The effects caused by Ahriman's Rubric spread outward almost immediately.
And at that exact moment, Magnus finally caught the precise location of the group.
No—more accurately, he realized that a self-contained little world had been draped over the position of the vanished evacuation point.
Ahriman and the others had not disappeared.
They had been hidden.
And whoever had done it had used an exceptionally sophisticated method.
The instant Magnus realized he had been played, his temperature spiked on the spot. He almost wanted to rush straight home, dive into the Warp, follow the trail back to that damn Tzeentch, and kill her with his own hands. If he didn't, he swore he wasn't worthy of calling himself human.
Mocking me is one thing—but scheming against my sons too?
How can you be this vile?!
"F-Father…" one Thousand Son said weakly, his voice trembling with distress.
The discomfort and panic gnawing at him made him instinctively move toward Magnus.
It was the same instinct that drove a child with a fever to stumble toward its mother, hoping for comfort.
He staggered forward, trying to reach Magnus, but before he even got halfway there, he collapsed to the ground—
and his flesh turned into a heap of sand.
"No… no… NO!!!" Magnus cried out, his heart twisting in agony at the sight.
Then more Thousand Sons began to crumble into sand, one after another.
And in their last moments, every single one of them had tried to move toward Magnus.
"Bruce! What are you doing?! Think of something!" Kroz shouted, unable to bear the scene any longer.
"I am thinking! I am!" Bruce snapped back, red-eyed with stress as he frantically scribbled names onto the Substitute Stickers. "You think it's easy to come up with someone who actually matches Magnus's identity?!"
According to what Doraemon had said, if they wanted the substitution trick to work—to exploit the targeting bug and make Magnus untargetable—they had to choose someone roughly on his level.
Too strong wouldn't work.
Too weak wouldn't work either, because Magnus's existence would simply override the replacement.
Someone stronger than Magnus was no good. Someone weaker was no good either.
Who the hell designed something this unreasonable?!
As the number of remaining stickers dwindled—just like the Thousand Sons—the last shred of reason in Magnus's mind was reaching its limit.
At the critical moment, Doraemon blurted out a name.
"Serie! Old Bruce, try Serie!" Doraemon suddenly remembered a magic world they had once explored and shouted it out.
"Celia? Isn't that the one from Dungeon Fighter?! Would an Apostle work?!" Bruce yelled back, nearly delirious from panic.
Frantic beyond words, he had already started writing out nonsense names like Celestial Faniya.
"No, you ox-head! I said Serie, not that green-tea Apostle! Just write it already!"
"Which 'ie'?!"
"The one with the grass radical on top and an X underneath!"
"You can use Chinese characters for this?!" Bruce's hand twitched and froze on the spot.
Just from Doraemon shouting it, he had reflexively written the last character in Chinese.
Now only one sticker remained.
If this didn't work, then I really am going to lose it.
"It's fine! Hurry!" Doraemon shouted. Seeing the golden markings on Magnus's body growing brighter and brighter, he knew that if they didn't fix this immediately, everything they'd done would be meaningless.
"Alright! I'm trusting you!" Bruce snapped, hastily writing the three characters for Serie and slapping the sticker onto Magnus.
The world seemed to freeze.
No one knew whether it had worked.
"It… it stopped?!" Kroz looked at the Thousand Sons, who were clutching handfuls of sand and weeping, and finally let out the breath she'd been holding.
Hah.
So it does work after all.
"N-no… something's wrong…" Magnus suddenly twisted in pain, his face contorting, the golden veins across his body pulsing wildly like serpents under his skin.
"Quick, Old Bruce! Get a transformation potion into him! The sticker took effect, but the magical systems of the two worlds are clashing!" Doraemon immediately spotted the problem and shouted.
"Why didn't you say that sooner?!" Bruce roared, pulling out a transformation potion and forcing it into Magnus's mouth.
By this point, Magnus didn't care about pride or dignity anymore. He gulped the entire thing down in one go.
As the potion's effect spread through him and the torment finally began to ease, a terrifying realization flashed through his mind—
In the prophecy, one of the things he had seen was that he himself would become just like Kroz and Horus.
A female demi-human.
What was going on?
Why had the prophecy still come true?
If so, then didn't that mean the prophecies involving Bruce…
Bang.
A huge cloud of smoke exploded from Magnus's body.
Then, piece by piece, his ornate golden armor—the Horned Armor—fell to the ground.
The armor did have adaptive functions, but the change in its wearer was so drastic that those functions failed outright.
"F-Father?!" the Thousand Sons cried out.
Their grief over watching their brothers turn to dust had barely begun to subside before they were hit by an even greater shock.
Good heavens.
How can this happen?!
"I…? What is…? Huh?!" Magnus's voice came out as a woman's—still cultured and refined, but unmistakably feminine.
After drinking the transformation potion, Magnus had become a golden-haired woman roughly the same height as Kroz.
Her ears, however, were striking—long, pointed, unmistakably like those of an Eldar.
Aside from that, her features were still mostly human.
If anything, she looked even more noble now.
But noble or not—
this was no longer human.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH—!"
Before the Thousand Sons could even finish processing the fact that their primarch had turned into a woman, more shrill, distorted screams rang out.
Some Thousand Sons were no longer turning into piles of sand—
but the mutation had still happened.
One after another, they became small, delicate women with all sorts of hair colors.
The moment they woke among the scattered piles of their power armor, they stared blankly for a second or two—
then broke into wild, ecstatic grins.
"I can hear psychic power speaking to me!"
"Whoa! Since when does psychic power talk?!"
"Spirits of the elements, heed my call—!"
"This is incredible! My body's so light, and psychic power feels easier to grasp than ever!"
"Research! A whole new field of research! I've found it! Hahahaha!"
The newly transformed Thousand Sons immediately descended into chaos.
Some hugged each other in celebration.
Others latched onto the nearest still-unchanged brother and began breathlessly describing what they were feeling.
"Mutation! This is definitely mutation!" Meiling cried, frightened by the scene. "Father! Should we suppress them? If they keep going like this, something bad's bound to happen!"
"Don't bother," Kroz said, watching the Thousand Sons with a complicated expression. "They've just changed shape. What's there to make such a fuss over?"
How strange.
These people really were wired differently. Instead of panicking, they were this thrilled just because they'd become women?
If they hadn't seemed so genuinely overjoyed, Kroz might have assumed the Thousand Sons had simply gone mad from grief.
"Heh," Doraemon sighed at the sight. "No matter the world, turning great mages into cute girls really is the final destination, huh?"
"Wait, wait, wait!!!"
Magnus rushed up to the visual phone, clutching a spare robe from inside the Horned Armor around herself like a blanket, pride and dignity abandoned in an instant.
"Why did it turn out like this?!"
"Quick! Turn me back! I don't want to become a woman—especially not like this!"
The mutation issue in the Fifteenth Legion had already been serious enough.
This just made it worse.
If Father finds out, he'll kill every last one of us!
No. Absolutely not.
"Even if you beg me like that, I… really can't do anything about it," Doraemon said helplessly, spreading his little round hands. "I told you already—when you exploit a bug, reality gets wonky. Be grateful you survived."
"Let's be honest, it's still better this way, Magnus," Kroz said, stepping over and patting her brother on the shoulder with a very pleased grin. "Tell me honestly—has the flesh-change been cured or not? And if we're really counting the tradeoff, these bodies are a hell of a lot better than the grotesque monsters they were turning into before."
"Even if you put it that way…" Magnus froze, suddenly unable to find a rebuttal.
I can't accept this.
Even if what she says is true, I still can't accept it!
"R-report! Father! We found Lord Ahriman! But…" a Thousand Son came running over, carrying two unconscious magical-girl battle-brothers in her arms, looking deeply uneasy.
"AHRIMAN!!!" Magnus shot upright in fury.
"Where is he?! Take me to him, now!!!"
"P-please follow me! But… please prepare yourself mentally!"
So noisy…
In a daze, Ahriman slowly woke from sleep.
Lying on the desert sand, which felt strangely warm and comforting, she had been dreaming.
In the dream, she and several companions had accepted a desperate mission, defeated a mighty Demon King, and then…
What came after that?
It had felt like a good journey.
Huh?
Come to think of it, my body feels strangely light…
But my perception of psychic power also seems to have improved.
Still…
Why do I suddenly feel so sleepy instead of wanting to do research?
"…?"
Just as Ahriman was savoring the afterglow of the dream, she became aware of several sharp, knife-like gazes fixed on her.
"F-Father?" she looked up—and saw a golden-haired woman with long pointed ears.
The appearance had changed drastically, but those golden eyes—
those she recognized immediately.
It was Father.
"AHRIMAN!!!" Magnus roared and punched her without hesitation.
In full view of the Thousand Sons, Ahriman—now transformed into a silver-haired girl—was sent flying with a single blow, landing in a pile together with a crowd of half-dressed magical girls.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 15
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