Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Don't Die, Please
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High in the sky, brilliant mana circuits flashed into deployment.
Behind Prina's back, ten light magic circles unfurled simultaneously like a constellation.
Golden flashes tore through each one like overloads, while mana-compressed air screeched as if ripping apart with electric sizzles.
"Light Spear — Full Burst."
With her cold declaration, nearly a thousand—no, ten thousand light spears erupted like an explosion.
Thousands of mana arrows streaked out every second, spreading in all directions and turning everything in sight to scorched earth.
The ground cratered like from artillery fire, the air filled in an instant with a downpour of white, and vision vanished.
This was the decisive technique that had propelled Prina all the way to the Prismatic Eight.
Her unique ultimate move, possible only when proficiency, computational power, and mana control all reached their absolute limits.
However.
As the rain of light finally ended and the hot dust billowed down slowly, what came into Prina's view was... the monster, still standing.
"...Hoo?"
Zeke hadn't moved an inch. He just stood there.
Bleeding profusely, dozens of light spears lodged throughout his body.
He looked like a living corpse.
A pool of blood had formed at his feet, and chunks of flesh sizzled red-hot like seared meat, belching smoke.
"As expected of an orc... I'd heard rumors of their magic resistance, but I didn't think it was this extreme."
Prina clicked her tongue without realizing it.
The monster was now advancing, each step crunching the ground to pieces.
The light spears embedded in his body shook with every movement, dripping a mix of blood, pus, and mana in sticky trails.
Yet those bloodshot eyes, from start to finish, locked solely on her.
"...Ha! So what? You're a dead man walking—what do you think you can do now?"
Did this mere monster really intend to clash head-on with a Prismatic Eight member?
Fresh magic circles layered into existence in the air around her.
Mana condensed, the air crackling and tearing with sharp pops.
Light swirled above her head like a storm.
One more hit, and she'd definitely take it down for good.
...Of course, she'd probably eat one solid blow first.
Prina calculated coolly.
At the speed Zeke was charging, he'd close the gap once before her next spell fully deployed.
But even that was within her calculations.
As the saying went, give flesh to take bone—she was already prepared for injuries.
She might have risen by stabbing her allies in the back after Bella, but anyone who thought she'd reached this rank without real skill was gravely mistaken.
The Prismatic Eight was no shallow position.
For all her appearances, Prina was a rare elite among Magical Girls, one who'd delved deep into the ecology and habits of monsters.
And the calculations in her head were already complete.
'Orcs—'
Prina narrowed her eyes, feeling sweat trickling down the inside of her thigh.
Zeke's gaze flicked across it.
'Have always had an instinctual rule from time immemorial: they never touch a Magical Girl's womb, especially not a high-grade one perfect for breeding.'
The most primal code of male orcs.
They don't destroy wombs capable of reproduction.
Instead...
'They smash the arms and legs to prevent escape, then devote themselves to mating until death.'
Prina huffed a laugh through her nose.
Orcs possessed insane strength by nature.
Most people thought orcs tore women apart the moment they caught them, but that was a misconception.
Because their power was so overwhelming, they first tested if the female could withstand it before truly thrusting in.
Females whose wombs burst from a single thrust were useless for breeding.
So they didn't kill them right away.
They broke just the arms and legs, then kept them captive for days, testing their limits with full-force pounding to see if they could endure.
Only those who passed became lifelong breeding mates, chosen after just one pairing.
And among humans, Magical Girls were one of the few races whose wombs could take it.
In other words, ripping the womb was, to them, the insane act of destroying a precious resource.
So Prina was certain.
He absolutely wouldn't target her torso or womb.
She immediately channeled all her mana into her arms and legs, layering transparent barriers thickly around them.
If she could just block this one moment—even if her arms or legs shattered, sacrificing one limb would still mean victory was hers.
...That's what she thought, for sure.
But then.
Crack!!
"Guhk?!"
In that instant, her vision flashed white.
A gut-wrenching agony that flipped her insides from the heart down.
Zeke's fist slammed not into the expected spot, but straight into the flesh guarding Prina's womb.
Her belly caved in deep, then ballooned out like a burst, thick drool spilling from her mouth.
A blow heavy enough to induce menopause before she'd even borne a child.
Flesh tore with a sickening rip, the thin muscles around her womb vibrating as if shredding whole, and beyond her eardrums came the faint crack of fracturing bone.
Prina's eyes rolled back unconsciously as her legs buckled, and she collapsed in a heap.
But even that moment of respite from the pain was a luxury she couldn't afford.
Grab.
Blood-soaked green arms clamped onto the nape of her slumped neck.
Rough, hot, sticky fingers dug deep into her flesh.
Even as her breath choked off, Prina's golden eyes reflected a single blood-drenched monster.
His entire body a shredded mess, yet the gaze of a warrior still burned alive in him.
"Wh-what are you... doing... you...!"
"......"
"Kek?! N-no way... you're trying to kill me? I'm... Prismatic Eight... killing me would be a waste for your kind too...!"
Prina desperately squeezed out the words.
Her brain spun hot as if burning.
The way to survive this: offer her body as the price to beg for her life.
Even if she became a meat urinal right now, as long as she lived, that was enough.
She could find an opening during transport and strike.
So she desperately, forcibly tugged up the corners of her mouth.
Even as drowsiness threatened to snap her neck, she smiled, pleading for him to release his grip.
But.
Squeeze.
The fingers around her throat clamped down with bone-shattering force.
"I know... dragging you alive back to my clan's village would be the smart play."
Zeke's voice was low and gravelly, trembling like a rabid beast steeped in blood.
He knew full well how stupid it would be to kill a Prismatic Eight member right here.
However.
Even so.
His bloodshot eyes narrowed slowly.
Madness, not reason, now spread like the stench of blood.
"...So."
Blood-smeared lips twisted as Zeke bared his teeth.
"You should've kept your hands off what was 'mine.'"
"...Eh?"
Terror flashed across Prina's face in that moment.
The ploy of trying to steal his female from him with another female—it had utterly shattered Zeke's composure.
"Sp-spare...!"
Crunch—!!
Zeke's grip crushed her skull like biting into a ripe watermelon.
Blood vessels and flesh burst with a splat,
and the Prismatic Eight member's head exploded, golden hair and brains mingling as they sprayed everywhere.
The last sight in Prina's eyes was the monster's blood-veined red gaze, clutching her.
The fight... was over.
Winner: the orc, Zeke.
...Or so you'd say?
He had killed Prina.
Smashed the Prismatic Eight member to pieces with that hammer of a fist.
But right now, he was a total ragdoll too, soaked in blood and liable to drop dead any second.
Bella had watched the entire battle powerlessly from start to finish.
She blankly surveyed the ruined battlefield, then slowly moved toward where the two had been.
Dry blood crunched underfoot.
"Hey... you... a-are... you okay...?"
Before the corpse of her junior—head pulverized, body alone remaining—and beside it, the orc standing dazed.
Bella cautiously poked his arm.
Then.
Thud.
"Mommy?!"
Like a machine powering down, Zeke soon collapsed face-first onto the ground.
No breath, no twitch—just silence.
Bella's heart plummeted for a second.
She really thought he was dead, and nearly stopped breathing herself.
But then, a brilliantly wicked idea struck her.
"...Huh? Wait. But this... this looks way too perfect, doesn't it?"
The heart of the blood-soaked ruins.
Yellow Prina's corpse sprawled in a pool of blood, her crushed head mixing blonde hair and brains.
And beside it, the top-grade subjugation target orc on the verge of death.
Finally, the sole survivor at the scene: former Prismatic Eight Magical Girl, Yellow Bella.
Blood droplets spattered her golden mana cape, fluttering as if she owned these ruins.
In that moment, she realized.
This picture was too perfect.
The sole survivor, former Yellow Bella.
The heroic tale of how she'd slain the next orc clan successor that even the Prismatic Eight couldn't stop.
Just that one line was all it would take.
No one would question the truth.
Heroes were always just the ones who made the ending look pretty.
She could twist it just like this right now.
Not only reclaim her old spot, but return to the Prismatic Eight more triumphant than before.
No—maybe even higher.
People always went mad for tales of 'heroes crawling back from hell.'
...This was her last chance, granted from above.
The one stepping stone to re-etch her name onto the Mana Defense Command's roster, after being discarded and forgotten.
So... of course, she had to cut the 'enemy's' breath short right here.
The Bella who'd been declared dead needed to return with the enemy's head.
And yet.
Why was she.
Instead of killing him, hoisting him onto her back?
Carefully cradling that hot, heavy body slick with blood and sweat, like embracing it.
As if hurrying to turn and flee this place.
As if... embracing and fleeing with a fellow loathsome monster.
"......Fuck."
Somewhere, it felt sweet.
As the sticky blood-soaked warmth spread across her back, her throat grew oddly hot.
She had to kill him.
But right now... the urge to hold this monster close outdid even the duty to kill.