“Bang!”

Eleanor takes out her gun and fires at the incoming vulture. The bullet pierces into the monster’s flesh before exploding, turning the bird into chunks of gore.

Donna gives out a quick scream then turns to Eleanor.

“W-what was… How did you…?”

The strawberry-haired girl shakes her head and focuses on Eleanor’s wound.

“Please, hold on. I’m going to take out the rock!”

“No need.”

Eleanor pushes out the sharp rock and instantly closes the gaping hole in her side. Donna looks at her action in disbelief.

“H-how did you…?”

“I’m a priestess too, remember? Healing myself is the first thing I learned.”

Eleanor lies through her teeth, and Donna has no choice but to take her word for it.

“So, what are we going to do now, Miss Eleanor? Where are we? And what about the upperclassman who was…”

Donna bites her lips. She knows the man is dead, or going to be. She tries to help Eleanor up, but the sick girl has no strength in her limbs.

“I’ll go around to search for something to lift you.”

“In this wasteland?” Eleanor sighs. “Freckles, you might have heard this but I can’t use magic by myself. Use your holy power to create a bridge between us.”

“You can’t use magic? Then how did—”

“Less questions, more action. Create a connection now before something else attacks us.”

“Ah, yes! Right away!”

Donna concentrates holy magic in her palms and holds Eleanor’s hands. The silver-haired girl feels the connection and uses Donna’s body as a conduit to cast a spell on herself. The wind wraps around Eleanor and lifts her up to her feet.

“Oh my, I didn’t know holy magic could do that!”

“Now you do. Let’s get moving—?”

The second Eleanor releases Donna’s hand, the connection is cut and she falls head first on the red dirt.

“Miss Eleanor!”

As it turns out, Donna is still a novice at holy magic so she can’t maintain a connection without physical contact yet.

“Wonderful… Sigh… Hey, freckles, can you like… believe in me? Can you open your heart and accept that I’m God’s messenger or something?”

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Eleanor creates angel wings on her back but all that does is makes Donna look at her funny.

“But Miss Eleanor… you’re a heretic.”

“…That I am… Dammit, this is going to be a whole thing, isn’t it?”

Eleanor takes Donna’s hand again and gets back up. The two girls study the devastated land around them.

“I don’t know which zone we are in, or how we got here, but Professor Oak said to follow the purple star to find a transport point,” Donna says.

They look up and all they see are dark clouds covering the midday sky.

“Ain’t that just perfect. Tell you what, let’s find somewhere to bunker up till nightfall then I’ll fly up to search for your blasted star.”

“You can actually fly!? With your fake wings?”

“In a way.”

Eleanor leads Donna across the alien landscape. They make their way through the jagged rocks and heavy dust clouds until they see a wide canyon leading down to a winding river below.

“How are we going to get down, Miss Eleanor? Should we even get down?”

“We jump.”

“Wha!? Wait! Wait, wait, wait! What are you doiiing!”

Donna screams as Eleanor wraps magic around both of them and leaps to the depths below. Donna screams and closes her eyes tightly as the wind magic safely slows their descent.

When they reach the ground, Donna falls on her knees and prays to god for sparing her. But of course, doing so means releasing Eleanor’s hand, causing the devil to, once again, kiss dirt.

When Donna returns to her senses, the girl walks to the river which runs red like blood.

“I don’t think that’s very sanitary,” Donna says.

“It’s workable.”

Eleanor waves her free hand and clear water separates from the red river and floats to her. Eleanor and Donna wash their dirt covered faces. When they’re done, Donna points to a cave nearby and the girls take shade there.

After waiting for several hours, Eleanor can hear Donna’s stomach rumble.

“I apologize…”

“Yeah, we should have taken the bird’s meat.”

“You mean to eat that… that horrible monster!?”

“You see anything else that’s edible around here, girl?”

“…No.”

They endure their hunger till nightfall, then Eleanor steps out into the windy night. She grumbles and looks down at her left hand which is still connected to Donna.

“Well, I can’t turn into a bird like this.”

“Did you say something?”

“Nothing… Just… hold onto your butts, freckles.”

“What do you mean—?”

Eleanor creates a hurricane that shoots them up to the sky. Once they reach a certain point, she spreads her wings and creates hot air to lift them further. Donna is screaming her lungs out as she is being lifted by her armpits.

“Don’t! Don’t drop me! Don’t drop me! O great lord who rules in heaven please save this poor lamb!”

“Stop squirming, freckle, and keep an eye out for that star of yours!”

Eleanor grits through the bitter cold and flies above the black clouds. The two girls glance up at the ink-black sky… and they see… not just one… or two… or ten… but hundreds! Countless purple stars litter the night sky, surrounding them in all directions.

“M-miss Eleanor… what does this mean?”

“…It means we’re going to be here for a while.”

Eleanor speaks with a hollow voice as she feels a headache coming over her.

“So this is your grand scheme, junior? Trap me in a hellish land with no clear way out while you do whatever the hell you want outside? Ha! I gotta say… it’s really fucking effective.”