Collapse, the Ordinary Daily Life of the Valkyries

When you first see it, its beauty almost makes you think that a god has descended from the sky.

One rider, Unit 11, aimed the muzzle of his assault rifle at the light that seemed to steal his mind the more he stared at it.

With the eager thought of joining the battle, he rushed forward. At the same time, the system directly delivered the good information of Unit 1 and Unit 3 to his brain.

Unit 1 was fine. Its right leg had merely been twisted and torn by the enemy's attack, its heavy layer of mercury acting as shock absorber scattering like blue blood. Its chest also appeared to be damaged, and Unit 1's gray hull was stained with the same blue blood. However, as long as the cockpit wasn't penetrated, the pilot wouldn't suffer a heart attack from the "pain" associated with operating the unit. It was still alive and well.

The problem lies with Unit 03, whose body is being tightly wrapped around by the enemy's tentacles.

The golden and rainbow radiance was radiating at an astonishing speed across the bright yellow body of Unit 03. Anyone caught by a gem would gradually transform into the same gem.

This is the enemy's most terrifying high-dimensional attack - the assimilation phenomenon.

Desperately seeking to rescue its comrades, captured by this phenomenon, Unit-1 used its remaining left arm to thrust the blade of its lightning spear into the enemy. Success would have severed Unit-3's body, already assimilated by the enemy, and rescued its pilot. But Unit-1's action was a complete failure. Unit-1's spear was devoured by another face—a tentacle resembling a human face—that emerged from the enemy's back, deflecting it from its course.

Ichiki watched the blazing spear blade digging into the ground in vain. Suddenly—

...Is it Unit 3 again?

This unpleasant thought flashed through Yiqi's mind.

The infamous No. 3, also known as the "Yellow Coffin," had sent seven pilots one after another to a true paradise of peace somewhere on the other side of the sky.

Of course, this was purely accidental, nothing more than bad luck. Even if the odd-numbered aircraft, primarily used for close-quarters land combat, were most vulnerable, that was simply bad luck. The enemy could attack from anywhere, and we would be attacked regardless of our state. The opportunity to reach Heaven should be equal for all.

However, judging by that equal probability, Unit 03 was indeed a machine that was often plagued by misfortune. The scene reflected in Ikki's eyes at that moment was a powerful testimony to this.

Unit 11 took the most appropriate action before Ikki could hesitate. It pulled the trigger of its assault rifle.

A line of blue fire rushed towards the enemy that had assimilated with Unit-03. The bullet, fired at supersonic speed, emitted a brilliant blue flame that pierced through the enemy's tentacles, knocking away Unit-03's entangled arm.

But Unit 03 had not separated from the enemy. Tentacles could be seen invading the torso of the unit.

Ikki continued firing as he approached the enemy. He probably shouted out loud, but the clamor of the gunfire obscured his own voice. The rifle lacked a magazine; its bullets were fired with a powerful electrical current. Each shot was powerful enough to rival a missile. If fired near a building, the vibrations would shatter every windowpane.

Even under such a barrage of blows, the enemy remained motionless. Because the enemy had deployed a high-dimensional barrier, the blue flames were unable to reach them. Although it felt like an invisible barrier, anything that touched it would be twisted and distorted, along with the cellar.

There was only one way to harm the beautiful golden being protected by that barrier: to get even closer, until one entered the enemy's realm of possible assimilation.

In this way, the true value of this body can be brought into play for the first time, entering the "assimilated state".

By actively assimilating with the enemy's high-dimensional defense wall, you can then come into contact with the high-dimensional enemy with the ability to distort and smell - in this way, you can fight it on equal terms.

Of course, that's just one step away from being assimilated by the enemy. The key is who can resist and defeat the enemy when they come into contact.

Unleashing the hidden capabilities of Unit-11, Ikki charged headfirst into the enemy's defenses, breaking through. Had it not been in its "assimilated state," the unit's hull would have been crushed from the head down, and the cockpit would likely have suffered the same fate.

But Unit 11 remained undefeated, thrusting the muzzle of its assault rifle into the enemy's chest with all its might. It wasn't just holding the muzzle against the enemy. Ignoring the muzzle's twisting and deformation, it thrust the barrel of the rifle directly into the enemy's body. And then, in this state, it fired.

An explosion occurred.

A large chunk of the enemy's chest was ripped off. Most of the tentacles encircling Unit-03, the rifle barrel, and Unit-11's left hand, holding the rifle, were shattered into fragments in a burst of blue flame. Simultaneously, Ikki felt the excruciating pain of his arm being blown off below the elbow. But the pain lasted only a moment before the system immediately masked the pain in his left wrist, severing the already damaged left forearm, eliminating the pain before the pilot lost strength and consciousness.

Miscellaneous: Thoughts

The pigeon is dead.

Its motionless form resembled an exquisite wooden carving, except that it was like red spray squeezed out through countless tiny holes, smearing the gray feathers into a single mass. Its shrunken, boneless body looked more like a tattered rag than a corpse.

The pigeon was stuffed inside a box. The girl remembered the box—it was beautifully emblazoned with the shop's logo, from a renowned handmade bakery in the city. Normally, even if she wasn't a girl, simply peeling back the emerald string and opening the box with the logo would send a wave of sweetness straight from her brain to her mouth. Raspberry mousse, pear tart, eclairs, opera cakes—each one of them was the shop's pride and joy; yet, what she saw before her was none of them.

If the pigeon had been found dead on the roadside, the girl wouldn't have noticed anything unusual! However, the corpse stuffed into the box held a sense of humor and gore she had never encountered before. The cardboard box, the string, and the bag with the same logo—the more fairy-tale-like the packaging, the more it heightened the overall sense of strangeness; like a child playing house mistakenly playing with a dead baby as a doll.

The woman who opened the box froze in front of the girl. Her eyes, overwhelmed with surprise, became as empty as the pigeons in the box. Just seconds before, she and the girl had shared their anticipation for the cake; that anticipation had become a twitching smile, like solidified cement, lingering on the corners of her mouth.

The pigeon is dead.

Its motionless appearance resembled an exquisite wooden carving; however, it was as if red droplets were squeezed out after digging countless small holes, sticking the gray feathers together, and its whole body, as if withered and bones removed, looked more like a tattered rag than a corpse.

The pigeon was stuffed inside a box. The girl remembered the box—it was beautifully emblazoned with the shop's logo, from a renowned handmade bakery in the city. Normally, even if she wasn't a girl, simply peeling back the emerald string and opening the box with the logo would send a wave of sweetness straight from her brain to her mouth. Raspberry mousse, pear tart, eclairs, opera cakes—each one of them was the shop's pride and joy; yet, what she saw before her was none of them.

If the pigeon had been found dead on the roadside, the girl wouldn't have noticed anything unusual! However, the corpse stuffed into the box held a sense of humor and gore she had never encountered before. The cardboard box, the string, and the bag with the same logo—the more fairy-tale-like the packaging, the more it heightened the overall sense of strangeness; like a child playing house mistakenly playing with a dead baby as a doll.

The woman who opened the box froze in front of the girl. Her eyes, overwhelmed with surprise, became as empty as the pigeons in the box. Just seconds before, she and the girl had shared their anticipation for the cake; that anticipation had become a twitching smile, like solidified cement, lingering on the corners of her mouth.

Perhaps to stifle the scream that was about to burst out, she covered her mouth with her hands, as hard as if she were slapping herself. However, a second later, a siren-like blare filled the room.

The girl stared at her, her attention completely shifting from the pigeon costume in the box to the woman in front of her.

The woman is the girl's tutor, a graduate of a women's university, and is currently training to be a bride.

That said, she had no plans to marry or work, simply living a carefree life. She was introduced to the young girl by an acquaintance. As a wealthy daughter, she wasn't attracted by the high salary; she simply thought it was a good way to pass the time.

Of course, the girl didn't understand the adults' considerations, nor did they matter. For her, the most important thing was that she would be accompanying her in place of her family, and whether she liked her or not. The girl liked her, and could even be said to adore her.

When they were first introduced, her beauty took the girl's breath away. Her first thought wasn't astonishment that such a stunning beauty existed, but disbelief that she existed in the same three-dimensional space as herself. Her clear voice, kind smile, and refined demeanor all belonged to another, noble world unknown to the girl.

In the girl's eyes, she was as loving and kind as a mother, yet without the reality of a mother, as if she were a being beyond the constraints of flesh and blood. Initially, when interacting with her, the girl even felt a certain shyness bordering on fear. Only recently, had she found the energy to celebrate the opportunity to converse with this goddess-like, perfect being and savor the joy of it.

Of course, the girl only knew her when she was with him. She had no idea that her willful and spoiled nature made her shunned by her peers as a moody and fickle rich girl; nor did she know that the men attracted to her beauty secretly complained that she was easy to get along with when she was in a good mood, but difficult to deal with when she was angry.

To the young girl, she was an all-knowing teacher who could always answer her simple questions without any hindrance; but in the eyes of the adults who knew her, she was an ignorant woman who lacked common sense.

A young girl naturally couldn't imagine the vast gap between her own perceptions and the world's. To her, she was a beautiful, mature woman; even if she grew up, she would never be able to achieve such an elegant and refined perfection. She was a pure object of admiration.

Yet, now she was in a state of extreme disarray. The corpse in the box had thrown her into panic, and although her features remained unchanged, her confusion had distorted them horribly. For the young girl, this was the first time she had ever seen herself in such an ugly state.

The dead pigeon in the box was indeed extremely ugly, but for the girl, it was not as shocking as the drastic change in the object of her worship. It was simply curiosity. She was completely different from her usual self, right in front of her -

...What on earth was going on? Like watching a special effect movie where the sea swallows up the mountains, the girl was captivated by her expression.

She always appeared graceful and beautiful when she was with the children, but now was the moment when her ordinary childish face was revealed. Of course, the girl did not understand this; to her, her ordinary appearance was the most unusual, and she could only stare blankly at this strange scene.

—What are you looking at…?

She seemed to calm down slightly, and after noticing the girl's gaze, she spoke. No, "spoken" isn't quite the right word; to the girl's ears, it didn't sound like human speech, but rather the threatening cry of a ferocious beast. Just a few seconds ago—before she untied the emerald ribbon and opened the paper box—the woman with the human voice was gone. (I bought some cake, let's share...)

—What's that look in your eyes? Do you think I did this?

She roared as she stood up and swept the dead pigeon and the paper box from the table to the ground. Her action was so rough that it was hard to believe that she had been trembling over the same corpse just now.

Miscellaneous: Extra

The sun was scorching like torture, and even with the curtains drawn, it couldn't keep out the heat. As for the window frames, they were so hot that just touching them would burn you.

From outside the classroom to the campus, the sun was dancing passionately. Even for early summer, it was far too hot. No, at this point, wouldn't "scorching" be a more appropriate description?

…It’s time for our school to consider installing air conditioning equipment.

The ceiling fan whirred in vain. Teacher Jessica Rebindia squinted at it and sighed wearily.

Was it the heat, or the impending summer break? Looking out from the podium, I could see that all the students were slumped over their desks. The pre-summer exams were over, and now was truly the most distracted time of year.

"By the way, has everyone decided on a color to specialize in?"

Jessica used her hand to push away the bangs that were stuck to her forehead due to sweat, then walked down the podium with her arms folded and leaned against the students sitting in the front row.

"Zesel-san, what about you?"

She patted the shoulder of the dozing student, whose body was swaying like rowing a boat. The student scratched his head frantically, as if waking up.

"H-Hmm, Teacher, of course I chose red, didn't I?"

"It's probably to hide his embarrassment," the student answered loudly with a red face.

"I knew you'd say that. Zessel-san has always liked red!"

"Because it looks the most eye-catching, right? And using the name chant of fire is so cool!"

Behind the students who were explaining with gestures—

"Haven't you learned your lesson yet? You say that, but last time you put your hand in the fire, you got burned."

The bespectacled student sitting behind Zeisel said this jokingly, and loud laughter erupted from every corner of the classroom.

"S-So, what color would you choose, Mira-san?"

Jessica asked, trying to prevent the two from starting an argument. The student adjusted his glasses and said:

"'Life contains the ocean within itself'—I choose blue. Life is born from water. I believe that extracting something from that water is an act of profound meaning."

Mira, you're the same. Although you say that, you almost drowned in the swimming pool last time, didn't you? Jessica hid her inner bitter smile and shifted her gaze to the female classmate sitting behind him.

"Annie, what about you?"

"Me, me?"

The answer sounded flustered, and the girl blushed.

"Yeah. Which color would you like to specialize in?"

"I, I chose the white one... because I want to summon Pegasus..."

Speaking of Pegasus, it's considered quite difficult even in the White Name Chant. Although a quiet and introverted girl, Anne always sets firm goals. In fact, she should have ranked near the top in this joint test.

"If it were Annie, she would definitely be able to chant it. The important thing is to have the desire. Because if you want to improve, the most important thing is to have the desire to chant it."

After seeing the girl nod with her face still flushed, Jessica began to ask the same question to the whole class one by one.

When the last person was left, the most popular color was red, mentioned at the beginning. Blue came in second. Green and yellow were equally popular in third place. Conversely, white had few candidates. This was a typical popularity ranking in middle school.

——Okay, there's only one person left, but...this person is the problem.

The other students seemed to understand this as well, and there began to be some commotion in the classroom.

Jessica shifted her gaze to the girl sitting in the corner of the last row. Her hair, the color of wet feathers, reached her shoulders, and she was rather thin for a woman of puberty.

"Evemarie, you chose... uh, 'that', right?"

"Yes."

Evemarie—the girl who was addressed as such—nodded as a matter of course.

"What I want to learn is 'Night Color Poem'."

As soon as she finished speaking, the students surrounding her burst into laughter.

"Wow, that signature line again!"

"Same thing, Eve, you're so stubborn!"

Some people shouted, while others exchanged smiles with their friends. While their reactions varied, the common thread was that they all felt a certain disdain for the words of the girl named "Eve Marie."

"Alright, alright, everyone, be quiet for a moment."

After quieting the noisy classroom, Jessica faced the girl again.

"...Hey, Evemarie, aren't you interested in other colors?"

"no."

The girl blinked slightly. That color's name wasn't a high school elective. To be more specific, that color's name didn't exist in this world.

──Alpha Duoyong Academy is the official name of this school.

As the name suggests, students at this school aim to master the art of "Naiyōshiki." Naiyōshiki means to chant the name of an object. By visualizing the object you wish to see or chant, and by praising its name, you summon it to your side. Its characteristic feature is "color separation."

In nature, the "colors" that the human eye can distinguish are so-called visible light waves. In other words, substances of the same color possess the same wavelength of light energy. In short, the Mingyong method utilizes this common condition of "sharing the same energy" to transmit objects.

"Keinez" (red), "Ruguz" (blue), "Surisuz" (yellow), "Beorc" (green), and "Arzus" (white).

Generally speaking, the Mingyun formula is composed of five colors. The four colors of the seven basic colors of visible light, plus the five colors after white, constitute the existing Mingyun formula.

Currently, there are no established formulas for colors other than these five. Even though scholars around the world are competing to research and challenge, establishing formulas for colors beyond these five is still considered impossible.

However, this girl has remained steadfast in her belief since entering middle school, insisting on the existence of "Night Color Famous Ode".

“…I see. But it’s great that you know exactly what you want to do, Evemarie.”

Despite being ridiculed by her classmates, this girl remained unwavering. Judging by this alone, she was quite mature; however, her refusal to change her mind made her seem childish. In short, she was an unpredictable student.

What is "Night Ode"? Jessica, her homeroom teacher, repeatedly asked her, but she only gave vague answers.

Suddenly, the bell for the end of the fifth class rang in the classroom.

The end of the last class made Jessica breathe a sigh of relief, because she no longer had to endure the scorching heat that seemed to melt her body, and she also no longer had to deal with this girl.

"That's all for today's class. I have a meeting today, and since I need to go there right now, I won't have a class meeting. Everyone else can go home except for the students who are responsible for cleaning. The students who will stay behind to clean today are Eve Marie and Peter.

Miscellaneous: So annoying

【Mother, it’s time for me to leave.】