The Mecha-Kai Species During Dimensional Travel

But this time, facing Xiu Er's attack, Kotori chose not to block it. Instead, she took it head-on and retaliated with even fiercer strikes than before.

She ignored the wounds piling up on her body, focusing solely on gripping her weapon tightly, swinging the flame-wreathed great axe down at Xiu Er without pause.

Her fighting style had changed.

The rampaging Kotori had abandoned all concept of defense. At this moment, she only wanted to smash her weapon into the mechanical body before her.

No longer caring about the damage she would take.

It was a pure trade-blow-for-blow approach.

But for Kotori, who possessed extraordinary regenerative abilities, this was indeed a viable method.

To be honest, if she kept up this mental state, the only way to stop her would be to drain her spiritual power dry.

"-[Codex Opening]-[No Passage]-"

The descending great axe was ultimately blocked by a golden barrier, producing a grating, teeth-clenching sound.

Crackle...

The ground beneath Xiu Er's feet began to show signs of freezing.

Then, starting from the tip of his right foot, massive ice spread outward, countless ice crystals instantly covering everything in front of Xiu Er, including Kotori and beyond.

The originally blazing red sea of fire was frozen in an instant, flames sealed within the ice crystals. At this moment, Xiu Er's surroundings had become a silver-white kingdom of ice.

Crack.

The ice crystal encasing Kotori began to show fissures, then heat surged out from within.

"-[Codex Opening]-[Pseudo-Codex]-..."

Kotori melted the ice that had sealed her from the inside, freeing herself, but before she could react, she was struck by a familiar weapon and sent flying.

[Great Flame of Destruction], a red battle axe of excessively massive proportions, was now held in Xiu Er's hands. Unlike Kotori's, the axe in Xiu Er's hands also bore golden decorative patterns.

In truth, the analysis of Kotori had been completed long before she went berserk.

Xiu Er didn't have to spend so much time fighting her; he could have simply turned and left.

But this was his own insistence.

The incident was caused by him, and Kotori's rampage was as well.

Originally, he brought his targets to uninhabited areas to fight precisely to avoid collateral damage, and after each battle, he would send them back.

Kotori in this state couldn't be sent back, so he had to knock her unconscious first.

But there was another way to resolve it.

Earlier, when he first approached Kotori, Xiu Er had discovered a tracker planted on her.

After some consideration and based on his calculated conclusions, he chose to let it continue functioning on her.

But now, the moment Kotori engaged him in combat, the tracker was destroyed. The good news was that Xiu Er took a moment to scan it and found that the data had been successfully transmitted.

"-[Codex Opening]-[Speed Violation]-"

Golden particles dispersed from various parts of Xiu Er's frame.

He raised the massive axe, longer than his own body, and in an instant, he dashed to where Kotori had just landed, slamming it down toward her.

Leaping high, gripping the handle with both hands, he raised the great axe and swung it down at Kotori.

Eat my Noxian Guillotine, damn it!

Boom!!--

That night, Shido did not go to sleep as usual.

Because his sister, Kotori, had yet to come home.

Based on past experience, Kotori should have been home by now. But why?

Still no word at all. Calls went unanswered, messages unreturned.

Had something happened?

Attacked by thugs on the way?

No, that couldn't be right—couldn't she just teleport home?

Maybe she had more work today?

But even so, working overtime until now?

Shido sat on the living room sofa, his face full of anxiety. He imagined countless possibilities, but none could convince himself.

Just then, his phone rang.

He hurriedly picked it up to check, but unfortunately, it wasn't the number he was hoping to see.

"Hey, who is it?"

"It's me, Kyouhei Kannazuki."

"You. I wanted to ask, is Kotori still on the Fraxinus? Why hasn't she come back yet?"

Hearing it was someone familiar, Shido quickly voiced his question.

Unfortunately, the answer he got wasn't what he hoped for.

"I'm calling you precisely because of the commander's situation. Come to the ship and we'll talk face to face."

With that, Kannazuki hung up.

Shido stared at his phone, completely baffled as to why Kannazuki was contacting him so late. But since it involved Kotori, he had no choice but to go.

After arriving on the Fraxinus, Kannazuki and Reine together explained the whole story to Shido, and he finally understood why Kotori hadn't come home that night.

Though learning that Kotori was also a Spirit left Shido at a loss, the next piece of news—that Kotori had gone alone to face the Spirit Hunter—hit him like a hammer blow.

Shido immediately demanded that Kannazuki and the others take him to find Kotori.

The good news was that Reine had had the foresight to place a tracking device on Kotori without her knowledge.

According to the system, Kotori's teleportation point was near their home. She then moved away from home, suddenly stopped, and abruptly vanished. The tracker then reappeared somewhere over the ocean.

The crew of the Fraxinus quickly pinpointed Kotori's location and piloted the ship there.

And the timing coincided exactly with Xiu Er using the "Luxas Guillotine" on Kotori.

Chapter 25: The Unexpected Person

The massive axe slammed solidly into Kotori's body.

Because Xiu Er had held back, there was no clean severing.

Knocked down by the immense force, Kotori lay flat on the ground, glaring at her opponent with nothing but fury.

The axe blade dug deep into Kotori's shoulder blade, making it impossible for her to keep a grip on her weapon.

Clang...

The Great Flame of Destruction fell to the ground.

A faint blue healing flame spread over most of Kotori's body.

At this moment, Xiu Er observed that her recovery speed had slowed.

Is her spiritual power running out?

Xiu Er breathed a quiet sigh of relief in his heart.

Though Kotori was already at her last gasp, the depletion of her spiritual power gradually brought back some of her rationality.

"Ugh... ah..."

But not much...

Her once delicate face was now covered in scars from the battle. Still, given time, she would be able to recover on her own.

Pulling out the great axe, Xiu Er scanned Kotori's body once more.

The facts were just as he had expected.

Then this battle should come to an end.

Xiu Er looked at the battlefield, ravaged by their fight. To be fair, the frozen flames looked quite spectacular.

The vegetation had long been burned away by Kotori's flames, leaving nothing but stones of various sizes scattered across the ground.

Turning his head, he once again looked up at the sky in an unusual manner.

There, an invisible ship hovered—the Fraxinus, which had just arrived.

Confirming the arrivals, it was exactly the time he had planned for.

Xiu Er retracted his armament. Pulling the great axe from Kotori's body, he crouched beside her head.

A part of the device on his head suddenly unfolded—it was a plugin for the War Song Diva.

Xiu Er spoke in a voice only Kotori could hear.

"Please, have a good sleep."

Having expended a massive amount of spiritual power, Kotori, now in a heavily damaged state, could no longer resist the magic of that voice.

Xiu Er's words entered her ears, and he covered her eyes with his hand.

Under the effect of the War Song Diva's ability, Kotori's breathing quickly steadied.

The rampaging spiritual power within her also calmed down.

Hoo... hoo...

Within just a few seconds, she fell into a deep sleep.

Yeah, judging by that expression, it didn't seem like a good dream.

After confirming Kotori had lost consciousness, Xiu Er didn't linger any longer.

This time, she chose not to bring Kotori back.

Because just now, her Bio Detector had scanned Itsuka Shido, who had been sent down.

Right now, Shido was hiding behind a rock, secretly watching every move here.

So he didn't impulsively rush out to stop her this time.

It seemed he'd finally learned to think things through.

Just like she did after every battle with a spirit, Xiu Er used a Space Gate to leave this place.

Only after confirming Xiu Er had truly left did Shido run out from behind cover and dash to Kotori's side...

Everything was as usual. Leaving the isolated island far from civilization, Xiu Er returned to the bustling city based on her original coordinates.

But by now, it was already three in the morning.

At this hour, aside from some hardcore gamers grinding games and certain overworked corporate slaves, probably no one else was still awake.

She strolled down the quiet streets.

Darkness posed no problem for her—it was only natural for the Mecha-Kai species to have night vision in their eyes, right?

[Great Flame of Destruction] had been fully analyzed by her. Although Kotori hadn't used the "cannon" form in their previous battle, Xiu Er had still copied both of its forms.