As it turned out, Li Zihan did not get to go again.
The reason was simple: after he made such a declaration, the Pufferfish went berserk.
"Minion, go dieeeee!!"
Like a salvo of cannonballs, several spiraling lances shot forth, easily tearing through the air and breaking the sound barrier.
There were no explosions, no blinding flashes of light. The lances shot forward with unparalleled sharpness, silently piercing through anything their tips encountered.
No one would doubt that those Subspace Lances could nail any enemy to a high-rise building as smoothly as a dinner knife slicing through butter.
And this very attack was now hurtling toward the head of a certain someone whose words seemed to have been spoken without a brain.
Li Zihan, who also possessed the power to command space, saw the Subspace Lances that would definitely hurt a lot if they hit and hastily activated his own power.
BOOM—!!!
It was like a cannonball exploding.
The Subspace Lances tore through Li Zihan's residence in Chaldeas and blasted straight through to the other side.
"Just die, minion!!"
At some point, a new set of clothes had appeared on the girl. She stepped out from the blasted-apart room.
The pattern in her pupils had transformed into a diamond-shaped cross, and her long white hair was parted.
Her collar was lined with black feathers, and she wore a black, off-the-shoulder dress with purple stripes, covered by white armor from which extended four coattails adorned with Honkai patterns.
Below, she wore black thigh-high stockings and black high-heeled shoes with orange trim.
She strode forward, stepping on black ripples with orange edges.
Her exquisite, pretty face was a mask of pure fury.
This guy...
After a long-awaited reunion, the very first thing this guy does is try to drag her to bed with him?
"Scumbag! Bastard! Perverted sex maniac!!"
Gritting her teeth, the queenly girl let out a furious roar, sounding more like a young girl who had been emotionally deceived.
"Die!!"
With a continuous series of creaks and groans, soil and splintered tree branches were sent flying as the earth trembled violently.
The previously silent Subspace Lances, having lost their target, continued their flight and slammed into the ground, causing a massive explosion reminiscent of the Fuyuki gas leak.
Such a commotion undoubtedly attracted the attention of a great many people in Chaldeas.
---o---
Chaldeas was an organization capable of reversing the worldline itself, one of Schicksal's most important institutions.
To protect it, a large number of powerful Valkyries and Artificial Herrschers were stationed there.
The super Valkyrie Durandal, with her long golden hair and the Chaldean codename "Dull Goose," and her former adjutant, now a maid aboard the Hyperion, arrived at the scene in a mere instant.
And then—
They fell silent.
The reason was simple. What they saw was not a violent attack from another organization, but a remarkably beautiful girl chasing down and beating the pulp out of their own faction's boss.
No matter how you looked at it, the Director of Chaldeas had gotten himself into some kind of romantic trouble, which had then escalated into a crisis...
As if she were watching something incredibly interesting, the Scummy Maid with waist-length hair produced a miniature DSLR camera from somewhere and began recording the scene.
It was a rare sight indeed to see the ever-invincible Captain being chased and beaten.
Now that such a scene was unfolding, it would be a disservice to the Captain not to document it.
After recording for nearly three minutes, the Scummy Maid finally lowered her camera and, with a beaming smile, requested orders from her former superior.
"Lady Durandal, what are your instructions?"
Miss Dull Goose stared at the handsome young man being chased by Miss Herrscher of the Void in the distance, her expression hesitant.
Logically speaking, as a resident Valkyrie of Chaldeas, she had a duty and responsibility to protect it, which naturally included protecting the Director.
But—
The Director was a real scumbag!!
Watching the man in the distance, who was clearly being hunted down by a girl who looked like either Kiana or Sirin for some unknown reason, Miss Durandal's mood soured.
Initially, Miss Durandal had greatly admired that certain scumbag.
Seeing herself as ordinary, she had watched as one fantastical plan after another was realized under his command, seemingly without hitting any technical bottlenecks. She had always believed that he was the kind of true genius who could change the world.
With a heart full of admiration, she had followed Overseer Otto to Chaldea to meet him.
And then, that admiration had shattered.
That guy...
He was a gender-bent, enhanced, and even scummier version of Rita.
Honestly, if Li Zihan wasn't a genius capable of guiding human civilization forward and sending the spark of that civilization to other worlds—if he wasn't so damn important to humanity...
She would have already joined in and helped the girl, who looked for all the world like she'd had her heart broken, beat the hell out of him.
Damn it, now this? Let's beat his ass.jpg.
"The Captain must have done something despicable again," Dull Goose, who had always referred to Li Zihan as Captain, sighed and said to her former vice-captain.
"Let's just stay out of it and head back."
"Aren't you worried about the Captain's safety?" Miss Rita, who was thoroughly enjoying the drama, said with a smile, as if hoping to stir up more trouble. "If we ignore a superior in danger, we'll surely be held accountable afterward, won't we?"
The Captain, in danger?
What kind of international joke was that?
Miss Dull Goose, who had fought against Artificial Herrschers herself and only won by a narrow margin, felt her lips twitch.
Li Zihan was strong; that was beyond question.
Within him resided the Core of Reason, which contained the knowledge of all thirteen Divine Keys; the Core of Erosion, which could corrode all forces in the material world, from living beings to machines; and the Core of Sentience, which could dominate the minds of others and, at its full potential, even cause "Meme Infection."
And those were only the abilities recorded in Schicksal's database. He was definitely hiding other powers.
Was there anyone in this world who was actually stronger than the Captain?
That was Durandal's question.
She felt that the only being capable of beating him to near death was probably the Herrscher of Finality.
But then, Rita's voice reached her ears.
"If you abandon the notoriously petty Captain to his fate, you might just find yourself dispatched to Siberia to dig potatoes, or sent to Antarctica to establish a new branch."
Durandal fell silent.
Rita had a point.
The Captain was a very petty person. If she just slipped away now, he would probably find a way to make things difficult for her later.
With that thought, she had no choice but to turn around. In a flash, she appeared before the white-haired Pufferfish, blocking her path.
"Miss, please calm down. We can resolve this slowly."
That voice was so familiar.
Sirin frowned, feeling as though she had heard it somewhere before.
She took a moment to study the girl in front of her.
Was it her imagination?
She felt like she had seen her somewhere.
The feeling that this girl was somehow familiar made Sirin's frown deepen.
And then—
Like a flash of lightning, rage ignited in Sirin's heart.
"It's you, the cheating cat!!"
Huh? The cheating cat?
Durandal, who had only stepped in to break up the fight, was completely stunned.
Just like a dull goose.