Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 137: Final Battle – Part 1

In an instant, Setsuna appears in the sky near me, her wings spread wide. She stops mid-air, aiming at me through her sniper rifle’s scope. I create a barrier right in front of her, causing the shot to hit the barrier so close to her that the explosion slams into her.

’Why did it all have to end like this?’ I wonder, generating a massive barrier shaped like a hammer and swinging it downward, trying to hit Setsuna. She evades and materializes behind me, but I block with my staff.

I’ve already learned that trick. She made sure I knew that whenever I let my guard down, she’d cowardly attack me from behind or from some blind spot.

I swing my staff with extreme force, blowing Setsuna’s head apart. The violence of the act unsettles me, but her body’s time immediately reverses and she leaps back, firing numerous shots from her pistol.

One of the shots hits me, but with healing magic, any damage is quickly recovered as I move my staff to generate more barriers. Just like... how she taught me.

She taught me to create barriers in the most diverse and creative ways, no matter how cruel the result. A large golden box traps the two of us and immediately begins to compress. However, since it’s my barrier, I pass right through while Setsuna inside is crushed into a one-by-one-centimeter box.

I block a shot from behind, noticing her there. Temporal magic is truly inconvenient.

’To defeat Setsuna, I only need one clean hit... but landing that hit will be impossible because Setsuna won’t let me if she notices how dangerous it is...’ I move a large wall, pushing her further upward.

I feel bitter about this fight. It feels like the complete destruction of our relationship, which is painful. I never wanted to fight her, but this monster needs to be stopped, for her own sake, so she doesn’t destroy herself even more.

I’m sure Setsuna wouldn’t have wanted to become this horrible monster, so for her own sake, I force myself to continue, aware of the risks.

"..." Dozens of timer-like counters begin to appear across the sky. The sound of ticking, like a clock, spreads as I look down, realizing this could hit the city.

I generate a massive barrier using my staff as a medium. The barrier covers the entire city, and just as it completes, Setsuna fires thousands of white shots that, upon hitting the barrier, collapse into a temporal mess.

In some parts of the barrier, time reverts to zero, causing the barrier in those spots to cease existing. In others, time accelerates so much that the barrier shatters. But fortunately, no attack hit the city.

"Ghnmm." I feel a stab in my ribs and immediately throw an elbow, which Setsuna dodges. I look at the wound; a profane black liquid oozes out, preventing me from healing.

"Too slow, Ayane. So much power, yet still so fragile," she says, twirling a knife in her fingers.

’A kitchen knife?’ I look at my wound, realizing a wound that damaged an angelic body was made by an ordinary kitchen knife. It sends a shiver down my spine.

Setsuna is clearly still stronger than me. I don’t know why she’s trying to make me stronger, but although my total power has equaled hers, my overall ability is still inferior.

After all, it’s the power of [Time] versus the power of Barriers and Healing. I can’t heal such extensive damage with my current healing capabilities alone.

"Why didn’t you aim for my heart?" When I ask this, she falters, dropping the knife. I’m confused as she gives me a strange look, using the moment to stop the bleeding with a barrier.

"...I-I..." Before she can speak, I pierce her heart with my staff. I try to use my power to finish her off for good, but she seems to notice and her body vanishes from range before the attack can even fully form.

’It won’t work if she always flees the moment she detects the attack... I need a way to make it so she can’t dodge anymore...’

"What a cowardly attack, Ayane." Setsuna appears behind me, several meters away. I see the wound in her heart, a hole dripping a golden liquid.

’Purified? But... ah...’

"The body of an angel? That wasn’t a relatively bad choice?!" I ask as the wound on her body closes as if it never existed.

"Right? It wasn’t my choice. Hexael made a poor one. After all, an angelic body can turn into a demonic one, but this body can be purified, losing power in the process," she says mockingly, aiming at me with her sniper rifle.

"But I guess Hexael never expected I’d have to fight an elite angel," she says, pointing downward. I realize she wants to destroy the city, so I accelerate downward, creating a barrier. Her shot is fired, but before it touches the barrier, the shot vanishes and reappears further down.

’She skips a few seconds in time!!’ I try to form another barrier, but the shots are already so far below me and their speed is so high that the shot hits the ground. A black explosion expands, devastating half the city in a perfect circle, creating a crater several kilometers wide.

"You monster!! Those people had nothing to do with this!" I say with tears. The Setsuna I knew would never hurt innocent people in such a cruel way.

"...Does it matter? I don’t like them. Why does this world need people? Only the two of us need to exist for eternity, don’t you think? Maybe I should kill every last life form in this world?"

"...Hey, Ayane, do you remember our first life?... I think it was the best of all. We were sisters... although I was a man in that life... what was my name again? I don’t remember." She speaks as memories surface from among the thousands of lives I’ve had as a human.

A specific one. A cute boy sitting on the street with lifeless eyes. Me, very young, going to him to play. The boy’s gaze was dark, as if nothing in the world mattered to him and he had never felt love. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Yes, I remember... you were @%!&*@%@" When I try to say the name she had in that life, the word seems not to exist.

"...Yes... Hexael and I had that clause, didn’t we? That life ceased to exist... it’s a surprise you remember. It means your angelic power surpasses contracts between demons... impressive," she says with feigned fascination in her voice.

’...That wasn’t truly our first life...’ Setsuna doesn’t seem to remember, but this has happened before... actually, that life where we were "siblings" was life number 59.

’Our first life...’ Our true first life was when I saved her in the past. In that very first life, she was also a boy. He was being attacked by a monster, and I tried to help upon sensing the monster’s magic.

But by the time I arrived, the monster was dead. It was "him," using a shard of glass. His hands were cut up from holding the glass, and I, feeling pity and concern, appeared before "him" and healed his hands. He looked at me with an enchanted gaze and said he never believed in angels, but now he was seeing one.

’Yes... this has been going on for too long... longer than Setsuna seems to remember...’ I feel sad for her, for losing the best parts of our life together. It seems ironic that we always find each other in every life.

"Sorry, Setsuna... I’m doing it again... again, I’m trying to save you... thank you for reminding me of that." When I say this, she looks confused.

"Thank you?"

"Yes, Setsuna, thank you... because thanks to you, I finally understand... you are beyond saving now... from the moment you decided to use your power selfishly... from the moment my death became fun for you."

"But if you don’t remember our first lives, then you’ve forgotten what I can truly do." I generate a large oval barrier in front of me, and from it, I fire a giant beam of light that makes the entire sky shine brightly against Setsuna.