The Line to Protect (Part 3)
The battle against the line I must guard was heating up, and I could feel it in my bones.
"...So it turns out the ordinary demon isn't ordinary after all."
Absolute Defense
[Have you figured that out now?]
I shot a glare at Ren sitting beside me, but the mascot just clamped her mouth shut.
Clenching my tongue inside, I let my body go slack and slumped heavily onto the sheet, muscles surrendering.
Right now I couldn't speak, couldn't move. A makeshift gag of folded handkerchief filled my mouth, and my hands were locked tight to the seatbelt. They had me cold.
I'd been carried into the car by this poor possessed guy, and the moment the door shut he revealed his true nature. So I played along—play dumb, stay compliant. I needed to know his game.
[Kidnapping even his own daughter? What the hell is he planning? Honestly, this sounds like pure madness.]
"I feel the same," Ren sighed, muttering. At the same time I stole a glance sideways.
There she was—an elementary-school-looking girl curled up, exhausted from crying herself to sleep. Judging by the shouts she must have been his daughter. She'd been yelling something about why he was dragging her along when he turned.
[Strong negative-energy mana is radiating off her. Really strong.]
The car had left the city behind and was climbing the forested mountains. My senses picked up a cluster of incredibly powerful negative-energy signatures—Kaijin, Yoho, and others I'd felt before. I'd bedded a couple of them, so I knew the vibe.
"What are you talking about? Negative energy?"
[Yggdrasil's power and the power of magical girls are all positive—hope, future, passion. Negative energy is grudge and cold calculation. Kaijin are closer to the negative side because their fuel is dark.]
Even as a mascot Ren didn't know the nature or attributes of mana. I gave her the quick-and-dirty explanation.
[But according to my calculations, this is straight-up bullshit. The ideal mana has no fixed attribute—it's fluid and adaptable. The second you try to control anything with properties, the thing eats the user whole in one bite.]
The real problem was that not even the fairy company mascots knew this stuff, let alone regular humans.
The car kept climbing the winding mountain road until it finally stopped in front of a secluded villa.
"Hey, control these new bodies for me. They're fresh meat."
Of course a normal villa wouldn't have armed guards waiting with guns blazing, and anyone would feel the tiniest flicker of unease when they saw a possessed person.
"Answer me. Who are you, where are you from, and who did you bring?"
"T-th-this madman... He's clearly human! How can he summon Mammut's demon!"
Ren was panicking, watching the guy try to control me.
While he was distracted, I and the girl beside me were dragged out of the car.
"Fourteen-year-old girl found wandering Seoul's downtown, and my thirteen-year-old daughter on her way home from school."
"...Good. Move the kids."
The possessed guy delivered all our info in a flat, emotionless voice, then climbed back into the car. He looked more like a robot than a person.
"Bring him."
Again my arms and legs were bound, a blindfold slapped over my eyes, and I was hoisted onto someone's shoulder and carried off.
"We're heading underground now. Hey, when are you going to change and wipe everything out?"
Ren was stuck right next to me, updating me on every move.
"Store the new bodies. Use them when the front ones run out."
"Understood."
I was carried somewhere and dumped onto a flat surface after the order was given.
"Hey! When are you changing?!"
Ren's voice went shrill with worry, but I ignored it. I needed to figure out what these idiots were really up to.
Soon a syringe needle pierced my neck and plunged in.
I've had this before. Of course my veins could handle acid; no problem there.
I just let my body go limp and faked unconscious.
"Hiiiiik!"
They yanked off my blindfold and pulled the gag from my mouth.
Ren had been making a huge fuss, but this time she was right.
[These crazy bastards...]
"Yes, they're burning all your clothes and now they're forcing this breathing apparatus down your throat."
They stripped me completely naked, then shoved something into my mouth that covered both nose and lips.
Whether deliberate or not, Ren kept reporting every detail to me.
"We're moving. This place... this can't be good."
My gurney was rolled forward, and my whole body—arms, legs, all the attached junk—suddenly plunged into something cold but not water. Ren's voice cut out.
[I get it. I know where I am.]
I whispered to Ren, then barely cracked one eye open.
The place where I floated was a massive glass test tube I'd seen before when my ship was raided by illegal crime syndicates.
Those victims inside were now me.
[Of course.]
Several of these tubes lined the vast underground facility. I spotted a familiar face in the one opposite me and smirked inside.
Kim Sujeong, the one who'd said she was coming to meet Park Tae-joon. She was locked in there too, eyes closed, looking just like me.
"...!"
When I opened my eyes, a lab-coated researcher passed by and our gazes locked.
He jumped, pointed at me, then staggered and toppled over by himself.
"...?"
He picked himself up, approached slowly, and tapped on the glass with his fingers, disbelief written all over his face.
Apparently he still couldn't believe the girl inside had woken up. So I moved my own fingers in front of his eyes, making them spread wide.
I grinned stupidly, then pressed the magical girl connector only I could see.
*
"Experiment 39 complete. Even though we had to discard the first 38... finally! Finally! More bodies mean faster progress!"
Even as he spoke, Andrei was cheering wildly.
He had no idea a calamity rivaling Mammut had just walked into his lab.
"Director!"
"Immediately give the order to A-146!"
"Yes, sir."
His excited subordinate slammed the computer keys.
Andrei turned back to the girl sitting on the examination table, black veins spreading across her arm.
"Command executed. Instruction: stand up and manifest your abilities."
The girl shot upright like a puppet, face blank, and flames—violet, lethal—burst from her hands. Exactly the same power the extracted magical girl had wielded.
"Remote control at 100%. Perfect."
"Her original self is still weak. It's easier to break the old one cleanly and start fresh. You are A-146, reborn."
A long scar ran across the girl's head. They'd sliced it open, removed her brain, and planted dozens of remote-control chips directly into her neural tissue.
Andrei grinned, teeth showing.
"Uwaa... uwaaaah!"
"Magical girl! It's a real magical girl!!"
An emergency bell rang and chaos erupted.
If this had been the first batch of failures, Andrei would have gone berserk.
But this time was different.
"I expected it. They're fast. We're pulling out now. Prioritize data protection, secure as many bodies as possible, then burn this place to the ground."
"But the magical girl is moving insanely fast..."
"Doesn't matter. A-146 is the perfect enemy of magical girls. Send that kid to her right now. And we escape."
Andrei gave the final order with a smug grin.
The girl nodded once, then—syringe still stuck in her body—stumbled out of the lab and ran like hell.
"...So who is this talented magical girl who discovered this place so quickly?"
"She's the new Code Red magical girl, Takilas."
"A true magical girl and a giant has arrived. Tell the possessed to mobilize."
Andrei, hurrying to set up an evacuation, flinched at the name Takilas. Then he relaxed again.
After all, forcing a strong magical girl to submit and collect her live data was always the plan.
"Screen."
Andrei bolted for the emergency exit, grabbing a walkie-talkie to check the current situation facing Takilas.
"Deja vu again."
"B-but she's fine! She's standing there like nothing happened!"
Anyone she met ended up spurting blood from her hands and falling. You could see how terrifying a magical girl who never hesitated to kill could become.
But Ren pointed in horror. The one stopping her without flinching was an unknown girl who'd been reduced to a lifeless doll—formerly an experimental subject, all memories and control stripped away.
Of course it meant nothing to the Demon King Takilas.
'Damn it.'
Still, she froze in the shadows.
"Why? Why not fight back?! Strike now!"
"I can't."
Takilas didn't retaliate even when A-146 punched her stomach with a flaming fist.
She just caught the girl's flailing hand and pinned her down.
"That damn magical girl's power... she thought I was just some ordinary human."
She clicked her tongue, watching the blank-faced girl keep punching with her broken wrist while trying to break free.
And then, with a bitter smile, she watched the girl glare back.