Chapter 252: Major Event 3: Night of the Witches (12)

In Leijing, the long street in the City Center lay in absolute silence.

The dense magic power enveloping the earth suddenly vanished. The birds that had been crouched motionless on the utility poles moments ago began to chirp and spread their wings once more.

Kuroki Hitomi kept her head tilted back in silence, staring motionless at the edge of Terminus Night.

From her angle, Ke Mingqing and the Witch of Despair were completely out of sight. All she could see was the underside of the Stage Apparatus, where strange lanterns still drifted across the sky.

As the birds' cries broke the absolute silence of the street, the group slowly came back to their senses.

Du Tingbei was the first to speak. He froze for a moment, then muttered, "The Witch of Despair's magic power is gone? What happened up there?"

Kuroki Hitomi said nothing, her calm, catlike eyes still fixed on the edge of Terminus Night for a long time before she finally looked away.

"No way..." Magical Girl Red Moon touched a hand to his chin as it finally dawned on him. "Don't tell me Blue Pigeon actually took out that witch?"

"Not necessarily him. It could have been someone else."

Gu Mengqing smoothed back her blue bangs, slipped on a headband, and sighed. "Can you guys stop hyping up that little blue bird? He just got a bit lucky, and you're all treating him like some child of destiny."

Du Tingbei thought for a moment. "Still, don't you find it bizarre? The guy hasn't even been a superhero for long. First his Esper ability suddenly undergoes a secondary mutation and he kills Clock Maker, and then he just happens to get dragged into the Terminus Tower incident and takes out the Witch of Despair. I know Espers are creatures whose strength runs on pure willpower, but his combat power is skyrocketing almost faster than ours—and we're players."

"Tell me about it. I'm the one who made his superhero suit for him."

Gu Mengqing shrugged. "Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if he's a player himself. Say, that Red Name Player Jin Chengwu—he's clearly in the same city as us, yet we've never once crossed paths. And you can tell at a glance that ID was randomly generated with some item or skill."

Expressionless, Kuroki Hitomi flatly denied it. "He isn't a player."

"Well, if our captain—his 'ex-girlfriend'—says so, I'll begrudgingly take your word for it," Gu Mengqing said as she reloaded her Skull Dual Guns. "But I have a proposal."

"Speak."

"I think we should take Blue Pigeon out now, before he gets too strong to handle," Gu Mengqing said flatly. "You've all seen his potential. He was just a C-Rank Superhuman not long ago, and now he's closing in on A Rank."

She paused. "If we wait a few more days, he might just jump straight to becoming one of the Roundtable Heroes."

Du Tingbei nodded in agreement. "Plus, he knows we're players. If he ever leaks our intel, we'll be in trouble."

Kuroki Hitomi remained silent.

"It's too dangerous." After a moment, she shook her head. "Rain Crow is with Blue Pigeon. If we make a move on him, we're picking a fight with Rain Crow."

Gu Mengqing frowned in confusion. "Don't you know Blue Pigeon's address? Couldn't we just ambush him at home and avoid Rain Crow altogether?"

Kuroki Hitomi turned her head abruptly, measuring out every word. "Do you want to know who his family members actually are?"

"Who are they?"

Gu Mengqing cocked her head dismissively, while Du Tingbei looked over with curiosity.

"If you don't know, ask Chunchun," Kuroki Hitomi said coldly. "He saw Blue Pigeon's family in the plaza."

At that, the other two turned toward the red-haired magical girl lounging sideways in midair. Just then, a hazy light wrapped around Magical Girl Red Moon's body like a cocoon.

With a sharp crack, the cocoon of light shattered. He reverted to a teenage boy in a blue-and-white school uniform, his hair tied in a small ponytail atop his head.

Li Chunchun spoke up. "If this were an anime, he'd definitely be the protagonist with the script already written for him. Too bad he ran into a bunch of otherworldly demons like us."

He planted a hand on his hip and gave a cold snort. "With a character like that, you have to let him follow the script—let him scramble and struggle all the way to the end on his plot armor until he meets the final boss, Lord Chunchun, and gets kicked to death by Lord Chunchun himself. That's the only way to get full value out of him."

His lips curled into a smug grin as he looked around the group. "Right? Where's the fun in killing him now?"

The street fell into absolute silence. Without a word, the other three members of the player squad walked right past him, Gu Mengqing casually flipping him the middle finger as she went.

"We need to go," Du Tingbei reminded them. "If those two magical girls over there come to stop us, things will get messy. Even combined, we're no match for them."

He shifted his gaze slightly, looking toward the distant sky.

In the distance, Magical Girl Winter Hunter vaulted aside to dodge a beam from a cyclops's pupil, then hung upside down in midair and drew his bowstring with his right hand. At that moment, a pure radiance fell over him from parts unknown.

Bang! He released his index finger. An arrow of pure white moonlight split the wind and pierced straight through the cyclops's pupil in an instant.

A moment later, a flurry of falling cherry blossoms drifted down from the high-rises, and Sakurahime plunged straight down amid the swirling petals.

She spun in midair and drew her blade. A cold glint flashed from the end of the scabbard, lopping off the last cyclops's head in an instant. Its headless corpse slowly toppled to the ground.

The two magical girls exchanged a glance and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's go. We need to support Teacher Xi Ziyue!" Winter Hunter said.

"Right, we need to hurry," Sakurahime said with a nod.

Four minutes earlier, at the edge of Terminus Night.

Her cyan embroidered shoes resting atop the head of an emerald Eastern dragon, Xi Ziyue stood with her pale green qipao snapping in the wind.

The Doll Witch's face was reflected in the young woman's clear eyes. She raised her hand slightly. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig—twelve Zodiac Mahjong Tiles bearing the zodiac animals rose from the cuffs of her qipao and hovered above her head.

At the same time, a giant unlucky bear plushie scooped the Doll Witch into its arms and vanished on the spot.

A moment later, the unlucky bear reappeared above the shoulder of one of the ultra-giant puppets and spread its arms. The Doll Witch stepped out of its embrace, her little leather shoes landing on the cyclops's shoulder.

She sat down with a beaming smile and said, "Alright, let's play a game. Let me see just how strong the number one magical girl of the modern era really is."

The moment she finished speaking, the nine cyclopes looming around them seemed to activate, raising their heads in unison.

Their massive button pupils flared with a blood-red glow, all nine eyes locking onto Xi Ziyue.

It happened in a flash: under the direct control of the Doll Witch, the movement speed of these nine cyclopes was worlds apart from the ultra-giant puppets on the ground.

Xi Ziyue swept her gaze over the puppets' reddened pupils, seeming to realize what was coming. She spurred the emerald Eastern dragon beneath her feet, shooting off into the distance in an instant.

The giant Eastern dragon's whiskers, claws, and tail swayed in the wind. From afar, it looked like a cyan cloud, with the qipao-clad young woman riding the mist.

The very next instant, accompanied by thunderous roars, beams of light capable of piercing the heavens swept out from the cyclopes' pupils, chasing hot on Xi Ziyue's heels.

"Why run?" The Doll Witch's hair whipped in the gale as she called out teasingly. "How are you going to dodge this?"

At her command, the nine giant puppets lined up in two rows, swiveling their heads in different directions.

BOOM!!!!

With an ear-splitting roar, nine beams swept out from their pupils at crisscrossing angles, weaving an almost seamless curtain of light that left Xi Ziyue and the emerald dragon beneath her no room to dodge.

Even so, the qipao-clad girl reached out impassively. One by one, she pinched the Zodiac Mahjong Tiles: "Goat," "Pig," and "Rooster."

A second later, the "Goat" tile shattered. Suddenly, a flock of emerald sheep flooded the sky, resembling a colossal patch of cyan cotton candy.

But they only blocked the light curtain for a moment before they were utterly annihilated under the cyclopes' thunderous Volley Fire.

Right after that, the "Pig" tile shattered.

A massive emerald porcupine abruptly appeared in midair. It curled into a ball as the spikes on its body expanded violently, practically turning it into a giant hedgehog.

Yet the porcupine could not hold out for long before giving way as well.

The last to shatter was the tile engraved with the "Rooster." A palm-sized emerald rooster landed on Xi Ziyue's shoulder.

It leapt into the air, drew a breath, and opened its beak to unleash a crow that rippled outward as a supersonic shockwave. By then, the nine beams were already nearly spent, and the violent shockwave stopped them cold.

Once the black smoke spreading over Terminus Night dispersed, Xi Ziyue looked up from the dragon's head. Across a distance of hundreds of meters, she once again met the eyes of the Doll Witch on the cyclops's shoulder.

"You've got some skill." The Doll Witch raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing her childish face. "But it's useless. After sacrificing so many zodiac beasts, how do you plan to block the second round?"

Even as she said it, a grin split the Doll Witch's face, and her tone shifted. "Just kidding."

All at once, Xi Ziyue felt a chill gust at her back. She whipped her head around, catching a glimpse out of the corner of her eye.

A seemingly harmless unlucky bear plushie had appeared behind her without a sound, its furry arms spread wide to pull her into an embrace.

'An unlucky bear plushie...' Xi Ziyue's gaze flickered as she thought, 'A spatial ability? To think it could appear right behind me in an instant without me noticing.'

At that moment, the "Monkey" tile hovering in midair suddenly shattered. Immediately after, an emerald monkey roughly the size of a human child descended from the sky.

Just as the unlucky bear was about to hug Xi Ziyue, the Zodiac Monkey tackled it onto the dragon's back. Baring its teeth, the monkey tangled with the bear, peeling a banana and shoving it right into the bear's belly.

After grappling on the back of the emerald Eastern dragon for a moment, the unlucky bear—beaten until it didn't know which way was up—suddenly threw its arms out and locked the emerald monkey in a tight hug.

Then, the two vanished from the spot, reappearing right beside the Doll Witch.

The Doll Witch reached out, plucked up the emerald monkey, and punted it a hundred meters away, letting a cyclops crush it underfoot.

She looked at the unlucky bear and asked coldly, "What happened? Where is Xi Ziyue? Why did you bring back a monkey?"

Just then, steam suddenly hissed from the top of the unlucky bear's head, and its body gradually turned red. It frantically clapped its paws over its mouth, hopping from side to side for a moment before throwing its mouth open and spitting out the banana the monkey had shoved into its mouth.

The banana heated up and cracked, followed by an explosion of flames soaring into the sky.

BOOM!!!

The Doll Witch's body was swallowed by the blast, and the right shoulder of the ultra-giant puppet beneath her was blown to pieces. Soon, as the dust and smoke dispersed, a miniature ragdoll—roughly the size of a palm and dressed in a witch's outfit—could be seen lying flat on top of a cyclops's head.

Watching this scene, Xi Ziyue raised an eyebrow. "So that body wasn't the Doll Witch's true form?"

The ragdoll witch pulled down the brim of her witch hat and looked up from the giant's head. Glaring coldly at Xi Ziyue, she gritted her teeth. "You're finished."

"You're tiny, but you talk a big game."

Even as she mocked her, Xi Ziyue crushed the "Snake" tile. A massive emerald python burst from the ground, coiling its tail to rear high above the Stage Apparatus.

The Zodiac Snake's ability allowed its tail to extend without limit. Its tail shot outward at a frantic pace, stretching hundreds of meters in moments like brambles growing wildly upon the World Tree.

Flicking its forked tongue with a hiss, the emerald Zodiac Snake whipped out its seemingly endless tail and wrapped it around the waists of all nine cyclopes, then wrenched with all its might to haul them together.

"What?" The Doll Witch frowned.

Xi Ziyue reached out and pinched the "Ox," "Horse," and "Dog" tiles out of midair. Without rushing, she declared, "Sacrificing the Ox, Horse, and Dog."

She paused. "Dragon Light."

At her words, the three mahjong tiles in her hand shattered at once, dissolving into cyan luminescence that poured into the emerald Eastern dragon's mouth.

A low rumble built inside the dragon, as if it held raging thunder in its maw, and a deadly cyan glow welled up in its throat. The very next instant, the emerald Eastern dragon flung its massive jaws wide and unleashed a world-shaking roar.

ROAR!!!

The Doll Witch realized something was wrong. She hastily leapt from the cyclops's head, drifting limply toward the sky behind her.

In the following fraction of a second, a cyan beam capable of shattering the firmament erupted from the Eastern dragon's throat, slamming into the nine cyclopes bound together by the emerald giant snake.

The cyan magic power instantly formed a vortex, sweeping all the giants into it and shredding them into an intertwining storm of red and white—red from the giants' blood, white from the fragments of their bodies.

The emerald giant snake held on until the bitter end, its tail also pulverized by the cyan storm of magic. The remaining stump of its body drooped to the ground along with its head, slowly dissipating into motes of light.

"You lose, pipsqueak."

Once the storm of magic cleared, Xi Ziyue glanced at the shattered remains of the giants, then lifted her gaze to the witch-robed ragdoll, her face expressionless.

The Doll Witch stared blankly for a moment as she took in the sight, then clapped her hands. "Oh, impressive—no less from the number one magical girl of the modern era," she piped up in a childish voice. "No wonder the witches before me always went out of their way to avoid you."

Pausing, she curled her lips into a smirk. "But who said I lost?"

Hearing this, Xi Ziyue's expression suddenly changed. In the very next moment, Terminus Night activated.

The massive Stage Apparatus rumbled and shook. Then a spotlight of braided red, white, and blue light shone down from the sky, falling directly onto the Doll Witch.

In an instant, crimson magic power erupted from the Doll Witch, surging over the remains of the nine giants like a great river.

The cyclopes' bodies regenerated at high speed, rising from the ground once more and causing the stage to rumble violently.

"What if I told you I can infinitely regenerate my puppets now? Can your zodiac beasts grow back this fast?" the Doll Witch mocked. She had clearly swapped back to her original body, turning from a ragdoll into the six- or seven-year-old child in witch robes.

Xi Ziyue fell silent, her expression no longer as composed as before.

She could sense that it wasn't only the giants' regenerative abilities—their strength was multiplying as well.

In a flash, Xi Ziyue crushed the "Tiger" tile. A giant emerald tiger charged forward with a roar and leapt from the ground, jaws gaping wide as its razor-sharp fangs tore open the necks of two cyclopes in quick succession.

"It's useless." The Doll Witch tilted her head. "Even if you destroy them, they'll just regenerate anyway."

The very next second, the heads of the two ultra-giant puppets had already regrown. They abruptly leaned down, reaching out to grab the emerald tiger.

With a flip, the giant tiger vaulted over the puppets' palms. But after running for only a brief moment, it was obliterated by red beams fired from three other cyclopes.

"It's time to answer my earlier question. How are you going to block the second volley?" The Doll Witch spoke as the nine giant puppets turned their heads in unison, locking their sights on Xi Ziyue atop the emerald Eastern dragon.

"Burning jade and stone together."

Speaking softly, Xi Ziyue dropped down from atop the emerald Eastern dragon.

The Eastern dragon threw its head back and roared. Its body surged with an intense cyan light as it flew forward, meeting the nine giants whose pupils had turned red.

Then, the entire dragon shattered like a mirror, transforming into a cyan light of overwhelming force that instantly swallowed everything in the world.

Even the light of the sun dimmed for a fraction of a second.

After the deep cyan light dissipated, a massive crater like a vast ravine had been carved into the top of the Stage Apparatus. The corpses of the nine giant puppets lay buried within it, yet moments later, their broken bodies healed and reassembled, rising up one after another.

"Out of tricks?"

The Doll Witch looked down from high above at Xi Ziyue on the Stage Apparatus.

At this point, only the final two Zodiac Mahjong Tiles remained above the qipao-clad girl's head: "Rabbit" and "Rat."

Xi Ziyue said nothing. Stripped of the protection of her zodiac beasts, she stood completely alone. Facing nine giants standing a hundred and fifty meters tall, she appeared indescribably small.

The next moment, she silently summoned her card album. Flipping through the book, she drew out several Magic Cards glowing with various colors.

To the strongest magical girl of the current era, magical weapons were not her sole method of combat. Her mastery over Magic Cards vastly eclipsed that of any magical girl of her generation.

Just then, the pupil of a cyclops glowed red, firing a beam at her.

With quick reflexes, Xi Ziyue crushed the Magic Card "Gale Propulsion." A sudden gale swept her up and carried her dozens of meters forward, clear of the sweeping laser.

For a time after that, the qipao-clad young woman sprinted on foot across the stage of Terminus Night.

She crushed Magic Card after Magic Card. Multicolored elemental light flared—now forming shields to buy her a moment to breathe, now converging into beams that blasted the giants' heads apart. Yet every destroyed giant regenerated moments later, and the battle showed no sign of turning in her favor.

Sitting on a cyclops's shoulder, the Doll Witch giggled, relishing the sight of Xi Ziyue's struggles. She shouted, "I just love watching people squirm! It's exactly like watching my own marionettes perform! So much fun, so much fun!"

However, at that very moment, a fiery red silk ribbon suddenly streaked in from the distance, sweeping toward the Doll Witch's back like a flaming crimson cloud.

"What?"

The Doll Witch raised an eyebrow and reacted at once.

Before the Huntian Ling could reach her, she hurriedly made the cyclops cup its hands around her, sealing her inside its palms so the thick, hard fingers blocked the Huntian Ling outside.

"Red Lotus?"

Xi Ziyue gazed at the scene and murmured softly, "In that case, Sakurahime and Winter Hunter should be arriving soon."

Just as she predicted, a figure wearing a long black-and-red metallic coat soared in from afar, riding the Wind and Fire Wheels. She shot toward the Doll Witch like a fiery red meteor.

At the same time, falling cherry blossoms suddenly rained from the sky, cascading toward the giant's fingers in a flurry like a pink downpour.

The next instant, Red Lotus flourished her Fire-Tipped Spear, piercing the giant's fingers and unleashing a wave of Samadhi True Fire, while Sakurahime spun downward through the air and sliced into the fingers with her long blade.

Through the giant's shattered knuckles, the two caught sight of the Doll Witch hiding in its palms.

In the next instant, Red Lotus and Sakurahime closed in on the witch from left and right—only for a massive unlucky bear plushie to materialize out of thin air and wrap its arms around the Doll Witch from behind.

The girl who controlled the puppets curled her lips teasingly and waved goodbye to them. "Bye-bye!"

Immediately after, the unlucky bear and the Doll Witch vanished from their spot.

"Red Lotus, Sakurahime, dodge!" Magical Girl Winter Hunter suddenly yelled as he rushed over from a distance.

But it was too late. Just then, an ultra-giant puppet leveled its pupil at Red Lotus and Sakurahime. A deep red beam of magic shot from its eye. It all happened so fast that the two had no time to react before their figures were bathed in red!

Red Lotus froze for a split second, then whipped her Fire-Tipped Spear across her chest and threw herself in front of Sakurahime.

"Run!" she roared. With the curtain of flames swept out by the Fire-Tipped Spear and the Universe Ring by her side, she blocked the surging tide of magic crashing toward them, her entire body scorched red.

Less than a second later, another cyclops in the distance fired a beam of magic. Her strength gave out completely, and the long metallic coat around her shattered.

BANG!! The moment the beam swallowed the Fire-Tipped Spear and the Universe Ring, she was flung backward like a kite with a snapped string. Sakurahime dove to catch her, and together they plummeted toward the earth amid falling cherry blossoms.

Xi Ziyue sped over, simultaneously crushing a Magic Card. A faint luminescence sprinkled over Red Lotus's wounds.

By now, Xia Ningzhi had already lost consciousness. Half of her mask had broken away, exposing one side of her face, and the bun atop her head had come undone, spilling her hair across the ground.

"It's my fault for getting distracted," Sakurahime said.

"Don't try to defeat the giants. The only chance to win is by catching the Doll Witch." Xi Ziyue crushed the Magic Card "Voice Transmission." Using magic as a medium, she spoke to Winter Hunter in the distant sky. "Winter Hunter, you're the only one who can do this."

Magical Girl Winter Hunter was stunned for a moment, but he immediately nodded, halting his descent.

The youth hovered in midair, his snow-white hair fluttering in the wind. His eyes, as clear as ice, scanned left and right until they finally locked onto the unlucky bear plushie.

The moment the Doll Witch stepped out of the unlucky bear's arms, Winter Hunter narrowed his eyes. He drew back the string of his ice bow in midair, firing an arrow forged from moonlight at the Doll Witch in the blink of an eye.

The Doll Witch flinched. The moment she turned her head, the arrow had already pierced through her heart.

She clutched her chest as blood spurted out. However, this was merely her backup body, exactly the same as what Xi Ziyue had witnessed moments ago—a "little door" suddenly opened on the back of the girl's neck, and a ragdoll dressed in a witch's outfit slipped out from within like a cicada shedding its shell.

"So annoying!" Glaring furiously at them all, the ragdoll swore, "You people are way too annoying—!"

"So the ragdoll is her true form?" Sakurahime's gaze turned cold. Crouching slightly, she dissolved into a wild storm of cherry blossoms that surged up the giant's body before driving her blade straight at the witch-robed ragdoll.

"Think that'll work?" the Doll Witch asked as the unlucky bear plushie scooped her into its arms once again.

"Don't even think about it!" Winter Hunter yelled as he fell upside down, dodging the fire from several cyclopes in the distance.

Before his body could be incinerated by the giants' pillars of magical light, he pulled the bowstring with all his might, firing an arrow of light into the distance!

Whoosh— The arrow of light crossed dozens of meters in a flash, piercing clean through the unlucky bear's head. Pinned by the shaft, the bear was dragged back more than ten meters, plunging from midair with the Doll Witch still in its arms.

The Doll Witch was stunned. She hastily broke free from the unlucky bear's embrace and landed on her feet.

In that fleeting split second, Xi Ziyue raised her slender right hand. Pinching the "Rabbit" tile between her index and middle fingers, she silently crushed it.

An emerald rabbit merely the size of a human palm was born. It was the fastest rabbit in the world. Like a flash of cyan lightning, it shot toward the distant ragdoll wearing the black witch outfit, opened its mouth, and bit down on her head.

"What?" The Doll Witch's eyes widened.

She was left dangling in midair from the emerald rabbit's jaws, her skirt flapping violently as her entire body swayed in the wind like a tiny kite. In the next moment, toxin seeped from the tips of the emerald rabbit's teeth, spreading throughout her body. She could no longer move an inch.

The emerald rabbit darted in a circle around the giants' feet, bringing the Doll Witch right in front of Xi Ziyue.

"You lose," Xi Ziyue said, pinching a Magic Card between her fingers and pressing its razor-sharp edge against the ragdoll's neck. "Make the cyclopes stop, or I'll take your head right now."

At the same time, high in the air, a cyclops's pupillary beam of light blasted off Magical Girl Winter Hunter's right arm. His figure was blown away by the howling wind, plummeting toward the stage of Terminus Night.

Just then, a figure clad in a pitch-black trench coat and wearing a pitch-black owl mask shot in from the distance. He reached out, catching Winter Hunter's body, before stepping onto a staircase formed from Pitch-Black Moonlight and landing steadily on the ground.

"You are..." Winter Hunter asked hoarsely, forcing his heavy eyelids open to glance at the man.

"Owl Judge." Ke Linye shrugged. "We both fight with moonlight, so I'd say we have an affinity." With that, he carried the one-armed, white-haired magical girl over toward Xi Ziyue.

Meanwhile, Xi Ziyue's Magic Card sliced a shallow cut into the ragdoll's neck. She spoke coldly, "I'll say this one last time. Make your giants stop."

"Tch."

The Doll Witch curled her lip. The nine cyclopes slowly ceased their movements, collapsing to their knees on the ground.

"Looks like things are wrapped up over here, too," Owl Judge said as he approached.

"Mr. Judge, is it? You seem to know Miss Red Lotus, so I'll leave her to you." Xi Ziyue took the unconscious Winter Hunter from Owl Judge's arms and crushed a Magic Card, applying emergency first aid to him.

"Uh... do I really look like I'm that close to Miss Nezha?"

Owl Judge murmured softly, casting his eyes down at Red Lotus, who was resting on the ground.

Half of the mask covering Red Lotus's face had broken away. The next second, Owl Judge got a clear look at the face beneath it, and the air suddenly fell into absolute silence.

Owl Judge stood as if struck by a lightning strike, freezing completely in place, the metallic mask on his face flickering with light and shadow.

After a moment, amid the absolute silence, his lips parted slightly. He hoarsely uttered a name: "A—... zhi?"