Margaret was the first to charge in.
The Insect Tide voluntarily parted before her, and Leike's Swarm Insects kept half a step away from her, unwilling to touch the aura spilling from her body.
She raised her right hand, palm facing forward, fingers slightly curled. The motion was casual, no different from taking something off a shelf in the branch storeroom.
The next moment, all moisture in the entire area was forcibly torn away.
The dampness within the Workshop Ruins, the moisture in the cracks of the walls, the water in the muddy ground, the final trace of mist in the air—all of it was violently stripped away in the same instant and dragged toward Margaret's palm. Even a thread of bodily fluid seeping from the gaps in Nine's carapace was drawn out.
The black liquid around J bore the brunt of it.
The pitch-black torrent pouring from his body suddenly collapsed inward the moment she raised her hand. Water was directly extracted from within the black water; deprived of its medium, the liquid rapidly thickened and dried, losing more than half its volume within a few breaths.
J tried to replenish it, but the newly condensed liquid was scattered before it could even take shape.
J's expression darkened. Water was the medium of the black water. She was fighting him for the same thing, and there was no finesse to it at all—she simply swallowed every drop of water within range with crushing force.
The humidity in the air had fallen so low that he could feel his skin tightening, while the black water he condensed happened to be the most concentrated source of water in the area.
Trying to wear her down at range was suicide.
J did not retreat.
He withdrew the black liquid spread out at