“Kugh, huff, hi… heal.”
Alex, who had never lost his composure, healed his battered belly with a shaky voice, but he seemed to be out of breath as he struggled to mend his lungs.
Stumbling to his feet, Alex looked up at the sky and shouted.
“Hoo, retreat!! Doctor!! Put me back in my new body!! Damn it, I’m really gonna die like this!!”
[I told you not to go, stupid Alex.]
“Stop talking crap and hurry up!!”
Beeep!
From beyond the sky, a fluorescent green hawk swooped down, and the fluorescent green light spread across Alex’s entire body. He suddenly threw a cobalt blue glass star that had appeared in his hand at the puppet.
The puppet caught it and attempted to fly away in an instant.
Taang!
The magical girl of the first squad, who had passed out, saw this and used her unique weapon to shoot at it, but it missed.
[Khiheehee, that was dangerous, but somehow…]
And the cobalt blue glass star landed in my hand with a soft thud.
<Because the puppet had been shot down by a member of the White Wing Unit who had regained his senses, and I caught it with my hand.>
“Damn it!! What is this!! What the hell!!!”
With his last escape plan thwarted and the glass star stolen, Alex shouted in horror.
[I don’t know how it works, but what if I use the magic girl of the start!!]
A voice from the Doctor echoed, and the ground shook as dozens of puppets appeared from all around and charged at full speed.
Grrrr!
Beeep!
Shhwoosh!
Dozens of puppets rushed toward me from a distance.
Alex, using all his might, grabbed bombs from his tactical bag and threw them at the White Wing Unit members who were either down or getting back up.
“Eat this!!”
“No!!”
Park Saebyeok panicked and tried to use a psychic attack on the bombs, but it was a sudden situation, and she wasn’t able to aim properly, causing the bombs to land perfectly at the White Wing Unit members.
Thud!
Dozens of giant gorillas, each 3 meters tall, charged at once, twisting my arms to reclaim the glass star, and each hawk collided with my body at full speed.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
“Kyaah?!”
“Ugh…!”
The explosion that knocked down the White Wing Unit turned the area into a dust pit, and when the dust cleared, dozens of puppets were left as mush.
Park Saebyeok rushed toward her team members but was bewildered to find them all unharmed.
<Park Saebyeok had used miraculous control to bounce the bombs in the direction of the puppets, causing them to be annihilated.>
“What the hell is this crazy ability!!!”
[Deception] Magical Girl Unique Skill
Inverse Causality 因果逆轉
The cause and effect are tied together and termed as causality.
It becomes one karma, forming countless links connecting all things in existence.
I can unravel one of those karmic ties and bring forth a different outcome that can arise from the same cause.
I can change and reconstruct one link that has turned into karma upon observation.
For five minutes.
If it happened in just five minutes, I could even deceive the observed results linked by causality.
I can invert the causality swept away by the waves of possibility and cover it up as a fleeting dream.
For the first time, aside from the moment of domain declaration, I felt connected to the world.
I understood for the first time why other Born 3-Star magical girls wielded such formidable power.
It was because my understanding of the concept of [Deception] was fundamentally flawed from the beginning.
To deceive someone as a magical girl is not to persuade them by showing illusions and dreams, but to use the laws themselves.
Despite witnessing girls using absurd miracles, I had tried to live solely in the realm of reason and thus could not utilize the powers granted to me.
I realized it only now.
Clack!
Clack!
I comprehended this and walked over to Alex.
“Hahaha, huahahaha! You think I’m gonna just give up like this!!”
Alex limped forward, throwing dozens of bombs at me.
<However, due to the pain in his lungs, the misfired bombs all veered behind me.>
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Seeing the bombs that should have easily hit even while his eyes were closed go completely astray, Alex screamed.
“Aaaaaah! Uaaaah!!!”
In terror brought about by the absurd violence of causality, Alex, with explosions wrapped around his hands, drained every bit of his magic power and charged at me.
<In the meantime, the injuries to the organs he hadn’t healed yet burst open, causing him to collapse from the shock.>
“Ugh! Hah!! Aahhh…!!”
Alex thrashed in extreme pain, his pants drenched in blood from his ruptured organs. As the pain he had forgotten due to adrenaline flooded back, he looked at me in horror as he gasped.
“Damn… what are you?! Damn it… why is this happening…?!”
“………”
“Damn it, say something!!”
I looked at the cobalt blue glass star in my hand.
Two huge lights.
Nestled between them was a deep red third light, radiating an ominous aura like veins across the glass star.
A hundred people.
The dreams and lives of a hundred people rest here.
Perhaps it could have been another Ichika.
Or perhaps another Dorim.
The fleeting dreams of such girls.
‘I’ve fallen into the realm of death.’
[Saving this world from the meaningless fight of [War]. And entrusting the souls of the girls who had unjustly died to [Death].]
If [Death], who had not refused the pleas of those who came bearing the glass stars of the girls who died from the [War] all the way to the northern end of the land,
then the souls that should originally have melted into the cycle of the world after passing through [Death] had to exist in some form as long as [Magical Girl HAZARD] continued, thus the girls’ souls are still here.
‘Mother.’
Thinking of the families who had been devastated by losing these girls brought back memories of my mother.
Click!
I could feel the new weight resting on my shoulders as I looked at the fallen Alex. And I quietly declared in a voice meant only for Alex.
“I vow.”
“What, what…?”
“By my past life’s name… and the alias of this life, [Deception] Magical Girl.”
[Deception] Magical Girl Unique Skill
Dream World 夢幻世界
Cognition Acceleration
“You can never come back to any domain.”
Crack!
I didn’t take my eyes off Alex as he experienced a crushing pain in the elongated time of cognition, dying in that moment.
The slow-crumbling expression turned into a mixture of pain, despair, fear, resignation… and a touch of comfort.
The world filled with the explosive sounds of the girl who had taken and killed countless magical girls’ dreams came to an end here.
The voice of that guy called Doctor, which had been heard all throughout the fight, faded away, and the Seoul Plaza was once again enveloped in silence.
“………”
“Is it… over?”
Park Saebyeok, having healed the fallen members of the White Wing Unit, came over, limping, having entirely stripped off her tattered black t-shirt.
Clank!
The dog tag bounced off her muscular body, making a sound.
‘Captain Korea…’
The injuries visible were so bright with the pink aura rising like smoke that it was blinding.
‘She used healing magic on her teammates, yet she’s enduring it with natural healing ability.’
I nodded, not having the energy to respond.
“I see, but there are still bombs…”
17:29
17:28
17:27
Even as we fully dealt with Alex, the bomb timer continued to tick away indifferently amidst the silence of the one called Doctor.
I had tried to touch the causality of the bomb with Inverse Causality a few times, but the engraved causality had been tied for days, making it impossible to manipulate.
[The area around the leg is getting cleaned up, and the citizens are being evacuated!]
Zzt!
Dorim’s doppelganger appeared to scan the situation.
Alex’s body, the fallen or exhausted members of the White Wing Unit, and myself and Park Saebyeok standing.
[We have won.]
“But the bomb situation hasn’t been resolved.”
“How can we deal with a bomb that will wipe out a 5-kilometer radius in 17 minutes…?”
“What if we threw it into the Han River?”
[The Han River’s width is about 1 kilometer, which is dangerous.]
“High-powered bombs are more dangerous when detonated underwater.”
“Transporting by helicopter… would get the pilot killed…”
[We can’t launch it because of the hawk and pigeon puppets still hovering nearby.]
“What about carrying it psychically to Incheon sea?”
[Even at the shortest distance, to avoid casualties, it would require at least 60 kilometers.]
Based on my two years of experience moving things in preparation for the apocalypse in Japan, flying at 240 KM/h was impossible no matter how fast we tried.
“Wouldn’t it be difficult to evacuate as many people as possible within the radius?”
I began scanning for signs of safety and noticed the reporters approaching for coverage and soldiers running to assess the situation.
[Areas included in the 5-kilometer radius—Jongno, Seongbuk, Dongdaemun, Seodaemun, Yongsan, Mapo—are impossible.]
“Damn… we could have just gotten rid of that one thing…!”
It was bleak.
Park Saebyeok bit at her lower lip anxiously while Kang Dorim quietly stared at the bomb, deep in thought.
“Captain Park Saebyeok!! What’s the situation!!”
“Kang Eunsul! Is Seoul safe now?!”
“Is it true that [Start] is preparing for domain proclamation!?”
Rumble!
Click!
Click!
In an instant, a throng of reporters surrounded us, their questions pouring out as they caught sight of Alex’s corpse, recoiling but quickly resuming their inquiries.
“Shut up!! The operational situation isn’t over yet, so stay quietly in the evacuation area!!”
Park Saebyeok’s eyes lit up with pink aura as she barked, forcing the reporters to retreat.
In the silenced scene, Kang Dorim’s murmurs resonated.
[Perhaps… if we go just 30 kilometers, we might be able to resolve it.]
“How?”
Kang Dorim looked up at the sky quietly.
[If we detonate it 30 kilometers in the air, the damage will be minimal… if it is similar in nature to the bombs thrown by the bombing magical girl, there won’t even be damage from electromagnetic pulses.]
“I’ll do it! If we just stop the domain declaration, I can definitely do it!”
If I paused the domain declaration I was currently performing and focused all my magic power on psychic, I could do it at a speed of 120KM/h.
But Kang Dorim shook her head.
[We don’t know when they might attack again; we can’t afford to pause now, just… you keep doing what you are.]
“Then what will you do!”
Frustrated, Park Saebyeok yelled.
[I can go anywhere there’s a signal.]
Zzt!
The real Kang Dorim, far larger than her doppelganger, stood before the bomb with a massive gray static crackle surrounding her.
“My cyber swimming doesn’t use magic to move through areas with signals, moving one bomb will be a piece of cake.”
“Dorim, are you alright doing that?”
“Huh?”
“Seriously, will it be fine for you?”
“………”
A reporter who had been hesitant due to the serious atmosphere asked, trembling.
“Is… is Seoul going to be… alright…?”
15:46
15:45
15:44
Seeing the gradually decreasing timer, the reporters sensed that something was amiss and that the situation would not end with just the death of the terrorist.
Kang Dorim, noticing this, smiled brightly for the first time in front of the public and declared.
“Of course! Magical girls exist to protect everyone!”
Whoosh!
“Dorim!!”
“Kang Dorim!!”
Despite the cries from me and Park Saebyeok, Kang Dorim shot up into the sky with the bomb, leaving a gray aura like a tail behind her.
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