This is not the date I wanted.

……

"Great! Next is Kotori."

Seeing that everything was unfolding according to her plan, Meng Yue couldn't help but clench her fists excitedly.

The most dangerous part of the whole process was the action of Yamai and Yoshino to seal Shidao at the beginning, and the most crucial part was the recovery of Origami's spiritual power, which allowed her to ignore the spiritual power barrier and teleport.

Judging from the current situation, every time Shidou kisses a spirit, the spiritual power in his body will be stimulated and activated, but this effect is also calmed down by Miku and Nanashi.

By following this process, as long as there are no accidents, the spiritual power of all the elves can be cleared quickly.

however--

“Ah—Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

At this moment, no one expected that Shidao, who had been quiet, suddenly roared again. The huge spiritual power exploded like compressed gas, breaking free of all the chains and ice wrapped around his body.

The sword-shaped angel Sandalphon (Aoshagong) appeared in Shidao's hand, and the sharp blade was swung forward, hitting Kotori's shoulder, causing a large amount of blood to flow.

【Kotori! 】

"It's okay... Sister Mengyue."

Kotori smiled with a smile. The flame of healing began to burn at Kotori's wound, and the shocking knife wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. But even so, the pain was still transmitted to Kotori's nerves without reservation.

"This can be considered as my atonement for wanting to kill Shidou."

With a bit of bitterness in her words, Kotori did not retreat but instead moved forward towards Shidou holding the angel, opening her arms and hugging him tightly.

After kissing Shidou tenderly, Kotori said with a smile.

"Onii-chan. The adult kiss will have to wait until next time."

"——————!"

With a silent roar, Shidou raised the Aosha-ko again and was about to chop Kotori, but before that, Origami teleported behind Kotori and pulled her out at the critical moment.

……

"Damn it! I was careless!"

Meng Yue clenched her teeth anxiously.

As the seal came to an end, the spiritual barrier around Shidao became weaker and weaker, and the number of elves recovering their strength on his side increased steadily - such an obvious advantage made Mengyue unconsciously let down her guard.

Even though he had no idea about the information after Shidao went berserk, he took the superficial phenomena he analyzed temporarily as the answer.

Although Shidou did not cause a riot for a while under everyone's joint suppression, his resistance actually never stopped for a moment. Moreover, every time he sealed the spiritual power of a spirit, Shidou's intelligence might be restored a little. Otherwise, he would not have been able to show an angel at that time and show such a clear intention to attack Kotori when he released his spiritual power without any purpose at the beginning.

In other words, what we are facing next is Shidao, whose hostility remains unchanged but who gradually becomes rational and intellectual.

If it weren't for Kotori's self-healing ability, she would have become a corpse by now.

(Calm down! Calm down!)

Meng Yue kept reminding herself that the current changes were not serious, but if she lost her composure at this moment, then it would be the end.

"Dawn Sage——Hmm!?"

[Warning! Spiritual power exhausted, operation impossible! Forced exit begins——]

Just like a computer that shuts down automatically when its battery runs out, the angel in her hand ignored Mengyue's wishes and faded away. In an instant, a huge feeling of exhaustion surged into Mengyue's body. Mengyue knelt on the ground in pain, her limbs twitching as if they had cramps.

“Ha…ha…damn it…I’ve reached my limit…at this moment…”

The whole process of saving Shidao seemed to be safe and sound, but in fact, the changes in the spiritual power around Shidao, the direction and timing of the elves' attacks, were all obtained by Mengyue after analyzing and calculating with the Sage of Dawn. Although he had tried his best to suppress the consumption to the minimum, the little spiritual power left in his body was obviously not enough to support Mengyue's squandering. The depletion of spiritual power would instantly cause a huge burden on the elves.

"Meng Yue! Are you okay?"

"Tohka..."

Meng Yue was helped up by Tohka. Looking at her worried eyes, she wanted to put on a smile to show that she was fine, but unfortunately, she didn't even have the strength to do so.

"Sorry, I might be a burden from now on."

"No need to apologize Mengyue. I am the one who should thank you for bringing everyone to this point. Leave the rest to me, I will take you to Shidou."

Without any hesitation, Tohka answered as if it was a matter of course.

"Thanks……"

Meng Yue thanked him softly, sighing helplessly in her heart.

(Really...Tohka, everyone. Why would such a nice girl like Shidou?)

[…Ratziel (Sage of the Dawn)…]

At this moment, the sound coming from the headphones made Mengyue feel like all the blood in her body was frozen.

(Could it be!?)

Suddenly looking up, Meng Yue suddenly discovered that the originally quiet night sky had been covered by thick dark clouds, and electric snakes were constantly stirring in the clouds.

[…Thunder…falls…]

“Everybody, get down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Just as Meng Yue was shouting desperately, a blue-white lightning flashed down to the ground.

25 The Elves’ Return (Part )

==============================

"Well……"

Slowly getting up from the ground, her consciousness a little confused, Tohka shook her head.

"I am now... That's right! Shidou!"

The blank memory in his mind quickly became clear. Just now, Tohka was working with everyone to stop Shidou's rampage. However, just when they thought they were about to succeed, Shidou suddenly exploded and summoned lightning to attack everyone.

I looked around hurriedly. Many trees were set on fire by the sudden lightning. The raging fire was spreading in the forest. I guess from a distance, the flames here in the dark night were particularly conspicuous.

"Meng Yue!"

Not far away from him, in a pit that had completely turned into scorched earth, Liangyi Mengyue was lying in it, unconscious.

"Mengyue, are you okay?!"

Running over hurriedly and picking up Mengyue, Shixiang shouted anxiously.

"........."

She could feel the air flowing through her mouth and nose, and her chest was rising and falling rhythmically. It looked like she was just unconscious, and her life was not in danger. Tohka couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Everyone, are you all right?"

She turned on the communication button on the headset with some uneasiness. Unlike Mengyue, Tohka was not good at tinkering with such delicate machinery. She only remembered the most basic operations. If it malfunctioned due to the lightning strike just now, Tohka would be powerless to do anything.

But Tohka was lucky and the headset was connected smoothly.

"Everyone! Are you okay?"

[Family? Don't worry. This lightning strike is still far from the one struck by my compatriots back then. My life is safe now. However, the Son of the Hurricane is not completely safe now.]

[Carelessness. My body...cannot move.]

[Hmm… My body is numb… Darling is too much…]

The headsets contained intermittent responses from everyone. Although it sounded a bit noisy, no one's life was in danger.

[Tohka...did you hear that? ]

"Lingyin?"

[I'm sorry to give you a minimum explanation now. We are recovering the injured elves and dealing with the spread of the fire. From now on, you will have to seal the truth by yourself.]

Fortunately, when Shidao used Thunder, all the spirits were just unfolding their spirit suits and angels, and with Mengyue's timely warning, everyone survived and was not seriously injured. However, due to the influence of lightning, their bodies fell into a temporary paralysis state.

[The reason you are not injured now is because you were by Meng Yue's side at that time. As a spirit that controls lightning, her physique has a strong attraction to lightning, just like a lightning rod. I'm afraid that at that time, Meng Yue bore all the lightning strikes that fell on your area alone.]

"That's right..."

Tohka pursed her lips tightly.

Now that I think about it, it was Meng Yue who pushed me away when the lightning struck.

"call……"

Now was not the time to blame herself, Tohka took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"So, what should I do next? Where is Shidou now?"

[After releasing the lightning, it stayed where it was for a while without any reaction. It only started to move just now, heading towards you - to be more precise, it should be heading towards the city behind you.]

"I see."

With a slight nod, Tohka carried Meng Yue on her back, her beautiful amethyst eyes flashing with a determined light.

……

After removing all obstacles that prevented it from moving forward, the "beast" ran forward.

The sound of leaves being blown off, the sound of trees being burned, the sound of towering trees being pushed aside, and the sound of the earth shaking.

Ignoring the tragic scenes around it, the "beast" continued to move forward, not knowing where its destination was.

"...?"

In the hazy vision, the "beast" stared ahead. A new obstacle appeared in its path.

No, to be exact, it should be two.

A girl in a purple-colored spiritual outfit thrust a golden sword straight into the ground, as beautiful as a princess. On her back was a brown-haired girl who was unconscious.

——Stop.

I don't know why, but somewhere deep in my mind, this voice sounded.

——You can’t hurt them. I didn’t gain power to hurt them.

Just now, when he was clearing away the obstacles that were blocking his progress, the same voice appeared in his mind. The "beast" could not understand the meaning of this voice. However, those obstacles no longer had the ability to hinder him, so the "beast" finally chose to let them go.

But this time things are different.

The "beast" made this judgment based on the little bit of intelligence that had just been recovered.

The obstacles before us are extremely dangerous.

"...Sandalphon..."

Following the body's experience, the next moment, the "beast" had the same giant sword as its opponent in its hand.

……

"——Are you here, Shidou?"

Looking at Shidou who was coming at her aggressively, Tohka calmly opened her eyes, grasped the hilt of Aosakou's sword with one hand, and stared ahead without fear.

"——————"

With an incomprehensible roar, Shidou stomped the ground vigorously, rushed to Tohka, and swung his sword.

"Humph--"

He suddenly pulled up the Aosagong on the ground, and the sword blade quickly drew a half moon in the air. He was the first to arrive and hit the back of Shidao Aosagong's sword accurately and without error.

"——!?"

The body rushing forward was thrown off balance by the sudden impact, and the "Aosakou" in Shidao's hand was bounced away. Tohka did not miss this opportunity and raised her right foot to kick Shidao's abdomen.

"Sorry Shidou, let's go to sleep first!"

Boom! A huge shock wave spread between Tohka and Shidou, bending the surrounding trees.

Tohka's eyes widened in disbelief.

Instantly, Tohka and Shidou opened up a distance of more than ten meters. However, the only person who actually retreated was Tohka herself. Tohka felt that the kick just now was more like a kick on an indestructible wall than a kick on the soft abdomen.

"—"

However, the opponent did not give Tohka any time to be surprised. He waved the Aoshagong in his hand and approached Tohka again.

Two identical angels collided with each other, and spiritual power exploded and spread like sparks.

Upper, lower, middle. She released slashes from various angles and defended against the swords that swung in from the gaps. Tohka caught all the attacks one by one. Every time the swords collided, the wind pressure generated by the aftermath would spread in all directions, and the ground would sink slightly as if it had been heavily stepped on.