"Scorpio. One of the Zodiac Gastrea… it has arrived. You should still have an Initiator with you, right? Take her and escape from there immediately. The Tokyo Area is… beyond saving."
A voice, forced into a semblance of calm and steadiness, came from the phone, ending with a soft, clear sigh of resignation that betrayed the speaker's true state of mind. One could easily imagine the scene: the Seitenshi, her face pale, biting her lower lip in frustration, her hands clad in white silk gloves clenched into tight fists, her delicate frame trembling slightly as she watched the apocalyptic images unfold on the command center's main screen.
However, as soon as her words faded, the reality of the situation declared itself with thunderous violence.
BOOM! KABOOM!
The battle for Tokyo Bay had begun in the distance. Even from their remote position, the continuous, earth-shaking roar of heavy artillery fire was unmistakable. Missiles, Varanium-tipped shells, torpedoes, bunker busters… almost every weapon in the Tokyo Area's arsenal was unleashed simultaneously at this moment. But the terrifying truth was that they weren't just failing to cause damage; they couldn't even delay its advance.
Even when a bunker buster managed to score a direct hit, cracking the hard, Varanium-laced protective shell, the negligible damage would be healed in the blink of an eye, the flesh knitting itself back together as if nothing had happened.
And in the pre-dawn darkness, backlit by the flashes of explosions, a massive leviathan began to take shape on the surface of the sea, moving with an unhurried, inexorable pace towards the heart of Tokyo Bay.
This was the Stage Five Gastrea, Scorpio. Its body was like a nightmarishly enlarged, mutated flea, a grotesque tapestry of absorbed genetic factors from countless organisms. Its colossal form, a towering mountain of flesh, was covered in cracked, dark brown skin, pockmarked with countless bumps and cysts. On these protrusions, clusters of glowing reddish eyes swiveled and blinked independently. From its neck, head, and across its body, numerous prehensile tentacles—like a nest of monstrous, splitting snakes—writhed and flailed in a maddening dance. The sheer number was impossible to count.
The head of this abomination was disproportionately small, with a recessed mouth that seemed to lack teeth. Its entire massive body was crisscrossed with pulsating bands of light that flashed in an alternating, hypnotic pattern. And its size… it was a true kaiju, its 400-meter frame standing a terrifying 100 meters taller than the legendary "Planet Godzilla." Just its presence, just standing there, was enough to be the very synonym for terror. A single glance from afar was all it took to feel a primal, biological fear clawing its way up from the base of the spine.
The Scorpio, parting the sea water like a living island, impatiently swatted away the missiles streaking through the night sky with its forest of tentacles. The explosive flames that blossomed against its hide evaporated thousands of tons of surrounding seawater, yet it showed no obvious damage. Even when a tentacle was torn off by a concentrated volley, it would begin regenerating immediately, completely unconcerned with the continuous, desperate barrage from the human fleet.
"Mahiro-san, you must have seen Scorpio by now, right?" Seitenshi's voice came again, strained with urgency. "That is an existence that cannot be resisted by human power. So please, I beg of you, escape quickly! While there is still time!"
"What about you?" Mahiro asked, his tone deceptively casual.
"I… I will remain in the Tokyo Area," she declared, her voice firming with resolve. "I am the ruler of this land. I have the responsibility and the obligation to stand with the citizens who support me… until the very end."
"You're as stubborn and noble as ever, Seitenshi-sama," he replied, a hint of a smile in his voice. "But you know… I just happen to like that earnestness about you."
"This is no time for jokes, Mahiro-san…" she pleaded, her voice cracking slightly.
"I'm not joking." Mahiro's voice lost its playful edge, becoming serious. "I do like you very much. And I won't run away. Because there are many things in the Tokyo Area worth protecting. Like the children at Arcadia. Like President Kisara. And like you, Seitenshi."
"…Mahiro-san, thank you for saying that," she whispered, deeply moved but overwhelmed by despair. "But facing Scorpio… we are simply powerless."
"That shouldn't be the case, should it?" he countered. "What about the Sky Ladder?"
He was referring to a relic from the final, desperate stages of the Gastrea War. A project that was completed but ultimately abandoned without ever being tested, left to rust after humanity's defeat—the super-giant weapon commonly known as the "Sky Ladder." Two parallel tracks, 1,500 meters long, extended into the thin clouds at a seventy-degree angle, their peaks often shrouded in mist. It was the pinnacle of human weaponry in this world, also known as the "Linear Superconducting Electromagnetic Projectile Device"—a massive railgun system designed to accelerate a massive metal projectile to a fraction of the speed of light.
However, Seitenshi's regretful voice dashed that hope. "It's useless. The Sky Ladder's control center… it was sabotaged and destroyed by the Five Wings Syndicate."
"Is that so?" Mahiro replied, his tone strangely devoid of disappointment. If anything, he sounded almost… relieved? "That's truly a pity."
Then, he asked a question that seemed utterly absurd given the circumstances:
"Then, Seitenshi-sama… do you believe in miracles?"
Miracles?
The word felt foreign on her tongue. She remembered the last time she had heard it spoken with any real hope was probably a decade ago, during the Second Kanto Battle. Everyone had celebrated the "miracle" of the Monoliths, stating that the magnetic field emitted by the Varanium could weaken the Gastrea and repel them. They had successfully confined themselves to the last remaining land behind these walls.
"Kisara-san," Seitenshi said, turning to the girl standing beside her in the chaotic command center, her phone still clutched tightly, "what do you think? If a miracle were to appear this time… what form would it take?"
Tendou Kisara, who had exposed part of the conspiracy behind the missing Seven Stars Legacy, now stood before the screen, her gaze fixed on the image of the approaching Scorpio. She shook her head slowly.
"I don't know either," she admitted. Then, her eyes hardened with unwavering conviction. "But—Seitenshi-sama, the person who can create that miracle… will definitely be Mahiro-kun."
She said it with absolute certainty.
...
Meanwhile, at the harbor dock across from Tokyo Bay.
The salty sea breeze, now tainted with the scent of ozone and distant explosions, stirred her light golden short hair.
"Is Mahiro-san preparing to run away?" Senju Kayo asked in her trademark, unflappably calm tone, as if inquiring about the weather.
"Now why would you think that?" Mahiro countered, a wry smile playing on his lips.
"Because a tactical retreat is the optimal strategy given the current data analysis. A Stage Five Gastrea exceeds our operational parameters for successful engagement," she stated with cold, machine-like logic. Then, a barely perceptible softness entered her voice. "Though it is a pity… I will not be able to see my friends at Arcadia again."
"Don't worry," Mahiro said, his voice softening as he placed a reassuring hand on her head. "You will."
His gaze drifted from the colossal, city-crushing beast on the horizon back to the small, serious girl before him. Just recently, Senju Kayo had accepted his invitation to join Arcadia, to help him build a true sanctuary for the Cursed Children… a dream that now faced imminent annihilation.
"Mahiro-san? Why are you staring so intently at my chest at a time like this?"
The question, delivered in her same flat, factual tone, snapped him from his thoughts. He realized that while lost in strategic contemplation, he had unconsciously lowered his head, causing his gaze to rest somewhere in her general vicinity.
The girl continued, her expression unchanging. "Even though I have agreed to be one of your assets, you cannot let your baser instincts run wild now. Scorpio is approaching, and I am only ten years old. I am physically incapable of that kind of activity. Please, you must exercise self-control and endure."
Mahiro's eye twitched. "…Ahem. Kaya-chan, when exactly was I staring at your chest?"
"From three point two seconds ago until the present moment," she stated, presenting the data.
"I was just thinking," he insisted, exasperated.
"I understand. Many organisms, when facing imminent mortality or extreme stress, experience a surge in species-preservation instincts, manifesting as a desire to procreate. It is a primal biological impulse and not inherently shameful." She tilted her head. "However, if the target of this impulse is me, then it is an error. I am prepubescent and incapable of bearing offspring. Even if we were to mate, it would be reproductively futile and would, at most, only serve to satiate a temporary sexual urge."
"…Your mouth is truly a weapon of mass destruction," he groaned, utterly defeated by her clinical analysis.
"I am merely stating observable facts."
"Hai, hai… Then, Kaya-chan, do you even have a chest to look at?"
For a single, fleeting moment, there was a pause. Then, the plain-faced girl responded without a hint of embarrassment, "...I will, in due time. Please look forward to it." She propped the massive greatsword in front of herself like a shield.
"I won't be looking forward to such a thing! And besides—" Mid-sentence, Mahiro suddenly stopped. A slow, understanding smile spread across his face. He reached out and ruffled her hair vigorously. "I get it now. You're saying all this to help me relax and clear my head, aren't you? But as a young lady, you really shouldn't be the one telling dirty jokes."
"In life-or-death situations, are risqué topics not the most efficient method for alleviating male psychological tension?" she retorted seriously, her brilliant IQ once again being applied in the most bizarre ways.
The most crucial thing was that Mahiro had absolutely no counter-argument.
"Yare yare… Fine, I give up," he sighed, surrendering to her unique brand of logic.
His expression then shifted, all traces of humor vanishing. "Now, you stay right here. Mahiro-nii is going to show you a little magic… a spell called 'miracle.' How does that sound?"
"?"
A rare look of genuine confusion flickered in Kaya's eyes. She didn't understand his meaning.
But there was no time to understand, and no way to ask. In the next moment, Yotsuba Mahiro was already standing at the very edge of the crumbling pier. He drew that strangely-shaped CAD handgun, and as he did, lights began to swirl around him—not like fireflies, but like concentrated starlight, weaving a constellation of power around his form.
"...So beautiful."
It was the most breathtaking scene Senju Kayo had ever witnessed in her short, harsh life. And of course, the man standing at the center of that swirling galaxy of light was impossibly handsome.
But then, she saw the muzzle of his CAD begin to morph. It was like a scene from a sci-fi anime, the weapon reconfiguring itself in a flash of holographic light, transforming from a handgun into a long, sleek, and partially translucent sniper rifle barrel.
"Tch, if that guy hadn't installed this auxiliary long-range aiming module on my CAD, casting a strategic-level spell at this range would be a real pain," Mahiro muttered to himself, almost fondly. Then, he closed his eyes.
"Multiple Observation"—Deploy!
A vast sensory net expanded from his mind, painting a hyper-detailed map of the battlefield.
"Consciousness Domain"—Deploy!
His awareness projected itself, claiming the space around him as his own territory, a domain where his will was law.
"Sharingan"—Activate!
His eyes snapped open, now bearing the iconic crimson hue and swirling tomoe pattern, capable of perceiving and deconstructing the very fabric of reality.
Finally—
"Trace Information Dimension"—Begin!
He attempted to analyze Scorpio's existence, to find a flaw in its impossibly complex data structure.
But in the very next second, his brows furrowed in intense strain. Sweat beaded on his forehead. It was no use. He could see the information with the Copy aspect of his sharingan, but the sheer volume was too much. The human brain, even his, simply couldn't process it.
Scorpio's genetic composition was a chaotic tapestry of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of merged genetic traits. Even more absurdly, its elemental composition seemed to cover nearly half the periodic table! This didn't even account for the various isotopes. How could such an anti-conventional, informationally-dense creature exist?
To think I'd be defeated by my own hardware limitations one day, he mused with a flicker of dark amusement.
"Since that's the case… I'll just have to change my approach."
He abandoned analysis for pure, raw output.
Strategic-level magic—"Abyss"—Activate!
A torrent of psionic power, visible as a pillar of incandescent light, erupted from Yotsuba Mahiro's body, so intense he seemed to be turning into light himself.
Immediately, the very sea began to tremble. The water for kilometers around churned as if a massive earthquake had struck directly beneath the bay. Under the disbelieving eyes of everyone watching—through drones, binoculars, or simply their own terrified vision—the colossal form of Scorpio began to sink. A hemispherical pit, a void in the ocean itself with a diameter of three thousand meters, opened up beneath the Gastrea, swallowing it whole.
The monster's flailing tentacles, each capable of capsizing warships, struck against the sheer walls of this aquatic crater uselessly, unable to even create a ripple.
Then, a bone-chilling cold radiated outwards, flash-freezing the very air. A thick, ghostly mist rolled across the sea surface, and wherever it touched, the churning seawater turned instantly into a solid, glacial plain of ice.
In the command center, the images transmitted by the drone showed the impossible truth.
"It's actually… just one man?" a technician stammered.
"How is he doing this? Is he another product of the New Human Creation Plan?" another minister whispered, his voice trembling.
"If a single mechanized soldier can achieve this… it's simply… unbelievable…"
....
The ministers who had been in a state of panic, some already gathering documents to flee, fell into a stunned silence. All eyes were locked on the main screen, watching the impossible scene unfold.
And both Seitenshi and Kisara had already recognized the lone figure walking calmly across the newly-formed glacier, the source of the freezing mist that continued to spill from him.
It was undoubtedly Yotsuba Mahiro!
"So… this is the miracle he spoke of?" Seitenshi whispered, her hands clasped tightly together as if in prayer.
If this was his power, then perhaps… just perhaps, he could truly defeat the Stage Five Scorpio! A fragile, desperate hope bloomed in her heart, a feeling she hadn't dared to entertain moments before.
Even the normally unflappable Kikunojo Tendo, the master strategist, was rendered silent, his gaze solemn and intense as he analyzed the figure on the screen. The sheer scale of the power being displayed defied all conventional military logic.
However, regardless of whether these people harbored doubts, burning curiosity, or sheer astonishment, one unifying thought began to take root in every mind and heart:
We… the Tokyo Area… we are saved.
...
The frost continued its relentless spread. In a span of time that felt both instantaneous and eternal, it had encased the entirety of Tokyo Bay in a thick shell of ice, trapping the colossal Scorpio within a glacial tomb!
However, while this level of his "Ice Mist Divine Realm" had an immense area of effect, it had not reached the theoretical extreme of absolute zero. It could flash-freeze billions of tons of seawater into an unbreakable glacier, but completely freezing the supernatural biology of a Stage Five Gastrea was beyond its immediate scope.
But temporarily immobilizing it was enough. It was all the opening he needed.
Yotsuba Mahiro activated a flight spell, leaping effortlessly into the air and landing squarely on Scorpio's massive, craggy head. In his hand, he held the special syringe crafted from Super-Varanium alloy that Sumire Muroto had given him. While using a pinpoint "Molecular Severance" spell to breach a tiny section of Scorpio's nigh-impenetrable shell, he plunged the syringe down with decisive force.
Fluorescent, glowing blood immediately began to fill the chamber. The Gastrea's hyper-regenerative flesh writhed around the intrusion, healing at an incomprehensible rate and seeming to resonate with the blood in the syringe, as if the very substance were alive and trying to consume the device. Yet, while a Stage Five was immune to the suppressive field of the Monoliths, a single, concentrated sample of its own blood could be easily contained and neutralized within the specialized vial.
"My objective is complete," he murmured, stashing the filled syringe securely. He then crouched down, placing a hand almost gently on the frozen beast's head. "So now, it's time to say goodbye, little sister. I'm sorry… I couldn't save you."
He had traced its information body. He knew the truth. Scorpio was not merely a monster; it was the younger of a pair of twin sisters, her body and soul horrifically transformed by the accursed experiments of Seven Stars Village. And her elder sister had suffered the same fate, transformed into another Zodiac—Libra, the Plague King. It was an absurd, heart-breaking tragedy, the cruelest possible reality of this broken world.
Simultaneously, Mahiro pressed the muzzle of his reconfigured CAD against Scorpio's skin once more, and the familiar, surging psionic light reappeared, gathering for a final, devastating spell.
""Cocytus"—Activate."
Scorpio, which had been on the verge of shattering its icy prison, instantly ceased all struggle, its form locking into absolute stillness as if frozen in time.
But this was different. Cocytus, a form of mental interference magic, was the very spell that had once earned Yotsuba Shinya the title of [Styx Dominator]. Unlike the Ice Mist Divine Realm, which froze the physical world, Cocytus targeted the mind itself. The body stiffens and stops in accordance with the "stillness" imposed upon the consciousness. This interaction between mind and body could even lead to partial physical crystallization. A frozen mind would not awaken again, nor could it perceive its own death or command its body to expire. Against a foe of such immense size, it was the perfect counter.
But this alone was not enough. Scorpio's physical body, a monument of corrupted flesh, still remained. It needed to be utterly erased.
So, he flew. Activating his flight magic to its maximum, he ascended high into the dawn sky, hovering at an altitude of three thousand meters, a speck against the growing light.
"Strategic-level magic—"Glaciation"—Activate!"
The magic known as "Glaciation" was the maximized, ultimate form of the Ice Mist Divine Realm. If the standard mist operated at temperatures of liquid nitrogen, then Glaciation pushed towards the theoretical limit of cold—the thermodynamic lowest point of minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, absolute zero. Within a one-kilometer radius, all molecular motion would cease, infinitely approaching a state of perfect, eternal stillness. This was an extreme magic he had adapted from his sister Miyuki's prowess through his own immense computational domain, a spell whose sheer control was no less formidable than large-scale destructive magics like Material Burst.
"And now for the final step—"Fourth Phase Change"—Activate!"
While people were still marveling at the frozen bay and the command center was debating how to possibly dispose of Scorpio's immobilized corpse, a piercing, urgent radiation alarm blared through the headquarters.
On the screen, a miniature sun—a scorching, incandescent ball of light—bloomed into existence directly above Scorpio's head. The light it emitted was like a second dawn, violently dispelling the pre-morning darkness over Tokyo. And this plasma ball was expanding!
When it reached its critical limit, the intense electromagnetic pulse it released fried the circuits of the surveillance drones hovering nearby, causing the video feed to dissolve into static.
And within the embrace of that terrifying ball of star-fire, Scorpio began to dissipate, its colossal form unraveling into nothingness atom by atom.
"Fourth Phase Change" was not an esoteric spell; it simply forced matter to convert directly into a plasma state. In the heart of that extreme cold, the ultra-high heat emitted by the plasma ball created a catastrophic thermal shock, destroying all matter in its sphere. No matter how potent a Stage Five's regeneration, it was still bound by biology. It could not recover from such fundamental, atomic-level annihilation. Both body and cells were completely and irrevocably destroyed.
Returned to nothingness.
The first true light of dawn finally broke over the sea's horizon. Senju Kayo, still standing on the harbor pier, watched as Scorpio gradually vanished under the sun-like radiance, her usual monotone softening into something akin to wonder.
"....Is this the miracle you spoke of?" she murmured to the empty air. "It's indeed a very beautiful miracle... Mahiro-nii. Just like you."