Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 54 - Upgrade

"Roger!" One of the crew members, Boss Mikimoto, exclaimed while operating his console.

The screen which previously graphed the world map now began to play a video.

"-" Watching the scene which transcended reality and fantasy, Shidou ceased breathing for a split second.

On the frame was a lusterless, black, and abstruse darkness. And within that unilluminating presence, flickered countless tiny specks. Shidou first believed it to be the night sky, but quickly dismissed that notion as he noticed something was amiss.

There was a gradually rotating sphere at the bottom of the frame. A vortex of white and blue as far as the eye can see. Indeed, that was the planet where Shidou and the others resided, Earth.

"The universe...."

That was the literal metaphor for the consummate separation of the heavens and the earth. And at the very center, a young girl floated unconstrainedly.

Above all, her beautiful long hair continuously radiated magnificent phosphorescence in spite of the black hole-like darkness that shadowed everything else. The unparalleled gorgeous golden hair would make anyone recognize her as the fairytale girl Rapunzel, drifting leisurely in that deep dark realm. Her Astral dress was embellished with patterns of various constellations and in her hand held a rather lengthy staff.

"This girl is....?"

"Yeah---we just recently confirmed this Spirit. We haven't decided on a fixed codename for her yet. For convenience, we'll call her Zodiac temporarily."

"First time?"

"Yup, of course excluding any unobserved possibilities, at least in Ratatoskr's database. Her angel, Astral Dress, abilities, temperament and et cetera are still unknown."

"So that's how it is. Is her method of attacking the Earth identified yet?"

As Shidou questioned, Kotori replied back with a heavy sigh.

"To tell the truth, there's a reason why we were able to detect this Spirit."

"A reason?"

"Aye. Broadcast the video taken three hours ago."

"Roger."

And so, the big screen started to display a different tape.

Although the background was still in outer space, this time Zodiac seemed to be dormant, her whole body curled up and calmly floating in the cosmos.

"This is...." Shidou's words halted midway.

The recording showed a different figure.

"A space warship?!" Shidou was taken aback and rounded his eyes.

An armada of three gargantuan space warships emerged from Earth and not only that. Innumerable termite-like figures gathered around each ship. Upon closer inspection, each of those figures could be distinguished to be humanoid machine.

There's no doubt that those were DEM industries' unmanned weaponry <Bandersnatch> units.

"Could that be...DEM?!"

"Yeah, they were the ones who discovered Zodiac's presence. After we sensed something suspicious from their warships, we used automatic cameras to scout that area and found her too."

Kotori's reply was marked with a hint of disgust.

"H-how can DEM find Spirits...." Shidou blurted before stopping in realization. Kotori shared his opinion and nodded.

"I'm afraid it's Beelzebub. It couldn't be helped, even though Nia can hamper it somehow."

Then the screen showed another change.