While doing this left the eight of them unable to disengage as well, one must not forget that there was still a ninth Green Angel.
The first.
The original.
High atop the fortress built from countless malformed creatures, the handsome Green Angel licked his lips and turned toward Audrey, who was curled up in a corner pretending she didn't exist.
Then he strode toward her.
Audrey nearly burst into tears.
With a snap of his fingers, her body once again slipped entirely out of her control.
The difference was that the previous time, her feet had at least remained on the ground.
This time, her entire body floated into the air.
Seeing that, Audrey finally started crying again.
Why is someone as insignificant as me involved in something like this?!
The Green Angel naturally had no interest in a beautiful woman's tears.
He merely turned around and gazed toward the Old District.
"Your final guardian has also been taken down by me."
"You have no cards left to play."
Then he glanced back at Audrey and flashed a grin.
"Come, pitiful little servant."
"Let us witness the final chapter of a great king together."
With that, he spread his single emerald wing and flew out of the fortress.
The floating Audrey naturally followed behind him.
Looking down from a height she had never experienced before, Audrey cried as she asked:
"Could you please just let me go? Waaaah..."
The Green Angel looked back at her with amused interest.
"No."
"You are a servant of a king."
"You should witness your master's final journey."
"And then proudly accompany him in death."
Clearly, despite his damaged mind, the Green Angel still remembered one thing.
Kings deserved respect.
That was why he had deliberately protected Audrey from the corrupting effects of his divinity.
Otherwise, she would have long since become some twisted humanoid monster.
The reason was simple.
In his eyes, a king's final moments required a servant to serve as a proper funerary sacrifice.
As for everything that should have come afterward, how he would escape after killing the king, how he would hide himself, how he would evade retaliation...
Honestly, he had never thought that far.
Reaching this conclusion alone was already pushing his damaged mind to its limits.
After all, he had assimilated eight copies of himself.
That had unquestionably worsened his mental condition.
True, madness made him unafraid of the consequences of excessive assimilation.
But being unafraid and being immune were two very different things.
A man dying from cancer probably wouldn't worry much about catching the flu.
But if he actually caught it, he'd still get sick.
As the original Green Angel drew closer, the Golden Legion below struggled ever harder to break free from his assimilation.
Unfortunately, conflicts between entities of the same Sequence could not be resolved through effort alone.
Their resistance had clearly increased.
But that was all.
Visible to the naked eye, the eight mountains of metal had begun showing signs of organic transformation.
Flesh-mechanical hybrids.
Blood and steel intertwining.
Only the boundary between metal and flesh continued to fight for dominance.
The original Green Angel grinned again.
Then he extended both hands toward the ground below and slowly pulled them apart.
The earth responded to his gesture.
The land beneath began awakening.
Evolving.
Transforming.
In moments, the completely inorganic terrain had become a vast network of grotesque organic tunnels.
The sight was so nauseating and twisted that words could scarcely describe it.
Even Audrey, who moments earlier had been crying over her terrible fate, immediately began retching.
Yet the Green Angel considered it a masterpiece.
He paused to admire his creation for a moment before carrying Audrey downward.
The disgusting fleshy tunnel did not lead directly to the underground chamber where Mozo waited.
Instead, it connected to the area before the bronze gate.
After flying inside, the Green Angel carefully straightened his appearance with surprising elegance.
Then, wearing that half-furry green face, he stepped through the melted bronze gate.
Audrey continued floating helplessly behind him.
After traversing the long corridor, the Green Angel confidently ascended the staircase leading toward the throne.
He could no longer sense any powerful presence.
The Sun King had no more hidden cards.
He had won.
The great Green Angel had won.
An Angel had defeated a supreme king.
What glory!
As for questions like why a resurrection of the Sun King's magnitude would occur in an Imperial Special District,
or why no high-ranking Elven powers had appeared,
he had not considered such things at all.
At this moment, he could think only of one fact.
A Sequence Two Angel had defeated an ancient king.
Such a miracle had never before been seen.
The closest comparison he could remember came from mythological tales.
A story about an Angel famed for unmatched beauty who stole a king from an obscure goddess.
Together, that Angel and the foolish king eventually accomplished the impossible feat of slaying a god.
Still, one couldn't really blame him.
His brain wasn't exactly functioning properly.
With the bearing of a victorious conqueror, the Green Angel crossed the long staircase leading toward the throne.
He arrived before the great throne surrounded by enormous gears.
Then even his damaged mind realized something was wrong.
The legendary supreme king was nowhere to be seen.
Standing before him were only a small Lightning Guardian and a human youth.
Even though the Green Angel had concealed most of his Mythical Form, his presence remained nearly impossible to look at directly.
Knowing she stood no chance, the knight lady instinctively stepped in front of Mozo.
A moment later, however, she hesitated and moved aside.
Not because she feared facing the Green Angel.
Rather, she suddenly remembered that Mozo had come here specifically to deal with this "traitor."
At the same time, she couldn't help wondering why Imperial reinforcements still hadn't arrived.
The Count's delay tactics.
The time they themselves had bought.
The time gained by the Golden Legion.
Adding all of that together, at least one or two high-ranking Imperial Guardians should have arrived by now.
Still, whatever the reason, the more pressing concern was how to deal with the Green Angel standing before them.
The Green Angel himself swept his gaze across the chamber in confusion.
Then he pointed at Mozo and the knight lady.
"Where is the king?"
"Where is the Sun King?!"
As he spoke, his expression gradually twisted.
"Ah, I understand now!"
"He's still hiding, isn't he?!"
"He's waiting in the shadows for the perfect moment to strike a fatal blow!"
"Pointless!"
"I am the victor!"
With a violent wave of his hand, overwhelming divinity erupted throughout the chamber.
An unknown force instantly filled every corner of the underground hall.
The knight lady, who had still been preparing to resist, was immediately crushed to the floor.
Audrey suffered the same fate.
Neither of them possessed the strength to resist the majesty of an Angel.
Yet strangely, Mozo, whose Sequence was lower than either of theirs, remained standing completely unharmed.
Then, under the Green Angel's disbelieving gaze, he stepped past the knight lady and slowly approached.
Step by step.
Until he stood directly before the Angel.
Finally, Mozo looked at him calmly and spoke.
"Bearer of the Green Mask of the Formless Court."
"I have come here in the name of the Contract of Ten..."
"...to confiscate everything you possess."