With the second phase of my plan complete, I sat on a bench in Umejima Park. Leaning back against the cold wood beneath the midnight sky, I muttered softly as the moonlight spilled over me, bathing me in a pale glow.
If anyone had seen me just then, they'd probably have called it aura farming—red, crimson eyes shining in the dark, giving me an even more eerie presence.
"Anytime now…" I whispered, waiting for the third phase to begin.
And to be clear, it had nothing to do with Rin or Enma. Their part would come later, in the fourth and fifth stages of my design. For now, I was here for different reasons.
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long.
A loud scream split the silence.
Then it happened.
For a fraction of a second, the world inverted into negative colors—before fracturing like glass, pieces scattering—only to snap back into place as if nothing had changed.
The Exo Zone had been activated.
If I had to explain it in simple terms, it was an alternate sub-dimension—a mirror replica of the real world. It was the stage where monsters and Magical Girls fought their deadly battles, invisible to ordinary humans and leaving no effect on reality.
At least, that's what I remembered. There was more to it, I was sure, but the details had long slipped my mind. What I did recall was this: weaker monsters couldn't create Exo Zones, so they sometimes attacked directly in the real world. Whenever that happened, Magical Girls handled it by spinning a cover story—gas leaks, chemical plant fires, gas station explosions… you get the idea.
I drew in a long breath.
"Let's get ready," I muttered, standing as the time had finally come.
Then it began. My bones cracked and twisted, flesh reshaping as every part of my body screamed in agony.
You know—the usual painful process.
I wished there were a way to make it painless. Well… there actually was. But that method was far too risky, and I wasn't willing to pay the price. It would put me at too much of a disadvantage.
Instead, I relied on what I already had.
Activating the vision of my eyes, which stretched out to a six-hundred-meter range, I scanned the area, searching for my target—or targets—to confirm if they were in their exact positions.
And what it was, was always an extraordinary experience.
My eyes weren't just eyes; they were a layered sensory array, tuned across multiple spectrums—visible light, infrared, even terahertz. I could pick up heat signatures, skeletal frameworks, and even peer through solid objects with ease. I'd already tested this plenty of times in the outside world, so I knew it worked.
All of it was thanks to the biophotonic crystals embedded deep within my retinas.
I know, I know—I'm probably rambling nerd stuff again, but it is what it is. Most things in this world still have some kind of scientific basis and reasoning. After all, this series originally started out as science fiction before the author eventually gave up and leaned fully into fantasy. According to him, his brain "got fried" from having to justify every detail with science before adding it in.
"There they are," I muttered, spotting them at Umejima Station. Well—what was left of it. The place was completely wrecked, no longer even resembling a station. Just heaps of rubble and debris piled where the platforms used to be. The only figures standing amidst the ruins were three Magical Girls in their frilly, flashy costumes—one in red, one in blue, and one in white. Triplets, with perfectly identical faces.
And then, of course, there was the monster. Some sort of chimera. Well… maybe not exactly a chimera. It had a proper name, I just couldn't remember it.
They were all minor characters, with barely any role in the series. The triplets only ever appeared in a short flashback, when the main antagonist of the first season explained how he gathered the abilities of several Magical Girls. His minions hunted them down, killed them, and stole their souls—souls which he, of course, consumed.
The monster the triplets were fighting now was one of those cases. It had appeared in the anime edit online, and in the manga, but not in the novel version.
Not that it matters much now. I think I've figured out what's really going on: this world isn't following just one version of the story. It's a hybrid. Rin's sick sister from the light novel exists here, and now this monster from the anime and manga too.
"Here I go!" I said, bracing my legs before taking a huge leap into the sky, soaring toward the direction of the fight.
I was going to put a stop to it. I wouldn't allow the monster to take the souls of those Magical Girls to its master. And to be clear—I wasn't doing this because I cared.
I really didn't.
Whatever happens to those girls—whether they're used, abused, or raped—once I'm done with the monster, their fate isn't my concern.
Though, on the bright side, I could always exterminate them too, just to be safe.
The real reason I was doing this was simple: to prevent their leader from acquiring the ability to absorb powers from other monsters. The triplets had a peculiar ability—they could steal a monster's power once per day by consuming its body parts. Because of that, the leader sent his minions across the world to hunt down monsters with exotic abilities, not only in the human realm but also in the monster realm, a twisted sub-dimension.
Which meant it was only a matter of time before I ended up on their list too.
And I won't let that happen.
"Yaaaa!!!" I screamed as I slammed into Umejima Station. The impact shook the ground violently—cracks tore through the pavement as rubble and dust erupted into the air, carried outward by the shockwave, further demolishing the already ruined station.
"Another one?!"
"Where did this one come from?! We didn't sense it at all!"
"That… that shouldn't even be possible!"
The triplets cried out, clutching their frilly magic wands with trembling hands, shock plastered across their faces.
"Who are you? You don't seem like one of my associates," the chimera monster growled, its twisted form looming over the station.
I didn't bother answering. Wasting words was pointless. Before anything else could happen, I lunged forward and drove my scaled, armored fist straight into the monster—my strike moving at speeds close to Mach 100. And we all know what happens when something collides at that velocity: it's practically a localized nuclear strike.
The result was exactly as expected. A massive explosion ripped through the air, the shockwave and heat completely vaporizing the chimera—and anything unlucky enough to be within several meters of the blast.
The magical girls, though, I was fairly certain would survive. Killing them without mana-based attacks was nearly impossible; their bodies were naturally coated with a thin mana film, a defensive layer that acted as an energy dissipator.
My eyes turned toward them. They stood battered, bruised, and terrified. I raised both arms, mana surging into my palms, gathering into a blazing mass of power. I fired—
Only for the blast to be severed mid-flight, snuffed out before it could ever reach them.
"My, my, what do we have here?" a figure appeared in front of the triplets, standing like a wall between them and me.
My eyes widened in shock, a chill racing down my spine.
It was the freaking principal—dressed casually, yet wielding her weapon: a black blade she called Ezbuster.
What the hell was she doing here?!
"Miss Principal?!" the blue one gasped.
"Yes, it's me," the principal—no, by her true name, Miyaru Motshizushi—said as she glanced back at them. "In case you're wondering why I'm here, I was just strolling around and happened to catch sight of your little fight with that chimera thingy. I breached into the Exo Zone and, honestly, I would've left you three to your fate… but then this guy," she shifted her eyes toward me, "showed up, so I figured I'd jump in too."
"That still doesn't explain why you saved us," one of the triplets said.
"Because," Miyaru answered flatly, "I find it rather distasteful to watch you die to such a strong opponent when you might still have some use in the future. Though—if the chimera had killed you, I wouldn't have cared. It would've just meant you deserved it for being weak."
.Meanwhile, taking my chance while they were distracted talking, I quickly gathered mana in my hands. "Yaaaaaa!" I roared as I slammed my fist into the ground.
The impact unleashed a deafening explosion that tore through the area. Rubble, dust, and shockwaves erupted everywhere, forcing them to throw up their defenses.
I used that opening to slip out of the Exo Zone.
There was no way I was going to fight her—not at my current level. I couldn't beat her, and I sure as hell couldn't survive even one of her attacks.
Escape was the only option.
However, this puts me in a very troublesome situation. I was trying to avoid being hunted down, but ironically, showing myself out in the open has probably ensured exactly that.
I should've factored in the unknown variables.