"Eh~ So you mean there's a DEM Company airship above us, watching and waiting for an opportunity to attack?"
After hearing Yoshino's words, Yuzuru Yamai looked up at the ceiling and said.
Although she couldn't see anything at all, as she didn't have any clairvoyant demon eyes.
"Yes.
Today, we saw Ellen, DEM Company's wildcard, disguise herself as a photographer, trying to lurk around us and do something, but Sister Nozomi chased her away.
But Yoshino believes they will never give up this opportunity; this time, they have already dispatched an airship to attack us.
They will soon discover that Ellen doesn't have anything on her, so they will quickly redeploy."
Yoshino explained to them, but as she was about to say something else, she sensed something and her pupils widened sharply.
She turned around and released a blue protective shield.
Immediately after, a dazzling blade of light directly sliced open Yoshino's room from outside.
The slash attack and Yoshino's protective shield held for a moment before disappearing into the air.
However, through the gap in the room, one humanoid robot after another rushed in.
Their smooth, helmet-like heads were connected to slender bodies, and their legs, which bent in the opposite direction to human joints, stepped on the ground.
In contrast, their wrists were very thick, giving an impression of extreme imbalance between upper and lower body.
Their entire bodies were made of highly polished metal armor, and on various parts of their bodies, components similar to CR units could be seen everywhere.
'Why is this happening?
Shouldn't DEM Company's operation be tomorrow night?'
Frowning at the scene before her, Yoshino thought in confusion.
The current situation was completely different from the original work!
Shouldn't they wait until Ellen had gathered enough intelligence before acting?
Why was there such a large error?
"What is this thing?" Yuzuru Yamai, who was standing behind, asked.
"DD-007, [Bandersnatch]... although I say that, you probably won't understand. After all, this is confidential information belonging to DEM, and most people don't know about it." Responding to Yuzuru Yamai's question, a young girl emerged from the shadows outside.
She was the one Sister Nozomi had driven away earlier today. On the surface, she was a travel agency photographer, but in reality, she was the world's greatest Magician—Ellen Mira Mathers.
She was now wearing mechanical armor, but the degree of exposure on her body remained unchanged. However, she carried an exceptionally conspicuous giant sword-shaped equipment on her back. The manic smile on her face indicated that her purpose in coming here was certainly not benevolent.
"I thought your DEM would only execute the plan tomorrow, and you're quite quick to realize that Sister Nozomi didn't tamper with you." While on alert, Yoshino's body was enveloped in a blue spiritual power. In a short while, her yukata transformed into the spirit dress of a green cloak with rabbit ears. Seeing Yoshino change, the Yamikura sisters' clothes also transformed into restraint-suit-like spirit dresses, making both Yatsukabusa and Yuzuru switch to combat stances.
"I didn't expect the two people who didn't detect any spiritual power just now to be Spirits, and Berserk, who are priority targets. It seems this operation will not only capture you but also them." Ellen drew the sword from her back with her right hand, and then a blade of light appeared on the sword's body.
"What kind of thing makes you so confident that you'll be Yoshino's opponent? You're a loser." Seeing Ellen's confident look, Shiina immediately said provocatively. She had been completely crushed by Yoshino twice, yet she still spoke such arrogant words; she really didn't know where her confidence came from.
"You'll know why very soon." Ellen showed a bloodthirsty smile, and just as Yoshino thought she was about to attack, she led all the robots back a certain distance.
Just as Yoshino wondered what she was trying to do, a brilliant blue light suddenly condensed in the pitch-black sky.
A piercing alarm suddenly sounded on Ratatoskr, operating at high altitude, and this sudden situation made the crew quickly investigate.
"Detecting a massive amount of energy gathering! This is energy emitted by an aerial battleship! What's going on!?" Seeing the data report, the crew members all showed expressions of disbelief. One must know that this energy was still rising, already reaching a terrifying level.
"Where is the target emitting a magic reaction?" Kannazuki Kyouhei, substituting for Itsuka Kotori, asked. It was already very late, so Itsuka Kotori had already left.
"This is... Mikutama Island! According to the current speed of energy gathering, in a little while, it will be powerful enough to pierce Mikutama Island. Are these guys planning to directly kill the Spirits there?" Moreover, this energy, after piercing Mikutama Island, would also cause a strong tsunami, and a tsunami of this magnitude would bring disaster to nearby countries!
"No, this shouldn't be to deal with the Spirits. It might also be because they discovered us, or a strategy to make Hermit protect Mikutama Island." He bit his nail, and after recalling the abilities Yoshino had displayed earlier, he affirmed his idea. "They want to capture Hermit when she loses a lot of spiritual power defending against their attack, probably to research why Hermit became so powerful."
But he didn't expect that DEM would come up with such a crazy plan to capture Yoshino. Do they not care about the lives of other innocent tourists on Mikutama Island?
"Wait! Wait! The opponent's energy convergence suddenly encountered interference, and the energy gathering is rapidly decreasing! It seems to have been attacked!" Just as Kannazuki Kyouhei was about to organize the crew to attack DEM's aerial battleship, the situation changed again.
"What!?"
Ellen looked at the sky with some confusion, not seeing the planned attack, but seeing the weakening attack, she felt very puzzled.
"Why!? Why did it turn out like this?" Looking at the weakening blue light in the sky, Ellen said with wide, disbelieving eyes. But suddenly realizing something, she knew there were so many strange presences around Yoshino. They weren't here now, could they already....
Although the aerial battleship that came with her to execute the mission was not from the same department as her, Ellen absolutely did not want anything to happen to them. When she just arrived, Ellen had turned off her communication device to prevent disturbing her mission. But now Ellen couldn't care less about these things and quickly turned on her communication device with the aerial battleship.
"Hello! Hello! Requesting a response! This is Ellen Mira Mathers, this is Ellen Mira Mathers! Requesting a response, requesting a response!"
Ellen hurriedly spoke into her communication headset, but the other side did not respond quickly as before. Like a television with no signal, a faint, panicked voice came from the communicator with that sound as background.
"What's going on! Answer me quickly!" Ellen realized something was wrong when she heard this and couldn't help but raise her voice several levels.
At that moment, the other side heard Ellen's voice, and a frantic female voice came from the communication headset.
"Executive Director! The aerial battleship is under attack by an unknown entity! The opponent has wings, just like an angel. But the opponent has already infiltrated the aerial battleship! Many crew members have been defeated! The situation is very dangerous now! Now.... Ah!!!!" Accompanied by a piercing scream, the voice on the other side then disappeared.
"Hey! Is that the so-called Executive Director on the other side? How boring, I thought there would be a big opponent, but I didn't expect it to be just a bunch of cannon fodder. You should be much stronger than them, right? If you don't come, this aerial battleship will crash." Immediately after, a lazy female voice came through Ellen's communication headset.
"Who are you! Why are you attacking DEM?" Ellen roared as the other party was about to hang up the communication.
"...My Yoshino received your 'care'." The other party said something inexplicable, then directly hung up the communication.
"Damn it!?" Although Ellen was a bit confused about the situation, she knew she couldn't wait any longer, otherwise, some tragedy might really happen.
Then, Ellen's dark purple pupils locked onto the position feedback from the radar sensor, and the boosters on her back spewed flames, shooting straight into the sky and quickly disappearing from sight. And the ten [Bandersnatch] that came with her also left with her.
This strange situation made Yoshino and the others exchange glances, seeing the confusion in their eyes. They had clearly prepared for a good fight, so why did the opponent leave directly without fighting?
But this way, Ellen wouldn't have the chance to attack Yatogami Tohka, right? But who exactly disrupted DEM's plan? If the energy condensed in the sky just now had really attacked Mikutama Island, she would definitely have intervened.
If she had to stop that level of power, it would require most of her strength, and then she might be captured by DEM, right? Although she had a high degree of confidence in escaping, who knew if DEM had a device to prevent her from recovering her strength?
Immediately after, Yoshino sensed something and looked in the direction of DEM's aerial battleship with a faint smile.
"I didn't expect you to come,...Sister."
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