Watching Pandora’s silent, speechless expression, Blazing Flame pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything harsher.
After all, this was a choice she had made herself; blaming others was pointless.
As long as she herself didn’t regret it, that was enough.
“Forget it. It was my own decision to come and purify the Monsters, so it’s nothing to do with you,” Blazing Flame said with a smile. “I’m going to collect the Purification Shards.”
Without waiting for Pandora’s reply, Blazing Flame walked over to the bodies of the Savage Beastman and the Giant Snake.
She gathered several Bone Fragments floating in the air into a pile in her palm but didn’t absorb the Purification Shards immediately.
“Oh! These Purification Shards are this big? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen shards of this quality,” Pandora’s eyes sparkled. “Hurry up and absorb them to strengthen yourself!”
“Don’t you want them?” Blazing Flame raised an eyebrow, curious.
“Ah, these Purification Shards don’t do much for me. It’s better if you take them,” Pandora waved her claw. “Besides, I didn’t really put much effort into this battle. I’d feel bad taking them.”
“I see…” Blazing Flame looked at the Purification Shards in her hand. “Then I’ll absorb them all?”
“Yeah, yeah, hurry and absorb them,” Pandora urged.
After Pandora declined several times in a row, Blazing Flame stopped being polite.
She raised her hand and pressed the Bone Fragments against her barren chest.
Quickly, the white Bone Fragments turned into white points of light, merging into Blazing Flame’s body.
A warm current surged from her heart, spreading to her limbs, making Blazing Flame feel as if her entire body was being cleansed and elevated.
She couldn’t help but close her eyes, savoring this rare comfort.
What Blazing Flame didn’t notice was that after absorbing the white Bone Fragments, the Black Bracelet on her left hand began flashing incessantly, as if undergoing some mysterious change.
“Eh, what’s going on?”
Pandora noticed the strange phenomenon and looked toward Blazing Flame’s Black Bracelet, only to witness an unbelievable sight.
The Battle Suit, which had only ten percent energy left, was now rapidly increasing at an incredible speed.
Fifteen percent, sixteen, seventeen…
“Wait, why is your magic absorption efficiency so high?!” Pandora shouted urgently at Blazing Flame after noticing the anomaly. “Stop! Blazing Flame! Don’t absorb any more Purification Shards!”
“What?” Blazing Flame opened her eyes and looked at Pandora, confused.
“There’s no time to explain! Just know that if you keep absorbing like this, you’ll be stuck in your current form forever! You’ll never be able to change back!” Pandora explained frantically. “Hurry and cancel the Transformation! Stop absorbing Purification Shards!”
“Will I really never be able to change back?” Blazing Flame frowned, instantly understanding Pandora’s meaning. “Do you have any other way to make me stop? I can’t cancel the Transformation!”
“Other ways?” Pandora stared at the Black Bracelet’s energy surging upward, her mind racing. “Yes! But you have to get back to your Dormitory first! If I use it outside, I’ll be hunted down by other Magical Girls and Shadow Beasts!”
“Back to the Dormitory, huh…”
Without much thought, Blazing Flame quickly chose between exposing her identity and complete feminization.
“Alright! I trust you, Pandora! Let’s go!”
“Mm! Remember to use up your magic as much as possible while on the way!” Pandora reminded, watching the Black Bracelet’s energy already surge to forty-three percent. “If your absorbed magic reaches your maximum limit, even I won’t be able to help!”
“I got it!”
Blazing Flame nodded and immediately increased her magic consumption, soaring into the sky and flying toward her School with Pandora on her shoulder.
Without worrying about magic depletion, the energy rise finally slowed down.
Seeing this, Pandora, perched on her shoulder, breathed a little easier and started planning the spell they would need later.
………
Not long after Blazing Flame and Pandora left, two girls dressed in eccentric outfits arrived at the spot where they had been earlier.
“Dice, are you sure we’re in the right place? There should be a Shadow Beast here that looks like a Savage Beastman,” one of the girls slowly said, looking at the old district with only partially collapsed buildings, and asked the cat-shaped little beast beside her.
The familiar outfit—a kind of one-piece swimsuit with a skirt attached—was unmistakably Sapphire.
“Mm-hmm, according to previous findings, there should be a huge Shadow Beast here, and also that mysterious Miss Blazing Flame,” Dice scanned the area and replied.
“Then tell me, where’s the Shadow Beast? And where’s the person?” Sapphire pressed.
“I don’t know! Maybe Miss Blazing Flame dealt with that Shadow Beast and then left right away,” Dice replied.
Dice casually walked around nearby and then looked at the huge pit the Savage Beastman had stomped out.
“One person took down that large Shadow Beast? Looks like I have to reevaluate Blazing Flame’s overall strength…”
Sapphire lowered her head and fell into thought.
“Stop worrying about your combat rating system! Sapphire! Right now, I just want to meet this mysterious red-haired Magical Girl!”
“Do you know I’ve looked for her five times already? Five times! And every time I couldn’t find her!”
“Is she some kind of special agent? So good at hiding!”
The girl standing next to Sapphire, clearly annoyed at having wasted another trip, said angrily.
Sapphire narrowed her eyes, looking at the girl beside her without a word.
“Hey! Sapphire! I’m talking to you!”
Seeing Sapphire ignoring her, the girl with floating mismatched red and blue eyes hovered over and waved at her.
“…Be careful of exposure, Meteor.”
Looking at this companion dressed in a white Lolita short skirt on top, smooth white tights below, but barefoot, Sapphire fell silent for a few seconds before kindly reminding her.
“W-what! Exposure? No way!”
Only then did Meteor realize her floating height was a little delicate.
Though she still muttered objections, she honestly pressed her hands on the skirt and slowly lowered her floating height.
But just as her feet were about to touch the ground, Meteor quietly stopped, keeping herself floating.
“We should go. Dice, stop wasting time here. I have to report to Director Xu,” Sapphire said, looking toward the cat-shaped little beast.
“I know, I know!”
Dice answered casually, then lightly scratched the sunken ground with her cat paw, her nose twitching as if confirming something.