This is not the date I wanted.

"Kuang San."

Shidou called out Kurumi's name.

Hearing Shidou's voice, Kurumi turned around lightly and faced Shidou.

"Alala, welcome, Mr. Shidao."

As she spoke, Kurumi took a few steps forward with graceful steps, came in front of Shidou, lifted the hem of her skirt and bowed slightly.

Shidou was a little overwhelmed by Kurumi's overly graceful movements.

"Um... I'm here as promised, Kurumi."

"..."

Without rushing to answer Shidao's words, Kurumi silently stared at Shidao's face.

"What, what's wrong?"

Shidou asked somewhat uncomfortably.

Seeing Shidao's interesting reaction, Kurumi's mouth curled up into a smile.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I just found that Shidou-san is more attractive than the last time we met, and I was fascinated by him without realizing it."

"—?!"

Facing Kurumi's unexpected compliment, Shidou couldn't help but feel his cheeks flushed. Fortunately, it was evening, otherwise without the light of the setting sun, he would not be able to hide the fact that he was blushing.

"No, no, that's not the case. It's useless even if you flatter me. I won't be careless, Kurumi."

[Really... your emotional value just increased to a considerable extent...]

I heard a tired complaint from Lingyin.

"Ahem! Let's talk business!"

After coughing twice to cover up his embarrassment, Shidao straightened his face and looked at Kurumi seriously.

"You told me before that as long as I meet certain conditions, you would be willing to let me seal your spiritual power."

"Yeah, that's right."

Kurumi smiled and nodded.

"Then, tell me what that condition is?"

Shidou's words made Kurumi's lips curl up again.

"Well, that condition is——"

Suddenly, as the sun gradually sank behind the mountain and Kurumi's lips opened and closed, a sound suddenly appeared in Shidao Gokawa's world.

“——Hmm?!!”

An intense feeling of dizziness surged into my brain, and all the strength in my body seemed to be drained away.

It was neither painful torture nor weakness brought by illness. It had nothing to do with his personal consciousness. It was as if the power was directly unplugged by a third party, and his consciousness fell into the bottomless darkness.

However, Shidou had experienced this indescribable feeling before.

When the body was pierced by Origami's bullet.

When Allen's sword pierced his chest from behind.

And when Rokuko's "Seal Master" pierced his body and his entire arm disappeared.

"Crazy...Three..."

At the moment when his consciousness disappeared, the last image left in Shidao's mind was Kurumi's charming smile.

That smile was so beautiful, and at the same time, a little scary. With her back to the setting sun, she looked like the god of death who was going to take Shidao to the underworld.

06 Attack and Defense (Part )

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

At 17:30, right above the Imperial Hotel in Tiangong City.

Wearing a platinum CR-Unit named "Pendragon", Alan Mathers was surrounded by a random field, his feet off the ground floating in the air.

"Target confirmed."

Staring at the direction of Raizen High School, Allen spoke softly. With the visual correction of the display device, she could now clearly see the scenery more than ten kilometers away - "Nightmare" staying on the roof of the school building, and the target that appeared later, Gokawa Shidao.

"Huh? Passed out?"

Seeing Shidao fall to the ground unconscious without any warning, Alan raised his eyebrows in surprise.

(What happened?)

Allen thought curiously. However, this accident was not enough to make Allen hesitate. Rather, the target lost its ability to resist, making their plan easier.

"Adeptus 2, Adeptus 3, are you ready?"

[Received. Any time.]

[Understood. It's no problem for me, Sister Allen.]

Two different voices responded from the communicator. They were Artemisia, who was equipped with the Pendragon's sister machine, the Lancelot, and Aimuren, who was equipped with the Mordred. At this time, both of them were waiting to lock onto their targets in completely different positions from Alan.

Although they had avoided Ratatoskr's surveillance network, they had taken into account the possibility that even if one party was hindered by the airship and the elves, the other two parties could continue to carry out their mission.

Of course, it would be best for Alan if he could complete the task without any problems.

He took off the tactical unit equipped on his back, and as Alan injected his magic power, the folded blade unfolded and turned into a sword that emitted a strong golden light.

"Then - the battle begins!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the output of the "Pendragon"'s back thrusters instantly increased to maximum, and accompanied by a sonic boom, Alan's figure disappeared from the spot.

In less than two breaths, two-thirds of the journey had been completed. Alan was like a bullet shot from a sniper rifle, approaching the target at a speed that could not be captured by the naked eye.

However, at this moment, Allen suddenly felt a murderous aura locking onto her.

"--snort!"

Without any hesitation, Alan swung his beloved sword "Caledfwich" forward while moving at high speed.

--boom!

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the residual light of magic splashed in front of Allen's eyes.

After being hit so violently by Allen, the opponent seemed to have endured all the inertia of Allen's charge and flew directly away. It was not until he slid nearly a hundred meters in the clouds that he could barely stabilize his body.

"Throat~"

Seeing that the opponent actually survived her attack, Allen couldn't help but narrow his eyes and let out a little admiration. Although she acted hastily, she was fully confident that she could kill the target with one blow.

"This is the second time we've met since you left DEM, Mana."

Not far away, Takamiya Shinna, wearing a black and blue CR-Unit, was moving his numb right arm while looking at Alan with helpless eyes.

"It hurts~ I wanted to catch him by surprise, but I almost beat him down. Have you gotten stronger again, monster?"

"Humph, as the strongest magician, this is a matter of course."

After answering coldly, Alan did not rush to launch a pursuit. He floated in the air, observing Mana's actions and thinking.

His flight trajectory was captured - this was not surprising. Although not as good as himself, Allen also gave a very high evaluation of Takamiya Mana's ability as a magician. Moreover, it is easier for a hunter to snipe the target from the side than to confront the target directly.

However, this raid is only possible if we know where Allen is and what her goal is.

(Because he guessed our actions, he was on guard around us?)

This was the first guess that came to Allen's mind. But she quickly rejected this assumption. It was impossible for her to continuously monitor the enemy within a 10-kilometer radius for 24 hours. Moreover, the location they chose this time was a blind spot in the enemy's surveillance range, and the enemy's attention was attracted by other factors.

(Has the plan here been exposed?)

Several guesses emerged in Allen's mind one after another, but she rejected them all because they were not convincing.

He secretly tried to contact Artemisia and Ai Wulian, but all he got in response was intermittent noise.

It was hard to imagine that his two men would be killed in such a short time. If it was not unexpected, it was probably some kind of communication obstruction.

Alan couldn't help but frown in confusion at the sudden predicament she was in. Although it was unbelievable, the raid plan they had arranged this time had been exposed to Mana in some way she didn't know.

"I don't know what happened, but you did a great job."

However, for some reason, Mana smacked her lips in annoyance.

"...Yeah, it's so beautiful. It makes me angry. Allen, if you hadn't shown up, I could have just treated this as a joke."

"what do you mean?"

Hearing Mana's words, Allen couldn't help but feel confused.

"It has nothing to do with you!"

Obviously, he had no intention of wasting time arguing with Alan. After his arm regained consciousness, Mana accelerated towards Alan, and slashed at Alan with the "wolf-tail" in his hand without any hesitation.

"cut--"

After fighting with Mana for several rounds, Allen felt a little anxious. She was not without confidence that she could beat Mana, but if she wasted time here, she would probably miss the opportunity and fail the mission.

In the next confrontation, after Allen temporarily forced Mana back with his strength advantage, he took out something from the unit's backpack.

It was a pile of scattered pages.

"……Paper?"

After noticing Allen's unusual behavior, Mana was a little surprised. She stopped attacking, lowered her body slightly, and remained alert to Allen's movements.

Under Mana's gaze, Alan threw the pages into the air, and then the scattered pieces of paper did not fall with the wind, but seemed to have consciousness and arranged themselves neatly around Alan.

"Come out, Nibelcol."

After that, Allen snapped his fingers. The pages began to emit a dim halo, and a series of phantoms of girls were outlined in the space around the pages. Then, it was depicted that the "container" was infused with "mass", transforming the phantom into a solid entity.

"what?!"

Under Mana's surprised gaze, the group of black-clad girls who looked exactly the same opened their eyes.

"Ahhh - what time is it now?"

"Is it our turn already?"

"I have no motivation at all~ Never mind, this is also for my father."

Looking at the girls who were stretching lazily with a nonchalant look on their faces, a drop of cold sweat appeared on Mana's forehead.

"Stereoscopic image...it doesn't look like it, does it?"

Although it is not difficult for Allen to project an illusion in a random area, Mana's experience denies this possibility.

The reason is simple. The group of girls in front of him, called "Nibelcol", exude a strange presence that is extremely similar to the incarnation of "nightmare".

——Beelzebub.Yelet (Divine Eclipse Chapter No. Page).

The girls called "Nibelcol" all locked their eyes on Mana. The blank pages were folded into paper airplanes in the air and flew towards Mana like bullets.

Although he used the protective shield opened by the Random Field to block the opponent's attack, judging from the constant vibration of the Random Field, he was sure that those seemingly light paper planes all had amazing impact force without exception.

"They will be your opponents, Nibelcol. I will go to the target, and I will leave it to you guys after that."

Glancing coldly at Shin, Alan gave instructions to "Nibelcol".

"Nibelcol" glanced at Alan and replied with a perfunctory wave of his hand.

"Hey, go ahead."

"By the way, what is the relationship between Alan and father? Are they lovers?"

“Oh, no way. No matter what, father’s preference is too——pity.”

"..."

Hearing the girls' whispers, the veins on Allen's forehead bulged slightly, but she didn't want to show her gaffe in front of the enemy. After adjusting her mood a little, she flew back to the direction of Raizen High School.

"Wait Alan! Don't run!"

Noticing what Allen was doing, Mana quickly activated the drive to try and catch up.

At this moment, "Nibelcol", who had been laughing and playing like a high school girl before, blocked her way and stared at her with eyes as sharp as a needle.

"Goo-"