Chapter 8: The Weight of a Prime Vessel

“A person?”

Jin Shiling shifted her body to the side, her gaze fixed on the interior of the Corroded Being. Indeed, within the undulating water, she discerned a vague, humanoid silhouette. Yet, this alone should not have been enough to halt their assault.

“Asherah, are you suggesting that an innocent victim is imprisoned within this Corroded Being?”

Cheng Zhenzhen advanced two steps in silence, reaching out to grasp a wisp of the deep blue that permeated their surroundings. However, she felt only a chilling coldness at her fingertips.

During the moments they hesitated, refraining from attack, the space surrounding the Corroded Being had fully transformed into a somber, deep blue. With each step forward, a noticeable drop in temperature permeated their bodies.

This biting cold was precisely the wellspring of the Corroded Being’s power, the embodiment of its life, the manifestation of its strength, and the symbol of its will.

Had this power been wholly directed towards defense, approaching the creature would undoubtedly have proven to be a troublesome ordeal. Yet, it had compressed almost all of this immense force within its own body.

Moreover, Cheng Zhenzhen observed that the Corroded Being seemed to be deliberately controlling the flow and diffusion of the more threatening liquids within its form. When Jin Shiling inflicted damage, the overflowing fluids rapidly eroded the surrounding space, only to be subsequently contained within a defined area, much like the outer veil that separated the outside world from the campus.

A thought struck Cheng Zhenzhen, giving rise to a conjecture so outlandish she could barely credit it herself.

‘Could it be… this Corroded Being is actively trying to avoid harming us?’

Cheng Zhenzhen instinctively sought to dismiss this seemingly absurd deduction, yet the anomalous reality before her, coupled with her persistent intuition, relentlessly pressured her to revisit and reconsider it. Corroded Beings were monsters born from humans consumed by negative emotions, serving as their prime vessels. It was inconceivable for them not to harbor animosity towards humans and Magical Girls alike—a conclusion Magical Girl Asherah had reached through her own undeniable firsthand experience.

It was precisely because these cruel and terrifying monsters harbored malice towards people that such injuries, wails, despair, and gloom existed. It was why Magical Girls like themselves engaged in an unending struggle against these abominations. It was precisely because Corroded Beings were cancerous growths, loathing love and hope, utterly undeserving of pity or understanding, that they would…

“Bang!”

Another gunshot, startlingly close, shattered the silence, forcibly yanking Cheng Zhenzhen’s thoughts back to the immediate reality. This time, Jin Shiling had not fired at the Corroded Being; instead, she had drawn the pistol from her belt and discharged a round into the ceiling above.

“What are you hesitating for, Asherah?”

Perceiving Cheng Zhenzhen’s deliberate hesitation, Jin Shiling moved to her side, raising the still-smoking muzzle of her gun to point at the silhouette within the Corroded Being.

“That can’t possibly be a victim in there. It must be the ‘prime vessel’ that forms this Corroded Being, the one responsible for brewing this disaster.”

Despite facing a Corroded Being up close for the very first time as a Magical Girl, Jin Shiling remained remarkably calm. While swiftly adapting to her magical attire, her judgment regarding the situation quickly matched that of Cheng Zhenzhen, an experienced veteran with considerable combat expertise. By discerning Cheng Zhenzhen’s expressions and actions, the young girl grew even more certain that her conjecture was correct.

During the time she had once yearned to become a Magical Girl, Jin Shiling briefly pondered a particular question. When she voiced it to her peers, however, she was met with incomprehension and ridicule. After that, she bundled the question away, along with the emotions she felt while contemplating it, and tucked it deep inside. Over time, it had been all but forgotten. Now, she realized the past had caught up to her in this very moment; that question had become the present reality.

“Asherah.”

The young girl softly called her name, as if afraid to puncture Asherah’s fragile emotional state.

“Among all the people you wish to save, does that person count as well?”

Cheng Zhenzhen suddenly froze. It wasn’t the revelation of her thoughts by Jin Shiling that startled her; rather, she recalled that the very question now posed to her had once been cast from her own lips towards the senior who had guided her path.

Facing her own confusion, doubt, and even anger from that time, that person had given her answer through action, resolute and undeniable.

“…”

‘Indeed, I still have a long way to go, Senior.’

Cheng Zhenzhen slowly clenched her fists, an answer now firm in her heart.

“I want to try. No, I believe I can do it.”

Her gaze pierced through the thick, abyssal barrier, reaching directly into the core where the monster was nurtured.

“Is this also what a Magical Girl should do?”

“Should or shouldn’t… I don’t know, Rainstorm. This is simply what I want to do.”

“If you charge in, I won’t be able to provide effective support anymore.”

“It’ll be fine. Trust me, Rainstorm. As your senior, I’ll resolve this swiftly.”

After signaling Jin Shiling to stay put, Cheng Zhenzhen once again stepped towards the Corroded Being. This time, however, she shed all superfluous defenses, approaching it with an utterly unguarded demeanor.

Standing at the demarcation line of the somber hues, Cheng Zhenzhen extended her arm, plunging it into the dark blue before her, which was as black as night. The biting cold immediately clawed at her limbs, gnawing at her nerves. Her feet instinctively halted. This was a warning: another step forward, and a deeper torment would surely await her.

The next moment, under Jin Shiling’s watchful gaze, Cheng Zhenzhen’s form completely dissolved into the profound darkness, vanishing without a trace.

“…”

The young girl, left with no choice but to passively wait, turned to gaze at the sky outside the window. Through the subtle blue filter of the barrier, she perceived the imminent descent of night.

‘Perhaps, that question from the past might find a provisional answer today,’ Jin Shiling mused.

Spinning and tumbling, the instant darkness wholly enveloped her, Cheng Zhenzhen’s five senses became disoriented. She realized she was losing her physical sensation at a suffocating speed, and as she attempted to take remedial action, her consciousness also plunged, gradually growing numb and sluggish within the void.

‘Where… am I?’

Was she ascending or descending? It felt as though she was merely drifting with the current. Drifting? Yes, the sound of water, a cold and damp sensation permeating her entire being. Pain? Difficult to discern. Despite the intense cold, despite every inch of space being compressed, within this utterly dark and extremely confined environment, she unexpectedly harbored no desire to struggle.

Powerless, nowhere to escape, no path of retreat.

‘…Is this what the prime vessel experiences?’

The magical power still coursing through her body allowed Cheng Zhenzhen to regain a semblance of consciousness. She gradually confirmed her current situation, a state that stirred a long-absent unease within her: she could not perceive the dimensions of her surroundings. She strove to use her magic to help her body regain sensation and move, but the effect was negligible. In this pitch-black expanse, she had no idea where to even begin moving.

‘Where can I find that person in this boundless darkness?’

Cognition posed the question, experience dissected it, and ultimately, instinct provided the answer.

“Since it’s so dark and cold here, I’ll just light myself up.”

A bright orange glow converged, bit by bit, before the young girl. Yet, this simplest act—generating light with magic—met with immense resistance here. She could almost hear the omnipresent darkness roaring around her, striving to obliterate this fragile cluster of light with a grotesque, menacing ferocity.

A chill crept up her nerves, the ubiquitous crushing sensation made her limbs cry out, and the pervasive sense of confinement nearly suffocated her. In this space that revered stillness as sacred, the young girl’s attempt was deemed a taboo. The malice the Corroded Being had deliberately suppressed was now fully unleashed, leaving her utterly isolated and helpless.

The more intense the opposition, the more she refused to surrender. Unbearable agony only fueled her determination to grit her teeth and persevere. She had no intention of losing to something so ill-defined; she had decided this the moment she became a Magical Girl.

She aspired to be a Magical Girl who would never retreat, one who could face any difficulty and press forward with unwavering resolve.

Moreover, she had already promised herself: as Rainstorm’s senior, she had to act exceptionally cool and resolve this matter flawlessly.

“Just this much… *huff*… *huff*… don’t expect me to stop…”

Within the darkness that had almost reached its zenith, the light cradled by the Magical Girl grew ever more dazzling, gradually tearing through the stagnant, unchanging space. Whether it was stubbornness or sheer obstinacy, after a period of concerted effort, Cheng Zhenzhen successfully carved out a place for her existence within this indifferent blackness.

“This is me! This is Magical Girl Asherah!”

With this declaration of self-affirmation, the dazzling orb of light dispersed the surrounding shadows. Cheng Zhenzhen reclaimed mastery over her body, and as light was born within the void, the slumbering one, fused with the darkness, finally slowly opened their eyes.

“I found you.”

In this pool of lifeless, stagnant water, Cheng Zhenzhen keenly detected a fleeting, fragile, and sensitive emotion. Without hesitation, she dove downwards.

As she continuously descended, the boundless blackness finally began to change. It was like a heart exposed to a life devoid of hope, its core still retaining vestiges of human crimson amidst irreversible decay.

A sorrowful azure bathed the abyss’s bottom, and within this expanse of blue, Cheng Zhenzhen discovered a semi-transparent girl encased within a bubble of water.

As Cheng Zhenzhen observed the girl, the latter slowly raised her head, their gazes meeting.

In an era before language, the earth was shrouded in cold and darkness. Frail beings huddled together, enduring one harsh, long night after another. In those times, body language served as their sole means of communication—one of humanity’s primal instincts. Through the subtle shifts of limbs and the nuances of expression, humans gradually came to understand one another.

How could she save this person? Could her mere words truly overcome the world that had suffocated this girl? Cheng Zhenzhen knew well that she was not an eloquent speaker, nor did she believe such an approach would truly be effective.

Corroded Beings, when continuously assailed by magic, would weaken and eventually be annihilated. But what of the human heart that incubated a Corroded Being? Corroded Beings were the enemies of Magical Girls, yet this person was not her enemy. The experience of fighting foes was utterly useless here.

She recalled witnessing that person’s answer to this very question by her senior’s side, a process that had once proceeded so smoothly. This memory made her think of that reassuring back, and she felt that if her senior were here, she could certainly—

“Do you truly have the resolve to bear the burden of another’s life? Mere pretty words lead to this outcome; depart, you waste.”

…Yet, it was precisely the one she had once considered omnipotent who had fallen, accompanied by a mocking denial.

Conflicting thoughts prevented Cheng Zhenzhen from drawing any closer to the girl. The more she looked at the girl, the clearer an unwelcome voice, one she wished to forget, echoed in her ears, causing the young girl’s breathing to quicken.

Perhaps sensing Cheng Zhenzhen’s dilemma, the girl in the bubble lowered her head and curled into herself, timid and fearful, retreating into self-imposed isolation, a cycle that endlessly repeated, ultimately creating this sea filled with tears of sorrow.

This girl, as a human, was drowning in a prison named “self.”

To save her meant not only to physiologically and physically free her from the Corroded Being state but also to spiritually heal the wounds her heart had endured, creating an environment where she could no longer be harmed.

Her promise, the things she wanted to do, were perhaps, in reality, such an incredibly heavy burden.

‘…Bearing the burden of another’s life alone… as I am now… I still can’t do it.’

Cheng Zhenzhen had found her answer.

****

Ye Xiaoshuang felt as if she had dreamt a very, very long dream. In the dream, she sat in a bustling classroom, but her body had turned to stone, and her classmates and teachers seemed completely oblivious to her abnormality. The scene would occasionally shift back to her home, where her mother would sit with her at the dining table, eating dinner together. Yet, her mother would only occasionally put food into her bowl, never noticing that the food in the bowl never diminished.

Then, one day, this unchanging routine came to an end. The ground split open with a tremor, and the classmates and teachers in the classroom fled, leaving her alone to plunge into the earth’s fissure with the classroom. She tumbled endlessly in the darkness, unsure for how long, until she finally sank to the bottom of the water.

No one would come to help her, no one could find her. No matter how she screamed and cried, no matter how the stone shell had gradually vanished over the long passage of time, her voice never reached anyone’s ears. She would remain at the bottom of this dark, cold water, perhaps never to see the light of day again.

Was it an illusion? She thought she saw a warm glow. No, it must be an illusion, because there couldn’t be such a dazzling light underwater. Sure enough, the light quickly vanished from her sight. Perhaps it was merely a fantasy born from not having seen sunlight for too long.

The sound of water being stirred reached her ears. Strange, shouldn’t she be the only one here? Her consciousness, enveloped in a haze, gradually cleared amidst the churning water, and with it, she felt a warmth surrounding her. Ye Xiaoshuang passively began to realize: the world she had used for escape was growing increasingly unfamiliar; something discordant had intruded.

Thus, in unbearable confusion, Ye Xiaoshuang briefly awoke as herself, and when she saw the scene before her, she could no longer tear her gaze away. She was fully awake.

A hand, a hand reaching out to her, breaking through the obstruction of the bubble and stopping before her.

Before her, an unfamiliar girl smiled and extended her hand, inviting her to leave this place.


Recommended Novel:

Your next favorite story awaits! Don't miss out on Can I Quit Being a Magical Girl? – click to dive in!

Read : Can I Quit Being a Magical Girl?
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
1 Comment
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Reader Settings

Tap anywhere to open reader settings.