Chapter 21: The Angel of Time

The compressed Territory blocked most of the flintlock bullets, but several spiritual bullets still slipped through weak points and struck Jessica’s body, splashing small blossoms of blood.

“Wryyyyy!”

Jessica forced her magic to steady her rapidly falling body and used her Territory to stabilize her wounds.

If she hadn’t focused her Territory to protect her vital points, she would have died under Nightmare’s gun. Nightmare’s power was unbelievable. In the blink of an eye, she had been hit by multiple bullets at once.

‘Wait, why at the same time?’

Jessica replayed the scene in her mind. That flight speed like teleportation, and the countless stray bullets that hit her in a single blink.

That kind of power…

She saw the ancient clock radiating a mysterious aura behind Tokisaki Kurumi, and an absurd idea rose in the girl’s mind.

‘Could it be…’

“Jessica, are you all right? Go back and rest. Leave the rest to me…”

“Run, Takamiya…”

“Jessica?”

Takamiya Mana arrived late and looked at her old colleague and rival with confusion. Run for her life… those were not words she would expect from Jessica.

“Run! You and I cannot defeat Nightmare! Her Angel has the power to control time! Under that terrifying power, we…”

“Control… time?”

Honestly, a power like time was too strange and mysterious. But… as a DEM Wizard, Takamiya Mana still flew resolutely toward the red figure floating in the air.

Tokisaki Kurumi glanced at Jessica, who was slowly flying away with her damaged Realizer.

Was it because she used her Territory to focus on defending her vital points that she narrowly escaped death?

But it no longer mattered. Her strength was decent, but she had completely lost her ability to fight. So…

“You’re next, Takamiya Mana!”

“Bastard!”

Takamiya Mana watched the Wizards falling from the sky under Nightmare’s assault, their lives uncertain, and clenched her fists.

This Nightmare, who had always taken pleasure in killing, actually… actually dared to do this right in front of the DEM headquarters building…

“Nightmare!”

“Yoo-hoo! You’re actually walking toward me! You’re not running away, but coming to die? Your colleague Jessica worked so hard to tell you the secret of my Angel, like a student still answering questions at the end of an exam…”

“If I don’t get closer, how can I beat you down? Nightmare!”

Takamiya Mana gripped her Anti-Spirit Light Sword tightly and slowly flew toward the Spirit known as the most vicious.

“In that case, why not come a little closer.”

The air around them was filled with gunpowder smoke, ready to ignite. They had already reached their respective ranges, but by unspoken agreement, neither attacked.

Takamiya Mana’s eyes sharpened. She swung her Anti-Spirit Light Sword straight at Tokisaki Kurumi’s head.

At this distance, there was no way to defend or dodge. Her sword needed only 0.5 seconds to easily slice off her head.

However…

As if reality had dropped frames, Tokisaki Kurumi, who had been motionless, raised her gun and fired in the next instant. The red bullet hit the side of the swinging blade dead-on.

Takamiya Mana felt a huge force from the blade, and the Light Sword that had been cutting toward Tokisaki Kurumi was knocked off course.

“Too slow, too slow! Zafkiel is the strongest Angel! Even without using time, my speed and strength far exceed your Realizer.”

Tokisaki Kurumi smiled slightly. Spirits had a natural advantage over Wizards. Among the known Realizers, except for the Pendragon used by that woman, the performance of other models was terribly poor.

Moreover, her Zafkiel was the Angel that controlled time, and with the enhancement of Aleph, she had an absolute speed advantage.

With absolute speed… she was already invincible in battle.

A time power that could enhance herself and affect external objects?

Takamiya Mana pressed her lips together. Her right hand was bleeding from the torn web of her thumb.

Her right hand was her dominant hand. With only her left hand to hold the sword, she had undoubtedly lost any chance of fighting Nightmare.

Time manipulation likely required contact with spiritual power. As long as she avoided being hit by Nightmare’s spiritual bullets, she could ensure she was unaffected.

But… was it really that simple?

Nightmare, who had already altered her own speed, had an absolute speed advantage far beyond the limits of her Realizer. If Nightmare wanted, she could easily use her extreme speed to hit her with spiritual bullets and end her completely.

There was no way to break the deadlock.

A drop of cold sweat fell from Takamiya Mana’s forehead. She pressed her lips tightly, and unbidden, the thought of retreating arose.

But fleeing from a Nightmare far faster than herself was no different from death. Perhaps standing her ground here could still make Nightmare hesitate.

Takamiya Mana slightly condensed her Territory to protect her heart and other vital points. Though her face showed no expression, but…

“Nightmare! You’re dead! If you surrender, maybe I’ll spare your life!”

Only about half an hour had passed since Tokisaki Kurumi attacked the DEM headquarters building, and more and more DEM Wizards, as well as AST members stationed throughout England, arrived one after another.

From a distance, the dense crowd of Wizards had already occupied half the sky, like a storm about to sweep the entire battlefield.

This was a force absolutely capable of killing a Spirit. The “Tokisaki Kurumis,” who originally had an absolute numerical advantage, were forcibly blocked outside this temporarily assembled army.

Moreover, her “time” was limited. Although she had accumulated enough time over the years, if she lost it all here, all her previous efforts would be wasted.

But… was she going to give up rescuing the Second Spirit just like that?

Tokisaki Kurumi gritted her teeth and waved her hand lightly. A petite figure was pulled out from the shadows and thrown by Kurumi into the center of the battlefield.

“Miss Chihaya, it’s time to show our trump card. Use the mighty power that slaughtered three hundred thousand people in Tengu City to completely turn the tide! I’ll… go look for the Second Spirit first.”

Chihaya Sayo, just thrown out of the shadows, had not yet fully grasped the situation. She could only stare blankly as Tokisaki Kurumi’s true body quietly merged into the shadows.

The thousands of Wizards in the sky instantly understood the identity of the Spirit before them when they heard “slaughtered three hundred thousand people,” and they all raised their Anti-Spirit weapons.

“It’s Jormungand! Jormungand has teamed up with Nightmare?”

“This damned Spirit! Use your magic to defend yourselves and don’t give her an opening! With so many of us, we can grind her to death!”

‘I’ve been… set up?’

“Aminoss! Kurumi! I’ll **** you!”

Chihaya Sayo’s elegant Chinese swearing, full of grief and rage, echoed through half the city, but the girl’s pitiful figure was immediately drowned by countless Wizards.

‘Damn it! I should never have trusted Tokisaki Kurumi!’

‘After all, she was a madwoman who believed she could rewind time and change history. To achieve that goal, she would pay any price. Besides, I’m just an extremely weak Spirit outside the system.’

‘If I’m caught by DEM…’

Chihaya Sayo looked at the Wizards charging at her with Anti-Spirit Light Swords and swallowed hard.

‘This was no longer a matter of being caught by DEM. I might really die here by accident!’

“Mitestin!”

The girl called out loudly to her own Angel. The loyal Mitestin flickered with ink-black light, not extending outward, but turning into an ink-black sphere that wrapped Chihaya Sayo’s entire body inside.

It possessed the property of absolute destruction. All kinds of attacks would be annihilated in an instant by Mitestin, but…

Chihaya Sayo could feel her spiritual power draining rapidly. In just a few minutes, her body was already showing slight signs of exhaustion.

But she didn’t dare release Mitestin around her.

The small few cubic meters around her had already suffered saturated thermal weapon attacks. Even through Mitestin, she could smell the scorched earth in the air. If she went out like this…

‘Damn it, if I get the chance, I’ll completely destroy this damned place!’

The civilians around had already been completely evacuated. The Wizards in the air had also used magic to protect their minds. If she wanted to stir their emotions, it would take some time, but…

Chihaya Sayo’s face turned pale.

Clearly, her spiritual power would not last that long.

‘Or…’

She reached out her hand and used Mitestin to draw a line in front of her.

‘If I could, if I could escape back to the Neighboring World…’

“Spiritual power reaction detected. The Spirit is about to be LOST! All units, attention, form ranks! Do not let the Spirit escape to the Neighboring World!”

Someone shouted, and thousands of Wizards quickly formed a formation and began methodically channeling magic outward.

The spiritual power that had been dissipating in the air halted in an instant, and the Neighboring World that had been within reach became a completely untouchable mirage.

No, not just the spiritual power gap she had just opened. Even the flow of her own spiritual power seemed to pause for a moment. The originally pure and active spiritual power seemed to be mixed with a large amount of impurities and stalled entirely.

Even Mitestin’s operation showed a slight delay for an instant.

‘What… power is this? Why did it never appear in the original work?’

‘That’s right. As a Wizard… how could they only rely on Realizers to fight? They naturally should have some trump cards of their own…’

But the poor girl might never have the chance to think about this question. Saturated firepower bombing had already completely covered the area where she stood, turning the surrounding several thousand meters into scorched earth.

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