This sandstorm that swept through the entire city had lasted all night.
Ever since the civil war between magical girls and humans, both sides had reached a strange understanding.
The two sides, who shared the same origins, gradually accepted each other's existence in daily life and work, but magical girls as a group had separated from production.
Magical girls would still protect people's safety from corrupted magical creatures and witches, but most girls chose to join magical girl organizations for collective living. Only a small portion of independent magical girls like Pale remained in human society.
The innocent and naive girls naturally couldn't accept the day-to-day monotonous productive life.
Rather, magic itself was the power of imagination and hope.
Girls who had their edges and will worn down by life weren't qualified to obtain magic.
Therefore, when disasters struck, the "Twilight" organization led by Suzune would arrange specialized personnel for emergency response.
Ensuring the production and work of different people.
This was a transaction, and also an unspoken agreement.
At this moment, in the yellow sand that filled the sky with visibility less than ten meters, two figures were struggling to move forward.
"Momo! Be careful! The wind is too strong!" A girl in a pale yellow combat outfit with twin tails shouted loudly. Her voice seemed somewhat weak in the howling sandstorm.
Her name was Aoi, a new member of the "Twilight" organization. She was now struggling to maintain a pale golden, honeycomb-structured light shield to resist the impact of the fierce wind and the assault of sand particles.
The light shield flickered slightly under the continuous bombardment of wind and sand, appearing unstable.
"I know, I know! Aoi, you're just too careful!" The girl beside her named Momo, wearing a pink-white puffy dress with pink short hair, responded. The girl got a mouthful of sand from speaking, but her eager excitement still made her eyes shine.
A team composition like theirs—one defensive or healing-type magical girl paired with one offensive magical girl—was the standard configuration for reconnaissance squads.
The yellow sand gradually buried the city that was already close to ruins. The skyscrapers that once towered into the clouds now only had twisted, broken steel frameworks remaining, like the bones of giant beasts, appearing and disappearing in the sandstorm. They were covered with thick dust, presenting a sickly earth-yellow color. Many places had been half-buried by sand dunes, only revealing their hideous tops or broken cross-sections.
Actually, you could tell with the naked eye that an abnormality had occurred here.
It was just that they didn't yet know whether the culprit causing this abnormality was a witch or a magical creature.
Aoi and Momo learned from textbooks:
Witches were the product of magical girls completely losing the light of hope and falling into despair. They inherited all the abilities and magic of the original magical girl, and were even superior.
The origin of the latter was still unknown. They could only vaguely sense a trace of "calamity" aura from them, but the calamity carried by these magical creatures wasn't infectious, so their threat level was far less than calamity itself.
"I think this time there should be a witch with abilities similar to controlling natural sand and soil running rampant," Momo proudly puffed out her chest, struggling to maintain balance in the fierce wind. Her pink puffy dress fluttered loudly in the wind. She felt her analysis was spot-on and was quite confident in her theoretical course grades. "This type of witch generally has high attack but low defense. As long as we're careful not to get hit by area attacks, finding the main body is actually quite simple!"
She wiped the dust from her face, wearing an expression of 'I'm super smart,' and turned to look behind her, seeking her partner's approval: "Right, Aoi?"
However, behind her was only a chaotic swirl of yellow sand.
Aoi was gone!
The pale yellow figure who had been closely following behind her just moments ago, struggling to maintain the pale golden light shield, had vanished without a trace as if completely swallowed by the sandstorm.
"Aoi?!" The smugness on Momo's face instantly froze, replaced by disbelieving shock and a trace of rapidly spreading panic. She suddenly stopped, not caring about the sand pouring into her nose and mouth, anxiously looking around.
However, there was only chaos all around—violent, chaotic magical currents filled with filthy aura. The sandstorm itself was like a living, malicious giant beast whose presence masked everything. Momo's perception sank as if into a quagmire, completely unable to distinguish Aoi's familiar, gentle defensive magic power.
Just as she was frantic with worry and at a complete loss...
An extremely subtle "rustling" sound, almost masked by the howling wind and sand, came from behind her.
A massive claw covered in viscous sand particles precisely grasped Momo's magic core.
The girl's peach-colored pupils suddenly lost their color, and her body went limp on the ground.
"I remember... the weakness of magical girls is this little gem, right?"
That voice carried a trace of playful amusement, as if appreciating an interesting toy.
Above the claw, one pink and one yellow gem lay quietly in the palm.
Oh~
How long has it been since we last met?
My dear Pale.
Do you still remember our promise?
After the "calamity," Elara felt like she had slept for centuries.
Elara was no longer Elara, yet she was an extension of Elara.
A miracle created by "calamity."
After several hundred years.
I want to see Pale again so badly... I want... to play with her so badly...
○
Pale hovered in mid-air, her large black-red wizard hat unmoved by the fierce wind. Her molten gold eyes under the brim swept over the magical girl collapsed on the ground below, who had long lost her magic core.
Pale chose not to use a magic power shield—that was too wasteful.
Why consume precious magic power for something a cloak could handle?
Emmm, this air was quite chewy.
Pale also realized that this enemy might be extraordinary.
The wounds on Momo's body and the ability to create quicksand made Pale feel a sense of familiarity.
Calamity.
The calamity that devoured grasslands like terrifying locusts.
That was a nightmare, a disaster that exterminated the grassland spirits.
Grassland werewolves, swamp monsters, sheep spirits... none had been spared, all buried in the yellow sand of history's long river.
Tsk.
Pale rubbed her tightly furrowed brow.
After defeating the calamity, these disgusting virus-like disasters hadn't retreated but had chosen to hibernate.
They lost their infectivity and proliferation ability but became more hidden and cunning.
The younger generation of magical girls might not know.
But Pale knew exactly what those magical creatures were—they were the remnants of beings that had been corrupted, twisted, and ultimately survived the calamity from the previous era. They were living tombstones left by calamity, like maggots in the bone.
"E...la...ra?" A voice filled with disbelief and dryness struggled out of Pale's throat. Her fingertips trembled slightly beyond her control.
It shouldn't be possible.
Pale denied this possibility herself.
Elara had long been trapped and died on that grassland, swallowed by calamity along with the homeland she loved.
But just as Pale was thinking...
A familiar voice rang out behind her.
"Trai... traitor!"
It was that twin-tailed girl who had been the first to rush to transfer her filth!
"Traitor!" The twin-tailed girl's voice cracked slightly from excitement. "You really are causing trouble here! What did you do to Momo?! Hand over Aoi!"
"Magical Girl Ember..."
The twin-tail called out Pale's title name with gritted teeth.
"Why can you still use magic! Damn it! You must be colluding with witches again!"
This person hadn't investigated anything or asked any questions, just came up and dumped accusations on Pale's head.
This was intolerable!
Pale decided the magical creature matter could wait.
Right now, having some fun with her junior was the top priority!