Pale felt something licking her brain.
It was a slippery, sticky sensation with tiny flesh barbs, like countless small tongues scraping at her, trying to drill into every fold of memory.
Hundreds of years, and Pale still had difficulty resisting these mental-type magics...
If only... Xinya were here...
But then.
Pale seemed to see a red thread.
She thought she might be hallucinating.
Xinya loved tying these red cords around her ankles and wrists. She said this way she could connect with the divine.
In her memory, the girl always tried to tie red cords on her too.
She always bounced around her, holding woven red threads with complex knots in her hands.
Under the sunlight, Xinya's face flushed red, her red eyes looking seriously at her: "Senior! This is witchcraft magic! It's a miracle that an idiot magical girl like you can't understand!"
She said, "Red threads can transcend time and space to tightly connect two people together~"
Pale seemed to see that always energetic, willful yet gentle girl again. Saw her standing with hands on hips, complaining indignantly, yet secretly revealing a smile when turning around.
"Stupid Senior..."
"Really can't leave you alone..."
Whether it was the Doll Witch's carelessness or Pale's resistance taking effect.
Just a moment of clarity.
"That's enough."
○
"Roar roar roar!"
"The assimilation is about to complete~"
"Soon you'll be one of us~"
The clown and various other amusement park employees surrounded closer, curiously examining the teddy bear's large belly.
A new employee was about to be born.
And the Doll Witch gradually let down her guard.
That girl named Xinya had been dead for who knows how many years.
Besides, she had only glimpsed fragments from before Xinya's death in Pale's memories.
A dead, fragile human who couldn't even become a witch—what waves could she stir up?
Just hallucinations produced by Pale's despair.
"Heh... the little cook has quite an imagination."
"Fantasizing about someone confessing to her before dying or something~"
The Doll Witch felt she had already secured victory.
The teddy bear excitedly hugged its big belly, which made squelching sticky sounds inside.
"Let me see what our Miss Ember is thinking now~"
What does it mean that body fat content is around 21%?
What does it mean that those parts have around 67% fat content?
What does it mean that mine are so big and soft they must be around 70%?
"Eh?" Confusion was clearly visible on the teddy bear's face. She could be certain that the current Pale couldn't use even one spell. What are you doing?
"It's fine, boss! We've already won!" the clown said proudly.
"That's right, that's right!"
"No, no!" The Doll Witch held her belly.
Something was wrong!
Just now, her tentacles seemed to momentarily escape her control, as if entangled by a red thread.
Pale's right hand had somehow broken free from part of the sticky tentacle restraints.
In her hand, she gripped an old metal lighter.
Click.
The abrupt sound was particularly piercing amid the squelching of wriggling soft flesh.
A small, orange-yellow flame quietly ignited, dancing at her pale fingertips.
This flame was mixed with a trace of Pale's magic power.
It burned firmly and persistently.
This was already all Pale could do in this moment of clarity.
The flame was gentle.
When it touched Pale's gray hair, it only made a soft "poof" sound.
But immediately after, that orange-yellow cluster suddenly expanded, changed color, transforming into roaring ghostly blue and violent crimson.
The flames instantly wrapped around Pale's head, neck, shoulders, turning her into a silently burning torch.
Especially those two parts with the highest fat content made crackling sounds.
Humans are combustible.
Pale's magic power had long been exhausted, but this body that had experienced hundreds of years itself was the best fuel.
Her enchantingly voluptuous figure after transformation was even better combustion material.
"Aahhh!"
The first to let out a shrill scream was the Doll Witch herself.
The huge teddy bear body began convulsing wildly and uncontrollably, futilely slapping its burning belly. Flames erupted from inside, rapidly carbonizing those sticky, flesh tentacles trying to assimilate Pale, burning them into curled, foul-smelling black chunks.
The intense pain brought Pale rare clarity and calm.
She felt every inch of skin screaming, fat melting, muscles contracting and charring.
Pale didn't make any sound.
Her lips were tightly pressed together, perhaps already fused by the flames. The only proof she wasn't yet dead was her body's uncontrollable trembling, which was soon swallowed by even fiercer flames.
"You lunatic!"
"Roar! Come out! Get out! You're courting death! I don't want to die yet!" The Doll Witch's screams pierced the sky. It frantically rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish this fire burning from inside out. The soft abdomen made squelching sounds under the squeezing and burning.
Outside, the clown and employees were in chaos, panicking.
"Boss! It's on fire!"
"Quick! Help boss put out the fire!"
"Water! Go find water!"
But they couldn't find water. And even if they did, it would be meaningless.
Pale was burning.
She had ignited herself from inside the teddy bear.
A charred hand "poof" emerged from the teddy bear's belly, even showing white bone, like a withered branch from hell.
Accompanied by teeth-grating tearing sounds and an even stronger burnt smell, a large piece of melted filling was roughly torn open by this hand, revealing behind it a burning, twisted opening.
The Doll Witch's screams reached their peak, becoming pure, incomprehensible shrieks.
"Wryyyyyyyy!"
Flames spurted even more fiercely from the breach.
Then, another equally charred and terrifying hand also extended, both hands grasping the edges of the breach, forcefully pulling outward!
"Rip!"
The teddy bear's abdomen was completely torn open into a huge, jagged gash.
Burning cotton stuffing, carbonized tentacle fragments, and melting bizarre tissues poured out from the opening like vomit.
A figure slowly crawled out from this nest of flames and filth.
Her movements were slow—every motion accompanied by rustling sounds of carbonized skin peeling off and burning flesh dropping.
Flames still wrapped around her, especially around her torso and legs, obviously unwilling to give up this excellent fuel.
She first struggled to squeeze her upper body out of the breach, the outline of charred ribs clearly visible. Then using arms nearly exposing bone to support her body, bit by bit dragging her lower body from that sticky burning restraint.
Finally she completely separated from the teddy bear's abdomen, heavily falling to the ground with a dull thud, splashing sparks and ash.
She lay there, motionless.
Flames still burned around her body, but the momentum seemed somewhat weaker than when inside the teddy bear.
The ground beneath her was scorching hot from the high temperature.
A few seconds later, that charred body moved.
Using those charred, bone-exposing arms, she supported her body, trying to stand up.
She failed the first time, knees smashing onto the ground.
She immediately tried again.
Finally, she stood up.
A form that could hardly be called "human."
Most skin and soft tissue had disappeared, exposing blackened bones and shrunken muscle texture beneath. Her facial features were blurred and indistinct. Only in the depths of her eye sockets, those two points of dormant gold proved the existence of some consciousness.
Flames danced on her body, finally stubbornly licking the framework of her chest cavity and the protrusions of her pelvis, then, exhausting their last strength, gradually extinguished, leaving only wisps of distorted air and blue smoke slowly rising from her terrible torso.
She stood there, silent as a tombstone.
Behind her, the teddy bear's huge wreckage let out a tremendous roar, flames suddenly shooting up, then gradually weakening, leaving only embers smoldering.
The amusement park's eerie music had stopped at some point.
In the deathly silence, only the sound of ash falling.
Pale, or rather the remnant that was once Pale, slightly moved that charred head.
Those employees who had just been celebrating trembled and collectively retreated, wanting to distance themselves from this monster burned beyond human recognition.
"Gulp." An employee wearing a thick animal costume, playing some kind of cartoon bear, swallowed with difficulty, the sound abnormally loud in the silence.
No "person" dared move.
No "person" dared speak.
Even breathing was deliberately lightened, fearing that the slightest sound would attract the attention of that existence that crawled out from ash and flames.
What kind of existence was this?
The magical girl called "Ember."
Showed them the persistent willpower and indomitable soul that could resist the calamity for hundreds of years.