Chapter 48: The Leader of the Black Death Cult
It was the weekend again, another day when Kirishima Ai had to work, and, as usual, a Monster incident broke out.
Monster incidents seemed to have been happening unusually often lately. And maybe it was just her imagination, but most of the Monsters that appeared seemed to be Bird-type Monsters. It was like someone had kicked over a bird's nest. She was getting a little sick of fighting them.
Today's Monster was a Parrot Monster.
What's more, these Bird-type Monsters seemed much stronger than the Monsters that had appeared before. Many of them were nearly as strong as the Pterosaur Monster, which had only appeared once.
However, after that bout of fever, Kirishima Ai had noticed that the magic inside her seemed to have grown considerably. Even on her own, she could just about handle Monsters of this caliber now.
The battle took place in an abandoned factory. It was a little cramped, but that worked to Silver Feather's advantage, since the Bird-type Monster couldn't make use of its superior mobility.
Silver Feather grabbed the Parrot Monster's wing and slammed it hard into the ground—
"—Bang!"
The Parrot Monster crashed to the ground, cracking the floor beneath it and scattering feathers everywhere.
Then Silver Feather planted a foot on its back to hold it down and fired several shots from her magic gun at its wings, destroying the most important part of any Bird-type Monster.
A mass of feathers scattered, and the Parrot Monster was left covered in wounds.
Silver Feather panted for a while. Even she was starting to feel tired.
She delivered a final blow and finished off the Parrot Monster. All that remained inside was a crystal.
Just as she was about to pick it up, Silver Feather suddenly sensed something strange.
Something incredibly dangerous...
"What is this...?"
At some point, the rundown factory had been filled with inky black mist, which swept over the ground beneath her like a wave.
When the black mist touched her, Silver Feather felt the magic inside her rapidly draining away, and her skin felt as if it were burning.
Sensing that something was wrong, she quickly took flight.
The Bird-type Monster's crystal was swallowed by the black mist.
Silver Feather felt a chill run down her back. She looked toward the source of the mist, wanting to know what was happening.
Then, at the entrance to the abandoned factory, a huge shadow appeared out of nowhere.
Silver Feather soon made out what it was.
It was a humanoid Monster with an unnaturally slender build. It was barely human-shaped, yet every part of it was utterly bizarre and grotesque, with a chilling beauty to it.
Its body was covered in all kinds of birdlike features, as though it had been made by piling up the corpses of various birds.
Behind it were one ragged wing after another, pitch-black and lightless as a deep pool. But each was only a single wing, with none paired together, as if someone had torn away half of each wing.
Its waist, arms, and face were covered in wings too, like countless limbs that had grown in a grotesque fashion.
Yet its head was strangely pure and beautiful. Beneath a strangely lovely bird's head was a flawless, pale female face, concealed behind a mask.
It was like a twisted, one-winged angel.
What... was this?
A Monster she had never seen before.
And completely different from the Monsters she had faced before.
Silver Feather instinctively flew back a little, but behind her was the black tide. If she got any closer, she might be swallowed up too.
She even felt... fear.
Even in her Magical Girl form, she couldn't stop trembling. It was as if the fear came from her very soul.
The black bird-shaped Monster looked at her through the hollow eyes in its mask and the countless hawk eyes covering its body—
"So Magical Girl Silver Feather is such a weakling."
"That magical weapon... it has an unpleasant aura."
It looked at the Broken Wing in Silver Feather's hand, while the black mist behind it stirred like a towering wave about to crash.
After a while, however, the dark aura settled down again, as if something had forcibly suppressed it.
The black Monster spoke calmly, its voice layered and cold—
"But it's not time to kill you yet. I'll let you keep your life until then."
"You're lucky to have escaped with your life."
It seemed to have no interest in fighting her for now.
One of the Monster's wings spread out, drawing back the black mist that had swept through the factory. The Parrot Monster's crystal fell into its hand.
The black mist gradually enveloped the Monster, then slowly receded.
From beginning to end, Silver Feather couldn't overcome the pressure weighing on her, let alone launch an attack.
The black Monster soon disappeared along with the mist.
After the battle, Kirishima Ai couldn't stop thinking about that Monster.
It was an opponent she could never defeat.
Even with Sakaki Chika, they probably wouldn't stand a chance.
But why hadn't a Monster like that killed her on the spot?
What was its purpose?
Why had it suddenly appeared in this city?
And it couldn't be just another Black Death Cult executive. She had encountered Sha Qina, a Black Death Cult executive, before. Sha Qina was powerful, but the gap between them hadn't been so overwhelming as to make her despair.
While she was thinking, a low, languid woman's voice asked:
"Something on your mind?"
Kirishima Ai looked up and saw Doctor Kougami.
As usual, the woman was beautiful but unkempt, and seemed indifferent to everything. She had probably asked because Kirishima Ai was a Magical Girl.
Now, she and Takanashi Shiori were both in Doctor Kougami's lab.
"Today, I ran into a really dangerous, terrifying Monster... but it didn't attack me."
"A Monster?"
Takanashi Shiori, who was standing nearby, looked curious.
"What kind of Monster?"
"I don't know. I couldn't tell what kind it was at all."
With the Monsters she'd encountered before, even if they didn't introduce themselves, she could usually tell what they were—especially when it came to birds. Those were easy to identify.
But this time, she couldn't recognize it.
Kirishima Ai briefly described what the Monster she'd seen looked like.
At first, Takanashi Shiori looked confused. She couldn't make heads or tails of Kirishima Ai's description. But as the details became clearer, her expression grew worse and worse.
By the end, Takanashi Shiori looked rather grim—
"You're kidding..."
The Monster Kirishima Ai had seen was a terrifying creature made up of various birds, with black wings growing all over its body.
Ordinary Monsters weren't made up of such a complicated assortment of features.
And in Takanashi Shiori's memory, there was only one Monster that fit that description.
R'lyeh's calamity, the Magical Girls' mortal enemy, the King of Monsters...
It was the sort of thing she'd only heard about in scary stories adults told when she was a child.
"If the Monster you encountered really looked like that, things could get very troublesome."
It wasn't impossible, but Takanashi Shiori had never expected to run into something like this herself.
"The one you encountered was probably the leader of the Black Death Cult."
"The leader?"
This was the first time Kirishima Ai had heard that the Black Death Cult had a leader. The highest-ranking members she'd encountered were the Cult's executives—the Apostles.
That seemed to explain why the Monster had such a terrifying aura.
"We in R'lyeh usually call them the Black Devil Kings. They're the source of Monsters. At their full strength, they're far more powerful than Magical Girls of the Holy Domain. Probably only a Magical Girl on Dean Roland's level could fight one."
Among the Magical Girls still in R'lyeh, Dean Roland was one of the very few who were exceptionally powerful.
"The one you encountered was probably a Bird-type Demon King. That would explain why there have been so many Bird-type Monsters in the city lately."
Takanashi Shiori remembered the two Sparrow Monsters she'd encountered a few days earlier. She'd thought something was strange ever since.
"But why didn't it attack me?"
"Who knows? Maybe it hasn't fully revived yet. A Demon King that has only just come back to life is probably at its most vulnerable."
Even so, it probably wasn't an opponent that the few Magical Girls here could take on.
"Then can't we ask Dean Roland to defeat the Demon King?"
If Dean Roland could fight a Demon King at full strength, surely she could handle one that had only just revived.
But Takanashi Shiori simply shook her head.
"No. Magical Girls like Dean Roland aren't allowed to use their power freely in the human world."
Magical Girls from R'lyeh who hadn't come to the human world for training were forbidden from using their magic freely.
That rule applied even to Dean Roland.
Kirishima Ai was puzzled.
"Why is there a rule like that?"
"Who knows? Supposedly, R'lyeh made a pact with the human world hundreds of years ago. Even Her Majesty the Queen wouldn't change it lightly."
In fact, the Magical Girls R'lyeh sent to Earth were usually young apprentices. Their mentors and other high-ranking Magical Girls rarely came to Earth.
Dean Roland was an exception.
Just then, Doctor Kougami seemed to remember something and said with a smile—
"The reason is simple."
Kirishima Ai and Takanashi Shiori both turned to look at her.
Doctor Kougami casually picked up a Magic Crystal from the table and gave it a shake.
"Because some Magical Girls are bad people."
"And the most important thing to a Magical Girl is the Magic Crystal that lets her transform and use her power."
This tiny Magic Crystal contained humanity's negative emotions: fear, greed, desire...
And yet, it was the source of a Magical Girl's power.
"Only Monsters can produce Magic Crystals, and humans are the best material for making Monsters."
She listed the conditions one by one.
"If there were no restrictions like these, just imagine what Magical Girls with power but no regard for ordinary people might do on this planet."
Magic Crystals, especially High-Level Magic Crystals, only came into being at a cost.
Magical Girl society had a high average moral standard, but there were always some whose standards fell short.
Otherwise, Black Magical Girls wouldn't exist.
Kirishima Ai looked thoughtful.
Takanashi Shiori sighed.
"It's a little harsh, but that's probably how it is."
Although Magical Girls looked just like ordinary people, when it came down to it, they were a different species.
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