"What…what is going on here? Is this Ratatoskr—no, this isn't that battleship."
Watching the pillar of light that had descended from the sky and completely engulfed Ellen, and at the same time seeing the battleship that had just fired reveal itself from its stealth state, Shido's first reaction was to think it was Ratatoskr.
But he quickly denied it himself. He knew Ratatoskr was equipped with weapons, but this was obviously different—not just the color, even the shape wasn't the same. There was no way he'd mistake it.
"Oh my, as expected of Ellen Mira Mathers, called the strongest wizard."
Imitating Kurumi's yandere tone, Tohka smiled sweetly as Ellen's figure gradually appeared within the fading pillar of light. Unlike before, Ellen no longer looked composed—she was staring fixedly at Tohka.
"Hey, hey, have you ever heard of 'A Single Meteor'?" But Tohka completely ignored Ellen's gaze, instead asking in an odd tone, clearly wanting to see her reaction.
"Hmm?"
Sure enough, hearing Tohka's words, Ellen froze. Although she didn't know what Tohka was talking about, she instinctively felt something very bad was about to happen.
"That is—impossible!!!"
At that moment, a bright beam caught her attention. The next instant, she saw a massive fireball hurtling down straight toward her.
"Whew, as expected of Ellen Mira Mathers, whom Westcott calls the strongest wizard. She actually managed to withstand the main cannon's strike. Hurry up and retake control—I want to see who's so bold."
Meanwhile, aboard the DEM battleship hovering in the sky, the commander standing at the console let out a long breath when he saw Ellen's silhouette appear again in the aftermath of the blast.
Although the Hound units were temporarily disabled, he wasn't worried at all. After all, the Hound units were mainly for clearing the field, while the person below—Ellen—was someone in whom everyone had absolute confidence. She was, after all, a wizard standing at the pinnacle of the craft.
"Understood, sir. Give me three minutes. I've already found the traces she left. I can regain control soon—once I do, the Houn—"
Hearing the commander's words, the subordinate at the console immediately answered.
Indeed, Tohka's hacking skills were absolutely terrible; she had only been able to break in at all thanks to Tony's programs. Otherwise, forget Tony—any halfway competent person with Tohka's equipment wouldn't have been able to do this.
And if it were Tony himself, not only would they have been unable to regain control—he might have just flown their entire ship back to his garage.
"Boom."
But the subordinate didn't get to finish his sentence, because at that moment, a loud explosion erupted somewhere inside the battleship.
Simultaneously, the system on the main screen once again issued commands completely out of their control.
These two things happened almost simultaneously, leaving no time to react.
"What happened now? Why is there an explosion?" With the blast, the ship's lights all went out. They quickly came back—these warships had more than one power source. But then he clearly felt the ship beginning to list, then plunge.
"The person who hacked our systems changed their target. Also, our main power is down. But don't worry—we have backup power. And give me one more minute—I can regain control—"
But he never finished. Explosions came not as isolated blasts but in rapid succession. The once-calm programmer could no longer stay calm. His face turned ashen, and his hands lifted completely off the keyboard.
"What's happening? Don't just sit there—explain! And get back to work, now!" The commander had seen everything. Though he was panicking, as a commander he still forced himself to stand up immediately to demand an explanation.
"It's over…sir, we're finished."
Hearing the commander's question, the technician replied in a voice trembling with terror and despair:
"That person—the one who hacked our system—she must have secretly boarded our ship and planted bombs. Not only did she blow up the power supply, she also destroyed the control system. Even if I could regain control now, it's useless…actually, it's impossible—every instrument has stopped functioning."
"What?!" Hearing this, the commander shot to his feet. Then, his gaze filled with horror, he looked around the command room, now plunged into total chaos.
Finally, he slumped back into his seat, powerless, because all he could do was wait for fate to decide.
"BOOM." At that moment, another explosion detonated right in front of them. The next instant, the entire battleship was engulfed in fire. With thunderous might, it plummeted down toward the earth.
"Wahahaha, take this—A Single Meteor (Stella)."
As for how the people above reacted, Tohka couldn't have cared less. After all, if she was captured by those people, what awaited her would be inhuman experiments. So, against this sort of enemy, Tohka felt no need to show any mercy.
"BOOM." As her words fell, the battleship in the sky finally crashed to the ground in its entirety. Without suspense, it landed right where Ellen had been standing. A towering pillar of fire and waves of blistering heat erupted skyward.
At that moment, not to mention the people watching—even Yuzuru and Kaguya, who were gleefully fighting above, paused and looked this way.
But when they saw that Tohka was unharmed, they stopped paying attention and went right back to fighting.
After all, this had nothing to do with them—and certainly wasn't caused by them.
"How could this be? What the hell just happened? Those people…have they lost their minds? But wait—no, this doesn't make sense. Why would they suicide-attack their own ally?"
Watching this scene, Shido finally guessed that the ship belonged to Ellen's side. After all, the robots hadn't been brought here by her personally—so it had to be their backup. But what came next made his brain freeze.
The ship that should have been their support had not only blasted Ellen—it had gone on to crash itself in what looked to him like a completely pointless kamikaze attack.
This wasn't just stupid—he had no idea what to even call it. At the same time, he looked at Tohka with a hint of fear. Because only now did he realize what Tohka was truly capable of.
Clearly, in the past—whether bickering with Kotori or arguing with Origami—she'd never been serious.
Otherwise, those two would have been long gone. Basically, Tohka might seem a little airheaded, but when she got serious, she was terrifying.
"Oh my god…is this that woman's real power?"
Aboard the Fraxinus, everyone's reaction was about the same.
Especially Kyouhei Kannazuki, who was temporarily acting as commander while Kotori was away at a meeting. Perhaps outsiders didn't understand what had happened, but they did.
After all, Tohka had hacked their system before—but that time, she'd only infiltrated their communications network.
So, the defenses hadn't fully activated, and they hadn't been able to trace her.
But this time, Tohka hadn't just hacked DEM's systems—she had completely seized control of them.
Which meant that not only could she hack their network, she could outright commandeer their operations.
Still, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Even if they didn't know what those DEM people had done to completely piss her off, it was clear that normally Tohka would never do something like this.
Even so, they all silently decided: never provoke Tohka again. Because if you really drove her into a rage, you wouldn't even have time to cry before you were finished.
Just look at the DEM crew over there—they probably still hadn't figured out what had happened before Tohka annihilated them all.
"Mm…so she still managed to escape." What everyone else thought, Tohka didn't know.
Right then, she could only sigh regretfully—because she had clearly seen Ellen dodge at the last instant before impact and retreat far away at speed.
Apparently, Ellen no longer had any confidence about facing her alone—at least, she'd been scared by this fiasco. And that meant, the next time they met, it wouldn't be so easy. After all, this time she had caught them completely by surprise. They hadn't expected her to know of their existence—or to be watching them the whole time.
Otherwise, they'd never have been so unguarded and casually appeared in front of her.
"You're saying…that person already ran?"
Hearing Tohka's words, Shido blinked in surprise. After all, his eyesight was nowhere near as good as hers, and he'd been focused on the falling battleship the whole time.
He hadn't noticed Ellen's narrow escape. So only now did he react—because in his mind, all these women in Realizer suits had the same reckless, fearless spirit.
Look at what had happened in Tengu City. Even when they lost repeatedly to Tohka, not a single AST member had ever run away.
Every encounter had been a massive brawl—every time ending in Tohka's victory—but never once had they retreated.
And according to Origami, those people were still training desperately, hoping to someday pin Tohka down and grind her face into the dirt.
"Yeah, she already ran." Watching Ellen retreat, Tohka could only sigh helplessly. Honestly, she'd wanted to take Ellen out right here.
If she had, Westcott would have effectively lost an arm. But the problem was—Ellen was incredibly tricky. Even back in Marvel, she would have been considered a top-level opponent.
It wasn't just Tohka—she doubted even her Inverse form could capture Ellen with certainty.
Unless…well, she wasn't sure it would work, though she had been experimenting recently.
"Forget it. She ran, so be it. I never really planned to do anything to her." Watching Ellen disappear, Tohka turned to Shido with a very serious expression.
"Go back and tell your sister—and Yoshino—to be careful. That woman is nothing like the AST's useless mob. And if I'm right, she's probably already captured a complete Spirit."
She wasn't trying to scare him. God only knew what they'd do if they couldn't catch her—maybe they'd just switch targets. And those other Spirits—even in their prime—might not fare well against Ellen.
"Alright…I understand." Shido nodded. But then he seemed to remember something else.
"You're saying…there are other Spirits in their hands?! What happened? I mean—all of you…" To be fair, Shido was genuinely shocked. In his mind, not a single Spirit was simple. Every time one appeared, they'd practically level Tengu City. So, hearing Tohka say this, he was stunned.
"Yeah. But that Spirit's combat strength is probably the lowest among us. After all, her precognition ability is a bit—never mind. Don't worry about it. I'll think of a way to get her out."
She'd almost mentioned Nia by name, but at the last second, Tohka shut her mouth. There was no need to tell Shido everything. Even if she did, it wouldn't be useful—and it might screw up her plans, which would be pointless.
"Fine…but you'd better think of something. If you let those two-keep fighting up there, this whole island is going to burn down. You realize there are a lot of our classmates here?"
Since Tohka wasn't going to elaborate, Shido didn't press further. But just then, he glanced toward the area where the DEM battleship had crashed.
The flames there were raging higher and higher—and combined with the storm Yuzuru and Kaguya were whipping up; the fire was starting to spread without restraint. After all, there were still plenty of people on this island.
"Ah—you mean those two." Hearing Shido, Tohka also rubbed her temples, looking up at the sky a little wearily.