Part one hundred eighty two — The Longer Road

　The Eastern Front, unlike its northern counterpart, was holding—and holding well.

　The reason wasn't the Western Alliance's own numbers, considerable as they were. It was Himari, weaving through the battlefield with a fluency that made every strike look effortless, every retreat obsolete before the enemy had even finished committing to it.

　Centuries—millennia, really, though nobody watching had any way of understanding the true scale of it—of accumulated combat experience moved through her like breath. Past, present, and future selves all quietly informed the motion of a single body.

　Chloe fought beside her, steady and lethal in her own right, while the Western soldiers handled what little the two of them left behind for ordinary blades to finish.

This is actually working.

　Himari cut down another advancing line with the same unhurried precision she might have used while sweeping a floor.

For once, this is actually—

　Her entire body suddenly went still.

　Her Future Sight had activated on its own.

　Unbidden.

　And what it showed her stole the noise of the battlefield away entirely.

Horizoncrest.

The facility.

The barrier.

Someone's there.

　Her eyes widened.

　Frederica—No. 3—stood before the Genesis Barrier itself, methodically and patiently working her way through its layers.

　"Someone's trying to break into the facility," Himari said urgently.

　Chloe turned toward her instantly.

　"They're trying to take Kai's mother."

　Something in Chloe's expression went cold.

　Fast.

　Total.

　"Go," Chloe said simply.

　"Are you sure?"

　"I'll handle this battlefield."

　Himari was already gone.

　By the time she arrived, Frederica had already broken through two of the three protective layers, working on the final one with the same unhurried confidence of someone who had never once considered failure a genuine possibility.

　Then everything simply stopped.

　Time froze around her.

　Frederica remained suspended mid-motion, utterly unable to move.

　Himari appeared.

BOOM!

　A single kick sent Frederica tumbling clear of the facility, crashing violently across the surface above ground before time resumed its normal flow.

　Frederica pulled herself upright.

　She studied Himari carefully.

　"So you're the one guarding the Chaos Dragon."

　"You're not getting anywhere near my mother," Himari said.

　The fight began.

　By any reasonable measure, it should have been close.

　Frederica was a named, evolved primordial demon—an existence capable of pushing even a Demon Lord to their genuine limits.

　She never stood a chance.

　Himari wasn't reacting to her.

　She had already seen what Frederica intended before Frederica herself had fully committed to it.

　Every attack was met before it properly began.

　Every adjustment was countered from an angle that, strictly speaking, hadn't happened yet.

　Every opening disappeared before Frederica could even recognize it as one.

I'm not fighting one person.

　The realization sent a flicker of alarm through Frederica's mind.

I'm fighting everything she could become.

　A black aura suddenly bled into existence nearby.

　A second figure stepped forward.

　"I came to lend a hand," she said.

　Himari glanced toward her.

　"So you work for Kazuhiko too."

　"Correct," Finn—No. 7—confirmed.

　Even together, the two of them couldn't turn the tide.

　Himari's time-borrowed advantage simply didn't allow for the kind of coordinated pressure that might otherwise have overwhelmed her.

　Then—

　A new presence appeared.

　Kazuhiko himself had arrived.

　"I can't believe the two of you are having trouble with her," he said mildly, studying his own subordinates with faint disappointment.

　Then his eyes settled on Himari.

　"Although…I expected nothing less from someone who controls time itself."

　Himari smiled.

　"Finally."

　She tightened her grip around her weapon.

　"You saved me the trouble of finding you."

　Kazuhiko drew his blade.

　"Then I won't hold back."

　"Good."

　Himari raised her own weapon.

　"Because neither will I."

　The battle began.

　Their figures vanished.

　The clash moved faster than the eye could follow, Himari cutting through Kazuhiko's past, present, and future simultaneously.

　One slash tore through him.

　Another followed.

　And another.

　Yet every wound closed.

　Regeneration.

　Again.

　Again.

　Again.

　Himari's expression gradually changed.

Every second I fight him…

　Her eyes narrowed.

He's getting stronger.

　His speed.

　His strength.

　His durability.

　His adaptation.

　His experience.

　His resistance.

　His skill efficiency.

　His reaction time.

　Everything was increasing.

　Continuously.

　And there was no apparent ceiling.

　Kazuhiko calmly stepped through another attack.

　"Ultimate Skill."

　His voice remained completely composed.

　"The Longer Road."

　He raised his blade.

　"The longer this fight continues, the more advantage accrues to me specifically."

　For the first time since arriving at Horizoncrest—

　Himari's smile disappeared.

　"So the longer I fight you," Himari said slowly, "the harder you become to actually beat."

　"Exactly."

Can't drag this out, then.

I have to end it fast—or not at all.

　Kazuhiko revealed his second skill without warning.

　"Law Breaker."

　The instant the words left his mouth, Himari's automatic temporal defenses reacted.

　Time itself folded around Kazuhiko.

　A prison formed.

　He was sealed away completely.

　For one triumphant instant, Himari thought she'd actually won.

　Then—

Crack.

　A single fracture appeared across the prison.

　Himari's eyes widened.

　Another crack followed.

　Then another.

　Kazuhiko's blade pushed through the impossible prison, cutting through the very concept of the law that bound him.

　The entire construct shattered.

　Kazuhiko emerged.

　Himari barely had time to react.

　His blade came down.

Too fast.

　She couldn't evade it.

　The killing blow was already there—

　when another version of herself suddenly appeared.

　Her future self.

　The woman grabbed Himari and violently pulled her backward through time itself.

　The blade passed through the space where her body had been a fraction of an instant earlier.

　The future Himari vanished immediately afterward, returning to whatever timeline had produced her.

　Silence.

　Himari stared at Kazuhiko.

　He stared back.

　Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

　"That's interesting."

　His eyes gleamed with genuine fascination.

　"I never knew time manipulation could be used quite like that."

　He lowered his blade slightly.

　A brief pause.

　Then his expression changed.

　"Your brother's just as interesting as you are."

　Himari froze.

　"...How did you know who my brother is?"

　Kazuhiko only smiled.