“Shaqina.
168 centimeters, 52 kilograms, 25 years old, D-cup, occupation: villainess executive and IT worker, current monthly salary 520,000 yen, likes cream pudding, favorite hero is Destruction Phoenix Man, hometown is…”
The villainess general Shaqina sat bolt upright at the table, while across from her sat the expressionless Haibara.
“…This isn’t a matchmaking session.”
Haibara glanced at this strange villainess executive, picked up the instant hot coffee on the table, and took a shallow sip.
Right now, the two of them had come to the headquarters of the “Black Death Cult.”
How to put it—it really did have the atmosphere of an evil organization’s headquarters.
The place was spacious, the lighting dim, as though some terrible conspiracy were brewing.
Surrounding the round conference table was a group of the Black Death Cult’s grunt combatants—some ordinary humans, some monsters still in their Sprout Form phase, and, as the elites, a few Mature Form monsters.
Shaqina, meanwhile, held the executive position of “Ash Apostle.”
Because their boss Shaqina had suddenly shown up at headquarters with a woman of unknown identity, the grunt combatants began to whisper among themselves:
“Who is this woman?
She feels really dangerous…”
“Is she a new executive?
What a terrifying villain aura.”
“I heard Silver Feather-chan took out that Thorn guy—smashed his crystal to bits, even.
Doesn’t that mean Silver Feather-chan is the strongest of the magical girls?”
“For this generation of magical girls, obviously our blue-and-white type is the captain!”
“You bastard, are you trying to start a war again?!”
“Enough with the Silver Feather stanning already—the magical girl Star Flower is obviously the strongest.
The blue-and-white type can’t hold a candle to the pink type!”
“But even Silver Feather-chan couldn’t take on an executive-level, right?
She doesn’t even have an enhanced form…”
With the physical capabilities the two of them possessed, they could easily overhear the underlings whispering nearby.
Shaqina’s expression gradually darkened.
Haibara sipped her coffee without any change in expression, but…
Somehow…
this really was a ragtag rabble.
A trace of pity surfaced in her cold expression:
“As I recall, your Black Death Cult was a far more impressive organization a few centuries ago.”
“You say that as if you’ve actually seen the Black Death Cult from centuries ago…”
Shaqina felt that this woman had a habit of tossing out strange, unserious remarks from time to time.
Still, the Black Death Cult was admittedly not at its peak these days—only three executives remained openly active.
She herself operated mainly out of headquarters, in charge of running the organization and tallying its operating funds.
The other two executives were responsible for creating monsters and absorbing people’s emotions, using them to produce the Negative Crystals that would resurrect the leaders.
That’s right—”leaders,” plural.
In the center of the headquarters hall stood four statues, hidden in deep shadow—these four were the leaders of the Black Death Cult, the “Black Demon Kings.”
For now, the goal of their operations was to resurrect just one of the four first.
Though up to this point, they hadn’t managed to create even a single Complete Form monster.
“So…
it’s Miss Haibara, was it?
What exactly did you want to discuss with me?”
Shaqina rested both hands against her chin, propping her arms on the table, striking the pose of a proper working professional.
Hearing the question, Haibara lifted her chin slightly, regarded Shaqina with amusement, then extended one slender, pale hand and curled a finger in a beckoning gesture.
Shaqina froze, thought it over for a moment, then tentatively leaned her face in.
Then she nuzzled against Haibara’s hand.
Haibara looked utterly baffled:
“What are you doing?”
“…Weren’t you going to pet my face?”
Shaqina blinked.
Haibara was silent for a moment, then let out a sigh.
She was starting to regret following this naive airhead all the way here.
“You’ve got the thing you use to make monsters, right?
Let me see it.”
Haibara pinched Shaqina’s cheek and said coolly.
Somewhat embarrassed, Shaqina sat back down, gave two affected coughs, then looked over at the monster underlings beside her and held out her hand.
A completely colorless, transparent crystal was placed into her hand.
She then passed the transparent crystal on into Haibara’s hand.
Haibara held the crystal casually, toying with it for a while:
“How exactly do you make these things?”
This kind of transparent crystal was the embryo from which a monster was made.
Afterward, by continuously absorbing human emotions, it would gradually give birth to a glow, until it took on color.
In the past, obtaining such a crystal hadn’t been an easy thing for Haibara.
“With the power of the Demon King lords, of course.”
She looked toward one of the four statues in the center of the hall.
On one of the statues sat a crystal that gave off a strange radiance in the darkness, its form vastly different from that of an ordinary monster crystal.
It was a dark-purple crystal, engraved with a twisted, grotesque waning moon.
Haibara glanced at the crystal as well.
She had a memory of this crystal.
“Death Curse Venom”—that was the name that magical girl had given it, the Demon King crystal that symbolized the “Moon.”
Still, there was something very strange about this memory.
Why would it have been a magical girl who named it?
Thinking this, Haibara kept fiddling with the transparent crystal, then gave it a shake—
“To put it simply, we can cooperate.”
As she shook it, the Magic Crystal went from transparent to gradually steeped in black mist, until at last it was dyed a murky dark green.
Watching this, Shaqina went blank for a moment.
“And the substance of that cooperation is this: I can help you make monsters.”
Haibara turned the faintly glowing crystal over in her hand, then gripped it anew:
“No need to worry about it turning out like the earlier Thorn Monster—that one was formed by forcibly fusing crystals of other types.
If instead you let a Sprout Form absorb it from the very start…”
With a casual toss, she threw the dark-green crystal into one of the Sprout Form grunts.
Just like this.
Like a stone dropped into water, ripples spread across the monster’s surface, as if it had absorbed the crystal.
Then it convulsed, and its entire form began to change.
This transformation was unlike any of the previous types of monster.
Seeing it, the other grunt combatants shrank into the corners, utterly stupefied, trembling.
Shaqina stared at her in disbelief:
“You…
you’re a magical girl, so how can you create monsters?”
This was supposed to be a power the Demon King had granted to their Apostles.
Resting one hand against the side of her face, Haibara said with a rare smile:
“Where do you suppose things like monsters come from?”
In an empty, deserted clearing of the park, Kirishima Ai sat on a swing, gazing steadily at the dark-green crystal in her hand.
It was a color she had never seen before, and the pattern on it was that of a Snake wreathed in thorns.
This crystal—what on earth was it…?
She looked over at Takanashi Shiori, seated on the swing beside her:
“Still haven’t found anything about this crystal?”
Takanashi Shiori was flipping through a thick book, seemingly quite old, its pages tattered and yellowed.
“I’ve pretty much guessed what that thing is—I just need to confirm it…”
When it came to this knowledge of magic and monsters, Kirishima Ai, being an Earthling, actually knew very little; she had to rely on Takanashi Shiori, who attended the Witch Academy, to explain.
After flipping through the book for a while, Takanashi Shiori sighed, her tone lacking its usual ease and confidence:
“As much as I don’t want to believe it, this really is that thing after all.”
“What thing…?
Is it serious?”
From the look on her face, Kirishima Ai got the feeling it was something bad.
Takanashi Shiori didn’t answer right away.
She simply held up the book to show Kirishima Ai the illustration on it—there was a dark-green crystal, its very shade an almost exact match.
And beneath that crystal was a symbol Kirishima Ai had never seen before.
It was an intricate, pitch-black ring, but if you looked closely, you’d find it was an ouroboros—a snake devouring its own tail.
“I told you before, didn’t I?
Magic is divided into four kinds—the four natural elements of Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon—and because of that, magical girls are likewise divided into four categories.”
Takanashi Shiori drew the book back and went on studying that symbol on its page.
Kirishima Ai recalled the bits of magical knowledge Takanashi Shiori had shared with her before:
“I remember you saying there’s also such a thing as Black Magic.”
Takanashi Shiori shook her head:
“Even Black Magic is only the reverse side of the four elements—at its core, it’s still those same four.”
“But in the Kingdom of Ruruye, a little over three hundred years ago, a genius magical girl was once born.”
She turned another page.
On it was the image of a witch straight out of a fairy tale—she had long silver-gray hair and wore a gown as deep and black as the night sky, beautiful yet mysterious.
And coiled around this witch’s body was a bizarre black snake, tinged with an evil air.
“She was favored by all the spirits of the world, a witch to rival the gods—even the Queen of the magical girls was outshone by her talent.”
“But in her endless pursuit of power and forbidden knowledge, she lost herself.
In secret she conducted countless experiments that defied human ethics and morality, and created the forbidden fifth magic—’Snake.'”
“And with it, a new crystal was born as well.”
That was precisely the thing Kirishima Ai now held in her hand.
“Snake” was an entirely new magic formed by fusing the four elements together—a power only that magical girl could ever master.
“In the end, she even launched a rebellion against the Queen and the Kingdom of Ruruye.”
This fallen magical girl ultimately became a being more evil and dangerous than any Demon King.
Takanashi Shiori turned yet another page, on which was painted the fate of this magical girl.
Under the Queen’s leadership, the magical girls joined together to subjugate the witch—among them were the witch’s former friends and disciples.
At last, through the Queen’s miraculous magic, the witch was sealed away.
Even so, this fallen magical girl is acknowledged as the strongest magical girl in history.
When Takanashi Shiori was little, she had heard the fairy tale of this magical girl many times over—
“And the name we call her by is…”
She brushed her fingers over the name on the page—a name that had been blotted out:
“The Overlord, Lilith.”