Symbol of Peace (4)
A blinding flash swallowed the scene. A beam wide enough to engulf a shipping container was shot at them—an attack with heat and intensity like a star plummeting from the sky.
The ray, which looked as if it could melt everything in the area, soon dissipated. The foul stench of molten asphalt and the thick plumes of smoke rising proved its lethality. Yet that ferocious attack never reached them.
“Attacking before the transformation is so cheap...?!”
Standing where the smoke cleared was Red Vega. A magical girl’s transformation was so fast that even the naked eye or a cheap camera couldn’t track it.
Having transformed instantly upon the attack, she had neutralized his beam by firing a wide shield-like blaze that rivaled Libra’s light.
“It’s rational.”
“What part of that is rational?!”
Han Jae-jung was stunned into a brief daze.
The shock wasn’t from Libra’s entrance.
It was how the girl who had been throwing a tantrum, demanding piggybacks just moments before, instantly regained her senses and snapped into a defensive posture.
Was it like a self-proclaimed anger management issue, where rage automatically regulated itself in the face of a life-threatening crisis?
“...Whoa, whoa! I’m sobering up fast!”
She claimed so herself, but suspicion lingered regardless. Come to think of it, it had been strange from the start. No matter how weak someone was to alcohol, could a few sips of a screwdriver really make a person lose their mind? Though admittedly, she did possess a certain baseline eccentricity.
No, let’s not jump to conclusions. It could have been an instinctive reaction. I myself had plenty of times when my body or words acted before I could even think.
Han Jae-jung decided not to dwell on it. Although the unsettled feeling would probably linger in his mind for the rest of his life...
“My now-useless seniors and Jae-jung Aniki!”
“Who’s useless, you brat?!”
“Why am I your ‘Aniki’...?”
No sooner had White Dabih called out than a massive beast erupted beneath Han Jae-jung and Jo Ah-yoon. It was a beast zombie—now a familiar sight after so many encounters.
“I will take responsibility and escort you! I will not repeat my past failures!”
White Dabih, having completed her transformation in the meantime, dashed forward, followed by the beast zombie carrying Han Jae-jung and Jo Ah-yoon.
“Now, get up, you sandbags! Burn your bones for my sake!”
As she ran, she blew her horn. Like a piper luring children out of Hamelin, like a musician enchanting fairies, the sound spread wide and woke what slumbered beneath the earth.
Skeletal soldiers, zombies barely clinging to their skin, and the corpses of monsters in the shapes of hunting dogs and horses emerged.
The deserted streets, where you’d rarely see another soul, were suddenly packed with pallid monsters. It was a pale, dark advance—a march of the returning dead.
“In the name of the star, I bring the Hammer of Blood upon you! Cloak pure white in crimson!”
White Dabih shouted and blew her horn once more. All forces except for the beast zombie carrying Han Jae-jung and Jo Ah-yoon charged at Libra.
No matter how weak each individual was, you couldn’t ignore such numbers gathered together. Just as minnows can bite a shark, wild dogs can kill a tiger, and leeches can topple an elephant.
United without ego, these corpses would annihilate the enemy more effectively than any living swarm.
This was White Dabih’s power.
Watching the streets fill to bursting, Han Jae-jung clicked his tongue. There were so many that some had even climbed onto the rooftops of nearby shops.
‘A grim ability for a magical girl.’
Magic expressed the user’s inner world based on a star. Viewed in that light, White Dabih’s power to resurrect the corpses of monsters was hard to interpret in a positive direction.
The best possible spin would be something like “a will to overcome even death.” But of course, that wasn’t it. Han Jae-jung, who had encountered this world as fiction from a parallel world, knew exactly why this magic was born.
“Dead monsters are good monsters... So kill them all and make them good...”
“Huh? What did you say?!”
“Nothing, just thinking it was impressive.”
Monsters only became good when they died. And after they died, they had to be used. This was the starting point for White Dabih’s control magic.
Goodness Leads to Death.
Death Leads to Goodness.
Virtue is death itself.
Only once you are dead will you become good.
These unannounced spell names intuitively illustrated her inner world.
“I will evacuate these two and return! Weaver Girl can hold out on her own, right?”
“Huh, uh... Of course! As a matter of fact, I could manage this by myself! Ow, shouting made my head hurt...”
Red Vega, still locked in battle with Libra, answered with visible effort.
“Don’t you... ngh!”
Red Vega swiftly blocked Libra’s attempt to throw a punch, then drove a knee into his solar plexus.
“Go, now!”
Her lower-body movements had improved significantly. Watching her steady growth, Han Jae-jung felt a strange sense of pride.
As she was now, she could probably hold out alone against Libra.
“Alright! Then let us depart!”
With those words, White Dabih climbed onto the beast zombie. The creature, a bizarre hybrid of bear and tiger with a horned head, roared and charged forward.
Perhaps she had been reducing speed to summon forces, but as soon as White Dabih finished speaking, the pace escalated beyond comparison.
The sensation of wind pressing against his face and body—the same feeling you get riding a motorcycle—washed over him again. The beast was running at well over 100 kilometers per hour.
“Hahahaha! That feels amazing!”
“Hey, I told you to cut that out!”
“What?! This is my native tongue?!”
Memories of his own bike suddenly surfaced in Han Jae-jung’s mind. Along with the memory of his first ride (unlicensed) being smashed to pieces by Contradiction.
Now that he could move at lightning speed, the bike wasn’t exactly urgent, but its flight capability and teleportation-like Heaven-Folding Art were still a loss.
‘Wait. Since I can now fully harness Ursa Major’s power...’
Wouldn’t he be able to use the Big Dipper’s powers that were previously unusable due to starlight overload? Just as a hypothesis flashed through his mind, White Dabih opened her excitable mouth again.
“Jae-jung Aniki!”
“Why am I your Aniki... Never mind, what is it?”
“Why did that monster from earlier know your name?”
Han Jae-jung’s eyebrow twitched slightly. It was a genuinely sharp observation.
But it wasn’t an inescapable question.
“He was one of the people Libra kidnapped in the past.”
“Naruhodo! So that monster bastard who normally only kidnaps the old and weak made an exception and snatched a sturdy young man, and that was you, Aniki!”
“Good memory... Yeah, that was me. But why are you calling me such weird titles?”
“Senpai calls you ‘Oppa’ too! It’s similar!”
White Dabih laughed heartily and placed a hand on Han Jae-jung’s shoulder.
“You’re amazing too, Aniki! Most people would never be kidnapped by a monster even once, but you’ve gone through it multiple times and still boldly step outside!”
“Is that an insult?”
“No, no, no. It’s obviously a compliment!”
It didn’t seem like a lie; her expression and words were unclouded. Deceit was impossible for someone who never bothered to put on a front, who didn’t even practice basic image management.
“Isn’t it true? If I had been kidnapped by monsters multiple times without any power of my own, I’d be too terrified to leave the house—I’d be a shut-in! I’d never want to go outside again! But you’re different. Even as an ordinary person, you still stand before monsters boldly, and you didn’t even blame me for what happened on New Year’s Day!”
Jo Ah-yoon chimed in with a grin.
“Of course. My oppa’s a total big-hearted guy! He doesn’t even hold a grudge against someone who spouted nonsense based on rumors.”
“Exactly! He’s magnanimous! He’s cool!”
This also wasn’t a lie. White Dabih genuinely liked Han Jae-jung a great deal. She respected him with the same admiration that had her calling impressive people “Hyung-nim,” “Da-ge,” or “Aniki” online.
She drew little distinction between people she knew only online and those she had met in person, so her respect was quite sincere.
“That’s why it’s ‘Hyung-nim’ and ‘Aniki’! It’s an even better term than ‘Oppa’!”
“Oh, sure...”
Han Jae-jung chuckled and nodded along. Red Vega was childish, but White Dabih was even more so.
Thanks to that, he had easily sidestepped the interrogation about being acquainted with a monster. Plus, since he was already connected to Libra even as a civilian, things were even simpler.
’...Wait. Libra?’
Tuning out White Dabih’s promise to ensure their complete safety this time, Han Jae-jung sank into an anxious thought.
Libra was a monster you could literally call the most rational of them all. And that guy had appeared out of nowhere and launched an attack?
There had to be a corresponding reason.
It was never something like revenge. If it were that petty, he would have already shaken off Red Vega and come after Han Jae-jung by now. But his demeanor was oddly timid. He wasn’t even using his specialty, the Pseudo-Divinity State, nor any of the multifaceted strategies backed by his capital.
Libra had an extremely cautious nature. For him to show up on the front lines personally meant all preparations for executing his plan were complete.
‘A reason for Libra to openly step forward...’
A chilling hypothesis suddenly pierced Han Jae-jung’s mind.
“Dabih!”
“Yes! What is it?!”
Libra was a rational monster. That’s why he was cautious. But what if the reason he’d stepped forward wasn’t that all preparations were complete—
What if stepping forward was necessary
to execute the plan itself?
“Redirect all your troops to reconnaissance! And tell Red Vega to retreat, right now!”
“Huh? But I haven’t gotten Senpai and Aniki to the shelter yet...”
“We’re far enough away now that there’s no risk of ambush! Just set us down and go! Hurry!”
“But—!”
“Oppa, what’s wrong?”
Jo Ah-yoon asked, puzzled. Han Jae-jung’s expression had turned dire, his earlier gentle weariness completely gone.
“Libra is the bait! Bait to tie down the strongest magical girl!”
“What? What do you mean...”
“It means he’s using himself as bait to draw in the magical girls!”
Once a report of Libra’s appearance was filed, how many magical girls would converge on that location? Overcommitting forces against a powerhouse like him wouldn’t even seem strange.
“What he’s aiming for is the magical girls’ concentrated forces! A single, total annihilation!”
Libra, having already lost his power once, would never attempt to overwhelm every magical girl who came at him through sheer self-confidence.
There were additional troops elsewhere.
“There will be monsters lying in ambush around Libra. It’s dangerous! Please, just trust me and act on this!”
“Yes! I relayed it just now!”
“...That quickly?”
“Huh? Is there a problem?”
White Dabih beamed.
“I followed it because it sounded logical! I want to win, after all!”
Just as the curve of a smile formed on her lips, a single trail was etched across the sky.
An unidentified object drawing a contrail. Resembling an airplane or a missile, its true identity was—
An arrow.
Just a colossally huge one.
“Senpai? Aniki?”
White Dabih tilted her head, confused—because their expressions had instantly gone rigid.
“What’s wrong?”
She followed their gaze upward to the sky.
Han Jae-jung’s prediction was almost exactly correct. This was a trap—a means to concentrate all eyes on Libra so nobody saw the strike coming from elsewhere.
The only problem: the plan wasn’t to annihilate the magical girls.
The enemy wasn’t even near Libra—they were somewhere far away.
Atop a building over a hundred kilometers distant, a monster stood relaxing on the rooftop, observing the arrow’s parabolic arc.
“You take down the most annoying one first.”
In the sky, the trail split in two and fell.
One, toward Red Vega.
The other, toward where Han Jae-jung stood.
“Basics of tactics.”
The moment Sagittarius muttered those words, a mushroom cloud bloomed into the sky. A thunderous roar followed as a bonus.
“That ought to be a sufficient declaration of war, don’t you think?”
Libra’s plan wasn’t aimed at them.
“That should just about cover my tab.”
With a short laugh, the Archer monster turned his back.
Along with that motion, the monsters Libra had preemptively created launched their blitz on D5 City.
“The land-grabbing’s your job.”
The Argo Family. They attacked to strike at the group that had recently been running rampant, surpassing even the Libra Family in reality.