For all of Flare's fiery boasting, she sure went out with a sputter. Maybe all that strength was just her celebrity personality speaking. It might be for the best that she was dead, even if her secrets died with her.

Kari had to hand it to her though, the scarecrow looked to be in pretty bad shape. It had to be hurting from squaring off with one of the eldest magical girls. On the other hand, this monster shouldn't be taken lightly for the very same reason. One wrong move like in her first battle and she would meet the same fate as Flare.

"Watch out!" Rocky screamed.

She flew high to avoid being skewered and carved [Ruin] across the scarecrow's chest. Her attack didn't so much as pull a wispy tendril of its soul from the body. Of course not. This monster was a Malevolent Domain threat, not some head hound or human. She needed to dish out a lot more punishment, whether it was to incapacitate it or to end it for good.

Her options were limited. Going into [Apocalypse Power-Up!] mode without knowing for sure how close to death it was might become a death sentence for her instead. Best hold off on using that.

Right now, Rie was still in the hospital, and Tsubasa was nowhere to be seen. There was no telling if she was alerted to a Malevolent Domain due to the error message. Although, her not coming here might also be for the best.

The last thing Kari needed was someone like Jade watching her back.

"In that case…" Kari adjusted her grip so that [Destruction] was on the smashing end, then double-checked her stats. "It's time to see if I'm cut out for this magical girl business or not."

[Your offensive stats are as follows:

Physical Strength. 32

Magical Strength. 6

Haste. 39

Your defensive stats are as follows:

Health. 200/200

Magic Capacity. 60/80

Physical Resilience. 35

Magical Resilience. 35]

Refusing to be made a fool of this time, she made a mental note of her current magic capacity. Lower than she liked, but such was the cost of summoning her weapon.

With the texts still in her vision, the scarecrow launched toward her with its sharpened legs pointing up.

Kari recalled the way one was supposed to split logs. She positioned a hand on each end of her weapon and swung a wide arc over her head.

"Stand Firm!" she shouted.

Her resilience to physical and magical damage doubled just as the scarecrow plunged into her belly. She brought [Destruction] down on its legs, shattering the bones into splinters and sending the creature crashing to the ground.

The feeling was just as satisfying as breaking Daisuki's leg. Maybe if she survived this, she could go back and break the other one for good measure.

[200/200] ⇒ [163/200]

A sharp pain in her stomach and significant health loss even after using a defensive skill were a stark reminder of how strong the scarecrow was. She put a hand over the wound and pulled back to reveal blood.

"Healing sigils return your health back to full. As long as you're not knocked out of form, you should stand a chance," Rocky said, pumping his fists in the air.

Kari pumped her fist on top of his head instead.

"You know what death flags are? Because that's how you'll get me killed," she admonished him.

"Y-You could have told me gently… but look! His legs are completely broken. At least he can't stab you any—"

The words lodged in his throat as the scarecrow flew into a killing spree, hunting down any stragglers or unlucky people who foolishly stayed behind to watch. Its legs suddenly reformed, albeit incompletely.

Kari clobbered Rocky over his head again. "What the hell did I just say?"

Without giving the scarecrow any more chances to kill again or repair itself, Kari dove head first to do battle with it. She had the upper hand through most of the duel, striking it enough times and chipping away at its body until the heart on her weapon was resonating.

The scarecrow was in shambles. Nearly every single bone in its body was fractured, while she was still in a relatively safe health zone at [85/200]. At this rate, she might finish him without needing to use a healing sigil.

Only, there was a slight problem…

"You hanging in there?" she asked her partner.

The rabbit looked like he had been chased by a lion, out of breath and eyes more dead than alive. She knew that anthems shared their bonded magical girl's exhaustion, but this was just a serious case of being out of shape.

"It feels like… you're improving by leaps and bounds, but I'm falling… behind…" he said, panting between each word.

"Stay with me, because I'm going for the kill. Apocalypse Power-Up!"

[Base physical resilience: 35 ⇒ 0

Base magical resilience: 35 ⇒ 0

Base physical strength: 32 ⇒ 96]

The scarecrow grew desperate. It turned in every direction for an escape.

In the corner of Kari's vision, a young boy wailed loudly for his father whose neck was bent at a weird angle. Her eyes flicked toward him, and that brief distraction proved to be a fatal one. The scarecrow shot itself toward the boy with every intention of killing him.

"Stampede!" she screamed before it was too late.

The meat tenderizer-like head of the hammer hit the scarecrow. Golden light from the heart empowered the weapon, sinking an additional 100 unmitigated damage into it. Kari felt the impact the way one would from striking a nail, yet it didn't die. She saw the boy coughing up blood, a very sharp and bony protrusion sticking out of his chest.

A powerful gust sent her and Rocky flying through a brick wall.

[85/200] ⇒ [5/200]

She recovered her senses quickly enough to see white feathers falling all around them. The scarecrow's body was changing. The stumps on its shoulder blades grew into majestic wings befitting an angel. They were no longer ghostly in appearance, but physically manifested.

The scarecrow— No, it couldn't quite be called that anymore. The crucified angel had two sets of arms, one pair outstretched and another pair pressed together in prayer. However, its left shoulder was severely mangled from her previous attack, and so the outstretched left arm fell limp to the side.

"That fucking thing levelled up… Is that what's supposed to happen if they break out?" Kari asked desperately, pushing a pile of bricks off Rocky and pulling him out from the rubble.

"Y-Yes, but I've never seen it happen before! They're always taken care of in the Malevolent Domain. Maybe the Apocalypse System is b-broken…?" Rocky ending his statement in a question didn't inspire confidence.

They were in trouble now.

"Give me a sigil," she ordered, as the effects of [Enrage] began to take over since the last hit put her in range. "I'm not taking any chances."

As much as the boost in strength would help, she needed to be all there in the head. Otherwise, another hit would drop her for good.

A glowing blue crystal the size of a football appeared in her hand. She crushed it and felt her wounds closing.

[5/200] ⇒ [200/200]

"How much stronger is it? Can I still take that thing?" She rubbed her stomach where the injury was completely healed.

"You should! It doesn't seem like it's at full health, and that Stampede really chunked him," he answered.

No wonder these monsters sought out people to kill. All this time, the magical girls had been fighting with an edge thanks to the system's Malevolent Domain. Out here, these monsters had themselves a buffet. But that… made sense, didn't it?

What other reason did monsters have to so desperately seek out and kill people?

"Are you keeping the power-up on? Fighting that thing without your defenses is a bad idea!" her anthem warned.

"I know what I'm doing…" she muttered.

Her magic capacity was [13/80]. Removing the buff would put her in a disadvantage in terms of strength, and she wouldn't have enough for the skill again later.

A shift in the wind compelled Kari to fly into the air, narrowly avoiding the angel's cement-shattering impact where she was just standing. Rocky was safe and sound, clutching tightly on her ponytail.

They, however, made the foolish mistake thinking it was safe in the sky until the monster's massive wings beat with the strength of a hurricane. A feather nicked her cheek and drew blood, and it was then they realized the skies were a death trap. The battering winds she was prepared for, but not the volley of razor sharp feathers.

"At this rate… Wanton—"

"Gauntlet, Grand Cavalry!"

"Right away, boss!"

An anthem, a small panda in full armor, came between them and grew to the size of an actual adult panda. Every single projectile glanced off him without any getting past his defenses. When the volley of feathers ended, Gauntlet descended to throw down with the monster.

"Tch. Of course it broke the barrier while you were around," Jade chided from below, approaching the angel with the pointed end of her spear scraping the cement.

"A Malevolent Domain was never up from the start!" Kari fired back.

"What…?"

As if this couldn't get any worse. But to think Jade had it in her to selflessly help someone else. Although being picky about allies wasn't exactly an option. Kari would just have to keep an eye on her. At the same time, she might be able to get Jade killed in the same way.

"I'm here, too! Starfall Grenade Canon!" What sounded like a series of grenade launchers firing was followed by multiple beams of light bathing the angelic monster and Gauntlet diving away as the explosions rocked the plaza.

Jade turned her eyes to Candy who was just flying in with Yuyu leading the charge.

"What the hell are you doing?" she scolded her with uncharacteristic worry. "You should be in the hospital resting!"

"I overheard the nurses talking about what was happening. If I had to stay in the hospital for another minute, I might as well quit," Candy remarked, blowing the smoke from the barrel of her hand cannon.

"That thing's stronger than it looks. It already killed Flare!" Kari warned them.

"Yeah fucking right," Jade replied after a brief pause, as if she heard the most outrageous thing in the world. But it didn't take long for her to find the swiss cheese of a body, and the normally ever-present scowl on Jade's face faltered. Flare's outfit stuck out like a sore thumb after all.

Candy stared speechlessly and began to choke up, the grip on her hand cannon loosened.

"Box it in, Candy! We're not getting another chance like this again!" Jade screamed

"Wait, what? O-Okay… Prison of the Old Ones!" Candy fired not the usual star-shaped blasts, but an all-consuming portal that swallowed everything in its path.

The angel's eyes widened into what could only be described as fear before vanishing from existence.

"My magic capacity is running down fast! I can only hold it for 60 seconds!" she warned.

"I need you two to listen very carefully because I won't get this chance again," Jade began, looking Kari in the eyes. "That day in Akihabara— Flare explicitly told me not to save you. She didn't tell me why, only that two girls will be in danger, and I was not to save either of you."

"But Flare would never do that! She was the best of us," Candy contested in defense of her dead ally, appalled that Jade could make such an accusation.

Kari was in shock, too. It shattered her emotions in ways she couldn't put words to. She wasn't sure what to believe and lashed out at the closest enemy in her sights. "If you're trying to cover your sorry ass by taking advantage of Flare's death, you got another thing coming."

"Think about how she wants us to keep secrets from each other! I couldn't say anything until now. Kari, I don't know why or how Flare knew you had magical girl potential, or if she tricked Rocky into turning you. The only reason I'm able to tell you now is because she's dead and can't hear us, but she won't be for long!" she exclaimed.

Kari and Candy weren't sure if they heard what Jade said correctly. Nothing in the emerald magical girl's eyes indicated that she was lying, yet dread tinged every word she spoke.

"What do you mean… she won't be for long?" Kari hesitated to ask.

A fire ignited behind them. It was Flare's ruined body that came alight. But how could that have happened? No one was around to set it on aflame, and a body wouldn't just spontaneously combust.

"Shit. It's happening." Jade growled. "She can't know I told you any of this. Don't put it past her to kill us all."

The sack of flesh and blood that was Kanae Hashimoto, better known as magical girl Flare, burned into a pile of ashes. But from that mound came a hand. Like the dead rising from the grave, she wrenched herself from the depths of hell itself.

Her entire form was enveloped in flames. So hot and suffocating was the heat around her that a visual distortion wreathed the fiery body. Two eyes with a look made of pure malice turned to Kari.

"Candy, you're out of magic capacity!" Yuyu shouted.

"Watch out! The monster's coming back!" Candy picked up her anthem and flew away to put distance between them.

The angelic monster returned to the spot it had disappeared from, a reprieve Kari didn't know she was lucky to have as Flare's furious eyes looked past her. The ball of fire flew past them and wailed into the angelic monster with a baton until magma was all that was left of its body.

Flare cracked her neck to the left and right, shaking off cinders from her body. "I'm going to turn you into charcoal and chuck you into the Pacific."

Kari raised her weapon to prepare for a fight, but to her surprise, Jade stepped forward to face Flare instead.

"What happened to working together?" she asked.

"Come on, Tsubasa… You're acting mighty friendly with her all of a sudden?" Flare began with a smile. "THAT BITCH BEHIND YOU GOT ME KILLED AND YOU WANT ME TO LAUGH IT OFF?"

The outburst sent chills up everyone's spines. Kari genuinely believed they experienced true fear at that moment. The monsters she fought up until now didn't come close.

"So the rookie made another mistake. Doesn't change that we need all of us to stop the Apocalypse. I know you've noticed domains and stray spawns are appearing way too often in Tokyo to be a coincidence. We've found ground zero," Jade said.

It wasn't Jade's reasoning that snapped Flare from her rage, but a picture flash. She recomposed herself, wiping the foaming spit from her chin and seeing the lone man behind a bush who took the photo.

"Oh, we can't have that; I have an image to uphold. His death is going to be on your hands, not mine." Flare snapped her fingers, sending a cinder that grazed his arm.

"Flare, no!" Candy shrieked in horror as the man combusted and crumbled to ashes.

It horrified Kari as much as it relieved her to know she wasn't the only one who saw people like insects. But she had no need for that kind of kinship with someone keeping secrets from her. She stepped away from Jade's protection to confront Flare for the second time today.

She had nothing to say this time and simply pulled Tetsuo's phone out. Gazing upon it to remind her of his death no longer granted her satisfaction. Flare was hiding so much more than she let on.

The situation had changed with Jade's revelation, and Kari understood that she had to adapt or die. So she tossed the phone to Flare, likewise casting aside her curiosity in order to live another day. Flare melted the phone off her hand and into a pool of black sludge, and the tension in the air and her demeanor shifted instantly.

"That's all you had to do in the beginning!" Flare said, bursting into her superstar celebrity laughter. "Chin up, guys. Gotta smile for the cameras now."

People trickled in slowly, drawn in by the sound of Flare's laugh and the lack of fighting now that the monster was dead. The four of them were soon surrounded by adoring fans squealing their names, asking for autographs, and the flash of cameras going off.

And Flare bathed in the fame of it all, like she hadn't just killed someone for doing the same thing and threatened to kill a fellow magical girl just moments ago.

Sirens soon followed as police officers and ambulances filled into the plaza. Kari wanted to take this opportunity to sneak away, but fate had other plans.

"Magical girl Kari! Sorry to bother you after your grueling fight against another monster, but would you spare us a moment of your time?" a familiar gruff voice belonging to Captain Ogata asked.