"Don't you ever learn?" Annoyance tinged Haruka's tone as she repelled one more kick and thrust a barrier forth. Erina's railgun bolt crashed into it and deflected, bolting off into the machinery surrounding them. The bolt's scream lingered, echoing around them as it bounced and rattled at speed in the tangled mechanisms.

  Erina motioned, green light coating her hands—

  A glint of pink, and Erina's barrier formed just in time for Haruka's larger, thrown buzzsaw of a spell circle to crash headlong into it. Hundreds of layers formed and broke in a split second, and Erina shoved it aside with a cry. The pink buzzsaw slammed to a halt fully buried in the wall, and dispersed.

  Haruka's groan betrayed her rising irritation. The branches of lightning all around her. The swarm of butterflies flying everywhere she looked. However many copies of Akira were trying to flank and run circles around her.

  "You've tried throwing everything and the kitchen sink," she said between blows. "There's nothing else you can think to do? Then stop wasting my time and give it up… or should I end this for you? Here and now!"

  One more blocked kick, and then Haruka thrust out both hands. A huge barrier flared into being, expanding until it dominated the full width and height of the arena. Akira broke away. Haruka stood dead center in the hall with her opponents on either side. The powerful glow of the barrier floor at their feet and the one now in her hands cast a harsh light on everything.

  Haruka shoved, and the barrier flew—not edge-on as a cutting saw, but face-on as an unstoppable, unbreakable battering ram that took up the full space of the hall!

  Akira's eyes went wide and she hastily backdashed, but there was nothing to be done. The sheer unyielding wall slammed into her and crashed against the far wall with an earsplitting ruckus. Pinned against the mechanisms, blood pouring from her mouth, Akira lifted a hand crackling with monochrome static—

  Haruka kept one hand thrust out and pushed harder. Akira went from pinned against the steel wall, to mashed completely into it. Bones shattered, skin ruptured, and blood splattered, pouring down the face of the shield as she vanished into a new crumpled indent amidst the mechanisms.

  "Akira!" cried Erina.

  Haruka turned her head. Uncharacteristic anger had taken over the dark-haired girl's face. The accelerator formed, and Erina was upon her with katana in hand.

  Immaterial steel clanged against Haruka's newly formed shield, and a hard blunt ram with the shield blew Erina back to slam against the elevator door. The impact blew the air from her lungs, and she crumpled. Erina looked up, and saw Haruka's shield expanding to fill her side of the arena too. There were no gaps, and no chance of breaking through.

  One hand still holding Akira's side shut, Haruka looked down on Erina. "I thought you had more in you. Looks like this'll be another routine cleanup."

  Haruka thrust the giant wall forward, the last of Erina's branches and butterflies breaking upon its unbreakable face before Erina, too, was crushed against—

  Green light exploded through the hall with a thunderous clap, and a railgun bolt blew Haruka away. She crashed to a halt in an instant, half-buried in the wall as gears and metal parts sprayed across the floor.

  Erina's eyes were locked directly onto Haruka. She didn't flinch as the dominating pink wall washed over her, now immaterial with its caster's focus broken.

  "Ughh…!" Haruka crunched free of the wall, stray pieces of metal falling with her to the floor. She got onto all fours, panting. "What… how did you…?"

  "So you endured that." Erina straightened up, long black hair still flowing in the wind left by her final strike. "That sound you heard—that was the continued persistence of my railgun bolt. But it doesn't reflect off ordinary surfaces."

  Two butterflies fluttered out of the guts of the machinery, opposite to where Haruka had crashed—the same direction she had deflected the railgun bolt into.

  "These gears and mechanisms keep us trapped in this hall," said Erina, "but not something so small as a butterfly. I aimed the bolt on an angle to let it deflect. When it shot away, I caught and reiterated it between two spell circles until the time was right to fire again."

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  The sound of tearing metal on the other side of the hall caught her attention. Akira, her body reformed and restored, pulled herself free of the bloodstained tangle she had been buried into.

  "Your barriers are invincible," said Erina. "That's the key—your barriers." She raised her hand and allowed a butterfly to perch on one finger. The insect's wings flapped slowly as she stared down Haruka. "In other words, you can't block something you don't know is coming."

  "Shit, that one hurt." Akira cracked her neck, head tilting this way and that as the joints popped. Green-black venom dripped from her boots as she stomped forward. "It's only fair to return the favor, yeah?"

  To Erina's surprise, Haruka got up. Erina didn't let it show on her face, but Haruka, who had just eaten a fully charged railgun bolt unguarded, got to her feet—ragged, panting, stained in pink ether, but upright. Erina and Akira tensed as Haruka's hands rose, pink lines in her gloves glowing to life…

  And stopped.

  "No," said Haruka. She scowled, and repeated, "No! Give me more time, sir! I still have them!"

  "I said, fall back." Julian's voice came through her earpiece. "That's an order. I've seen enough."

  "You fought hard, Haruka," said Darius' voice. "Thank you. But I don't need you to take any unnecessary risks. This fight doesn't have to be yours to fight alone. You can let them through."

  Haruka didn't let her gaze waver from her enemies. "But I…"

  "They're here for me," said Darius. "I'll take responsibility. Let me handle them."

  She fell silent.

  Erina stiffened.

  Akira's boot scraped a trail of venom across the marble floor.

  "…Yes, sir." Haruka shot her opponents one more withering look. But at the same time, Erina couldn't help but feel, it almost looked, somehow, mocking, in a way. No, mocking wasn't quite it.

  There was no way that was pity in her eyes, was it?

  Haruka detached a cylindrical grenade from her vest and dropped it to the floor.

  Smoke spewed forth with a loud hiss. Erina coughed and covered her mouth with her sleeve as it swept over them and filled the arena in seconds.

  "Don't you go thinking this is over!" Akira's voice cut through the smoke. "Get back here, coward!"

  Erina drew a spell circle in the air in front of her. She triggered the scan spell…

  "No scan results?" she said.

  "Typical Association toys," said Akira. "Blocks physical and magical vision all the same!"

  The smoke cleared. Erina and Akira looked around, but Haruka was long gone. The glowing pink barriers that blocked their way were gone.

  Erina's shoulders sagged. "All that," she said, "and we still have to climb how many floors…?" She made to advance, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "Akira?"

  "What's the big hurry?" said Akira. "Take a second to soak up a nice win, how about? What's more…" Her grin slid off her face as she looked at the stairwell leading onwards. "You hear that call they had?"

  Erina nodded.

  "You've done good, Erina. Real good. But what's waiting up there is a monster that's so far beyond any of us, I can't even think of a comparison that'll cover half the shitfest we're about to step into. Goukei, that witch, Orochi—he's on a different level from all of them."

  "But," said Erina, "he struggled against Orochi without Absolute Zero."

  Akira blew a derisive breath out to the side. "Hell no. Not in the way you're thinking. Remember what had Orochi pinned the whole fight? Stopped it from breaking the barrier on the spot?"

  Erina paused. "The chained swords of light."

  "How do you think those move?"

  Was this some sort of trick question? Erina said, "I would assume by expending his mana."

  "Obviously," said Akira. "The whole time we were out there fighting, Orochi was trying to pull those outta the ground. Really let that bounce around your noggin a bit."

  Erina thought about it. That city-sized monster threw its full weight and power into them, and the swords didn't yield. Orochi's massive physical might was equal to… no, it was being suppressed by Darius' power.

  Akira had a grim smile on as she watched the realizations slowly dawn over Erina's face. "He had that big fat beast in a one-armed chokehold while we fought, shooting it up with the other hand, all while it was pounding him into the dirt."

  "And without Absolute Zero," muttered Erina numbly.

  "We don't even need to talk about what happened when he got that stupid Affinity back." Those gold eyes flitted over to her. "Nobody's gonna blame you for backing out here."

  Erina took a second to let that thought settle. Then, she gathered herself and said quietly, "Thank you for your consideration, but no thank you."

  "Lemme rephrase that." Akira turned and looked at her proper. "Erina, I order you to back out here. This is a fight I can't let you go into."

  "If he's so strong, why are you still going?"

  Akira barked a quick, harsh laugh. "You kidding me? Fucker might as well have flipped me off and pissed on my lawn. And what's more, what happened to the city… Consequences be damned, there ain't a chance in hell I'm letting him off easy."

  "Then why should I leave?" said Erina.

  Akira gave her a long, hard look… and then grinned. "You got me there."

  "This is my decision. I've made up my mind. For everything he's done, and everything that's happened, I must confront him."

  Akira blew out a breath and ran her hand through her hair. "Can't stop you if I tried, huh?" she muttered. Aloud, "Then be careful, a'ight? No more playing hero. If he gets serious, you drop everything you're doing and run for the hills. Don't throw your life away on me. You've only got the one to work with."

  "I understand, Akira."

  Akira looked her up and down. "Say," she said, still grinning. "For a cutie, you've really got the guts to fit right at home with the family. Now, let's give this asshat a piece of our mind!"