Pale stood quietly in place. The massive, filthy body in her arms had already dissipated, leaving only several charred, twisted, enormous bone fragments that seemed thoroughly burned by fierce fire, scattered on the sand soaked with black blood.
The air was filled with a pungent burnt smell and the void aura after calamity's annihilation.
Pale had witnessed too many partings of life and death. Her long life made her constantly experience friends' deaths.
But personally sending an old friend on their way still made her heart ache.
Pale found two faintly glowing magic cores among the bone fragments and carefully tucked them in her arms.
Subsequently, Pale found the unconscious Aoi in the topmost compartment of the Ferris wheel.
The girl leaned gently against one side of the door, serene and beautiful.
Without hesitation, Pale tore apart the already deformed metal cabin door with her bare hands, the piercing noise echoing in the night sky.
"Sigh," Pale gently embraced the twin-tailed girl. "Really don't let people worry..."
Without any pause, Pale held Aoi and leaped lightly down from the Ferris wheel's height, her black Gothic skirt rustling in the wind.
She landed precisely beside the pile of charred bone fragments.
The moment her feet touched the ground, Pale was already kneeling on one knee, steadily placing Aoi on relatively clean ground.
Pale immediately took out Aoi's core from her arms—one that emitted a warm orange-yellow glow.
The core pulsed slightly in her palm, resonating with the last trace of weak soul remaining in Aoi's cold body, producing anxious, subtle humming.
Without hesitation, Pale pressed the core against Aoi's chest.
After completing this, Pale turned to look at Elara's remains.
'Elara... old custom, I'll see you off one last time.'
Pale extended her hand to one side, lightly cutting open space and retrieving a poplar sapling from within.
After bidding farewell to the North Wind Wolf Clan, Pale had been searching for ways to propagate this poplar.
And afterward, she succeeded.
The original mother plant still lay quietly in her magical space, while the sapling in Pale's hands now was already an unknown number of generations descended.
Pale knelt on one knee before Elara's charred remains. Her hand covered in black lace gloves gently moved aside those cold, hard bone fragments, carefully digging a small patch of blood-soaked sand in their center.
Then Pale gently and properly placed the small sapling carrying life and memory, along with precious magical soil.
She used her hands to slightly gather the surrounding sand and bone fragments, tenderly securing the sapling's roots.
The tender green sapling symbolizing ultimate vitality thus took root upon the charred, deathly remains symbolizing complete destruction.
After completing this, Pale didn't immediately stand up.
Pale just knelt there quietly, head lowered, gray hair sliding from her shoulders to cover her profile.
Pale's hand covered in black lace gloves gently pressed against her chest.
That burning heart carried too many heavy emotions.
"May honor be immortal, freedom undying."
Wind blew from the wilderness, stirring fine sand dust, sweeping over the poplar sapling's leaves with barely audible rustling, like a final dirge from the distant grassland.
Just then...
"Ember!"
A cold, angry shout tinged with trembling came from not far behind her, breaking the silence.
Rapid footsteps approached.
Hoshino Yume... that straightforward young magical girl with pink twin tails had rushed to the front. She stood with hands on her hips, her chest heaving violently from extreme anger and running, her cheeks flushed red with rage.
"You! You person!" Hoshino Yume's voice was sharp and bright, carrying undisguised accusation. "What exactly did you do to Aoi?! And Momo! Where are their cores?! Why are you here?! This... this messy place, what's going on?! Did you collude with those magical creatures again?!"
The heavy magical creature aura, the tragic battle scene, Aoi and Momo's magic power fluctuations dispersed in the air, unconscious Aoi, and the pink magic core in Ember's arms...
Hoshino Yume felt she already had her answer!
Pale's left hand hanging at her side, slightly obscured by her wide skirt, moved her fingertips extremely minutely.
An imperceptible spatial ripple flashed beneath the pile of Elara's charred remains beside her.
The next second, those bone fragments symbolizing the North Wind Wolf Princess's final existence silently disappeared, as if they had never existed.
After completing this small action, Pale slowly stood up as if just awakened by Hoshino Yume's scolding.
Pale lightly brushed the sand from her body, removing the black lace gloves stained with black blood and sand. The gloves dissolved into dots of black magic power in the air.
She turned around, facing Hoshino Yume who was angry like a little pufferfish... and Suzune standing uncertainly behind her?
Suzune didn't speak, just stood there quietly, her ice-blue eyes like two extremely cold ice lakes, firmly locked on Pale.
She gripped several spare magic stones tightly in her hand, her knuckles white from exertion. Suzune first quickly scanned the unconscious but stable-breathing Aoi, then gravely swept over the surrounding tragic battle traces, finally returning to Pale.
The Pale before her, though standing straight with even her signature slightly teasing smile on her face, but...
Beneath her solemn black Gothic dress, Pale's skin was covered with crisscrossing, bone-deep horrible claw marks. Some wounds were even still extremely slowly seeping dark red blood drops, staining the black fabric even deeper. A large patch of the fabric at her waist and abdomen was unnaturally charred and damaged, with terrible corrosion marks remaining at the edges.
Her exposed neck and collarbone, besides fine blood marks, also showed clear purple-blue bruises as if gripped by tremendous force.
And the hand Pale had just removed her glove from was also slightly, uncontrollably trembling, though she quickly hid it in the folds of her skirt.
"Hehe, your collar isn't much either~" Pale's face instantly switched to a teasing, punchable smile.
Pale's molten gold eyes curved, her gaze playfully falling on Suzune's tense face. "Little Suzune, staring at me for so long... have you finally discovered this senior's charm?"
"Mmm... even if you want to use all the magic stones as a betrothal gift, this senior won't submit to you."
"Boss, boss! What are you waiting for? Quickly arrest this traitor!"
The cynical smile on Pale's face stiffened for a moment.
She could feel the last trace of magic power maintaining her transformation rapidly depleting, like an hourglass reaching its end. The edges of that gorgeous, solemn black Gothic dress were already becoming transparent and illusory.
Crap!
If she canceled her transformation here, forget about escaping—if her true form was seen, she'd definitely be wanted.
Moreover.
Pale's true form still had to clean and cook at the "Twilight" base!
If they discovered that the girl who'd been handling logistics was actually Magical Girl Ember...
Doomed!
She'd definitely be strung up and beaten.
"I won't play with you this time. Next time, let this senior properly dote on you~"
Pale said, suddenly turning around.
Run for it!
Just as her body turned halfway, Pale seemed to remember something, forcibly twisting her head back, pulling a provocative smile at the ice-cold Suzune.
"Your collar magic isn't very good. This senior only used a little effort, hehe."
Before finishing her words, Pale seemed afraid that staying another second would completely expose her, suddenly turning completely around and rushing toward the deep shadows of the ruins almost stumblingly, her steps unsteady, then leaping up.
She lost balance in mid-air, her legs covered in torn lace kicking weakly, her waist trembling sensitively, falling like a broken-winged black bird for a short distance.
Doomed, doomed, doomed.
After returning Aoi's core, Pale completely lost her magic power source.
At this critical moment.
Suzune, who had been silent all along, as if angered by Pale, threw a magic stone in her direction.
"Idiot! Big idiot! I'll stone you to death!"
The magic stone wasn't large, but for Pale, this was enough!
Pale almost desperately reached out, barely grasping the magic stone as it passed by her side.
"Bye bye, small fry juniors! Hey! Damn, why did this collar tighten again!"
Pale disappeared.
Leaving only dumbfounded Hoshino Yume and Suzune who had secretly cast a tightening spell to vent her anger.