Mecha-Kai Species in Dimensional Travel

However, a situation outside of his predictions occurred next.

"-[Bullet of Eight]-"

Sweeping away the Kurumi clones around him with his blade, Xiu Er instantly manifested a flintlock pistol in his other hand. The energy from the clock converged into it, and he fired the shot at himself.

Bullet of Eight, which reproduces one's own past; simply put, it creates clones weaker than the original body.

It was also the source of this group of Kurumi clones.

Xiu Er had naturally finished analyzing the clones and possessed complete data; he just hadn't been able to use it before because he lacked the data on Zaphkiel.

And then...

Countless clones of Xiu Er (actually only about thirty-some units) appeared on the battlefield.

The Kurumi clones had originally posed no threat to Xiu Er, and now that their numerical advantage had vanished, the Kurumi clones were pushed back and wiped out by the group of Xiu Ers without any suspense...

"See you next time."

The blade was pulled from the girl's chest.

Xiu Er had killed Kurumi.

But he knew that the one he had just killed was merely a clone; just a moment ago, Kurumi had very skillfully used a clone to replace herself.

Although he had noticed her little trick, he didn't care. After all, to be honest, his goal for this operation was not to kill Kurumi.

Now, aside from the destruction caused by the battle with the Kurumi clones, there were no other traces left in the surroundings.

The corpses of the "dead" Kurumi clones had long been pulled into the "shadows," as if she were deathly afraid that Xiu Er would take the bodies for research, leaving not a single one behind.

With the matter concluded, Xiu Er retracted all his armaments and summoned the Fake Demoness.

As the light dissipated, that cute Xiu Er returned to the stage.

A satisfied expression hung on Xiu Er's face at this moment.

A bountiful harvest!

That was his assessment of this operation.

This place was a considerable distance from the city, and Xiu Er had specifically chosen this virtually uninhabited area.

He did so to avoid accidentally causing casualties to innocent people, and this battle should not have been discovered by anyone.

However, amidst his excitement, an expected person appeared here just as he had anticipated.

A voice came from above his head.

"What happened here?"

Chapter 10: Encounter with Mana and the Reaction of DEM Company

Looking up, a blue-haired girl wearing white armor with a high degree of exposure appeared in the air.

Beyond that, Xiu Er's eyes also spotted other AST units standing by remotely.

It seems I really did make a bit too much noise after all.

He sighed silently in his heart.

And this girl, Xiu Er recognized her as well.

In the original story, she was the other younger sister of Itsuka Shido, or rather, the younger sister from Shido's previous life.

Takamiya Mana.

In the original work, she came to Tengu City to hunt down Kurumi and met Shido.

But, logically speaking, she shouldn't be here at this point in time.

Mana descended in front of Xiu Er, but stopped in her tracks when she was 10 meters away.

On this devastated ground, besides the corpses of what was suspected to be the Nightmare, there was only this girl who looked completely out of place in such an environment.

After Mana approached, Xiu Er subconsciously scanned her physical data.

Hmm, shorter than me.

For some reason, Xiu Er's peculiar train of thought led him to this conclusion.

"May I ask, why are you alone in a place like this?"

Mana asked Xiu Er with a kind smile and a gentle tone, as if she were a big sister from next door.

However, her action of tightly gripping her weapon, combined with her tense posture, clearly revealed her true intentions at this moment.

Mana's subtle movements had nowhere to hide from Xiu Er's eyes.

As for her communication with her teammates, it had actually been hacked the moment she approached Xiu Er.

Their conversation on the channel was heard by Xiu Er with perfect clarity.

"Number One is ready."

"Number Two is ready."

"Number Three has arrived at position."

"Number Four..."

Thus, with Xiu Er allowing it, all other AST members—save for Takamiya Mana who was there to stabilize herself—had taken their positions, forming a encirclement around Xiu Er.

They didn't launch an attack immediately; could it be that they were afraid their technology would be stolen by Xiu Er?

No one could answer Xiu Er's question, and he didn't care what the answer was anyway.

All he knew now was that in the past half month, counting Kurumi just now, he had already clashed with four Spirits.

Except for this time, which took place in the suburbs and went unnoticed, the previous three times were all within the city and must have been detected by various factions.

And in fact, that was exactly the case.

As early as when Xiu Er fought Tohka, he had already attracted the attention of other forces.

An unidentified robot was actually able to fight a Spirit, and even hold its own.

The person who could create such a weapon must not be simple.

As for the subsequent search operations for the creator, we will not go into detail here.

Later, when they learned that Xiu Er had released information about Gokurokugai, their determination to find the creator became even stronger.

Unfortunately, they were destined to return empty-handed.

They had also considered trying to find Xiu Er directly to establish contact with the creator.

But I digress.

To return to the present, among the missions assigned to Takamiya Mana and the others, there was one long-term objective.

That was to search for and make contact with the creator to obtain information, or if possible, bring him back to headquarters.

And Xiu Er knew all of this.

"Bzzt... bzzt---"

Static suddenly erupted in the voice channel, a sudden development that startled Takamiya Mana.

She immediately looked into Xiu Er's eyes, and then she saw those golden eyes glowing with an eerie light.

It really was her doing!

Seeing that the opponent had taken the initiative to attack, Takamiya Mana no longer held back, choosing to strike first before the opponent could draw a weapon.

In an instant, she drew a laser double-edged sword from the shield structure on her right arm and charged toward Xiu Er.

Takamiya Mana possessed a wealth of combat experience, and she was one of the top five aces in the world.

Facing such a person, Xiu Er naturally would not be careless.

And so, he made his next move.

He wanted to see just how strong one of the world's top aces really was.

While Xiu Er was fighting the Takamiya Mana he had encountered, the "eyes" of other factions far away were also watching the scene.

Deep in the headquarters of DEM Company in another country...

Isaac, a director of the company, sat at his desk, watching the footage of Xiu Er fighting Takamiya Mana on the screen before him with an excited expression.

At this moment, he glanced at the blonde woman behind him and asked casually, "What do you think, Ellen? If you were to fight 'her', what would your win rate be?"

"Ellen" was the blonde woman's name; her full name was Ellen Mira Mathers. She claimed to be the world's strongest Magus, was one of the founders of DEM Company, and also served as Isaac's secretary.

The "her" Isaac referred to was naturally the unidentified robot in the footage, Xiu Er.

Originally only interested in Spirits, his reason for paying attention to Xiu Er was his ability to replicate the Angels of the Spirits.

Isaac saw Xiu Er's value, and he had already begun to fantasize about what would happen when the power of all the Spirits was concentrated in Xiu Er!

Regarding this, the oblivious Xiu Er, far away on the other side, would have said:

Nothing would happen; the armaments would not conflict, and the replicated Angels were just different weapons to him.

While Isaac began watching the video recording, Ellen had been watching from the side the whole time.

"It's hard to judge. I cannot see the opponent's upper limit, and besides..." She looked toward Takamiya Mana's side, "Takamiya Mana is about to lose."

"Her Realizer is malfunctioning. Since the engagement with the target began, the failures have become increasingly severe."

"Just as you said."

Isaac looked at the screen, and sure enough, the situation was exactly as Ellen had predicted.

Takamiya Mana's Realizer suddenly suffered a critical failure; the thrusters on her legs cut out, and her Territory collapsed due to armor issues.

And just like that, Takamiya Mana plummeted from the sky toward the ground.

At this point, the outcome was decided.

Xiu Er did not bring out her Spirit armament series; this battle was merely to personally test the combat capabilities of the human side.

As the progress bar reached the end, the video paused just as Xiu Er landed in front of Mana.

"Regarding your question from earlier, I cannot determine the answer for the time being."

"Oh? Could it be that our proud world's number one Wizard, Lady Ellen, cannot guarantee she can defeat her?"

A playful smile hung on Isaac's face.

"According to the conclusions drawn from the video, the opponent has a significant influence on machinery. If my Realizer were to malfunction during the battle, I would instantly be in danger."

That was true. Although Ellen claimed to be the world's strongest Wizard and her Territory was indeed very powerful, apart from that, her physical body was incredibly weak—even an ordinary person could stop her.

"That is true. If that situation were to occur, you would become a fish on a chopping block, waiting to be slaughtered."

After hearing Ellen's reasoning, Isaac nodded in agreement.

There was no helping it; the suppression power Xiu Er displayed against mechanical units and her mastery over the powers of different Spirits were indeed not so easy to deal with.

"However, if I were to face her, I would do everything in my power to defeat her."

Ellen added this final sentence.

To this, Isaac remained noncommittal.

"Is that so? Then I'll leave it to you~"

He walked to the door and looked back at Ellen with a meaningful gaze.

"?"

"Help me process these documents, thanks."

"Hey!"