"You evil monster! Magical Girl Blue Star will defeat you!"
Deep within the city's vast sewer system, Alice shouted as she stood in her magical-girl attire.
A narrow beam of light extended from the tip of her wand. Alice charged forward like a warrior wielding a laser sword and sliced through the monster lunging at her.
"As expected of the savior chosen by destiny, Alice! In only a few days, you've already developed such incredible combat ability."
"At this rate, it won't be long before you save the city and restore the peace it once enjoyed!"
After Alice easily defeated the enemy, Lief immediately flew over and circled her excitedly in celebration.
"Hey, I'm not that impressive. Most of it comes from the assistance provided by my magical-girl powers."
"Still, why do these combat techniques, and even the feeling of killing an enemy, seem so familiar?"
Alice murmured to herself, her eyes filled with confusion.
For some reason, these combat techniques, especially the practiced movements used to kill her enemies, felt incredibly familiar.
During her first battle, she had panicked when the enemy attacked and had no idea what to do.
Her body, however, had already reacted on its own.
She rolled aside with practiced ease, avoiding the attack. Then she formed a sword from magical energy and severed the monster's limbs, causing it to lose its balance.
The instant the monster stumbled, Alice swiftly cut off its head.
Only after its corpse turned to ash and disappeared did Alice realize what she had done.
During battle, she seemed to understand every one of her enemy's attacks and could respond precisely according to her current condition.
She could instantly identify an enemy's weakness, break through its defense, then press the advantage and claim victory by taking its head.
This was not the combat ability of an ordinary middle school student.
It was more like the skill of a veteran who had survived countless battles and left mountains of corpses behind.
The innocent Alice had no idea what was happening.
She could only believe Lief's explanation that this was an ability granted to her after becoming a magical girl.
Otherwise, sending an ordinary girl into battle would have been far too dangerous.
Alice pushed those thoughts aside and excitedly sensed the soul power accumulating within her body.
Lief had told her that whenever she killed one of those monsters, she would absorb the soul power it possessed.
That power was the reason the mastermind behind them could continue creating more monsters.
It was also why only magical girls could truly defeat them and save the world.
With Lief's help, the soul power could later be purified into raw energy, allowing Alice to become stronger and master even more abilities.
"Now that I've gathered this much soul power, I should be strong enough to defeat the first Dark General, right?"
Lief had told Alice that the city was descending into chaos, and the world faced destruction, because four Dark Generals from the Dark World were operating behind the scenes.
The four of them continually corrupted reality and created all kinds of chaos and evil.
Their goal was to summon the strongest and most wicked Demon King into this world.
Once summoned, the Demon King would rule the world and condemn it to eternal suffering.
Alice therefore had to gather enough power to defeat the four Dark Generals, stop the Demon King's summoning, and restore peace to the world.
"Of course! With all this soul power, you'll become even stronger."
"You should already be capable of defeating the first Dark General, the Frog Queen."
"The Frog Queen? What a strange name. Is that Dark General actually a frog?"
"Hehe, maybe. I don't know what the Frog Queen truly looks like either. That's simply the title passed down in the stories."
"All right! Let's keep going!"
After finishing her brief rest, Alice confidently continued deeper into the sewers.
...
"System, are you there?"
Caelus tried calling out to his System but received no response.
It had been like this for the past few days.
The System seemed to have found several important leads and was now devoting all its processing power to uncovering the truth behind this world.
It had no attention to spare for casual conversation with Caelus.
The only safeguard it had left behind would activate during an emergency and remove Caelus from this world.
Outside such circumstances, the System would not respond for the time being.
Caelus felt no anxiety over this.
He had already tried calling several times over the past few days, and today was merely another routine attempt.
Caelus opened the door, preparing to leave for work as he had on the previous days.
However, instead of the familiar corridor, he found a library beyond the doorway.
It was a library with green carpeting.
A long table stood at its center, covered with books.
Behind it sat someone with a familiar face.
It was Norden, although she looked more mature and had a pair of rabbit ears atop her head.
She looked exactly like the figure from his earlier vision.
Caelus turned around and discovered that he had somehow already entered the library beyond the door.
The doorway he had opened was now closed and slowly fading away.
Rather than panicking and trying to force it open, Caelus calmly walked to the long table and sat down.
He looked at Norden, who was holding a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and asked, "Where is this?"
"This is Wonderland."
"Who are you?"
"Someone responsible for helping you."
"Who am I?"
"Who do you believe yourself to be?"
"I am Caelus."
"Very well, Mr. Caelus. My name is Norden."
"I am the librarian here, as well as the person assigned to assist you."
"Whatever you request, I will do my best to provide it."
Caelus calmly studied Norden.
She radiated a gentle, almost maternal presence and smiled at him warmly.
"Why have I come here?"
"That is something you must ask yourself."
"Perhaps you came to recover something you once lost."
"Perhaps you are merely a traveler who accidentally fell into this place."
"Or perhaps you have simply returned."
Caelus watched Norden silently for a moment before standing and walking toward the library's only open doorway.
"May you recover the past you once lost."
Just as Caelus was about to cross the threshold, Norden's voice sounded behind him.
He continued forward as though he had not heard her.
Caelus stepped into the glowing doorway.
When the light faded, he was back inside his apartment.
The door stood open before him, revealing the familiar corridor outside.
Everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion.
Caelus left the apartment and stepped onto the street.
On the roof of a nearby shop, he saw a girl with cat ears lying on her stomach.
A collar circled her neck.
The girl opened her mouth in a wide smile and meowed at him.
The sound of turning gears echoed once again.
It announced to every character that the former protagonist had returned.
The script was beginning to move once more.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)