It was a precarious moment.

Ana was in quite the pickle—fighting a more powerful adversary who was a terrible match-up for her, while also being concerned about the battle’s aftermath.

There was no guarantee that Ciel couldn’t make another duplicate, and even if she didn’t, there was still a lot she didn’t know about the crazy woman’s abilities.

Ana had to find a way to win on both ends, despite how impossible it seemed.

‘Alright then…!’

Fortunately, her strongest suit wasn’t her Magic or Combat prowess… but her intellect.

And even in such a dangerous situation, all her gears were turning.

She knew exactly what to do.

lightsΝοvel.cοm “It’s time.” Ana smiled at her opponent once the fight had reached a crescendo.

At this point, she had run out of cards to play and escape points to utilize.

Ana’s doppelganger was about to use all her blades in her Final Array, and Ana knew even she couldn’t survive that.

However…

“Anabelle, initiate Absolute Hijack on the target.”

Maria’s doppelganger instantly froze up, her expressionless face becoming even more robotic.

This was just the beginning, though.

“Absolute Hijack complete. Anabelle is now in full control of this body.” The doppelganger spoke.

It was her voice, and it was her body. However, it was clear that someone else had taken charge.

“Good job, Anabelle.” Ana smiled as she drew close to the doppelganger, who had already disabled the blades.

“Up top!”

Both Ana and the doppelganger exchanged a high five, their palms slapping against each other in satisfaction.

… All of this to Ciel’s disapproval.

“What’s going on here? What are you doing?” Ciel’s fierce words echoed.

She drew closer, her glare so deep that it leaked out pure bloodlust.

“What did you do to my creation?”

Ana remained calm despite the heavy pressure that Ciel leaked out, and Maria’s doppelganger swiftly stepped to her front in order to defend her.

“Stay behind me, Master. I will protect you, no matter what!”

“Pfft!” Ana almost choked on her own laugh thanks to hearing those words from someone with both Maria’s body and voice.

It felt hilarious to her.

“You are laughing? I asked a question and you are—!”

“Anabelle, initiate Absolute Hijack on the target.” Ana interrupted Ciel, her voice as calm as ever.

And just like that, Ciel froze up and her expression turned robotic—same as the doppelganger.

She was no longer in control.

“Looks like the plan worked. How many percent is your bodily integrity now?” Ana smiled as she looked at her two new puppets.

“Accounting for the nano parts that are busy scouting the area, and the ones that have pervaded the bodies of both targets that have been hijacked, a total of 30 percent is left.” A voice echoed from above.

“Undo Perfect Unknowable Cloaking and return.”

Obeying Ana’s instructions, a white sphere with two dots serving as eyes descended from above.

This was Anabelle, Ana’s perfect Automaton.

“Excellent work, Anabelle. Looks like we were able to perfectly integrate your parts with respective targets, resulting in complete control.”

It was no easy feat, but thanks to trial and error, they had reached this point.

“What are the chances of the Hijack being interrupted?” Ana asked.

“2.9 percent.” Anabelle responded almost instantly, her tone being an almost perfect replication of her master’s.

“Alright then. I suppose the breakdown of the chances consist mostly of external factors.”

“Correct.” Anabelle responded succinctly.

“Then there’s nothing wrong with the Hijack. That’s good to know.”

It was a close one, and Ana knew fully well that she could have lost if a few more seconds were granted to the other party.

Thankfully, she was able to calculate all of these scenarios before they played out, finding out the estimated time needed for everything to take full effect.

“A time deficit of 2 seconds. Looks like I made a slight error. Thankfully, it was inconsequential.” She sighed in relief.

‘Next time, I have to calculate the exact time frame.’

With her thoughts settled and her opponents defeated, Ana thought it would be nice to surprise Maria since she figured the latter would be done with her opponent already.

“Alright, Anabelle! Let’s go!”

************

“And that’s how it happened.” Ana concluded her explanation to Maria.

Throughout the whole thing, Maria had maintained her calm expression, though another thing was going on within her.

‘This is insane. She did all that despite the conditions?!’

Her Absolute Hijack would not have worked if her targets knew of the nano parts that were being sneaked into them through respiration and other areas, since they could have destroyed them.

Ana, however, ensured they were undetectable and also durable enough to spread through every organ, blood vessel, and cell, until they were everywhere.

Once the nano parts became integrated with the neural links and the relevant parts of the body, all Ana needed was to give them the signal, and they would take over.

Which was exactly what she did.

“So… what now?” Maria asked.

They had fulfilled their task, and even managed to defeat Ciel. Practically speaking, their job was done.

“Wel, the enemy is under my control now. I thought it would be safer to cause them to self-destruct, but since they can still be useful, I decided to keep them alive for now.”

They were still unsure of the grand scale of things, so the best thing to do was have insurance.

“Let’s rendezvous with Kuzon and the rest.” Ana suggested.

“Shouldn’t we help our other allies?” Maria asked in puzzlement.

“I don’t think so. The main goal is to deal with the cocoon, so we have to confirm if the mission is going according to plan before resorting to anything else.”

“Ah, I see…” Maria muttered.

“Besides, I have faith in everyone else.”

Ana’s bright smile radiated genuineness, her blue irises shimmering with pride.

“Don’t you?”

After a brief moment of silence, Maria finally broke into a small smile and nodded.

“I suppose I do as well.”

“Perfect! Now let’s go meet up with the main team!”

“Are you sure it’s not just because you want to see Kuzon?”

“W-what?! Of course not!” Ana’s red cheeks told of a different story, even though she vehemently denied it.

“Sure…”

As both ladies joked and made their way to the trio who were meant to be their arrowhead, they were yet to know of the grim truth.

That they had already failed.

*

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*

A

/N

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Just hang in there a bit more. The climax is coming soon.

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