Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Chapter 119: Joint Attack

“Wait—what did you just say?”

Veronica frowned and cut Deng Zhan off. “Someone’s feeding a Ravager? You’re not joking, are you?”

“I wouldn’t joke at a time like this.”

Deng Zhan's expression was grim. “But honestly, if I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t believe it either.”

“Feeding a Ravager… a human…”

Veronica mulled over Deng Zhan’s words, then suddenly raised her head and asked, “What exactly was he feeding it?”

No one answered.

Deng Zhan simply shook her head in silence.

But Veronica already had a guess. Even if Deng Zhan didn’t say it, she could figure it out. Her voice dropped, low and cold.

“…Yeah.” Deng Zhan’s voice was weary. “I couldn’t save them.”

Veronica’s face turned icy.

Her fingertips twitched, instinctively curling as if to clench a fist—but after a moment’s hesitation, she held back.

For just a split second, she almost blurted out, “How dare they.” But the one in front of her wasn’t an enemy—it was a comrade wounded in battle. There was no need to show her anger here.

Rage and ruthlessness—those were for the enemy.

And this group calling themselves Black Cinders Dawn had thoroughly etched their name into her blacklist.

Ravagers were disasters for humanity, enemies of Magical Girls. Every person living in the Material World had likely had some kind of painful encounter with them—directly or indirectly.

Some only saw reports of Ravager attacks online. Others had lost loved ones. Some had their homes destroyed. And some… were victims themselves.

In a world like this, no one—ordinary person or Magician—should feel even the slightest sympathy for a Ravager.

But these people, these Black Cinders Dawn cultists, kept crossing the line—again and again. Veronica couldn’t stand it anymore.

She took a breath, steadying the turbulent emotions that flared for a moment. Her voice returned to calm.

“So you just charged in headfirst?”

“I charged in headfirst,” Deng Zhan admitted plainly.

“You got hurt. What about the enemy?”

“I did manage to seriously injure the Ravager at the start. But then that man showed up and…” She gave a helpless shrug.

Clearly, she wasn’t happy with how things turned out.

“What about those Countermeasure Bureau staff you found in the Nest? Did you help them escape?”

“I was going to, after killing the Ravager. But since I lost, well… that didn’t happen.”

She gave an embarrassed smile. “So I think they’re still hiding somewhere in there?”

Her response reminded Veronica of that office drenched in blood she’d seen earlier.

This wasn’t the actual Bureau—it was the Ravager’s Nest. She knew that now. The offices were all empty. There shouldn’t have been any living people inside.

Which meant the person who’d died in that office—was probably one of the same people Deng Zhan was talking about.

“What’s wrong?”

Deng Zhan noticed her silence.

“Nothing.”

Veronica shook her head, not planning to tell her the truth. She let it slide.

Oddly, she wasn’t even angrier than before. In fact, she felt strangely calm.

Because at this point, she’d already decided: the person behind this was unforgivable, and had to die.

Tugging her golden robe tighter around her shoulders, Veronica looked at Deng Zhan.

“Can you still locate the center of the Nest?”

“Now? I didn’t record the path when I ran, but if I use my Magical Armor, I should be able to find it again…”

She blinked. “You planning to go, Inspector?”

“For me, the sooner the better.”

Veronica stood up. “How’s your injury? Want me to help you move somewhere safer?”

“As long as I’ve got magic, I’m fine.”

Deng Zhan stretched and slowly pushed herself up, using the wall for support. “My True Form isn’t too badly damaged. I can still handle Chrysalis-tier Ravagers…”

“If it’s just Chrysalis-tier, I’ll take care of it.”

Veronica supported Deng Zhan’s arm, helping her up. “Now take me there. It’s time to end this.”

As they walked forward together, Deng Zhan blinked at her words, then muttered with a soft smile,

“Veronica, even though you look really small, hearing you say something like that is surprisingly reassuring.”

“Complimenting someone while sneakily pointing out their short height isn’t exactly encouraging.”

Veronica’s tone was flat. “Or are you actually saying I’m too short to support you properly, and that second part was just to cover for yourself?”

“N-no, come on, don’t make me sound that bad!”

Deng Zhan waved her hands in protest. “I just… when you said ‘Leave it to me,’ it reminded me of someone I know. She’s in the Investigation Bureau too. I guess people like you just have this trustworthy vibe when you say things like that.”

“Is that so?” Veronica raised an eyebrow but didn’t press further. She accepted the explanation.

When it came to the Bureau, Veronica didn’t have much to say—her Inspector title was mostly honorary. She didn’t actually have deep connections there.

Veronica didn’t want to talk, and Deng Zhan picked up on that. The two of them quietly continued toward the Nest’s center.

Under normal circumstances, it would’ve taken Veronica a long time to trace the path using spells and perception—especially since this space was unimaginably vast, far more complex than any Nest she’d dealt with before.

But with Deng Zhan’s Magical Armor, things became much easier.

Her armor took the shape of a lantern. According to her, when activated, it revealed magical traces in the area from the past 24 hours. If she’d previously tagged a target’s Magic Signature, she could track their position within a certain range.

That’s how she’d followed the suspicious man to the Nest’s core earlier. And during their fight, she’d marked the Chrysalis-tier Ravager as well.

In other words, Deng Zhan now had a built-in compass—one that pointed directly to the heart of the Nest.

With that kind of support, it didn’t take long for the two of them to reach the central lair.

It was a massive chamber that felt entirely out of place compared to the rest of the facility.

Though it mimicked the style of the Countermeasure Bureau—white lights, silver walls—everything inside was wrong.

Tables attached to walls. Filing cabinets twisted into triangles. Doors warped into bizarre shapes. A dreamlike distortion filled the room.

This was the true nature of Ravagers: monsters with no understanding of human tools or logic.

But amid this grotesque space was something even more disturbing—something that instantly seized both girls’ attention.

A spider-like Ravager crouched atop a massive fleshy Spiderweb, gnawing on something.

Its body was riddled with gaping wounds, blood still oozing out. Clearly the “serious injury” Deng Zhan had mentioned. But despite its condition, it still had the strength to feed.

The web beneath it was made entirely of Flesh, grotesque and blood-red, stretching across the space with a stench so strong it could be smelled from afar.

And hanging beneath that web were giant Meat Cysts, each several meters tall, suspended motionless in the air.

At first glance, they seemed like mere extensions of the fleshy web. But when Veronica looked closer, she noticed they weren’t solid—more like Cocoons, faint silhouettes visible inside under the bright lights.

Looking even closer… the shapes inside looked human.

“Those are the victims he captured,” Deng Zhan said quietly at her side. “Each cocoon holds someone he ‘fed’ to the Ravager.”

“I don’t know what method he used, but that Chrysalis-tier Ravager was completely calm around him. No aggression. It obediently accepted the offering.”

“As for what happens to people once they’re sealed inside… I don’t know. But odds are, it’s not good.”

She didn’t need to finish the sentence. The fate of those captured by a Ravager was obvious.

Veronica’s brow furrowed.

Just seeing this made her feel sick.

Ravagers destroying cities and killing people never disgusted her this much. After all, they were creatures acting purely on instinct—they had no sense of right or wrong.

But humans colluding with Ravagers? That was something else entirely.

Betraying your own kind. Feeding your fellow humans to monsters. There were no words strong enough to describe her revulsion.

She thought she’d seen the worst the world had to offer. But somehow, someone always managed to sink lower.

What kind of person could even do this?

She couldn’t begin to understand.

And that person—the one she couldn’t understand—was right here in the Nest.

Beneath the giant web, among the dangling cocoons, stood a human-shaped figure.

He looked up at the Ravager above, holding a strange device in his hands, adjusting it while observing the creature.

“That’s him. Want to go in now?”

Seeing that Veronica had spotted the man, Deng Zhan asked, “But be careful. He’s strong.”

“Go.”

Veronica didn’t hesitate for a second.

She’d made up her mind long before she saw those grotesque cocoons.

Now that they’d reached the core and found their enemy, there was no reason to hold back.

The two Magical Girls quickly planned their assault: Deng Zhan would launch a feint to distract him, while Veronica would sneak in for a surprise attack.

Blue and brown flashes of magic streaked through the air above the Nest. The blue disappeared instantly, while the brown raced straight toward the man.

He wore a dark robe and had been fully focused on the Ravager above. But a surge of danger triggered his instincts—he snapped his head down, raised his hand, and summoned a dark purple Magic Barrier.

Boom!

The barrier blocked Deng Zhan’s opening strike.

“You dare come back?”

The man looked surprised to see her. Recognizing her as his earlier opponent, he scoffed, “I thought you’d go crawl into a hole and hide after running off. Didn’t think you’d be back so soon, begging to die.”

Deng Zhan didn’t reply. She unleashed a barrage of Magic Beams, then conjured several Favored Runes, which transformed into spears that she hurled at him.

As a Leaf-tier Magical Girl, Deng Zhan was highly skilled with spellwork. Her armor leaned toward support, so she compensated with heavy-hitting magic.

But even as the spears rained down, the man smirked—clearly confident in his counter.

In an instant, the barrier before him twisted, turning into a massive gaping maw that swallowed her spells.

The spears disintegrated, reduced to puddles of stray magic in his hands.

Smug with his success, he prepared to taunt her again—only to feel a sudden chill behind him.

“Masterpiece, Number Six—Slashing: Corpis.”

He had no time to react.

A blade formed from pure magic stabbed into his back, piercing all of his defenses like paper.

It drove through him—from back to chest—cleanly and without resistance.