Can You Even Broadcast This?

“Can this be broadcast?”

A pink aura swirled around Candy Star as the power of starlight seeped into her body.

A considerable amount of mana — far too much to call a mere 1%.

Fwoooosh!

Her pink hair began to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glow.

A layer of pink mana settled over her pristine white sacred lollipop staff, accompanied by a cheerful cha-la-lang~ chime.

And finally, her snow-white boots slammed down onto the ground with a resounding thud!

“With the power of love and justice! Candy Star — TRANSFORMATION — COMPLETE!”

She had announced the arrival of a magical girl.

“...Wow.”

Clap clap clap.

“...Damn it.”

“That was amazing, Candy Star!”

“Just hurry! Hurry up already!”

Face flushed crimson, Candy Star whipped her pink lollipop staff through the air with a whoosh and readied herself for battle.

Her pink eyes sparkled like stars.

Yena, too, gripped her two daggers with a serious expression.

It was a somewhat comical transformation, but something had undeniably changed from before.

'And yet, why does this feel so familiar...?'

—Alright, we begin in five seconds.

The odds stood at 57.1% versus 42.9%.

More of the bets had piled onto Yena, but the gap wasn't particularly large.

“Hoo...”

“......”

Five seconds passed like that.

Piit!

The blade of a dagger grazed past the magical girl's collar.

“...!”

Magical girls.

Girls granted the power of magic through the mascot of the Magical Kingdom.

Every one of them was strong, wielding either magic or powerful enchanted weapons in combat.

Needless to say, a magical girl was far stronger after transforming than before.

Before transformation, she was no different from an ordinary person — but afterward, she became an entirely different being, and especially when she transformed into her 'Battle Form', her combat power surged dramatically.

In other words, the magical girl Candy Star standing here now was several times more powerful than usual, and yet—

“Ugh!”

KWAAAHNG!

Candy imbued with pink mana came crashing down into the earth.

With a dazzling burst of starlight, the car in front of her was crushed flat.

But all she'd managed to do was pulverize an innocent car and the ground beneath it.

Slither.

Yena, still cloaked in invisibility, nimbly slipped out of the way.

Pibibik!

Instead, it was the dagger attacks hunting for openings that kept adding fresh wounds.

None of them struck a vital point — but if the injuries kept stacking, it would inevitably become a problem.

[Candy Star! The enemy's stronger than you think!]

“I know!”

Vmmm...!

The starlight pouring from her lollipop staff came crashing straight down.

A technique that had once annihilated the monsters of the Fiend Alliance in one sweeping stroke.

“MAGICAL CRUSHER!!”

KGAGAGAGAGAGA!!!

The moment the staff slammed into the ground, pink starlight surged forward like a wave, engulfing everything ahead.

Yena, evading under cover of invisibility, scrambled backward in an instant — but it was already too late.

PUHWAHAK!

The wave of starlight raked across Yena's shoulder.

It had, quite literally, only grazed her — and yet nearly half her health vanished.

Seizing that opening, Candy Star launched herself skyward and dropped straight down onto the spot where Yena stood.

“MAGICAL LANDING!!”

Like a bomb detonating, a deafening roar erupted, and every last window in the already-ruined buildings shattered and blew outward.

It was, in a word, overwhelming destructive force.

Smoke billowed upward in thick clouds, and Candy Star, having finished her landing, gave ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her staff a twirl and rested it across her shoulder.

Anyone who witnessed that mangled scene would have assumed it was over.

—No, that's impossible.

But I had seen it.

The moment before Candy Star fell, Yena had vanished into a shadow-step.

And the destination of that shadow-step was—

“One strike, one kill.”

Candy Star's throat.

'Kahaha! I've finally killed that blasted magical girl!'

'Ugh, what a tiresome wench. Unlike every other magical girl so far, her body was just absurdly durable.'

'Kukuku... But I did kill her, didn't I? I can't wait to see the Magical Kingdom's faces. That woman they revered as some invincible legend, ended like this...'

'GAAAH!'

'How are you alive?! I clearly killed you!'

“You ask why?”

Well, that would be the love and justice—

No. That's not it at all.

“Isn't it obvious? I never die.”

A magical girl has two lives.

'Yes!'

Seeing her attack land squarely on Candy Star, Yena cheered inwardly.

One strike, one kill.

She had poured everything she could muster into it, on top of her unique trait — bonus sneak-attack damage.

That much damage was more than enough to kill outright.

Exactly as expected. Candy Star had collapsed just like that, crumpling onto the ground.

'She was pretty strong, though.'

Setting aside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the uncanny familiarity, this magical girl thing must have been a hidden class, because it hit like a freight train.

Maintaining invisibility while slipping in chip damage here and there was genuinely exhausting work.

At one point she'd taken a direct hit and nearly been wiped out in an instant.

If she hadn't spent all that time practicing Spear's Roar and deepening her understanding of mana, she would have lost, no question about it.

'Like I thought — there are just so many people who are frighteningly good.'

“Hoo...”

Her invisibility faded.

Yena glanced once more at the fallen Candy Star, then looked up.

And she leaped rapidly upward.

KGWAGAGAGAGANG—!!!

A single strike turned the ground where Yena had been standing to dust.

With the sound of the explosion still echoing, Candy Star ran a hand through her fluttering black hair and clicked her tongue.

“I could've killed you there.”

“...Revival?”

“Magical girls have two lives.”

One before transformation, one after.

Candy Star wiggled two fingers and stepped back.

Yena stared at her for a long moment, then let out a hollow laugh.

A revival as a class trait, of all things.

So that's what made it a hidden class?

Vmm.

“And also — just for a little while.”

Candy Star outside her transformed state was weak.

Having died once and lost her transformation, she should have been unable to use her full strength right now.

And yet the lollipop staff Candy Star had raised was radiating more power than it had at any point in the fight.

“Right now, I'm even stronger than before.”

“...That's not what I expected.”

“Right?”

From the fingertips of the smirking Candy Star, a pink radiance poured out on a scale incomparable to anything before.

And why the sudden informal speech?

Yena wanted to ask — but she actually already knew the answer.

Power of that caliber always came with a penalty.

Her transformation was already saddled with a forced-start condition; why would revival be any different?

...Thinking about it again, DeoEn really was an insane game.

What kind of game rewired a person's actual mental state?

“You're the third one, you know. To kill me while I'm transformed.”

“Has no one killed you twice?”

“No one. Not yet.”

Is that so?

So that would make me the first, then?

“I'm surrender—”

PUHWAHAAAK!!

A roar that tore the air itself apart had quite literally erased Candy Star from existence.

And not a single mistake in it — flawlessly, perfectly precise.

Yena stared blankly down at the snow-white dagger in her hand.

“...Huh. It worked?”

Why did that work?

Also, why am I so sleepy?

“Huh?”

Something was ringing — an urgent sound vibrating through space itself.

But more than that... why did she suddenly feel like she was about to die...

—Yena! Right now, you need to—

Yena had collapsed.

Collapsed, in the most literal sense — she lost consciousness before she could even log out, and the duel was suspended for the moment.

...To put it plainly, this was my fault.

This place was the training ground where that person and I had once sparred with each other as equals.

Seeing the Great Altar on Kiki Island had brought this place to my mind.

The Great Altar was a mental dimension, detached from the physical world.

While the Altar and this place were somewhat different, their fundamental nature was alike — both drifted far outside the ordinary, universal laws.

The most representative example was techniques that touched the 'soul'.

Devil's fist art, Black Flame Dragon, and Candy Star's magical girl transformation were both examples.

They resisted the constraints of sealing to a degree, but conversely, they were techniques whose side effects reached deep into the soul.

This space amplified such techniques and made them easier to use — but it also made them touch the soul far more deeply.

Granted, it hadn't been serious enough to matter, so it was fine.

The problem was the techniques of the Heavenly race.

The arenas I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had chosen were not virtual spaces.

Every one of them was built from real, existing locations, with slight modifications and constraints layered on.

I'd set it up that way for greater variety and versatility — but that, in the end, proved to be poison.

'The 'limits' that the system had been quietly enforcing were completely lifted, just for an instant.'

The body that felt no pain for its users, the mind shielded from outside threats — all of it was thanks to the system.

A transcendent ability that suppressed any incoming pressure or agony below a certain threshold, no matter how brutal.

But the techniques of the Heaven and Demon races were difficult even for that system to block, which was why side effects — like pain bleeding into reality — had occurred.

The problem was that the instant the world shifted, part of the system protecting Yena had frozen up.

Yena, who was already learning to wield it, used Spear's Roar as she normally would — and her soul was torn to shreds.

Fortunately, the system guarding against external damage was still intact, so Candy Star, who had taken the hit, was unharmed, but...

“......”

“Um... did something go wrong?”

Leo, who had come up at some point, asked anxiously.

The chat had evidently caught wind of how serious things were — nothing but question marks were scrolling up.

I shook my head.

“Not yet.”

Should I count it as a mercy that she couldn't log out?

Or should I take it as the natural course, since the system had already been suspended for a while?

Either way, the real-world me would have had no way to handle this.

Except... what I was about to do was the kind of thing that could be badly misread...

“Everything I do here is treatment. Please don't misunderstand.”

As everyone watched in confusion—

My hand slipped into Yena's chest.