Thick dark clouds.
Dead earth.
A crystal-clear flower floated high in the sky, scattering pollen that stole all signs of life.
In that world, Ryougi Yutsuki and Takamiya Mio faced each other.
"Honestly, I thought you would co a little later, Reine-san."
"..."
Mio remained silent.
"Silence, huh? We haven't seen each other in a few months, and you've beco so cold."
(Ratziel——Future Calculation.)
[Received. Beginning calculation.]
While trying to communicate with the girl before her, Yutsuki secretly activated her Angel and predicted the future a few seconds ahead.
In the next second, Yutsuki dodged backward without hesitation.
At the sa ti, a large number of ribbons of light stabbed out from the ground without warning. Like bamboo shoots growing from the soil after a spring rain, those originally soft, smooth ribbons had now beco sharp like spears and swords, trying to pierce Yutsuki's body.
With Future Calculation and her own agile movents, Yutsuki avoided the sudden attack from the ribbons by a hair's breadth.
"Huu... Hey, isn't attacking without saying a word a bit underhanded, Reine-san?"
Yutsuki let out a breath and complained to Mio.
Those ribbons seed less like Angels and more like part of an Astral Dress, judging from their texture and appearance. From the symptoms and reaction after Tohka was hit earlier, they probably only had the function of forcibly extracting a Sephira Crystal and did not have killing power by themselves.
But if combined with Mio's flower Angel, that beca a completely different story.
In this space filled with pollen, any individual without spirit power would die without exception. In such an environnt, being struck by those ribbons and having one's Sephira Crystal taken away was basically an instant-death skill.
Seeing her attack dodged, Mio frowned slightly. After a short pause, she asked.
"...Where is Tokisaki Kurumi?"
"Hmm? Kurumi?"
Hearing Kurumi's na, Yutsuki raised her brows slightly and asked with a puzzled face.
"Why bring her up all of a sudden?"
"Don't play dumb. You hid her, didn't you?"
Mio bit her lip in displeasure.
"Well... Who knows? The last ti I saw Kurumi was on February 13th, four months ago. Since then, I haven't seen her again."
Yutsuki answered with false calm.
"You're not denying that you hid Kurumi, are you?"
Mio said, her gaze growing colder.
"Well, I guess I can't fool you after all."
Yutsuki smiled faintly and shrugged without denying it.
"It's true that Kurumi's whereabouts have sothing to do with . But I didn't hide her. I simply recomnded a place for her to live in seclusion."
"Where is that place?"
"No comnt."
Facing Mio's increasingly heavy killing intent, Yutsuki answered without fear.
"Well, it's not that difficult. There are seven billion people in the world, but with the power of the Origin Spirit, maybe you can find her in about a year."
"I already searched!!!"
Perhaps it was Yutsuki's joking tone, or perhaps her too-calm attitude, that finally set Mio's anger loose. She roared loudly.
"For these four months, I searched every corner of the world. Cities, villages, forests, oceans, deserts, every place! But I couldn't feel Kurumi's spirit power anywhere!"
"Reine-san..."
Hearing Mio's trembling voice, a trace of pain appeared in Yutsuki's eyes.
Mio was searching for Kurumi.
Actually, ever since Nia told her that Reine had disappeared, Yutsuki had vaguely guessed this possibility.
Most likely, just like the other Spirits, Mio could not accept the fact that Shido had died.
Only, she had not collapsed. Instead, day and night, she searched for Tokisaki Kurumi, hoping Kurumi would use Zafkiel to return to the past and change the history where Shido died.
Then, after searching for Kurumi in vain, Takamiya Mio's despair and helplessness gradually turned into anger and hatred.
And she directed those feelings toward Ryougi Yutsuki——the only Spirit who had not inverted.
"It's all your fault!"
Mio glared at Yutsuki, her eyes filled with rage and hatred.
"If not for you, Kurumi's heart would never have wavered! If not for you ddling, Kurumi would surely have kept choosing to loop ti! If you weren't here... Shin... Shin would... never have died..."
As she poured her anger onto Ryougi Yutsuki, two lines of tears helplessly fell down Mio's cheeks.
"I see... So in your eyes, I'm the one who killed Shido."
Yutsuki asked sadly.
"Yes. That's right. If you weren't here, this future would never have happened!"
Floating in the air, Mio looked down at Yutsuki and coldly delivered her final warning.
"I'll ask you one more ti. Ryougi Yutsuki, where did you hide Tokisaki Kurumi?"
"Sorry, Reine-san."
Yutsuki gently shook her head and answered firmly.
"Kurumi worked very hard. She did everything she could do. Since she has already given up, I will not force her to suffer through the pain of ti loops again. So my answer is still the sa——no comnt."
Like oil poured onto a raging fire, Yutsuki's words completely ignited the anger Mio had barely been holding back.
"Is that so... Then I have nothing more to say to you."
When anger reached its limit, Mio's voice instead lost all warmth. Only bone-deep cold remained.
"I will use Rasiel to investigate Kurumi's whereabouts myself. Ryougi Yutsuki, please return the Sephira Crystals my children left with you."
Saying that, Mio raised her hand and spoke a certain na.
"Ain Soph."
In an instant, a chill ran down Yutsuki's back. It was the sa danger signal her body had given her when she saw Mio use the flower Angel earlier.
The earth began to shake violently. The fragile soil and rock could not endure the trembling, and a giant crack opened.
From that crack, a huge spire broke through the ground. It beca a tree that reached straight toward the sky, standing behind Takamiya Mio.
The tree had a smooth, inorganic surface that made one think of glass. Its dense branches spread outward like a peacock's tail.
In the middle of the main trunk, the surface of the tree split vertically, revealing a wooden carving of a girl that looked like a tree spirit.
However, before Yutsuki could even marvel at it, the scenery around them began changing rapidly from the tree Angel as its center.
The dead grassland beneath their feet, the endless mountains in the distance, even the sky filled with dark clouds——everything twisted and warped under Mio's power. In the end, it all beca a plain world made of black and white squares.
A world with information compressed to the limit.
A scene so simple it felt unreal.
It was as if the outer skin of the world had been peeled away, leaving behind a dizzying sense of wrongness.
Honestly, Yutsuki felt like she had been thrown onto a chessboard.
"..."
Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, Yutsuki held her breath and carefully watched everything around her.
After all, according to the data sent back by Beelzebub, the danger level of this tree Angel was in no way lower than the flower Angel Mio had summoned first.
"These values... a Territory? No... the Neighboring World?"
"That's right. Your observation skills are still excellent, Ryougi Yutsuki."
Mio answered Yutsuki's guess herself.
"This is my second Angel——Ain Soph. It is placed in the Neighboring World outside the present world, and it is also the model for a Wizard's Territory. When I use it, the area around becos the Neighboring World."
"Thank you for kindly explaining it yourself."
Although she had gained valuable information, Yutsuki did not feel lucky at all. Since Mio could reveal it so easily, that ant she had absolute confidence in this Angel's power.
Then Mio raised her hand and slightly parted her lips.
[Command: All things existing in this world shall not leave.]
The mont the words fell, the tree Angel behind Mio released a faint light. Like ripples spreading across a lake, it gradually expanded through the entire black-and-white world.
Yutsuki keenly sensed that Ain Soph had undergone so kind of change.
[Report——A fully sealed spherical barrier has appeared within a three-kiloter radius of the target.]
Using the information provided by Beelzebub, Ratziel imdiately gave Yutsuki the corresponding information. Combined with Mio's declaration just now, it was probably ant to block her escape route.
"What did you do?"
Yutsuki knowingly asked.
"Nothing much. I only added a small restriction so you can't run away like you did earlier."
"I had no intention of running, though."
"Perhaps... But when dealing with you, caution is necessary."
Mio lowered her hand and fixed her gaze on Yutsuki.
Unlike her earlier impression, when she had felt like exploding gunpowder, after summoning Ain Soph, Mio's killing intent and anger had settled into a detached calm. It made Yutsuki feel a chill.
If the Mio from before had still been a girl with human emotions, then at this mont, Mio was without doubt a god looking down from above.
"Ryougi Yutsuki... As a visitor from another world, your kindness and strength deserve my respect. Your help to Shin and your efforts for the Spirits also earn my deep gratitude."
"But I am not as strong as you. I cannot accept Shin's death and continue forward like you. So I must deny this future, and I must make you, the cause of everything, pay the price."
"Perhaps from your point of view, my accusations against you are unreasonable. But for , they are facts that cannot be doubted. You have the right to question , and you may resist. This is the only respect I acknowledge and show toward you. Then next——"
Mio paused slightly, then spoke.
"Die."
In the next second, countless ribbons of light stabbed toward Yutsuki, displaying Mio's killing intent without holding anything back.
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