Challenge: The Fool with the Surname Okayamine

Chapter 53 Heavenly Palace Chapter: Prequel "Reunion with an Old Friend"

"Where...where am I?!"

The girl named Tokisaki Kurumi stood solemnly in the center of the huge crater formed by her spatial quake, and took a small step forward.

(She looked at the clothes on her body that seemed to be her own birth garment, called "Spirit Dress," her eyes filled with a girl's unique ignorance of the world.)

Just then, a bullet came hurtling towards the girl from the sky. Kurumi instinctively dodged to the side, her movements practiced as if she had done this countless times before.

Kurumi looked up in horror and saw a group of girls in mecha suits looking down at her with disdain.

Among the group of armored girls, the woman in the lead said in a deep voice, "We are members of the AST Special Operations Force against Elves. Surrender now, and we can give you a quick death."

(The woman in the lead spoke with utter contempt and coldness, like a ruthless military officer.)

Seeing the situation was dire, Kurumi was startled and her body turned around almost instinctively, rushing towards the dense forest like an arrow.

Her petite figure vanished instantly among the layers of branches and leaves.

Upon seeing this, the armored girls all turned to look at the woman in the lead. One of them, looking anxious, asked, "Captain, what are we going to do if the elf escapes?"

Upon hearing this, the woman in the lead's face instantly turned extremely grim. Her eyes widened, and she roared angrily, "What else can we do? Enough nonsense, hurry up and chase after her! We absolutely cannot let this elf escape. If she gets away, who knows how many innocent people will suffer annihilation because of the spatial quake!"

Upon hearing the order, the armored girls dared not delay and immediately sprang into action, following Kurumi's escape route into the forest.

At this moment, Kurumi was like a frightened deer, running forward frantically. Her heart was pounding and her breathing was rapid.

Strangely, however, she lacked all memories except for her name and common sense, and had no idea why she had run away or the identities and purposes of these people.

This confusion left her unsure whether she should fight back, but her survival instinct drove her to rush through the woods at breakneck speed.

Kurumi Tokisaki continued to search for information in her mind, while AST relentlessly pursued her from behind, occasionally firing shots forward, but their marksmanship was extremely poor, roughly at the same level as Bald Qiang in the latest season.

"What...what's going on? Why is it only me..." Kurumi dodged bullets as she desperately ran through the forest, but she was still confused because of the lack of companionship.

Just as the girl was trying to recall, a bullet that had just been fired sped straight toward Kurumi's back.

Just as the deadly bullet hurtled toward the girl's back at lightning speed, Kurumi's mind was suddenly flashed with several fragments of her past use of [Angel], like lightning striking the night sky.

Relying on her body's ingrained instincts for such dangerous situations and the fleeting fragments of memory she had just witnessed, Kurumi unhesitatingly parted her lips and whispered, "[Zafkiel]!"

As the sound faded, two old-fashioned flintlock pistols of different lengths appeared out of thin air in her left and right hands.

"Perhaps if I could use it, I could reawaken those memories dormant deep within my mind..." she thought, then dodged the bullet, turning to raise her gun to return fire,

A black coat suddenly flew by and blocked her view, obscuring Kurumi's vision and also blocking the bullets fired by AST.

"Uh?!"

Kurumi was startled and became alert.

A black overcoat slowly drifted down, revealing a tall, slender figure wearing a military uniform, surrounded by heat, and sporting a sheep's head mask.

"Who are you...?" The girl looked up, asking the tall figure standing in front of her, bewildered.

Upon hearing the girl's clear question behind him, Ming turned his head slightly and glanced casually behind him.

Kurumi was looking at him anxiously, as if she wanted to get an answer from him. However, after only a brief glance, Ming quickly turned his head back, as if he didn't care about Kurumi's question at all.

His gaze returned to a spot not far ahead, where an AST team of about 20 people stood.

Before Ming could make any move, the team leader suddenly erupted in fury, shouting loudly:

"【Flame Beast】Ah, how could it be you again! I never expected that after six whole years, you would reappear before us!"

Ming could hear the anger in the voice of this AST ace, whom he had often defeated, upon seeing him. But Ming ignored it and simply spoke slowly:

"I apologize, everyone. Although I don't want to have any more hatred with your AST, nor do I want to tarnish your reputations..." Ming took off the coat that restricted spiritual power from his back and slowly bowed gracefully to her.

“However, if you kill the woman behind me and take her away, the woman in my heart who can rival any goddess will be sad. Please let me take her away.”

At this moment, the fiery beasts on the battlefield roared to the sky, and the flames surged even more fiercely. The wounded AST members struggled to fight back again, but they were powerless to do so.

Meanwhile, in a distant conference hall, high-ranking members of parliament from various countries were watching the sudden appearance of the second Pokémon through satellites and the recorders on the AST team members.

High-ranking members of parliament from various countries were intently watching the enormous screen in front of them.

On the once peaceful battlefield, a figure suddenly appeared that shocked everyone—the [Flame Beast], which the British and DEM jointly called the "Extreme Evil Spirit"! This mysterious and powerful creature was engulfed in raging flames, like a messenger from hell.

It stormed onto the battlefield with astonishing speed, and a black sea of ​​fire spread wherever it stood, quickly burning the AST ace and all the team members to a critical state.

The councilors, witnessing this scene, were immediately thrown into a panic. They looked at each other, their faces showing fear, and then began to chatter amongst themselves.

The conference room instantly filled with a cacophony of noise. Someone exclaimed in shock, "What kind of monster is this? How could it suddenly appear here!" Others cried out anxiously.

"We must take immediate action, or the consequences will be unimaginable!" Some people even blamed each other for not making adequate preparations beforehand.

The entire conference room descended into chaos, with people becoming increasingly tense and agitated.

In this atmosphere, Westcott sat upright in his chair, legs crossed, a faint smile playing on his lips, coldly observing the group of flustered fools. Angelica, on the other hand, remained standing silently in place.

In addition, only some highly skilled magicians can remain calm in such situations.

"Isaac, should I go and take care of the [Flame Beast] now? That way, DEM's standing in his eyes will probably rise," Allen, who had been silent until now, reminded Westcott.

"As the strongest person in the world, you could easily take him down, right?" Westcott raised his hand slightly and asked Allen behind him jokingly.

“Of course, Isaac! But such an opponent is not worth my full effort.” After answering, Allen slowly walked towards the exit, his eyes filled with confidence and disdain.

Only after seeing Allen leave did the high-ranking officials from various countries begin to relax. However, upon seeing this situation, Westcott's expression became even more amused.

"Oh my, this is getting more and more interesting!" He looked up at the screen and saw that [Flame Beast] had finished its battle and was walking towards the other Pokémon that had just appeared and whose name he hadn't even had a chance to identify yet. He pondered to himself,

"I hope you can withstand Allen's blade, or I'll be very disappointed, you wicked little sprite [Flame Beast]~"

Let's shift our focus back to the forest, where the battle has already ended.

After the battle ended, Mingchao walked step by step toward Kurumi, who was staring at him in a daze, as if time had frozen at that moment.

"This girl named Kurumi is also Sawa's best friend, and even... the direct murderer who was deceived and killed Sawa with her own hands..."

Mingchao knew this well, so when he saw Kurumi appear on the battlefield, he couldn't help but feel an indescribable emotion welling up inside him.

"Don't come any closer, no... who are you?!" Minghou said, his face trembling with fear and confusion, as he realized that the battle had ended and someone was walking straight towards him.

Ming asked her, "Do you want to remember who you were before?" Kurumi was slightly taken aback. The fear in her eyes did not disappear, but a bit of curiosity appeared.

"Can you tell me how to make something into a spirit?!" Tokisaki Kurumi asked in surprise after hearing what Ming said.

Ming stopped and stood a few steps away from Kuang San, and slowly said, "If you want to know, enter my shadow first, and you will know in a while."

Kurumi hesitated for a moment, her eyes fixed on Mingchao, as if assessing the credibility of his words, and even more puzzled as to how this person knew she could enter the shadows. Finally, she gritted her teeth and nodded slightly.

Then, with a mere thought, Kurumi caused the shadow beneath her feet to writhe as if alive, gradually expanding to form a black entrance. Kurumi took a deep breath and slowly stepped inside.

After Kurumi entered Ming's shadow, Alan Melamathus, the world's strongest magician, wearing the top-tier manifestation device [Pendragon], also arrived at the battlefield—

She hovered above the night sky, like a legendary Valkyrie, looking down at the inscription below, which had already revealed the Demon King [Black Flame Demon].

"Humph"

Allen glanced at Ming, whose flaws she saw as numerous, and scoffed before speaking.

"You mere elf, today I, as the Second Executive Director of DEM and the world's greatest magician, Alan Melamathers, will bring you destruction!" Her voice echoed through the forest and the night sky.

To an ordinary person, this statement sounds incredibly arrogant, but if it were Ellen who said it, it would become perfectly natural, after all, she is the strongest person in the world of magic!