Chapter 84 : Confusion (7) Part-2

“Help me for a second,” I said.

“What are you planning?” Dahlia asked, her face still pale.

“One of these won’t be enough to destroy the wall,” I replied.

Of course, they wouldn’t want the inside of this facility to be exposed to the outside world.

Even if the Federation complained, the company they were trying to ally with couldn’t let the truth come out—it would spark backlash among Earthlings.

“Are you planning to detonate them?” Dahlia asked, grasping the situation instantly.

“Exactly,” I said, my eyes blazing.

“With this, I’ll blow a huge hole in the wall.”

Sure, it might be dangerous.

But since when has being a magical girl ever been safe? Especially for me.

I casually tossed the circuit toward the wall.

“Don’t worry; they won’t explode just by throwing them. They’re fine until I trigger them, so toss them over there!”

As I said this, I swatted away a missile heading our way with my hammer.

The missile veered sideways, slamming into the hangar and exploding.

Inside the hangar were several other robots, strangely inert.

Originally, they must’ve planned for those to activate too.

If I detonated the bombs, those robots might come to life.

I glanced back.

The magical girls were still fighting well.

The monsters were strong, healing their wounds quickly, and they looked eerily like Earthlings.

They even seemed to be directly operated by circuits.

I couldn’t muster that kind of strength with my current energy.

But my plan was simple: I didn’t intend to fight all of them here.

I’d break through the wall, force them to chase us outside, and fight them there.

At least outside, we could use our energy without limits.

Despite her pale face, Dahlia followed my instructions.

She deflected incoming attacks with her magic and threw circuits from the floor toward the wall.

“How many do we need?” she asked.

“Not sure,” I replied.

By the time I looked at the wall, over ten circuits had already been stacked there.

Their instability was clear—tossing them haphazardly had only made it worse.

“This should be enough,” I said.

What comes next is despair.

How can I despair more than Hayoon’s hope?

The magical girls, including Hayoon, were fighting too well.

But betraying them wasn’t an option.

That would cause irreversible damage to me.

Alright.

I’ve never been one to think deeply before acting.

I’ll just act as recklessly as always.

“Hey, where are you going?!” Dahlia called out.

“To fight,” I replied.

“What?!” she exclaimed in shock.

“It’s the fastest way to break the wall,” I said.

The circuits littered across the floor in the fight zone looked even more unstable than before.

Maybe it was the impact, or maybe it was my own despair intensifying.

Either way, they’d help.

I gripped my hammer tightly and charged toward the enemy.

The battlefield was chaos, incomparable to the area we were breaking the floor earlier.

Concrete debris filled the air, unventilated, making it look like a war zone.

I rushed in, grabbed a circuit from the floor, and hurled it toward the wall.

Thud.

A kick struck me from the side, sending me sprawling.

It hurt.

Even though the attacker wasn’t wearing boots, the pain made stars dance before my eyes.

Did they coat their kick with magic?

I swung my hammer at the monster.

Bang!

The monster raised its hand, catching my hammer.

Its hand trembled, its outer skin tearing, but it endured my strike.

No matter how much propulsion I added, I couldn’t fling it aside.

Thud.

Its knee slammed into my stomach.

I doubled over, unable to breathe, as pain wracked my body.

Ha, haha.

This feels familiar, but I can’t recall why.

Had I really forgotten because things had gotten a little better?

Or had they? I couldn’t tell.

Honestly, it was too embarrassing to call my current situation “better.”

The only good thing about this was transforming into a magical girl.

As I bent forward, the circuits came into view again.

I grabbed one and tossed it, letting myself be thrown aside as well.

I rolled across the floor. It hurt much more than I expected, but—

Whirrrrr.

The circuits were spinning. Good.

Or maybe not so good.

The more I despaired, the stronger the monsters became.

My despair trickled into the circuits powering them, sharing a part of my energy with those monsters who were weakly spinning their circuits on their own.

Seriously, what a useless ability—to empower the enemy in this situation.

The circuits trembled more violently.

The magical girls—especially Hayoon—were visibly alarmed.

Seeing me get hit while fighting the monsters, they tried to get to me, but I had already plunged deep into the middle of the enemy.

Hayoon’s circuit seemed to dim slightly compared to earlier.

Was it just my imagination?

Thud.

It hurt.

This time, I managed to block the attack, but my arm throbbed and trembled.

The monster tried to kick me again, but while it was standing on one leg, it wobbled and lost its balance from a spell shot by Dahlia.

Iris also provided cover fire, but even her beam didn’t send the monster flying—it must have been cloaked in magic.

Bang!

My hammer struck the unbalanced monster, sending it flying.

The monster skidded across the floor, shoulder buried into it, and the circuits came back into view.

I grabbed one and threw it again.

Dahlia seemed to understand what I was doing and rushed over to hurl another circuit toward the wall.

Finally, the monsters began to realize something was off.

They noticed the circuits piled up and spinning intensely in one corner.

Would they go after them?

No.

Perhaps because they were once Earthlings turned into monsters, their targets were clear: the magical girls, including me.

Not a single one headed toward the circuits or the Mohican cowering in the corner.

But they didn’t seem to recognize the circuits as a threat either.

Were their commands too simple to comprehend that?

A monster’s hand struck me hard.

Unlike being thrown, this blow sent me rolling across the floor.

When I regained focus, I saw two circuits lying side by side in front of me.

I threw them too.

The circuits were far more unstable than before.

What kind of bizarre setting is this, where something only becomes useful when it’s about to explode?

“Jieun!”

Hayoon called out to me desperately.

The magical girls were still holding their ground, but the enemies’ weapons were noticeably weaker than before.

Was it because their hope had dimmed slightly?

Or maybe it was my own hope—

“Everyone, run!”

I shouted.

Now was the time.

A black hole materialized in midair. It started the size of a fist but slowly grew larger, absorbing the surrounding light.

Then, the circuits piled against the wall began to emit a high-pitched screech.

The unstable circuits were finally being pushed to their limits as the black hole pulled at them. The monsters resisted, but—

Two arms suddenly wrapped under mine.

“Did you plan to stay behind alone!?”

Dahlia scolded me as she flew us out.

While the monsters were still adjusting their stances, Dahlia mustered all her strength, screaming as she flew toward the black hole.

She barely managed to escape just as the explosion began to rumble.

I tumbled heavily across the ground.

At least I didn’t crash into broken concrete this time.

Though it was asphalt instead.

Before I could even get back on my feet—

A deafening roar erupted.

Screams rang out nearby, along with shouts from the police trying to control the scene.

I looked up.

A massive explosion was tearing through the upper part of the building.

Above it, a black hole hovered—whether I had created two of them from the beginning, I wasn’t sure.

Honestly, I had been too busy getting hit to notice.

But I had done it.

The falling debris didn’t reach the ground—likely hurled out to the sea or somewhere far away.

A large hole had been blasted in the research facility.

That much was clear.