DEM Headquarters.

“Haah~ Ellen. Make me a cup of coffee.”

The executive director of DEM Industries, and the inventor of the world-miracle technology known as the Realizer Unit—Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott—sat idly at his desk, letting out a bored yawn.

“Understood. Here you go.”
Before he had even finished speaking, his tall, blonde secretary—Ellen Mira Mathers—placed a cup of coffee before him.

“Thanks!”
Taking a small sip, Westcott flashed a mature smile that could easily make countless girls swoon. “As expected, coffee brewed by Ellen is always the best.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”
Ellen remained completely unmoved, responding in her usual formulaic tone before quietly returning to her position behind him.

“Honestly, you’re hopeless, Ellen.”
Westcott waved a finger helplessly, setting down the warm cup. Resting his chin on his hand, he let out a long sigh.

“So boring. Why is it so dull today? Isn’t there anything to pass the time?”

“In that case, perhaps you could spare some thought for the board’s resistance movement led by Maidock? They’ve been pushing back against us lately.”

Though Ellen spoke in her usual calm tone, there was an unmistakable trace of resentment hidden within.

“Tch tch tch! Those short-sighted fools who only care about immediate profit aren’t worth my attention. There’s no need for me to concern myself with such trivialities. What I want is something far more interesting—something meaningful.”

He dismissed her complaints with a casual wave.

And in truth, there wasn’t anything to worry about. As the world’s strongest magician, if anyone were foolish enough to openly oppose him, Ellen could simply subdue them through sheer physical force.

“Right—speaking of which! A new Spirit appeared recently.”

Like a child remembering a new toy, Westcott’s eyes glittered with excitement.

“Yes.”
Ellen opened a file on her computer and explained seriously:
“The Spirit first appeared one month ago in Sichuan, China. The target uses lightning as its attack method. Codename: Thor. Threat Level: B.”

“Oh~ surprising! Something as destructive as lightning being in the same threat class as Hermit?”

Westcott scratched his chin, curious.

“Regarding that—based on field reports, Thor appears to have a strong aversion to killing. Even when cornered, the Spirit refrains from lethal attacks. Up to now, none of the units that have engaged with Thor suffered any casualties. That is why the threat level is evaluated as low.”

“I see?”
After listening, Westcott opened his desk computer and browsed the documents himself. The more he read, the more meaningful the smile at the corner of his mouth became.

“What? Is there something we overlooked?”
Seeing his expression, Ellen knew her boss had taken an interest.

“No, nothing at all. Your report matches the documents perfectly. The local assessment is quite accurate.”
Westcott shook his head, smiling as if genuinely delighted.
“However, this is only on the surface.”

“On the surface?”
A rare look of confusion crossed Ellen’s face.

“I can’t explain exactly what it is,” Westcott said, surprising Ellen as he shrugged helplessly, “but I’m certain Thor is still hiding abilities. If used seriously, the threat level might rival Princess… perhaps even—”

“BEEP—BEEP—BEEP—!”

A blaring alarm suddenly rang throughout the entire DEM facility. Every siren in the building activated simultaneously, filling the air with deafening noise that left everyone’s ears ringing.

“What is going on!?”
Ellen snatched up the phone, shouting into the receiver.

“The central system is under heavy cyberattack! The intruder has broken through firewalls one, two, and three! They’re advancing toward the core at alarming speed! In about ten minutes, they’ll reach the S-class data vault!”

“What did you say!?”

Ellen nearly screamed.

The S-class vault contained the deepest secrets behind the Realizer Units, as well as theoretical schematics for extraordinary equipment such as White Lycoris and Pendragon. It was the very foundation of DEM’s existence—if leaked, the damage would be catastrophic.

“Isaac!”

“Unfortunately… I doubt I can help you here.”

Westcott shook his head with a bitter smile, rotating his computer screen toward Ellen.

The display was completely black, except for endless strings of chaotic characters rapidly scrolling across it—like countless icy eyes staring back at her. Ellen shuddered.

Who could possess such terrifying hacking ability!?

“Go tell the board to sever all external communication channels immediately. Block every form of incoming electromagnetic transmission. If they ignore the warning, they’ll be stripped bare.”

“Understood.”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Ellen regained her calm and issued orders to the board.

“Hacker… network… electromagnetic waves… lightning! I see! How delightful—absolutely delightful! Kahahahahaha!!”

Muttering keywords to himself, Westcott suddenly covered his face with one hand and burst into狂 laughter he couldn’t suppress.

“Completely beyond my expectations! This isn’t B-Level—this Spirit’s danger level rivals Nightmare! No—perhaps even exceeds it! Humanity’s most dangerous enemy!”

---

——————Perspective Shift Divider————————

Snow fell heavily.

White flakes danced through the air, covering the land in a blanket of shimmering frost—a pure white world.

Within this field of untouched snow, space suddenly twisted. The pressure of spatial displacement blasted away the snow, leaving a dark crater in the frozen ground.

“Cold! Seriously cold! Either I landed at an extremely high latitude, or at a high elevation. But judging by the look of it… this should be high latitude. Russia, huh?”

In the pit, the lightly dressed Liangyi Mengyue—wearing a Tokiwadai summer uniform under a black coat—was trembling violently, face pale from the cold.

She quickly surrounded herself with a spirit-energy barrier, blocking the wind and snow. Her color slowly returned.

“Target spotted. Codename: Thor. All units ready—concentrate fire!” (Russian)

Even so, the Russian Anti-Spirit Unit relaxed a little after confirming the Spirit was Thor.

According to the intel, Thor had almost no intent to harm humans.

“So, they’re underestimating me.”

Mengyue, blocking the attacks with her energy barrier and electromagnetic field, could tell exactly what they were thinking.

Time to prove them wrong.

Smiling mischievously, Mengyue summoned her Angel.

“Ratziel—the Dawn Sage!”

A dark-blue longbow appeared in her hands. But to everyone’s confusion, Thor did not attack. Instead, she slung the bow over her back and pulled out a small white tablet from inside her coat.

A tablet?

The Russian girls stared blankly.

“‘Ratziel,’ begin analysis. Initiate intrusion.”

Words appeared on the tablet screen. If not for the swirling snow, one might notice a nearly invisible filament connecting the device to the bow on her back.

“All units! Cancel suppression—attack now!”
The captain felt something was very wrong and ordered a direct assault.

Her instincts were right. But the result didn’t change.

Surrounded by mecha-clad soldiers closing in, Mengyue calmly spoke:

“Realizer Units—disengage.”

The soldier charging at her with a lightsaber suddenly felt herself losing balance. Her armor vanished instantly, and she plunged face-first into the snow, leaving a long scar in the white ground.

The same happened to every unit. Their powered armor turned into dead, immobile metal. In the freezing conditions, it became nothing but a burden.

Most soldiers collapsed in confusion. A few desperately attempted to reactivate their Realizers—

“No point. I already rewrote every ID’s authorization code. If you want to suit up again, get your tech team to crack it. By the way, you don’t speak Japanese here, right?”

Mengyue didn’t actually speak many languages—just her native Chinese, school-taught English, and some Japanese for traveling abroad.

But at least one person understood her—the captain, whose face had turned so pale she nearly blended with the snow.

Humanity’s strongest and final anti-Spirit weapon—the Realizer Unit. A technology that twists physical laws using computational results, called “magic achieved through science.”

But once that technology becomes useless, the so-called “modern magicians” are nothing more than ordinary humans—fragile as insects before a Spirit.

And if a Spirit can hack the system itself, humanity can no longer threaten it at all.

Stretching lazily, Mengyue said cheerfully:

“I heard Russian Realizers have excellent cold resistance, so leaving you here shouldn’t kill you. And since I’ve got time before I ‘vanish,’ I might as well find a nice spot to watch some new anime!”

With that, she flew off into the snowy distance.

The Russian Anti-Spirit Unit could only helplessly watch her leave.

Spirit Codename: Thor → Updated to: Hacker
Threat Level: B → Updated to: S

“Nice codename. Way better than that hammer-swinging bearded uncle.”

While watching anime, Mengyue glanced at the other window, nodding with satisfaction.

PS: Some readers might think the Second Spirit should be Honjou Nia.
Just to clarify—this story idea was written back when Volume 12 had just been released, before Nia’s Spirit identity was revealed. So the author used their own imagination.