Magilist: Star Warriors! S1 E26: The Mysterious Mage! A New Enemy Emerges?!
"Uh...?"
Magi White, real name Schne Haidel. In one corner of the park, she witnessed a bizarre hand piercing straight through a monster's body.
Schne hadn't come to the park with some grand mission like "Find the Ivory Tower's hideout!" Tracking the Ivory Tower base was Papirun's job from the start. The magic used by magical girls wasn't suited for pursuit anyway.
She'd tried physically chasing them down, but once the Four Heavenly Kings realized their monster creation sites kept getting busted a few times, they switched to remotely spawning monsters as a countermeasure. It felt kind of like a time bomb.
If Schne were one of the Four Heavenly Kings herself, she'd spawn monsters simultaneously all over the city. It was a relief that, for whatever reason, they could only make one at a time. Papirun had explained it as the "laws of the world," but no way was it really some comic-book cliché.
Curious and studious Schne dreamed of one day uncovering the Four Heavenly Kings' true goals—and maybe even befriending them. Sure, they'd pulled some weird stunts while spawning monsters, but nothing truly evil. No hostage crises targeting school friends or family, no outright crimes like that.
When it came to villainy, the Ivory Tower's Four Heavenly Kings almost seemed a bit amateurish. It probably wasn't because they couldn't guess the Magilists' identities and gave up on hostages. After all, the Fire Heavenly King Salamandine had once disguised herself as a transfer student, only to get exposed during a beach field trip.
Even then, Salamandine hadn't tried sacrificing students as offerings in some wicked ritual or using shady brainwashing magic. She hadn't even acted suspiciously and gotten shunned by the class. Quite the opposite—she'd been pretty popular. Schne recalled how Salamandine had giggled away with friends at a dessert café after school, seeming way more socially adept than Magi Black.
Schne wasn't out hunting Four Heavenly Kings traces or on her usual nightly patrol right now. The simple reason Magi White spotted a monster was that this park lay on her way home from cram school.
On the walk, a breeze laced with mana whispered past her ear. The source was close. Less than a hundred steps away, by foot. So near that no disguise spell could hide it.
Sensing the activation of a monster creation spell, Schne sprang into action. Normally, she'd wait for Magi Black and they'd charge in together. But this time, the monster was spawning right under her nose.
She sent her alert about spotting the monster and completed her transformation into a magical girl simultaneously. And then—she saw it.
A twisted hand. Gnarled like an old tree trunk, fingers stretched thin as mistletoe. So elongated in that instant she couldn't even comprehend they were fingers.
Five needle-like tendrils had pierced clean through the monster's heart. The grotesquely extended fingers' veins bulged, sucking something out from the monster.
She couldn't utter a word. This was utterly unlike any foe Schne had faced before. The Evil Pings other magical girls fought had a somewhat cute vibe to their looks, and even the monsters had that deformed, cartoonish flair somewhere.
Weird, sure—but not grotesque. This, though? Purely grotesque.
It shook her so much she forgot her mana-gathering incantation, even her signature magical girl entrance line.
Instinct told her: Whatever owned that hand was the reason monsters had grown noticeably weaker since the Ebon revival ritual.
"Well now."
It spoke for the first time.
"This is an unexpected development."
Magi White dropped into stance immediately.
"Who are you?!"
She thrust out her right hand. The ribbon coiled around her arm unfurled, surging forward to bind whatever lurked behind the monster.
"You're in a hurry. Hear me out."
The fingers piercing the monster's chest jutted upward. They split and multiplied like tree branches. Five fingers became ten in the next instant, then twenty. Dozens of jointed tendrils lashed out with razor-sharp tips, shredding the ribbon to bits.
"I have no desire to fight you. Can't you see I'm fighting monsters just like you?"
The voice from the finger-extended figure held no emotional inflection. Like a text-to-speech machine reading an input—cold, mechanical. Unsettling.
It mimicked human shape but felt utterly inhuman.
Magi White shouted loudly, as if to banish her fear.
"Then why were you deliberately letting the monsters live?!"
"Oh ho. A magical girl figuring it out before the Ivory Tower."
Again, emotionless. Calm admission, like he'd been experimenting on samples from both the Ivory Tower and the Magilists.
"I was simply afraid of the Ivory Tower."
"A lie...?!"
No way this enigmatic being, who subdued a monster with mere fingertips, feared the Ivory Tower's Four Heavenly Kings.
Magi White was about to argue when—
Screeech.
That sound rang out.
The grotesquely elongated hand and arm shrank in a flash, reverting to human proportions.
Thud—
The mana-drained monster collapsed. Leaves and dust composing its body scattered, blanketing the area.
The streetlamp illuminating the night park dimmed behind the rising fog of dust.
A silhouette emerged from the cloud. Someone whose form she'd only glimpsed fingertips of, lurking behind the monster.
Unexpectedly, it resembled a "mage."
The distinctive pointed hat. A staff in the left hand. Silhouette only, so clothing details were unclear—but anyone in Hikarius City would cry out that this shadow screamed "wizard."
Magi White reflexively fired her ribbon. She couldn't let this shadow mage slip away now.
Squelch.
The tactile feedback from the ribbon's end was bizarre. Not like binding a human hand—like sinking into a lump of mud.
"I'll say it once more. I'm not your enemy. Just forget me."
The ribbon fell away. Not torn—it simply dropped as its bound target severed itself.
'It cut off its own wrist?!'
Magi White recoiled a step. This shadow mage was unlike any foe before. Even Ebon's Four Heavenly Kings had some emotions, some heart.
From this one? Nothing.
"Ah...!"
This wasn't the time. She had to pursue.
As Magi White stepped forward—
The severed hand on the ground began to sprout anew.
"Heh heh hew! Magi Black! This time it'll be different!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Salamandine! What the hell are you doing?!"
"Hmph! I gathered negative thoughts from street smoking and made a monster! The city will choke on smoke, irritation and disgust piercing the skies! Then mana for Lord Ebon's revival will gather!"
"Rabbit Sweets Café owner's got bad lungs! You and your friends go there all the time!"
"R-Really? ...No! Why should I care about some pathetic human?!"
Magi Black traded punches with Salamandine, Ebon's Fire Heavenly King. Seeing her go all out like this, she'd clearly put real effort into this monster.
Black mana from people's negative emotions was the Ivory Tower's power source. The whole city shrouded in acrid cigarette smoke? Definitely not a good vibe.
Still, Magi Black grinned ferociously.
"But whatcha gonna do? White's already on it! Your monsters have been total wimps lately! Cigarette butt freak? That guy's toast soon too..."
Vwoooom—!
A roar echoed. From the park where White had spotted the monster.
Salamandine and Magi Black whipped their heads around in unison. But their expressions differed sharply.
Salamandine's was dismayed; Magi Black's, smug. No way White's finisher would cause a roar like that unless she'd purified it.
Soon, both paled.
Whatever emerged from the park was far too grotesque.
"You... made that thing?"
"No way! Why would I make something that ugly and uncute?!"
It was a tree. But from roots to branch tips, entirely formed of pale hands.
Fingers intertwined into bark patterns; tiny hands dangled in place of leaves, swaying.
A horrific monster unlike any before. Salamandine and Magi Black turned to each other again.
"Right now."
"Temporary alliance!"
"Ow, stings."
Raban massaged his newly regrown right hand.
To buy escape time, he'd severed it after deadening the nerves beforehand. The cut itself hadn't hurt much.
But reconnecting nerves for regeneration brought inevitable stinging as bones knit and flesh reformed.
Raban replayed his encounter with Magi White.
First, the ribbon. Frilly thing, but tougher than expected. He'd met the initial one head-on to test how much mana it took to slice—way beyond his current limits. Shredding it burned through mana equivalent to three monsters.
That informed his call on the second binding. Regeneration was cheap.
No choice but to lizard-tail it and flee. Hand instead of tail, this time.
The spell preset in his severed right hand was nothing special. Just proliferation and enlargement. Big size drew eyes, sure. Hand-based, so kinda gross-looking, but hollow inside—no substance.
That Black girl from before would probably burst it with a few whacks. Shame he couldn't watch the fight play out.
Something handled the magical girls' cleanup afterward. Snag control of that mana, and he could recover in one shot.
As Raban pondered magic, his stomach growled.
"...Ah."
Regenerating the hand had burned calories. Normally, he'd sub mana for food, but not now.
"I'm... hungry."
If this were real Earth, he'd hit an ATM, withdraw cash, grab a triangle kimbap or something. Raban felt a twinge of melancholy.