After a little time had passed, Shido headed to the home of a girl in his class—Tobiichi Origami.
From the footage captured by the autonomous camera, it was clear that she had taken Yoshinon with her.
At first, they had planned to send agents to retrieve it instead of having Shido go himself.
“What kind of house is full of traps like this...”
If you stepped wrong, a needle coated in anesthetic fluid would fly at you, and sometimes something would strike your head. The place was packed with every trap imaginable.
On top of that, even the autonomous cameras would be ruined if they got near, the screen filling with noise, so in the end Shido, Origami’s boyfriend, had no choice but to go himself.
They had gone two days without any results, so there was nothing else to do.
“Toka is a problem too...”
Unluckily, she had seen Yoshino together with him at home, and now Toka was shut away in her room and refusing to come out.
Reine had gone to deal with it again, but he was still worried.
“...Hm. Again.”
As Kotori muttered that, Jae’s low voice came from beside her.
By now, no one failed to understand the meaning of that familiar line.
“Abnormal reaction in Spirit wave readings! [Hermit] has manifested!”
The Spirit who appeared with the Spacequake, Yoshino.
The Spirit who had vanished when she met Toka again had manifested once more and revealed herself while Shido was out looking for Yoshinon.
And as always, what greeted the manifested Yoshino was not a light greeting but a rain of terrifying shells.
The AST pursued her, pouring bullets and shells down on Yoshino as before.
The chase that unfolded without Yoshinon was truly horrifying.
“—[Zadkiel]!”
[Kugugugung!]
The air trembled as a massive calamity took form.
The manifestation of an angel, summoned to strike back at those attacking her.
In the end, Yoshino could not endure without Yoshinon and manifested her angel, beginning to release cold toward those pursuing her.
The chill spread until it froze the entire town.
“Damn...”
Watching the AST freeze over after being struck by the cold attack, Kotori let out a low groan.
Shido still had not contacted them.
Now that they understood what Yoshinon meant to Yoshino, it was easy to imagine what would happen if this continued.
If a Spirit went berserk, there was effectively no one who could stop it, so the situation was dangerous.
One by one, the AST members froze into spheres within the territory’s range, their numbers steadily dwindling, and just as the beam of cold was turning toward another AST member—
“Shido?!”
On the screen, behind one of the squad members, appeared blue hair.
Shido stood on the rooftop of a building with a determined expression, a rabbit puppet in one hand.
By then Yoshino had already fired her beam, and while the AST could endure somewhat thanks to their territory, Shido was just a boy with nothing like that to protect him.
Before long, the squad member who had failed to notice Shido dodged the beam, and its target shifted from the soldier to Shido.
[An ordinary civilian?!]
The alarm from the other side of the monitor was echoed by the crew aboard Fraxinus.
[Boom!]
But fortunately, the beam missed Shido.
What the cold could not freeze, it could not break either—something of the same class.
“An angel...?”
For example, the angel of another Spirit.
A great throne rising from the ground stood nobly in Shido’s defense, blocking the attack.
[Shido!]
And then appeared a girl with deep violet hair, Yatogami Toka.
Reine’s persuasion had worked, and Toka had manifested her angel in order to protect Shido.
“An angel while sealed...?”
Kannazuki could only stare in shock at the sight.
Normally, when a Spirit’s spiritual power is sealed by Shido, she cannot manifest her angel.
She lacks the spiritual power needed to do so and becomes no different from an ordinary person.
But Toka was different.
She desired it.
The power to protect Shido.
The power to stand in the way so he would not be frozen by the cold.
For a Spirit, emotion had immense influence, and that longing reached the heavens, allowing her to manifest her angel.
“Hyun, get ready.”
Shido had recovered Yoshinon, and Yoshino had manifested.
Now it was Jae’s turn to move.
At Kotori’s words, Jae nodded and headed for the transfer device.
Before long, three people appeared on the screen.
Blue hair, a boy, a girl with deep violet hair, and a monstrous figure wearing armor warped and scorched by fire.
Among the three mismatched figures, two wore determined expressions.
Shido, to help Yoshino. Toka, to help Shido.
With their own purposes in mind, the two steeled themselves and rode the widened Sandalphon toward the barrier.
The barrier that had spread out by then belonged to Yoshino.
“...If it detects spiritual power or magic, it’ll fire icicles indiscriminately.”
Having finished analyzing the barrier’s ability, Reine said as much.
The barrier Yoshino had unleashed after finally failing to hold out would not attack anyone unless they approached.
Even after being attacked so much, even after tasting so much hostility and malice.
The heart of a Spirit was not so easily broken.
“Haa...”
Seeing the barrier that seemed to reflect her personality, Kotori let out a sigh.
Shido could only deliver Yoshinon successfully if he broke through that.
In that sense, it was an extremely troublesome barrier.
Either the one who had cast it had to dispel it herself, or the barrier itself had to be destroyed by an enormous impact.
There were only two choices.
But the latter clearly required intent to attack Yoshino, so it was out of the question.
In the end, only the former remained. They had to wait for Yoshino to dispel it herself.
That was why Kotori bit down on her lollipop, looking troubled, or perhaps desperate.
By the time the three reached the barrier, they had gotten off Sandalphon.
Toka drew the attention of the AST members and fought them, while Shido and Jae stared at the barrier.
“No way...”
Seeing the look in Shido’s eyes as he seemed to stop and think for a moment, Kotori felt a sense of unease.
“Shido! Don’t even think about going in!”
So she hurriedly turned on the mic and shouted.
She told him not to think about entering no matter what.
But those words could not stop the boy who had already made up his mind.
No matter how much Kotori warned him about the barrier’s danger, it did not reach him.
He had told Yoshino, in all seriousness, that he would be her hero. If he failed to help her at a time like this, then he was no hero at all.
Shido gripped Yoshinon tightly in one hand and even switched off the intercom. Then he slowly stepped forward.
He walked on, trusting in the power of regeneration within him.
[Stop.]
The one who blocked Shido was Jae.
Since Jae had been assigned to guard Shido in his deal with Kotori, he could not just watch him head toward certain death.
[...Please move aside this time, Hyun. I’m going to... Yoshino... ]
Shido tried to persuade Jae, who stood in his way.
[Wait.]
But Jae shook his head and answered before Shido could even finish.
Then he suddenly kindled fire.
The flames flowing from Jae’s body spread outward little by little, enveloping both Shido and Jae.
The First Flame.
The fire that would cover essence in falsehood and illuminate the world carried a warm glow.
And yet, though it was warm, it was fierce enough to burn away anything that approached.
“Hyun, you...!”
Kotori realized that Jae intended to enter the barrier together with Shido.
Reine stopped Kotori from saying anything to him.
“...If it’s that, it should be fine.”
“There’s no way that’s fine...!”
“...Look around Hyun.”
With Reine’s words, Kotori’s vision opened.
The cold could not intrude around Jae, which she had not noticed because she had been worrying about Shido.
As he took a single step forward, the barrier’s storm quieted.
Ice melted before the intense heat.
The sight made it seem as though Shido would not die, just as Kotori had feared.
“...”
She clearly understood that things could proceed smoothly.
And yet she was still worried, and Kotori watched the screen with bated breath.
She prayed that the subjugation would end without any trouble.
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