Luxinna emptied everything in her mind. With the familiar hilt of [Historia] nested in her palm, she couldn’t stop smiling. Oh, how she missed her partner. She lost count of times she wished for this blade during the battle with her alter ego. Luxinna doubted [Historia] alone could tip the unfavorable balance she faced during her trail, but struggling without it felt like she got kneecapped.

Now with her weapon in hand, Luxinna was ready to show the world why the Dawn called her the Ace.

…

“Hey, is she going to be fine!” Magnolia shouted at Cytortia and Hikma. “You just sent her all alone.”

Hikma answered instead of Cytortia who was busily nursing the out-of-count Melody.

“Just watch. It is her showtime.”

…

Luxinna took a quick note of the situation. Without Melody dragging her down, and the survivor tucked safely beneath Cytortia’s protection, there was nothing nerfing her. And unlike the time with 33 Stars, she wouldn’t need to take it easy.

[Overflow]

Information flooded Luxinna’s brain. Yep, she got accessed to all her original ability, and some extra from [Bioglass]. Luxinna gritted her teeth. Her newest armor was peppered with special functions, but with how new it was, she barely understood much less operate it. The best she could do was used it like a good old armor, but with some add-on.

Through [Overflow], she observed PALISADE unleased another artillery round. Her mind quickly plotted her path through the raining fires, identified a brief potential sniping moment, and rounded out an escape route.

Time resumed.

And the elf became a streak of lightning. 

She slipped past countless downpour of energy, navigating with such velocity that seemingly exempt from the G-Force. Right. Left. Left. Then a narrow bypass. The elf easily maneuvered past PALISADE’s countless attack, transformed [Historia] into a bow, and open fire with a fully loaded [Serene Glass] arrow packed to the brim with power.

The arrowed flew in the discharge that hit force worth 250 tons of TNT.

Boom!

She wove her way into another opening and fired.

Boom!

Then again.

…

PALISADE was speechless.

Approximately 2000 bolts of Magnus Crystal lasers and it accomplished nothing. That thing coordination was perfect, but the power output release and her speed didn’t match. The surrounding explosion was a solid A-ranker’s work, but the movement of that specimen was within the realm of S-ranker.

Something didn’t line up. Somehow the subject it fought displayed the greater speed than her station implied. She didn’t display a sign of forbidden technique or signature effect of limit-break. PALISADE could only deduce one reason she could display such feat.

The girl was circumventing the usual reflex cycle by simulating the event before it happened and programmed her neuron to react accordingly. It was a technique to optimize her movement and included an incredibly complex internal electrical manipulation. Her explosive speed and power occurred not through overriding her muscle’s natural limit, but via fully using every muscle to fuel each action. It wasn’t limit break but super-muscle control that shouldn’t won’t be possible without carefully tuning her entire body like an instrument.

PALISADE must admit that girl’s mind was akin to supercomputer to simulate those attack patterns and planned out her movement down to the last neuron, but such technique had a weakness.

That was it. A slight pause every 3 seconds, and then there was a classic weakness in total commitment.

…

Luxinna got the scare of her life when a laser nearly hit her in the face.

Shit.

There was no other conclusion. PALISADE understood [Overflow].

Sure, pre-emptively predicted attack-plan then focusing all her nervous system to implement it at superhuman speed made her much faster than many opponents in her grade. But there was a limit on how far she could foresee. The window that [Overflow] end was the point she was opened, as she wouldn’t be able to formulate another [Overflow] immediately. Rem called this the 3-seconds opening.

Then there was a more alarming weakness.

Luxinna went into another [Overflow], calculated her attack-pattern and proceeded.

PALISADE already expected this and launched a high-speed laser-attack that grazed Luxinna in the perfect spot it manipulated her to pass. Immediately knocking from Luxinna from [Overflow] state and left her open for another two shots of high-speed laser.

Luxinna’s [Aura] tank those attacks, but the elves were forced to dive underwater to escape the continuing bombardment.

Luxinna swallowed a scream of pain. So those were Magnus Sin Crystal. It felt like someone was rubbing a knife down her spine.

But she got a bigger problem. PALISADE cracked the two weaknesses of [Overflow].

The 3-second opening was a huge pain to deal with but worst was the total commitment. [Overflow] clutched on her ability to simulate and predict the attack paths. But a highly skilled opponent who understood [Overflow] as a concept could tailor their response to create a right opening to launch a quick surprise attack outside her calculation. Rem once beat her that way by hiding a tiny flash band and left an opening in his counterattack. The flashbang knocked her out of [Overflow] because of unexpected sensory overload. It was how her alter-ego defeated her speed; by moving faster than [Overflow] could keep up.

And when that interruption happened, her brain would blank, leaving her frozen for comboing.

Luxinna’s overwhelming powers was a trade-off. [Override] granted power at an expense of paying for breaking the limit with pain. [Overflow] optimized her efficiency and action speed, but cashed in on total commitment and vulnerability when the odds backfire.

The elf groaned. After this battle was over, she needed to readjust her battle tactic again. It was time to swallow her pride and properly asked Cy’s opinion.

Luxinna transformed [Historia] into a sword.

She couldn’t hold her breath much longer, but she still got more trick PALISADE didn’t know about.

Yes, she couldn’t properly use this armor, but there was still a neat function she could use.

Who knew this armor housed a self-populating [Bioglass] micro-organism that constantly siphoned multiverse power and stockpiled for usage? Luxinna grinned. Okay, kiddo plankton, time to make mommy proud.

The power flowed into Luxinna, and she quickly converted it into a familiar compress liquid glass.

…

“What are you doing!?” Artos yelled at Cytortia. “She is down.”

“Wow,” gasped Melody. “That rich coming from an ungrateful backstabber.”

“He is right? Shouldn’t you be doing something?” Commander Serina sneaked in another crimson missile that didn’t do a damn thing against PALSADE. “Your friend just went down.”

“Well, that isn’t such a bad thing,” whispered Sorin Enma who was still smart about getting his ass kicked.

“You don’t need to worry,” Hikma finally got back on his feet.

“Yeah, just watch,” Cytortia said.

Right on cue, the ocean swelled with golden light, and the knight holding a golden sword emerged on a golden Lotus.

…

The machine was ready for Luxinna's entrance.

Countless drones and artillery lasers poured down, but they didn’t expect to greet Luxinna’s glowing sword which extended to meet them.

[Jewel Sword: Extension]

One swing from that gigantic golden blade stretching to the sky like the staff from the cosmos extinguished all the cyan projectiles, swallowing them whole like whale chowing the planktons. The beacon of light also consumed the coming drones in a swipe of that majestic blade, radiating heat and electricity as ozone overwhelmed the air. Anything which survived the net of destruction faced an intercepting fire from four [Assault Flora] fanning the elf. Light and friction painted the sky in a contest of firepower, and for PALISADE’s expectation were once again surpass.

Both sides were almost equal, but neither had the patience to trade blow like this forever

PAISADE charged its main orbital canon.

Luxinna released her strongest attack — the [Jewel Sword: Salvation].

Cyan and gold light collided in the air. A para-causal particle beam clashed against a quantum-state of hyper dense Mana augmented by high-purity Magnus Sin Crystal.

…

It was the battle that shook the sky.

“What the fuck are those two monsters?” Amitate’s hair raised on end. He got no doubt he would be killed immediately in the direct fight against those two.

“No way…” Mamacia Cocogar were utterly dumbfounded by the display of raw power which parted the cloud at their ground zero. “She was holding back the entire time?”

Sorin Enma lost his word. He simply stared, dumbfounded, at the contest of mind-blowing power.

“Duh,” Melody recovered enough to make a spicy jab at Cocogar. “Of course, she held back against you. Who the hell bought a gun to a kiddie fight? If Ace is as murder-happy as you are, there won’t be any space left in the morgue.” Then Melody stumbled upon the truth. “Wait, you actually believe you can beat her?”

Silence answered that question. Originally, the 33 Stars believed their declaration was achievable, but now reality came knocking in revelation that their object of scorn was showering them with mercy for an entire fight.

Against what they saw Luxinna accomplished, the notion of revenge become the cried of overconfidence it was.

It was the Chronicler who put the 33 Stars lofty ambition into a frame.

“People often said I am too humble for my good, and I can’t see anything wrong with that,” Hikma said. “Still. I think chasing for pointless revenge is a vanity. There are literally a thousand other issues that could be accomplished instead of looking for payback for hurt pride. Sure, you could come at me and Ace a thousand times, but — pardon my arrogance — you aren’t even in the picture. You might spend your life trying to get us, but we won’t be staying still with people to save. Truth is, we are nowhere powerful enough. The very fact we can’t save everyone crying out for help is a proof of that.”

“But that is impossible! What you are saying is ridiculous? Saving everyone is idealistic nonsense that defies the very reality! Are you all insane?!”

It was an entrenched call from Magnolia, accompanied by the cyan light of PALISADE slowly engulfing the Luxinna’s golden shine. It was the pinnacle excuse underpinning her very being.

“Sure, we admit it. The goal we are chasing is lofty, but…”

…

In the distance, Luxinna's feet skidded back from the Newtonian law of reaction, overcoming the friction grounding her. Shit. PALISADE increased its output and slowly shifting the equilibrium. Luxinna gritted her teeth, she needed more power and faster.

At an alarming speed, the cyan glowed brighten in her vision as the radiant of gold shrank. The overwhelming downpour of cyan light was dwarfing the power of Luxinna’s [Salvation] which struggled to keep its light.

So Luxinna went all in.

She sent an order to her armor. Every micro-organism housed in the oval node began conducting power at overtime. Luxinna narrowed the area of her beam to better focus its power and broke every [Assault Flora] she got to scrape the bottom barrel of her power.

The shining armor burst like golden stars as she heaped her power-stockpiled energy into the furnace and launched a colossal surged of power parting PALISADE light in momentum backed by the speed of sound. Golden light echoed across the sky, pushing its way through the opposing beam and turning the sky golden.

[Salvation] slammed into PALISADE without a pause. The AI’s sensor went bananas at the energy sensor it received. PALISADE clenched its metaphorical teeth and launched every of its generator to shield itself from oblivion.

…

The crowd watched the golden beam of super accelerated particle scattered the quantum cannon and painted the sky in luxurious gold. There were slack-jawed at the raw might being put on display and thus none of them but a single vampire notice his approach.

Serina felt a familiar feeling. It was a feeling of reassurance she never felt in a long time. But that wasn’t something to celebrate. That kind of reassuring aura was projected to mask immense guilt and loneliness. An obligation for the leader to remain as a pillar and smiled even when their blood paved the road to victory.

Serina couldn’t stand that self-sacrificing nature. She despised it.

“Great job. You give us an excellent opening.”

Serina cringed. No one else could feel it. It took time for her to notice the subtle turmoil within that kind of tone, but she got practices. She didn’t even want such skill, but the image of her past couldn’t stop playing on repeat.

It was all too familiar; immense willpower propelled on self-hatred, enduring the misery for others. Serina felt like she knew the person beside her all her life, without the need of a single conversation.

That presence enraged her.

She turned to see the man dressed in black with a mask shielding his identity.

…

Rem’s telepathic plan was clear, and the Dawn, finally recovered enough to stand, finally spun into motion.

“Finally!” Melody yelled and crafted two javelins with [Burning Asura: Nuclear Forge]. “Where the hell have you been all this time!”

It was then everyone notice the final member of the dawn.

“There is another one!” Sorin screeched.

“They keep popping like cockroach…” Mamacia cried. “Just where do these guys come from…”

Rem totally ignored their existences and raised his gun.

“Ehto, buddy, are you sure this would crack the shield.”

“Yes, but you must be exact with both shots.”

“No problem. Everyone on my signal!” 

“How are you planning to bring that thing down with that tiny weapon?” Serina couldn’t help herself from being antagonistic.

“With teamwork. Seriously, if you ate too much nitroglycerine, you will gain weight.”

Rem pulled the trigger, while Serina held herself from strangling the boy in front of her.

“First, I am not fat. Second, it is me who should be asking how much depressant you are taking!”

…

PALISADE felt Rem’s first shot shattered by a small gap inside its barrier. The AI noticed a strange signature. A modified round that exploited the weakness created by piling the energy to its frontal barrier. It was when PALISADE dismissed the threat that the second round sailed past that tiny cracked and hit it.

The presence of Ehto invaded. It was an evolved form of the chemical attack which wrestled the control of the facility from the AI. The bastard was still alive and able to bridge Ehto consciousness with his own to create a bullet to repeat those mental invasions. Against classic AI built from code, Rem attack would yield nothing but Astral construct like PALISADE could still be hampered by psychic attack.

PALISADE quickly squashed the invasion, but Rem succeeded. In that instant, the fortified Spatial barrier protecting it went down like shattered glass.

PALISADE quickly tried to reform the barrier, but its concentric-ring of shield generators were locked in place by telekinetic force.

It must be that masked bastard again.

To drive the stake further down PALISADE’s throat, Melody blasted from the ground, tossing her javelins into the joint connecting those shield generators. In two explosions, that all too vital ring got blasted off its hinges, and fell into the ocean in flashes of fire and smoke.

The development happened in an instant, but it was the winning move. PALISADE could dish one-sided beating through the combination of its superior fire-power and advance defenses. With its main barrier disable, the AI was dragged down to fair competition.

Even so, it didn’t give up. PALISADE was ready to open fired. Alas, without that shield, Horizon wasn’t having it. Several massive [Aegis] courtesy of Hikma locked it in place, with a spectral chain of light tying the lid of its artilleries shut, Melody flew into the air, jousting with a forged lance of flames and impaled the battle-satellite main orbital canon. The steel sank in, destroying the Magus Sin Crystal emitter in a burst of burnt electronic and black smoke. PALISADE’s thruster went out via some critical malfunction courtesy of telekinetic meddling.

It was a massacre — a gang-beating. One Horizon Dawn’s combatant was enough to give S-rank a fight, but all of them supported by Cytortia. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. PALISADE only lasted that long because the Dawn was caught unprepared, beaten in Melody’s case, and saddled with hostages. Its spatial barrier were few things that could stop Rem’s [Tenshou] and resisted Hikma’s [Conceptual Construct]. Once those advantages slipped from its grasp, PALISADE was done.

Still PALISADE still hung on to hope, it reinforced core could sustain damage.

That hope last until its sensor spot Luxinna high above with a bolt of lightning that took out Trimegal in her palm.

[Edge of ADA]

It was the lighting that sunder the cosmos.