"Ice Storm Commander-In-Chief!"
As her voice fell, icy blue radiance burst from Esdeath's body. Jagged frost erupted from the ground, and in an instant a blizzard swept outward, contaminating the manifested Imaginary Space.
As far as the eye could see, frost-white cold stretched between heaven and earth, filling every inch of vision. Everything before them became a prison sculpted from ice and snow, a forest of ancient frozen pillars towering into the clouds.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Countless massive icicles materialized out of thin air, stabbing toward Mio Takamiya, who was shrouded in mist and frost.
Yet it was as if she had not seen them at all. No matter how vast the range of Esdeath's ice spears, how dense they were, how swift their speed, or how piercing their cold light, they failed to stir her heart in the slightest.
"It's useless. If it's only this much... cooperation would benefit us both. I do not enjoy fighting. If you insist on battling me, then once I finish what I intend to do, we can fight properly. How about it?"
Ignoring the surrounding ice shards, Mio spoke calmly.
"If you cannot make the decision, you may invite your Legion Commander—or your Emperor—to speak with me instead... My strength is not insignificant. I should at least possess the qualifications to converse with your ruling class."
This was not arrogance. If it were merely ice formed by natural forces, as the Spirit of Origin she would not even need to dodge.
In the past, she had tried cutting herself, jumping into rivers, overdosing on drugs—attempts at suicide. But her resilient body would not permit it. Only spiritual power born from the same origin as hers, or beings who had reached that level of energy, could harm her.
"And what about this?! Come, let's kill each other!"
Her eyes filled with pure battle lust—the desire either to kill Mio Takamiya or to be killed by her—Esdeath shouted.
The enormous icicles expanded once more. Infused with the authority of the Herrscher of Ice, the frozen prison twisted and grew as if alive. Countless fine ice spikes extended from the larger pillars.
"Ah, I see... you're the kind of battle maniac who can't be reasoned with."
Sensing the energy fluctuations capable of injuring her, Mio covered her face and lowered her head, her expression hidden from view.
"Shinji... why does someone always try to stand in our way?"
Lowering her slender hand, Mio's face turned expressionless as she softly uttered:
"Ain Soph Aur."
The first angel of the Spirit of Origin—Angel of Death.
Silently, all the ice spikes disintegrated outside a hundred-meter radius around her.
Then the pure white spiritual barrier that had formed expanded instantly. Not only did it neutralize all of Esdeath's attacks, it even dyed the miniature manifested Imaginary Space they occupied in her color.
Esdeath was not the Second Herrscher—Herrscher of the Void—nor was she Selene herself.
Even with the Honkai Cube granted to her by Selene, though Esdeath could partially draw upon Imaginary internal energy and convert the Imaginary Space, that was the limit. Its strength was restricted. She could not reshape it at will.
In the next instant, the space above Mio warped violently. A massive oval sphere emerged. Its smooth surface rippled, wrinkled, distorted, and peeled open layer by layer until—
Like a blossoming flower of light, petal upon petal unfolded, revealing the core. And chillingly, the core took the shape of a young girl.
"The posture of the Virgin Mary? What terrible taste..."
Frowning slightly, Esdeath made a swift decision. Mysterious black ice wrapped around her body.
From within the blooming flower, countless pollen-like particles of light shot in all directions.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The icy structure eroded rapidly as the light-pollen collided with Esdeath's ever-growing frozen domain.
The Honkai energy radiating from Esdeath as the Herrscher of Ice clashed against Mio Takamiya's spiritual power. The former could not overwhelm the latter; the latter could neither corrode nor penetrate the former.
Then light and heat were born. Endless explosions erupted. The expansion speed of the ice pillars could not keep up with the rate of destruction.
Boom-boom-boom!
The forest of ice collapsed swiftly, revealing the dim violet space-time beneath.
Drip.
"Cough... hahaha! As expected of the Spirit of Origin—the strongest extraordinary lifeform in this world."
Esdeath slowly climbed to her feet. Rather than feel dejected from the earlier setback, she became wildly exhilarated.
"You're strong! Only someone as strong as you is worthy of a life-and-death battle!"
Boom!
Violet-crimson particles surged through the void with the swing of her ice blade. Terrifying force tore apart the light-pollen and the spiritual barrier alike along its path.
"She is an entirely new lifeform, completely different from Spirits and humans. Even if the Angel of Death pierces her body, it cannot corrode her."
Mio's expression remained unchanged. She intended to widen the distance—but in the next moment, Esdeath flickered.
"Another spatial ability!"
Clang!
The blade sliced through the spiritual domain. Sensing the disturbance behind her, Mio flicked her hand. A pure white ribbon of light extended outward and seized the ice blade.
Unfortunately, the hilt was empty. Esdeath was nowhere to be seen.
"Hm? Where did she—"
Bang!
The next instant, a palm shaded in icy blue struck Mio squarely. The force was so direct and overwhelming that even her divine ceremonial Astral Dress wrinkled heavily.
"Mm—!"
A muffled cry of pain escaped her lips. Mio's body bent forward. Her originally cool and elegant Astral Dress was torn open, revealing vast swaths of exposed skin.
"Her Majesty was right—only when fists strike flesh can one truly grasp the essence of battle!"
"You—!"
Raising her head, Mio's azure eyes blazed with anger and killing intent so intense it seemed almost tangible.
Esdeath ignored it completely. Like blades, her five fingers pierced through Mio's Astral Dress and plunged deep into her flesh.
Hum-hum!
Carrying violet-crimson Honkai particles not yet fully converted, vast quantities of Herrscher-of-Ice energy were injected into Mio's body.
Then Esdeath bared her teeth in a grin. Her icy blue eyes met Mio's without the slightest fear.
"Ice Burst!"
Boom!!!
Mio's body was blasted backward instantly.
"Entertain me properly!"
Trailing icy blue streaks of light, Esdeath chased after Mio's flying figure. In an instant, her hands blurred.
Using the technique of "thrust," she inflicted consecutive penetrating wounds in the blink of an eye.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Mio twisted sideways. From shoulder to waist, along a vertical line, her Astral Dress was shredded. On her fair skin, countless fine blood pits exploded open simultaneously.
Blood sprayed from the wounds, splattering across Esdeath's face and dyeing it red.
"I'll kill you!" Mio Takamiya roared, her expression twisted with fury. The halo behind her blazed to life. Within a radius of ten thousand meters, dancing ribbons of light flooded every corner.
Crack-crack-crack... boom!
Unfortunately, Esdeath's figure flickered and vanished long before the attack could reach her.
A few seconds later, Mio regained her composure. The light ribbons lashed against space, and her body finally came to a halt.
"Urgh!" Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth and clutching her chest, Mio looked up at Esdeath, calculating the distance between them.
In those brief seconds, judging by the perspective of her clone observing Tengu City from the Fraxinus aerial battleship, she had been blasted at least dozens of kilometers away.
Dozens of kilometers sounded vast, yet within the partially manifested boundless Imaginary Space, it was insignificant.
Lowering her hand, the horrifying wounds that had been blown open across her shoulders and chest were already nearly healed. The sunken flesh smoothed out as active buds of light regenerated her body.
Even her Astral Dress was fully restored, leaving no trace of her earlier miserable state.
Mio steadied the trembling in her heart and stared fixedly at Esdeath.
The ice-blue converted energy from before had been manageable. Though it injured her, it could not damage her essence. But those violet-crimson ominous particles were different. They had begun to erode and assimilate her in reverse.
If there had been more of them—if the disparity in scale had not been so overwhelming—she truly might have been killed.
"You deserve death."
"This domain is the source of your confidence, isn't it? Spatial abilities? Your origin is incomplete, but that doesn't matter. I will kill you."
Her tone was calm, her face expressionless, yet her words carried unmistakable fury.
Because she had continually divided her own power while creating the other Spirits, there was no doubt that Mio herself had been genuinely weakened.
Even so, her strength still far surpassed any other Spirit. Even if the Sephira Crystals and spiritual power of eleven complete Spirits were combined, they would amount to only a portion of her own.
(Note: The Yamai sisters each possessed half of a Spirit Crystal. Only when united were they the original Yamai Spirit.)
Like a goddess of destruction gazing down from above, Mio swept her eyes across everything around her before settling on Esdeath. Her gaze was utterly indifferent as cold words left her lips.
"Second Angel—Angel of Laws: Ain Soph!"
In the next instant, monochrome black and white spread outward from Mio like proliferating cancer cells.
Within moments, the temporary manifested Imaginary Space summoned through the Honkai Cube was dyed in vast swathes of black and white.
The violet-crimson space that represented Esdeath's home ground was rapidly compressed. The icy blue snowstorm collapsed at the slightest touch.
A tremor ran through Esdeath.
Aside from facing Selene, this was the first time she had felt such intense danger from the depths of her heart.
"This is... a world-eroding domain?"
Watching the world transform into stark monochrome, Esdeath spoke with uncertainty.
"Her Majesty was right. I'm no match for her... But no matter what, I'll fight with everything I have."
Gritting her teeth, resolve flashed in her eyes. Ice-blue particles erupted from her body, surging like a tidal wave toward Mio.
"It's useless."
Mio gazed at her and lightly pointed through the air. In the next second, the frigid aura capable of freezing all things collapsed abruptly.
Merely by possessing the ability to erode the world—by rewriting reality around herself into a domain favorable to her—Mio surpassed Esdeath.
Opposite Esdeath, space turned pitch black. The swirling frost vanished entirely, replaced by black and white grid patterns stretching across the heavens.
At the same time, behind Mio appeared a colossal tree that towered into the sky.
Its surface resembled countless cold panes of glass. Innumerable branches and leaves stretched upward. At the top of its trunk was a fissure, forming the outline of a young girl.
The tree was unimaginably vast. Its manifestation filled Esdeath's entire field of vision.
"To be precise, this is a territory created at will. This is the 'Neighboring World' that erodes this present world—it is my world. All rules here are defined by me. However..."
A trace of astonishment mixed into Mio's icy tone.
"This void world can actually resist my Ain Soph. Your energy level is indeed high, but not to this extent. It does not belong to you, does it?"
"For now, it is only a fragment. You are merely borrowing it!" Mio raised her hand. "It ends here. I don't have time to play with you."
Whoosh!
"Third Angel—Angel of Void: Ain!"
A streak of light shot forth from the black-and-white sky above her head, piercing toward Esdeath's chest in the blink of an eye. At the source of that streak—Esdeath glimpsed what seemed to be a tiny seed.
Yet it was precisely that seed that made her nerves tighten and her hair stand on end with the imminent sense of death.
"Esdeath, disappear from the Root!"
"Move! Move, damn it—Mahāpadma!"
Under the laws rewritten by Mio, Esdeath's movements slowed to an unprecedented crawl.
Just as the streak of light was about to touch her—
Pfft—!
"Cough—! What... what is happening?!"
Abruptly, the streak of light vanished into thin air. Mio collapsed to her knees. Blood poured uncontrollably from her mouth, and the halo behind her dimmed rapidly.
"Cough... Earth... the Earth is reclaiming everything that originally belonged to it!"
It was not over.
Mio's spiritual-wave reaction plummeted as if a stock market crash had struck. Behind her, the tree-tower of Ain Soph shattered with a sharp crack.
Mio curled up in agony. The sensation of having her spiritual power, flesh, and soul simultaneously extracted was a pain she had never experienced before.
In a haze, she saw Earth enveloped by a massive ritual formation—upon the sorrowful land where she had once been born...
She understood.
It was the reversed application of the very Spirit ritual that had created her.
"Elliot... Shinji! No! Don't—!"
Surrounded by blue-armored giants, the enemies who had created her—Westcott and Ellen—stood respectfully to one side. At the feet of those towering warriors lay Elliot... and Shido Itsuka, who had tried to help her.
But what filled her with the deepest terror was the graceful figure wrapped in a towering violet-crimson torrent at the center of the Eurasian continental crater.
At this moment, Mio could not even describe what she felt.
Only that a vast and terrifying shadow had descended upon her in an instant.
"Esdeath, the game is over. Bring her back to me. The joyful harvest begins now."
"...As you command, Your Majesty."