Another crisp crack sounded, and the Maid Doll’s head followed the Butler’s, its body twitching before collapsing.
Clutching her abdomen, Leon stumbled back two steps, leaning against the large tree.
Blood seeped through her fingers, and a searing pain radiated from her stomach and lungs.
It seemed her organs weren’t fully cooked yet.
At least she could still feel pain, which meant there was still hope.
The white light gradually faded, and her clothes returned to her body, immediately being stained red with blood.
This meant that only now did the transformation process seem to have truly halted.
Should she be relieved?
Not at all.
Leon’s extremely sharp senses caught a movement from her side: the faint sound of something hard crushing dry leaves.
She whipped her head around.
From the thick black mist seven meters away, three new dolls were slowly emerging, steadily closing in.
Leon glanced down at the wound on her abdomen, then swept her gaze over the three fully intact enemies.
Combat power reduced by more than 30%, continuous blood loss, respiratory system damaged…
She quickly drew up an assessment table in her mind.
Facing three enemies with full combat power identical to the previous ones, her chance of victory was less than 1%.
The girl coughed twice, letting out a hoarse laugh: “Ha…
GG again.” Good Game.
She had played quite well, indeed.
This time, she had made significant progress.
She leaned against the tree trunk, her pale face showing no hint of fear in the face of death.
Rather than being hacked to death by this bunch of rotten wood, she might as well try that complete self-detonation sequence one more time.
The first time, it blew up too quickly, before she even had time to process it.
“Don’t let it go to waste.” The girl murmured to herself, then forcibly mobilized the Mana within her body that was already on the verge of collapse.
She spoke hoarsely, playing with a meme that no one here would understand.
“Watch me.” “My final…
transformation!” She lifted her head, her calm eyes staring at the approaching monsters, the corners of her mouth curling into an excited, sweet curve as she began to dance lightly.
Like a stunningly beautiful butterfly fluttering toward a flame.
“Smile full marks!
Fighting Spirit, one hundred percent~” As the incantation was chanted, Mana surged like a wild tide.
Leon turned all her attention inward, guiding her emotions and movements by instinct, trying to capture the trajectory of its final millisecond before collapse.
(<ゝω·)~☆ The next moment.
BOOM—!!
– After the grand explosion, Leon returned once again to his run-down but clean room.
[You died.] [Mission Evaluation: Failure] [Reward: None] He stared at the system’s utterly unchanging evaluation and rubbed his brow, somewhat dazed.
The nerve-stinging pain brought by this death remained, coupled with the sudden slackness of nerves after being extremely tense.
But Leon felt he had already grown a bit used to it.
The next instant, he sprang up like a leaping fish, with no intention of resting at all.
He immediately walked over to his desk and sat down, taking out a pen and paper.
Those jet black eyes glowed brightly in the darkness.
A good memory is not as good as a rotten pen.
Just as one can only remember the emotions from a dream for a short time after waking up, now was the best time for recording and summarizing.
Swish, swish, swish— He began to write feverishly.
The various known information from just now was written down by him at extremely fast speed, including those transformation rules from before and the specific phrases that emerged from his instincts.
Next came all kinds of analysis on the mechanism.
[Why did the mana continue to surge for a while after I stopped the Transformation Phrase and actions?
Does it have something to do with my taking the liberty of modifying the phrase and changing the actions?] [Can the phrase be changed?
Can the actions be changed?
Can the emotions be changed?
Will it be of positive help to the transformation?] [If operated properly, will the Holy Light Protection during transformation become stronger?] [The Child-type Doll that appeared at the end seemed harmless on the surface, which is why it’s even more important to be vigilant.
Does it need to be dealt with immediately?] [The final self-destruction…
I still feel like something is missing from my chest…
Could it be related to that pendant that showed no reaction at all?] Leon’s brain worked at high speed without tiring.
Who hasn’t played a puzzle game?
And its pleasure is simple.
List all the clues, then analyze all the possibilities.
And then…
It’s time to carry out the walkthrough.
He revealed an extremely pure smile, like a gourmet who sees a delicacy and feels delighted at the hunt.
“Well, let’s begin the experiment.” – [Third Playthrough].
LINK START.
Black mist churned as a blood-scented wind once again swept through the cold and damp forest.
Everything seemed to have reset to zero, returning to the very first starting point.
The pink-haired girl shot to her feet, the stinging pain receding faster than before.
Her slender and beautiful body moved with a crisp, dashing grace, a beauty full of youthful vitality.
She reached out her bare hand and covered the chest that was so flat it was almost pitiful.
Gently touching the pendant on her chest, her face took on a thoughtful expression.
Of the first three transformations, two were complete and one was interrupted.
In each case, the scorching torrent of mana had surged right here before spiraling completely out of control.
But that one time she deliberately interrupted the transformation process, she had indeed felt something extremely important.
She limbered up her limbs twice, and the doll’s footsteps arrived as scheduled from nearby.
The Butler Doll and Maid Doll stumbled into her field of vision, then suddenly pounced on Leon the instant they “saw” him.
Leon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if reviewing a plan he had already finalized.
Then, she opened her eyes, and a crimson light seemed to ignite within her pupils.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Leon raised her hand and struck the opening pose of the Magical Girl Transformation.
The next instant, the girl’s body began to dance with a light and confident grace, her lips reciting the incantation.
Yet this time, there was a subtle difference.
“Smile, Full Marks.” No longer a cute, spoiled plea, but a confident smile stating a fact.
“Fighting Spirit, one hundred percent.” No longer a prayer, but a declaration of readiness.
Though the transformation phrase was identical, the emotion infused into the words and movements had already changed significantly!
As she moved, the radiance of mana lit up the dead forest, flowing into her slender body with each gesture.
The scorching torrent arrived as expected.
However, this time, the originally chaotic and wildly uncontrollable torrent of mana, upon feeling the transformation process Leon had modified with his own will from the very beginning, actually felt indescribably harmonious.
It was no longer so turbulent and violent.
It was truly different!
She continued her light spinning and dancing, but no longer used that cloyingly sweet and artificial “cutesy voice.” Instead, she lowered the girl’s original pitch, speaking in a voice that was still quite beautiful, yet solemn, confident, and full of piercing power: “Let your heart burn with the flames!” Resisting the instinctive urge, she forcibly modified the words, skipping over the four-character phrase “Bouncing and hopping” without reciting it.
The change in emotion caused the mana’s flow trajectory to undergo another subtle shift, becoming somewhat unstable.
But the hidden pattern within it seemed to partially reveal itself under the perception of her [Precision Operation Engine].
Just as she thought.