Chapter 55: Buying Time

Tens? Hundreds? Or thousands? Countless light bands formed enormous impenetrable cage nets, trying to entrap Mayuri and Rinne inside.

Sensing the dangers ahead, Mayuri quickly hugged Rinne from behind and stretched her wings, flying out of the encirclement at the last second.

"[Kerubiel]—"

The moment she escaped from the trap, Mayuri summoned her beloved Angel, and hundreds of floating cannons emerged on its surface, before shooting consecutive energy attacks at the light bands.

Violent explosions sounded off incessantly from below, making the black-and-white world tremble ferociously, before opening a large crack on the ground level!

However, Ren's Astral Dress, the target that was being attacked, did not suffer a single scratch.

Seeing this, Mayuri couldn't help but frown in doubt.

[Kerubiel] was not able to defeat [Ain Soph], that much was already certain in Mayuri's premonition; after all, even Tenka's [Nameheh] wasn't able to destroy it. But the unexpected thing was: Not a single light band was damaged from her high-output attacks!

Her intuition told her that the discrepancy between her and Ren might be more than pure firepower.

At this time, the giant tree behind Ren began to act.

The silicon crystal branches reared their pretty heads from the trunks. Although their appearances resemble the branches of Yggdrasil, they undoubtedly outmatched the latter in both quality and quantity.

Such were the branches of [Ain Soph].

Then, Ren pointed her finger at the sky, before sliding down lightly.

As if on cue, the branches started growing downwards rapidly like the Swords of Damos.

In just mere seconds, they wrapped around the entire [Kerubiel], strangled the cannons and crushed them into dust.

At the same time, the light bands seized this moment and dashed toward Mayuri from below, along with the branches from above. In other words, both Mayuri and Rinne were being flanked by the barbarous attacks.

Mayuri tried to dodge backwards, and was able to evade most of the attacks. However, one or two branches still managed to reach Rinne in her arms.

"Tsk…"

Mayuri gritted her teeth, and turned her body around!

"Mayuri!"

Rinne shouted as the tree branches hit Mayuri's back! Fortunately, her wings were in the way, but still, some of her white feathers fell off, along with a few droplets of her crimson blood.

"I'm okay, I just need to be careful next time."

Mayuri gave an assuring smile.

"Excellent speed." Ren praised in admiration. "You could have avoided them all if it weren't for that liability in your arms."

"She's right, you should drop me right now."

Rinne said dimly, feeling responsible for Mayuri's injuries; after all, due to the chaotic reiryoku in her body, she couldn't even fight at the moment.

"Can you grit your teeth right now?"

Rinne did so subconsciously, before a hand enlarged in her vision—

—Flashback—

"Do you know why Shido has forgotten us?"

"I don't really know."

"Do you have something to do with it?"

"Not really."

Such were the responses that Rinne got from Ren.

Rinne knew something was not right, but no matter how she changed the wording of her questions, she still couldn't get a positive result.

Not willing to lose hope, she asked Marina to show Shido's whereabouts, and saw her lover lonely in a hotel.

"Marina, connect with Maria from the original world."

She gave her orders.

Although Marina could be forgotten by her little sister in Fraxinus, the two still shared a mutual connection despite the gap of the two worlds. In this case, she should be able to help Maria form a teleportation portal and allow other Spirits to cross.

To her joy, the AI Spirit processed the information quickly, and summoned one Spirit to Shido's side.

Kurumi Tokisaki.

Rinne gave a wry smile. Of all the Spirits, why did this one have to be here first? Also, a naked one at that?

Due to the teleportation, her normal clothes were torn to shreds in the original world, leaving herself completely naked in front of Shido the moment she appeared in this neighboring world.

Shido quickly covered her nude body with his jacket like a gentleman.

Rinne sighed in relief, feeling proud of him for being able to control his lust properly.

"I will see if they remember me, you two wait here."

She asked Rio and Marina to stay. After getting a nod, she departed.

Soon, she made it to a Neko Cafe, where Shido and Kurumi were having their little date. But to her dismay, when she showed up in front of the couple, they ignored her cruelly.

This furthered her speculation that they had no memory of her. In this case, she decided to keep her distance for the time being.

She witnessed the two sitting down, smiling as they enjoyed their time together, not to mention petting kittens. At the end, Shido was surrounded by a horde of felines.

But the thing that shocked her the most was: Kurumi confessed to Shido!

Although Rinne had long accepted that Shido would be having a harem one way or another, she felt her heart in pain at this moment. Part of it was due to jealousy, but the larger part was: She couldn't even be a part of it!

"Am I no longer needed?"

—Back to the present—

Smack!

Mayuri slapped Rinne's pretty cheek with a loud sound.

"!?"

Rinne covered her slapped cheek in disbelief: Her little sister just slapped her!

Before she could process it, Mayuri grabbed her shoulders and leaned in, hissing:

"I need you to pull yourself together right now, nee-san! So stop trashing yourself!"

She then hugged Rinne and rubbed her slightly red cheek, whispering:

"It's just a little poison, you can purify it, and I will buy that time for you."

Hearing this, Rinne finally came to her senses. She smiled as she returned the hug, before fighting Ren's poison in her body.

"If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also."

Ren suddenly interrupted the sweet moment with a taunt.

"Stop mocking the wisdom of the Bible!"

Mayuri growled.

But in the next moment, more branches and light bands appeared, before charging themselves at her and Rinne.

Mayuri took Rinne by the shoulders and tried to fly away, but at this time—

"[Edict—"

Ren raised her hand, and opened her lips lightly.

Suddenly, Mayuri felt her body was unbelievably heavy like it was filled with tons of lead.

"[Kerubiel]!"

Unable to dodge the attacks, she summoned her Angel as a desperate means of defense.

KABOOM!

—Flashback—

"Shido, what did Kurumi do with you?"

"Knowing Boy, he must have given in to lust~"

"Ara, ara, someone's a jealous kitten~"

"You lucky leecher! Yoshino is sad now because of you…"

"Yos….Yoshinon!"

"Shido, you better not be crossing that line!"

"Nushi-sama, is that true?"

"W…whatever…I don't care…"

"Could it be….that our kinsman has cheated on us!?"

"Doubt. Shido is supposed to do it with the Yamais instead."

"Darling is so bold!"

"...Shido, what are they talking about?"

"...Haha….it's nothing…"

At this time, Shido and the Spirits were staying in a local park, sitting on the grass as they discussed plans to go home. However, when Origami asked the million dollar question, all hell broke loose.

Shido could do nothing but raise his hands in defense as they showered him with questions.

Because of their noise, the passersby couldn't help but notice them, and they were astonished by the scene taking place in front of them.

This lucky bastard was surrounded by 11 breathtaking beauties! Among them, there were matured, seductiveness-emitting ones, arousing people's lusts from deep within; and there were petite ones that exhibited innocence, stimulating people's protective instincts.

Feeling the unfriendly glares from afar, Shido gave a wry smile and whimpered silently. The world might have changed, but the treatment he received from people wasn't slightly different. He felt helpless in a situation like this.

Of course, Rinne saw this scene as well.

Despite feeling sad from earlier, she was determined to help him out and relieve his burden. Therefore, she called Marina on the radio.

"Marina, make a rule for the world crossing."

"Okay, what do you want to change?"

Marina opened her hand and was ready to act.

"Any Spirit that crosses this world will have their reiryoku consumed by the Tree of Life!"

Rinne ordered.

Marina followed suit on her order, and within one day, all the Spirits were sent back to their original world after their reiryoku were depleted.

Shido panicked at first, fearing that his girls were gone. But after a while, he breathed a sigh of relief. And then, he felt anxious about their well-being all over again.

Rinne almost burst out laughing when she saw him like this.

She did this mostly for the purpose of helping Shido. You know, he was always surrounded by the Spirits, half of which constantly fighting each other for his attention. If he showed favoritism toward anyone, the others were bound to get a teeny bit jealous. As a result, they would try harder and make things more difficult.

If she limited the time they could spend in this world, things would become a lot easier for Shido.

But there was another reason:

She had discovered that the Tree of Life was the embodiment of Mio Takamiya. If she transferred the reiryoku of her daughters to her, she might be resurrected eventually!

Such was the longing wish of a faithful daughter.

Gradually, the Spirits decided to take turns traveling to this world. Only with this would things be fair for everyone.

And that remained one question: Who shall go first?

Origami proposed to go first, since her name contained the number "one". But Tohka was unhappy about that, since her name contained the number "ten", meaning that she would go last.

As for how long they took to determine a winner fair and square, that was another story…

—Back to the present—

"Oya, what a tough shell, even for a turtle's standard."

Ren commented sarcastically.

With the smokescreen of the explosions subsided, a huge sphere shield was revealed. There was a giant hole in the center, and many scratches on the surface here and there, but in a few seconds, the surface regenerated itself and turned back to normal.

Inside, Mayuri was panting heavily as she hugged Rinne, who was still battling the poison in her body diligently.

'She changed the rules of this tiny Neighboring World again…..what a cheat skill for her to have…'

After feeling the consecutive changes of the abnormal surroundings, Mayuri confirmed the real authority of [Ain Soph].

"..."

Ren's facial expression started to turn serious.

She had multiplied the gravity in this world by more than 100 fold to immobilize Mayuri and Rinne she was carrying, yet this girl managed to negate her attacks with her Angel. Even with her attacks breaking her defense, she managed to regenerate it in the nick of time.

'[Kerubiel]...what a tricky angel.'

Ren couldn't help but curse inwardly.

Her [Ain Soph] was able to manipulate the rules within the boundaries of this tiny Neighboring World, but Mayuri ignored all that and simply focused on defense and regeneration. With her strong will and determination, she was able to withstand one fearsome attack after another.

If Rinne recovered from her poison, this battle would tip against Ren.

"Well, I shall ban her angel directly."

"[Edict—"

Ren declared lightly, ordering [Ain Soph] to deactivate the powers of Mayuri's Angel.

"..."

Unexpectedly, the Giant Tree behind her did not emit the holy light that could bend the rules and laws.

'My order….did not work?'

Ren's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"What did you do?"

She growled at the two girls hiding inside the black sphere of [Kerubiel].

However, what responded to her was the sudden emergence of countless red eyes on the surface, and they looked at her with contempt, which enraged the villainess quite strongly.

"Fine, I will just keep shooting until they die! Crude, but effective!"

Ren reactivated her branches and light bands, ordering them to fire another wave of ferocious attack.

A/N:

Sorry about the flashbacks, otherwise the fight won't last long.

If I remember correctly, Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z was the first who started this "shooting consecutive energy attacks" and ending in failures. It may seem ineffective in the show, but in games, it's really devastating!