Chapter 19: 19 – Pool!

Jessica took a deep breath before breathing out a delighted ‘Aaah…’

The sun was shining, water was splashing about, and Erika was in a swimsuit! The essence of summer. How dare her past self suggest burying herself in magic books and trekking through a desolate wasteland all day instead? That would have been a crime against youth!

Naturally, all the girls were here, not just Erika and Jessica. But she didn’t mind. The more the merrier, after all. Sure, she always loved to call it a date, but never actually considered it one. She just wanted to have fun with her friends.

And fun, they certainly had a ton of. Swimming, going on water slides, eating ice cream… It was truly magical. Exactly what she needed to relax from all the demon business. 

“Hey, Jess. Having fun?” Her thoughts were interrupted by Sarah.

She grinned in response. “Hell yeah! Erika in a swimsuit is a feast to the eyes!” She gave a thumbs up in the redhead’s direction.

The redness momentarily spread to Erika’s face as she looked to the side and covered her chest while murmuring, “Come on now…”

“Whaaat? Are you saying me and Nicole have no appeal in your lesbian eyes?” Sarah counter-teased. A grave mistake.

“No no no! You two are definitely cute as well!” She glanced at Erika with a frown as her mouth turned into a line. “But Erika’s power level is just too high! There’s no way anyone could ever compete! Her beauty could split mountains in half! Disperse hurricanes! Convince the demon lord himself to give up on world domination!”

A fist bumped her head.

“Stop it!” Her blushing friend glared at her.

“Hey, I was just answering a question!” Jessica said with a grin whilst rubbing her head. “No need to get all violent about it!”

Nicole, relaxing on her beach chair off to the side, giggled. “I’m so glad it’s summer already. We can finally relax. Get a break from all the tests…”

“Yeah! Stupid math! So glad that it’s over!” Sarah agreed. “Now hopefully, the demons don’t decide to ruin our day again.”

Naturally, as if to disagree with Sarah, the ground suddenly shook, tossing people around the pool to the ground.

“Waaah?!” The girls – minus Nicole who was lying down – screamed out as they fell over.

Out in the distance, in the park next to the outdoor pool, several black pillars rose up from the ground and a winged figure appeared in the middle. She had the appearance of a teenage girl if not for the massive bat-like wings on her back, the long horns on her head, and the demonic tail. She wore a black armored dress and wielded an ominous black sword with rune-like red patterns on it.

Hecate, the princess knight.

Everyone looked at Sarah once again.

“I need to shut the heck up!”

“We need to get out of here!” Erika declared.

Nobody disagreed.

Unfortunately, that included all the other pool’s visitors. There was pushing and stomping and while luckily nobody got injured in the chaos, everyone ended up separated. That allowed the three magical girls to sneak off to transform and join the fight.

But they weren’t the only ones heading for the demon. While Jessica knew that pepper spray might not do much against Hecate, she had some aces up her sleeve. She would have to make sure she wasn’t noticed, but thanks to Cody’s recent discovery, Jessica had all sorts of new tools to discreetly provide assistance to the magical girls.

She made a quick detour to the changing room where she had stashed all of her stuff, fumbled around with the key she had somehow managed to not lose during the rush of bodies, rummaged through her bag, and pulled out a sharp diamond-shaped white gem. It was just a prototype, but it should work.

With that done, Jessica rushed outside and into the park, where the magical girls were already fighting the demon general.

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Fiery orange dress shaped like flames with white streaks running through it. The ribbon in the middle of her chest had a flame-shaped pin. Her bright crimson shoulder-length hair was loose, adding more to the image of dancing fire. Her hands tightly gripped her sword, the Cinder Blade.

The blade smashed against Hecate’s sword while the other three supported her with magic. Jessica was dazed for a moment, looking at how cool – or rather, hot – Pretty Flame was.

She quickly shook it off and continued advancing.

Most civilians had already left the place, but there still were a couple, recording the fight with their phones. Typical.

Luckily, since the battle took place in mid-air, they probably wouldn’t capture Jessica on the ground. So as sneakily as possible, she made her way over to one of the black pillars whilst keeping herself hidden in the trees and bushes of the park.

“How weak!” the demon up above laughed out in her childish voice. “Is that all you have, magical girls?!”

Jessica rolled her eyes. Such low-level banter. Didn’t she have anything better? Jessica had to make sure that whenever she became a general herself, she had to come up with better one-liners to banter with.

“It’s not over yet!” Pretty Flame shouted whilst gripping her sword with both hands. The sword flared and seemingly tripled in size. “Focused sunburn!” she shouted before bringing her elongated sword down on Hecate. The demon blocked it with her own weapon, only marginally getting pushed back.

With all eyes on the fight, Jessica made it all the way to the nearest obelisk. Unsurprisingly, they were pulsating with magic, creating some kind of feedback loop, and powering up the demon above.

As expected.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have a barrier placed on them, protecting them from attacks. That was probably why the magical girls weren’t attacking them.

Well, there was always a way to bypass a barrier like that.

Jessica pulled out the gem she had grabbed earlier and slightly modified its function on the fly to account for the barriers. It should disrupt the magic flow and severely weaken the demon general. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it should be enough.

She crouched down, activated the gem, and wedged it into the ground right next to the obelisk.

Things immediately went wrong before she even had a chance to book it. The previously harmonious flow of magic got immediately derailed by the gem, making the obelisk pulse and release a blast around itself.

“Uwaaaah?!”

The blast threw Jessica into the air and knocked the lights out of her. Luckily, she still had some of the demon’s toughness even in human form so it didn’t take her too long to recover. Once she did, she noticed the utter chaos she had just caused.

The magic inside these obelisks was reversed, pouring itself into the ground rather than up to Hecate. And while yes, the magical girls now had the upper hand, it also meant that the ground beneath was now violently shaking, cracking, and making way for a massive sinkhole that began to swallow the obelisks and everything around them.

“Aaah, shit… That’s not what I meant to do…” Jessica whispered to herself.

She stood up, meaning to leave the scene. Unfortunately, the sinkhole expanded quicker than Jessica anticipated, and she barely managed to pull herself up to her feet before the ground beneath her gave away.

“Whoaaa?!”

She felt herself fall into the abyss. For a second, things went into slow motion for her. She could turn into her demon form, but she still hadn’t learned how to conjure wings and fly. Or she could somehow use magic to save herself, but nothing came to mind. Or she could…

A hand caught her leg, bringing her back to reality. Even through the sun shining above, she saw the bright red hair of her savior.

“Erika?” she murmured.