This is not the date I wanted.

After confirming that the response coming from inside was indeed the reaction of her spiritual crystal, Meng Yue took out the tools from her backpack and began to clear the snow on the surface of the iceberg.

The white snow was swept away bit by bit, revealing the crystal clear ice crystals inside. After all, it was different from ordinary snow mountains, as this one was made entirely of the ice from Yoshino.

"—!"

Seeing the scenery in the ice crystals, Mengyue subconsciously clenched her teeth.

Inside the ice was a middle-aged man with despair on his face, in a fleeing posture.

Not only that, old people, women, children - all kinds of people, plants, and buildings were frozen in it. This scene reminded Meng Yue of the insect corpses sealed in amber.

Meng Yue knew that there were far more than what was happening in front of her. Under the snow where she was standing, there were probably hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives buried.

And all this was caused by her alone.

“…Yoshino did nothing wrong. I just used you. If ghosts exist after death, you can blame me as much as you want.”

After muttering to herself in a deep voice, Meng Yue took a deep breath, placed her hand on the surface of the ice, and tried to connect with her spiritual crystal.

(…Ratziel (Sage of the Dawn))

Meng Yue muttered this to herself.

Soon, a faint vibration came from the ice, as if in response to Mengyue's thoughts. A crack appeared on the ice surface and expanded little by little with the shaking. Finally, a blue and white gem flew out of the ice and fell into Mengyue's palm.

"Fortunately it's still there."

Meng Yue secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the intact spirit crystal. To be honest, when she saw Shionai eating her spirit crystal, she had already prepared herself for the possibility of never getting it back.

(Well, for the reversed Pokémon, normal spirit crystals are like acids and bases with opposite properties. If they are eaten, the discomfort caused by rejection is more obvious than absorption. Shionai may have had a similar feeling and vomited out her own spirit crystal before leaving.)

Meng Yue thought so in her heart. At the same time, the spirit crystal gradually sank and merged into Meng Yue's body like a snowflake.

[Life——Soul identification code comparison completed. Host——Liang Yi Meng Yue confirmed——Highest authority opened——]

A familiar electronic sound rang in her mind. Feeling the spiritual power gradually filling her body, Meng Yue took off her goggles and hood and called out softly.

"…Divine Power Spirit Suit. Yod."

In an instant, the bulky winter clothes turned into light particles and decomposed, then reassembled into a spiritual outfit consisting of a black windbreaker and Tokiwadai school uniform.

"Ratziel (Sage of the Dawn)."

Immediately afterwards, leaping electric light flashed from all around Meng Yue and gradually gathered in her hands, materializing into a dark blue mechanical bow.

"..."

The spirit crystal successfully returned to the body. Having said that, there was no sign of relief or relaxation on Meng Yue's face. On the contrary, her expression became more solemn.

For Liang Yi Meng Yue, neither killing Westcott and Allen nor recovering her own spirit crystal was her goal, nor even a process. It was just the conditions that needed to be prepared before that.

Only now did she truly arrive at the starting line.

Turning around silently, Mengyue opened her backpack and took out a deep black gem from it.

This is the reversal crystal that Mengyue peeled off from Westcott, and originally belonged to Honjo Niya.

After taking a deep breath in silence, Meng Yue opened her eyes and without hesitation pressed the spirit crystal against her chest.

"——!!!"

It was completely different from when she absorbed her own spiritual crystal. For a moment, Meng Yue felt that her heart was blocked by sticky mud, and her blood was blocked at the exit and could not flow. Every heartbeat caused her blood pressure to rise sharply, as if her heart would explode in the next second.

[Warning——Detected unknown foreign body invading the body——Started to execute the elimination program——Received host's instruction——Stopped the elimination program——Executed the filtering program——]

As the "Sage of Dawn" operated, Meng Yue's spiritual power forcibly cleared the blocked channel and circulated the turbid spiritual power in her body.

“Ugh—Ah—Ah—Ah—Ah—Ah—”

It was as if a blade was running in her blood vessels. The unimaginable pain tortured Meng Yue, causing her to fall to the ground with a scream.

It wasn't just the physical pain, it was the sadness, the agony, the despair - emotions that weren't hers that kept eating away at her consciousness.

--it hurts.

——It feels so uncomfortable.

——I want to die.

——Let me die.

The helpless wails rang in my ears like an auditory hallucination. If it were an ordinary person, he would probably be driven crazy and commit suicide.

"Ku... what a joke... who would do such a stupid thing as suicide..."

Gritting her teeth tightly, Meng Yue endured the severe pain to stay awake, while ordering the "Sage of Dawn" to continue circulating her spiritual power.

The effort was not in vain. After an unknown amount of time, Meng Yue’s strong will finally defeated the negative emotion of despair. The impurities in the spiritual power mixed with sweat gradually disappeared from Meng Yue’s skin, turning into dark mist and dissipating in the air.

At the same time, a black leather book with a cross pattern engraved on it, and the angel - Ratziel (The Whispering Chapter), appeared in front of her.

[External patch detected——Connection completed——Probability of passive skill being upgraded to active skill——]

"Wait……"

Hearing the voice of the "Sage of Dawn", a bad premonition arose in Mengyue's heart. However, after enduring the double torture of body and mind, she no longer had the strength to stop the angel.

[——Future peek, activated.]

“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Suddenly, a completely different pain than before swept through her brain again, and a huge amount of information poured into her mind. Meng Yue couldn't help but hold her head tightly, curling up her body and shaking continuously.

Gradually, the feeling of pain slowly disappeared, and what appeared before Meng Yue's eyes was the future that the angel had glimpsed after processing countless incomprehensible information.

"Hahaha--"

With her chest rising and falling with her panting and sweating profusely, Meng Yue just stared at the sky in shock. It took her a long time to recover.

"Really... I didn't want to use this ability at all... Why did I activate it without permission?"

Meng Yue struggled to stand up by supporting herself on her knees, looking at the "Sage of Dawn" in her hand, then at the "Divine Eclipse" in front of her, and could not help but complain.

[Received the command. Active skill - Future Peep - Close -]

"It's no use talking after the fact."

Hearing the answer from the "Sage of Dawn", Meng Yue couldn't help but sigh silently.

"Forget it... Anyway, seeing the future this time is like winning the jackpot for me."

After expressing her feelings like this, Meng Yue raised her head, her eyes showing a bit of relief and a bit of sadness.

"Here he comes..."

As soon as Meng Yue finished speaking, a silver-white airship appeared out of thin air right above her. It was the airship that once belonged to Qin Li - Fraxinus EX.

Meng Yue only heard a broadcast suddenly coming from the airship.

[Hmmm——Isaac Westcott! I know you are down there, and we have surrounded you! Put down the devil, raise your hands and hold your head in surrender, and we will punish you according to international law——Ale? Bilijiang? ! ! ]

After seeing the characters appear on the screen, Honjo Nia couldn't help but scream.

03 Leading Ship

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

"Bili sauce!"

The moment Meng Yue boarded the airship, she was greeted by Eryana's embrace that was like a flying hug.

“That’s great… That’s great… Bili-chan… I’m so glad that you’re okay… I thought you would definitely… Uwawawawawawawawawaqaqaq!”

"...Really. You are an adult now, stop crying all the time. Your snot and tears are all over my clothes."

With a helpless sigh, Mengyue looked at Erya who was hugging her tightly and crying, patted her on the back and spoke gently.

"Because... you haven't contacted me for a long time... I thought you had turned around like everyone else."

After blowing his nose, Erya said with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"Sorry. I have some things to do."

Meng Yue replied with a wry smile.

At the same time, the screen on the wall suddenly lit up, and two girls dressed in nun costumes appeared on it, one white and one black.

[Mengyue, you are back. ]

【…Welcome back. 】

"I'm back, Ju Ya, Ju Nai."

Hearing the greetings from Ormoriya and Maruna, Mengyue nodded and replied.

"You don't seem that surprised that I came back."

Hearing Meng Yue's question, Ju Ya explained calmly.

[Well... although we didn't get in touch with you, and we didn't detect any spiritual wave reactions, but based on the situation at the time and your personality and ability evaluation, Mengyue... my sister and I calculated that the probability of your survival is as high as 92.4%]

[…Even though Erya didn’t take our words to heart.]

After looking at Mengyue with a complicated look, Junai sighed and complained to Erya who was crying her face off.

"I, I don't doubt it. I'm just still worried."

After whispering a defense, Erya coughed dryly, trying to maintain his dignity as an elder.

"Well, it's not good to stay here and talk. Let's go to the command room."

"Ah."

Mengyue nodded and followed Erya to the command room.

On the way, with Erya's patient explanation, Mengyue learned about Fraxinus' experience in the past month.

Just a month ago, after witnessing the moment of death, Kotori Itsuka's heart was suddenly overwhelmed by grief and despair, and she fell into a state of reversal.

When the incident happened, everyone in the airship was panicked and could only watch Kotori being engulfed by flames, at a loss as to what to do.

Among them, only one person responded. No, strictly speaking, it was an artificial intelligence.

——Or Shou Maruna. The electronic spirit that once belonged to DEM and was hostile to Kotori and others, began to forcibly seize the control of Fraxinus EX the moment Kotori showed a spiritual wave reaction, and used the space transfer function to forcibly transfer Kotori to the outside of the airship and evacuate at a high speed.

[If it weren't for my sister's help, I'm afraid everyone on the airship would have been buried in the sea of ​​fire. ]

Recalling the scene at that time, Ju Ya sighed with some fear.

"Really... Junai, thank you for saving everyone. It was a huge help."

After hearing what Ju Ya said, Meng Yue looked at Ju Nai and thanked him.

[Nothing... I just did this because I didn't want the computer host storing my data to be destroyed. Saving people was just a side job, there's no need to thank me.]

Junai turned his head away and said a little embarrassedly.

[That's right, although my sister is not very frank, she is very reliable at critical moments.]

[It is unnecessary to be insincere…]

Suddenly, Junai raised the corner of his mouth and looked at Erya with a smirk.

[Well, speaking of this, it suddenly occurred to me that I was planning to transfer two people out as well, but later I found that the other one didn't change at all, so I only transferred Kotori.]

"Forehead……"

Erya's expression froze. She knew who the "other" in Junai's words was referring to.

"Well, how should I put it... it happened too suddenly, and I didn't understand what happened at all. And even if I understood, I don't have the spirit crystal in my body to reverse it."

Erya scratched his head and explained awkwardly.

[I see, it's because Miss Nia is so useless. That's why everything is fine.]

Ju Ya said with a look of sudden enlightenment.

"…Although I have felt it metaphorically for a long time, Mariya-chan, Maruna-chan, do you hate me?"

The corners of Erya's mouth twitched slightly.

[Your illusion. Miss Erya.]

[Yes, it is an illusion.]

The two denied it without changing their expressions.