"Her!? How did she find me?"
Was it the emotional fluctuation just now that was detected?
The humanoid figure shrouded in mosaic static tilted its head noticeably, a trace of astonishment entering its voice.
Based on her estimation of Esdeath's energy fluctuations, they were clearly inferior to her own. Logically, while she was deliberately concealing herself, no spiritual particles should have leaked out at all.
"But now is not the time to fight. Shinji is still waiting for me..."
Without the slightest hesitation, Phantom turned directly away, her form twisting.
"..."
The distorted radiance dimmed.
Contrary to Phantom's expectations, she remained standing exactly where she was.
"Wh... what? I can't transfer?"
Phantom suddenly realized that the entire space around her had, at some unknown point, been covered by an invisible cage.
Here, the space that had once felt as natural as water to a fish had become alien—rejecting her access.
"I already anticipated that you would try to flee. How could I possibly come unprepared?"
Hovering roughly twenty paces away, Esdeath raised the violet-crimson glowing cube in her hand. Within her ice-blue eyes, a flash of scarlet flickered.
"In the name of Selene—Spatial Lockdown!"
At the word "lockdown," and seeing the cube twisting in midair within Esdeath's grasp, a sense of foreboding flooded Phantom's heart without reason.
"Wait—"
"Spatial Exile!"
With a crisp metallic click, Phantom saw the rotating cube shift into a peculiar configuration. The seamless exterior suddenly revealed a finger-wide aperture.
Within it, deep violet brilliance erupted.
In the next instant, premonition became reality.
Color drained from her vision. The world plunged into darkness. A wordless sense of weightlessness seized her. Phantom lost her familiar connection to Earth's leylines—and lost her sense of Shido Itsuka as well.
Cold. Tremor. Oppression. Rejection...
Color returned to her sight.
The moment she regained awareness, Phantom surveyed her surroundings.
There was no sense of direction. It was a bizarre and fantastical world. In the distant firmament radiated endless violet-crimson light. Twisted specks and lines solidified into tangible forms, distributed irregularly in every direction.
What were those violet-crimson particles that resembled Spirit spiritual waves? They possessed all the characteristics of Spirit particles, yet were entirely different.
"Where... is this?"
For a brief moment, the ruined cityscape in her memory overlapped with the void before her. But within a single breath, Phantom snapped back to clarity.
The space seemed to exist between the intangible and the tangible. Faintly, she perceived that she was situated within cosmic space.
At an immeasurable distance, a water-blue planet orbited by a silver-gray satellite was being ravaged by a "forest of steel."
"Outer space?!"
Clap—clap—clap!
Several faint sounds of applause suddenly echoed through space. Ordinarily, such sounds would be negligible. Yet in the utter silence of the cosmos, they rang startlingly clear.
There was no atmosphere in outer space. Sound could not propagate.
She... hmm? I didn't even use spiritual power. How was that done?
"That's right. By borrowing the Honkai Cube, although it is far inferior to Her Majesty, it can still manifest a derivative of Imaginary Space. The fact that you could see through it proves your strength indeed lives up to your reputation."
"As expected of the Spirit of Origin, who caused 150 million casualties the moment you were born and blasted a crater into the Earth's surface."
Standing upon a faint lavender plane, her hair, brows, and eyes all the cold hue of ice, Esdeath reappeared. Lowering her hands from applause, her battle-hungry gaze locked firmly onto the illusory figure.
"Mio Takamiya—the strongest transcendent lifeform in this world. Am I wrong?"
Now that she no longer had to worry about Mio Takamiya escaping, Esdeath finally allowed herself to examine this exceedingly "cautious" world's strongest being.
Her entire body was cloaked in mosaic distortion, like static interference, rendering her features indiscernible. As for her voice—it resembled the damaged audio of a ruined VCD or DVD.
Some form of concealment technique, perhaps. If not for the cube granted by Her Majesty, it would have been difficult to sense her at all, Esdeath thought silently.
"You..."
Hearing Esdeath reveal her true identity, Mio Takamiya no longer felt inclined to continue hiding.
Hum—!
Holy white light burst forth.
The mosaic shell encasing Mio Takamiya cracked with a sharp crack, like an eggshell splitting open, shattering and falling away to reveal the true form within.
Soft bands of light extended outward like tendrils in an instant. The girl's silver-white hair shimmered gently. Her exquisitely crafted features resembled those of an angel.
She wore a pure white goddess-like dress, a small teddy bear fastened at her waist, her feet bare.
"Now that's more like it."
As for Mio Takamiya's youthful appearance—no more than fifteen or sixteen—and the sorrow held within her azure eyes, Esdeath paid no attention.
Her focus lay elsewhere. Gazing at the luminous halo behind Mio, she spoke thoughtfully.
"You're not at your peak condition, are you? I can sense it—your source of power seems incomplete."
"..."
Mio Takamiya nodded silently, acknowledging Esdeath's deduction.
Behind her, the halo-like construct floated slowly, embedded with ten dim stars.
Those ten stars symbolized the Ten Sephirot of the Kabbalah and corresponded to the Spirits who had been granted Sephira Crystals by Mio Takamiya.
If the Sephira Crystals were reclaimed, the corresponding star would illuminate—representing the restoration of Mio Takamiya's strength.
Although she was already calculating how to escape back to Earth—to return to her beloved, Shinji Takamiya—and her heart could even be described as anxious, Mio Takamiya still attempted to resolve the situation through negotiation.
"You are not a Spirit. You are visitors from beyond this world. If your objective is merely to rule this world, then we have no conflict of interest... we could even cooperate."
Without the mosaic distortion, revealing her true form, Mio Takamiya's voice was extraordinarily gentle and warm—imbued with a saintly compassion.
Combined with her pitiful beauty, it stirred an instinctive desire in others to protect her and yield to her wishes.
Esdeath merely shook her head.
"Cooperate? I'm afraid that decision isn't mine to make. The one responsible for this campaign is Legion Commander Roboute of the Thirteenth Legion. And the initiator and driving force behind the Great Crusade... is Her Majesty."
Recalling her recent communication with Selene—especially the intense interest Selene had shown upon hearing of Mio Takamiya's Spirit ritual—Esdeath already knew that their interests were fundamentally opposed.
Given her understanding of Selene's "devour without leaving bones" style, Esdeath was certain of one thing: since Selene had personally descended, the value of this world would be squeezed dry without a single scrap left behind.
"As for me, I am merely an ordinary general within the Imperial military. I have no authority to make decisions. Finding you was simply because I wanted to fight you."
"War of conquest. Thirteenth Legion. Legion Commander Roboute. The Empire. Her Majesty..."
Murmuring the key terms Esdeath had revealed, Mio Takamiya rapidly analyzed the information in her mind.
There was no doubt that her Earth had been invaded by a civilization from a higher-dimensional world. And if the force responsible for conquering Earth was the Thirteenth Legion, then conservatively speaking, there were at least thirteen legions of similar scale.
Combined with the reverence Esdeath had displayed when mentioning "Her Majesty," it indicated that this power structure was an absolute monarchy.
Though she was also a pure Spirit, unlike the simple and somewhat airheaded Yatogami Tohka, who disliked thinking and studying, Mio Takamiya was exceptionally intelligent.
She possessed extraordinary learning ability—mastering an entire language system within a single day, rapidly comprehending history and worldviews. Later, she became proficient in multiple foreign languages, violin performance, medicine, even piloting aircraft.
"So in other words, you are not the one in charge."
Though phrased as a question, Mio Takamiya's tone was utterly certain.
Knowing battle was unavoidable, the spiritual power around her gradually sharpened. The surging aura even stirred the dense Honkai particles nearby into turbulence.
Completely different from every Spirit she had fought before. On an entirely different level.
Sensing the overwhelming spiritual fluctuations emanating from Mio, Esdeath's heart grew wary.
Taking her combat stance, Esdeath spoke solemnly.
"Defeat me, and you may leave. You will earn the qualification to stand before Her Majesty."
"As you wish."
When Mio opened her eyes again, the gentleness within them had vanished. In its place was ruthless determination.
"Holy Selene Empire. General—Esdeath."
Following the ancient dueling traditions of the Partas, Esdeath announced herself.
"Takamiya... of the Takamiya family. Mio Takamiya!"
The moment her words fell, petal-like clusters of luminous particles bloomed from Mio Takamiya's fingertips.
"Ain Soph Aur!"
"Ice Storm Commander-in-Chief!"
...
Tengu City.
The orbital bombardment from the sky had long since ended. Amid the ruined cityscape, units of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and members of the Anti-Spirit Team still resisted fiercely.
Whether fortune or tragedy, due to the earlier catastrophe caused by Esdeath, many soldiers had not remained in their military bases but had been dispatched for disaster relief.
Thus, they had fortunately avoided the orbital bombardment of the space fleet.
Tragically, however, they now faced the brutal cleansing brought by the landing Imperial forces.
In midair, AST members wearing Combat Realizer Units circled the towering Astartes like swarming insects, doing their utmost to halt the giants' advance.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
High-explosive bolt shells detonated in flashes of fire. Twisted blossoms of flesh erupted. Combat Realizer Units shattered. One AST member after another was shot down.
Several had not even reached the ground before being cleaved in half midair by roaring chainswords.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The Imperial Auxilia of the Thirteenth Legion's Ultramarines had already landed.
Among conventional forces, their equipment was both standard and lavish: laser rifles, electromagnetic rail rifles, beam axes, beam swords, compact chainswords, thermal whips...
In the fierce crossfire, lives were extinguished without cease! Countless laser beams and metal projectiles filled the shattered streets in an instant, tearing apart what little silence remained of the city!
"Sato!"
Splurt!
"Hahaha! Weaklings! Against you, there is no need for the Astartes angels to even step in!"
An Imperial Auxilia soldier clad in blue light armor burst through the Ground Self-Defense Force's defensive line. His compact chainsword unleashed a massacre amid screams and sprays of blood, plasma and viscera splattering everywhere.
Watching their comrades brutally dismembered before their eyes, the soldiers of the Ground Self-Defense Force inevitably sank into despair and panic.
"Damn it! Why is every single one of them this strong..."
Hurled six or seven meters through the air with one hand by an Imperial Auxilia soldier, a squad leader of the Ground Self-Defense Force shouted in disbelief at the brink of unconsciousness.
Even the enemy's most ordinary soldiers were like Captain America—four or five men together still could not restrain one.
"Advance! For Her Majesty the Empress!"
...
Just as the Ground Self-Defense Force's defensive line teetered on collapse, within the DEM branch tower in Tengu City.
Located in the north-northeastern district of Tengu City, near the Tokyo metropolitan area, and marked as a key scientific and technological center, the building had not been subjected to heavy fire from the Thirteenth Legion—unlike the devastated western and southern districts.
Within the bunker beneath the tower, a man in a pure black suit sat on a sofa with eyes closed in rest. His short white hair and appearance suggested a man around thirty.
He was Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott—one of the founders of DEM, its nominal executive director, and its true authority.
"It seems we all miscalculated... Coming to Japan's Tengu City to capture Spirits, only to encounter an invasion by an extraterrestrial civilization and become trapped here. Though, perhaps that's inaccurate. London and Tengu City are no different now—the entire world is the same."
"Ellen, no intention of deploying?"
Hearing this, the blonde woman standing beside Westcott, clad entirely in the platinum-and-gold custom Combat Realizer Unit [CR-UNIT] Pendragon, merely shook her head indifferently.
"There is no necessity."
"The disparity is too great. Our world has not even entered a spacefaring civilization. Against a civilization capable of interstellar colonization, even detonating every nuclear weapon on Earth would likely not harm them in the slightest."
Her slender figure straight, pale golden hair cascading like silk down her back, Ellen Mira Mathers—one of the three founders of DEM, Westcott's secretary and right hand, and head of DEM's Second Executive Division—narrowed her light violet eyes.
"If we provoke them, the result may be the extinction of the entire planet. And if nuclear weapons were viable... why haven't they used them? Is it restraint born of rationality... or are they simply unable to?"
"..."
Interlacing his fingers, Westcott's expression grew contemplative, as though weighing what conditions he might demand in exchange for selling his planet.
"If it were me, I would choose unconditional surrender—provided my family's safety is guaranteed. A gap of this magnitude cannot be bridged by resolve alone. Our strength... does not entitle us to negotiate."
Ellen added with cold pragmatism.
Suddenly—
Boom—boom—boom—!
"A wise choice... Your conditions, I accept."