Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Perhaps, Sunk Beneath the Surface
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KOAAAANG―!
A Demonic Beast appearing in the dead of night. And of all things, a Ruby-level one.
"Ugh, my first Ruby-level..."
Her long, dark blue-green hair trailed behind her as she flew between buildings, her face full of worry—the Magical Girl known as Lilia.
"Still, I've gotta give it my all...!"
Rare for a Magical Girl, she wore tight leather pants instead of a skirt. She drew her whip from her waistband, then slipped her hand into her loose top and tossed her precious partner—a small, snake-like creature—into the air to confront the Demonic Beast ahead.
"Boundary...!"
She swallowed hard once. In her haste to isolate the dangerous beast from the fleeing civilians as quickly as possible, she was about to utter the signature magic of Magical Girls—Boundary Inversion.
"Inver...!"
"Can't let you do that."
ZZZING―!
A voice suddenly came from behind her. The flow of magic spreading from her shattered like breaking glass.
"Robel...!"
Lilia whipped her head around, swinging her held whip in a wide arc, but she heard something flapping. Her eyes locked onto a girl's alluring legs, and through black stockings, she glimpsed a tiny scrap of fabric.
"...Oh, black."
And with those words...
CRACK!
Lilia's last sight was a certain girl's knee—Robelia's—crashing up toward her jaw like it was carving it away. She collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
"Whoops."
Robelia carefully caught Lilia, who had reverted from her transformation and nearly plummeted in her pajamas.
-Well done. We'll take her under protection once you set her down somewhere safe.
She nodded lightly at Bell's voice through her earpiece.
"She's just knocked out for a bit. I'm not finishing her with a sneak attack, so quit glaring like that."
She spoke to Lilia's Mascot—a small, snake-like thing—from a short distance away. It eyed her warily without a sound, drawing magic circles filled with dark blue-green mana around them.
"Tell her to go home and sleep it off once she wakes up. Looks like she got dragged out of bed."
After laying the unconscious Lilia on a nearby building ledge without a second glance, Robelia leaped away powerfully once more.
Clink.
She drew a purple sword mid-air and spun it like an acrobat.
"Just to confirm again... I can't save her life, right? This is definite?"
She pulled her arm back as if to hurl the sword in her right hand, asking clearly so the person on the other end of her earpiece could hear.
-Yes. Absolutely. In the end, she's in the same state as you, Miss Robelia. The contract shared mana with the beast. It's just a matter of whether the vessel can handle that mana or not.
At Bell's explanation—that it was like forcibly linking a shattered vessel to the Demonic Beast...
"Got it."
Robelia swung her mana-reinforced arm without hesitation, throwing her purple sword like a boomerang.
KWANGGGGRRR...!
But the blade, shot fast enough to pierce the beast whole, couldn't even scratch its skin. It sparked violently and bounced back.
――!
Enraged by the sudden attack, perhaps? The beast, which had been blindly smashing buildings while chasing panicked civilians, slowly turned with a phlegmy, displeased screech.
KIIIIIING...!
It spotted Robelia below the direction of the attack—the one with purple-glowing circular magic circles at every joint on her arms and legs.
"—Acceleration."
The small but clear voice recited the name of the one spell a certain Magical Girl—who lacked mana for proper magic—could handle well.
BOOM―!
The moment she heard it, air burst with a crack. The massive beast, rivaling a skyscraper, soared into the sky.
SLASH...!
Even then, the beast prioritized offense over defense, extending tentacle-like flesh from its body and wildly lashing about.
KWAGGGGOOOOM!!
A deafening roar incomparable to before echoed as street debris vanished rapidly. Amid it, a purple flash streaked.
SHWICK.
The flash pierced the beast's body once, the sound following a beat later.
Flicker.
Another purple blink—now the giant beast's body split in half.
――!
A silent monster's cry tore at her ears. Hundreds of meaty tentacles whipped out like lashes.
"Kyaaak!"
Turning at the scream... A woman who hadn't evacuated in time tried to shield a fallen elderly man, screaming.
Crunch...!
The purple flash—Robelia—stood guard before the woman, slashing away the incoming tentacles without hesitation.
"Hoo."
She cooled her overheated joints from the frenzy, speaking slowly in the chilly breeze.
"Don't move from there."
Ahead, the halved beast reconnected its body and swung hundreds more tentacles this way. But the woman shielding the old man just nodded resolutely, lips pressed tight, at Robelia's words.
KIIIIIING...!
Satisfied with that? Robelia smiled, drawing thin mana threads over her sword to sharpen its blade.
"—Acceleration."
She activated the layered magic circles on her arms and legs again... and stepped forward boldly with her left foot.
Twang―!
A sound like an overtaut bowstring snapping. But the woman behind Robelia, dazedly watching the beast, saw it.
SLASHHH―!
As if the process skipped—Robelia was suddenly steps ahead, the beast shredded like it'd been slashed hundreds of times.
"You can run now."
"Th-thank you...!"
Robelia watched the woman flee, supporting the old man again.
"If only everyone were like that."
Perhaps recalling other civilians who only fled selfishly when death loomed. She clicked her tongue lightly.
Sizzle...!
Her body burned hot like scorched flesh. She roughly shed her cape to cool off... and eyed the red meat mass writhing, trying to regenerate.
"......"
Focusing mana in her blackened right eye revealed the white mana form still embedded deep within.
Clink.
Breath steaming in the cold wind, Robelia gripped her sword again.
Step, step.
She approached the beast spilling blood, desperately knitting its body... her face chillingly cold, right eye alone open, carefully swinging her blade.
SLASH...!
Probably three or four swings. After dismantling the remains like butchery, veins burst grotesquely from her body... revealing a large, glowing red orb—the beast's core—and a connected girl.
"......"
Robelia gazed briefly at the girl—Hanbyeol—pale as death, eyes barely closed, linked to the core.
Crunch...!
She stabbed and shattered the core with her sword.
"...Bell."
She addressed the suited man, Bell, who tore space silently beside her.
"Among all the Demonic Beasts I've killed so far, was there ever a case like this?"
Robelia's voice sank cold. Was this truly the first?
"Hard to say. Even I couldn't claim there was absolutely never one."
The skeptical reply was regrettable.
"......"
She silently took the suit coat Bell offered.
"Times like this, I kinda miss that cumbersome cape."
She wrapped it around Hanbyeol's body, laid her respectfully... and gently closed the girl's unpeaceful eyes.
"Let's go. Before prepping the next script, something came up."
"Funny coincidence. I've got something I want to look into this time too."
Bell met her eyes, equally intolerant of such things. Under his escort, she stepped slowly through the torn space.
What remained after they left... ruins shattered beyond compare. And the girl's corpse, which would have sunk coldly beyond the boundary without a trace, as always.