Chapter 31 – Threesome

R̀èâ​d̈​ ̈òñ ̀Ḱãt̂​Ŕëã​d̂ïńĝC̃ä​f̃è

Hemorrhagia, who had been acting as if she would attack at any moment, suddenly turned her head at the sound of gunfire. Seeing that made my blood boil with humiliation, and I had to resist the urge to fire a beam at her right away.

I knew that even if I did, it wouldn’t reach her.

She was a monster whose power was so overwhelming that even if Sparkling Blue and Blazing Red joined forces, I doubted we could win. A mysterious monster whose purpose, origins, and true nature remained unknown.

A special-class monster who appeared far too frequently, displaying an eerie obsession with both myself and another specific monster.

Despite her overwhelming power, her actions were laughably trivial.

…And undoubtedly, she was connected to my sister in some way.

That was the Hemorrhagia I knew.

“Hm. A gun, huh? Did some sewer rats wander in? Well, no matter. That thing you always carry around—is it at the entrance?”

“…Sky isn’t a thing.”

Saying it out loud made me feel slightly guilty, but I couldn’t stand the thought of a monster treating my comrade like an object.

“Oh? Is that so? I only assumed as much since you carry her around like a bag. But I see you still cling to the concept of camaraderie, despite treating her as one.”

Hemoresia scoffed at my words, as if my denial amused her. Then, perhaps having lost interest or simply grown impatient, she drew her lance and gestured with a flick of her wrist.

“I’ll let you have the first move. Not that you’ll be able to hit me, which is precisely why I’m being so generous.”

At this point, I wondered if her entire existence revolved around mocking me.

The moment she gestured, I fired a beam without hesitation. But with the slightest shift in movement, she evaded it effortlessly, closing her eyes as if laughing at my attempt.

Even when I swung my staff to slice her with magic beams, she dodged with unnatural fluidity, moving so effortlessly that I questioned whether she was even bound by the same physics as the rest of us.

It was clear she wasn’t even taking my attacks seriously.

As expected, I couldn’t touch her. If my sister were here, she’d have wiped that arrogant smirk off Hemoresia’s face in seconds.

“Shouldn’t you have learned something by now? Even the dullest of fools would have changed their approach by—”

Just as Hemoresia was basking in her arrogance—

Another gunshot rang out.

And for a split second, a black streak flashed across my vision.

A bullet?

Hemoresia effortlessly caught the black projectile midair, but for the first time, she faltered—her face stiffening slightly as she turned toward the direction it came from.

There, standing at the ready with a pistol, was the shadowy monster who had always clashed with Hemorrhagia.

Every time I confronted her, this monster would emerge from the darkness, only to retreat into the shadows—or some kind of dimensional rift—whenever I arrived.

…So why was it here now?

“I figured you’d be lurking around when I saw a star streak across the sky.”

“Oh? Are you claiming to be the hunter this time? That’s quite a laughable statement coming from you.”

Judging by their exchange, it didn’t seem like this monster was an ally of Hemorrhagia.

So was it an enemy? But if it was chasing me, that didn’t exactly make it my ally either.

My thoughts became tangled.

As a magical girl, my duty was clear: I had to defeat both of them. But my gut told me I needed to interrogate that monster and uncover its connection to Hemoresia.

…Even if we worked together, we’d still lose to her. But there was no way I’d ever accept a temporary alliance with a monster. Definitely not.

“You… What did you do to Sky at the entrance?!”

I pointed my staff at the shadowy figure, demanding an answer.

With an eerily emotionless voice, it responded matter-of-factly: “Shot her in the head.”

“…What?”

“There’s no need to worry. She’s a magical girl. That won’t be enough to kill her. She’s likely just unconscious.”

Its tone was so casual, so indifferent.

For a moment, I felt foolish for even considering cooperation with it.

What was I expecting from a monster, anyway?

“…Then I can’t let you leave either.”

“Do not interfere, magical girl. You are not my target.”

The monster didn’t even look at me. As if I wasn’t even worth acknowledging.

Hemorrhagia, too, was focused solely on this shadowy figure.

Neither of them cared about me.

…Maybe, to them, I wasn’t even a real threat.

Not to the shadowy monster.

Not to Hemoresia.

Even to the people I protected—

They always thanked me, always said I was just as amazing as my sister. But I knew the truth.

To them, I was just a second-rate replacement.

To monsters, to humans—I was always second best.

…Would I never be able to become like my sister?

“DON’T IGNORE ME!!!”

A surge of emotion burst out of me—anger, desperation, something I couldn’t even name.

I gathered starlight into my staff, but this time, I didn’t shape it into a beam.

I abandoned precision and control. I didn’t care about accuracy or efficiency.

I just wanted to make them acknowledge me.

As the starlight condensed beyond its limits—

A blinding explosion erupted.

 

Hearing is intact. The sense of touch is vivid. The sense of smell has no issues. Then, was I nearly blinded simply due to the sheer amount of light?

That overwhelming flash—must have been the magical girl’s technique.

I never expected her to abandon precision and recklessly unleash an explosion of light.

“…A poor strike. But the right answer.”

My vision had yet to fully return, but the sound of sizzling, the scent of burning flesh, and Hemorrhagia’s words all pointed to the fact that she had indeed suffered some form of injury from the attack.

“…I’ll defeat you both and make you spill everything you know!”

Perhaps emboldened by this result, Radiant White proclaimed her declaration of war with a newfound confidence in her voice.

…It seemed inevitable that I would have to fight her now.

I hadn’t wanted to engage her after extracting various weapons and information, but if she was going to charge at us, I had no other choice.

“I do not dislike humans who display courage and resolve, but know that attempting to take both me and that thing down alone is sheer recklessness.”

As my sight gradually returned, I saw Hemorrhagia, her form lightly scorched in several places.

Of course, it wasn’t long before she fully regenerated, but she was no longer smiling.

Radiant White had surrounded herself with the luminous armaments of light that I had seen a few times before.

As if about to unleash her full strength, she readied herself for battle.

In response, I tore multiple shadows from my body and scattered them throughout the battlefield.

Ripping them out like this was akin to pulling out healthy teeth or fingers—it was agonizing, and I usually refrained from doing so.

But now was not the time to hold back.

For the moment, I planned to align with Radiant White’s attacks to pressure Hemorrhagia, but if things went south, I would retreat into the shadows I had laid down as an escape route.

As I pulled a shotgun from my sleeve, Hemorrhagia sneered with disdain, scoffing at me for using that “toy” yet again.

I couldn’t reveal a weapon obtained in my human form in front of Radiant White, after all.

Instead, I answered her mockery by firing a round infused with shadows.

 

As beams of light rained down, Hemorrhagia deflected them with her lance, simultaneously reinforcing her wings with a blood armor to block the shadow-infused bullets flying from the portal behind her.

She swept Radiant White’s legs with her tail, breaking her stance, and seized her with her free hand, hurling her directly at Suhyeok.

“Gah…!”

Suhyeok barely dodged the airborne Radiant White, but because of that, he failed to evade the massive blood-formed flail swinging horizontally at him.

“Ugh…!”

How utterly annoying.

They were attacking separately, and as a result, they didn’t feel particularly threatening.

Especially White—forcing herself to adopt an ill-fitting battle style only made her movements more awkward.

‘Forcing yourself into clothes that don’t fit… there’s no way that’ll work.’

Honestly, her blinding light explosion earlier had been far more formidable.

Had Suhyeok been actively supporting her through portals, I would have had to unleash a combination of blood magic, acceleration, and other abilities just to deal with them.

…Honestly, I had hoped that would happen.

But even now, in the middle of this fight, Radiant White was still splitting her attention, sending beams toward Suhyeok as if wary of him.

It seemed there was no hope of seeing them truly cooperate today.

“Is that all you’ve got? Where did that fire from earlier disappear to?”

“Haa… haa… It’s not over yet! Don’t act like you’ve already won…!”

Suhyeok remained silent, likely weighing whether to retreat or not.

White’s reckless determination aside, that guy’s habit of always considering escape whenever things got tough needed fixing too.

That said, this three-way standoff hadn’t been part of today’s plan. Perhaps it was best to wrap things up here.

I let out a condescending remark and prepared to withdraw.

“Already? You amuse me. The battle was won from the very beginning. Surely, you’re not going to claim you haven’t realized that?”

The difference in power was something no one understood better than Radiant White herself.

And yet, her eyes still burned with defiance.

It was clear that simple words alone wouldn’t break her fighting spirit.

…In that case, perhaps I should try this.

Up until now, I had only ever used this instinctively, never consciously.

But I couldn’t keep avoiding it forever.

This was as good a time as any to test it out.

“Did you truly think I was being generous by holding back?”

Dragon Fear. Or perhaps one could call it an overwhelming presence.

I locked eyes with Radiant White and activated it.

And just as expected, no matter how resilient she was, she could not withstand the draconic pressure.

Her knees buckled, and she collapsed.

Through the fire in her eyes had not yet been extinguished, her body refused to obey her will.

“…Clinging desperately to an ill-fitting mantle—how pitiful.”

With those words, I relayed to her a piece of advice left behind by the Shining White within me before departing the scene.