Seiji shot the claw with his floating cannons while retreating backwards.
When the cannon shots hit the claw, they knocked away many shadowy figures, but the huge claw's speed didn't slow down one bit.
Many shadowy figures also flew down from the gigantic feathered woman. Some were incorporated into the claw, while others flew directly towards Seiji's robot, just like a swarm of bugs!
The robot was slowed down by the countless number of shadows. The black claw caught up with Seiji's robot!
Seiji did his best to counterattack and shot out a barrage of missiles which whizzed towards the claw. Almost all the missiles exploded against it.
However it was ineffective, and the huge claw grasped the robot!
Seiji's robot was instantly crushed to tiny pieces and exploded into golden light. Seiji tried imagining something else again but discovered that he wasn't able to create anything.
His ability to create things in the soul realm using his imagination was gone!
Was it that Natsuya's spell giving him this power had finally expired? Or was there some other reason!?
At this moment, what entered his vision was Mayuzumi and angel-Seiji as well as the black crystal.
He witnessed the crystal containing Reo being sucked into the claw. He saw countless gray-black shadows swarming towards him and Mayuzumi. There was no way to resist.
He could only...
Suddenly there was a flash of light!
Angel-Seiji released a strong yet gentle white light that instantly destroyed the numerous shadows that surrounded them.
Then, he picked up Mayuzumi and carried her in his arms before flying to Seiji and also grabbing onto him.
*Whoosh!*
In that instant, Seiji felt as if he were transforming into a streak of light. Everything around him turned white. When his vision recovered, he discovered that he was on top of a high tower, far away from the giant claw.
He looked around in astonishment. He saw that angel-Seiji was smiling widely.
"Who... are you?" Mayuzumi was the one who asked that question to angel-Seiji.
Angel-Seiji responded by saying, "Long time no see, classmate Amami-san. I'm Hinako Tachibana... you may know me by the name of Hinako Haza."
"Haza... President Haza!?" Mayuzumi's eyes widened in surprise.
"What a nostalgic title... I haven't seen you after we graduated from high school, so I never expected that we would meet again like this."
Angel-Seiji... no, Hinako Haza smiled.
"President... how are you?"
"I was called back by my daughter... my silly daughter..." Hinako sighed as she looked into the distance at the gigantic female monster-shadow. "During this time, I've always been watching Reo and you guys... I wanted to talk to you, but I was unable to.
"Until this moment, Reo, she... Let's not talk about this now. There's not enough time. At this rate, Reo will die! I need your help, Amami-san!" Hinako looked back towards Mayuzumi and made a sincere request.
"President..." Mayuzumi blinked before she looked towards Seiji.
Seiji, who was similarly astonished, knew what Sensei wanted to ask him.
'Is she trustworthy? Is this the real Hinako Haza? She's already died for over one year already; why is she...'
No matter what, the fact that she had just helped them was undisputable. Seiji had just been about to load, but he decided to gamble one more time before resorting to loading!
"Although I don't know what you really are, that thing there is indeed too strong, and we can't do anything about it anymore. If you have a way to overturn the situation, please go ahead and use it!" Seiji said to Hinako before glancing in Mayuzumi's direction.
Mayuzumi understood the implicit meaning behind his glance. She turned to Hinako and nodded.
"Thank you," Hinako said gratefully. "Amami-san, please open up your soul and don't resist. Allow me to temporarily enter your body."
"Alright... President."
Seiji then witnessed a white light shoot out of angel-Seiji. A white, half-translucent female figure walked out of angel-Seiji and into the manga author's body.
An expression of slight discomfort flitted across Mayuzumi's face but faded quickly.
"Alright, let's go."
"Okay, President."
Mayuzumi appeared to be talking to herself, but due to the different tone of the two short sentences, Seiji was able to determine that it was actually two different people speaking.
'Does this count as... them having combined?'
Just as Seiji was thinking this, Mayuzumi... er, Mayuzumi-Hinako, jumped up and started flying.
Then, there was a pale blue flash. The light transformed into beautiful cyan flames which enveloped her entire body, making it seem as if she were wearing an extravagant ceremonial dress. The light cyan flames spread out behind her like long wavy hair.
That wasn't all. The remaining flames gathered into numerous cyan-colored lanterns. A pale blue flame flickered within each lantern as they floated around her.
Seiji was stunned at this sight. This was Blue Lantern Ghost!
More accurately speaking, this was the Blue Lantern Ghost that Mayuzumi had designed for herself to transform into.
But her previous attempts to transform had failed. No matter how hard she tried, she was unable to transform herself into what she imagined, so she gave up in the end.
Seiji didn't expect... that it could still be accomplished!
The transformed Mayuzumi-Hinako shot through the air towards the tremendous female monster and instantly pierced through the teeming masses of shadows.
The shadows attempted to swarm her, but they evaporated before they could even approach. her body
After Mayuzumi-Hinako got closer to the giant female shadow, Mayuzumi-Hinako waved her hand and caused the lanterns around her to shoot out blinding white light which illuminated the shadowy figure.
The huge shadow started to melt like snow that had just come in contact with fire. It also made a clamorous sound that somewhat resembled a howl.
It swung viciously at Mayuzumi-Hinako with its huge claw! She attempted to dodge, but the claw too fast and caught up with her.
Mayuzumi-Hinako used the numerous lanterns as a shield.
*Boom!!!*
There was an earth-shattering impact, and a tremendous amount of cyan-colored flames exploded. The huge claw collapsed and broke into pieces.
Mayuzumi-Hinako was sent flying away by the impact.
Although it seemed like a loss for both sides on the surface, the endless amounts of gray-black shadows soon started to repair the claw!
The other claw streaked through the air towards Mayuzumi-Hinako.
After another huge impact, Mayuzumi-Hinako was sent flying again. She rolled on the ground several times before steadying her body.
"Sensei..." Seiji was quite anxious as he watched this. He no longer had any power in the soul realm and was unable to fight anymore.
If only they had more power...
'Wait, they do have more power!'
The Honey Candy Girl army flew to the battle!
He didn't know if they decided to join the battle of their own volition or if there was some other reason, but at any rate, all the Honey Candy Girl characters were gathered together!
They... the heroic army began another wave of attacks against the forces of evil!!
Watching their flexible movements and extravagant abilities, as well as their excellent teamwork, which would be difficult for any real human to pull off, they seemed like the most veteran of warriors!!
Seiji refused to believe that these characters were still only NPCs!
'Something must have entered them and is powering them up! Just like how Hinako entered Mayuzumi's body!!
'So, what exactly are they now? I don't know. There are too many things that I don't know. But there's one thing I know for sure—'
"We must win!!!" Seiji roared at the top of his lungs. If he was no longer able to battle, then he would cheer them on. "No matter who or what you are! Anyone that acts to save someone is a hero! Don't lose, heroes!!"
Reo Tachibana was a little brat who was extremely difficult to deal with. She was foolish enough to be so depressed and despairing to the point of wanting to die!
To be honest, Seiji almost felt tempted to not care about her anymore.
But... she was only a child, a little girl who was deeply lost in her pain and sadness.
Her parents had died right before her eyes, so it was understandable that she'd slipped into depression. It wasn't unreasonable that Reo was a little selfish and willful, right?
Seiji wanted to help her! Seiji wanted her to be able to live well in the future!!
Which was why...
"Shatter her despair!! Make her understand that apart from unreasonable bad things, there are also unreasonable good things in this world!!!" Seiji shouted, venting the sentiments from the bottom of his soul.
His shout seemed to pierce the heavens themselves. That was because...
"Stop shouting so loudly! It's too noisy, Harano-kun!!" Natsuya Yoruhana's voice finally responded.