Pack It Up and Take It Away

(Miluno)

"Betelgeuse."

The expressionless, bookish girl adjusted the bridge of her thick-rimmed glasses.

"You were disconnected for seven seconds."

This guy is incredibly meticulous; he calculated everything so clearly.

"It's nothing, the repeater was probably damaged, and the signal is a bit unstable."

"Yeah?"

The Book Witch readily accepted my fabricated reasons.

She picked up a book and flipped through it, then asked, "Are the intruders still on the lower levels?"

"Hmm, that invisible guy is not easy to deal with."

"You set so many traps and still couldn't deal with her?"

"She's gotten smarter; she's started to dismantle my traps."

The Book Witch flipped through the book, and without looking up, said:

"Dismantling the traps will take time. As long as we slow her down before she finishes hatching, that's fine. If there weren't those traps, I could send the 'Book Person' to help."

This is the Upper District of Betelgeuse Base, where the Book Witch and another witch of unknown magic are guarding SpiCa.

These two must be the witches who went to the branch to snatch people away.

The Witchification Process by Aldebaran has begun, and SpiCa's Witch Persona is eroding her original consciousness, but she can still be saved by taking her back and using the personality adjustment capsule.

But I don't know where she's being held, and I need to figure out how to deal with these two witches first.

I overheard their conversation.

The Book Witch is named Viktorika, and her magic has already been glimpsed; it can be basically confirmed that she is the type who summons monsters from books to assist in battle.

Another witch is named Regil. The specific effects of her magic are unknown, but she can transform into a large, fluffy ball bat and fly... Let's just call her the Bat Witch.

She was fast asleep on the sofa.

Because both of them had the ability to fly, they were able to enter this second-floor area without stairs and become Betelgeuse's subordinates.

However, being an autistic child Betelgeuse would never come here in its true form; it would only communicate through this machine's clone. These two witches also understand Betelgeuse's nature, so they basically don't speak to me...

Hey, that really helped a lot.

Therefore, one should not be too isolated, otherwise no one will know when you encounter real trouble.

Betelgeuse's mechanical clone can even use my own magic, just like how Fomalhaut used a mechanical clone to unleash sword energy.

However, three times is the limit; any further increases will result in a noticeable delay, making it extremely difficult to deal with two witches.

Moreover, the controls always feel a bit detached, especially the lack of tactile feedback, which makes it hard to feel a sense of realism. I definitely wouldn't be able to control it flexibly in a real fight.

It doesn't work well.

So if we're going to take action, I'll have to do it myself.

But there's no rush.

Using Betelgeuse's identity, I can move around on the upper platform and scout out the surrounding environment.

There is a platform running east to west on the upper level, which looks like a flight deck. There are no traps in this area, but for Betelgeuse, it is probably not a real base. The lower level, which is full of traps, and even the underground core area, is Betelgeuse's hiding place.

Then, I found SpiCa.

There is also a laboratory on the upper platform.

Similar to the setup at Fomalhaut, it's likely that each base is equipped with such a laboratory for Aldebaran to conduct research and modifications.

Anjie was casually left in the laboratory hall by Fomalhaut to undergo modification, but SpiCa was, after all, the Tactical Division of the Association, so the treatment was completely different.

She was locked in a transparent observation room.

Not only was it transparent, but there was also no one guarding it. The two witches were lounging in the outer reception room. In their view, there was no way I could appear directly in the laboratory, since teleportation magic required seeing beforehand.

If I had chosen to climb higher, I would most likely have beaten down the two witches and watched SpiCa be executed by my current mechanical clone. But because I foresaw the Future, things became exceptionally simple.

All I need to do is open a teleportation portal in the observation room, then carry SpiCa away. Now that I'm merged with Sirius, I can use cross-dimensional teleportation magic continuously, let alone this kind of short-distance teleportation.

But since we're already here, we have to...

Fun activities

Boom!

Ziiiimmm--

With a strange explosion, the ground below the reception room, along with Betelgeuse's mechanical clone, was crushed into scrap metal by Metal's Anti-Metal Bomb.

This is certainly no coincidence; it's just part of my script.

Seeing Betelgeuse fall, Viktorika reacted quickly. She summoned an angry wolf and blew a howling gust of wind into the underground cave entrance. But she didn't realize that I didn't actually attack from underground at all.

"Regil! Don't sleep... tsk."

The Bat Witch she tried to wake had already been slammed to the ground by my leg with a thud, seamlessly transitioning from slumber to unconsciousness.

Two people were taken down in a single encounter (actually just one), yet the location of the enemy remained unknown. Despite this dire situation, the Book Witch remained calm and summoned card soldiers wielding spears to surround herself.

Magical girls without Dark Energy within them cannot unleash their full power here. Perhaps the Sirius Crystal is too strong; this theory doesn't seem to apply to me.

The Playing-Card Soldiers in front was torn in half by my accelerated state. Using this as a breakthrough, I grabbed Viktorika's arm and pulled her out of the encirclement. She wanted to open the book to summon something more, but I forced the pages shut with brute force and she couldn't open it at all.

"Give up. Only Fomalhaut can fight me; the other witches are no match for me."

"How could a magical girl be...?"

Even under these circumstances, she remained expressionless.

"This is the power of Sirius. Now, you should get some sleep."

I knocked out this rather intelligent young woman with a literary flair.

"It's resolved."

Then they dragged out Orion, who was hiding in the corner and bound Betelgeuse.

She's awake.

But there was no way to break free from the simple bindings of hemp rope, climbing rope, iron chain, hood, handcuffs, and gags; he could only writhe on the ground like a maggot.

I squatted down in front of her and patted her delicate, soft face.

"Miss, you've caused us no end of trouble. Now that you're in my hands, don't think I'll let you off easily."

After tying up the Book Witch and the Bat Witch with ropes, I dragged the three of them toward the laboratory.

"Huh?"

However.

SpiCa, which should have been here, was nowhere to be found.

Only a note was left in the observation room.

[Sorry, Miluno- chan, you've made a wasted trip~ Spica- chan is very important to my plan, so I can't hand her over to you yet! By the way, once you see this note, hurry up and run, or you'll be too late!]

The note was signed Aldebaran.

But "too late" means...

An ominous premonition forced me to freeze in time, and when I turned around, I saw a missile-shaped object shot into the upper platform...

"National Treasure!"

Although we don't know what kind of bomb it is.

But I dragged my three burdens and escaped into the wormhole.