My Superpower Is Piloting Magical Girl Corpses?

“This is...”

Judgment Thunder abruptly raised her head, astonishment flooding her cyan-blue eyes.

The lightning witch beside her reacted the same way, as if something impossibly significant had just caught its attention.

In the underground shelters, among the ruined streets, when millions first saw the terrifying Witch King and the black fog in the sky, panic and commotion inevitably erupted.

But very soon, the pink virtual streamer in the sky waved at them.

“Hi hi~”

“This is the universe’s most, most dazzling virtual streamer, magical girl Tangtang!”

“The situation right now is really dire, the apocalypse is almost here! How terrifying!”

“But… magical girls never give up!”

The pink magical girl flashed the brightest smile in history. “So everyone, please cheer on all the magical girls!”

“We will fight until the very last moment!”

She didn’t even need to say more, all the citizens’ gazes were already glued to the screen.

In this world, even three-year-olds knew that magical girls were incarnations of love and hope, the heroes who guarded the city against Abyss attacks.

With the stirring music sweeping across Kazenari Town and the girl’s singing lifting spirits, everyone seemed to regain courage.

Courage, one hundred percent!

First it was the children.

“Go for it, magical girl sister!”

“Magical girls will never lose!”

Then the adults.

No one held back—people waved their arms hard, cupped their hands at their mouths, shouting loudly.

“Win this!”

“Kazenari Town must not be destroyed!!”

Men and women, old and young, all sorts of hopeful, expectant voices rose from every corner of Kazenari Town.

The magical girls present felt that one girl in the sky’s projection seemed to be looking at them.

She wore a pointed hat, her eyes a clear, deep amber, as if she had sensed the origin of every gaze. She opened the magic book in her hands.

In the next instant, dozens of luminous pages shot out, flying from the Happiness Peace Committee building toward the battlefields.

Those pages plunged into the brows of every veteran magical girl fighting outside.

Boom—

Even if not every single memory returned, the flood of recollection that came was enough for them to understand the full situation.

And...

the truth of this illusory world.

In a single instant, they grasped the present predicament and who that witch before them truly was.

She was indeed another version of themselves.

From a certain cruel essence, those witches—now confronting them, born from endless despair and nothingness—were closer to the original self who once held love and hope.

That was why they hated so fiercely, why they were so desperate.

They longed to annihilate everything, to end it all.

The convictions of the magical girls fighting were instantly put to a severe test.

But at this very moment, in the sky’s projection.

The amber-eyed girl showed no worry, only trust.

As if she was certain they would not betray her faith, the three hundred years of perseverance and memory.

The next instant.

Whoosh—

On the suburban battlefield.

After a somewhat clumsy roll to dodge the increasingly frenzied lightning, Judgment Thunder slowly raised her bowed head.

Her cyan-blue eyes showed no despair, no collapse; instead they were crystal clear as she looked at the hopeless version of herself.

“You think I’m a fake.”

She murmured, “So... is that why you hate so much?”

Electric arcs on the witch across from her grew wilder, shrieking as they surged forward.

It was as if asking through that link why she still hadn’t given up.

Your lover, your child, your granddaughter, they are all fake!!

This world you live in is fake!!

Now that you know the truth, aren’t you despairing, aren’t you regretful?!

“...Ha.”

Judgment Thunder resumed battling it, then suddenly smiled.

“You ask if I regret it?”

“Of course... I do not regret it!!”

Screeee—

The witch was blasted away in an instant, their thunder beasts reconverged and tore at each other.

But for some reason,

as if traveling along that link, something transmitted over and caused the witch’s movements to slow.

—It was the beautiful things from the memories Amber had sent.

The goodness in those memories, the awakenings, the hopes, the loves.

All of that poured into the witch’s consciousness alongside the despair.

It was as if it sent it into mental chaos.

Judgment Thunder turned into lightning again, tangling with the witch’s self, her magic relaying her mind: “If you weren’t standing before me, maybe I would truly regret it.”

“But—”

“Because of your repeated efforts, we can stand here, and Kazenari Town has resisted until now!!”

Judgment Thunder’s voice echoed in the other self’s mind: “If at this moment I choose regret, choose to give up, that would be a total denial of everything you... my past self... fought for.”

“If even I deny all that, then the past sacrifices would truly be meaningless!”

The grand melody that filled the stage swelled again, Judgment Thunder roared and charged forward, fighting up close with her staff.

But it was not to deny, nor to annihilate.

She fought to affirm the past self standing before her.

“For the sake of my past self, I will never give up! I will not admit defeat!”

Her shout hammered into the other’s mind like a nail.

Accompanied by an unstoppable resolve.

It was the resolve to battle the real self trapped in despair, and also to battle those shattered dreams, the nothingness, the hopelessness!

Because—

Amid the triumphant chorus, Judgment Thunder raised her staff: “Only this way can I prove that my existence matters, that my efforts were not in vain!”

She forced the witch’s assault down, slowing its movements as if it were violently shaken by the acknowledgment and understanding coming from its counterpart.

“I will never accept that I am a meaningless existence!!”

“Roar, thunder, judge the sins of this world!”

Judgment Thunder let out a crisp, furious cry.

Lightning fell from the heavens and submerged the witch’s form, a seeming finishing blow that shattered its body.

Yet in the next moment, the witch did not dissipate into black fog; instead it became points of pure blue lightning that gently merged into Judgment Thunder’s body.

As if—

Memories, personality, and body, long separated, finally reunited.

This was something that should never have happened—only a miracle that could occur when the Abyss and the Sacred Tree were about to fuse into one.

And in other corners of Kazenari Town, similar scenes unfolded one after another.

Whether they had been Outer Realm Investigators in the past or ordinary magical girls who had never dared enter the Outer Realm, it was the same.

They fought their mirror selves, resonated, then—

surmounted despair and merged with their past selves.

Amber’s memories were mostly positive, but what truly decided their victory was the shining resolve they had always carried.

Girls chosen to be magical girls already harbored the greatest hopes and longings.

Three hundred years, over three thousand cycles.

Whether it was meaningful or not, Phoenix and Amber never became numb; they preserved those hopes and memories.

Until today... everything finally bore fruit.

After finishing their battles, all the magical girls—like the citizens—looked up at the few figures on the most important stage in the projection.

They all understood one thing,

—this was the truly decisive battlefield.

The future of the entire world rested in their hands.

............

Inside Origin Space.

Amid the majestic symphony.

The Sparkle Values above the five people’s heads—the bars that had not budged since the Witch King arrived—finally began to climb at visibly rapid speed.

The pink virtual idol flashed a sweet, delighted smile to the “camera.”

“The support in the livestream is so intense, everyone’s amazing!”

“Now then!”

“Next is the most, most important climax of this broadcast!”

She smiled charmingly: “Please watch her! Alongside me, she’s the universe’s number-one dazzling magical girl, Magical Girl Mengmengxiang!”

“Whoever you are, please support Magical Girl Mengmengxiang!!”