Chapter 118: All Members Assembled, Eve of the Torrential Rain, The Three Giants' Meeting

On the night of July 31, only a few hours remained before the Comet Fragments reached Leijing.

Stars dotted the clear night sky. A sudden downdraft from the city skies swept over the wasteland and blew through shattered windows into an abandoned building. Eleven figures gathered inside; all members of Death Crow had assembled.

Giovanni and Bai Ziling sat on a stone slab in the corner. The white-haired girl tilted her head, resting it on his knee as she quietly stared out at the night.

Giovanni looked up, examining every figure in the building.

Data panels for all the members of Death Crow surfaced in the young man's eyes.

[Member No. 1, The Pope, A++ Rank combat power.]

He was the leader of Death Crow, Lorenzo. Tonight, he wore his usual black robes and a black round hat. His deep, grayish-blue eyes reflected the moonlight.

He kept his head down, reading a Bible in silence.

[Member No. 2, Wolf Butler, A Rank combat power.]

Cosimo wore a butler's suit. A teasing smile tugged at his lips, and smooth, golden hair fell over his shoulders. He quietly peeled an apple, letting the red skin drop to the floor in strips.

[Member No. 3, Bandage Man, B++ Rank.]

This person had a bizarre appearance. He wrapped his body in pitch-black bandages year-round, making him look like a dark mummy. Right now, he hung upside down from the ceiling, flipping through a comic book.

Giovanni really wanted to see what the freak looked like underneath, even just once.

[Member No. 4, Guchen, B++ Rank.]

This was a flamboyant older man wearing a cowboy hat and a brown jacket. He had long, curly black hair and a stubbled chin, giving off the charm of a mature man. However, his aura was far too promiscuous, making him look like a total stud.

At the moment, Guchen sat in an open carriage. He crossed his legs, rested one arm on the railing, and quietly sipped dark red liquor from a glass.

[Member No. 5, Black Magic Hand, A Rank combat power.]

Jiang Qingzi wore a pitch-black owl mask and a tall magician's hat. He didn't say a word as he played with the black doves perched on his metal gloves.

No one could see the expression beneath his mask. Whenever a killing drew near, this usually cheerful young man would fall into an eerie silence. [Member No. 6, Captain Red, A Rank.]

Scarlett wore her usual black-and-red pirate outfit, complete with an eyepatch over her left eye. She hummed a pirate sea shanty, eagerly toying with a cutlass.

The night wind blew through the floor-to-ceiling windows, tossing her red hair in the breeze.

[Member No. 7, Heimeng, B++ Rank.]

Heimeng was Death Crow's dedicated hacker. Giovanni still did not know her real name, but she was easy to spot: she always wore a black hoodie, kept her hood pulled up, and hated talking.

The girl kept her eyes lowered, silently playing a PSP. The cheerful bleeps and bloops of the game echoed loudly through the ruins, yet no one complained.

[Member No. 8, Puppeteer, A+ Rank combat power.]

Bai. She was the woman who left the deepest impression on Giovanni in Death Crow, and her combat power was second only to The Pope. This person, who could be called neither a woman nor a girl, had platinum-blonde hair and wore red earrings, a white dress, and a veil over her face.

Beneath the veil, stitch marks lined the corners of her eyes and mouth.

Right now, Bai held out her hand. Puppet Strings dropped from her fingertips, connecting to two small wooden puppets. The puppets embraced and quietly danced the tango in the moonlight.

[Member No. 9, Sorakagehime, B+ Rank combat power.]

This long-haired girl typically wore a black kimono with a scabbard tied at her waist. As a Shadow Warrior, she could slip into the dark and turn shadows into her weapons.

Along with Giovanni himself as Member No. 10, and Bai Ziling acting as a mascot, all members of Death Crow had gathered in the ruins, not a single one absent.

Any single one of them was terrifying enough on their own. They were absolute elites in any field, yet this exact group of monsters had all come together.

Even though Ke Mingqing had preemptively sought out his second and third sisters yesterday to act as Death Crow's opponents, he still wasn't very confident.

It was like he always said: take it one step at a time, and run away immediately if things went south.

"I'm bored, so bored. Sister Heimeng, when can we move out?" Captain Red complained as she brushed back her red hair, sheathed her cutlass, and pulled off her eyepatch.

She tilted her head back and squeezed some eye drops into her clouded eye.

"Soon," Heimeng replied, not looking up from her game.

Cosimo rested a hand on his hip and offered a faint smile. "Patience, sister Scarlett. Shouldn't we wait for the leader's orders?"

"Life is short. Enjoy it while you can, everyone," Guchen said in a drunken slur. He raised his glass for a drink while handing a small cup to Bandage Man, who hung suspended in the air.

"Thanks, brother Vincent."

Bandage Man thanked him, though his eyes never left the comic book. He reached out with a strip of bandage to take the cup, parted the wrappings over his face to take a sip, and then lowered the glass back to the floor.

"Boss, we've been sitting here all night." Captain Red shrugged and raised her voice. "We need something to do. I'm itching for a massacre."

"Will it kill you to stay quiet for a minute?" Sorakagehime said coolly, her eyes closed as she rested with her scabbard in her arms.

"A ninja endures. But us pirates? We just want to jump into the fight," Captain Red said.

"It is good to have so much energy," Bai smiled, resting her face in her hands.

After a moment, Lorenzo, who had been completely silent, finally spoke.

"Be patient."

Everyone, including Giovanni, turned to look at The Pope.

The young man kept his head bowed. He turned the pages of his Bible and murmured without looking up, "We will move out as soon as Heimeng confirms which port the submarine lands at."

Cradling her face with both hands, Bai stretched her stitched lips into a smile and asked a question.

"Oh my. Our butler says to wait for the boss's orders, and the boss says to wait for sister Heimeng's news. So who are we actually waiting for?" Heimeng remained silent, entirely absorbed in her game. The shadow of her hood covered her pale face, hiding her expression. But right then, everyone's phones vibrated. A pixelated girl leapt onto their screens. She shouted angrily, patting her chest as a dialogue box popped up over her head with a trilling sound.

[You're waiting for me, of course! I'm tracking the security detail right now. They'll lead us straight to the Comet Fragments.] "How long will that take?" the red-haired pirate tilted her head, her eyepatch back in place.

The pixelated girl on the screen thought hard for a moment before another dialogue box finally popped up.

[I've already pinpointed their location! It's at Lijing Port No. 3. Looks like they aren't even trying to hide. The security team involves staff from the Magical Girl Company and contracted heroes from the Hero Company.]

[Everyone, please move out.]

Giovanni was the first to stand up. The weakest member managed to project the most imposing aura. The rest of the group stared at him, and Bai chuckled softly.

"Let's go," he said.

"Are you bringing her?" Black Magic Hand asked, looking at Bai Ziling.

"Yes. Even if I leave her, she'll just sneak after us," Giovanni said, gently patting Bai Ziling's hair. "Let's be clear, no one has time to babysit during a fight," Cosimo smiled. "Don't say I didn't warn you. I might be a butler most of the time, but in a battle, I only focus on killing."

Giovanni shook his head and said firmly, "I will protect her."

Bai Ziling gently gripped his sleeve.

"So responsible, so reliable. My heart is swooning," Bai teased lazily.

Lorenzo looked at Giovanni's face in silence for a moment, seemingly accepting his decision.

Then, The Pope slowly stood from the stone slab. He raised his grayish-blue eyes and said at an unhurried pace, "The operation begins."

At that exact moment, in New York, America.

The time difference between Leijing and New York was twelve hours. Thus, while it was the dead of night in Leijing, New York was still basking in bright summer daylight. Right now, a magnificent skyscraper towered over the city center, bathed in the midday sun. Its glass facade gleamed brightly, reflecting the golden light.

A billboard embedded on the building's surface featured a cosmetics ad endorsed by a red-haired magical girl.

This grand building was the Magical Girl Company. It was known alongside the Empire State Building as the twin stars of New York. The Empire State Building served as the headquarters and meeting place for New York's superheroes.

Right now, on the top floor of the New York Magical Girl Company.

Three magical girls with entirely different temperaments sat in a conference room.

First was the magical girl Xi Ziyue.

She wore a pale green cheongsam and a bamboo hair accessory. The girl had delicate features, fair skin, and sharp, raven-black hair cascading down her shoulders. Her vibrant eyes seemed veiled in mist, and her face remained expressionless.

Second was the magical girl Shui Pudeng.

Shui Pudeng gave off a cold and detached aura. Her eyes were deep blue, and she wore a silver-and-blue dress. Her pale skin appeared almost translucent in the sunlight, and smooth silver hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall.

Third was the magical girl Utuna.

She was a red-haired girl with her mid-length hair draped over her shoulders. Her features were somewhat androgynous, her fiery red eyebrows slightly arched, and she wore a combat outfit consisting of armor on top and a skirt below.

Together, they were known as the Magical Girl Three Giants. The title marked them as the three most powerful magical girls in the world. Every generation of magical girls selected three such figureheads.

The conference room was exceptionally quiet, and sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling over the girls' faces.

Xi Ziyue ate a rice ball while flipping through the latest fashion magazine. Shui Pudeng kept her head turned, silently gazing at the New York skyline. Utuna had her eyes closed in deep thought, her arms crossed with a scabbard tucked against her chest.

"How is Little Li doing?" Shui Pudeng suddenly asked after a while.

Xi Ziyue didn't even look up. "If Little Li is in danger, the Magic Card I left on her—Heaven's Blessing—will warn me," she said casually.

Saying this, she summoned a card binder used for storing Magic Cards out of thin air.

A second later, the binder suddenly started buzzing. The movement came completely out of nowhere. The other two in the room stared blankly at first, but their expressions immediately turned serious as they locked their eyes on her binder.

"Is Little Li in danger?"

"What happened?"

Shui Pudeng and Utuna asked in almost perfect unison, but Xi Ziyue's face remained blank.

"It's nothing. Just my phone vibrating."

Xi Ziyue spoke calmly and opened the card binder.

Tucked between the pages was her Apple iPhone. The device buzzed inside the binder, the screen constantly lighting up with Pop-up notifications for WeChat messages.

Watching this, the other two girls fell silent.

Xi Ziyue's style of doing things was always so bizarre and erratic. They had known her for years and were used to it, but moments like this still left them speechless.

Fortunately, Xi Ziyue never dropped the ball during critical moments. On the contrary, she always picked the right options when it came to major decisions, which was why she held the most authority among the Magical Girl Three Giants.

"I just got a message. Rain Crow seems to have arrived in New York." Xi Ziyue picked up her phone and glanced at the text. "He'll be attending a Superhero Roundtable Council meeting in the coming days."

"What does that have to do with you?" Utuna asked, confused.

"It does," Xi Ziyue said. "I'm a fan of his."

Silence descended on the conference room as the other two fell speechless once again.

Xi Ziyue read her messages for a moment before casually slipping the phone back into her binder. "Rather than Little Li and those superheroes, we should pay more attention to the situation in front of us. Last night, right in Washington, the Despair Witch caused a mass suicide of over three hundred citizens."

"According to civilian rumors, there have been suspected sightings of the Calamity Witch in San Francisco," Utuna said blankly.

Shui Pudeng stayed quiet for a moment. "It's hard for us to catch them when they operate separately like this. But they will return to China sooner or later." "The reason?" Xi Ziyue looked at her.

"If Ember becomes a witch, given the aptitude she's shown so far, she will likely become the hardest witch in the world to deal with," Shui Pudeng said slowly. "The witches will find her and try everything they can to bring her over to their side."

Utuna took a deep breath and slightly furrowed her brows.

After a long silence, Xi Ziyue nodded. "True. But preventing that kind of situation is exactly why we're sitting here."

She snapped her binder shut and looked up at the other two in the room. "Time to work. We need to catch at least one witch in the shortest time possible. Only then can we ease public pressure."