"Ahaha, so weak!"

"If that's all they've got to offer, us three can take over this world."

"Eeh, if we're going to do it anyway, we might as well invite everyone over to have fun."

The three Nibelcoles were easily fending off the attacks from the girls from the Spirit Team.

Right after they arrived, Ellen and Origami took on Tenka, and their fight ended up taking them somewhere away from there. That left the remaining eight girls to fight the three Nibelcoles.

You would think that this battle wouldn't be hard for the Spirit Team girls. It was nearly 3-on-1 after all, and the Nibelcoles weren't really making any effort to coordinate or help each other.

But that's because they didn't need to. That's just how much stronger than the Spirit Team girls they were. The girls were just barely able to maintain some fighting chance thanks to Miku and Maya acting as support and two of them focusing on each Nibelcole.

"You're annoying! Just get hit already!"

Kotori shouted as she continued trying to attack a Nibelcole, but her attacks were being effortlessly dodged.

"Calm down, Kotori! You're advancing too much."

"Warning. You're about to move out of the Territory's range"

Kotori hadn't noticed it, but the Nibelcole had been slowly guiding her away from everyone else. If not for Kaguya and Yuzuru's warning, she might have stepped outside the area of Maya and Miku's combined Territory.

That's not to say that Kaguya and Yuzuru were doing much better than Kotori. In fact, they also hadn't landed a single attack yet and were getting just as anxious as her. But, just like seeing someone panic helps others calm down, they were also able to keep a bit of their cool because Kotori was losing hers.

Once she heard the twins, Kotori stopped trying to give chase to the Nibelcole and retreated to be near Kaguya and Yuzuru. These three were the current frontline fighters.

"Eeh, that's boring."

"If you two hadn't said anything, we would have had her right where we wanted her."

"Then we could have easily killed her. Such a shame."

The Nibelcoles seemed like they were just playing around, and they really were. If they were to fight seriously, they could easily beat Kotori and the others, regardless of the support Territory or not.

As if to prove that, the Nibelcoles took the ranged fighters', Kurumi, Yoshino and Natsumi's, shots. Yes, they took them. They could have dodged, but they decided to just stay still and let the shots hit them.

Their heads tilted slightly, but nothing else worth noting happened. It was unlikely to be much different if Kotori, Kaguya and Yuzuru had managed to land their attacks.

"Tsk, that's troublesome."

"W-what should we do…"

"Is there even anything we could do?"

Yoshino and Natsumi, who were the most weak-hearted members, were starting to fall into despair. Kurumi would have loved to say something to lift their spirits, but she couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be a lie.

"... Maya-san, have you been able to find anything about these three with your Territory?"

"I wasn't really focusing on that. I can tell you that they're strong as hell though, not as strong as a Demon King, but much more than we are."

Miku and Maya were also starting to feel the pressure of fighting an opponent they can't beat. No matter how they looked or thought about it, this seemed like a hopeless fight.

No, it wasn't entirely hopeless. They knew Shido and Tohka were coming. Of course, there was no way to tell if their arrival would make any actual difference, but it was the one hope they had left.

All the girls could do was hold out until they arrived. And they hoped that it would be soon.

"... This is getting boring."

"Let's just finish it and go home."

"Alright. Then first should be…"

As they said that, the three Nibelcoles disappeared. No, they hadn't gone invisible, they had simply moved too fast for the Spirit Team girls to follow.

Before any of them noticed, the Nibelcoles appeared behind Maya and Miku. Two of them grabbed the girls acting as support, it happened so fast they couldn't even scream, and the last Nibelcole created a paper airplane in her hand.

"First is obviously the support. I wonder which one should we kill first?"

The Nibelcole passed the paper airplane over Miku's CR-Unit, and the paper easily cut through the metal. As if that wasn't enough, she continued on, reaching Miku's plugsuit and cutting it. The only reason why Miku didn't bleed was because the Nibelcole was careful to just barely not cut her skin.

Obviously, once the other members of the Spirit Team noticed Miku and Maya's problem, they turned in their direction and immediately prepared to attack to try and get the Nibelcoles away from them.

But the long-range attacks did nothing, and it would take too long for the close-range ones to reach them, and it's unlikely that they would be that much better to begin with.

After the Nibelcole finished cutting the front portion of Miku's CR-Unit and plugsuit, she whistled at the erotic exposure and then moved on to do the same with Maya. After she finished, she took a step away from them.

"Meh, might as well do both at once."

The Nibelcole created another paper airplane in her free hand and aimed it at Miku and Maya. Of course, given that those paper airplanes had just been seen to cut through metal, Miku and Maya didn't want to imagine what would happen to them if Nibelcole hit her targets on their chests.

But luckily, they wouldn't have to.

"Metatron!"

A boy's voice could be heard. The next second, rings of light appeared around the Nibelcoles. The two holding Miku and Maya were bound, which set the girls from the Spirit Team free.

The third one managed to escape just in time. But she wasn't safe yet.

"Sandalphon!"

Shido appeared right next to the escaped Nibelcole, a big sword in his hand. He swung it. Though, maybe because he wasn't used to it or maybe because he unconsciously held back, he didn't properly hit the Nibelcole.

But it's not as if she came out unscathed. In fact, she was hit on the elbow and the cut looked pretty bad, almost to the point where her arm was cut off.

""""Shido!"""" "Onii-chan!" ""Shido-san!""

"Sorry it took me so long to arrive."

The only one who didn't call Shido's name was Miku, but even she had to admit this entrance made her heart race a bit.

The complexion on the girls' faces changed completely. They may have been helpless until now, but the Nibelcole's bleeding shoulder and pained expression indicated that that was no longer the case.

"You! Weren't there supposed to be only humans on this side?! Why do you have an Angel?!"

Shido didn't understand how the girl knew about Angels, but that didn't matter right now. He decided to check on Miku and Maya first, to make sure that they were fine.

Well, that was his intention, but he quickly saw how they, or rather their plugsuits, were from his peripheral vision. It's not as if their breasts are exposed, though Miku's look like they're just about to spill out, but it was still quite a stimulating sight. He decided that relying on his peripheral vision was best for now.

"Are you two alright?"

"Yeah, you came just in time."

"... I suppose I'm thankful."

"Good. It might be dangerous to continue to use the CR-Units like this, so you two should retreat."

"Got it. But it doesn't look like they can escape Metatron, maybe we could try to learn something from them."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, Maya-san. It's dangerous to continue to force our CR-Units, so she should just obediently retreat for now."

Following Miku's words, Maya and she retreated. It seemed that Yoshino, Natsumi and Kotori went down with them to make sure they would be protected.

Kurumi, Kaguya and Yuzuru arrived next to Shido. It didn't seem like the Nibelcoles bound by Metraton would escape anytime soon, but it was best to be on guard. While the girls focused on them, Shido kept his eyes on the one that was still free.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to quietly come along, can I?"

"Go to hell!"

The Nibelcole summoned hundreds of paper airplanes. Shido almost used Metatron to create a wall, but he stopped himself. He wasn't sure if he would be able to keep the Nibelcoles bound and create that wall. It wasn't a limitation of Metatron, it was simply that Shido didn't know if he was skilled enough. He was actually surprised he managed to properly catch them.

Noticing Shido seemed to be in a bit of a predicament, Kaguya and Yuzuru let out a laugh.

"Leave it to us! Time to show why we're called the Children of Hurricane."

"Showing off. Please observe us."

Kaguya and Yuzuru said, focusing their Territories in the direction of the paper airplanes. Then, something happened with the wind. It suddenly grew a lot stronger, and it threw the airplanes off course. Most hit and destroyed each other, but a few ended up falling to the ground, which led to some property damage, but it couldn't be helped.

This was something that the Yamai twins noticed they could do with their Territories and had been training until now. It wasn't at the level where it could be called a special move, but it was enough to throw paper airplanes off course, even if it was metal-cutting ones.

"Nice, Kaguya, Yuzuru-!"

As soon as Shido finished speaking, he heard a shot behind him, and then he felt something hot on his cheek. Next, he saw that a paper airplane had just barely grazed him.

The only reason why it hadn't cut straight through his head was because Kurumi had shot it, throwing it off course.

"Ara, so you'd like to join the list of girls aiming for Shido-san? Very well, please give me your name. But please refrain from anything that might hurt or damage him, he is shared property, you see."

It seems that even the Nibelcoles bound by Shido's Metatron weren't exactly harmless. He thanked Kurumi for saving his life, and she replied he could thank her with a date.

"Ugh! Father needs to know that there are Spirits in this world!"

The free Nibelcole turned around. It seemed as if she was going to escape, so Shido, Kaguya and Yuzuru instinctively began to chase after her, and Kurumi took aim. But it ultimately proved unnecessary.

The Nibelcoles all started to glow. Their figures started becoming transparent.

"Remember us!"

"Next time we meet, you won't be so lucky!"

"Us Nibelcoles will show you what for next time!"

The girls became pieces of paper, and then those pieces of paper began to disintegrate. Soon, it was as if their very presence in that place had been a lie.

"So they were paper monsters from the Neighboring World that could take on the appearance of girls?"

"I have no idea. Are they really just normal monsters? They seemed to know about Angels and the Spirit CR-Units."

The thought of the Nibelcoles being monsters they could run into in the Neighboring World was scary, but the thought of them being some special existence wasn't much better either.

For now though, Shido and the girls breathed out a sigh of relief from having survived this battle. Maria and Marina told them that Tohka, Origami and Ellen had also finished on their side, so they all went back to headquarters.

Ellen and Origami, equipped with Pendragon and Keter respectively, had seen Tenka as soon as they and the others from the Spirit Team arrived. Tenka and the Nibelcoles were also quick to take note of them.

They looked at each other, that was enough to convey their plan. Ellen then opened the communication channel with the others.

"Origami and I will deal with Tenka. The others focus on the triplets."

Ellen and Origami dashed in Tenka's direction. Ellen had Caledfwlch in hand and Origami summoned Metatron and turned it into a blade of light. They quickly passed by the Nibelcoles and their blades were stopped by Tenka's Nahemah. That's probably the reason why the Nibelcoles didn't notice Origami's Angel.

Even the two of them together couldn't break through Tenka's defense. Putting a bit of strength into her sword, she was able to push them back, though they shortly gave chase again with another flurry of attacks.

Slowly, as they exchanged attacks, they ended up moving away from the others. The Nibelcoles were too busy playing with the Spirit Team girls, so they didn't bother to give chase.

Although Origami and Ellen seemed like they were putting pressure on Tenka, reality wasn't so kind. It was just that she was too busy looking around to properly give them attention, which allowed them to compete with her.

"... Where is she?"

Tenka asked, but that question didn't seem directed at either Origami or Ellen. If anything, it was like Tenka was asking herself.

"Where is Tohka?!"

With that roar, it was like a blast spread from Tenka, which pushed Ellen and Origami away. A few windows were cracked, but it didn't seem like there was much more damage than that.

"... Origami, did you hear her just now?"

"... Yes."

Ellen and Origami already noticed that a fight would not go in their favor, and even if it did, the city would sustain too much damage.

However, an interesting option presented itself. Tenka was holding her head, as if it was hurting. Could her memories be trying to come back? Could Ellen and Origami take advantage of it?

"Tenka, are you looking for your sister, Tohka?"

"Tohka… my sister? Who is, Tenka?"

As they had suspected, it seemed she really didn't even remember her own name. Had she gotten into some kind of accident in the Neighboring World or was it a side effect of whatever gave her these powers?

Regardless, they would have time to figure it out later. Ellen told Origami to hold her position as she slowly approached Tenka, trying to not startle her.

"You are Tenka. We're your sister's friends. If you come with us, we'll take you to talk with your sister. There's no need for us to fight."

Ellen was almost close enough to touch Tenka. For a second, the hostility left Tenka's eyes. It seemed as if everything would end well.

But, that possibility was gone the next second. Tenka held her head as if it began hurting a lot more, and she let out an inaudible scream.

"You're… lying! I'm not Tenka, my name is Nahemah! I don't know who this girl who shows up in my head is, but I'll get rid of her to make this stop!"

It was as if some dark power started coming out of Tenka. Ellen barely had a second to react. She had to use one of her CR-Unit's wings as a shield to defend against Tenka's slash, but even then it was cut through like butter.

That's how powerful a Demon King is. Ellen tried to receive her follow-up attack with Caledfwlch, but even that was easily destroyed.

Ellen used Rhongomiant faster than Tenka could follow-up her attack. Its power had lowered considerably with the damage Pendragon had already taken, but it was enough to force Tenka to take a defensive position with Nahemah rather than an offensive one.

But even so, that saving grace only lasted for a second. Tenka flew to the side and held up Nahemah with both hands. The dark power gathering in the blade was literally visible.

Then, she swung it in Ellen's direction. The sword obviously couldn't reach her, but the beam of power that shot from it most definitely could. Ellen just barely managed to dodge, but her Pendragon got even more damaged, it was now at the point where it would be dangerous to continue using it.

Yet, Tenka didn't care as she flew towards Ellen, fully intending on finishing the job. However, Origami flew in between them. She knew she couldn't take Tenka's attacks head on, especially now that she was fighting seriously, but she was able to change Metatron's shape and parry them to a degree.

Once she saw an opening, Origami focused Metatron as much as she could and then fired a beam of light directly at Tenka. It looked like a scene straight out of an anime. Although she knew it was unlikely to finish Tenka, it at least got her a few seconds of breathing time, which she used to help Ellen land safely.

"Sorry about this. You'll have to hold your own for a while."

"Don't worry, I have a feeling help won't be long."

Just as Origami said that, they heard Tenka's voice coming their way.

"Haaaaa!"

She was like a madwoman, dashing towards them without a care in the world.

That's when-

"Sandalphon!"

They heard a voice very similar to Tenka's, but this one was more familiar. It was Tohka's voice.

Then, the girl herself appeared, wearing her brand new Spirit CR-Unit, Malkuth. The color of it was the same purple of her plugsuit, except that parts of it seemed like the armor a medieval knight would wear. In her hands was a sword bigger than Tenka's, her Angel, Sandalphon.

Sandalphon and Nahemah clashed. Both girls stood still in the air.

"Tenka!"
"Tohka!"

The sisters' expressions were quite complex, yet incredibly similar. A sense of happiness from seeing each other in person, doubts over how things got to this point, and the glare that showed that they both intended to take the fight seriously.

Unfortunately, even with a Spirit CR-Unit and Angel, a Demon King still proved to be too much of a challenge. Tenka began to push back against Tohka, who was doing her best to resist and stand her ground.

"Metatron"

Chains of light formed around Tenka. Origami pulled them, hindering her movements, though the surprise factor was doing more work than Origami's strength, it still did it's job.

It gave Tohka the opening she needed to attack. Tenka was forced to take a defensive position, but Tohka broke her stance with an attack, and took out her weapon with another.

"Haaaaaaaaaa!"

But, with that shout, power overflowed from Tenka, breaking Metatron's chains. Origami retreated to Tohka's side.

Looking at Origami, Tohka's mind wandered off the fight for a second. She thought about their Spirit CR-Units, and what they both did to get them. The both of them, with Shido. And there would be more. Tohka would be lying if she said it wasn't a complicated feeling, but there was nothing to be done about it.

"O-Origami, I…"

"We can talk later. For now, we focus on your sister. Honestly, I'm not sure how long I can keep it up."

Tohka then remembered that the boost from Shido's ability wasn't eternal. It only lasted for roughly a day, and Origami was already on overtime, since she hadn't gotten the chance to get a "refill."

Of course, that meant that Tohka would also have this same problem around tomorrow. She remembered what she and Shido were doing and… well, let's just say that Tohka did not find that part troublesome, and instead was looking forward to continuing, and going further. The same was true for Origami.

But then she shook her head. Now wasn't the time for that, she had to keep her head in the fight.

Tohka wouldn't be able to fight Tenka alone, and Origami would go out at any second. They didn't know how the battle on the other side was going, so it might have been too much to expect reinforcements.

Which meant…

"Let's finish this on the next attack."

"Umu!"

Tohka dashed off towards Tenka. Tenka fired another blast of dark energy from Nahemah, this time at Tohka, but Tohka defended herself with a blast from her own Sandalphon. Once they were close enough, Tohka and Tenka prepared to swing their swords at each other.

But Origami once again got in Tenka's way, holding her in place with Metatron, even if she could only hold out for a second. That was enough for Tohka to land her attack first.

It was a slash straight at her chest. It could have been fatal, but Tohka had to risk it. A medical Realizer would probably save Tenka's life anyway, so for now she had to focus her all on the attack.

But…

"Hah! You're not strong enough to get through my Astral Dress, Tohka!"

But Tenka was unharmed. Tohka wasn't exactly sure if she should be happy or sad about this. She obviously didn't want to hurt her sister, but she had to defeat her if she ever wanted to get her back.

It was now Tenka's turn to attack. She held up her sword and said:
"Nahemah - Paverschlev."

A throne appeared behind Tenka, but only for a second before it exploded into pieces. Then, the pieces started gathering in her sword, which was rapidly growing in size.

Anyone could tell that taking this attack would be no good, but what could they do about it? Something inside Tohka told her she could have matched it if she had more power, if she had done even more with Shido, but she didn't, and now there was nothing to be done about it.

However, luck had yet to abandon Tohka and the others. Something weird started happening with the space around Tenka. A second after, there was an alarm, as if to confirm their thoughts. By the time Tohka noticed what it was, it was already too late.

It was a Spacequake. Just like how one had brought Tenka into this world, another was taking her back. It would have taken Tohka too, should Origami not have noticed it and dashed into Tohka to get her out of the way.

"Tenka!"

"... I'll see you again, Tohka."

Those were the last words they exchanged at that moment. The Spacequake took Tenka back to the Neighboring World.

"Are you two alright?"

Ellen came running up to them. Origami and Tohka nodded, they hadn't really gotten hurt. But they soon arrived at the same conclusion.

It's impossible for a single person, even with a Spirit CR-Unit, to match a Demon King. Two people with Spirit CR-Units could just barely keep up a fight, but it still wouldn't be enough to win.

[Good job. It's a shame we weren't able to bring back Tenka, but we also learned a lot.]
[It seems like Shido and the others are just about done on their side as well. Time to head back to HQ for a well-deserved rest.]

Maria and Marina casually updated them on the situation with the other group as well. It was good to know that they also hadn't taken much damage.

They made their way back to headquarters. Though Tohka took a last look at where Tenka had disappeared. She vowed to herself that, next time, she would surely bring her sister back.