After Nicola left once again, Feliciana and the others arrived in Crescent City. Not long after, Guilan Team came to visit them in person.
This time, Guilan Team took the initiative to approach the protagonists because—after witnessing Shenhui Team's actions and the Edenmere fall incident caused by them—they later ran into Tianwang Team by chance in Crescent City. The two teams had no deep blood feud to begin with, and after negotiations, they finally decided to stop fighting and join forces. In the end, they reached an established policy: cooperate with Feliciana's group and work together to deal with the greatest enemy, Shenhui Team.
Feliciana's group had already crossed paths with Guilan Team once before, so after meeting again, both sides exchanged a large amount of information. In order to earn Feliciana's trust—and also because they had suffered at Noxis's hands before—Guilan Team specifically used points to redeem limited information about "Noxis" from the System and shared it with the protagonists.
It turned out that "Noxis" was a high-level intelligent robot from an ancient human civilization ten thousand years ago, possessing extensive knowledge reserves from that era. "Noxis" had once participated in the war against the Light God. Later, after the ancient civilization declined, part of its body fell into disrepair over time, causing it to enter hibernation. Only in recent years did it awaken again by coincidence, secretly building a robot factory in some corner of the Dark Continent as a base. Since ancient humanity had already gone extinct, "Noxis" was no longer bound by any restraints; once it gained full freedom, it began collecting resources to pursue godhood.
The System also provided a key clue: among "Noxis's" early godhood plans, light-element energy was the most critical factor. Given that the invasion and fall of Edenmere should have released a massive amount of light-element energy into the main world, the protagonists and the System teams jointly inferred that Shenhui Team had likely entered into some form of covert cooperation with "Noxis." Because even if the "Saints" would not show themselves merely due to the world's destruction, as long as "Noxis" could successfully ascend through this, then finding a way to eliminate it afterward could still fulfill the System's ultimate "god-slaying" objective.
This also explained why, after Feliciana and the others returned to Eldoria Continent, they did not feel a significant increase in ambient light-element content: the surplus light-element energy had likely been collected by Noxis through some means and had not yet affected the environment.
Now that Guilan Team, Tianwang Team, and the protagonists had successfully joined forces—and Edenmere's world-ending outcome had already been reversed—the mission objectives of the two System teams unexpectedly changed automatically. Their new objective became: cooperate with the protagonists to deal with Shenhui Team.
Through the System squads, the protagonists also learned important internal information about the System itself. For example, for System teams, the ultimate punishment is "erasure." Conditions that typically trigger erasure include actively revealing the System's existence, failing to complete System missions, internal rebellion, and similar violations.
Using this intelligence, Reed devised a scheme to lure Shenhui Team into a trap. Through disguises and other magic, she sowed discord among their members and ultimately caused Shenhui Team—already small in number—to repeatedly violate the erasure clauses, resulting in the members being eliminated one after another. In the end, only the captain, June Ching, remained. During this scheme, Alfred Reider finally mustered the courage to confess his feelings to Reed, and the two ultimately became a couple. (Specific details omitted.)
Because June Ching's power had grown to an abnormally high level, even the System's erasure could not kill him outright. Seeking revenge, June Ching gave up his only chance to leave this world and chose to stay behind for a final showdown against the protagonists and the other teams.
At the start of the battle against June Ching, Feliciana and her allies had made thorough preparations and even had some extraordinarily powerful weapons and special items. Yet even with Gisphrael's possession, because it was still worse than a truly complete Water Angel state, it remained extremely difficult to defeat June Ching—who had already surpassed elemental angels and was approaching true godhood.
Moreover, June Ching also had a newer generation of powerful robots manufactured by "Noxis" assisting him in the fight. In the end, Gisphrael made a decision: to fuse completely with Feliciana's soul, merging forever into a single entity. Thus, a newly born Water Angel came into existence. Feliciana advanced to twelve wings, perfected many Water Angel abilities and techniques from Gisphrael's memories, and became even stronger than Gisphrael had been in the past.
Ultimately, Feliciana defeated June Ching by a narrow margin. However, unwilling to accept defeat, June Ching turned his anger on Adrian. He attacked Adrian to vent his hatred and then used Adrian's life as leverage, preparing to escape to Noxis's base on the Dark Continent. If June Ching and Noxis were allowed to join forces, the long-term danger would be even greater. At that moment, Cyrae stepped forward and took the blow at the cost of her own life, saving Adrian. Seizing the opening, Feliciana finally killed June Ching—but Cyrae died as well. Because Cyrae's soul had already been incomplete due to the existence of her separated avatar, June Ching's final strike shattered her soul completely, leaving Feliciana unable to save her.
Fortunately, Cyrae had lived many years and had long come to terms with life and death. She faced death calmly and optimistically, saying that this world still had reincarnation—and perhaps after reincarnating, she might meet her husband's soul again.
Before dying, Cyrae told Feliciana that although she had lived many more years, she had been suppressing her true nature under layers of hatred. She felt that Cyra was what she originally should have been like. In fact, she envied Cyra's way of being, and that was one important reason why she had chosen back then to give up everything on Earth and exchange identities with Cyra. In the end, she preserved her memories since meeting Feliciana inside a crystal through magic and entrusted it to Feliciana, hoping that Feliciana might one day give it to Cyra on Earth. Then her soul went on to reincarnation.
After the final battle involving the System teams ended, Guilan Team and Tianwang Team—having served as supporting forces—successfully completed their System missions and left this world for the next one. Before departing, both teams valued Reed's abilities highly and even invited her to join them, but Reed refused them both because of Alfred Reider.
However, the threat of "Noxis" still remained. And after observing Feliciana's battle with June Ching remotely, Noxis realized that the Water Angel's reality-altering power had been fully restored—something crucial to its plans. Because an artificial intelligence has no soul, and a soul is indispensable to truly become a god. Otherwise, even if it succeeded forcibly, it would only become a demi-god—stuck halfway, neither fully divine nor fully mortal.
The future scene Meredith had foretold was precisely the outcome in which "Noxis" successfully upgraded into a demi-god. Because it was not fully divine, it still remained beneath the "Saints." Under the non-interference rules, the "Saints" still could not act to stop Noxis, which was why it could behave so arrogantly and continue to harm the entire continent while harvesting faith.
To achieve true godhood, "Noxis" sent a message and coordinates demanding that Feliciana go alone to its headquarters on the Dark Continent. It forced her to cooperate and use reality alteration to create a soul for it from nothing—otherwise, it would use nuclear weapons to devastate the continent. Noxis was fully capable of making nuclear weapons, and those nuclear weapon samples had originally been stolen from an Earth base. Replication and material acquisition were not a problem—making this its fastest and most efficient method of coercion.
Earth's military had lost nuclear weapons in the other world, and at the same time had obtained certain monster-related products that surpassed Earth's technology of that era.
After learning this, Adrian naturally resolved to go with Feliciana to the Dark Continent. But that night, Feliciana recalled what the "Saint" had once said to her when they met on Earth, and she decided to go alone. The journey was extraordinarily dangerous, and she did not want Adrian to take further risks. So she left him a letter expressing her love and her determination.
Because she had already fully fused with the other half of Gisphrael's soul, Feliciana could now perform instantaneous relocation by herself. The theoretical explanation was that she used reality alteration to shift her own existence to the target location.
As for Noxis: it had already calculated that Galadra, back then, could at most teleport the "Divine Law" only a few kilometers away from the underground ruins of the Holy Capital. Noxis had long since retrieved this tool, which could greatly suppress elemental angels. Additionally, it had collected a large amount of light-element energy during Edenmere's descent and used it to set up an extra elemental-protection array. That was why it dared to summon Feliciana to come alone.
Feliciana, of course, had no intention of truly helping Noxis. Even alone, she could not allow such a dangerous artificial intelligence to succeed. Besides, a soul could not be created out of nothing with Water Angel power alone. She came this time for a decisive battle.
After arriving at Noxis's headquarters on the Dark Continent, Feliciana first pretended to cooperate, claiming that she also hoped it could become a god—because once it fully ascended, it would naturally leave this world's dimension, and no further consequences would remain. By continuing to "cooperate," she successfully gained access to Noxis's true core body.
Inside the special chamber where the core was housed, Noxis had already discarded the outward form of ordinary robots and transformed into an AI core specialized in manufacturing other machines. Feliciana insisted that if she were to create a soul for it, Noxis would first need to lower its guard and significantly reduce the protective intensity of the "Divine Law," so that her reality-altering power could take sufficient effect.
The condition sounded reasonable. Noxis remained extremely cautious and allowed only a very brief window of exposure. Physical defensive barriers were still in place, and because the elemental-protection array still functioned, even non-rule-based elemental attacks would be heavily weakened.
But that tiny opening was enough for Feliciana. Seizing the once-in-a-lifetime chance, she unleashed a full-powered "Paradise Lost Annihilation Beam" as a surprise attack. Once the annihilation pillar descended, even if Noxis reacted instantly and restored the "Divine Law" defenses, it would be too late. Because Noxis itself did not realize that the "Divine Law" only takes effect and functions properly before a rule-based attack is released—or before rules are modified.
Since destruction was unavoidable, the only thing Noxis could do was concentrate its power and unleash all the defensive lasers in the core area in retaliation. These lasers were tremendously powerful and extremely fast. With Feliciana fully committed to offense, she had no way to block or evade them. At the moment she was about to be hit, she suddenly noticed the incoming lasers seemed to slow down—yet in that split second, under the influence of the "Divine Law," it was still not enough for her to complete her attack and withdraw safely.
But it was enough time for Nicola to appear. It turned out Nicola had also been lurking near the base all along, without any chance to enter the core chamber. (Because the "Divine Law" limited her time-stop ability to only a slowing effect, if she had followed Feliciana into the core, she would have exposed herself for nothing—and might have put Feliciana in even greater danger. So she could only wait outside.)
Once the core came under attack and the entire Noxis base entered an emergency state, Nicola used that gap to push in openly, forcing her way into the chamber.
Not knowing what had happened inside the core room, she had already missed the brief period when the "Divine Law" was inactive. The moment she entered, she saw the entire room filled with mass laser fire. There were too many beams for Nicola to neutralize. In desperation, she had no time to think—she could only place herself in front of Feliciana and try to hold out until the "Paradise Lost Annihilation Beam" finished destroying the core.
However, they had still underestimated the lethality of these attacks. As an artificial intelligence left behind by an ancient civilization, Noxis possessed vast lost black-tech. The lasers it fired in its final moments were strong enough to pierce an angel's body. In the end, some attacks struck Feliciana fatally, producing a tragic result in which all sides were destroyed together.
Fortunately, Noxis's core was ultimately obliterated by the "Paradise Lost Annihilation Beam." But Nicola and Feliciana both suffered lethal injuries and collapsed together on the ground.
At that moment, the "Soulglow Necklace" Adrian had given Feliciana finally played its decisive life-saving role. After everything fell silent, a glow spread out from the necklace, covering the bodies of Nicola and Feliciana where they lay together.
After some time had passed, when Adrian and the others traveled thousands of miles and arrived at Noxis's base, they saw only abandoned metal structures and robot factories. There was no trace of any angels. Feliciana and Nicola had vanished without a trace.
Later, some people speculated that Feliciana and Nicola might already be dead, because angels leave no bodies behind after death.
Only Adrian stubbornly refused to believe Feliciana was truly gone. He was the one who had given her the "Soulglow Necklace," and he knew its effect was enough to allow its wearer to revive once. And Feliciana had promised him in her letter that she would return alive. So after searching the area around Noxis's base with no result, he insisted on setting out alone on a journey to find Feliciana.