The Quagmire of Betrayal

Her hand passed through the “black-clad middle-aged man’s” body unexpectedly, emerging from the other side as easily as punching through a cardboard box.

A transparent, colorless liquid dripped down Red’s hand.

‘Coolant or something?’

Red wasn’t very familiar with machines.

In that brief moment of hesitation, the circuitry inside the man’s chest twitched.

Red immediately flung the robot away.

As she did, she heard the sound of some container shattering.

The robot exploded midair.

A large cloud of sweet-smelling hallucinogenic gas burst out, mixing with the lingering smoke from the earlier smoke bomb.

Just looking at it felt dangerous.

Red flicked her wrist, pulled on a mask for herself, handed another to He Zunyi, and dragged her back several steps.

Her reaction had been fast.

But she still inhaled a small amount.

Discomfort and dizziness hit her almost immediately.

He Zunyi, who hadn’t managed to put on the mask and had only covered her mouth with her hand, fared much worse.

Just a single breath left her dazed and unfocused.

Watching the spreading gas made Red increasingly irritated.

Poison.

Ambushes.

Schemes.

She was usually the one in the shadows, with enemies exposed in the open.

Being calculated against like this felt awful.

“Hey, Xia Yuhe.”

“Do you have any clue who these people coming after you are?”

Red tried to ask, but when she turned her head, she found He Zunyi slumped against her.

She hadn’t been wearing a mask at all.

Red grumbled internally.

‘I even have to personally put a gas mask on you?’

She wanted to use magic, but that would probably be useless.

Her magic healed.

It didn’t detoxify.

She could only keep dispersing the gas that continued to evaporate, violently flinging it away to minimize its effects.

“Despicable.”

“Well, what can we do?”

The voice came calmly.

“You’re just too strong.”

“If we didn’t use underhanded methods, we wouldn’t even qualify to stand in front of you.”

“But magical girls really are ridiculous.”

“That dosage would’ve knocked out an elephant.”

A magical girl’s body had very little to do with the contractor’s original body and possessed comprehensive resistance.

That was one of the safeguards the spirits designed to protect human girls.

But Fang Yutian was a man.

He couldn’t fully enjoy that protection.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to worry about poisoning at all.

“Don’t think you’ve won just because of this.”

“I’d advise against struggling.”

“The more you move, the faster it takes effect.”

Massive telekinetic force tore at the “black-clad middle-aged man’s” body—

More precisely, the remote-controlled puppet.

Red needed to make sure there were no other threats present before she lost consciousness.

“And the side you should be worried about…”

Red turned toward Ma Guohao.

With a thought, one of the red feathers expanded into a protective barrier around him, blocking the gas.

A scream came from behind them.

“Kada, what did you do?!”

After a burst of piercing pain, black spots appeared on Johnson’s arm.

The spots swelled into bulges, emitting a foul stench.

Johnson could feel her blood—or her vitality—being drained as the bulges grew.

‘So that bullet did this?’

“This is what you call support?”

Johnson’s arm dried out, turning into part of a mass of mud.

The mud spread rapidly.

Human mouths and eyes began forming within it.

They grew larger and larger.

The black sludge expanded and morphed, absorbing nourishment from Johnson’s body as it grew.

It was as if new organs were growing out of her arm, trying to piece themselves together into a complete human form.

The black mud spread further.

Torrents of filth engulfed Johnson’s body.

She screamed and cursed, accusing Kada of betrayal.

“You traitor! Bastard! One day I’ll—”

Her words cut off.

Mud flooded her mouth and nose.

Only muffled sounds remained.

Soon, even those disappeared.

She had imagined defeat.

She had never imagined betrayal.

“I had no choice.”

Kada’s voice came calmly.

“You failed to hold Red back.”

“To complete the mission, I had to make you a sacrifice.”

“Though you can’t hear this anymore.”

The robot’s head turned toward where Johnson had been completely devoured.

But before the sentence even finished—

Its head was torn off.

‘Because of me?’

‘Again, because of me?’

For a fleeting moment, guilt surfaced in Red’s heart.

But she rejected it just as quickly.

This wasn’t her fault.

She had no obligation to shoulder everyone else’s evil and suffering.

Bearing all misery belonged to gods.

She was only human.

Doing what she could was enough.

The mud continued to spread, consuming Johnson completely.

At first, the outline of Johnson’s body was still visible within the sludge.

But as the mud creature stabilized, even that last trace disappeared.

In the end, a black mud humanoid stood where Johnson once had.

It was nearly half again as large as the stone giant had been.

Yet its oppressive presence was far weaker.

Red watched as Johnson’s existence vanished inside it, her expression twisting with discomfort.

At the same time, the effects of the hallucinogen continued to spread through her body.

Her movements grew sluggish.

At first, the creature had been unhappy about being ordered to devour Johnson.

It had no interest in the filth beneath that stone monster.

But who could have guessed there was a beauty inside?

Now it felt lucky.

The mud man reveled in the sensation of Johnson inside it.

The feeling of merging, of becoming one.

She belonged to it now.

It felt invincible.

“Hahahaha.”

“So you really fell for it.”

“Then I’ll take over the task Johnson couldn’t finish.”

“Hold Red back.”

“And take Xia Yuhe.”

The mud creature lunged.

Its body expanded and twisted, transforming into a gaping maw.

Like a tidal wave crashing forward.

Facing it, Red tightened her grip on the barely conscious He Zunyi.

With her other hand, she reached into the darkness, trying to grasp Johnson trapped inside the mud.

It felt like an endless night.

Sticky, foul sludge wrapped around her.

Inside and out.

Stomach.

Mouth.

Even her thoughts.

All cold, wet, and reeking.

Johnson felt herself being carried away.

Dragged.

Torn apart.

Her gang had been destroyed mercilessly.

She and her sisters had knelt before filthy men, enduring humiliation and defeat.

Endless torture awaited them.

At the brink of despair, she became a monster and beat them all down.

That was when she started believing that power was everything.

To avoid humiliation, she grew stronger.

She hid herself beneath layers of rock, disguising herself as a brutal giant.

That made her feel free from the anxiety of being a woman.

She had believed in that.

Later, she heard that the strongest existence in this city was Magical Girl Red.

She was stunned.

She had never imagined a woman who could make so many monsters tremble in fear.

So she wanted to challenge her.

If she won, maybe she could finally escape that fear.

That was why she joined the organization.

In the darkness, an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a warm embrace.

The sensation was unfamiliar.

And strangely comforting.

Then—

A violent bubbling sound.

The bubbles burst.

Everything exploded.

The mud was blown apart as if by a bomb.

Even though she was at the center of it, she wasn’t hurt at all.

She saw Red, barely standing.

The drug was taking effect.

Elsewhere, a mass of sludge wrapped around He Zunyi, dragging her slowly downhill.

The creature was terrified.

Red was collapsing.

It didn’t want to experience being blown apart from the inside again.

The power it had stolen from Johnson had been returned completely—

And it had lost eighty percent of its own mass.

As a parasitic-type monster, without a host it had no combat ability at all.

If Red had even the slightest strength left, it would be dead.

The only thing it could still do was complete the plan’s objective.

[Xia Yuhe]

“Red—!”

“Miss Xia was taken, you have to—”

Red collapsed onto He Zunyi, pinning her to the ground.

Her hand rested on Johnson’s back, white light still probing her body for any remaining sludge.

“Looks like she’s fine.”

As she said that, the transformation ended.

Red reverted back into Fang Yutian.

Johnson panicked and looked toward He Zunyi.

The mud creature was fleeing desperately, sliding away like a slime.

She was completely drained.

She could only lie there, letting Fang Yutian collapse on top of her.

She lifted his face and examined it closely.

Then let it fall back onto her.

He couldn’t do anything in this state anyway.

“…Why are you still a boy?”

She had disguised herself as a man to grow stronger.

Fang Yutian had disguised himself as a woman to become a magical girl.

What kind of joke was this?