Fierce Battle

— Memory —

The wind howled fiercely as a demonic figure, moving like a whirlwind through the ruins, swiftly closed the distance on a team member who had been a hundred meters away just moments before.

Without a word, the metal claw clenched into a fist, striking out at its opponent. The target had no time to create distance through flight, opting instead to concentrate the Realizer’s rapidly generated magical energy into a single point, hoping to block the blow.

A hurricane of impact sent shattered debris flying, and the shockwave cracked the very earth. Amidst the deafening roar, the girl’s body soared into the sky, resembling nothing so much as a training dummy flung away by a powerful strike.

Upon her descent, the experiment concluded.

“As you can see, this newly developed technology can significantly boost your strength, speed, defense, and jumping power for a short duration. However, it comes at the cost of flight capabilities. I will leave a prototype machine here; whether you choose to use it or not is entirely up to you.”

The woman addressed those gathered in the conference room, tapping a whiteboard with a marker.

“Can you tell me why I feel pain when attacks strike the armor during combat, rather than just the external components?”

Origami hesitated for a moment, ultimately deciding that ‘armor’ was a more fitting description than ‘external components’ for the gear, before posing her question.

“The pain has a ceiling; as long as you’re not someone who finds even an injection agonizing, it shouldn’t be an issue.

As for the pain itself, that armor, from a different perspective, effectively becomes your own body. This mode essentially magnifies your physical form to grant you superhuman capabilities.

Your Territory, once the mode changes, acts as a connective and protective component. If the external parts are the muscles, then the Territory functions as the bones and skin. After all, no matter how much we modify it, it’s impossible to simultaneously possess flight capabilities and the defense and agility offered by the Shura State.”

The woman waved a dismissive hand, a hint of resignation on her face.

“If the Territory is meant to serve as defense, then why still cover it with external components? Wouldn’t directly enhancing oneself with the Territory lead to a greater improvement?”

Someone, perplexed, raised this question. The woman merely looked at Origami with a half-smile.

In response, Origami stood up and rewound the video to the point where the mode changed.

“Under normal circumstances, the Territory’s enhancement of the body is achieved through our conscious operation. However, by covering it with external components, these operations can be replaced by other mechanisms, thereby freeing our minds.

This allows us to possess such combat prowess without solely focusing on issuing commands to the Realizer, letting us attend to other tasks.”

After explaining, Origami pointed to a section of the video where her Shura State self, without sight of the enemy, dodged a sniper shot and then used a previously confiscated lightsaber to eliminate the target.

“Ah! I remember this part! I thought Senior Origami would be flustered by operating that massive mechanical hand, so I specifically chose the most complex battle situation to snipe!”

A voice from the audience immediately identified the scene. If their assumption had been correct, that single shot would have ended the day’s experiment three minutes earlier.

“Normally, that would be the case. The more precise and complex a Realizer is, the higher the demands on the brain’s operation, and the greater the burden. Unfortunately, the Shura State does not fall into this category. It grants you immense power while simultaneously freeing your mind to process other information.”

“Then why not extend the duration of this mode? If such a thing existed, if it had been available earlier…”

As she spoke, Origami clenched her teeth, a vision of a sea of flames appearing before her eyes, and a girl weeping amidst the inferno.

The woman looked at her, then sighed.

“Everything has two sides. While the Shura State appears formidable, it significantly impacts your nervous system. After numerous calculations, a minute and a half is the maximum duration that can be used without excessively affecting the nervous system.”

“What if it’s exceeded?”

“Complete paralysis of the entire nervous system. You would rely solely on life support to sustain existence, unable to live, yet unable to die.”

— End of Memory —

“Countdown: 90, 89, 88, 87…”

Origami’s body lowered, adopting the crouched posture of a beast poised to sprint. Cracks even appeared in the ground beneath her from the sheer force of her stance.

‘Shido, I’m coming to save you!’

Debris flew and dust billowed as Origami, moving at an astonishing speed, arrived before the shield.

She clenched her fist, drawing a vast amount of air into her lungs, then brought it down with a vicious strike.

The shield shattered into countless fragments under that single punch. Princess’s eyes widened involuntarily, filled with utter disbelief.

By the time she reacted, Origami had already scooped Shido up and departed from the massive crater.

“This… Are you toying with me?!”

Princess felt an unfamiliar surge of rage. An incredibly powerful opponent had emerged among her enemies, yet instead of engaging her after destroying the shield, they had merely whisked away that insignificant, ant-like fellow.

“This humiliation, you will repay with your life!”

No longer content to remain in her defensive position, Princess flew out of the colossal crater, swinging her blade towards the peculiar robot.

To her surprise, her opponent did not dodge. Instead, Origami brought her hands together, clamping down on Princess’s Sandalphon.

Origami then kicked out at Princess, forcing her to retreat, and caught a lightsaber thrown by a teammate, adopting an offensive stance.

The wind swept past as both combatants launched themselves forward simultaneously. Blades clashed, sparks flew, and the AST units flying in the air, fearing accidental harm to Origami, dared not pull their triggers. Any thought of support was out of the question.

Sword waves radiated from every point where sparks erupted, relentlessly ravaging the city, which was already indistinguishable from ruins.

Origami unleashed every technique she knew—swordsmanship, blade arts, hand-to-hand combat—all directed at Princess. Meanwhile, Princess, with her formidable strength, countered every attack—bullets, missiles, and cold steel.

“53, 52, 51…”

The countdown persisted, and Kusakabe Ryoko’s heart pounded with anxiety. Yet, she understood that this battle had escalated beyond her ability to intervene.

Origami and Princess had reached a fever pitch. Princess ended her probing attacks, beginning to unleash her full power. Origami abandoned flashy sword maneuvers, hoping to mislead her opponent and create an opening.

The light from their colliding blades illuminated their faces: one, the coolly beautiful Angel; the other, a demon of steel. Their very appearances embodied their animosity.

A downward sword stroke blocked the Angel’s attack, an upward slash narrowly missed her throat, followed by an elbow strike that landed squarely on her body. In response, a crack appeared on the armor covering Origami’s thigh.

Suppressing the pain from the elbow strike, the suppressed Angel slashed diagonally upwards, not retreating but pressing forward, denying any chance to breathe. She blocked Origami’s blade with the spiritual armor on her wrist, then closed the distance once more, gripping Sandalphon, its spiritual power already fully gathered.

Princess gazed into the eyes beneath the iron armor. Though she couldn’t comprehend the expression within, it didn’t matter.

Even if Origami had seen through her intentions, no one could save her at this range.

“Die!”

Suddenly, Princess felt a chill run down her spine. Without a moment’s hesitation, she decisively abandoned her attack and flew away from her position.

Boom!!!!

A violent explosion erupted without warning from where she had just been. Even Princess, whose spiritual attire was quite robust and who had instinctively retreated, felt a shudder of fear.

As the smoke cleared, half of Origami’s armor lay in tatters. The internal wiring suit and the built-in defensive Territory had absorbed the remaining force, leaving Origami herself unharmed.

“Who are you? Don’t be so sneaky. Come out!”

Princess angrily shouted towards a distant tall building.

The response was the same sense of impending danger as before.

Boom!!!!

The explosion pushed Princess back, her spiritual attire creaking ominously. Just as she prepared to seek vengeance, the familiar sensation of being compressed by the air reappeared. She knew well that this was the prelude to her expulsion from this world.

“Damn it!”

With a heart full of unwillingness, she vanished.

“Who?”

Origami, pushing past the exhaustion of the Shura State ending, looked in the same direction Princess had.

— Perspective Shift —

“A bit of a headache, isn’t it? It seems impossible to deal with Princess while ensuring that AST member doesn’t die. That dodge, though, perfectly avoided my cannon fire. Was it intuition?”

Yisha retracted her massive cannon and retreated from her sniping position along the predetermined route.

“I didn’t expect this thing to eventually be made public by her. It was developed to save the lives of wizards, yet it has become a demonic technology that kills them.”

The tactical goggles displayed an image of Origami in her Shura State.