Maiden of Death

Cancer suppressed the impulse to immediately take aim with his stinger as he began to make a break for it, moving to the upper right side of Tsuruko while yelling, "Everyone! As we planned!"

A lesser symbiote immediately launched a blast of flame towards Tsuruko, and then also began to run. Cancer deliberately chose not to follow the Coordinate, that stopped abruptly and dodged as he fired a stinger slice at the empty space as according to the simulation.

However...Cancer could see the light of the Kaizorg's aura with his naked eye; there was a short delay after Tsuruko deflected the stinger slice with her bare hands. Tsuruko was fast, but she could only move around headlong directly, and the effects of Earth Land's gravity on the low orbit naturally hindered her methods of evasion even more.

Cancer sensed that his attacks were showing effects as his senses started to feel excited, "It's working…!" he triumphantly yelled as he raised his lips. "The Coordinate is just a rookie, and the actions are just as what the simulation indicated. Surround her now!"

"It's futile to forcefully pursue an enemy with much better mobility. I just have to grasp the movement habits of the enemy and shoot the stinger slices at the predicted target. From the battle data provided by Alexis, Sejren is used to dodging by the right side, and this tendency will show itself obediently if she's caught right now. It's easy to catch up and pincer her—"

Cancer coordinated with a lower symbiote as he fired a second stinger slice strike at the path of Tsuruko Sejren. While he waited for the charge before launching next wave of attack, he would allow his ally to let loose and let Tsuruko meet the fireballs while she moved at a fast speed. The lower symbiote too followed Cancer's action, causing numerous rings of light and fireballs to cross over on Tsuruko's path.

Everything immediately cooled off, and the gas that became blueish-white remained in the atmosphere, passing through the scars of explosions. Tsuruko continued to accelerate as she let out the lights of her aura, and the two symbiotes did not stop their hands firing as they gradually closed their perimeter. After an umpteenth beam hit Tsuruko's aura shield, she looked like she tumbled as she slowed down.

"I'll go behind her!" The lower symbiote shouted; as relative distance was less than 10km, and Tsuruko, who was in disarray, raised her buster cannon to aim as she had no choice left.

Cancer stopped the charge of his next attack as he let out a light, and Tsuruko blocked the attack with her aura shield; though she staggered greatly. Cancer caught sight of his ally, whom encircled Tsuruko quickly, saw him raise the flame hook high up, and saw an illusion of the flame that gathered in a form of the hook stab into Tsuruko's back. The pleasing sensation immediately rose up his body. He had no time to look back, so just smash that demonic maiden in the back viciously hard…!

At that moment, Tsuruko's left arm moved, and the flame could be seen from the elbow that reached behind.

There was no time to observe clearly. Right at the moment the lesser symbiote was about to swing down the flame hook, Cancer's ally was stabbed through in the chest out of a suddenly. The sound of his ally's organs being crushed and his body vaporizing resounded throughout the air; as Cancer could not understand what was going on immediately as he looked at the two fighters that were clinging to each other in shock.

"Her buster cannon emitted aura to form a beam saber!?" He whispered in fear; Tsuruko did not look back, and didn't look at the formerly living symbiote's location as she stabbed the eternano particles appearing at her elbow into the lesser symbiote's body.

At this point, Tsuruko turned her back on the lesser symbiote that was paralyzed in her limbs, staring right at Cancer. Tsuruko's glowing eyes were emulating the golden glow of her aura, seemingly mocking him.

Before Cancer could even react, the elbow that was stabbed deeply into his ally suddenly raised backwards forcefully, and Tsuruko pulled the beam saber out of the stabbed symbiote and raised it over the head.

The maiden of death swung around, and Cancer's ally was thrown right over. The symbiote who had assisted the Cancer Symbiote was immediately devoured in a scorching ring of light, and Cancer's sight was covered in white.

"My friend...!" Cancer screamed at Tsuruko in sheer fury—however, he could only react hastily as he began to charge towards Tsuruko. Despite this, a voice,

"Run for it, Cancer!"

Stopped him from making a fatal mistake.

"That Council woman led us into a trap! She knew that the Coordinate would be too powerful for the regular Zodiac Knights members to handle! Hurry up and leave while you still have legs!" The jester's—no, the Gemini Symbiote's voice sounded like it was trembling, and it intensified the fear within Cancer by several times.

Tsuruko darted up towards Cancer. This appearance that would be aptly described as a demon closed in on Cancer, and the fear of being gnawed and devoured went through Cancer's body. "You monster…"

He kept trying to aim with his pincer, but the impact struck his body this time. Cancer bent over greatly, and saw that his pincer that was sliced in two flew about his head; Tsuruko Sejren had completely ripped one of his limbs. He then immediately saw Tsuruko go above him, crossing her hands. The beam sabers that were activated like tonfas were interlaced like a cross, and he saw two blades swing down to both left and right sides.

The gradual impact and the noise filled Cancer's ears, and at that moment, Cancer's other limb, which was sliced let out sparks; Tsuruko glared at the Cancer Symbiote emotionlessly; and raised the beam saber which was about to deal a fatal blow. Cancer did not have the time to experience his own death as he stared at the scythe of the golden-glowing goddess of death.

At this moment, a *SWOOSH* of cards suddenly appeared in his ears, and an eternano light went by Cancer right after the glow of Tsuruko's aura backed off, drawing a bright beam of light in what was originally a vacuum. Two, three beams then overlapped it, and Cancer knew that the Gemini Symbiote was below, about to take the matter of the Coordinate into her own hands.

Tsuruko rolled sideways to dodge the beams that kept coming, and charged right at the source of these shots. As Tsuruko drew the beam sabers and went right at her, Gemini raced forward. Both sides clashed within a second, and their sabers were locked in on each other. At the next moment, both sides went aside in the direction they were headed. They fired beams at each other, drew an infinity sign and clashed again.

Gemini didn't want to waste time. She folded her arms, and released numerous cards—about twenty cards flew out in a vortex at Tsuruko; scattering and surrounding in a 'sphere array' as they formed a diameter of at least 100cm. the cards gathered light in order to fire a myriad of beams, aiming for Tsuruko's heart...

....However, she could only see Tsuruko's shape for an instant.

"She disappeared again…!?"

The light beams clashed with each other from all directions in three dimensions, creating an explosion that scattered in the atmosphere. Tsuruko wasn't anymore; she vanished. Tsuruko Sejren had escaped from the sphere array formed by the 20 cards and moved several kilometers away.

Tsuruko's eyes flashed a dark glow. Her entire body let out a luminescent afterimage, causing her to look like she was giving off a fighting will.

It wasn't exactly a joke; Tsuruko Sejren had defied physics by teleporting; or rather, she had back-stepped at high speed, but immediately accelerated and stopped, causing her movements to appear as if she had disappeared; it was impossible to detect her presence, let alone try and catch up with one's eyes.

Despite that, Gemini just focused on detecting Tsuruko's presence. The cards that had switched positions shot out beams at Tsuruko; however, dodging the beams, Tsuruko rapidly closed in; as Gemini continued to fire at her enemy, letting her cards do all of the work.

The Kaizorg that dodged the first strike from the cards pulled out her beam saber on the shoulder and dashed forward as she swung the beam saber left and right. The cards which are hit by the aura particles immediately exploded, forming several light rings that lighted the eternal darkness—Tsuruko could see the trajectory of the cards. Gemini pulled the cards back in front of her, hoping that she will hit the incoming enemy as she shot them all out.

The distance between them was about 2km, and this was already a zero distance range for the eternano particles released by Gemini's cards travelling at subluminal speed. However, Tsuruko still dodged, predicting the timing of the shots and evading them. The cards couldn't have a next shot; while Gemini evaded, Tsuruko used her beam saber to slice off any of Gemini's armour in her way while blasting forward at supersonic speeds; chasing Gemini without any hesitation.

The golden beam blade swung up from below and struck Gemini's left shoulder—which was melted and snapped together with her arm, causing Gemini to scream as she took the impact which was so strong that her eyeballs nearly popped out; despite this, she aimed her cards at Tsuruko...

The cards that first got over in front of Tsuruko tried to shoot out beams as it intended to force Tsuruko into the other cards' range as they were aligned in a sphere. Tsuruko sensed the perimeter that was formed with killing intent, and the next term would be the crucial moment. Gemini saw that Tsuruko was moving in the direction she predicted beforehand before sending the attack thoughts to the cards that were on standby. She gathered the sight of all 20 cards into her consciousness, and as she turned this expanded instinct into an attack, Tsuruko Sejren suddenly shot out a 'presence' that seemed to form a giant wind that had a physical effect, flowing right at Gemini.

It was impossible to imagine that this came from the Kaizorg. The 'air' that was now filled with powerful antagonistic intent passed through Gemini's body, ruffling her organic skin as it blew behind. The feeling of a rotten slug passed through her body and dug in—the sealed memories rose up Gemini's throat, and in an instant, she could not tell which direction was which any longer as she could only gather her attack thoughts to the cards. However, the cards remained unmoved as they surrounded Tsuruko, waiting silently with no signs of moving.

It felt like time stopped. Tsuruko, who was surrounded by the cards that were floating weakly, continued to let out this overwhelming 'air' as she stared at Gemini, raising her right hand slowly.

The five fingers that were opened let out an invisible wave, causing the cards that were still remaining to let out their magical energy. They then moved according to Tsuruko's fingers, and turned around with beams pointed at Gemini.

The cards were flickering like they were making a mockery as Tsuruko swung down her right hand, causing the cards filled with antagonistic intent to attack their master.

The beams then came firing out from the cards, and multiple beams were aimed at Gemini; whom immediately dodged and tried to gather her thoughts on the cards, only to be shocked that she could not plot out the cards' paths. Gemini did not know where the cards were. "What's going on, my cards? Can't you recognize me!?"

The cards that lost their sense of self were firing beams of light, pecking at their mother bird, Gemini Symbiote. A graze caused an impact to rock Gemini, as the scattered shots came flying out of the chest, and the two cards that took direct hits let out explosions of light. "This is...!!"

"The Coordinate, once it's activated it's Dust to Dust Mode, is able to manipulate any and every type of magic to exist through mental commands~"Alexis's words stung harshly; she did set up this battle...but for what purpose...?

The fear that was hidden deep inside her—the profile of the Coordinate caused her to be stricken in fear as she cringed. The Gemini Symbiote was being hunted down by the Kaizorg swinging her beam saber, she saw the horrifying eyes at close distance, and her body was screaming with fear and despair of death.

"Gemini, get out of here...!!" Gemini would be killed here—Cancer wanted to reach his hand out to help, but he could not save anything, and he could not do anything—this thought was scarier than death as it crushed Cancer's heart.

Tsuruko Sejren aimed her buster cannon forward, pointing it straight towards Gemini—condensing aura, she charged up...

However...her blast did not make contact. In a flash of light, Gemini and Cancer were whisked away; teleported out of harm's way.

Tsuruko began to power down... "I've...become...this..." Tsuruko's thoughts started to unravel, and the burning sensation that was rampaging deep within her abdomen vanished as an icy cold emptiness spread through her body. Her nerves were being severed line by line, and the senses that were exposed to the outer world were gradually being enclosed in darkness. Tsuruko's completely saturated mind and soul had gone offline, and she did not move a finger as she stared at the debris of the food court.

Tsuruko's true form was stained in blood as she slumped like a broken puppet who had its strings cut— inside this armour was a soul that was swallowed, a body of flesh that committed a sin again, ready to die—

"…Help me."

Tsuruko could only let out a mosquito-like plea as she weakly reached her hand to grasp the sun, utterly devastated. Her vision was dyed a burning hot colour, and the malfunction windows revealing her true nature were overlapping over it continuously.