The Violet Network’s search operation faced significant obstacles right from the start.
“I can’t see! It’s too blurry!”
The identity of the translucent monsters remained unclear.
Looking through the list of monsters in my head, I found a few that had the ability to become invisible, but I couldn’t be sure exactly which kind it was.
Still, the method of response was simple: bombard them with wide-range attacks.
“Shoot! Shoot! Just fire away!”
To combat the invisible monsters, we Violets unleashed indiscriminate gunfire.
Bullets hit the hazy silhouette that was rampaging along the walls and floor.
The form of the now-visible monster was revealed.
It was a monster resembling a lizard, twice the size of a human.
It swung its claws in a desperate attempt to fight back.
“Kraaaak!”
The monster’s claws split me in half along with my rifle. But it was too late.
“Remember me!”
I pressed the switch just before my upper body fell.
-Boom!
Unit 1264 was engulfed in an explosion along with the monster.
These stupid beasts had wedged themselves among us, but they were no problem for us Violets, who feared nothing.
“I took it down! But what the heck are those things?”
After the battle, the corpses of the monsters, now visible, lay scattered on the ground.
They had a reptilian appearance, with two pairs of oddly sized front legs and several impressively bulging eyes.
The Violets speculated about the identity of these monsters.
“Hey? Is there a monster that looks like this?”
“I’ve never seen these before.”
I inspected the corpses closely, but they were not of any type I knew or had learned about.
What we could ascertain was that these creatures had chased down and killed people.
As the Violets pondered this bizarre situation, an alarm went off in their heads.
“Command center to all units! Alarm! Alarm! Multiple unidentified monsters are approaching!”
As the warning rang out, the screams of the Ward Violets erupted.
“Ughyaaaak! No way!”
“We’re gonna die! Ugh! It’s over!”
Numerous enemy signals flooded in, and the lights illuminating the Violet tactical map began to flicker out one by one.
Eventually, the Violet search squad conducting reconnaissance in the city faced an onslaught of monster attacks.
A search team was ambushed by a group of cat-like monsters from a building rooftop.
-Tatatang!
“Above us! It’s the Felinets! Open fire!”
“Command center! Command center! We’re surrounded by enemies! No! We’re being torn apart! Ugh!”
-Shriek!
If there was one advantage the monsters had over humans, it was their mobility.
We were overwhelmed, frantically responding to attacks coming from all directions.
Meanwhile, inside a nearby building, a search team on guard felt a tremor beneath their feet.
“What, what is that?!”
Mole-like monsters burst out from beneath the Violets’ feet.
They grabbed our ankles one by one and began dragging us underground.
“Ugh! I’m being pulled in!”
“No way!”
Feeling the urgency, the Violets requested air support.
“Flight squadron! Request immediate air support!”
As the hang glider squadron was preparing to strafe the monsters below, a whistling sound sliced through the air.
-Whiiiiiip!
The manta ray-like monsters, the Centinoxes, swooped down upon the hang gliders.
As they spewed magical flames, one by one, the hang gliders were engulfed in fire and crashed down.
“Evade! Evade!”
Monsters were everywhere, above, below, and on the streets. Troops were swarming from all sides.
Monsters of unfamiliar forms wielding unique abilities and capricious tactics brandished their sinister claws and teeth.
They spewed fire. They exploded.
-KABOOM!
We felt a sense of confusion. For the first time, our Violets were outnumbered and overmatched.
“Ugh! I’m being pulled in!”
The Violet tactical map was quickly darkening, marred by the fog of battle.
In the midst of the chaos, the monsters began acting strangely.
“Wow, guys! I’m being taken away!”
“What did you say?”
Amidst fierce fighting, one monster grabbed Unit 881 and started running away.
Startled, Unit 881 promptly self-destructed. Before I could process the absurdity, similar reports kept coming in.
“The monsters are abducting us!”
“Ugh! Creepy monsters!”
We responded immediately.
The Violets began pulling the pins from grenades or activating bomb vests as they were taken.
-KABOOM!
After repeating this a few times, the monsters ceased their abductions and attacked us once more.
“Don’t fight! Just hide as much as possible!”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
The Violet search squad fell back.
The bright lights that had illuminated the battlefield on the Violet tactical map faded away, leaving only faint glimmers as we sought refuge.
“These guys are pushing harder than expected.”
The Violet Command Center scratched their heads while looking at the map. They had never seen monsters so relentlessly pursuing them.
It was as if they were receiving orders from someone.
“We’ll postpone large-scale searches for now! The remaining search teams are to move stealthily!”
The command center shifted strategies.
Violets that had ventured deep beyond the ruins cloaked themselves and hid in the shadows.
The remaining Violets ran frantically from the pursuing monsters.
As one search team was hastily retreating, they sensed something odd.
“Hey? This is strange.”
At Unit 812’s remark, Unit 1220 tilted their head in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“Look closely, they’re not following us?”
We felt puzzled as we turned to where Unit 812 was pointing.
Just moments ago, the monsters had been pursuing us frantically, yet they were now withdrawing right before our eyes.
It was as if there was an invisible line they couldn’t cross.
The hesitant monsters silently disappeared into the buildings as if the fight had never occurred.
“This is the flight squadron, the manta ray creatures… are retreating. What’s going on?”
The hang glider squadron, which had been fleeing like sparrows chased by hawks, experienced a halt in the pursuit as well.
The Centinox swarm lazily flew back into the sky and vanished.
“Hey. What the…”
For a moment, relief washed over us, but an inexplicable unease lingered in the Violet Network.
A vortex of thoughts swirled within.
“Are there monsters that abduct people?”
“Well, there were some. But those monsters had distinct types, right? Those aren’t them.”
The instincts of the monsters depended on the original animal of their mutations.
However, today was different. Regardless of type, every monster had made at least one attempt to abduct people.
They even awkwardly halted their pursuit. This wasn’t a matter of instinct.
“This is strange…”
Except for certain categories, monsters don’t usually move this agilely.
It wasn’t a coincidence; all the Violet search teams experienced this phenomenon.
What on earth is in this city?
Amid the sense of crisis, the Command Center made a decision.
“Have the tanks and helicopters finished their disguises?”
“Yeah, according to Irene, no one knows our affiliation.”
As a small search team moved stealthily, the deployment of heavy equipment began.
“Begin deployment of rockets and artillery!”
“Hibernating Violet, magical power restoration is ready!”
The best option was to quietly find friends. But if that wasn’t possible, we would push forward with firepower.
Outside the veil, soldiers of the Federal Army were moving busily.
A soldier was sweating profusely as he carried a box of supplies with his comrades.
For him, accustomed to the heavy manual labor of a dungeon worker, this was nothing new. Before enlisting, he had done this regularly.
“Hey, look at that.”
One of the fellow soldiers carrying gear pointed his chin toward the distance. The soldier raised his head.
Strange lights were leaking through the massive veil. With the veil in between, people were attempting to communicate with the vague figures inside.
In the sky, a civilian news helicopter hovered, reporting the situation.
“Hey, is this your first time seeing a helicopter?”
“No, not the helicopter, you fool. Look over there.”
His comrade pointed toward the command center direction, where figures in suits were seen chatting with the commanders.
Some were dressed in different school uniforms; they had to be Awakened Students.
“Looks like academy and clan leaders, huh? What’s that about?”
When the soldier asked, his comrade murmured in amazement.
“Wow, do you see that female student? The blonde one.”
“Who? Oh, that one with wavy hair? That’s definitely Aegis Academy’s uniform.”
“Yeah, she must come from a good family. You can just tell by her aura. Wow…”
The soldier clicked his tongue at his comrade’s reaction.
“Give me a break, what aura? They’re probably just here for the students’ sake. They’ll say something like ‘please save our children.’ But if they’re Awakened, they could just go in themselves. Why bother us, right?”
“What can we do? It’s the fate of us mutts from the wasteland.”
The three laughed at their self-deprecating humor and resumed carrying their load.
Around the forward base where they stood was bustling with soldiers. Military trucks and armored vehicles rushed around, while orders blared through radios in the command tent.
Once their task was done, the soldier cautiously sneaked away with his comrade toward a secluded spot.
As he took a drag from a cigarette, the briefing from a few hours ago flashed through his mind.
“I’m sure you’ve already heard, but let me explain it once more.”
The battalion commander stood tall in front of the soldiers and began speaking in a deep voice. His short brown hair and rugged demeanor looked the same as ever.
“Our mobile regiment, the Third Squad, will enter the veil and secure the area with the convention center. After that, we’ll protect the civilians inside while constructing a passage connecting the veil and the outside.”
The soldier thought to himself. As expected, it was an obvious mission.
Non-Awakened soldiers were always given a set script. They were sent as the vanguard in dangerous areas to hold out until the Awakened could take action.
Sometimes they did miscellaneous tasks like clearing lower-level monsters and securing regions, but there were also times they became the assault squad and were sacrificed.
Soldiers were always expendable. With a medal and a meager reward, one could easily replace them.
One soldier had asked with a worried expression, one of his squadmates if he remembered correctly.
“Commander, about that Code Omega mutant monster that appeared this time. Are we supposed to deal with it?”
Sensing the concern in his words, the battalion commander replied nonchalantly.
“Don’t worry. The mutant monsters that appeared this time will be handled directly by Restraid’s Armored Knights. We just need to clean up behind them. Don’t panic.”
A short laugh burst out among the soldiers.
The tension had barely eased when suddenly, the mobile squadron commander appeared in person.
They were given new equipment. Adorned on it was the familiar violet phoenix mark.
It seemed to be a special drug and injection device developed by the Rumyx Research Foundation.
“From now on, wear that and do not take it off until the operation is complete.”
The expression on the officer’s face was clearly displeased.
Nevertheless, he emphasized that this drug patch was to be distributed to all personnel and must be worn without exception. It was a command from above, after all.
“Is that a suicide drug, commander? I’d prefer strawberry flavor if it’s gonna be that way.”
One comrade made a mischievous joke. The commander shook his head.
“No, they say it’s a stabilizer. Supposedly induces a temporary coma or something…”
At his words, the soldiers’ faces twisted in vague understanding. One of the officers asked.
“When exactly are we supposed to use this?”
The commander hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Sadly, I don’t know. To quote exactly what came from above: ‘If you witness a truly horrific sight, do not hesitate to use it.'”
“What does ‘horrific sight’ exactly mean?”
“Well… they said you’ll just know when you see it.”
The officer’s straightforward attitude left the soldiers with no clues in sight.
The other officers in the unit seemed to feel the same way.
Even Major Klein, who relayed the news personally, looked like he had no idea why they were given that drug.
‘If the mobile squadron commander, who’s from the military academy, doesn’t know, it must be some extremely confidential matter.’
The soldier couldn’t even begin to imagine what that horrifying spectacle might be.
He stared heavily at the veil in the distance. Nearby, soldiers from other mobile units were carrying something alongside them.
What they were transporting didn’t appear light at all.
“Hey, look over there!”
A murmur of question slipped from someone.
And it was no wonder, because it was none other than a tactical nuclear launcher.
As one of the military artifacts worshiped by the Trist Federation appeared, the soldier’s brow furrowed involuntarily.
“This is insane… Wasn’t this just a rescue operation?”
While he had heard rumors of its deployment, he couldn’t understand why they brought that here.
They hadn’t used it even against those cultists.
In the view of the Federal Army, nuclear weapons were items as common as water and cigarettes.
In order to subdue monster hordes with Ether Protection and high-speed mobility beyond non-Awakened soldiers’ capability, tremendous firepower was necessary.
The use of nuclear weapons was not uncommon.
However, it was also not something that happened all the time.
Unless you were not part of the garrison at the Red Zone or Yellow Zone.
‘Is that mutant monster really that powerful?’
If they would bring tactical nukes for an operation that wasn’t a large-scale battle, what kind of being could it be?
The soldier was enveloped by a sense of foreboding he couldn’t shake. The presence of that nuclear weapon was exceedingly overwhelming to the highly tense soldiers.
Suddenly, a search squad of Awakened soldiers from the special mission unit entered their line of sight.
‘I hope they perform well.’
The soldiers thought. Normally, they were just a bunch of braggarts claiming they were Awakened, but now they hoped they’d show some real results.
If they did, they might just get to go home without firing a single shot.
The search squad disappeared into the unknown world beyond the veil.
*
The Violets crawled quietly while cloaked in a camouflage shroud.
“This is so stifling!”
“Just hold on! Depending on the situation, we’ll break through with firepower.”
As we were scurrying about diligently, news came from the Violets stationed at the exhibition hall.
“Be careful, seems like a temporary exploration team has been formed over there. They just departed a while ago.”
“What? Why?”
“Half are searching for missing persons, and half are looking for valuable artifacts or money.”
Hearing that, I was dumbfounded. To come this far and look for something valuable?
Even just sitting still, things were escalating out of control.
![[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come](https://i3.wp.com/darkmtl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407792-8993-TS-The-end-of-magical-girls-has-come.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come")
