Chapter: 136. The End – Thank you for loving the Magical Girl Uncle during this time. –
Splash.
Kim Taejoon’s body, shredded to pieces, fell into the black puddle, and the moment his twisted smile sank into the sludge…
The dark, foul sewage pit exploded.
And then, I realized what was lurking in that sewage.
Rotting corpses, severed limbs…
The victims of Nanjido.
The entities that brought this pit to life were filled with despair and sorrow.
In the darkness, they shone brightly.
Devouring the surrounding darkness and absorbing the red and blue lights that whirled around them, they created a stunning gradient.
And they rose.
With their decayed bodies.
One by one, slowly.
From every hole in their bodies, black slime oozed as they stood up.
Clearly not their own, mismatched legs were glued with black slime, and they donned the heads of others on their arms as they rose.
This is dangerous.
The unimaginable power from the Otherworld dwells within them. Judging by the aura I feel, each of those entities is at least A-Rank.
I can’t hastily judge since the battle hasn’t started yet, but they’re definitely stronger than today’s villains, 72!
I must take them down before they fully emerge from the pit.
With that thought, I rushed forward to launch a preemptive strike.
However, with a horrific sound, their heads all snapped toward me.
Is this the price of exerting a force beyond what a human body can withstand?
My cervical vertebrae shattered, and decayed flesh cascaded down my skin, yet it clung to my shoulder with the power of black slime.
Even in a devastating state where my face is torn off, my eyes sit below, and my mouth above, I can tell I’m still connected.
Though everything is rotten and decayed, the empty cavities facing me are pretty terrifying.
But who’s scared now, Haram.
Spit.
I spat out the saliva piling up in my mouth and swung my hammer at the first corpse.
There was no reaction.
The corpses merely stared at me.
Then, shock hit me.
A sudden flying human head!
The head, arriving at an incomprehensible speed, burst as it made contact, splattering brownish nerve cells all over my body.
What the… is this?
The rotting remnants of corpses covered me, a terrible experience visually, audibly, olfactorily, and tactily, but what surprised me more was the sheer impact.
Even a 0-Rank Monster couldn’t easily disrupt my stance, yet here I was, swaying at the mere arrival of a flying head.
But it’s not something that would make me stop attacking.
Cradling my impacted side, I slammed my hammer into the ground, spinning in the air to regain my posture.
And I struck the ground.
My leg bone flew off.
Half-rotted, the bone was exposed, with flesh clinging to it like old chicken strips.
Because of that, my shoulder was thrown out.
Charging, I brought the hammer down on the ground and reassembled myself.
I moved a bit further.
Then, a finger bone flew off.
The bullet wasn’t that big, and the impact wasn’t strong enough to make me lose my stance, but instead, the bone lodged itself in my body.
Out of the two joints, only the front joint lodged in my body, while the back joint swayed in tune with my movements, making it quite a peculiar decoration.
An indescribable pain surged over me.
Why is that?
I’ve experienced these kinds of penetrating injuries countless times before.
I bit down on my rod.
Crunch.
The sound of something cracking echoed in my mouth.
Move forward, Haram.
Never back down!
Thud.
Something flew at me, pink flesh covered my body, but this time, I could withstand it.
With a view tinted red, I aimed for the first corpse that crawled out of the well.
I lowered my knees.
Bending my waist, I concentrated all my mana into the magic staff within me.
It’s been a while.
Amplification. Can I endure this?
Thump.
The ground vibrated, and my vision flickered.
The magic I had been holding poured out.
Run.
Save me.
Why me?
Everyone’s fading away from inside me.
I am a Magical Girl.
The power of Justice!
I planted myself into the ground and pushed forward.
Before me lay a corpse with a gaping hole.
Towards the bug-encrusted thing, I grasped the handle with both hands and twisted my ankle right in front of the enemy.
As blood seeped into my eyes, the hammer, appearing red, swung down.
Thud.
Despite enduring all the shocks, the ground hadn’t given way.
Thankfully, the platform remained.
All the strength was focused in my arms.
At the end of that, my hammer.
Everything I had poured into it.
Thud.
The corpse flew away.
The unrotted eyeball popped out, still clinging to its optic nerve as it soared into the sky.
The bones, flesh, and organs scattered into the air.
The strongest corpse returned to being a shell without the power of the Otherworld, getting sucked back into the well.
Only one down?
That’s fine. At least they’re not at a level of resistance like that shell…
0 0
A heavy wail resonated.
I turned toward the direction of the sound.
The black well.
The place where corpses had piled up.
Whoever it is, what a taste.
Disgusting.
A corpse floated up.
A round orb.
Made from accumulated corpses.
Squish. Squish.
Could it be due to the lack of blood?
Even under visible pressure, the bodily fluids spewing out among them were black slime.
As if pressed, the rotting flesh, innards, and bones that couldn’t withstand the compression burst forth, scattering like pellets and forming a barrier around.
“Do you think I’ll just stand by?”
Devouring the fear of injury and the enemy, I jumped toward the orb.
The hammer grew in response.
Stained with flesh and blood, my hammer had grown to the size of the orb by the time I reached the air.
Squish. More!
In a brief moment.
My jump and gravity achieved balance, and I floated for a split second to swing my hammer.
In that brief moment, my body became a mess from the pellets of flesh and bone that rained down.
By now, I probably looked similar to those corpses.
Chunks of flesh clinging to me, with bone shards poking through my skin.
It might be quite similar.
Thinking of that irony, I swung my hammer, filled with all my strength, to obliterate the enemy.
Thud.
And that attack failed.
An arm sprung from the mass of corpse-filled spheres.
Randomly compressed and bulbous like blisters on the skin, it proudly displayed its uneven texture as it blocked my hammer.
The hand that deflected my hammer exploded and scattered flesh around, but the orb itself sustained no damage.
…Great.
Having failed my attack, I fell from the air, without a support to lean on.
Thud.
Another hand reached out from the sphere.
It was coming for me.
I tried to retract my hammer and extend my feet and hands to block it, but it was too late.
The hand caught me.
An overwhelming—
Crushing began.
The pressure crushed my body.
Feeling for a way to escape its grip.
But its next move was even faster.
A head emerged from the orb.
Round and with prominent cheekbones, a smooth head.
Though it appeared grotesque with just a mouth being the only hole, I’ll give it that at least it took a human form.
Click. Click.
The hole celebrated its birth by clicking its teeth together.
The hand moved to engulf me.
Click.
Swallow.
A white room.
A black leather sofa placed in the center and orange mana wind making up the walls, everything is white.
I found myself sitting on the sofa.
“It’s over. Your story ends here.”
She, who sat opposite me, looking just like me, spoke.
Click. Click.
Chewing loudly on a stick, she nodded with a clatter.
“Is it really over?”
I felt the plushness of the sofa behind me.
This sofa, so comfortable that I had wished for it countless times.
“Yeah. The opponent was too unfortunate, and the choices were terrible.”
As I felt the sofa wrap around my body, I asked her a question.
“Then what choice should I have made? You seem to know since you’re saying that.”
Upon hearing that, she pulled the stick from her mouth with two fingers and began to tap her head instead.
“Well, I’m just a busy individual who hasn’t found the right path either. But…”
Whoosh.
With a slicing sound through the air, she tossed the stick aside.
“Wouldn’t it have been better if we killed Kim Taejoon at our first meeting?”
The entity said that while summoning a hammer in her hand and swinging it.
The space split apart, and a black-bordered hole appeared.
Like it was alive, the dark corridor wriggled and crafted lines.
And on the other side, a sight came into view.
I reached out toward Kim Taejoon.
The scene appeared frozen in time, as if it had halted.
“Time travel?”
There were beings with such powers too.
“No, I can’t. This is just for demonstration.”
What is this thing?
Usually, I’d be furious, but oddly, my mind felt at peace.
As if all the emotions that had tortured me vanished.
“Why did you show me that then?”
“Hmm? For review?”
…I have no clue.
I sighed inwardly.
“Oh, don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re above you in many ways, but we also have our limits.”
She still reads my thoughts.
“Then, is this really my death? The bodily kind you were talking about feels meaningless.”
Maybe this isn’t heaven after all.
“Hmm. You’re dead.”
“Then what happens to that monster?”
Since it doesn’t seem like she has any self-importance, it’s clear she’s not my story’s enemy. Maybe even a Public Designation.
“Oh, it’s not even a Public Designation. That’s Ireigul. It’s a broken entity that vanishes once it leaves Nanjido. It’ll likely self-destruct soon.”
I see.
The last bit of passion remaining within me faded.
Everything dissipated.
This peaceful feeling enveloping me is likely the reason too.
The regrets and sins that had captured me and held on tight…
The emotions and obligations.
Beliefs and will.
All of that has disappeared.
“Well, don’t be too disheartened. You did quite well for 30 years… quite a long time to endure…”
Perhaps because I died, she spoke with a languid tone, extending her words more than usual.
Ding.
Suddenly, she stopped talking.
A strange mechanical sound echoed from her.
Knowing that sound all too well.
The sound of a smartphone’s MMS notification, I quietly reached into my pocket.
“Smartphone?”
“Pretty familiar.
No idea why it works even in the afterlife, though.”
Gently tapping the screen, I looked at the text that had come to me.
Sender: Beeper
7777
Yeah.
I still have things to do.
…But will I be able to do them?
“That’s something you’ll only know if you try.”
“Sure, I’ve heard the word ‘can’t’ countless times in my life.”
Telling me to give up.
Saying I could never defeat that.
Whoosh.
As I waved my hand, nothing happened.
“What the heck?”
The hammer didn’t come out.
Desiring an explanation for this phenomenon, I turned to the entity who looked just like me.
With a rigid expression, she merely stared at me.
“Why isn’t this coming out?”
…I don’t want to tell you.
Hah. She doesn’t want to tell me.
Normally this would be unwarranted information she’d prattle on about.
I had no choice; I needed to use the glove.
Thinking that, at the moment I swung my hand, the air parted with a sound.
Lighter than usual, but a firm sensation gripped my palm.
Even without seeing, I could easily identify its identity.
A red pickaxe.
…How?
For the first time, a surprised sound escaped me.
My vision darkened.
Everything that had faded returned.
Revived emotions caused the mana to swirl.
The pickaxe in my right hand began to tremble violently.
Injecting this level of mana was my first time.
Then I steadied myself.
To break through this space.
I swung the pickaxe.
The world turned black.
And then, I forgot everything.
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