After obtaining the magic stones, Pale prepared the base's breakfast and lunch in advance, then rushed to the Western District without stopping.
In theory, after a witch appeared, Pale generally wouldn't take the initiative to approach.
Precious magic stones should be used for more urgent, more harmful crises.
This kind of "low-intensity" cleanup task should also be left for the juniors to hone their skills and accumulate experience.
But the Western District was different.
Among Tianhai City's five districts, the Western District was the most special.
Unlike the Twilight base in the Central District.
The magical girls here were only freelance magical girls and members of the "End Planning Bureau."
What was even more disturbing was that the "End Planning Bureau" was extremely ruthless toward "dissident" magical girls who were unwilling to join them or had conflicting ideologies.
Magical girls continuously using magic power at high intensity in battle would produce filth. The accumulation of filth would cause the girl's character to degenerate, her soul to be corroded, and ultimately fall into becoming a witch.
The corruption seed obtained after defeating a witch could absorb this portion of filth.
Of course, using other magical girls' magic cores could also achieve this, but doing so would trigger a purge from higher-ranking core officials and joint suppression from other magical girl organizations.
Therefore.
Some ill-intentioned, selfish magical girls would deliberately lure other girls to fall into becoming witches, then defeat them to seize their corruption seeds.
Some extreme organizations even believed that magical girls were the evolutionary form of humanity, superior to others.
Therefore, they would also use witches' hands to take revenge on those humans who had once raised guns against them.
And the "End Planning Bureau" was an even more faithful practitioner of this extreme ideology.
Pale suddenly slammed open a rusty iron door, flashing into an abandoned factory warehouse.
Behind her, the roars of the bewitched crowd were temporarily shut out.
The warehouse interior was massive, dim and spacious.
The high ceiling was covered in cobwebs. Several strands of pale sunlight slanted down from the damaged skylights, casting mottled columns of light on the dust and oil-stained floor. The air was permeated with the dull smell of metal rust, aged machine oil, and dust, completely different from the sickly-sweet putrid odor outside, instead bringing a trace of temporary clarity.
Pale's arm relaxed, and she somewhat roughly placed Miyana, who had been tucked under her arm, on a relatively clean corner piled with discarded sacks.
"Cough! Cough cough cough!"
As soon as Miyana landed, she began coughing violently, gulping in the warehouse's air, which though murky was at least normal. The dizziness and fear from the high-speed movement made her legs weak, almost unable to stand. She could only futilely brace herself with her hands, looking with lingering fear at the terrifying woman before her.
"You... who are you?! What do you want?!" Miyana's voice trembled with a crying tone. She instinctively shrank back, trying to distance herself from Pale. "Let me go back! I want to be with Polaris!"
Pale didn't answer immediately.
She quickly walked to the warehouse entrance, leaning her ear to listen to the movement outside, confirming those people hadn't immediately pursued. Then, she suddenly exerted force, toppling a heavy iron shelf filled with discarded parts nearby. With a thunderous "crash," it temporarily blocked the doorway.
Only after doing all this did she turn around, her golden eyes sharply looking toward Miyana huddled in the corner in the darkness.
"You're not deeply affected yet. Stay here quietly for now."
After speaking, Pale no longer lingered. Her figure flashed, seemingly melting into the shadows, silently disappearing behind the mountain of discarded machinery and cargo boxes piled in the warehouse depths, leaving only an extremely faint energy fluctuation in the air.
The warehouse instantly fell into deathly silence.
Miyana curled up alone on the cold sack pile, enormous fear and loneliness drowning her like a freezing tide. Faint, heart-palpitating scratching and pounding sounds came from the distance, as if those bewitched people were trying to break through the barrier. Each sound made her body violently tremble.
Why...
Why treat me like this...
Dad... Mom...
"Polaris? Polaris!" The girl called out with a crying voice that sounded weak and desperate in the spacious warehouse. "Where are you?! Don't scare me! Come out!"
"Too noisy." Pale's voice appeared again, carrying a trace of impatience. A donut was suddenly stuffed into Miyana's hand that was still covering her mouth. "Eat something. Shut up."
"Mm..."
"There's even dessert!"
"You damned rich bad woman!"
...
○
Outside the warehouse, the Western District's sky was still shrouded in that sickly, dazzling pale sunlight. The sickly-sweet putrid smell in the air grew even stronger, almost becoming tangible—breathing in just one gulp made one dizzy.
After human technology regressed, unwilling to accept this, they began the Industrial Revolution, trading nature for technology.
Therefore, Tianhai City's entire sky remained perpetually hazy.
Pale moved rapidly like a gray shadow between the tall factory buildings and twisted graffiti walls. She avoided those "crowds" still wandering aimlessly on the main roads with happy smiles on their faces, following the thickest, most polluted magic flow, sneaking toward the core area of this witch's domain.
The essence of witches wasn't different from magical girls. Wherever the corruption seed was, the witch would be. If the distance was too far, the witch's power would disconnect.
The deeper into the district she went, the more bizarre the surrounding scenery became.
The graffiti on buildings gradually transformed into countless twisted, crying smiling faces and severed limbs.
Some house windows began seeping thick, pink liquid that dripped onto the ground, making soft "drip-drop" sounds. The air began echoing with clearer children's humming, mixed with faint noise like countless people simultaneously sobbing.
"Sigh~ why aren't there any other survivors..."
The less affected people were, the shorter their recovery time. Pale naturally hoped for more survivors so everyone could look after each other after defeating the witch. Otherwise, who knew if something might happen during the recovery process.
But clearly, besides Miyana... everyone had already fallen into the Doll Witch's domain.
"Looks like this witch won't be simple..."
Just based on such a large-scale domain, this was already an unprecedented level for mental-type magical girls.
Finally reaching the city center plaza, Pale froze.
Had this place been transformed into an amusement park?
This former city center plaza had now become utterly unrecognizable.
Twisted, brightly colored arched gates and fences enclosed this area into a "paradise." The ground was paved with elastic, sticky-when-stepped-on pink gelatinous material that emitted a strong bubble gum fragrance. The broken municipal sculptures were fitted with ridiculous clown hats and butterfly bows. The fountain churned with thick, pink bubble-emitting liquid.
Pale didn't doubt that if contaminated by this pink liquid, one would definitely become strange.
"Welcome to Doll Paradise!"
A figure wearing a color-stained, dirt-covered clown costume and a pale mask with a cracked smile suddenly appeared at teleportation-like speed from the side, abruptly blocking Pale's path. It bowed exaggeratedly, spreading its arms as if to give her a huge embrace.
The clown's voice came through the mask, carrying a cassette tape-like sharpness and distortion.
Pale's steps didn't pause in the slightest, not even glancing at the clown. The magic shield around her body flickered slightly.
"Bang!"
The clown seemed to hit an invisible wall, its movement suddenly stalling, its exaggerated bow frozen in mid-air. The smile on the clown's mask remained, but beneath the exposed neck skin, something small and pink seemed to squirm uneasily.
"Oh my~!" The clown seemed completely unconcerned, continuing in that distorted tone, its body straightening up again in a way that violated physical laws. "The guest is so energetic! Wonderful! Wonderful! Our paradise needs enthusiastic guests like you!"
"Carousel!" A little girl "employee" holding a rabbit doll and wearing an oversized princess dress shouted in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Ride it and you can spin round and round and round and round forever, endless happiness!"
"Ice cream! Delicious ice cream!" Another "employee" pushing a rust-covered ice cream cart constantly dripping pink liquid enthusiastically offered a cone piled with wriggling, intensely foul-smelling pink slime.
Pale had already completed her transformation. In the domain, she dared not slack off in the slightest.
Pale remained expressionless. Her golden eyes didn't even linger on these "employees," but looked past them, directly locking onto the deepest part of this twisted paradise.
There, a person-sized teddy bear doll sat quietly on the fountain's edge. Its eyes—one was a button, while the other was... a corruption seed...
Since there were no juniors around... Pale didn't need to deliberately put on a ridiculous and comical expression.
"..." At Pale's fingertips, the newly obtained magic stone tucked against her chest grew slightly warm.
The encircling "employees" drew closer and closer, almost touching her magic shield. The clown tried once again to grab her arm with its white-gloved hand.
"Come on~ guest~ don't be shy~!"
"Play together~ forever happy~!"
Buzz—!
A solid, crescent-shaped shockwave with energy ripples flickering at its edge bypassed the "employees" at an extremely tricky angle, fiercely slashing toward the constantly dripping ice cream cart nearby.
"Clang! Crash!"
A harsh sound of metal breaking rang out. The ice cream cart suddenly tilted, and the buckets full of pink slime on top tumbled down with a thunderous crash.
Splash—!!!
Large amounts of thick, putrid pink liquid poured out like a breached flood.
"Ahhh! What have you done what have you done!" The clown's enthusiastic calls turned into shrill screams.
The entire nightmare paradise's music instantly became piercing, rapid, and full of aggression. The lights flashed crazily. Those spinning carousel dolls began madly bouncing up and down, emitting tearing screams.
"We've long become accustomed to pain, yet regard happiness as death."
"We walk in the world, yet have never truly lived."
"We pursue happiness, yet the price is joy."
"Why work?"
"Why be sad?"
"Trading life for materials to maintain life? How absurd!"
"This place holds the past, carries the present, and will surely create the future!"
"Soon... it will also be your future..."
Without bothering with the chaotic "employees."
Pale's figure had already passed through the gap in the confusion.
"Checkmate." Pale murmured quietly, her speed not decreasing in the slightest, charging straight toward the Doll Witch in the paradise depths!
"Oh my my my!!!" The witch's broadcast voice mixing countless little girls' screams and electrical noise suddenly rang out, filled with the frustration of a ruined party! "Dirtied! My ice cream cart! Naughty! Guest is naughty!"
"Stop."
"You should have let go long ago."
"Those people's deaths weren't your fault."
"You should rest."
Pale didn't pause at all. The magic power in her hands had long since condensed.
"Child... I don't know why you fell, nor can I wipe away your tears, but..."
Pale's voice penetrated the crowd, precisely reaching the teddy bear's ears.
"I won't allow you to spread despair."
In an instant, the black figure had already passed through the crowd, arriving before the teddy bear.
Just as Pale's hand was about to touch the teddy bear.
Facing Pale's thunderous charge, the Doll Witch did something completely unexpected.
It didn't block, didn't evade, didn't even try to defend.
Its roughly stitched, bulging abdomen suddenly split open into a huge gash. Inside churned and boiled countless pink, viscous masses of soft flesh emitting the ultimate sickly-sweet putrid smell, and... vaguely visible countless pink tentacles.
It just exposed its belly to Pale so defenseless.
Pale's pupils suddenly contracted. She hadn't expected the opponent to adopt this method at all. Her speed was too fast, her offensive too fierce, all her power poured into this killing blow—there was no time to change direction or stop.
"!"
But it was too late.
That churning pink energy gash seemed to possess its own will and powerful suction, suddenly "welcoming" her forward!
Squelch—!
"Ugh!"
Squish squish~
Enormous, irresistible suction violently pulled Pale into that churning warmth.
She was instantly enveloped by indescribably soft and sticky sensations. Her vision was stripped away, plunging into a suffocating pink darkness.
Squish~ gurgle...
Viscous, slippery soft flesh instantly pressed in from all sides, tightly conforming to every inch of Pale's body's curves.
The Doll Witch's abdominal gash instantly closed. The rough stitching automatically threaded like a living thing, sewing the opening tightly shut. Its huge body violently, contentedly wriggled, expanded, and contracted several times, making dull "gurgling" sounds, as if savoring some exquisite delicacy, then slowly returned to its original state.
"Fall into the wonderful hell of happiness~
Ember."