“A Xing! Don’t be reckless! Are you crazy…”
Miss L’s anxious shout came through the communicator, but before she could finish, the communicator on Xiaoxi’s body was reduced to powder in that scarlet storm with a crackling sound.
The live feed in the operations command room also turned to static.
“A Xing!”
Miss L slammed the table, her glasses falling off as scorching coffee soaked the thick stack of now useless action plans.
The Blood Moon Witch hadn’t even taken any real action yet—just the process of her losing control had already swept away and destroyed everything around!
Centered on Ye Xinglan, the scarlet storm swept up all the broken rubble nearby, black mud splashing everywhere, tendrils tearing things apart.
Ye Xinglan’s eyes were dull and empty, but her body instinctively drew in everything around her, absorbing whatever she could.
In this chaos, Xiaoxi held Ye Xinglan tightly and forcefully kissed her.
Even the Magic Girl Association had no solution to the [Scarlet Catastrophe]; they hadn’t even run any experiments.
Not to mention whether pouring magic power into Ye Xinglan now could still awaken her consciousness—nobody could even get close to the Blood Moon Witch when she lost control.
Anyone who came even a little too close would be shredded by the scarlet storm!
But Xiaoxi didn’t care about any of that. Why else would everyone call her the “Strongest Magical Girl”?
Other people didn’t have enough magic power—she did! Others couldn’t get close to Ye Xinglan in this state—but she could!
Damn it, if she couldn’t even protect her own girlfriend, how could she call herself the strongest?
The moment their lips touched, Ye Xinglan’s vacant eyes suddenly regained some clarity. She tried to push Xiaoxi away on instinct, her eyes filled with anger and embarrassment.
“You crazy… I have a girlfr… mmph…”
Of course Xiaoxi wouldn’t let go. She firmly locked Ye Xinglan’s wrists, and as she felt the magic power being quickly drawn from her own body, her heart leapt with joy.
She had gambled right! As long as she could fill Ye Xinglan’s desire, she could end her rampage!
The scarlet storm and tendrils tore at Xiaoxi’s body.
She was barely able to hold up a magical barrier at first, but as her magic power was rapidly drained, she could hardly keep it up any longer.
Still not enough? So insatiable… Last night, you weren’t this much of a glutton!
After half a minute, the scarlet storm gradually subsided. When their lips finally parted, Xiaoxi was trembling as she breathed—damn, this was the most dangerous kiss she’d ever had in her life!
The Association’s drones could finally enter Southern Avenue.
Once the live feed in the command room resumed, Miss L slumped back into her chair, her heart that had almost leapt from her chest finally settling down again.
After a long pause, she let out a sudden laugh.
Well, at least during city reconstruction, they’d save time clearing the rubble. That’s pretty convenient, actually…
On screen, Eternal Star, covered in wounds, was kneeling on the ground, cradling the now-untransformed and unconscious Ye Xinglan in her arms.
The drone’s perspective zoomed out, and with the two girls at the center, everything within a half-kilometer radius—every last ruin—had disappeared in the earlier scarlet storm.
The area was now, in the literal sense, flattened.
Just then, a flurry of new messages flooded in on Miss L’s phone.
As she picked it up, she saw, as expected, they were from Headquarters. She turned off the screen without even looking.
How interesting—just as the safe containment of the Blood Moon Witch was confirmed, Headquarters was already demanding the person from her…
Is the Association really that worried about the Blood Moon Witch endangering society? So dutiful and responsible, aren’t they.
Her mood, just beginning to relax, was again overshadowed.
Miss L clenched her fists… Now, the fact that Ye Xinglan was the Blood Moon Witch was completely exposed to the Association.
A Xing, saving her was just the first step. If you want to keep her, that might be even harder than what happened today.
Miss L felt an even greater headache. Eternal Star and the Blood Moon Witch in love… If you live long enough, you really do see everything.
She never imagined this kind of thing would actually happen! Now she was curious how Headquarters would deal with this unexpected situation.
Today’s events made one thing very clear for Miss L—if the Association couldn’t reach a consensus with Xiaoxi regarding Ye Xinglan, she really would turn against the Association…
But fortunately, today’s troubles were, for now, over.
The monster cleanup outside the City was finished, and after resuming communications, Muxingge rushed to Southern Avenue at once.
The remaining troublesome matters could wait to be dealt with later.
“Bad news! Minister… Ministry Head L!” A breathless person suddenly burst into the command room. “Black Rose… she’s escaped!”
A thunderous crash sounded from underground. The entire Association building shook.
Everyone instinctively looked at the floor beneath their feet—someone was fighting, right here, in the underground levels of the Association!
……
A short while earlier, inside the Association’s Detention Cell.
Outside, chaos reigned, but Black Rose merely sat quietly in the Detention Cell, humming a tune, with no hint of making trouble.
In fact, no one was paying her—the captured fish—any mind at all now.
Most of the low-ranking Magic Girls stationed at the Association had been called away, and even if the higher-ranked Magic Girls rushed back from outside the City, their first priority was to support Southern Avenue.
Having had all her power drained and locked up inside the Association, Black Rose couldn’t possibly tear the whole City to ruins in a short time. The priorities were clear.
No one could imagine that under such circumstances, Black Rose still had a way to stir up trouble… until the sound of bodies falling came one after another outside the Detention Cell.
The door swung open. Shandie appeared at the entrance, spinning a key around her index finger.
“Shandie! You actually came to rescue me, I’m so touched!”
Shandie, whose expression had been blank, now looked as if she’d swallowed a fly—she really couldn’t get used to Black Rose’s sudden bouts of drama.
“Quit the act, you’re disgusting me. Isn’t all of this happening according to your script—Director?”
Shandie undid her handcuffs, and Black Rose stood up and stretched, speaking casually.
“Is that so? Looks like you’ve got a real knack for acting… Yesterday, I almost thought you were going to double-cross the Association for real, Shandie.”
Shandie: “……”
“Heh, you think I’d be convinced by a few words from Sirius? Or rather, do you know what we talked about earlier… Have you been spying on me, Black Rose?”
The air in the Detention Cell seemed to freeze. After a few seconds, Black Rose chuckled and patted Shandie on the shoulder.
“Just kidding, of course I trust you. Let’s go, we have important business. Where are my things? I can’t do anything if I go out like this.”
Black Rose rolled up her sleeves, baring her pale arms. Shandie produced a large glass jar, filled to the brim with writhing blackness—a rather bizarre sight.
Without hesitation, Black Rose plunged her hand into the jar. The blackness spread over her skin, and soon, her body was once again covered in black thorn and rose tattoos.
Black Rose opened her eyes, reborn as if shed of her old skin, and took a deep breath.
“This is all of it… Three years—since the end of the Great Chaos Era, I’ve accumulated Black Marks for three years, all for today!”
Black Rose swaggered out of the Interrogation Room. By now, every Magic Girl outside the room had collapsed into unconsciousness.
“Interesting. Since you can make all these low-ranking Magic Girls fall into your Illusion without them realizing, you could probably just as easily kill them all quietly, couldn’t you?”
“…Is there really any need to go that far? Making them fall into an Illusion is enough, right?”
Shandie glanced, almost imperceptibly, at the unconscious Xiaohongmao on the floor.
Xiaohongmao’s brow was tightly furrowed, whatever she was seeing in the Illusion a mystery.
At least on this point, Sirius, I kept my promise to you…
“You’re right! Next, we just need to set up a bit of a disguise here. Hurry up—if I’m not wrong, the Blood Moon Witch and Eternal Star should be having quite the fight outside right about now?”
A knowing smile curled at the corner of Black Rose’s mouth.
“Wonderful. While they’re fighting each other, it’s our turn to be the fishermen reaping the rewards. Time to seize what we want.”