“Sophie, you did well.”
The silver-haired girl walked up to her, an appreciative smile on her face.
“You are the Magical Girl with the greatest Aptitude I have seen in all these years.”
“Eh?”
Sophie froze for a moment, then scratched her cheek sheepishly, a blush creeping onto her fair skin.
“Senior Ellyse, you’re praising me too much… I was just lucky to defeat three monsters. I can’t compare to you at all.”
“It’s not an exaggeration at all.”
The girl known as Ellyse put away her smile, her dark eyes gazing at her with utmost seriousness.
“For ordinary people to transform into a Magical Girl, they usually have to go through immense emotional trauma, or unleash an extremely powerful will at the brink of life and death.”
“Yet you, Sophie, were able to cross that threshold so calmly and naturally.”
Ellyse paused, her tone growing a bit heavier.
“Even though you were just an ordinary girl going to school and living a peaceful daily life before this, you managed to calmly slay three Minion-Class during your very first transformation without any guidance. This is more than enough to prove your talent as a Magical Girl.”
“Most importantly—”
Ellyse looked up at the surging black mist around them, her eyes filled with emotion:
“Your very presence here in the Misty Forest is the best proof. You are the ‘Prophecy Maiden’ of this generation.”
“In other words, you are the one with the greatest hope of leading us to reclaim the Fragments of Hope from the Abyss and purifying the contaminated Sacred Tree.”
“You might actually be able to save the world.”
Sophie listened in a daze, her face turning bright red.
“Pr-Prophecy Maiden? Save the world?”
Her small hands flailed in front of her chest in a panic.
“No, no, no! How could someone like me take on such a huge responsibility! I’m just an ordinary middle schooler…”
Ellyse shook her head.
“It has already happened. It’s not something you can just opt out of because you don’t want to do it.”
“The Abyss fears you, so they hypnotized and lured you to this place before you could achieve Awakening, wanting to eliminate you ahead of time.”
“Of course, the Sacred Tree also sensed this, which is why it guided me to cross the barrier to rescue you.”
Sophie clearly couldn’t accept this immediately.
“This…”
Looking at her panicked state, Ellyse simply reached out to pat her head.
She didn’t argue further, her gaze deepening slightly.
“Time will make you understand everything.”
Boom—!!!
Just then, a muffled explosion suddenly echoed from deep within the forest in the distance.
The violent tremors even traveled to the ground beneath their feet.
A faint crimson firelight could be seen piercing through the layers of black mist, casting a slight reddish glow across half the sky.
Following closely behind was the faint, barely audible sound of passionate music.
“That is…”
Sophie looked in that direction in surprise.
“What’s happening over there?”
Ellyse also frowned slightly, resting her chin on her hand as a thoughtful look appeared in her eyes.
“There are no fire-using Danger Species monsters in the Misty Forest. That kind of commotion… it’s very likely that another Magical Girl is fighting.” This chapter was taken from novelping dot com without permission.
“Another Magical Girl?” Sophie’s eyes lit up.
“Could it be someone you know?”
“It’s hard to say.”
Ellyse shook her head, gently placing a slender finger against her lips.
“Red-themed Magical Girls are relatively common in our system, so I’m not sure if it’s an acquaintance.”
“What is ‘Red-themed’?” Sophie asked back like an inquisitive child.
“That’s the overall main color scheme after a Magical Girl Transformation, which usually represents the attribute of their power.”
Ellyse explained patiently, “A commotion like the one over there should be from a Red-themed Magical Girl. This type is usually characterized by controlling fire or possessing powerful burst strength. On the other hand, your blue outfit just now, Sophie, represents the water attribute and outstanding agility…”
Before she could finish, firelight and the sound of collisions soared into the sky once more, and the music grew even more passionate.
“Ah!”
Sophie immediately said with a serious expression, “Tell me more about this knowledge later! The commotion over there is so loud, she might really need help!”
Ellyse was slightly stunned for a moment, but said nothing and simply nodded.
The two of them immediately picked up their pace, heading toward the flickering firelight.
Soon, a devastated battlefield came into view.
Sophie’s eyes swept over a Maid Puppet that had long since fallen apart.
Looking at its broken wooden joints, a flash of surprise crossed her eyes.
As she ran, she spoke up, “These marks… there are no signs of cuts from a sharp blade. It looks like it was smashed to pieces by sheer brute force, with bare hands.”
“Senior Ellyse, is my observation correct?”
Ellyse, who was slightly ahead of her by half a step, nodded at her words.
“Indeed, it was destruction caused by bare hands.”
As they continued deeper, Sophie felt more and more alarmed with every step.
The path was littered with severed limbs and broken bodies, and there were even many types of monsters she had never seen before.
“Is that… a soldier made of stone?”
Looking at a stone statue with its upper body shattered by the roadside, Sophie couldn’t help but gasp.
“Even a monster like this, which looks like it has very high defense, was defeated, and it seems to have been killed in a single blow. The person fighting ahead must be an incredibly powerful Magical Girl!”
Boom—!
The explosions and firelight ahead grew increasingly intense, and the air was even filled with a high temperature and an unpleasant burnt smell.
However…
The sounds suddenly stopped.
The music stopped, the rumbling stopped, and everything came to an abrupt halt.
For some reason, an indescribable anxiety welled up in Sophie’s heart.
She couldn’t help but quicken her pace, following Ellyse as they rushed toward the center of the battlefield.
“It’s right ahead!”
Finally, parting the last layer of black mist, their vision suddenly opened up.
In the middle of that devastated clearing, they saw two figures.
One stood in the center of the scorched, unrecognizable battlefield, while the other knelt on the ground.
The standing one wore a crimson Spirit Dress and leaned on a giant staff.
With her back to Sophie and Ellyse, her posture was as straight and upright as a pine tree.
Meanwhile, the fallen puppet was completely unrecognizable.
“That is a Lower-rank Danger Type, the [Puppet Head Maid].”
“Even in this Misty Forest, its danger level is second only to those few monsters…”
“Danger Species?!”
Sophie’s eyes widened in disbelief.
To think that the three puppets she had painstakingly killed earlier were only the lowest-tier Minion-Class!
Most of the remains she had seen along the way were also lower-rank Minion-Class, with only a very few being high-rank Minion-Class.
This Head Maid Puppet, which had reached the level of a Danger Species, was actually killed by this Magical Girl all by herself…
and after she had continuously slain dozens of low-rank monsters?!
So amazing!!
She must be a super powerful Senior!
Sophie was overjoyed.
She tidied her wind-blown bangs and prepared to step forward to greet her, a friendly smile appearing on her face.
However, right at that moment…
The gorgeous Spirit Dress on the red-haired girl suddenly flickered, and countless red points of light peeled away and dissipated from her body like fireflies.
In the blink of an eye, she reverted to her ordinary appearance, wearing a blood-stained white shirt and black hot pants.
Without the suppression of the Spirit Dress, those shocking, bloody holes were exposed to the air once more.
Blood gushed out like a burst dam, completely dyeing the white of her shirt red.
“…Senior!!”
Sophie’s pupils dilated.
“You need healing!”
Yet, the other party did not respond.
An inexplicable sense of dread surged in her heart.
Sophie stepped forward cautiously, a slight tremor in her voice.
“Senior?”
She walked around to face the girl, and her words came to a sudden halt.
The cherry-blossom-haired girl’s eyes were still open.
Her face was as pale as paper, yet that satisfied smile still hung on the corner of her lips, though there was no longer any light in her eyes.
Life had completely drained from this body.
Yet, even though she had lost her life, she did not fall.
Instead, she stood tall and upright, like a flag.
“…What… No…”
In the next instant, Sophie’s shrill, sorrowful cry pierced through the entire forest: “No!!!”
If only she had transformed to rush over, would she have been in time to help her Senior…
and prevent her from dying in battle?!
Was it all her fault…?
Amidst the weeping, Ellyse, who was standing behind, slowly walked over and came to Sophie’s side.
Yet at this moment, as she looked at the corpse that refused to fall, there was not the slightest surprise or regret in her dark eyes, as if she had seen far too many similar occurrences.
Ellyse merely lowered her head, a faint look of sadness and weariness appearing in her eyes.