Crossover: The Problem Human of [Arcadia]

The instant the violet light flashed, Anat immediately sensed that something was wrong.

But it was already too late.

The violet light flickered, and Anat suddenly felt her body sink as though an immense weight had been dropped onto it. The Spirit Rank in her mind let out a warning as a corner of it was torn away.

'Soul attack!'

Shock and fury surged through Anat. She immediately tried to invoke her Authority over emotions, intending to interfere with her enemy's movements.

But then her vision blurred. The enemy who had been standing right in front of her vanished in an instant and reappeared at her side.

At the same time, the hand that had been glowing violet abruptly changed. Silver radiance flashed across it as it drove straight toward Anat's chest.

In that instant, Anat clearly saw the light of a galaxy blooming within the attacking palm. Terrifying gravitational force distorted space-time, causing layers upon layers of afterimages to appear around the hand, as though thousands upon thousands of hands were attacking at once.

Unable to determine the direction of the attack, Anat cried out inwardly.

But the galaxy contained within that palm had already slammed into her chest.

Then it exploded.

Hummm~~

It wasn't the sound of an explosion. It was the mournful vibration of space-time itself.

The force of the exploding galaxy was driven directly into Anat's chest by that hand. In an instant, her torso burst apart. Her full, maternal figure was reduced to a mangled mass before a tremendous force pulverized it into pale gray dust.

Anat's Divine Body, comparable to that of a four-digit Star Spirit, was pierced as easily as tofu. A basketball-sized void was blasted straight through her chest.

And at that very moment, the hand that had punched through Anat's torso suddenly flipped over, palm facing upward, while a galaxy began to revolve within it.

Clearly, her attacker intended to finish the job by blowing her head apart.

But at that critical moment, Anat finally succeeded in invoking her Authority over emotions, stripping Ryo of one of his emotions.

Suddenly, the galactic starburst stalled in his hand. Ryo, who had been about to finish Anat off, abruptly lost his killing intent.

And that was when Anat struck.

She raised a hand and seized Ryo by the arm, then violently lifted her head, revealing a pair of icy eyes.

Her body suddenly expanded. Fine scales spread across her entire form. A pair of flesh-colored wings erupted from the bones of her back, and her whole body grew proportionally until she transformed into a six-meter-tall winged demon.

In her demonic form, Anat lowered her head until the back of her skull pressed against the ceiling. Her cold gaze fixed on Ryo.

The gaping wound in her chest had also changed with her transformation. What had been a fatal injury was now little more than a severe wound. The hole was still obvious, but it was no longer enough to hinder her movements.

Anat raised her right claw, its surface covered in countless fine scales, and smashed it forward with nothing but raw physical strength.

At the same time, she roared at the figure before her, whose entire body was concealed beneath golden light.

"Who are you?!"

She had been attacked without warning.

She had suffered a fatal wound. And she didn't even know who her attacker was.

She wasn't even certain who wanted her dead.

'Algol?'

With high-ranking members of the Ouroboros Alliance involved in negotiations behind the scenes, how could she possibly make a move against her?

'The Heavenly Army?'

The Heavenly Army was already in disarray because of the Last Embryo in the South Area. Besides, their style of combat was nothing like the underhanded tactics of the person standing before her.

...With the two greatest possibilities eliminated, Anat still couldn't figure out who would have a reason to target her.

The enormous demonic claw came crashing toward Ryo with enough power to shatter stars.

Then a contemptuous snort rang out.

"Heh."

Blue flames surged from Ryo's hand.

Within those flames, a dazzling jewel rapidly melted away.

An indescribable agony erupted from Anat's Spirit Rank, causing her attack to freeze in midair.

Sekishiki Kisōen (Praesepe Demonic Blue Flames)*

The blazing blue fire struck Anat's lower body at the speed of light.

Fueled by the Spirit Rank itself, the Sekishiki Kisōen engulfed Anat in an instant, unleashing terrifying destructive power capable of shattering stars.

Yet hidden beneath that overwhelming destruction was a strange attack aimed directly at her Spirit Rank.

The agony coursing through both her spirit and physical body caused Anat's thoughts to seize up for a fraction of a second.

Ryo pressed his advantage.

He unleashed a Genrou Mao Ken (Demon Emperor Fist)*

The blow pierced straight through Anat's head, instantly seizing control of the neural network throughout her body.

Under the combined assault of unbearable pain, paralysis, frozen thoughts, the burning of her Spirit Rank, and her destabilizing level of existence, Anat still tried to struggle.

But in the very next instant, the emotion that drove her to struggle was gone.

'An Authority over emotions...'

Anat immediately understood what had happened.

Her eyes became as still as stagnant water as she stared fixedly at Ryo.

She watched him, desperately trying to force the name Algol from her lips.

But before she could say it, her body had already begun to disappear at the atomic level. From the bottom upward, inch by inch, the Sekishiki Kisōen burned her into nothingness.

Seeing this, Ryo didn't relax in the slightest.

Instead, he swiftly spread his Cosmos throughout the room. Just before Anat died completely, he plucked out one of her lifeless eyes and suppressed the burning of the Sekishiki Kisōen.

Once that was done, Ryo immediately pulled a silver-white card from his Gift Cards and crushed it.

The chaotic fluctuations of power filling the room abruptly settled.

Everything returned to the state it had been in three seconds earlier, concealing every trace of what had happened.

The entire assassination had taken barely two seconds.

By the fourth second, Ryo had already used Leticia's Authority over shadows to carry Anat's head hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, arriving at the border of the neighboring Outer Gate, 57157.

_ _ _

Twenty minutes later, the lizardman Gis returned to report on the situation.

He opened the door and found the room completely empty.

After searching for quite some time, he finally reported the horrifying news.

_ _ _

Twenty minutes earlier—

Without relying on the power of a Boundary Gate, Ryo slowly returned to Outer Gate 3345 through shadows.

He emerged inside a hotel suite not far from the Thousand Eyes' headquarters.

Inside the room, Algol was still standing there with wet hair.

She stared in astonishment at Ryo, who was holding a lifeless eyeball in his hand.

The words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them. "That fast?"

From the moment Ryo locked onto his target to the moment he completed the assassination and returned, less than two minutes had passed.

Algol hadn't even had enough time to dry her hair.

She had just washed it. While drying it, she had told Ryo that it was time to make the move. Then she had barely rubbed her hair a few more times before Ryo had already completed the assassination and returned.

Was it really necessary to be that efficient?

.

.

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Trivia:

Sekishiki Kisōen: Most famously used by Cancer Manigoldo. It summons blue flames that feed on the souls of others and incinerate the souls of his opponents. Whether the target is embodied or incorporeal, mortal or immortal, they cannot escape the soul-devouring flames.

Genrō Mao Ken: Most famously used by Gemini Saga. It fires a beam of light that travels at the speed of light and penetrates the opponent's brain. This technique directly attacks the brain, allowing Saga to manipulate his target.

—A weaker version of this technique attacks the opponent's nervous system instead, leaving them immobilized and vulnerable to further attacks.