Chapter 248: Major Event 3: Night of the Witches (8)

Owl Judge stood on the rooftop of a residential building, lowering his gaze to watch Kuroki Hitomi in the distance.

Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow and muttered, "I remember now... Kuroki Hitomi..."

Owl Judge paused. "I remember A'Qing saying this Japanese girl was just an ordinary person. Why is she here? Should I help her out? Forget it. If she dares to show up here, she must have some skill. I'll just ask A'Qing about it later."

With that, he looked away.

Stepping onto a staircase forged of Black Moonlight, Owl Judge climbed upward step by step, closing in on the battlefield where the Witch of Calamity, Rain Crow, and the others were fighting.

Meanwhile, on a long street directly beneath Terminus Night, four players approached slowly from the distance. The shadow cast by the giant one-eyed puppet swallowed them entirely.

In the darkness, the giant lowered its head. Its eerie, button-like single eye peered down from over a hundred meters in the air, staring at the four figures like God watching a colony of ants from heaven.

Sensing its gaze, the four of them quickly stopped.

Leading them was a magical girl in a dark red dress wielding a giant scythe; the ID hovering above his head read "Li Chunchun." Next was a girl in a gray dress with a beauty mark under her eye, "Kuroki Hitomi."

Then came a young man with perpetually narrowed eyes and an utterly average appearance, dressed in a casual jacket and pants, "Du Tingbei." Finally, there was a girl with short blue hair in a punk-style T-shirt, "Gu Mengqing."

"Whoa—this thing's strength looks like it can already rival an A+ Rank super-human species. Are witches all this twisted, throwing a monster like this out as a simple grunt?" Du Tingbei tilted his head back, his eyes narrowing as he smiled up at the cyclops. "It looks like those two A+ Rank magical girls are having a hard time dealing with them, let alone us."

He turned his head to glance into the distance. Magical Girl Sakurahime and Magical Girl Winter Hunter had already dispatched one super-giant puppet, splitting up to flank a second giant from both sides.

Kuroki Hitomi spoke calmly. "It's just a puppet. It lacks human intelligence. As long as we see through its behavioral logic, having strength comparable to an A+ Rank means nothing."

"Honest question—who goes first?" Gu Mengqing asked coldly.

At that moment, a pair of Skull Dual Guns suddenly appeared in her hands, dark blue flames flickering at the base of the weapons.

[Skull Dual Guns (B-Rank Skill): Generates skull-patterned dual pistols in the user's hands that fire silver-white anti-demon bullets; the bullets' power and speed depend on the user's "Strength" and "Agility" attributes.]

"Lord Chunchun, of course. Who else but me is going to lead the charge?" Magical Girl Red Moon scoffed, rubbing the tip of his nose as he rested his giant scythe on his shoulder.

"How come even your tone of voice turned into a bratty little girl's after transforming?" Du Tingbei teased. "I get it. Does becoming a magical girl also make you secrete female hormones?"

"Are you guys disgusting or what?" Gu Mengqing clicked her tongue, resisting the urge to shoot both of them in the head.

Amid the rumbling footsteps, the four bantered casually back and forth. The silhouette of the super-giant puppet drew closer and closer, looming over them like a collapsing mountain cliff.

"No—I'll go first."

With that, Kuroki Hitomi took the lead, rushing headlong into the immense air pressure straight toward the super-giant puppet. It looked like a moth darting into the flame; the sheer size difference between the two made the other three players secretly suck in a breath of cold air.

At that moment, the giant's pupil flared with a blinding red light. A laser beam shot down from the sky at an unfathomable speed, blasting straight toward the top of Kuroki Hitomi's head.

Yet in the very next instant, Kuroki Hitomi's figure vanished, shattering like flowers in a mirror and the moon in the water. Taking her place, a cross-shaped wooden puppet wearing a straw hat appeared.

[Substitute Puppet (C-Rank Skill) (Passive Skill): When the player takes an attack, a scarecrow puppet will appear and endure the damage of one attack on their behalf, and the player will be teleported to a location 10 meters away.]

The red pillar of light crashed down, pulverizing the scarecrow into a pulp.

Seeing its strike miss, the cyclops reacted swiftly. It abruptly raised its right leg and, accompanied by a howling gale, stomped its massive foot down toward Kuroki Hitomi.

In that split second, a faintly glowing chain suddenly shot out from Du Tingbei's right hand, whipping around like a snake. It wrapped around Kuroki Hitomi and yanked her back.

[Soul Chains (B-Rank): Creates a soul chain that wraps around the user's right hand; the chain's length depends on the "Spirit" attribute. (After one skill enhancement, this skill was upgraded from C-Rank to B-Rank.)]

The puppet's massive foot landed on empty air. With a deafening boom, it stomped a giant footprint into the earth. Traffic lights and map signs were flattened, crushed into the deep crater left by the giant's sole.

"Watch out for its eye beam." Kuroki Hitomi lowered her gaze, glancing at the chain on her wrist. "Its limb movements are very slow. The only thing we need to worry about is the beam."

"Shooting lasers out of its eyes... who does it think it is, Clark Kent?"

Du Tingbei snarked as he retracted the Soul Chains, then once again held up his right hand, iron links threading between his fingers.

The chains spilled frantically from between his fingers, pouring out like a boundless river of forged iron. They surged toward the cyclops, wrapping around the puppet's arms loop after loop and binding them tightly against its waist.

"I was planning to tie this whole thing up, but it looks like I don't have enough length." Seeing that the Soul Chains had reached their limit, Du Tingbei let out a dry laugh.

Magical Girl Red Moon, Gu Mengqing, and Kuroki Hitomi launched their attacks simultaneously.

Red Moon crouched low and swung his magic-infused scythe forward, weaving a crescent radiance that slashed at the giant's neck, carving a shallow trench. Gu Mengqing, meanwhile, pulled the triggers of her dual guns at the giant's legs. Silver-white bullets tore out like shooting stars, leaving a series of craters across the giant's thighs and calves.

"Rose Echo."

Kuroki Hitomi murmured softly, raising her pale right hand. She summoned a tornado formed from red and blue roses that scraped against the cyclops's chest, leaving behind a flurry of blade-like slashes.

Blood rained down in that moment, slightly blurring the magic circuits on the giant's upper body. Yet the wounds weren't bone-deep; the effect was minimal.

"So tough..." Gu Mengqing swapped out her empty magazines.

"Damn, Lord Chunchun's attacks barely even tickled it." Magical Girl Red Moon's eyes widened.

Kuroki Hitomi thought for a moment. "It looks like we have to hit its head."

"Captain, are you kidding me?" Du Tingbei craned his neck high, feeling a bit sore. "Its head is a hundred and fifty meters in the air. If only it were that easy to hit."

While the three of them spoke, the cyclops twisted its body, breaking free of the layered Soul Chains binding its arms and yanking Du Tingbei upward in the process.

"What insane strength." Flying backward through the air, Du Tingbei spun his body. A blazing light suddenly flashed within his narrowed eyes. "Divine Cross Prison."

[Divine Cross Prison (B-Rank Skill): Creates a massive floating cross that the player can manipulate in combat. When enemies touch the cross, their attributes will be briefly reduced. (The size and hardness of the cross depend on the player's "Spirit" attribute.)]

In the next instant, a silver cross over twenty meters long plummeted from the sky, catching Du Tingbei like a small airship.

Like a gecko shedding its tail to survive, Du Tingbei snapped the majority of the Soul Chains to avoid being dragged any further by the cyclops.

Immediately after, he pushed himself up from the hovering cross and aimed his right palm directly at the cyclops.

[Big, Big, Big (E-Rank Skill) (Description: Rapidly enlarges a specific body part of the user in a short time.)]

As the system prompt faded, his right hand instantly swelled, his palm's radius expanding to over six meters.

"God's Hand," Du Tingbei murmured softly, supporting his right wrist with his left hand.

[God's Hand (B-Rank): Aim the right palm forward to generate a strong suction force, followed by a "Sacred Attribute" explosion directly ahead after 2 seconds. (Explosive damage depends on the "Spirit" attribute.)]

The next instant, veins popped across Du Tingbei's right arm. The giant hand, enhanced by "Big, Big, Big," was suddenly cloaked in a sacred radiance, resembling the hand of God.

First, a powerful suction erupted outward from the palm, lightly tugging the super-giant puppet's body for a second. Then, a waterfall of blazing white light poured from Du Tingbei's palm.

Then, the moment it touched the giant's body, it detonated.

"BOOM!!!"

Extreme white light flooded the entire world. Du Tingbei narrowed his eyes, the corners of his lips curving up slightly.

"Did that kill it?" Magical Girl Red Moon froze in shock.

Kuroki Hitomi remained silent, while Gu Mengqing hesitated over whether she should keep pulling the triggers.

However, when the light and the dust kicked up by the explosion faded, that colossal, tower-like silhouette still stood tall in the darkness. It lowered its single eye, the button pupil gleaming with red light.

And right now, that eye was aimed directly at Magical Girl Red Moon, who was suspended in midair.

This happened far too suddenly; there was no time to react. A red beam of light blasted from the giant's eye, crashing down like a waterfall from the highest heavens.

Feeling the immense air pressure crashing down from above, Magical Girl Red Moon blanked for a second, then furrowed his brow and shouted, "Mana Burst!"

[Skill 3: Mana Burst (C-Rank Skill) (Description: An instant-cast skill centered on the user that erupts outward with a powerful mana storm to knock back enemies.) (This skill only appears in the Skill Shop when possessing the B-Rank Skill "Magical Girl, Transform!")]

In a flash, blood-red mana erupted from the girl's body, sending his fiery red hair and dress fluttering high into the air.

He looked like a miniature blood-red sun. A blinding and savage tide of mana swept outward, but it still couldn't block the cyclops's eye laser.

"Chunchun!" Du Tingbei yelled. He dropped from the cross, hit the ground on his stomach, and immediately steered the cross to fly over, intercepting the laser directly above Magical Girl Red Moon.

The giant cross trembled violently the instant it met the laser. In a flash, cracks spread across it with a loud crunch, and the very next second, it shattered completely.

"Captain!" Du Tingbei suddenly turned his head and shouted.

"I know," Kuroki Hitomi responded tepidly, a blue light flashing through her eyes.

[Nano Barrier (B-Rank Skill): Generates a nano-energy barrier to protect the user or a target. The barrier will last for 5 seconds.]

In an instant, crystalline blue particles flooded out around Magical Girl Red Moon, forming a spherical barrier that encased him seamlessly.

The crystalline blue barrier violently collided with the blood-red laser. The earth beneath the girl's feet caved inward layer by layer, kicking up a thick fog vast enough to cover the entire city block.

Finally, all the light dissipated at once. Only Magical Girl Red Moon remained, sprawled on the ground and gasping heavily for air. A crescent-shaped crack spiderwebbed across the scythe clutched in his hand. Beneath him lay a crater five meters in radius and over ten meters deep.

"You alright?" Du Tingbei leaped into the crater, sliding down the slope toward him.

"I don't need any help. I've got this," Red Moon panted.

"Thank god. You can talk, so you're not a corpse." Du Tingbei sighed in relief.

At that moment, like a ninja scaling walls, Gu Mengqing sprinted sideways straight up the glass curtain wall of a high-rise building, then firmly gripped her dual guns at the rooftop.

"Transcendent Gene."

As she spoke, her body was suddenly flushed with a layer of red, and wisps of scorching steam rose from her pores.

[Transcendent Gene (D-Rank Skill) (Description: Moderately boosts the user's "Strength" and "Agility" attributes for a short duration.)]

[Firearms Mastery (C-Rank Skill) (Passive Skill): Significantly enhances the user's shooting accuracy when using firearms equipment or skills.]

She raised her dual guns high and unleashed a barrage at the cyclops. A violent hail of bullets poured out like a torrential rain of silver-white. In no time at all, the cyclops's body was riddled with dense, tiny wounds.

Then, Gu Mengqing suddenly swapped the magazines of her dual guns. With a clack, she raised the weapons again. Two bullets lined with dark red patterns blasted from the barrels, flying straight for the giant's head.

[Explosive Bullet (C-Rank Skill) (Description: Loads an explosive bullet into your firearms equipment. Upon impact, the bullet will cause a wide-range explosion.)]

"BOOM!!!"

The two bullets crossed over a hundred meters and simultaneously detonated high in the air, expanding into a cloud of fiery fog.

The raging fiery fog completely scorched through the cyclops's outer shell, destroying its pupil in the process.

The giant puppet threw its head back in fury. A fiery red laser shot from its pupil like a sharp blade, piercing completely through an entire high-rise building from the bottom up and cleaving the floors in two.

Finally, the laser beam vanished into the clouds, burning a hole straight through the center of the cloud layer. Sunlight spilled down through the gap, illuminating the figures of the four players.

Seizing the moment, Magical Girl Red Moon hoisted his scythe and rocketed upward from the deep crater. Black and red mana rippled around him, and in the blink of an eye, he arrived right beside the cyclops's neck.

The girl leaned forward slightly, gripping the scythe's hilt tightly at his waist in the stance of a Sword Draw Slash, his red hair whipping in the wind.

"Mana Expansion," he murmured softly.

The light coalescing on the scythe's blade surged wildly once more, restless and turbulent like a rising tide.

[Mana Expansion (C-Rank Skill) (Description: Instantly replenishes the user's mana and temporarily raises their maximum mana capacity.)]

[Sword Draw Slash (C-Rank Skill): Requires a brief stance and charge to unleash a devastating weapon slash in an instant. When calculating skill power, the player's Strength attribute is temporarily doubled.]

In the next split second, the girl in the red dress slashed out with the scythe.

The mana infused into the blade poured out like a crimson tide. It was as if he had drawn a red moon, causing the world to dim for a moment. Immediately after, accompanied by a deafening crash, the giant's head flew sideways and slowly plummeted toward the earth.

"Holy shit, shit, shit!"

Du Tingbei looked up and threw himself into a sideways dive, dodging the head plummeting from the sky.

The cyclops's headless body staggered forward for a moment before suddenly freezing in place. Then, it slowly tilted backward, collapsing like a sheer cliff onto a residential building and smashing the floors to pieces.

Not long after the rumbling commotion passed, absolute silence fell over the earth.

The four players exchanged glances.

"Just as I guessed," Kuroki Hitomi said. "Its weakness is its head."

"So, are we done here?" Gu Mengqing leaped down from the high-rise building.

Kuroki Hitomi was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. Using it for target practice was enough."

"The captain is right. Our strength isn't enough to meddle in the brawl between the monsters and demons above our heads." Du Tingbei caught his breath, looking up at the dizzying battlefield in midair.

Magical Girl Red Moon rested one hand on his hip, wiped his upper lip with his index finger, and then looked up at Ke Mingqing's back.

"This is as far as we can help you," he said, the corners of his mouth curling up. "Don't embarrass yourself out there, Blue Pigeon Boy. Take out a few more witches for us. Three months from now, when we kill you, we'll try to make your death a little less painful."

Du Tingbei stood stunned for a moment, murmuring, "Then again, is this Blue Pigeon for real? A B-Rank super-human species actually daring to clash head-on with an S-Rank?"

With that, he double-checked the super-human species panel floating above Blue Pigeon's head.

[Super-Human Species Codename: Blue Pigeon (Secondary Ability Mutation Version)]

[Danger Rating: B++ Rank]

[Description: An A Rank Hero working for the Leijing Superhero Company, "Blue Pigeon." Following the battle with Clock Maker, his ability underwent a secondary mutation. Blue Pigeon learned to merge dual-colored lightning to activate the formidable energy lying dormant within his body.]

"This Little Blue Bird is Boss Kuroki's ex-boyfriend, after all. He even took down Clock Maker last time." Magical Girl Red Moon crossed his arms. "Maybe he's experiencing an explosive power-up this time, too."

Gu Mengqing raised her dual guns, aiming one at each of their heads. "Can you shut up? Is hyping up the enemy fun for you?"

The two of them instantly shut their mouths.

"Let's go—" Kuroki Hitomi withdrew her gaze from the sky above and suddenly said, "We probably won't be returning to Leijing for a while."

"Where are we going, Captain?" Du Tingbei asked in confusion.

"To Japan first, to rendezvous with the other players." Having said that, Kuroki Hitomi turned and headed toward the end of the street. The three behind her quickly followed.

Just as they were about to leave, a suffocating, dense aura suddenly flooded down from above. The flock of crows above the long street shrieked and scattered.

The hearts of the four players skipped a beat.

A moment later, in the absolute silence, they slowly tilted their heads up. In that instant, they saw that the entire sky had been dyed red.

Beneath the blood-like canopy of the sky, the Witch of Despair stood at the edge of Terminus Night. Gray static cascaded madly across her body like a rushing river, making her scarlet silhouette look as terrifying as the Grim Reaper.