“Whether it works or not, you won’t know until you try!”
Eight arms stretched across the sky, blocking even the rain from falling. The dark magical aura brushing the edges alone would be enough to plunge an ordinary person into utter despair in an instant, or worse, transform them into soulless, shambling corpses.
As the target of the attack, Jiang Yao knew she couldn’t dodge this full coverage, rain-like assault. But she had no intention of running.
“Stamp!”
Her foot pressed against the ground, splashing droplets of water. The girl steadied her grip on the sword, the seductive purple highlights beneath her hair faintly glowing.
“Rise!”
“Clang!” “Clang!” “Clang!”
The purple crystals hidden underground were far more than the small aggregates stirred up before. At this moment, the magical constructs had long been prepared beneath this battlefield, beneath where they stood, waiting for the perfect moment to break through the earth!
With Jiang Yao’s foot as the center and the three surrounding crystal spikes marking the boundary, everything in between was transforming into purple crystal.
“Thanks to that encounter with the ‘Crude-Tongued Girl,’ if it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t have known magic could be used like this.”
Jiang Yao snapped her fingers:
“I call it the ‘Crystal World’!”
“Crack!”
The crystals kept breaking and regenerating, dyeing the entire ground purple.
Holding a long sword and clad in armor, Jiang Yao was the queen of this world. Everything here was made of crystal, and all its energy was at her command.
This was the realm of a magical girl!
Light and darkness stood opposed yet intertwined, their essence merely different natures of magical power.
The servants of darkness could create a domain to bolster their abilities; naturally, the heralds of light could also forge their own realm.
Magic rejoiced; mana leapt. Jiang Yao felt as if she had returned to that abandoned factory once again.
That strange sensation of merging with magic resurfaced on her body.
She looked toward the massive aggregate and shouted:
“I know how to defeat you now!”
“Clang! Crack!”
The next moment, an iron fist smashed against a crystal pillar rising from the ground, blocking Jiang Yao’s path. The fragile pillar shattered into tiny shards.
Darkness seeped back into everything.
“Kehehe—hahaha!”
An Shui Guan’s wild laughter echoed from somewhere on the aggregate. “You still dare to boast so shamelessly? Defeat me? With those pathetic crystals?”
Jiang Yao said nothing but concentrated on growing more crystal spikes, stabbing at the aggregate while raising her greatsword to block an incoming attack she couldn’t dodge.
The crystal spikes forged from light magic pierced the bonds of darkness, damaging parts of the aggregate, severing the connection of dark magic, and even cutting off one of its arms.
“Useless!”
An Shui Guan sneered, pressing claws on a control panel and inputting dark mana. The shattered parts were immediately pulled back together and restored in an instant.
Compared to the initial eight arms, not only were they unbroken, but they had even grown larger!
“Your so-called ‘Crystal World’—is it just a pile of fragile stones that break with a single touch, causing the tiniest bit of damage I can restore anytime?”
(So that’s it. What a joke.)
Though enraged, An Shui Guan hadn’t lost basic battle awareness. Its arrogance was founded on absolute confidence.
Now it realized this magical girl had secretly laid out a small “domain” underground without its notice.
—This was unexpected, but so what?
Its abilities weren’t very effective against a prepared magical girl; they mostly targeted ordinary humans, dragging them into nightmares for its use.
—So what?
An Shui Guan, the dark fairy, took pride in its power. That was why it came here to find the legendary ancient weapon. Even if its nightmare ability was limited, its dark magic—wielded through an iron-based aggregate—could still crush any enemy.
Before true strength, all tricks and cleverness shattered like these fragile crystals.
This wasn’t a real domain, and within the demon realm, it still held the advantage!
“Then, take a look behind you.”
Suddenly, a deep, processed voice came from behind An Shui Guan.
It hastily withdrew its fist, turned around, struck backward first, then checked the control panel for what was behind.
“Huh?”
There was nothing. The screen before An Shui Guan showed nothing.
“Of course you can’t see me.”
The voice seemed to read its thoughts and continued.
(Is it another magical girl?!)
The dark orb immediately considered this possibility and cursed silently:
(That useless idiot—wasn’t that supposed to be taken care of already?)
Only an aggregate with no front or back could manage this. While controlling four arms for offense and defense, An Shui Guan absorbed falling fragments nonstop.
It had to be said, only someone like An Shui Guan—whose abilities were suited for lurking in the human world and preying on humans, but who also valued mastery over magic and mental discipline enough to battle the forces of light—could do this.
Ordinary dark fairies could never split their focus like this, let alone use dark magic to control the aggregate while maintaining the demon realm.
“Don’t worry, since you’re prepared, I won’t attack first.”
The voice continued, seeming to come from all directions.
“But can you manage to never reveal a single flaw?”
“…”
An Shui Guan’s already darkened face grew even grimmer.
It only had intelligence about the magical girl “Crystal” and knew nothing about this other one.
(Who is this new magical girl? Is her magic stealth-type? Or is she some kind of assassin?)
Meanwhile, four arms were clearly insufficient to quickly kill Jiang Yao hiding in her crystal domain. Yet it had to deal with an unknown enemy.
At the same time, An Shui Guan faced its biggest problem.
(Time!)
Time was not on An Shui Guan’s side. It couldn’t afford a stalemate.
After all, it wasn’t without consumption itself. Soon, the demon realm would vanish, and when reinforcements arrived for the magical girls, defeat would be certain.
“…”
For some reason, after a long silence, An Shui Guan suddenly laughed aloud:
“Hahaha!”
With a flick of its claws, one standby arm moved, merging several cables hidden in darkness and still emitting sound, along with an unmanned vehicle, into the aggregate.
“You…zzzt…”
Inside a nearby building, Wen Yiquan spoke into a microphone, listening to the busy signal on the other end, stunned for a moment.
“How could they… find it so quickly…?”
She jumped to her feet and looked out the window.
Very close. That huge black silhouette and the purple glow beneath it were not far from her position.
“Fool.”
At this moment, An Shui Guan could only laugh.
One arm of the aggregate ignored Jiang Yao, who was barely holding up under the recovered attacks, and pointed high into the sky. The dark fairy’s arrogant, evil voice echoed, paying no mind to whether the unknown voice could hear it:
“It’s rain, you fool! Since you’re Earthlings, didn’t you learn physics properly?”
The aggregate spread its voice in all directions, causing Wen Yiquan to clench her fists in the distance.
“I admit, at first I was shocked. How could someone sneak up behind me without any magical aura? My senses are so sharp—I never let up for a moment.”
“Hahaha! Using a trick like an unmanned vehicle? That really makes me… pft hahahaha!”
Three fists slammed simultaneously into Jiang Yao’s body. The girl barely blocked with her sword and was sent flying.
The aggregate recombined the shattered iron fragments, restoring to full strength, and launched another attack.
“You’re definitely not a magical girl, right?”
An Shui Guan sneered:
“I heard the sound change caused by the heavy rain. Yes, sound waves on Earth vary depending on the medium.”
“But—only magic can transmit sound like that. And magic doesn’t waver because of such trivial things!”
“So, you’re definitely pulling a trick! I never thought…”
An Shui Guan laughed until tears nearly flowed:
“Hahaha, so low-level…”
“Well… it’s about time.”
Eight iron fists rose simultaneously and smashed down hard on Jiang Yao, who was gasping and barely able to stand, still trying to grow crystals around her!
“Crack!!!”
Both the crystal pillars and the crystallized ground shattered under the overwhelming force charged with dark magic.
“Yao Yao!”
In the distance, Jiang Lingwei, having just arrived, witnessed the crystal collapse. She shouted Jiang Yao’s name and forced out the last of her mana to transform, flying urgently toward them.
“Hmph.”
An Shui Guan grabbed the helpless Jiang Yao from the ruins of crystal with the aggregate, holding her firmly.
Looking at the screen, An Shui Guan saw the magical girl completely unable to resist, with only a faint light protecting her from steel abrasions, and let out a dissatisfied snort.
“If you break like this, it won’t be fun at all.”
“Huh? Another one?”
Seeing a pink-haired magical girl flying toward it, An Shui Guan sensed her faint mana and couldn’t help but sneer.
“Why does another one with such weak mana come? Are they just a walking headshot?”
Elsewhere, Jiang Lingwei dashed toward Jiang Yao, held in the steel giant hand, shouting:
“Throw me the magic armor!”
“Useless!”
The aggregate emitted An Shui Guan’s wicked laugh. “Good, good. It’s more interesting with a witness. I’ll crush her first, then it’s your turn, rookie.”
The hand gripping Jiang Yao immediately began closing tighter.
“No!”
Jiang Lingwei shouted in despair, trying desperately to break through the rain and cast any magic—anything—to save her daughter!
But she had no more mana left.
It was over. Everything was over.
“As for this, that ‘Crude-Tongued Girl’ was right—there’s no need. Aurora, thank you.”
At that moment, the held Jiang Yao lifted her head.
Her eyes were bright and confident as she smiled and said:
“You’ve already lost, An Shui Guan.”
“What nonsense.”
An Shui Guan felt speechless, disdainfully controlling the aggregate to crush her quickly.
The next second, the magical girl was about to be crushed into pulp but still refused to admit defeat, like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.
(So boring… What?!)
Then it opened its eyes wide in shock.
Because—the aggregate’s hand didn’t close.
It tried again, still no reaction. An Shui Guan hurriedly used the control panel to command other arms.
—Also no response.
“No, how is this possible?!”
With a claw, it smashed the control panel. The dark fairy ballooned up, casting off its usual form, urgently connecting the entire aggregate with dark magic.
No response. Nothing.
Dark tendrils just extended out but were struck back by some magic.
“It’s light magic! How is this possible? How could it evade my senses?!”
“Since you know about the human world, let me ask you…”
Using an arm to support nearby fragments and freeing herself from the palm, Jiang Yao looked toward the aggregate’s head and said:
“Have you ever heard of a ‘crystal within a crystal’?”
Before An Shui Guan could reply, Jiang Yao continued:
“Under special geological conditions, natural crystals can penetrate or completely encase another independent crystal, or sometimes another mineral crystal, forming a unique structure.”
Seated on her throne, An Shui Guan’s face was filled with horror.
It realized something.
“Whenever you collected waste and parts, you also took away some broken crystal fragments. I think you knew about this yourself—there had to be precautions, or you wouldn’t absorb them so casually.”
“Then how did you avoid my precautions?”
Jiang Yao’s gaze seemed to pierce the giant iron exterior of the aggregate, seeing the faintly glowing small crystals inside.
That massive body was like a dying ancient tree—normal on the outside but riddled with holes within.
“No… no!!!!”
An Shui Guan roared, throwing all its dark magic into a final resistance.
“My magic allows me to create crystal, but making these shards with a layer of ordinary crystal outside and magical crystal inside is quite a challenge.”
“However… thank you—for the steel that composes your aggregate. It’s always flowing. Without it, my crystals wouldn’t have spread so easily throughout you.”
Holding the Paladin’s Sword, she pointed at the core of the aggregate.
“Remember?”
Jiang Yao smiled:
“I said I knew how to defeat you.”
“No!!!!!!”
With the dark fairy’s furious roar, all eight arms of the aggregate glowed brighter and brighter with purple light from beneath their iron exterior.
Jiang Yao’s left hand formed a thin magical membrane shielding the surrounding buildings as she softly said:
“Goodbye.”
“Bang!!!!”
The massive aggregate exploded into dust that filled the sky.
Even the all-encompassing black clouds shattered under the blast, revealing the pure white moonlight behind.
As the dust settled, one by one, the street lamps flickered on, then the lights of nearby homes, shop signs, cars—all shining brightly.
The rain had stopped.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.