At noon the next day, Souta arrived at the intelligence division.
The glow from virtual projection screens lit up the room.
Tsugumi was inside, hard at work.
Dozens of projection panels swirled around her. She was wearing a sensor-fitted bodysuit, spinning and tapping on each screen in a motion that looked like dancing. Full of energy and, honestly, pretty cute.
"How's the situation?" he asked, glancing at the swirling data.
"I've already hacked into GHQ's system. While the Leukocyte's control unit is isolated and untouchable, I'll be notified the moment GHQ issues a fire command."
She turned her head briefly to glance at him while she spoke casually.
"Have we created the illusion that the Illuminati is in chaos?"
"Yep. Ayase is leading a group pretending to scatter and panic. They're staging incidents. The Order appears to be in disarray. Now we're just waiting to see how Shuichiro Keido reacts."
She gave a quick status summary, then added:
"Oh, and Inori's out in a very visible location. If Yuu shows up, he should find her quickly."
Then she looked a bit worried.
"Inori won't be in danger, right? What if her acting's no good and she gets exposed?"
"She'll be fine. Yuu can't beat her anyway."
Souta wasn't worried. If anything went wrong, Inori could just unload a bunch of Level 4 divine miracles and force Yuu to retreat.
Besides, after reinforcing her soul, she could now block the "Power of the King" from probing her heart and ideals, Yuu couldn't knock her out by extracting void anymore.
"And what about you?" Tsugumi pointed upward.
"That satellite floating in space, how exactly do you plan to fight that?"
"You'll see soon enough," Souta said with a smirk.
"Looks like today might be the day this long conflict finally ends… Where's Gai?"
"That stupid perv? He's calming everyone down."
Tsugumi pouted.
"GHQ's threat has everyone on edge. If we don't control the panic, it might actually turn into chaos. So that little pervert's handling it."
"Huh?" Souta blinked. "You two fighting again?"
"Yeah, he's totally holding a grudge over me calling him a perv yesterday."
She ground her teeth.
"And this morning, he smirked and called me 'shorty', multiple times. That smug little freak!"
…I feel like you two are evenly matched, Souta thought but didn't say aloud.
He kept his EQ intact, no need to stir more trouble.
"You're only 14. You've got plenty of time to grow. Why even care about that nickname?" he said lightly. "Besides, being short's not all bad. Think about it, doesn't everyone have to bow their head to look at you? Makes you look powerful, doesn't it?"
"Pfft~ Souta, you're too funny!"
Tsugumi laughed, patting her belly as her small fangs peeked out.
"Well, I'm in a good mood now."
She threw him a cheeky look and mockingly posed:
"No need to bow anymore, servant. Your loyalty is acknowledged by this Lady Tsugumi."
"…"
Souta looked at the top of her head, feeling an itch in his palm.
Should he smack this cocky little brat again?
Just as he was about to act...
"It's here! It's happening! GHQ just issued the attack order!" Tsugumi suddenly shouted.
"Got it."
Souta walked up, patting her shoulder.
"Stop working for now. Go look out the window. Today, I'll show you what a starry sky looks like up close."
With that, he teleported straight into the sky.
His vision pierced the atmosphere, locking onto a white dot in satellite orbit.
A beam of red, high-energy laser light fired from it: powerful enough to vaporize a whole city block.
The light-speed strike descended instantly.
Souta raised one hand and blocked it.
The searing heat and energy blast had no effect.
In that moment, guided by the instincts of his "Matter Divinity," he manipulated the light itself, scattering the red beam in the next second.
It rippled outward in the sky like waves, bathing the entire city in crimson.
Everyone in Roppongi looked up and saw something terrifying.
Souta, ever the showman, even used divine power to expand the light ripple for dramatic effect.
The result? All of Roppongi and the surrounding districts were now wrapped in glowing red light.
Meanwhile, in GHQ's Tokyo branch, officers stared at their satellite feed in disbelief.
They watched a humanoid figure block their space weapon.
"The space weapon… was stopped!?"
"What the hell is that thing!?"
"Don't tell me… is that really a kami-sama!?"
"Fire again! Hurry!"
Some officers stared at the ripple of light that enveloped Roppongi, frowning.
"Wait… was the Leukocyte's laser always that powerful?"
Back on the battlefield~
With the attention of every Illuminati member and civilian focused upward, Souta struck back.
He raised his right hand, reaching toward the stars.
Instantly, night fell over all of Tokyo.
Everyone looked up and saw stars flooding the sky, like the atmosphere had vanished.
As if space itself had descended.
A radiant galactic river was now visible to every eye.
And amidst that cosmic brilliance, they saw the satellite: bright and white.
The distance between Earth and space had been obliterated.
Souta pinched his fingers together.
The massive satellite began to shrink as it was pulled toward him, compressing along with the very stars.
Eventually, it became nothing more than a toy in his hand and he crushed it.
In GHQ's command center, panic erupted.
"What the—what the hell is THAT!?"
They couldn't believe their eyes.
Someone had pulled the starry sky to Earth, reversed day and night… and crushed a satellite like a paper ball?
Compared to that, the destruction of the satellite was nothing.
Before they could even react—
It all disappeared.
The stars retreated. Daylight returned.
Everything went back to normal, except for the satellite, which was now gone.
But before GHQ could recover....
The Song of Apocalypse(Departure) began to play.
The song resonated with the Virus Core, triggering an instantaneous outbreak.
GHQ's Tokyo branch was paralyzed.
Shuichiro Keido had begun executing his plan.