"Candy… As in Star Child? What happened to her? Why does she look like that?" Chae-Yeong asked.

The Korean girl's guess was as good as Kari's. An abnormality. That was what the Apocalypse System called her.

"Is that really you?" Kari was almost too fearful to ask Candy, but the answer she received was a blast from the hand cannon. It blew her into an office building. Scorching, magical heat burned into her skin.

[Health: 320/320 ⇒ 290/320]

A normal attack, not even a skill, did 30 points of damage? She knew Candy was packing magic damage, but that hit just now drilled in the realization that she knew next to nothing regarding the full extent of her strength and skills.

Unlike Sniper's large physical slugs, Candy's attacks came out as pure energy. They hurt right out of the chamber.

"Kari! Are you okay in there, partner?" Rocky pushed vainly on an overturned desk on top of her.

"I'm fine, but what the hell happened to Candy? Is there anything we can do?" Kari asked, shoving the desk off her.

"I don't know…" He frowned. "I wish I had an answer this time, I really do. But It didn't sound like she was being fully controlled though. Maybe we can break her out of it somehow?"

When Kari emerged from the building, a shocked Jade was confronting Candy.

"Rie, what happened to you? Where's Yuyu?" Jade asked in a quivering voice.

"Hehehe… Ahahaha!" Candy replied by wildly firing her hand cannon.

The three of them scattered to avoid getting hit. Consequently, every missed shot struck the city and its inhabitants below. A group of JSDF soldiers escorting citizens away from the battle were atomized by a rogue blast.

If Candy was a monster now, then it reasoned that her killing people and magical girls would cause her to grow stronger. That couldn't be allowed to happen.

The second Kari uttered the Stampede skill, Jade jumped in the way to take the hit instead. She recoiled from the powerful hit, but quickly recovered to impede her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kari asked. "We have to stop Candy!"

"I should be asking you that. Just now, you were thinking about hurting her, weren't you? We're supposed to help her." Jade glared.

"If we don't stop her, then we can say goodbye to Fukuoka. Hell, we might as well kill ourselves now to save her the trouble—"

An enormous stone golem threw a fist at Candy only for the creature's arms to be obliterated. Chae-Yeong went on the offensive, but she was easily downed by a precise shot. The Korean magical girl fell from the sky, a smoking ruin.

"Stampede!" Kari shoved Jade away in her moment of distraction and propelled forward to land a bone-shattering hit on Candy with [Destruction].

The impact torpedoed Candy to the ground.

A pissed off Jade showed up next to Kari and wrapped both hands around her throat.

"You ain't gonna be hitting her a second time if you know what's good for you," Jade growled with such ferocity that it briefly terrified her.

People poured out of their homes and buildings, drawn by the commotion like moths to a flame. In this case, the light came from a star in the form of magical girl Candy, whom the crowds cheered her name.

When Kari and Jade descended to find Candy, she was staggering down the middle of the road, clutching the side of her bleeding head.

"Kari… Jade?" Candy called to them.

"Candy, are you back? You have to tell us what happened." Jade landed and took a running start, but her steps slowed to a grinding halt.

"You guys… have to stop me… I can't control… myself… " she muttered.

A pair of star-struck college women came running up to Candy, notebooks and pens in hand, squealing in delight.

"Candy, can we have your autograph?" an excitable lady asked.

"I can't believe I'm seeing you in person!" the other exclaimed.

The fleshy growths spread quickly over Candy's right arm which held the hand canon. She raised the soul-weapon up to one of the women and blew her head off. The second woman, drenched in her friend's blood and brain matter, shrieked in horror until she, too, was silenced by a shot to the head.

Chaos befell the area. People ran for cover, calling Candy a monster, a psychopath, a murderer. One after another, she gunned them down, blasting holes into their bodies or deleting them from existence with a bright shot.

"I can't stop… I can't stop! Don't let me do this! I can't control myself anymore! Please, I don't want to kill anyone! Stop me before I hurt anyone else! I don't care what it takes! Don't let me kill anyone!" Candy cried.

"We have to at least try to take her out of magical girl form. I don't want to hurt Candy either, but does it look like we have a choice? Does it look like Candy has a choice?" Kari asked the only one who resisted fighting their former ally.

Jade finally relented.

The two of them resolved to fight Candy, but it might have been that Kari's surprise attack was just that. A surprise. Neither of them could land a hit on her. She was faster, more aware of her surroundings even as one tried to get under her blind spot. They couldn't get close without getting blasted with the intensity of a nuclear warhead.

"Come Here!" Kari extended a hand to Candy and grabbed the collar of her outfit, seeing up close and personal the malignant tissues that cloaked her. Tears streamed down the poor girl's face, causing Kari to second guess herself.

Jade joined to immobilize Candy from behind, putting an arm around her neck, and forcing the arm which held the hand cannon to the air instead of the city.

Spiked tentacles emerged from Candy's body, puncturing them both.

[Health: 190/320 ⇒ 153/320]

Kari was overcome with physical pain she hadn't experienced in a long time, having been too reluctant in going into Destruction Incarnate mode to fight Candy.

"Rain… of Stars." Candy fired a blinding shot straight up, illuminating the storming night skies. Higher and higher it went, like a rocket reaching for space until it breached the dark clouds.

Jade was the only one who acknowledged the gravity of the situation. Her gaze flicked to the people on the ground, back to the sky, and finally landed on Kari.

"Run," she said.

"What?" Kari pushed herself off the spikes and looked up in time to see the sky falling.

"Run!" Jade screamed with greater urgency.

Multiple explosions drew their eyes to the skies as the clouds parted, giving way to falling meteors. Bombs hadn't gone off. They were sonic booms from descending celestial bodies. Kari was awe-struck, as were the citizens of Fukuoka, who could do nothing but witness their end.

It was like watching the end of the world.

Jade tackled Kari and their anthems to the ground. "Castle!"

An illusory projection of a stone tower formed around them, but the explosive force of meteors impacting the city was too much to defend from. Even Jade's defensive skill couldn't withstand Candy's Rain of Stars. They, too, were caught in the incredible blast.

[Health: 153/320 ⇒ 0/320]

If it wasn't for Jade's Castle skill taking the brunt of the damage, Kari would have been a goner. But what happened to everyone else?

Kari lost her magical girl form in the armageddon-like blast. She crawled out of the rubble with Rocky in her arms, coughing up her lungs, and couldn't believe her eyes.

Where the meteors had struck, nothing remained but massive craters dotting the city. What few buildings left standing had their windows blown out and were on the brink of collapsing.

No one was left.

The destruction wrought by Candy's skills and hand cannon was immeasurable. As a magical girl, she had been holding back her magic all this time so innocent people wouldn't be caught in the blast. Now that she was being controlled by the fleshy growths, all those inhibitions went out the window.

This was the power of the Star Child, who wielded the strength of the cosmos in the palm of her hand.

Kari had a hard time seeing with all the dust in the air. However, the rain soon washed the particles away.

Flying high above the ruins of Fukuoka was Candy, firing away at anyone who might have survived.

"I… I never knew Candy could be so strong," Rocky whispered.

Kari received two sigils to restore her health and magic, then transformed.

If getting close wasn't an option, there was another way.

[Final Siege: Available to use once per day. Create a construct of your target. Any damage dealt to the construct is also dealt to the target. Lasts the duration of your current magical strength (10 seconds).]

"I'm sorry, Candy. I have to stop you somehow. It's me or you now— Apocalypse Power-Up! Final Siege!" Kari uttered her newest skill and created in front of her what appeared to be a clay golem in Candy's shape.

She hesitated to swing with [Ruin], flipped her grip to [Destruction] instead, and smashed into the construct's head. An unseen force hammered Candy into the ground. Kari repeatedly attacked the copy until it vanished. The ten seconds were up.

Silence returned to Fukuoka. Only the pitter patter of rain and small debris clattering across the city remained.

Kari was frozen solid, clenching her soul-weapon. She wasn't awarded any points, so she at least knew Candy still lived.

"Come on! We have to check if she's okay!" Rocky tugged her arm, spurring her into flight.

They found Candy, still in magical girl form, barely standing and bleeding from every pore on her body.

"Candy!" Kari shouted. As she approached the injured magical girl, Candy raised a hand to stop her.

"Don't come any closer! I feel myself losing control again. It's still growing back. This isn't something we can just remove… It's… It's like a cancer…" Candy cried.

"How did this happen to you, and where's Yuyu?" Rocky asked.

Her face contorted with anguish. "Hurricane… made me eat an angel's soul… I-I watched myself kill Yuyu, and there was nothing I could do about it…"

An angel-level monster's soul turned Candy into a monster?

"While I'm still me, I have to end it before it takes control again," Candy said.

"Don't do it!" Jade came running in with Gauntlet, but stopped as if an invisible force kept her from getting closer. "We can find another way to help you. I promise— We promised to see through this, remember?"

"I killed Yuyu, my best friend… killed so many. All I wanted to do was help people. Kari, Jade… I'm so sorry. I wish we could have gotten to know each other more…" she said

Kari held Jade back, who struggled so much that she might actually break free. Glancing over her shoulder, she was met with Candy's innocent smile.

The Star Child magical girl, in a final act of altruistic heroism, rose high into the sky to harm as few people as possible, even if the city was mostly leveled. Fleshy spikes punctured the girl's body until she was like a sea urchin, trying to take over her a second time.

"Super…" Candy held their gaze and screamed with everything she had left. "NOOOOVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Candy detonated like the death of a star. For a split second, she became brighter than even the sun, blinding Kari and popping her ears from the sheer pressure of the ensuing shockwave. So powerful was the blast, that the four of them were sent tumbling.

Head pounding and ears ringing, Kari picked herself up first. She glanced up to see Candy plummeting.

Please be okay. Please be okay, Kari begged as they raced to catch Candy, who fell into a crater created from one of the meteors earlier.

Kari slid down, landing in the shallow rainwater pooling within and picked up Candy's battered body. She was barely conscious and wheezed with great strain in each breath. Her eyes were lifeless, no longer shining like the stars they used to be.

"Weird. My health is at zero… but I'm still…" When Candy raised a hand, Kari held it and saw the wretched cells propagating again. "Kari, can I… make a selfish request?"

With the fire raging around them and Candy's solemn plea echoing between her ears, Kari quietly promised to do this last favor.

She put an elbow underneath Candy's chin and other hand on top of her head. Just a little bit of force would be enough to break her neck. But she was hesitating.

"Don't do it! We can still help her!" Tsubasa appeared at the edge of the crater's lip.

"There is no other way! If Candy's taken over again, we won't get another chance. Candy and I know you can't do it, that's why she… asked me to," Kari said, but despite her bravado, she was beginning to waver.

The truth was that Kari wasn't entirely sure of herself. She was afraid of the uncertainty. Maybe later, they might actually find out that there was a way to get rid of the monster inside Candy. What then?

"Candy's half-dead, she doesn't know what she's saying. Look, I don't know where we went wrong with you, Kari. Maybe Flare's dangling something over you, or she said something that's getting to your head, but what you're doing— all that shit back in Osaka, too— it ain't right. Let Rie go. I'm begging you, man. There's always another way!" Jade screamed.

This wasn't about another way. It was about right now.

Candy drew a sharp gasp and whimpered in pain. Already, her own blood was festering into monstrous flesh.

"It's okay, Jade. It's okay…" Candy whispered meekly to the both of them, the words sounded like they were trying to reassure Kari in particular. The corner of her lips pulled up into a weak smile, and tears— or raindrops, Kari couldn't tell anymore— rolled down her cheeks again. "You have to… do the right thing—"

Kari squeezed her eyes shut and snapped Candy's neck. The body went limp.

"No!" Jade jerked forward and stumbled to her hands and knees.

"Candy… I can't believe it…" Rocky uttered in disbelief.

Candy wasn't the first magical girl Kari had killed and certainly wouldn't be the last. However, this time was different. She felt an intense pain that clawed at her heart.

Regret.

There was so much regret. For the very first time, Kari was forced to kill someone she didn't want to. But it had to be done. No one else could have done it.

The Apocalypse System activated on its own, revealing an updated list. Candy, it seemed, was her own incursion, and her death signaled its end.

[Bringing up incursion statuses in Japan…

Kyoto — None

Shimane — Active

Osaka — None

Okinawa — Active

Hokkaido — Active

Fukuoka — None.]

"Judge…" Jade spoke the first word of one of her skills, fist clenching the javelin.

"Don't start," Kari solemnly urged her.

"Jury…" She reared back, readying for a throw.

"Destruction Incarnate—"

"Executioner—"

Kari and Jade fought fiercely, and the latter was defeated. Even though they were levels apart, a fortress had nothing against a siege weapon. Kari emerged the victor, standing over Tsubasa lying near dead in the streets.

She was broken both emotionally and physically. Kari was sure if the calm and collected Jade from back then were to fight her instead of this pale shadow, she would have lost even in an empowered form that didn't take physical damage.

Without Gauntlet to help, buried somewhere in this destroyed city, Tsubasa was at her mercy.

"Please, stop…" Rocky begged. "We already lost Candy today. Are you two really going to fight to the death?"

"Leave it," Tsubasa said, one eye shut from blood running down her head. "She knows that as long as I'm still alive, I'll keep coming after her. Ain't that right, Kari? You used to get so pissed being compared to Flare. How about now? You and her… two sides of the same coin, fighting for different things in the same way."

"Maybe I am," Kari confessed, losing sight of what made them different.

When she started to walk away, Tsubasa took that as an insult worse than death.

"We were supposed to do this together… as allies," she said.

"We were never allies. We only ever got in each other's ways. There's no going back because I don't want to go back. I'm finishing this apocalypse, Hurricane, and Flare even if it means I have to do it alone," Kari said, flying off without turning around again.

Something inside Kari had snapped inside the instant she broke Candy's neck. Any shred of goodness, kindness, or desire for redemption was cast away because she understood all too clearly now— she had always been beyond saving.

That sensation, however, would never leave her hands.