Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

When the tip of the sword touched the Death Worm, the dark purple aura of decay immediately climbed up the blade and almost instantly corroded Yuga Mayumi's right hand.

She hissed softly.

Her right hand began to melt.

Skin, muscles, and then bones. In the blink of an eye, the right hand that had been holding the sword was so rotten that the skeleton was visible.

Furthermore, the wristbands made of wrapped strips of cloth revealed an even more gruesome sight.

Yuga Mayumi didn't even pause before putting it into her backpack. She had only been in contact with the Death Worm for less than a second when her right arm lost all feeling. The tingling sensation had spread rapidly to her shoulder and climbed up her neck.

She wanted to cut ties as quickly as possible, but then she realized there was someone else standing next to her.

Last time, she chopped off her own arm, which terrified Hitomi Tono so much that she lost her mind. She can't be so reckless this time.

This insect has very little putrid smell; it's unlikely to turn me to dust on the spot. My body will heal itself in a little while.

And so, magical girl Iris saw it—

—The stranger's face also melted halfway down.

Its face began to collapse, and its remaining eye became cloudy. After turning its head, it fell out with a "plop".

Chapter Fifteen: I Don't Want to Linger Like You

despair.

For Mayumi Haga, this was a word that had never been associated with her.

Despite suffering from severe congenital heart disease and being told she was destined to die young, she was still blessed by the world's consciousness when she was on the verge of death and became a guardian who would never die.

The pain still lingered, but it was no longer a reason for her to despair.

And after that, she clumsily began her own battle.

She measured every corner of that continent with her own two feet, and guided by a global consciousness, she rushed day and night to the places where she was needed.

She met all sorts of people on her journey, including guardians with more seniority than herself. She learned a lot from them, and her steps forward were no longer as stumbling as those of a toddler.

She looked up in the desert to find the stars, walked slowly through the misty forest with a torch in hand, watched a crimson shooting star streak across the snow-capped mountain, leaped off a cliff into the lake below, and tamed a ferocious giant horse on a deserted island.

Walking from one end of the world to the other, and looking back, hundreds of years have passed.

No one in the village where she once set out recognizes her anymore. The witch doctor who had predicted she wouldn't live past seventeen is now just a skeleton covered in skin. The little girl who inherited the witch doctor's mantle now sees her as a character made up in her grandmother's bedtime stories.

My mother's tombstone shattered in an earthquake, and her remains could never be found. My former home was buried by a mudslide, leaving no trace whatsoever.

The merchant she met by the roadside later established a trading company. Centuries later, the once-glorious company was squandered by her descendants, leaving not even a signboard behind. No one will ever again buy her special insects, making a startling sound.

The little elves who guided her in the forest have almost disappeared due to human capture, but they still remember her and will secretly throw her a fruit that just happens to hit her on the forehead when she rests under a tree.

When the giant lake dried up, the aquatic creatures that depended on it for survival had to relocate. They moved from the southwest to the icy lake near the snow-capped mountains and gradually adapted to the harsh cold.

There are many, many more...

Mayumi Haga still remembers that her world once had bright moonlight, bright red apples, and gentle mountain breezes.

She didn't start out using self-destruction in battle. After all, as a human, her swordsmanship was exceptionally talented. If it weren't for her illness, she would have become a renowned genius.

At the beginning, Mayumi Haga's fighting style was not so extreme. With the guidance of many guardian predecessors like her, she quickly mastered a variety of survival and combat skills, and was able to fight ordinary monsters without self-destruction during peacetime.

After reaching adolescence, time seemed to leave no trace on Mayumi Haga. But everything external was changing, and her abilities had greatly improved through long periods of training. She became increasingly composed and poised, and combat became more and more effortless for her.

During this period, apart from worrying about what to do to pass the time, nothing could defeat Mayumi Haga.

At this point, she was naturally far removed from despair.

However, all of this was ruthlessly shattered by an external calamity.

When Mayumi Haga first fought the Death Worm, it revived thirty-seven times.

Touching you will kill you. Getting close to you will kill you. Being stared at will kill you.

The opponent's concept has no blind spots. All I can do is stack my flesh and blood, expend endless life force to delay the opponent's progress, create a momentary blind spot, and then seize the opportunity to strike and kill.

Her regeneration speed is faster than that of the other guardians, and what was once considered insignificant has now become a rare advantage.

After finally getting rid of the bug, Mayumi Haga sat on the ground, lost in thought.

She wasn't late at all; in fact, she arrived here immediately to confront the invaders from another world... but she still couldn't prevent the tragedy from happening.

The entire village lost its lives.

Some committed suicide after being bewitched, some died as soon as they picked up weapons, and the last child died in his arms, rotting faster than he himself.

But it was just an insect.

Insects that lose their ability to move with a single poke are the harbingers of impending catastrophe.

Mayumi Haga can be resurrected, but those she protects cannot.

Faced with such an enemy, even the slightest negligence could result in the deaths of those behind them.

Life is incredibly fragile, and Mayumi Haga's understanding of this fact deepened with each failure.

Even if she self-destructs, she won't die. Her severed arm can be replaced immediately, and even if she turns into mincemeat, it won't be a big problem.

But human life is only given to us once.

Yuga Mayumi tried every possible method, reaching out countless times, trying to grasp that flickering flame of life in her hand.

When he came to his senses, he found himself standing alone amidst the chaos, staring blankly at the half of his face that had rolled to the ground, having protected nothing.

The other guardians also lost contact with her during this catastrophe.

Everyone is struggling to fight death, but not everyone can be fully resurrected in a single breath like Mayumi Haga.

The core of the guardian can also be corrupted by calamity. Most of Mayumi Haga's predecessors died from the corruption... or perhaps it should not be called death, but disintegration.

It no longer possesses the ability to regenerate, and thus loses its physical body, leaving only a gray, thumb-sized stone as its core, which can be crushed if not carefully examined.

Mayumi Haga found a few cores that were barely intact, but many more lay dormant in places she didn't know about.

The calamity spread faster than expected, leaving only Mayumi Haga as the sole guardian. She was overwhelmed and began searching for a way to awaken the other guardians as well.

She placed the core of her closest senior into the body she was changing into on the spot, thus awakening that gentle senior.

The other party woke up inside Mayumi Haga's body, with Mayumi Haga's face.

Before I could even feel happy, I discovered that his face was filled with resentment and malice.

The senior grabbed Mayumi Haga by the collar, his eyes bloodshot.

"Why me? Why was I resurrected? Why must I live to suffer this torment?"

Haga Mayumi was stunned: "...Senior?"

Is living a form of suffering?

Mayumi Haga didn't understand; she saw her own bewildered face reflected in the other person's eyes.

Struggling to survive, even after healing itself, it was left with scars, leaving behind an ugly face.

Mayumi Haga hadn't noticed her own face for a long time, and suddenly felt like a stranger to her senior.

The senior, her voice a mixture of laughter and tears, uttered a sharp, resentful tone: "I don't want to live like you, utterly humiliated and barely clinging to life, Mayumi."

Main text: Chapter Sixteen: Why does your face look so pale and purplish?

When Mayumi Haga struggled to wake up from what seemed like an endless nightmare, she found herself lying in her bed at home.

The curtains were drawn, and the lights inside the house were off, but the living room lights were on, and a warm, soft light and hushed conversation seeped in through the crack in the door.

In the living room, the three were talking in hushed tones.

"Mayumi really suffered..." Tono Hitomi's gaze was fixed on the closed door, her eyes were still a little red, as if she had been crying.

She actually did cry.

She was shocked when she learned that Mayumi Haga had been in an accident.

She learned from Yuri Takajo that Mayumi Haga almost died in the elevator accident. Although she was rescued by a stranger, she suffered an acute heart attack and fainted due to excessive shock. She was only able to recover after being given emergency treatment by a senior doctor.

Whether it was an accident or a sudden illness, Mayumi Haga almost died.

For Hitomi Tono, just thinking about it made her so scared that she burst into tears.

Hitomi Tono looked sullen, while Yuri Takajo on the other side also seemed listless.

There are surveillance cameras in the hospital. The senior showed them the video, which is how Tono Hitomi realized that the person Takajo Yuri encountered today was the same... strange guy from last time.

But the surveillance camera was always positioned above, and apart from Takajo Yuri, no one ever saw the face under the hood.

When Hitomi Tono asked a question, she saw the color drain from Yuri Takajo's face instantly, indicating that she had witnessed an extremely horrifying scene.

So Hitomi Tono didn't ask any further questions.

So what kind of person is he...?

Hitomi Tono was actually quite curious about that stranger.

She couldn't sense any magical fluctuations from the other person, so she naturally guessed that the other person wasn't a magical girl. Moreover, the other person's style was completely different from that of magical girls who favored gorgeous and exquisite things; it seemed to be a different kind of mysterious and profound power that she had never encountered before.

The monster they encountered in the hospital this time... or rather, the monstrous creature, was something they had never seen before.

The biggest difference is that in the past, when monsters hatched using human bodies, the humans who were used as breeding grounds would only be weak for a period of time due to the depletion of their magical power.

This time, all of them were admitted to the ICU, hovering on the edge of life and death.

If it weren't for the timely intervention of experienced doctors, those ordinary people who unfortunately became the incubators might have died on the spot.

Furthermore, in dealing with the lingering stench of decay on ordinary people, the senior doctor lost a significant amount of his magic power.

This was definitely not the monster they knew; its magical attributes were pitifully weak, yet it was able to plunder people's magic power and life force.

This is also extremely troublesome for magic users. Unless one is a naturally gifted individual with extraordinary magical power, it might be difficult to survive for an hour against such a monster.

At this time, the person who knows how to deal with the new type of monster becomes extremely important.

Who exactly is she? How does she know how to kill the monster? What did she use to erase it in an instant? What is her relationship with this monster? The monster's existence is affecting the spiritual veins; how can this negative influence be eliminated?

A series of questions can only be answered by finding the Guardian herself.

"Actually, I've seen her before." Hitomi Tohno recounted the first time she met the Guardian.

Previously, Hitomi Tono had also shared related information, but she concealed the fact that the other party had severed his own arm to avoid causing discomfort to his companions.

However, considering what Yuri Takajo said...

"...Did that person's arm recover so quickly?" Sugiyama Rika asked in surprise. "And he didn't make a sound even though half his body melted away... Was he really human?"

If it weren't for the fact that there were no magical fluctuations emanating from her, the three of them would have suspected that she was some kind of magical puppet.

Even freaks feel pain and experience emotional fluctuations. But this stranger seems more like a machine specifically designed to eliminate enemies.

—Is he really a human being?

Such questions also reached the ears of Mayumi Haga, who was quietly listening to the conversation between the three behind the door.

She lowered her eyes, her face expressionless.

He lowered his head and spread his palms out in front of his eyes.

The girl's hands were slender and beautiful. She had never picked up a weapon since coming into this world, so her skin was smooth and intact, without scars or calluses, and her bones had not deformed from repeated breaks, injuries, and regrowth.

With delicate and handsome features, and dark, bright eyes, he was once praised for his good looks.

But this is not her true appearance.

The real Mayumi Haga is a stubborn and ugly person. Even though the things she needed to protect have long since disappeared, she still lives on in a wretched state.

That which has lost all dignity, relying only on a faint obsession to survive, but ultimately dies in vain, cannot be considered human. It is more like an insect struggling and crawling around on the ground, only to be trampled to death in the end.

A dull ache rose in her chest, and a buzzing sound filled her ears. Yuga Mayumi couldn't help but cough softly, the rush of blood causing an unnatural flush to appear on her usually pale face.

Despite her fragile appearance, there was a calm in her eyes.

It was eerily calm, even hollow.

When she first arrived in this world, Mayumi Haga did not understand why this world would accept her, or why she had come here.

Her guardian and the people around her told her time and time again that living itself does not require any price to pay.

They said that happiness was something she deserved and that she shouldn't feel uneasy about it.

But misfortune followed her.

Mayumi Haga belatedly realized that it was as if the original world consciousness had healed her illness but imprisoned her soul in eternal life, subjecting her to endless torment.