Flügel

The Flügel are the sixth ranked race of the Exceed. Their homeland is Avant Heim, a floating city in the sky. The kanji for their name can be read as angels, but Sora noted that they are more alike to demons, as they hold powers of mass-destruction and massacred countless beings during the ancient war. After the demise of their creator, Artosh, the race is governed by the Council of Eighteen Wings consisting of 9 Flugels that rule in an oligarchical fashion. In emergency situations, Azriel, the Representative of the Winged, have the right to puts forth the decisions on her own.

Personality
Due to their nature, Flügels tend to have violent thoughts and are condescending towards other races below them. However, due to an unspecified number of years(implied to be over 1000) devoted to the gathering of knowledge, they can quickly become excited at the prospect of a mystery or a chance to add to their own personal library of information.

History
" Flügels, the Godslayers created by Artosh, the God of War, didn't collect knowledge for their own interest. It was an act of necessary for them to stay alive, or rather say, to keep themselves from death. As for living weapons without its wielder... are nothing more than empty,living deads wandering around the world. What kind of reasons motivated them to stay alive... No, what kind of proofs they had shown to us that prove they are "living"?"

- description of Former King of Imanity, based from his view on Jibril
Flügels are ancient warriors created by the  Old Deus   Artosh  to fight their wars for them. While their combat abilities are sealed by the  Ten Oaths, they still retain immortality, as well as high  magic  ability.

After the declaration of the Ten Oaths, the Flügels began collecting knowledge all over Disboard by robbing the other races of their books and as Disboard is a world without printing technology, these robbed books were not easy to replace. When their homeland became stacked with books, the Flügels passed a law to share the books among themselves.

Strengths
As the Flügels were created to kill gods, their very body can easily break physical limitation. Using their magical skills, they can teleport into anywhere they can see, or where they have visited. Also, their strongest attack, 'Heavenstrike', is formed by using all Elementals nearby, and powerful enough to destroy Elven Gard's magical barrier which was formed by 3000 elven magicians, and even damage to city itself. However, it seems to exhaust one's power for years after its fully charged attack. In Light Novel Volume 4, Jibril literally 'splits' the sea apart with only 5% power Airstrike and in the dating sim is able to continuously flatten the Seiren city while it regenerated.

Flügels have no sense of shame, as was shown when Sora used magic in the game against the Flügels. He made a group of them naked, but they continued to chase Sora and Shiro without any hesitation. They only stopped after Sora used a magic that made them grope each other.

Weaknesses
Sora and Shiro are able to beat the Flügel in a physical flying game of tag in Light Novel Volume 5 by abusing their lack of information on aerobatic maneuvers, although they later adapt. In both games against Flügel (word materialisation and Flying Tag) Sora and Shiro are able to abuse their lack of scientific understanding to win.

After using airstrike or godstrike, the Flügel are left in weakened states, much younger and in some cases unable to even move.

History
The Flügel were created by Artosh during the Great War to act as God killers, to kill other Old Deus. The first and weakest Flügel is Azriel whilst the final and most powerful was Jibril. During the Great war Artosh uses all his and the Flügels strength to release Divine Strike. This does massive damage, but exposes himself and leaves the majority of the Flügel unable to fight back waves of Ex-machina, which come and peel off his essence. This severely weakens him and ensures the Star Grail did not materialise to him. This allows Tet to spawn from Riku's imagination and prayers and take the Star Grail, making him the most powerful Old Deus.

Artosh dies, and Tet reforms the entire world with the 10 pledges. This means that the Flügels, a race designed to destroy, had no place left in Disboard. The Flügel were left without purpose. Instead they dedicated themselves to obtaining knowledge in accordance to Artosh's words; “I can’t understand it, because only the weak are able to. It’s the unknown possibility that I may lose to one stronger than I.”. Artosh's loss is credited to his lack of understanding so the Flügel seek to understand all.

Trivia

 * Flügel means wing or wings in German


 * Being weapons of war, the Flügels are believed to not possess the emotion of love (or rather not truly able to grasp its meaning). They do seem to have the rest of the wide range of emotions.


 * The Flügels are known to have collected the skulls of their slain enemies. Although they now mainly collect books due to the implementation of the Ten Oaths, the skulls are still displayed within their homes, as noted by the skulls in Jibril's library.
 * All the Flügels may have names ending with the "eel" sound, considering Jibril and Azriel do and a random Flügel in Book 6 is named Raphael. It is a reference to angelic names across Abrahamic religions (such as Judaism or Islam), note that Jibril, or Gabriel, Azriel and Raphael are angel's names.

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