At the critical moment, the snake pendant in the young girl's hand sprang up again, unfurling its body in mid-air. Like a rubber band, it stretched itself out long and landed on the ground, forming a circle around Chihaya Anon in the center.
Those fake figures that crawled out of the Mirror, with blurred and distorted features and stiff bodies like mannequins used to display clothes in a mall, wearing pink wigs and Soubu High School uniforms, would spontaneously combust into a torch the moment they touched the snake circle, rolling on the ground and emitting indistinct, muffled wails of agony, eventually turning to ashes.
Chihaya Anon, scared half to death, curled her body into a small ball, trying her best to shrink her entire body within the snake circle, so as not to be touched by those fake figures.
More and more fake figures crawled towards her, yet they couldn't cross the snake circle even an inch. Instead, the surrounding ashes accumulated more and more, until eventually, every crawling fake figure would kick up plumes of ash, making the entire space hazy.
Just as Chihaya Anon was beginning to get used to the distorted fake figures, the entire space suddenly vibrated.
Then she saw that what was originally the ceiling had opened from above.
But what met her eyes was not the sky, but an incredibly gigantic 'Chihaya Anon'.
The other party was like a little girl, kneeling in front of her beloved dollhouse, and everything inside the house, including Chihaya Anon herself, was merely her toy.
Only, that incredibly huge face had no features, only a Mirror that reflected the terrified expression of Chihaya Anon's true self.
The young girl seemed to hear giggling, and an eerie sensation crept up her back, making her scalp tingle.
That giant 'self' reached out, like a child playing with a dollhouse, sweeping casually, and all the mirrors and various pieces of furniture in the room were scattered in disarray.
A finger as thick as a coffee table slammed into the edge of the Snake circle, and the fingertip instantly turned black, but the Snake circle, which had remained motionless no matter how many avatars touched it, now let out a painful hiss, and then spiderweb-like cracks appeared on its metallic body.
The accumulated ashes on the ground were instantly stirred up by the actions of the giant Anon, and then floated down like an ash rain, much like Chihaya Anon's feelings at that moment.
Gloomy, despairing.
The blackness on the giant Anon's fingertip quickly faded after only a moment; although it had no facial features, the girl could feel that it seemed to be grinning maliciously.
The next moment, the giant 'self' suddenly reached out, as if to swat a mosquito on a table, and slapped towards her with the force of Mount Fuji descending!
The Snake circle's pained shriek came to an abrupt halt, its long body directly shattering into pieces, and even its original metallic luster completely faded, turning into gray-white stones.
Everything happened too suddenly; for Chihaya Anon, who had been just an ordinary girl until today and had never encountered the supernatural, it was truly too much to handle. At this moment, her mind was blank, and many strange thoughts unconsciously surfaced.
She was probably going to die.
Compared to the bottomless despair of impending death, the failure of her study abroad, which she had previously considered a huge deal, was truly too insignificant. Why had she been so bothered by such a thing that it even affected her daily life…
Her good friends from the past probably still didn't know that she had fled back from England. But disappearing from their lives like this seemed good too, at least they wouldn't feel sad for her.
What was the last thing she said to her parents? It seemed the last thing she said to her father was complaining that her allowance was a bit too little, and the last thing she said to her mother was that she didn't like the green peppers in her bento? Ah, what a terrible person she was. She went to study abroad because of her willfulness, and after failing, she had to transfer back to a school in her home country, causing them so much trouble. Yet, she hadn't even said before she died that she felt very guilty towards them, that she really loved them, and if there was a next life, she hoped to continue being their daughter…
"I'm such an idiot…"
Facing the giant 'self's' palm descending from the sky, the girl lowered her eyes and murmured.
However, at this very moment, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly rang out.
"Confession should be done in church."
The girl suddenly looked up and saw a back figure appear not far in front of her, she didn't know when.
Asakura, his entire body burning with crimson flames, shielded the girl behind him, looking at the giant monstrous shadow in front of him with a relaxed expression.
While Chihaya Anon was still in a daze, someone else from behind embraced her in a soft, warm hug.
"It's alright now."
Asagumo Chihaya, holding her junior, said softly.
Chihaya Anon subconsciously looked at her and found that a rupture, like a broken Mirror, had appeared in the space behind Asagumo Chihaya, with pale silver flames burning at the edge of the rupture.
"But, but… that monster…"
The sight of the Snake circle being easily destroyed left a considerable shadow on Chihaya Anon.
"It's fine—" Asagumo Chihaya said with full confidence: "Because Takuma-kun is the strongest."
As if to confirm her words.
"Scale"
Asakura casually pointed at the sky, and the giant Anon's palm seemed to hit an invisible wall, being forcefully stopped.
"Right?"
Asagumo Chihaya winked at Chihaya Anon.
Chihaya Anon, feeling relieved, for some reason felt a huge sense of grievance and fear. This strange emotion made her unable to resist hugging her senior, who was actually shorter than her, and she burst into tears amidst the other party's muffled 'gul' sound.
Asakura looked back at the girl, who was crying with snot and tears, completely abandoning any concern for her lady-like image, then turned his head back to the towering giant Anon.
The latter had already withdrawn its hand and slowly stood up, which made it appear even taller and more imposing than when it had been kneeling in front of the house.
Behind it, a giant Mirror had already appeared, and the Mirror surface at this moment showed ripples like water.
"Quite clever…"
Asakura mumbled—although the opponent had a strong presence, judging from its actions, it clearly didn't want to fight him, but rather, seeing the unfavorable situation, it already wanted to escape.
"But when did you get the illusion that you could escape from me…"