“Good girl, Father… Mother is coming to save you now.”
The pink-haired girl whispered softly words Jiang Yao couldn’t quite catch. She waved her magic wand, releasing a pink orb of energy that floated calmly around them.
“Ao ao ao—”
Like a hot knife cutting through butter, the moment the energy orb touched the dark minions, it immediately tore open holes in them, then swiftly melted them into dust.
Even the special creature biting Jiang Yao was no exception.
“Ew.”
Shivering as she hugged her shoulders, even with the magical barrier, the monster’s ashes fell on Jiang Yao, giving her a sudden chill.
After the crisis was averted and her mind calmed, the light magic inside her regained control, and that momentary burst of agitation vanished without a trace.
Or rather—it retreated back into hiding.
Meanwhile, the pink-haired girl was still effortlessly dealing with other reckless bugs crawling toward them. Just by swinging her wand, swarms of monsters fell and turned to ash, making Jiang Yao’s own one-by-one sword strikes seem so much harder in comparison.
“Is that one also your contracted familiar?”
Unable to grab even a single head—or insect’s head—Jiang Yao sheathed her sword, rubbed her sore arm, and quietly asked.
“No.”
Xiao Bai looked puzzled too. “I only contracted you, just you. I was going to ask where this magical girl came from. According to human divisions, did she come from another city?”
“Never heard of her.”
“Wait, let me take a closer look…”
Xiao Bai bounced up and perched on Jiang Yao’s shoulder. Squinting her little eyes as she stared for a few seconds, her mouth suddenly opened wide in an incredulous scream: “Great fairy Dietelta·… (omitted) …White Hair Beard of Merlin, Archmage of Justice from Silver City! She uses ancient magic! She’s a magical girl born of ancient magic!”
“What ancient magic?”
Jiang Yao grabbed Xiao Bai, who was so excited she had jumped onto her head, almost stretching her eyeballs out, and held her in front of her face, asking in confusion.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
Xiao Bai wriggled her four little paws like a dumpling refusing its fate, struggling wildly, nearly sticking out her tongue:
“Just one more look, only one!”
“No!”
Suppressing Xiao Bai firmly, Jiang Yao said seriously, “Explain to me first—what exactly is ancient magic?”
“Ah, you wouldn’t understand!”
After wriggling a few times, Xiao Bai resigned herself, knowing her Earth-level strength was no match for locals. She gave in and explained:
“I probably told you before, our fairy kingdom recently discovered, while excavating ruins, some ancient teleportation runes left by the primeval dark fairies.”
“Mm-hmm, and then you dug up the ruins, the dark fairies found out about the knowledge inside, so they came too, which led to the birth of the first generation of magical girls in our world and that great dark catastrophe.” Jiang Yao nodded, mercilessly taking her side.
“Damn it!”
Xiao Bai’s whiskers trembled in anger. “I told you! Even if we hadn’t dug it up, the dark fairies already inherited most of the runes! Sooner or later, they’d have figured it out and come anyway!”
“That’s true. Otherwise, maybe someday, our world would only be overrun by dark fairies—and you righteous fairies, all good people, would have to deal with it.”
Seeing Xiao Bai getting angry, Jiang Yao quickly comforted the white fluff ball.
“Mm-hmm.”
Xiao Bai was easily pacified. After listening, she squinted her eyes and smiled so hard her whiskers curled up, nodding vigorously: “It’s a win-win. If the dark fairies had invaded, we wouldn’t have an easy time counterattacking either.”
Her little hands waved in the air: “Keep going, keep going. In that ruin, we also found my ancestor, Tangula·Ari…”
“Enough, enough, get to the point.”
Jiang Yao quickly interrupted—those fairy names were terrifyingly long.
“Ahem, anyway, we found some traces left behind and our family crest. Based on current data, my ancestor was likely captured by the dark fairies and forced to assist their research. Several masters from that era were also captured with my ancestor.”
“Besides, the dark fairies have their own intelligent scholars, but they used their wisdom for evil, eventually developing teleportation arrays and runes.”
“In short, my ancestor never appeared again. Along with those dark fairies, no one has seen them since, and no historical records remain. Everything about them stopped a thousand years ago.”
Xiao Bai said solemnly, “That teleportation spell can be considered usable now. And beneath the half-complete array we excavated, there’s an even older, more fragmentary array engraving.”
“That must be the original teleportation array. We speculate that it’s nothing like today’s stable arrays. It likely couldn’t operate properly; even if activated, its range was probably no larger than one city, and the space-time stability wasn’t as good as now. For example, our fairy kingdom’s time matches yours exactly—one day here is one day there—but the earliest one probably didn’t work like that.”
“As investigations continued, it’s certain that array is from the same era as my ancestor, while the half-finished one on top was studied later by others.”
“The original array could rip open spatial rifts, but it was a violent, one-time-use thing powered by ancient dark magic. It could send you to any timeline in your world.”
“Some say my ancestor betrayed us and joined the dark fairies’ side.” Xiao Bai spoke indignantly. “That would never happen. My ancestor wasn’t a despicable villain. Since there’s no clear evidence it died, it must still be alive. I suspect it escaped through the original rift and is already here—or will come eventually, just sooner or later.”
She wriggled again, struggling to look toward the pink-haired magical girl:
“See that simple magic aura? No mistake—that’s ancient magic! A magical girl using ancient magic! Ah, magical girl, I admire you so much!”
“Then why didn’t the later dark fairies complete the full array and just left the half-finished one there?”
Turning Xiao Bai around, Jiang Yao continued asking.
“Uh…”
Xiao Bai hesitated before answering, “I don’t know.”
“That half-finished array was usable and has been used.”
“Think of it like trying a sample food versus the full product.”
“The taste is the same; only the amount differs. As for why…”
Xiao Bai’s little eyes were filled with confusion. “No one can say for sure. It seems a dark power explosion happened there, erasing all traces.”
“Powerful masters came to investigate with detection magic, but all they know is that one person—most likely human—did it all alone. That person must have successfully stopped the dark fairies’ successors and sealed the ruins. But who they were and how they did it, no one knows. There’s no basis for investigation.”
“Besides the very advanced detection magic and some cryptic prophecy magic, which let us know about its existence, there’s no evidence proving this story true.”
While Xiao Bai spoke, the pink-haired magical girl had finished slaughtering the insect swarm and gracefully approached.
“Ah, look at her elegant and noble steps, the gentle and kind aura of a genuine magical girl! That’s a real girl right there. Now look at you—why did I ever contract you… Hey, ow, ow, ow!”
Distracted by looking at the girl, Xiao Bai forgot she was still held in Jiang Yao’s hand. Jiang Yao squeezed her hard like a stress ball, rolling her into a tight little ball as Xiao Bai shouted, “Wrong, wrong!” begging for mercy.
Once freed, Xiao Bai quickly dashed under Jiang Yao’s cloak before the magical girl could come closer.
Before long, the girl reached Jiang Yao’s side.
They stood silently, quietly looking at each other.
Jiang Yao noticed the girl was slightly shorter than her. When their eyes met, a flash of white light flickered briefly, like the northern lights piercing the endless polar night.
For some reason, Jiang Yao felt the girl’s face was familiar, but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t recall where she had seen her before.
She didn’t realize that this feeling was precisely what an ordinary person experiences when seeing a familiar person transformed into a magical girl, filtered by the magical girl’s perception veil.
Generally, this sensation only affects ordinary people because, according to Xiao Bai, strictly speaking, current magical girls use “modern magic.” But for “ancient magic·magical girls,” there may be a perception veil between them and modern magical girls as well.
(What should I say?)
Jiang Yao thought.
In truth, she was somewhat unwilling.
This was the first time in two months she had faced a truly threatening enemy, and also her first time meeting another magical girl offline. Yet, here she was, looking so clumsy.
Although fighting those earthworm-like monsters wouldn’t consume much effort, this mysterious magical girl had just outright annihilated that newly appeared demon with unknown abilities who ambushed her, saving her life.
Could she have done the same?
The girl’s graceful posture and battle proficiency made Jiang Yao feel a bit… ashamed.
She really didn’t know what to say.
Just as she was lost in thought, the pink-haired girl blinked, raised her hand, gently patted Jiang Yao’s head, and softly said:
“Good job, thank you for always protecting everyone.”
Jiang Yao’s eyes widened slightly. The girl didn’t judge her strength, didn’t scold her carelessness, nor did she boast after rescuing her. She simply praised her sincerely.
The small palm on her head transmitted warmth, making Jiang Yao feel inexplicably… at ease.
Jiang Yao thought she should hate it—only her mother could touch her head! Everyone else should be disliked! Yet this feeling was just too comfortable.
She wanted to brush the hand away, but her arm wouldn’t move. Instinctively, Jiang Yao closed her eyes, enjoying the gentle touch.
“You did great, but next time, be more careful.”
“Keep it up. I believe in you!”
The pink-haired girl smiled with narrowed eyes and turned to leave.
After a long moment, Jiang Yao snapped out of it amidst Xiao Bai’s shouts, “You should’ve asked her about ancient magic! Hey!”
But there was no pink-haired girl in sight—only a patch of dust remained, evidence of the battle that had just taken place.
“I…”
Ignoring Xiao Bai’s frantic calls, Jiang Yao touched her own head foolishly: “Why don’t I hate this?”
“Ding dong ding dong ding dong…”
In an alley, Jiang Lingwei, restored to her mature woman’s form, leaned against a wall, clutching a sparkling transformation device, finally relaxing.
“Phew… I almost ran out of magic and couldn’t cancel my transformation in front of that kid. Killing that trash demon took more effort than I thought. Honestly, I thought I was a magical girl—now I’m turning into Ultraman.”
“But she really didn’t recognize me. Thank goodness.”
Her earlier eye contact with Jiang Yao was just to confirm this. Jiang Yao hadn’t connected her transformed form with her everyday identity.
“No matter, time to go home, time to go home.”
Jiang Lingwei hurried off.
Magical Girl [Aurora], after so many years, still fights today for justice and light!
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