Date a Live:This is not the date I wanted! Chapter 488 488: Fire Force Operation (Part 1)

April 4th, Wednesday, 12:43 PM.

A remote village in a mountain forest sowhere on Earth.

There was no spacequake alarm.

Without warning, the space around one of the mountains suddenly twisted. The expanding high pressure crushed and ground everything around it to dust. As if a part of the mountain had been scooped away, a spherical hollow appeared out of nowhere on its slope.

Soon, a roar sounded together with the shaking of the mountain. The soil and rocks that had lost their support collapsed with a thunderous crash, filling the hollow below. Then the landslide continued rolling downward, swallowing the village at the foot of the mountain as well.

At that very sa mont, the forest suddenly stirred.

Countless birds flew out from between the trees. Wild boars, deer, packs of wolves—every beast in the forest began running toward the outer edge as if fleeing for their lives.

Animals had a much sharper sense of danger than humans. Their instincts could sense hidden threats and help them quickly move away from danger.

And right now, their instincts were screaming a warning at them.

Run.

Run quickly.

The landslide just now was only a sign that danger had arrived.

The true disaster had only just begun.

From the mound of earth and stone that had buried the slope, sothing poked its head out from between the cracks in the rocks.

It was a black fla.

An ominous, muddy black fla that should not exist in nature.

The extre heat twisted the air, making the scenery warp and sway. Then, as if a self-igniting tree had beco the signal, the flas spread with explosive force.

A single spark could start a prairie fire, but the speed at which this fla spread went far beyond common sense.

In less than five seconds, the black flas swallowed the entire mountain. The expanding heat wave was like a greedy god of death. Wherever it passed, the forest beca a sea of fire. Animals beca ash. Every living thing was burned into nothing.

"Hssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss——!"

And in that hell on earth, scorched into being by flas, a human figure wrapped in black fire stood on the mountain peak and let out a strange roar like a steam whistle.

"Commander..."

Several thousand ters above the ground, the crew of Fraxinus EX looked at the beloved commander they respected, now reduced to this form. One after another, painful expressions appeared on their faces.

Kannazuki Kyouhei silently looked away from the large screen, took a deep breath, and shouted to everyone in the command room.

"All hands, attention! From this mont on, we begin the special operation. Operation codena——'Fire Force.' Operation start!"

"U-understood. According to the life radar, there are no life signs in this area aside from the Commander."

"The local Wizard unit has replied. All nearby residents finished relocating yesterday. No civilian casualties."

"We are now asuring the damaged forest area. Calculating the fire's spread speed."

"Yggdfolium——Numbers 1 through 10, switch to heat isolation mode. Launch!"

Under the crew's operation, the branch-like tail of Fraxinus EX changed from light green to crimson, then fired several Yggdfolium(Leaves of the world tree)

The Yggdfolium scattered through the air and stabbed into the ground. The Territory fields they spread out connected with each other, forming a closed circular wall that sealed the blazing sea of fire inside.

[Acting Commander Yutsuki, the spread of the fire has been successfully stopped.]

"Good work. You all did well."

Standing on the outer deck of the airship, Yutsuki could clearly see that the fire on the ground had been effectively contained. She could not help praising them.

[Yutsuki-san, please take care of the Commander.]

"Don't worry. Leave the rest to ."

Kannazuki's serious request ca through the earpiece. Yutsuki nodded and answered firmly.

"Fire Force Operation——begin Phase Two."

After saying that, Yutsuki took a running start and jumped down from the airship.

In midair, she summoned her Astral Dress. Yutsuki controlled her spirit power to slow her fall and landed lightly inside the area covered in flas.

"So hot..."

The mont she landed, Yutsuki felt a wave of heat wrap around her whole body.

Even though she had already opened a spirit power barrier to keep the flas away, she still felt like she was inside a sauna. Even the air she breathed was hot.

"Ratziel, what's the temperature outside?"

[Report——The outer area is around 2,500 degrees Celsius. The temperature near the target is as high as 4,000 degrees Celsius.]

"Good grief..."

Although she had already prepared herself ntally, when Yutsuki actually heard Ratziel's report, the corner of her eye still twitched.

"You really are going all out, Kotori-chan. At this rate, Railgun is unusable."

Yutsuki sighed helplessly.

Under this kind of extre heat, the range of Railgun would no doubt be greatly shortened. The tal would probably lt less than three ters after leaving her hand.

She turned her gaze toward Kotori.

At this mont, in Yutsuki's field of view, Kotori was about fifty ters away, standing with her back to her. She did not seem to have noticed Yutsuki's presence.

"Mm?"

Suddenly, Yutsuki frowned in confusion.

For so reason, Kotori's figure looked a little blurry. Her height and width were also wavering.

"Could it be... Rasiel."

The black leather book appeared before Yutsuki. She closed her eyes.

While using electromagnetic wave feedback to detect the surrounding space structure, she also used Rasiel to confirm Kotori's location information.

The result was just as Yutsuki expected.

Unlike the information her eyes were giving her, the real distance between Kotori and herself was a full kiloter. The surrounding terrain was also completely different from what she could see.

"So it really is a mirage. That was close. I'm glad I didn't rush in blindly."

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Yutsuki felt a wave of relief.

Because of the uneven distribution of extre heat, the air density in this area was different everywhere. As a result, the path of light had beco chaotic, creating illusions similar to mirages.

She did not know whether the other side's vision was also affected.

But it was easy to imagine that if the first thing Yutsuki had done after landing was attack directly instead of gathering information, this extrely unfavorable environnt would have made her suffer badly.

"The last thing to confirm is this."

As she spoke, Yutsuki lowered her gaze to the black flas burning at her feet.

Unlike flas in nature, even after the burning plants or animals were fully carbonized, the black fire showed no sign of weakening. It still burned fiercely.

"A fla that does not go out even after burning everything down... So this is Inversion..."

Yutsuki thought back to the pure white healing flas Kotori once used, the flas that had saved Shido countless tis. Her heart beca complicated.

"All right. I've gathered enough information. Ti to say hello to Kotori-chan."

She exhaled and adjusted her mood. After lightly stretching her body, Yutsuki took a running start and kicked a three ter tall boulder in front of her as if kicking a soccer ball.

The boulder drew a high arc through the air, falling straight and accurately toward Kotori's head.

Just as the boulder was about to smash into her, "Kotori" finally reacted.

"————————————!"

Suddenly, the rolling black flas gathered in "Kotori's" hand and turned into a huge pitch-black axe. She swung it down hard toward the boulder.

In the next second, the boulder was split in two and landed on both sides of Kotori.

However, the cut surfaces of the stone had no crack marks from being split by the axe. Instead, they glowed with scorching red light, smooth like molten mud.

(Looks like if I get hit by that Demon King, there's no saving .)

Yutsuki thought helplessly.

On the surface, however, she did not show any fear. Instead, she curled her finger at "Kotori" in a provoking gesture and smiled.

"Then, next, let's do this the way you always say it, Kotori-chan. Now then, let our Date—our date and war—begin!"