"Hang in there, buddy! I'll put her to sleep!" Rocky shouted, flying straight into Chu Hua with a needle in hand. "Let her go, you—"

A white owl— an anthem— slammed into Rocky and sent him crashing into a room.

So much for counting on him.

Wherever the hell Chu Hua came from, now couldn't be a worse time. Jade was missing. Candy and Sachi were somewhere in this building. Kari could count on Earth exploding rather than Flare coming in to save her.

She was out of options. Even if her health wasn't going down from being choked, it would be game over the second she passed out and lost magical girl form. One thing stood out— the newest skill from leveling up Siegemaster.

[Destruction Incarnate: Spend your maximum magic and half your health to activate. Become impervious to all physical damage, and all physical damage dealt ignores physical resilience.]

Was now a good time to use it? Would it be enough to defeat Chu Hua? Kari knew nothing about her skills. She would bank it all on being immune to physical damage, but…

None of it mattered if she died here. There was no other choice than to—

Ding!

The elevator doors suddenly rolled open.

Chu Hua and her clones cocked their heads sideways. When Kari glanced over her shoulder, there was nothing and no one inside.

The ribbons altogether slackened and were shredded into confetti. As they slipped from Kari's throat, she immediately gasped to fill her lungs with air.

"At some point, you're going to start owing me!" Sachi's voice echoed from all sides.

Kari lifted her head in time to witness Sachi plunging a knife into Chu Hua's chest. It proved, however, to be a clone and simply vanished from sight. The other three leapt away from Kari, united into a single person by the elevator, and took a bow.

Like a puppet waiting for their next action, Chu Hua stood completely still.

"That who I think it is?" Sachi asked.

"Keep your eyes peeled. She gets any of those ribbons on you, it's over." Kari rubbed her bruised throat and noticed the shredded pieces of cloth Sachi had cut disappearing

Or maybe not.

Sachi's weapon was a little different from [Destruction and Ruin]. In addition to carving souls, it also cut physical things as seen from when she fought the tentacles and head hounds.

The whole building shuddered and groaned. Kari glanced out the gaping hole in the wall created by the monster earlier. They were rising. The streets and buildings below began to move.

They knew as soon as a rumbling lurch nearly knocked them off their feet— the hospital was moving.

Like a scissor closing in, two slicing ribbons ripped through the building in a lateral cut. Kari and Sachi dove to the ground to avoid decapitation. So clean was Chu Hua's attack, a large section of the building slid off and crashed to the ground below.

"Holy shit, that cuts better than mine. She wanna join us instead?" Sachi gasped as Yuyu peeked out from her chest.

"Don't think she cares about making friends!" Kari growled, then saw another ribbon running through the ground for them. She rolled off the side of the building with the intention to fly, but the sensation of free fall was a harsh reminder that flight was disabled. Before falling too far, she buried the axe into the concrete wall to stop her descent, and used the momentum to crash through the window back into the first floor.

Ribbons carved a hole in the ceiling, and several Chu Huas fell through. One of them had Sachi by the throat, threatening to choke her to death, and another held her knife.

"Sorry… " Sachi meeked out.

"It's me you want, right?" Kari let her weapon drop and stepped forward with her hands in the air.

Chu Hua brushed the hair from her eyes. She made a series of hand gestures that Kari didn't understand but recognized as sign language. When it became clear they weren't getting through to each other, the Chinese magical girl lifted Sachi's hand and pointed to the ring, then to Kari.

"That's right. I killed Yuria, took her ring, and put it on Sachi. You're about to kill someone innocent in this." She continued to inch forward, hoping to get close enough to Chu Hua to nail her hard without getting caught herself.

However, the woman did something that baffled Kari. She put Sachi down— who was just as confused— and returned the knife, then ushered her away. Chu Hua pointed to an exit sign on the ceiling, urging them to leave.

Sachi returned to Kari's side and whispered. "Why did that work?

"Beats me… Maybe revenge isn't all that important to them, and all they really want is for the Apocalypse to start," Kari reasoned, though herself not entirely sure.

"Candy's still somewhere in the building. What do we do?" she asked.

Iggy came flying through the hole, holding an unconscious Rocky by the ears. He deposited the anthem into Kari's arms and returned to Sachi. Chu Hua's anthem fluttered down as well and perched itself on one of the clone's shoulders.

"Please forgive Chu Hua's lack of speech. She wishes for you to leave posthaste," the owl anthem said in the most polite manner.

The magical girl standing in their way to the upper floors was the same one who mercifully allowed them to leave. Kari took her chances, picked up her weapon, and went to stand face to face with Chu Hua. Only because they were so close did she see a circular scar underneath the mute's right eye.

"You just don't want us interfering with the Apocalypse, yeah? That's dandy, but I'm not leaving without Candy. So either you step aside or we tango again."

Perhaps unsurprisingly given Chu Hua's recent actions, she did step aside.

"Chu Hua permits, but do not tarry," the anthem once again spoke in her place.

Allowed to go with her approval, Sachi and Kari got to the elevators only to have a ribbon tap them on the shoulders. They tensed up and spun around, thinking Chu Hua had changed her mind.

The Chinese girl put four fingers in the air with one hand and pointed up with the other.

Kari already knew what it had meant without the owl telling her. "Fourth floor, right? Not sure how you know where we all are, but thanks."

All of them breathed a sigh of relief once the elevator doors closed.

"Guess she was mute?" Sachi asked, massaging her neck. "Girls like that have it rough in school. She probably got bullied a lot. I can tell by that cigarette burn under her eye."

"So that's what it was? Bet you would know," Kari teased.

"Yeah… Look, I'm not proud of it anymore, okay? Feels weird being let go like that." She shamefully cast her gaze to the ground.

It became awkwardly silent between them.

"We're not seriously leaving this monster alive, are we?" Sachi asked while playing with Iggy.

"We'll figure that out once we find Candy," Kari said.

When they reached the fourth floor, the sound of struggling and grunting echoed through the corridor. The group raced down, throwing open each door until they found Candy on the floor being strangled by an older woman with a fleshy cord on her back. Yuyu was pulling vainly to get the assailant off her.

"I'm… trying… to help…" Candy pleaded.

The woman apologized repeatedly although her actions betrayed her words. "Sorry! I'm sorry! I can't stop!"

Kari marched inside, grabbed the woman by her throat, and crushed the windpipe. A look of fear captured her final moments before she fell limp to the ground.

"No! Why would you do that!" Candy hopelessly tried to render aid to the woman despite having nearly been killed by her.

"We can't save anyone here. That growth you see on their backs? It connects them to this entire monster and makes them a part of its body," Kari explained.

"It's true! That's why they're so strong. The monster is lending them strength from the cord," Sachi chimed in.

Candy, her body shuddering and cheeks stained with tears, held the dead woman until her body dried into a husk and disintegrated into ashes.

"Why is this happening?" she asked quietly, eyes fixed on the dust slipping past her fingers. "We're supposed to be saving people… Are you telling me everyone in this building will die?"

"They… All of them are already dead. The only thing keeping them alive is this monster which we have to kill to stop the Apocalypse." Kari frowned.

The three magical girls stood there in silence. Only the occasional rumble and flickering lights signaled the monster was still moving.

Before Kari was a broken girl. Rie had always been the best of them. An idealistic and hopeful seventeen year old who wanted to protect people. It was hard to blame her for that naivety.

"Get Candy out of the building. I'll finish this thing so you guys won't have their blood on your hands. Chu Hua should let you go without trouble." Kari faced away from Candy and the body for being ashamed that she didn't feel the same grief.

Sachi's gentle hand fell upon her shoulder. "She'll know what's up when you aren't with us. You don't have to do this alone. Won't hurt to rely on me, too."

Someone else had said something similar before. It might have been Minato. What sort of advice would he give her at this moment? She hoped that wherever Minato was, it was somewhere safe.

"I got a trump card that makes me the only one that can deal with her. Rocky and I will catch up with you guys at the next monster." Kari declined the help, and although Sachi was reluctant to leave, she did so nonetheless and guided the despondent Candy out the door.

"Don't you go dying on us yet. Catch you outside," Sachi said, before cutting a hole in the wall to escape.

"Well… Looks like it's just you and me again. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but this whole solo magical girl thing suits us just fine." Rocky found the audacity to poke fun at her in a time like this.

"You and Inyanga pal up close?" Kari asked.

"Inyanga never chucked me around like a baseball, that's for sure!" the anthem wailed, then frowned as he fell into a nostalgia trip. "I miss her. I'm glad I didn't die, so I can still look back on those memories. But I'm your assistant now! You're stronger than she ever hoped to become!"

"Not assistant. We're partners."She stuck out a fist.

Rocky obliged her with a fist bump and smiled.

"Hang on, because this is about to get real bumpy." Kari clenched both fists and took a deep breath. "Destruction Incarnate!"

Magic capacity drained to zero, and health was reduced to half its current amount.

In the briefest of moments, Kari saw her reflection in a nearby mirror flicker into an amorphous and monstrous form. But when she glanced down at her own hands and body, nothing had changed. A black, oily haze seeped out from the threads of her robe, swirling like a vicious cyclone.

"Y-You're bleeding! Are you okay?" Rocky asked as dizziness struck her at once.

Kari staggered back and threw a hand on a nearby bed to steady herself. She heaved and vomited viscous blood onto the sheets. An otherworldly pain wracked her entire body, so excruciating that she dropped onto both knees. The same blood, however, spilled off the bed and encompassed her shadow.

Strange crystalline shards grew out of the pores of her skin on both hands and arms. They were familiar to her. Reminiscent of the one she had seen when passed out right after obtaining [Enrage].

As Kari climbed back to her feet once the pain subsided, a new outfit had draped over her. The black and maroon robe had taken on a more savage appearance. Like clawed, obsidian spikes were stitched onto the skirt, and ghostly fog billowed out from underneath the dress.

"I'm… fine. Alright. It's time to try this out by going wild." Kari squeezed [Destruction and Ruin] and began to pound through every wall in her way. She tore through the concrete pillars like a fist going through Jenga blocks, swinging madly at whatever came in her way.

"Oooooh, myyyyyy gooooood— This is insane!" Rocky cried, hanging onto her ponytail so as to not fall away.

It was insane. She was a human wrecking ball, an unstoppable force with no immovable object to contend against her. Everything became a blur. Every wall was something to be knocked down, and any walking entity to be hammered flat.

A group of unconscious JSDF soldiers in a smoking area awakened and tried to stop her, but were quickly splattered along with the toppled room.

"This is the strongest damn skill ever… Even Flare's molten shield shouldn't be able to stop me." Kari stopped to marvel at her own strength. "But damn. I've been smashing and pummeling, but this thing is still alive? I know this building is huge, but how much more do I have to demolish it before everything comes crashing down?"

"Look at their cords!" Rocky pointed to the disintegrating remains of the soldiers. The only thing that didn't turn to ash was the fleshy growth that retracted into the walls.

"No kidding? We just needed to follow the stuff this whole time?" She smashed through the wall to find the same cords slipping down to the lower floors between cracks, then raised her weapon high above her head.

"Wait… You're not seriously thinking about going straight down, are you?" the anthem reluctantly asked.

Kari brought down [Destruction] and shattered the ground beneath her feet. As the floor caved in, debris rained all around them and crashed through each level until they hit the dimly lit halls of a massive laundry room. She reached into the rubble to pick up Rocky, who was seeing stars from being clobbered underneath the mess.

"We could have… taken the elevator…" he groaned.

"Would have taken too long," she said, patting the dust off his fur. "Besides, look around us."

Unlike the sparse growths in the upper floors, all along the walls and ceiling were painted over with red, pulsating flesh. It was like they had walked into the depths of hell. The foul stench of rot permeated the air and stifling humidity was probably a sign that the boiler room was malfunctioning.

People… or rather, corpses emerged from broken doorways and lumbered toward them. The thin tethers of flesh to the monster were all that allowed them to cling onto some semblance of life.

Rocky hid behind her upon seeing them. "Th-Th-Those are what your world calls zombies, right? D-Don't let them bite you!"

Telling Candy and Sachi to leave was the right call. They wouldn't have been able to stomach sights like this.

Kari was perplexed by these strange feelings. Perhaps it was more apt to describe them as absent? The creatures before her were grotesque, but neither unnerved nor alarmed her. As she was about to dispatch them from this world, her eyes took notice that all of their cords converged and led to a set of double doors behind them.

"I'm barreling through them, Rocky. Hang on tight and don't let a single one get a bite off you," she warned.

Horrified, Rocky dove into her back and cowered from there.

She bulldozed past the walking corpses and into the boiler room. A gigantic, heart-shaped organ suspended by pillars of tissue on the catwalk beat with life. Thick fleshy cords that were more like arteries connected the ventricles to each of the boiler tanks.

[Destruction and Ruin] felt a little heavier than it should. She gripped it tightly as hesitation gripped her mind. Everything was going to be fine. A power like this should make Chu Hua, Hurricane, and even Flare a walk in the park.

After defeating this monster, the others shouldn't suspect her of letting the Apocalypse happen. She would even get a nice pay day of points out of this to herself. All there was left to do was slow Candy and Sachi down.

Kari prepared herself for a leap. "Time to smash you down to size—"

The ceiling gave way, and Chu Hua came crashing down with half a dozen clones. Razor-sharp ribbons assaulted Kari to no success, leaving nothing but a tap on the skin. [Destruction Incarnate] worked. Physical attacks did nothing to her.

Ignoring the magical girl, Kari jumped atop the heart of the monster. Something let loose a bellowing cry that caused the walls to crack and split. Multiple Chu Huas wrapped their ribbons around Kari's neck, desperately trying to pull her away. Their combined strength, however, was not enough to impede her.

"Die!" Kari pummeled into the organ with fury, ripping away chunks of flesh with each strike. Black blood spewed from the atrium and soaked her from head to toe. She continued to carve away until the beating stopped.

[+850,000 Apocalypse Points.]

[Use of magic sigils restored.]

The building shuddered and came to a screeching halt. It teetered to one side, throwing Kari and Chu Hua into the meaty walls. Every floor above them was collapsing.

They had to get out of here or be buried alive. It wouldn't be a problem for Kari, but…

Chu Hua was trapped under a large concrete wall. As her ribbons and clones struggled to pull it off, more debris fell and crushed them, eliminating her hope of escaping. For her not to be using any skills meant she was out of juice. Finishing her off here would make things easier later on.

Then why didn't she?

Kari clutched the side of her head as the images of Makina and Candy flashed in her mind. As she raised [Ruin] to deal the final blow, the trapped magical girl watched with cold, lifeless eyes, truly like that of a puppet. The look reminded Kari of Yuria's last moments alive.

"Fuck… What's wrong with you? Say something! You were trying to kill me earlier, weren't you? Aren't you ticked off that I beat you? Curse at me. Anything! If I kill you, that's it!" she screamed

Chu Hua ceased struggling. Her demeanor softened and expressed something akin to… pity.

Another floor collapsed above them, this time the crash was much louder and closer.

Kari wasn't sure what came over her. She tossed aside her weapon and lifted the concrete slab to free Chu Hua. A piece of rebar had punctured her thigh, but ribbons from her sleeve pulled her free the rest of the way and formed a tourniquet above the wound.

Perplexed, Chu Hua tilted her head to the side, then offered a slight nod.

"That's for telling me where Candy was. You're on your own getting out of here," Kari said.

The Chinese magical girl lifted [Destruction and Ruin] with her ribbons and returned it to Kari.

"It goes without saying, but the next time we see each other—" Kari received another nod from Chu Hua, and the corner of her lips might have even curved up. She didn't care nor afforded the time to make a double take, and picked a direction to demolish through for an escape.

In one last burst of speed, Kari broke out of the hospital as it collapsed and landed in the middle of the streets. A brief, fireless explosion from the building sent debris and dust into the sky.

The monster's path had left deep trenches in the asphalt and leveled many homes in its way.

"That was… too close for comfort…" Rocky finally popped out, breathing a sigh of relief. "I know it sounds weird because we're enemies, but I'm glad you spared Chu Hua."

"I'm sure I'll regret it later… We should probably meet up with Sachi and Candy, but… just where the hell did they go?" Kari asked, taking stock of their location and realizing that they were much closer to the edge of the Malevolent Domain.

How far did it travel? Was the monster trying to leave?

"I can lead us to the next closest big monster! They might already be there, so we should hurry," he urged.

They raced through the city in haste. Kari spent her reprieve to crush a healing and magic sigil to restore herself. As she thought to ask Rocky to level her up with the newly earned points, an interface popped up.

[Apocalypse Communications restored.]

The two of them skidded to a stop and stared at each other in shock. Someone else had defeated one of the large monsters.

A message came through.

[Jade: Thank fuck. You guys, be careful and stick together. The Messiah crashed the party, and there's more than just Chu Hua and Hurricane. I just had one try to stop me from killing a monster, but she's on our side now.]

[Sachi: Candy and I are near Setagaya, but—]

Her sentence seemed to have been interrupted.

[Jade: But what? What the hell happened over there? Kari, if you're listening, you gotta get to them. I'm all the way over in fucking Toshima.]

[Kari: I'm near. Heading there as fast as I can.]

Toshima?

This Malevolent Domain really was covering most of Tokyo.

The important thing was to get Candy and Sachi. They didn't have to die needlessly. If they got to the monster there, the Messiah might show up and—

"Killshot: Electrocution."

Thud.

Kari almost didn't feel the impact. The only reason she knew something had hit her was an arm-sized bullet puncturing out of her chest. But that was odd. She should be impervious to physical damage. Even her health hadn't gone down.

As she turned around to find who had fired the shot, an agonizing shock electrocuted her from within.

[Health: 200/200 ⇒ 81/200]

Kari seized and screamed at the top of her lungs. She threw herself into a bookstore to take cover, then dug her fingers into the glowing bullet to rip it out of her chest. Electricity surged and sparked until it came out, then tossed it away.

"Who… Hurricane? Did you see anyone outside?" she asked, back pressed to the counter and crushing a second healing sigil.

[Health: 81/200 ⇒ 200/200]

"I can't see anyone outside!" Rocky panicked.

[Disabled skill has been restored.]

That couldn't have been Jade. She had already killed a monster in Toshima, didn't she? Was Flare somewhere in the Malevolent Domain, too? That meant only one more monster remained, which Sachi and Candy were heading towards. Unless…

It didn't matter given the situation Kari was in. She had to figure a way out first.

[Come Here!] was back on the menu, but it meant nothing if she couldn't see her target.

That bullet was pure magic, casing and all. Getting hit by another one was game over.

Two more fired into the bookstore and landed several feet away from them.

"Did… Did they miss?" Rocky asked.

The bronze casings turned red and emitted a scalding heat. Kari grabbed Rocky and dove out of the building as the bullets exploded. They were sent tumbling through the streets.

Kari got up and focused in the direction where the shots had been shot from somewhere on the roof of nearby buildings.

"Killshot: Smokescreen."

A small glint of the bullet was all Kari needed to see. She sidestepped the projectile which off-gassed behind her and squinted in the direction it was fired.

"Come Here!"

Kari caught a causian woman with brunette hair in a bun and dressed in military camo, carrying a large rifle. A magical girl, but not Hurricane. She was about to crush the woman's throat until a bright light bathed them and forced her hand open.

Freed from Kari's grasp, the woman vaulted backwards and fired four bullets into her chest.

"Killshot: Electrocution!"

"Kari!" Rocky gasped.

"Stand Firm!"

[Magical Resilience: 35 ⇒ 70]

It wasn't enough.

The powerful electric currents fried Kari to a crisp, and she could do nothing but scream.

[Health: 200/200 ⇒ 0/200]

With her entire health pool reaching zero, the magical girl form dropped, and so did she onto the charred streets.

Rocky shook her with tears in his eyes.

"Get… to Sachi… Candy… Now…" she uttered between breaths.

A bullet narrowly missed Rocky. He took his chance to escape as more were fired into the air after him.

Behind her, a walkie talkie crackled.

"This is Sniper, reporting in: Chu Hua couldn't be counted on after all. Sister and I have magical girl Kari neutralized, but her anthem escaped. Requesting new orders," the woman said into the radio.

Kari was in too much pain to move or say anything. Her muscles contracted painfully.

Someone else had landed nearby and stroked her head with a gentle hand.

"You poor, lost sheep. This is the result of straying too far from God," a sweet voice reprimanded her.

Whoever they were knelt down enough for Kari to make out that it was a nun who had spoken. She was dressed in a black habit, holding a tattered book in one hand and a cross in the other.

A nun? In a place like this?

The gun-wielding magical girl returned and sighed. "Hurricane doesn't want to take chances. Sorry, kiddo. I'll make it quick and painless."

A heavy boot pushed Kari onto her back, allowing her to see the faces of her assassins. She stared down the barrel of a pistol.

Beyond them, the Malevolent Domain shattered. They were showered with falling purple shards, revealing the blue sky and white clouds.

"Looks like one of the cherubs got through the domain. We're right on schedule," the nun said.

Domain? Schedule?

[WARNING. WARNING.

Apocalypse is imminent. The remaining cherub has entered metamorphosis. Multiple incursions are spawning all across Japan and accompanied by seraphic-level monsters.

Please eliminate them in a timely manner before they reach the status of a god.

Otherwise, your world is doomed.]

"Ahh~ Isn't it beautiful? This is the grace of God! He sends his angels to lift us to heaven!" the nun cried zealously into the sky.

"You're luckier than most; the Apocalypse won't be a pretty sight. Just take it easy and shut your eyes." The magical girl named Sniper aimed the gun at Kari's head, made a silent prayer, and pulled the trigger.