Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

Page 455

even so--

The girl, all alone, was still desperately trying to escape back and forth in the darkness.

"What's so fun about running around like this all the time?"

She stood frozen in place.

This beautiful girl with blonde hair that was styled in a spiral, looking like a young lady from a wealthy family, had a very charming smile.

But what she did was truly terrifying.

Six needles, like clockwork, hover behind it, forming a syringe.

Now, all the syringes were aimed at the person in front of them.

"You seem to be trying very hard to protect those people, so why don't we strike at them first?"

boom--!!

One of the syringes fired something like a cannonball directly at the ground.

The next instant, time stood still.

After a brief stillness, a roaring sound followed.

The black-haired girl landed on another rooftop not far away.

She calmly shook her long hair and then gazed at the girl in the distance.

"What exactly do you want to do?"

"Oh, that's right... that's more like it."

The blonde girl chuckled lightly, while the black-haired girl opposite her, Homura Akemi, immediately adopted a confrontational expression.

"It's that kind of look and expression. All the magical girls in our world have that kind of look."

For an instant.

All six pointers were aimed at Homura Akemi.

BOOM! With her body enhanced by magic, Homura Akemi swiftly dodged the attacks from two of the syringes, only to be surrounded by several other needles.

But that's completely meaningless.

The girl raised her hand and grasped the shield-like object on her left arm—

"it's useless."

Bang——! !

Then, Homura Akemi returned to her original position.

"What?"

The girl's eyes widened immediately, because... she had just used her magic to evade it.

The ability to freeze time—that's Homura Akemi's magic.

Each magical girl possesses corresponding attack methods and special abilities, and she can use time-freezing to evade or do all sorts of things.

Homura Akemi, despite having dodged during the frozen time, is still standing in her original position.

The situation was too late for her to react.

All the syringe tips flashed with iridescent light and then exploded outwards.

Bang--!!

The girl's body was forced to fly away.

However, the blonde girl instead revealed a somewhat manic smile.

"Hahaha!! Using magic to strengthen your body? How annoying! You're no longer human, you're practically a corpse, yet you're still so vain and concerned about it?"

"...!"

"However, your world must be different now, right? Ah... how enviable."

Despite using magic to strengthen her body, Homura Akemi was still somewhat disheveled from the bombardment.

She quickly darted to the top of a nearby building and retrieved two pistols from a compass that resembled a shield.

"You think you can fight me with that kind of toy?"

Boom! In the next instant, a corner of the building beneath Homura Akemi's feet was sliced into pieces.

As she fell, she pointed the gun at the girl and kept pulling the trigger.

"I'm telling you...aren't you underestimating them a bit?"

A blonde girl fell continuously from the sky... Several syringes formed in front of her, directly neutralizing all the bullets.

Not only that, a new wave of explosions began to shoot towards Homura Akemi.

Just as those explosions were about to hit them, time stood still.

Homura Akemi landed smoothly on the ground.

"what…"

She felt dizzy... because her mental energy had been severely depleted.

Witches have disappeared from this world, and naturally, the Seed of Grief and all related things no longer exist... In exchange, all magical girls will use their spiritual power as a price to cast spells and magical abilities.

Fifteen minutes had passed since the start of his battle.

That means Homura Akemi has already consumed a lot of her mental energy.

But she still forced herself to stand up straight.

The girl stared at the frozen explosion in mid-air, then quickly stepped back and took out something that looked like a hand grenade.

Homura Akemi's only means of attack is the various weapons hidden inside the compass.

The only thing that can cleverly deflect an attack in this situation is a grenade.

She threw out several grenades and calculated the range of the shockwave from the explosions—she was certain it would include the magical girl as well.

Everything is ready.

Homura Akemi returned directly to her original spot, thus ending the time loop.

…All the explosions, exactly as they were, flashed around her again.

"Ugh...?!"

Everything she had done before—the grenades she had thrown, the distance she had jumped—had vanished.

It was as if they had never done these things.

"What a pity, Little Flame."

In that final moment, Homura Akemi saw the other person's smile.

The blonde magical girl stood with her hands behind her back, facing him, smiling mischievously.

"You got defeated again!"

Boom—!!

Endless explosions engulfed an area with a radius of ten meters.

Even though Homura Akemi instantly enhanced her physical body with magic and used shield-like armor to block the opponent's explosion, she was still violently blasted away.

"Ughh ...

The girl cried out in pain and collapsed on the street.

Everything around her was unharmed except for her.

"Ah...woo..."

"How wonderful, ah, how wonderful, how wonderful~ You can use magic and magical power without paying any price at all."

*Thud!* Then, the other person stepped on Homura Akemi's abdomen with a shoe that looked like a high heel.

Despite Homura Akemi's great pain, the other party remained unmoved.

His face still wore that extremely sinister smile.

"We're suffering terribly here, living in constant infighting and backstabbing. Do you know what it feels like to have to kill thirteen other people for a single Seed of Lamentation? Well, in our world, human life isn't worth much. What's really important is self-preservation."

"What...are you...?"

Unbelievable. Homura Akemi couldn't understand what the other person was saying at all.

Seeds of lamentation...that kind of thing has already...

"Oh, right, you don't know anything about their situation."

The blonde girl simply pulled some black things out of her pocket.

A jewel with spikes... that is something Homura Akemi is familiar with, the Seed of Lamentation.

"I come from a world completely different from yours."

“In our world, negative human emotions are amplified to dozens of times the normal level. Every magical girl must fight for the most limited Grief Seeds to survive, or she will become a witch.”

"This is nothing like your world. Because of the help of some deity, not only has the existence of witches been erased, but we no longer need the Seed of Lamentation to use magic."

The more she said this, the more forcefully the girl moved her feet.

"Gurgle...!!"

"How wonderful! Hehe~ You guys are like being held in the arms of some god from who-knows-where, which makes me so envious. Meanwhile, people in our world have to fight like vagrants every day for just a tiny bit of the Seed of Sorrow, and we can't even get a decent man in the end. I'm so jealous of you guys, don't you think?"

The girl repeatedly stomped on Homura Akemi's abdomen as if in abusing her.

The black-haired girl endured this torment with great difficulty—

Bang——! !

With a swift punch, he landed squarely on her face.

"Pfft... Ugh?"

Before I could even react.

In the next instant, she was sent flying several meters away, like a ball being thrown.

The person standing next to Homura Akemi slowly squatted down and helped her up.

"Are you alright?"

A familiar...voice?

Homura Akemi blinked and quickly looked at the person who had helped her up—

And the driver that the other party was wearing on his waist, which had not yet been activated.