CH 88

Chapter 3 — Dry scrape, burn and perforate! • Episode 3–3 — Little Sister ①

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

A large centipede-type Diest, over 20 meters in length, crawls up the building with its wispy, physiologically uncomfortable leg movements. It’s better than the black devil, but it is only better, and it is still unpleasant.

The size of the monster is only so-so, but it’s still a little bit weird, but in terms of strength, I would say that it is at best a middle level of Vikant-class. With Blade-san and Press-san now at a level where they can manage on their own, and with me in the back of the pack, there is no danger of losing if it takes two of them.

「Press The Hand — Double!」

The pressure, whose power is bottomed out by the effect of the special weapon, forms two hands and holds the giant centipede Diest in the building. It looks like Blade-san has made it, too, although the building is getting cracks in it and it doesn’t look like it will last long, partly because the Diest is going wild with the swooping.

「Giant Killing!」

A slash that greatly exceeded its substance was generated from the golden great sword that was swung out in time with the twist of the hips, smashing the seized Diest in half, cutting the entire building in half.

Part of the severed Diest dissolved into the atmosphere as a black haze, but apparently this was not the end.

The Diest, which had been flailing around while falling through the air, to my surprise separated into sections and began to move individually. It was shaped like a centipede, but it looked like several Diests had merged to construct one body. Newer models have these incomprehensible gimmicks that are troublesome…

The number of separated Diests is about 20. Once they seemed to scatter in all directions, they deployed to encircle us and closed the distance at once. If they were to run away, it would mean that they had found a gateway to reality, which was my cue, but this still seems to work.

「Sword Dance! Sword Upper!」

「Sudden Boom, Press The Knife!」

Blade-san and Press-san seem to understand that it will be troublesome if it escapes, so they lifted the time-limited magic and tried to fight a short battle.

The insects that flooded into the area were a rush of creepy-crawlies, and Blade-san cut them down with his dancing swordsmanship without a hitch.

Press-san set invisible traps in the path of the dozens of them and killed them one after the other.

「Empty Adult.」

Three or so of the scattered Diests were coming my way, but a tornado mixer would have interfered with the concentration of Blade-san, it’s difficult to take care of three of them at the same time with Wind Blade, so we deal with them with the magic that has recently become newly available.

It would be fine to just fly through the air and fire a series of Wind Blades from a safe distance, but if I don’t get used to using new magic, I won’t be able to use it well in an emergency, and it’s a good opportunity to do so.

A 5-meter giant made of high-density air mass swings its fist at the Diest and crushes the pest like a pest. I sat on the shoulder of such a giant and made sure that Blade-san and Press-san were finished as well, keeping in view the other two being trampled and crushed in the same manner.

「Thank you for your hard work.」

「Yes, good work. I’m sorry, Sylph-san. I think a few of them went your way.」

「No, it’s a Magical Girl’s job to defeat Diest. Please don’t worry about it.」

「Hey, hey, Syl-chan, how did you like my new technique? I’m trying to figure out what to do with it for proximity! Was it cool?」

「That’s fine, I guess?」

「Ehh, there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? You’re so cool, Press-san! Please hold me! Like that?」

「Go back to sleep and talk in your sleep. This moron is always so depressing and annoying.」

「The one who called me an idiot is the idiot!」

「Don’t talk to me like you’re a child! And I’m not an idiot!」

「I’m not an idiot either!」

「P–Please don’t fight so much.」

It’s not that these two don’t get along, but without Elephant-san, there is no one to arbitrate their fights, so they are forever like this when left alone… I’m not really interested in how these two communicate, but since Elephant-san has asked me to take care of these two both, I can’t just ignore them…

Uugh, Elephant-san, please come back soon… I can’t wait to see you and it’s too much for me to deal with these two all the time…

「Hmph, I’ll let you off the hook because Sylph-san said so.」

「That’s my line, though, isn’t it? I mean, let’s go to a café now, Syl-chan. I found a place that has delicious cakes～」

「Hah? Sylph-san is going shopping with me now. Hey, Sylph-san, I found some clothes. I’d love you tot try it on.」

「N–No, uhh, umm…」

Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I feel that these personal invitations have increased since Elephant-san left the team temporarily. To be honest, I refuse to go out with either of them, but it would be wrong to refuse every time, and it would be offensive to choose one or the other, so the three of us go out together once in a while, but the two of them don’t know who I really am, so I have to be careful not to get too close to them, which is quite tiring. I think if Elephant-san were here, she would intervene and help us, but she seems to be busy with various things and it doesn’t seem to be convenient for her to invite Blade-san and the others to join us.

I have turned them down so many times in a row recently that I can’t help but think it’s about time I went to one of them, if ever. But to tell you the truth, I have a good reason now. So let me decline again this time with an open mind.

「I–I’ve been a little busy with preparations for the competition…」

「Ahh, I know, the Witch Cup. Well, if that’s the way it is, I don’t blame you.」

「That’s amazing～ It’s so spectacular to see witches fighting each other alone～!」

The qualifying round of the example competition was held on a recent Sunday, and with the release of the information, I can now use the excuse that we are busy preparing for the competition. If I mention this, I will not be forced to accept an invitation unless the person is so insane.

On the other hand, now that I no longer have to hide information, Extend-san, who turned out to be a participant as I was, has asked me to go along with her training, well, even I was planning to train until the last minute, so I would say that our interests are mutual.

Compared to other witches, Extend-san is somewhat easier to talk to, plus she knows my moves pretty well, the teams for the main competition should be the same if possible, but the team pairings were to be announced this weekend, so I don’t know the details yet. Well, I have a much higher winning percentage these days, so if we were on different teams, that wouldn’t be a problem.

By the way, there is nothing to say about the qualifying round, it was such an overwhelming victory. Since there were many influential Phase 2 Magical Girls competing, I dared to transform into my initial form of Sylphid and even changed my hair to avoid being marked, but at that rate, I might have had time to spare even if everyone had been aiming at me intensively.

「I’ll invite Elephant to join us on the day and we’ll all be there to cheer you on.」

「I’ll be cheering for you very loudly!」

「T–Thank you very much.」

I push back Press-san who approaches me with a gleam in her eyes.

The competitions are held at special venues built exclusively for these events, and only the Magical Girls participating in the event are allowed to enter the venue.

However, there is a stadium dedicated to watching the games, where the competition scenery is projected on a large screen in the air and can be enjoyed with great power and loud sound, so Magical Girls who want to enjoy the realistic and live atmosphere buy tickets and watch the games there. Perhaps when Blade-san says she is going to support the team, she also means she is going to this stadium.

Incidentally, the matches will be broadcast on the Internet for a fee, so they can watch us even if they don’t go to the stadium. Well, if they want to go, I hope they’re not going to say anything wild.

「Well, that’s it for today——」

In fact, I’m not lying about the fact that I’m training and studying for the rivalry, so I was going to review the other Witches’ videos after this one today to see if there are any areas that need to be modified in the measures I was currently putting in place, it was confirmed that one more schedule would be added when Magiphone interrupted me and began to make unpleasant blasting noises.

「Ugh, a Diest?」

「But ours isn’t ringing, is it?」

「Please remain calm. This is my mission, a high-level Diest outbreak notification for Witches only.」

A little better than the usual Diest occurrence notification, but still an extremely unpleasant notification sound.

This is the fifth time I’ve been to the training, and I’ve grown accustomed to hearing it and know the difference.

The fact that this rings means that I have to fight with the Devil with our backs against them, which is very discouraging, but it is also somewhat motivating to think that this is the last time I will have to fight them.

「I’m in a hurry, so I’ll take this.」

「Just be careful, okay?」

「I’m sure we don’t have to worry about it, Syl-chan.」

I return their words with a light nod and begin my transition to the magical world.

.

I transferred directly to the Magic Bureau, and without waiting for the arrival of the Devil, I used the long-range transfer device in the example and transferred to the Deception World where the Marquis-class Diest is running rampant.

「It was so huge…」

A black serpent so huge that it could be convincingly described as a dragon that has fallen to the earth. That seems to be the target of the current subjugation. It’s the largest Marquis-class that I have ever defeated, including the battle in Sakira Town. I can understand how big it is when I tell you that it is so tall that it can reach the sky. It is a size or two smaller than the Giant Tortoise that was a Duke-class, but it can be said that the difference is only about that much at best. It would be better to think of it as a top-tier opponent for the Marquis-class.

「Sylph-san, let’s both of us hit the Diest this time just in case. If it’s a new strain, it may not be comparable to a Duke-class.」

The Devil, who had metastasized a little later, unusually lined up next to me with her cane at the ready.

Normally, she just watches from the ground behind me, but as expected, she seemed to have decided that I alone was too much for it to handle this time. I mean, how is this Devil standing next to me flying in the sky? No, I understand that she’s standing on it with a string attached, but I don’t think there’s any place to hook a string…

「If you want to get your hands on it, go ahead.」

I don’t like the Devil, but I am indeed not going to say that I am enough in this situation. The Devil is right, I never know what I’ll do if it was a new model, so in some cases it’s enough to call for one or two more reinforcements.

But, well, at this point, we are only talking about possibilities, so let’s first take a look at this blow and see what happens.

「Sextal Tornado Mixer.」

A six-lobed tornado, larger than I am in height, emerges from the cane and swirls around the giant serpentine beast like a leaping dragon.

If it had been me, I would have just hit it, but my magic is evolving day by day. I’m taking this technique, which was adapted and derived to hit multiple enemies with the Tornado Mixer, a high firepower magic, and elevating it to a technique for greater firepower.

The six dragons, which had been rampaging around selfishly, are bound together at their roots and devour each other, their momentum increasing with each passing second until eventually it culminates in a single, super-sized wind dragon.

「Union」

The wind dragon, which had grown to about the same size as the Giant Snake-shaped Diest, tried to attack the Diest head-on and came up empty. The snake-shaped disto avoided them by moving its neck with an agility that I couldn’t imagine from its huge body.

But this is not the end of my magic. The wind dragon passed through the Diest, then turned sharply like a fighter jet and slammed into each other to swallow them straight up, advancing deeper and deeper as if they were large excavators chipping away at the hard bedrock, chipping away at the black haze like flying dust particles.

Within seconds, the giant serpent-type Diest lost its regenerative power and vanished without even time to scream out a cry of despair.

「…, That was a letdown.」

It was over much more quickly than I had expected, so I continued to be vigilant after the Diest disappeared, thinking that there might still be something there, but nothing in particular seemed to be happening.

「The Magic Bureau also confirmed the disappearance of the Diest reaction. The training has now been successfully completed.」

「Is that so.」

It’s refreshing to finally be free from the Devil.

「Still, it’s a tremendous magic. Now Sylph-san would be a Duke-class level.」

「I don’t intend to be that egotistical. And I’m not going to take that risk.」

This was the first time I had used it in a real fight, so I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but a blow to a Diest of this size would have made the training worthwhile. However, it seems to be too big a gap to use it against opponents, so it will be a treasure in competitive battles. In fact, Extend-san avoided this no matter how many times I used this against her.

「Well, I’ll leave you then.」

「Oh, just a moment, please.」

「…What is it?」

「Regarding the competition, I heard that Sylph-san is also participating. If we are on the same team, let’s join forces and do our best.」

「…Okay.」

She is a person I don’t like, but she is the witch with the highest pecking order among the participants. I really dislike her from the bottom of my heart, but if she were on my side, I would certainly be able to count on her. But that doesn’t mean I would ever want to work with her.

「However, if it is a different team, I will not be able to take it easy on you.」

「I–I’m not going to take it easy on you! I don’t want to be on the same team as you! I’m going to beat you to a pulp, so be prepared!!」

I don’t really care about strength, but when this Devil who has played with people so many times told me that she would take it easy on me but not to cry, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, I let it all out, including the resentment that had been building up as I left the transition.

Since I can legally take revenge on this Devil, I would rather have a different team. I’m going to turn her into rags.