Small valleys, piles of boulders, and fallen logs served as her cover. Erina's heart felt ready to jump out her throat as she crawled along behind bushes. Now she really had to be careful how much noise she made. Every second, she was both thankful she hadn't been shot again and hoping desperately she wasn't about to take another before she could finish thinking.

  Live firearms. Those were functionally impossible for a regular person to get in Japan. Even the yakuza struggled to acquire a handgun, let alone anything more spectacular. A sniper rifle was out of the question.

  Erina's mana reserves were still there, if dented by softening those brutal shots. Hiding behind a large boulder, her katana formed in her hand and then disappeared. She could cast her basic spells, but none of her reiteration techniques worked.

  Erina took a minute to steady her nerves. This tree was surrounded by dense bushes. She slowly peeked the corner, one eye looking out through the leaves.

  No shot to the face. That was a relief. Erina stared and stared, her eye peering all over the scenery. A tiny movement caught her eye—a flash of reflecting light that lasted a single instant as her enemy shifted grip on the weapon.

  "There you are," breathed Erina.

  She touched two fingers to her butterfly clip. It responded readily to her mana, as easily as any part of her body. Good. She could make use of this to the fullest.

  Reiteration was beyond her now. But if she didn't rely on her Affinity… if she scanned the mechanical butterfly thoroughly and then used construct manifestation like for her katana, then…!

  Green light trailed her fingertips as she drew them away. A glowing copy of the butterfly fluttered to life, flapping its wings once as she set it on the ground and crept away.

  She knew who this was.

  There was Asayuki, the swordmaster whose talismans sealed any power and whose blade cut through any material.

  There was Darius, the strongest mage gifted with the ultimate power to erase anything.

  And there was Julian, the enforcer who denied any higher abilities in his presence.

  Strength, power, nothing mattered before them. All of it was the same to them. Everyone was their prey. That was the Three Equalizers.

  It had to be Julian. It couldn't be Darius. Who else knew of Eden's Gate at the bottom of the laboratory's forbidden sector? Who else had the access and influence to bring exotic firearms into the country? Who else would come all this way to assault her?

  And with barely the tiniest sound of dirt compressing under her shoe, Erina found herself at his back and confirmed her theory.

  He was lying on a ledge overseeing this stretch of the forest, his sniper rifle propped up on a small built-in bipod. An odd pattern had appeared on the back of his suit. Glowing cracks spread out over the cloth, emanating from his heart. Looking at the back of his head, Erina couldn't see him moving at all.

  At this distance, she didn't need to get any closer. She leveled two fingers at the back of his head and fired.

  Her heart plummeted straight into the earth as the laser failed to fly. It moved at a snail's pace, crawling through the air one inch at a time. Erina could see the individual arcs of energy form at its head, move towards the tail, and then crackle and fade away in exquisite slow motion.

  Julian was up. She hadn't blinked. There was no transition. One moment he was lying prone looking the other way. The next, there was no sniper rifle and he was coming right at her!

  Erina's katana flashed into her grip, a spell circle flaring at her feet to emulate Asayuki's—

  To emulate nothing. The seal blinked out of existence.

  Julian batted aside the clumsy swing with a swipe of his own. A short black arc sliced across Erina's wrist and shed her ether. It came around for a proper slash, Erina barely throwing a small barrier in its way as she took another swing and a miss. Julian twisted around the attack. It wasn't the preternatural speed of a youkai or even speed enhancement—just plain, solid close quarters training shining through.

  The black knife struck again, Erina's head snapping aside with it. A streak of bright green decorated her hair. The katana vanished and the spear manifested, Erina blindly striking out to ward him out of his effective range.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Finally, a split second's pause as he stepped back. Her first bolt still hovered in the air, having barely moved from where she fired it. Erina tossed a fistful of energy orbs to the side, eyes never leaving him. The knife in his hand didn't look like a regular dagger. It had a strange, asymmetrical blade that wavered and curved like a tiny flamberge. The inner metal had a golden sheen, the edge made of a glossy black material that could've been metal or glass. A kris, that was the word!

  No, she didn't have time to think about proper terminology! He came at her again and Erina wasn't sure what happened. She took a stab at him and then she was face-down in the dirt, one arm twisted behind her back in a painful pin. Julian had his knee on the back of her head, ensuring she didn't go anywhere even as her free arm scrabbled at the grass.

  "Argh!" Erina squeezed her eyes shut as hot fire seared in her pinned arm. The floating orbs fizzled out. "Let me go!" she spluttered. "What happened to the non-interference agreement?"

  "The Akanaga Family has no jurisdiction in the laboratory," said Julian.

  "He was here," said Erina. She smacked her free hand on the ground, trying to push up under his weight or at least roll over, and got her head pressed harder into the dirt for her trouble. "He allowed me into the laboratory."

  "That Darius is too soft for his own good is not news."

  Erina struggled to speak without eating dirt. "Why are you doing this?"

  "Merely coming to this place makes you a threat." Julian's grip was impossible to squirm out of. "Why did you come here? To the furthest end of time?"

  "I don't even know what you're talking about…!" Erina coughed and spat out the dirt that got in her mouth anyway. "I came here for answers."

  "Idle curiosity is not an excuse." Julian twisted her arm tighter, making the girl hiss in pain. "It's nothing personal. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose letting you go. I'm taking you into Association custody. Stop resisting and do not come here again."

  A rare growl escaped Erina as she tried to bear the excruciating fire consuming her arm. Light sparked in her free hand and formed into a small Menger sponge. She twisted her wrist around and formed a spell circle right between her palm and the sponge.

  The cube exploded, forcing Julian off her back. Incredible relief filled Erina as she regained control of her arm. That same explosion slowed in time and lingered in the air. Heat and smoke surrounded Erina as she scrambled to her feet and leapt through with a blind swing of her katana.

  The smoke parted. Julian dodged and then flickered. There was a pale green distortion so faded, Erina almost mistook it for white. His features blurred in the faintest fog for one instant and then he had instantly changed pose. The kris teleported to its sheath and the sniper rifle was back, aim already taken at point blank range!

  Erina crossed her arms before herself, a spell circle inscribed with a hexagram forming—

  Ether sprayed through the air. The shot punched through and blew her back, landing breathlessly with a strained grunt. The cube explosion flared and vanished. Her first shot, long since forgotten, returned to full speed and impacted the soil. The sound of a thousand footsteps in unison, rushing air and stirring foliage. Julian was gone!

  "No, you don't…!" Erina hauled herself to her feet and forced one foot in front of the other, picking up speed. A large spell circle formed ahead of her, angled at forty five degrees in the same direction as the settling vegetation. This was okay, right? There was a tiny window after initialization before Julian's ability lockdown activated, right?!

  Please work, please work, please work!

  The accelerator blinked out right after she leapt through. Erina flinched as the treetop branches smacked her in the face, and then she was over the canopy with the wind rushing by. There he was, taking up post in those bushes!

  Green light sparked at Erina's fingertips, the katana taking shape as she set another instantaneous accelerator to launch herself at him.

  Julian's red eyes flicked up and met hers.

  A cold fist gripped her heart. Erina forgot all about the katana, throwing one hand in front of her and summoning a hexagram barrier—

  Her third try was marginally better at absorbing the bullet's power before it struck her. It still pierced through and hit like a punch to the gut. Erina tumbled out of control, her course diverted through a mess of canopy leaves and thick branches that smacked her around before finally falling the rest of the way to the forest floor.

  Erina didn't get up right away, content to spend a few seconds in the soil where she belonged. Her first thought: That hurt.

  The clamor of a split-second stampede tipped her off that Julian moved again—in more of a hurry, by the sound of it. Raising her head, Erina confirmed she'd landed in some dense tangle of bushes and then let her face meet the dirt again. She could wallow here a bit longer.

  When she wasn't feeling quite so beat up, she pulled herself into a crouching position and flourished with one hand. A scan spell pulsed through the environment—not from her, but originating from the butterfly she'd planted before.

  He was at her ten o' clock. The butterfly was at her one. A rush of air. Branches wavered. The grass stirred, impressions of expensive luxury shoes forming and then slowly fading. Erina snuck in the same direction, crawling and ducking as much of the way as she could.

  Erina knew Julian would assume she was responsible for the scan. He'd repositioned again, focusing on where the scan came from. In the process, he'd left her enough clues to track him down while his eyes were on where her butterfly was. Somehow, Erina wasn't in the mood to celebrate.

  She went as fast as she could, as quietly as she could. If he moved yet again, it'd be more of the same cat and mouse—and that would only open up more chances for her to be caught out at a distance. Erina's odds didn't look good at close quarters either, but they had to be better than her odds at range. Really, she was taken aback by the absurdity of it all. Erina, outranged and outgunned? She wasn't supposed to be the one forced to approach…