Lyka engages her doppelganger. The doppelganger casts magic and conjures a greatsword the same as Lyka’s. While the two engages, Akino told Herol to take the demi-wolves to the tunnel they made back. Herol nods and immediately leaves with his people, leaving the three inside the castle’s main chamber.

Doppel Lyka: You! You could have your own salvation! Your people will be avenged! And yet, you refused me!

Lyka: I will never be corrupted! Even if it means to save anyone, I’ll find another way other than being corrupted!

Lyka tried to cast a blasting spell, but as she raises her right hand and tried to cast it no magic circle appears. She tried to verbally cast but to no avail no magic circle appears.

Lyka: What is going on?! What did you do to me?!

Doppel Lyka: Hah! NOW YOU’RE TOTALLY – useless?

The fake steps back as Lyka realizes that her right arm was burning with black flames. It wasn’t hot for her, nor it wasn’t hurting.

Akino: Lyka, look at your HUD.

Lyka: Eh? HUD?

* > ELLIMINATING UNKNOWN ENERGY SOURCE.

* > UNKNOWN ENERGY SOURCE REPLACED WITH ZERO-ENTROPIC ENERGY.

* > ZERO-POINT SOURCE: STABLE

* > ZERO-ENTROPIC ENERGY OUTPUT: 100%

Lyka: What is this…?

Lyka looks at her hand. She could still see magic, but the mysterious flames were not made of magic and devoid of mana, like Akino and Alexa. She tried to use the mysterious flame to conjure her weapon, but to no avail she couldn’t do so. The fake one took this moment to attack, Akino blasted it with her rifle but manages to block the attacks with its magic barrier.

Lyka: I – I can’t! my greatsword is –

Akino: Concentrate, goddammit! Remember what I told you last time!

Lyka concentrates, recalling the things Akino taught her on casting magic without chanting but only with the use of her mind and creativity. Her second attempt of conjuration turns successful, and in succession a set of text pops up on her vision.

* > ZERO-POINT FABRICATION: SUCCESFUL

* > PROTO-TITANIUM: SUCCESFULLY FRABRICATED

Lyka looks at her conjured sword, mesmerized by the luster and detail of her new weapon. The fake one attacks her with magic and Lyka was able to block it with her sword. The magic blasts, throwing the two away from each other.

Doppel Lyka: Hng! I’ll end this!

The fake Lyka raises both her hands in the air. A huge magic circle appears, the ground shakes and rubble floats around the fake one.

Doppel Lyka: Abyssal Gate!!

The ground below Akino and Lyka glows with a magic circle. It splits open and dark flames engulfs the area. Akino protects herself by enforcing her skin with hexagonal armor, but Lyka stands still in the flames.

Akino: Lyka! Are you alright?!

Lyka: I could feel it… the magic… it’s turning into nothing! It’s being cancelled! The mana is being cancelled!

Lyka swings her sword, the flames casted by the doppelganger disappears in a flash, so is the magic circle.

Doppel Lyka: WH – THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! Abyss magic cannot be countered – nothing can destroy the magic that destroys!

Lyka: I don’t know… but this zero-entropy seems more powerful than our magic.

The doppelganger rages and assaults Lyka, leading to a sword-to-sword combat. They clash their weapons, at high speeds, dashing here and there, creating small sonic booms. Akino only watches in awe, seeing a battle like in anime she’d watch with Alexa before.

Lyka then catches the fake’s sword with her bionic arm and crushes it with sheer force. The fake dashes backwards and summons its own shadow copies but Lyka swiftly sprints with her sword aimed at each of the copies’ necks, defeating them in an instant.

Doppel Lyka: IMPOSSIBLE! HOW COULD THIS BE?!

Lyka: I’ve learned things, you should’ve taken some when we were still in the virtual matrix.

Lyka then stabs the ground with her sword. Glyphs appear and forms into a circle, a magic circle but the fake and real Lyka notices it wasn’t made with mana. Despite this, Lyka continues to cast her anomalous ‘mana-less’ spell.

Lyka: Abyss Zero – Mech Guardian.

A huge shadow-like figure, about 15 meters tall, appears behind Lyka – a female that has similar face with Lyka but with long hair and wears a very ‘modernistic armor’, perhaps a metallic Kevlar of some sorts. The doppelganger stops moving, shocked while looking at Lyka’s conjuration, Akino was also stunned at the seeing the summoned entity.

The huge figure pulls out a sword and slashes the doppelganger in half in an instant, like a wind whistled in an open space. The doppelganger didn’t scream nor react, after getting slashed it immediately turned into smoke and quickly dissipates in air, leaving only the corrupted manastone on the floor. The summoned entity then retreats to the ground as the glyph circle Lyka casted slowly disappears.

Akino: That’s – that’s amazing!

Akino notices that Lyka’s still gloomed.

Akino: I – I don’t know what to say… in this kind of situation –

Lyka then quickly went over to Akino and hugs her.

Lyka: You talking to me is enough for comfort…

Akino: I’m the one to blame… well, in the past few days all we did was flirt and flirt… and you know – bed stuff?

Lyka teasingly slaps Akino’s face.

Lyka: You’re a perv…

Akino: Wh – wait, wait! Sorry!

Lyka: But I’m also the one to blame… I mean, I couldn’t control my emotions and it took a toll on me…

Akino: We should… talk after this.

Lyka: I think it won’t be necessary.

Akino: You sure?

Lyka: I’m fine… I’ll be able to control myself from now on.

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Akino: By the way… Mech Guardian? Really?

Lyka: What? It’s not that silly! I – I feel like saying it even I can cast it without uttering a word…

Akino: It’s a nice name, honestly… and Abyss Zero? That’s cool.

Lyka: Re – really?

The two looked at each other, not knowing that a remaining elder priest was hiding on one pf the pillars of that chamber. The elder priest sprints and takes the corrupted crystal on the ground. Akino noticed this and aims to shoot the priest to stop him, but the priest casts a dense magic barrier to protect himself. Lyka quickly grabs her sword to attack the priest but by the time she hits the barrier, the priest casted a spell onto the manastone.

The two wasn’t able to hear what spell the priest casted, as the ambient sound around them turns into deafening ring, the ground shakes and a magic portal opens behind the priest.

Elder Priest: Rise! Oh, Holy Herald!!!

An ethereal bright knight fully covered in glowing white marble armor emerges from the summoning circle of the priest, holding a mace and a shield.

Lyka: Th – the mana! It’s a powerful summoning spell!

Akino: Is it that bad?

Elder Priest: Fool! He’s not a summoned entity! He’s the holy knight of the Ravine! An incarnate of divine power!

Lyka: You heard the priest… it thinks it’s bad…

The two dashes out of the way as the giant knight swings its weapon while the priest was riding on its back. Akino tried to attack the knight with powerful rifles, but it only deflects the bullets she fired. Lyka tried to summon her guardian again, but she keeps getting interrupted by the enemy attacks. The priest then fires a barrage of powerful magic blasts, forcing the two to hide on the rock rubbles and broken foundation of the chamber.

Akino: Summon that big-ass version of yourself!

Lyka: Wha – can’t you see?!

Akino switches to railguns while Lyka casts her shadow copies but covered with special Kevlar armor.

Akino: Your copies were – wearing armor… not like your skimpy –

Lyka: Are you insinuating something?

Akino: Do you want me to make you a Kevlar?

Lyka: I’m fine with my leather, thanks.

They were about to go out of their cover when an earthquake breaks. They stay in their position and try to peek if the priest caused the sudden shaking, but to their surprise the priest was also startled with it. Akino and Lyka took this opportunity to attack the priest, shooting the railgun and sending the shadow towards him and his knight. Akino’s railgun manages to blow a hole on the ethereal knight, and when Lyka’s shadow copy was about to hit the priest, a bright flash blinded them. The shadow copy drops on the ground, cut in half. The two girls went closer to each other, protecting themselves from the unknown attacker.

The attacker revealed itself, landing on its two feet being covered by a brown robe. The attacker was a man, about in his twenties, and wears a regular outfit of an adventurer. Lyka’s fur spiked up the moment she saw the man, and Akino notices that he holds a very familiar sword – a katana.

The man looks at Akino and Lyka, then proceeds to assist the priest.

Elder Priest: What are you waiting for?! Kill them! Aren’t you supposed to be the Shadow Blade?! Altruis’ greatest assassin?!

The man glares at the priest, making him shut up.

Assassin: Let’s go…

Elder Priest: You can’t beat them?!

Assassin: I can, but I didn’t expect to face a very powerful… and intriguing opponents.

The assassin walked towards the two, while the two steps back. He raised his sheathed katana, and valiantly waves it to the direction of the two girls.

Assassin: My name is Mitsuhiro… an assassin of the Altruis.

Mitsuhiro tried to reach out his hands, but Lyka instinctively protects Akino.

Lyka: Don’t come near us…

Mitsuhiro: Hmmm.

Akino: Lyka, what’s wrong?

Lyka: He’s – super dangerous…

Mitsuhiro: Dangerous? It seems you are more dangerous than I am, demi-god…

The two girls looked at each other.

Akino: A katana, huh…?

Lyka: An outworlder?

Mitsuhiro: I am, and you?

Lyka: I’m not.

Mitsuhiro: So, it confirms you’re a genuine demi-wolf and a demi-god… but the other one…

Akino: What? That I don’t have any mana or magic shit?

Mitsuhiro: Yes, and it's intriguing.

He unsheathes his katana and points it at the two.

Mitsuhiro: It is unfortunate that I’ll be killing you off for good. It’s nothing personal, just a job.

Akino: Same with here.

Akino steps forward, revealing her arm that has turned into a mini-gun. The assassin was stunned seeing how Akino’s arm turn into a mini-gun, but immediately composes himself as he tries to swing his katana against her. Akino fired a barrage of bullets, all of which were deflected or being dodged by the assassin. Lyka takes her turn by going behind the assassin and trying to cleave him with her sword, but he was able to block it with his katana. Lyka sensed he was about to slice him off in an instant so she retreats to safety before he could swing his sword.

The two girls and the assassin where distanced pretty far from each other, and they were staring like there’s an intense duel about to begin. They took their positions, stances, and readies to launch themselves to one another, until another earthquake happens, interrupting their stances.

Lyka: Aki, what was that? That’s the second one!

Akino: There’s… nothing… it’s something else that I can’t detect nor sense…

Lyka: What about the tunnel you made under?

Akino: It’s – it’s not the tunnel… the tunnel’s still there…

The two looks confused, making the assassin take this time to move.

The air chills around them, it feels like their hearing went away but they could hear a ringing sound. The assassin stops moving as if he felt something ‘terrifying’ and couldn’t turn, the priest exclaims but they couldn’t hear it, Lyka bemusedly shouts at Akino, and Akino saw something on her vision…

> WARNING: SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED

>

> ANOMALOUS ZERO-ENTROPIC SPATIAL SYSTEM IS DETECTED PERCOLATING WITHIN THE LOCAL SPACE-TIME SYSTEM

>

> RECOMMENDATION: EVACUATE THE AREA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – FEASIBLE DISTANCE OF 5 KILOMETERS AWAY FROM THE ANOMALY EPICENTER WILL ENSURE A MAXIMUM 87% SURVIVABILITY RATE

Lyka: WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

Mitsuhiro: What…?

Looks behind the assassin and the priest. A small crack, not on the wall nor on the ground, but in mid-air, a space-time ‘crack’. It began to grow, and grow, until it shatters loudly, deafening the people inside the chamber. A gap, large enough for a man to pass through, was formed from the cracks. Beyond that gap was nothing, a void, a space, something very eerie. It howls, as the air suddenly gets sucked in it, forcing the four people to hold on to something.

The howling stops. The nearest people – the priest and the assassin – slowly walks backward from the mysterious gap. Lyka takes an offensive stance and looks at Akino, stunned at the sight of the void – a familiar view, she recalls.

A figure emerges from the, a familiar one, as Akino recalls. A mechanical being of human stature, but the only human on it was it being bipedal, having two arms, a torso, an abdomen, and a head which is faceless and only a plain metal. Everything else was mechanical with a mix of reddish fiber: a muscle tissue exposed like in anatomy figures. There’s a writing on its right arm: MC-01.

The figure surveys the place, seeing the two confused girls, the shocked assassin, and the priest that kept on shouting to the assassin to kill them all. The figure fixates its view to the priest, and its faceless head opens.

>   WARNING: HIGH ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED

Akino drags Lyka away, the assassin dashes backwards, and the figure blasts a very powerful laser beam from its head. The whole place was covered with blinding light and beaming sound. After that, they saw the upper half of the priest, gone and melted into nothing. The laser beam was so powerful that it penetrated throughout the place, creating a melted hole where they could see the outside of the castle.

The figure once again surveys the place, now with scanning lasers from its head.

MC-01: SURVEY COMPLETE. RETURNING TO LOCAL-SPACE POINT.

The figure walks back to the direction of the void.

Mitsuhiro: You – you summoned that thing??? That... man in an armor?

Akino: I don’t have magic, can’t you see that?

Lyka: I – I didn’t either…

Mitsuhiro: Looks like I got another target.

Akino: Target? Wait, don’t engage it!

Mitsuhiro: It killed my master’s servant, I must kill it just to make sure it will not do the same to you.

Akino: WAIT, WHAT?

The assassin didn’t listen to Akino and went near to the mechanical figure. He positions his sword on his waist, and quickly sheathes and unsheathes his katana, then walks back to the two girls. A line, like a clean cut, appeared on the waist of the MC-01 and it bleeds. The assassin smugly smiles at the two as he poses and points the katana towards them.

Mitsuhiro: Shall we continue?

But Akino felt discomfort on looking at the MC-01. The blood gushing out of the machine’s waist moves weirdly, and on top of that it hasn’t reacted to the assassin’s fast slice – it only stood still. That blood moved quickly and gushed out violently, slicing off the assassin’s waist. The assassin couldn’t notice that until his upper half slides like a sliced watermelon. He screams in pain as blood gushes out of his sliced body and gags as blood flows out of his mouth. Lyka instinctively went to the assassin to heal and patch him up as Akino guards her, pointing both her arms that has turned into railguns at the machine.

The MC-01 moves once again and walks back to the void.

Akino: OI! You forgot something!!!

The MC-01 turns back, scans the place once more with its face, and leaves like it was nothing. This pissed off Akino but she composes herself.

Akino: I’m HQC-32! A human from Earth! I need to access a communication with the Institution of Humanity, now!

The MC-01 stops and faces at Akino.

MC-01: HQC-31, HQC-32, AND HQC-101 ARE OBSELETE ASSETS OF THE INSTUTION. THE INSTITUTION DOESN’T SUPPORT ANYMORE THESE ASSETS DUE TO THEIR INCOMPATIBILITY WITH THE INSTITUTION.

Akino: Wha – WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?!

Then it leaves. Akino snaps but Lyka stops her.

Lyka: Aki! We need to save this guy! Let it be!

Akino: Ugh, fuck… you’re right… I got ahead of myself, sorry…

Akino went to Lyka and checked the assassin’s vitals. The assassin just wails due as Lyka casts a healing spell on him.

Akino: Don’t try to close the wound but keep him alive with your spell. I’ll try to meld the other half.

Lyka: Got it.

Akino grabs the assassin’s lower half and looks at the machine which is already gone however the gap was still there, eerily howling at them. Then she noticed that some cracks started to appear on the edges of the gap, and it increases at an alarming rate.

>    WARNING: IMMINENT ENERGY BURST DETECTED, T-35 SECONDS

>

>    AREA EVACUATION OR PROTECTION SEEK IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The cracks on the void gap began to spread all throughout the place. A whirring sound deafens them. Akino quickly grabs Lyka and the assassin but left his lower half, her forearms open with retracting metallic plates and a bluish force field envelops the three.

A bright flash came out of the void gap, and a very loud explosion follows.