Chapter 224: The Long Night Dawns

The next instant, Lin Guang flared her twin wings and flew shoulder-to-shoulder with the ones who had once again taken to the sky.

Six blazing meteors tangled with the black witch, as if venting all the fury that had come before.

The terrifying onslaught blanketed everything, wounds were repeatedly negated on Her body, yet gradually, they could no longer keep up with the speed at which they appeared.

Because Her Domain was still draining away at a maddening rate.

At this moment, She was like a drowning man desperately trying to plug a bursting dam, pouring every ounce of energy into the struggle for the Domain with reckless abandon.

"What... is the meaning of any of this?!"

The witch finally completely lost her composure. She threw her head back, hair wild and disheveled, shrieking at the magical girls like a vengeful ghost.

"All that's left for you is despair! Only beings with complete Domain can truly leave this cage!"

"You can't get out!!"

"Even if she wins, your ending is already written in stone! Nothing can change it! Only she alone can leave!!"

"Didn't I promise you happiness?! What I gave you, what's the difference between that and what she gives you?!"

In that instant, the truth of this world's sealed nature truly poured into their very souls.

The boundary of this world was an absolute cliff, sealed in one direction.

From the outside, this place had been completely shaped into a philosophically airtight closed system where things could enter but never leave. From the very beginning, those who entered had no possibility of escape.

What Amber and Phoenix had said, and the truth behind Airwen's despair, was all real.

From start to finish, only that destined Witch King could ever leave.

The irony was.

Perhaps out of arrogance and disdain, She, as the witch who schemed and deceived everything, had never once lied about this particular matter.

But equally ironic was the fact that.

Even at this moment, She only arrogantly transmitted Her will to these magical girls who had achieved Full Bloom, these girls who could barely be acknowledged by Her as existing.

Everyone else remained utterly nonexistent in Her eyes.

However.

Upon sensing this information, they didn't hesitate or pause for even a millisecond before surging forward once again.

The pink idol pressed her hands together, and a colossal star-shaped barrage collided at the center point around the witch.

BOOM!!

In the blazing light of the explosion, she raised her right hand high, unceremoniously flipping off the miserable witch with her middle finger, even thoughtfully blurring it for the audience.

"This is what you get!"

Her pink eyes burned with fury: "If we're all doomed to be trapped here, then this lady is dragging your sorry ass down with us!"

Zihan's massive scythe carved through the air, adding another wound to the witch's body.

She shouted at the top of her lungs: "So what if the final end can't be changed? Haven't we already made our resolve long ago?!"

"At the very least, the path leading to that final end must be decided by us!!"

"That's right."

Amber sat on her broom, speaking with a light laugh, "And besides... how can you say it's meaningless?"

"Even if we can't leave, if even one of us can, that's still far better than all of us vanishing into nothing."

And at this very moment.

The demon beasts in Kazenari Town had already been cleansed, and the barrier had likewise been fully repaired.

Whether it was the citizens in the shelters or the magical girls fighting in the city streets.

Everyone could already feel that this battle was nearing its end.

That endless long night was finally about to welcome the dawn.

Su Fang shouted: "Senior Mengmengxiang, take Her down!"

Phoenix burned with golden flames all over: "Mengmengxiang, don't give Her a single moment to catch her breath!"

"Go!"

"You have to win!"

"Big sister Mengmengxiang, fight!!"

The voices of the entire world converged into a mighty torrent.

"Hah... then in this boundless despair, sink into oblivion together with me!!!" 

In that instant, endless black fog surged forth once more from the mirror world, pouring into the witch's shattered and ruined body.

The witch's form dissolved into a terrifying shadow within the black fog.

Within mere seconds, She transformed into a colossal black dragon whose size defied all description.

It had thick, powerful limbs and a tail covered in bone spikes, its wings tattered and torn. Upon its fearsome head grew countless eyes, and its body surface bore no clear scale patterns, as if it were condensed purely from black fog, carrying within it boundless malice and despair.

Dragons and witches. In the mythology and legends of virtually any land, they seemed to share an inexplicable connection.

Like two sides of the same coin.

And this form now meant She had finally revealed Her true nature as the Abyss Will.

This terrifying dragon coiled high in the sky, and its massive head alone was several times larger than the golden Sacred Tree below.

Before this world-shrouding leviathan, all light seemed as insignificant as a candle flame in the wind.

She let out a roar that surpassed human comprehension.

BOOM!!!

In that instant, the withered giant tree within the mirror utterly collapsed, dissolving into endless black shadows that merged into Her body.

And Amber suddenly realized something, her words tumbling out rapidly.

"She's going to destroy the Domain she holds! She's making the ritual fail completely!"

The others froze: "What?!"

Even without her warning, the red-haired girl had long since sensed that ominous premonition.

Having recognized the fact that she was about to lose, this arrogant witch would not yield. She would rather destroy everything, even herself, in one final blaze.

But she remained utterly calm.

Because at that very moment, everyone suddenly saw a silver radiance emerging from the surface of the colossal dragon.

At first, that light was infinitesimally small, like an illusion.

But then, the very next instant—

Like a chain reaction.

Something stubborn, a seed, began to take root and sprout, then grew at incredible speed across the dragon's body, breaking through the black fog on its surface.

But what grew was not a plant, but—

Silver sword light.

Dense, illusory yet pure sword light.

Like countless silver thorns bursting forth from the body of the dragon that the Pride Witch had become, turning it into a pincushion, and bringing it a pain that cut to the bone.

Even her process of self-destruction seemed to grind to a halt.

"You are nothing but my shadow, how dare you—!!"

The silver light did not reply. Instead, it blazed brilliantly, and a familiar aura instantly reflected in the hearts of all the magical girls.

That sword light. Without a doubt.

And in the moment She was immobilized, unable to interfere with the Domain, the red-haired girl's sweet yet grand chant once again resounded across heaven and earth.

"Faintly gleaming, the turbid crest. Unyielding, unrestrained, the arrogant talent."

She slowly raised the longsword in her hand, and an unimaginably vast surge of magic power erupted skyward.

"The surging tide, negation, paralysis, an instant, hindering eternal slumber."

"The crawling iron princess, the mud puppet ceaselessly harming itself."

"Combine! Rebound!"

"Extend to the ground, and know your own powerlessness!"

Accompanied by the oppressive incantation, the black fog that had been surging up from the mirror world below seemed to hear the command of its true master. It involuntarily began to obey the summons, coalescing together, forming a pure black barrier that gradually sealed the world-shrouding dragon within.

The so-called Domain meant being able to grasp everything within this world.

Of course...

Including the Abyss.

At this moment, the red-haired girl had already grasped the greater part of the Domain. She was the King of the Sacred Tree, and also the Abyss King, two sides of the same coin.

Sustaining the Sacred Tree, commanding the Abyss, all within a single thought of hers.

"AAAAHHHH!!"

She let out a frenzied roar, but was held immobile within the lock of the silver sword energy. Even the black fog that supported her body was stripped away, becoming part of the rectangular black barrier that bound her form.

"Path of Destruction, Ninety—"

"[Black Coffin]!"

With those final words, the surrounding space was sealed shut.

A colossal coffin, large enough to bury a god, closed shut, locking the world-shrouding Abyss dragon tightly within.

Faintly, one could hear her miserable screams and struggles from within, but she could not break the seal.

But Lin Guang had no intention of stopping.

With the atmosphere built up to this point, there was, of course, one final element needed.

Since the opponent was a dragon, and her magic power was crimson...

Then, let's use that one!!

She slowly raised the longsword in her hand, which flashed with red light.

At the same time, the girls in the Origin Space, and even everyone watching the livestream, suddenly felt an inexplicable something.

A wonderful request originating from this magical girl named Mengmengxiang.

Tang Keren couldn't help but break into a brilliant smile: "Oh right, livestreams should have audience interaction segments! That's the quality a virtual idol should have!"

Smiles also broke out on the faces of all the citizens.

—Of course there was no way they would refuse!

Because it meant they too could participate in this final battle!

Almost everyone raised both hands, mimicking the girl's sword-gripping pose at this very moment.

And so, they truly felt as if they were gripping a sword hilt.

Hot, yet not burning. Carrying an indescribable fervor and hope.

And then—

The entire world began to chant in unison, guided by Lin Guang's will!

"Come on, let's go!!"

Tang Keren shouted with sheer excitement.

"Brighter than the dawn..."

The incantation, modified by Lin Guang, was spoken from the lips of children and adults in the shelters.

"Redder than blood..."

On the rooftop of the Happiness Peace Committee building, Su Jingyan and Mogong Ma spoke.

"Appear within the flow of time!"

The Previous Magical Girls, now fused with their past bodies, chanted together on the battlefield.

Amber and Phoenix spoke with solemn reverence: "In your great name—"

Su Fang shouted: "We hereby swear upon hope!"

Zihan's wild, elated grin could no longer be suppressed as she raised her scythe high: "All that stand before us, all arrogant and foolish things—"

Even from within the Black Coffin, that familiar, cold, clear voice resounded: "With my power and your power, grant them equal destruction!"

The entire world echoed with the unison words.

And so, sparks like a tidal wave converged from all directions, merging into the longsword in Lin Guang's hand, as if the will of the entire world had gathered there.

What clung to the blade was a crimson so profound it could dim everything in the world.

This chant originated from the anime "Slayers."

In the original work, its incantation invoked a high-ranking entity known as the Red-Eyed Demon King, a high-level black magic that borrowed its power.

But in this world, the one who could now be called [Red-Eyed] and [Demon King], the one pointed to by these words, naturally could only be one person.

And that was—

Magical girl Mengmengxiang!

The next instant.

Every being in this world swung their swords at the same time.

Following their movements, the red-haired girl likewise brought her blade down upon the colossal Black Coffin.

"Dragon Slave!!!"

The divine punishment sword that pierced heaven and earth transformed into a crimson torrent that punched through the Black Coffin, shattering the remnants of the dragon's body with devastating, unstoppable force.

The Witch King who had hidden behind this world for three hundred years, through three thousand three hundred and thirty-three cycles, was slashed into motes of nothingness along with her last pathetic struggles and absurd pride.

And this sword strike did not stop there.

It cut through the endless black fog beneath the mirror within the Origin Space.

It cut through the unending eternal night beyond the Sacred Tree's domain.

It slashed through that despair-filled darkness, as if tearing open the veil itself.

[Domain: 100%]

And so.

The long night yielded to light.