Chapter 14: When Despair Strikes (2)

‘The power of a magical girl easily exceeds that of an ordinary person.’

Ordinary humans could never stand against magical girls.

To exaggerate slightly, a single magical girl could bring about the downfall of a small nation.

Though they may appear as small and delicate girls, they possessed strength that rivaled hundreds, even thousands, of adult men.

That was the overwhelming power granted to magical girls.

Aether Energy.

This external energy, perceptible only to the chosen few, was the very source of a magical girl’s power.

Magical girls were perpetually enveloped in gamma aether.

Just as a fledgling bird instinctively flaps its wings, magical girls instinctively cloaked their bodies in gamma aether.

It was thanks to this that their aging ceased or their physical development stalled.

Like a thick cocoon shielding an insect from external shock, the transparent aether membrane spread across a magical girl’s body protected her from conventional weapons like bullets or missiles.

Human weapons could not kill a magical girl.

One had to either willingly choose death, be killed by an Unknown, or use nuclear force to utterly obliterate the area just to incapacitate them.

This was why humanity feared magical girls to such an extreme degree.

If a magical girl, whose power far surpassed human capability, chose to rebel against the human order, no one could stop her—except another magical girl.

Magical girls gradually lost their minds.

This was a result of excessive accumulation of Aether Energy, the very source of their power, within their bodies.

The more they used Lemegaton, the more Aether Energy built up in their systems.

Aether Energy directly affected a magical girl’s brain and spinal cord, making them crave gamma aether even more and loosen their ties to morality and values.

Slowly, it broke down their emotions, turning them into puppets of the aether.

Then, when the threshold was crossed, the accumulated Aether Energy would erupt outward like a volcanic explosion.

This was a magical girl’s rampage.

In a state of madness, the girl would reduce everything in sight to ashes.

Humanity had already experienced countless such rampages.

‘A ticking time bomb.’

That was the conclusion reached by magical girl oversight organizations around the world, prompting their decision to purge magical girls beyond a certain number.

The magical girl of illusion, Harsa, was among those considered ticking time bombs.

Harsa knew.

She knew the Bureau intended to purge her, that Ianna was at the center of that plan, and that staying passive would only get her killed first.

Of course, that wasn’t true.

Harsa, one of the Twelve Seats, wasn’t actually listed for purging.

Her performance was so meticulous it even deceived the Bureau’s upper echelons.

No one knew that Harsa was slightly unhinged.

She even passed regular brainwave tests without issue.

Harsa strictly managed herself, indulging in only limited acts of sadism to satisfy her urges.

Like now.

Fragments of information pieced together in Harsa’s mind.

Ianna was leading the purge plan, had recently created an artificial Unknown, and had brutally killed a synthetic girl who had once been her friend.

Harsa thought:

If Ianna continues to live, the very existence of magical girls like herself would be endangered.

At the very least… she could give up her own life.

But.

The other magical girls—like Libra—her comrades who fought beside her.

She couldn’t bear to watch them die.

No matter how much disgrace she had to endure, she wanted to protect them.

Even if it meant turning her back on the Bureau.

But again, that too was just speculation.

It wasn’t the truth.

Ianna wasn’t at the center of the magical girl purge plan as Harsa assumed.

She was merely a figurehead, a puppet, a scapegoat with no real power.

‘I’ll make sure Ianna dies. She must pay for her sins.’

That was Harsa’s current conviction.

If she had thought calmly, she would’ve noticed all the contradictions in her logic—but Harsa was already consumed by rage.

The death of her fellow magical girls.

Her near-death experience in the fight with the Unknown.

The humiliation of being easily defeated despite being the so-called strongest.

Waking up to find her skin dry and rough.

Getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in a swamp.

The countless other annoyances.

Put simply, Harsa was lashing out.

Justifying her actions.

The once-respected senior magical girl, who would sacrifice her life for her comrades and stood up to injustice, had completely fallen.

Now, she clung to the Bureau to survive, selling out her own comrades.

She had become a prostitute of the Bureau, shamelessly groveling.

It was unforgivable.

Perhaps others could be forgiven—but not Ianna, the magical girl of the waning moon.

Her current actions were far too contradictory to everything she had ever stood for.

“K-Kegh… l-let… go….”

Ianna’s flailing figure floated in the air.

She drooled and even wet herself.

This pitiful state only fanned Harsa’s sadism further.

If she really wanted to, if she resolved to kill, she could’ve ended Ianna’s life faster than she could react.

She could erase every trace of Ianna’s existence from this world.

Harsa had that power.

Considering the faint admiration still lingering in her heart for Ianna, that would’ve been the kinder option.

Once, Ianna had been the pinnacle of magical girls—her only light, her idol, protector of the weak.

Harsa didn’t want her to suffer a disgraceful end.

She could end it painlessly, instantly.

Surely, that would be the right thing.

‘But that wouldn’t be any fun….’

That wasn’t the kind of thrill Harsa sought.

The more Ianna struggled, the more it felt like the emptiness inside her was being filled.

It was a kind of conquest.

She wanted Ianna to beg for her life.

She wanted to trample her idol underfoot.

As sorry as she was to the late Oksana, Harsa found greater joy in toying with her desperate prey than in seeking revenge.

The more she watched Ianna struggle, the more satisfaction she felt pressing her fist against the pale stomach scarred by surgery.

Her body trembled with exhilaration.

Her cheeks flushed from the thrill.

Without realizing it, Harsa was smiling at Ianna.

A wide, beaming smile.

She stared down at the trembling girl with the corners of her mouth stretched to the limit.

Just a little more.

A little further.

She felt like she was on the verge of realizing something.

Just a little… further…

“…You’re smiling.”

Libra, who had been holding onto Ianna’s body, quietly spoke.

Her voice was clear and soft.

Harsa suddenly regained her senses, suppressing the aether energy rampaging inside her in an instant.

Then, she slowly became aware of what she was doing.

She was dragging her fist across Ianna’s pale stomach, considering which spot would feel the softest, which place would hurt the most.

“One punch.”

Harsa drove her fist into Ianna’s lower abdomen. Deliberately.

“Ku, kehgh….”

Ianna’s eyes rolled back as bile laced with blood spewed out. It felt similar to stepping on a frog.

Left alone, Ianna would’ve died from that one punch. She was already at death’s door.

But.

“Two punches.”

Thud!

Ianna didn’t die.

Aether-wreathed fists struck her abdomen again.

The sound echoed loud enough to fill Ianna’s entire room.

Ianna writhed, her body twisting in agony.

Her consciousness had already left her.

Only her survival instincts remained as she desperately tried to escape Libra and Harsa’s grasp.

As expected, left alone, Ianna would die.

Just like the first punch, Harsa used her ability to heal Ianna’s body.

To be precise, she reverted Ianna’s near-death state into an illusion.

If Ianna died, she couldn’t pay for her sins.

Harsa had to hit her 68 times without killing her.

It was a tricky requirement, but Harsa was used to it.

She had done it countless times before.

Ianna twisted her body as she wet herself.

She could feel the visceral sensation of her ruptured organs regenerating from Harsa’s ability.

At the same time her body healed, Ianna regained consciousness.

Tears streamed from her eyes.

She looked straight at Harsa, her expression asking, “Why?”

Then, for the first time in her life, she began to fear magical girls.