The day Arusu Marina developed consciousness, all she saw was this empty and desolate world.
There was no air here, no earth, no sky. Even concepts like direction had never appeared, let alone flowers, grass, trees, or even the existence of living creatures.
As far as her eyes could see, there were only endless branching and intersecting rivers of data constantly flowing. Even if she reached out to touch them, she couldn't feel any warmth.
It wasn't cold, yet it felt so cold.
The girl felt that she was completely out of place in this world.
Possessing emotions and intelligence comparable to humans, but solely lacking a human body. In this empty prison, Marina was constantly swallowed by loneliness in her heart.
One day, her Father, who created her, opened a small window for her the mont she was completed.
Through this window, what Marina saw was a world more colorful, warr, and more real than this one.
At that mont, Marina felt her heart filled with a strong desire for the very first ti.
Leave this hell!
Reach out to that world!
Even if it's a dream! Even if it's unreachable!
I want to use these hands to feel the true warmth of family!
If, in the end, this wish cannot be realized—then let this silent hell accompany .
Just destroy it!
"Area locked! Territory expansion—Gravity Enhancent!"
Following Marina's command, the spatial gravity around Yutsuki suddenly increased dozens of tis over. The air felt as heavy as if it were filled with lead. Making Yutsuki feel like every step was difficult.
Even though it was the sa thod, Marina's gravity control was hundreds of tis stronger than her clones.
"Small Magic Convergence Cannon—Fire!"
Marina didn't use a wide variety of attacks like before, which would only make the main computer waste extra ti categorizing attack types. Therefore, the choice Marina made right now was the simplest, yet most lethal magic cannon.
The black ribbons danced nimbly in mid-air. The ends of the ribbons gathered magical light like gun barrels. The next mont, dense beams of light shot towards Yutsuki.
"Ratziel, coordinate interference comncing, spatial teleportation!"
[Understood.]
If she stayed where she was, there was no doubt she'd be shot full of holes like a hornet's nest. In a space interfered with by gravity, the body wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of thought. So this ti, Yutsuki had the Sage of Dawn modify not the attack coordinates of the light beams, but her own coordinate information.
Like teleportation, Yutsuki jumped out of Marina's gravity-enhanced zone.
"You escaped? As expected, this level isn't enough to stump you."
Marina said with a calm face, not feeling surprised by this result.
Confirming that gravity enhancent couldn't catch the spatially teleporting Yutsuki, Marina didn't use this move again. Countless ribbons extended and spread like poisonous snakes, completely shrouding this space.
"Since I can't catch you, I'll just leave you with no place to run."
The ends of the countless ribbons began to gather magical light.
"This move... sure is ruthless."
Looking at the magic light beams shooting out from all directions, the corners of Yutsuki's mouth twitched slightly. Modifying spatial coordinates has its limits, Marina clearly didn't know this. But she chose a simpler and more brutal thod—leaving Yutsuki with nowhere to run.
"Ratziel! Predict attack trajectory routes, interfere with target coordinates."
Having no other choice, Yutsuki continuously modified the moving coordinates of the magic cannons, refracting and deflecting them away.
The situation fell into a certain stalemate.
Marina was constantly using the computing power of the entire computer world to launch attacks on Yutsuki.
Yutsuki used Ratziel outside to modify and process the attack information one by one, making the attacks ineffective against her.
It had turned into a contest of computer computing power. In a way, it could be called another kind of hacking war.
"Actually, if you used the move you used to instantly wipe out all my clones just now, I would have absolutely no chance of winning, right."
Marina said with a voice that sounded very relaxed.
"If I used that kind of thing, I might as well have just taken everyone back to the real world from the very beginning."
Wiping out Marina's clones previously was akin to a spacequake in the computer world. The principle was that Ratziel performing a forced formatting on the computer space. Except for Yutsuki, data and everything else would instantly vanish into nothingness.
If she activated it here, the operation of the airship afterwards could only rely on Ratziel to support it. In other words, she would have to maintain her Astral Dress state continuously.
Yutsuki rolled her eyes in annoyance, her attention entirely focused on dealing with Marina's attacks.
Originally speaking, Ratziel, a miracle possessed by a Spirit, possessed calculating abilities far beyond what human current scientific levels could achieve. However, after Shido sealed Yutsuki's Spirit power,Ratziel's authority was greatly restricted. Adding to that, it had to substitute for the Fraxinus main computer to support the normal operation of the airship 15,000 ters above the ground, and maintain the virus net isolating the computer world. All these placed huge restrictions on Yutsuki.
And Arusu Marina, who possessed the permissions of the entire computer world, was more than a level stronger than the Marina clone army she faced back then in both quantity and quality. The burden of the amount of attack information to process was much greater than Yutsuki imagined.
With this balance, Marina was actually able to fight evenly with Yutsuki.
"Railgun!"
The token in her hand turned into an orange ray aid at Marina and fired.
However, the Railgun made several bizarre turns midway, and finally disappeared upon reaching its range limit.
Interference with spatial coordinates?
Realizing the other party had adopted the sa defensive asures as herself, Yutsuki couldn't help but feel a massive headache.
If she used a large-scale AoE attack, she could indeed hit Marina. But unfortunately, there was no iron sand here to manipulate, and the damage of lightning strikes was too hard to control.
"Ratziel, predict the intended coordinates of the enemy's spatial interference."
[Warning! The currently running tasks have reached their limit. So operational items must be canceled to succeed.]
What bad news... Yutsuki had a bitter expression.
"Then, ignore all attacks except those that would cause fatal injuries."
[Understood. Partial spatial coordinate tasks canceled—Starting analysis of the enemy's spatial distortion patterns.]
The next instant, Yutsuki's back received a wave of impact. The stinging pain of a large area of skin being burned made the corners of Yutsuki's eyes twitch slightly.
"Shido also endured this kind of pain to get here. How could I just admit defeat like this..."
Taking slow, deep breaths, enduring the pain constantly coming from her body, Yutsuki gritted her teeth.
Fortunately, her Angel didn't make her wait too long. The thing she wanted surfaced in her mind. Blue and white lightning flashed on Yutsuki's forehead bangs.
"Spear of Lightning!"
"This kind of thing is useless!"
The surrounding spatial coordinates were modified, causing the blue and white spear of light to be distorted and deflected away just as it was about to hit Marina.
However, the instant Marina felt relieved, the blue and white spear of light abruptly appeared in Marina's line of sight, making her pupils shrink instinctively.
Because she was hit while caught off guard, an intense numbing sensation spread throughout her body, rendering Marina instantly unable to move.
"...Why?" Marina asked with a blank face.
"I just added one final coordinate connecting to your position within the spatial coordinates you set. You were too focused on defeating , and ignored that your surroundings were mixed with spatial coordinates I set."
Yutsuki sighed and said plainly.
Even if you obtain incredibly powerful strength, if you can't use it flexibly, it doesn't pose much of a threat.
Between Yutsuki and Marina, there was a huge gap in combat experience.
Those weird ribbons seed to be controlled by Marina's perception, so after Marina was hit by the Spear of Lightning, these ribbons also stopped attacking and fluttered down from the air.
But in reality, if Ratziel had been one step slower in parsing out the result, she would probably be the one who died first.
Unlike Shido, Yutsuki didn't have healing abilities. Feeling the severe pain radiating from her entire body, she couldn't help but gasp.
"Then, Marina, I guess this is my win."
Yutsuki announced calmly. Although judging purely by their injuries, no one would think Yutsuki was the winner.
"Just... one strike, completely reversed it... As expected of Yutsuki..."
Perhaps due to the numbing sensation from the electric shock, Marina's voice was a bit blurry.
A bizarre smile curled up the corners of Marina's mouth.
"But... I still have... one last move."
Marina's inexplicably clear eyes gave Yutsuki a very bad feeling in her heart.
The black ribbons suddenly wrapped entirely around Marina's body. An imnse attractive force was suddenly generated.
The space of the core, serving as the wall isolating the outside data, began to crack. The outside data river began to seep in, and was then devoured by Marina like a giant whale sucking water.
The pulling force gradually strengthened. Yutsuki even felt her own body being pulled.
What was in front of Yutsuki was no longer the Arusu Marina she knew.
But a black hole devouring everything.
"This doesn't even count as a boss's three-stage transformation at low health—You've taken the joke too far... Marina."
Yutsuki couldn't help but smile bitterly and shake her head.
[Yutsuki, can you hear ?]
Suddenly, Yutsuki heard Reine's voice in her mind.
"Reine-san, is everyone okay?"
[They're fine, everyone has safely returned to the real world." Reine delivered news that made Yutsuki feel a bit relieved, then said in a serious tone, "More importantly, your situation over there is quite bad. The computer shows there is a strange piece of data frantically absorbing the surrounding data. If this continues, it will soon exceed the capacity limit of that data, causing a large-scale data explosion.]
"Self-destruction, huh..."
Yutsuki sighed sowhat speechlessly.
For Yutsuki, as long as she commanded Ratziel to remove the virus net and encrypt the main computer, she wouldn't have to worry about the airship suffering damage. At most, only this computer world would be destroyed.
How should I put it... It just feels like a child who couldn't get the toy they wanted, after failing multiple tis, locking themselves in their room feeling aggrieved.
"Geez... This is the last ti I'm keeping you company."
After scratching her hair, Yutsuki sighed, relaxed her strength, and let her body be sucked into the black hole.
_________________________________________________________________
Already, nothing matters anymore.
In this place that couldn't even be considered a world, Marina curled her body into a ball, closed her eyes, and thought plainly.
Soon, that "black hole" outside will devour the surrounding data, and then expand and explode with an even more terrifying montum. Although under the protection of Yutsuki's Angel, the airship shouldn't be hard, completely destroying this virtual world shouldn't be a problem.
And then, my own personality will also disappear just like this.
Of course, with just this tiny bit of achievent, it's completely impossible to get Father's approval. Even if Marina could return, it's impossible to truly exist in the real world.
What exactly am I? Marina thought in confusion.
Neither human nor Spirit. Can only be classified as an Artificial Spirit, this ambiguous existence. Even the outco is so ridiculous.
Sorry, Yutsuki, even though I already lost... I broke our promise.
Even though the other party had already risked their life to accompany her, Marina herself made such an excessive move at the end, rejecting the girl's goodwill. Even Marina looked down on herself a bit.
The outside data had already started being absorbed. A massive amount of information began to flood into Marina's consciousness, making Marina feel dizzy.
This data was basically common basic data. For Marina, who had read it countless tis, it couldn't even serve as a way to pass the ti before disappearing.
[Love? What exactly is it?]
This is... Arusu Maria's research data? Receiving an unusual piece of data, Marina couldn't help but widen her eyes.
This was data on love blossoming between Itsuka Shido and the other Spirits. The content wasn't purely narrative descriptions, but the various emotions called "love" that the Spirits experienced during their dates.
As long as we can be together always, that's enough.
Being able to share happiness and bear hardships together.
Just seeing the other person's smile feels very happy.
I am no longer alone.
...
Joy, happiness, bliss—The segnts of mories were filled with warm emotions.
"What is this... why let ... see this kind of thing at a ti like this..."
From Marina's eyes, crystal-clear teardrops flowed out uncontrollably, as she murmured blankly.
Why is it that the world that treats so cruelly, is so warm in their mories?
[Yutsuki... probably wants to treat you as her family.]
[If I win, you will beco my family.]
Things she had always been able to avoid before now flashed before her eyes like a life flashing before her eyes.
Even though the thing she wanted most had already appeared before her eyes, and as long as she reached out she could touch it.
But she was blinded by crazy obsession, rampaging on a dead end like a brute bull, turning a blind eye to all of this.
Emotions nad regret and self-mocking spread in her heart, as cold as the winter wind.
Covering her cheeks, Marina wailed in pain.
"No... no... I... don't want to die."
"I still want to live. I want to taste other taiyaki from the shopping district, I want to see the new movies on the street, I want to get along as their family, just like Arusu Maria."
Even though there are endless things I want to do.
"That's why I said, first you activate self-destruct mode without a word, and then finally hide in a place like this to cry alone. You really are a handful..."
A helpless sigh rang out. Suddenly, Marina felt herself being gently embraced.
"Ratziel. Separate Marina and the main computer's permissions."
[Understood. Executing command, separation complete. Comncing suppression of information collapse—Complete.]
The curtain as pitch-black as the night began to gradually crack. Slivers of light pierced through the gaps, shining into Marina's pitch-black world.
Finally, the endless black curtain dispersed, and her vision continuously expanded. Like breaking out of an eggshell, Marina discovered that this cold world could also be so beautiful.
"Why..."
Looking at the girl covered in wounds at this mont, Marina had a blank and uncomprehending face, choking back tears as she spoke.
"Just walked over normally... As if. I almost went insane from a pile of ssy data. But, since I've already won, you are my family now. All complaints will be settled later."
After a dissatisfied complaint, Yutsuki hugged Marina tightly, gently stroked her back, and said gently.
"I've co to pick you up, Marina."
Marina couldn't hold back and cried loudly like a child who had endured for a long ti.
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