Taking his chance to escape, Ezakiel made a quick dash, fleeing from the flames and smoke of Ikebukuro, propelling himself not just into the sky but straight toward space.
There were other ways he could've slipped out—but this was the safest, the cleanest. By vanishing into space, he could put impossible distance between himself and the magical girls hunting him. Once far enough, he could drift to some random galaxy and then slip back into the real world, leaving those relentless magical girls to claw at shadows like madwomen, not that they were not already mad to begin with.
But as he breached the Kármán line, crossing from the exosphere toward open space—
He froze.
A barrier.
Blue, vast, rippling like an ocean stretched unnaturally across the void. Its waves rolled and twisted, untamed, curling and crashing against invisible shores. Not solid, not liquid—something between, something conceptual.
A wall of ocean sky, barring him from freedom.
Damn it… how could I forget that Tsumi had cast her conceptual defense to block any escape—made for Tatsuya. She wouldn't let him—or anyone else—slip away, not like last time. How could I forget that part of the plot…
His plan had failed.
I don't have the strength to break it…
He clenched his fist.
Tsumi's conceptual barrier was monstrously potent, layered upon itself again and again. Even magical girls far stronger than her would struggle to crack it—so what chance did he have?
And time was running out. He had to act, do something—anything—or death would claim him long before escape ever could.
His heart beat running faster.
But what could he do? He lacked the strength, and the thought of descending meekly back to Tsumi and asking her to remove the barrier was laughable—beyond ridiculous.
You know what, to hell with it!
Without hesitation, without reason, he chose to pierce through it. Hurling himself downward into the lower atmosphere, he gained the distance he needed—then forged a spacetime bubble around himself, a localized distortion that compressed the medium like a warped lens.
Then he shot forward like a drill, velocity stacking on itself, mass and momentum blurring together—his frame accelerating beyond the relativistic threshold, faster than light, as he slammed against the conceptual sea. Its wild waters surged like quantum turbulence, untamed tides pushing back with unimaginable resistance, as if the very vacuum of space had turned into an ocean intent on crushing him, hurling him once more toward Earth's grasp.
...
"You okay?" Tsumi asked, both of them standing amid the flames.
Tatsuya only nodded slowly.
"Not much of a talker, are you, girl?" Tsumi remarked. But Tatsuya gave no reply. He just stood there, rigid, trembling inside the armor he wore, sweat rolling down his skin.
And why wouldn't he?
He had failed the mission.
He was supposed to save people—but all of them had died in an instant, burned away, reduced to ash.
None of it had been his fault.
And yet now he was going to be inflicted with cancer.
It wasn't fair.
System, am I going to get…
[You don't have to worry. It wasn't your fault, so there's that. I won't punish you. Regardless… there's a new problem at hand.]
The system's voice dragged, weighted with worry.
Tsumi stepped further into the flames, the firelight dancing across her mask as she lifted a hand to her chin in thought.
"Now then," she murmured, her voice carrying a curious edge, "from where, and how, did this fire and brimstone come? The monster is dead—so it couldn't have been it. Nor was it you… or I, Miss in silver armor, whose name I still don't know…"
She paused deliberately, letting the silence stretch before finishing.
"Regardless, someone had to spark it from inside. My barrier is intact, unbroken, so no one from outside slipped in. Which begs the question… who could it be?"
System… do you have any idea who they might be?
Tatsuya's thoughts raced as he whispered inwardly. If anyone knew, it would be the system.
[No, I don't. I was more preoccupied with the mission and the interactions that might unfold when Tsumi showed up. Nevertheless, even if someone else was here, I should have sensed them—and yet, for some reason, I didn't…]
Tatsuya sighed. It seemed even the system wasn't all-knowing.
"Say something useful, will you? Why do I have to do all the hard work…" Tsumi muttered with an annoyed tone.
What should I do now, system? If I speak, she'll find out I'm not a girl the moment she hears my voice…
[Don't worry. You have the voice changer activated.]
"Okay, okay… give me a second," Tatsuya said, his voice emerging soft and feminine. "I'm trying to figure it out myself."
"Finally, you spoke, girl!" Tsumi snapped back.
[Be on your guard—something is approaching from the sky!]
Tatsuya's gaze darted upward. Through the HUD in his armor, the system relayed the image: not a simple creature, but a monster—its body plated in black, scale-like armor. Bipedal, yet twisted, its form resembled a centipede, crowned with six gleaming eyes. It was plummeting from above like a meteor.
"Look at the sky!" he shouted, pointing upward.
Tsumi followed, enhancing her vision. Her gaze sharpened as she tracked the falling shape.
"Another monster… so that's the cause of all this fire and chaos? Hah, what a lucky day. Still, I never thought I'd see one literally falling from the sky…" Her tone shifted, a flicker of grim amusement. "...A meteor."
BOOM!
The impact tore into the ground with seismic force, like a localized earthquake. A pressure wave blasted outward, compressing the air into a roaring shockwave that flattened the remaining fires. Soil and debris were thrown high, scattering in all directions as though gravity itself had recoiled from the strike.
Tsumi reacted instantly, throwing up a barrier that shielded both her and Tatsuya at near ground zero. The wall of energy bent the force around them, sparing them from the violent burst.
When the smoke and flames cleared, the devastation lay bare: a barren landscape carved deep into the earth, a crater yawning wide at the epicenter where the monster had landed.
...
So close… I was so close to breaching into space…
Ezakiel groaned inwardly as he clawed his way out of the crater. His body was a ruin, every limb trembling, blood dripping from his mouth with each ragged crawl. Pain coursed through him like fire under his skin, a relentless tide that refused to ebb.
To escape…
He forced his broken frame upward, leaping weakly out of the pit. He landed with a dull thump, collapsing to the ground again. For a moment, he thought his body might simply give out—that gravity itself would crush him where he lay. But he dragged in another breath—then another—forcing his lungs to obey, forcing life back into his battered form.
Slowly, shakily, he rose to his feet. He spat blood, wiped his face clean with the back of his clawed hand, and steadied himself as torn flesh writhed and sealed, his body knitting together by instinct alone.
If I weren't a high-ranking monster… that fall would have ended me.
His six eyes lifted, catching sight of Tsumi and Tatsuya flying toward him.
So it comes to a brawl after all… Thankfully, Tsumi's barrier should keep the other magical girls out of the exo-zone. That gives me more than enough time to wear her down and open a portal. It'll cost me some lifespan, but it's my only chance…
He cracked his neck, steadying himself for the fight.
...
Tsumi and Tatsuya both landed in front of the monster, which stood completely still, unharmed from the fall.
"Are you ready?" Tsumi asked as she drew her weapon, her black-and-white rapier glinting faintly. Excitement showed in her eyes beneath the mask—it wasn't often one encountered such a powerful monster. But just how strong it was remained a question. She could tell the monster was hiding its true power, though by how much was impossible to tell—unless the aura she was sensing was false.
"I am…" Tatsuya replied, holding his sword tightly.
The system, on the other hand, warned him:
[Don't be a fool. That monster is hiding its true aura. Its actual power is, I can say, hundreds of times above any monster you have faced so far.]
That much stronger?
Tatsuya swallowed hard, his grip tightening as unease sank in.
[I suggest letting Tsumi do most of the work while you manage to stay alive for about three minutes, so I can gather enough energy to teleport you out of the Exo Zone. It shouldn't take long, but Tsumi has placed barriers, which makes things much more difficult.]
Three minutes… That's all?
[Yes.]
"Okay…" he muttered, trying to steady his breath as he readied himself.
With that, Tsumi crashed at the monster, swinging her sword and sending out a surge of concentrated mana that supercooled the surrounding oxygen, instantly freezing the moisture in the air. The ice crystallized into a jagged wall of spikes, so cold that it could cause instantaneous frostbite to normal human skin, pushing toward the monster with lethal precision.
The monster, however, began to vibrate at an incredible frequency, phasing through the attack and instantly turning the ice into water vapor, though some droplets condensed and fell to the ground.
How did the monster do that?
Tatsuya muttered, shocked that the creature had completely nullified Tsumi's attack.
The system analyzed the situation:
[The monster oscillated its atomic lattice at a rate that allowed it to phase through solid objects. It then used its mana to rapidly increase the kinetic energy of nearby water molecules, turning ice into vapor. I suggest targeting it via electromagnetic manipulation—disturb its atomic structure to scatter its mass.]
Will that be enough?
[Nah, but it's sufficient to buy us time.]
"What are you waiting for, like a statue? Attack it!" Tsumi shouted. She condensed atmospheric moisture, rapidly lowering its temperature and compressing it until the water molecules formed a solid lattice. Restructuring the molecular bonds, she shaped it into a spear, then launched it. Using precise control over the surrounding air, the spear multiplied into hundreds, raining down on the monster like a barrage of sharpened ice.
"Waaaaaaa…!"
The monster let out a high-frequency tone, oscillating at just the right wavelength to shatter Tsumi's ice spears into fragments.
"Geez… not so easy, are you? Not like the dumb monsters I usually fight. You're definitely above average for using specific scientific principles against magical girls—usually, it's the other way around," Tsumi muttered, excitement glinting in her eyes beneath the mask. I can't wait to tell those whores about this monster…
She could hardly wait to brag about it.
"My turn," the monster snarled, lunging forward and punching her in the stomach. Blood sprayed from her lips, her mask slipping askew, as the impact hurled her hundreds of meters away.
[Now!]
The system's voice rang in Tatsuya's HUD. Seizing the opportunity, he unleashed a focused pulse of electromagnetic energy, sending an alternating electric and magnetic field at the monster's atoms. The pulse destabilized the monster's molecular cohesion, causing extreme internal currents that sent it screaming in pain. The monster's aura flared violently, flinging Tatsuya backward as the sky shimmered purple before settling back to its normal hue.
[Oh no… that monster's power is High A rank!]
"You bastard! You tried attacking my atoms? I'm gonna beat the shit out of you!" the monster roared. Before Tatsuya could react, it punched straight through his armor, driving into his stomach. He coughed up blood, and the back of his armor crumpled under the force.
The monster coiled its tail around his neck, slamming him into the ground, then hoisting him into the air. It spun him violently and began a relentless barrage of back punches, each strike landing with crushing impact—bone-shattering blows.
His vision blurred, and every nerve screamed as the assault continued without mercy.
Meanwhile, Tsumi, seeing that the monster was distracted, directed her attack toward both the magical girl in silver armor and the monster.
She gathered all her mana, preparing a conceptual strike imbued with the very essence of death.
"Die!"
Suddenly, the entire area was engulfed in a blinding white light, erasing everything in its vicinity—land, soil, water, air, even gravity itself—leaving nothing untouched, save for Tsumi herself.
But just as the attack was about to reach Tatsuya, the system had finally gathered enough energy, and he was teleported out of the Exo Zone.
....
Fuuuuck!!!!!
Ezakiel screamed as the concept of death tore through his body—every part of him, from cells to molecules to atoms, dying at an accelerated rate, even his soul and will faltering.
He raised his power even more to counter the attack, though he knew he couldn't hold it for long—not that he needed to. He felt that Tsumi had poured almost all her power into this strike; it had already cost her more than fifty percent of her mana. That meant her barriers were weaker now, unable to hold their previous strength—and that was his ticket.
Seizing the moment, he quickly opened a portal and escaped through it, just as he sensed multiple magical girls approaching the outer layer of the Exo Zone, waiting for the attack to end.