“Woah!”

As soon as I answered Diva's plea to save her, she lost control of herself again and fired a Magic beam in my direction. It was fast and strong, but I was able to block it by creating a barrier in front of me, dispersing the beam anywhere.

When I looked at it closely, the beam was made from a million musical notes. I guess that wasn’t strange, considering Diva was a Magical Girl that loved music. Her core was also manifested as a musical monster with arms made from piano tiles.

After realizing that her first attack failed, she fired another beam toward me, bigger than the last one. It easily engulfed my body and blinded me as my sphere barrier was covered in a bright blue and black light.

The beam she fired at me without stopping was even stronger than the one she fired to destroy Utahime’s body. Well, it didn’t do anything to me, so I was calm.

“Now then…”

Standing in the middle of the beam, I stroked my chin.

“What should I do?”

I had no skills or technique to save someone from being controlled. No, I was useless in that regard.

While I could do almost everything to destroy, I couldn’t save. That was outside my scope.

If I tried to make Diva my servant using Independent Magical Girl’s innate skill, then her personality would stay like this current crazy Diva.

So I was a bit in a bind. That was also the reason why I left saving Diva to Blaze and Glacier earlier, putting my hope in them.

There was one option left for me, though. If possible, I didn’t want to take this option.

“I guess that’s the only way.”

Lifting my barrier up, I extended my hand to the front. The beam got past and hit my hand with its full force. It didn’t hurt. An attack of this level wouldn’t be able to hurt me, Arsy.

Grinning, I laughed slightly.

“Hahaha, is this it?”

I mocked Diva’s attack. The one in control of her body was the Giant’s lingering emotion. It had a part of the Giant’s personality and could think by itself. So it understood the difference in our power.

To make it clearer, I gripped the beam with my hand and destroyed the Mana behind it, creating a twang sound that reverberated around me.

The shock was clear in Diva’s eyes after I destroyed her beam. She couldn’t move from the stage due to her Manifested monster being crushed by Bahamut. The monsters also stopped spawning, so I erased my Gravity Core, concentrating my Gravity Area to only cover the stage.

“What do you hate? What do you want to destroy? Hey, tell me. You do realize that I am different from those Magical Girls.” I said, trying to make a conversation with the crazy Diva.

Her expression returned to an aloof, expressionless face. She glanced to the side at Blaze and Glacier, who reinforced the barrier with the last bit of their Mana to keep the people safe. Their conditions weren’t that great. I doubted they could hold another wave of Mana’s torrent from us.

Then Diva turned toward me. And for the first time, it spoke. Not Diva, but the entity controlling her.

“Destroy. Destroy. All of it. Those Magical Girls. Must get revenge for my girl.”

“Ah, so your Magical Girl got killed by another Magical Girl? Why?”

“Jealous. Alone. You. This girl. Similar to mine. Loneliness.”

“I see. Was your girl a part of the Good Side? If so, the one who killed your girl was the Magical Girl from the Evil Side. Why did you want to destroy the world in that case?”

“Alone. No help. Hate. I hate them! Destroy! I will kill! Kill all those Magical Girls! Destroy the Giants! No help. Lonely. Lonely. I want friends! We need help! We don’t need help! We will destroy the world!”

Another wave of Mana was released from her body. I created the barrier around the stage using Bahamut’s body to shield Blaze and the others from being hit by it this time. This was the strongest yet as I kept digging into her memories, the Giant’s memories.

This Giant came from the Deepland. As such, killing and being killed was almost an everyday thing.

But to think that this Giant held this much resentment toward the world and Magical Girls.

Loneliness, huh? I looked at Diva, whose expression turned uglier by the second, calmly.

This… I couldn’t help her.

I am also lonely. So I understand her feelings. The Giant’s feeling.

I wasn’t proud of it, but my parents neglected me. They only thought of their works, never interacting with me in the last couple of years.

The only one who understood me was big brother Yumei. But he was gone 3 years ago, and I became lonely. No friends. No relatives. No one to talk to.

Only after Aru talked to me did I have someone to talk to. My loneliness was lifted a bit, but I was still lonely. The hole big brother Yumei left in my heart couldn’t be filled that easily.

So I ran away. I ran from reality and immersed myself in Magical Girls. That was why I loved them so much. They helped me to ease my loneliness. I wanted to become a Magical Girl to get attention. So I didn’t care about my identity being revealed.

I bet Diva was the same. She became an idol because she wanted attention. We were similar but different. What made us different was one thing.

I managed to become the Magical Girl that I dreamed of, although using an unconventional method. In contrast, Diva was bullied and targeted by her fellow idol.

Yes, I was lucky, while Diva was unlucky.

That was it.

“I understand,” I said lightly, putting my cane away. It disappeared into a mote of purple light. I didn’t need my cane anymore to help her.

“Y124!@^!@”

Diva began to lose her mind. It screamed incomprehensibly.

The stage shook greatly, like being hit by a massive earthquake. Then I realized that not only the stage, but the whole territory was shaking.

Crack! Crackle!

Cracking sounds began to ring from the sky, and a massive glass-like crack formed all around the territory. Her Mana couldn’t hold the territory any longer.

Ah, it’s begun to crumble. I thought. Then I have no more time left to help her. This is my last chance.

It was faster than I had expected. Maybe Bahamut also sped up its destruction. That was a mistake on my part.

If this territory crumbled, then Diva would be released to the real world. At that time, the Giant’s personality would perfectly blend with hers, and I would have no more way to save her.

Maybe the original Main Character of Magical Giants could save Diva, but she wasn’t here at the moment. I didn’t even know whether she existed, so I couldn’t put my hope in a fictional character like her.

“Hold on,” I said, pointing my finger at her left chest. “This will sting a bit. Don’t worry…”

Probably she sensed the Mana that formed in front of the tip of my finger. Diva let out another scream and fired another beam of musical notes in my direction.

I swept it away with my free hand, destroying it easily. But Diva didn’t give up. She fired a ball of Mana; each was bigger than a soccer ball and could easily kill a Garmr easily. Those bullets were fatal for Magical Girls.

But I wasn’t a normal Magical Girl. Bahamut moved from behind. Using its claw, it popped those bullets like a balloon.

Diva had no chance left. Fear was apparent in her expression. Her body trembled, and she took a step back.

The monster pinned by Bahamut on the stage also began to crumble. It disappeared slowly, from feet to head.

This was the time.

“Have a good night, Diva.”

And I shot a small Mana bullet straight to her chest, destroying her heart and core that acted to spread Mana all over her body.

Diva fell backward. But before she hit the ground, I caught her in my hand. Her eyes turned normal again, and I noticed that her real personality had returned.

“T…T..hank…you…”

She smiled. It made my heart ache.

How could she smile when she was about to die? I destroyed her heart and her core as a Magical Girl. Without both, she would normally die instantly. But we were still inside her territory. It didn’t crumble entirely, so she still had a bit of Mana left to support her body.

I frowned a little but quickly replaced it with a warm smile. She didn’t deserve a sad ending when she smiled so warmly, like an idol, even on her deathbed.

“No problem. Have a good night, Diva.”

“Y…es… A-also… I…am…So…lene. N..not Di…va…”

Ah. I see.

She finally told me her real name. She seemed proud of it.

Solene.

In French it meant solemn. And in Latin, it meant sunlight. What a fitting word for her. It also resonated with my name, Asa, which meant morning sun.

I smiled back at her, transforming into my real self. The plain Asa with black hair and eyes, the one she met back in the alleyway. I didn’t wear any mask this time, so she could see my crumbling smile.

“I am Asa.” I said.

“Ah…” Diva let out a small voice. “Nice… to. Meet… you. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Solene. I hope you have a good night.”

Accompanied by my words, her body went limp. There was no energy left, and she closed her eyes slowly. All with a satisfied smile.