"Okay, Shizuru. I'll leave you in charge."
Akane gently submitted control of her body to her alternate consciousness, and Shizuru lifted the Anti-Materializer from the ground in one hand. She dashed toward Miyu to make her final strike, but was rudely stopped by a high kick from the recovering machine woman. After roughly dropping the Anti-Materializer and toppling back to the ground, Shizuru painfully climbed back to her knees. Miyu casually stepped forward and pointed the barrel of her energy cannon between Shizuru's eyes, causing the injured Otome to raise her empty Robed hands in surrender. In a final act of cowardice, Shizuru forced Akane's consciousness back in control of their shared body so she would be the one to face death.
Akane was frozen by the realization of her impending doom. The last thing she heard was Miyu's cold voice saying something that deeply perplexed her.
"I thought you learned not to cross me after last time, Miss Higurashi."
Miyu emptied her arm cannon's anti-matter payload, leaving the young Column's headless corpse to slump to the dry canyon floor. The remains of the defeated Pure Heart Malachite dissolved and disappeared into the air as floating green particles, and Akane's connection to the Column subsystem in Garderobe was silently released.
Despite the Columns being quick to retreat and promote a new fifth Column to replace their loss of Akane and Shizuru, they had awakened the sleeping giant in Miyu's consciousness just as they had feared. Whatever mercy the android had within her circuits before her fight with Akane was now gone, and she quickly used the Administar Protocol to disable Garderobe's Otome forces and reclaim the country of Windbloom for Queen Mashiro. The night of the invasion, Miyu slaughtered even the youngest defenseless Corals that resided in Garderobe, and the captive Emperor of Chaldea was unable to escape the same death as his hostesses. After reclaiming Windbloom's throne with a heavy heart, Mashiro restored the sovereignty of the countries the Columns had conquered.
The War of the Five Columns was over, and the Columns had lost.
THE END.