Xiaoxi turned around and blinked—she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
There was no way someone could hide in such a cramped space, and the changing room door was securely locked from the inside; there was absolutely no way Ye Xinglan could be peeping…
Wait, was her reaction in the mirror just a moment ago a little slow?
Well, she was probably just seeing things. What nonsense was she imagining now? Could it be that Xinglan had really given her PTSD?
Xiaoxi shook her head, turned back, and got ready to continue changing her clothes.
That faint sense of being watched had vanished, but a small detail flashed subconsciously through Xiaoxi’s mind.
Come to think of it, another disappearance case happened in the changing room of a clothing store, which also meant there were no witnesses…
Xiaoxi’s hand froze as she was taking off her clothes, and she suddenly recalled the decoration on the restaurant wall from earlier.
A spark of realization flashed in her mind!
Public bathrooms in malls, corner seats in restaurants, and changing rooms…
The places where these disappearances occurred all lacked surveillance cameras, but there was another common feature—mirrors! Every one of these places had a mirror!
Xiaoxi jerked around, staring straight at her own bewildered eyes in the mirror.
The reflection mimicked her every move exactly; it was just an ordinary mirror with nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet Xiaoxi couldn’t shake the sense that something was wrong.
She focused all her attention on the mirror, sensing carefully, and sure enough, she picked up on a faint trace of magical energy—so subtle that she nearly thought she was imagining it! It was coming from the mirror… no, from inside the mirror!
“Xinglan! Come in here, there’s something going on!” Xiaoxi immediately reached for the changing room’s door lock.
At that moment, outside the changing room, Ye Xinglan was sulking with her arms crossed.
So stingy! It’s just a couple more looks, it’s not like it would cost her anything.
When they got home tonight, she’d make up for all the peeking she’d missed!
“Xinglan! Come in here!”
Hmph?
Trying to play hard to get now, huh? She just knew Xiaoxi secretly wanted her to watch. Hehehe!
But Ye Xinglan purposely put on an arrogant face, as if to say, look, it’s not like I want to go in—Xiaoxi’s the one asking me to.
“Tch! Weren’t you just stopping me from coming in a minute ago? Beg me, and maybe I’ll go in! Hehe!”
But before Ye Xinglan could hear Xiaoxi’s reply, her phone rang first. It was a call from the Astrologer.
“Miss Xinglan, Xiaoxi’s signal just vanished! Weren’t you two together? What happened?”
Ye Xinglan froze, ignoring everything else. With a flick of her tentacle, she smashed the changing room door open—the room was empty, with no trace of Xiaoxi at all.
This is bad. Weren’t the disappearances only supposed to happen to Monsters? How did she manage to lose her wife in less than thirty seconds of not watching her?!
—
At that moment, Xiaoxi’s hand also gripped the changing room door handle.
But when she pushed the door open, there wasn’t a single person outside.
Xiaoxi stared blankly at the doorknob.
Strange. She was sure she had opened the door with her right hand, but now it was her left hand?
No, not only had her left and right hands switched—the whole clothing store’s layout was flipped!
She’d been caught!—Xiaoxi immediately realized her situation, even though she hadn’t sensed a thing just a moment before.
Xiaoxi looked at the mirror again. This time, her reflection was gone. Instead, a slim figure draped in a Divine Summon Order black robe appeared.
Someone from the Divine Summon Order?!
Xiaoxi remembered now. She’d seen this person before—the New Divine Emissary from the Divine Summon Order, and this Space Magic related to [Mirror].
Last time, Muxingge had been trapped by this move on the outskirts of Summersea City.
At this moment, scattered clues strung together, and Xiaoxi finally understood why all the Monsters in the disappearance cases had vanished so mysteriously: they hadn’t been dragged out at all—they’d been directly trapped inside the mirror!
So, she herself had been trapped in the mirror using this Space Magic? If that’s the case, this New Divine Emissary’s ability was rather absurd, wasn’t it?
Not just members of The Association—even back in the restaurant, because she hadn’t paid special attention to the mirror, she’d completely missed the trace of magical energy.
And just now, when the culprit activated their power, she hadn’t sensed anything at all?
Xiaoxi understood: no matter how unique or special a Magic Girl or Monster’s personal magic was, it was still limited by their strength.
Take [Judgment Scales]’s [Discipline], for example—it’s a very special ability, but if she faced a much stronger opponent like Xiaoxi, Wange Yue would still find it hard to suppress her with Discipline.
But last time, when she’d fought this person on the outskirts of Summersea City, their strength had barely reached A+ at best, right?
How could they have gotten so much stronger in such a short time—strong enough to use Space Magic to the point that even Xiaoxi couldn’t detect it?
Whatever. She’d only know how strong they really were by fighting!
Without another word, Xiaoxi transformed straight into Sirius, and threw a punch directly at the enemy in the mirror!
Just as the Astrologer had said: if the culprit dared to kidnap her, it was them who should be worried, not her!
Xiaoxi didn’t hold back. Her fist smashed forward, and the mirror shattered with a sound; the enemy within the mirror fractured into several pieces, yet Xiaoxi didn’t feel like she’d struck anything real.
“Flowers in the mirror, moon in the water—all are illusions. Naturally, you can neither touch nor grasp them.”
After the cold, inhuman voice faded, the entire clothing store echoed with the sound of cracking glass.
Then, the space around her shattered like a mirror. When Xiaoxi regained her senses, she was already in a pitch-black void.
Xiaoxi immediately began to observe her surroundings. The space was utterly dark and empty.
The undifferentiated darkness made it easy to lose all sense of direction, yet scattered points of light sparkled randomly around her, like stars in the night sky.
Relying on her experience, Xiaoxi made a quick judgment. This must be an independent space.
Being able to create an entirely separate space, not just seal off a location—that was a truly powerful form of Space Magic.
A figure cloaked in a wide Divine Emissary’s robe slowly descended from the darkness. It seemed that this time, it really was the true body that had appeared here.
“What a coincidence, we meet again. Your Divine Summon Order really is like a lingering shadow—why do I run into you people wherever I go?”
The Divine Emissary stiffly removed their hood, revealing the strange face of a young girl.
The girl in the Divine Emissary’s robe was even more expressionless than Qiuli.
If Qiuli was only “three-nothing,” then this girl in front of her was practically soulless: mechanical and icy.
What drew Xiaoxi’s attention even more was the girl’s face. Her eyes had neither whites nor pupils—only an empty surface, as blank as a mirror.
In those mirror-like eyes, Xiaoxi could see her own image reflected clearly.