Chapter 3: Chapter 3 : Pale's Little Nest

Pale had witnessed death and corruption countless times; the comrades, relatives and friends she had once fought alongside had long since passed away.

She had witnessed the mass extinction after the calamity invasion, participated in the decisive battle to defend the world, and intervened in the civil war between magical girls and humans.

Compared to the darkness Pale had experienced, the filth of these newborn magical girls was more like children's tantrums.

Lunch that day didn't suit their taste, quarreling with that friend again, the magical creatures they encountered were too smelly...

These trivial matters would all become filth accumulated in their cores.

In Pale's words: 'Those little brats are just too pretentious!'

Therefore, even though she was forced to bear the accumulated filth of more than thirty people, to Pale it was no more than watching a few boring melodramas, only feeling slightly bitter at heart.

But the filth that was insignificant to Pale appeared to others as incurable and unbearable lesions.

Looking at Pale who showed no signs of corruption.

Suzune became even more certain of her judgment.

Senior was special, the only primordial magical girl who would never fall.

Even after bearing everyone's filth, she still showed no signs of corruption.

"From now on, you can no longer use magic power, and everything here has nothing to do with you. Senior, this is the most dignified ending. From now on, just live as an ordinary girl, plain and happy."

However, Pale only slightly raised her head, those dim golden eyes full of disdain.

"Tch, when your mother entrusted you to me back then, she even said if you didn't behave in the future, to give your butt a good spanking."

Suzune didn't respond to Pale's provocation and disdain, only looking with disgust at the girl curled up on the dust-covered floor.

"Throw her out." Suzune's voice was bone-chillingly cold. "Along with this... stone she licked."

She glanced with disgust at the magic stone stained with Pale's saliva, her tone carrying unquestionable finality.

"Throw them as far away as possible. From today forward, the magical girl Pale... no longer exists."

"But... the magic stone is actually still..." A short-haired girl couldn't help but speak up, her voice carrying hesitation and a trace of reluctance. She looked at the magic stone in Suzune's hand that, despite being stained with saliva, still radiated pure and gentle light. The vast pure magic power contained within was an irresistible temptation to any magical girl, and moreover an important strategic reserve for the base.

"That's right, Sister Suzune!" Another twin-tailed girl immediately chimed in, her face showing urgency. "That magic stone is so pure! Although it's a bit disgusting that the traitor licked it... but if we purify it, it should still be usable, right? It's too wasteful to just throw it away!"

"Exactly! That's magic crystal we worked so hard to collect!"

"We can't just discard it because that traitor touched it!"

The warehouse immediately filled with voices of opposition.

The girls looked at the magic stone in Suzune's hand, their eyes full of desire for power and heartache over wasting resources.

They couldn't understand why Suzune was being so decisive, even wanting to discard this precious magic stone along with everything else.

"I said, throw it out together with the traitor!"

The warehouse fell silent, with only the girls' suppressed breathing sounds. Suzune's gaze swept over everyone, her sapphire-like eyes containing frozen ice that brooked no questioning from anyone.

"Hoi?"

Pale was roughly dragged up from the ground, lifted into the air like a lifeless piece of cargo. Magic ropes coiled around her ankles and arms, making her hang in an extremely humiliating, inverted position.

"Ow ow ow! Can't you show some respect to your elder? Are you few jealous of my good figure and deliberately tying the ropes like this! Damn it! Don't throw, don't throw!"

Pale looked at the door that was about to close, at Suzune's straight but rigid back inside the door, and the corner of her mouth curved into a cunning arc.

"Hehe, the blue and white I saw when hung up was quite nice, good taste!"

"You... you...!" Suzune suddenly turned around, her sapphire-like eyes filled with extreme shame and anger, staring deadly at Pale on the ground who was laughing with a wicked expression. Her cheeks instantly flushed red, spreading all the way to her ears and neck.

"Damn it!!!"

'These young folks really, they've actually learned to scheme against their elders. Truly the younger generation is to be feared…'

Leaning against the wall, Pale felt her legs trembling, and the core on her lower abdomen also revealed coldness and chaos.

Damn it, if she hadn't consumed a large amount of magic power earlier, greatly reducing her resistance to magic stones, she never would have taken such risks to sneak deep into the magical girls' headquarters to steal magic stones.

However...

Pale raised the magic stone flickering with an eerie purple light. Moonlight slowly flowed over it, making the magic stone even more eerily mysterious.

That deep purple light reflected in her pale, weary eyes, and also reflected the girl's happy smile.

'How wonderful! I can use magic power again!'

"Mm..." Pale's throat moved, saliva secreting uncontrollably. Her molten gold eyes stared fixedly at the magic stone, pupils dilating.

'I really want to eat it right now…'

The fur inside the collar seemed to sense her intense emotional fluctuation, the devouring intensity quietly increased by a fraction, bringing a subtle tingling sensation like electric current flowing through. But this feeling not only didn't make her sober, it was more like reminding her: you're hungry! Eat quickly!

Her delicate nostrils fluttered, greedily inhaling that sweet fragrance that made her soul swoon.

But...

"No no no!" Pale violently shook her head, as if trying to shake out the little glutton in her mind that was frantically clamoring 'Eat it!'

She struggled to move the magic stone away from her mouth bit by bit, hugging it back to her chest, rubbing its cool surface hard with her cheek, as if this could rub away some of that craving.

"Now... now is not the time..." She panted, as if convincing herself, yet also as if reasoning with this deadly tempting stone in her arms. "It's not a life-or-death moment yet... need to save it... need to save it..."

"Mmm... sweet... fragrant..." She rubbed while making unclear, nasal-heavy murmurs, as if comforting herself, yet also as if coaxing the magic stone. "Be good... not eating you now, just licking... just licking is fine..."

She carefully extended her pink little tongue, treating it like a rare treasure, gently and quickly licking the smooth surface of the magic stone.

"Mmhoi!"

The intense satisfaction and stimulation almost made Pale unable to stand steady, and also made the occasional passing pedestrians look at her like she was some kind of lunatic.

Scattered pedestrians hurried past. The girl's beautiful face, slender figure with ample curves, and magical girl outfit briefly attracted their attention, but not one person stopped—everyone hurried past without a word.

Better to go home first and enjoy it.

Pale hugged the magic stone emanating eerie purple light, staggering through the desolate area at the city's edge.

This had once been part of the old world's prosperous city, now only giant scars left by war remained.

Twisted steel frameworks stabbed toward the pitch-black sky—remnants of destroyed skyscrapers. Charred concrete blocks piled like mountains, with weeds and vines stubbornly sprouting through the cracks. The air was filled with dust, rust, and a faint, hard-to-dissipate scent mixing gunpowder smoke and decay.

This was the "abandoned zone" deliberately forgotten and alienated after the new world's establishment.

Her "home" was hidden in a corner of this vast ruin.

Passing through a maze formed by collapsed billboards and abandoned vehicles, circling around several broken walls riddled with bullet holes and graffiti, Pale stopped before a relatively "intact" building.

Calling it intact was only relative to the completely collapsed ruins around it.

Pale's little home was in an abandoned basement of one of the apartment buildings.

Pale alertly looked around, confirming no one was following before slipping into the doorway.

Inside was a narrow space half-blocked by rubble and garbage.

The air was even more damp and cold, mixed with the smell of mold and dust.

She didn't linger, familiarly stepping on scattered cement blocks and exposed steel bars, walking down the precarious stairs, finally stopping before an inconspicuous, rust-stained iron door.

Inside the door was a small, carefully maintained space. Rather than calling it a basement, it was more like a secret nest packed with dolls and soft fabrics, exploding with girlish charm.

The room was small, probably only about ten square meters, but every inch was utilized perfectly, filled with soft, fluffy, and cute atmosphere.

"Mmm..."

Pale fell straight onto the pink little bed while hugging the magic stone.

She let out a long sigh, as if unloading a tremendous burden. Her molten gold eyes wearily half-closed, the fur inside the collar continuously devouring, bringing subtle tingling and bone-deep emptiness, but surrounded by all this softness and gentleness, it didn't seem so unbearable.

Buzz...

An extremely faint sound, like a bubble bursting, resonated within her body.

Immediately after, a gentle moon-white light lit up, and the magical dress receded from her body like an ebbing tide.

Where the light passed, that gothic-style dress dissolved and faded silently like sand scattered by wind.

As the light dissipated, a more petite, more tender figure was revealed.

Her originally tall figure shrank like it had shrunk in the wash, becoming more slender and delicate. The gray-white long hair seemed to become more supple and fluffy, softly draped over her shoulders and pillow. That face originally carrying maturity and cunning became more gentle and rounded in its lines, with cheeks showing some baby fat.

The jet-black crystal on her originally flat abdomen had also shrunk by a size, its color seemingly lighter, like a small, dim star embedded in her fair, delicate skin.

Most conspicuous was still the black leather collar around her neck.

It still fit seamlessly against her slender neck, appearing even more glaring and incongruous on her now-smaller body.

Of course, Pale had ways to remove this collar, but now that there was no magic power left in her body, and her magic power source completely depended on magic stones—she had long been unable to naturally recover magic power—the collar couldn't extract even the slightest bit of magic power from her body.

Therefore, there was no need to remove it now.

Tomorrow then.

"Mm..." The smaller Pale let out a satisfied sigh, like a little kitten that had finally found the most comfortable position.

She unconsciously nuzzled in the pile of soft dolls, the pink pajama fabric rubbing against the fluffy teddy bears, making subtle rustling sounds.

"Good night... sweet stone... good night... teddy... good night... everyone..." She mumbled unclearly, her voice getting smaller and smaller.

Meanwhile, outside the magical girls' base perimeter, at the abandoned amusement park.

Moonlight was cold, spilling over the amusement park that had once been full of laughter and joy, now left with only decay and deathly silence.

Rust-covered carousel horses leaned askew, their peeling paint creating hollow gazes toward the night sky. Broken Ferris wheel cars hung like giant bird nests on twisted steel frames, the air filled with the scent of rust, rotting paint, and damp earth.

Silence was the main theme here.

However, tonight's silence was broken.

An indescribable, soul-trembling aura of filth, like thick ink dripping into clear water, instantly spread through the air.

This aura mixed the pungent smell of sulfur, the stench of rotting flesh, the fishy smell of rust, and a deeper despair and madness that seemed to come from the abyss. It permeated silently yet made the air heavy and turbid, even the moonlight seemed to dim by several degrees.

In the darkness...

A twisted and eerie figure slowly appeared.

A body that seemed to be constantly dissolving, covered with dim, dry fur like burnt ash, skin covered with ugly dark purple and jet-black markings like living cracks.

A hoarse and terrifying voice that could still be vaguely distinguished as female rang out.

"Pale..."

"I've come back... to find you..."