Alicetaria recognized Van Gogh… her tone, her expression, everything conveyed that fact.
Van Gogh was surprised at this, tilting her head.
"You… know Van Gogh? You know this Van Gogh?"
"I heard about you from the Military Uniform Princess."
Though she did not completely drop her guard, Alicetaria did relax a little—after all, she was truly exhausted now. "She said you were trustworthy."
"Military… Uniform… Princess?"
The confusion in Van Gogh's gaze deepened. A pink mist spread through those lake-colored eyes—bewilderment, then guilt, then self-loathing.
"She's… someone who knows Van Gogh? Someone… Van Gogh knows? What to do… Van Gogh can't remember… It should be someone important, but Van Gogh can't remember… Van Gogh is so sorry… really wants to die…"
Her unstable state was obvious to anyone with working eyes.
Alicetaria saw it too, and unease stirred in her chest. A touch of worry.
She wanted to speak—but suddenly her brow furrowed, her face twisting in pain.
Her wound had split open… though she had been careful, the motion just now had been too much. Her abdominal pierce wound was worsened.
Startled by her reaction, Van Gogh panicked, rushing clumsily to her side.
"Does it… does it hurt a lot?"
She asked carefully, like a frightened little hamster.
"…No. No, it's fine."
A lie. But one she had to say. Because her mission was not yet complete. Because she could not yet collapse.
Because—she had long since grown used to pain.
Looking upon such a radiant Alicetaria, Van Gogh narrowed her eyes slightly.
"So… so amazing… Why can you be so strong?"
Her gaze darkened.
"Van Gogh… likes pain… but pain is something bad for everyone… frightening… but… why are you able to endure it? Why don't you fear it? Van Gogh… doesn't understand…"
That first line made Alicetaria frown.
Pain—someone liking such a thing?
But then she heard what Van Gogh said next, and fell silent, pondering for a long while.
"I only… want to save my country." Alicetaria clenched her teeth, voice low and firm. "The people trust me. They believe I can drive out every enemy, bring true peace and quiet to the land. Because they see my back before them, they can keep fighting. Compared to pain… what I fear more is falling. I am afraid… of failing to save my country."
"As long as I think of that possibility… this level of pain stops seeming so frightening."
Her emotions rose, her eyes gradually staining red—the color of fury and unwillingness.
Why was she so weak?
Even now, her world was still ravaged by war. Mamika was outside, fighting the monster birds.
And she—she could do nothing. Couldn't even leave this place so as not to drag Mamika down.
Too weak.
Lacking the strength to save. The strength to protect.
Unable to do anything.
She had tasted helplessness too many times. She had once doubted herself, once harbored these same dark thoughts… but as the pillar of her people, she had no right to hesitation. All she could do was keep moving, forward, forward.
"Alice's words… so deep… thinking, thinking… tangled, tangled… like an ant circling… head tilting, swaying…"
Van Gogh swayed where she sat, dizzy and aching, body moving like a wobbling roly-poly toy. It almost made her look… cute.
"Forgive me. I spoke too much of things unrelated to you." Alicetaria herself did not know why she told this stranger so much. "This world… to me, it seems rotten. People sink into indulgence, waste comes as second nature… But there is light as well. You and I are from different worlds. You needn't force yourself to understand what I've said… in fact, I hope you never understand it."
There is no true empathy in this world. To truly understand, the only way is to share identical experience—to suffer the same pain, to stand in the same place and think from there.
"But why do you call me Alice as well?" Alicetaria frowned slightly, uneasy at the familiarity.
Mamika also called her Alice-chan. Because her full name was too long for Mamika to remember. She would always mix it up. And besides, Mamika thought that since they were friends, such a nickname was natural.
"Ehehe… Because… Alice is so cute… Fairy-tale beautiful… the rabbit gentleman with the pocket watch… the blue bird that plays the violin… the little man stepping out of a painting… needs a top hat… because it's Van Gogh, so there must be a top hat… ehehe…"
Van Gogh laughed, but the laughter had an eerie edge.
"Van Gogh… doesn't understand… but… it's very suitable to paint…"
Alicetaria froze.
Paint? Paint what?
Then she saw it. Van Gogh produced a sunflower—no, a brush shaped like a sunflower.
The chaos of pink flooded her eyes. Amid that eerie laughter, Van Gogh whispered.
"Van Gogh… can use this emotion as paint… Can I paint you a picture?"
She raised the sunflower-shaped brush.
Alicetaria felt it faintly—something being pulled from inside her, mingled with something else, and finally becoming pigment upon Van Gogh's brush.
"The starry sky and cypress trees that surpass life and death."
"Far beyond faith, romance, and trompe-l'œil."
"From eternity, through the whirlpool of the stars..."
"With a handshake to you—"
"—[De Sterrennacht]!!"
The star-filled night sky—was not a thing of beauty.
Muddy, pitch-black rain inverted itself, flooding the ocean of the heavens.
Madness-colored hues spread, spiraling outward.
...
If you see someone flying in the sky, don't be surprised.
It might be Superman. It might be a magical girl.
After all, everyone knows—magical girls can fly.
As swift as an arrow loosed from the string, as agile as a bird in flight, Kirameki Mamika soared through the air.
The law of inertia, the pull of gravity—none of it could bind her.
The tearing wind howled in her ears, whipping her skirt and hair madly about.
Even as she controlled her flight, keeping herself from falling, Mamika fixed her attention on her pursuers… those monsters like birds, like bats, like horses.
Glancing back, she caught her timing, lifted her staff toward where they clustered.
"Take this!"
Pink light burst from the tip of her wand, condensing in an instant into heart-shaped blasts of mana, fierce and crackling with power. They poured down like a storm, leaving no gaps.
The monster birds shrieked, flapping furiously as they scattered. They dared not underestimate those "cute" blasts—they had already seen many of their kind die instantly to them.
Yet a few unlucky ones were struck, torn apart, bodies breaking midair. Their howls of pain were drowned at once by the thunderous chain of explosions.
The uninjured ones cut through the smoke, still chasing Mamika.
And now—scales across their bodies shimmered with rainbow light.
Mamika's eyes widened. She dove sharply down.
The monsters dove too. The rainbow glow gathered in their mouths—until it burst out in radiant breath.
She was about to slam into the rushing river below when, at the last moment, she swerved. Skimming just above the water's surface, she split the river with the gale of her passage.
And then—
Rainbow beams struck down from the sky. They missed her, slamming into the water instead.
The black night ripped like torn cloth.
The river exploded upward, waves crashing into the air.
Mamika was drenched, a soaked mess. She had dodged the rainbow breath, but not the crashing tide. Her clothes and hair clung to her skin, horribly uncomfortable… but this was no time to care.
The monsters screeched, drawing close. Their cries carried a strange, sharp emotion, but Mamika didn't understand them, didn't want to understand them. She was too tormented by the sound itself—so piercing it nearly tore her eardrums.
"Ugh… I hate this kind of fight…"
Too real. Too dark.
The hot spray of blood. The grating screams of pain. The secondary destruction from each clash.
In her own world, battles were filled with love and friendship. However fierce, there was no true pain. And after the fight, she could reconcile with her foe—gain a new friend.
Here… everything was different. Everything was unbearable.
No—not only this world.
Alicetaria's world. Selesia's world. Everyone else's worlds, too. All of them were closer to this one.
Only hers was the exception.
Their "battle" and her "battle"… were utterly different.
She hated pain. She hated battles that caused pain.
But now—she clenched her wand tighter.
She had decided.
Even if the gap between the worlds was vast—there was still a point in common.
In her own world, she fought to bring back people's smiles.
In this world, she fought to protect them.
"I absolutely won't let you hurt my friends!"
The girl was Mamika.
And yet—not only Mamika.
She had stepped out of her story. But now she was no longer just "Magical Slayer Mamika."
In this world, she had grown. She had changed.
"—!!"
The monsters charged. Their mouths gaped wide, spitting out writhing appendages—whether tongues or tentacles, Mamika couldn't tell. It was disgusting.
With claws and teeth gleaming sharp, they dove. Mamika refused to let them draw near. Mana gathered at her wand, and at the same time, she directed magic into her body, ready to dodge into the air.
And then—abruptly—
Vmmm—!!
A surge of power. A vast, overwhelming aura of mana swept outward.
The night itself recoiled, scattering in an instant. The sky turned white as day.
A voice resounded, majestic, commanding, like divine judgment descending.
"The time of judgment is here."
"Rise, O sun!"
"And let it be declared—under this light, all evil shall scatter!"
"[Gauntlet of Gotz von Berlichingenz]!"
The rising sun exploded. Golden fire rained from the heavens.
As though a god had descended. As though a god had grown wrathful.
Blades of blazing light floated in the air like stars. When they fell, they poured like torrential rain.
Wherever they touched the monsters, those places vanished instantly—as if erased from the page by an eraser.
Not even time to scream. The monster birds were annihilated.
Mamika did not see it.
All she saw was the sudden flood of light, so blinding it burned her eyes closed.
Only after a long while, though it was still dazzling, could she force her eyes open again.
And then—she froze.
The monsters were gone.
Not one remained.
"…What… what is this…?"
Her mind stalled. The sight defied reason, defied belief.
On instinct, she lifted her head, looking toward the source of the light.
And then—she saw it.
A figure, blazing like the sun, sacred like a god.
Her breath caught.
"Alice-chan…?"
She had to ask—because the change was too great. Especially in aura.
That golden hair, evoking warm sunlight.
The bulky ocher armor was gone, replaced by silver-white knight's armor—slender, form-fitting, crowned by a heavy cloak of dignity.
The brutish skull bracer once clamped on her left arm was gone. In its place, silver with gilt carvings, radiating sanctity. Four golden ribbons of light coiled around her arm.
Her eyes—no longer pale green like emeralds. They burned gold, radiant and commanding, like twin suns enthroned in heaven.
Above her head floated something—half crown, half halo.
King. Knight. God.
All three, embodied in her at once.
Her features were unchanged. But her presence was utterly different.
Especially her eyes.
So dazzling. So beautiful. Yet pale—empty. Mamika saw no color, no life, no spirit in them.
Indifference. A cold indifference that froze her body, made her soul tremble.
Fear clawed at her. She could not understand what had happened. She could not fathom why her precious friend had become this terrifying figure.
Until—Alicetaria closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, the face she knew returned. A gentle smile, warm and familiar.
"Mamika… you're alright?"