The state of her body didn’t leave Fumiko much choi listening to Yori’s expnation. However, she found herself pushing her hand into the earth to get her body back up. She couldn’t believe what she heard from him. ‘If that’s true she’s been lying to us the eime. This was always her goal.’ Fumiko smmed her feet ft with the earth thten herself out.

  Across the Field stood the teenage girl she faced. The same self-hating expression held on her fabsp; ‘She knew we’d never approve of such a pn. Yuki will be like the living dead, that’s no quality of life. How these people be so selfish to sacrifice people for their own well being?!’ The barbarid vile solution tightened her hand. ‘How mauries have they been doing this?! Hoeople have died because of their selfishness?!’

  Tiny toys swarmed around her ying into her with their ons. Her body took the beating, but didn’t fall. She ched up her fist. “I won’t allow this to tinue any longer!” she shouted up to the sky.

  Divine blue fmes erupted from her arm snatg several of the evil toys out of the air to crush them. She saw the abs type ing in wanting her fire, but she threw down a bst at the earth. Clouds of smoke coughed up around them giving her enough of a distra to wipe them out.

  Panting heavily and bleeding from her head and body, she earned herself a little room from the tiny minions. Any pain or fatigue in her body disappeared with the new rush of adrenaline. “I’m going to ge this twisted world!”

  Chapter 262 – Childish Dreams

  A new magic circle suddenly drew along Fumiko’s babsp; Magic threads spun across her shoulder to her arm stump. Filing about at the end of her upper arm, the threads hung in the wind. They slowly grew out ih. The a finally caught Fumiko’s attention. “What’s going on? Why is it going to where my arm used to be?”

  Unfortunately, Fumiko didn’t have much time to watch what her magic seemed to be doing on its own. The vilinous toys returned for more. She jumped around to stay ahead of their movements, but they were swift. It made it difficult to avoid everything. Even her fme couldn’t be used as heavily as she would have liked. The absorption toys hovered around spread with the hope of her using a fireball carelessly.

  Using a small fme as a test, she went to strike down one of the myriad of dolls. As expected, the neighb toy went in for the fme. The amount was small, but what it returo her easily doubled in strength. She was able to ter it with her own fire. ‘Damn, they’re quiove. It’s as I figured. My fme’s useless if I don’t deal with those things, but she create as many as she wants. I need something else.’

  She gnced over at her stump again, hopeful that it created something useful. However, threads tio gather and spin together in the air. It ointless as she figured. ‘Tch…stupid body still thinks there’s an arm there.’

  Distracted, the toys took the ce to pile up for an attabsp; Moving in waves, they pushed her babsp; Fumiko tried to fight back with her fist, but burning them barely slowed them down. And it left her with a wide opening that they charged through. Strikes rained down over her body staggering her back. Through squinted eyes, she saw the major blow ing. ‘Dammit! Give me something! Anything to use!’

  Magic arrays suddenly grew over the scarred end of her arm. The circles pushed out into the air shrinking in size as they spaced out. The threads tied down to the edges of the circles. Rotating around the circles called out more threads growing and thiing.

  Sacred light blew off the gathered magibsp; Expanding quickly a frew out of the blinding light. Fumiko no longer knew what was happening. She crossed her arm in front of her to try anything to block the attabsp; ‘This is gonna hurt…’

  A metallic thud echoed around Fumiko followed by another. “Huh?” Opening her eyes, she found the light almost blinding her. It was sunlight, she was certain. L her arms down, she saw what it was. A metallic arm repced her missing arm.

  Flexing the metal hand, it respoo her ands. It felt like aension of her, though it had no feelings, no nerve endings. A perfectly smooth and seamless form of metal. It had more of an appearance of e with how shiny it was.

  “Metal? How is this magibsp; Fshes of the final fight against Simoroops came to her. She still remembered what happened. The sight of metal stretched out everywhere under her feet. Metal like on her arm. “This is the same…as before…” Just thinking about what happened made her arm shake. “No!” She clutched her metallic arm to calm herself. “I ’t do this right now! I don’t have that luxury! Focus!”

  The toys took a moment in pause for the new reveal of Fumiko’s arm. It ged the situation, but only barely in their minds as they started to attack again. Fumiko had a little prote now with an arm that was solid. Even with it, little happeo push her forward.

  She swung her new arm around to swat the toys out of the air. It had enough ford hardo smash them apart. Not that doing so did much, they would be ba moments.

  “e on, if you give me this arm it’s got to do something more than just make me a little more funal! I need something useful or else this is still pointless!” A the empty gesture by her magic, she smmed her hands together. Uh other objects, the fme arm actually made physical tact with the metal arm.

  Circles lit up all along both arms responding to something. Fumiko stared down a little fused at what happened. The light only seemed to be getting brighter as more symbols lit up over both arms. Magic threads wove down her arms towards her hands. “What now?”

  Separating her hands in curiosity, she found something in a loose form spinning about between her palms. Given air and room, it suddenly expao fill out the spabsp; It tried to hold into a sphere, but tio bump and roll about misshapen. The threads remaitached to it with a differe of arrays lighting up on her arm. It triggered a different transformation in the molten material.

  Almost immediately, it stretched out. Extending to nearly the full length of Fumiko, it thinned out and smoothed, starting to reflect light on its surfabsp; The top end ftten and spread out creating a twisted and jagged form. As the headpiece fiaking shape a ruby revealed itself from the retreating material. It pleted the look for the headpiece, carved out like a fme.

  Once finished, Fumiko pulled it free from the threads taking it into her fme hand. She didn’t uand it fully, but it made sense. “What? I hold it?” The moment her hand cmped down firmly on the shaft of the staff the entire length of the metal pole lit up with intricate carved lines creating tiny symbols and lines.

  Fumiko could feel it pulsing with power. The glow on the headpietensified, being its own light. It all felt a little familiar to her, but signifitly stronger. “This staff, it’s different from the other, but I remember…”

  The creation of it was different, but it felt like the same power was used iing both. Fumiko stared at her metal arm. ‘Does this have the power to create ons? Is that the true power of this metal arm?’ Uhe verted broom she had before, this seemed to respond pletely tic.

  She stared back at the evil toys all lined up wanting a piece of her. They seemed willing to wait oo finish what she worked on before attag. “Want a piee?” she decred, suddenly brimming with fidenbsp; She didn't know if she should be, but the power iaff was almost a rush. It didn’t feel like she could lose with it.

  The first wave came in for her from multiple different sides. She swiped her metal arm through to destroy a few. Then she paused, calling on the magi the arm. She knew what else it should be able to do and with only toys arou was safe to use. An explosion of metal vines jumped out from her forearm pierg the fnking targets.

  Twirling the staff around, fmes spun off the ends wiping out those ing up in the following round. She saw the abs type popping up hungry for her fme. “Want to eat? Taste this fire!” Fumiko smmed the end of the staff into the ground calling out a rge magiu at the point of impabsp; Massive fmes erupted over their whole area.

  She watched as they tried to suck it all in, but were overwhelmed by the volume of power. Explosio off oer another as they exceeded their limits. Smoke blew out from all sides bing the area betweewo girls.

  Fumiko charged through the smoke, not waiting for any more toys. She knew how quickly they popped babsp; Taking the initiative to strike on Glykeria could seal the fight for her. ‘I win this now! I feel it! This is what I needed!’ Swinging the staff, she threw out a massive wave of fmes in front. It acted more like water than fire with the way it tumbled end over end rushing for the young teenager.

  Leaping a little, magic circles appeared on the soles of her feet. She nded on top of the fire wave, readying it like a surfer owning the o. Fumiko rode it in towards the true vilin, still unmoved.

  Popping up around the growing fmes, toys reappeared with the taste for Fumiko. Spinning around on the very top of the wave, she tossed out fmes nearly the size of her body as if she itting. It came with ease. The path was clear.

  Waves of fmes lykeria pletely c her. Pops of smoke appeared, as it was likely toys attempting to mitigate the damage. There was too much for them to stop. The only certainty was burning quickly from all of the fire. Fumiko made sure to add a final dose from her staff fully powered up to ehe kill.

  Fumiko jumped off to let the fmes finish their course. She watched from the sidelio verify it was over. “I ’t see how she’d survive that. My magic is even more powerful than before.”

  A voice cracked through the fmes, but remained mostly drowned out. It didn’t call to Fumiko until it became a little clearer. “…terrible… …hate…” All she could hear were fragments, words, but clearly it was Glykeria.

  “’t be…she’s still alive?!”

  Something happeo her fire causing it to spread out and . It pushed away from the evil Glykeria revealing a dark form. At the ter, the sadistic toy that belittled Glykeria appeared proteg her despite its size.

  As the fme started to fade away, more of Glykeria appeared. The fire affected her. She lost all of her skin, turo only a blood and muscle mass nearly unreizable from the girl before. “I really hate this life. And the world…” Suddenly, it all wiped away as though ging out a dirty sheet for a one. Her reappearance restored all of her youth. “I hate this world!” Hundreds of tiny toys appeared all around her bsting back the remains of the fire.

  Fumiko clutched onto her staff for support as the gust ing off her dragged on her body. She felt her body slipping a little, but it ended before it became worse. “Damn…she’s still got this much left in her?! And how is she regeing her damage?”

  “A mouthy arrogant bitch like you should be more ed about your owh,” the main toy said, appearing in front of her.

  “Eh?!” She had no time to react before a heavy force struck her iomabsp; Blood coughed up from her lips as she flew backwards. “Damn…not again…” Before she could even nd, the toys gathered up around her and smmed her into the ground. Their various assaults of the elements and o her bruised, battered, cut and burned along with anything else to describe her dition.

  In mere seds, they did worse to her thahing up to that point. It felt that way at least. She couldn’t think of a point on her body that didn’t scream out in pain. Blood soaked most of her clothes that remained hanging on her. ‘Everything hurts…but I o keep moving…Yuki’s in danger. I still haven’t done anything for him…’

  Fumiko smmed her metal arm heroically into the earth, pressing through it a little. Hardening her determination, she grit her teeth through the pain to stand up. Everythihick like standing in water. ‘I ’t stop, not here!’

  Her hand cmped down tightly oaff. Even with the power surging through her, the high she ran on had been soundly chopped down to size. ‘I did cause her some damage even if she regeed it. So if I just do enough all at once, maybe I kill her!’ Fumiko didn’t know how much longer her body could hold out against her insistenbsp; She kept pushing for more when it wanted none. ‘All or nothing, if I ’t end it here… No, I ’t think that. I have to keep standing up!’

  Fog oing her body moving, she used her fmes to keep the vile toys off her. Unfortunately, they seemed super charged now. They were faster and stronger. They could even take more of her fire. Her advantage slipped away. “…damn…it…”

  Struggling with her body, she forced herself back up. Unwilling to stop moving, Fumiko drew ohing she had. ‘Speed…it’s the only thing I have…I’m not going to have enough strength for a sed…’ She khere was only ohing that she still excelled at against them. ‘If I don’t want anymore pain, then just don’t…get HIT!’

  Building up to a run, it felt like her legs were tearing themselves apart. The muscles burned. Blood dripped dowhighs. “Faster! Faster!” She bsted fire behio force herself even harder. It was the kick-start she needed. Fumiko disappeared with her legs finally moving.

  Appearing behind Glykeria, she rammed the staff’s headpiece straight into the vilin’s heart. “Die! BITCH!” Fmes ignited sharply all around them pletely engulfing the child before it could eve. The toys came to a sudden stop all disappearing. Blue fmes blurred out her body turning light blue almost white. Everything that was Glykeria ied leaving nothing behind.

  Fumiko colpsed on the spot. She breathed so hard that it felt like her lungs would crack her ribs. “Finally!”

  “Sometimes fmes are necessary to allow somethiiful to grow in its pce,” an unknown voice spoke.

  Surprise and shock turned Fumiko’s head to the dire. “No…’t be…” She watched in disbelief as a pletely different peared exactly in the same pce that the evil had oood. Now a woman, she had long deep flowing green hair almost too perfebsp; Any sign of the child disappeared, repced with a matured woman at the start of her youth. She was a full figured woman, almost the idealistic image.

  She gazed down at Fumiko with almost kindness in her eyes as though she was looking for the positive in her. “Though we must fight, I wish for a time iure where we walk hand in hand.” Glykeria smiled at Fumiko.