Silver hair, styled in twin Roman curls—a peculiar hairstyle that could be called twin-turbocharged.
Skin as fair as the Siberian snowfields.
Unworldly, deprived of sunlight day after day.
Her delicate features looked as though she were a doll meticulously crafted by an artisan. Like an object, she was just as cold, her expression impossible to describe in any ordinary way. She brought to mind glaciers in the far north that had remained frozen for a thousand years.
Her clothes were not the chariot that symbolized a knight.
A fitted, dark brown suit-dress, with a yellow bow tie at the collar. Below the shorts in the same color was an advanced anti-gravity device built into an exoskeleton.
—Bronya.
If that really was her, why? Why had she lost?
"Why do you still suppress it? Why do you still endure, Subject designation: [Raiden Mei]?"
A voice colder than any mere indifference.
—Reached her ears.
Raiden Mei swung her blade with all her might.
She faced her enemy with lightning—a foe she could not possibly match, yet who could easily crush her.
She couldn't win.
She couldn't keep up with a purely mechanical speed.
Even if she wielded thunder, that didn't mean she could move as fast as lightning. Compared with the technology of the Previous Era and the anti-gravity exoskeleton, her speed simply wasn't enough.
She swung once. The girl dodged again, her cold expression seemingly mocking Mei.
Mei swung once more, using a reverse diagonal slash to sweep forward with a blow that covered every inch of space.
—Still, it was pointless.
She endlessly repeated her futile attacks.
It was the girl who—
"Bang—"
A projectile fired from the wide cannon barrel. Its initial velocity instantly exceeded the speed of sound several times over, tearing through layer upon layer of sound barriers. Raiden Mei swung her blade to intercept it.
Her speed wasn't enough, but that didn't mean she couldn't see the shot coming.
She didn't need to be faster than the shell. She only needed to be faster than the machine, enough to catch the telltale motion before it fired—
"Clang—!"
The blade struck the shell, sparks flying. Raiden Mei gripped the hilt so tightly that faint blue veins rose on the backs of her hands.
—She could block it.
"Bang."
The instant Raiden Mei thought that, the girl in front of her drew a pistol.
She could react, but she had no strength left to defend herself.
She immediately stepped left with her right foot to dodge, but the result was—
A streak of blood arced through the air. By the time she realized what had happened, the bullet had already left the barrel.
The pain came afterward.
There was no time to care about it now.
The electromagnetic field around her sealed away the most common electromagnetic weapons. But it could only neutralize some of the damage from physical weapons. Even if the remaining damage wasn't enough to kill her outright—
But...
"Whoosh—!"
A flash of silver appeared in her vision almost at the same time.
With one foot still in the air, she couldn't dodge again in quick succession. Raiden Mei could only raise her right elbow high and, as the lance came down, use it together with the magnetic field to deflect the attack.
The sharp tip of the lance first touched the seemingly ordinary air around her. Countless arcs of electricity sprang into existence, coiling around the shaft, before her pale elbow slammed into it—
"Riiip."
Bright red blood flowed from her torn sleeve, slid over her fair skin, and fell to the ground.
"Drip, drip."
The fight was going too badly. If this continued, she would be worn down and die.
Raiden Mei reached that grim conclusion.
She couldn't accept it.
Somewhere inside her, something seemed to be screaming.
—The power of her Stigmata surged forth, along with an unknown, violently frenzied force.
All she had to do was accept it, allow it, and everything that poured out like the contents of the Black Grail would be enough to easily erase the enemy before her.
But she knew what this power was called. It was the same kind of power found in the heroes of countless action manga and novels.
—Going berserk.
She absolutely couldn't let that happen!
Raiden Mei's hands, clenched around the hilt, were swollen and aching, and bruised blood seeped from her fingertips. Even so, she kept enduring.
"Why do you still suppress it? Why do you still endure, Subject designation: [Raiden Mei]?"
The girl in front of her spoke coldly, her puppet-like face showing no change in expression.
"How could someone like you, who doesn't even have feelings, understand?!"
Raiden Mei angrily swung again. As she slashed horizontally from above, she twisted her waist and turned her wrist.
She abruptly changed her move, following with a fierce horizontal cut.
In a normal duel, that strike would have been fatal.
But the girl before her was no ordinary opponent. The instant she judged that there was no normal way to dodge the attack, she activated the anti-gravity device to its fullest. The bolt of lightning barely grazed the soles of her feet, leaving only a slight charred smell before missing once more.
Right after that, the giant mecha behind her raised its lance and hurtled down from above.
"—Raiden Mei!"
That familiar voice rang in her ear again.
Even though she could barely make out sounds anymore, she instinctively recognized Jiang Cheng's voice.
"Unleash more of your power! I'm fine. I can hold out a little longer. You're the one who can't afford to die, so focus on staying safe!"
"I can't..."
Raiden Mei clenched her teeth, planted both feet firmly on the ground, and swung her blade along the edge of the lance's tip.
"—I can't do that!"
"...Jiang Cheng?"
Bronya turned her head, her silver-white eyes fixed on Jiang Cheng, who was barely managing to prop himself up in the corner.
"—Don't even dream of it!"
The lightning-wreathed blade abruptly cut through her line of sight. The attacks that followed grew wilder, and she almost completely abandoned the useless moves she had been using until now.
Raiden Mei clenched her silver teeth and pressed her attack relentlessly.
Her flowing blade-light carved out a domain of absolute vacuum within a distance of barely two meters.
—Still, it was useless.
But it was enough to make Bronya shift her attention once more to her primary target.
Threat level: low.
Assessment: irrelevant.
But... she was already injured this badly. Why was she still enduring?
P.S.
The Dark Side of the Toyokawa Family: I'm the One!
[Anime crossover + Wooden Cabinets + Magical Girl] [Male lead with a harem]
"Congrats, big brother, you can finally **!"
"Huh!? Me?"
After Mr. Chuhiko was accidentally hit by a Maybach on a rainy night and reincarnated, he decided to show what he was really capable of!
Until he was kidnapped by the yakuza and sold to star in underground films...
"I get it! Humanity has limits! We have to go beyond being human!"
And so, the world underwent a great upheaval.
Sakiko Toyokawa: "I spent my youth with Chuhiko!"
Hatsune Misumi: "Brother, all those days gone by..."
Sadaharu Toyokawa: "What a pair of star-crossed lovers... Wait, what!?"
Yuki Tsukishiro: "Chuhiko! In the end, everyone goes to heaven! And now I've reached the pinnacle!!! Hahaha... What do you mean, the Witch of the Round God is reviving... It's fine, just a witch... What do you mean, life lasts fifty years, like a dream or an illusion..."
[This book is also known as: Why Does Hatsune Misumi Hide Her History of Selling Hooks?]
Chapter 22: Grey Snake: I Want Cyrene (Revised)
Inside the operations command room, layered with tight security and surrounded so thoroughly it was like an iron barrel.
"Grey Snake, what are you trying to do?" Cocolia looked down at the human-shaped projection before her.
"Cyrene. The woman named Cyrene."
The human-shaped projection wore a cloak and mask, dressed like a standard great villain and mastermind behind the scenes—
Grey Snake nodded, cold and calm.
"The Serpent will not interfere with how you handle the Third Herrscher's Subject. But Cyrene—she must be handed over to the Serpent."
"Oh~ Is she your illegitimate daughter?"
Cocolia glanced at the screen in front of her.
On the left, one of several divided screens showed the pink-haired girl recovering from the impact and looking around—
Cyrene.
Aili.
After a few seconds without finding her target, she held out a small hand toward the air, murmuring a string of incomprehensible words.
Then, in a completely incomprehensible way, as if by magic, she summoned a crystal from the Glazed Realm out of thin air.
"—!"
The red light beneath Grey Snake's mask flickered violently.
Even someone completely ignorant could tell it was experiencing a powerful emotional upheaval.
Several seconds passed, and it still hadn't calmed down. Cocolia had never seen it act this way. No matter what plans she presented, no matter how grand the technology or structure, it always met them with calm.
Just when she thought it wouldn't answer, Grey Snake turned its head.
"She may be necessary for this era. The mistakes of the past must never be repeated."
Cocolia furrowed her brow and looked down at it.
"And if I refuse?"
Before you continue