Western Pivot, Akihabara Grand Barrier.
Li Jianlin, an elderly man with a ruddy nose, suddenly raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Oh? Someone's arrived in under five minutes?"
As he spoke, red dots appeared on his clothes like children's laser-pointer doodles.
The buzzing of rotors filled the air.
Li Jianlin looked up to see swarms of drones dancing like wild bees.
From a loudspeaker-equipped drone, a booming male voice announced:
"This is the Dragon Fang Unit of Far Eastern Theatre Command. Criminal below, surrender immediately."
"I repeat: surrender immediately."
Hearing this youthful demand, Li Jianlin's eyebrows arched as he spotted several distinctive drones.
"The Academy's newly developed Yu-style technique disruptor array... Sichuan Tang Clan's colourless bone-softening smoke... and... a Dragon Fang gun formation using 7.62mm demon bullets as core elements arranged in Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formation..."
With the help of collaborators who were themselves officials of China, Li Jianlin immediately chuckled self-deprecatingly:
"This show of force, can it still be called persuasion to surrender?"
"I wonder if this old man can survive this incident... Truly a fascinating question..."
As he spoke, Li Jianlin curled his body, toes gripping the ground, moving with an eerie zigzag pattern as he desperately scrambled across the uneven terrain.
Noticing the unusual movement, the leading officer coldly declared:
"Open fire!!"
The deafening roar of gunfire erupted at that moment.
...
Northern pivot point.
Ueno Park.
Within the expansive park square.
The newly arrived members of the England task force stared, dumbfounded, at the scene before them.
Visible to the naked eye were densely packed human figures.
Enigma - clad in black trench coats with voluptuous figures and bewitching purple lipstick - multiplied by the dozens, even hundreds, continuously besieging the figure at the park's centre.
And at the very heart of the park.
Senhime Rin Getsu, draped in elegant robes with a white scarf around her neck, calmly traced her little finger through the air towards the surging crowd.
Instantly, dark purple crescent moons materialised out of thin air, as if opening portals to another dimension, swallowing the oncoming horde whole.
Yet even as their comrades were consumed, the endless Enigmas pressed forward relentlessly, employing various elemental techniques in a desperate charge towards the centre.
The black crescents and rapidly multiplying clones formed an eerie, precarious equilibrium, though any observer could see Senhime Rin Getsu was thoroughly suppressing the numerically superior Enigmas.
Witnessing this, an England operative wearing specialised goggles paled at the sight of those black holes periodically dragging people into the Underworld:
"Captain... latest communication indicates the white-haired woman at the centre is actually SDS reinforcements..."
"Should we still engage?"
The England task force leader frowned briefly before ordering:
"Fall back 300 metres temporarily. Teams 1 through 3 hold position. Everyone else, with me to reinforce the hospital."
"Roger!" xN
...
Eastern front, Torigoe Shrine.
Perched atop the torii gate, Kotoko Iwanaga twitched at the sight of the two Skill Demon Gods towering over the road below, internally screaming:
'Seriously?! I know this is staged, but Nishikigi-san, Inoue-san... you're clearly trying to kill me here, right?'
"Though it may be redundant to ask... Do you still refuse to surrender?"
Takina Inoue aimed her firearm at Kotoko while the Skill Demon God Silver behind her raised its massive spatial-rending greatsword.
"Ah~ I wonder who'll foot the bill if we demolish the shrine... Well... Let's eliminate the target first~"
Chisato Nishikigi blinked playfully, flashing Kotoko a mischievous grin.
Behind her, the colossal Demon God Black Iron raised both arms, conjuring pitch-black gravity spheres.
Several hundred metres away, the French joint task force members frowned at the unfolding spectacle.
Though privy to the truth, the ostensibly defenceless Kotoko felt cold sweat trickle down her forehead:
"If I surrender now... would that still work?"
Her words had barely escaped when the inky gravity spheres and space-cleaving blade descended upon her with a deafening metallic shriek.
...
As the battles of the mortal realm raged...
Upper layers of the Abyss.
Countless black tendrils extended from the physical world, dissolving amidst unfathomable phenomena yet stubbornly creeping upwards.
Approximately four to five minutes passed.
Finally, the black tendrils reached the sun, composed of the light of flames, hooking onto the scorching orb like chains.
As if sensing capture by some unseen force, the girl within the flames struggled to open her eyes—only for them to shut again in the next instant.
In that brief moment, she seemed to realise something, curling her body tightly and abandoning all resistance.
...
After her surrender, atop a high-rise near Kamijo Hospital, just outside Akihabara...
Enigma's true form and the Three-Eyed Spider simultaneously turned their gazes towards the silver-haired girl lying at the centre of the ritual array.
Now, the girl—whose body had been merely covered in black-red patterns—let out a pained groan.
Watching this, Enigma's lips curled into a smile, her mood evidently excellent:
"It seems the ritual has successfully captured the target's resonance~"
The Three-Eyed Spider exhaled in relief before urging her:
"Hurry. The Phenex Society members might not hold out much longer."
Enigma tilted her head in surprise.
"Hmm? Weren't they supposed to last fifteen minutes?"
From the start, neither the Hell Sect nor the Phenex Society had planned to confront Akihabara's factions head-on. Their strategy was a swift, lightning-fast ritual completion.
The operation's allotted time was fifteen minutes.
Yet in truth, Enigma and the Three-Eyed Spider had privately agreed on ten.
Through meticulous planning and ample preparation, they had compressed the Flame Demon's summoning ritual to under six minutes.
By their calculations, they still had two minutes for the summoning and suppression, plus another two for retreat.
The remaining five? That was for Phenex Society members to buy with their lives.
So in Enigma's view, time was still plentiful.
The Three-Eyed Spider snorted coldly.
"You've forgotten we still need to mobilise forces to infiltrate the Hidden Management Department."
"Besides, the longer this drags on, the more our external avatars perish. We'll only deplete our offensive strength."
Touched that the Three-Eyed Spider still remembered assisting her assault on the Hidden Management Department, Enigma nearly teared up.
'She really...'
'I could cry.'
"I'll focus my energy on the Yellow Emperor's Blood for the final summoning. Be ready."
Before Enigma could reply, the enormous spider before her collapsed with a thud.
Enigma's eyes flickered briefly, but she said nothing, instead turning to the silver-haired girl, who was now bearing immense power. A playful smile surfaced.
"Timing-wise, this should be just right."
Glancing at the spider's prone husk, she leisurely perched on the rooftop's edge, her tone teasing:
"I do hope Lady Jealousy won't be too shocked when she sees this~"
...
Meanwhile...
Beneath Akihabara's subway.
In a space unreachable by any passage.
As black liquid enveloped the crimson gemstone droplet, a massive black heart began pulsating atop the altar.
The Three-Eyed Spider opened her eyes, immediately preparing to unleash the heart's power through her technique to fully drag the Flame Demon into the human world.
Yet the moment her eyes opened,
She saw a black-haired, black-eyed man with a faint smile, holding a bloodstained brush as he completed the final stroke of the technique upon the black heart.
"Oh my?"
Standing atop the high platform, Luo Shu seemed to notice the Three-Eyed Spider's returning consciousness. He turned his head and flashed her a smile:
"You seem to have arrived at just the right moment~~"
Before the Three-Eyed Spider could react, azure-blue light patterns instantly crawled across the entire surface of the black heart.
Pop!
Under the Three-Eyed Spider's horrified gaze as she finally comprehended the situation, the heart cracked apart!