The Opening Skirmish
Virdel, the Red Demon who had brought the Empire to its knees, closed her eyes.
At this rate, I'll never reach it.
She settled into her stance and lowered her body.
Shaaa—
The forest lay so still that not even the insects made a sound. Only the wind, drifting in now and again, came to find her and keep her loneliness company.
Before a small grave, in a clearing shaped by nature itself, the girl Virdel stood with a sword in hand, eyes closed, utterly motionless in concentration. Her lower half was sheathed in a strange, blackish-red full plate armor, while her upper body was simply a girl in an ordinary shirt.
Her left hand gripped the scabbard, her right the hilt, poised on the very edge of drawing the blade—as though the sword might leap free at any moment.
Though she did not move a single inch, the stance burned so vividly alive that a falling leaf drifting down before her was severed cleanly in half and scattered to either side.
And yet she gave off no trace of mana, no whisper of aura at all.
The sun rose, climbed to its zenith, and sank again, and still the girl did not stir, as if she had turned to stone.
At last, the moment the sun slipped down behind the western hills to hide from the moon—
She, who had seemed like she would never move again, opened her eyes.
"Haaah… So I couldn't cut it after all."
Her self-deprecating voice echoed through the forest.
Behind her as she turned, the air itself rippled and wavered like the surface of disturbed water. But even that was not enough to satisfy her, and her footsteps as she walked away were bitter.
Imagining someone's voice, she cast her mind back to a few days before.
> [An administrator message has arrived.]
> "Ah… Hydra won't even come close. I suppose that's just how it is with a combat suit."
"Is there no other way?"
> [An administrator message has arrived.]
> "Hmm… well… maybe, if you got strong enough to cut through dimensions yourself? lol"
"…Then I will do it. Without fail."
> [An administrator message has arrived.]
> "Huh? Ahaha, don't stress over it too much. It'll just take time—we're still researching it as we speak."
And with that, the conversation ended.
Karlstein had said it half in jest, meant as mere comfort, but to her it landed entirely differently.
I will cut through a dimension. No matter what.
She wanted to see him again, and soon.
She would master the Dimensional Slash, surpassing the vacuum slash, and prove it to him.
No matter how long it took.
The memory of being passed over when the Head Admin had issued his summons this time still gnawed at her. She swore to herself, firmly and absolutely, that she would never let the next opportunity slip away.
Keisha collapsed onto the massage chair with the soul drained right out of her.
"Ugh!"
Not even the massage chair could calm her body and mind.
"That Crown Prince… that son of a—! I swear I will make him pay for this humiliation…!"
She ground her teeth as she relived that day—the moment she had "assassinated" Debrain and the crowd came surging in.
Her eyes had met the Crown Prince's, his face twisting through every expression known to man as he looked at her.
Relief? Awe? Fear? Pity?
As she watched all those emotions warring across his face, she had finally taken stock of her own behavior.
One-of-a-kind lunatic…!
She'd worn a bizarre outfit, performed an impossible miracle, and babbled to thin air all by herself.
No more. She had tried to explain the situation. She had even been ready to reveal the Dimensional Integrated Community, which until then she'd kept secret for fear of looking like a madwoman. That would let her account for the strange outfit and the magic wand, too, at least.
But—
> [An administrator message has arrived.]
> "Hm? Keeping the magical girl identity secret is the unspoken rule, y'know~!"
"…What?"
What on earth was this man talking about?
> [An administrator message has arrived.]
> "Blow the secret and it's a permanent ban haha"
"…Y-you!"
And so the words that finally tumbled out of her mouth were absurd ones.
"A woman's secrets are not for asking."
It was a black mark on her history—if a blanket had been within reach in that moment, she would have torn it to shreds on the spot.
At that, the Crown Prince's eyes had lit up, and he'd nodded along readily.
"Proclaim it to all: the age of myth has returned! A Saintess is born after seven thousand years!!"
Winking and gesturing so that every eye stayed fixed on her alone, the Crown Prince unleashed a performance for the ages.
"Witness it with your own two eyes!! The miracle wrought as she struck down the wicked alien!"
The colossal hole punched through the palace—from the depths of its underground chambers straight up into the sky—did lend his words a very slight veneer of credibility. The high officials and mages who had rushed to the scene already knew the flash that had pierced the heavens moments before was anything but ordinary. Surely only the legendary 9th Circle could manage such a thing?
According to the Crown Prince's explanation, which reached her somewhat later, he had done it to manage the chaos that would otherwise erupt over the man's death.
There were clearly plenty of other ways to handle it?
Apparently, if the mana contamination got solved, they'd need a hero to hang the credit on. To her ears, the Crown Prince had spouted nothing but nonsense from start to finish.
What made it unlucky was that, right at that moment, someone had gone berserk over Debrain's death.
"The next miracle shall be extending my lifespan!!"
One of the bishops, eyes rolling back with madness, had hurled a sneak attack—a 6th Circle spell screaming straight toward her.
She was a researcher; her mastery of magic was sorely lacking. And the attack had come so suddenly that she'd had no time to defend.
And yet.
FWOOM—
A rounded barrier had unfolded around her, erasing the 6th Circle spell in the blink of an eye. At the same moment, her dress flashed with light, scattering a dazzling storm of special effects.
Ah….
She'd muddled through the aftermath of that somehow and shut herself indoors for days.
Then the Crown Prince had appeared out of nowhere, saying he had a gift, and shown her something.
The moment she laid eyes on the statue displayed in front of the palace, she thought she was being framed for a crime.
Thud—
It was a statue of her, in her glittering magical girl dress, breathing fire from her mouth.
Only the Crown Prince and she had ever seen the wand that was now gone, reduced to ash.
She turned her head, looked at the Crown Prince's expression, and knew for certain.
That son of a— he's mocking me…!
If her wand had had even one charge left, she would have spent it on that bastard without a shred of hesitation!
And so, gnashing her teeth and chewing over her grudges against the Head Admin and the Crown Prince, she had been stabilizing the continent—until one day, the same broadcast appeared before the eyes of every single person on the continent, all at once.
"!!"
She knew instinctively whose handiwork it was. Debrain's.
"Already?! Of all the times…!"
The Head Admin had already told her he'd be out of contact for a while.
Krrzt— Beep—
On the rectangular screen, a blue-skinned Debrain officer, medals dangling heavy on his uniform, opened his mouth with a solemn face.
The superiority radiating from the officer's expression surpassed even that of the Debrain she had killed. That look—the look of one regarding an insect—was recognizable across any species.
"I have come to judge you for your foolish sins. The crime of daring to lay hands upon an innocent Debrain is one your lives cannot repay. Therefore, accept your deaths quietly."
Not a flicker of emotion could be read on the officer's face as he delivered his flat announcement, as though stating an obvious fact that required no justification.
Gritting her teeth, Keisha hurried off somewhere.
Even as he broadcast the footage, the Debrain officer harbored a private sense of unease.
Ordinary scouting troopers, whatever else could be said of them, were issued a survey ship and standard equipment. There was no way one of them could die in a backwater like this.
What in the world happened down there?
The target planet had already been scouted in full. Nothing capable of threatening a trooper had shown up on the surveys. He knew this well—he had carried out the purge and gathered data on the second suitable planet himself.
But did it really warrant this much concern? It was one scouting trooper, nothing more.
Whatever's down there will crawl out on its own once we start exterminating.
With that thought, he moved to issue the attack order to the entire fleet. He already had the main force's approval in hand.
Now it was time to bestow the bombardment of purification upon the foolish savages.
Then—
"Fleet Commander! A high-grade energy source has been detected!"
"What nonsense is this? Didn't we already complete the survey?"
"Th-that's the thing…!"
"There shouldn't be anything beyond the Aetar the scouting trooper collected. Perhaps the report is in error…"
The commander of the scouting fleet took the data his adjutant handed over.
"High-purity Aetar? No… this is… this isn't Aetar. Aetar has never reached this level. This is far beyond even Aetar…"
"By even the most conservative estimate, it exceeds the combined output of a battleship battalion—every ship together! And furthermore…!"
Staring at the data his adjutant relayed, the fleet commander could not believe his own eyes.
"Is this real?"
"Yes, sir. A high-energy reaction so dense it defies measurement."
"And yet it can remain this stable?"
"We cannot make sense of it either, sir."
The fleet commander's face twisted with gravity—then, moments later, broke into an expression brimming with elation.
"Adjutant! Open a communication line to the Supreme Commander."
"Yes, sir! At once!"
"Haha! Why, this may be an energy source superior to Aetar itself!"
"Th-then that would mean…!"
"A magnificent discovery! We must secure it at all costs! Contact the main fleet!"
The fleet commander very nearly let out a shriek of pure joy, catching himself at the last second.
Beep—
"Supreme Commander. This is the scouting fleet commander…"
As the fleet commander's report continued, the Supreme Commander's expression, too, began slowly to change.
A short while before the report reached the Supreme Commander, at that very moment—
Keisha opened the door of the lodging near her private laboratory and slipped inside, rummaging for something.
In one corner of the room stood an enormous white metal case, towering far above her head.
The Head Admin had prepared it for her—something to hold the line with while he was unreachable.
She hesitated, then finally activated the case.
Clank— Clank— Shhhk— Clank—
Presently, something dazzling and white punched straight through the building and rose high into the sky.
Magical Girl: Armored Mode — ON.