The Witch of the Lake

(Miluno)

The wormhole alarm blared without warning. The entire shopping mall descended into a state of “orderly chaos.” Though the public had developed good evacuation habits over the years, the tension in the air still ran high.

I quickly stashed Sailuno’s “trophies” into an electronic locker, pulled off my mask, and swapped into my combat gear.

“Large monsters during the day, and now small ones at night?”

The wormhole’s three-minute deployment time was far too short—this was an anomaly. That fool A-Yao and the liaison woman who looked like Yin Lu—Yin Wei—still hadn’t emerged from the lingerie shop’s changing room. At their current speed, they wouldn’t make it out before the area was locked down.

Yin Lu had previously shown me Sailuno’s stats; as a magical girl, she wasn’t particularly outstanding yet. I vaguely recalled that there were other magical girls active in Sector C4, but this wormhole was opening far too rapidly. To be safe, I’d head over to the marker first. If no one else arrived by the time it opened, I’d handle it myself.

Decision made, I accelerated my personal time flow to threefold. Braving the scorching heat, I dashed out of the mall and looked up, searching for the holographic marker in the sky.

“Tch, five hundred meters away?”

Not far for me. I recognized the location; it led toward a large city park.

The wormhole’s expansion speed usually depended on the monster’s size. Size generally matched strength, but there were exceptions—small but tricky External Invaders appeared occasionally. Their physical power might be low, but their unique abilities could wreak havoc on civilians who hadn’t evacuated in time… such as the deployment of poison gas.

By the time I reached the park entrance, people were still streaming out in a panic. Even the armed police had only just begun to assemble.

“You’re here! Miss Miluno, thank goodness!” Noticing my approach, the commanding officer greeted me with relief.

“Officer, why did the warning come only three minutes before the wormhole opened?” I asked. “Was there a failure in the surveillance airship’s detection?”

“No, the sensors were active. This wormhole is just significantly smaller than average.”

Whoooosh—

The low-frequency hum of a wormhole opening vibrated through the park. The three minutes were up.

“I’m going in. Has the evacuation been completed?”

“Yes. May your martial fortune prevail, Miss Miluno!”

I disliked the formal flattery, but I gave the officer a curt nod nonetheless.

The wormhole was situated at the center of the park’s ornamental lake. A towering blue pillar of light had already connected to the other side. No other magical girls had arrived yet. It seemed I would have to resolve this alone.

I loosened my shoulders, then drew the twin short swords at my waist, settling into a combat stance. Something descended along the pillar of light, passing through the blue ring to stand before me.

“…What is this? Is this even a monster?”

It was a twisted humanoid shape, like a wrung-out towel, though barely recognizable as female. She wore a pointed witch’s hat that covered the upper half of her face, leaving only a pale, scaly jaw exposed.

“A female type?”

Because of her small build, she had been able to force the phase wormhole open just enough for her passage within a mere three minutes. The witch-like creature held two short blades, their hilts connected by long chains. The slender chains coiled around her twisted, silver-blue scaled arms. Most unscientifically, she stood steadily atop the lake’s surface, the water supporting her weight as if it were solid ground.

Her presence was heavier than any monster I had faced so far.

I could walk on water too—by accelerating my time flow, air became denser and water approached solidity. But there was always the risk of sinking the moment I stopped moving.

The creature noticed me. Though her hat obscured her eyes, the chains on her arms loosened. The short blades dropped into the water, creating two swirling vortexes on the lake’s surface.

What is this? A twin-tub washing machine?

As I analyzed her attack pattern, the chain-blades erupted from the water, dragging dozens of meters of spiraling water tornadoes with them. They flanked me from both sides, converging on my position at the lake’s edge. The momentum was immense—nearby trees were sliced in half by the sheer force of the water, as if a localized typhoon had swept through.

But it was too slow.

Clang!

I swung my short sword, precisely deflecting the incoming blade on the left. The water tornado shattered along with the chain’s momentum… but a sharp sting touched my face.

Tch. Water droplets.

The splashes from those water tornadoes were sharp and moving at imperceptibly high speeds. When colliding with these diffuse “water blades” while I was at tenfold speed, even a single droplet could become a lethal projectile. The short blades were just a decoy; the swirling water tornadoes were the real killing force—a troublesome ability for someone like me who relied on high-velocity movement.

She appeared to be a physical fighter, yet she operated like a mage, staying far from the shore at the lake’s center and attacking from range. Were those blades actually her wands?

Having taken a minor hit on the first exchange, I didn’t dare meet the next strike head-on. I used my speed advantage to weave through the attack’s trajectory. Should I rush in for a decapitation? If she had a defensive aura around her body, I’d be impaling myself on her scales at that speed.

An Association drone flew overhead. “Miss Miluno! This is Tactical Command. We are currently draining the ornamental lake. It will take approximately ten minutes. Please hold her off until then!”

So that was their plan. City parks didn’t have natural lakes—this one was artificial, essentially a large reservoir. If the water tornadoes clinging to her chains were removed, the monster wouldn’t be much of a threat.

But…

“Ten minutes is too long.”

I had been a magical girl for a year, and I had never had a fight last longer than five minutes.

“Uh… draining takes time—it’s a massive volume of water…” The tactical officer’s voice wavered over the comms.

“I’ll find a way,” I cut him off.

The monster’s first wave had missed. She retracted the blades into the lake and began building a second set of vortexes. She clearly thought she was safe at the center of the lake. I had ranged attacks, too—even if they were a bit “unrefined” compared to hers.

I picked up a heavy piece of rubble from the roadside and hurled it toward her. It struck her witch’s hat with such force that it left a blazing red afterimage in the air.

“Oof!” The silent monster grunted.

It was effective. I began scanning the ground for more stones. Thanks to her first area-of-effect attack, the lakeshore was littered with convenient “weapons.” My magic could “accelerate” projectiles just as easily as it could my own body. Accelerated stones were not only hard to track, but their kinetic power grew exponentially. If the air friction didn’t incinerate them first, I could make them even more destructive.

The creature roared skyward in fury. I could finally see the razor-sharp shark teeth in her mouth… it was a grotesque sight. She began swinging her arms in wide arcs. The ultra-long chains spun at high speed, defying physics as they pulled the blades and masses of lake water around her, forming a circular iron curtain of defense.

It looked like an egg. Or rather… a cocoon.