A tide-like swelling pain hit Su'er's consciousness. There was only a dark world in front of his eyes. The movement of wanting to lift his leg became the last straw that broke the camel's back. His two legs trembled like an avalanche, as if he had lost all his strength. Su'er knelt on the ground, supporting himself with his arms so that he wouldn't fall down.
He didn't want to fall asleep yet.
He could even hear the sound of his heart pumping. Think's magic circle had still not been removed from his body - or rather, she didn't dare to remove it until he received effective treatment.
That Flügel little girl seemed to be lying on the ground defenselessly, but Su'er would not be naive enough to think that she had lost the ability to resist. Instead, both he and Think were troubled by this problem.
They had no ability to restrain this Flügel. Her motionless state at the moment was just because the Flügel herself didn't want to move.
How could they kill a Flügel?
How could they kill a group of spirit made of pure energy?
Did she have a core-like thing?
If it really existed, then where would it be?
Such a life form was like a treasure trove full of infinite secrets. If Think were to study it without any restrictions, it would probably take decades to fully understand it... Although Think's opinion was still needed at the moment.
His dim vision was regaining light and color. Slowly steadying his breathing, Su'er asked Think with his eyes - he was too tired to even open his mouth.
But even without words, with the intelligence of that Elf genius, she should know what he wanted to ask, right?
With this expectation, Su'er saw Think, who had propped herself up and stood up with difficulty, lean against the edge of the ancient tree. After a slight daze, she shook her head at him.
Is there no way?
Can she not kill this Flügel? Or can she not kill her while also intercepting any messages she might transmit?
"Hey, you... human."
A voice that suddenly rang out interrupted Su'er and Think's eye contact. It was that Flügel.
As if she didn't notice the anomaly next to her, Jibril just spread her arms and lay quietly on the ground, staring blankly at the dome above her head. The originally completely enclosed rock dome had now been completely lifted by the previous few explosions. From the open hole, one could see the red sky, and there were stars twinkling.
"..."
Su'er just listened. Even if he wanted to say something, he didn't have the strength to open his mouth.
"I have challenged stronger existences, and I have failed many times... Even though I clearly knew that they were far more powerful than me, and my companions have dissuaded me countless times - but in the end, I still won."
The wild laughter and painful crying from before had all disappeared. The pink-haired Flügel words were unexpectedly calm, so calm that they were indifferent, as if she was telling someone else's story.
"So, when you said the three words 'I won'... what did you feel?", towards the end of her sentence, the Flügel, who had been looking at the sky, had turned her head to look at the man kneeling beside her.
She wanted to know this question.
Even if she, as a Flügel, was not in her strongest state, and was even weaker due to the overuse of elves, even such a weak self was still separated by an unbridgeable gap from this beast, this human.
The power gap between her and him was like that between a dragon and a Flügel.
He also won.
There was nothing she couldn't admit, and nothing she was unwilling to admit. She had indeed lost this battle - Jibril had already become too familiar with failure over the long years, and it wouldn't affect her psychologically at all.
She had participated in joint crusades against nineteen giant, and one alone; against three dragon, and one alone; against three fantasmal, and one alone... A total of 245 crusades, and she survived every single one.
However, under this glorious record, the number of times she was injured and needed to be treated with a repair magic circle was 116. Although she successfully crusaded three higher-level races alone, the number of times she was defeated before succeeding was 29 times the number of successes... that is, 87 times.
Failure was already a common thing.
Therefore, compared to this failure at the moment, Jibril was more curious about this alien creature... the human's feelings after winning.
Would the feeling of winning after crossing a huge gap be the same as hers? Or was it similar? Or completely different?
She wanted to know the answer. There was even a premonition in her heart - her master, the great War God Artosh, would also be curious about this answer.
"..."
However, what answered her was still silence. There was only the sound of the wind blowing through here.
Jibril could see that the human was trying to open his mouth. His face, which was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt, made him look exceptionally ferocious. He wanted to squeeze out some kind of answer from his throat, but he still couldn't make a sound.
Su'er wanted to answer.
"For me, it would be a pleasant battle...", not minding Su'er's silence, the pink-haired Flügel was still speaking quietly, reminiscing about the past, "It's a battle that I wouldn't forget even if I died. It would be forever engraved in my heart as I slowly die. Compared to this memory, the time before winning must have been very happy and very touching... a sense of fulfillment."
Her star-like pupils were watching.
Would you be like this?
"...I..."
"...Cough... I..."
A weak voice that was almost inaudible, so hoarse that it sounded like sawing wood, wet and like a mud pit. Su'er was struggling to gasp, sending out those muffled sounds.
"...I... survived..."
He finally said the answer in his heart with difficulty. Even though this action made him even more exhausted, as if he would fall asleep completely in the next second and never wake up again, Su'er insisted - he knew this was necessary. He had to give this answer here.
I survived.
This was the only thought he had when he said those three words.
There were no feelings, no unforgettable moments, no sense of fulfillment.
"...Is that so?", she sighed mechanically. The pink-haired Flügel withdrew her gaze and continued to look at the red sky, "Is this your answer now?"
She seemed to have realized something, but she didn't continue to speak.
Taking difficult steps, Think finally walked to Su'er's side step by step. Without giving the Flügel on the side an extra glance, she wanted to help Su'er up but finally gave up on that idea. She just slowly dragged him, moving... towards the pool filled with medicinal herbs.