The destroyer was approaching—each footstep drawing nearer was a death knell sounding in the dark.
Deep within the base, more and more personnel succumbed to panic.
And yet, amid the chaos, a feverish excitement ignited in some hearts.
"So this is the power of a spirit…"
One researcher, clutching his chest in anxious breathlessness, whispered deliriously. A grin twisted his face into something grotesque.
"This is a spirit! So powerful, so beautiful… If we can just harness this power, humanity will finally hold its own destiny! This is divinity itself—power to remake the world!"
In myth, humans once attempted to build a tower to heaven, only to incur divine wrath. But humanity had learned nothing from that punishment.
History, it seemed, existed only to repeat the same sins—just as Ecclesiastes once said:
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
Eyes could see the sky, but never measure its height.
They were awestruck by Melusine's sheer strength—so pure, so overwhelming. They coveted it. Some even contemplated capturing her alive to turn her into a research subject.
But they weren't yet completely blinded by greed. More important than capturing that feral intruder was securing what they already had.
Combat personnel equipped with manifestation devices ascended to the upper levels, prepared to engage the monstrous invader. The researchers with no combat training hurried deeper into the base, prioritizing the evacuation of "Material A."
"Leave that monster to those useless magicians whose only purpose is to die in battle. We are the intellect of DEM—our safety must be ensured first."
A middle-aged researcher, clearly of higher rank, barked orders. "Take Material A and evacuate, now. Spirits are just overgrown kids who can't kill. As long as the magicians throw their lives at it, they'll buy us the time we need. That's all they're good for."
"The plan might've been thrown into disarray by this sudden intrusion, but not all is lost. You all saw it, didn't you? That breathtaking, unfiltered power! That's the power that will one day belong to us humans! It's a miracle—one that can reshape the world!"
"Keep it together, everyone. I know you're excited—I am too. After witnessing that strength with my own eyes, I'm desperate to continue our research on Material A. But not yet. First, we stay alive."
He spoke with the cadence of a seasoned orator, and the crowd nodded in assent.
They had long abandoned their humanity. To torment a young girl for five years with such cruelty—perhaps some security personnel were unaware of the true nature of the experiments, but not these researchers. They were all the kind of monsters you could kill without remorse.
What they had underestimated, however, was the spirit—and Melusine herself.
A violent tremor sent the feeble-bodied researchers tumbling. Red alarm lights flooded the corridor with dread.
"No way! She broke through four layers of defenses in seconds?!"
In the monitoring room, a technician lost all composure. Panic and fury consumed what little reason he had left. "Are those magicians completely useless?! They couldn't even stall her?!"
They needed time—for the transfer of Material A, for backup of the research data. If the defense lines fell, everything would be lost.
Their precious data would be destroyed, their materials taken.
Even though they looked down on magicians, they still relied on them to slow Melusine's advance.
What they didn't know was... speed was Melusine's forte.
High-density spirit energy cloaked her entire body. Even her breath stirred waves of spiritual power.
She blazed forward like a pale-blue comet toward the fully armed magicians. The blade on her arm-mounted gauntlet snapped open.
"Spirit sighted! Codename confirmed: Meteor. Commence annihilation!"
"Yes, sir!"
---
Magicians in this world were unlike those of others—certainly unlike those from the Nasuverse.
They fell into two categories. The first: Original Magicians. Though indistinguishable from humans in appearance, they were humanoid lifeforms, nearly extinct. The second: Artificial Magicians. Individuals like Origami Tobiichi and Mana Takamiya, created through biological modification and specialized training, capable of wielding manifestation devices—CR-Units—and deploying personal territories.
Compared to AST, the DEM magicians Melusine faced now were significantly stronger.
Barring Origami, AST would be hopelessly outmatched.
Thus, DEM magicians regarded others—especially AST—with disdain.
They arrogantly believed that if only they had been the ones to encounter the spirits, they would have easily triumphed. Not like AST, always struggling to stall until the spirits retreated to the neighboring realm.
But now, Melusine would shatter their illusions.
She would grind their pride beneath her claws.
In the presence of a dragon, jackals and wolves were the same.
Bullets fell like rain, enchanted with magic to enhance their penetration.
But Melusine's blade—shimmering with the sheen of a lake at dawn—flashed out.
A display of martial mastery worthy of the name Lancelot—her slashes reflected starlight and deflected the bullet storm. Not a single shot touched her.
It was more breathtaking than even a hungry wolf shattering a Gatling gun barrage with a flowing rock-fist strike.
"No way…"
The DEM magicians froze.
She hadn't deflected the bullets with overwhelming spirit power, but with pure, terrifying skill.
This one was not like the others. They realized it far too late.
Her gilded eyes, blazing as if set aflame, turned toward them. A sudden, crushing pressure made their bones creak. All at once, they felt as if a great hand had seized their hearts.
"Do you seek to wrest the sky from a dragon?"
They could hear a heartbeat—powerful, blistering, vibrating the very air.
It wasn't theirs. It was coming from her.
A thunderous rhythm that rang through their ears, shaking their souls.
The heavens trembled. The earth quaked. Something colossal—something terrifying—was waking.
Their minds broke. Some collapsed. Others stood frozen. Some, in their despair, chose madness.
Like—
"Attack——!!"
—screaming defiance at the impossible.
Bullets and shells flew again, but this time, Melusine wasn't wasting a second more.
"Too slow."
The weapons they trusted meant nothing to her.
She blinked past the sound barrier, materializing before the nearest magician. The blade on her gauntlet shimmered with concentrated spirit energy, like moonlight dancing on a jade lake.
"One instant—shatter!"
A flash.
The magician's personal territory fractured like glass. The green field collapsed instantly under the impact, revealing the stunned girl within.
Other magicians turned at the sound. Their eyes went bloodshot with madness.
"Spi—rit—AAAAHHH!!"
Not courage. Just rage and insanity.
Four magicians dropped their firearms and charged recklessly with lightblades.
Their crazed howls grated on the ears.
"Ugh, I hate enemies who can't gauge the gap in power."
Without even lifting her head, Melusine raised a hand.
Their blades clashed with the edge of hers.
As expected, their desperate strikes couldn't even scratch her.
And what came next was a storm of retribution.
"Mana levels rising. Mana release—commencing counterattack."
Cold, mechanical words fell from her lips, devoid of emotion.
Then the swordlight came—swift as lightning, beautiful as moonlight over a frozen river.
Amid the dance of steel, Melusine stood at the center of the storm, every motion elegant, mesmerizing.
The blades were deadly beauty incarnate.
Each strike tore through personal territories and shattered lightblades. The backlash scrambled the magicians' minds—some collapsed unconscious, others fell into vegetative states.
None could continue fighting.
Cruel, perhaps—but unlike the AST, these DEM magicians weren't defenders of the land.
Melusine had no reason to go easy on them.
The fact that she didn't kill them was mercy enough. They had chosen to face her as enemies—now they would face the consequences.
After confirming that the fall wouldn't kill the unconscious ones, she lifted her gaze. The surviving magicians instinctively stepped back.
"…There's quite a lot of you. This won't do—I don't want to waste any more time here."
Her arms crossed before her chest. The blades gleamed coldly.
"Enemy intel confirmed… Since you refuse to step aside, allow me to get a little rough."
"Enemy lifeforms identified. Quantity confirmed. Adjusting output. Life boundary—locked."
Light.
Blinding light enveloped her.
Even the overflow of her spirit energy caused the air to surge in waves.
Some magicians, already broken in spirit, fled in terror, ignoring the orders of their comrades.
Others stood dazed, forgetting even to raise their defenses.
Only a rare few retained enough mental fortitude to resist collapse.
But to Melusine, their responses didn't matter.
She would treat them all the same.
"Arondight—partial release. Now, all of you, fly."
Her output was limited—non-lethal force only.
She became one with the blue shockwave. Each strike shattered territories and rendered her foes unconscious.
In mere seconds, she had cleared the floor.
"Honestly. I hope I don't run into any more enemies."
She cast a glance at the fallen magicians, her voice tinged with weariness.
"Trying to step on ants without killing them… this power is hard to control. Precision like this really isn't a dragon's specialty."
"But… if doing this earns me praise from Master… I'd do it a thousand times over, fufu."
Her laughter, like silver chimes, echoed through the halls.
Then, in a sonic boom, she vanished, flying toward the source of the distress call—deeper into the base.
The thrum in her heart grew clearer.
She was getting close to Honjou Nia.
Faced with complex passageways, Melusine simply blasted through walls and floors.
Thanks to her speed, she quickly reached Nia's location—and spotted researchers in lab coats nearby.
They opened their mouths, as if to speak—but before they could utter a word, a supersonic slash had already fallen.
Flesh could never withstand a dragon's claws. In an instant, they were cleaved apart.
"Extermination complete."
Her golden eyes gleamed with coldness. Her voice chilled the blood.
Monsters who had long since abandoned their humanity—she felt no guilt ending them. Their words weren't worth hearing.
Ignoring the blood and shredded flesh around her, Melusine approached a storage crate.
Her clawed hand tore through alloy like paper.
Inside was a girl—blindfolded, with short gray hair. Her body, at least, appeared young. She lay like a sleeping beauty awaiting a prince's kiss.
The distress call had come from her—the Omniscient Spirit that Kurumi Tokisaki had searched for all these years.
Honjou Nia.