At the bottom of the crater, Fubuki's consciousness seemed to sink into the depths of the ocean.
It's over...
Everything is over.
Everything she had worked so hard to build was worthless in front of her sister, who possessed absolute power.
"As expected, I will never be able to beat my sister..."
Just as her consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness, a heart-wrenching scream pierced the dead silence, forcibly pulling her scattered consciousness back.
"You are not allowed to touch the leader ever again!!"
It was the voice of Eyelash.
Fubuki struggled to move her eyes, and in her blurred vision, she saw her companions from the Blizzard Group.
Their clothes were tattered and they were covered in blood, yet one by one, they used their own bodies to shield her.
When Tatsumaki saw this scene, the last trace of patience in her eyes vanished, replaced by annoyance.
"Are you still putting up a futile struggle?"
She lightly raised her right hand.
Boom!
An invisible wave of Psychic Power surged out, slamming hard against the human wall.
"Ugh!"
"Pfft—"
Screams and the sounds of coughing up blood rose and fell; the Blizzard Group members, who had just barely managed to stand, were sent flying in groups once again.
"Don't..."
Lying at the bottom of the crater, Fubuki used every ounce of her strength to squeeze out these two weak words from her throat.
Tears uncontrollably slid from the corners of her eyes and dripped onto the dirt.
Watching her companions challenge her sister to protect someone as pathetic as herself, her heart felt as if it were being pierced by countless steel needles, hurting beyond measure.
Stop... run away...
Don't do such stupid things for me anymore!
However, her screams only echoed in her heart and could not be conveyed in the slightest.
Tatsumaki glanced indifferently at the "trash" lying on the ground, without even a trace of pity in her eyes.
In her view, as long as these pieces of trash completely lost their ability to act, Fubuki would give up.
She was just about to withdraw her gaze when her eyebrows twitched slightly, a flash of surprise appearing in her eyes.
"Oh?"
She saw that the people she had sent flying were actually, once again, wobbling as they climbed up from the ground.
Mountain Ape used his thick arms to prop himself up, coughing up blood continuously, but he still stood up.
Eyelash's pride and joy, his eyelashes, were already stained with blood, and one eye was so swollen he could barely open it, but he still stood up.
All the knocked-down members of the Blizzard Group, without exception, stood up again.
Their bodies were trembling, their steps unsteady, as if they would collapse the next second, but their eyes were even more determined than before.
"We..." Mountain Ape roared in a hoarse voice, "We will not back down!"
Eyelash wiped the blood from his face, looked straight into Tatsumaki's cold gaze, and said word by word: "Perhaps in your eyes as S-Class Rank 2, we are indeed just insignificant B-Class Heroes."
"But, we have always seen the changes in Leader Fubuki!"
His words seemed to ignite the flames in everyone else's hearts.
"That's right!"
Another member stood up shakily while leaning on a broken steel bar, his voice trembling with excitement.
"It was the leader who taught us that the weak can also have their own way of fighting! She gathered us, who were like scattered sand, and turned us into a real team!"
"For every mission report and every tactical review, the leader does it herself! She remembers everyone's strengths and limits!"
"The Blizzard Group now is stronger than ever before! This is all thanks to the leader!"
Their words were like streams of warm current pouring into Fubuki's heart.
She could feel her scattered power gathering again.
These words were not just for Tatsumaki to hear, but even more so for her.
They were using their lives and wills to affirm her past efforts.
Lily of the Three-Section Staff, a girl who was usually a bit timid, stood out bravely at this moment.
She gripped her weapon tightly, tears swirling in her eyes, her voice choked with sobs but filled with strength.
"Clearly... clearly Leader Fubuki has worked so hard, yet is it to end so easily?"
She looked up, her tears finally breaking the dam, and she shouted with all her might: "Not allowed! I absolutely will not allow the Blizzard Group to end like this!"
"Whether it is Lady Fubuki or the companions of the Blizzard Group, everyone has been working hard all this time!"
"Why do you want to come and destroy all of this?! You don't understand anything at all!!"
Tatsumaki listened to all of this quietly, her expression not moving in the slightest, instead becoming increasingly cold.
"Are you done?"
She said softly.
"So that's it, this is your 'bond'. Truly touching."
A smile curled up at the corners of her mouth.
"Since you cherish each other so much, I cannot show any mercy."
These people's words not only failed to make her change her mind but instead made her ideas even firmer.
It is precisely because of these so-called "bonds" that Fubuki is content with playing house with a bunch of weaklings and lacks the drive to improve!
Friends? Companions?
Those things, in the face of a real crisis, are useless except for becoming corpses that make you sad!
She had told Fubuki long ago that one's own strength is everything!
"I've changed my mind."
Tatsumaki said slowly, her voice terrifyingly calm.
"Making you disappear from the hero registry directly might be the best protection for Fubuki."
This sentence made everyone present's hearts sink to the bottom.
"Rest assured, I won't kill you."
"If I cripple you, you won't be able to participate in hero activities anymore, and you won't be a burden to Fubuki anymore."
The cruelty of these words even made Black Sperm, who was watching the show from afar, shiver.
"Geez... is this shorty's personality that nasty? She's practically more of a Monster than a Monster."
Black Sperm shrank his neck and muttered to himself.
Fubuki at the bottom of the crater had her pupils suddenly contract.
An unprecedented fear gripped her heart.
No... don't...
She wanted to stand up, but her body felt as if it were filled with lead, unable to move.
Tatsumaki slowly raised her right hand, emerald-green destructive energy gathering at her fingertips, emitting a heart-palpitating light.
Time seemed to be infinitely elongated at this moment.
A trace of despair flashed in the eyes of Eyelash and the others, but they did not retreat, still blocking firmly in front of Fubuki.
Even if they were to become crippled, they would fall while standing!
Just at the instant when the light at Tatsumaki's fingertips was about to erupt—
"Thump."
A dull and powerful sound abruptly drowned out all other noises between heaven and earth.
Tatsumaki's pupils contracted sharply, and the energy gathered at her fingertips dissipated unconsciously.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The heartbeat went from slow to rapid, like the beating of war drums, finally converging into a deafening roar.
An invisible and domineering Intimidation, like a tangible shockwave, instantly swept across the entire battlefield!
The air solidified, the wind stopped, and even the drifting of dust seemed to be frozen at this moment.
The Emperor Engine roared!
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