WORLD: EARTH
BRANCHED WORLD: DATE A LIVE
LOCATION: JAPAN, SORAI
"Death of a spirit."
Kurumi's tone was calm, but her expression had cooled into something unreadable.
Laurel drained the last of his latte, the ceramic cup clicking softly against the table as he set it down.
"At the very least, it's one way to get there."
The moment those words left his lips, he locked gazes on her. 'Oh? So, she's willing to go that far...?'
Laurel mused.
"Very well then, I guess this will serve as a test. The mission will be to reconcile with Sawa."
"If you pass, then I'll grant you the true powers of time."
Not only does Kurumi possess the ability to control time, but the [Time Covenant] is a shared object between Luminous and him.
If he leveraged those two factors, then assimilated some common skills together,
Additionally, using the Cardinal World's system to cheat, especially using evolution,
She has reaped at least over ten thousand. That should be enough to evolve her into a Demon Lord.
Then, merging her time-based power into an S-Type skill...
Just the thought of that was enough to make him sweat. Then, he couldn't help but think of Chloe.
Both were truly the same yet opposite in the same way: a time-traveling hero and a time-manipulating Demon Lord.
"...."
Across from him, Kurumi had been silent, without a word. Then, finally, slowly, she lifted her eyes to meet his, and,
"Then let's test that."
Her lips curved into what could not be called a smile, but rather, something else he couldn't put his hands on,
"Kill me."
Laurel's eyes widened in shock, hearing those words, making him pause before taking a double take.
His lips slowly parted, but the words that came out instead were,
"Huh?"
Certainly, of everything he expected, he didn't imagine her trying to do this.
Seeing this, Kurumi let out a smile, seeing the slight frown of worry plastered on his face.
"If what you said is true, then I can do the same again. I'll fire a bullet into myself. Half of me sent into another clone with all my memories,"
"While the other half of me will remain just in case. That way works for the both of us, right?"
Laurel couldn't deny it.
It was indeed a good strategy, but that in itself was plain irrational. Yet, in this scenario, this seemed like a good choice.
And, if the first try didn't succeed, if she never makes it on the first try, she'd try again.
"Fine. I'll help. There's no need to kill yourself."
Saying that, Kurumi's lips curled slightly. As expected, he does make compromises. But that...
That alone, she was grateful for.
Slowly, she closed her eyes, hung her head low for a moment, and then smiled. A smile that almost captured him.
"Thank you."
It was a rather genuine smile, which caught him off guard. But eventually, he composed himself.
"Ahem!... I'll go get these things paid for."
Saying that, he walked over to the counter, exchanging pleasantries as he paid for the latte.
By the time they stepped out into the afternoon air, the mall noise had faded behind them.
Past the central plaza, the streets thinned. Minutes later, the two stood on a rooftop.
Below them was the hustle and bustle of the city. Cars honked, zooming past. People chattered, moving about without a care.
The clouds hung above the sky, blocking the sunlight that shone heavily today.
"I didn't think I'd be using this so soon."
Laurel exhaled through his nose, holding a small chip between his index and middle finger.
Kurumi's eyes followed it, head tilting ever so slightly, with her hands folded behind her, taking a step closer to him.
"What's that?"
"A piece of data that contains memories and experiences of another person. Now use your bullet on this thing."
"I'll give you my life force."
Saying that, Kurumi smiled. Yes. How did she forget, this person in front of her was also a walking lifespan.
The person in front of her had more than enough lifespan to outlast the heat death of the universe.
With that now in mind,
Her tongue swept across her lips, and she stepped into his space.
Her chest pressed to his, her hands sliding across his back, not quite to embrace him.
It was so that it would be enough to make refusal an active choice.
And besides, if it wasn't that he had rejected her, she would have made a bolder move.
'Ah~ ah~ what a pity~'
But for now, this much was enough.
"Come to me... Zafkiel."
She muttered, and behind her, against the backdrop of the blurred scenery, a giant clock emerged.
It wasn't towering, but rather about three meters tall, perfectly symmetrical in height and width.
"Itadakimasu."
She whispered as her voice brushed against his ear.
Saying that, she activated her other power, and started drawing out his lifespan.
Laurel's brow tightened, but he stood still, watching her with a complicated expression.
But he allowed her to continue on siphoning his lifespan.
It wasn't until after several seconds turned into minutes did she let go.
"This... You took several thousand years' worth?"
His eyes twitched as she turned on her heel, walking five paces before looking back with that knowing smile.
"I have to go prepared, right?"
Kurumi said, tilting her head.
"Besides, you have an unlimited lifespan, do you not?"
...Well, technically, yes.
Immortal wasn't exactly the right word, he'd just died thousands of times, losing a century each time before clawing back.
Eternal in a very roundabout way.
"Anyway... Dallet."
The great clock's hand clicked toward the Roman numeral VIII.
Dark crimson substance coiled into the chamber of her antique pistol.
Lowering it towards the chip, she then pressed her finger against the trigger and... pulled it.
PAH!
The sound resounded off the rooftop as the bullet hit the chip. As it did, several numbers of ones and zeros appeared.
Slowly, it strung up to more than Laurel's height in total before the zeros and ones formed a humanoid shape.
Then slowly, it became human.
"HUH?"
It was Kurumi's turn to be surprised this time. However, immediately the person saw Laurel.
"Hiiii! He—help me!"
The man, indigo-haired, screamed, turned, about to flee when suddenly,
"Eh?"
He slipped. Clearly, the floor was dry; if he tripped, it would have been understandable.
Velvet would have fallen face flat.
But how...
Somehow, inexplicably, a lone banana peel squelched under his shoe, sending him flipping backward.
THUD!
He slumped to the ground with a thud. Kurumi's tone was sing-song as she asked.
"Laurel~ what did you do to him~?"
Kurumi was genuinely surprised when he saw this. However, to make sure he would escape,
"Zayin."
She shot towards Velvet, who then froze on the ground like that.
"He's an irredeemable piece of work. Was also planning on attempting a coup against [Knight]'s kingdom."
Kurumi parted her lips slightly in understanding. Regardless, she didn't care much.
"So? How would it work?"
"Yeah, right. Can you let me see one of your clones?"
Laurel asked, to which Kurumi slowly bobbed her head forward.
Shadow stirred as another of her, identical to her, rose up from the shadow.
This one too had the same teasing edge the original had. All that he needed was to copy the clone's composition.
Since the clones were made out of Reiryoku and time manipulation, their composition is extremely close.
A person who possessed potent enough reiryoku was already one step from being a Quasi-Spirit,
Well, in a sense, they would be 'Magicians' or rather, 'Magus'.
But, regardless, they would be closer.
If Laurel could assimilate the clone's composition directly into Velvet... it was possible.
He placed one hand on the frozen Velvet, the other gripping the clone's shoulder.
[Notice: Are you sure you want to pass the composition of a Spirit onto a Data Body?]
[Yes] [No]
'Obviously, yes.'
Immediately as he confirmed that, something flowed from the clone straight to Velvet.
The clone's Reiryoku was being sucked, but as it did, Laurel passed it onto Velvet immediately.
It went like that, till—
[Notice, body composition of the individual Velvet has taken on a Spirito-Virtual like existence. A sub category of Quasi-Spirit]
[Do you want to save data?]
'I didn't really expect a new branch of race to be created. But whatever. Yes.'
[New entry detected. Please enter an archive name?]
'Virtuoso.'
[Confirmed.]
[Spirito-Virtual races logged under Quasi systems. Potential evolution path, belonging to those of the demi-to-semi spiritual race.]
[Race: Virtuoso]
[Race: Virtuoso]
[Preceding Evolution path: ??]
Accepting that, data about said race was immediately stored. And then,
"Now then,"
Muttering that, Kurumi lifted Zayin's hold. Velvet's limbs twitched back into motion,
However, it was just in time for Laurel to be standing over him, smiling faintly.
"Sorry."
Saying that, Velvet's whole world faded for the second and final time.
'Ahh... f*ck.'
However, as he did, slowly, the virtual body was crumbling into several particles of light floating upwards.
"It worked."
Laurel frowned.
That meant that for Kurumi's clone to have gone to the Neighboring world, a special condition must have been met.
Regardless.
"Found it."
'Borrow Spatial Motion.'
[Skill: Spatial Motion has been borrowed from #001. Skill temporarily stored in Skill Bank.]
[Dimensional Coordinates located.]
[Question: Do you want to transport over to the highlighted coordinates?]
"Don't ask questions you know the answer to."
"Kurumi. We are jumping."
"Alright."