The Traitor Organization

If the Tentacle Fiend's clone was already this powerful, then its true body...

How terrifying must it be?!

She didn't dare think about it. Propping herself up with the Broken Sword, she climbed to her feet, every bone in her body aching.

The fight with the Tentacle Fiend's clone had drained almost all her strength.

If the Warrior's Breathing Technique hadn't kept healing her, she would have collapsed long ago.

She glanced at her status panel, and the numbers gave her a little relief.

[Basic Swordsmanship: Tier 3 3500/10000]

[Warrior's Breathing Technique: Tier 2 2100/10000]

[Holy Judgment: Tier 1 300/10000]

That fight had pushed her Basic Swordsmanship proficiency above three thousand.

So actual combat was the fastest way to improve. It beat spending two days practicing swordsmanship on her own!

But Holy Judgment still had twenty-three hours left on its cooldown. She couldn't use it again anytime soon.

Molly steadied herself and looked toward the center of the cultivation room.

Five girls still hung in midair, suspended by tentacles. Their faces were flushed and their eyes glazed over. They looked terrible.

Moyan was in particularly bad shape. Though she remained faintly conscious, her lips had turned pale and fine beads of sweat covered her forehead. She was clearly holding on by sheer will.

Molly's heart tightened. Forgetting everything else, she hurried over.

The tentacles wrapped around the girls looked sticky and glistened purplish red. Their tips were still twitching, a sight that made her skin crawl.

Gripping the Broken Sword, Molly carefully avoided the girls' bodies and gently drew its edge across a tentacle.

To her surprise, the tentacles that had looked indestructible were far more fragile than she'd expected.

Rip!

The blade sliced through, severing the tentacle in an instant. Green fluid splattered onto the floor, hissing and giving off white smoke.

Molly raised an eyebrow. Apparently, the tentacles weakened considerably once separated from the main body.

She was about to pick up the pace when she caught sight of the two Black Defectors in the corner of the cultivation room. They were scrambling toward the door amid the chaos.

"Stop!"

Molly's voice was low and cold, leaving no room for argument.

The two Defectors acted as if they hadn't heard her. Instead, they moved faster, running for their lives.

The power of Holy Judgment had terrified them. They knew this magical girl was far beyond anyone they could handle. All they wanted was to escape.

Molly's gaze hardened.

She hadn't gotten the truth about the Traitor Organization out of them yet. There was no way she would let them leave.

Molly drove off the ground and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The Broken Sword flashed in her hand. Without a moment's hesitation, she slashed straight at the backs of their knees.

Slash!

"Aah!"

Two agonized screams rang out almost at once.

The sharp blade cut through their thick protective suits and sank deep into their flesh.

The two Black Defectors fell to the ground screaming.

Blood gushed from their wounds, quickly soaking through their suits and spreading into two vivid red pools on the floor.

They curled up on the ground, shaking uncontrollably. Muffled whimpers of terror came from beneath their gas masks.

Molly walked over slowly and pointed her sword at one of their throats.

"Talk. Who are you? Why did you capture these girls?"

Molly's voice was icy.

"And that Tentacle Fiend—what exactly is it?"

Defector A was scared out of his wits. He didn't dare hide a thing and stammered out an answer.

"We... we're with the Traitor Organization... We caught these girls to... to turn them into breeding beds for tentacles... make them lay eggs... and breed new Monster Demons..."

His voice grew quieter until it was almost inaudible.

But before he could finish, his body suddenly began to convulse violently.

"Urgh! Aaah!"

Defector A let out a hoarse scream.

Before Molly's eyes, his skin shriveled and cracked, as though every drop of moisture had been drained from it.

Defector B beside him suffered the same fate.

Almost at the same instant, he clutched his throat and screamed as his body rapidly withered.

Within seconds, both men had turned into heaps of dark gray ash scattered across the floor.

A faint breeze swept through and blew the ashes away, leaving no trace of them.

Molly frowned at the empty floor, her heart sinking.

The Tentacle Fiend had left a contingency!

To keep its secrets from getting out, it had killed its own people without hesitation.

The Traitor Organization—and the Tentacle Fiend boss lurking in the shadows—were crueler and more dangerous than she had imagined.

She'd make them pay for this!

She turned toward the four girls who were still unconscious, especially Moyan, whose breathing was faint. Her desire to kill only grew stronger.

The five girls still hung in midair from the tentacles, their faces flushed and their eyes unfocused. Soft whimpers escaped their lips now and then.

Moyan hung at the far right. She was in slightly better shape than the other four girls. At least a glimmer of awareness remained in her eyes as she looked at Molly pleadingly.

"Hang on. I'll get you down right now!"

Molly rushed over, the Broken Sword whistling through the air in her hand.

The tentacles wrapped around the girls looked slimy and disgusting, but they offered almost no resistance.

They snapped almost as soon as the blade touched them, dissolving into puddles of pink fluid that hissed when they hit the floor.

Moyan was the first to be freed.

Her body went limp, and she could barely stand. Molly reached out to support her. Her skin was startlingly hot beneath Molly's fingertips.

"How are you feeling?" Molly asked worriedly.

Moyan raised her head and looked at her through hazy eyes. Her lips moved, but it took her a long moment to get the words out.

"Th... thank you, Lady Magical Girl."

Her voice was soft and sweet, nothing like her usual cool manner. The purplish-red mist had clearly affected her badly.

Molly's heart tightened. She immediately activated the Warrior's Breathing Technique, sending a gentle current of warmth through her fingertips into Moyan's body.

The Warrior's Breathing Technique did more than heal her. It seemed to have a purifying effect, too.

Sure enough, much of the flush soon faded from Moyan's face, and her eyes grew clearer.

Her gaze fell on Molly's pure white magical-girl dress. She asked,

"May I ask your name?"

Molly's heart skipped a beat.

Just as she had suspected, her magical-girl outfit seemed to distort how others perceived her, keeping people she knew from recognizing her.

After a moment's thought, she said,

"My name is Pale."

"Pale..." Moyan repeated softly, committing the name firmly to memory.

By then, the other four girls were gradually coming around.

They looked at the wreckage around them, then at Molly, their eyes full of fear and gratitude.

"Th... thank you for saving us," one girl said shakily.

"You don't need to thank me."

Molly waved it off and scanned the enormous cultivation tanks in the room.

With their energy supply cut off, the Tentacle Monsters inside had turned into pools of black sludge that gave off a pungent stench.

She frowned. They couldn't stay here.

Molly took out Moyan's phone. She had found it in the sewer earlier and hadn't had a chance to return it.

The screen was cracked, but the phone still worked.

She quickly dialed the police. When someone answered, she lowered her voice and tried to sound as calm as possible.

"Hello, police? I'd like to report an emergency. We're in the sewer beneath XX in the south of City A. There's a Monster Demon nest here. Five of us girls were trapped, but a magical girl just rescued us..."

Molly briefly explained the situation, then added,

"Sorry for the trouble, but could you send a few female officers with clean clothes? The smell down here is awful, so please bring some disinfectant too."

After hanging up, Molly breathed a sigh of relief.

She checked the time. It was nearly seven in the evening.

It would be getting dark outside soon.

Leaning against the wall, Moyan watched Molly busy herself. An odd glint flickered in her eyes.

When the tentacles had bound her, she had actually remained conscious.

She had clearly seen the resolve in Pale's eyes as the magical girl fought the Tentacle Fiend's clone. It was exactly like the look in her older sister Molly's eyes.

And Pale even smelled a little like her sister...

Moyan shook her head, driving the absurd thought away.

Her sister was just an ordinary high school student. How could she possibly be a magical girl?

She must have missed her sister so much that she was imagining things.

Before long, a jumble of footsteps and voices came from the sewer entrance.

"This should be the place."

"Be careful. There may still be Monster Demons inside."

"Are the girls all right?"

Hearing them, Molly relaxed. She told Moyan and the other four girls,

"The police are here. Go with them. I'll be leaving now."

Moyan hurriedly said,

"Lady Pale, you're leaving? We haven't even had a chance to thank you properly."

The other four girls quickly chimed in.

"That's right, Lady Pale! You saved our lives!"

Molly smiled.

"No thanks needed. It was what I should do."

With that, she turned and headed for another exit from the cultivation room.

She had spotted it earlier. It was a narrow passage that should lead outside.

She walked quickly and vanished into the darkness after only a few steps.

Moyan watched her disappear, lost in thought...