Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A flintlock musket in her right hand, a flintlock pistol in her left,the two firearms in Tokisaki Kurumi's hands, which by all rights should be considered 19th-century antiques, fired at an impossibly high speed that completely defied their appearance. It was like a terrifying combination of a machine gun and a shotgun. In the blink of an eye, a dense storm of bullets completely enveloped the space in front of Yumetsuki.
Yumetsuki lightly tapped the tip of her longbow against the ground. Drawn by her magnetic field, an endless stream of iron sand surged up from the earth, forming a flowing, liquid-metal shield that blocked every single bullet.
Pong! Pong! The moment the bullets buried themselves in the iron sand, they were shredded, yet they still set off a fierce shower of sparks. Yumetsuki could feel it: the kinetic impact of every single bullet in that barrage was powerful enough to pierce straight through an armored tank.
If her opponent had been an ordinary human, they would have been turned into a beehive ages ago.
However...
"If this is all you've got, it's not nearly enough!"
In this desolate wasteland, the soil contained an extremely high concentration of iron sand. For Yumetsuki, who used electromagnetic force to manipulate iron sand as her primary offense, this place was undeniably a natural, infinite armory.
The iron sand on the ground rapidly condensed into massive, churning whips. Ferocious as crashing waves and venomous as striking pythons, the iron sand surged from all directions. Sealing off every possible escape route, the metallic tendrils snapped its jaws toward Tokisaki Kurumi.
Yet, facing this inescapable, dead-end situation, the smile on Kurumi's face didn't falter in the slightest. Her lips parted slightly as she chanted in a deep, bewitching tone, akin to a magic spell:
"Zafkiel — Aleph (First Bullet)."
Shadows oozed out from the "I" numeral on the massive clock face behind Kurumi, channeling directly into the barrel of her flintlock pistol.
To Yumetsuki's absolute astonishment, Kurumi pointed the muzzle of the gun directly at her own temple and ruthlessly pulled the trigger.
Before Yumetsuki even had time to wonder if the other girl had lost her mind, Kurumi—who had just been completely surrounded by the whips of iron sand—suddenly materialized right in front of her, as if she had condensed out of thin air. Kurumi aimed her guns straight at the space between Yumetsuki's eyebrows.
Her pupils shrinking violently, Yumetsuki frantically raised Ratziel horizontally. The dark blue limbs of the bow collided with the barrels of the musket and pistol, forcing their muzzles upward.
Bang! Bang! Two deafening gunshots echoed as the bullets grazed past, firing harmlessly into the sky above her.
A look of grave seriousness washed over Yumetsuki's face. According to the electromagnetic radar feedback from Ratziel, Kurumi had just demonstrated a speed of movement that completely defied common sense. In the split second before the iron sand whips could fully enclose her, she had flawlessly slipped through the microscopic gaps between the thrashing tendrils and arrived right in front of Yumetsuki.
Even the Yamai sisters, renowned for manipulating the wind, would likely find it impossible to execute such delicate, precise evasive maneuvers at such high speeds.
Naturally, Yumetsuki wasn't foolish enough to believe Kurumi had pulled this off using pure physical prowess. It was undoubtedly the effect of the bullet fired from the Angel hovering behind her.
"Ah~ hahahaha~!! How truly fascinating! How truly incredible! To think there was someone capable of utilizing their Angel's abilities to such a profound degree. Among all Spirits, I fear only Yumetsuki-san could accomplish such a feat."
Are you seriously mocking me while aggressively suppressing me?! You bastard!
Kurumi pressed her advantage, launching a fierce barrage of attacks. She wielded the musket and pistol like dual swords, continuously attacking and slashing against the limbs of Ratziel.
While both firearms and bows were technically long-range weapons, from any practical standpoint, guns held an overwhelming advantage in a close-quarters clash like this.
Take preparation time, for instance. Even though Angels didn't require physical ammunition or arrows to be reloaded, the time it took to draw a bowstring was at least five times longer than the time it took to pull a trigger.
Furthermore, pistols could, to some extent, be used as restraining weapons in melee combat. But a bow? Once an enemy got into zero-distance range, it was less useful than a wooden stick.
Clang! Clash! Feeling the jarring impacts and hearing the constant gunshots going off right next to her ears, Yumetsuki could only sigh in helpless resignation.
In this lifetime, I am destined to be completely useless at melee combat!
A solid wall of iron sand suddenly erupted from the ground, forcing Kurumi away from Yumetsuki. Seizing the opportunity, Yumetsuki used her magnetic field to send massive whips of iron sand dancing madly through the air, whipping toward Kurumi at breakneck speeds.
Kurumi dodged mid-air, making several sharp, angular evasive leaps. But as the iron sand whips coordinated their pincer attack, just as she was about to be trapped once more, the golden clock face materialized behind her again. She clearly intended to repeat her previous trick.
"Ratziel — Cannon Mode."
The grip section of the bow retracted into the main body, locking around Yumetsuki's right arm. The lightning-bolt-shaped, dark blue bow limbs snapped forward, aligning parallel to each other. From a distance, it looked less like a cannon barrel and more like a massive pair of pincers.
"Zafkiel — Aleph."
Once again, the Kurumi who was completely surrounded by iron sand vanished like dissipating mist, suddenly materializing in the air directly above Yumetsuki.
However, to Tokisaki Kurumi's absolute disbelief, it was as if Ryougi Yumetsuki had perfectly predicted where she would appear. Almost at the exact same instant Kurumi materialized, Yumetsuki raised Ratziel and aimed the cannon's muzzle squarely at Kurumi's abdomen.
"Railgun!"
The block of iron sand condensed at the muzzle was instantaneously transmuted into a blinding, orange-yellow beam of searing heat, blasting a massive, gaping hole straight through Kurumi's stomach.
"Why...?"
Facing Kurumi's dying question, Yumetsuki didn't answer. Because before she could even utter a word, the life had already completely faded from Kurumi's eyes.
Why? It wasn't actually that hard to understand. Yumetsuki had simply intentionally left a few slightly wider "gaps" in her iron sand encirclement, ensuring that those specific gaps formed the fastest, most direct route to her own position.
It was exactly like human psychology: when presented with several pre-cut slices of cake, people will naturally gravitate toward picking the largest slice.
Although Yumetsuki hadn't fully figured out the exact mechanics of Kurumi's Angel, based on the radar feedback from Ratziel, Kurumi wasn't using direct spatial teleportation. She was utilizing some form of hyper accelerated movement to physically evade her way to Yumetsuki's location.
Once she deduced that, the rest was easy. Leveraging the super computational power of Ratziel, Yumetsuki had designed a few seemingly safe and highly convenient escape routes as bait within an incredibly short timeframe. And Tokisaki Kurumi had very cooperatively walked right into the trap.
Yumetsuki's true, terrifying strength did not lie in her god-tier hacking abilities that could breach DEM Headquarters' firewall. Nor was it the power she could summon to pierce the Yamai Spirits, or the Railguns she used to destroy the world's strongest Wizard's mech. Her true strength was her formidable tactical layout—her ability to always deploy her powers exactly where they were most needed, meticulously orchestrating the battlefield step by step until her enemies unknowingly stepped right into her traps.
The same trick won't work twice on a Saint... er, Spirit.
Looking at Kurumi's corpse, which was already growing cold, Yumetsuki felt the nauseating sickness that came with killing someone for the first time. But more than that, she felt a profound sense of sorrow.
Despite being the most evil Spirit, she was also a young girl in the prime of her youth.
Spirits possessed overwhelming power, but the price was being viewed as calamities, treated as anomalies, and completely ostracized from human society.
Unable to be normal, unable to experience ordinary daily life, the only thing left for them was an abyss of bottomless loneliness that continuously tortured their hearts until it drove them to madness.
Perhaps, one day, she too would be unable to bear this suffering and stray down the wrong path.
"Leaving her exposed out here in the wilderness isn't right. I should bury her."
"Ara~ Yumetsuki-san is truly a kind hearted person."
A voice that absolutely shouldn't have existed rang out from behind her. Kurumi appeared behind Yumetsuki, completely unscathed, pressing the muzzle of her flintlock musket directly against the back of Yumetsuki's head.
But what Kurumi hadn't expected was that the very second her gun touched Yumetsuki's head, the iron sand on the ground morphed into a razor-sharp blade and cleanly severed Kurumi's right arm.
Kurumi didn't scream. Instead, she hastily retreated high into the sky. She now realized that on a terrain this rich in iron sand, the entire earth was essentially Yumetsuki's absolute domain.
"Zafkiel — Dalet (Fourth Bullet)."
Kurumi shot herself with the bullet formed at the "IV" numeral on her Angel. In an instant, the right arm that Yumetsuki had cleanly severed with iron sand was perfectly reattached to Kurumi's shoulder, completely restored as if it had never been cut off.
"I see... The ability to manipulate time..."
Watching a recovery process that looked exactly like rewinding a videotape, combined with the logic defying, hyper accelerated evasive maneuvers from earlier, and an Angel literally shaped like a giant clock dial... Putting these clues together, Yumetsuki instantly figured out her opponent's true ability.
"Did you know I wasn't dead from the start and were just putting on an act?"
Kurumi glared at Yumetsuki with intense wariness. In response, Yumetsuki simply shrugged noncommittally. "In DEM's Spirit pursuit records, the number of 'Confirmed Kill' reports for Nightmare is so absurdly high it's almost comical. I originally set up that defense just in case, acting on pure paranoia. I didn't expect it to actually come in handy."
"I see. As expected of Yumetsuki-san. What a brilliant mind you have. Well then, as a token of my gratitude, let me show you something wonderful! Come forth, 'Us'!"
Striking a theatrical pose to express her admiration, Kurumi pinched the frilly edges of her skirt and performed an elegant lady's curtsy. From the shadows stretching behind her, girls identical to Kurumi began leaping out one after another. No! More accurately, they were Tokisaki Kurumi.
Shadow Clones... Okay, let's not go there. I know this world has absolutely nothing to do with Naruto. Yumetsuki thought.
"How does it feel? These are my pasts, my history, my figures across various timelines. As long as I possess this ability, it is absolutely impossible for Miss Yumetsuki to kill me. So, what do you say? It would be much wiser to surrender early, Miss Yumetsuki. After all, I truly have no intention of hurting you."
Grinning widely, the 'Kurumis' surrounded Yumetsuki from all directions, aiming their flintlock guns at her while offering a seductively persuasive proposal.
"Unfortunately, I don't take kindly to being threatened."
Blades of iron sand continuously surged up from around Yumetsuki, whipping fiercely toward the surrounding 'Kurumis.'
"Honestly, acting tough is not a wise choice, Yumetsuki-san"
Sighing helplessly, the hands of the clock in Kurumi's left eye began to spin backward at high speed. The flintlock pistol was pointed at the "VII" numeral, and a shadow coalesced into a black bullet, loading itself into the chamber.
"Zafkiel — Zayin (Seventh Bullet)."
As Kurumi pulled the trigger, the pitch-black bullet traced a sinister trajectory as it closed in on Yumetsuki.
High-speed, deadly accurate, and fiercely aggressive. At such a short distance, not even a Spirit could dodge the bullet's attack. Yumetsuki manipulated a blade of iron sand beside her to swat the bullet out of the air.
However, that action was entirely meaningless. The moment the iron sand made contact with the bullet—
"Fufu, ahahahahahahaahahah!!"
As Kurumi's triumphant laughter echoed, Yumetsuki's body suddenly stopped moving entirely.
It wasn't just her limbs. Even her trench coat, which had been fluttering violently in the wind pressure, her hair dancing in the air, and the iron sand and electricity swirling around her—all of it froze in place, suspended mid-motion. The iron sand that had been whipping outward, having lost its controlling force, scattered harmlessly to the ground.
"Fufufu. No matter how overwhelming the power, no matter how brilliant the strategy, in the face of stopped time, it is all completely meaningless."
The Kurumi who had fired the "Seventh Bullet" walked up to Yumetsuki and fired a shot point-blank into each of her limbs, her abdomen, and her chest.
"Let's cripple your limbs first, it will make things much more convenient... Wait, what?!"
Kurumi's smile was replaced by sheer astonishment halfway through. She realized that the bullets she had just fired into Yumetsuki's body hadn't drawn a single drop of blood. In fact, there weren't even any bullet wounds.
As the effect of the Seventh Bullet faded, the figure of Yumetsuki slowly dissolved, leaving behind only a pile of scattered iron sand.
The 'Yumetsuki' she had frozen and shot was merely a projection created through optical refraction.
"It truly is a shame. In the face of stopped time, raw power might become meaningless, but strategy? Not necessarily."
Yumetsuki's actual body appeared outside the encirclement of the Kurumis. The Angel in her hands had reverted to its longbow form. Violent, surging electricity erupted around Yumetsuki, channeling wildly into the fingertips drawing the bowstring.
Slowly, an arrow that looked as if it had been carved from premium blue crystal materialized, nocked against the string of Ratziel.
A look of sheer terror, unadulterated fear....washed over Kurumi's face. She could clearly feel the apocalyptic level of raw, destructive lightning energy contained within that delicate, beautiful arrow.
"Don't worry, this isn't aiming at you." Yumetsuki drew the bowstring to its limit, slowly aiming the arrowhead toward the sky, a faint smile gracing her lips.
If she simply wanted to shoot Kurumi, a regular Railgun would achieve the same result and consume far less energy. This single arrow was draining at least half of Yumetsuki's entire spiritual power reserves.
A blinding flash of light shot straight into the heavens. The next second, countless dark, rolling storm clouds blotted out the sun, completely covering the desolate wasteland.
Desolate, freezing, and pitch-black, it looked as if the end of the world had arrived.
"Destroy everything! Thunderbolt of Myriad Heavens!"
Like a divine judgment handed down by the gods, the very next second, the world in Kurumi's eyes was entirely swallowed by an endless, roaring sea of lightning.