"Say that aga—"
Dai Bouken's roar completely drowned out the girls' voices. Its descending footstep boomed deafeningly, making Regina on Ash's shoulder cover her ears. The massive robot entirely obscured the Pretty Cures from view.
With his hand resting on the cover of the Closed Gear Gun, Ash narrowed his eyes slightly and carefully watched beneath Dai Bouken's foot.
After all, he had no intention of killing these girls here. Taking another person's life had never been a simple matter.
The enormous cloud of dust kicked up by Dai Bouken's foot was scattered by a violent gust. Just as Ash expected, he saw the Pretty Cures pinned beside Dai Bouken's foot, only their upper bodies exposed, half-buried in the ground as they lay on their backs with their mouths open and eyes squeezed shut.
"Ahhhhhhh—"
The three Pretty Cures braced their elbows against the ground and gripped the edge of Dai Bouken's foot with their palms, using one hundred and twenty percent of their strength to forcibly support the three-thousand-ton robot's weight.
The Pretty Cures' originally cute faces had flushed red from exertion. Their fingers, constantly rubbing against the metal, had torn open, and the pain of pushing their bodies beyond their limits—like being ripped apart from the inside—twisted their faces into expressions never seen before.
"Mana! Rikka! Arisu!"
Makoto, who had just been knocked out of her transformation and could not transform again yet, screamed her friends' names in anguish. If the other three girls had not desperately made space for her, an ordinary human, Makoto would likely have become the first casualty.
"Strength—" Ai forced out a few words through her chattering teeth. "I can't—use my strength!"
The Pretty Cures' power came from the convictions in their hearts. In this space, Ai's power seemed to have sunk into