The Young Princess Kills Everyone: Re
Even the anchors stabbing the ground were not enough to stop the recoil.
The anchors shaved pieces off the ground as Mary fell back.
All of her bones broke, and her internal organs got crushed.
She smelled blood after it came out of her mouth, but she already expected that along with the pain.
The problem was whether or not the shot would succeed.
The shot crashed against Devil’s power spot and created a violent clash.
Slowly, really slowly, Mary’s side pushed in further.
Stella squinted her eyes because of the dazzling light, but still cheered for Mary.
“Go…… Gooo!”
However, the shot could only get propulsive power once.
It gradually lost its power.
“Aah, no…… It’s gonna get swallowed up!”
“Not a problem.”
Mary spoke calmly.
Then, like Cutie had done before, she held her bloody arm aloft.
“Familia of Empress, tear Devil apart with your wings!”
The shell transformed into a bird.
“It moved again!”
It regained its momentum, and progressed ahead while ripping apart Devil’s power spot with its wings and beak.
“Don’t coooome! Noo, nooooooo!”
Angie still rejected everything.
The shell that gained Empress’s power also gradually got swallowed up and started to vanish.
“Reach her…… Please, open a path to Angie!”
“It will reach. Because I’ve combined our powers!”
Mary was certain.
The wings, the curse that she inherited from Cutie, would pierce that wall no matter what.
And it became reality.
The wings really did create a path for Angie.
Mary’s job here was done.
“Aah, why…… Why are you coming!? I don’t wanna hear anything, I don’t wanna see anythiiiing!”
With nothing to obstruct the way, Angie’s shouts could be heard directly.
“Angieeeeee!”
Stella shouted and recklessly charged into the path created inside the power spot.
“No, no, nooo! I don’t want to be betrayed again. I don’t want to hurt anyone! I, I, aaagh!”
“Angie, it’s okay now! None of this is your fault! There’s no need for you to suffer!”
Her voice still did not reach Angie, who was blocking her ears.
So Stella kept going and took her hand.
“Angie!”
“Ah…… Stella, is that you?”
“Yes Angie. I’m here to save you. It can end now. You can leave this world, as Angie, with me.”
“Stella……”
For a moment, Angie seemed to be at peace.
But her eyes opened wide immediately afterwards, and her face went pale.
Stella…… Nooooo!”
“Angie!? What’s wrong!?”
“I’m gonna get betrayed again! Things are going to be taken from me again!”
Even if she was possessed by Mitis, Stella’s body was what stole Angie’s ‘sense of self’.
She probably had a flashback of that memory.
“You’re not Stella! Stella is gone! No, no! Just let it all disappeaaaaaar!”
She closed her heart again.
The power spot did not unfold again, but Stella still suffered the Reverse phenomenon’s effects after directly touching Angie.
“Angie.”
She vanished after that last word.
Without leaving a trace.
“Miss. Stella……”
Mary hung her head down.
Angie also quickly noticed it.
“Ah…… Ah…… I, I……!”
It was probably a reflexive action.
Considering Angie’s life, it was an understandable decision, and she had no choice.
However, no matter the reason, that did not change the fact that she erased Stella.
Whether she liked it or not, she still felt guilty.
“I killed…… Stella. I killed Stella. Maybe she was, here, to save me…… but. Ah, aaagh, aaaaaggh!”
Her scream of sorrow echoed, and the mana emitted from her body expanded.
The open path closed, and a strong ‘concept of annihilation’ started to whirl inside the power spot.
Mary finished regenerating her body, then firmly clenched her right hand and muttered as blood dribbled from it.
“With that much power, she will quickly reach her physical limit. Unless I look at it in an optimistic way because I have to wait a shorter time now…… I think I’ll go crazy.”
She was used to tragedy.
She figured this would be the punch line anyway.
Mitis was probably cackling somewhere right now. Mary thought about that and sighed out loud.
◇◇◇
Meanwhile, Mitis seemed bored as she watched the battle in the royal capital.
“Oh, I see…… I guess making her strain herself too hard is also an idea.”
At the very least, Mitis had not interfered with the feelings of the humans there.
She had no intention of getting in the way either.
If they were going to die anyway, no result would change Mitis’s plot.
So……
“……I had hoped things would go well in the end. Well, I wouldn’t be here in the first place if such too-good-to-be-true stories were real.”
The state of this world was a result of an accumulation of inconvenient events.
The Great Will would not have a change of mood after all this time.
Mitis sat down on a chair.
The room’s floor was crawling with countless cables surrounding her.
True World Destruction – the way to destroy this world.
It was in these cables.
When connected, they would extract the arcana of World and its energy from Stella’s body.
And when fired into the center of this planet, it would break everything and destroy the world.
“I guess I should start getting ready soon. Mary is probably on her way to this building as well.”
She stood up, then curiously tilted her neck after muttering, ‘hm?’
Then, she stared at her right hand.
It was faint, but she felt a weakening sensation.
“Outside interference – no, is it trying to come out from the inside?”
A faint discharge that could easily be shut down.
Mitis realized something.
“Was your regret really that powerful? Hehe, fine. I’ll just call it a measurement error, you can take it with you.”
It was due to Stella’s will.
The will that continued despite the erasure of her body; perhaps it could be called a ‘soul’.
Or, maybe a part of Stella’s personality that was sealed inside Mitis had stained her mana.
It was not a phenomenon that an illegitimate God like Mitis could comprehend.
◇◇◇
“Stella…… I killed her. It’s my fault. I knew it, it’s all my fault!”
Angie continued to suffer amidst the mana tempest.
The tempestuous wave of energy caused by the Reverse phenomenon also whittled the user’s body.
“Uuuh, Stella, everyone…… I wanna go back. To those days, I wanna go baaack……!”
Blood dripped from her eyes.
The skin on her arms got peeled off, exposing the muscles.
The flesh on her face got gouged, and her mouth got torn apart.
Mary quietly watched on from outside the power spot.
Then, near the center of the torrent of annihilation, Mary saw something faintly glitter.
The light gradually formed a human arm and touched Angie’s cheek.
“Ah…… Stella?”
Its warmth was enough to understand whose it was.
“Stella, are you there?”
Stella’s visage floated up in her view after she shouted in a tearful voice.
It was a faint face, almost like a mask, but it was definitely Stella.
Angie made a wish when she saw that kind smile.
She wished for Stella to return to her original form.
The next moment, the wish was granted.
Her body, which was annihilated by Devil’s Reverse phenomenon, regenerated.
“Stellaaaa!”
“Angie……”
The two hugged each other.
Mary watched on in amazement.
“Miss. Stella is back to normal after vanishing……”
It was easy to call it a miracle.
But it was not impossible to rationalize this.
Angie rejected others, and erased every living being who entered a certain area.
And Stella’s body vanished after getting affected by that power.
However, Stella now was in an irregular state after ‘having her personality detached from a body’.
If her personality could be maintained with mana, even if she lost her body, it would be no strange thing for her to remain on that spot as mana even if for a short while.
At the same time, Angie’s body also started to be destroyed due to the recoil of her power activation.
The flesh and blood of the human who transformed into an angel scattered around amidst the mana tempest.
The mana with a will used a part of the angel’s body and tried to create the form of Stella.
And in the end, Angie wished for Stella’s revival, which led to this conclusion.
It was a phenomenon that occurred because both sides had nonhuman bodies.
But the element of coincidence was too much.
Perhaps it was not completely wrong to just call it a miracle.
Still, maybe it was too much nonetheless, because Stella’s body seemed as if it could crumble at any moment.
“Sorry Angie. I was supposed to protect the homunculi, but I hurt everyone……”
“I know, it’s not your fault. By touching you like this, I can tell that this is the real Stella…… even if it’s too late now.”
“It’s not too late. I don’t expect to be forgiven for betraying everyone. But…… will you at least do me the favor of dying with me?”
“I wanted to ask you the same thing. Let’s die together? Let’s die, and have a happy dream.”
“Yeah. Let’s dream of that time when everyone was alive and happy……”
Stella hugged Angie, then looked over at Mary.
There were no words, but Mary understood, and grasped her scythe.
“Are you done saying your farewells?”
“I haven’t said farewell to you yet, Mary.”
“Talking will just make it more bitter for me.”
“Sorry…… I still want to ask you for a favor.”
“Is it about the homunculi?”
Stella nodded in reply.
“Digi is alive, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, but I think her wounds will kill her.”
“She’s still alive…… If she doesn’t want to let herself die, please kill her for me.”
“……If that is your wish.”
Mary accepted after some hesitation.
“I’m really sorry. I know I’m leaving you with a selfish wish.”
“I don’t mind. I’m here to help people die in a somewhat decent way, at least.”
Saying that, Angie opened her mouth to speak with a peaceful expression on her face.
“You’re like a real death god.”
Mary hesitated to answer, not sure whether she should take this as a compliment or not.
Most of all, she herself wanted a death god to come for her more than anyone else.
Then, still unable to come up with the words to say, Mary swung her scythe.
“I’m doing it.”
“Mhm, please.”
Their last farewell was brief.
“Sweet dreams, then.”
Mary’s blade bisected the couple happily hugging each other.
◇◇◇
Mary consumed the remains and left the royal capital for good.
She headed for Pupa’s main office.
Ami and Calaria were probably waiting there for her.
“I wish that just once, a miracle like that happened for me too.”
If only it happened earlier.
Perhaps at least one person could be besides Mary right now.
Mary’s mood rapidly fell when she thought about that.
She remembered the sensation of Cutie’s hands, the taste of her skin, and her chest tightened hard.
She bit her lips in the face of a pain falsely similar to love, and started walking towards the stage of her next massacre.
Mary consumed Devil.
Mary’s current number of arcana: 13.
Remaining: 8.