The world record of a single unequipped bench press was 361 kilograms.

  The greatest weight ever carried across a distance of ten meters was 575 kilograms.

  One of the greatest feats of human strength was lifting an almost three-ton truck with arm and leg strength combined.

  In endurance contests, the longest distance run by a man in twenty-four hours was 321.7 kilometers. For swimming, it was 239.2 kilometers.

  As for speed, the 100-meter sprint record was 9.49 seconds, and the 100-meter swimming record was 45.98 seconds.

  It took each of these record holders years or even decades of rigorous training, dieting, and discipline.

  An untransformed magical girl challenged many of these records through a baseline of magical self-enhancement. Instead of training their bodies, they had to temper their minds to hold back in everyday life. And once transformed, they swept all that away.

  Individual magical girls' strengths varied greatly, but lifting a half-ton piece of debris was one of the more common feats. Leaving aside those whose magic allowed them to fly, most could run the 100-meter sprint in under four seconds with little training in form and technique. Even raw swimming speed put them at half the world record holder's time in many cases. Some would half-jokingly say that running across the water was faster than swimming.

  Stamina was measured in magical capacity rather than physical fitness. Many magical girls could run a full marathon at peak sprinting velocity. Some could carry the weight of five adult men on their shoulders and trek ten kilometers without breaking a sweat. A select few could do it an order of magnitude heavier and farther.

  However, a magical girl's durability defied physics. In every individual who subjected themselves to testing, a 9mm bullet would bounce off their forehead as if they were foam darts. Some could withstand 20mm anti-tank rifle fire with only minor bruising. All that was before they deployed their magic barriers.

  The forms these barriers took varied by the magical girl. Some erected translucent bubble shields around them. Others created an invisible layer across their body, only glowing when struck. Both could be conscious or subconscious, although the barriers with intent were sturdier than the automatic ones. A few special individuals could even summon these barriers away from themselves, utilizing them to protect other people or even offensively.

  All of them rendered non-magical weapons utterly useless against them. Even HEAT warheads and the latest directed laser weaponry couldn't penetrate the weakest of magical barriers. Testing anything larger than that was deemed infeasible, but scientists theorized that perhaps even bunker-busters or nuclear weapons were ineffective. It was a testament to the otherworldly nature of magic.

  If one wanted to hurt them, magical weapons, usually those wielded by another magical girl, were the only option.

  A magical girl was a veritable one-person army. Even the weakest one of them far outperformed the strongest human across the board. And the strongest few were rumored to be walking weapons of mass destruction if they unleashed the full power of their unique magic.

  They existed exclusively in Starlight City. And there were over five hundred of them, signed with law enforcement, military contractors, corporations, and private companies. Their projected potential placed the city as the top military force in the world.

  The vast majority of them were under twenty years old. Living weapons of war with the emotional stability of teenage girls.

  Among the countless high-security factories in the Coalworks District, Starlight City's industrial park in the northeast, was one particular compound that stood out by trying not to stand out. It had multiple layers of walls rather than fences. Auxiliary buildings were arranged like the defenses of a fortress. And in the middle of it was one windowless building, the keep. It was a monolith of matte gray, sporting no fancy logo or neon sign. On the side facing the fortified main entrance were the initials SD painted on a corner of the outer wall.

  Starlight Dynamics, part of the massive conglomerate owned by Starlight Entertainment. It was the premier military contractor of the city, spearheading magitech weaponry development. Technology that the world was not ready to see was being tested in these facilities with the help of magical girls and magically enhanced humans, many of whom were former criminals.

  The corporation employed the most magical girls in the city. Seventy-two individuals were on call, with twenty out of them purely as security detail for transport and the compound itself. They were the single most powerful fighting force in Starlight City by raw stats, headed by the number five on the Starlight City Billboard Rankings.

  A slow, rhythmic hammering sound echoed through the hallways in the depths of the main building. Personnel walking around perked up their ears to listen. It was like a massive hammer striking an anvil. The closer one got to its origin, the more one could feel the ground vibrate with every hit. If the people in the facility didn't know better, they would have chalked it up to a machine meant to shape steel blocks.

  One final impact seemed to shake the entire building. Everybody looked around anxiously. What had happened?

  Inside a monitoring room, a middle-aged man in a white lab coat looked at a door in anticipation. A keycard with his photograph and name hung from his neck: Samuel Cresswell, Head of Magical Biomechanics. The door slid open with a hydraulic hiss, revealing a tall, lean woman in a dark gray sports bra and shorts. She had pale blonde hair tied in a high ponytail, and her crimson eyes seemed to glow. Her body was glistening with sweat and steaming in the cool room. Another researcher quickly handed her a towel.

  "You broke your previous records," Samuel commented.

  "I know," she responded as she wiped her face. Her voice was calm and commanding. She crossed the room with a steady gait and looked at the screen. "I could go for a few more."

  "No, this is enough data for now. You still need some energy for the rest of your day," said Samuel with a wry smile.

  "I'll just have Cure Kindred top me up," the woman said, turning away from her stats.

  "Don't use that too much. We don't know yet what kind of side effects it could have in the long term," he warned, like a doctor speaking to a reckless patient.

  She leaned over him with an ironic smile on her lips. "It's magic. Don't try to use logic with it."

  With these words, she flung the towel over her neck and walked toward the exit. Samuel shook his head. What did she think they were doing here? They had used logic to decipher magic for the last decade, finding laws and interactions that allowed them to replicate the effects even without being chosen ones like the magical girls.

  But he couldn't stand against her. She was Lexine Wolfgram, better known as Titan Valkyrie, the number five on the Starlight City Billboard Rankings. Her status was a special one within the company. The order to go with her every whim came from the highest position, not just within Starlight Dynamics, but the entire conglomerate. She was of special interest to Theoderic van de Riem, the godfather himself.

  He looked through the window into the test chamber. A slab of metal lay in the center, flanked by two rails containing a thick crossbar. It was a bench press apparatus, but its brutish design hinted at something more. The weights were measured not in kilograms but tons. And the latest had clocked in at eight. All that without even transforming.

  In terms of physical strength, Lexine was in a world of her own. The next strongest pre-transformation magical girl was Jess Asrain, who pushed five hundred kilograms. And post-transformation, Titan Valkyrie was in another universe, capable of lifting the maximum the facility could withstand. And she made clear that it barely scratched the surface of her strength. She once tossed a main battle tank single-handedly as if it were a toy. If a commercial aircraft were structurally sound enough for human palms to hold up, she would likely be able to lift one.

  Samuel wondered what the world would look like if other countries had magical girls. In a military conflict between them, human personnel would only amount to toddlers in an active warzone. And that was when looking purely at physical abilities. Once magic powers were involved, it would be like ants trying to fight a human with a magnifying glass under the midday sun.

  "What's next, Irene?" Lexine walked down the corridor and inquired flippantly. It was directed at her petite personal assistant, who followed her closely. The woman was a good three heads shorter than her, with short, curly black hair and tan skin. Freckles covered practically every inch of her skin.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She quickly searched her pda and found the requested entry. "You are to help develop your wand's next prototype in Compound 8 at twelve hundred."

  "An hour to go, huh?" Lexine said and suddenly stopped. She turned to look down at Irene, her red eyes practically burning through her. The much shorter woman shrank under her gaze.

  "Y-you should take this time to r-rest," she stumbled over her words, unable to meet her eyes.

  "I'd rather have a meal." She licked her lips at these words and placed her hand on the wall above Irene.

  "This is the way to the biotechnology facilities." A male voice echoed down the hallway. Lexine remained unmoving, listening to it with an irked expression. She didn't like getting interrupted.

  From the edge of her vision, she saw movement. A clerk rounded the corner, closely followed by a woman in a black business suit. She had long brown hair tied in a ponytail, and her amber eyes were framed by thick-rimmed glasses. The man noticed Lexine looming over Irene and froze. He turned on his heel and gestured for the woman to go another way.

  "Come on, walk on by here," Lexine called out to them. They turned to look and found her wearing an empty smile. "I don't bite."

  "Sorry for disturbing you, ma'am," the clerk said in passing, his voice cracking from fear. Almost all the top magical girls were hard to approach, but Titan Valkyrie stood out in a way. While the others were physically young girls, she put most men to shame with her stature and presence. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, too. It felt like everybody around her was only alive because she allowed them to be.

  The woman in black only nodded.

  When they disappeared around a distant corner, Lexine tilted her head thoughtfully. "That woman..."

  "Umm," Irene raised her voice cautiously, and she looked down.

  "Don't think I forgot about you. Come," with these words, Lexine started walking again. Her lips curled into a smile. That woman had the stench of death on her. She seemed to be getting a tour of the facility. Maybe a government worker, but clearly not a pencil-pusher. Possibly a field agent.

  Whatever the case, she could smell excitement in the future.

  "That was nerve-wracking," the clerk finally commented once sure that they were out of earshot. "I assume I don't need to tell you who we just met, Miss Haze."

  "She's famous enough," responded the woman, adjusting her slipping glasses, showing little emotion. He wondered what nerves she had to be able to shrug off a chance encounter with Titan Valkyrie. Everybody else who wasn't at least a department head walked on eggshells around her. Only the mad lead scientists talked to her without a special degree of respect.

  "These facilities here are specialized for testing magical girls' physical abilities. The biomechanical processes behind their superhuman feats are in the process of being translated into magitech," the clerk returned to his professional guide tone and explained the rooms behind the windows. Most showed scientists behind computer screens, analyzing data. It looked much more boring than in the movies.

  "So I would be able to lift a car someday, too?" she asked with a deadpan expression.

  "We are still a ways off from that, but the current bodysuits can double a human's strength without impeding their speed," he responded with a wry smile. "Its applications are endless."

  She was aware of their existence. High-end security contractors, like the BSS's Druzhina, and the SLPD's special forces, already used them. It served to even the playing field between regular humans and some mid-level monsters that manifested under their own powers. However, magical girls were still the most cost-effective solution to the magic threats in the city, for now.

  "Beyond this door is the biology research lab. We aren't cleared to enter it, so we will have to make do with the viewing windows." They soon came upon a large double-winged door with a clear biohazard warning. The large triple-layered window with bomb-proof glass beside it gave a glimpse of the facility inside.

  Here, scientists wore Level A hazmat suits with tubes attached to a rail system hanging from the ceiling. It was something one would only see in the most extreme environments, where even the slightest contamination could result in death. To think such a facility existed within the limits of a city with millions of inhabitants.

  "Don't those monsters show up in the city?" Miss Haze wondered, adjusting her glasses again. She was referring to a group of scientists performing an autopsy on a small magical creature. It seemed to be one of those that could only manifest in this world by taking over a street animal. "Why such extreme measures?"

  It was unnerving to see the lengths the scientists went to in containing any potential biohazards. Meanwhile, police officers shot them in the streets and handled them with only simple latex gloves.

  "Those are just precautionary measures. They do a lot more in here than autopsies. Pharmaceutical and chemical experiments could result in unforeseen reactions with dormant bacteria or viruses from the other side," the clerk explained. Clearly, he only knew the script and didn't understand a single thing about what was truly going on beyond that window. He was happier that way, too.

  They continued to walk along the window to observe the various research teams in their glass-partitioned chambers. Some worked on carcasses while others filled liquids in vials and peered through microscopes. That was more like in the movies. An eerie sight when seen in the flesh.

  There was a glimpse of pink hair under a hazmat suit. A magical girl in a transformed state. Haze blinked. If even a magical girl felt the need to protect herself like this, what would happen if there was an outbreak in the city? Would a magical virus one day wipe out all of humanity because some people were playing around with monster corpses?

  The window ended, and the clerk led her down a long corridor and a set of stairs to the final destination in this building. A door that could only be opened with his biometrics and a keycard revealed another corridor, white and devoid of all blemishes. He instructed her to walk with a specific gait that maximized exposure of her limbs. It was an X-ray chamber scanning for hidden objects on anyone coming through here.

  When they reached the end, a green light switched on above the door. It parted, and cold air streamed out from inside. Before them was a gallery overlooking a data center the size of a football field. Grated gangways led across a clear liquid filling the entire space and created a network between the columns of racks. Cooling fluid.

  The actual computer systems were submerged in the deep liquid. Judging by the height of the ceiling, they could be raised for maintenance. But with all of them under, one could clearly see the central structure. It featured an elevated platform, sporting a black pillar in a complicated clamping mechanism. It seemed to swallow the light in its immediate surroundings. A Thoughtmend Stele.

  A magical girl in a sleek white and blue outfit stood next to it, one hand on its surface. Black skin, strawberry blonde buzz cut, luscious silver lips. She was Avarie Davis, also known as Cryoline, the number twenty-seven in the rankings. As her name suggested, she had cold manipulation magic.

  She looked wholly out of place in this solemn facility if one didn't understand what she was doing. Her other hand was inside a specialized glove attached to a machine operated by several researchers wearing thick winter clothing. Someone without inherent magic needed a TBI to interface with a Thoughtmend Stele, but magical girls could connect to it directly. She was working in conjunction with the computer system.

  "They seem busy, so we won't enter. But I think the sight speaks for itself," the clerk spoke up, pulling Miss Haze from her thoughts.

  "Indeed. A splendid data center," she said with a look down at the liquid cooling, adjusting her glasses as they threatened to slip off her nose.

  "The facility is entirely self-sufficient and has three redundancy systems in case of a blackout. After all, this is the heart of Starlight Dynamics. The data in here is possibly worth more than the entire Starlight Conglomerate's market value combined," he said with a proud laugh. Given the level of magic and magitech research conducted in this facility, it likely wasn't hyperbole.

  Cryoline opened her eyes and peered in their direction. Her icy blue irises glowed with magical energy. She glanced past the clerk and fixated on Miss Haze. It lasted only for a moment before a researcher beside her said something, and she returned to her work.

  The clerk recognized it as a silent signal that they should leave and ushered his companion out of the room. On the way back through the X-ray chamber, they could walk normally. Once outside, he addressed Miss Haze with a nervous smile. "Magical girls really are something else. I guess it makes sense. They carry the power of another world within them. It's like meeting aliens."

  "Oh, they aren't anything so otherworldly. Most are just normal girls," she responded, smiling for the first time. He blinked, then averted his gaze. She had looked quite charming there, but he knew better than to get infatuated with a government worker. Especially one in a position like hers.

  "Would you like to tour any of the surrounding compounds before the meeting?" he quickly changed the topic while looking at his wristwatch. "We still have about half an hour, so we could manage one of them."

  "How about the small arms research lab? I have a personal interest in handguns," Miss Haze suggested.

  "That would be Compound 1. Please follow me," he responded with a businesslike smile.

  Miss Haze looked back at the door leading into the data center one last time before following him.

  "You got the data?" Miss Haze drove her nondescript black sedan from the Coalworks District down the eastern highway out of the city. Her pair of glasses with thick black rims sat on a special attachment atop a radio-like device on the passenger seat beside her. She pulled the hair tie out of her ponytail and let her brown hair down, upon which it turned black. With a blink, her amber eyes turned black, too.

  "Yes, no signs of being traced," Nightingale responded from the car speaker. "Good job, Raven."

  "Nobody suspected you?" Neri asked.

  "Even if they did, they can't change their facility's layout anyway," Raven responded with a look in the rearview window. Her eyes glowed red for a moment. She scanned all the faces of the drivers behind her. Not one of them was observing her directly. In either case, she would drive out of the city and disappear from existence to any potential tails.

  She had Lady Rosca to thank for this opportunity, although she would never let her know. The Iele Coven was a worthy successor to the Heartstopper Syndicate. They had their fingers in not only the city's politics, but the entire country's. Nobody else could have arranged for a government inspector ID on such short notice.

  "I'll contact Negative. We'll have a plan put together by the time you return. See you on the other side, Raven." With this, Nightingale cut the communication.

  Raven stored the special glasses and the transmitter device in the glovebox and concentrated on driving. Negative. She grimaced at the thought. The less they worked together, the better. But this was something that required their expertise. With the sheer number of magical girls, and especially Titan Valkyrie, at Starlight Dynamics' disposal, the straightforward approach would only result in failure.

  But seeing the biology research lab had confirmed it. She would definitely find the data about the Raytronics Corporation's Ultradeep Borehole Research Facility in there. The truth seemed within her grasp.

  "Wait for me, Ichika, Futaba, Sana... Shizuko."