“Come! Again!”
Jiang Yao sprang up, sword in both hands, feet stepping firmly on steel as she leapt several paces to the head of the Aggregation.
“Shing!”
With a single slash, sparks flew, dealing some damage, but it was quickly patched up by more steel.
Nimbly dodging the massive hand swung by the Aggregation, the girl flipped over and took cover on top of a nearby building.
Unconsciously, she had already fought the Aggregation all the way to the commercial street.
No wonder Jiang Yao called this a high-level match—she hadn’t even seen the true form of that Dark Fairy yet, and she was already being pressured to such an extent by this huge chunk of iron.
It was hard for Jiang Yao not to long for the newbie protection period she had when fighting bugs.
Back then, she even thought, “Fighting these meatbags is so boring. When will something big come along to help me find clues about Dad?”
Now, Jiang Yao just sincerely prayed that no more big fights would come her way.
She really couldn’t handle it!
Magical girls have three aspects: “heart,” “skill,” and “body,” and Jiang Yao was no different. Awakening alongside her Magic Armor came a complete set of sword techniques and a sharper intuition.
Relying on this skill, she could hold her own against the demons.
—As for the monsters, she wasn’t sure if they were useful or not, since all she’d encountered so far were trash mobs, except for that spewing thing which was especially tough to deal with.
But who sends a Paladin to fight giants? Isn’t that the Survey Corps’ job?
Jiang Yao’s technique was useless here.
Gripping her sword tightly, the girl had been trying to find the Aggregation’s weak spot—or at least its core organ—to focus her attacks on these critical nodes.
The ideal was ambitious, but the actual effect was quite disappointing.
Aside from the fact that she hadn’t found any obvious weak points so far, Jiang Yao’s strikes on joints and other usual weak spots barely made a difference.
It wasn’t that her slashes were useless, but the Aggregation kept replenishing itself with more iron parts at every moment, even using that to counterattack.
And even the parts Jiang Yao managed to knock off were quickly reassembled. The pieces that detached because of her attacks even became offensive weapons against her.
Whether it was summoning various sharp iron fragments to distract Jiang Yao’s defense, or literally throwing a fist forward and pulling it back—
They were all extremely troublesome.
Just now, she never imagined that the fist could separate from the body like that. One careless dodge missed, and the incoming fist grazed her, sending her crashing down right in front of the Yaoguang Café.
At that moment, through the glass, Jiang Yao saw Lin Yu holding Black Bean.
She didn’t know why Lin Yu suddenly woke up instead of falling asleep like everyone else.
But Jiang Yao had no time to ponder this and assumed that since she and Aurora were there, the enemy’s methods had no effect on them.
Right now, the girl’s priority was to think about her current situation and figure out what to do.
Brute force was definitely impossible.
The Aggregation wasn’t a traditional robot; its parts were constantly rotating and shifting, with one area injured immediately filled by another. Compared to a robot, it was closer to a humanoid steel storm.
But skill? They didn’t bother competing on skill—its stats were just overwhelming. What skill could possibly match that?
Even now, Jiang Yao didn’t dare to directly take on its attacks head-on. Just barely brushing by nearly knocked her to her knees. How could she withstand a full frontal hit?
“….”
She silently stared at the gigantic black shadow, feeling like a heavenly river was pouring backward, the heavy rain washing over her upturned face.
Dark clouds loomed, the lights dim, above and below all enveloped in darkness.
Only Jiang Yao’s own magic emitted light, determined to be the last glimmer in this world of darkness.
“Bang.” “Bang.”
The Aggregation continued advancing, each heavy step causing tremors and reverberations.
Though the road it was on was wide and free from buildings for now, further ahead was the commercial street where many ordinary people were still asleep.
Among them was her friend Lin Yu, who had somehow awakened.
Moreover, Aurora must still be engaged in her own battle.
(There has to be a way.)
Watching the flying iron shards that were constantly being absorbed back into the Aggregation, Jiang Yao wiped the rain off her forehead.
She had an idea.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jiang Lingwei stared at the incoming call on her phone, pressing the answer button over and over. This wasn’t the first time; it was already the third call.
“What is this… I’m not that old-fashioned to miss calls, am I?”
Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time, unsure if the rain had soaked her phone or what, but no matter how many times she tapped the screen, she couldn’t answer the unknown number’s call.
Waterproof features should be standard these days!
What was even stranger was that she could even receive calls here at all.
Being inside the Demon Realm, even a minor one, physical laws were twisted, and signals were usually non-existent.
Even if there was a signal, answering would only bring static howls and distorted sounds that made understanding impossible.
So who was so persistently calling her?
“Nope, still can’t answer…”
“Nonsense, you expect…”
Suddenly, the call answered itself, and Wen Yiquan’s voice came through, weak and faint, especially drowned out by the rain.
“Hello? Sister Quan? Hello?”
Jiang Lingwei hurried under the shelter of a building’s doorway and shouted, “What’s going on? How did you do this?”
“It’s… Sister… I’m… a vegetarian again this year.”
Wen Yiquan said, “I made some… thing.”
Hearing it was indeed Wen Yiquan’s voice, Jiang Lingwei dashed back into the rain, running toward the commercial street.
Sure enough, as she got closer, Wen Yiquan’s voice became much clearer.
“Hello? Can you hear what I’m saying?”
“I can hear you!”
Jiang Lingwei shouted through the rain.
“Good! How are you now? There’s a magical girl fighting that iron Aggregation outside. Where are you? Are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt! But—”
Jiang Lingwei kept running forward, no longer in her usual pink-haired girl form, but restored to her normal human appearance:
“My magic is gone! I need time—at least to transform!”
The rain on Jiang Lingwei’s side was audible even through the phone. Wen Yiquan shouted back:
“Really not hurt?!”
“No! Some idiot just tried to ambush me! Fake death, old trick!”
“That’s good.”
Wen Yiquan sighed with relief before asking, “So what now? That magical girl seems to be at a disadvantage.”
“What?! What happened to her?! Is she hurt?”
“Why are you suddenly so worked up… Do you know her? Wait, could she be your daughter?”
“Of course! Is there a third magical girl in this city?”
“…Why didn’t you say so earlier! I’m not like you! I have filters— even if I recognized her earlier, I wouldn’t recognize her now. No, wait, if that’s the case… Little Aurora! How much longer until you recover?”
“Still a while…”
Jiang Lingwei panted, slowing her pace slightly.
“Sister Quan.”
“Hm?”
“I’m heading there right now. If things go bad and my daughter’s in danger, bring Yunxia’s [Annihilation] to me.”
“Will that help?”
“There’s magic inside the Magic Armor, too. If given to an uncontracted candidate, it can provide temporary fighting power. If given to me, it should be enough for a short fight.”
Jiang Lingwei explained.
On the phone, Wen Yiquan repeated her words slowly:
“Given to uncontracted, candidate…”
“Yeah, I’m hanging up now. Wait for me.”
Ignoring Wen Yiquan’s words, Jiang Lingwei put the phone in her pocket and ran toward the source of the earth-shaking rumble.
Jiang Lingwei knew Yunxia had a purpose for leaving the Magic Armor here.
If Jiang Lingwei extracted the magic stored inside, the Magic Armor would immediately transform into pure magic and vanish.
A choice had to be made—between the treasured legacy left by an old friend and her daughter who was now in trouble.
Out of magic, Jiang Lingwei couldn’t think much, but she already had her answer.