Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

"Then, we need to provide cover here too."

Standing upright and gazing into the distance, Farah smiled as a green tornado began to churn around her, creating a curtain of wind between her, Zero, and the fleeing vehicles.

"...Was Carol's doll left behind to cover our retreat?"

Through the observation system, Zero noticed Farah standing alone on the street, using alchemy to lift a curtain of wind that obscured her view.

Just as Farah had predicted, Zero was indeed helpless against her actions at the moment.

Without the light path vision or the alchemical fluctuations as markers, and in her slightly hasty start to the battle, she didn't have time to bring more Sky Slash units for support.

She didn't bypass Fara in front of her to stop the two cars from escaping, but only if Fara could continue to survive.

"Once you, the core of this barrier, are destroyed, this wind barrier will collapse on its own."

It should be noted that the heretical technological fluctuations released by Farah, the core of the wind curtain, were incredibly clear to Zero, making it easy to hit her from this distance.

"Give it a try if you can do it."

Farah clearly knew this as well. While she was manipulating the wind curtain, she was also building an alchemical defensive barrier in order to buy more time.

"Flash Blade Technique? Blast Direction".

In response, Zero, who had little patience, directly activated the ultimate attack of the Saten Armor.

Immediately afterwards, the flash knife in her hand, which had already transformed into an electromagnetic gun, expanded further, and at the same time, some components attached to the armor were also assembled onto it, and the ballistic correction sight was moved to the gun handle.

Soon, an electromagnetic cannon appeared in Zero's hands. As a result, the current surging on it began to accumulate, the material to be used as ammunition began to be loaded, and the auxiliary aiming system calculated the optimal trajectory.

Goodbye, no, never again.

Watching Farah, who had already set up his defenses, Zero gently pulled the trigger.

Immediately, a violent explosion rang out, and a raging gale swept up the emerald lightning, far exceeding the previous super-fast attack, traversing a distance of several kilometers in a straight line at its fastest speed.

The wind curtain that Farah had constructed was torn apart with overwhelming force, and its momentum was not diminished at all. Cleanly and neatly, it turned her body into doll fragments, just like Rhea, which were blown everywhere by the fierce wind.

"Phew... the problem is solved, but they still managed to reunite."

Although they eliminated Fara, who was left to cover their retreat, the disruption she created at great expense ultimately filled the last bit of time.

During Zero's detection, the blue doll had already followed Chris and the others into SONG's submarine, and then the submarine submerged to the surface.

...........

"Fara, is she dead too?"

Inside SONG's headquarters, Elfne felt a pang of sadness as she recalled the wind curtain she had seen upon entering, which had been torn apart and brought to a standstill by the fierce winds.

"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, in that situation, only Farah could stop that terrifying Zero-chan. And to be able to sacrifice for Master, well... how should I put it, it was a worthwhile death for us."

After twirling around with ballet-like steps, Gally casually expressed her opinion on Farah and the other two automatons' actions.

"Master...Gallie, could it be that Carol is still alive?"

Hearing Gally's words, Elfne felt a little better, and then asked Gally with some concern about Carol's whereabouts.

"Master, um... is she alive or dead? But whether she's alive or dead, it doesn't affect the current situation. Our mission now is simply to protect you, Elfnein, and to provide you with assistance."

After pretending to think for a moment, Galie gave only a vague and ambiguous answer.

Huh?

Elfnein didn't quite understand what Garly was saying, but before she could, Tsukuyomi Tsurugi, who was bandaged and wearing medication, and Chris interrupted her conversation with Garly.

"Are you alright, Chris? I heard you were badly injured."

"Tiao, Qiege, are you alright?"

Seeing the three of them staggering in, Hibiki Tachibana and Maria stepped forward and asked them with concern.

"Cough cough... It's alright, that guy really controlled his strength well, just enough to damage the SYmphogear, ouch—but even so, it still hurts."

Chris said there was no need to worry too much, as most of what they suffered were superficial injuries, and apart from being very painful, they were not considered serious.

"The fact that she held back even after winning the battle shows that her strength is probably far beyond our imagination."

Upon hearing Chris's words, Kazanari Tsubasa made this conjecture.

"Lingyi, she's gotten stronger too. While we're all trying to get stronger... can we still win, us?"

Kohinata Mirai thought pessimistically about this fact.

"Without a doubt, even if she becomes stronger, we must win. Now that everyone is here, let's begin the strategy meeting."

After encouraging those present, and seeing that most of the people had arrived, Kazanari Genjuro convened an internal operational meeting for SONG.

"The current situation is that Lingyi has gained new power and seems to have begun to take action, with the premise of eliminating potential threats."

"According to Elfnein, the heretical technology organization she belonged to, the Bavarian Light Society, was located and completely destroyed by Zero Cloth an hour ago."

"After defeating the alchemist, Zero did not linger. After clearing the city of ordinary citizens with the help of the noise alarm, she began her operation with the premise of hunting down Finni, who is also known as Ryoko."

"Fortunately, with the help of the automatons supported by Carol Mars Dingheim of the Light Society, she did not achieve her goal successfully after sacrificing the Trisolaran automaton, allowing Chris and the others to successfully evacuate back to headquarters."

"The above is the cause and effect of the current situation."

Immediately afterwards, Shinji Ogawa began to summarize the current information for everyone present.

"The lightning-fast offensive, achieved without relying on defensive positions, shows that Nafili and the territory have been fully utilized in her hands."

After listening to the intelligence report, Naztasha, who was listening in as a technical advisor, couldn't help but sigh. The others present also expressed their sympathy for the current critical situation with varying expressions.

"It was because of her growth potential that I urged her so much before, but it's no use saying that now. Dr. Will, is the 'linker' I asked you to make before finished?"

While everyone was momentarily stunned by this shocking fact, Finney, who was still under the influence of Tsukuyomi and had anticipated the current situation, looked at Dr. Will and asked him a question.

In order to deal with the possibility of Zero becoming stronger, she has been working with SONG's technicians to develop enhancements to Symphogear, and has entrusted the task of creating the linker to Dr. Will.

"Of course, who do you think I am? The specially made linker was completed a week ago, but it hasn't been tested on humans yet. What's wrong? Do you want to use it here? Use my brilliant hero's creation?"

In response to Finney's question, Dr. Will confidently stated that as a genius, no matter how difficult the Linker task was, it could not possibly stump her.

“Now… no, that won’t do. Her strength has increased far beyond what we expected. We can’t defeat her with just this level of power. I have to find a way to further enhance her.”

However, Finney shook his head at Dr. Will's confidence after assessing the situation based on the available intelligence, indicating that it was not enough.

"The Dragon Palace in the Abyss, the place where many sacred relics are kept, Genjuro, can we ask our superiors for permission to go there? We need more heretical technology support now, and perhaps we can find something useful there."

After a moment of contemplation, Finney turned to Genjuro Kazanari on the other side and asked if she could obtain a more powerful relic to make a more radical upgrade to Symphogear.

"I will try my best, and I believe it shouldn't take too long to get through if they understand the reason for that shocking explosion over the Atlantic."

Kazanari Genjuro said there was no problem.

After all, the riots that Zero caused in Bavaria were not only seen by Elfnein, but also by satellites from many countries, which saw the huge mushroom cloud rising from that location at that time.

"If necessary, Garly can also help you, since we have a common enemy now. Although she may not be able to help much, because Lingyi destroyed a lot of materials, sob sob."

At this point, the automaton Garly also indicated that she would not hesitate to help if there was anything she needed.

"Well, hopefully I can make it in time..."

After receiving a positive response, Finney's soul temporarily returned to stillness.

"Now that we've decided, our next target is the Abyss Dragon Palace located at the bottom of the sea. Let's start moving there."

Having clarified his current objective, Kazanari Genjuro decided on SONG's next direction of movement: the nearest location for storing Sacred Relics, the Abyss Dragon Palace.

You can't go anywhere.

However, just as SNOG found its way forward, a familiar, nightmarish sound came from the sound system of the submarine that served as its headquarters.

"!!!"

Tension, fear, panic, and chaos spread among the crowd, and the next moment, what they feared became reality.

"The system has been compromised by an unknown signal and is attempting to clean it up. Operation is unavailable, and control has been seized!"

"Anomalies are occurring throughout headquarters; hatches are locked and cannot be opened; ballast tanks are beginning to dewater; headquarters is rapidly ascending!"

"Abnormal fluctuations in the ocean current have been detected. How could this be? It's an upwelling current! Headquarters is going to be sucked up!"

The series of bad news led to an obvious fact: the SONG headquarters, a place previously considered highly secure, had been captured by Zero.

"How is that possible? This is a thousand meters deep in the ocean!"

Kazanari Genjuro couldn't believe that the other side was able to locate the submarine, equipped with such advanced equipment as its headquarters, so precisely in such a vast sea area, and even carry out the intrusion.

"Why not? By using ripples to repel all malice and easily win electronic warfare, this is one of the strengths of the X-002 Military Air Armor, the base defense type blade guard mode."

Blue armor covered his entire body, and the original black and red flash blades transformed into cyan and blue short swords attached to his arm armor, with rippling patterns emanating from them.

Wearing Zero Suit, who was dressed in Zero Void Armor, he told SONG, who was below the surface of the sea, the truth while using Zero Void's power to pull the enemy's submarine headquarters up from the deep sea with all his might.

"Unbelievable, is it possible to escape? Is that so? Headquarters has fallen. Then the only option left is probably..."

Kazanari Genjuro asked with a sliver of hope, but the answer he received quickly shattered his illusions.

"Is fighting the only option left, with Zero-chan?"

After noticing the current situation, Hibiki Tachibana realized this fact.

"Can we win against Zero Armor now?"

The psychological trauma of fighting Zero in the past resurfaced in Maria's mind, and she hugged herself tightly, feeling rather insecure.

"Are we going to fight Zero-Clothes Sister? Is it really Death?"

Xiaoqiege's face showed fear as she vividly remembered being crippled by a single blow.

"Leaving aside whether we can win, the question is whether we can even get her to use her full strength right now."

Having also experienced a brief setback, Chris was even more pessimistic about the outcome of the battle.

"But we must fight. If we continue to let her do as she pleases, it will not end well."

Having made up his mind, Feng Mingyi gripped the Tenyu Habakiri tightly against his chest and said.

"Yes, and we have grown a lot compared to before. I will provide support as much as possible with the power of the Divine Beast Mirror."

Although she was also afraid of fighting, Kohinata Mirai had made some mental preparations for her fear.

Amidst the intense vibrations and rising sensations, the performers' mindsets varied, ranging from fear to determination. But regardless of their conviction or fear, one fact remained clear to them.

Given the enormous difference in combat strength between them and Zero, unless a miracle occurs, they will undoubtedly be defeated.

"Cut sauce, come with me for a moment."

Tsukuyomi, who had been silent all along, watched the tense atmosphere of impending battle in the cabin. After a hint of guilt flashed in her eyes, she pulled Akatsuki to a small corner.

On the other side, after a while...

At the center of the massive whirlpool, seawater continuously surged out into the surrounding rising currents. Finally, SONG's enormous submarine emerged from the whirlpool and was immediately pinned to the surface, unable to move.

Meanwhile, on the hull of the submarine, the seven musicians were already dressed and ready for battle.

"Ha—ah, Gungnir!"

With Tachibana Hibiki launching the first attack on the blue-armored Zero on the sea surface, the battle of one encircling seven began.

Chapter Eight: Desperate Situations and Hope Within Desperate Situations

Hibiki Tachibana, although she does not possess a Gear weapon in the conventional sense, with the armor on her hands and feet, no one would doubt that her burst attack power is the strongest among all Gear users.

Therefore, in the battle against Zero, she took on the role of a trailblazer to force Zero to retreat.

As long as Lingyi is still afraid of her extremely explosive fists, she will inevitably reveal weaknesses in other directions when fighting her, either to dodge or to engage in combat.

At that time, the attackers in other directions will have the opportunity to supplement their output, thereby maximizing their numerical advantage and tilting the tide of victory in their favor.

However, the prerequisite for this tactic to be executed smoothly is that the opponent will actually react to Tachibana Hibiki's attack.

"Can't be broken?"

Hibiki Tachibana couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Her all-out, desperate punch didn't even make Lingyi budge an inch when it hit that seemingly soft, rippling barrier.

All the force was absorbed, as if it had hit soft jelly; the immense power that Tachibana Hibiki had always believed in had no effect on the battle.

"Is the attack over? Then it's my turn."

Before Tachibana Hibiki could react, seeing her astonished expression, Zero's thoughts stirred, and the ripples on the military armor began to converge towards her, Tachibana Hibiki.

"I need to get away... Ugh, I've been stuck here for so long!"

Seeing Rei's actions, Hibiki Tachibana wanted to break away and regroup, but she couldn't.