The World’s Revenge

(Ssssshhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuuu...)

Time seemed to dilate until it became an unbearable distortion, freezing the raindrops mid-fall like tiny crystals floating in the gloom.

(Sssssllloooowwwwsssshhhh...)

And in the midst of that state of artificial stillness, suspended in the air, Mireya's pearl-white gaze captured the display of the imminent cataclysm...

"¡¡¿?!!"

Through her eyes, the scene was reflected with a terrifying clarity as the black clouds and the cracked ground threatened to bury everything in a blink.

(¡Crac-boom! ¡Frrachhh! ¡Crac-boom!)

However, before it was too late, and resisting the cognitive paralysis suffocating her senses...

"WATCH OUT!!"

Mireya, forcing the air through her throat, broke the weight of the dead atmosphere with a desperate scream that tore through the silence of the clearing.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡KRAAA-BOOOOOOOM—KRRRRRRRR...!!!!!!!!)

That was the signal that restored the course of time with seismic violence.

("Goldie!!")

("Yes...!!")

As a result, before the rain of lightning could touch the ground or the colossal limbs of rock and mud could close over the perimeter, the response of her companions was instantaneous and coordinated.

("Royal Style: Cycle of Rebirth!")

In an instant, Silver lunged forward, turning into a silver flash that defied gravity, materializing her blade from the void to immediately imbue it with a torrent of gray and spectral flames...

("¡¡SLASH!!")

And with a violent spin in the air, her circular slash drew a crescent moon that cleanly sliced through the density of the living stone, turning the geological structures into a rain of harmless debris.

("Barrier!!")

At the same time, in perfect synchronicity, Goldie soared vertically toward the firmament like a golden flash, intercepting the storm head-on.

(¡¡¡BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!)

Thus, before impact, she deployed a luminous field of distortion that covered the sky completely, causing the spears of electricity to burst against the golden barrier in a blinding display that dissipated the celestial fury, thereby protecting the defenseless ground.

(¡¡¡SHRRRRRR-VROOOOM-KRRRR-SHHHHH!!!)

But while the echo of the celestial detonations still vibrated in the air...

("¡¡!!")

...That was when the ground beneath the clearing responded with a deep and treacherous rumble, shattering the brief truce.

(¡¡¡RUUUUUUUUMBLE!!!)

Without giving a single second of respite, a colossal mass of compacted earth emerged from the depths with the speed of a battering ram, ascending in a direct trajectory toward Silver.

(¡¡THU-DOOOOM!!)

In response, still caught in the inertia of her own spin and completely unable to alter her posture in the air, the small silver warrior reacted out of pure instinct, materializing her shield just in time to interpose it in the trajectory of the assault.

(¡¡¡CLANG-CRASH!!!)

Because of that, the resulting impact resonated with a metallic and dull crash that shook her fibers, absorbing the brutality of the blow.

"Silver!!"

Thanks to that, she was violently repelled backward by the force of the shockwave.

("¡¿?!")

However, in the sky, almost in parallel to that, the humid air surrounding Goldie suffered a violent drop in temperature across an omnidirectional range.

(¡¡CRIC... CRIC... CLAC...!!)

And in a fraction of a second, the dense raindrops suspended around her completely crystallized, mutating into thousands of sharp ice icicles that flashed with a gelid glow.

(¡¡¡SWIIIIISH—SHHIAAA!!!)

Immediately after, attacking in a perfect siege, the frozen swarm took her completely off guard while she sustained the firmament.

("My mantle...?!")

Therefore, with no space to evade the bombardment lurking from every imaginable angle, Goldie was forced to retract her energy threads at high speed, reducing the massive conceptual field to a dense bubble of personal defense.

(¡¡¡FZZZZZZ-CRASH-TK-TK-TK-TK!!!)

In this way, the relentless frozen punishment crashed against her protection, forcefully repelling the small doll and forcing her to cede ground in the heights in the midst of a gelid whirlwind.

"Goldie?!"

And as a result of witnessing such scenes, Mireya, without a trace of hesitation, lunged forward in panic, acting on a purely instinctive impulse, sweeping through the air in a straight and fast trajectory, determined to interpose herself in the conflict without measuring the consequences of her actions.

"What...?!"

However, before she could consolidate her advance, the crisis evasion, reacting in a completely automatic manner, took absolute control over her actions.

(¡¡¡FWOOOOSH!!!)

By forcibly tuning into the hostility of the environment, her own body betrayed her, forcing her to halt dead in her tracks and retreat violently in a desperate parabola of evasion, backing away.

(¡¡¡CRACKLE-BOOM!!!)

Thanks to that, she escaped just a millisecond before a colossal curtain of ancestral fire erupted like a firewall where she had been moments prior, rising like an incandescent wall that would have incinerated her silhouette had she continued forward.

"Plant, lightning, earth, ice, and even fire... What's next?!"

But that offensive had no intention of granting her a truce...

(¡¡Sssssllloooowwwwsssshhhh~!!)

And before Mireya could regain her balance in the midst of the dense bluish smoke, the underlying wind currents twisted around her with ruthless precision.

"Now it's the wind?!"

In a blink, the ionized air closed in on her position, immobilizing her body right at the exact center of a nascent hurricane.

(¡¡¡WHIRRRRRRR-WHISH!!!)

In this way, trapped and defenseless in the eye of the storm, the atmospheric pressure began to suffocate her movements, sealing her escape as the vortex roared around her.

"I've had enough!"

Nonetheless, when the oppression of the vortex and the relentless sensory punishment finally exhausted Mireya's patience...

"Antonio!!"

Trapped and indignant at the center of the storm, she exclaimed in a tone that mixed irritation with fierce determination.

(¡¡¡SWIIIIISH!!!)

And responding to her call, a glow flashed in her right hand, and from the particles of light, she materialized her weapon, pan in hand.

"Fire with fire..."

However, far from being an ordinary utensil, this manifestation of her magical girl power presented a predominantly bright pink coloration, adorned with intricate and stylized designs of chromatic hearts along the handle and the metallic base, creating a delirious yet lethal contrast in the midst of the elemental apocalypse.

"Hurricane!!"

Immediately after, tightly gripping the handle of her frying pan, Mireya inhaled the ionized air and, with all her might, unleashed a war cry that rumbled above the roar of the wind.

(¡¡¡WHIRRRRRRR-ROTACIÓN!!!)

And right at that very instant, Mireya began to spin on her own axis at superhuman speed, generating a perfect and absolute rotation that created a spherical dome of pressure around her.

(¡¡¡KRA-KA-BOOM-SHHHHHH!!!)

As a result, the centrifugal force of her rotation blasted outward, completely shattering the tornado that confined her and dispersing the enemy currents into threads of residual air.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"

And without halting her momentum, Mireya advanced in a straight line like an authentic compressed and rolling hurricane, sweeping through the gloom of the clearing.

<... Hey... You... You asked me a question... Right? >

However, in response, nature counterattacked.

(¡¡¡¡¡SHAAAAAA—¡¡¡ZAP-ZAP-ZAP!!!!!!!!)

In a fraction of a second, the dense raindrops suspended in the atmosphere hardened until they acquired the density of steel and, charged with a brutal hydrodynamic pressure, began to shoot against her relentlessly from absolutely every direction, turning the air into a liquid firing squad field that slammed against her protective vortex.

(A voice?!)

But despite the protection of her rotation, the relentless rain of liquid projectiles began to bite at the margins of her defense, while the confusion in her mind grew disproportionately.

(... No, I don't have time to think... Now is not the time for that... Concentrate!!)

Therefore, knowing that she could not maintain that blind advance, Mireya abruptly decelerated her spin in response.

(¡¡FWOOOOSH!!)

And immediately, she invoked the flames of the haunted hearth.

"Burn!!"

In a blink, her silhouette was enveloped by a whirlwind of violet and spectral fire that halted her dead in her tracks in mid-air.

(¡¡Fuuump!!)

Following that, with a dull explosion, the cursed fire expanded outward in a perfect and devastating igneous wave, instantly incinerating and evaporating every single raindrop in a massive range, turning the surrounding perimeter into a dead zone of boiling steam and dense smoke that dissipated the offensive.

"Who the hell are yo...?!"

As a result, taking advantage of that miraculous millisecond of a truce amidst the mist, Mireya—with her breath ragged and tightly holding her pink frying pan—tried to raise her voice to demand answers...

<Have Anomaly...? already forgotten... you>

Her words were cut short.

"... It can't be."

Deep within the astral plane, silently and unappealably, the thirty-fifth and final layer of the planetary barrier intertwined with the previous ones, completing the design of the perfect prison.

With the absolute sealing of the conceptual isolation, the inhibiting effect designed specifically to neutralize anomalies and existential errors was released with the force of an invisible hydraulic press.

(¡¡¡SHHHHHH—FROTT...!!!)

As a result of that...

(¡¡¡................!!!)

...Mireya felt the impact directly in her soul; a crushing heaviness and a profound void began to devour her strength in an instant, causing a dizziness so violent that the environment seemed to spin in a spiral of nausea.

(¡¡THUD!!)

Therefore, unable to resist the suppression of the barrier, her legs buckled, forcing her to fall to her knees against the freezing and muddy ground of the clearing, propping one hand on the earth as she tried to maintain consciousness in the midst of the existential suffocation.

(... Oh, no... No, no, no, no, no, no, no... Come on, get up!)

However, before she could stand up, a sharp and desperate scream tore through the din of the storm.

"MOMMY!!"

Upon hearing that voice, at that exact moment, a profound fear invaded her entire being...

(Flora?!)

Raising her gaze, what she saw was the image of Flora, driven by a blind and pure worry, flying at full speed directly toward her position.

"STAY BACK! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!"

And immediately upon seeing the small princess of spirits entering the epicenter of the suppression zone, absolute panic supplanted any trace of physical pain in Mireya, who tore her throat in a desperate warning.

However...

(¡¡¡KRRRRRR-CRAAAASH!!!)

Her words were buried by an organic and monstrous crunch.

<...As a mother... let me ask you...>

In an instant, from the depths of the cracked earth, a colossal carnivorous plant of titanic proportions erupted violently, opening its jaws covered in thorns and acidic juices that devoured the silhouettes of Mireya and Flora in a single blink.

(¡¡¡FWOOOOSH!!!)

Immediately after, the vegetative jaws clamped shut, trapping them for a fraction of a second before contracting and catapulting both bodies toward the overcast sky, expelling them like defenseless projectiles into the torrential rain.

"Let go of Mommy!!"

But mid-air, suspended in the firmament, Flora's nature reacted.

<... You stole a part of my power... And from it, that little one was born... So...>

Despite her youth, her royal lineage over natural spirits prevailed and, extending her tiny hands, she unleashed a pulse of authority that instantly nullified the elemental control over the creature that had attacked them.

(¡¡¡¡¡PLING-SHHHHHH!!!!!)

Nonetheless, as the carnivorous plant dissolved in the air, transforming into a peaceful rain of emerald light particles, releasing them both...

"MOMMY...!!"

... Flora threw herself into a controlled freefall, stretching out her small arms in a desperate attempt to grab her mother and protect her from the fall.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SWISH—CRACK-SPIKE!!!!!!!)

Only to be impaled right in the middle of the firmament.

<... This scene... How does it make you feel...?>