The Magical Girl Believes in the Power of Bonds (5)
“...Aaaah... We're screwed, nyang.”
Cookie, who had been watching the situation from beyond the opened spatial rift, clutched its head with its tiny doll-like hands. This was the worst. The absolute worst-case scenario it had feared.
“Even Kei probably can't handle this, nyang....”
With a sigh, that was all it could mutter.
A deep rumbling vibration spread from the massive filming set where we stood, echoing throughout the entire dungeon. All the monsters that had been here had already fled. The only one left was Black, still standing there nonchalantly with the magic stone in hand. He must have been thrown into confusion by the fact that Executive S had been killed—and by the hand of a fellow executive, no less. Understandable.
“...Hnnng!!!”
With the monsters gone, the rest of us charged straight at Black, who was still holding the magic stone. He had certainly killed our enemy S, but that didn't make him our ally. Yet every time we attacked, our strikes missed. The ground beneath us suddenly shook so violently we could barely stand, walls plummeted from above, or grotesque monsters—slimes and massive-mouthed aberrations—erupted from the floor in swarms. Just when we thought we'd closed the distance, the terrain would shift again, leaving Black far out of reach.
This ability, this situation... it was just like...
'S...?'
The same power as that detestable monster who had been here moments ago and was now dead. Was it coincidence that they shared the same ability and magic? Or...
“Eeeek! There are too many!”
“Kyaaaaah! Unnie, save me~~~~!”
While I slashed away the insect-like monsters lunging at us with their tongues flicking, I heard Blue's panicked voice. Far away, she had been caught by a long vine around her ankle and was being hoisted into the air like a caught fish, flailing helplessly.
“Uh... Uwah!?”
Splash! Thud!
Blue's slender body was tossed straight into a massive sac resembling a carnivorous plant, and the lid slammed shut over her.
“Blueeeeeeee!?”
A man-eating plant?! It was a man-eating plant?! I sprinted desperately and hacked at the roots of the vine holding the sac that had swallowed Blue.
Things weren't much better where Alpha and Yura were. Glurk...! Glorp, glorp, glorp...!
“Hey... Hey! You okay?!”
Yura's entire body was submerged in a transparent slime, flailing helplessly. Every time they thought they'd survived one trap, another would appear and overwhelm them before they could dodge, leaving them captured. Alpha fired her guns wildly at the slime's surface, but the elastic mass paid no heed and extended a pseudopod to grab her as well.
Just as Alpha seemed ready to use Lucky Roulette without holding back, Poof—!Cough, cough!
“Yura! Are you alright?!”
“I-I'm fine....”
By detonating her dokkaebi fire with every last drop of magic power, Yura had barely managed to burst the slime from the inside and escape. Even after getting out, however, she trembled violently—not from fear or cold, but because the slime's main component, a weak aphrodisiac mucus, had seeped into her body through her skin. The toxins she'd been purging until now had finally started to fade, yet now even the slightest breeze left her hypersensitive, as if she might climax at any moment.
“Ah, no... I'm sorry, Unnie....”
“Eek?!”
In the end, Yura grabbed Alpha, forced their lips together, and began shamelessly pleasuring herself while pressing their bodies close, chasing only her own lust.
“Y-Yura... Mmph...!”
Overpowered by the dokkaebi costume's monstrous strength, Alpha was pinned beneath her, struggling. A new monster appeared—a bloated, patchwork creature stitched together from rags—lumbering toward the two fallen women. Its single button eye devoid of reason, the creature approached with a grotesquely oversized male organ swinging between its legs, twice the size of any ordinary monster's.
“~♪ Hong hong♪ There's so much fun stuff here.”
Black hummed a little tune as he focused on manipulating the dungeon, the magic stone still in his hand. Dungeon Manipulation was S's ability, but Black could use it thanks to his own special skill. The skill Doppelgänger. Implanted into him as a monster by Mekrak technology, this skill allowed him to perfectly copy an opponent's traits—so long as certain difficult conditions were met. What he copied could be appearance, voice, habits, or even abilities. Right now, Black was clearly copying S's power. Using both S's ability and the magic stone S had possessed, he was tormenting the magical girls.
'This isn't enough.'
Yet magical girls were tenacious. Even with this many traps and monsters unleashed, they were still stubbornly surviving. Like cockroaches—no matter how many times you tried to crush them, they refused to die. So it wasn't enough.
'This dungeon is far more than just this.'
That was why Black had come to Mera Studio in the first place. Why he had planned to eventually kill S and steal both his ability and the magic stone. Because he knew exactly what this dungeon truly was.
'Not this. This isn't it either.'
Frowning, Black concentrated even deeper into the dungeon's interior. His consciousness was being sucked further and further toward its depths.
But then—CRASH! CRACK!
“Pwah?!”
“Hey, you piece of trash. What the hell are you doing hiding in a safe spot all by yourself?”
The walls that had been safely shielding Black shattered in an instant and collapsed on top of him. Kei stood atop the rubble, breathing heavily. Her samurai outfit was already torn to shreds in places, but she didn't seem to have any serious wounds. After all, the traps weren't designed to be lethal.
“H-Hi. You're already here? There must've been quite a few traps and monsters, right?”
“I smashed them all and killed them all, you bastard.”
Kei spat on the ground without a shred of courtesy. Black manipulated the walls to collapse and surveyed his surroundings. The area had been completely reduced to rubble and debris. In one corner, a mountain of broken machinery had piled up.
“H-Huh... Already?”
“It's true he had awful tastes, but unlike that perverted old man, he just scattered everything randomly.”
Unlike S—who had mastered every useful function of the dungeon and prepared devices specifically designed to neutralize magical girls that were difficult to overpower with raw strength alone—Black had simply thrown out whatever was available without any plan. Annoying, but not unmanageable.
Kei strode forward without hesitation and kicked him. Thud!
“Kehak?!”
She mercilessly stomped on Black's fallen face.
“So how are you gonna take responsibility, huh?”
Thud, crunch, thud!
“A-Aaaah~~~! Wait, wait! That's my crotch! Aagh! Aaaagh~~~~!”
Even though Black's silhouette was pitch black and it was impossible to tell whether he actually had anything there, Kei furrowed her brows in disgust and mercilessly stomped on his groin again and again. Black tried to crawl away, but she refused to let him escape.
“You! Piece of! Trash!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaagh~~~~~~!”
Under Kei's merciless kicks, Black's screams echoed throughout the filming set. Only when he was thoroughly battered and could no longer even scream, hanging limply, did Kei finally stop. Instead, she drew the sword from the scabbard at her waist.
Shing— The metallic sound was satisfying. Now for the finale. The moment of judgment. By cutting off Black's head, Mera Studio would end. This disgusting chapter would finally be over.
“But why did you kill him?”
She asked the question as if it were her last.
“Weren't you supposed to be comrades? Why kill that perverted old man?”
“Ahaha, you're asking that now?”
Even with the blade hovering right above his head, Black laughed nonchalantly.
“Does a bad guy need a reason to do bad things?”
“...Fair point.”
“.....Mera Studio was fun.”
“Then why end it with your own hands?”
“Because it was fun.”
“You're a truly irredeemable piece of trash.”
“Didn't you know? Living as trash is the best way to enjoy life.”
“Ah, right.”
Kei muttered as if bored, then brought her raised sword down in one swift strike. Black's head was cleanly severed in an instant.
......It was over.
I turned my back on Black's corpse and trudged toward the exit. I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.
“Hoo...... I hope I'm not too late.”
I wanted to check the time, but transforming back right now felt like a bad idea. The moment I left this filming set, I might run into the monsters that had fled.
“It's over? What about that guy?”
“Over there.”
When Alpha approached, I pointed at Black's remains with my index finger. The headless corpse still lay there. It was an anticlimactic ending for someone who had betrayed his comrade. Or maybe it was because he had betrayed his comrade? What had been so entertaining to him? From beginning to end, he was a guy I couldn't understand at all—someone incomprehensible and bizarre. What had this monster called Black even wanted?
......Hmm?
'But something feels off.'
That said, there was this nagging, uneasy feeling—like something was missing....
“......Hey. Kei.”
“Huh? What.”
Frowning at the strange discomfort, I answered Alpha's question.
“That guy... is he actually dead?”
“......Huh?”
Alpha spoke with a troubled expression.
“That guy didn't die no matter how much we shot him. Would cutting off his head really kill him?”
Ah. Aaaah. Aaaaaaaaah!
Now that she mentioned it—hadn't that guy been the one who wouldn't die even when killed?!
“!”
I whipped around in a panic. Monster corpses turned to dust and vanished when they died. Yet Black's body—the corpse whose head had been severed and should no longer be alive—remained, completely intact. The rolling head of Black... the corners of its mouth seemed to twist into a smirk.
And in the next moment—
An enormous earthquake assaulted us.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!?”
“U-Unnies?! What's happening?!”
Yura and Blue screamed. A tremor far greater than anything we'd experienced so far was sweeping through the filming set. The ground beneath our feet was so unstable that standing was impossible.
Black's headless body rose like a zombie within my vision as I lay nearly flattened against the violently shaking floor. The head that had fallen to the ground melted like ink and flew back onto Black's empty neck, restoring its original form.
“Surpri~se.”
Just like when he had impaled S, Black's voice was relaxed and oddly cheerful.
“Whoa, that was close★! A little later and I would've been done for. Oh wait, I already was. Not dead, though★.”
“Youuuuu.....!”
“Oops, sorry! You guys are scary, so I'll do this★”
The magic stone in Black's hand emitted a strange light.
“Haah...?!”
Suddenly, I felt my womb throb and curled up instinctively. It wasn't just me—Alpha and Yura were the same.
“Uterine Trap. As expected, this one's the most convenient. It's important to memorize the really useful ones in advance~.”
“Hgaaaaaah...!”
The floor was already shaking, making it hard to steady myself, but now my womb was being toyed with like some plaything. I couldn't even stand. Meanwhile, the tremors grew even stronger.
“What the hell did you do... What are you trying to do...!”
“Curious? Then here's a question★! This place is a demonic dungeon filled with countless traps and monsters targeting magical girls! So why was it abandoned until Mera Studio started using it?”
Listening to that flippant voice was infuriating. I clawed at the floor with my fingers, desperately trying to push my body up while fighting the pleasure soaking into my womb. But—
“No getting up until you answer correctly!”
“Hnnng?!”
A sharp electric shock targeted my most sensitive spots, and I collapsed, drooling. Zzt, zzt—periodic shocks continued to course through my fallen body.
“Come on, hurry up and give me the answer~ Or do you actually like the electric shocks? You're a real masochistic pig. Want me to add something more? How about attaching an electrode that conducts electricity to your clitoris? If you don't answer, I'll stick it on right away.”
“You... bastard... I don't know, you asshole...!”
I didn't even want to know! Who cared why this vulgar place had been abandoned?!
“Giving up already? Magical girls really aren't any fun. Can't read the room? ...Well, time's up anyway.”
Black's gaze turned toward one corner of the filming set. There, in a space that seemed both fitting and unfitting for this cave-like area, was a massive lake—now churning violently from the tremors, waves crashing. The shaking gradually subsided. Black, unable to hide his excitement, raised both arms in a triumphant pose.
“Behold! The terrifyingly dangerous magical beast and weapon created by mobilizing Mekrak's ancient technology and unknown out-of-place artifacts and antique parts—the very thing that forced the abandonment of this dungeon!”
The lake's surface, which had been rippling, suddenly changed. As if something were pushing up from below, the water level began to rise steadily. Before I could even think 'No way,' it happened—
SPLAAAAAASH—!
WHOOOOOOOSH—!
It burst through the surface in one explosive motion, revealing its majestic, colossal form. Water that had been displaced by its enormous body rained down like a downpour—or a meteor shower—inside the filming set.
What appeared were two giants. Or perhaps two beings. Whether they could even be called “human” was debatable—they each had the head of a horse and the head of a cow respectively. Their muscular, oni-like arms numbered six apiece, and eight wings sprouted from their backs. Not only their sheer size, but the overwhelming presence and divinity they exuded made anyone who looked upon them feel small.
Black, who had been laughing uproariously, lowered his raised hands and bowed deeply in an exaggerated greeting. In one hand, he now held a wide-brimmed fedora that had appeared from nowhere.
“Allow me to introduce them! Mekrak's secret ancient weapons that might even destroy the Earth! They are called the Horse-Headed Deity and the Ox-Headed Deity! Please take good care of them★, magical girls!”