“You need another 50 years before you can defeat me.”
The glowing sword’s tip accurately caught Micha’s torso.
But now it was Ange’s time to be shocked by the lightness of the blow.
As soon as the glowing tip stabbed into that hat ever-bared brown stomach, it turned to red flames and was blown away. The severed upper body grabbed at the panicked girl’s face.
“Gah!”
And responded with a headbutt.
That stopped Ange’s charge, so she fell woozily to the deck.
Micha’s separated upper and lower body absorbed the plasma from Ange’s sword and reattached themselves.
They were both angels, but Ange never would have considered healing the holy flames of one’s body with an enemy’s flames. She stared in stunned silence.
The woman’s overwhelmingly greater experience meant more than her power or speed.
“Enough. Dante, finish her.”
She also had a more efficient view of combat.
While fighting with her two-sword style, she had also been guiding Ange to the center of the 13 watching from behind her.
The vanilla-colored flames those 13 produced were already targeting the girl who was still woozy from the blow to her forehead and nose.
“Gh…dammit.”
Forced to admit she had lost in a one-on-one battle, Ange gnashed her teeth in frustration.
“Ibekusa! Are you still not ready!?”
She called out to the giant rabbit.
“Complete.”
Its stomach split open and Machina appeared from within.
The rabbit’s interior had become a high-level databank full of cables. Machina was nude, but she had so many cables inserted into her that barely any of her skin remained visible. The cables contained those golden threads which were thinner than the molecules of her skin, so they did not harm her when inserted.
She removed the threads and moved outside.
She had two devices shaped like bunny ears inserted into the top of her head. They passed through her skull to enter her brain.
“Data download from Final Y Device O’clock is complete.”
Light vanished from the rabbit’s red eyes. The disconnected threads changed shape, transformed into black rubber, and covered the bare minimum of the naked girl’s chest and crotch.
“My, my. What a cute bunny.”
“Activating Grand Guignol System. Laplace molecular movement measurements complete for current dimension and coordinates. I can respond to any and all actions you might take. I recommend you surrender.”
“Oh, really?”
Micha laughed in amusement at the appearance of an opponent other than Ange and she aimed at the girl with her thumb and forefinger extended in a finger gun gesture.
“FeTUS has spent around 300 years researching how to fight angels, right?”
“Positive.”
“My prime was already over 300 years ago, so do you have any data on me?”
Bang. With a wink and a playful lifting of her index finger, red fire shot out toward Machina in place of a bullet.
This was only a test, but that fire could easily burn away a human body if not dealt with.
But the flames vanished not 2m away from Micha.
No, they did not vanish. They burned red a dozen or so meters behind Machina as they flew off into the night sky.
“Oh, dear.”
Micha’s eyes widened at this unexpected result.
On her signal, 5 members of Dante launched their vanilla-colored flames toward Machina.
But those too were sent behind her after traveling a few meters. Micha also balled up her flame wings like a fist and sent that flying, but it too was sent away.
When she pulled the fist back, the flames behind Machina also returned.
It looked like space itself had been severed. Anything that approached the girl was sent far behind her.
“All molecules in this space have been made into Springloaded. Dimensional control complete.”
Machina’s eyes looked even more empty than usual.
The witch herself remained still, but the rabbit ears stabbed into her head were working overtime with incredible amounts of electricity pumping through them.
The movements of all molecules – down to the smallest quantum fluctuation – had to be understood in the space their master could perceive. That processing speed could not be matched by a combined effort of every supercomputer on earth and it was a huge burden on Machina’s brain to keep up with that.
But it was well worth doing.
If the flames did not work, then what about a simple physical attack? One of the angels threw a knife that was lying nearby.
It flew right up to the witch’s eyes and – poof! – it became a white clover and fell to the ground.
“Quantum phase transformation of matter complete. No problems detected.”
“Maybe an angel isn’t one to talk, but I didn’t realize magic was real.”
Physical attacks were transformed and energy could not reach her. This was a first even in Micha’s millennia of life, so she was astonished.
With full use of the precognitive Grand Guignol System, Machina could calculate the movements of the molecules at given coordinates and apply predictive equations.
God does not play dice. Machina could see the movements of every molecule, so if she could also influence them, she could quantumly alter things a few seconds into the future. Se could send energy to a different location and she could replace the phenomenon of a knife with something else.
“You can rewrite the future, can you? Science is an incredible thing.”
“One correction. FeTUS’s research is always meant for the good of the human world, so working up countermeasures to your angels was only one piece of that. It was not the primary purpose of our research.”
“Ha ha. Shut your mouth.”
“All fields of science pursue perfection, but perfection is impossible for humans. The hands of the clock grow more inaccurate with every tick.”
Starting where the white clover had fallen, grass grew across the scorched deck to create a field.
“So science works to understand that imperfection. This is one of the answers Miss A spent years working on. This power allows us to apply the measurements of reality to a realm we can never fully understand.”
Some objects appeared a short distance away: a rocking chair and a white wooden table that looked perfect for an enjoyable teatime.
“This is the final act of Grand Guignol de Iris: Alice in Wonderland.”
“So it’s finally working, is it?”
Lucia had been hiding due to his weakness to angel fire, but now he hopped out from behind the unmoving rabbit. The flames could not reach him as long as he remained behind Machina.
“Ibekusa, clear the way.”
“Positive.”
Machina formed a finger gun of her own and aimed it at Micha.
And when she pulled the trigger…
“Kwah!”
Micha and the 13 of Dante all burst in flames.
“Wait, wh-what the hell!?”
The 14 of them audibly burned, starting from their stomachs. They did not seem in pain, but they were clearly confused as to what this was.
“Wait, is this- gh.”
Micha spat out some saliva.
When the liquid hit the grassy floor, it turned into a black Succubus. It existed in the middle of the angel flames, so it turned to ash and disappeared a moment later.
This told her why their bodies were burning.
“Hey, could you please not violate our fabulous bodies like this? It’s gross enough for me, but these girls are all virgins.”
“Ah ha ha. It’s probably a good experience for them.”
Lucia laughed in amusement.
When the 13 of Dante also noticed the change, they screamed like nails on a chalkboard and writhed around, but more out of disgust than pain.
This was the opposite of when Machina had sent the angel energy elsewhere. She had sent demon power into their bodies. The moisture forming their saliva, blood, and the rest of their body had been turned to Succubi by the demonic influence.
“Honestly.”
Angel bodies were a divine light that sliced through everything demonic.
Divine lightning showed no mercy and made no exceptions. If it contacted a demon, it would automatically burn them away.