NIKKE, Swordmaster Ark Succubus Daily

In just one round trip, the town was split in two by the wall of flames and the stream of high-energy particles. One half was completely bathed in the sea of ​​fire, while the other half was completely annihilated without leaving any trace.

With Li Zuoyi's abilities, he can remain unaffected while staying away from the two of them fighting, but if he gets too close, he probably won't even know how he died.

If this battle were to break out inside the Ark, the Ark could ascend to heaven along with it.

“I’m starting to doubt how I even managed to beat you back then,” Li Zuoyi said to Indivilla, standing on the wasteland outside the town.

Flames and lasers shot out alternately from the town, sometimes soaring into the sky with a dazzling light that could even dim the sun, and sometimes striking the ground, exploding and leaving deep, bottomless ravines.

"All we need to do is spray the antidote on them." Indeveria was quite content in Li Zuoyi's mental world. As long as he continued to kill Lecher, she would always have food to eat.

"However, in this situation, a little blood probably won't be enough. We'll have to drain all your blood, haha."

“It would cause them irreversible damage, wouldn’t it?” Li Zuoyi sighed. “I refuse.”

"..."

Is this the main point? Indivilla wondered.

"Speaking of which, your mental strength has been getting stronger lately since you started following the fire dragon," Indiviya said.

"I don't really feel anything," Li Zuoyi said, looking at the intense battle in the distance.

After all, he had been thinking about how to deal with the fire dragon all this time.

“I’ve been here for so long, I can sense even the slightest difference,” Indivilla said. “Perhaps you’re strengthening yourself as well as the fire dragon, just not by much. What kind of physique do you have that you can become stronger through something like this?”

"Who knows... maybe it's because my blood is special," Li Zuoyi said.

Meanwhile, the battle in the distant town seemed to have already been decided.

Marian's angel-type mech was mostly destroyed, but it was still half-floating in the air, while the steel dragon that had just been breathing fire had disappeared.

"Two idiots," Li Zuo cursed, then hurried back to town.

……

Nihilista lay on the burning ruins, his body severely damaged and his limbs almost immobile.

She has indeed become stronger, but this divine punishment is a gift from the Queen, and it cannot be compensated for by a few days of enhancement.

As Divine Punishment jumped down from the mecha and walked up to her, she said, "Hmph, kill me."

“As you wish.” Marian pointed at Nihilista, the high-energy laser on the mech’s chest already focused and aimed at her.

Nihilista curled his lip, his face full of disdain, "You are ultimately just the Queen's dog."

"Say what you will, I will not make any unfavorable choices for the Commander." Divine Punishment did not want to waste too much time arguing with her.

"Wait a moment." Li Zuoyi landed in the middle of the group and sheathed his dark gold longsword.

"Commander, she has already lost, I need to..."

Li Zuoyi said to Marian, "No, I won't allow it."

“But…” Marian glared hatefully at the fire dragon behind the commander.

“Now you should be calm, so I’ll get straight to the point,” Li Zuoyi said. “I forbid you from killing her. Is that an order, or are you disowning me as your commander?”

"No...I didn't..." Marian panicked when she heard the commander say that, and quickly said, "The commander is the commander, I'll listen to you!"

Li Zuoyi felt relieved; it seemed his words had been effective.

"What...what are you doing?! You're letting her kill me!"

Li Zuo turned around and saw Nihilista clenching his teeth, his face filled with humiliation.

“I don’t need you, a weakling, to protect me!” Nihilista managed to stand up with the help of his newly repaired joints, but still staggered forward and fell.

From the moment we met until just now, she has been the dominant one. Whether to capture or release, or to play with, whether to fight or not, is all up to her. This is the power she wields as the one in a superior position.

She doesn't need sympathy.

Just as she was about to fall to the ground, a familiar body caught her.

“But you still need to protect me, don’t you?” Li Zuoyi pulled her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “I can’t handle Queen Letcher’s pursuit, and you need me to become stronger, don’t you?”

“…Ugh—” Nihilista buried her head in his chest, clutching his clothes, her voice choked with emotion, “Then, you mustn’t go with her…not even for one night, I can still fight…”

“I know you don’t want Marian to become stronger, but if I don’t go, you might die. At least let me do something for you now.”

Damn it, damn it, isn't this just selling him out to ensure my own safety...? Nihilista's eyes twitched incessantly.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning. Once you've recovered, we'll leave this place..."

"Commander, let's go, night is coming."

The divine punishment figure, unable to hide a smile, walked to the commander's side and forcefully pried open the fire dragon's hand that was gripping his clothes.

She gave Nihilista a victorious smile, then took the commander's arm and dragged him away.

“Marianne, you will keep your promise, won’t you? I’ll stay with you for one night, and then let me and Nihilista leave.”

"Yes, of course, so don't think about her anymore. You're with me now."

Nihilista saw him turn around and glance at her, but was then forcibly kissed by the god beside her...

Nihilista smashed the broken wall behind him, "Damn it! If only I were a little stronger..."

113. The Queen

A gentle breeze blows from the high cliff.

A 'person' draped in a linen robe reached out and touched the clear sky that seemed so close at hand. The arm that emerged from under the robe was covered in mottled skin, and in the severely damaged areas, the metal bones inside the arm could be seen.

"Your Majesty, I'm back." Divine Punishment stood behind her, bowing slightly.

"...Let me..." the Queen's voice trailed off, "...stabilize...the signal, um, that should be fine."

"You've worked hard, Marian," the Queen said.

Under Marianne's gaze, the Queen lowered her arm, turned and walked to Marianne's side, reaching out to touch her cheek as if to caress her.

"Hehe." The Queen chuckled gently, her face hidden beneath a linen hood, making her expression impossible to discern.

Then the hand that was next to Marianne's cheek suddenly pinched her soft face.

"It hurts, it hurts, Your Majesty..." Marian pleaded.

"I've been so busy, but you spent the night with him!" the Queen said sarcastically. "You filthy woman who's always thinking about spending time in bed with him, really, you're just like my former teammates."

He even tugged at Marian's face a few times before letting go.

“I’m sorry, it’s really hard for the Commander to refuse…” Marian said, covering her face with a hint of grievance, “Besides, didn’t you signal the cancellation of the arrest order at the last minute? I thought you had agreed…”

The wind on the high cliff picked up, blowing off the Queen's hood and revealing a broken face. There was almost no divine cadmium skin on her face, and the body inside was also cracked and broken. The eye socket of her mechanical right eyeball was even half open, and the liquid tank containing the pink brain could be seen inside.

“I was the one who rescinded the arrest order, but I wasn’t the one who issued it,” the Queen said.

“But that special signal…” Marian’s eyes widened.

“It seems that ‘it’ has cracked the signal encryption and sent it to you disguised as my command,” the Queen said. “We’ll have to change the encryption method from now on.”

“I understand,” Marian nodded.

She was captured by Indivilla and taken underground, originally intended to be transformed into a heretic by Queen Lecher. However, the queen in front of her appeared and helped Marian change Queen Lecher's code, allowing her to have her original personality. Otherwise, she would only become a heretic with Marian's memories.

However, the Queen said that without the Commander's blood destroying the NIMPH in her brain, she wouldn't be able to manipulate the code at will.

Even though Marianne regained her original personality, her actions were often restricted by 'it'—the real Queen Letcher.

Fortunately, the queen in front of her also had the ability to issue commands that could override 'its' commands, allowing her to act freely. However, most of the time, she was just doing things for the queen.

"Does that mean 'its' power has become stronger?" Marian asked cautiously.

"After all, I have been holding on for a hundred years, and I am gradually becoming a little overwhelmed." The Queen looked up at the sky and said, "But when I knew that he still remembered me, I felt that I could hold on a little longer. I felt as if I had gained some strength from him."

“Why don’t you go see him? He would be so happy to know that you are still the same Lilith,” Marian said.

She knew that the Queen and the Commander had once been a loving couple.

Although she felt a little jealous, she didn't mind as long as the commander was happy.

"No! He absolutely cannot know about this now!" the Queen said gravely. "If he finds out, he will force himself to do something against his will, disrupt his current plans, and then problems will definitely arise."

"……Yes."

Marian continued, "What's wrong with Fire Dragon? She's only been with the Commander for a few days, yet she's already so obsessed with him..."

Moreover, she genuinely disliked the fire dragon, feeling that her unconventional personality made her prone to getting into trouble.

"Don't worry." The Queen was optimistic about this, though her words carried a hint of gritted teeth as she said:

"Given his physique, it would be strange if perfect fitters like Nihilista and you weren't attracted to him. Didn't you see that even 'It' wanted him?"

“But we can’t just let her keep flying around with the Commander. There are definitely many other Nikkis waiting for him on the Ark.” Marian was very worried about the current state of her former comrade.

“My teammates are waiting for him too. What did he do to himself? Why doesn’t anyone remember except me? Although I’m happy, I’m not sure what they will do if he doesn’t remember soon, especially Dorothy…”

The two sighed in unison.

“However, I believe he knows what he's doing; he's not the kind of person who would abandon everything,” the Queen said.

“Yes,” Marian agreed.

"Even so, I still need to put some pressure on you," the Queen said. "You contact Paradise and help them intercept the fire dragon and rescue him. I have to deal with 'it'."

“Yes.” Marian bowed to her again.

The queen then looked up at the sky, fell backward, and plunged into the cliff.

114. Dorothy, you must hold back.

In the plaza in front of the glass obelisk, John frowned as he looked at the angel-shaped mecha in the sky.

The reason why the park has not been discovered by the Ark or attacked on a large scale by Lecher is because of the camouflage system created by Cecil.

From the outside, the park appears to be nothing more than a lifeless wasteland; even with signal detectors standing next to it, the detectors show nothing.

But now, this record, which had stood for decades, has been broken.

A heretic known as 'Divine Punishment' is piloting a mecha and is currently hovering directly above the park.

More importantly, the park's security system didn't react at all.

John himself went outside on business and only then did he notice the unusual sky.

A black dot flew out of the mech, then rapidly grew larger in the field of vision, and landed in front of John with a 'thud,' the huge impact shattering the paving stones within a dozen meters around it.

“Divine punishment, he has already been…” John thought she was looking for Li Zuoyi.

“I already know about this,” God of Punishment said expressionlessly. “It seems he was abandoned by your Niki, who should be protecting the Commander.”

“Dorothy is not my Niki; we are equal colleagues,” John explained. “Besides, she had her own concerns given the vast difference in power between Nihilista and Liberellio.”

Although Dorothy was indeed wrong, he still needed to say a few words in her defense.

John was a little nervous facing a heretic who might be already enraged, and with no teammates around.

Fortunately, the divine punishment seemed to have no intention of pursuing the matter further. She glanced at the obelisk and asked, "What are they doing now?"

“Track the fire dragon’s signal,” John said. “She’s too fast and her direction is almost unpredictable. Even if we can occasionally detect a signal, the distance is too far. By the time we get there, she’ll have already flown away.”

They've been worried about this for a while now, not knowing what to do.

"So, as long as her behavior is regular, that's fine, right?"

"Are you going to help us?" John thought the heretic would no longer trust Paradise.

“Even I would have a hard time catching up with Nihilistha, but keeping track of her movements shouldn’t be a problem,” God’s Punishment said. “She will probably inadvertently reveal her habits during her escape. At that time, I can control the direction of the pursuit and thus control her route.”

“That’s definitely better than running around like a headless fly,” John said, lowering his eyes.

"Then, connect to the park's communication channel."

Cecil emerged from the obelisk at some point and seemed to have overheard their conversation.

She walked up to the divine punishment and handed her a note with the communication channel written on it, saying, "This will make it easier to stay in touch."

Divine Punishment glanced at it, various data streams flashing in its pupils, and successfully connected to the channel.

"Then I'll leave first."

Cecil watched as Divine Punishment leaped back onto the mech, disappearing from the shadows of Paradise as it departed.