A flood of intel crashed into Akano Souu’s mind, a river breaking its banks.

…?!

Like waterfalls, roller coasters, tornadoes, a thousand voices, like every star’s glint.

She reached for meaning; pain hit first, sharp as a cracking skull. She tried to go blank; it was like fierce music morphing at her ear while she tried to sleep. Her mind was bone-tired, yet couldn’t loosen.

Aaah—ugh—yeeaaah—ah?!

Stellar Crown had no health monitor; it was a drumbeat that obeyed orders.

Her legs overlapped like glitched game models, sinking into the Nightstar Machine-God’s steel shell; the hull drank her in.

At her waist, the pull froze, like a tide halted.

Her thoughts buckled, a bamboo frame snapping.

Years of auxiliary-brain use had reshaped Chubu Risa’s neural map, making her processing fundamentally unlike a normal person. Even at the Causal Horizon, she’d probably parse multiple concepts at once without friction. She paid with body stats and her Infinite Power control, pushing her brain to its limit.

If Risa were here, her whole body could merge into the Nightstar Machine-God’s head, leaving only the Stellar Crown outside. It’d look like the Machine-God wore a tiny halo. That was the original design.

Akano couldn’t; with her sync rate, she only merged halfway, stuck like a fish between river and net.

Her upper body hung outside the mech, hands braced on tin plate, head drooping like a wilted lotus.

【Red Lotus!】

【Lamp-Shadow!】

【Golden Blossom!】

【Jade Mist!】

【Cobalt Azure!】

【Firmament!】

【Violet Sky!】

Each name the Stellar Crown intoned, a unit warped in around the Nightstar Machine-God and hovered like hawks.

“Wait, seven outside, so what’s the core? Is this still a seven-unit combine? We’ve got eight!” Yekase shouted, voice like thrown pebbles.

She paused, then turned fast and cool to Ivaris. “Can you bring Dad out?”

“You guess?”

Two flat words from Ivaris cracked Yekase’s last hope like thin ice.

“Damn it. If I knew we’d fight this nonsense, I’d have called Ling Yi and Bailu—”

“Hm?”

Yekase tucked her neck in. “We won’t call them, we won’t.”

“Mm.”

…Who even remembers we’re mid–honeymoon trip!

We hijacked a plane en route, forced a landing like a storm dragon, then snapped straight into combat. We painted half the port district with fights. We wandered the underground mall to salvage a date vibe. Then we skipped sleep and rushed to parley with Chubu Risa.

And next, dawn spilled gold, and the two of us faced the world’s number three war-class mech.

August 13th. Clear skies. Local phenomenon: Nightstar Machine-God appears.

Think about it—sounds romantic, huh.

Like hell!

“At this scale, only a mech gives us a shot head-on. What’s your plan?” Yekase asked.

“I’ll switch to close quarters, try to separate Akano.”

“Got it.”

While they spoke, the units around the Nightstar Machine-God began to morph, assembling onto the core like swallows to a cliff.

Red Lotus and Golden Blossom formed the shoulders.

Lamp-Shadow and Jade Mist formed the arms.

Cobalt Azure became the anti-gravity base.

Firmament locked in as the chest.

Violet Sky unfurled as the wings.

【—Union complete!】

【Identification: Star-Scar, Knight of the Machine Realm!】

The Nightstar Machine-God King was just a nickname; the true ID is Star-Scar? Is this super mech the eighth work of the stellar relics?!

Across Old Tokyo, fights stalled like rain held in clouds; everyone noticed the anomaly at Chubu’s camp.

“What’s going on over there?” “Chubu’s solo ad time?” “Our captain never said that…”

“Product placement?” “Probably…”

“The cameras all swung over. We’re off the hook, right?”

“Break it up. New gear’s all demoed. Time for a flexible clock-out!”

“I’m the GM. Clear out, folks! If you wanna watch, hit the mall’s big screen!”

Both sides, who’d been brawling like sworn enemies, saw drones cluster twice in a day and shrugged; they dropped the act.

Crimson Field fighters with twin-triangle crests and Chubu fighters in blue armbands hauled each other up like old pals. They slipped into cover in pairs to slack off.

…

Around the Star-Scar Knight, and the later arrival, Luciferin, drones peeled in from the combat zone. They drifted toward Chubu’s camp and circled afar like gulls.

【Live from the front! The master-servant duo who crashed the party yesterday turn out to be Huaxia’s famed Magical Girl Ivaris and I… Icarus!】

【Those names are so alike. Anyway, let’s go live!】

It had become a legless giant robot, no thruster nozzles in sight. It hovered like it simply resisted gravity, quiet as a standing stone.

【On one side! Legs are just decoration; big shots upstairs never get it—】

【Piloted by the Nightstar Machine-God’s Chubu Risa: the Star-Scar Knight!】

【—Oh, sorry! Breaking news: Star-Scar’s pilot isn’t Chubu Risa, but Akano Souu from the Crimson Field Group!】

【She stole the ace mech from the enemy boss! What a twist!】

【On the other side! The strongest Magical Girl, evolved across ten years—】

【Piloted by Nightlight Torch, Icarus: B-666—Luciferin!】

“Can’t find a matching title? Don’t stuff my finisher in there as filler!” Yekase yelled from her mech.

【Our deepest apologies, Miss Icarus!】

…What is this? Souu’s rampaging, and Star-Scar’s a puzzle. Yet the mood won’t stay serious…

This is the Reiwa era, huh?

Americans kill for entertainment; you Japanese kill without interrupting entertainment!

If the world’s gone mad, then go mad with it and nothing can scare you—right?

Tension and laughter tugged Yekase like two stray dogs. She chose range control and cover, to give Ivaris a chance to close.

Meanwhile, Star-Scar stirred.

It raised an arm and salvoed missiles; in a blink, Luciferin’s barrage was scrubbed clean. Its arms, mere mech-sized, spread wide and felt world-covering—like Alice and Li Erpao.

Those two are huge, but it’s their power that steals breath. Star-Scar’s bulk beats them combined; just floating there, it feels like doomsday fog rolling in.

Once it moved, the pressure thickened the air like congealed oil.

Akano Souu’s mind has gone berserk, so who’s steering that war-class machine—what exactly is it?

Ivaris’s voice filled the cabin. 【No good. Her lower body’s fused with the mech’s head. It doesn’t look forcibly removable!】

“Fused?! She’s a regular human, right?!”

【Who knows! Her whole lower half’s buried in; she’s not sitting in a dug-out hole, is she?!】

?????

A pilot’s flesh can fuse with a mech… and Chubu didn’t mention a single word of that!

Whether she wanted to test Yekase or teach Akano a lesson, there’s no time to go back and grill her now.

Ivaris fights with lasers and an iron staff—both are just Infinite Power used to burn people. Brutal… no, simple and efficient. But for non-lethal odd cases, her options are narrow.

Yekase has tricks, but she needs to run a mech!

In a mech, she can’t board Star-Scar’s head by flesh to rescue. Out of a mech, she can’t withstand its rampage.

The only shot is beating Star-Scar immobile and boarding along its arm, but sorry—that’s not happening.

【It’s got a lock on me!】

Before the words finished, Red Lotus’s shoulder split open, revealing three rows, fifteen missile cells. They hissed out in a chain, arrowing straight for Ivaris!

The silver-haired Magical Girl rode her iron staff and cut a sharp angle in the air. The missiles kept true, still chasing.

Heat-seekers!

Luciferin drew the beam saber from its waist, ignited it, and tossed it near Ivaris. Ivaris got it, dropped her flight technique, and let gravity take her.

The missile swarm skimmed past by a hair, then blossomed around the saber in a tight burst.

Yekase breathed out and looked back at Star-Scar—

She saw a fist swelling fast like a storm cloud.

WHAM—!!

Star-Scar launched Lamp-Shadow like a rocket punch!

The fist was half of Luciferin’s size. It hammered her back dozens of meters. It smashed five dead buildings before it slowed.

“Holy—holy—nearly died…”

Yekase’s face sank into the airbag; her hands fumbled for the console. She fed Flash Energy to patch the damage.

A simple punch blew her that far. With Yekase’s current strength—her usable ‘normal’ band—forget separating Akano; beating Star-Scar is a fool’s dream…

Looking back, she’d often play a one-use killer move with the cards on hand. On the bright side, she adapts and shapeshifts. On the dark side, her normal panel is weak—base attack low, relying on multiplicative bursts.

Yekase guessed this odd pattern is a trait of Flash Energy. Only primal bacteria can climb the tree into all species. So she must keep a ‘normal’ weaker than peers. That preserves full evolutionary breadth and depth.

In short, trade a low floor for a high ceiling.

But if she fires her ceiling now and dismantles Star-Scar, Akano Souu’s mind likely collapses too, leaving her a husk.

Yekase needs Evolution Factors to hand-edit her chain and climb to tech that can separate Akano.

The process mirrors Runic Words—assembling a concept.

So, who embodies similar concepts—

…

【—Doctor, I’m back.】

Akano… Akano Souha’s voice came from outside the cabin that had lost its all-around view.

【Crimson Field’s family affairs are settled. What remains in this zone is all that’s left.】

“…Akano.”

【Call me Souha. It’s the new name Mom gave me.】

Yekase’s mouth, buried in the airbag, tilted. “Sounds good. …How much do you know?”

【I caught the zone’s broadcast, more or less. Souu… fused with that big mech, right.】

“Mm.”

【She gave everything for the home I left behind and turned herself into this… She’s only sixteen.】

【So I have to shoulder the duty I owed as an eldest son and owe now as an eldest daughter.】

【I will save her.】

Luciferin shook off rubble and rose.

“Isn’t that a given?” Yekase said.

On the ruined street, twin wings woven from fire unfurled, rising from the rubble like a phoenix shrugging ash.

“Naturally,” Akano Souha said, her voice calm as still water.