“I didn’t expect that all Hacker did with the stolen data… was just this.”
Staring at the information on the laptop, Westcott let out a somewhat displeased sigh.
The contents were the activity report about Hacker’s infiltration.

“Don’t just call it ‘this’!”
Ellen practically exploded as she emerged from a mountain of documents, nearly throwing them at her boss’s face.

Recently, in any area where Hacker appeared, complaint calls would flood in nonstop.
The reason wasn’t hard to understand: Hacker possessed the ability to neutralize tactical Realizer Unit installations. Naturally, this caused local organizations great anxiety, and as expected, DEM Corporation—the inventor and seller of Realizers—became the first target of criticism.

Right now, the entire DEM was drowning in the noise of ringing phones.
Ellen’s desk, in particular, was piled high with complaint files sent from each branch. And to make matters worse, her boss was relaxing with coffee, claiming, “This is secretary work.” Ellen could feel her anger boiling.

“But think about it. Hacker deceived our AI and stole an enormous amount of valuable data. With that information, forget cracking Realizers—she could directly bankrupt DEM if she wanted. If it were me, I’d have sent all that technology to every place in the world already. Or set up a secret factory, mass-produce illegal weapons, conquer the world, make Spirits rule the world, whatever.”

Compared to the person in front of her, Mengyue’s ideas really were angelically gentle.

Anyone else hearing this would certainly suspect Westcott of being a spy from another organization. But Ellen, who understood his personality well, simply replied “Please show a little restraint,” and returned to the topic.

“In any case, we must deal with Hacker as soon as possible. Or I’m going to lose my mind.”
As she looked at the endless stream of complaints arriving on her computer, Ellen—for the first time—felt deep hatred toward the so-called blessing of modern technology.

Just then, a loud warning siren rang out. But it wasn’t the intrusion alarm from last time. It was a city emergency alert accompanied by English evacuation instructions.

Spacequake alarm!

“How convenient. So this is what the Celestial Empire meant by ‘speak of the devil and he shall appear’?”
As though witnessing something unbelievable, Westcott exaggeratedly exclaimed and turned the laptop toward Ellen.

On the screen: a girl wearing what looked like a school uniform under a black coat, holding a dark blue bow as tall as herself, and with flowing tea-colored long hair—standing inside a bowl-shaped crater.

“...I have some business to take care of.”
Ellen pushed back her chair and rose, walking toward the exit with an overwhelming, unstoppable aura.

“Ellen, it would be ideal if you could capture her alive. Think you can manage it?”
Hearing Westcott’s words, Ellen paused at the already open automatic door, sighed helplessly, and answered, “Of course. I am, after all, the world’s strongest Wizard.”

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

A street that had been destroyed as if it had vanished.
The crater was like one made by a meteor strike. Convenience stores, buildings, schoolyards—everything in sight had been carved away into a shallow bowl.

“Another descent into a populated city…?”
Seeing the now-familiar scene, Mengyue frowned in distress.

Honestly, Mengyue had always wished to enter human society. But after learning that her descent brought only calamity, she became afraid that her spacequake would harm civilians who couldn’t evacuate in time. So rather than cities, she preferred manifesting in deserted, remote places.

But if she did that, wouldn’t she eventually become some sort of wild woman?
Imagining herself bored out of her mind, swinging around the jungle like Tarzan… that would be tragic in far too many ways. Let’s not.

“Hmm~ this place… um, England?”
Using her tablet to check her location online, Mengyue’s face instantly stiffened.

Why? Because apparently the headquarters of that Realizer shop she hacked months ago—DEM Corporation—was nearby.

Thinking of all the information she stole, she had a hundred reasons to believe that DEM had absolutely included her on their kill-on-sight list.
Not that it mattered, since the company’s goal had always been killing Spirits to begin with—grudge or no grudge changed nothing.

Although the Spirit-combat troops that usually arrived by now were nowhere to be seen, Mengyue summoned Dawn Sage out of caution.

And just as expected, shortly after, a white dot could be seen flying from far away—slightly slower than the extreme speed of the Yamai spirits, but not by much.

A few seconds later, the figure entered visible range.

Unlike the mass-produced “Wiring Suits’’ used by AST units, this one had armored mechanical parts covering the body, practically calling itself a battle suit. And especially eye-catching was the giant sword-shaped equipment on her back.

“Pendragon.”
Mengyue softly spoke the name of the mech. She had seen the design diagrams in DEM’s data. The suit named after King Arthur theoretically had specs capable of rivaling a Spirit. It was humanity’s strongest mech.

Defying inertia, the suit stopped instantly—transitioning from high-speed movement to perfect stillness in a single moment. The skill displayed by the blond woman made Mengyue’s jaw drop.

“So it was you who hacked DEM’s AI that day, wasn’t it? Hacker!”

“And if it was?”
Whether imagined or not, upon admitting it, Mengyue could feel a terrifying grudge radiating from her opponent.

“Isaac wants you captured alive, but dragging you back half-dead should be fine too!”

In that moment, Mengyue felt herself die.
No—more precisely, she premonitioned her own death.

Instinctively, she brought Dawn Sage before her chest.

A violent crack rang out. The body of the bow collided with the laser greatsword, sparks flying everywhere.

If she hadn’t reacted that instant, her arm would definitely be gone. And if the strike had aimed at her head…

Cold sweat crept down her back. Since arriving in this world, this was the first time Mengyue felt death so vividly.

“Well~ you’ve got excellent reflexes!”
Ellen smiled in admiration as she looked at Mengyue holding the bow against her blade.

Mengyue stared at her like she was a monster. Spirits equipped with Angels possessed strength far beyond common sense. Humans could use Realizers and Territory to achieve superhuman levels, but meeting someone who could match a Spirit physically—this was a first.

A bow wasn’t a melee weapon. Even if an Angel’s material was durable, clashing with a light-sword wasn’t wise. Twisting her strength, Mengyue diverted Ellen’s blade with minimal force. In a burst of sparks, she kicked out hard—though it didn’t injure her opponent, it created distance.

Iron-Sand Surge!

As the distance widened, the ground trembled. Black iron sand roared like a sea dragon, surging toward Ellen and swallowing her whole.

A normal AST member would have been shredded—Territory and all—into powder by the vibrating iron sand. But Mengyue knew this would only delay Ellen briefly.

“Dawn Sage, can you infiltrate the mech’s core?”

Hearing the result, Mengyue gave a wry smile.

As a computer, Dawn Sage’s computational ability was top-tier in this world. But as an AI, it was still only suited for basic data analysis.

2.56 seconds—superhuman for hacking a top-tier mech.
But at zero distance from this monster of a Wizard, one second was enough for her to die three times.

“Controlling the iron sand… is that another ability? No—you’re manipulating it with electromagnetic force, aren’t you? You really are clever when it comes to little tricks like this.”

Ellen’s voice came from within the iron sand. Her expanding Territory burst outward, scattering it entirely.

Seeing her restraints fail, Mengyue seemed to lose the will to fight and turned into a bolt of lightning, fleeing into the distance.

Trying to run? Ellen scoffed. Pendragon’s thrusters roared as she took off in pursuit.

This was a fierce chase—blue and white streaks weaving through the abandoned ruins of the city, explosions erupting wherever they passed.

Her escape skills were certainly first-class. Ellen kept firing the mech’s guns, but Mengyue avoided everything with inexplicable precision. Despite heavy attacks all along the path, she didn’t have a single scratch.

Feeling her pride wounded, Ellen gritted her teeth.

Mengyue passed through a building wall without slowing down. But bizarrely, the wall showed no damage at all—as if she had passed through like a ghost.

Ellen swung her sword, slicing a triangular hole in the wall. Looking up—Mengyue was nowhere in sight.

She “disappeared”?
Spirits abruptly returning to the “Border” during battle wasn’t rare. But despite that, the unease in Ellen’s chest wouldn’t fade.

Suddenly, a powerful sense of danger surged through her. Like a hidden viper baring its fangs, she immediately expanded her defensive shield.

A moment later, an orange beam engulfed her.

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

“Phew~ that settles the score for earlier.”
On a high platform two kilometers away, Mengyue lowered Dawn Sage, now transformed into its “pincer artillery form,” feeling greatly refreshed.

Optical Offset—by using electromagnetic force to alter the refractive index of air, she had created a slight deviation between her apparent trajectory and her real one during the chase. After a long pursuit, that tiny deviation became almost two kilometers.

What situation could be better for sniping?

Still angry over Ellen’s earlier near-fatal strike, Mengyue had gathered all the iron sand in the area, compressed it, and fired it as a railgun with full power—enough to flatten a city.

And yet, even with a direct hit, she could tell the woman survived.

“What a monster.” (Author: “You have no right to say that.”)

Right after she muttered that, a sense of imbalance hit her, and Mengyue vanished from the physical world.

————————————————————————— Perspective Returns ——————————————————————

“Hey, hey! Ellen, still alive?”
Hearing her boss’s casual tone, Ellen sighed helplessly.

“What is it, Isaac? If possible, please stop opening comms. If Hacker intrudes via electromagnetic waves, it’ll be bad.”

Westcott’s image appeared, completely relaxed. “Don’t worry. I already checked—Hacker ‘disappeared’ right after attacking you.”

“That so?” Ellen responded briefly and fell silent.

“How do you feel?”
Westcott smiled at her.

“It was my negligence. I underestimated Hacker’s strength.”

Her mech was battered beyond recognition, over 50% damaged. In this condition, she would certainly lose against Mengyue.

Ellen admitted defeat without hesitation. Hacker was rated as an S-class dangerous Spirit largely because she stole DEM’s precious data and could neutralize Realizers. But even before that, Westcott had said Hacker’s power rivaled Princess.

“Indeed. From what I see, she used electromagnetic force to produce optical offset. The shift between her image and true position created an angle, and after a long chase, it created significant separation.”

“And that beam just now?”

“Judging from the data, it was a battleship-class railgun shot. Amazing she can use her abilities to that extent. Truly fascinating.”

Hacking, iron-sand control, optical offset, railgun—everything was related to electromagnetism, but each required extreme finesse. No other Spirit could use their power so intricately.

“This time was indeed my loss. It won’t happen again.”

“Mhm! I absolutely believe in Ellen’s words.” Westcott nodded in satisfaction before giving a mischievous grin. “But before that, please finish processing the documents. While you were out, another big pile arrived.”

“∑(°△°|||)︴”

Seeing the mountain of paperwork on her desk, the woman who stood tall even after taking Mengyue’s full-power attack collapsed in despair.

PS: Jingxin made a group. It was originally for another book, but it doesn’t really matter.
Group number for “A Certain Crossover”: 4-2-8-2-2-7-2-6-6.
Feel free to join. Although Jingxin may or may not be there.

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