Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

Seemingly caught off guard by the attack, or perhaps temporarily rendered immobile by the two consecutive onslaughts, the entire Zeke armor was shaken by the barrage of blows.

Not enough, just a little bit more, we must break through!

Despite throwing punch after punch, Hibiki Tachibana was far from optimistic.

She sensed that against the new wave of enhanced mechs, her fists alone could only cause crack-like injuries at best.

She needs more power, she needs even more power.

And so, power appeared.

Emerging from the heart, yellow energy crystals began to spread like a spider web.

As a result, the attack reached a new level, and the newly regenerated solid defensive barrier at the core began to crack.

Snap! Snap! Boom!

Then, with the final straw that broke the camel's back, the sturdy tortoise shell was once again blasted open by Tachibana Hibiki's repeated blows, revealing the fragile girl's body inside.

Congratulations... Tachibana Hibiki wanted to think that way, but she realized that reality wouldn't unfold as she imagined.

"I'm sorry, Zero-chan, in the end, I still couldn't..."

Hibiki Tachibana spoke, her voice weak and disproportionate to her current strength.

At this moment, in the hole she had blasted open, she was using her body to hold it open to prevent it from repairing; this was the only thing she could do now.

The immense power came at a price; the further fusion with the sacred artifact granted her an explosive force that surpassed everything in an instant, but it also pushed her body to its limits.

At this moment, yellow nodules had covered her entire body, and under the influence of the artifact fragments, her entire body had transformed into orange-yellow artifact crystals.

"Zero-chan, if you ever have a chance to wake up... don't worry about us."

"Having chosen to fight you, we were already prepared for this outcome."

Muttering to herself, Hibiki Tachibana wanted to say something more, but her consciousness was already as faint as a candle flame.

Goodbye, Zero-chan.

In her final moments, Hibiki Tachibana bid farewell to the girl she had always wanted to help.

Finally, at the opening in the core of the armor, Hibiki Tachibana's body exploded, turning into a relic crystal that blocked the opening and prevented repair.

P.S. No updates, and I'm stuck on writing. It's so frustrating.

Chapter Sixty-One: The Sacrifice of Growth

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the original chance of victory vanished after Zeke showed his full strength.

Despite having made significant progress, they ultimately fell short by just a little bit of effort, causing them to fall short of the best possible outcome.

"This is really going too far..."

Tears welled up in her eyes and slid down her cheeks; Kohinata Mirai felt an unprecedented sadness in her heart.

The fact that someone she valued so much died in their battle brought her an unbearable grief.

However, her grief was merely grief; there was no resentment within her.

She knew there was no other way; everyone in the battle had acted according to their will, risking their lives to save the girl who needed saving.

They failed to achieve their goal, and no one can be blamed for that; it simply means that their efforts were far from sufficient.

That's right, effort is still not enough. At this moment, Kohinata Mirai has realized this fact under the impact of reality.

It is absolutely not enough to fight with the idea that there is still room for maneuver, or to fight with the hope of achieving the best possible outcome.

He was facing an incredibly powerful and formidable enemy.

It is the posture of a girl who has bound herself with both body and mind, yet is still able to suppress them, liberating herself from all prisons.

"No, you can't still have that idea. Really, that's a bit greedy."

Having realized this fact, Kohinata Mirai murmured to herself, her gaze fixed on the yellow crystal blocking the core.

Her best friend has made her choice, so now it's her turn to make one.

“Cover me, Chris.”

Kohinata Mirai spoke calmly to Chris, who was fighting alongside her.

Then, without waiting for a reply, the Divine Beast Mirror's power, granting it the ability to fly, propelled it towards the core at the center.

"Hinata-chan?"

Chris, who was still reeling from the shocking turn of events in the battle, heard Kohinata Mirai's words.

Watching the other side's figure fly into the sky, they temporarily suppressed the chaotic emotions in their hearts and used a rain of arrows and guns to cover the other side's flight.

,

Seeing the same action from Kohinata Mirai, the Zeke Armor abandoned its repairs to the core and shifted its attention to her.

Under the control of the fire control system, the floating cannons turned and fired a dense barrage of red light beams at the girl in the air.

However, the counter-fire from below hindered the attack of the floating cannons.

Despite her confused state of mind, Chris's shooting remained precise, providing crucial cover for Kohinata's future actions.

Thus, the girl, clad in black and purple armor, successfully arrived above the Zeke armor.

"I can sense how anxious and uneasy you are right now... Ah, no, thinking about it carefully, it seems that you haven't been able to escape fear since the first time we met."

Looking down at the cold, giant mechs below, Kohinata Mirai unconsciously thought this.

Looking back on the past and gazing at the present, she deeply understood the lingering fear in Lingyi's heart.

Whether it was the initial rescue, the subsequent dramatic changes, or the consistently feigned strength.

She was never freed from fear for even a moment; her life seemed to be frozen at some point, unable to take a single step forward.

"I don't know if I, or we, can free you from this fear."

With her eyes closed and body relaxed, and arms outstretched, Kohinata murmured to the future, as if surrendering her mind and body to the divine beast mirror within her that was in harmony with her.

Gradually, Symphogear, which wraps around the whole body, interacts with the user's mind and continuously regenerates and reconstructs itself.

In this way, enormous energy was squeezed out of this body.

"The only thing I can do is use this life you once saved to try and eliminate this terrible feeling that comes from your heart!"

With emotions building to their peak, the Divine Beast Mirror gave Hinata Mirai the greatest possible response at that moment.

At the same time, sensing the increasingly powerful energy emanating from Kohinata Mirai, the mecha quickly swung its massive sword, ignoring Chris's bombardment from the side.

puff--

The pitch-black blade pierced the girl's body, bringing with it the destructive power of death that could destroy everything in a second.

But it was useless. Such immense power, the power to destroy everything, was utterly useless at this moment.

The reason is that Kohinata Mirai's vital signs had already stopped long before the sword was aimed at her.

After the sword pierced her body, all that remained in the sky was the corpse of a girl who was smiling as she looked down, her body pierced by the purplish-red crystal and then turning into dust.

"Ah!"

The individual who posed the threat is dead, but the crisis sensed by the Zek armor has not disappeared.

In the final moment, fueled by the warmth in his heart, all the energy that Kohinata Mirai could squeeze out of his body transformed into a bright mirror that blotted out the sky above the Zeke Armor.

These mirrors continuously release the demon-dispelling beams of the divine beast mirrors, which are then transmitted to other mirrors for reflection. As they are reflected, they are further amplified, and after reaching their limit, they converge with the equally amplified beams.

Clearly, this is the most powerful radiance of the Divine Beast Mirror that can only be released at this moment, after exhausting its life force.

This was also Kohinata Mirai's wish, the last thing she could do.

"Is this Kohinata's decision?"

Below, Maria, who had just come to her senses, looked at the structure that resembled a sky full of crimson flowers blooming in the heavens, and felt a tremendous tremor in her heart.

"...Ah!"

This magnificent scene, written with lives, could not elicit any reaction from the mechs, which were already in a berserk state.

At this moment, it merely sensed the murderous intent beneath the scenery. Thus, its main cannons, which had already cooled down, began to converge, intending to destroy it before the attack was fully prepared.

The scarlet light grew larger and larger, gradually rivaling and eventually overshadowing the soft purplish-red light.

Everyone present noticed this.

"We absolutely cannot let her efforts go to waste!"

As Chris thought this, six missiles rose up behind her.

However, some people were much quicker than her.

[EMPRESS + REBELLION]

The silver-black chain sword moved from bottom to top, passing over the shoulder and arm, and was quickly attached to the massive armor, its tip inserted into the main cannon that was gathering energy.

Thus, the manipulation of the energy vector disrupted the main gun's energy convergence in an extremely rapid manner.

"Huff, huff... Ha, to be honest, you're really strong. I've never seen anyone as strong as you."

“In fact, for a long time, I thought you wouldn’t show any signs of weakness and wouldn’t need anyone’s help.”

Beneath the massive mech, the tiny musician, Maria Cardenzavna Eve, gripped the chain sword stretched to its limit with all her might.

"But I was wrong. Your cries for help were louder than anyone else's, but your heart, yearning for help, was locked away by a strong shell."

The chain sword was creaking and seemed about to break at any moment, but Maria was still able to restrict the mecha's movements before it broke.

"If I had paid more attention in the past, perhaps I could have noticed this fact sooner. Maybe I could have done something to prevent things from developing to this point."

"This was my mistake, but fortunately, it's not too late to make amends now."

The sacrifices of the two men made Maria realize that Symphogear had another way to unleash enormous energy.

They also knew that that method would inevitably lead to death.

But it doesn't matter, the reward for this price has already been paid before. Now, at most, it's just exchanging my life for my sister's life.

"Absolutely not! I won't let you continue your rampage like this, devouring everything!"

A silvery radiance burst forth from within, strengthening the previously creaking chain sword and making it sturdy once more.

Then, the black silver's massive wrist burst forth with light, and power surged from all parts of its body, transmitting to every part of the enormous mech through classical mechanics.

"Haaaaaaahh ...

-boom!

The immense power converged, squeezing out all life force, and thus gained a brief opportunity to bloom.

The massive mech, struggling against Maria's pull, collapsed to the ground, kicking up dust, and remained immobilized.

Serena, wasn't my choice the right one...?

With this final thought in mind, Maria's consciousness could no longer be sustained and vanished completely. The chain swords extending from her crystallized body firmly secured the massive Zeke armor.

“Maria… Ahhh, fight, we must fight, after all, things have come to this…”

There was no time to grieve for the new sacrifices; all Krystal could do now was to consolidate the gains made by the previous sacrifices.

The previously prepared missiles were launched, and the successive bombardments exploded on the floating cannons in the air that were intended to unleash their firepower.

Although this level of attack couldn't destroy the floating cannons against an opponent that had been enhanced twice, it was enough to delay them from firing.

At the same time, the final attack released by Kohinata Future Life had finally completed its charging, and the purplish-red light had illuminated everything around it.

The enormous mirror was already aimed at the Zeke armor that was fixed to the ground.

..........

They seemed to realize that escape before the attack was imminent, and that failure was the only outcome if they did nothing.

The mech took action, its massive blade detaching from its grip and hovering as it charged upwards, making a final attempt to destroy the Mirror.

"Damn it, it's gotten to this point!"

Noticing the mech's movements, Chris immediately tried to stop it, but her strength was already at its limit just to hold back the floating cannons.

In her moment of crisis, she even considered walking the path that her companions, who had followed one after another, had already trod.

【Shadow Stitch】

Just then, under Chris's gaze, the blade that was rushing towards the sky suddenly stopped after a tremor.