(A New fate and the continuation of the fate that was granted towards Makoto Nanaya. Let us see what happens next)

Bold = English Conversations

Bold Italics = Japanese Conversations

Fate 35

Previously on Canon Distortion

Makoto Nanaya had found herself with the fight for her life. First facing off against Relius cover, her attention was soon pulled towards the Imperator herself Izanami where she soon found herself faced off against something Balmung is not even capable of predicting. With Izanami's ability to completely halt the flow of time and her clear intent to eliminate Makoto if she did not meet her standards, Makoto is now forced to do what some deem to be the impossible and defy the stoppage of time itself.

And now, the continuation of Canon Distortion

Sora couldn't help but tap his finger on his arm. The way he rhythmically tapped to the pounding of his chest highlights the anxiety he was feeling at that moment. "It's no good. We haven't been able to find or contact Makoto in any way." Tsubaki said, as worried gasps were made. "But she couldn't have gone far from where she was right?" Noel questioned, her face wracked with worry for Hunter at first but now Makoto as Sora himself knew that this situation had gone from bad to worse.

"We thought so too but it looks like no kind of teleportation ars magus was used in the area. At least one that was close range." Tsubaki explained as while Noel and Tsubaki were discussing what could have possibly happened, Sora had been trying to contact Makoto using the special communicator that Caroline had designed for them. "Got anything?" Bullet simply asked as Sora shook his head at that moment. "Can you listen in on their conversation, I need to discuss something with Caroline." Sora explained as Bullet nodded her head at that moment.

Slipping out of the room, Sora immediately changed the target of his communications from Makoto to Caroline. "Hey boss. Is something the matter?" Caroline asked, in the middle of her work as Sora could hear. "I cannot communicate with Makoto with the communication ars you gave us. Can you check if hers was forcibly broken?" Sora questioned, thinking that could be the case. Caroline quickly stopped what she was doing to immediately rush and help Sora with his request.

Sora simply waited for her response at that moment, the silence he gave her telling what she needed to know about his current mental state. Once again, he began tapping his finger to the beating of his heart, faster this time as he could feel his heart skip twice as he did so. "… Thankfully the communication Ars I gave you guys is using the Rev System as the fuel for it so I can safely say it hasn't bee dispelled or will do so in any way. Though right now, it looks like it's currently jammed." Caroline simply explained as Sora nodded his head upon hearing that statement.

"Does it have a last known location? Or is that just where she was at?" Sora questioned as Caroline quickly checked. "The last known location appears to be where you were. So it looks like whatever teleported her immediately jammed her link at the same time." Caroline explained as Sora nodded his head once again. "In that case, can you check for me if you can find a duplicate of her signal that is not in the Hierachical City." Sora asked, going through his mind the possibilities that could have occurred with Makoto.

At that moment, Caroline could sense Sora's desperation for answers, trying to figure out where Makoto could have gone to. She knew that he was probably going to throw hail marys her way so she better make sure to be through. Doing as he asked, Caroline then noticed something strange. "Hey… I managed to find a copy of her signal… and she's not in the giant blue orb in the sky." Caroline said.

At that moment, she could sense that Sora had gone quiet. She could sense that he was trying to process what she had just told him without freaking out. A few deep breathes were taken from him "...Can you try contacting her on your end. I need to take a few minutes to breathe." Sora said, shutting down the call at that very moment as Caroline may have had her memory of Sora recently returned to her but she knew immediately at that moment, her boss was slightly panicking. She better do what he had asked her.

At that moment, Caroline immediately typed and calculated the trajectory of Makoto's current location and syncing that with her systems. It was a lucky thing that Caroline was able to find Makoto but now the worry was that Makoto had gotten herself into something risky and wouldn't even be able to answer her at that moment. Caroline could only wait as she pressed the enter key on her keyboard and watched her program do the necessary work to make it happen.

As soon as the bar reached completion, Caroline immediately forced the activation of Makoto's communicator, adjusting the volume so that it wouldn't loudly play in her ear as it did. A gentle hum was emitted as Caroline sat back and waited for a response. As if on cue, she saw a pop up appear on her screen and immediately pressed it. "Makoto. Caroline here. Grunt if you are in danger." Caroline said, deciding to keep her sentences simple just in case Makoto was currently in the fight for her life.

At first, it was simply silent before a small grunt was made from Makoto's end, immediately letting Caroline know that Makoto was indeed in danger. "Alright. Hang in there. I am going to try and do some stuff on my end and force a teleport. If it doesn't let me teleport you out of there and back to the lab, I will try to teleport Sora to you instead. Whatever you do, stay the fuck alive until then." Caroline said, explaining all of Makoto's option to her as Makoto simply grunted again before switching the call to a hear only mode.

"Oh how sturdy you are Miss Nanaya, it appears I may need to go even harder." A voice said as that immediately made Caroline begin to record the conversation. At that moment, Caroline immediately recognized the voice to be of the Imperator and while she was just hearing her voice, she cannot help but feel a slight trembling of her fingers. "The imperator of all people is fighting Makoto… Fuck." Caroline said as she knew that time was indeed of the essence. Immediately checking the frequencies, she found the new frequency recently added to the communication Ars and contacted that instead of Sora.

"Hey mercenary, I need you to go and find the pink haired cat professor and let her know that Caroline is asking for her help. And tell her that I will pay her in candy if she helps me." Caroline said, making sure the tone of her voice was serious. Bullet on the end at first was surprised by the sudden contact but could understand why Caroline had done so without a second thought. "… Understood." Bullet simply replied before ending the call. As soon as that was done, Caroline immediately focused back on her work.

...Knowing that a life precious to her boss was at stake

As soon as Makoto felt the call go to listen only, Makoto immediately focused on the danger that was in front of her. Her tonfas were long gone, destroyed by the amount of blows that they had to take as she tossed them to the ground. Her remaining arm of flesh was bloody blocking several attacks against Izanami while the arm that Caroline gave her . These ranged from various ghost dinosaurs to skeletal hands trying to grab and restrain her and finally the imperator's time stop.

She could easily dodge most attacks coming her way with the use of her reflexes and Balmung in concert but for the time stop, she still had no idea how to actually counter against it. The most she could do was simply get her arms up in a peak a boo stance to cover the majority of her vital organs. But other than going on the defense, Makoto had not been able to find good opportunities to get offensive herself, Izanami completely dominating all opportunities to get offensive.

When she thought she had a shot, she immediately tried to launch a punch right towards Izanami when she approached her. Immediately she felt her arm get cut several times as several bony hands had appeared. This made Makoto grit her teeth, realizing that time had yet again stopped around her and she had been powerless to stop it. Her mind was racing with several thoughts as to counter what was happening in front of her but they all amount to defy the laws of reality.

Well. Defying the laws of Reality was what Balmung does on a regular basis but at the very least, it still obeys some laws of reality by simply changing the results of what happens. What Izanami was doing, the stopping of time is something else entirely. At least Makoto still needs to be able to do the action required by Balmung's vision. If a train were to come traveling towards Izanami, she could just casually stop time and walk out of the train tracks before it could run her over. Basically, any kind of fatal attack can be stopped way before the attack can be launched. And that simply sent shivers down Makoto's spine.

But just because Izanami can halt the advance of time and stop any attack made her way doesn't mean that Makoto should simply accept her fate, roll over and die. She still needed to try and fight against the time stop in the first place. But that was easier said than done since even attacks that would cover a wide area are simply useless because the time stop would just stop the attack in it's place and allow Izanami to walk out of it like nothing happened.

'Fuck… I cannot believe what I saw from JohnJohn is actually happening to me in real life.' Makoto thought, realizing her situation was just as grave as what the character in her fictional manga faced. Maybe she could try employing similar tactics used but she didn't have any magnets on her to fake being able to move and even if she did, she was not sure if the time stop Izanami can do is similar to that villain's time stop.

For now, Makoto needed to focus on fighting for her own life. She couldn't tell if Izanami was just playing with her or if she was serious about testing her durability. With her time stop, she could have already killed her several times either by breaking her neck or ripping her heart out while in stopped time. Yet at the same time she choose not to do such a thing and even if it was a time restriction, the time stop should be long enough for her to do such things.

So maybe it had a restriction where she cannot use her time stop to kill a person. Even if that was the case, it only gave her the reassurance that she was not dying in a time stop but that still didn't solve her fundamental problem that she is fighting a person that can stop time and she cannot do anything about it. She couldn't even try to stop the time stop from occuring as it seemingly occurs whenever Izanami wants it. Her bloody body was proof of that.

So in this case, what is Makoto to do? Just roll over and let Izanami kill her via 100 small cuts? Of course not. Try to hold out for Sora and hope he has a plan? By the looks of that idea, that would just result in two dead bodies instead. No she needed to fight against the time stop and she needed a way to do so before she met her end from blood loss. "It's pointless to keep thinking the way you are. There is no way for you to defy the laws of time itself." Izanami taunted, able to see Makoto trying to rack up ideas in her tiny head.

"Yeah? Well that won't stop me from trying." Makoto said, charging towards Izanami and throwing punches at her. Time stopped once again and Makoto immediately felt cuts emerge all over her body once again and her momentum going the opposite manner, sliding across the invisible ground. Makoto could feel her body tremble as she got back up again. "Indeed, your attitude is what got you tangled in this mess of gods in the first place. Had you just accepted the fate of one person and allowed your memories to fade away, you could have been spared this fight in the first place." Izanami explained as Makoto shook her head.

"Maybe that was possible in the past… but right now? I don't feel like giving up on anything. Not on Sora or my friends." Makoto answered as Izanami simply stared at her. "I wonder if that is why the azure denies your wish… because it is simply too greedy." Izanami continued as Makoto cared less of what she was hearing, her mind occupied on how she should be beating Izanami, not listening to what is essentially her villain dialogue.

'Balmung… if you are able to listen to me… I need you to pull off a real miracle here.' Makoto thought as she closed her eyes and formed several astral Black Beast heads to go after Izanami. Izanami, unfazed by what is coming in front of her, summoned her own beasts to go after the astral heads, tearing and ripping them apart as Makoto charged right for Izanami once again. Izanami herself is aware the folly repeating the same action and expecting different results brings and decided maybe she has played with her food for far too long.

Without even losing a beat, she paused time once again. The flow of time was halted as Izanami had her eyes closed at that moment. The moment she could hear the sounds of something snapping in the air they slowly opened, revealing to her something she herself could not believe. It is true that repeating the same action over and over again is something only fools would do but the fact that something had actually happened from repeating tells Izanami about Makoto's persistence.

In front of her Makoto had halted like usual but the creatures she had summoned, the astral Black Beast heads did not obey the laws of time and charged right towards Izanami, ignoring her own creations in the process as they too had obeyed the laws of time. Izanami stepped to the left and the right to avoid them to the best of her abilities before feeling one of them managing to successfully bite her in the arm.

As blood was drawn from it, she grabbed the head and tossed it violently towards the ground, immediately dispersing it as she charged towards the other Black Beast heads and ripped them apart using her hands in a claw like motion. She couldn't believe that a pale imitation of a creature of calamity was able to move through her domain like so and that made her feel a sense of anger inside that her world had been violated like so.

As the astral creations disappeared with each swipe, Izanami realized that her time stop was also coming to an end sooner than it did. As soon as she destroyed the final black beast head time returned. Makoto blinked her eyes a few times, seeing Izanami pant a little while she herself was relatively unharmed. She also noticed that the astral copies of the black beast heads she made had also disappeared.

'Something...something happened while time stopped.' Makoto thought as she was quick to piece together that it had something to do with her astral Black Beasts but she knew better than to just rely on what seemingly worked. Relius, who had been observing from the side was now able to see the way the target of his interest thought and couldn't help but find her thought process interesting. It was clear that she was more aware of her surroundings then one would have thought but at the same time she was capable of thinking much quicker than she appeared.

"As expected of a former intelligence officer." Relius simply said, his eyes more focused on the glow of her soul which was now glowing much brighter than it had ever had. He never felt such a greatly missed opportunity like the one in front of him but maybe that is the reason why it was missed, she was destined to hold an even greater power like now. But it did not mean that he did not want a chance to have her soul and body for use as a detonator.

Makoto meanwhile sent more Black Beast heads to give chase, even sending her projections she would make to go after Izanami. When her eyes blinked and they vanished yet again, that told her that she was on the right track. She also saw Izanami leap at her with her hands in a clawing motion, face still monotone in expression but Makoto could sense that what she was doing was starting to wear on her patience.

'It may be working now but I shouldn't expect it to work forever. I got to do something right here and now.' Makoto thought as she used her metal arm to parry away Izanami's attack, stopping it from reaching her neck as she could feel the tip of her fingernails threaten to rip through her neck. Makoto pushed her away and immediately landed a punch right on Izanami's chest, surprising herself. 'She didn't stop time at that moment? She cannot use her time stop in a defensive manner?' Makoto thought as she knew that now was not the time to get distracted by her thoughts and simply focus on the fight in front of her.

She knew that the Black Beast heads were doing something but it was only a matter of time before that stops working too. She cannot work with just temporary solutions, she needed to figure out a way for her to start moving in Izanami's stopped time. As Makoto created the ars circles for more Black Beast heads, this was proven to be the case when suddenly she was sent flying, the circles dissipating before they could be formed.

"A cute parlor trick. But one that can so easily be stopped at a flick of the wrist." Izanami said as Makoto couldn't help but tch upon hearing that statement. She would need to make sure that the Black beast heads were out before Izanami stopped time but if Izanami could destroy them or stop her from summoning them before she stops time, then she would need to find that solution to moving in stopped time much more quicker than before.

Exhaling deeply, Makoto immediately charged towards Izanami, clenching her fist tightly. She began to think deeper, deeper than she had ever before. If Balmung is the ability to see possibilities then she should be able to see the possibilities where she got hurt. The issue with that logic is that Izanami's time stop interferes with that, cutting the time that would have allowed her to see off. So she would need to react way later in the future in order to be able to protect…

'Wait a minute… way later in…' before Makoto could finish her sentence, time had stopped for her once again. Izanami could not believe that this was even happening at that moment, that her time stopping abilities were being read the way they were. This woman was not even chosen by the Azure to have her wish granted due to having tainted her wishes with what she did. If only she had chosen to forget everything about the mistake maybe she would have lived a long life with her desires fulfilled.

Not that she cared, It was time that she stopped playing around with this woman and end her. As she raised her hand up, curling it to a claw like motion, she slashed right for Makoto's neck with the intention of decapitating her in one stroke. However before it could be done, Makoto's neck suddenly moved out of the way of her attack, alarming Izanami as she had to take a step back from what she had just seen, her eyes processing the strange phenomenon she had just witnessed.

As soon as time's flow returned, Makoto immediately took a deep breath as she panted deeply, holding her hand on her chest as she realized what had happened. The look of confusion and growing anger present on Izanami's face told Makoto that what she did actually worked. But that was nothing but a fluke if she can only do what she did once. She needed to be able to repeat what she had done consistently otherwise it's not worth jack.

Though she wouldn't need to wait long before she would need to repeat what had happened in Izanami's eyes. Izanami herself, thinking what Makoto did was nothing but beginner's luck immediately halted the flow of time once again, this time lunging for Makoto and slashing at her multiple times. Even if Makoto could somehow move herself in halted time there should be no way for her to protect herself against multiple attacks aimed towards her vital spots.

Her astonishment only grew at that moment when suddenly all of her attacks got parried by a large barrier that Makoto had managed to create in order to protect herself. This baffled Izanami greatly as the barrier was never there and Makoto did not even assume a proper stance to create a barrier as this time, Izanami had subconsciously not kept up with how much time had remained and accidentally allowed time to pass while she was in a position where she could be attacked.

As soon as time returned, the moment Makoto saw the opening presented by Izanami unintentionally, she did not hesitate to immediately slam her fist right into the stomach of the former imperator. The wide eye shock Izanami had as she realized her time stop had once again been defiled by this woman soon turned to a rush of pain as Makoto did not hesitate to continue landing punches her way, slamming her with a combination of lefts and rights guaranteed to knock out lesser foes.

Without even letting Makoto continue her assault, Izanami immediately forced Makoto off her by using a burst and immediately halted the flow of time once again. She charged right for Makoto, grabbing her time stopped heel and slamming her to the ground. As soon as she did, she immediately sent a barrage of fists right towards Makoto's head with the intention of turning said head into nothing but a blood stain on the ground.

Yet despite her best attempts to do so, it seemed like her fist would never be able to reach said head, as if Makoto had already been dodging said attacks. This began to make the gears in Izanami's head tick as she was beginning to realize how Makoto was able to do what she was doing…. And how she cannot help but feel disgusted by how she was doing it. This was not only an upfront of reality and fate but now time as she grabbed Makoto by the throat, deciding that choking her would be the simplest way to end things, using skeletal hands to wrap around her own hands to reinforce the choke.

But as her fingers tried to slowly wrap themselves around Makoto's neck, she felt her wrists get grabbed as time resumed once again, alarming Izanami at how she allowed time to get away from her once again. The skeletal figures of hands she had manifested to try and strangle Makoto with were bit and grabbed away by two equally massive Black Beast heads that dragged them away from the two, preventing Izanami from using them to strangle her.

Makoto immediately created distance between her and Izanami, gasping for air as she had felt the brief attempt Izanami had on strangling her as sweat dripped down her forehead. She also felt her body all throughout simply scream in pain as she had been using Balmung to see further in the future than she had to and while that was allowing her to move past Izanami's attacks, it was also causing great harm to her body as she felt her legs simply shake like jelly.

'Fuck… How much longer can I last like this?' Makoto thought to herself. She knew very well that there was no way she could keep up this high level of intensity for much longer. Before she could think any further, Izanami charged right at Makoto once again, sending the metal triangles to follow suit as Makoto took a few deep breathes, realizing that she was running out of time and she had hoped that Caroline could find a way to get help coming her way soon.

The metal triangles tried to ram themselves right into Makoto's body but Makoto was quick to dodge out of the way for them. As she did, she kept in the back of her mind that the flying metal triangles were going to be used in some way and that would take her attention away from whatever kind of danger that Izanami was planning on throwing her way. As she dodged the final triangle, they flew for a bit before slowly banking back towards her, intending to cause harm to her on their way back.

Makoto wanted to turn around to face them but she knew that would open her up to a time pause from Izanami and that may result in a whole lot of different things. Makoto instead took a deep breath and focused on Izanami instead, allowing her instincts to instead take over as she could hear the slicing of wind swoosh towards her. With a swift step to the left she dodged one of the metal triangles while expertly dodging the next one coming to her right. But as she was in the middle of dodging the last one, time stopped once again.

So far, Izanami had tried attacking with both a direct and indirect approach but since those were clearly not working now, she was going to get a bit more creative with her approach. Grabbing the last metal triangle that was going to miss it's target, Izanami grabbed the other two and jumped into the air. She then tossed them right towards Makoto, forcing the metal to slam into her while she was under the effects of stopped time.

Without even stopping, Izanami crashed herself right on top of the metal pile and began to swing heavy punches right on top of the metal. With each swing, she pushed the metal more and more on the woman trapped underneath it. But as she was doing so, she could feel a sort of counter resistance underneath it. She couldn't look at what was happening below but she could tell that the resistance she was feeling was not natural in any manner.

Underneath the rubble, several Black Beast heads had slammed their heads on the rubble that was being piled on top of it, fighting against the resistance that was built on top of it. Makoto herself was unable to resist against the incoming pressure but her body had positioned itself in such a manner to brace the weight that was going to be pressed on top of her. As soon as time returned, Makoto immediately felt the rush of weight and momentum crash right on top of her, gritting her teeth in the process.

Makoto could not help but release a primal scream as soon, the weight was released from her, the Black Beast heads managing to ram their way through the weight placed on top of her. Izanami was flung off her own attempt to crush Makoto underneath her weight as Makoto panted heavily, bleeding forming all over her body as Balmung was beginning to take a very heavy toll on her body. Standing up slowly, she could feel herself about to topple over at any moment.

"...That all you fucking got?" Makoto said, speaking in defiance as she took a deep breath and punched her fists together. The fire that was present in her eyes intrigued Izanami deeply as she could now start to see why the master unit had gone with the route of erasing her memories instead of her entirely. "I can start to see why the Master Unit struggled to get rid of you in the first place." Izanami said as Makoto couldn't help but take that as a compliment, smiling through the pain as she even had the time to crack her neck a little, relieving some strain placed on her neck.

"But do you really think that you can last much longer?" Izanami questioned as Makoto looked up to the woman herself and shook her head. "Nah… I am starting to feel like my body's about to snap in half. Does that mean I am going to lie down and let you fucking kill me? All I have to say to that is bite me." Makoto replied, showing her defiance towards Izanami as Izanami herself couldn't help but be amused by this final display of defiance.

"… In that case, do you think you can humor me one simple question?" Izanami questioned as Makoto couldn't help but feel a sense of fatigue hit her as she was getting hit by another last question before the villain kills her speech. Nodding her head, Izanami smiled a little bit as she mused at the question she was going to ask Makoto at that moment. "Tell me Miss Nanaya, would you destroy the master unit if she hindered your wish?"

'...Is she trying to pull my leg right now?' Makoto thought as she did not know how to feel about the question that she had been given. She knew better than to try and answer the question with another question and Izanami would not tolerate such a response. Makoto took a deep breath upon hearing that statement as she closed her eyes and knew that she should just answer from her heart. "If we could reach a compromise I wouldn't mind letting this master unit live. But whoever the master unit is, they have made it clear that they are willing to do anything to stop me from having a world where my friends and Sora are safe… so if I had to destroy her then I have no choice."

Honesty, that was the only thing that Izanami could sense from Makoto's words. Izanami could not help but smile upon hearing such words come out from Makoto's mouth. "So defiant you are… if you had not been tainted by Balmung, I would have given you the chance to have your wish granted." Izanami said as Makoto stood up shaking, confused by what she had just heard. "Have my wish granted? What are you even talking about?" Makoto questioned, feeling she has at least earned that right.

Izanami: You heard me, I have something that grants people the ability to have their wish granted.

Makoto: That's bullshit. There's no such thing.

Izanami: Oh but I am speaking the truth in this case. The thing in my possession is capable of granting people their deepest desires.

Makoto: If that's the case, why don't you just use it on your own wish?.. Unless a certain somebody is not allowing that to happen.

Izanami: Spoken like someone who is used to having their dreams crushed before their very eyes.

Makoto at that moment felt tempted to try and force Izanami to speed up what she was saying so she wouldn't waste both of their time but she knew better than to do something like that. The fact that Izanami was even talking to her at that moment told her that Izanami was either interested or saw something in her now that they had fought that she could try to exploit. The least she could do is play along with her rouse for the time being.

"So tell me… how far will you go to have your dream be granted?" Izanami questioned as Makoto did not like where this question was going. "Are you trying to imply that I would have to kill someone like the Master Unit in order to have my wish be granted?" Makoto answered, hoping that was what Izanami was trying to propose to her at that moment so that she had an idea of how to respond. "And whatever gave you that idea?" Izanami questioned, curious as to how Makoto came to that train of thought in the first place.

"Does it really matter how I figured things out? The question here is that what you are really thinking at this very moment?" Makoto questioned as Izanami remained quiet at first before her face simply remained neutral as she stared right back at the squirrel woman. "Do you lack the drive needed to get your wish?" Izanami questioned as Makoto shook her head at that statement. "It's not a lack of drive I lack. I simply refuse to do things I barely can understand how they work." Makoto replied as Izanami sighed, realizing if the conversation in front of her were to continue, it would lead to nothing productive.

"In that case… Die." Izanami said as she thought that Makoto had been weakened enough that she was vulnerable for a fatal attack. Makoto herself was simply in pain but she was going to keep on fighting to the end, raising her fists in defiance as she steadied herself for the next attack coming her way. As the attack approached her, she cannot help but think that she had a lot more she needed to fight for and that she was not done yet, so she was going to keep up the good fight even if it costed her life.

As Izanami approached closer to Makoto, Makoto simply closed her eyes and focused. So far she had tried to fight against the flow of time by seeing further into the future but that was starting to prove exhausting and she needed to find another solution quick before things got worse for her. She knew she couldn't keep on relying on Sora to save her forever, but she could rely on what Sora had thought her to save herself. As her eyes remained closed, she began to focus further, erasing the very thought of pain her body was feeling at that moment as she simply waited for the moment that time would come to a halt.

Izanami at the same time, halted the flow of time once again. This time, this time for sure Makoto Nanaya was going to die by her hand. Lunging towards her, the former Imperator was ready for anything. Even if Makoto could move by seeing further into the future, that did not matter to Izanami as Makoto's body was breaking and she was more likely to kill herself at any rate. It was more than likely that Makoto could no longer dodge her attacks using Balmung as she slashed right for Makoto's chest.

As her hand moved closer to Makoto's chest, Izanami thought she could see the squirrel woman move for a brief second. She flinched briefly but continued her attack towards Makoto. Before her hand could reach towards Makoto, she felt her wrist get grabbed as in front of her, Makoto began to slowly move and resist against the flow of stopped time, her head slowly raising to match Izanami's eye level as she then raised her head back.

"How are you…" before Izanami could even finish that statement, Makoto immediately delivered a headbutt to the shocked imperator, immediately ending the flow of stopped time as Izanami could not focus on concentrating on her spell. Makoto herself panted greatly, rubbing her forehead as she did before staring right back at Izanami with a focused look on her eyes. Rubbing the temple of her forehead, Makoto simply stared down Izanami in her shocked state as Makoto simply said the following words for her to hear.

"...Surprised? You bitch."

GREETINGS LOST SHEEP OF FANFICTION!? I HOPE YOU ALL ARE DOING WELL NEAR THE END OF THE YEAR! I deeply apologize for the late release of this chapter and only releasing one chapter overall this month. Stuff had kept me busy unfortunately and when I was about ready to start writing again, I felt down under the weather for a while. As a result, I only managed to write down this chapter for you guys. I won't go promising to release a triple chapter next month to make up for it but it should still be a consistent double chapter for you guys. I hope I didn't keep you all waiting for my chapter as a result.

SO WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT FOR MAKOTO NANAYA!? WILL SHE BE ABLE TO SURVIVE THE ONSLAUGHT THAT IZANAMI WILL DELIVER HER WAY LONG ENOUGH FOR HELP TO ARRIVE!? IS HER ABILITY TO MOVE THROUGH STOPPED TIME A ONE TIME DEAL OR SOMETHING SHE CAN ACTUALLY DO!? AND HOW WILL IZANAMI REACT TO THIS DEVELOPMENT!? ALL THIS AND MORE WHEN FATE RETURNS TO OUR HEROINE!