One-way traffic

"I've already said that, haven't I?"

The first one maintained the position of extending his arms forward, using his black wings to hold back most of the Saigyou Ayakashi's power while unhesitatingly using his abilities to interfere with the Ayakashi Tree.

A little blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Whether it's that white-haired brat wielding a sword or that pink-haired ghost who's already passed out, I'll drag them out of this damn cherry blossom tree unharmed—I still remember that."

He was once the first person to face the crisis of the entire Academy City's annihilation.

That is a being called a golem. When it explodes completely, the entire Academy City will be blasted away without leaving a trace.

The first one, in order to protect the person most important to him, did not hesitate to use his strongest power.

He couldn't understand what magic was.

even so.

He still managed to do it, relying on the full compensation of his computing power to forcibly control the result of that force.

The same applies now.

It doesn't matter if it's about life and death or magic.

For Accelerator, now all he needs to do is do the exact same thing as before.

"How is that possible... Putting aside the undead over there, just consider that half-spirit you mentioned that was absorbed. How could she possibly be separated again while being absorbed by the Saigyou Ayakashi?"

"I don't care about such a boring, bullshit question as whether it's possible or not. Do you think I would ever say it's impossible?"

Boom! An invisible aura erupted once again from the person in first place.

This time, he manipulated the wind and directly pressed the switch on the electrode on his neck.

The green signal turned into a dangerous red.

A massive computing aid from another world, called the Misaka Network, instantly flooded into the mind of the first-ranked player.

"Let that kind of guy die in this useless, broken tree? How boring, choosing to end his life here? You think I'd allow such tasteless things to happen? Bullshit, what's the point of those lousy questions about whether it's possible or not?"

Without hesitation, he compressed his power to a single point.

Ahead, Yuyuko's completely immobile body was right in front of her.

click-

I heard the sound of something breaking; in fact, it was my own face.

Because of the forced analysis, which included unknown vectors, marks caused by incomplete reflection appeared on the face and around the body of the first character.

But he reached out his hand without hesitation.

"I don't care if it's possible or not, this is my answer, you bastard!"

The vector of life and death is simply a realm beyond my reach.

even so.

The first one, relying on the concept of forced inclusion, grasped the vague and unclear thing in one go.

Everything in front of me became blurry.

But it felt incredibly real in his hands.

He grasped the "direction".

Then--

Even Accelerator himself was completely unaware.

Behind him, there were a pair of jet-black wings.

In an instant, it changed into a blurry, indistinct gray.

It was only for a brief moment.

Then the radiance enveloped the entire underworld.

White light filled the land, and then—two more shadows were launched out.

It was a figure that was forcibly ejected from inside the Westward Journey Demon.

"That's...!"

Alice and Marisa, upon seeing this, immediately stepped forward to catch them.

The figures with pink hair and white hair... are none other than Saigyouji Yuyuko and Konpaku Youmu.

Their bodies have been successfully separated.

In that case—

Thinking of this, Alice and Marisa also turned their gazes forward.

Right there.

What separated from the Saigyu Ayakashi was a dark, almost black, reddish-black object.

Accelerator was using an invisible force to firmly suppress it in mid-air.

His bloodshot eyes stared at all of this, and then—without hesitation, he swept down the pair of black wings on his back.

The black wings, exceeding all limits, completely destroyed it with a single strike.

"it's over…!"

"They actually... rescued those two people?"

Marisa and Reimu Hakurei both looked ahead with surprised expressions.

Shortly afterward, the white figure in mid-air seemed to fall limply to the ground.

Alice showed a slight look of surprise, and quickly went down to catch it.

Subsequently.

"—Although I did expect it to turn out this way, the actual result far exceeded my expectations."

"—?!"

Instantly, the group looked directly behind them.

In front of the steps to the underworld stood another golden-haired figure.

"purple?"

Chapter 444 Targeting the Illusion

What appeared before them was no longer a completely new enemy.

A blonde beauty dressed in a long white and purple robe-like dress, holding a parasol, appeared before them without warning.

"Ah~ the person in charge of the aftermath has finally stepped in."

"Don't say that. I was watching your every move the whole time. If something serious and irreversible had happened, I would have stepped in to help you."

"So if you can do this, why didn't you just move on from the beginning!"

Marisa, standing to the side, couldn't help but be astonished as she listened to Reimu's casual conversation with the other person.

"Could it be that Zi was already here from the very beginning?!"

"I can't say it's here. I still have some things on my side that require my help. Well, even so, I've been observing all the developments on your side."

"Hey, what's this all about! Since you witnessed the whole thing, you should at least have done something to help us!"

"It's okay, right? You've already solved the problem in the end, haven't you? No matter how difficult the process was, as long as you achieved the result, everything is fine, isn't it?"

"You damned monster, you really dare to say that?"

The being before me is the most representative being in the entire Gensokyo, the youkai sage, Yukari Yakumo.

Her strength and wisdom are recognized by everyone, and such a high level of existence that is difficult for ordinary people to reach is directly negotiated by the people in front of her with a casual and familiar attitude.

For both Marisa and Reimu Hakurei, Yukari Yakumo's existence is hardly mysterious.

The group had met a long time ago, and they continued to have occasional exchanges to this day.

Although the whereabouts of this sage are almost impossible to trace, and the patterns of her actions are very unpredictable, Reimu and Marisa are well aware of this.

Whoever attempted to destroy Gensokyo, the boundary youkai named Yakumo Yukari could absolutely not be that person.

That's why they can show such a carefree expression here.

"Just as you said, it is indeed all over."

"Oh, that's definitely something to be very happy about."

With a slightly indifferent smile, Yakumo Yukari glanced at everything on the scene.

The sky, which had previously been a dark reddish-brown, had completely returned to its original dark color. Cherry blossoms drifted down from all around from time to time, while the giant Saigyou Ayakashi remained unchanged, still standing in its original posture.

Her gaze lingered for a moment on two figures not far away.

To be precise, it paused briefly on the unconscious Yuyuko.

It was as if they were confirming something.

"Since everything is fine now, thank you for your hard work."

"No, this time is different. I hope you can understand the situation, you monster of the boundary."

"Oh? How so?"

Reimu walked directly up to Yukari Yakumo and rejected her assessment of them.

"While we all contributed to stopping this anomaly, we weren't the main force."

Having said that, the others completely understood what she meant.

They all turned their attention to that direction.

There, beside Alice, lay an unconscious figure.

His skin was so pale that it gave him an almost demonic, grotesque appearance.

Even when he was unconscious, he still occasionally emitted a faint sense of presence in his surroundings.

"Without this person's help, I think even if you had come out to resolve this matter, you definitely wouldn't have been able to achieve this outcome so smoothly."

"Yes, that's certainly true."

Since Yukari Yakumo said that she had observed the entire process through her abilities, it means that she directly saw everything that Accelerator did at that time.

Including those wings, as black as ink.

Thinking of this, Alice, who was standing next to Accelerator, couldn't help but twitch her brow.

"If that's the case, then it proves that he does indeed possess that level of immense power."

then.

The sage of the demons leaped forward in a single instant.

Marisa and Reimu were almost completely unaware of this.

Snap! Then, the sound of light clashing against light echoed through the air.

"…oops."

Yukari Yakumo maintained the posture of extending the parasol, raising her eyebrows slightly.

Before her eyes, the front of the parasol was blocked by Alice's slender fingertips, and it could be clearly seen that a light-colored magic circle with a thickness of only a few millimeters had condensed at the tip of her fingertips.

The blonde girl looked at him with indifferent eyes.

"Puppet Master, what are you planning to do?"

"I should be asking you that, you monster of the realm."

She did not use the title of "sage of the yokai" to address Yakumo Yukari.

The girl, wielding countless puppets behind her, maintained a vigilant stance as she confronted the demon of the boundary before her.

"Why are you suddenly doing this to an unconscious wounded soldier? What exactly are you planning to do?"

"Purple, purple...!"

"Oh dear, you probably can't guess why I did this."