NOVEL NEXT Chapter 139
September 6th
A vast wilderness
Red skies
On a straight road cutting through the land, there was nothing to be seen except the boundary between sky and earth. The arid plains of the western USA, which only had rolling bushes and eagles wandering around, were now the scene of Magical Girls and colossal horses in a rush.
Black monsters and silver vessels were crossing the desolate desert.
Boom!
Bang!
Every step of the massive horses, resembling towering skyscrapers on four columns, could be felt hundreds of kilometers away. Normally, such weight would have caused them to collapse, but their rush was destruction itself.
With every step, sandstorms erupted, and with every leap, massive valleys formed.
Crash!
The explosion of starlight held them back
As dozens of 2-Star Magical Girls aboard silver vessels fired massive blasts, one of the enormous horses, feasting on corpses, fell. Unable to endure the power left from its own rush, it was violently flung away, landing several kilometers in the distance.
Roar!
[One of the major monsters has been defeated!]
“Got another one!! Now just a few more to go!! Hang in there!!”
[Estimated arrival time at the village is 6 minutes! Hurry up!!]
“Already?!”
[From the Magical Girl of Hope, I’ll take out the front-running group in one go, so please handle the stragglers from behind.]
“Understood!!”
“Don’t worry!!”
The fourth trial began with the monsters’ feast.
Monstrous horses, illuminated by eerie blue flames inside their black frames, emerged from the California desert’s small village.
As soon as they came out of the rift, they raced towards the decades-old graveyard of the abandoned village, starting to devour the bones of the dead.
In one gulp, hundreds of skeletons vanished into the monsters’ mouths.
Crunch
Chomp
Boom!
It wasn’t enough.
For those cursed monsters, which would be satisfied only after devouring millions of the living, this meager remains felt utterly hollow. Therefore, they began their rush towards the domain of humans that the stars indicated.
Mad dash
Desire to feast
Boom!
The dash of a calamity, terrifying enough for an ordinary human to fear just encountering it, started spewing dreadful malice.
-That can’t be allowed!!
Instantly, four enormous beasts that had dashed out of the village graveyard were surrounded by silver vessels, but the monsters—who inherited the traits of multiplication and division left by the Magical Girl of Greed—broke through the encirclement and fled.
Survive clumsily, and you’d resurrect as two.
-[From the Magical Girl of Hope! This trial’s monsters will multiply and recover like those of Plague and Greed we faced before! Focus your fire on defeating them at once!]
Normally, these rushing horses would feast upon the flesh of the living, but now they charged toward the direction indicated by the stars. What had started as a chase in the middle of the desert was now moving toward a small town.
Whoosh!
A yellow comet raced past the silver vessels moving at such high speeds it could cross the continent.
A small girl draped in starlight.
Thousands of stars poured from her into the preoccupied group charging ahead under the red sky.
A curtain made of the Milky Way.
Yellow star clusters etched in the desert brilliantly illuminated the black monsters, masking their grotesque forms with beautiful starlight. Overwhelmed by the yellow starlight creeping across its dark body, the black horse was forced to halt its rush.
Boom!
“Direct hit!!”
[The second group has been defeated!! On to the final third!! Advancing 200km ahead!!]
“I’ll rush over!! Like a shooting star!!”
[Yes!! Please do it, Shooting Star Magical Girl!!]
“Of course! I’m the fastest Magical Girl!!”
Zoom—!!
Hana responded confidently, surrounded by flashes like her nickname, soaring across the red sky above the California desert.
A shooting star
The true alias born from her brilliant appearance, distinct from her titles of Swiftness and Friendship.
The little girl who handles countless monsters and brings dreams and laughter to people.
Among all the Magical Girls, she was the youngest, yet none could deny their respect for her.
Just like the confidence Hana had shown until now.
The fourth trial was completely sorted out by the Milky Way scattered by the yellow comet in front of the city protected by Hope and Love.
[From the Elysion Observatory! The trial monsters have been entirely defeated!]
*
The scorching desert had just experienced a high noon chase.
Yuki and I sat on a bench, looking at the beach after that tremendous battle.
-Hey, mister! More spicy chicken stew, please!
-I want another plate too!
-That was amazing today, right?
-Yeah! I’ve never felt my heart race like this before!
Elysion, passing through the western coastal areas of the USA, was filled with the joyful cheers of Magical Girls and ordinary people.
Delicious food and the smiles of girls floated like lanterns, lighting up the city of Magical Girls, while those who couldn’t make it to Elysion ascended the threads of fate, enjoying the vibe in a plaza only accessible by Magical Girls.
In the continuing colossal battles, the Magical Girls always returned victorious.
The ordinary citizens resting on this island cheered on their sparkling exploits.
The human world was slowly advancing toward a future of dreams and hope thanks to the Magical Girls.
‘So hopeful.’
It felt like a landscape painted with the word hope.
Yet, we couldn’t share in that joy.
“……”
“……”
The fourth trial, defeated more smoothly than ever before.
The Magical Girls felt the overwhelming joy of victory that followed. As soon as they returned from California to Elysion, they celebrated late into the night, bragging about their performance in the day’s battle, savoring delicious food and lively songs.
-Hahaha! Then Sato popped up far away going Whoosh!! And BAM!
-That kid is really fast…
-Can’t believe she’s senior considering she’s been active as a Magical Girl since last summer.
-So bright and skilled; she has lots of fans.
The once quiet island of Elysion had become a lively place, reminiscent of a festival day by day, as they established a magical city. We recalled today’s events on the beach where the lights shimmered in the distance.
“It was the same.”
“Yeah.”
“Strange.”
“Yeah.”
Tap
A small hand landed on mine.
I held it tightly, feeling unease in that warmth.
We understood each other too well, and now to an outsider, it must have seemed like a conversation lacking context. But regarding this kind of talk, I thought it’s better for us to carry the anxiety alone.
‘In fact, the thousands of Magical Girls who know of the destroyed world probably feel the same as the autocratic representatives.’
The third trial featuring the Magical Girl of Greed and the Goddess of Death.
Since then, there’s been no disruption by the three goddesses or any strange occurrences like fake Magical Girls.
The black lion
The black serpent
The black boar
The black horse
Monsters still occasionally sprang from small rifts at the stars’ scars, but now they were no longer objects of fear and terror, melting under the starlight of the Magical Girls.
Gradually gaining confidence through continued battles, and the familiarity that prevented them from losing themselves—that was why the human world had not collapsed, even as we moved beyond the mid-point of trials.
‘I thought the three goddesses would definitely cast a curse in the fourth trial.’
The trial monsters that emerged quietly from the rift, as usual, followed the course Yuki knew. The trial itself progressing without any change was, in fact, an oddity for us.
Because I had appeared.
Because things had changed because of me.
Something must have changed.
“This world has changed.”
Why hasn’t the trial changed anymore?
Why aren’t the goddesses intervening anymore?
“…Is it because of Erebus?”
“Maybe.”
Some colossal ceremony the goddesses had been preparing.
But Erebus described it as familiar energy, casting the memory of destruction into the Throne of Nihility. And the Goddess of Death truly despaired at the sight.
‘What on earth happened in the Throne of Nihility?’
Yuki seemed to murmur, as if reading my thoughts.
“What on earth is there?”
“……”
I couldn’t understand.
That’s why we couldn’t rejoice amidst overwhelming victories in trials.
In a world progressing as we knew it, we felt even more anxious.
The only clear fact we could identify was that some distortion occurring lay far beyond our perception.