Set one premise.

Yekase’s memory of the “fight with Aridaus” she believes is ongoing is wrong. It’s been edited.

The moment she notices, a black hole opens in her inner sky.

It drinks down every glance she throws at it, swallows every attempt to name it, and instead becomes the loudest scar.

She doesn’t know what it is. She at least knows what it is not.

Unobservable. Unknowable. Unmemorable.

It’s void—zero.

She can’t even tell if it’s a single thing or a plurality. To be safe, she calls them “zeros.”

That name will probably vanish the second her focus turns. But she still remembers that she forgot. Running the same reasoning, the same naming, won’t be hard.

Each time she recalls it, she loses it. But a thread remains. Tug it, and it comes when needed. Zhang Wendao’s so‑called discontinuous existence is probably like that.

“Command: self‑evolution.”

Aridaus stands still, like she’s resting and resetting her stance. Her words carry worse news. Exogenous entities are nasty because elites and above evolve mid‑fight. They learn fast and grow a new power that nullifies everything you did before.

But Yekase doesn’t rush in. She looks straight at Aridaus, opens her mouth, and shouts:

“Are you there?!”

…

Ling Nuo Si, crouched in the brush, jolts.

Yekase… still remembers?

No. Judging by her shock when her transformation dropped, she didn’t escape. She’s been tagged with Lost Interest, Rapid Forgetting, and Cannot Perceive. Threefold debuffs.

The proof is, she didn’t yell “that man from before.” She shouted a blank “Are you there.”

Even so—

Under a triple blockade, she needed only minutes to stamp her own memories as fakes and reconfirm his existence?

Even if only to this degree…

“I can’t leave her hanging.”

Ling Nuo Si leans back against the tree and lets a wry smile slip.

Her call hands him his courage back.

Even if everyone forgets him, even if he vanishes from the world, someone will deny their own perception, push through veils, and stare stubbornly at him. Observe him.

That’s the comrade he’s proud of. The real brain of the Twenty Second Squad.

He palms a hard card, crimson on both faces, breathes on it, and slides it into the changer.

—Weigh Anchor.

Who will it be this time? Ling Yi, or Zhang Wendao?

Doesn’t matter anymore. Even if this battle can’t clear the exogenous rot, he’ll fight on until that day comes—or until he himself fades to nothing.

“Dreamshift Star—‘Tianjin Four’.”

A spiral of red flame rips up from the undergrowth.

Yekase breaks into a grin. Her gamble paid.

She flicks her hands. The shadow claws dissipate. Her right hand closes on air, and Ivaris’s staff drops cleanly into her grip.

“‘Pierce the rotting firmament, punch through every ceiling!’ Infinite Power, lend me your hand!”

A scarf scarlet as fresh blood whips in the moonlight.

Frost pales the tips of Yekase’s hair, yet that stubborn cowlick stands tall, declaring itself.

Ivaris’s alien Flash Energy overflows around her. It balloons into floating clots, like burning will‑o’‑the‑wisps.

Invisible pressure rushes past. Her skirt and long hair billow and thrum.

She reverses her grip. The staff’s tip spits a short, dense burst of energy, curving into a faintly bent blade.

A spear—no, a naginata.

“Evolution’s not your privilege alone! I—we—are right here, breaking the limit!”

As if answering her, a figure bursts from the shrubs. She wields a huge, uncanny weapon, and chops straight for Aridaus’s brow.

Aridaus is forced to react. Two metal frames sprout from her back and cross to block.

—BOOM!

The warped blade detonates. The attacker spins on the recoil, flips in air, and lands beside Yekase.

She wears a rust‑red gown lavish with lace. Her weapon’s so twisted you can’t tell if it was a sword or something else—like a star chart cut from a magazine.

So this is the missing piece in her memory. Yekase looks at her face… and sees it clearly.

Then she looks away—

…What did she look like again?

“Don’t bother,” the girl says.

She extends her empty left hand and points at Aridaus.

“‘Night nears its end. Gathered souls will kindle a lantern to guide this world, carving a road of radiant light!’—After this, I won’t even need a second to break you!”

“…That chant is peak chuuni.”

“And that comeback is so nostalgic. Pretty sure last time I heard it was last time.”

The two blur, one white and one red.

…!

Aridaus drops human form entirely. An outer shell like Yekase’s peels off like paper, and the core swells several sizes—no idea how that fit inside a humanoid frame.

Gold. A robot.

A Cruise Destroyer.

Edges sharp as broken ice. Every line gleams with cold light, like a beast bristling with spikes. The head doesn’t sport the usual single eye. Instead, a narrow horizontal line glows red.

Twin propellers spin up on its back. They look far too small to hold a robot aloft. Call it blessed by Infinite Power.

Heat ripples across the Destroyer’s body. It radiates hard enough that Yekase flinches half a step.

The Exogenous King’s aura… far beneath its body from back then, yet enough to force two fighters to yield ground.

“Command: Alpha Cut.”

…It vanishes.

That hulking robot disappears clean from their sight.

“Behind!”

In the lurch of panic, Yekase only has time to chant a Levitation Spell. It shoves her body up and aside. Even so, the Destroyer’s blade‑kick rakes her back. It slices her sailor uniform and leaves a blood‑bright gash.

“Tch…”

Pain seizes her mid‑air. She swallows the scream, tucks the staff into her elbow, and fires a laser back.

She corkscrews, manages to land on her feet.

She looks. A charred crack mars the Destroyer’s chest armor.

One for one. Not a loss.

But the electric web she laid earlier unravels. Silver threads rain all over the pavement.

The red‑skirted fighter leaps onto the Destroyer’s head from behind. She drives the greatsword twice, wrecks one propeller, and gets flung off.

“Command: Alpha Cut.”

The machine vanishes again.

This time Yekase has a clue. She imitates Ivaris, mounts her staff, and rockets along above the walkway. Speed and motion deny a backstab.

Think. How do you answer a blink?

Right. If she’s properly transformed, her own finisher should be online, right?

No. Their veiled ally is still inside the field. Nightlight Torch will cap her output too.

“Then try this.”

She draws Nayuta.

She floods it with extra Flash Energy. With Ivaris’s support, it’s easy. The short blade sheaths in red sigils and snaps out past a meter.

“Plasma vibroblade… probably.”

She charges, her mechanical staff jetting like a laser thrust, and swings the long blade. A cavalry feel.

No—she’s riding a staff. Keep it witchier.

A witch, then. A witch of modern tech.

She scans for the enemy. Instead she finds the red‑gowned girl lying flat on the ground.

She’s seen that posture in fight clips. It’s called…the Igari Tactic!

It looks like giving up, but hides a coil of craft. No one can break this in close quarters without paying a price.

On the ground, there’s no back to stab. No matter where the Destroyer blinks and kicks, she’ll see it first from below and act.

On a battlefield where death leans close, facing a stronger foe, it takes nerve and needle‑fine control to use this stance. Whoever Yekase forgot is a veteran who fought through the Year One war’s hell and lived.

Sure enough, the Cruise Destroyer bites.

It pops in at the girl’s back, raises its right leg, and lashes the blade‑kick. In that instant—

Her hands and feet hammer the ground. She springs, head down and feet up, and clamps onto the Destroyer’s head. The visor goes blind under her body.

“Use me as your blindfold!”

“Nice work!”

Yekase doesn’t waste it. One diving cut takes the other propeller. She pulls up again.

With both props gone, the Destroyer’s heat collapses. Gold cools dull.

It took only moments, yet the girl’s legs are cooked open by hot metal. She still refuses to let go. Hanging upside down, she raises her weapon—

Lines up with Yekase’s burn—

And drives it in.

“Warning. Warning. Damage has exceeded threshold.”

It’s working.

Yekase doesn’t even finish the grin before the next words hit:

“Codename: Aridaus. Requesting Deific Merge.”

…Huh?

What the hell is Deific Merge?

Never heard of it… did they do this nine years ago?

Suddenly, the Destroyer transforms.

Yekase’s eyes fly wide. She yells to the rider still clinging on, “Get down! Watch for the crush!”

“O‑okay!”

Gears flare around the robot in a ring of light. Parts flow and lock with swift complexity. It becomes a plane. The two props they’d cut return like nothing happened.

“Deific Merge preparation complete.”

“I don’t know what you just said, but it can’t be good—”

Yekase twirls her staff and spears it into the ground.

“Light it—Nightlight Torch!”

A weak yet stubborn flame flickers at the tip. Yekase feels her power clamp down. She can’t draw on it—yet the Destroyer acts like nothing touches it and speeds toward an empty night sky.

No.

It isn’t empty.

It’s not “flying away on Infinite Power.” It’s “being yanked by something overhead.”

In Yekase’s eyes,

A boundless gold radiance lights at once. The night flares bright as doomsday.

“…Ha.”

Yekase slowly pulls out her phone.

She calls the first number.

“Gear up. This one’s tricky. Do what you want; we’ve got someone who can roll back the side effects.”

She calls the second.

“How’s Luciferin’s status? If she can move, that’s enough. And ping the whole squad. Ling Ya? Her sister will call her.”

She calls the third.

“Time to settle accounts with the exogenous.”

She calls the fourth.

"We probably won’t make it back in time for dinner,"

...

Yekase froze, a heartbeat snagged on the line, and didn’t hang up.

[Idiot.]

From the other end came a scolding, words wet with tears like rain trembling on glass.