12 Chapter 11: <Codename> [2]

As the battle continued, Rei was now somehow getting anxious. He felt that the AST was waiting for something to happen. And whatever that is was probably not good for him.

Rei's [Spatial Manipulation] only has a range of 100 meters around him. He could manipulate [Space] freely within those range.

The AST probably knew this already due to the numerous times they fought with each other and by observing his behaviors and abilities in records.

The drones who were attacking him in close combat were all literally burned already. That includes those who were still optional making their front line, or rather like cannon fodder to be gone in the battle. That's why the AST kept there distance as far at least as 150 to 200 meters away from him while firing of their rifles in a safe distance.

Still, knowing that isn't enough to stop Rei as for he could just instantly close the distance between themselves warping himself in space simultaneously.

Even though this method was casually explained just like that, it is easier said than done. Doing this type of stunt one time resulted Rei having sever backlashes such as complete body immobilization after a few seconds after doing it.

The problem right now though is that his body was in the state of adapting on his <Astral Dress> making him unable to move out from his place. That also goes some of his abilities which could just easily decimate this entire AST in just a short matter of minutes.

Even Rei didn't think that he would encounter a situation whereas he couldn't utilize all of his abilities all of a sudden. It was even out of his mind that by just wielding his full power as a Spirit with it's Astral Dress and Angel would cause him the burden for being unable to move.

"Ugh..." a groan escaped from him.

He noticed that keeping his [Barrier] up consecutively while using his [Lances] to somehow shoot beams that would attack his enemies from long range and using his [Flames] as a destructive domain around him were already taking a toll.

"Playing around this far was enough...." Rei said with an indifferent look.

Even though several of his abilities were rendered unavailable in this fight, that doesn't mean that he couldn't destroy and decimate them.

"Time to end this farce," Rei mumbled as he began to forcefully move his body as he felt that he was starting to slowly take control over his newly profound power.

——

"Wind pressure. Normal, check. Equipment stability, normal, check. Commencing [Elimination]"

And so, Origami pulled the trigger.

BANNGGG!!

——

[A few seconds earlier]

"Argh!!!!" An AST member shouted as his leg was skewered by Rei's [Lance] and eventually fell crashing on the ground.

Whether that person died from the crash, he didn't care.

"You!! Damned Spirit!!" Another AST member growled in anger as she release a reckless barrage of missiles without minding anything anymore.

Her lover had been taken down and his situation was still unconfirmed whether he was still alive or dead. The best option was to retreat and try to check whether he is still alive or not, but she didn't. She was blinded with anger and assaulted the Spirit as best as she could.

"Too reckless. And that would be the result of your fall," Rei mumbled as one of his [Lances] tried to pierce through the wizard but was blocked by her [Territory].

Even so, the [Territory] eventually crumbled down as Rei sent relentless attacks all over her. And a moment later, she met the fate the same of her lover and crashed down.

Just as Rei was now slowly recovering his ability to move, in other words, his worries just a while ago would vanish if he gets ahold of this power and control it properly.

It was then, he suddenly felt caution or danger that something was about to cause lethal harm to him.

And he was right.

It was so fast that when it only bypassed Rei's perception range was the time he noticed what was approaching him.

And then he felt instinctive choices show up in his mind.

Block or Dodge.

If he doesn't do one of these choices in the next blink of an eye...

He would "die". Well....not literally, but severely injured would be the right term.

It was a 'bullet'.

The bullet didn't seem to suffer from the purple flames due to the wind pressure it created around it. And probably, the bullet was made out of a very hard material like tungsten and he guessed that it was specially made against Spirits was well. The approximate speed of the bullet was about 4000 meters per second.

That was extremely fast even by spirit standards in fact.

These analyzations were made in a matter of a second. His thought process was speeded up to a hundred-fold. This is one of the available abilities that his full <Astral Dress> gave him.

This ability though only has a limited time use per day with a long cooldown due to its backlash to the User's mind. This would result him a severe headache later on yet it is a small price to pay to notice what was happening now.

And he estimated and estimated. No matter how much he did it, the only solutions to get out of this predicament was to accomplish things that are int he borderline of impossible.

'Now...'

Deciding to trust his instincts, he tilted his head as fast yet as accurate so that he could and dodged the bullet in time. It ended with him suffering a graze on his cheek.

But there was another one following that and Rei already knew that.

However, this bullet wasn't something that he could dodge since it was exactly shot at him from a point where it could be said to be a blindspot. The side of his head when he dodged to be exact.

And to whom who was exceptional to make that kind of shot—it was "her" obviously.

Impressive, very impressive. It was her—Origami, who could pull something very accurate and precise like this shot.

Rei grinned and accepted the challenge himself.

Rei then swiftly pulled a move that would even break the laws of human physics... well, if he was a 'human' in the first place though, and caught the bullet right on his palm

'As I thought.....'

There was no significant damage dealt to his hands which has covered with a gauntlet type armor. It was only slightly penetrated as the bullets tip sunk down on his armor which didn't really hurt at all, except for that was only numb tingling caused from the impact of the bullet.

"No matter how strong your equipment is...it won't pierce those of a strong and tough armor of an <Astral Dress>....."

Rei mumbled as he narrowed his eyes that looked murderously towards the direction from where the shots came from.

——

"!!" Origami who was still looking at her target in her scope couldn't help but gasp in shock as for what the Spirit executed.

"What...?! He dodged the first one and caught the second one with his bare hands?!"

That also goes for the same for Ryouko who had her eyes wide open as she looked in her binoculars.

It was utterly unthinkable. That was at least, in human capabilities. What they were facing off right now wasn't a human, but a Spirit so things like these would've probably be already included in their expectations.

But even so, they didn't think that this Spirit would truly pull a body breaking stunt like that.

"....Mission failed. You get what I'm saying right, Origami?" Ryouko commented as she looked at Origami with a stern gaze implying that her excuses would not be tolerated after this.

"...."

Origami remained silent and looked like she was going to sulk as her eyes filled with hatred were still fixated to the direction of her target.

"Don't sulk. Just as our agreement, we would now retreat and fall back. You hear that team? Fall back immediately, also if you could, carry those were injured and as for the casualties as well..... If you can't, then just fall back. We don't want to increase our losses anymore than this," Ryouko said as she gritted her teeth.

Casualties on the battlefield was commonplace. She already experienced many deaths of her comrades, friends, and acquaintances all over the years.

"Roger that..." All who received her transmission agreed as she ordered and fell back.

Though some of them sounded sad, depressed, and angry, they still answered in unison and their numbers were definitely lowered to a few compared from earlier.

Some tried to salvage the bodies of their teammates but once they were caught on the fire, their body became unrecognizable as they turn it burned corpses slowly thawing their body away as it turned to ashes.

"....yes"

Origami who still doesn't want to leave reluctantly followed Ryouko's order. She was so immersed in concentrating to shoot the Spirit down that he didn't thought that some of her teammates sacrificed themselves in order for her to take it down.

She also felt guilty and sad, yet, her vengeance towards Spirits takes priority. No, the AST's priority was to eliminate Spirits.

That's right. She is just performing her duty along with her selfish desires.

That's it and that's all she needs to care about. So that no one would end up with a fate like hers where her love ones were killed because of a Spirit.

And a brief moment later, the AST had started completely retreat from the place.

——

"Tsk," Rei clicked his tongue as a trail of blood soon escaped from his mouth.

'Damn it...' He grumbled in his thoughts as he wiped his lips with a swipe of his finger.

The stunt that he pulled off earlier as well as the use of his mind accelerating ability came bite back at him at this very moment.

Rei felt that his head was overheating which made his vision quite fuzzy and hazy at the same time. And talking about his body, he was having some tingling pain on his muscles and bones.

Though the former set of problems couldn't be recovered immediately, that doesn't go to the latter who is starting to heal slowly, though not fast, it was still apparent that it was healing.

For what he knows is that the AST who had failed to eliminate him in front of that attempt started to retreat.

"As if I'd let you easily go unscathed just like that..."

Rei who looked at his palm holding a bullet that was being slowly burned and melted to dust knitted his brows as his eyes were filled with....slight contempt.

Obviously, if someone tried to kill you and take your life, would you feel happy or sad as a primary emotion? Surely, you would be angry.

Though Rei had become used to it, it was still different if your enemy wasn't a threat or not. But now, it was clearly a threat.

For the odd people out there, their answers would be yes but that isn't the case for Rei here and probably for the many as well.

This was his second chance to live once more. His freaking goddamn second life given to him by sheer luck from meeting a God just like most Isekai cliche trope.

As if he wouldn't feel anger and let someone get away who could threaten his life to the extent. To that point when even he was not sure if he can protect himself next time if this individual gains more power.

So the answer was to annihilate them now.

"Damn the plot. I'll do this my own way," Rei's lips then curled up as it made a amused grin.

He then gathered mana around him and compressed it into his sword. The purple sword resonated with the mana and glowed fiercely as the flames all over around the area was absorbed within it.

As the mana and flames began to gather in the sword, it gave a astonishing blinding light that illuminated almost everything at sight.

And it was done. The mana was eagerly compressed to a manner that a single trigger would release its devastating destruction at its determined path.

——

[Ratatoskr's PoV]

"Commander! A large gathering of mana has been detected from the Spirit. It seems that he is trying to make a spacequake coming from his <Angel>!"

"It's damage is presumed to be....utter annihilation. The direction....! It's going to reach and cut the northwestern up to the northern areas of Tengu City!"

"Kannazuki! Deploy the separate territory and try to intercept the attack! Reine, quickly analyse the presumed damage. You guys, deploy the <Ygddrafolium> and distract the Spirit! We can't let him erase a quarter of Tengu City from the map!"

"Yes!" Same responses from the crew were heard right after.

"Reine, go get someone to prepare the main armament of Fraxinus, we should prepare everything at any cost to try and deal with what he's going to do," Kotori commanded as she stood up from her seat.

"Kotori, do you want to personally try and stop the Spirit?"

"....yeah. I can't let him destroy and decimate a big part of the city after all. Besides, I believe that I can hold him out even for a brief moment or try to repel what he was trying to do," said Kotori as she began to prepare to leave the bridge of Fraxinus.

"You know, if you die, everything is over. I know you know how dangerous this Spirit could be just by summoning his <Astral Dress>. Yet, you still want to confront him?"

"I will and not even you can stop me from doing so. Besides, I go well with the elemental attribute of his and I have enough firepower and regeneration prowess itself to at least survive the fight between the two of us"

"It's been a while since you used your Spirit Powers as well, will it be alright for you to battle a possible SS-Threat Rank Spirit like that?"

"Don't worry, I won't die nor go down so easily even if the enemy is like that. I just need to stall him and fall back when my life is in danger right?"

"...is that so? Well then, we'll drop you to the safest and nearest place possible," Reine said as she heaved a sigh.

"Commander! Preparations have been set!"

One of the crew members notified Kotori that the transmission gate has been prepared for her take off.

Kotori who heard this looked at Reine and said, "That's my cue, Reine. Don't worry guys, I'll come back in one piece," Kotori reassured her and every people in the Fraxinus' crew that she'll be back.

"Good luck out there, don't push yourself too much," Reine said as she showed a concerned smile at Kotori's direction.

"Got it," Kotori answered as she made a slight wave at Reine with a fierce smile showing on her face.

The next moment, a light began to form under Kotori's feet. At the next second, she was transported down to a grass plain several hundred meters away from the danger zone, or the scorched barren land that was made by the Spirit.

Her eyes narrowed at the direction of her target.

It was then, crimson red flames erupted around her body.

And, in the midst of those flames, the figure of a young girl—Kotori, stood.

It seemed like she was a girl who was cosplaying. Her sleeves floated in the wind, half of her body seemed to be merged with the flames as they flickered. Her waist had a belt of flames, as though it was the celestial dress from the heavenly maidens.

And on her head grew two inorganic horns. That appearance did not look like a princess——but that of, an oni.

There was no doubt, it was an <Astral Dress>.

"Burn, <Camael>!"

With that, flames started appearing around her body, forming something similar to a massive club.

After that, the instant Kotori grabbed that club, a vermillion blade was revealed on its side.

That looked just like an absurdly massive, battleaxe.

She then flew as fast as she could and arrived hovering in the skies a few meters between her and the other Spirit.

Kotori then lightly waved that huge battleaxe in the air as her cold pupils, eyes that were flashing with an odd red glow. Her mouth had a smile on it, an expression that was close to being enraptured by delight.

"Now then——Let our Date (battle) begin."