In the night sky above.
The chase between Aya Tokoyogi and Serafall continued.
Over the snow-white world below.
Aya Tokoyogi casually raised her hand.
Pinpoints of starlight gathered from all directions into her palm.
With a sudden clench, the starlight exploded into pure white beams, shooting towards the surrounding ice sculptures, embedding themselves within.
In the next instant.
Countless lights used the ice as mirrors, refracting wildly!
Within moments, the frozen landscape within a kilometre radius transformed into a sea of light!
Crackle—!!
Amid the dazzling refraction, all the ice sculptures in the vicinity shattered, revealing the grey-white urban structures beneath.
From within this explosion of ice, Serafall staggered inside a building's sixth floor, wiping blood from her lips in shock:
"My Ice Mirror Technique was broken?"
Ice Mirror Technique!
A movement spell created by Serafall, whose core skills revolved around ice-based magic.
It allowed near-instantaneous teleportation through reflective surfaces in a frozen mirror world.
This technique had been Serafall's pride in mobility, repeatedly suppressing her rival Grayfia during past demon civil wars—her signature movement skill!
Yet now, this previously undefeated technique had been countered!!
As Serafall stood stunned, Aya Tokoyogi stepped forward, walking across the void as if on solid ground:
"I expected some unique escape method from you. To think you'd keep repeating the same old trick?"
Aya's cold expression showed faint disappointment:
"To let such dull theatrics play out three times before me... Do demons truly harbour incompetents like you?"
Hearing this, Serafall merely wiped the corner of her mouth and frowned at Aya Tokoyogi:
"This is bad~ The Magical Girl seems to be facing an enormous predicament..."
Though she'd long known she was no match for these so-called orthodox Demigods, and had long understood how difficult escape would be against such foes.
But Serafall truly hadn't expected the Ice Mirror Technique to be broken so quickly.
Things seemed to be getting troublesome.
As Serafall pondered how to escape, Aya Tokoyogi stood mid-air, calmly surveying the frozen city around her.
Though transformed into ice sculptures, Aya could still recognise their location from the frozen martial arts hall nearby:
"We've already reached inner Chiyoda?"
As she spoke, Aya turned her head to regard Serafall with tranquil eyes:
"Deliberately turning every place you pass through into frozen wasteland—aside from preventing my conceptual attacks from defeating you—you're also intentionally escalating the situation to force those hidden Demigods in Tokyo to intervene, aren't you?"
Serafall remained silent. After all, when a Magical Girl wants to do something bad, saying it once is enough. Repeating it would make justice look bad.
Seeing Serafall's silence, Aya let out a soft, mocking laugh:
"It seems you haven't considered the possibility that those hidden Demigods might want you dead by my hand."
"Don't you agree?"
"Miss Satan from another world!!"
Though she knew it was provocation, Serafall had to admit she found it somewhat believable.
After all, she'd followed the coordinates Luo Shu provided for Truth Astronomy members, only to unexpectedly encounter Aya Tokoyogi's location instead. Throughout their confrontation, she'd received not a shred of support.
Given this, the possibility that Luo Shu wanted Aya to eliminate her wasn't insignificant.
But...
"While what you say makes sense, isn't there also a chance that Mr Luo Shu likes me too much and wants to impress me with a heroic rescue?"
Hearing this, Aya seemed momentarily stunned.
"Hmph, hmm hmm~~"
Finally, Aya's shoulders shook with quiet laughter:
"I didn't expect you to have such talent for comedy."
Aya shook her head, then fixed her fiery yet cool eyes calmly on Serafall.
She raised her hand slightly, pointing at Serafall as she softly said:
"Bang."
Suddenly—
Serafall looked down at her right shoulder, where a bowl-sized wound now revealed the scenery behind her. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Purification Technique."
Aya's cool voice rang out:
"This is a technique I developed specifically targeting demons' robust physiques—it performs precision demolition of demonic cells."
"Though your body's structure differs somewhat from the demons I'm familiar with, with minor adjustments, it proved quite usable."
Tilting her head slightly, Aya regarded Serafall with curiosity:
"But while I was chatting to prepare the Purification Technique, what exactly were you waiting for?"
Clutching her wound with a paling face, Serafall declared:
"Me? I was waiting for the hero to make his entrance!!!"
As she spoke, her body gradually crystallised into a translucent ice sculpture.
Meanwhile, Serafall's true form materialised atop an apartment building five hundred metres away.
From the very beginning, when conversing with Aya Tokoyogi, her true form had been concealed, lying in wait for an opportunity to strike.
Yet even in her true form, that bowl-sized wound remained on her shoulder, merely packed with ice by Serafall to temporarily mitigate its impact on combat.
Glancing at the icy filling on her right shoulder, Serafall pondered briefly, her gaze thoughtful:
"Not a targeted attack, but an area-specific detonation?"
"Given that the wound appeared on my true form, the attack radius of that purification technique must exceed 1 kilometre..."
"To become this troublesome without even employing a Demigod's Greater Abilities... Just how did Sirzechs fight against Twin Wings..."
"While I can hold my own against her for a while, it seems I'm no match for a Demigod... Even escaping would be extremely difficult..."
Just as Serafall clicked her tongue, contemplating her next move to flee...
A hand gently rested on her uninjured shoulder.
Those unpainted, pinkish-white nails lightly tightened their grip on Serafall's shoulder.
Serafall's expression froze in that instant.
And at that very moment, Aya Tokoyogi's cool voice spoke from behind her:
"If you thought such clumsy tricks could conceal yourself from a Demigod, then I regret to inform you... Your movements have been transparent to my eyes from start to finish."
Hearing this, Serafall pouted and said indignantly:
"So what if you've been analysing my abilities all this time? Is figuring them out supposed to be impressive?"
Aya Tokoyogi raised an eyebrow slightly at this and let out a derisive chuckle:
"Given up resisting?"
"Or perhaps... the reinforcements I've been waiting for have finally arrived?"
As she spoke, Aya Tokoyogi slowly turned her gaze to the left.
There, at the edge of the penthouse balcony...
A figure sat quietly on the elevated ledge, hands folded before them, their night-dark eyes reflecting both women's forms.
Moments later.
A man's low chuckle rang out:
"Seems you're having fun!"
"Aya-chan."