— — — — — —
Deep within a towering forest, Melvazoa sprinted along the mountain path beneath the cover of the massive canopy, his signal completely masked.
On the soft earth, his seven-meter mechanical frame left deep, hurried footprints with every step.
Even as he fled, his processing core spun at full speed.
'What the hell happened? Why did my body suddenly lock up and shut down for that instant?'
'If I hadn't sensed something wrong and transferred my consciousness core in time, I'd have ended up like Seraselbes, having my core ripped out and losing all ability to resist...'
'Damn it. That must be how Regalzeva was defeated and impersonated. But.. what kind of power is that...?'
He sifted through every bit of data he had, analyzing at blinding speed.
'That man resembles the Holy Mother Goddess. Probably an outside ally she brought in. Judging by her usual methods, this has to be some terrifying existence she only encountered recently.'
'The only worlds she's contacted lately are DxD and FxF. The lifeforms there are mostly organic, and both worlds are still in the age of mythological warfare.'
'A god? Some kind of bizarre lifeform? Hm... most likely a god. Assuming he really is one, then his ability to control my body has a sixty-seven percent chance of being some form of divine power possessed by a higher god-race. A craftsman god? Or maybe a god of steam and machinery? Damn it... a power like that actually exists? Is he the natural counter to us Evies?'
Having pieced together part of Ryo's abilities, Melvazoa finally understood why the only vessel he'd been able to transfer into was a backup organic body.
Because organic life didn't count as machinery.
'I can't fight him in a mechanical body. I need to move into a powerful organic vessel as fast as possible.'
With that thought, he changed course and headed straight for his secret laboratory.
He was gambling that Ryo hadn't been able to pry into Regalzeva's memories.
The earlier encounter had proven something important: the consciousness core of a mechanical lifeform wasn't governed by mechanical authority. If anything, it fell under the domain of the soul.
And Melvazoa was betting Ryo had no soul-related abilities.
After all, from his understanding, a being born with mechanical authority would find it nearly impossible to gain soul authority without an immensely powerful medium to bridge that incompatibility.
Which meant Ryo shouldn't know where the secret lab was.
And once he got there, he could take possession of one of his high-combat organic clones.
Without the disadvantage of a mechanical body, he could face Ryo on equal footing.
The odds were good. So he bet everything on it.
And he was sure he'd win.
Buzz!
Melvazoa pounded across the ground at incredible speed, his massive body folding and moving with unnatural agility, making barely any sound as he slipped through the forest.
Before long, after crossing thousands of kilometers of mountainous woodland, he arrived before an enormous metal facility.
"Good."
The sight of the surface entrance to his lab made him grin.
He immediately sent out a voice-coded signal.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The giant steel shutter slowly rolled upward, and Melvazoa stepped forward.
Then stopped.
As the door rose, the first thing he saw was a pair of black leather shoes.
Then cotton trousers.
Then a white long-sleeved shirt.
And finally, a handsome human face with thin lips curled into a smile.
"..."
Melvazoa fell silent.
His giant electronic eye flickered violently, and steam hissed from his overloaded ears.
And while he was still frozen in disbelief, Ryo smiled wider, "I've been waiting for you, little brother."
Melvazoa said nothing for a long moment.
Then he let out a sigh. "If I survive... I will destroy everything you care about."
The next moment, Melvazoa moved. His seven-meter frame folded and shifted rapidly. Compartments opened across his limbs and chest, revealing rows of cannon barrels.
Inside them, blue light pulsed violently. Energy compressed, boiled, and swelled to terrifying levels.
Ryo frowned and shot him a sharp glare.
His mechanical authority activated instantly, seizing control of Melvazoa's body.
"Hm?" Ryo's eyes narrowed.
Melvazoa's body suddenly faded again, like it was being erased by an invisible hand.
At the same moment, less than three meters away, another Melvazoa appeared, frozen mid-run, as if pulled from a moment before he'd reached the base.
The figure solidified in an instant.
Ryo stared, "Time reversal?"
But almost immediately, he realized something was off.
There had been a fluctuation in time, yes, but it was faint, with no distinct resonance of authority. There was no reaction from what should have responded if the Authority of Time had truly been invoked.
No... there was a response. Just not one tied to time.
"So it's not time authority..." Ryo's gaze sharpened. "It's an authority that can interfere with time."
He looked at Melvazoa with new interest. Then snapped his fingers.
Boom!
Black flames of destruction erupted across Melvazoa's entire body. In a single instant, every scrap of matter was annihilated into nothingness.
But the moment that version of Melvazoa died, the earlier one, the one with his cannons deployed, reappeared again right in front of Ryo.
After watching it happen several times, realization clicked.
"Oh, I see." Ryo smiled, genuinely impressed. "An Authority of Existence. The time interference from before wasn't rewinding time. You were pulling back a version of yourself that existed a few seconds earlier. That's how you dodged my destruction too."
He chuckled. "Not bad. No wonder the Holy Mother Goddess called you immortal. No wonder your enemies named you Absolute Despair."
His eyes gleamed.
Existence. A rare conceptual authority.
Even in the Little Garden, it was a prized and terrifying power.
But then Ryo's smile turned cold, "Too bad."
He snapped his fingers again. This time, he wasn't destroying Melvazoa's body. He was destroying his existence itself.
A direct overpowering. Ryo unleashed his unrestricted Authority of Destruction and crushed Melvazoa's very concept of being.
Across the timeline, every version of Melvazoa began to burn away silently, even his past selves.
Reality trembled. Then Melvazoa's true body was forced into the present.
Cracks spread across the ultra-hard mechanical shell, racing over him like spiderwebs.
His enormous mechanical face twisted with unwillingness and rage.
And just as destruction was about to erase him completely—
Snap.
Ryo flicked his fingers once more.
The destruction stopped. He walked up to Melvazoa casually, hands in his pockets.
"I lost."
Melvazoa's giant electronic eye flickered once.
It stared at Ryo's face.
Then, the seven-meter mechanical giant collapsed to the ground.
.
.
.