Chapter 9: Imagine It!

The moment her Angel appeared, my eyes began to glow with a strange, intense light. The data harvest had begun.

Kurumi understood what I was doing. She needed to end this fast. She raised one of her flintlock pistols.

"Zafkiel Dalet!"

The colossal clock behind her ticked, its hour hand pointing to the Roman numeral IV. A mote of shadow-like energy flowed from the clock face into the barrel of her gun. She pressed the muzzle to her own temple.

BANG!

The gunshot echoed. The moment the bullet struck, the grievous wound on her side vanished, her flesh knitting back together as if it had never been there. Time reversal.

I did not move. While my clones kept her other selves busy, my primary consciousness was focused entirely on Zafkiel, my analytical processes running at full capacity. This was what I had been waiting for.

"Aleph!" "He!"

She fired two more bullets into herself, one after the other. A bullet to accelerate her own time, granting her blinding speed. A bullet to see into the immediate future. She knew better than to fire them at me; my defenses would simply turn them aside. These were buffs, preparations for her real assault.

[Analysis Complete.]

The system's notification was crisp and final. I had everything I needed.

And so...

" Endo Armament: Activate "

" Pseudo-Endo: Zafkiel "

Golden light erupted behind me, forming an identical, magnificent clock face, a perfect, luminous counterfeit of her own Angel.

Kurumi saw it and let out a weary, frustrated sigh. "I knew it. I should never have used my Angel in front of you." Her premonition had shown her this exact outcome, but knowing it didn't lessen the sting of defeat.

What happened next, however, was not in her vision.

I raised my free hand. A golden flintlock pistol materialized in it. My own clock ticked.

" Chet! "

A wave of energy flowed from the numeral VIII into my gun. I swept Sandalphon in a wide arc, clearing the immediate vicinity of clones. Then, I pointed my new pistol at my own head and fired.

The Eighth Bullet. The power to create a clone of one's past self. The very ability she used to create her army. I had analyzed her clones down to their base code. Now, with the data from her Angel, I could replicate the process.

And so...

Dozens of golden-eyed, silver-haired versions of me flickered into existence across the battlefield.

Where before her clones held a numerical advantage, now they were hopelessly outmatched. What followed was not a battle. It was a systematic eradication.

...

"Until we meet again."

The blade of Sandalphon slid from her chest.

I had killed Kurumi Tokisaki.

But I knew, even as her body fell, that it was just another clone. At the last possible second, she had swapped her true self with a substitute. A clever trick. I had detected the switch, but I let it happen. My goal was data, not extermination.

The battlefield fell silent. The bodies of the fallen clones dissolved back into the shadows, pulled away by their master. She left nothing behind, fearing I might study the remains.

The engagement was over. I dismissed my armaments and reactivated Pseudo-Haniel. In a shimmer of light, the cute, human-passing girl returned, a look of profound satisfaction on her face.

A bountiful harvest. That was my assessment of the operation.

I had chosen this remote location specifically to avoid witnesses and collateral damage. The battle should have gone completely unnoticed.

But as I reveled in my success, a new voice cut through the quiet from above.

"What happened here?"

….

I looked up. A girl with short blue hair floated in the sky, clad in a revealing white combat suit. My sensors immediately picked up several other AST units positioned in the distance, holding a perimeter.

The commotion must have been larger than I anticipated.

I recognized her. Mana Takamiya. In the original story, Shido's biological sister, though neither of them knew it at this point. 

She was a top-ranking Wizard from DEM Industries, sent here to hunt Kurumi. Her appearance now, however, was ahead of schedule.

Mana descended, landing ten meters away. Her eyes scanned the scarred landscape, lingering on the fading traces of shadow energy the only evidence of Kurumi's presence. My small, out-of-place form was the only living thing in the vicinity.

As she approached, I ran a quick scan. Hmm. Shorter than me. For some reason, this trivial fact was the first thing my mind registered.

"Excuse me," Mana said, her voice gentle, her smile disarmingly friendly. "Are you alright? What is a little girl like you doing out here all alone?"

Her posture, however, told a different story. Her hand was tight on the hilt of her weapon. Her muscles were coiled, ready to spring. My systems had already infiltrated their communications channel. I heard it all.

"Alpha, in position."

"Bravo, holding steady."

"Charlie, target acquired."

They had me surrounded. Their hesitation to attack was likely due to orders they wanted to capture the "weapon," not destroy it, hoping to trace it back to its creator.

This was the culmination of weeks of observation. Ever since my fight with Tohka, the world's major powers had been scrambling to identify me. 

An unknown machine capable of fighting Spirits on equal footing and even copying their powers was a strategic asset of unimaginable value. 

They were all desperate to find my "manufacturer."

They were destined to be disappointed.

My current priority for them was simple: [Objective: Capture or Establish Contact with Unidentified Unit.]

All of this, I knew.

A burst of static suddenly filled their comms channel. "*Kssshhh-zzzzzt* "

Mana flinched, her eyes snapping to mine. She saw the faint, golden glow within them. It's her!

Her friendly facade dropped. Seeing what she perceived as an opening move, she attacked. A twin-bladed laser sword materialized from a device on her arm, and she lunged.

Mana Takamiya. One of the world's top five Wizards, a combat prodigy with vast experience. This was no mere Spirit. This was a true warrior. I would not underestimate her.

My response was immediate. I would see, firsthand, just how powerful the world's "strongest" truly were.

...

DEM Industries Headquarters, London:-

Far across the globe, Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott watched the live satellite feed of the battle on his office monitor, a look of manic glee on his face.

"Ellen," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Your assessment. If you were to fight that... thing. What are your chances of victory?"

Ellen Mira Mathers, the "World's Strongest Wizard" and Westcott's loyal secretary, stood silently behind him. Her gaze was fixed on the image of me, a small girl facing down Mana Takamiya. 

Westcott, a man obsessed with the power of Spirits, saw in me something new, something even more valuable.

"Imagine it, Ellen," he breathed, his voice filled with avarice. "All the powers of every Spirit, concentrated into a single, perfect vessel. The possibilities..."

He was fantasizing about a power I already knew was mundane. The replicated Angels were just tools in my arsenal, nothing more. They didn't combine or resonate. They were simply different weapons.

But Westcott didn't know that. And as he watched, his desire to possess me grew into a burning obsession.