"Felicia, will it be dangerous?" I asked, feeling the weight of anxiety pressing down on me. After setting up my boxable home, I tried to rest until Felicia woke me. Dawn had come, and the ritual was about to begin. I was nervous; I had barely gotten any sleep. I would be doing the ritual without my astral shift, and the thought made my stomach churn.

"It shouldn't be," Felicia replied, her tone calm and reassuring. "But the risk increases since you'll be doing it without your astral shift. I'll do my best to filter out the chaos mana trying to corrupt your body."

"Thank you," I whispered, appreciating her steady presence.

"This will be a new experience for Earth's Magical Girls and their familiars," she continued. "We often have to repel chaos mana emitted from Anathema, but this time, you need to direct it with your will to a specific point. Our job now changes from repelling chaos mana to purification. And it's not just purification; we have to let some chaos mana inside you so you can control it. I'm amazed by Elder July's ingenuity."

"Have other species done it the way Elder July is doing?" I asked, curious about the uniqueness of her method.

"Hmm… using Anathema as mana fuel is not unheard of. Many within the Zenith Alliance have done something similar. When we return to Eden, I can place an inquiry with Zenith to see if any members of the alliance have done something like this before. For now, though, I don't have specific information on Elder July's method of mana enchantment. We'll have to improvise when the time comes."

"Okay." I took a deep breath, gathering my courage. It was time. I headed for the door, steeling myself for what lay ahead.

When I stepped outside, Elder July was already up and about directing the shrine maidens and setting up boxes with talismans in the four cardinal directions. When our eyes met, she smiled warmly. I brushed my black hair away from my face and walked over to her.

"Are you well?" I asked, concern evident in my voice. A white alb was draped over my head. The white gown contrasted heavily with my long black hair.

"Yes. Thanks to your medicine, I can barely feel the pain."

"Elder July," Felicia interjected, her tone serious. "I must say that the ritual might pose some risk, especially with Lily not being transformed. So, I must ask your permission to intervene if the worst comes to pass."

"...Yes, you have my permission," Elder July agreed after a moment's hesitation. "However, only if Lily is in danger. Even if I die, the ritual must continue."

She prioritized the ritual over her own life. As I looked at her, memories of the soldiers in New Mesa and New Soil flooded my mind. They, too, had that same unwavering determination. They all had something important to protect. Something important to do. Even if they died, they wanted to succeed. I have no such passion. Was I worthy of becoming their Magical Girl?

"Elder…" Jim began, holding back his objection, but Catherine didn't restrain herself.

"Why? Why are you so stubborn? We don't need this barrier. You're doing all this for your dead son! It's pointless!" Catherine cried out, tears streaming down her face. "This girl said she would talk to the Zenith to have us accepted back into the sanctuary city! You don't have to go through with this ritual!"

"When you make a mistake, you must try to fix it," Elder July replied gently, placing a hand on Catherine's head. Then, she turned to me and bowed. "Lily, thank you. Let us begin."

The ground was dusty and rough, and I felt a twinge of discomfort kneeling on it. But this was not the time to be bothered by such trivialities. Four men grabbed the detachable trailer from my jeep and lifted the four-meter centaur toward us. The low groan of the centaur sent a chill down my spine. I was untransformed; a single attack from this Anathema could kill me instantly.

Even without my transformation, I felt no fear. Using my naginata, Jim cut open the beast's carotid artery, and the Anathema's black blood gushed out. It quickly filled the basin, and another man carried it over to Elder July.

"Using the mana from the Anathema, we immerse our mementos in its cursed blood. Only by enduring this curse can we bring forth hope. Let these stone statues stand as the eternal sanctuary, where these foul beasts dare not enter."

Elder July then dipped the statues into the Anathema's blood. Unlike before, she didn't place all of them in front of me. This time, she positioned them around us, each in a cardinal direction. Then, she walked over to me.

"Put your hand in here and then make a cross on your forehead. You are the center, so you must do this," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. Her soft tone was almost drowned out by the fervor of the ritual. I hesitated, but I followed her instructions.

The ichor felt strangely pleasant to the touch. It was cold and refreshing. As I dipped my hand deeper into the abyss, the world around me seemed to scream. Then, the sounds abruptly ceased, replaced by a soft whisper of groans and sorrow. I made a small cross on my forehead.

Elder July nodded and handed me a basin filled with anathema blood. She then returned to her place beside the three other women. The smoke from the evaporating blood was nauseating, but I pushed through it. My steps felt heavy, like I was walking through a muddy swamp or wading in a pool. The dirt beneath my feet seemed to shift away as if I were bringing a curse upon the maiden of Anathema.

I dipped my hand again and made a small cross on her forehead. She winced in pain as if I had applied acid to her skin. I moved on to the next, and then the next, and finally to Elder July. She knelt just like the others, but she showed no sign of pain. Her eyes were resolute. As I walked away, she whispered softly.

"Jacob, Mama will handle it. Mama will replace the barrier you broke." Her whispers seemed to go straight into my mind. Though her voice was inaudible, her emotions were transmitted to me. As I focused, I could also sense the feelings of the other women. The young black-haired girl was afraid. The middle-aged brown-haired woman was in pain, while the long-haired maiden was praying to her god. Yet, they all endured the thickening miasma produced by our ritual.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Are you ready?" Jim asked. I nodded without speaking. I knelt, and he poured the Anathema's blood over me. My world turned dark in an instant. I felt the presence of red eyes watching me, filling me with a sense of dread.

[Error: Mana fluctuation detected.]

[Mana overdose detected. Purging denied. System override.]

[Error: New behavior detected. Reconfiguring Arcane System.]

Error windows flashed before me, but I ignored them. As the window disappeared, probably suppressed by Felicia, sounds and images flashed through my head.

"AAHH!!!" A man awoke from a nightmare inside an apartment. There, a middle-aged woman comforted him. She was beautiful, mature, and caring. It was Elder July. I was shocked by the contrast between the kind woman in this vision and the witch-like figure she had become. The Anathema curse had corroded her body so much.

"Jacob…"

"Mom… I'm sorry. I was stupid. I broke the barrier and didn't tell them. Now people are dead because of me." Jacob cried, leaning on Elder July. Like a child, he poured out his feelings. "Now the investigators will definitely accuse me."

"Jacob, it's not your fault. Please… stop thinking about it."

"It is my fault. I killed those people. If only…"

"It was an accident. You made a mistake, that's all."

"I killed fifty people! How am I supposed to atone for it?"

"Mom will be with you, okay? We just need to go there and apologize. Whatever the punishment, Mom will always be with you."

And so, the trial began. I already knew the outcome. Jacob, his mother, and over 30 members of the research team were exiled to the darklands. The laws regarding tampering with safety protocols were strict. It wasn't the fact that he stole the barrier that led to his exile; it was the fact that he didn't inform the authorities when he broke it. Had they reported it, they would have faced only five years in prison and heavy fines.

Elder July voluntarily joined Jacob in exile. Jacob's mental health deteriorated rapidly in the darkland. The miasma from the Anathema turned his fragile mind toward delusion and self-hatred. Despair permeated his thoughts, his eyes grew blank, and he mumbled incoherently. Whispers of the dead cursed him, berating him to no end.

The image grew more vivid as Jacob lifelessly said to his mother, "Humanity is finished. We have lost. It's futile. We can't use magic. Steel and titanium are worthless against Anathema above level 10. We can only leech off the Zenith to survive. Soon, budget cuts will come, and we will all die as Zenith abandons us."

"I will make it work, Jacob. We can still do something. We have to survive! If we can reach the old facility in the darklands, maybe we can rebuild the emergency shelter you broke!"

"It's useless. We lack one thing: magic. Without it, we can't even hope to take the first step to imitate Zenith. I have already analyzed the barrier. The structure is simple, but without magic, it's futile. It will just turn into scrap iron in a junkyard."

That was the last thing he said before he left the cove and was eaten by an anathema. By a stroke of luck, the Anathema that killed him was a lone Fomorian hound, and the group soon managed to kill it.

"Jacob!!" July cried as she hugged Anathema's lifeless remains. She then bisected Anathema's corpse, trying to recover what was left of her son, and found his ID card along with part of his torso. She burned both the Anathema's body and her son's remains with gasoline. As she prayed, Anathema's blood on her hands and Jacob's ID began to react. Jacob's ID card started glowing. Magic happened. This would have been impossible in Eden, where RED would nullify any chaos mana. However, here, they succeeded.

The enchantment on Jacob's ID card was almost useless. It merely made the card glow faintly in the darkness, no different from phosphorescent paint. It would have gone unnoticed if they hadn't been in the darklands. But the fact that a human could wield mana at all was a significant revelation to July. She laughed self-deprecatingly, realizing she had finally found the key. And so, she began her research.

"Lily, don't waver," a voice broke through my dream, pulling me back to reality. Swirls of dark mana coalesced into fog, but the figures of the maidens before me were clear. All of them had collapsed under the pressure of the chaos mana.

"Felicia?" I called for my familiar, but there was no response. I gathered all the resolve I could muster. My own resolve was small, but Elder July's was unwavering.

"I pray. Please, protect us!" I cried out, and a brilliant light shone from my heart. The mana swirled around the small stone statues, and our surroundings returned to normal. The sunlight shone down on us again, refracted into a shimmering rainbow by a small dome of energy in the air. Only I was left seated. The other maidens sprawled on the ground, unconscious.

"Good job, Black Lily," Felicia said as she approached. "Sorry, but my interruption would have disturbed the ritual. That's why I didn't respond earlier."

She inspected the statues and the dome. "Hmm… not as good as an emergency barrier, but this should hold against level 70, maybe even level 100 Anathema. Considering the material came from a level 50 anathema, this is actually quite good." Her assessment was harsh but objective. I had done my best. Elder July had done her best. But we still fell short.

Still, this is undoubtedly a first step.

"Analysis complete," Felicia continued. "Moving the statues inside will disable the barrier. The barrier can function for 25 hours without external power. It can be powered by anathema blood or modified MG's mana." She provided her report.

"So, did we exceed your expectations?" Elder July smiled. Her weak body had taken too much, and it was in tatters, but she smiled. "Did we succeed?"

"You certainly have proven yourself, Elder July. This is an objective assessment, not just words of consolation. Not many species are capable of mana manipulation. If you continue this work, you might even end up helping Zenith."

"I see. Was my son forgiven?"

"Your achievement is your own, not your son's."

"I understand."

"However, your accomplishment could certainly earn your son a posthumous pardon if you wished. But your son is already dead, isn't he?"

"I just wish for him to be forgiven."

"I forgive him," I said firmly. My hand held her disfigured hands, trying to transfer warmth into her. "If people could see how much you've struggled, I'm sure everyone who judged your son would forgive you too."

"I see. Thank you…" Elder July closed her eyes. Even through her disfigured face, I could tell she was smiling. She was at peace. Her hands felt warm, yet there was no more pulse.

"Elder?" Catherine approached her cautiously.

"Well, she was on her last legs. This was to be expected," Felicia said coldly.

"Felicia." i chided her.

"My apologies. She gave it her all. There is no shame in what she's done. She succeeded in creating an emergency barrier, and above all, she died peacefully. She died so we all could live. Her invention will benefit many. Her invention is a breakthrough for humans. She died heroically. Not all heroes wore capes, skirts, or swords. We should not mourn her death with tears."

"...Yes, you're right." I held back my tears. You're just an AI, Felicia. Don't say something so sentimental to us.

"Should I buy gasoline? Or should I buy firewood? Or would you prefer a sea burial?" Felicia asked Catherine and the others.

"Give us at least until tomorrow to mourn," Jim requested.

"Of course. Let us help if you need anything."

I transformed back into a magical girl and laid Elder July's body on top of the firewood I purchased from Felicia. Then, as the fire burned her body, we mourned her passing. The sky was clear, and the sun shined down on us with its warm orange light. The smoke rose high up in the sky.

There were no tears. Her death signified hope, like the light of the sun shining upon us. We burned her body at twilight, then placed her ashes in a jar to be spread over the ocean later.

[Error: Soul Gem Error 150. Conversion to experience points]

[You have leveled up to level 32]

[New Class unlocked]