"Stop now. It's not too late for anything."
The SIM Kevin's gaze lingered on Raiden Mei's face for a moment before shifting entirely to Mobius, who stood beside her. He spoke to his comrade in a calm and detached tone.
"...I've really drawn the short straw, haven't I? If it were anyone else, I'd have the confidence to hold them off. But of all people, it had to be this guy!!"
Being stared at by Kevin, Mobius felt like she was on pins and needles. She impatiently tapped her nails once again.
If it were any of the other Flame-Chasers who had come to stop her, Mobius would have been able to hold them off one way or another, either through combat or by using deceptive tactics to buy time.
But the first to arrive was Kevin, the top-ranked Flame-Chaser, whose combat power was in a league of its own.
In terms of combat ability, Mobius wouldn't even have time to use her resurrection ability before Kevin casually froze her solid.
And as for using deception and wordplay...
Kevin was like an iceberg, completely impervious to persuasion and taciturn. Mobius couldn't think of anything to say that could convince him, or even get him to talk to her for more than a few sentences.
—What can I do now?!
Mobius's vision went black. She felt herself sinking into deep despair.
After enduring for fifty thousand years, she had finally grasped this glimmer of hope to realize her wish, only to have it snatched away at the last moment...
"The wielder of the Key of Corrosion is in the room behind you, I presume."
Seeing that Mobius did not reply, Kevin did not press her further. He simply looked at the wooden cabin behind her and Mei. Through the tightly closed door, he could faintly see a flickering, ominous, crimson-black light.
Without a doubt, that crimson-black light was the manifestation of the authority of corrosion.
As a firsthand witness to the Herrscher of Corrosion incident, Kevin was well aware of the dangers of its authority. And a special space like the Elysian Realm, which existed as data, was a perfect environment for a wielder of that authority.
Faced with Ren's dangerous act, which could potentially shake the very foundation of the Elysian Realm, if it was not stopped at the very beginning, there was a real possibility that the entire space could be destroyed. And Kevin was not willing to gamble on such an unknown possibility.
"Persona!!"
Although she still didn't know why Kaslana was here, Mei could clearly tell that he was not here with good intentions.
To prevent him from interfering with Ren, who was in the wooden cabin rewriting the Palace's cognition, Mei decisively tore off the demon-colored mask that was slanted across her face.
With her loud cry, the demon mask exploded into a furious crimson lightning in mid-air. A thick, massive bolt of lightning crashed down, and the Persona Kurikara appeared with a deafening roar.
"Is that your Persona?... It looks quite majestic, but I doubt it will be of much use."
Looking at the crimson dragon summoned by Mei, Mobius scanned it up and down with a scrutinizing gaze and then let out an unsurprised sigh.
A Judgment-class Honkai beast that accompanied a Herrscher. If Kurikara were in the outside world, even in the Previous Era, it would be a huge threat to humanity. Only a very few powerful individuals would be able to destroy this dragon, which was like a manifestation of a natural disaster.
However, the Persona Kurikara was now in the Elysian Realm, where every single Flame-Chaser had the ability to single-handedly eliminate a Judgment-class Honkai beast. And standing before Mei was Kevin, the strongest of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, who was in a league of his own.
The Persona Kurikara's stats could never surpass Kevin's.
At this point, Mobius could only hope that Mei's Persona had some kind of extraordinary, unexpected ability that could hold Kevin off for a dozen minutes or so.
The fusion factor that Mobius had implanted in herself came from the Previous Era's Herrscher of Thunder's companion Honkai beast, Shesha. Shesha was also just a Judgment-class Honkai beast, but it had the unique ability to resurrect from death.
Vishnu, which the Fire Moth had originally judged to be a Judgment-class Honkai beast, was also revised to a higher, Vipralopa-class Honkai beast after Kosma, who had undergone the Meta-Morph surgery, displayed the ability to devour Honkai beasts and grow.
Therefore, the Judgment-class strength emanating from the Persona Kurikara didn't necessarily mean anything. Perhaps it really did have some hidden trump card?
In this dark and cold, desperate situation, a glimmer of hope, like a candle in the wind, rose in Mobius's heart.
"Roar, Kurikara!!"
Mei was unaware of the complex thoughts of her temporary comrade. She just silently drew her tachi, Raikiri, from her waist and issued the command to attack to the Persona Kurikara coiled in the sky.
The colossal crimson dragon opened its ferocious, terrifying maw. Countless lightning bolts surged into its wide-open mouth, converging into a terrifyingly powerful crimson sphere.
A vast expanse of crimson lightning exploded from the sky. The white-haired man standing on the ground looked like a tiny ant facing a natural disaster in the face of this world-destroying, blood-red lightning.
However, the white-haired man facing the descending disaster remained calm and composed. It wasn't until the blood-red lightning sphere was right in front of him that Kevin finally made his move.
He made a grasping motion with his hand, and with a surge of raging flames, the dual-pistol form of the judgment of Shamash automatically combined into a greatsword and landed in his hand.
The crimson flame sword turned into a mesmerizing, dangerous, magma-like color. Kevin swung the judgment of Shamash, which was wrapped in scorching hot flames.
A dazzlingly bright, hot sword light, like a meteor streaking across the night sky, flashed. The scorching flame light easily crushed the vast lightning of the crimson dragon from the sky, and even continued on towards the Persona Kurikara with undiminished momentum.
As if brushing away a speck of dust, the scorching flame light from the judgment of Shamash greatsword broke through the Persona Kurikara's defenses with ease, and the surging, tide-like aftershock completely overwhelmed Mobius in her transformed state.
The emerald green long serpent, scorched by the extreme heat, fell to the ground in agony. The dark green blood from its wounds was evaporated before it could even flow out. Mobius obediently closed her eyes and began to silently count down to her next resurrection.
"Such power... As expected of Kaslana..."
The six bird-like electromagnetic shields surrounding Mei instantly shattered under the impact of the high temperature.
However, even with the buffer provided by the electromagnetic shields, Mei didn't have time to retreat. She could only raise her arms to protect her vitals, preparing to take the full force of this terrifyingly powerful flame sword attack.
—Persona!!
Under the roar of the exploding flames, there seemed to be some strange movement behind her.
Tensing her body, preparing to receive the strong enemy's attack, Mei suddenly felt her body lighten. She was gently and powerfully pulled into an embrace, protected behind someone. She could only stare blankly at a figure in a black trench coat standing firmly in front of her like an iron wall.
Ren pulled the trigger of his Key of the Void pistol. The invisible pistol passed through his temple and pierced through space. Amidst the fluttering, cerulean spatial fragments, the magnificent figure of a giant with crimson patterns all over its body stood up.
The raging flames were drawn into a dancing crimson vortex. Even the flames attached to the emerald green serpent's body flew vividly into the air, saving Mobius from being burned to a crisp.
The giant, holding a sword that was like an incarnation of fire, just stood there, and the terrifying, world-destroying flames that had been rushing towards them became a vortex with it at the center.
It was as if it were a king receiving the worship of the flames.
The terrifying flames, which would have meant instant annihilation for anyone else, were contained within the black giant's body, becoming incredibly docile and turning into pure power to fill its master's body.
In an instant, the terrifying flame sword attack, unleashed by Kevin with the Key of Destruction, the judgment of Shamash, which could easily kill Kurikara and suppress Mobius to the point of death, was completely absorbed by the Persona Surtr, summoned by Ren.
That one, world-destroying flame sword attack not only did not cause any damage to the Persona Surtr, but it even made it seem more vibrant, the power emanating from it becoming even more vigorous and intense.
"It completely ignored the flame sword attack from Kevin's judgment of Shamash—What kind of power is this?!"
Mobius, who had already closed her eyes and was waiting for death, opened them the moment she sensed a change in the situation. Her eyes then widened in astonishment as she witnessed this unbelievable scene.
Mobius even began to suspect that she had already died and was now in a dream during her resurrection.
Although she had been secretly praying earlier that Mei's Persona, Kurikara, would have some powerful special ability to hold Kevin off... Ren's Persona's ability was just too ridiculous!
No matter how fancy a special ability was, it had to have a limit.
Take her own resurrection ability, for example.
Each time she resurrected, she had to consume a large amount of Honkai energy, causing her body's age to decrease, changing from her original, voluptuous, mature woman form to her current small, loli form.
If the injuries were too severe, and she couldn't repair them even by exhausting all the Honkai energy in her body, then she could really die permanently.
And as the strongest of the Previous Era, Kevin himself was a pure manifestation of stats pushed to the extreme.
No matter how strange a special ability was, it was impossible to take a serious sword attack from him unscathed, let alone the fact that the black, majestic giant had not only completely taken his attack, but had even become stronger by absorbing the flame power of the judgment of Shamash!!
Mobius subconsciously put herself in its shoes. If she had that flame absorption ability and was facing Kevin as an enemy...
...No matter how she assessed it, she could only conclude that even with the special ability of flame absorption, the only outcome for her would be to die in a different way, consumed by fire, rather than being simply overwhelmed by the raw power of the attack.
"...Wait! Joker, why are you out here?!"
Her head, which was thankfully still intact, gradually cleared. Mobius was suddenly struck by the realization that Ren Amamiya had left the wooden cabin and stepped onto the battlefield himself.
"Don't worry. The process of invading the Palace's core is still underway. I just need to defeat the enemy before me, then go back and pull the final trigger."
Ren sensed the change in Mobius's tone and calmly reassured her.
"...The corrosion of the Elysian Realm is still in progress?"
Hearing Ren's words, a thought stirred in Mobius's mind. She then noticed that Ren was empty-handed; the Key of Corrosion, Jizo Mitama, was not with him.
Turning her head to look at the wooden cabin behind her, through the wide-open door, Mobius saw the Jizo Mitama tachi still floating above the typewriter. In front of the black tachi hovered a small, exquisite, doll-like figure of a girl in a red-and-white miko outfit, with five fluffy fox tails.
As the Previous Era's Herrscher of Corrosion, Jizo Mitama was essentially Higokumaru's own power. She could naturally wield the authority of corrosion perfectly, taking over Ren's unfinished work and continuing the infiltration of the Elysian Realm's database core.
Although, due to her personality, Higokumaru's movements looked rather clumsy, and her forehead was beaded with sweat, her small face occasionally showing a look of helplessness... the progress of the corrosion was still steadily increasing.
"Now, for your problem... You are not the Kaslana I made a contract with, are you?"
Ren looked at the silent Kevin SIM, who was holding the Judgment of Shamash greatsword. His obsidian-like eyes gradually sharpened.