The Unbreakable Flower (5)

The Unbreakable Flower (5)

A Magical Girl who draws on her potential is not incapable of overcoming barriers through growth.

It’s just that a price is required.

The final stage of a Magical Girl. It is Yggdrasil’s last provision that only Magical Girls with an indomitable spirit and nobility can reach.

A kind of self-destruct mechanism that a Magical Girl reaches by sacrificing her power, life, and soul.

Aria now saw a glimpse of it.

“Why, don’t you want to die?”

Takilas smiled faintly and kept pounding his fists. Aria, who had been repeatedly hit by those fists, now could only see one thing.

It was to give Takilas, who was trying to kill her while mocking her, a taste of his own medicine.

And based on that intense desire fueled by her unique mental strength, her power began to move.

‘Just one hit. I’m going to hit him just once…!’

Even as her brain shook and her vision spun, Takilas’s two red glowing eyes remained clearly visible.

“Ha.”

Takilas, who was about to stamp his foot down to break Aria’s neck as she lay fallen, let out a mocking laugh when he saw her hand grabbing his foot.

“Have you returned to being a Magical Girl again?”

“The real evil… is you!”

Aria exploded with power, pushing Takilas back. Simultaneously, Aria’s body, enveloped in bursting red energy, slowly rose into the air in a battered state.

“How ungrateful. You’re calling me evil? Why?”

As Takilas, who had been thrown against the wall, landed back on the ground with a smirk, Aria’s eyes twitched. In truth, even by her own standards, Takilas could no longer be called evil.

He was chaos itself, but ultimately, the choices were made by those swept up in that chaos.

If anything, Takilas had even helped or saved those who made wrong choices in the process.

“Be honest. You’ve just wanted to hit me all along, haven’t you?”

“Ugh?!”

Takilas saw right through Aria’s psychology in an instant. At a loss for words, she gritted her teeth and trembled her fist.

“Of course, it doesn’t matter. If that’s your belief now, senior, you just need to prove it. I know. You’re a being born of order. You probably can’t stand being in the same space as me.”

“I’m sorry and it’s shameless, but I won’t deny it. Right now, I really dislike you.”

Aria, becoming almost one with the raging energy swirling around her like flames, clenched her fist even tighter. It wasn’t just a simple fist.

The fist, condensing an enormous amount of energy, now glowed white as it unified with that energy. Even the lingering thoughts of Smalilian she had absorbed were burned away by Aria’s flames.

Literally, a final fist containing everything burned into it.

“…Is that part of the true realm you can reach.”

Takilas smiled bitterly as he saw Aria, who had become a single white light at the cost of burning everything she had.

[Die!!!]

Soon, Aria, who had become a streak of light, charged forward, exploding with all her power.

The impact was enough to instantly melt the concrete walls and floor that weren’t protected by Takilas. Takilas faced this tremendous strike head-on, extending his fist from where he stood.

[Strong. For this moment, stronger than anyone else]

Takilas sincerely admired.

Takilas’s fist, surrounded by a black shadow, began to crumble, split, and burn up to his arm.

And that fist headed straight for Takilas’s face. Takilas didn’t dodge. Aria’s fist, which had burned through even the magical power surrounding him for defense in an instant, struck Takilas’s head directly.

A thunderous sound and shockwave that could melt and shatter concrete several meters thick. When all of that finally subsided.

The only thing left in place was Aria, floating in the air. Takilas was no longer visible, either annihilated or buried deep in the collapsed wall.

“Eun, cough… Eun-seo… sob…”

[Manager]

With Takilas’s protective power gone, a heat and toxic gas unbearable for ordinary people rushed in.

Gabi clicked her tongue and used her power to mitigate them, only then could Oh Yun-seo speak again.

“You’re back, right? Right?”

[…Yes. To some extent]

“I, I can’t get close. Turn back into a human. Hurry!”

Oh Yun-seo, unable to withstand the heat even from over 50 meters away, finally sat down again. She shouted more desperately for Aria to return, already sensing something.

“It’s okay now. Nothing will happen. So…”

[Thank you… for everything until now. I’ll take back what I said earlier. You weren’t wrong, Manager. There was never a right answer to begin with]

“No! No…”

[Still, I… until the end… as a magical girl… I’m hap..]

Aria’s body began to evaporate, unable to withstand its own heat. The complete annihilation of both body and soul.

Just as one draws power at the cost of potential, what Aria had wagered as payment to use the transcendent’s power was everything she had.

As everyone watched in shock, Oh Yun-seo, who was sobbing, tried to approach while enduring the burns, but Aria’s dissipation was faster.

Just as Aria’s existence was about to vanish like a flame.

“Where do you think you’re escaping to?”

A black tentacle shot out from the pile of concrete and wrapped around that flame.

“Thanks, Gabi.”

“It’s nothing. More importantly, are you alright?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m really satisfied.”

In that fleeting moment, Gabi spread her mystical arts, creating a black curtain that separated the screaming humans from me. Meanwhile, I crawled out from the shattered and melting pile of concrete and stood up unsteadily.

The writhing tentacle protruding from my completely severed right arm was part of my true form. With it, I succeeded in gathering and condensing Aria’s existence that was about to scatter.

“What you just showed me has convinced me. You have an obligation. An obligation to keep fighting me forever! To grow even stronger and become a mighty one who can freely wield that power you just showed without any cost!”

I cackled while looking at the walnut-sized white orb compressed by my tentacle. This orb was Aria. She lost her body, but everything else was normal.

“Gabi. Remove the curtain. It’s a shame to break up this touching drama, but I should explain what’s going on.”

“But Demon Lord, is it truly possible to restore that youngster who has become like this back to their original form?”

“This is probably something even Yggdrasil couldn’t do. I can’t either. But there are those who can. Those bastards… though there are ways to persuade them.”

After tucking Aria into my chest, I cut off the tentacle from my right arm myself. The tentacle soon turned into black vapor and returned to my body.

However, since the body itself had vanished, I would eventually need to seek out Yggdrasil to restore my right arm. If I tried to fix it half-heartedly, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this body.

“Ta-Takilas…”

“Don’t worry, Aria is very much alive. You all just need to focus on finishing what you need to do.”

As the curtain was lifted, I could see their bewildered faces very clearly. They seemed to have thought I had really been done for.

“Is, is that really true?!”

“Yes. It would be a shame to just let her go after she fought so well.”

The gradual change in Director Oh Yun-seo’s face upon hearing that Aria was alive was truly a work of art. I wanted to tease her but held back. Time wasn’t exactly plentiful.

“Tackilas. Your arm…”

“It’s just a minor injury. You should worry about yourself.”

Jeon So-hyeon noticed my loose right arm, but I could only sneer at those words coming from someone who was coughing up blood from internal ruptures.

“It really was nothing…”

I tried to leave like that. Sincerely.

“Huh?”

But at that moment, my vision tilted upwards, completely against my intention. It wasn’t just my eyes rolling up. My whole body was falling backwards.

‘My brain was also affected. By Aria’s punch.’

The damaged body wasn’t just limited to my right arm. Suppressing the tentacles that were trying to burst out, I blankly stared at the ceiling.

At the same time, I felt something trickling down. Blood started flowing from both nostrils.

“Demon Lord.”

“…Leave me be. I just let myself get hit, that’s all.”

Sensing people approaching from outside, I sighed and ordered Gabi not to move.

“What’s going on. This is… damn it.”

“Ugh, what happened here…”

The Frontier people who arrived a moment too late were shocked to see this massive underground facility half-destroyed.

But even that shock was brief compared to now. Several people, including Management Bureau Director Lee Min-hyung, approached me with tense faces as I lay fallen.

“Calm down. We’re not hostile to you. Director Oh Yun-seo… told us everything you did.”

“…”

“We’re going to move you now. It’s for treatment. Understand?”

Lee Min-hyung, who reassured me as I couldn’t speak due to brain damage, soon brought a stretcher and placed my body on it.

I was prepared to move using Gabi or tentacles if necessary, but surprisingly, I felt no hostility from them, so I decided to wait and see for now.

“You’re really doing the right thing.”

Ren, perched on my chest, clicked his tongue and shook his head as if in disbelief.