In the sky, two streaks of light chased after each other.
On the ground, curious onlookers craned their necks, trying to see what was happening.
But the speed of those two figures was far too fast—within the blink of an eye, they flashed past overhead and turned into black dots on the horizon, leaving only the disturbed traces of clouds behind.
"Third Movement: Manifestation of Phenomena."
Facing another blinding light attack from the counterfeit witch, Altair remained completely unflustered. She summoned a submachine gun resembling a Thompson in one hand and a military saber in the other, gracefully swinging it as though playing a violin.
Between the gun and the saber, soundwaves rippled outward in all directions. When the soundwaves collided with the beam of light, the radiance emitted from the Kaleidoscope turned into countless rose petals, fluttering down from the sky.
To distort the essence of things, transforming them into rose petals—this was the power of the third movement of the Holopsicon.
"I turned your attack into candy, and you turned mine into flower petals. Looks like our compatibility isn't that great, huh?"
After several exchanges with no real injuries inflicted on either side, Natsumi Kyouno sighed and said in a conciliatory tone, "There's no grudge between us. Even though you made the first move, I'll be the bigger person and forgive you this time. If you stop now, I'll pretend this never happened."
"Heh... Pretending to be all mature—doesn't that tire you out?"
Altair didn't appreciate the gesture at all. She replied coldly, "Let's end the warm-up here. A friendly reminder: if you don't start taking this seriously, you'll die."
Tossing the saber used in the Third Movement into the sword formation, Altair reached out, and another saber, as if imbued with consciousness, flew into her hand.
With the friction between gun and blade, a new movement began to play.
"Fifth Movement: Severing of True Essence."
As the resounding military music rang out, the remaining forty-seven sabers were enveloped in a faint silver glow.
However, their intimidation factor didn't increase. Instead, they seemed even more ethereal.
"Go."
At Altair command, the dazzling sword formation surged forward once more.
"Tsk..."
Natsumi Kyouno clicked her tongue inwardly and raised the Haniel once more.
In truth, she didn't know much about Altair.
This war maiden had only made a few appearances in the original work, yet each time brought devastating consequences to the protagonist's team.
The movements of the Holopsicon—less than ten had been used in the original story, and yet that had been enough to beat the protagonists to a pulp.
It was fortunate her ultimate goal had been world destruction rather than eliminating the protagonists. Otherwise, with only Meteora and the others, they wouldn't have stood a chance.
For instance, this Fifth Movement hadn't even appeared in the original story.
Although she still maintained a composed exterior, Natsumi inner vigilance heightened once more.
"What?!"
As the Kaleidoscope activated, Natsumi was shocked to find that this time, the sabers were completely unaffected, continuing to pierce toward her through the light.
What surprised her even more was that even her Astral Dress barrier had become ineffective.
Previously, the barrier could block sabers effortlessly, but now it was as if it had stopped working.
No—it hadn't stopped working.
Rather, the Fifth Movement had granted the sabers immunity to external energy interference!
This explained why the Kaleidoscope and the intangible barrier were ineffective!
Swish—!
Barely dodging one of the sabers, which left a scratch on her beautiful face, Natsumi immediately shouted, "Fifth Movement: Severing of True Essence!"
The next moment, the Counterfeit Witch in her hand transformed, splitting into forty-eight sabers identical to Altair.
"Oh? You can even copy my powers?"
Altair narrowed her eyes, as if seeing something novel. The smile on her lips deepened.
At the same time, her killing intent toward Natsumi intensified.
She had originally believed Natsumi angel could only copy those from the same world setting. But to her surprise, it could even cross power systems.
Currently, Altair strength wasn't at its peak.
Although she could still suppress every creation she summoned without issue, the rules of the world heavily restricted her. Many of the movements of the Holopsicon were unusable.
If she forced them into use, it would exceed the world's tolerance limit, triggering a forced ejection by the rules.
Yet she still chose to fight Natsumi.
Because she knew—the version of Natsumi Kyouno who had descended into the real world was one who had not yet been conquered by Shido Itsuka and hadn't come into contact with any other spirits.
If she hadn't contacted other spirits, then she couldn't have copied other angels.
This was the best chance to eliminate her.
Once Natsumi became interested in Date A Live and learned about the abilities of the other nine angels from the original story, who knew if she could copy them too?
By then, it would be much harder to eliminate her.
This girl really was the biggest variable in the game.
Her judgment was correct—if she wanted her plan to succeed, she couldn't leave such an uncontrollable factor behind.
A flicker of killing intent passed through Altair eyes as she reached for the saber imbued with the power of the Tenth Movement: Spatial Distortion, intending to further suppress Natsumi ability to resist.
But the moment her hand touched the hilt, a mysterious force descended upon her, making her feel as if her soul and body were about to separate.
"It's not time yet..."
This was a warning from the world's rules.
The world's current rules were still intact and wouldn't allow her to use powers that exceeded its limits.
"No matter. It just means I'll have to spend a bit more time."
Abandoning the idea of using the Tenth Movement, Altair focused all her attention on controlling the sword formation.
"Give up the struggle. A mere fake can never surpass the genuine article."
Watching as Natsumi struggled to fend off the attacks while accumulating more wounds, Altair sneered, "Even if you can copy my abilities, their power is only eighty percent at best. Not to mention your control over the Holopsicon is far inferior to mine. Resisting will only increase your suffering."
At this moment, Natsumi no longer even had the strength to reply, overwhelmed by the dazzling barrage of sabers.
Altair wasn't surprised by this.
In fact, had Natsumi still been able to counterattack with ease under these circumstances, Altair would've been surprised.
Although Natsumi abilities were troublesome, at the end of the day, she was still a child at heart—lacking both battle experience and the will to fight.
Her usual facade of maturity crumbled instantly in the face of true crisis.
Just like now.
In less than three minutes, seeing the panic in Natsumi expression and her increasingly disordered defense, Altair knew the time had come.
"Just about one strike left."
The corner of her lips curled slightly as she deliberately selected one saber hidden within the formation.
"It's time to end this battle."