Why can't humans do it too?

The fiercely resisting Sur and the enraged Jibril engaged in a life-or-death struggle, which ended temporarily with Sur's pleas for mercy and the white feathers scattered all over the balcony floor—so many feathers fluttered down that their dissipation couldn't keep up with their emergence.

The two of them leaned back onto the railing in the same exhausted posture. From here, they could see the distant lights flashing by, and hear the ever-present sound of car horns in the city.

It's rare to have such peace and quiet.

Maybe a few minutes, maybe even just minutes.

"Lying here with such a deep look on your face, are you waiting for me to comfort you?" Jibril said in a rather childish manner, speaking with an air of maturity.

"Don't make me sound like some scumbag who's deliberately acting profound to attract girls, okay?" Suer sighed. Come to think of it, this was the first time he'd been alone with Jibril since their reunion. Before, Jibril had tried to pull him aside to talk a few times, but Xin Ke had always stopped her.

Lord Nirvalen is never absent.

But she seems to still be playing chess... Suer turned her head and checked again.

They are playing chess, that's for sure.

When Sull turned around, he saw Jibril looking at him sideways, her lovely face resting on his arm that was bracing against the railing. Something seemed to be stirring in her amber eyes that sparkled like stars, reflecting the shimmering light of the night sky.

Suer's heart skipped a beat.

"...What happened?"

Without any basis or hint, Suer could not see the madness or proud demeanor in the Skywing at this moment; she seemed helpless... Suer couldn't be sure... He was just... trying to say.

It wasn't some unspeakable love, nor was it shyness that prevented it from being spoken; rather, it was a different kind of emotion that leaned towards sadness.

Suer caught it, Suer felt he had touched it too—he hesitated whether he should expose it himself, but in the end he became determined.

He stared intently into Jibril's eyes, his gaze unwavering.

Turning his head to look straight ahead, Sull took a step to his side, closer to Jibril.

The rustling sound didn't puzzle him for long. Soon, something cold but quickly warmed up was placed on the side of his arm—Jibriel had moved over as well.

It was a tangible, physical presence right beside me, transcending space, as if sketching an outline in my mind. Her outline was much smaller and clearer than the tall figure in my memory.

Weird, right?

Despite being a life form composed purely of energy, it possesses body temperature like a mortal mammal, with flawless smooth skin and even almost transparent body hair, making it more exquisite than any other creature.

Jibril also looked ahead, the two of them gazing at the same patch of darkness.

Without speaking or being impatient, Sue simply waited calmly for Jibril to say what she wanted to say.

He has plenty of time, and so does she.

For the foreseeable future, they will stay together forever.

“The Lord I serve, my Lord…He has abandoned me.”

Jibril seemed to choke up, her words becoming fragmented and her voice incredibly low.

"They gave me so-called freedom, making it impossible for me to ever call myself a Skywing again."

“He said—I am free.”

"Am I truly free, Sue...?"

Never before had she appeared so timid, even weak. Jibril turned her head slightly from between her arms, which had just been burying her cheek in them, and peered at Sue through the narrow opening, hoping he would say something—anything at all.

“Freedom…” Su Er repeated softly. He wanted to stand on the high ground of reason to evaluate something, but he felt that he did not have the right to do so. “You don’t have to compromise or bow your head for anything. You can do whatever you want when you want to do it and make yourself satisfied. I think this should be freedom in a general sense.”

Do you have that kind of freedom?

Jibril could not answer.

“I…” she hesitated, “I wanted to see you all again, so I came. I wanted to stay by your side, so I’m here… Is this freedom?”

“...If we compare it to the gravity of a planet, then you are probably being captured by my gravity.” Surprisingly calm and unexpectedly frank, without any veiled or subtle hints, Suer’s words were almost explicit.

“Then, freedom does not exist,” Jibril murmured, a mature soul residing within a youthful body. “When my master… when Lord Arteshu said those words to me, my mission and role as a Winged One, along with the meaning of my existence, were completely negated.”

"Confusion, fear, helplessness—if it weren't for the news Tetu brought, if I hadn't constantly reminded myself that you were still in danger in another world, and that I had come here carrying Tetu's mission, I'm afraid..."

Before she could finish speaking, everything implied in Jibril's words had already been revealed to Suer.

Only in matters like this do all the Skywings possess a delicate heart, making it hard to believe that such a tender heart could exist in those warlike butchers who enjoy collecting the heads of other races.

The Skywings are like kites flying high in the sky, connected to the ground by only a thin, transparent thread—dedicated to their creators.

Just as a kite with a broken string will fly to a corner no one knows, the Skywing species that has lost its master will also... perish its own life.

Jibril was bewildered, confused by those two words she had never thought about before.

Jibril was terrified, terrified of whether she would lose her life.

She didn't want to die—at least not for this reason.

There are still things she wants to do, and people she wants to see again—Sur.

Chapter Seventeen: Whispers

Such confusion and fear can only be relieved by a fierce battle and a kill, like a traveler struggling in the desert getting a bottle of clear water. But as long as he has not left the desert, the thirst will never disappear.

Jibril finally released her grip on the iron bars, which she had been holding tightly and twisting for some time now. She turned around to face Sue, causing Sue to release his grip as well. The two looked at each other.

Looking down at Jibril's now frail body, Sue could see her small Adam's apple bobbing nervously.

After a long while, Jibril took a half step back with one leg, then bent her knees and knelt down. The two wings that had spread out on her sides after the earlier playful fight now obediently folded at her waist, and the halo above her head had also stopped spinning and settled behind her head.

Her head was bowed, and she said nothing more, nor did she need any further explanation. Suer knew this was a ritual.

In his understanding of the Skywing race, this was the only gesture they used that represented absolute loyalty and submission. It meant that as long as he placed his hand in front of her at this moment, Jibril would carry it out to the end with his life, at his very command.

All he had to do was reach out his hand.

A kite with a broken string is searching for an unseen chain, a chain that keeps it from drifting precariously in the wind.

The Skywing race is a race that does not reproduce. As for so-called love or other feelings, as long as they involve subtle psychological changes, they will only be jokes passed down by word of mouth.

However, at this moment, Jibril felt her heart—her core—beating, with energy bursting from it as if it were exploding within her every moment, making her dizzy and helpless.

Why hasn't he responded yet?

Why doesn't he extend his hand?

Is he... hesitating?

Unable to breathe rapidly, Jibril tried to lift her head, but her body trembled slightly as she maintained a state of stillness.

She can wait.

Yes, she can wait... a thousand years, two thousand years, three thousand years, or even longer.

Jibril closed her eyes.

She heard Suer sigh.

Her heart also plummeted, as if falling into a bottomless abyss.

Just as Jibril felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, a pair of hands slipped through her hair that fell to her sides and landed under her armpits, then lifted her up with a slight effort.

Unlike before, when Sue and Jibril were looking at each other from above, they were now looking at each other at eye level.

His eyes were still the same, only they had become gentler, as if he were pitying someone... Was he pitying me?

This posture should have provoked Jibril's fierce struggle, but the pink-haired winged creature seemed to have lost all her strength and remained motionless, concentrating all her weight on those hands—yes, she should struggle, for this joking gesture, for the anger of having her loyalty rejected.

She should have been angry, but until the man spoke again, Jibril remained silent and motionless, or rather, she had lost all her strength, her arms hanging limply from Sue's hands.

"Don't look like the sky is falling... I didn't refuse you because I have a problem with you, you know?" Jibril heard Sull's helpless voice.

The pink-haired Skywing's body was not heavy now; with Sul's arm strength, he could even hold it up like that until the next morning.

These thoughts and questions probably had been in Jibril's mind ever since Altshu freed her from her innate mission, but they were suppressed by the urgent news brought by Tetto, and then erupted when she swallowed the thought of her shrinking body, which had weakened her will.

Yes, if the God of War were to die one day, unlike her sisters who would surely follow her in suicide, Jibril would only feel endless loneliness and pain, but she would not end her own life.

She became weak, many times weaker than she had been when she was immersed in killing and fighting.

It was Suer who made her weak.

Everything they went through made her weak.

is love.

A feeling that Jibril knew of, but had never truly understood.

Suer understood this fact, and then—retracted his outstretched arm, allowing the pink-haired winged creature to get closer to him, until it was pressed against his chest, so that she could hear her own heartbeat.

Boom boom.

Suer felt inexplicably dazed. If he were to rewind his memories, this seemed to be the first time he had taken the initiative to embrace Jibril, acknowledging an emotion that had long existed, that he had known about for a long time, but that he had never made public.

Without words, and without needing words, Jibril gradually calmed down in this embrace, taking all of Sul's feelings into her heart.

She doesn't need to kneel and pledge allegiance, nor does she need to place herself below others. They should be equals—equal eye contact, equal communication, without hiding anger and discontent under orders and loyalty.

There is no need to label this feeling as loyalty.

She should be free, embracing everything around her with a free will, embracing her future destiny—even though they, who broke their destiny with their own hands and will, never believed in the word "destiny," only at this moment did Jibril hope that her destiny, her destiny with Sue, even with that weed and with Xinke, could be intertwined and exist together forever.

She already possessed a freedom that no other Skywing species could ever imagine, and now she also possessed a love that no other Skywing species could ever imagine...

Amidst the city lights in the darkness of night.