Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

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She wouldn't give up anything she had gained because of this; at most, she would just become a little more lenient in dealing with these special cases.

"Huh, so it wasn't the real thing after all?"

It was only then that Kohinata Mirai realized that the Zero she had just hugged was not the real Zero.

"You can tell just by looking, this body isn't wearing any equipment to aid in observation. I can't do anything about the original body, but when I create a clone, I definitely have to make a healthy one."

The reassembled Zero pointed to her right eye, indicating that she was no longer wearing her usual head-mounted display.

"But just now, it felt like I was hugging the real Rei..."

Reaching out her hand and recalling the sensation from just now, Kohinata Mirai felt a slight sense of unease.

"If it can't be 100% replicated, it won't have the effect of disguise. This body has all the functions that a human should have, and it can smoothly transmit the five senses to my original body."

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Knowing this won't make any difference to you... Sigh, we tried twice and failed both times. From now on, we'll have to use a more complicated method to make you give up."

After briefly explaining the information about the clone, Lingyi's thoughts shifted to the two failures she had just experienced. She was not quite sure why she hadn't succeeded even once despite her earnest attempts to persuade her.

"...No matter what Zero-chan does, I will never forget or give up on you!"

Upon hearing that Rei was openly plotting something in front of her, Tachibana Hibiki immediately gave her response.

"A momentary surge of momentum is ultimately just that—momentary. Don't think that just because you've survived one instance, you've won. I will keep trying until you give up. That's the purpose of using separate admissions this time."

Looking into Hibiki Tachibana's bright eyes, Rei coldly stated what she would do next.

Lingyi somewhat anticipated that persuasion alone wouldn't be enough to get them to give up, so she had a plan B.

By creating more everyday memories unrelated to the past, the image of the performers in their memories is submerged by a brand new image. Combined with the power of the continuous blade, this allows them to forget their past, thus achieving the effect of replacing the 'non-everyday' image of Zero with the 'everyday Zero' image.

This method is very discreet and will not have a significant impact on the personality of the person being affected. The only drawback is that it takes a lot of time and there may be unexpected events along the way. However, since the fastest method has failed, Lingyi can only resort to this method now.

"Lingyi, I don't know your purpose, but I... and the others who care about you will not give up on bringing you out of the abyss."

While Rei was thinking, Kohinata Mirai walked to her side, her slightly delicate hands crossing over the other's slender right hand as a gesture of reassurance.

"Me too, I will never give up on helping Zero-chan."

At the same time, Hibiki Tachibana's hand, with its calloused yet warm and reliable texture, followed suit and grasped Rei's other hand, saying the same thing with a smile.

After a moment of stunned silence, Lingyi controlled her expression and inner emotions, pulled her hands out of their grasp, and put on a perfect smile.

"Speaking of which, it's getting late. Aren't you going to have lunch?"

With her unchanging smile, Lingyi pointed to the lunch boxes the two had brought and asked.

Although they were shocked by Lingyi's appearance, rationality seemed to make them remember to bring their lunch boxes when they came up, avoiding the tragic ending of going to the afternoon class on an empty stomach.

"Ah, now that you mention it, I do feel a bit hungry."

Rei reminded her that she had been so preoccupied with Rei that she hadn't had lunch yet.

"The sound is the same as always."

With Hibiki Tachibana's interruption, Mirai Kohinata temporarily put aside her worries.

She also knew that although she had just made that declaration, it couldn't change the fact that they couldn't do anything right now.

All they can do now is keep their feelings to themselves and wait for the day when they can launch a counterattack against Lingyi, who has undoubtedly won.

At least for Kohinata Mirai, she was prepared to wait a lifetime, and that was the only thing she was absolutely certain of.

"Does Zero-chan want to have lunch together?"

Hibiki Tachibana picked up her lunchbox, opened it, and smiled as she invited Rei to have lunch together.

Deep down, she was certain that she could never forget something, but in her daily life, Tachibana Hibiki didn't feel there was anything wrong with interacting with the other person in the usual way.

"Lunch... Zero, is your body capable of eating?"

Seeing Tachibana Hibiki's cheerful invitation, Kohinata Mirai relaxed a bit, then thought of a rather practical question.

"No problem, as I said, this clone has all the functions that a normal person should have."

Rei and Kohinata Mirai took out a lunchbox with a blue hexagonal pattern from one side and explained.

After all, if you want to use everyday memories to overwhelm non-everyday memories, then you can't show too much of an inhuman or non-everyday alien feeling in daily life. So this body has all the necessary features installed.

"indeed……"

Without further ado, Kohinata Mirai turned her gaze to Rei's lunchbox.

The main body consisted of three pairs of somewhat familiar hexagons arranged neatly, with two main dishes plus two vegetarian and two meat dishes, all simple yet exquisitely handmade side dishes, which looked very appetizing.

"what happened?"

Noticing the gaze, Lingyi casually asked.

"I was just thinking, Rei, you're still as good at cooking as before. If... Rei, your illness is cured, then teach me how to cook."

Kohinata Mirai recalled the last time she spent with Rei. Although the story ended badly, the happy memories were genuine.

Chapter Thirteen Equipment Room

As the saying goes, spring brings drowsiness, autumn brings fatigue, summer brings naps, and winter brings hibernation; the beginning of spring is the perfect time to sleep.

During the last class of the day, Xueyin Chris nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, feeling drowsy. However, this was not because she couldn't understand the lesson, but simply because she didn't have much energy at this time.

[Failed, failed again. Ha, now I should understand that I can never beat her.]

Unpleasant thoughts lingered in Chris's mind, making her irritable and further draining her energy.

Since the day she suffered a devastating defeat, and even her magic bow, which she used as a weapon, was taken away by Lingyi, Chris, who was consumed by a sense of powerlessness, has been unable to calm down.

Her weakness caused her pain like a chronic illness; her inability to do anything prevented her from even undergoing placebo-like training to improve herself.

[Hey, are there any other artifacts that, even without compatibility, can be used to gain power through artifact fusion or something?]

[Yukine... Putting aside the fact that I could never agree to such a dangerous thing, the fact is that all the sacred relics we possessed, including the Dragon Palace of the Abyss, were wiped out by her not long ago.]

[ha--]

Even if she wanted to sell her soul to a demon to gain power, Chris couldn't find any way. On the surface, Zero's suppression was so perfect that all she could do now was continue this peaceful, idle daily life.

buzz

The school bell rang, injecting a bit of vitality into the classroom, which had been somewhat lifeless due to the end-of-term review session, and also roused Chris a little.

Chris, having mustered some strength, took out her phone. In her spare time after being occupied by various combat training sessions, one of her forms of entertainment was scrolling through her phone.

"Hmm—"

Chris turned on her phone screen, glanced around briefly, and seeing that no one was paying attention to her, opened her phone's photo album and started looking for something.

"Ah? Oh, I remember now, I deleted it yesterday."

However, unable to find it, Chris's somewhat stiff brain, weakened by drowsiness, gradually began to function again, and she remembered that she had deleted that folder last night out of excessive shame and self-reproach.

"I remember it was..."

But it doesn't matter, Chris knows how to access that website; she just needs to download it again from the website.

At that moment, she felt she needed something to alleviate her bad mood, and without thinking of anything else, she devoted herself entirely to the search.

"Hmm, that's strange, can't find it?"

However, after typing in those mysterious characters she knew by heart and pressing Enter, Chris did not see the familiar UI appear.

After trying several more times, Chris confirmed that the place had disappeared, which made her already bad mood even worse.

"Let's go back."

Unable to vent her frustration as she wished, Chris had no choice but to return to the accommodation that SONG had arranged for her.

Chris, who had spent another day idly with her head down, walked silently on the playground bathed in the setting sun, staring blankly at the passing passageways.

Those planning to return to their dorms gathered in small groups, chatting and laughing. Those participating in club activities were in groups, seemingly doing something. The rest were either on duty, reviewing old material, or having fun. In short, everyone had their own things to do.

But Chris didn't.

Previously, she was so focused on bringing someone back that she spent all her free time improving her strength. Even when she occasionally encountered mundane daily life, she would always think of that person who could not obtain these things, so she devoted more time to training.

Now that the Magic Bow has been taken by Zero and it is clearly impossible to bring it back, Chris's mood and physical condition are even worse. Not only is her sleep quality extremely poor, but her memory is also much worse than before. She also often has dreams that affect her sleep, so naturally she has no energy to do anything.

"This is terrible, really, what have I been doing?"

Looking at the gloomy sky, Chris, whose consciousness was also hazy, aimlessly scanned the playground of Lydian Academy. She was waiting for her two friends, Kohinata Mirai and Tachibana Hibiki, to finish class. Their last class was physical education.

By this time, there were hardly any people left on the playground. The last physical education class had ended, and the teachers and students began to relax. After the order, they were dismissed and dismissed. The two people she was waiting for hesitated for a few moments before walking towards Chris.

Also heading in this direction were students who had helped pack up the equipment and were pulling the equipment cart toward the equipment warehouse. From a distance, the student with long, platinum-blonde hair, wearing sportswear and shorts and sweating a little, looked somewhat familiar.

No, it wasn't just familiarity; Chris was the only one she wouldn't mistake. In an instant, Chris understood something.

So that's how it is. I'm still dreaming.

Such an idea came to Chris's mind.

Isn't that obvious? Things that are usually there have disappeared today, while things that are not usually there have appeared before our eyes.

Given his current drowsy, eyelid-drooping state, there was no doubt that he was indeed dreaming, just like the countless dreams that had appeared in his mind before.

After the thought popped into her head, Chris acted subconsciously, just as she had done countless times when she woke up from her dreams.

"Should we put the equipment here?"

Rei, who is steadily advancing her plans for the future of Hibiki Tachibana and Kohinata, took on the task of putting the equipment back after her physical education class without hesitation.

"Heave-hoo."

Using what wasn't particularly extraordinary strength, Lingyi piled the equipment box on top, wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, and turned to prepare for her after-school tasks.

Daily life includes not only going to school, but also setting goals for Lingyi to act out her predetermined persona, even when no one is watching after school, in order to make it as complete as possible.

"Hmm, Chris?"

Just as Lingyi turned around, she saw a figure with white hair and purple eyes, wearing the uniform of Lydian Academy and white stockings, staring at her with a gloomy face.

[Did we get seen? Although it hasn't reached her stage yet, there's nothing we can do since we've run into her. Let's deal with this situation beforehand.]

Chris's appearance was not expected by Zero. Her plan was to start with Hibiki and gradually change her appearance, leaving the most difficult Chris for last.

But since they've encountered each other, Zero doesn't mind trying to see if she can use a simpler method to erase the other person's unusual impression of her. What if Chris's will isn't as firm as Hibiki's and Mirai's?

Thinking this, Zero decided to first take a quick look at what was going on in Chris's mind. Previously, she had focused more on recovering the heretical technologies from all the global powers and hadn't had time to pay attention to the situation here. 99

A question mark appeared in Lingyi's mind.