Hiding behind the heavily armored Operators.
Was this Rhodes Island's style?
Tonatiuh, Shadow That Devours the Sun, hung high in the sky, unstoppable and imposing.
Hoshino habitually drew her blade and shielded Lumen behind her. Yet unlike usual, she did not charge forward without hesitation. Instead, she stood on guard several meters ahead of Lumen, as though this battle was difficult even for her.
Protecting her?
Lumen had no idea what history she might have shared with the shrine maiden, and this sudden warmth left her deeply unsettled.
"Were we... close before?"
Without looking back, Hoshino said, "Didn't I tell you? This is our first meeting."
The pinnacle of acting was when someone was clearly telling the truth, yet no one believed it. The audience preferred the script they had constructed.
Lumen stubbornly believed that she and the shrine maiden had a history together, and she kept probing for the so-called [truth]. Hoshino, however, always answered with a smile.
But that was the truth. Hoshino and Lumen really were meeting for the first time.
She simply knew what she needed to know.
"Scatter."
In a single crossing sword technique, cherry blossoms scattered as she slashed at the empty space not far ahead. Lumen blinked in confusion.
The enemy wasn't there.
Space began to ripple. Tonatiuh vanished from the distance, and a thin blue line streaked through the air. That grotesque, terrifying figure suddenly appeared before them.
Rather than movement, it was more like a spatial leap.
"The power of Chaos?!"
Hoshino displayed precisely the right amount of shock.
Shell and blade crossed, yet they strangely did not collide. It was as if they did not exist in the same space, passing through one another.
Lumen froze. The shrine maiden pressed a hand to her shoulder and swept backward with her.