Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 123: The Final Painting

"Ayane, I understand your problem... maybe it was a monster?" I say to Ayane, who came to talk to me about Setsuna and her strange behavior these past few days.

"I have no idea, Ophelia, but it doesn’t make sense for it to be a monster, right? Setsuna is strong! And she would have said something if it was a monster! Besides, the monsters have been strangely scarce lately," Ayane says, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes... the monsters are scarce..." I murmur, moving my wheelchair to the desk. I glance at the clock on the wall and see it’s already 3 AM.

"Ayane, it’s been a few hours since we started talking. It’s nice to see how much you care about Setsuna, but in the end, Setsuna’s life is her own. If she hasn’t said anything, we can’t force her to talk."

"I appreciate your confidence in me for this kind of conversation, but I need some time now, and I also need to redo some reports since the monsters are acting strange," I say, wanting her to leave.

"Ah, sorry for taking up your time. Thank you for listening to my concerns," she thanks me with a sweet smile as she stands up and heads for the door.

"Have a good night, Ayane."

"Good night to you too, Ophelia," she says, closing the door behind her. Soon after, Lenore emerges from the secret door.

"Miss Ophelia, you seem restless," she asks me with concern.

"...Lenore, my dear painting companion has stopped responding. Her connection with me has also grown thin... as if it’s just a remnant." Number 3 stopped responding to me the exact moment that bizarre aura covered the city ten days ago.

"And also... I sense my own death..." I feel that I am close to dying. My magic allows me to sense that someone is going to kill me, someone I know, but I don’t know who it is.

"..."

"Miss Ophelia, do you wish for me to do something?" she asks while I’m thinking about it.

’Well, if I’m going to die... I might as well let Lenore enjoy herself a little...’

"Want to have sex with me?" I ask, leaving her surprised.

"M-Miss?"

"Normally I wouldn’t do this and would much prefer it if Setsuna were the one sleeping with me. However, if I’m going to die, I think I can grant you this pleasure... not that I can do much with my legs like this..." I say somewhat ironically, already accepting my death.

It took long enough. I always thought I’d die much sooner. But if Number 3 has stopped maintaining contact with me, it means something happened to her. And if our connection has grown weak, it means she might have died.

"Miss Ophelia..."

"Just call me Ophelia from now on. Since I’m going to die, there’s no more need to be as courteous as always," I say, deciding what to do with the little life I have left.

’I think after letting Lenore have her fun, I’ll paint my last canvas...’ I decide to use the remainder of my magic to its fullest. I will paint the best and most beautiful picture. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Lenore, I want you, after this, to gather 98% of the magical girls here... except for Setsuna and Ayane, and that idiot who’s enjoying the beaches on the other side of the world... Those two can be left out since they were quite new, and that idiot wouldn’t come even if I called her," I say with a small smile.

"O-Ophelia, what will you do?" Lenore stammers as if calling me just by my name feels strange.

"I will paint the most beautiful final work of art... I will call it [Portrait of the Last Wish]. I will use the bodies of the magical girls from the base as material... that’s why I want you to kill them all. I know you can do it with your magic." When Lenore uses her magic to its maximum, she becomes monstrously strong.

To the point where she can completely destroy a major continent. But using her magic at its maximum causes severe damage to her own body because her body can’t handle it, since it’s magic from other people that she only copied but never adapted to.

"...I will do as you wish," she says, knowing this will probably kill her.

"Ophelia, I even understand not wanting to kill Setsuna... but why not do anything to Ayane?" she asks me while I give a small, sad smile.

"Because it’s obvious that Setsuna likes her... and it’s also obvious that Setsuna will make her suffer... and I like that kind of development... watching the two of them slowly destroy each other would be a dream... not that I’ll be alive to see it."

"I deduce that, considering the strength of the premonition, I have little more than a week left to live before I am murdered. So, Lenore, I will permit you to do whatever you want with my body for the next two days. After that, you will use two more days to kill all the magical girls in the base. And finally, I will use the remaining days to paint the picture," I say, now content.

"I will do as you want it to be done..." she speaks with a sad tone. If I know I’m going to die, I could run away, but what’s the point of running from fate? If it is my destiny to die, then I want to die with class and elegance.

’I wonder who the person that will kill me will be? And will they understand the beauty of my final painting?’ I created thousands of paintings during my life. Some are trash, others are masterpieces.

But in the end, I never created the definitive art, the perfection I always sought. And I didn’t create it precisely because it was the art I wanted to create when my life was near its end.

It is my last and most magnificent painting, just as it is the superior version of my best painting, the painting made of blood that I created before.

"Now I wonder... should I represent... Despair? Hopelessness? Or a chaotic mixture of explosive emotions?" I say with a sweet sound as Lenore comes behind me and begins to move the wheelchair into the secret passage.

’I need to send a message to Ayane and Setsuna telling them not to come for the next 8 days, and also ask all the other magical girls to gather here at this base two days from now...’

"Lenore, do you fear death?" I ask, not knowing if she wants to be part of my last painting.

"No. What I fear most is not fulfilling your wishes. And if your wish is for me to die, then death is a happy event for me," she says with conviction.

"...I like that answer... Then, Lenore, after you kill them all... I will use your blood as the paint for the left side, lower corner, above the base a few centimeters with a 90-degree inclination..." When I say this, Lenore looks as if she’s about to cry from happiness.

Because that is usually the part where I put my personal signature. Sometimes it’s my name, sometimes it’s a symbol or an object that represents me.

But in the end, it’s the place that always indicates that I was the author of such a painting. And Lenore has just earned the right to be the one who will represent me in this work.

"..." We remain in a comfortable silence as the elevator descends. Words are no longer necessary at this moment.