That was when the black shadow of calamity had not yet completely devoured the grassland horizon.
The sunset painted the sky in warm orange-red and purple-pink, with huge, fluffy clouds floating lazily like flocks of sheep. The long grass was gilded with golden edges, rustling in the breeze, undulating like waves.
Elara lay spread-eagle on the soft meadow, her silver-white long hair scattered around her.
She sighed contentedly, her fluffy big tail leisurely sweeping left and right beside her, occasionally "accidentally" brushing against the arm of another person beside her.
Pale lay beside her in a much more refined posture, hands folded over her lower abdomen... a seemingly casual yet instinctively protective gesture over a certain spot.
That garish pink-white puffy dress appeared much softer in the sunset.
Pale gazed at the sky, her molten gold eyes reflecting the flowing clouds, calm and unruffled.
"Hey, Pale."
Elara suddenly turned on her side, propping her head up with her elbow, blinking those bright amber eyes.
"You magical girls really have no weaknesses at all? That hard barrier, and that light wave that could flatten a small mountain—that's totally cheating!" Her tone carried envy. "Fighting with you is no fun at all, there's no way to win!"
Pale's gaze slowly withdrew from the flowing clouds, glancing at her sideways, her tone still flat and unruffled: "There are weaknesses. You just haven't found them."
"Eh~ Really?" Elara immediately became interested, moving closer like a curious wolf cub, almost able to feel the other's shallow breathing. "Tell me! What is it? Ticklish? Or is there some specific magic spell?"
As she spoke, her fingers restlessly crept toward Pale's hands folded over her abdomen.
Pale seemed to sense her intent, her folded hands tightening slightly, but she didn't immediately push her away, only saying flatly: "...You're noisy."
"Come on, tell me!"
Elara persisted, her fingertips already touching Pale's cool fingers. She could even feel the soft fabric of the dress beneath and... under the fabric, there seemed to be a small, hard protruding outline.
Elara's heart skipped a beat inexplicably, some inexplicable intuition telling her that was very important.
She pushed her luck, using her fingertips to gently pry open Pale's somewhat weak defense, carefully touching that hard object hidden between the dress hem and lower abdomen—about the size of a thumbnail, emitting faint warmth.
"Is it... here?" She looked up, her amber eyes sparkling with the excitement of discovering a secret and an indescribable sense of intimacy, asking in a low voice.
Her fingertips could clearly feel the regular, warm energy pulsations of that small thing, like a miniature heart.
Pale's body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
She suddenly opened her eyes wide, her molten gold gaze sharply looking at Elara, a trace of rare, almost panicked emotion flashing within.
This was the first time Elara had seen this emotionless stone show such an expression.
What kind of expression was it?
It was like... a perfect, ice-cold, hard ice sculpture mask suddenly struck by a subtle yet precise chisel blow, instantly spreading countless tiny cracks, revealing the soft interior beneath that had never been shown to anyone.
Elara's breathing seemed to stop for a moment.
Almost as an instinctive reaction, Pale suddenly raised one hand, quickly using the back of her hand to cover most of her face, especially the area below her eyes.
From Elara's angle, she could only see her suddenly widened eyes with rare ripples in the golden lakes, and that slender hand back covering her face where blue veins were visible.
"You...!" Pale's voice came from behind her hand, seeming to want to scold sternly, but due to some emotional interference, it lost its usual coldness and hardness, even carrying a trace of extremely subtle trembling.
The sunset's rays happened to pass by, and Elara was surprised to discover that at the edge of that hand covering her cheek, the originally jade-white ear was now rapidly turning a vivid, dripping crimson at visible speed.
That blush was even spreading downward, following her slender neck, dyeing all the way to the depths covered by her collar.
She... was blushing?
"That place is off-limits." Her voice was lower and colder than usual. "Never... never try to touch or attack there."
"Is that place... your weakness?"
Pale looked at her silently, those usually emotionless golden eyes seeming to churn with extremely complex things. After several seconds, she slowly lowered the hand covering her face, tightly protecting her lower abdomen with both hands again, turning her head away. Her voice returned to its usual flatness, yet carried a weight:
"Yes. It's the most fatal weakness of all magical girls." She paused, adding what seemed more like a warning to herself, "And also something that must be protected with everything until the very end."
Elara... seemed to have really discovered something incredible.
○
Sharp teeth pierced through Pale's black dress and fair skin without resistance, deeply embedding in flesh and blood.
Warm fresh blood instantly gushed out, staining Pale's clothing and Elara's mouth and nose red!
"Ugh ah!" An irrepressible, heart-rending groan of pain finally burst from Pale's lips. The intense pain made her body arch violently, yet she was held down firmly by Elara.
Pale felt as if she was facing a pack of wolves alone, the sand around her seeming to become members of the North Wind Wolf Clan.
But this was just the beginning.
Elara was a truly blood-tasting hungry wolf, completely fallen into frenzied tearing and gnawing. Her head shook, sharp teeth tearing through Pale's flesh, making teeth-aching "ripping" sounds.
Collarbone, arms, waist... Pale's body quickly became covered with horrific bite marks deep enough to show bone. Blood seeped out like springs, completely soaking her torn clothing, spreading a large patch of shocking dark red on the sand beside her.
Elara even used her rough tongue covered with black crystals to lick the wounds—the action was both tasting delicacy and a manifestation of the wolf pack's possessive desire to mark their property.
Low, satisfied purring and whimpering emerged from her throat, mixed with the subtle sounds of flesh being torn, composing a savage feeding symphony.
Hundreds of years.
This was the first time Elara had defeated Pale, breaking the wings of that never-resting bird and pinning her beneath.
Each tear carried the wolf's cruel precision, specifically targeting soft, vulnerable spots.
Each gnaw seemed to want to crush the prey's flesh, blood, and bones, swallowing them down to complete some form of "becoming one."
Pale struggled weakly beneath her, each feeble twist only inviting heavier, more frenzied biting.
Her vision became blurred from blood loss and intense pain. "Flesh and blood mangled" was insufficient to describe her miserable state—she was like being thrown into a wolf den, suffering the most thorough ravaging and destruction.
Elara seemed to find it still insufficient.
She lowered her head, her nose almost greedily sniffing the rich bloody scent at Pale's neck, then opened her bloody maw again...
This time, the target was directly at Pale's soft lower abdomen that rose and fell slightly from pain, now exposed.
That was where the magical girl's core was located, and also Elara's ultimate goal.
If she could just touch there...
Could she see that expression again?
Would you look at me once more?
Let us become one, won't you?
Elara lowered her head, using an almost devout yet utterly blasphemous posture, opening her mouthparts to cover the position where Pale's pitch-black, turbid magic core was located in her lower abdomen.
That core was cold, deathly silent, filled with chaotic and despairing aura, completely different from the subtle warmth and regular pulsations she remembered.
Pale.
Your journey never stops.
What exactly have you experienced?
Elara's throat rolled as "calamity's" energy wrapped around that core like tentacles, beginning to forcibly strip it of its last connection to Pale.
"Mmm… That... that place... you can't..."
Pale wanted to struggle, but the magic stone's power was already exhausted—she had lost the ability to fight Elara.
The damaged black Gothic battle dress on Pale's body, like a phantom that had lost its support, began rapidly becoming transparent and dissipating, as if erased by an invisible eraser.
In its place was a white shirt and black pleated skirt stained with fresh blood and yellow sand.
Having lost magic's support, Pale naturally couldn't continue maintaining her magical girl transformation.
Much less maintain breathing and movement in the sand.
At the same time, Pale's figure was also subtly shrinking and changing. Her graceful, well-proportioned figure disappeared, her height also reduced somewhat, becoming more slender, delicate, closer to that fragile yet exquisite appearance deep in Elara's memory.
Pop~
That pitch-black magic core completely lost connection with Pale's body.
"Ugh..." Pale let out an extremely weak moan as if her soul was being drawn away. Her body convulsed one last time, then completely lost all signs of life.
Her eyes completely dimmed, the last trace of life extinguished like a candle in the wind.
Elara's throat rolled as she carefully swallowed the stripped, no-longer-glowing dark core.
"Gulp..."
Not delicious at all.