The Power of Love
The Power of Love
Gorgeous on the outside, black powder within. Spectacular starlight embroidered the sky like fireworks, but it was desperation disguised as a show.
With each step, rings of stars—halos—formed at my ankles. Six halos in all. As expected, the obscured stars imposed limits on how much starlight I could gather.
‘Damn it...’
But the replication rate had genuinely improved. Compared to earlier, when I could only manage half capacity, six stars still held sufficient force.
And that wasn’t all.
All seven clones were each preparing and executing their own finishing moves.
If power was lacking, quantity could make up the difference.
This was the best act of desperation I could muster. My challenge.
“You asked if I have seen the stars?”
Behind Contradiction, a clone wound a Seven-Star Step Kick around its legs and charged, identical to me. Every other form’s finishing move was trained on Libra.
“It’s still daytime, so they’re hard to see. The sun is too bright.”
He answered the question casually, not even adopting a defensive stance.
Did that mean my attack wasn’t worth preparing for? No. That wasn’t it. He simply...
‘Wants to measure the force.’
That bastard Contradiction wanted to confirm my growth.
This wasn’t carelessness or composure. It was genuine intellectual curiosity—a step toward the actualization of his own self. He wanted to test whether I might become someone who could resolve his questions.
Yet, paradoxically, that confirmation rested on the absolute conviction that this attack would not kill him. The net result: he was looking down on me.
Truthfully, even I couldn’t be certain.
No—it was clear I wouldn’t be able to drive him to death.
But I had to see this through.
I had to beat them down here.
That was the only way to survive.
And the only way to keep them from harming anyone else today.
I raised my foot. The six halos hung precariously around it. I brought it down onto Contradiction’s head—a high kick meant to rattle his brain. The clone charging from behind swept his waist. From the right, me; from the left, the clone.
The kicks twisted Contradiction’s body in opposite directions. The compressed force detonated at the impact points, erupting in a violent explosion.
The same held true for Libra. Countless attacks woven from starlight carved mercilessly into his body.
Explosions followed one another as if a bombardment had struck from somewhere. A distant, raging gale shook the earth, and the building’s debris crumbled to ash. The debris that hadn’t turned to ash became kindling, feeding the flames ignited by the explosions and burning without cease.
Smoke billowed like a desert storm. I exhaled forcefully into the acrid air.
“Keuhuk... heuk... euhuk...”
I had wrung the starlight past its limit.
Just as everyone possesses finite stamina and physical strength, starlight has a limit on how much can be used at once.
I had transcended that limit just now, forcibly hammering finishing moves into them. It was literally an act of desperation, all my strength thrown into it.
To draw an analogy, it was like wringing your muscles past their limit to keep benching.
Chronic injury wouldn’t be a surprise at this point.
[All technique activations successful. Replication Rate: 82%.]
As the price of using the finishing moves, every clone vanished. Meaning their burdens were all transmitted back to me.
Nausea surged. My brain was starved of oxygen. My lungs kept sucking in air and expelling it. My whole body trembled. Cold sweat broke out.
Any further combat was probably impossible.
“Hnngh...!”
And that battle cry signaled that my fate ended here.
“Huu... I’ll admit it. I was careless. Reaching the Pseudo-Divinity State after so long must have excited me.”
Libra emerged through the smoke, his body coated in soot. The armor across his frame bore countless dents, scratches, and fissures—the attack had clearly inflicted considerable damage.
Considerable damage.
But not a fatal wound.
Libra’s body still smoldered like a golden flame.
“You are dangerous, as expected. The likelihood that you’ll obstruct the plan is quite high.”
I had a good guess what plan Libra meant.
The kidnapping incident shown in the original work.
Abduct a large number of elderly people and children, then force the magical girls who come to save them into a fight.
The location is leaked in advance, so reporters and civilians are present.
Under the public’s gaze, the magical girls are elevated into heroes who died saving citizens.
That is the plan.
Simple, but its effectiveness is absolute.
Like Contradiction, like the other monsters, Libra sought the answers to his questions from magical girls.
If there exists a being who considers sacrifice—both of others and of oneself—a matter of course, then isn’t that the kind of sacrifice that incurs no loss for anyone?
That was Libra’s thinking.
Which was why my existence must be an obstacle.
I was not a magical girl but a monster—a body capable of thwarting his plan and even escaping afterward.
Justice carried out not through a hero’s sacrifice, but through a monster’s whim. An unpleasant result for Libra.
An unpredictable variable can sometimes be entertaining, but not when it threatens a meticulously built tower.
A playful plan like the last one, where he merely observed what sacrifice the magical girls would choose, would be one thing. But interference in a serious plan? He’d prefer to refuse that.
“Be sacrificed here.”
The wind blew. Straight toward my face. By the time I registered it, Libra’s fist was already before my eyes. Light. It was a fist wreathed in smoldering, baleful light.
CRACK! His fist shattered my helmet and rattled my brain. My body, unable to withstand the impact, was lifted off the ground. At some point, Libra had moved behind me and driven a fist into my flank. I felt my ribs shatter—vividly, no need to think about it.
My body was still drifting through the air. Libra struck again: solar plexus, shoulder, back, once more the head. It happened in an instant, while my consciousness was still chasing the pain. Movement so fast the Megrez Form couldn’t track it.
He landed six blows before I even hit the ground.
KWAAAAANG!
My body flew through the sky, fell, and rolled across the earth.
A memory surfaced: being hunted by a monster back when I was still human. The pain from that fading memory replayed vividly now. Bleeding from the stomach, dying then, and now—the result was the same.
I’m dying.
[Life-threatening condition detected. Powering down.]
My consciousness hazed over from pain exceeding the tolerable threshold. Starlight gradually scattered from my body. My real body, hidden beneath the monster’s shell, slowly emerged. It was a wreck.
Even through my blurred vision, I could clearly see the red. My body was in tatters. Soft human flesh torn and pulverized.
“Keuk... oh dear. How disorienting.”
Contradiction’s voice came from Libra’s left. He walked out through the lingering dust cloud, massaging his neck.
Son of a bitch. You really are ridiculously tough.
“That was dangerous. Haha, my neck and waist nearly folded in half. I’ll have to block properly next time.”
“Save the chatter...”
“Oh my, you were still conscious?”
Contradiction chuckled and approached.
“You were stronger than last time, but... I suppose the fewer halos played a role. It was somewhat manageable. What was that, a nurturing attack? What were you even doing?”
A blade-sharp spear was thrust before my eyes.
“Just because the stars are obscured, did your star vanish? Why couldn’t you wield your power properly?”
Contradiction kept asking questions without pause. He seemed almost angry.
“I’ll ask again what I asked before. What is your ideal? Monster or magical girl, it doesn’t matter. You all carry a star regardless. From the perspective of one who pursues the unreachable, there’s no difference. Whether you are a monster, a human, whatever—if you bear a star, it demands an ideal worthy of it.”
My hand, trying to press against the ground, flailed uselessly. I couldn’t summon the strength.
“They say monsters are ruled by their stars, and magical girls are chosen by theirs. Which are you? Do you chase desire under domination, or do you fulfill duty under selection?”
I forced my powerless arm to move, striving to lift my body somehow. I had to move. Whether to resist or flee, I had to survive, no matter what.
“What reason makes you capable of growing stronger?”
It had been the same back then. That night I was attacked by monsters, I’d moved my body in the same pathetic way. I had to resist. Against death. Against this fear.
But was that the only reason? Had I truly attempted resistance solely because I didn’t want to die? The fear of death is rooted not just in the instinct of life, but in the attachments that reason clings to.
What were my attachments? What made it so that I couldn’t die?
What was I afraid of losing, that I feared death?
I barely managed to press against the ground. Slowly, I raised my body. My gaze remained locked on Contradiction and Libra.
“Is transforming again proving difficult? Hm... a shame.”
Contradiction raised his spear.
“...Jae-jung?”
A cold voice called out. The blade-sharp spear launched.
**
It was less coincidence than inevitability.
The intense crash and overwhelming star power sensed from a secluded, deserted ruin.
Without question, it was a battle involving S-rank monsters.
But most magical girls were still busy dealing with their assigned monsters.
She was the first to finish her task.
Blue Sirius.
The current magical girl with the greatest combat power.
A magical girl with experience defeating S-rank monsters.
Considering the situation and her combat capability, dispatching her to the scene was inevitable.
And so, she saw it.
Her former lover bleeding out at the hands of monsters.
What strengthens a magical girl’s power is love and peace.
Of the two, the former was now the greatest force driving Blue Sirius.
The Power of Love—which easily led to losing sight of the common good, and was thus discouraged—now ruled Blue Sirius.
A burst of light erupted from her gem.
Her blue hair surged like a tidal wave, and her blue skirt blazed with deeper azure. Her starlight radiated as if detonating.
“...Both of you. Step away from him.”
The ash and dying embers began to freeze over.
It was the Sign of Divinity.