Chapter 109 – No Answers (9)
“What, what is this…?”
Director Lee Min-hyung barely held onto his sanity. He had been thrown around, injured all over due to the Smalillian’s attack through its clones.
But he was not dead. The last warriors who held on until the very end fought against the enemy.
His phone flooded with messages about how Seoul was trapped within a dome and how they couldn’t tell what was happening inside, but he had no time to care.
“I should have brought Aria too. But, is it too late…?”
He grit his teeth as he struggled to move his barely functional legs. Just as he managed to rise to his feet.
The Smalillian, deprived of a significant amount of magical power due to Jeon So-hyun’s strength, was collapsing under Karin’s strike, drenched in Rene’s magic.
“Is it dead?!”
Karin gasped as she wiped the sticky blood flowing from her head down to her face. Rene, clutching her bleeding arm, silently glared at the fallen Smalillian’s corpse.
“It’s dead. No doubt about it.”
With various scratches all over her body, Jeon So-hyun grimaced as she held her injured ankle. However, contrary to her words, the Smalillian’s body still radiated a sinister magical power.
“No, it’s not certain. I will finish it, so you both…”
Rene raised her staff in her left hand to make the final blow.
But at that moment, the Smalillian’s corpse rapidly disintegrated and began to dissolve into black vapor.
All that remained was a red gemstone the size of a tennis ball on the ashes, and Lee Min-hyung’s phone suddenly lit up, revealing that the dome over Seoul had vanished, and news started pouring in.
“It’s dead.”
Additionally, Gabi, who had been hiding, emphasized her point to Jeon So-hyun.
“And it left this much of its core despite being just a clone. It’s a strong power concentrated in that. Its essence is gathered within that core. Be particularly cautious when handling it. It would be right to destroy it, but it’s a bit of a waste. If purified periodically, the evil energy will disappear, leaving only pure magical power. Consuming that could grant considerable power.”
Moreover, Gabi explained what the red gemstone left by the Smalillian was.
“Did you really just watch? Your disciple almost died with a hole in her stomach.”
“My mission is to save your life. Surviving with a hole in the stomach isn’t a common opportunity.”
Jeon So-hyun, a mess from sweat, blood, and dust, grumbled while gripping her throbbing ankle, but Gabi merely smiled faintly.
Eventually fed up, Jeon So-hyun trudged toward the core.
“What is that? Is it dangerous?”
“It’s dangerous, alright. Personally, I’d love to smash it right here, but I’m too exhausted right now.”
Karin, who didn’t quite know what was happening, showed little interest in the core.
Rene was different. The moment she saw it, she recognized it as a form of magical stone, and greed lit up within her. If used well, magical stones could be an extraordinarily powerful weapon for a sorcerer.
But Rene wasn’t foolish.
The power contained in that core was definitely not something she could bear alone. So she kept her mouth shut.
“Our Management Bureau will keep it. You can keep coming by to purify it.”
“…I’ll trust you.”
Jeon So-hyun hesitated for a moment before deciding to hand it over to Lee Min-hyung.
Perhaps if it had been just yesterday, she wouldn’t have trusted him. But today, seeing them get hurt and risk their lives to complete their mission, she changed her mind slightly to give him a chance.
“I’m sorry for putting kids like you in danger and making you get hurt like this. It’s all… our incompetence.”
He muttered blankly, wrapping the core, imbued with the talismans hastily prepared by Jeon So-hyun, in his suit jacket.
It was close to a sigh laced with deep emptiness and guilt.
“It’s just that our roles are different.”
“You think so?”
“…I used to think that way too. So don’t be too disappointed. Those who seek power for the sake of their helplessness can easily change.”
Lee Min-hyung’s eyes widened at Jeon So-hyun’s unexpected consolation.
Those who sought power due to their helplessness and ultimately changed and fell. In that moment, the image of the Special Task Force popped into their minds.
“Right. You’re right. We all have different jobs. So you guys should avoid going to Seoul for now. Right now, Seoul is a complete mess.”
“…What?”
“What do you mean?”
“Then what about my work?!”
At his shocking words, all three, unaware of the situation in Seoul, reacted dramatically.
“The main body of the Smalillian appeared, and as a result, the entire population of Seoul was caught up in it. Aside from a handful of magical girls and the Special Task Force, everyone else fainted and woke up in a weakened state. The reported casualties alone exceed ten thousand… But everything is paralyzed now, so who knows what will happen next. The police and 119 are also in a state of paralysis.”
“The main body appeared, and it stole vitality from nearly ten million people. Then who the hell took down that insane monster beyond common sense…?”
Karin asked incredulously. Of course, in the middle of her question, it seemed like someone came to her mind, and she trailed off.
In an instant, the ‘true fear’ that had knocked her out with a single blow flashed through Karin’s mind.
“Takilas, she revealed her horns. This is the third time her armed form has emerged, and once again, her opponent was taken down with a single blow. At the last moment, the Smalillian’s power was estimated to be SSS. Perhaps a new grade will be created solely for Takilas.”
Lee Min-hyung nodded as if Karin’s prediction was spot on.
*
“Estimated grade SSS. Could it be that Takilas is looking beyond this?”
“Director, what about the situation over there?”
“It’s a wreck. Thankfully, that area has escaped the dome’s damage, so the system is still functioning.”
While Lee Min-hyung dealt with the aftermath in an area unaffected by the dome, in the middle of Seoul’s hospital, Oh Yoon-seo sat down pale-faced, murmuring.
The Magical Girl specialist doctor, Heo Seung-hoon, who had also been caught up in the chaos, was weakly examining the medical data with a strained voice.
“The magical girls couldn’t even respond. That prestigious Special Task Force? They were also in a mess. The only one who moved in the meantime was Takilas. Damn, this is harder than working consecutive shifts.”
Heo Seung-hoon, with hollow eyes from having his vitality drained, pressed on without rest. If he, as a doctor, took a break because he was exhausted, the wave of patients would just die.
“Even Mamute, who had a great reputation, couldn’t handle her. SS-ranked Karin, recognized as the strongest in the country, was also defeated. The SSS-ranked Smalillian was defeated too. Throughout this process, Takilas barely fell behind. In fact, the biggest blow was probably when she and Aria squabbled, and Aria ended up breaking one of her arms.”
“Aria…”
“Of course, in Aria’s case, it seemed she was toying with her. By the way, it does seem like Takilas has a peculiar fondness for Aria.”
Heo Seung-hoon leaned back in his chair, letting out a sigh as if collapsing.
From the perspective of someone researching magical girls, Takilas was a mutation itself. Rene, who was her successor, seemed suspicious too, but compared to Takilas, she was a drop in the ocean.
“What in the world is her identity?”
“A magical girl. An unprecedented magical girl.”
“A girl, you say? Oh, Director, you know how highly I think of magical girls. But you need to be more precise. One of the most talked-about aspects of Takilas is her mental aspect.”
Heo Seung-hoon grimaced.
Even at a young age, having overwhelming talent can lead to overwhelming power. In fact, such geniuses have changed the world.
But that talent and mental growth are separate matters.
If one’s mentality is not solid, it’s common to be swayed by one’s talents and surrounding circumstances. That’s why young and powerful magical girls have traditionally been treated like ticking time bombs.
“A crazy psychopathic killer magical girl, but that’s only by our standards. If you think from her perspective, she already has a perfect conviction. A belief in being an absolute powerhouse… that kind of conviction fits her perfectly. With a mere thought, she could become a dictator, ruling over this country, no, the world.”
He did not think he had wandered too far off in his thoughts.
Though she acted impulsively according to her whims, the genuine sentiments she sometimes revealed showed that Takilas had a mindset suitable for dominating a substantial collective.
Thus, he was sure that she couldn’t be shaken mentally. With a belief that power could achieve everything, what she actually did upon revealing herself was simply to eliminate the evil-doers who went against her moods, a testament to this fact.
“The cliché of a hero movie. People admire heroes with overwhelming strength while simultaneously fearing them. Thanks to her heroic act of saving ten million lives today, her fame will grow even greater, leading to groups following her, and idiots fearing her, causing trouble only to be slaughtered; it’s all a headache.”
“Uh-huh…”
Oh Yoon-seo couldn’t muster a rebuttal. In reality, a single magical girl who managed to stay conscious and captured a video of Takilas finishing off Smalillian had seen billions of views in just a few hours on the internet.
Moreover, the title of the video was ‘Hero.’
That meant people were increasingly being influenced.
“By the way, what about Aria? Is she alright?”
“Probably… I think so.”
Heo Seung-hoon tried to shift the topic by bringing up Aria, to which Oh Yoon-seo bitterly smiled and nodded.
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