An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 87

Weapons ready, it was time to attack again.

 

This time I planned to enter through the ceiling, as I could move freely through the concrete.

 

From the floor of the classroom, just above the music room, I slowly descended.

 

As I looked down from the ceiling, I saw the red glowing core and the hand still spewing red breath.

 

There was only one target. Grabbing it with both hands like a knife, I jumped into the music room with full force.

 

Kwajik!

 

The tip of my knife-like grip sliced through the hand that was the source of the red breath.

 

The Head Collector staggered back, off-center from the surprise from above, and I pressed my weight down on the gaff.

 

The Head Collector’s impaled hand fell helplessly to the floor of the music room.

 

“Whoo, whoo, whoo…. Ew, ew, ew!”

 

The Head Collector grunted and groaned, unable to scream as he had before.

 

Reddish breath trickled up between his hands. I narrowly avoided his attempt to grab my throat with his other hand.

 

“Shut up and stay still.”

 

He dragged me to my feet like a plow. The nail in his head tore through the transparent arm of the head collector. Clear blood oozed through the torn flesh.

 

“Mmph! Ew, ew, ew, ew!”

 

The Head Collector jerked and twisted his entire body.

 

Fortunately, it was exactly what I had hoped for.

 

The right hand with the mouth was still pinned to the ground.

 

The flesh of his arm, which was still attached, was completely separated from the rest of his body thanks to his twisting and turning.

 

Before the head collector realized his mistake, I picked up the severed right arm and threw it out the window.

 

I had finally eliminated the source of the red mist, the biggest obstacle to breaking the core.

 

The core was unlikely to be destroyed in one hit anyway, so I moved to remove the mist spitting gills first, which proved to be a good choice.

 

Having lost its mouth, the Head Collector was now unable to scream and could only writhe in agony.

 

The Head Collector chased after me, flailing its remaining left arm wildly.

 

Pretending to make a modest escape, I stepped on its low-flying left arm, jumped, and landed on its shoulders.

 

Then I slammed the Head Collector’s core into the ground.

 

“Screw you!”

 

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

 

The thud continued unabated.

 

The head collector was on a mad rampage. I grabbed its transparent shoulder with my non-gripping hand to keep from falling.

 

I pressed down hard with my legs to keep the Head Collector from raising his arms.

 

Thud! Thud! 

 

I don’t know how many times I hit it like that.

 

Finally, a long crack ran down the center of the core, and the surface cracked open, sending shards flying everywhere.

 

I thought it was over.

 

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

 

Until a sudden blast of red breath hit me.

 

I reflexively held my breath, but not before the breath wrapped itself around my neck.

 

Ouch!

 

With the same force that had dented the steel desk earlier, the breath snapped my neck in two.

 

I’m glad it wasn’t my body that got caught.

 

“Holy—!”

 

In its haste, it produced a five-inch black spike from its disembodied fingertip and threw it.

 

A spike that burrowed into a crack in the surface of the core.

 

At the same time, the Head Collector shook off my legs and pushed me completely off his shoulders.

 

As the world spun, I noticed that a new “mouth” had formed near the Head Collector’s head.

 

“No, why would a mouth just appear out of nowhere— Kek!”

 

After a minute of struggling, the Head Collector grabbed me and threw me to the ground.

 

Crack!

 

It didn’t sound like a bang, more like a crunch.

 

How far is this going to go…?

 

He hit me so hard that I fell through the floor of the music room and only stopped on the first floor.

 

I wasn’t physically hit, so why did my back feel like it was tingling?

 

I didn’t have time to stay on the ground floor.

 

❰Skill: ‘Create Something Out of Nothing’ activated❱.

❰Constructs Nailed Pronged Wood❱.

 

Weapons are forming faster than before, I’ll make another one just in case.

 

I soared up to the music room, holding one in each hand.

 

I’ll show you a magic trick where the weapon you just dropped becomes two and returns.

 

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

 

The Head Collector greeted me with a familiar shriek.

 

Red breath flew at me from the front, but I didn’t care.

 

“Please, die quietly!”

 

The prong of my right hand slashed across his mouth, piercing it. Clear blood spurted out.

 

“Aaaaaaah!”

 

Not to be outdone, the Head Collector chewed on the prickly pear that had entered his mouth and crushed it.

 

“Ew! Kweeeeeeeeek! Ew!”

 

I choked and spit out half of the cob that was still stuck in my mouth.

 

Meanwhile, I hit the kernel with the palm of my left hand.

 

Bam!

 

It was the most joyous and beautiful sound my ears had heard all day.

 

The spikes I’d driven in earlier had penetrated deeply, and the core was about to split into four equal parts.

 

It was time to capitalize on the momentum and take another swing.

 

 

***

 

 

A roar unlike anything I’d ever heard before, a roar so loud it threatened to tear my eardrums apart.

 

This time, however, it wasn’t red spit that came out of its mouth.

 

It was a clear, jelly-like mass that slurped and slid out of his mouth.

 

His eyes widened at the grotesque sight, as if he was spitting out his own flesh.

 

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

 

There was another roar, and the transparent masses quickly coalesced into some sort of shape.

 

I didn’t know what it was, but I knew instinctively that I couldn’t let it take full shape.

 

“Kekekeke…!”

 

The Head Collector, sensing my movements, swung his left arm like a whip, and as I reeled from a blow to the side, the transparent mass transformed into a headless body about 150 centimeters tall. 

 

It looked like a miniature version of the Head Collector.

 

The finished invisible body sprinted out of the music room.

 

The Head Collector asked, a smirk of obvious mockery on its face.

 

“You’re stupid to go after that thing, it’ll go away on its own if you catch it.”

 

The core was almost gone anyway.

 

“A few more hits and it’ll be gone.”

 

I knew it. I was the one who couldn’t afford to be lax.

 

I had to take care of this bastard before the invisible body that just ran away did something big.

 

I straightened my gauntlet and charged.

 

The head collector chuckled.

 

It muttered something like someone who broke up with their lover on the 300th day, and its long limbs flail about.

 

I pinned the Head Collector against a wall and drove black spikes into every joint.

 

Why does it still look so strangely relaxed when all it can do is wriggle around like a stuffed animal? Where does it get its confidence?

 

I hold each piece aloft, wary of the red breath that comes out in intermittent gurgles, as if this is the last time I’ll ever see it,

 

“Sing, do, yo, sir.”

 

“It’s, time, for, music, sir.”

 

“Let’s all sing, together.”

 

I was swept backward, unable to move, by the rushing throng of souls.

 

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of spirits poured into the music room.

 

They were the spirits of disembodied students.

 

“Choir, yo. All of you, forget us, forget us, forget us.”

 

“Forget me, Count.”

 

“Only the disappearance of the chi of all, of the billion, is the true, freedom.”

 

“Please start the piano accompaniment.”

 

“Teacher, please conduct the harp.”

 

The spirits of the students poured into the music room.

 

The room was already crowded, and the souls that couldn’t make it in 

crowded the hallway outside the room.

 

“We can sing anywhere.”

 

“Sing, let’s sing. Chorus, chorus.”

 

The crowd grew larger and larger. It was as if the whole school had been captured.

 

I couldn’t do anything violent to them, so I was pushed into the corner of the music room near the window.

 

Koo-koo-koo-koo—

 

The transparent walls surrounding the music room slowly began to disappear.

 

It was as if it was declaring that from now on, not only this music room, but the entire school was its domain.

 

As its territory expanded, the Head Collector itself grew larger and larger.

 

The black spikes that held its limbs in place soon broke and fell off, and its two-meter body grew to three and four meters.

 

It cast long, transparent shadows over the heads of the students.

 

The Head Collector tore open a window frame on the playground side and let its giant body, which had grown nearly five times larger, out.

 

The core, once the size of a man’s fist, had grown to nearly a meter in diameter. 

 

It even seemed to have filled in most of the cracks I’d made along the way.

 

So that’s why you split so much, you bastard.

 

The second invisible body that jumped out earlier must have done something. 

 

It had captured all those souls and led them to the music room.

 

It had increased the number of students in the “music class”, expanded and enlarged the area, and restored the core.

 

I felt my eyes glaze over.

 

When will they destroy everything again?

 

Hundreds of pairs of eyes turned to look at me at the same time as the Head Collector shouted.

 

“…Shit.!”

 

I realized that I shouldn’t be here.

 

I didn’t hesitate and fell through the floor.

 

***

 

“That’s five… already.”

 

Seo Jun followed the procession of heads, sending one soul after another back to its place, captivated by their song.

 

First one from the third class of the first year, then two from the seventh class of the second year, one from the second class of the third year, and just now another from the sixth class of the first year. This was the second time.

 

The procession continued on its way, turning and moving toward the classrooms of the second grade.

 

Seo Jun nervously stepped on the heads of those in the back row.

 

The puppet’s head popped out of the tear in the wicker, but it quickly reformed as if nothing had happened. 

 

Even if it was burned with a flame-creating amulet, it would quickly return to its original form in the ashes.

 

The only way to end the endless rebirth of doll heads in a procession was to eliminate the head collector itself, or to remove the sigils the collector had carved into each head.

 

Seo Jun took a doll head and scratched the sigil on the back with her dagger.

 

It was a time-consuming process to remove the sigils once they were engraved, and the doll it picked up now was the third in line to be removed.

 

She’d been removing sigils nonstop since she’d started following the procession, and this was still the third.

 

She still had a long way to go before she could completely neutralize the procession.

 

Seo Jun wondered if she should return to the music room and help Baek Iri now.

 

‘I hope she’s not really ready to die,’ she thought.

 

But her fear was soon overwhelmed by the changes before her.

 

The procession of heads suddenly stopped moving and stood still.

 

Something in the distance was rushing toward them.