Shana had pushed herself to the limit to get here, and somewhere along the way, her strength finally gave out. She dropped from a terrifying height and crashed into an empty stretch of wilderness—a desolate plain overrun with wild watermelon vines. Shana passed out instantly, lying there for hours without even realizing it.
Even for someone as powerful as Shana, a direct confrontation with Ama had drained her spiritual energy far more than she expected. If Ama hadn't been struggling to control her own strength while using Yu's physical body, Shana knew that fight could've gone on forever.
When Shana finally woke up, she found herself sprawled across that barren watermelon field. Her energy had stabilized—more than enough for her to return to full strength. The hardest part was over. All she had to do now was get to where Mina was holding Duyen and rescue her.
With her heightened senses, she immediately spotted a colossal estate surrounded by towering steel walls, sitting about eight kilometers from where she stood. No wonder Mina had chosen such a remote wasteland. The place looked like a massive fortress—way too much security just to imprison one person. How far was Mina willing to go?
But Shana didn't have time to question Mina's twisted psychology. She inhaled twice, crouched, and launched forward—shooting through the air like a fighter jet.
Her terrifying speed was instantly picked up by Mina's radar system. In fact, she was moving so fast the radar could barely keep track.
Satoru stared up at the control panel, keeping his usual stone-cold expression, though deep down, panic was already creeping in. He'd only received Mina's orders half an hour ago, and now he was about to face the one being he could never predict—ever since the last time he encountered her. Shana could toss him aside like a paper doll, even though he was built like a tank.
But no matter what Shana was, Satoru had only one mission:
Protect Mina and her ideals—no matter how warped they were, no matter who stood against them.
He turned back to his subordinates and commanded, voice like ice:
"Bring out everything we've got. Block her path at all costs. I don't care if you can't stop her—just stall her. Do NOT let her get any closer to the estate."
The moment his order dropped, every soldier scrambled. Bulletproof armor—loaded. Machine guns—locked. Armored vehicles—ready.
A full military-grade convoy thundered out from the underground garage.
Shana, now streaking across the sky toward the estate, noticed the massive steel gates opening as armored trucks equipped with mounted guns poured out toward her. She didn't even flinch. She just smirked and kept charging like a comet.
But Satoru had been waiting.
He slammed a switch.
A row of giant floodlights blasted on without warning.
"ARGH! WHAT THE—!?"
Shana snarled, teeth bared, throwing an arm over her eyes as the sudden light blinded her.
That was the opening they needed.
A bazooka system locked onto her and fired all at once.
Shana lowered her arm just in time to see dozens of deadly flashes streaking toward her.
"…Huh?"
A split second later, the sky exploded. Thunderous blasts roared across the empty plain like a distorted outdoor concert.
Satoru narrowed his eyes at the monitor.
She didn't dodge?
Even the supercomputers lost track of her? Was she… really blown apart? Just like that?
But Satoru was cautious by nature. He ordered another round—heavy fire.
The second barrage shook the air, rattling even the control room's reinforced windows.
And then—something slammed straight into the camera feed.
A massive shockwave rocked the entire control room. Satoru staggered, barely managing to stay in his seat as equipment flickered off, then rebooted.
The screens came back—pitch black. Satoru grabbed the mic.
"Alpha Team 1 and 2, report! Do you copy!? Where the hell are you!?"
Silence.
A silence thick enough to raise every hair on his body. He hated admitting it, but fear began creeping into his veins.
Then—his soldiers burst into the room, faces pale as corpses.
"S-Sir Satoru! It's bad! The armored units—th-they're…!!"
Satoru's eyes sharpened, bracing for the worst.
"What about them!?"
He didn't have to wait long.
Shana was already walking toward the estate—calm, radiant, untouched—stepping over the mangled remains of armored vehicles crushed beyond recognition. No one could imagine how she had done it, or how many had died inside those metal shells.
Her red hair floated around her like something unreal—beautiful, deadly. She stood atop the wreckage without a single drop of blood staining her glowing skin.
A trembling soldier aimed his rifle at her, wetting his pants in terror. But Shana only tilted her head, her sapphire eyes gleaming.
The barrel of his gun suddenly bent backward—like someone twisting soft clay.
The soldier screamed, dropped the useless weapon, and fell backward, eyes squeezed shut, waiting for death.
When he finally dared to open them—she was already gone, tearing through the steel walls inside.
Panic erupted throughout the facility. They'd never seen anything like this.
Satoru clenched his jaw and stormed out of the control room.
"To the lab—now!"
The lab wasn't far. Inside, a massive hangar was filled with engineers working frantically. In the center stood a giant six-meter-tall samurai-shaped robot, emblazoned with a blazing sun symbol on its chest and fitted with a massive blade.
Even Satoru had to look up at it.
"…I'll pilot it myself."
The engineers turned pale.
"But sir! The cockpit isn't fully installed yet—if anything goes wrong, you'll be trapped inside!"
Satoru roared at them:
"Does that matter right now!? Do you know what just happened out there!? She killed over a hundred men in FIVE MINUTES! FIVE!"
His voice shook the hangar.
He turned back to the robot, expression hardened.
"…All of you, get to the helipad and guard Miss Mina with everything you've got. She must be unharmed until the ring ceremony. Evacuate NOW. I'll deal with that monster myself."
Saying nothing more, Satoru climbed inside the samurai robot. With his massive two-meter frame, he fit perfectly.
The machine shuddered, then powered up.
Its giant katana hummed with laser-bright energy.
Wherever Shana walked, bodies were left behind. Anyone foolish enough to attack her met a brutally miserable end; the rest scattered the moment they saw her, panicking as they fled. Shana didn't bother to chase them—she didn't even spare them a thought.
The deeper she went into the underground hall beneath the estate, the fewer people she encountered, until eventually no one remained within her sight.
Then came the thud—thud—THUD. Like something impossibly heavy slamming into the floor.
Shana narrowed her eyes toward the far end of the corridor, where a massive robot loomed. It looked like a giant samurai, wearing a traditional helmet and armor etched with bright crimson lines that formed a blazing red sun on its chestplate.
In both hands, it held an oversized katana—long, broad, and glowing with a laser-like sheen capable of slicing through steel and concrete. Smoke hissed from its mouth vents, like the furious breath of a living kill-machine.
Shana had to admit—she was impressed.
She let out an appreciative whistle.
"They really went all-out with the aesthetic… I'll give her that."
The colossal robot stepped closer, completely blocking her path as if it were the final fortress of this place. But Shana didn't show even a flicker of fear. She walked toward it just as calmly, her red hair lifting around her like the aura of a crimson celestial spirit.
Her eyes hardened slightly when she saw the sun emblem on its chest.
The robot suddenly stopped. Metal scraped and gears growled as it tightened its grip around the katana. White smoke puffed violently from the demon mask on its face.
"My name is Sawada Satoru," it declared, voice grinding like steel on steel. "Protector of the Kamakiri family. Remember it."
Shana paused at his introduction, then replied softly,
"…Funny. I feel like I've heard something like that a long time ago."
Her gaze slid to the red sun emblem.
"You're still blindly worshipping her, aren't you? Even though she doesn't care about your existence in the slightest."
The robot seemed confused, as if he couldn't understand what she was talking about. His voice rumbled again, oddly calm despite the tension:
"For the Sawada clan, the Kamakiri bloodline is absolute. We worship no one else."
Shana cut him off immediately.
"That's even worse. Do you have any idea what's hanging over the head of your precious Kamakiri leader? Are you sure the thing you're loyal to… is still Kamakiri?"
"Huh?" the robot emitted, genuinely puzzled.
Shana clicked her tongue.
"Well, doesn't matter how I phrase it—you wouldn't get it anyway. The Kamakiri family sold their souls to demon. Metaphorically… or maybe not."
The robot's eyes blazed violently. He let out a deafening metallic roar, shaking with fury at Shana's words.
"If you want to pass, you'll have to walk over my dead body! I won't let you gain even an inch!"
Shana sighed.
Then she lifted one finger.
"One hundred seconds. I respect your loyalty, so I'll finish this in one hundred seconds."
Silence. The robot froze—because the moment she said it, he felt it.
The danger.
The truth.
She really could end him in that short a time.
But Satoru did not retreat. He raised his katana and growled,
"One hundred seconds is more than enough… If I can take even one extra second from you, that will be my victory."
The moment he finished speaking, sparks exploded from his legs and he launched forward with massive force. His strike carved a burning path across the ceiling, slicing through it like paper.
But Shana didn't move. She didn't dodge. She didn't even raise a hand in defense.
She simply caught the enormous blade—with two fingers.
The entire robot halted mid-swing, freezing in place like a toy that had run out of batteries.
Shana remained calm, counting casually:
"…20… 21… 22… 23…"
The robot thrashed violently, smoke spewing from every vent as it struggled with all its strength—Against her two fingers.
How? How could anyone possess strength like this?
"…30… 31… 32… 33…"
Then Satoru roared in desperation:
"WHAT ARE YOU!? WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU!?"
Shana looked at him half-lidded.
"…Do you ever look down at an ant and introduce yourself to it?"
The words made him fall silent, trembling in horror. Then a segment of his chest armor popped open, and a volley of poison-tipped needles shot out at Shana—
—or they should have.
Instead, every single needle reversed mid-air and stabbed straight back into Satoru's own body.
His groans were muffled behind the armor. Blood spilled from the cracks between metal plates.
Shana flicked her fingers lightly. The robot was blown backward, crashing into the wall. She continued counting:
"…86… 87… 88… 89… 90…"
She tore off the robot's upper casing, revealing Satoru underneath—coughing blood, gasping, still barely conscious.
He wasn't dead. But he was finished.
Shana didn't kill him. She simply stepped over him, walking past without a second glance.
Seeing this, Satoru screamed:
"Kill me! What are you waiting for—kill me!"
Shana ignored him.
Then she heard it—A sharp slicing sound. The sound of metal piercing flesh.
She turned around.
Satoru had plunged a tanto into his own abdomen. He collapsed forward, motionless.
Shana froze for a second.
"…100… 101…"
She stared at him, unable to say anything for a moment.
Finally she murmured,
"He did all of this… just to make Mina the next vessel for a demon. How pitiful."