--Sunday, August 2, 2172

Still struggling to understand what had happened, the fierce and wild-looking woman suddenly saw Kai above her in the air, looking down at her with that predatory and condescending smile. Kai had driven his swords into the woman of light, who soon spat out a mouthful of golden blood and was completely paralyzed by the electrical current running through her—or so Kai thought.

In that instant, the woman returned to normal, and as a maniacal smile formed on her face, she punched her own chest with her right fist. Activating the hidden device in her gauntlet, the woman received a large amount of purple liquid into her bloodstream, causing every vein in her body to become visible as she trembled as though a heartbeat had struck through her.

Sensing how the woman’s voice began undergoing a number of changes he had never experienced before—so erratic that they even made him slightly dizzy—Kai kicked the air to retreat. This gave the woman the opportunity to land on the ground without a single wound, at which point she looked at the uncomfortable Kai and remarked with a huge smile that showed her fangs.

"Hehe, you’re really impressive, Saito Kai. Even after ’those’ guys investigated you for so long and in such detail, you managed to hide so many things from them that they ended up underestimating your strength... Be proud; you’re probably the first one to gain the upper hand against that group of paranoid cowards."

"So you’ll try to run?"

While trying to ignore the woman’s ’voice,’ which to his senses was like nails scratching a chalkboard, Kai asked coldly. The woman’s smile widened with smugness, exposing her sharp teeth even more and almost resembling a demon, at which point she spoke in an arrogant and mocking tone.

"Haha, no. What I mean is that I’m only here by pure luck; it wasn’t part of the plan. If not for that, you really would have won; it’s a shame. I guess you have bad luck, or maybe it’s those bastards’ good luck... Anyway, you’d better give up and come with me quietly. You won’t be able to defeat me anytime soon, and your little girlfriends at home will end up having a rough time."

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that."

Just as the woman finished speaking, she suddenly heard Kai’s voice right beside her, which made her eyes widen in disbelief, since she could still see him in front of her. But in that instant, the image she’d been seeing vanished like a mirage, and she found herself falling to the ground as her limbs slowly spun through the air.

"Son of a bitch!!"

Upon rationalizing what had happened, the woman’s face couldn’t help but twist into pure rage, and she screamed full of hatred as she transformed into a being of light. At the same time, the severed limbs in the air transformed into light and shot toward the woman, reuniting with her in an enormous sphere of light.

Soon, under Kai’s surprised gaze, the sphere of light shot up toward the sky, positioning itself like a sun. At that moment, Kai had a vision of the future where he could see several injured students, so he quickly ordered aloud.

"Tama, shields in the air!"

Upon hearing her master, the white cat immediately meowed into the air, causing the air to ripple, and soon half of the feline aura guardians launched themselves skyward to become barriers. Just as in the vision of the future, the enormous sphere of light released thousands of small spheres of light that shot out in all directions toward the ground like rays of pure energy.

At the same time, while Salem was tearing off more than half the neck of the last giant with his claws and teeth, Kai appeared near the sphere of light. He unleashed a colossal dark slash that cleanly split the sphere in two. But upon being divided, the sphere simply regrouped into two smaller spheres before shooting toward the sky, where they merged again.

Kai wanted to pursue her, but to his surprise, at that moment, the voices of the two giants and the big-mouthed guy recovered with force. Turning his gaze, Kai could see small rays of light falling upon all the defeated, though only the two giants and the big-mouthed guy showed signs of recovery.

With narrowed eyes, Kai unleashed several dark flying slashes, but before they could impact, the two giants and the big-mouthed guy transformed into rays of light and shot toward the sphere of light in the air. Soon, the three rays of light merged with the sphere, while Kai on the ground watched with surprise written on his face.

Activating his black-and-white vision, Kai carefully analyzed the woman’s ’silhouette,’ quickly confirming what he had ’sensed.’ The woman’s ’silhouette’ had somehow managed to ’infect’ the other three ’voices’ and then deform them until turning them into a sort of ’armor’ that covered her.

At the same time, the sphere of light changed, taking the form of an enormous female warrior of barbaric appearance wielding a massive mace. The woman laughed toward the sky with arrogance, making the entire forest shake, before beginning to shrink, ending up just over two meters tall. Reaching her final form, the barbarian woman of light looked at Kai and remarked with a predatory smile.

"Your chance to surrender has passed. I’ll give you a good beating before taking you."

As she finished speaking, the woman materialized behind Kai, about to slam her mace into the young man’s head. But to the woman’s surprise, Kai, with an incredibly fluid and effortless movement, dodged the mace by mere millimeters. Then Kai spun and unleashed a powerful slash with one of his swords toward her—all in the same motion.

Barely managing to move her mace to block, the woman was sent flying backward with her arms trembling slightly, which filled her with amazement, but she quickly recovered by screaming into the air. Spinning on herself in mid-air, the woman of light used a tree as a springboard and launched herself toward Kai at a terrifying speed, resembling a ray of light, arriving instantly in front of him.

Caught off guard by the sudden increase in speed and the woman’s unpleasant ’voice,’ Kai barely managed to move one of his swords to block. But with no intention of stopping, the woman spun in the air and once again shot toward Kai, who blocked her mace again. This made her scream again before trying once more without stopping, each time faster than the last.

...

...

...

"How many are we dealing with?"

After putting on her hero suit, Nemuri asked Keiko, who was surrounded by holographic screens and answered in a serious tone.

"Only 10 people arrived, but one can self-replicate, and there are already more than 300, all wearing gas masks and various defensive measures. They came prepared, but they underestimated the defensive system and are stalled."

Hearing Keiko, Yumiko and Nemuri looked outside the property, where enormous metal walls could be seen forming a huge metal dome covering the entire estate. Inside and outside the property, all kinds of turrets, drones, and droids armed to the teeth were spread out, ready to kill at the slightest sign of danger.

"Let’s go kick some ass!" Nejire, with a somewhat dangerous smile, commented while adjusting the gloves of her hero suit. Nemuri shook her head and spoke in a serious tone.

"Let’s wait a bit. Just as Kai said, these people are careful, so they probably have countermeasures prepared for anything we’ve shown in public. It’s better to wait and see what cards they have before doing anything. By the way, get ready to use the Accomplices as a trump card."

"Nemuri is right, dear."

Seeing that her daughter didn’t seem very convinced, Yumiko spoke in a serious tone as her Accomplice appeared beside her, ready for battle. Nejire turned to look at her mother, who explained seriously.

"We don’t know what these people want. They might very well want us to use it against Kai, so it’s better to wait. No matter what they’ve prepared, it’s a fact that they have to do it before the heroes arrive and a full-scale battle breaks out that exposes them. Every second that passes is a small victory for us."

"But Kai-chan must be in danger..."

Nejire said in a voice caught between worry and anger, which made the other women press their lips together. The only possible reason Kai hadn’t come running back in the face of such an attack was that he himself was under attack and couldn’t. At that moment, Keiko spoke with a firm voice, full of conviction.

"Kai is strong, and Sage knows our current situation very well, so Kai may know that this rabble doesn’t pose a major threat and doesn’t want to reveal Accompany."

"Mmm, that sounds about right..."

Nejire murmured, not very satisfied, since although it was plausible, Kai had ways to return quickly without exposing Accompany, so it was almost certain that he was also under attack. Knowing her words hadn’t fully convinced Nejire, Keiko let out a small sigh, since she herself didn’t believe it either. But at that moment, Keiko looked at a screen and announced in a solemn voice.

"They’ve breached sector two with a strange decomposition quirk and a refraction one. Deploying internal defenses."

"Get ready, Nejire."

With a serious expression and a sharp gaze, Nemuri gripped her whip tightly and announced in a firm voice as she took a step forward, creating a clear sound of her heel striking the floor. With a subtle smile, worlds apart from her usual cheerful and carefree attitude, Nejire unsheathed the sword hanging at her waist as she stepped behind Nemuri.

At the same time, dozens of turrets emerged from the ground, and hundreds of defensive drones and droids aimed their weapons at the security breach. When the first replica slipped inside, it was met with a rain of lasers, but like an unstoppable tide, dozens of nearly identical copies advanced only to be killed.

"Keiko, aim for their masks; I want to try something."

Seeing that all the copies turned into puddles of blood before becoming ashes, Nemuri, not far away, touched her ear and spoke in a calm voice as her aroma began to fill the air. Soon, only the masks of the copies were targeted, at which point Keiko’s serious voice echoed in her ear.

[Done.]

With a smile, Nemuri took a hand fan from her waist and waved it toward the opening in the wall. Although the motion appeared slow and elegant, the colossal strength provided to Nemuri by the [Vital Reactor] caused a brutal gust of air to shoot toward the opening, carrying the sleep-inducing aroma. Without their masks, the copies soon began to stagger drowsily, which put a smile on Nemuri’s face.

"So they are affected."

As Nemuri commented with a seductive smile on her face, a brutal electrical current spread among the copies falling to the ground. But this only slightly widened Nemuri’s seductive smile as she remarked, taking a step forward.

"That really would have been quite troublesome some time ago, fufu."

After speaking, Nemuri snapped her fingers, causing the sleeping copies to rise and then run out to fight other copies like beasts devoid of reason. With the ferocity of the copies unleashed without restraint, a complete carnage broke out at the breach. But at that moment, two enormous hands that appeared to be made of rock grabbed the edges of the opening to try to widen it.

Quickly, all the firepower of the defenses concentrated on the hands—massive explosions damaging them to the point of disintegrating several fingers and leaving them red-hot, on the verge of becoming lava. But even so, the hands kept prying the breach open, producing horrible sounds. At that moment, Nejire appeared in front of the hands with her sword surrounded by a circular energy wave.

With a precise cutting motion, Nejire unleashed invisible slashes that divided the hands into four equal-sized pieces, which then fell upon the horde of copies piling up below. For her part, Nejire used her energy waves to spin in the air and land beside Nemuri, who remarked with a small smile.

"You’re getting better and better with your sword."

"I have a great teacher, fufu." Nejire commented with a proud smile, but at that moment, Keiko’s serious voice echoed in their ears.

[Get ready—a giant with the ability to disintegrate whatever it touches has broken through the energy shield. I’m going to use the heavy weapons.]

Along with Keiko’s voice, brutal explosions began to echo from the other side of the metal barrier, at which point Nemuri grabbed both her hand fans and sent enormous amounts of her aroma through the opening while speaking seriously.

"I’ll try to put it to sleep first! Avoid using the most dangerous weapons, or we could get ourselves into serious trouble!"

[Try it, but if things get complicated, I’ll use them. We can’t afford a single mistake.] Keiko replied in a solemn tone, determined to keep everyone safe in the absence of her beloved. Nemuri, sharing a similar sentiment, nodded and replied with a subtle smile.

"Of course, reducing our husband’s worries is what matters most."

Hearing Nemuri, the girls couldn’t help but smile and feel filled with energy, ready to fight, as if their [Vital Reactors] had activated on their own at full power. After all, this was too good an opportunity to show Kai what they were capable of, and they had no intention of wasting it for anything in the world. Their future happiness was at stake, and they were willing to do everything possible for it.

***

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