Lying on the prison bed, Itami let out a sigh. He could understand Pina's decision.
She hadn't executed them directly, only thrown them into prison.
It was both protection for them and a way to avoid offending the goddess.
With Rory's abilities, getting them out of this prison at any time would be easy.
The problem was—once they got out, what could they even do?
Lelei seemed to sense something. She moved to the small window of the cell and looked outside. In the sky, a massive purple magic circle was rapidly expanding.
"Itami, the goddess is making another move."
Hearing this, Itami got up and looked out through the small window, frowning. Ever since the two goddesses guarding the gate had left, a pink-haired goddess with extreme aggression and a strong desire for slaughter had arrived.
I just hope nothing goes wrong...
Inside one of the Empire's magical fortresses.
Satou Matsuzaka, Spring Elfin, Rita, Durandal, Tina, Senju Kayo, Angelina, Wendy, and the others had gathered together.
After confirming the situation on the technology world's side, they decided to take advantage of their current superiority and launch an all-out push to either flatten or severely cripple the enemy in one wave.
End the exam.
If they tried to play the long game against technology, they would be worn down to death.
Everyone's magic intertwined and fused together, entering a state of shared resonance.
Durandal felt the magic of the others flowing continuously through her body. The sensation of being filled and swollen with magic made her let out a soft moan.
Hearing the sound, Satou Matsuzaka turned her head and glanced at her. "No need to mind it. That's a normal phenomenon during magical exchange."
Senju Kayo grinned mischievously. "Durandal, is this your first time playing like this?"
Angelina pressed her hand onto Senju Kayo's head and rubbed it hard. "You little pervert, focus. We're doing something serious here. Stop filling your head with dirty thoughts."
Senju Kayo slapped her hand away. "Alright. Next, we'll take the main offensive. The others will coordinate with us. Start charging."
Magic of various colors lit up as each of them prepared a super-tier spell.
At the same time.
Global Anti-Magic Alliance.
Supreme Command Headquarters.
Generals from major nations sat around a table.
A virtual projection of the planet hovered in the center. Raiden Mei stood before a large screen with her arms crossed, eyes closed, resting.
An American general said, "Miss Raiden Mei, we've been in combat readiness for so long. Is the other world really going to attack?"
A Russian general added, "Yes. The president keeps asking me when this will end."
A Far East general tried to calm them. "Everyone, please be patient. Please be patient."
Raiden Mei ignored their words and continued waiting.
The various nations were already growing impatient.
If not for the Massive Electric Agency's advanced technology, they wouldn't even bother playing along.
After all, the Gate was in the Far East. If something happened, the Far East would serve as the first shield, buying them enough time to respond.
Just as everyone stood up, preparing to leave—
A red light suddenly appeared at one location on the planet's virtual projection. Immediately after, the large screen switched to a live image of Los Angeles.
The American general instantly lost his composure and shot to his feet. "Why is it my place?"
The others felt a surge of relief. Thankfully, it wasn't their country.
All eyes fixed on the screen, wanting to see how the goddess of the other world waged war.
Why even the technologically advanced Massive Electric Agency might not necessarily win.
Red warning lights flashed across the screen.
"Warning, warning, warning. Abnormal spacetime fluctuations detected in this region. A spacetime gate is about to open.
Super-large-scale sacrificial magic fluctuations detected. Lifeforms in this region are about to be sacrificed.
Multiple high-level summoning magic fluctuations detected. Summoned entities are about to descend.
Environmental-altering magic fluctuations detected. The environment in this region is about to change."
Hearing this, everyone's expressions changed drastically. They stood up, eyes locked on the screen, a terrible premonition rising in their hearts.
No way...
So this was what transcendent spatiotemporal strike meant.
As if to confirm their thoughts—
Suddenly, the sky above Los Angeles on the screen split open into a massive black hole, from which an enormous amount of black mist poured out.
The black mist surged toward the city below.
The people in the city hadn't even realized what was happening. The moment they touched the mist, they collapsed and died.
The black mist flooded into the city, covering one-third of it.
The American general stared in horror.
Watching the rapidly climbing death toll on the screen.
Fifty thousand. Two hundred thousand. Five hundred and sixty thousand. Nine hundred and eighty thousand. One million three hundred and twenty thousand!
One spell had wiped out 1.32 million people in a single city?
"Sacrificial magic successfully activated. Spell identified as an offering to the Goddess of Magic. Honkai Eruption imminent."
What was a Honkai Eruption?
Everyone was confused.
Very soon, they found out.
Countless purple particles spread throughout the entire city.
The dead, upon coming into contact with the purple particles, rose to their feet again, becoming zombie-like monsters.
Many purple particles gathered together, condensing into white giant beasts several meters to dozens of meters tall.
"Miss Raiden Mei, aren't you going to act?"
The American general's face looked grim. A city of several million people—gone just like that.
"No rush. Let's observe a little longer." Raiden Mei turned around and spoke unhurriedly.
Silence filled the room.
This wasn't something they could afford to take lightly.
"This sacrificial magic can only be interrupted by attacking the caster. If you want to reduce its power, it's simple. Before those people are sacrificed, either send them out of the affected area—or kill them."
Raiden Mei's tone was casual, as if she were merely describing something trivial.
The Russian general asked, "There's no other way?"
To attack the caster, who was in another world, they would have to strike the moment the spacetime gate opened—within one minute—using the gate to attack the goddess performing the spell.
As for evacuating people from the affected area, that was impossible.
How many people were in a city? In one minute, how could they possibly evacuate everyone?
And to lower the spell's power by killing people in advance—were they insane?
"There is. But we can't do it. You'd better think about how to survive this wave of attack."
Raiden Mei looked at the army on the screen—zombies, Honkai Beasts, demons, angels, and other creatures forming ranks.
Hearing this, everyone snapped back to their senses. Now was not the time to discuss magic.
The American military, which had long entered combat readiness, launched the first attack against the monster army in Los Angeles.
Missiles and artillery shells rained down as if they cost nothing.
Under saturated firepower bombardment, most of the fodder within the city was instantly wiped out.
American mech units entered the battlefield, eliminating the monsters that had survived the bombardment and were attempting to leave Los Angeles.
Before they could finish off the monsters, a large number of red crystals flew out from the spacetime gate, scattering in all directions.
The generals who had been relieved that the battlefield wasn't in their own countries now saw their faces darken.
Those red crystals—of unknown function—were flying toward every corner of the globe.
"What are those?!"
All eyes turned to Raiden Mei.
"No idea. Probably some new secret weapon they've developed."
Raiden Mei answered truthfully. She genuinely didn't know.
"They look like alchemical products."
A Thunder Mech fired a missile that struck one of the red crystals.
The crystal shattered into fragments that scattered across the ground. The moment the fragments touched the surface, they fused into the earth. Immediately after, a dozen-meter-tall earthen giant rose up from the ground and began attacking everything nearby.
When fragments touched water, they formed water giants. When they touched stone, they became stone giants.
Military artillery could easily blast these giants apart, but once shattered, the crystal fragments would absorb surrounding matter and reform into giants again.
Each red crystal exploded midair into tens of thousands of fragments. Every small shard became a puppet giant.
Once all the red crystals landed, they could create tens of millions of puppet giants at the very least.
And it was uncertain whether the fragments, after breaking further, could continue absorbing matter to create more giants.
If they could, then the technological—or rather alchemical—level behind this was terrifying.
"Miss Raiden Mei, where are your troops?!"
The Far East general was puzzled.
The whole world was at war, yet there was no sign of the Massive Electric Agency's main force.
"Of course they're going to find you."
Raiden Mei smiled.
"Find us? What do you mean by that?"
The Far East general frowned. The others looked back and forth between him and Raiden Mei.
"There's a tactic called a base trade." Raiden Mei calmly sat down. "I know you've secretly been controlling many people from my world. This person is one of yours too, isn't he?"
The American general quickly drew his pistol and pointed it at the Far East general. "So you're the mole."
The Far East general's expression shifted unpredictably. Then his face changed, and he smiled. "You're quite impressive. It seems the intelligence I received was false."
"Not necessarily," Raiden Mei replied.
"When did you infiltrate my side?"
"From the very beginning."
...
Magic World.
Above the magical fortress, twelve floating warships unleashed full firepower, continuously bombarding the blue protective barrier of the fortress. Bronya, Seele, Elysia, Mobius, and the others leapt down from the warships.
Senju Kayo felt the intensity of the attacks on the magical fortress and sensed something was off.
She knew Raiden Mei had deliberately allowed them to obtain intelligence about the technology world. She had also considered that the other side might attempt a base trade.
Her original plan had been to counter-trade—if they jumped over to attack her side, she would jump over to theirs.
This round's victory condition was to occupy the opponent's world.
As long as they could force those few countries to publicly surrender first, that would be enough.
The opponent's victory condition was likely different.
She guessed it was to defeat them and then occupy the world.
After all, this other world was a mess. Its combat power relied almost entirely on them.
The technology world was different. Mechs and weapons could be freely equipped to ordinary humans.
Just like now—their main forces were actually fighting the various national armies.
Raiden Mei's true main force was nowhere to be seen.
These twelve floating warships and numerous mechs looked like a main force, but she was certain they were not.
Are they waiting for us to jump over?
Senju Kayo looked toward the spacetime gate. "Maintain the gate. We're going out to fight them."
Angelina frowned. "Are you sure? We've already consumed more than half our magic."
"Let's go out and test it. If it doesn't work, we run," Tina said.
Wendy added softly, "I'll listen to Sister Angelina."
Satou Matsuzaka remained silent.
Supreme Command Headquarters.
A red magic circle lit up beneath the Far East general's feet.
In an instant, he disappeared—replaced by Satou Matsuzaka.
"No matter what schemes you're playing, without sufficient strength, they're meaningless."
Through magic, the two had switched places. Although this was a faction war, when it came down to one-on-one combat, it was a matter of raw strength.
"I'm not necessarily weaker than you."
Purple lightning coiled around Raiden Mei's body.
Satou Matsuzaka flickered and appeared at her side.
Boom!
The two were blasted backward simultaneously.
Raiden Mei moved, vanishing instantly.
Satou Matsuzaka followed closely behind.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of thunderous explosions echoed.
They fought from the Supreme Command Headquarters into the open sky.
They clashed once in midair—Satou Matsuzaka's figure reappearing.
Another collision.
And another.
Constant clashes, constant movement.
At a certain speed, flashy techniques became unnecessary.
Satou Matsuzaka's magic activated quickly, but it still required a fraction of a second to cast—and there was always the risk of missing or failing to lock on.
So she simply relied on her reality-warping field, meeting force with force.
Magic and technology were auxiliary means.
The core was one's own reality-warping field.
Academy City's technology could already replicate one-tenth of a reality-warping field's power in someone other than the original user.
Even if it was only one-tenth, in the eyes of ordinary people, it was still a battle between gods.
After dozens of exchanges, Raiden Mei reached a conclusion.
She couldn't beat her opponent.
Fine.
Then forget honor.
A pillar of light descended from the Moonlight Throne.
Satou Matsuzaka was enveloped within it.
"The Moonlight Throne, hm?"
Bathed in the conversion beam, the pink-haired girl's internal energy not only failed to decrease—it increased.
"You know what reverse conversion is?"
"..."
That was even possible?!
Raiden Mei was stunned. She had considered the possibility that the Moonlight Throne might be ineffective—but she hadn't expected it to reverse the conversion and turn the beam's energy into her own supply.
She immediately halted the Moonlight Throne's satellite attack.
If this continued, she would die even faster.
Raiden Mei glanced at the faction chat channel. The battlefield on the other side wasn't going well either.
No choice now.
"War God—come forth!"
A hundred-meter-tall War God manifested behind Raiden Mei.
"Smash her."
The War God raised its massive fist and brought it down toward Satou Matsuzaka.
Raiden Mei and the War God attacked together, two against one, pressing Satou Matsuzaka relentlessly.
Meanwhile, the twenty War Gods secretly mobilized to Los Angeles, unable to wait for Senju Kayo to jump over, disengaged their quantum stealth and flew into the spacetime gate on their own.
Seeing the War Gods emerge, Spring Elfin attempted to close the gate.
But she was a step too slow. Three War Gods made it through and joined the battle.
Upon seeing them, Senju Kayo let out a breath of relief. At least this proved her guess had been correct—the real main force had indeed been waiting on the other side.
Now they had appeared because they had no choice.
Although Elysia and the others held the advantage, it wasn't overwhelming.
In this world, they possessed a vast amount of military power. As reinforcements from surrounding magical fortresses arrived in a steady stream, they could eventually grind down Elysia and the others.
Mobius said calmly, "Time to withdraw."
Elysia pouted. "Fine, fine."
Leaving the War Gods and floating warships to hold the line, the technology world's forces retreated.
Angelina blinked. "They're running just like that?"
"Deal with these first," Tina replied.
"Wait—what about our magical fortresses and troops?!" Senju Kayo exclaimed.
Only then did she realize where the enemy's true main force was.
The technology world's main army was dismantling their magical fortresses and eliminating the reinforcements they had sent out.
The technology world's human nations might have been severely damaged—but their own faction's power had taken the real blow.
One-third of their territory's magical fortresses had been destroyed. They had dispatched garrison troops to provide support, leaving the fortresses undefended. Without the protection of the fortresses, those troops were easily annihilated.
They had suffered a massive loss.