Showdown at Danae's Castle (3)
“A... haa...?!”
Crack, crack, craaaaaack...!!
Il-mun, the Level-Over covered in tattoos all over his body, smashed and shoved aside the chunks of ice engulfing him, barely managing to break free.
The Level-Over, a modified soldier engineered by Mekrak specifically to counter magical girls. Its true strength lay in the Anti-Magic Barrier—a modification that nullified external magical attacks while absorbing the magic power itself.
This barrier, embedded into his skin tissue, rendered all forms of magical girl spells ineffective. However, as with any cheat-level equipment, it was delicate; even the slightest deviation from the pre-programmed magic patterns of Earth’s magical girls would render it useless.
That was why the reggae-haired man had failed to withstand the explosion from the bullet infused with Cookie’s magic power.
“Damn it... the Teleport Gate is frozen too...!”
Blue Sapphire’s massive storm of ice and cold had frozen everything in the immediate vicinity—including the Teleport Gate, along with Il-mun and Kei.
Thanks to the Anti-Magic Barrier, Il-mun had escaped without being frozen solid, but the now-useless Teleport Gate left him with nothing.
Kei, lying beside him, was completely encased in ice.
...She wasn’t dead, right?
Kei was the highest-priority merchandise he had been tasked with. If he failed to deliver her properly, his own neck would be the first on the line.
‘Once the ice on the Teleport Gate melts, it should work again... but first, I need to deal with that magical girl...’
Il-mun glared at Blue Sapphire beyond the frozen path.
Blue Sapphire felt his gaze and trembled for a moment, but quickly cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“All magical girls, assemble!!”
“Huh?”
“Everyone gather in front of Kei-unni! Within a five-meter radius! Hurry!!!”
Her desperate cry drew the attention of the nearby monsters, who had been hesitating after Blue Sapphire’s large-scale magic. They began closing in.
Il-mun calmly began assessing the situation.
‘...There haven’t been any more shots since Sun-jae.’
They must be out of bullets. Or something had happened to them.
He had been wary of sniping because his partner, the reggae-haired man Sun-jae, had been taken out by one. But the attack that felled Sun-jae didn’t look like something that could be fired repeatedly.
‘That means the interval until the next shot will be long. That’s probably why there hasn’t been another one.’
He forced himself to believe it, refusing to let fear cloud his mind.
He took a deep breath and steadied himself. Rational thought slowly returned.
‘Earlier I was panicking and trying to send as many magical girls as possible over there... but with the Teleport Gate frozen, there’s only one thing left to do.’
Thud, thud. Il-mun crushed the floor beneath his shoes as he stepped forward.
His target was Blue Sapphire, surrounded by monsters, and the giant cat monster behind her.
Crack, crack. He loosened his neck.
‘I’ll deal with the intruders in front of me first. Once the ice melts, I’ll toss the magical girls in one by one.’
“Hey, miss. What were you planning to do by gathering all the magical girls?”
“...So you’re the Level-Over Alpha-unni mentioned... You look like a total thug.”
Blue Sapphire glanced sideways at the other magical girls while keeping a wary eye on Il-mun.
『Miss~~! You okay nya~~~?!』
Monster Cat’s voice rang out from a short distance away.
No matter how extraordinary a monster he was, being surrounded by sheer numbers made it difficult to fight back. He couldn’t expect immediate help.
Il-mun glanced at Monster Cat beyond the monsters.
“You’re the one who broke her out of that prison... At this rate, he won’t be coming to help.”
“Help? Who are you talking about?”
“You, of course, you bitch.”
“Who are you calling a bitch...! You think I’ll lose to someone like you?”
“Then you think you’ll win?”
Il-mun pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a casual drag, as if completely unbothered by her presence. Blue Sapphire felt a surge of irritation.
Haa~ Il-mun exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.
“Where’s that Clara girl? She was taken out with that pig-cat, wasn’t she?”
“Hmph. Like I’d tell you? Me~rong.”
“...You’re cute, miss. This’ll be fun to train.”
“Shut the hell up!”
“Well... that girl fed our guys poisoned food, snuck into the control room, and got caught tampering with the systems... So that’s how it is.”
While Kei was being held and trained by Il-mun, Clara had attempted another escape. She had been caught and thrown into the heavily guarded underground prison alongside Monster Cat and Danae.
Something had felt off from the beginning. Danae’s Castle had a solid defense system and external barriers, yet sniping had been possible so easily.
By now, Clara was probably in the control room, fully demonstrating her skills by hacking Danae’s Castle’s systems.
Il-mun sighed in annoyance and spoke while holding his cigarette between his index and middle fingers.
“Ah... I’ll ask just in case... Between your asshole and your pussy, which do you like more? I’ll let you choose how I train you.”
“——Don’t look down on people!!!”
Unable to hold back any longer, Blue Sapphire moved first.
Strike first, win first. She intended to raise her odds by attacking before he could.
‘According to Alpha-unni, he’s no pushover.’
She had to go full throttle from the very start.
“【Thou art ice! Thou art darkness! Thou art eternity!】”
A long, beautiful staff, as if carved from sapphire and lapis lazuli, appeared in Blue’s hand.
Thud!
Blue spun the staff in her hand before slamming it into the ground at her feet.
Her blue magic power flowed into the staff, multiplying in intensity as it seeped into the floor where it was planted.
Strange runes then spread outward from the tip of the staff, expanding widely toward Il-mun.
“Hmm...?”
“【Freeze, rise, mountain of glaciers——Winter Kyros!!】”
In the next instant—
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!!
With Blue Sapphire’s clear cry, a massive volume of ice erupted from the ground at Il-mun’s feet.
“Hup!”
Crunch! Crack! Creak-creak-creak!
Il-mun blocked the sharp, heavy ice threatening to crush him simply by tensing his body. The ice that struck his solid frame instead shattered or was pushed aside, leaving not a single scratch.
“Nice, nice. I like energetic girls! The real fun is beating their bellies until they cry and submit......! Don’t do anything stupid and just come quietly, little miss~.”
“What do you really think of women...! Psycho bastard...!”
Blue Sapphire bit her lip anxiously as Il-mun casually smashed through the enormous glacier with his bare hands.
She swung her staff again while chanting. Transparent ice spikes materialized in the air—thick and massive, like pillars supporting a small house.
One, two, three, four......... twelve!
Blue Sapphire’s eyes flashed as she pointed the tip of her staff at Il-mun. Following the staff’s direction, the floating ice spikes turned their sharp points toward him as well.
“【Shoot】!!”
Shwoooooosh!
With Blue Sapphire’s command, over ten ice spikes surged toward Il-mun with terrifying force, aiming to impale him.
“Whoa... That’d hurt if it hit, huh?”
Il-mun grinned nonchalantly and raised both arms in front of his face like a boxer.
The ice spikes flew at him with ferocious speed. Unfazed, he matched his breathing and swung his fists.
Clang—!
His fists flashed like lightning, striking the sides of the ice spikes and shattering them into pieces.
One after another, he destroyed every single spike without missing any.
“No...!”
At this point, Blue Sapphire couldn’t help but feel anxious.
She had already expended a massive amount of magic power freezing Kei and the Teleport Gate. Each spell she cast against this formidable tattooed man consumed a significant amount of magic.
In other words, her magic power was nearly depleted.
‘At most, I can do this one or two more times...’
“Miss, you done? At this rate, it’s just a bit chilly.”
Despite pouring out so much magic, Il-mun still didn’t have a single proper wound.
A modified human specialized in hunting magical girls.
A Level-Over.
She had heard about them, but... he really was no joke...! None of her trump card spells worked, and it was frustrating...!
Frustration turned into anxiety.
“【Thou art ice! Thou art darkness! Thou art calamity!】”
Blue Sapphire measured the distance between herself and Il-mun while pouring out her magic power. If nothing else would work, she figured a single powerful strike was better than scattering weak attacks.
“【Devour, crush, beast of calamity——Vint Mare Winter Drahe】!!”
The magic power she unleashed with reckless abandon transformed into a terrifying ice storm reminiscent of the end of days. The storm took the form of a massive dragon with its jaws open wide.
“Ho, hooh...”
『Aaaaaah!!』
『W-we’re getting swept up! Get away from that crazy magical girl!!!』
The monsters surrounding Blue Sapphire were swallowed by the ice storm dragon she summoned, sent flying, frozen, and shattered into pieces by the violent tempest.
Whooooooosh!
Crunch-crunch-crunch! Crack! Creak!
An ice dragon that seemed to chew up and swallow everything in its path.
The dragon, its hazy form generating a calamitous storm, charged at Il-mun with jaws wide open to devour him.
“Is that all?”
Il-mun grabbed the massive jaws trying to swallow him from above and below, then tore them apart in one motion as if it were nothing.
The storm dragon, absurdly thwarted, burst apart on the spot, scattering terrifying cold air and glittering ice crystals before dissipating.
And then—
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!”
Beyond the ice crystals, cold air, and the white mist they created—
Blue Sapphire charged at Il-mun as if she had given up on everything.
In her raised hand was not a staff, but a massive sword forged of ice.
The sword, imbued with enormous mass, reached all the way to the ceiling, its blade so sharp it looked like it could cut through anything.
An Ice Sword refined to the extreme, scraping together every last bit of her remaining magic power.
The blade fell toward the man who had sold the stars, like the blade of a guillotine.
Crunch!
“......Ah...!”
But as expected.
Even this desperate attack—using her maximum magic to obscure his vision and striking from an unexpected angle—was effortlessly blocked by this man in a way that felt almost ridiculous.
“Looks like it’s really over now, huh?”
Il-mun caught the falling blade with one hand. As he squeezed, cracks spread across the entire blade like a spiderweb from the point of contact—then it shattered into pieces in an instant.
> Current magic power is below 1%.
> Magic power depleted. Magic recovery rate has dropped to minimum. Sufficient rest and time are required to return to normal state.
“Kgh, uuuugh....”
With the blade gone, all that remained in Blue Sapphire’s hand was the staff she had been using as a handle.
Even that staff melted away in her hand, as if it could no longer be maintained without magic power.
There were no more options left.
Even Monster Cat in the distance had ultimately been overwhelmed by numbers, covered in wounds and visibly exhausted from the monsters throwing themselves at him in suicidal attacks.
“Well then, little miss, how about we have some fun time with this uncle?”
Il-mun approached the now-powerless Blue Sapphire, who had not a single trace of magic left.
Thud! Thud!
“Hngh... kagh...!”
“......I hit you lightly. What’s wrong? Already like this?”
The immobilized Blue Sapphire had already been struck in the abdomen with fists several times.
Though a magical girl’s body was sturdier than an ordinary person’s, he was at least controlling his strength to avoid going too far. However, he was only adjusting to prevent her from dying—not to spare her from pain.
“You made this mess and still thought you’d get out of here in one piece? Huh?”
“Aah... hah... S-stop....”
“Still got the energy to talk?”
Thud!
“......!”
Blue Sapphire gagged, retching.
Il-mun grabbed Blue Sapphire’s bangs and forced her head up, as if wanting a better look at her expression.
Seeing Blue Sapphire’s face twisted in pain, with tears slightly streaming down, eased his frustration and irritation just a little.
“Nice expression, you bitch. Brace yourself. Why are there so many bitches who don’t know their place and come charging in? That Danae bitch, that Kei bitch, and now you.”
