Chapter 13

Tension filled the air. What the Magistras had feared had come. Kali Yuga was not just a story. He stood before us in full physical form. Our hopelessness grew stronger and stronger, because the visitor had destroyed a Deviclockster with ridiculous ease — and we had almost died fighting just the very first one.

Bubblegirl tried to reason with him.

“Don’t do this! Countless innocent people live here!”

Kali Yuga’s eyes narrowed.

“Innocent, are they…?”

After a brief silence, he burst out, declaring that our present humanity was anything but innocent. In his view, most people carried the seeds of selfishness, envy, and malice. Glancing at the Magistras members, he exposed them with disdain.

He revealed that even if Kaori’s abnormal energy had not drawn him into our world, he still would have come eventually. In that case, it would have been just as obvious to him that the corrupt souls he sensed could never have created such a beautiful utopia. The deception would have been obvious, no matter what they tried.

Fergus interrupted in shock.

“Then…!”

“That’s right. You were chasing this girl in vain from the very beginning.”

Kali Yuga then said, in a disappointed tone, that Olivia and Fergus had much to answer for. He stated that learning and using black magic was an especially severe heresy — and because of that, Fergus would be the first he killed.

Fergus reacted instantly. He hurled a magical sphere toward Yuga, but the latter simply brushed it aside with his hand. Then, in a single blink, he teleported in front of Fergus and placed his palm on the man’s abdomen. There was absolutely no time to react. Before our eyes, green spikes of light burst out of Fergus’s back. He groaned, and we stared in horror as the creature wearing a teenage boy’s form grabbed him by the neck with one hand and lifted him up.

“Farewell, Dr. Maxim. A pity… such talent…”

In the next moment, he hurled his victim into one of the square’s antique statues, which collapsed from the impact.

“Fergus!!”

Olivia ran to him with tears in her eyes. She dropped to her knees and supported his head with her hand. We rushed toward them without thinking.

Fergus lay on his back, gasping for air. Speaking took serious effort.

“Olivia… f-forgive me… for dragging you into all this.”

But the woman, sobbing, begged him not to talk and to conserve his strength. He signaled that it was too late for him. He gently touched her chin with his fingers, saying he could never have wished for a better partner, nor a better student. Olivia felt the same about her colleague — he had been the greatest teacher she could have ever had. He had seen in her what others never did.

Then Fergus turned his attention to us.

“Girls… I’m terribly sorry… that we ruined all your lives… by manipulating the timeline.”

He tried to look Snowincess in the eyes, but it was unbearably painful for him — emotionally and physically.

“I took your family… your friends… and I took you away from Reina as well… I can never undo it now.”

Snowincess looked aside angrily at first. She admitted she had truly suffered a lot because of him — but holding onto anger would only destroy her. Gathering her resolve, she made a noble gesture. She took the man’s hand between hers and gave him a sad, empathetic smile.

“I forgive you.”

I nodded in agreement. I didn’t want to hold a grudge either. Bubblegirl also tried to reassure him that no one hated him. Peace and relief washed over Fergus’s face. With the last of his strength, he asked us to work together with Olivia — to protect one another. It was the only way to win.

Then he breathed his last.

Olivia collapsed onto his chest, crying endlessly, while I gently closed the deceased man’s eyes. Kali Yuga, who had been watching with what seemed like curiosity, spoke up.

“There is no need to despair. You will join him in moments. I sense that you have used that tainted magic as well. I cannot let that go unanswered.”

But the woman didn’t even seem to hear him. She continued crying beside her fallen partner.

We glanced at one another — we had to act. I shouted at the dangerous being wearing the teenage boy’s form:

“Leave her alone! We’ll be your opponents!”

Kali Yuga accepted our offer, saying that our power felt strange. It was based on time magic, yet not obtained through learning or practice. He declared it was time to test us.

There was no time to hesitate — the three of us hurled ourselves at him. We tried punching, kicking, slashing with crescent boomerangs, bombarding with bubble volleys, and striking him with an ice hammer — all in vain. The boy simply sidestepped or teleported each time. I cast the shadow mist to hide us, but that didn’t bother Yuga in the slightest. He took a deep breath and inhaled the smoke-like formation through his mouth. Only then did he realize what we were preparing.

“Silent night, erase this corrupt existence. Take form, Moon Seal!”

“Spirits of joy, embodiment of cheer, imprison all evil. Sprint, Bubble Strike!”

“Mystic radiance of freezing winters, stop corruption in its tracks! Burst forth, Frost Beam!”

Our erasure techniques struck him at the same moment, creating an explosion of shifting colors. But it was pointless. As his figure became visible again, the boy stood unharmed. He casually brushed the dust from his clothing.

“That’s all?”

We were shocked. Even with our combined strength, we couldn’t scratch him. Olivia rose from Fergus’s body, eyes burning with hatred at her partner’s killer.

“You bastard…! I’ll tear you apart!”

Summoning her blades, she charged. I yelled for her to wait, but she ignored me. Her strikes were precise and incredibly fast — but her opponent remained untouched. Kali Yuga toyed with her. Sometimes he teleported, other times he dodged only as much as necessary.

“You’re quite skilled, Miss Gauss. If your friend hadn’t weakened himself with black magic, he would have lasted a little longer against me. Very little. The same goes for you…”

He struck Olivia in the stomach, then twisted her blade out of her hand. Using the stolen weapon, he made a swift cut. The woman’s arm separated from her body. Blood splattered onto the ground, and Olivia screamed. A purple glow lingered at the cut.

We gasped in horror.

“Olivia!”

The blade vanished from Yuga’s hand, as did the severed one. The woman, staggering from shock and blood loss, collapsed after a few steps. Kali Yuga asked, in a tone almost pitying:

“Any last requests?”

But Olivia grinned, revealing the truth — she had already gotten what she wanted. Because her enemy was about to die.

He didn’t understand at first, but hearing our chanting, he suspected something — far too late.

“Holy spiral of our bonds, wash away every obstacle! Take form, Rainbow Tornado!”

We shot upward and became streaks of intertwining light. A rainbow tornado formed around Yuga. The ground trembled violently. Nearly a minute later, the phenomenon ended, and we rematerialized, landing on the concrete.

We hoped for success — but it still wasn’t enough. Our attack hadn’t been pointless, though. Yuga wiped blood from his forehead, breathing heavily.

We cursed in disbelief, while the boy’s face twisted into an excited grin.

“So humans CAN perform remarkable feats… when they fight for each other. Very well. If you can push me this far, I might let you live. But I will no longer hold back…”

What happened next was overwhelming. The boy’s body bathed in green light, lifted into the air, and burst into a distorting mass of energy. It soon reassembled into a gigantic entity — like an indigo wheel with wings, a wheel within a wheel, covered entirely in small eyes. And in the center of the wheels, an enormous eye stared.

We gaped at the sky as the massive being eclipsed the sun. Olivia, barely conscious, also looked upward.

“This has to be some sick joke…”

Snowincess confronted her with reality.

“I wish it were, but it’s not. That thing really is Kali Yuga. Or at least his true form.”

Bubblegirl grimaced.

“It’s so ugly, ew!”

If the creature’s appearance wasn’t terrifying enough, the next events surely were. The space around Yuga cracked here and there as if invisible walls had fractured. From the cracks, a liquid black substance poured out. Any buildings, cars, signs — anything it touched — began to disappear.

As though erased from existence.

Realizing what was happening, I screamed that he was deleting our world.

All civilians had fled earlier because of the fight around the square, but now we heard chaos from far away. Even from a distance, the people must have seen the monstrous being in the sky. As they fled, Kali Yuga fired green beams from his eyes toward several parts of the city. Explosions and sirens echoed around us. We had to act immediately.

Snowincess said Bubblegirl needed to get her up there — they had done it before. It was dangerous, but time was running out. We agreed. The pink Seraph created large, flexible bubbles arranged like stairs. She formed them as high as she could.

“Any higher and they’ll pop…”

“This is perfect.”

Snowincess darted upward without hesitation, leaping from the highest bubble. She reached Yuga’s height and summoned her ice mace, trying to strike the floating monster — but it went terribly wrong. A green tendril of energy shot out from one of the eyes and slammed into her. Her body crashed through a tower and then into the pavement. It looked like a meteorite impact.

Bubblegirl cried out in panic.

“Snowincess!”

She had landed several blocks away. Meanwhile, Yuga continued firing beams across the area. I told Bubblegirl we had to get out — she rushed to pick up the wounded Olivia.

“What are you doing?!”

“Saving you, duh.”

Then we escaped.

After retrieving the aching Snowincess, we watched from behind a shopping center as Yuga’s beams continued ravaging the city. The black ether erased everything in its path. Snowincess carefully froze Olivia’s stump. The woman hissed from the pain despite the gentle treatment — no one blamed her.

After a brief silence, Olivia asked why Bubblegirl had saved her. Especially since she had once tried so hard to kill the Seraph. But Bubblegirl said she didn’t hate her or Fergus — because they weren’t bad people. In their own misguided way, they were trying to save humanity. And they had never harmed civilians. A truly immoral villain wouldn’t have cared.

Olivia protested, saying that after a while, she hadn’t tried to kill Kaori just out of necessity — but out of hatred. To make this clear, she needed to tell us how she had joined the Magistras and met Fergus.

Olivia recalled three years ago, when she had been about seventeen. She was considered an incredibly talented student in the natural sciences. Smarter than her teachers. She took her exams early, and one of the most prestigious universities accepted her. There, the mathematics professor — Dr. Fergus Maxim — noticed her. Olivia had a sharp tongue; classmates didn’t like her much, just like in high school. But Fergus respected her because she always came up with alternative solutions and could think outside the usual frameworks. They quickly found common ground, even if she teased him often.

Half a year later, Olivia’s parents died in a house fire, leaving her as the only survivor. Fergus became her guardian, even though she was barely still a minor. He took her in without asking her to view him as a father — which she didn’t. They saw each other more as trustworthy partners and fellow scientists. Despite fearing the consequences, Fergus took the risk of telling her about the Magistras and the coming threat of Kali Yuga. He even revealed the existence of magic. He expected Olivia to laugh at him — and though she teased him briefly, to his shock, she believed him. He introduced her to the other Magistras members and trained her in magic, where she excelled as well.

Fergus and the others told her that not everyone approved of what they were doing. Certain groups and intelligence agencies tried to shut them down or uncover their identities. The members, most of whom Olivia later grew fond of, made many sacrifices to develop the timeline-altering project. Through sweat and hardship, they created a more beautiful world — and nearly failed many times. That was why Olivia hated Kaori so deeply. She believed the girl’s existence threatened everything Fergus had worked for.

But now she had to admit she had been wrong. Kaori was innocent. No one can be blamed for how their existence affects the world.

After listening patiently, Bubblegirl held Olivia’s remaining hand with empathy.

“I forgive you. That’s not what matters. What matters is that you forgive yourself. Love yourself. Value yourself.”

Tears rolled down Olivia’s face.

“How can I? What right do I have — after everything you suffered because of me…?”

Bubblegirl did something Olivia never expected. She hugged her gently. Olivia’s face flushed red.

“It’s okay. You’ve suffered enough. No one deserves this. And you were just a kid, like us not long ago. We’ll get through it and eat some yummy ice cream after. From now on, we’re friends — if you want that.”

Olivia sniffed.

“Friends…? But how could I…?”

Bubblegirl told her she didn’t need to answer right now — just to know she didn’t have to hate herself.

Their peaceful moment was abruptly shattered when a beam sliced into the street nearby. Kali Yuga hovered above, all his eyes aimed at us. Snowincess groaned, disappointed — Yuga had found us quickly.

But that wasn’t the only problem.

A little girl was running nearby, tripped, and fell right in front of us. Crying, she clutched her teddy bear and called for her mother. Yuga’s gaze locked onto her.

Bubblegirl acted instantly.

“No!”

She ran to the child. We tried to follow, but Yuga cut us off with lasers, blocking our path. Olivia hesitated — clearly conflicted. Then she forced herself to her feet, placing her hand on her stump and muttering a spell.

Yuga, still firing at Snowincess and me, did not forget about Bubblegirl and the girl. The massive central eye glowed brighter and brighter.

Meanwhile, something grew from Olivia’s stump — a half-solid arm made of black plasma with red streaks. Its fingers resembled beastly claws.

Even after everything, I still wasn’t prepared for this.

“Olivia??”

She summoned her clock-hand swords, which turned crimson, grew larger, and developed spikes. Her violet eyes also turned red.

“I realized I can do more with the black magic I learned — not just summon Deviclocksters.”

But the moment she spoke, she coughed harshly and crumpled slightly. We meant to voice our concern, but she steadied herself immediately.

Kali Yuga’s central eye was ready to fire when suddenly red energy waves struck him. The sky-beast released a horn-like roar. Green tendrils lashed at Olivia, but she sprinted with incredible speed, slicing through them with her blades, then standing protectively before Bubblegirl and the little girl.

“Get her out of here and RUN. I’ll buy you time.”

Bubblegirl protested loudly.

“But—!”

“No buts!”

Yuga fired from the main eye. Olivia crossed her swords and barely blocked the beam, groaning from the effort.

“I’m dying anyway. Ever since Fergus and I summoned Deviclocksters, our worsening health made this inevitable…”

Bubblegirl tried to argue, insisting they’d save her — but Olivia shouted that she couldn’t take the risk, not when a child’s life was now in her hands. Her weakening blade flickered, its red glow fading.

We begged Bubblegirl to come — we had to go. We moved to grab her. The pink Seraph was torn with guilt, but she lifted the girl and ran.

Olivia looked back at her with a peaceful smile.

“I’m sorry I can’t go with you, Kaori. I gave you so much hatred, yet you repaid me with kindness. Even if for only a short time… I’m glad I could finally call you my friend.”

A lump formed in Bubblegirl’s throat.

Then Olivia said goodbye.

“Good luck… and farewell…”

We dragged Kaori, who had stopped mid-run. Olivia turned back toward the beam. She tried to hold on —

but the blast shattered her weapons and engulfed her.