Lilia, wake up!"
 
"...nnnhnnhhhgh. Morning already? Why's it so dark?" Bleary-eyed, the young magical girl rolled over in bed. The all-too serious face of her twin was illuminated by the glow from their matching Crystal Hearts. Lilia's was set in a tiara at her bed side. Her twin Ata-chan's was embedded in her chest just below the collar bone.
 
"It's 7am, but the Witching Hour has started. It's not going to get bright out until the maelstrom's influence has passed."
 
"Huh? Wait, already?? I'm not ready at all! We hardly defeated half the Witch's Beasts! How am I supposed to take on the Grand Witch already??!"
 
"There's not much time. Worse, Mabel will be coming for Onii-chan any minute. She'll use her power to swallow him whole and absorb him as mana."
 
"What? Why Onii-chan? And how do you know?"
 
"Because..." Ata-chan looked down at herself with a forlorn look that was all to familiar to Lilia. "Because I finally remembered."
 
Ata-chan's real name was also Lilia, because she was really the same person from an alternate universe. Lilia (the Lilia from this universe) had accidentally summoned her by magic after dreams of someone begging for rescue. Ata-chan (the summoned Lilia's nickname) had come over covered in scars, nearly mana-exhausted, and bawling her eyes out. She had slept for three straight days after Lilia and Levin-oniichan brought her home and cleaned her up. When she woke up, she could recall nothing of the events leading up to being summoned by this world's Lilia.
 
Lilia had insisted that Ata-chan's memories would come back sooner or later. Apparently that had finally come to pass.
 
"That's great, isn't it? Finally, you have your whole self back! Did you remember what happened to your Onii-chan?"
 
Despite the differences in their worlds, both twins had been adopted in similar ways along with an older boy named Levin. To both of them, Levin-oniichan was the most important person in the world -- except, perhaps now, each other.
 
Ata-chan blushed a little, but her look quickly turned dark. "Yeah. He saved me, but... he's gone now. Eaten by that hussy with the shamefully big tits. And it'll happen again here if we don't move soon."
 
"Oh no!" Lilia sat straight up in bed, fully awake now. "We have to warn him!"
 
"It won't be enough. Onii-chan is too much of a pushover. One flash of her pussy and he'll do whatever she pleases, even crawl inside."
 
She didn't want to admit it, but Lilia's instincts told her that it was true. "Then what do we do? What *can* we do?" Lilia was shivering now.
 
"There's only one chance. Beat her to the punch."
 
"You mean..." Lilia started blushing a deep red. "But..."
 
"Come on." Without waiting for Lilia to get over her hesitance, Ata-chan tossed Lilia her Crystal Heart tiara and dragged her twin by the arm out of bed. A moment later, they were in Levin-oniichan's room. Ata-chan hadn't even stopped to knock. That was typical for her, though. Not for this world's Lilia.
 
"Onii-chan?" Lilia whimpered faintly at the side of his bed. Ata-chan sat on the other side of the bed and closed her eyes. The Crystal Heart at the base of her collar bone glowed a pearly sapphire hue, a glow which gradually spread to cover her whole silhouette. Lilia ignored her twin for now and grabbed Levin's hand. "Onii-chan."
 
"Lilia?" he mumbled, stirring. "Something feels... ominous."
 
"It's the Witching Hour. Evil spirits from another dimension are pressing on the boundaries, leaking into ours."
 
"I don't... are you OK?" Levin of course didn't understand the Witching Hour. Lilia's magical girl activities were a secret, known only to her, Ata-chan, and the spirit that gave them their Crystal Hearts. The spirit had been quiet for a while, now. It had to conserve energy for the fight later.
 
"I'm OK. We need your help, though, Onii-chan."
 
Levin nodded, slowly becoming less groggy. "Whatever you need." He trusted Lilia at face value even when she said things that sounded crazy like mentioning the Witching Hour. She loved him for it. "That tiara looks good on you," he commented.
 
Lilia turned a shade of bright pink that almost matched the color of her Crystal Heart. Right on cue, the gem lit up, its warm pink matching the blue glow centered around Ata-chan's chest.
 
"Crystal Heart... Illumination!" Ata-chan whispered, and there was a brief blue flash. A moment later, she was transformed... sort of. Her hair was done up in ribbons and her sapphire earrings had materialized, but all the rest of the clothes she normally wore for fighting the Witch's Beasts were missing, as were the bedclothes she had been wearing just a moment ago. When Levin looked her direction only to see his sister's doppleganger essentially nude, he turned a much deeper shade of pink than Lilia's Crystal Heart.
 
Ata-chan was unabashed. "You too, Lilia. I need your help to finish the ritual. "There's no time to waste."
 
"But do I have to be..."
 
"Yes."
 
Levin, for his part, averted his eyes from one sister, only to see his other adopted sister's pajamas vanish in a flash of pink light when she put on her tiara. The dual shock left him dumbfounded. He sat up abruptly, but it could not hide how very, very turned on he was.
 
"O spirits wise and good abiding in the crystal, hear my plea. Cleave this offering, but leave the soul." Ata-chan reached around Levin and met Lilia's hands on both sides of him. Forming a circle with their arms, the two girls pressed their bare chests close to Levin. The magical energy enveloping them flowed through the circle, enveloping Levin.
 
Ata-chan leaned in and whispered in Levin's ear. "Will you become what we need?"
 
"Yes..." he said, voice only wavering slightly.
 
"Then divide," she said again with a mystical intonation. "Love ya!" she added, licking his ear salaciously. Levin turned even redder, before suddenly freezing like a still frame, then... shattering?
 
The hundred shards of Levin collapsed onto the bed. Looking closer, Lilia noticed that they seemed almost like... crystal cages, each containing a tiny reflection of her adopted brother. Before she could say as much, Ata-chan grabbed one and licked it. Instantly, the crystal faded, but the image of a tiny Levin didn't. At that moment, Ata-chan was holding not a chunk of glass but Levin's fully-formed body, only just a few inches tall. And it wasn't just moving, it was talking.
 
"Whoa! I'm so small! That's amazing, what did you do to me? Lilia, what's this..."
 
"Ata-chan, is that-" Lilia began, but, midsentence, Ata-chan cut her off by shoving the squirming little Levin into Lilia's mouth.
 
With two fingers, the tiny form of her brother was pushed deeper into her mouth. "Swallow," Ata-chan said mischievously, and Lilia had little choice but to do so. The soft, warm, squirming thing that looked like Levin slipped easily down her throat into her stomach, where it settled to the bottom. Lilia couldn't tell if the uneasy fluttering feeling she felt was from nervousness or from him wriggling in there. Either way, she was flushed and panting.
 
"My turn," Ata-chan said. She picked up another Levin shard, which transformed as she did so into another tiny image of their beloved step-brother. But rather than bring him to her mouth, she used her spare hand to spread open her lower lips and guided him to the moistened channel between her legs. Pressing the tiny Levin's upper body forward, she arched her back in ecstasy as his form penetrated her. Lewd, juicy sounds emanated from her pussy as she slid the tiny form of Lilia's brother gradually deeper. Finally, Ata-chan sighed and withdrew two fingers from her slit, a tendril of fluid clinging to them but no outward sign of the tiny Levin.
 
She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. A particularly stark gurgling, bubbling noise echoed from slightly below Ata-chan's navel for an instant. Then she smiled, and her magical aura grew brighter. Abruptly, the fluttering in Lilia's belly, which had paused for a moment, came back.
 
"W-what's going on?" Lilia was still breathing heavily.
 
"That little piece of Onii-chan is mine now. I absorbed him as mana. You need to hurry up and finish yours." With a naughty look on her face, she straddled Lilia, pushing her back on the bed and hovering a hand over Lilia's stomach. "Feel this." A glowing magic circle appeared between the hand and her skin.
 
There was an attunement between their magical powers which was only possible because Ata-chan was another self of Lilia, linked by the summoning magic that had brought her here. Only because of that could Lilia feel the effects and the nature of the spell Ata-chan was manifesting. She could feel, both in the magic and in her flesh, the little Levin-oniichan figure in her stomach fizzle and dissolve suddenly, transforming into mana, pure magical energy that flowed into her body and soul. Instinctually, she knew how to copy it, if she wanted. And it felt so amazing, the energy and the love that was flowing into her from that instant. It was intoxicating.
 
Finally Ata-chan began to explain. "You probably realized, Haydrin-sensei adopted us because we weren't normal. Haydrin-sensei detected that we had unusual magical capacity, throughput especially. But Onii-chan is even less normal. He isn't even, originally, human. He's a clump of pure crystalline mana, a hundred times purer than a Crystal Heart, manifested into a human form for safekeeping."
 
Ata-chan picked up another crystal, causing it to transform into a Levin shape. Gently, with a malicious smile on her face, she lifted his tiny body up where Lilia could see him up close. He was also naked, and very flushed in the face. "The ritual divided Onii-chan into smaller chunks so they would be easier to ingest. But I didn't expect each one of them to be capable of taking on his human shape and hosting his soul. It's like Onii-chan has a hundred lives to lose in us."
 
Ata-chan punctuated her explanation by slurping her tongue across the whole body of the third tiny Levin, smiling at him. Lilia couldn't help but notice the way his erect member flopped stiffly at being so stimulated. "It's good, huh?" He nodded. Ata-chan opened her mouth and teasingly dangled Levin head-first into it. She lowered him slowly deeper, slight moans of pleasure escaping her throat to wash over him. He looked ecstatic as her lips closed over her fingers and she gulped hard. Lilia watched the bulge representing this Levin slide down her twin's throat and vanish into her stomach. An instant later, a hissing rumble was all the hint she needed to realize that Ata-chan had rapidly absorbed the second one, too.
 
"Go on," Ata-chan urged. "Take your portion. We've got a lot to get through before Mabel arrives."
 
Even as shy as she was, Lilia didn't have to be told twice. She scooped up another of the shards from the bed and watched as it manifested into a Levin copy in her hand. Lilia brought him up to eye level so she could see his face clearly. "Onii-chan," she said.
 
"Lilia." He nodded.
 
"You're really OK with this? I can really eat you?"
 
"I can't think of a better way to go than to be shared by my sisters to save the world. That's why you need me, right?"
 
"Yeah, but, I mean, you're OK with us swallowing you piece by piece and absorbing you? Isn't that... weird?"
 
He laughed. "You're so adorable. I mean, yeah, it's kind of weird, but that doesn't make it bad. Look at you! You're the sexiest people alive, as far as I'm concerned. I've always loved your boobs, and right now, they're even bigger than my whole body! And I wanted to... to feel the inside of your... your p-pussy, but now it's... it's just the right size for me to satisfy you. Your tongue can taste my whole body! What else could I want?"
 
"That's embarrassing! You perv!" Lilia shouted, briefly losing her composure completely. "You like my boobs that much, huh? Well, here!" Without thinking, she jammed the Levin she was holding at her left nipple, rubbing his face on it. Neither Lilia nor Ata-chan were heavily endowed in the chest, but they were rounded enough that the flesh surrounding Levin pressed in as she pushed him against her nipple. It felt surprisingly good, so she continued, rubbing him back and forth a little and pressing him deeper. Suddenly, without even realizing she had manifested an enchantment on herself, Lilia felt her breast rebound out. Somehow, her nipple had opened up to swallow Levin, who was now trapped in her breast (and loving it, it seemed). She was so aroused she didn't even think before grabbing another Levin crystal and rubbing the new form against her other breast. Soon, it too had engulfed a shard of their brother.
 
"Oooh, hadn't thought of that," Ata-chan cooed as she licked her sister's wriggling breasts and amused herself at the sensation of two mini-Levins inside. But before long, the lumpiness evened out as Lilia's body automatically absorbed their mana. Ata-chan was mildly disappointed when she realized Lilia's boobs had even returned to their previous size. "How come Mabel's jugs get to be so big, then?" she grumbled.
 
Lilia didn't bother to answer. Instead, she was already reaching for another Levin crystal, cradling it in her hand and guiding it to the space between her legs. "Perv-onii-chan wants to satisfy me? Go ahead," she said, pushing his body up to the anxiously-awaiting source of moisture trickling onto the bed. Levin eagerly plyed her lower lips apart and leaned his head and shoulders inside. It felt like heaven. Quickly, Lilia lifted his body and pressed him deeper, reveling in the sensations of his body entering her squelching tenderness. This felt sooooo good... could they have done this sooner? Why hadn't they? Oh god, his whole body was in her, wriggling.
 
"Hurry up so I can have my share!" Ata-chan complained.
 
"Aaaah! It's soo gooood!" Lilia moaned. "I can feel him wriggling in there! I think he just... e-... ejaculated. Naughty onii-chan!"
 
Ata-chan grinned. "Naughty onii-chan should be... punished..." She gently lifted a hand to where this latest Levin had disappeared and started rubbing her twin's clit.
 
"Oh! Ohh!" A faint fizzing sound emanated from Lilia's pussy and she finally relaxed. "Mmmmm..." She sounded very contented.
 
"Finally!" Ata-chan picked up a Levin crystal, which immediately became humanoid, and laid him in her mouth, legs first, so his chest was resting on her tongue and he could still look out at her naked body.
 
"You cahh onwy aahimate one bohhi a' a time, wight?" she spoke with him resting on her tongue.
 
"Uh, hm," Levin replied. "I mean..."
 
"Wa'ch." Ata-chan picked up another Levin crystal, which remained in crystal form as she held it up near the Levin in her mouth. "Zhis'll ve you nnext," she mumbled over his body and lowered it between her legs. "You'll wa'e upp alweady imn mee." Gently, she spread her nether lips apart and started edging the Levin crystal into her own pussy. "Ah! Cold!" She started, and nearly swallowed the live mini-Levin who was laying on her tongue, watching raptly. But she managed to hold him to the roof of her mouth with her tongue and he crawled back to where he could see, now completely dripping with saliva.
 
The crystal was a little bigger than the manifested mini-Levins, so it took some work to squeeze it into her opening. Both Lilia and the manifested Levin in Ata-chan's mouth stared agape as she slowly got the oblong crystal to slide inside. Once it was started, the smooth crystal slipped in very quickly, and Ata-chan pushed it all the way in with two fingers. She stopped to show off how deep she's pushed it (just spreading her lips apart, you could barely see the crystal's point deep in her opening) and then she squeezed herself shut. Her grin widened.
 
Lilia's eyes were like saucers as she watched her parallel self tilt her head back and swallow the living mini-Levin. It wasn't long before she heard the faint, telltale gurgling, and suddenly Ata-chan started moaning and kicking her legs. Evidently, the crystal buried in her cooch had come to life as soon as the previous Levin was finished, and she was enjoying it a lot.
 
"Aww, are you confused? It's OK, you're safe with me..." she cooed, and tilted her head back in orgasm as the latest Levin was absorbed into her body. Her aura glowed stronger than ever.
 
"My turn," Lilia insisted and she quickly grabbed another Levin crystal, which became animated as she touched it, and shoved it into her pussy. "Mm, so deep," she cooed as his body penetrated hers and then abruptly dissolved into mana.
 
"Take this," Ata-chan teased, as she shoved the next mini-Levin's head at Lilia's left nipple. He licked and twitched until Lilia's magic took hold and pulled him in. Without wasting a beat, Ata-chan pushed the next one into the same breast, and a third, as soon as his tiny body had been absorbed. "Haha! You're lopsided now!" she pointed out, and indeed, the boob that had engulfed three Levins in a row had become a large C cup, while her other was still a modest B cup. Of course, not long after, they evened out again as the mana suffused through Lilia's body.
 
"You tease!" Lilia replied. "You don't deserve any more Onii-chans." She put the next one in her mouth and held him there, squirming between her tongue and the roof of her mouth, before Ata-chan could grab one.
 
"Sorry. Kiss and make up?" Ata-chan leaned in and gave her alternate-world self a passionate kiss. Their tongues met each other and exchanged feelings they'd never put into words. When they parted to take a breath, Lilia realized that in the process, Ata-chan had scooped the little Levin from her mouth and swallowed him. "You sneaky... but I still love that about you."
 
"That's a part of us that you don't really have, isn't it?" Ata-chan cooed as she fed the next Levin into Lilia's pussy, though she was focusing more on Lilia's flushed face. "You never had to stop being the good girl."
 
"Oh yeah? Does a good girl do this?" she replied as she returned the favor by inserting a mini-Levin into her counterpart's nethers, making sure to rub all around as she did. She knew exactly the right spots to press.
 
"She does, she does. That's how we're going to save the world," Ata-chan replied. "Now say ahh!"
 
As Lilia opened her mouth wide, Ata-chan dropped the next animated shard of Levin directly into Lilia's waiting throat, then traced his progress with two fingers moving down Lilia's neck as she swallowed a piece of their adopted brother.
 
Soon they were down to the last shard, which was ever so slightly larger than the rest. "This is it," Ata-chan announced. "Each shard, his soul fled to the next one. But now it has nowhere to run. Whoever gets this gets to absorb his soul, the biggest chunk of his power."
 
"He's yours," Lilia offered, but Ata-chan shook her head. "No, I'm just a summon here. I need you to maintain my link to this world. You have to take him."
 
"But I-"
 
"Well, if neither of you little whores want him, I'd gladly take him off your hands," came another voice, and they turned to see none other than Mabel standing at the doorway of their room, glowing with power. Before they could react, Mabel's outstretched hand evoked a magical grasp, and pulled the little Levin body to her.
 
Mabel was a year older than Lilia and Ata-chan, and much more mature looking. She was dressed like a witch, with a pointed black hat and a short robe that hung open to reveal her excessively ample cleavage. Long black stockings left just a gap of absolute territory below where her robe ended mid-thigh.
 
"Onii-chan!" the two younger girls screamed in unison, but he was powerless to respond as Mabel's magic carried him away from them. She opened her mouth wide and, in one swift movement, gulped the last piece of their brother down.
 
"Mmm... delectable. Gosh, what an incredibly sweet flavor. Compared to those pigs at school, sempai was such a treat!"
 
"G-give him back," stammered Ata-chan, visibly rattled but fierce. "You don't deserve Onii-chan."
 
"Oh, and the little summoned clone deserves him? I don't think so!"
 
"Why are you doing this?" Lilia demanded. "The Grand Witch is evil! She'll cause untold suffering and pain for everyone if she's allowed to manifest in this world!"
 
"Ha! Maybe for you. But not for her favorites. Ones like me, who are attuned to the evil spirits? We'll have the time of our life. The Grand Witch is merciful to those who take her side."
 
"But she doesn't forgive. It's too late for you. You killed her beasts, so you'll have to die. Your best option is to become pussy food for me! Doesn't that sound better than being haunted and tortured for the rest of your life? Come on in and join your onii-chan!" Mabel lifted her robe, revealing her bare vagina and spreading it open in invitation. "Last chance!"
 
"No way!" Lilia fired a beam of pink magical energy at the hussie, but Mabel dodged out of the way towards the window.
 
"Not so fast!" A blue beam from Ata-chan followed, forcing Mabel to put up a shield of pure black magic. The energy of Ata-chan's beam fizzled off to the walls of the room, and Mabel jumped back, shattering the window to the bedroom as she exited.
 
"Fine, let's dance," Mabel called, and fired off a burst of black energy shots back their way. Instantly materializing the rest of their normal magical garb, Lilia and Ata-chan weaved between the energy blasts, dashing out the window and splitting up to attack Mabel from both sides.
 
The sky was a swirl of purple and red, and dark spirits emerged from cracks in reality all around them, trying to cling to the magical girls as they blasted energy shots back and forth through the sky. Sure enough, the Grand Witch's minions left Mabel alone, giving her an advantage despite the two-on-one. Beams of pink and sapphire rained across the sky, balls of magical energy swirling and diffusing off of hastily-conjured shields as the two girls attacked the spirits and the young witch.
 
Soon, all three were breathing heavily, but there was no time for a break. Lilia straightened up, feeling the mana still coursing through her, more than she had ever felt before. "I have my Onii-chan's power backing me up. I can't lose to you!" she declared.
 
"Ha! Then how about you lose to this?" the witch retorted, weaving her arms in a pattern of sigils that opened a gate. Huge, form-shifting, twisted creatures started pouring out, things that looked like boars or dragons or twisted wolves.
 
"That many beasts at once?!" Lilia cried. "It's unfair!"
 
"We can beat them!" Ata-chan reassured her, firing a huge beam of blue light that eradicated one of the beasts and injured another behind it. "Catch them as they're escaping the portal!"
 
Lilia nodded, and fired a blast of energy balls that exploded upon contact with the magical beasts, eradicating huge portions of the Grand Witch's bestiary in one go. She'd never been able to launch such powerful spells before, but now that she was powered up with as much of Levin's power as she'd absorbed, Lilia found herself able to pour out huge quantities of mana without even thinking about it. "Thank you, Onii-chan," she whispered to herself.
 
"And that's-- THAT!" Ata-chan shouted as she used a whip of blue-tinged mana to wrangle the emerging beasts into the blast radius of Lilia's shots. A horrific cry of transdimensional pain echoed from the beasts as they faded, and the activity from the rift faded.
 
"We did-" Lilia began to cheer, before a sudden pang of fear straight into her mind cut her off. She turned to see Ata-chan bound with rings of luminescent black energy, Mabel floating right above her. Lilia stared helplessly, knowing that if she fired a blast at Mabel, the bindings would hold Ata-chan in front as a shield.
 
"...exactly as I expected," Mabel finished. The wind fluttered the skirt of her robe up, revealing her bare bottom, as she floated menacingly toward Ata-chan. The black bindings squeezed tighter, causing Ata-chan to squeak in pain. They held her wrists together, feeding them together toward Mabel's exposed vagina. "And now you're m- Oho? I see..."
 
Lilia gulped, hands trembling as she stared, frozen at the scene. Mabel's labia parted, squelching as Ata-chan's fingers entered, then rippling down over her wrists.
 
"This is all too familiar to you, isn't it?" Apparently she'd gotten a glimpse of Ata-chan's memories somehow. "This is how your last world ended, too, isn't it? Screaming in pain at my mercy? Except that time, your cries for help reached across the dimensions to this one, didn't they? Your beloved twin self saved your soul by summoning you at the last minute, didn't she?" Mabel looked pointedly at Lilia. "But that won't work twice." She relished in the slick sounds of her flesh engulfing Ata-chan's forearms.
 
"Lilia! Please!" Ata-chan finally managed to cry out. "Take-"
 
"Silence!" Mabel bellowed, and lifted the bonds holding Ata-chan higher so that the magical girl's elbows were plunged into the witch's depths, lifting her so her face was rubbing against Maribel's clit.
 
Yet, she smiled. Because Lilia and Ata-chan had a special bond, saying just that much had been enough. Lilia knew exactly what to do. Blushing deep red, the lower half of her costume dematerialized and she whirled over to where Mabel and Ata-chan were entangled, straddling Ata-chan's legs. Ata-chan smiled and her magical heels dissolved into particles of soft blue light that turned pink and flowed into Lilia's crotch. Lilia pressed Ata-chan's toes into herself and *swallowed*, riding up to the knees in one go and dismantling the magical restraints on her in the process.
 
"What is this?! You can't-" Mabel tried to fling her off, but the three of them clung together, flapping around the sky like ribbon-wearing UFOs.
 
"She's mine, Mabel. Originally and always. You can't have her." Lilia's lower half swallowed harder, and not only did Ata-chan descend past her thighs into Lilia's waiting folds, but her arms that were embedded in Mabel began to sparkle and dissolve into blue particles that also flowed into Lilia. "I manifested her with my power, and now I'm taking it back."
 
"No, stop!" Mabel cursed and kicked at Lilia, but she couldn't stop herself losing grip on Ata-chan's dissolving form.
 
"Actually," Ata-chan smiled as she became less and less corporeal. "That's not a bad idea," and the particles of her magic that escaped her bonds became tendrils of blue that grabbed Mabel by the legs. "Join me!"
 
"I love you," Lilia whispered in tears as Ata-chan's figure dissolved into sparkles that flowed into her body to illuminate her in swirls of pink and blue.
 
"Me too," Ata-chan whispered. "Now give this girl a taste of her own medicine..." and the swirls of blue tugged Maribel's feet with them into Lilia's pussy.
 
Lilia moaned, Mabel groaned, but their combined power was too strong. Mabel's knees disappeared, followed by her thighs and wide hips, as Lilia's love canal fed on Mabel's all too corporeal body. The witch's huge breasts rode up to squish against her face as Lilia's tight slit struggled to fit them, but finally, with a huge heaving sigh, she slurped the rest of her inside. Lilia's insides fizzled and gurgled at her occupants, and then it was done. She was alone, and whole.
 
A surge of magical power unlike any she had ever felt came over Lilia. She spun around, feeling it flow out from her, repairing and extending her magical garb until she had a huge elaborate dress, ribbons flowing every which way in the swirls of Witching Hour energy, and she closed her eyes, feeling the world around her. Finally, she pointed a gloved fingertip straight out, tracing it across the skyline, sealing the gaps in the dimensions shut behind it. Gradually, bit by bit, the maelstrom died down. Magical power flowed out from her fingertips and mended reality.
 
In the end, the Grand Witch's ascension had been stopped. Lilia settled gently down onto a park bench as the sun came out again and time began to move.
 
"You did it," Ata-chan's voice echoed in her head.
 
"But I lost you, and Onii-chan."
 
"What about me?" Levin-onii-chan's voice echoed... not in her head, but in her ears. She looked over and saw, at the end of the park bench, a tiny Levin-shaped body, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. Naked, although she didn't care. She swept him up and held him close.
 
"But the last... How did you...?"
 
"You unleashed a lot of mana during that fight," he said. "Apparently if mana gets used to taking a crystal form, it'll start to re-form when enough of it gathers in the same place. Or something. As you can see, I'm not quite what I used to be."
 
"I don't care! Onii-chan!!" she sobbed, squeezing him to her chest just below the collarbone. Levin tried not to turn too red in embarrassment.
 
"Well, I guess that means there isn't much left for me, is there?" Ata-chan's voice echoed again. Lilia realized it was coming from a sapphire Crystal Heart that had embedded itself in the tiara of her new magical garb, right next to the pink stone that she'd had before. "Oh well. Maybe someday you'll stockpile enough mana for me to take form, too?"
 
"Ata-chan!!" she cried. "I don't care, as long as you're alive!"
 
"Well, for some value of alive. My soul's obviously still here, but I don't have enough mana to manifest like a summon anymore."
 
"Hmm... if all you need is some mana..." the mini-Levin trailed off suggestively. Lilia's hand that was holding him dipped subconsciously toward her lap.
 
"Whoa whoa whoa, you can't absorb him again already for me! I need Onii-chan to be around when I have a body again! How else am I supposed to get the D!"
 
"You wanted a physical form just so you could have the D? Forget it! Off-limits, he's mine!"
 
"Oh come on, girls, you can share, right?"
 
"No!!" they responded in unison, before devolving into laughter.