I don't want to be an elf!

However, as she approached the factory, a huge, circular, three-dimensional object appeared out of thin air behind her, obscuring her body.

"Higuchi-kun, fly to her side."

"Yes."

The camera quickly changed angles, capturing Kurumi Tokisaki's profile and a portion of her circular, three-dimensional form.

It was a giant clock, like an enlarged version of the clock in Tokisaki Kurumi's left eye, with twelve Roman numerals each representing a moment in time.

"The classical-style Roman clock, judging from its design, seems to have some connection to her two flintlock muskets, and might even be part of a set," Mori Ōgai thought. "What are the capabilities of this enormous clock? And how is it connected to the flintlock muskets?"

Just as Mori Ōgai was pondering this, a perplexing scene unfolded.

On the screen, Kurumi Tokisaki actually raised her flintlock pistol and pointed it at her temple.

Even if she was armed with an ordinary flintlock musket, whose range, accuracy, and power were far inferior to any modern firearms, shooting at such close range was still tantamount to suicide.

But Kurumi Tokisaki still pulled the trigger.

"Ok?"

The expected splattering of brains did not occur; instead, her figure disappeared from the camera's view.

It wasn't that the drone's monitoring system malfunctioned; rather, she completely vanished the moment after the trigger was pulled.

Neither Higuchi Ichiyo nor Mori Ōgai could understand it.

In the end what happened?

------

------

"After becoming an elf, I've become more sensitive to concepts like line of sight."

After realizing that Higuchi Ichiyo was watching her, she used the power of the angel [Zeffect] to teleport into the factory in the shadows.

Zafkiel has twelve time-related abilities, one of which, the First Bullet, accelerates the flow of time for objects it hits, thus enabling teleportation.

Combined with her ability to infiltrate shadows, Tokisaki Kurumi can infiltrate anywhere at will.

"While it wouldn't hurt to reveal a little about my abilities to them, maintaining mystery is Kurumi Tokisaki's style," she muttered to herself. "I know you're very curious about my abilities, but I'm sorry, you'll have to work harder if you want to investigate me."

Having shaken off the drone behind her, she began to work on the task at hand.

Investigate this factory.

The factory was filled with sealed wooden crates, which piled up all over the factory at a glance.

These wooden crates provided excellent cover for Tokisaki Kurumi; the girl's slender body allowed her to hide completely undetected.

"I've never done infiltration before. Although I can use Kurumi Tokisaki's abilities, it's still better to be cautious."

Kurumi Tokisaki poked her head out and carefully observed the interior of the factory.

Although it appears to be an abandoned factory from the outside, the interior is not as chaotic and desolate as one might imagine.

On the contrary, all the wooden crates were neatly stacked around the perimeter, while sophisticated instruments and various chemicals were placed in the open space in the middle, and everything appeared to be in perfect order.

Within Tokisaki Kurumi's field of vision, there were probably more than twenty people.

Most of them were unarmed ordinary people, gathered around the central equipment, seemingly doing nothing.

The remaining group consisted of armed militants, whose equipment, though not sophisticated and mostly consisting of pistols, was still extremely lethal to ordinary people.

Judging from the appearance, this should be a small outpost of some organization.

To obtain more information, simply looking at it is not enough.

"This is really troublesome. If these people find out, I'll definitely be riddled with bullets," Tokisaki Kurumi thought. "But this is my first mission, and I absolutely cannot fail, otherwise the image I've worked so hard to build in front of Mori Ōgai will collapse."

She looked at the flintlock pistol in her hand, hesitating slightly.

Should we summon a clone to help her complete the mission?

Chapter Nine: The Ability to Try

Kurumi Tokisaki is the most unique among the ten spirits.

Other spirits only need to consume an energy called "spiritual power" when using angels, but Kurumi Tokisaki also consumes "time" in addition to spiritual power.

Time, which is her lifespan.

Each time she uses Zafkiel, her lifespan shortens, and the time consumed varies depending on the ability she uses.

The first bullet requires the shortest lifespan, the tenth bullet requires the longest, and while the eleventh and twelfth bullets do not consume time, they consume more spiritual energy than the first to tenth bullets combined.

The first bullet's ability is to accelerate time. When used on oneself, it allows for instantaneous teleportation, which is extremely convenient in both daily life and combat.

The second bullet's ability is to slow down time; hitting an enemy can significantly slow down their movements, thus gaining a combat advantage.

The Third Bullet's ability is time jump, which allows the body to jump to a certain point in time. Its effect is relatively small, but it can be very useful in special situations, similar to the ability of Ziggurat.

The Fourth Bullet's ability is time reversal, allowing the body to rewind to a previous point in time. This is equivalent to an invincible healing ability, capable of regenerating minor injuries, severe injuries, and even broken limbs.

The Fifth Bullet's ability is to foresee the future, to see what will happen in the near future, and to make corresponding preparations.

The sixth bullet's ability is to transfer consciousness, transferring the main body's consciousness to a clone in a past timeline, essentially an enhanced version of Bites the Dust.

The Seventh Bullet's ability is to stop time, freezing the objects and creatures it hits at a certain point in time, similar to the limited-target Zavarudo.

The Eighth Bullet's ability is to create clones, pulling oneself from the past timeline into the present timeline.

The Ninth Bullet's ability is to link consciousness, connecting the consciousness of independent individuals across different timelines.

The Tenth Bullet's ability is to read memories, literally.

The Eleventh Bullet's ability is to travel to the future.

The power of the Twelfth Bullet is to travel back in time.

If you want to create clones to help you complete your mission, you must use the Eighth Bullet.

However, the Eighth Bullet takes a considerable amount of time, and she will die from the end of her lifespan after only a few uses.

However, there are ways to solve the time problem.

Kurumi Tokisaki also has an ability called "Time-Eating City".

The City of Time is a barrier used by Kurumi Tokisaki to replenish time. Any life form that enters the barrier will have its time forcibly absorbed, and its body will become heavy and unable to move, thus falling into a deep sleep. Only spirits can avoid falling asleep.

In this world, probably only those with supernatural abilities like Mori Ōgai are immune to the sleep effect.

Her biggest problem right now is the lack of time.

If she doesn't have enough time, she won't be able to summon her clone, and without the clone, the investigation mission will become extremely difficult.

"Hey, wait."

Suddenly, Kurumi Tokisaki realized she had fallen into a mental trap: "Why don't I just use the City of Time to put these people into a state of sleep, and then investigate them slowly?"

If the real Kurumi Tokisaki were in this situation, her first thought would probably be to use the Castle of Time to put ordinary people into a state of sleep.

Although the girl was very familiar with Kurumi Tokisaki's abilities, she didn't have much experience in actually using them.

"There's still a long way to go before I can play Kurumi well."

The girl sighed, and with a thought, she activated the City of Food.

The crimson domain expanded rapidly outwards from Tokisaki Kurumi's center, enveloping the entire factory in a nightmarish barrier.

Soon, some people could not withstand the negative effects of the City of Food and collapsed to the ground.

"what happens?!"

I feel a little... dizzy...

"Could it be... an attack by superhumans?"

Everyone in the factory was thrown into chaos.

As the first person lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground, panic gradually spread among the others.

Within the crimson City of Time, the more experienced armed personnel quickly realized they were under the influence of superhumans. They gripped their weapons tightly and cautiously huddled together in twos and threes.

However, time did not allow them to come up with any solutions.

In less than a minute, both ordinary people and armed personnel fell into a deep sleep under the power of the City of Time, lying on the ground like corpses.

Kurumi Tokisaki looked around and saw that no one could resist the influence of the City of Time Eater.

It seems there are no superhumans here.

That's good news. Although Tokisaki Kurumi's combat strength is not weak, ranking in the middle among the spirits, it's best to avoid fighting if possible.

"Is this what it feels like to steal someone else's time?"

As Tokisaki Kurumi closed her eyes, she felt more than twenty strange auras flowing slowly into her shadow like streams, nourishing her body.

The golden clock in her left eye had its hour, minute, and second hands spinning rapidly, symbolizing a continuous flow of time into her body.

Among all the spirits, Tokisaki Kurumi has one of the highest total spiritual power and rarely lacks mana.

However, what she needs to unleash her true power is not spiritual energy, but a sufficient amount of time.

In theory, given enough time, she could defeat any elf.

In this world, Kurumi Tokisaki is still a blank slate, having never taken anyone else's time, thus limiting many of Zafkiel's abilities.

Simultaneously absorbing the time of more than twenty people, her time reserves increased rapidly, growing to several times their original value within just a few minutes.

After absorbing a certain amount and having enough time, Tokisaki Kurumi opened her eyes.

"The Eighth Bullet".

A phantom of Zephyr appeared behind him, and the Roman numeral eight on the clock emitted a plume of black smoke, which was sucked into the barrel of the flintlock musket.

The eighth bullet was loaded into the flintlock musket, and Kurumi Tokisaki pointed the muzzle at her head and fired a shot.

The next moment, another Kurumi Tokisaki slowly emerged from her shadow.

"Hello, [it's me]," the clone greeted.

"Nice to meet you," Kurumi Tokisaki replied.

Looking at the clone in front of her who had the same appearance, voice, and memories as her, she couldn't help but feel a strange sensation.