February 19th, Monday, 3:03 p.m.
At that mont, Tengu City, which should have been in the middle of its bustling hours, had abruptly beco an empty city. The towering office buildings were deserted. The lively streets were so empty one could set up a net for sparrows. So of the relatively low buildings had already transford and retracted into Tengu City's underground, avoiding any unnecessary damage.
For the citizens of Tengu City, who had long suffered under the threat of spacequakes, evacuating to the shelters in the shortest possible ti after a spacequake alarm sounded had long since beco routine. After Yutsuki triggered the alarm, it took only a few minutes for the people to complete evacuation with practiced efficiency.
And only a few minutes after the evacuation was completed, as if vultures had scented minced at and flocked over, dozens of DEM military airships occupied the skies around Tengu City, looking down upon this empty, windswept city.
"They're here."
Waiting on the rooftop of a high rise building on the ground, Tobiichi Origami gazed at the massive airship fleet in the distance, looming over the city like dark clouds, and her expression grew grave.
"Whoa! So many airships like Fraxinus! One, two, three, four..."
Beside Origami, Yatogami Tohka looked at the scene before her with awe, counting on her fingers with absolutely no trace of nervousness.
"Hmm—twenty seven?"
"...Thirty-three. If you include the airships Yutsuki destroyed earlier, there were thirty six in total."
After silently correcting Tohka's mistake, Origami turned her eyes back to the sky. When she first heard that Yutsuki had destroyed three airships, she had been a little excited. But now, looking at this, that level of loss was little more than a drop in the bucket for DEM.
Honestly, when she had been at the AST Wizard base, she had almost never seen large-scale units like airships. Now that DEM had brought out more than thirty of them in one go, even Origami was sowhat shocked.
[Hmph... As expected of DEM, they really know how to flaunt their filthy wealth the mont they appear. I can sll the stench of dirty money through the screen.]
Kotori's disdainful voice ca from the earpiece.
[Hey hey! Imouto-chan, I have a question. How many airships do we have on our side?]
At that mont, Nia, who was waiting aboard the airship, cut in. Origami was also sowhat curious about this, and pricked up her ears to listen.
After a brief silence of a few seconds, Kotori answered.
[...Five.] (TL:kewk~)
[Eh—]
[Please don't look at with that "How are we supposed to fight with this difference?" expression, Nia. We're a legitimate company, unlike DEM, who stuffs their pockets with all sorts of shady funding.]
Kotori retorted unhappily. Though honestly, in Origami's opinion, a private company possessing five airships was already highly abnormal in itself.
"There's movent over there!"
At that mont, Tohka's warning brought Origami's attention back. The airship fleet had now dispersed, and seven of the airships had their cannons gathering magical energy, aiming at Fraxinus EX above Tengu City.
Although they were rely standard format magical convergence cannons, if several of them were layered together, their destructive power would be no weaker than a large scale spacequake.
"Kotori."
[It's fine.]
Kotori's confident reply ca through the earpiece. And at the sa ti, several thick columns of magical energy rose from the ground and precisely struck DEM's airships.
Although the Territory barriers prevented the hulls themselves from suffering heavy damage, the impact induced shaking clearly managed to interrupt the charging of the magical convergence cannons, forcing them to swallow back the shells they had been about to fire.
Origami looked in the direction of the ballistic trajectories and saw that, at so point, cannons had been deployed atop several ordinary looking buildings. Their barrels still retained enough residual heat to distort the light around them.
[Date City—ard mode unlocked. If they think numbers alone will let them win, they're sorely mistaken.]
"Amazing. I never thought the bakery where I usually buy kinako bread could fire lasers."
Looking at the city, which had completely changed form, Tohka could not help but sigh in admiration.
"..."
Origami seed like she wanted to say sothing, but after a brief silence, she chose to say nothing and continued observing the battle situation.
After the first round of attacks was interrupted, the enemy clearly beca wary of this fully ard empty city. They changed their target of attack to Tengu City itself.
Lasers back and forth, and explosions and roars echoed by their ears. After both sides restrained each other with several exchanges, DEM began their next move.
The airships located along the edge of Tengu City pulled back slightly, opening the hatches on the bottoms of their hulls. In the next instant, countless machines poured out from the airships, surging toward the city like a dense swarm of locusts.
The scene resembled several insect nests endlessly hatching at once. If soone with trypophobia were watching up close, they would probably break out in goosebumps all over.
A massive number of unmanned machines advanced toward the city from low altitude, clearly intending to destroy the weapons installed throughout Date City. Although Ratatoskr continued trying to repel them, these fearless machines still relied on their overwhelming numbers to slowly press forward.
"Origami..."
"Not yet. Leave those unmanned machines to the others."
After stopping Tohka, who was clearly becoming impatient, Origami kept her eyes tightly fixed on every airship on the battlefield, as if searching for sothing.
Suddenly, she noticed that in the eight o'clock direction of Tengu City, a magical cannon shot aid at DEM had been strangely split in two mid flight.
Origami increased the magnification of her binoculars and saw the strongest Wizard, clad in platinum white armor, using the unmanned machines as cover as she approached Tengu City at high speed.
"Found her! Ellen Mathers! Tohka!"
"I know!"
"Adonai lek."
"Ehyeh."
After identifying the target's position, Tohka and Origami summoned their Partial Astral Dresses and Angels without hesitation.
"tatron—"
Softly calling the true na of her Angel, the pure white crown broke apart into flashing wings, gathering behind Origami into wings of light.
Placing her hand on Tohka's shoulder, Origami said:
"—Mal'akh."
In the next second, the scenery changed abruptly. A slightly astonished Ellen appeared right before the two of them.
"Sandalphon!"
Without giving Ellen the slightest chance to breathe, Tohka raised her Angel and slashed down at Ellen's head.
"—Hmph!"
Although she had been caught off guard, this was not Ellen's first ti seeing Origami's teleportation ability. She forcefully caught Tohka's blow with her laser blade, then imdiately shifted from defense to offense and launched an attack against Tohka.
"Oh? You've improved quite a bit compared to before."
Ellen raised her brow slightly in surprise. Although Tohka's strength and spirit power had not increased by much compared to before, her swordsmanship and movents had clearly improved greatly. Last ti, she had needed the cooperation of several Spirits, yet this ti, with only Tobiichi Origami's assistance, she could actually fight Ellen to a stalemate.
(Ike said they underwent training. Looks like that wasn't a lie. However—)
Nimbly avoiding the shots from the floating cannons, Ellen aid for the instant Origami appeared. She suddenly increased her magical output and used the thrust to force Tohka away.
(The ones who have grown stronger aren't just you.)
Seeing the situation instantly turn into a one on one confrontation between herself and Ellen, Origami's pupils contracted sharply, and she activated her Angel to retreat instantly.
But Ellen had no intention of letting Origami escape like that. Using the explosive acceleration of her thrusters, she forcefully caught up with the teleporting Origami.
"—Kadour!"
Facing the aggressively closing Ellen, Origami activated the hidden blades behind her wings of light. Sharp blades of light drew an arc through the air and slashed toward Ellen.
"I won't fall for the sa trick twice!"
Ellen lowered her body slightly, dodging the incoming light blade by a hair's breadth without slowing down, and raised her laser blade to cut Origami down.
However, as their gazes crossed, Ellen noticed that Origami's eyes showed no sign of retreat.
"—Einherjar."
"—!?"
Suddenly, a burst of intense light forced Ellen to close her eyes. A sudden sense of danger made Ellen abruptly alter her posture mid-swing.
Her laser blade did indeed strike Tobiichi Origami, but there was no sensation of a fatal blow. At the sa ti, the armor at her waist received the impact of so sharp weapon piercing in.
Ellen opened her eyes and saw that Origami, on top of her own Astral Dress, was equipped with a set of pale tallic armor. She held a long handled energy spear in her hands. The shoulder armor had been damaged, apparently by Ellen's laser blade.
Of course, Ellen herself was not unhard either. Her waist armor had clearly been slashed open by that spear of light.
Using the opening Origami created, Tohka finally caught up and swung her greatsword, forcing Ellen back.
"Are you okay, Origami?"
"I'm fine."
Origami shook her head lightly, then said to Ellen:
"You didn't think long range attacks and teleportation were all I had, did you?"
Ellen rely laughed lightly, unconcerned.
"I see. So you're the Spirit Artemisia ntioned—the one capable of equipping a Realizer. Indeed, just as Ike said, you are an interesting existence."
"...Interesting?"
Hearing Westcott's description of her, Origami felt an indescribable discomfort in her chest.
"Hmph. True, I overlooked the fact that before you were a Spirit, you were AST's ace Wizard. But to , that is all it amounts to."
Raising the laser blade in her hand and pointing it at the two of them, Ellen spoke in an icy voice.
"Very well. Today, including all our previous battles, I'll bring this to an end."
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