59 – An Aberration

Something felt off.

Wasn’t the fiend supposed to be writhing in agony from my curse?

But, why, why is it…

“AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

…laughing like it’s having the time of its life?

Is it a Magical Lunatic instead of a fiend?

Or perhaps a Magical Masochist?

Sora’s amber eyes, wide with bewilderment, darted to Taishi.

Could it be that even this was something Taishi anticipated?

Hopeful curiosity flickered within her gaze.

However.

“W-What in the world is happening, I wonder!”

Taishi was just as taken aback as Sora.

“Taishi, you weren’t planning this, were you?”

“Absolutely not, I tell you. I was hoping to use the distance the kidnapper kept to avoid the curse against them, but I never expected a result like this, I swear.”

Anxiety and confusion flowed openly from Taishi’s crimson eyes.

Which meant, this was something even Taishi hadn’t foreseen.

A new variable had entered the equation.

This was not good.

Even so.

‘It’s alright.’

Sora forced herself to regain her composure.

She lowered her wand, but didn’t cancel the spell. She had been planning to observe the situation and then gather her magical power, but this could actually work in her favor.

If that was the case…

She should seize this moment, when the fiend was laughing without paying attention to Sora or Taishi.

‘I’ll have to give up on capturing the fiend…’

There was no other choice.

Kim Shi-yul’s request to capture the fiend was important, but Kim Shi-yul’s survival was more so.

Even if she was reprimanded later, it was several times better to ensure Kim Shi-yul’s safety.

Sora came to that decision.

‘A disquiet settled within me…’

The strange one’s unsettling state weighed heavily on Sora’s judgment, urging her to act rather than wait.

“Taishi, keep close behind me, understand?”

“As you wish.”

Sora steeled herself.

Eyes closed, head tilted ever so slightly downwards.

Knees straightened, back held rigidly tall.

Both hands, clasped around the wand, rested reverently against her heart.

Then, Sora opened her eyes.

Gaze fixed, unwavering, forward.

Hands raised, pointing high towards the heavens.

“Consume with the flames of Kalpagni.”

An instant.

A sliver of time, fractured into fragments too small to comprehend.

During that instant, the world flickered, almost died.

────!!!

After another instant, the world swiftly regained its color.

But it wasn’t quite as it was before. A slightly different hue now painted over everything.

Azure.

Azure flames billowed, engulfing the world.

They devoured all that they touched, sating their ravenous hunger.

A cerulean hell had materialized.

“Huu… huu…”

In the heart of that hell, Sora gasped for breath, ragged and shallow.

“Are you well, Sora-dono?”

“To be honest, I’m far from it.”

Truly, she wasn’t well at all.

To cast that spell, Sora had drawn upon every last reserve of her dwindling mana.

It was only natural that she was exhausted.

Frankly, she was struggling to even stand.

Even so, Sora couldn’t quite manage a faint smile, thinking he’d dispatched the aberration with that—

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

—because of what happened.

“This one was genuinely dangerous.”

The aberration had appeared, unscathed, right behind him.

A reaction from the aberration he hadn’t anticipated in the slightest.

A question began to bloom in Sora’s eyes.

‘How on earth?’

Sora’s magic just now, for all its risk, had an equivalent, immense payoff.

One of those being its instantaneous nature.

It wasn’t like typical magic with a path to follow. It incinerated an entire space in one go, and simultaneously.

Essentially, magic with only a beginning and an end.

Unless you stopped it beforehand, prevented the magic’s manifestation itself… once manifested, seeing and dodging it was impossible.

And yet, the aberration had single-handedly achieved the impossible.

The aberration didn’t have a single scratch.

Not even a speck of ash, let alone lingering embers, clung to it.

He’d been laughing so intensely that he wouldn’t have even caught a hint of a prelude, so how was that even possible?

‘I don’t get it.’

Sora couldn’t understand.

In that instant, the aberration’s words pulled Sora from his reverie.

“Turns out, you were the most dangerous one here. I’ve revised my opinion.”

He didn’t like that.

Who was this aberration to evaluate anyone?

But, he couldn’t bring himself to voice his dissatisfaction.

“Guess I need to take care of you first then.”

Before Sora could even open his mouth, the aberration had swiftly closed the distance.

‘Fast!’

The aberration had become far faster than before. So fast, it was almost as if it was a different monster.

What’s more, paying the price for casting that magic just now, it’s hard to move properly.

Of course, the aberration also couldn’t use its curse anymore, but even so, it was in a much better state than Sora. Unlike the powerless Sora, it could at least mount some sort of offensive.

Right then.

‘I need butter!’

She had to endure until she was at least minimally recovered.

“I’ll finish this in one fell swoop.”

The grotesque one scoffed, swinging his leg.

Sora gritted her teeth, steeling herself.

At that moment.

“Didn’t I tell you? Magical Monkey can’t escape Buddha’s palm.”

From the monster’s blind spot, Taishi suddenly burst in.

“Buddha’s Palm!”

Reaching out with a hand crackling with magic.

A long-range strike, the kind you see in fighting games.

Taishi had recreated it with magic.

“Long live Buddha, is what I say!”

Well, the direction of her outstretched hand was at a diagonal, so it looked less like a long-range strike and more like some country’s salute.

Anyway.

Magical boxing, exploding from the blind spot, embodied in the body of a magical girl.

Simple, but powerful and sharp.

The kind of magic you couldn’t easily dodge, even if you were focused. Sora, at least, wasn’t confident she could.

What’s more, the grotesque one had only just launched his attack on Sora. Even if he noticed now, he was in motion, so evading was impossible.

He would just be helplessly struck.

Practically an inevitable outcome.

“Think I wouldn’t notice?”

“Huh?”

That’s how it should have been.

The grotesque one stopped his movement with a bizarre jerk, pulling his body back. Taishi’s palm struck empty air with a hair’s breadth to spare.

– *Pwang!*

The sound of tearing air echoed hollowly, and Taishi’s body lurched violently.

“Nice try, though.”

It was because the grotesque one had struck Taishi in the abdomen.

Knee-first, deep.

A single, physical strike.

Merely that, and Taishi collapsed without a word.

Sora’s mind grew more tangled.

‘Just what ＜i＞is＜/i＞ he!’

Two questions relentlessly plagued Sora.

How did the monster evade Taishi’s attack?

By what means was Taishi downed so easily?

In that instant, the monster cast a mocking grin at Sora.

“Think of it as… a power-up, of sorts.”

He nudged the fallen Taishi with his foot, again and again.

“I survived to the end amidst all the curses, and in doing so, became the strongest curse myself.”

Sora couldn’t fathom why the monster suddenly divulged his capabilities.

“What was it, that thing about, trapping insects together until only one remains? I can’t quite recall the name, but it’s something like that.”

Did he perceive Sora’s bewilderment?

Was it simply a personal whim?

Or perhaps a petty display of superiority?

Maybe even a final mercy, bestowed by the strong upon the weak.

It could have been all of it, or conversely, none of it. The monster’s intentions were that inscrutable.

“To put it simply, all my stats have increased by about 300 times.”

However, not everything was uncertain.

“Of course, I don’t know what that word actually means, but this is how you people would put it.”

The monster’s elaborate explanation of his abilities signified two things.

“Naturally, with all my senses amplified 300 times, I was able to perceive everything. Though, admittedly, your magic is rather binary, requiring immediate reaction.”

One, that he was confident he wouldn’t lose to Sora even after revealing this much.

“Well, whatever.”

And, the other.

“I should deal with you first, I suppose.”

He had no intention of letting Sora and Taishi live.

＜i＞Thump＜/i＞. The sound of the ground being kicked away, and the monster’s figure blurred.

A speed that even a magical girl’s eyes struggled to follow.

Sora’s judgment was swift.

“May fire safeguard us!”

Azure flames enveloped Sora and Taishi respectively. From beyond the blaze, the grotesque creature clicked its tongue.

“Both this wench and that one are truly a bother.”

Still, a sneer quickly found its way to its lips.

“Though, you can’t hold out for long, can you? Isn’t that right?”

Sora, instead of answering, clenched her teeth.

She knew it as well.

This magic, as it was, would not last.

It was a spell conjured by forcibly wringing out what little magic power she had recovered. There was no way it could endure for long.

At least, the creature didn’t immediately launch an assault. It merely continued to circle, constantly shifting around, watching for an opening.

With each pass, the resounding thud, thud, thud against the ground reverberated in Sora’s ears.

‘It’s wary of the magic…’

Sora bit her lip in frustration.

Even with the upper hand, the creature wasn’t letting its guard down. Seemingly unwilling to repeat the mistake of nearly falling prey to Taishi and Sora earlier.

Cautious even in such an advantageous position, it was proving to be a remarkably difficult foe.

Sora bit her lip.

‘What to do…’

She had no grasp on how to contend with it.

Soon, it would be difficult to even maintain the magic.

If she were to counterattack in her current state, she’d only have enough power for a single spell, at best. But if she stalled for any longer, she wouldn’t even have that.

In the end, Sora made a gamble.

She closed her eyes, focusing all her senses on her hearing. Attempting to glean information from the sounds around her.

Stride, trajectory, pattern, habit, and more.

Weaving and refining the raw data, distilling it into something plausible. Then factoring in the creature’s extreme reaction speed.

How long had it been?

Finally, Sora’s thoughts converged.

‘There!’

The place where the creature would next set foot.

Sora dispelled the barrier of fire, and swung her wand wide.

“Fire wishes ashes!”

To make her final move.