Transformation or Death

Like Family (2)

Recently, from only seeing the scenes where magical girls suffer, I ended up making one misunderstanding. It was none other than the misunderstanding that magical girls are absolute weaklings to villains.

Magical girls who can grow infinitely, one of their characteristics is that the more they fight formidable foes, the stronger they become. 

‘…I suppose it will revolve around that.’

At the point just over three months since the S-rank Villains began their full-fledged activities, the girls’ powers had become strong enough to subdue the formidable foes.

“Well… Looks like we’re a bit late?”  

Joo Ah-yoon smiled bitterly.

“Hey you bastard! Don’t move…!”

“Release my brothers…! You witches…!” 

White Davi, who still hadn’t set foot in Sanctity’s Omen, struggled considerably alone to subdue them.

But even so, the ice of Blue Sirius who subdued the first was neat and majestic without any signs of cracking, and the flames of Red Vega were also stably threatening the neck of the second.

“Oh… No, it’s because you unnecessarily dragged things out.”

Joo Ah-yoon hurriedly corrected the term she was about to say as older brother and nudged my shoulder with her shoulder. Thanks to our heights becoming similar from transforming, there was no need to stand on tiptoes.

“Ack, It’s hot!”

As usual, there was lightning on my shoulder, and Joo Ah-yoon who touched it yelped in surprise and fell to the side. 

Even at such a playful sight, I couldn’t easily laugh. It was because the reason for our late arrival was entirely my own fault, contrary to her words.

Joo Ah-yoon and I are both capable of high-speed movement. If we set our minds to it, we could arrive at the scene of the conflict in less than even 1 second.

But this time, we couldn’t. It wasn’t an attempt at an eco-friendly energy-saving movement out of concern for wasting starlight.

Right after I transformed, an abnormal phenomenon occurred where my movement stopped for a moment. It was a side effect I had never experienced before.

While the noise of the transformation sound greatly decreased, this was by no means a good sign.

It was a signal not of control, but of encroachment.  

Gradually, I felt like my body was being dominated by something. Not sinking into darkness, but rather being entranced by something. An intense flashing that blinded my eyes. An ominous electrical signal.

That ominous thing boring into my mind was as cold as a hunk of metal and as sharp as lightning. Swiftly and thrillingly like the process of nerve matter being transmitted, that cold lightning dominated my mind and body.  

Emotions are cut off, linguistic functions are lost, muscles relax, and all physiological functions and life support functions stop as well. And yet I move.

Right after transforming, I felt my heart stop. It really felt like becoming a machine.

Although I managed to shake off that ominous movement, there’s no telling when it might recur again. Like someone with a rare disease, I have to constantly fear when the symptoms will appear again.

‘Doesn’t seem like there’s anything to do today. Should I just head back to the place I evacuated to…’

As I was thinking that, I heard a voice from my belt.

[Quest Appears.]

It was a voice proving that things would not be peaceful going forward.

“For what purpose did you come here….”

Lightly brushing off Blue Sirius’s questioning voice directed at us, my belt continued playing a voice only I could hear.

[Please take care of all the villains that are swarming in. If completed, you will receive a piece of a star as a reward. The consequence for refusing is death.]

There isn’t much time left now. I can’t help it.

“Hey.” 

“Hm?”

I whispered softly enough for only Joo Ah-yoon to hear.

“Villains will be swarming in soon. Get ready.”

“…What?”

Not long after saying that, cracks appeared in the ice September was trapped in.

Creak, crackle, crackle. The uneasy sound of the ice breaking shattered the heavy silence and standoff, causing everyone here to move.

“I believed in you, Brother!”

The third, grabbed by the skeleton, got up, and

“As did I.”

The second raised a great wind in all directions, causing Red Vega to temporarily fall back.

The wind even shook Blue Sirius’s balance, and caused her magic attempting to encase September in ice once more to slightly miss its mark.

Through the unblocked cracks in the ice block, a scorching heat and light like lava seeped out.

Kwagwagwang! The heat line shattered the ice and shot up high into the sky.

“My brothers!”

Firing a cannon not for attack but to make a statement, September shouted loudly.

“Raise the anchor!”

“Yes!”  

“Understood!”

Towards the red cannonball soaring high into the sky, the brothers fired their own starlight.

All their starlight converged, and a massive explosion occurred.

It brightly lit up the sky intensely and spectacularly, like during a chemical reaction. Blotting out the moon, it cast new beams of light into the night.

As soon as the scattered beams of light touched the ground, roars rang out.

-Uwaaaaaaaaah!!!

-Aaaaaaaaaah!!!

-Euraaaaaaah!!!

A thunderous sound that could shatter eardrums shook the streets. Savage yet valiant voices. Powerful, violent voices that brought street thugs to mind.

Where the light touched, life forms clad in scaly skin appeared. The life forms commonly referred to as orcs in fantasy novels. Naturally, here they were Villains.

Soon, sand started gushing out from the ground they were on. The sound of waves pushing sand could be heard, a sticky wind mixed with salt stung my cheeks, and a fishy smell of water wafted into my nose.  

The scenery of the streets began changing.

“The Goldilocks Domain…”

Their unique villain barrier. This was their stage, their most comfortable place. The space for those three brothers was the beach and sandy shore. It was a space for pirates rather than a gang.

“It’s time for plundering and massacre!” 

September fired a cannon into the sky and shouted. Bang! The gunpowder burst spectacularly in the shape of fireworks, and colorful sparks fell heavily and slowly.

This was a celebratory gunfire for the time to come, and a signal flare signifying the hardships ahead.

“We are the Argo gang! Just a gathering of people who want to hit and smash things!”

“We don’t need money, women, or power. What we want is violence.”

“Free violence! Plundering! Arson! Vandalism! Insults! That’s enough! Even if we lose here! We’ll make your eyeballs bleed!”

“Noisy.”

Despite the second brother’s scolding, the third brother gripped a spear in his hand and charged towards White Davi.

“You’re not the only one with underlings!”

“Hey, that’s unfair!”

Dozens of demonic villains followed behind him, and as he advanced, huge waves rushed in from the beach.

“And my power becomes even stronger if there’s water!”

It seems his ability was to control water. The huge tidal wave opened its jaws wide, as if about to swallow all the enemies here.

“My name is November! The third of the Argo brothers…”

“Damn! Your tongue is so fucking long!”

White Davi shouted in annoyance.

“There are people here greater than you bastards!”

Before she finished speaking, Blue Sirius moved his foot.

“That’s enough.”

His hard shoe sole dug into the soft sandy beach. An absolute zero chill flowed from the pressed heel. The chill left a bluish icy trail on the sandy beach towards the sea. Even the salty seawater could not withstand her coldness, and soon even the huge tidal wave froze over.

The huge tidal wave had become just a huge chunk of ice.

Clang! November swung his spear without a care. White Davi blocked it with her horn pipe. Then she put her mouth to the end and blew hard into it.

Wooooo—! The sound of the horn pipe rang out loudly, and villains like skeletons and zombies emerged from beneath the sandy beach.

“Villain bastards… I’ll kill you all!”

“That’s good… Try it!”

Even more villains rushed in than before.

Soon, an all-out battle began. Villains clashed with villains, fire and wind collided, ice and waves crashed endlessly, the sharp sounds of bladed weapons cutting through the air, and the booming sounds of cannons shaking the eardrums incessantly followed one after another.

Amidst all this, the fluttering sound of a butterfly could be heard, and the intense sound of lightning piercing through everything was also audible.

I advanced towards September, turning his scaly skin to mere ashes. Wherever I went, the sandy beach turned black like ashes.

Boom! As I swung my axe down, he blocked it with a cannon.

“Haha, brother, that’s good. You’ve got great power. I like it.”

His reactions were clearly better than before. His strength, skills, the brightness of the starlight – not a single aspect was left unimproved. Is this true power?

“You, become my comrade!”

But he was not at a level worthy of such praise. I kicked him in the stomach, then charged forward and struck lightning at his neck.

Gwahng! A direct hit by the lightning. September didn’t show any signs of pain, simply dusting himself off and standing back up.

“Hmm… A rejection? Too bad.”

He’s durable to the point of ignorance. The roughly attached wooden planks didn’t show even the slightest damage. Come to think of it, the other brothers were similar. Despite being constantly attacked since earlier, not a single wound was visible.

“Isn’t freedom enjoyable? You don’t seem to appreciate it. Alas, it appears so. Poor thing.”  

I ignored his words and swung my axe down. Gwahng! Continuously, continuously. Kukung! Kukukung! I struck his crown with my axe like hammering a nail. But September showed no signs of being hurt at all.

“Ha, to think that’s all you’ve got… Eetcha!”

Soon, a chunk of ice came flying towards me. I jumped back slightly to avoid it.

“Tch.”

The fierce Blue Sirius was seen clicking her tongue. 

“Hey, don’t attack over here. Can’t you see I’m helping you guys out right now?”

“All I can see is you getting played.”

“You think I’d fall for something like that?” 

“Then do you think I’d believe what you say?”

“…Fair point.”

It would be foolish to believe a villain’s words.

“You should learn from the guy in front of you. Villains are cowards.”

Blue Sirius created a doppelganger. With her clone, she aimed three swords and cast magic in one direction. Phantasmal Blade Illusion, Legend of Separation. The two spells flowed along one path, shredding everything within their orbit.

Both attacks were aimed at September. I swung my axe to match her attacks. There was no great skill involved. I just mechanically fired off barbaric lightning bolts as usual.

“I guess I’ll have to be a coward too. For now, I’ll use your power. Got a problem with that?”

“No.”

The magic girl and villain’s starlight merged into one, freezing, burning, shredding, and crushing September’s body. Even amidst the blinding flashes, I could make it out.

“Did you see that, Blue Sirius?”

“Your lightning was so bright it was hard to see. Can’t you adjust the brightness? What an outdated technique.” 

His tone was remarkably biting. It was worlds apart from when he spoke to Han Jae-jung, and I smiled wryly at his rough manner of speaking. Even that rude way of talking had a human charm that was quite nice.

“Don’t ask for the impossible. Blue Sirius, that guy isn’t tough, he’s just regenerating at super high speed.”

“Regenerating? Ah geez… Why does he have to have such an annoying ability…”

“It seems all three of those brothers have the same ability. But if there’s one weakness…”

I leapt high into the sky. I gathered a ton of starlight in my axe, and once enough had accumulated, I swung it down. The lightning split into three streaks that struck all three brothers simultaneously.

“Woah!”  

“Oh, oh!”

White Davi and Red Vega let out gasps of admiration. Wounds had appeared on them. They did heal again, but slower than before.

“…So we have to attack them simultaneously?” 

“That was my hypothesis, and it seems to be correct.”

It was only natural for such an ability to have a weakness. Contradictory cheat abilities aren’t given to just anyone.

“If we can land a fatal blow on all three of them at the same time, the attack should succeed… Ugh?!”

At that moment, the lightning dug deeper into my body. It meant the time left before I lost my senses was dwindling. Not a good sign.

“There’s no time left. Quickly…”

“What’s this?” 

A familiar voice came from far away.

“Why are brothers and comrades fighting each other?”

It was Jason. He sounded angry.

Before I could wonder why he was here, Jason placed his hand on his belt.

“What a dreadful outcome! What a twist of fate! Alas… How pitiful! I shall sever this mistaken destiny!”  

“Hey, wait a minute…”

“Hey youngest, wait!”

Before September and I could stop him, his belt moved.

The entire surrounding landscape distorted, and everyone here lost their way.

***

Ippotranslation

***

When the scenery reappeared, what came into view was….

“Huh?” 

The fallen magical girl, Virgo.

“What’s going on here?”

It was a human corpse that she was trampling. 

[Quest Appeared]

I had less than 30 seconds left before losing my sanity.

[Keep Her Alive]

The new quest was extremely far-fetched.

Goddammit.

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