her if left alone, especially with demons starting to approach the area due to the same angel lashing out at a corpse, she said “I’m not the one you’re looking for but I know where to find him.” She turned around and ran, “follow me.” She also stole the corpse’s belongings while she was at it via shadow manipulation. It was her kill so the items were obviously hers to take.

The angel followed her silently.

Opposite to what others might think, Xion was quite happy with the outcome. She managed to avoid a confrontation and was helping without feeling too bad about it. She was getting closer to her goal which was to become a decent person. Being nice was impossible due to her nature, but decent was doable.

Unbeknown to her, the prinny was pondering whether to enjoy her warmth or berate itself for having dirty thoughts. So far the former is winning.

It was also questioning how she could run so fast, and how she did what she did earlier.

Perhaps it wasn’t needed after all. Its sacrifice wasn’t necessary. Hopefully it didn’t look stupid trying to act cool. Not that it was acting.

“I sense more humans,” said Xion as she neared the city. She quickly noticed energy signatures similar to the guy named Bryan Torrez, or was it Duran Forest? ‘What was that guy’s name again?’

“I knew it. Give me permission so I don’t have to fight your people as well,” the angel suggested, still certain that Xion was the ruling overlord.

‘It doesn’t look like she’ll believe my words- wait, my favorite café is in danger!’ “Fine, but stick close to me, angel.” For the first time in a long while, she was motivated to kill. “We’ll fight together.”

Hearing the magic words, the angel smiled sweetly as she allowed her staff to materialize, “thank you, your majesty. I owe you yet again.”

Finally caught up to reality, the prinny in Xion’s arms volunteered, “Me too! I’ll fight too, dood!”

“No,” Xion answered, not wanting to take the risk. “You stay put, Norman. The angel and I will deal with the threat. No need for you to fight.”

“It’s Celeste, your majesty. I’m Celeste, one of the seven virtues representing diligence.”

Xion nodded and ran towards the city, the angel named Celeste running just behind her, eager to bathe her weapon with human blood.

As for the prinny, it was too shocked to speak. Xion finally said its name, but she didn’t say it right.

‘It’s Noah, dood, not Norman...’