Danger

(Miluno)

"I'll go with you, and I'll protect you."

I extended a friendly olive branch to Stratos, but she turned her head away with a suspicious look.

No, you can't be trusted.

Are you kidding me?

I'm supposed to be a champion of justice, do I really look that suspicious?

So I reached out and pinched her face, saying in a threatening tone:

"You have no choice. If you don't come with me, I'll have to hand you over to Aldebaran or the Supreme Council. You can decide what to do with you. Besides, I'm a man of my word. If you come with me, you'll not only survive, but you might even be able to continue your research."

The little thing is making noises in my head.

"What kind of 'ally of justice' do you think you are?"

I'm telling the truth; Stratos really had no other choice.

But...

In any world, top researchers are pillars of society. It's utterly foolish of the Supreme Council to try and use someone like that as a scapegoat. But it also gives me a silver lining: bringing back a runaway witch whose abilities rival Aldebaran's will undoubtedly improve Earth's technological level...

Perhaps Earth could also mass-produce magical girls?

Aldebaran was truly careless. His former rival transformed himself into a witch, infiltrated his "daughter's army," and even obtained a number, claiming that only he could transform Monster into witches. Wasn't he just getting slapped in the face?

"Let's go~ We're off on a mission now~"

I hooked my arm around her shoulder, helped her to her feet, and then opened the teleportation portal back to the Sky Branch.

"Where are we going? Let go of me! What do you want?"

Although she was unwilling to go in and struggled, she was no match for me in strength. I locked her wrists and dragged her into the teleportation tunnel...

"You have that face, you're totally a villain!"

Since the forces on the "The Other Side" are essentially the same as the Star Crystal, it means I can also become the villain.

"Huh? Is this how the concept of 'enemy and friend sharing the same origin' is explained?"

While the little thing was complaining, I had already dragged Stratos through the teleportation tunnel and returned to the Sky Branch Laboratory.

The people guarding this place are still Yin Wei Fenghua.

Upon seeing the witch behind me, the two of them simultaneously let out a long sigh.

"Miluno."

Yin Wei pushed up her glasses and stepped forward.

"Hey, don't you feel like you're losing a hundred million every time Past and don't bring anything back?"

With her eyes closed and clutching her katana, Fenghua said:

"If diplomatic relations are ever established with the Other Side, you'll probably be brought to court as a human trafficker."

Establishing diplomatic relations is impossible, since the Other Side is about to collapse.

So what I'm doing isn't human trafficking, it's sheltering refugees.

I cleared my throat and introduced myself, "Ahem, the person I brought back this time is a heavyweight, she's a fugitive from the Other Side... Stratos, don't be so shy, come and introduce yourself."

Turn around.

The witch's face was as pale as her hair. This timid research witch pointed at me and said in a trembling voice:

"Y-you're a magical girl?"

She was speaking the Other Side language.

I don't know why I could understand her, but Yin Wei Fenghua couldn't.

"Hmm, isn't your reaction time a bit slow? I thought researchers were all very bright~"

My smile instantly extinguished her last bit of arrogance, and she asked dejectedly, "Then, how did you end up at Aldebaran's camp?"

"What? You can sneak in, but I can't?"

I snorted and threw the squad leader's protective suit in front of her.

"I wiped out Aldebaran's patrol squad, then blended in wearing their protective suits, Aldebaran didn't notice me at all."

I have no intention of revealing Aldebaran, nor do I plan to tell Yin Wei or SpiCa.

Since this matter seems both true and false, let's assume it's false for now.

Stratos then asked:

"So how did you bypass the surveillance?"

"Didn't I already tell you? I can interfere with your surveillance system and disable it... Now that you're here, stop asking so many questions. After all, I'm not planning to let you go back."

"You scoundrel!"

This is in Chinese. Oh, so she can speak this language?

"Come on, I saved your life! Do you really want to be sent here as a soldier only to be killed by some magical girl? Like I said before, if you're willing to cooperate, you won't go to jail, and you can continue your research as a scientist... What do you say?"

I pretended to be asking for her opinion.

But everyone in the room knew that she had no choice at all...

"Sniff!"

The little creature sniffed and looked in a certain direction.

"Something's wrong, Miluno, something's bad!"

Hey, what do you mean I'm not doing well?

"No, I mean something bad has happened! There's a swelling mass of darkness about to go berserk. Is the researcher conducting some dangerous experiment?"

The little creature's ability to sense darkness is genuine.

I turned my head and asked:

"Sister Yin Wei, what kind of experiment is the Research Level conducting?"

She adjusted her glasses and replied:

"Director SpiCa and Ceruno are preparing to transform that imprisoned Monster into a witch using Artificial Crystal."

"Monster locked up?"

Fenghua Interface:

"It's that defective product left behind during Aldebaran's invasion, a brainless monster with three Simulacrum Factor inside its body."

Oh, it's that dazzling, crazy, pretty boy.

"How dare mere humans presume to dabble in modification technology? Foolish! That's not something an amateur can do!"

To everyone's surprise, Stratos suddenly launched into a tirade of profanities.

"The Blessing of the Great Will are extremely unstable; you are courting your own destruction."

In short, the situation was urgent, but luckily there was an expert right in front of us.

"Director Stratos, could you please come with me to take a look?"

I placed my hand on the witch's shoulder, and she visibly stiffened.

"Impossible! Even if I have a grudge against the Supreme Council, I will not work for humanity!"

She refused with righteous indignation, like a revolutionary martyr who would rather die than surrender.

"That's not up to you now, Mono, lead the way!"

"Huh?!"

I hoisted her up by the waist and ran wildly in the direction the little thing had led me.

"Leave it to me! This way! Quick! It's just ahead!"

I could vaguely sense the turbulent darkness emanating from the little creature's mouth.

Stratos seemed to sense something; she stopped struggling on my shoulder and murmured:

"What exactly are you humans messing around with?"

"What's wrong?"

I changed positions and carried her on my back.

She explained, "It's not as simple as just stuffing Crystal into your body to turn you into a witch. Witchification Process requires adjusting the Simulacrum Factor and the Crystal itself. You need to stabilize and combine these two unstable forces. Do you have that technology?"

Obviously not.

"So, Director, what consequences can an unstable union lead to?"

Stratos clung to my shoulders to steady himself.

"Listen carefully! If the Blessing of the Great Will goes out of control, not only will the individual who receives the transformation surely die, but it will also trigger Annihilation Reaction, turning everything around into dust!"

Uncontrolled Dark Energy = miniature Annihilation Bomb.

This understanding should be correct, right?