Magical Girl Tyrant Sylph

The Department of Magical Affairs does not get involved in turf wars between Magical Girls. If the situation escalates into a killing war, that is a different story, but they will not move to the extent that their territory has been taken by force. So notification of a Diest outbreak isn’t sent mechanically to the Magical Girls guarding the area, but to all Magical Girls near the point of the outbreak.

The incidence of Diests in Sakira Town began to gradually increase about a month ago and has now risen to the point where it is now considered a Hunting Ground. Even during the training of Blade and the other two, their magiphones received almost daily notifications of the Diest outbreak. Ignoring this, they continued to train, leaving the fight to the attackers, and finally the day of the decision came. Blade’s group, each notified of the occurrence of a different Diest, are transferred to the Deception World in the light of the magic circle.

After the transition was complete, Blade’s vision showed the image of a Diest being pierced by a hard tree root and disappearing.

At the base of the spear, which protruded from the ground, was a single Magical Girl whom Blade knew well.

Aware that her heart was beating fast, Bladd approached the Magical Girl, telling herself to remain calm.

「I see that you hadn’t quit yet.」

Dryad does not seem surprised when she turned around and talked to Blade, whether she noticed from the beginning that Blade had moved towards her, or whether she was alerted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

That first statement from Dryad almost confirmed the suspicion that Blade had felt, but she did not point it out just yet. She had no intention of letting her get away with it.

「Senpai, why are you doing this?」

After being admonished by Elephant, Blade accepted that Dryad was genuine, but she did not know if she could keep her composure in the face of the real person. But contrary to expectations, Blade was calm. To the extent that she can choose the option of dialogue, acknowledging that the Magical Girl in front of her is Dryad herself, and recognizing her evil deeds.

「Needless to say, right? It’s not often you find such an attractive Hunting Ground.」

「Even if it’s for the other two, that’s a lie on the part of Senpai.」

When everyone shared the information that Knuckle had gathered, one question came to mind. It was about the motive as to why Dryad was participating in this raid.

Initially, it was thought that she was trying to take over the territory of an old nest that she had once left because it had become a profitable Hunting Ground. The situation, however, was not so simple. Dryad’s current area of activity is a place called Hōzuki Town, which isn’t so much a Hunting Ground as it is a place where the appearances of Diest is increasing.

In addition, Dryad had to change her area of activity from Sakira to Hōzuki due to family reasons. She was probably making some excuse to stay in Sakira Town because she was currently on summer vacation, but once August is over, she should not be able to stay in Sakira Town all the time.

In other words, it is highly possible that Dryad’s motive for attacking Sakira Town was not to make the Hunting Ground her own territory.

「Senpai doesn’t even belong in a faction. So why are you helping the Naturalists? Are you being threatened, by any chance?」

「Haah… You’re still a messy, annoying little girl. I always hated that about you.」

Dryad, who let out a troublesome sigh, produced a large staff made of thick woven branches.

Blade did not know whether Dryad’s words were a lie or the truth. But whichever it is, what they do is the same. If she was not willing to talk, she will keep fighting until she was willing to talk.

「Root Whip.」

「Sword Dance.」

A sword wielded by six transparent arms cuts through the wave of roots that nearly swallowed her unilaterally last time. Aside from the simple increase in the number of hands, her Awakening to Phase 2 also improved the performance of each of the swords held by the six arms as well as her exclusive weapon.

「Leaf Edge.」

Perhaps judging that she would be breached at this rate, Dryad intercepted them by activating magic that ejects sharp leaves like blades. But Blade avoids it with a smooth gait, cutting off only what could have been half a body and a fatal wound. Despite making several cuts all over her body, not even close to Samurai Peach’s, Blade cut down all the roots and cut through the storm of blade leaves to slash at Dryad.

「Tree Wall.」

Just before the sword reached Dryad, several large, thick trees grew out of the ground and blocked Blade. The tree, which is not for attack but for defense, is naturally much harder than previous ones and cannot be cut off with a single blow even with the Blade’s specialized weapons. After cutting down about half of the trees in the stand, Blade’s sword stopped.

「Root Lance, Living Wood.」

A sharp wooden spear leaps out from under the feet of Blade, who tries to force her way through the wall with the six swords wielded by her invisible arms, and attacks to skewer her. Instantly, Blade let go of the sword that had dug into the wall and back-stepped to avoid it, but as if chasing her, a spear also flew out from the ground where she had landed.

Just before landing, she succeeded in evading the spear by smashing it with her six swords, but Dryad used the opportunity to invoke further magic. Three of the remaining tree walls, which had blocked Blade’s blow, walked out on their own, moving their roots like legs, and attacked Blade, using the branches as arms. Catching a sharp, pointed branch unprotected would no doubt result in small holes all over her body.

「Sword Geyser!」

No sooner than the slow-moving tree people were in attack range, a magic circle so large that it covered all the tree people appeared and a large number of swords erupted as Blade activated her magic. The treant, cut up by countless swords, crumble to the ground like fine branches.

「Seed Oil, Grenade Nuts.」

「Hide Sword, Sword Upper.」

Slippery oil covers the ground as Dryad leaps high and moves to the roof of a private house. It was a nasty magic that makes it difficult to even hold a weapon, because if you move even one step, you will fall and your whole body will be covered in oil. In addition, the magic of exploding nuts was invoked. A two-stage vicious attack magic in which nuts encased in a hard shell explode, and then flying fragments fly out to attack.

The falling nuts explode a short distance away from Blade. If she was too close, the six swords would have bounced her off before it exploded. Even if the shrapnel strikes a person who has been knocked out of position by the blast, it was powerful enough against Magical Girls. There is no way Blade to dodge it, which should no longer even be able to stand due to the oil. If Blade had remained as Dryad knew her, that would have been the end of it.

But when the fruit exploded and the smoke cleared, Blade was still standing there, holding the golden sword that he had given up. Although there are more small cuts, there are no injuries that seem fatal.

The two new magic skills that Blade had acquired through training with the Witches miraculously meshed to save the day.

Hide Sword is a magic that can grow a blade from anywhere on herself, and the blade grew from the soles of her feet, piercing the ground and preventing her from falling as an anchor.

In addition, her swordsmanship and Sword Upper magic, which temporarily boosts her physical abilities, enabled her to repel and avoid each incoming splinter.

However, aside from Hide Sword, the Sword Upper is a magic that consumes a lot of magical power, and there is a drawback that it cannot be used regularly except for special occasions. There is still plenty of room now, but if Dryad repeats the same attack, Blade will eventually run out of energy and fall over. Of course, Blade is not going to let this happen quietly.

「…You’ve grown up a little.」

「Are you finally ready to talk?」

「I thought it was too much trouble. I’ll get this over with in one fell swoop.」

Nearly five months have already passed since Dryad left Sakira Town and stopped fighting together with Blade. And it wasn’t only Blade and her friends who had grown during those five months. The magic that Dryad had used so far was all that Blade knew. It was a magic that Dryad had used against Diest since she was in Sakira Town and that Blade was well acquainted with. That is why she was able to cope with it. She had decided to deal with this magic in this way.

But the magic of Dryad, as Blade knew it, was no more. If ending it all at once is a great feat that Blade doesn’t know, then it will be a real test of Blade’s ability to deal with it.

「Field Magic,『Forest』.」

Field Magic, it is one of the magic that should be called the innermost secrets of Magical Girls of the natural lineage. It creates the same environment as the Natural Magic it handles and has various effects, such as improving the power of other magic and treating the environment itself as a weapon.

It’s a highly advanced magic that only a very few Phase 2 Magical Girls have mastered because it is considered a profound magic, and that of Dryad was on the minimum scale for Field Magic.

At the same time as the chanting is completed, trees grow from the ground here and there as if in fast forward animation, and lush green leaves cover the sky. It wasn’t only in the vicinity of Blade, but spread out and covered an area as large as 100 meters in diameter with dense trees.

The roots, branches, and leaves of the surrounding tall trees attack Blade, which are overwhelmed by the Field Magic she was directly facing. The forest itself may be magic, or perhaps it is Blade herself, but the harsh attacks are folded in as if to eliminate the foreign object called Blade.

The forestation to the footholds has caused the oil to flow and create footholds, and although Blade was standing around to avoid being hit only by deadly attacks, the wounds are more numerous and deeper than ever before. She will not last long as it is. Blade herself understands this, which is why she cannot use the Sword Upper’s magic. It will make it a little better, but if she doesn’t find and overthrow Dryad in the meantime, she will only make herself fall faster.

This forest is too much of a distraction to defeat Dryad.

「Sword Geyser.」

A magic circle of about three meters in diameter centered on her own feet spread out, and countless swords erupted with great force. The sword sliced through the oncoming crowd of plants to protect Blade, but Blade was affected by it as well. Just because she was a Magical Girl with a blade doesn’t mean she can’t get cut and not get hurt. Blade covered her feet with six invisible arms, which can only interfere with swords, and used the swords she had them hold and the arms themselves to block the swords that erupted.

Of course, such a feat would not last long. But Blade needed that short time. It was her time to concentrate, undisturbed. That was what she really needed to use her trump card magic.

Amidst the sounds of plants chopping and metal clashing with each other, Blade held the golden swords in both hands to her eyes and closed them.

The image that emerges behind my eyelids is that of dryad who was always ahead of her. Blade now opened her eyes and tilted her sword horizontally and draws it to the back of her waist, as if to break the spell.

「Giant Killing!」

At the same time as chanting, she stepped strongly and moved her hips and arms to swung her greatsword. She also spun her body one revolution with centrifugal force, and finally the sword, which could not be stopped, pierced the ground. The weight of the sword with magic on it was so heavy that the original blade could not wait up for it.

And the next moment, as if she had belatedly realized that she had been cut, the towering trees fell one after the other with a heavy thud. Beyond the improved view, Dryad kneeled and looked at the cut forest in dismay. The appearance of the person showed no signs of wariness.

「Why are you… How did you… I…!」

「Did you really want me to retire that badly?」

「!!」

When Blade walked up to Dryad and thrust her golden sword into the ground and questioned her, Dryad looked up at Blade with wide eyes.

「…I see, you knew. The source must be from Knuckle then.」

「The thing about Vampire-san was true. But I can guess that Senpai was after me.」

Before the fight, Dryad seemed unruly, but once it was over, she seemed calm, if not resigned. Seeing this, and taking Dryad’s word for it, Blade knew that her guess was correct. Dryad’s goal from the beginning was to get Blade to quit being a Magical Girl, and the fight was merely a means to that end. So when she saw Blade, who wouldn’t give up and bite no matter how much she showed a gap in strength, Dryad’s heart broke first. Blade’s magic is nearly exhausted, and if the fight continued, Dryad would win, but Blade is keeping a cool face to avoid realizing this.

And although Blade had anticipated the reasons that led her to this goal, she still could not believe the answer she had derived on her own. She wondered if that Dryad would be bothered by such things now.

「It’s ridiculous. You have every right to be angry. That you trained under a Magical Girl like me…」

「I don’t regret anything that I learned from my Senpai. I don’t even think you were wrong. That’s why I will never quit being a Magical Girl.」

Dryad, who nodded after hearing Blade’s answer, muttered in a faint voice.

「I wasn’t ready for this…」

「But Senpai was always fighting for our lives.」

「!——」

Dryad, on her knees, looked up vigorously and grabbed onto Blade as if to cling to her. It was not an attempt to attack her, but rather a failure to control her raging emotions.

Staring straight into Blade’s eyes at close range, Dryad’s eyes were wet with tears and her lips were trembling.

「I was ready to put my life on the line long ago! Whenever I die, I won’t regret it! But! I wasn’t ready to let someone else risk their life!!」

「Senpai…」

「Just the thought that she might die, that you might lose your life, makes me suffer… I should have known, but I didn’t… I never thought it would be so hard to make someone put their life on the line for my sake…」

Slyly, Dryad collapsed without strength, and she cowered and wept.

It was just as Blade had expected, but for the same reason that she doubted that she would be bothered by such things now.

Dryad was the type of Magical Girl that Magical Girls should be. She believed that fulfilling a Magical Girl’s mission was a natural part of being a Magical Girl, and that it was equally natural to fight for one’s life.

She was not sensible enough to force this on a complete stranger, but she told her students on occasion that this was the way a Magical Girl should be.

And she was even proud of the fact that Blade and Vampire were working as noble Magical Girls with no regard for their lives.

But that thought was just an illusion.

「Vampire-chan was, she didn’t run away when she had no strength left to fight… It’s the reason she still don’t wake up… Everything is my fault. I told her to put her life on the line…」

When it came time for a disciple who had followed her teachings to die, Dryad’s heart ached as if it were about to burst. Still, at first she drowned her pain by praising Vampire for a job well done, and for being a Magical Girl at that, but the pain grew daily.

Then one day, when Vampire’s condition worsened and she wandered between life and death, Dryad regretted it from the bottom of her heart. A puppy-like Magical Girl who adored her and always followed behind. She was a serious and kind girl at heart, although she sometimes used arrogant language and said cheeky things. Naturally, Dryad herself liked the girl and had her eye on her. Such a girl, like Vampire, might die because of her. She might never open her eyes for the second time. Thinking of that, she couldn’t stand still.

There was nothing Dryad could do. All she could do was to be there for Vampire, and every day she wanted to die of regret and remorse.

「So you attempted to get me to quit before that happened?」

Dryad didn’t respond to Blade’s question, but her silence was synonymous with affirmation. It wasn’t hard to imagine that Dryad, not wanting to go through the same experience again, decided to commit this heinous act.

One of the stories that Knuckle heard from Reflect was a message that if Vampire woke up, she should tell her to quit being a Magical Girl. It was when Blade heard about it that she realized Dryad’s purpose. At that point, it didn’t occur to her why, but she sensed that she was trying to retire the Magical Girl she had been mentoring.

The reason she was so harsh with Blade on the day of the attack was probably to make Blade despair and retire as a Magical Girl. In fact, without Elephant, Blade don’t know if she would be standing here today.

「I don’t know what Vampire-san thinks. I think that is something that Senpai have to settle on her own. Me, on the other hand…」

Blade grabs the cowering Dryad by the chest and pulls her to her feet.

After hearing Dryad’s story, Blade thought to herself. Then she should not be here doing stupid things. There must be something more important to do.

「I am fighting of my own volition and according to the justice I believe in. Even if Senpai influenced me to become the person I am today, I chose to do so. It doesn’t matter if Senpai is ready or not. Don’t flatter me. It’s not Senpai who bears my choice. It is myself.」

If she had once been Blade, she would have lost her way seeing Dryad of today. If Dryad had said that what she was teaching was wrong, she might have lost sight of her goal. But Blade already remembered. What she believed in, the path she had to walk. So she won’t get lost. Even if Dryad is lost, Blade isn’t.

「Please go back to Hōzuki Town. There must be someone waiting for your return. If you weren’t there when she woke up, I’m sure she would miss you.」

Blade speaks to her as if admonishing her, releasing the grip on her chest.

Dryad looked a little surprised at Blade’s strong words.

「…You’ve gotten stronger in the little time I’ve been away.」

「I am not alone anymore. Even Senpai isn’t alone. When Senpai is too scared to step forward, I have your back.」

「…That’s kind of cheeky of you.」

「I’m self-supporting.」

Hearing a lighthearted remark that had not been made in the past, when Blade idolized Dryad, Dryad wiped away tears and smiled a tiny smile.

Her junior had become so strong that she was not as worried as she should have been.