An actress in our midst! (web version)

They stood in a formation. Frost stood in front of Jessica, Spark to the left, Bloom to the right, and Flame… behind her. She took that spot to avoid Jessica seeing her. As much as it hurt, she didn’t want Jessica getting distracted by second guessing herself and messing the dangerous ritual up.

The four of them had their weapons out and were channeling their magic in a gentle whirl around Jessica, letting her touch it and manipulate it if she needed to.

The demon lord and his daughter Hecate knelt by Jessica’s side, ready to transfer the wielder rights… apparently. It still felt quite strange that those two were technically the fifth weapon’s wielders.

“So just like with Trish, I’m going to gradually absorb the magic, and at some point, I’m going to become the weapon,” Jessica explained, sounding detached. Like reading off a manual. “When that happens, I need to absorb your magic at the same time as well.” She indicated to the demon lord and Hecate. “I don’t really expect it to work… but if it does, I’ll become my own wielder as well, and that should prevent me from going into a coma.”

Nobody replied to her.

Flame was unnerved how clinically Jessica explained everything… even as she admitted to having no expectations of preventing the coma. It made Flame’s chest pang.

“Thankfully, The Conduit should help a ton with the precision and timing, so maybe… it will work.”

Flame’s fists clenched.

“I’ll start slow then…” Jessica finally said, before magic surged from Trish, through the spear, and into Jessica.

Because, apparently, that was starting slow.

Well, it probably was, considering just how much magic was inside Trish now.

Jessica let out a shaky breath as magic filled her. In mere moments, her magic amounts went from zero to surpassing Flame’s usual reserves. Flame couldn’t help but be concerned that all the magic might destroy Jessica’s body.

But she didn’t need to worry. Jessica had enough of a talent for magic to keep even these vast amounts under control inside her. It made sense, she wouldn’t have been selected to be one of the generals otherwise.

This continued for several minutes. The air got heavier and heavier since, even if Jessica was quite talented, even she couldn’t prevent every bit of magic from dispersing into the surroundings.

“Step back, everyone,” Cody prompted the club members and the police officers. “There’s a lot of magic in the air.”

“Sorry… I’m leaking a bit…” Jessica muttered before giggling to herself.

“Focus,” the demon lord reprimanded her. “I’m absorbing as much as I can and you can reabsorb it from me.”

“Yeah, I’m helping too!” Hecate piped up.

“Right, thanks.”

It was still so odd to see Jessica and the demon lord be so cordial with each other. Like good friends.

She continued.

As the minutes ticked by, everyone could clearly see Jessica starting to strain herself trying to contain all the magic. Nobody dared to try and interrupt her focus.

After what felt like hours, something finally changed. Flame couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she just knew something fundamental had just shifted in that one moment.

Several things then happened in close succession. First, Jessica let out a gasp as her head shot up. Her eyes glazed over, as if she was seeing into another dimension and her mouth shivered.

Then, the magic within the demon lord and Hecate began to warp in an odd way, enough for even Flame to sense something was off.

A second after that, Salem groaned as she hunched down before demonic magic began to leak from her.

“Tepes!” the demon lord yelled, grabbing Jessica’s shoulder. “Focus! Don’t lose yourself in it!”

Jessica snapped back into reality, although her eyes never lost the odd gleam in them.

“Oh shit,” she blurted out. “Shit, shit, shit, quickly… I have to…” She reached up and touched both Hecate and the demon lord.

Jessica sucked the warping magic out of them, making them gasp and shiver as well.

“Is this it? Did I do it? No, I still have to…” Jessica began to murmur incoherent words and noises as she looked at nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Frost stood next to Salem, head snapping between her and Jessica.

“Gh…Now, my lord!” Salem growled in a distorted voice as her hand shot up into Frost’s stomach.

Frost screamed as a purple portal opened in her stomach.

“What are you doing?!” Spark shouted, already drawing an arrow to attack Salem.

But it was too late.

A demonic spirit in the form of a shadowy lion emerged from the portal, leaving Frost in a convulsing heap on the ground, and immediately leapt in Jessica’s direction.

“Wha… you?!” the demon lord shouted. He tried to get into the thing’s way, but the ritual left him too wobbly. The thing slid past his punch and went straight to Jessica who was still dazed.

Jessica lifted her gaze up a moment before the impact.

“Huh?”

The spirit forced its way inside her as she gasped out loud and crumpled to the ground.

At about the same time, Spark’s magical shot connected with Salem who was reaching out for the Ice Aegis. It knocked her ways away, but she recovered immediately. She stood up, growling and emitting magic like before.

Bloom immediately stood by Frost, trying to undo whatever Salem had just done. Hecate and the demon lord, in the meantime, was shouting Jessica’s name.

Flame, Spark, the black ops, and Cody all stood in a protective formation around Frost, facing down the still growling Salem when…

… a deep masculine chuckle broke through the hostile atmosphere.

It originated from Jessica’s limp body.

“Jessica?! Are you okay?” Flame couldn’t help but shout.

Jessica laughed even louder, her voice going way deeper than what even an actress like her should be capable of.

“So this is it? This is the power that destroyed the world? This is what you’ve been chasing, Baugh?”

Jessica slowly sat up.

“You… No…” the demon lord mumbled as he looked at Jessica in horror.

“I can’t even blame you. This power… Huh.” Jessica stared at her hand as she repeatedly curled it into a fist and loosened it. “This is so much better than just access to another world.” Jessica’s body then lifted off the ground and floated.

And then she flashed.

A magical girl transformation.

Her hair turned unnaturally pitch black with gleaming white points sprinkled around it, giving it an impression of the starry night sky. Her iris similarly gained an unnaturally black color while her pupils became gleaming white dots. Her casual clothes disappeared in favor of what looked very similar to her demon general Tepes dress, just shorter.

Any other time, Flame would have felt awed. Right now, it only sent chills down her spine.

“This way,” she continued. “Nobody will be able to stand in my way anymore.”

“Get out of her body!” the demon lord yelled as he summoned up his massive greatsword from nowhere and charged Jessica… no, the thing inside Jessica..

Jessica’s hand caught the sword’s blade in one hand.

“Hmm? Is that how you speak to your king, you lowly researcher?!”

King?!

A blast of magic sent the demon lord flying back. His body punched through the wall like it was cardboard and kept going far outside of the building.

“Daddy!”

The demon piloting Jessica’s body turned to the rest of them, planting a dark smile on her face.

This was really bad.

Salem turned on them, Frost was out, the demon lord… no, Baugh was out, and there were too many civilians around. They had to get the demon out of Jessica before it was too late.

“Well, would you look at that? One half-human, and plenty of humans for me to get rid off. I suppose I should start cleaning up.” Jessica’s head turned around and stared down at Trish… whose eyes were inching open. She was waking up.

But before she could even realize what was happening, Jessica’s hand moved to point at her as condensed magic gathered around it.

“Mooom!!!” Hecate screeched as she sprinted toward them.

The demon didn’t care.

The magic shot off… and made a hole in the ground where Trish had lay just moments prior.

“What are you doing?!” the demon inside Jessica yelled as its head whipped around to look at Trish’s new position, even as her hand effortlessly caught Hecate’s sword.

She was cradled in Salem’s arms. The woman in question was still leaking demonic magic, and was visibly shaking, as if fighting something.

Jessica’s eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me the human is resisting you?”

“You… will get Trish…” Salem growled in a half-demonic voice. “Over my dead body!”

Salem hadn’t betrayed them. The demon inside her had.

And she was fighting it.