At the end of this dark forest stood a curtain of light emitting a soft white glow.
It was simply too huge—so huge that even when Alex Morgan tilted her head up, she could not see its end, and the wall of light stretched endlessly to the left and right without a visible margin, tightly wrapping something inside it.
Logically speaking, Alex Morgan should have been able to see such a colossal object even from her “spawn point”, but in reality, there was nothing there.
Perhaps the black mist pervading the forest had a special blocking effect on the light of this curtain of light, so once someone got lost and couldn’t find their direction, they would most likely die of exhaustion in this monster-filled forest in the end.
“Is this the barrier?”
Looking at the magnificent sight, the indifference on the face of the Pink-haired girl finally showed a hint of fluctuation.
Sophie also seemed a bit daze-stricken, snapping back to her senses after a good while, nodding her small head vigorously with a trace of awe in her tone.
“Mhm! This is the barrier opened by Lord Sacred Tree, and it has always been protecting humanity’s last gathering place… Ah, I only just learned about it from Senior Ellyse, so I’m just passing on what I just learned!”
Ellyse smiled, interrupting their conversation: “Let’s go, walking straight through leads to reality.”
With that, she took the lead and stepped forward, her body melting into that layer of light curtain without any hindrance.
After passing through an invisible barrier resembling water ripples, the surrounding scenery suddenly opened up.
The gloomy black mist and twisted forest instantly vanished without a trace.
What came into view was an asphalt highway winding through towering mountains.
This place was clearly located at an extremely high altitude, surrounded by lush, rolling mountain forests.
Overhead was a sky as blue as a wash, and the warm evening sunlight poured down unhindered, gilding every single leaf with a golden edge.
“Ha——”
Sophie closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of the air carrying the fresh fragrance of grass and trees, and a cozy, relaxed expression like a cat basking in the sun appeared on her face: “We’re finally out!”
“The air here really is the best. The smell in there was simply suffocating.”
Alex Morgan also raised her head, slightly narrowing her cherry-red eyes.
Although she didn’t act as exaggeratedly as Sophie, her tightly tensed shoulders also slumped slightly, and the chill that had constantly lingered around her sides dissipated as well.
Only Ellyse was an exception.
She seemed to have had plenty of experience traversing The Boundary; standing in the sunlight, her expression remained calm, as if the process of crossing from Hell to heaven just now made no difference to her at all.
As if noticing the two people’s gazes, she calmly explained: “If you, Sophie, become a Boundary Investigator like us, you’ll be just as calm in the future.”
Ellyse walked straight toward the shade of the trees by the roadside, where a heavy motorcycle with a rather wild design was parked.
The metal body was pitch black without any unnecessary decorations, and the huge exhaust pipe and exposed mechanical structure exuded a violent aesthetic.
Ellyse walked up to the motorcycle, swung her long leg across, nimbly flipped over to mount it, inserted the long sword on her back along with its scabbard into a customized slot on the front of the vehicle, and casually tossed the helmet hanging on the handlebar to Sophie.
“There’s only one helmet, so make do with it.”
“Get on up.”
She patted the not-so-spacious back seat behind her, her tone calm: “There are still more than thirty kilometers of winding mountain roads from here to the town. Without transforming, running on your legs would take quite a long time.”
“Although it’s a bit cramped, if you want to get back quickly, you’ll just have to bear with it.”
“Eh? Are we going to ride this?”
Hugging the helmet, Sophie looked somewhat surprised at the back seat obviously designed for single riding, and then looked at the Pink-haired girl beside her—although they were all slender girls, this was three people squeezing onto one vehicle after all, and Momoka-senpai had even lost her memory, wouldn’t this be a bit offensive…
However, not only did Ellyse not care at all, Alex Morgan even gave her a slightly baffled look at her hesitation, seeming to not understand what she was agonizing over at all.
Sophie choked, letting out an awkward laugh:
“Ah… Fine. I’ll sit in the middle, and Momoka-senpai, you sit in the back.”
The three of them quickly adjusted their seating posture.
In order to squeeze three people in, they pressed tightly against each other, body heat transferring between the three of them, as if they could smell that unique scent belonging to a Magical Girl on one another.
Ellyse said in a deep voice:
“Hold on tight.”
“Boom——!!!”
The engine roared like a beast, and the motorcycle rushed out like an arrow off a bowstring.
The speed on the dashboard accelerated to over one hundred kilometers per hour in three seconds, and a strong sense of backward thrust instantly struck them.
“Wawawawawawa!!!”
Frightened and flustered, Sophie leaned backward with the momentum, her entire back crashing solidly into the flat and soft embrace of Alex Morgan behind her, while subconsciously hugging Ellyse’s slender and beautifully-lined waist.
Messed up in the wind, she shouted loudly: “S-Sorry!!”
Neither of them showed any intention of answering.
It was just that Ellyse’s silver-gray long hair blew from the front, brushing across her neck and mingling with her own wine-red long hair, while that silent embrace behind her carried a warmth-like fragrance resembling the sun.
Suddenly feeling…
very reassuring.
It seemed that ever since Sophie transformed into a Magical Girl for the first time today, she had gained a strange sense, able to perceive other people’s magic power and emotions. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Feeling the body heat coming from before and behind her, her mood, which had been somewhat tense due to the high-speed ride, instead settled down.
——The two Seniors didn’t seem to dislike her.
The wind whistled, and the trees on both sides retreated rapidly.
“Um! Momoka-senpai!!”
Sophie shouted loudly.
The wind was simply too loud, forcing her to not suppress her voice in the slightest.
Even if you don’t remember anything, it’s fine, I’ll tell you!
Amidst her words, the motorcycle drove out of the continuous, winding mountain road.
The view ahead suddenly opened up, and a magnificent red bridge spanning the canyon appeared before their eyes.
“This is the Kannabi Bridge! Following this bridge down, we’ll be able to go home right away!”
“Look! That’s Rosehaven Town!”
Following the direction of Sophie’s finger, Alex Morgan gently raised her head.
The next instant, that pair of cherry-red eyes reflected a breathtakingly beautiful scenery.
That was a town spreading out layer upon layer along the coastline and hillside.
Under the afterglow of the setting sun, large swaths of buildings flowed slowly along the mountain terrain toward the seaside, and in the distance was a vast, boundless deep blue ocean.
It was currently sunset, and the setting sun was slowly sinking into the sea level, dyeing half of the sea surface into a flowing color of shattered gold.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Sophie said loudly, her tone full of pride, “Once we enter the town, the scenery will be even better!”
“I live right there! I study at Yui Private Middle School, and I’m a second-year middle school student this year!”
She didn’t feel awkward due to the Senior’s silence, but instead continued earnestly: “Aside from desserts, what I love most is photography! Our town’s scenery is super awesome, and next time I can take you to a few secret shooting locations!”
“And, and——”
Her words grew increasingly excited and ecstatic, carrying a young girl’s unique innocence and carefree nature, as if she had finally recovered from the sudden upheaval and realized how drastically her life would change from now on.
“I’m also a Magical Girl!!”
She revealed a sincere, incomparably brilliant smile.
“Senior Ellyse, Momoka-senpai!! Please take care of me from now on!!”