Chapter 48

Her voice trembling with tears, Lingmeng pleaded with him.

She was terrified that Shiori would ignore her warning and stay. More than anything, she feared he would get hurt because of her.

"..." Shiori lowered his head, his expression dark.

He hated having no power to help Lingmeng. He hated that, for all his talk of saving her, he could do nothing.

In that moment, he felt painfully small and helpless.

After a long struggle with himself, Shiori finally spoke through trembling lips.

"Okay... I'll leave!"

With that, Shiori turned and left. He knew it might not be the right thing to do, but it was the only thing he could do now.

Watching him go, Lingmeng let out a quiet sigh.

I guess someone as cursed as me can only wander alone.

Well... none of that matters now. As long as Shiori is safe... Huh? Why are my eyes wet?

Lingmeng wiped the corners of her eyes. Was she crying?

"Oh, how touching. Well? We generously gave you time to say goodbye. Aren't you moved?

"Once you become Lord Isaac's test subject, you'll never see that girl again."

Anlia Finlander, who had been watching them from the start, broke into a deranged laugh now that Lingmeng and Shiori had said their last words.

Lingmeng's expression hardened, anger returning to her face.

"Enough talk! If you're going to fight, then fight! It's not over yet, so you don't know who'll win! Even without my powers, I won't just stand here and let you do whatever you want!"

Lingmeng pointed Elemental Spirit at the figures in the sky and declared war.

Seeing that Lingmeng had truly given up using her powers for someone who had nothing to do with the fight, Chiba Shizuna merely closed her sleepy eyes and muttered,

"Lord Isaac was right. The Element Maker really is a remarkably human Spirit. But for a Spirit like you, that kindness is probably a sin."

One Against a Hundred

"Hah! Weren't you just bragging that you'd wipe the floor with us? What happened to all that confidence!?"

The battle between Lingmeng and hundreds of DEM Wizards had begun.

Led by Anlia Finlander, the Wizards rushed Lingmeng, attacking with white-glowing Light Swords, Gatling guns, and missiles.

As Lingmeng fended them off, she assessed their strength.

Even the ordinary DEM Wizards here were stronger than typical AST members, though they had not reached Origami's level.

Lingmeng could still beat them in hand-to-hand combat without using her powers, but that would cost her stamina.

They might not be especially strong individually, but their sheer numbers would let them wear her down.

And they were the least of her problems. The real trouble was the three Wizards before her who ranked among the World's Top Five.

After watching them for several minutes, Lingmeng had a rough grasp of their abilities.

If Origami, equipped with a mass-produced AST CR-UNIT, had one-quarter of Ellen's strength,

then each of these three had roughly one-third of Ellen's. Working together, they would be about as strong as Ellen herself.

Three Wizards whose combined strength rivaled the Strongest Wizard, plus a crowd of Wizards stronger than ordinary AST members.

DEM had sent all that to capture her. In a way, Lingmeng supposed her body was quite the prize.

Not that she was happy about it.

"I told you, I'm not going to let you do whatever you want!"

"Aah!" ×N

Lingmeng put all her strength into a swing at the group of Wizards ahead.

After knocking them back, she raised Elemental Spirit and darted toward Anlia Finlander, ready to strike.

"Hah! Take this!"

Lingmeng attacked without a moment's hesitation.

As things stood, the ordinary Wizards posed little threat. The only real danger came from these three among the World's Top Five, so Lingmeng wanted to deal with them as soon as possible.

"!!!"

Anlia Finlander had not yet reacted. Just as Lingmeng's blow was about to land, something appeared in front of her.

Clang! Only then did Lingmeng realize that a high-tech metal shield had stopped her attack.

"This is..." Lingmeng frowned slightly.

"Whew, that was close, Anlia Finlander."

Chiba Shizuna spoke with a look of relief. She was probably the one who had deployed the shield.

A moment later, her expression turned serious.

"You should be charged up by now. Can you attack, Emilia Reylos?"

"Don't order me around! I'm always at max power!"

Behind Chiba Fumina, Emilia Reylos held a white Longbow taller than she was. It glowed blue as she aimed it at Lingmeng.

"Take this, Element Maker!"

Emilia Reylos released the bowstring, and a blue beam shot forth.

Not good!

Lingmeng realized that if she stayed where she was, the beam would hit her.

She pulled back her Angel at once and moved to dodge.

Whoosh! Lingmeng barely avoided the beam, but it grazed her right cheek, drawing a little blood.

"Hah! You're wide open!"

Seeing Lingmeng occupied with dodging, Anlia Finlander burst into wild laughter. She seized the chance to slash at her with both swords.

But Lingmeng had already seen it coming. She raised Elemental Spirit and blocked every strike.

After several seconds of attacking and defending, Lingmeng and Anlia Finlander both jumped back.

Lingmeng stared at Anlia Finlander, her expression grim.

That woman kept aiming for her heart, her head—every vital spot. Weren't they supposed to capture her alive as a test subject? Why was she fighting so viciously?

Was this Anlia Finlander woman a sadist?

"Wow. All three of us attacked you, and you only got a scratch. You're pretty impressive for a Spirit."

Chiba Fumina sounded impressed as she looked at Lingmeng, who had suffered almost no real injury.

"Hmph! She's just putting on a brave face!"

Emilia Reylos curled her lip in disdain.

Anlia Finlander, meanwhile, sounded as though she had barely gotten started.

"What's wrong? Keep going. Just a little more—a tiny bit more—and I could've cut you open for a closer look. I've never seen the inside of a Spirit's body~"

Wow... Are any of DEM's Wizards normal? What is wrong with all of them?

The corner of Lingmeng's mouth twitched. None of the three behaved remotely normally, as far as she was concerned.

But that was not the important part. What mattered was that her situation was looking bleak.

In simple terms, the other side had a fighter, an archer, a tank, and hundreds of foot soldiers.

Her side had one mage: herself. And she could not use magic, only fight hand to hand. This sucked.

Even so, Lingmeng had no choice but to push through...

"Is anyone there? Somebody, help!"

Shiori ran through the streets with all his might, shouting for help.

He had left, but that did not mean he intended to abandon Lingmeng while she was still fighting.

The only thing he could do now was find a way to contact Kotori and ask her and the others to help.

But he had no communication device, and the civilians had all fled to the Shelter because of the earlier false Spacequake alarm. There was no one he could borrow a phone from.

For the first time, Shiori felt just how weak, pitiful, and helpless he was.

He could do nothing on his own. He could not help at all. Getting through this depended entirely on Kotori and the others.

It had been that way when he tried to win Tohka over, and it was the same now with Lingmeng.

Every time Shiori thought about it, an indescribable pain gripped his chest.

"Please! Anyone! Come out and help!"

Shiori cried out to the sky in anguish.

As though someone had answered his plea, he collided with something just as he finished speaking.

"Ow..." Shiori fell to the ground and rubbed his aching head.

Then an all-too-familiar voice reached him.

"Shido? Why are you here...?"

The voice was cold, without a trace of emotion.

What!? Shiori thought in surprise.

He was dressed as a girl. Aside from Kotori, Lingmeng, and the crew of Fraxinus, no one should have known he was Shido Itsuka.

Yet this person had recognized him at a glance, and her voice sounded familiar.

Could it be...?

Hoping he was right, Shiori looked up at her face.

Sure enough, it was Origami Tobiichi—his classmate and an AST member, whom he had seen only yesterday!

A Request

"Tobiichi? Why are you here!?"

Shiori looked startled to find Origami alone on the street.

"I was worried you might get hurt, so I came to look for you."

Origami answered in her flat, icy voice.

"Shido... why are you dressed like that...?"

Origami tilted her head at Shiori's clothes.

Shiori scratched his cheek awkwardly, unsure how to answer.

"Well... please don't get the wrong idea. There's a rea—"

Click—