Chapter 16: When Despair Strikes (4)

“Why… why did you… do such a thing…?”

Ianna asked again, her voice trembling.

Heosang’s illusory eyes reflected Ianna’s form.

Blue veins stood out on her pale neck, her constricted pupils glaring fiercely.

Ianna couldn’t control her body, trembling with explosive rage.

With a ridiculous nosebleed dripping, she was crawling across the floor towards them.

“Haah, haah…….”

Heosang let out ragged breaths without realizing it.

A strange sensation she had never experienced before sent shivers through her entire body.

It was a feeling she hadn’t even felt towards Cheonching.

The fact that the utterly broken Ianna was furious with her was incredibly exciting.

“Why… why…….”

Two pale, slender arms.

Ianna reached out her flailing arms towards her.

Without thinking, Heosang grabbed the outstretched arm.

More precisely, she clasped the small, delicate hand, interlocking their fingers.

The moment their hands touched, Ianna’s body trembled violently, and she recoiled.

Her whole body twitched as she tried to avoid Heosang.

It was already ingrained.

The fear of magical girls.

‘…’

Heosang’s heart pounded as if it would burst.

It was more thrilling than anything she had ever done.

Her head spun.

She couldn’t control her body at all.

She twisted her legs together.

Because the overwhelming ecstasy coursing through her made her feel a damp heat below.

A sense of conquest.

She felt a sense of conquest unlike any she had ever experienced.

The strange excitement mixed with the feeling of dominance, messing up Heosang’s mind completely.

“Ptui.”

She forced Ianna’s mouth open and spat into her throat.

She had left her mark.

A mark signifying her intent to thoroughly violate Ianna’s body.

It felt like her entire being was melting in maddening ecstasy.

She felt like she was about to lose her mind.

Smack!

To snap herself out of it, she kicked Ianna hard in the stomach.

She bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood, trying to scatter her feelings towards Ianna.

“Ugh…….”

Ianna crumpled into a corner, and Heosang watched her, her mind racing.

The justification was entirely on her side.

Since it was clear Ianna intended to purge the magical girls, she was merely carrying out righteous retribution.

And incidentally, avenging the dead Oksana.

She needed to make Ianna aware of this situation.

She had to make her realize that Heosang held superiority in body, mind, justification—everything.

Only then could she completely break Ianna.

Her thoughts had changed.

Initially, she planned to kill her.

Before the senior she admired could become even more depraved, she intended to make her pay for her sins and turn her into one of the countless stars in the sky.

However.

That wasn’t enough.

What Ianna wanted, no matter the cost, was to survive.

If she could just survive, she would do anything.

She would completely discard the pride of a magical girl, not even hesitating to sell her body to the higher-ups in the Management Bureau.

‘I want to make her beg for her life.’

That thought filled Heosang’s mind.

Heosang approached Ianna, who was lying face down, clutching her stomach, and stomped on her head with her foot.

Cheonching, seemingly uninterested, blew a large pink bubblegum bubble while looking at her smartphone.

“…Why.”

Ianna murmured softly.

“Why, did you kill him…….”

Looking down at Ianna, who couldn’t control her rage-filled trembling, Heosang smiled slightly.

‘I didn’t kill him.’

The cunning Heosang hadn’t killed the adjutant.

From the start, no one besides Ianna was their target.

Dealing with Ianna personally, who had a legitimate reason for revenge, was one thing, but touching another ‘monkey’ was tantamount to confronting the Management Bureau head-on.

Of course, she intended to confront them eventually, but not yet.

The number of ‘monkeys’ was too large.

The number of magical girls following the ‘monkeys’ was also considerable, and most importantly, Cheonching’s second Lemegeton wasn’t ready yet.

With Janwol neutralized, the intentions of Aewon, arguably the strongest magical girl currently, were also uncertain.

Even if Cheonching sided with her, if Aewon opposed them, resisting the current Management Bureau would be suicidal.

Magical girls surpassed ordinary humans by tens, even hundreds of times in every aspect.

Magical girls were the strong; ordinary people, no different from monkeys, were the weak.

Most magical girls, including Janwol, justified their sacrifices by saying they were ‘protecting the weak,’ but not her.

There was no need for the strong, like themselves, to sacrifice for the sake of the numerous weak.

Especially not in this system where the strong magical girls were under the control of the weak monkeys.

It should be the strong, like them, who lead the monkeys.

She had no attachment to the current system where the hierarchy was reversed.

That was why Heosang intended to bring down the Management Bureau.

No, more accurately, she intended to seize control.

Her plan was to eliminate the Bureau’s leadership and then install herself in their place, shaping the Bureau according to her own tastes.

To become the iron magical girl ruling over ten thousand monkeys, the great magical girl praised by all—that was Heosang’s goal.

Heosang was perfectly sane.

At least, that’s how she felt.

Therefore, as long as the monkeys submitted to her control, she planned to guarantee their lives.

Just as they had always done, she intended to protect them against the invasions of the Unknown Entities.

That’s also why she hadn’t killed Ianna’s adjutant.

Because she was rather impressed that, for a monkey, he was willing to risk his life for his master.

Heosang’s ability was literally creating ‘illusions’.

Having dabbled in the realm of reality alteration, Heosang could easily change a person’s location.

All she had to do was think of the person standing in that location as an ‘illusion,’ fake.

That’s why the adjutant vanished like an afterimage.

Ianna’s adjutant was likely wandering aimlessly in the forest outside the Management Bureau, completely bewildered.

Well, maybe not.

The location of a monkey was none of her concern.

Heosang’s gaze fixed on Ianna.

Ianna, vomiting stomach acid mixed with blood, her whole body shaking.

An amusing phrase came to mind.

“Why, you ask?”

Heosang’s voice was full of mischief.

“Well…….”

She was extremely curious about Ianna’s reaction.

To see Ianna’s expression directly, Heosang grabbed her hair and forced her head up.

She wanted to utterly shatter Ianna’s heart with a single phrase.

She wanted to make Ianna hate her.

She wanted to break the body and spirit of the Ianna who hated her.

And, exactly one phrase came to Heosang’s mind.

“Because it’s fun.”

Ianna’s expression twisted violently.

“You, you evil… bi*ch…….”

Ianna, who had never uttered a curse word before, used profanity against her for the first time.

“…Magical girls are supposed to protect the innocent, the weak. You, you… you… broke the precepts…….”

“So what if I did? I warned you. I said I’d kill you if you tried any funny business. It was your monkey’s choice.”

“People… are not… monkeys……. Heosang, you… why… why… why…….”

Tears welled up in Ianna’s eyes.

What hurt Ianna’s heart more than anything was that Heosang was smiling even as she killed someone.

Unable to hold back her nausea, Ianna vomited stomach acid again.

No food came out.

She had deliberately kept her stomach empty to eat chocolate while chatting peacefully with the two of them.

She had prepared a hoard of sweet candies from the medical room, so Ianna hadn’t eaten anything recently.

Only, to be with the two of them.

If only, truly, it had been just her.

If only they had killed her instead.

If they were going to kill without a trace, if only they had used their powers on her instead.

Even if she died unjustly, she could have understood.

She could have sent the two off with a smiling face until the very end.

Ianna was that kind of magical girl.

The magical girl who protected the weak, embraced others, and could forgive anything—that was Ianna.

Ianna gritted her teeth.

The two had crossed a river from which there was no return.

Heosang had torn Ianna’s heart to shreds.

For Ianna, more painful than the physical wounds was the fact that her most cherished junior treated life so carelessly.

It was reaching the point where she couldn’t maintain her sanity.

“I wanted… to get closer…… clear up the misunderstandings… gi-give gifts… be with you two… together…… again, once more….”

Ianna, with dead eyes, began to mutter softly.

Her mind could accept that the two had killed her adjutant, but her heart absolutely could not.

Heosang watched Ianna’s expression, her own face filled with a rapturous smile.

Ianna was the idol of all magical girls.

She had held the top spot among the 12 Seats of Magical Girls for decades.

There was a time when Heosang truly admired Ianna.

She even harboured feelings one shouldn’t hold for someone of the same s*x.

Ianna was kind to everyone.

She acted like a model for all magical girls.

That Ianna.

“This can’t be…… real… no… this is… no…… I, I… don’t know… this… this wasn’t supposed to happen…….”

Was broken.

Completely broken.

Although it deviated slightly from the plan, this was sufficient.

Now it was time to break Ianna mentally.

Through violence and threats.