Equinox Spider Lily turned around to look at the source of the voices. It came from a young girl standing right behind her, eyes widened with admiration and curiosity.
This was the first time she had directly met a survivor while in her magical girl form. Her beautiful but menacing gothic lolita attire made her look like a villain, so for the last two days, she had spent avoiding people entirely and focusing on killing magic beasts.
"How do you know I am a magical girl?" Equinox Spider Lily asked, her voice softening. "This outfit doesn't exactly scream 'magical girl,' does it?"
"I don't know if you could be anything else," the girl replied with a shrug. "Mommy watched a lot of magical girl shows. I watched them with her, and since you were fighting those monsters with those floating weapons, I assumed you were one."
"I see. What's your name? And how old are you?"
"My name is Aria, and I'm 12 years old. What's your name, big sis?"
"You can call me Equinox Spider Lily."
"That's a mouthful. I'm just gonna call you big sis Lily," Aria decided. Before Equinox Spider Lily could even comment on the nickname, Aria continued, "Big sis Lily, why were you talking to yourself just now?"
"I wasn't talking to myself. I was talking to my Lord."
"Lord?" The little girl's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Are you some kind of dark magical girl serving a scary boss monster or something?"
"What? No, of course not!" Equinox Spider Lily hastily corrected the girl's misconception, waving her hands slightly in defense. "It's nothing like that. Think of him as the mascot. You know, like the ones in the anime?"
"Oh." The girl's suspicion vanished. "Can I see him? I want to be like you and fight those monsters."
"He was just here with me. Didn't you see the floating flame hovering right beside me?" Equinox Spider Lily asked, but Aria only looked at her with a confused expression.
"I didn't see anyone but you and your spider lilies."
'He might only be visible to me, I guess. Never mind that.' Equinox Spider Lily thought, then a sudden realization hit her.
"Where are your parents, Aria?"
"I don't know. Me and Mommy were looking for supplies when we heard the fighting. Mommy started running the other way, but I saw you, so I went over here."
Before Ludwig could lecture her on the dangers of the city in this apocalypse, a desperate voice filled with panic reverberated across the streets.
"Aria! Aria, where are you?"
"Mommy! I'm here! I found a magical girl!" Aria shouted back.
The two heard the sound of frantic footsteps sprinting toward their location. Around the corner was a woman with a disheveled appearance, having run with all her might to find her daughter.
"Huh?" was all the mother could say when she saw them.
Her daughter was safe and sound, and she was standing next to a beautiful girl in a strange outfit with four spider lilies hovering mysteriously around her. She had assumed she must have misheard her daughter's shout about a 'magical girl,' so actually seeing one stunned her on the spot.
"Mommy, look!" Aria said, pointing at the Equinox Spider Lily. "A real magical girl!"
Time seemed to finally resume for the woman. She rushed forward and pulled her daughter into an embrace, tears streaming down her cheeks at the thought that she had lost her child forever.
"Are you okay, Aria? Are you hurt?" she asked, her voice thick with worry as she checked the girl's arms and face.
"I'm fine, Mommy. Big sis Lily killed the monsters."
"What?" The mother looked up, finally taking in her surroundings. Her eyes widened as she saw the shattered remains and stone dust scattered across the place that belonged to those gargoyles.
She had scouted this area just a few days ago, but the street had been guarded by those stone statues. In her mind this place was a death zone, so seeing them dead gave her an indescribable feeling of curiosity as she turned her gaze to the so-called big sis Lily.
"How did you do it? We saw those soldiers fight the monsters. The bullets just bounced off of them. How did you manage to kill these things?"
Before Equinox Spider Lily could speak, she saw dozens of F-rank magic beasts appearing from the corner. It seemed like the shouting had alerted the magic beasts to their location.
The monsters were beginning to merge, separate groups of F-ranks assimilating into a singular, grotesque swarm. To an ordinary survivor, this was a death sentence and the reason why people lived in silence now, terrified of making a loud sound lest they alerted the horde.
Killing them wasn't worth anything either, and Hades never bothered to comment on their destruction. But it provided a stage for Equinox Spider Lily to show off.
"How about a live demonstration?" Equinox Spider Lily said with confidence.
With a silent command, the 4 spider lilies hovering around her elongated and morphed into spears. The spears began to spin like high-velocity fans, and she sent them whistling toward the swarm.
It couldn't be called a battle, more so a harvest. The spears carved through the horde like hot knives through butter. Every touch resulted in instant death, the F-rank magic beasts dissipated into dust before they could even process what happened. In just 30 seconds, the spears had looped around, leaving nothing but dust in the air in a quiet street.
As the spears morphed back into spider lilies and drifted back to her side, the mother and daughter duo were stunned.
"Unbelievable," the woman breathed, her eyes darting between the empty street and the calm girl in the black dress. "You can actually hurt them?"
Equinox Spider Lily looked at them, seeing the flicker of hope in the mother's eyes.
"Yes, one touch from my weapons, and these ones die like salted slugs," Equinox Spider Lily answered with a smile. "It's actually quite satisfying."
The mother's expression suddenly turned serious. "Can we ask you to live with us to protect us? We're currently staying with many other survivors about 20 minutes' walk west from here. We would really appreciate your presence."
Equinox Spider Lily paused. She and Liara were still holed up in the apartment. After emerging from her inner domain, she had checked the former safe house only to find it looted clean. The two decided to put a stop to their plan of returning until Ludwig could find another safe place while letting Liara recover from her injury.
"Actually, do you have spots to spare? I have 2 survivors who need shelter. If you can take them in, I will protect your community from afar." Equinox Spider Lily's gave the woman a more serious look. "Before you make any speculations, they are just people who are important to me."
The mother heaved out a sigh of relief at the girl's simple request. "I can arrange that as long as you can protect us. When will the two survivors you spoke of arrive at the place?"
"They'll arrive within 2 days. I'll keep the road clean of these monsters for their arrival."