If the familiars were a tsunami, the girl wrapped in golden flames was Moses parting the Red Sea.
**[MAGICAL GIRL WIDE-RANGE BURST]**
Amidst the golden fire, the massive **Triple Gears** levitated behind the girl, while hundreds of spears and cannons shot forth like shimmering meteors!
At the center of the battlefield woven with gunfire, the girl was as elegant as a conductor leading an orchestra.
After donning her **Magical Raiment**, Xia Yuanhua had transformed once again into a magical girl with her 13-year-old appearance after a gap of 3 years.
Beneath the **Triple Gears**, her golden, curly long hair cascaded down her back—fluffy but not messy, without any complex decorations.
Her upper body featured a design that merged a vintage European-style shirt with loose, transparent lantern sleeves spliced at the arms.
The sleeves were intricately pleated and engraved with golden textures.
Lace ribbons acted as decorative restraints across her chest, which perfectly accentuated the towering peaks that stood in sharp contrast to the style of her top.
A brown corset cinched her waist to highlight her perfect silhouette, flowing down into a high-waisted, long golden skirt.
Her thighs were encased in pearly white silk stockings, making her figure appear especially tall and slender.
Combined with the pretty face of a 13-year-old girl, she lacked some of her usual coldness and distance, giving off a sense of youthful beauty instead.
*Boom!*
Countless golden stray bullets exploded in mid-air.
With a wave of her hand, Xia Yuanhua grasped a golden spear constructed from magic power.
In an instant, the spear transformed like old machinery from the Industrial Age, finally becoming a colossal, single-caliber light cannon!
**[MAGICAL GIRL CONCENTRATED BURST]**
Like Godzilla’s atomic breath, a roaring beam of gilded energy erupted from the 10-meter-diameter muzzle.
It swept in a circle around the girl, its dazzling light turning the world into a landscape of stark black and white.
The familiars making up the tide of corpses were blown to pieces by this single strike.
The light cannon in the girl’s hand expanded once more, decomposing into a sky full of spears and guns that covered the surface of the sea.
She was incomparably strong; her combat style was practically born for total destruction.
Her bright golden eyes looked toward the sky, where a massive mirror with a 3-kilometer radius was howling and roaring.
The corners of her mouth curled upward.
‘Who could refuse to show their most brilliant and dazzling side in front of the person they love?’
Therefore, she didn’t need to rendezvous with the other magical girls at all.
As long as she could protect her current life with Fang Wei, she could become strong—stronger than anyone else.
After all, she was the magical girl who belonged only to him.
“Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to see!”
In a dark room, Lord Black Owl squawked at the screen.
This was the true magical girl he wanted to see.
Elegant, swift, and cold—like a top-tier ice dancer.
It was as if there was never a life-or-death struggle for her; she was simply performing a solo dance on stage for her beloved.
‘Though it’s a bit different from the plan, the end result is the same. The effect is even better.’
After leaving the mall with Xia Yuanhua’s help, Fang Wei had found the nearest shelter for the Kaxiu organization and turned on a holographic projection to watch the situation outside.
The old Kaxiu had a complete strategic plan for dealing with magical girls, which included the **Magic Mirror** used to live-stream their battles.
Of course, the **Magic Mirror** live stream required a medium—like the shotgun Xia Yuanhua had given him earlier.
It was just like in special effects shows where the hero fights monsters outside while a villain in a dark corner watches through a high-definition stream, revealing a sinister smile as if their conspiracy has succeeded, followed by a signature wicked laugh.
[Status Window]
Name: Xia Yuanhua
Age: 24
Magical Girl Level: Level 4
Corruption: 55%
**[Corruption level detected below 60%]**
**[Detection progress updated!]**
**[This system aims to help the host hypnotize all magical girls. Progress rewards have been issued. Congratulations, host! Keep up the good work!]**
System-chan only needed to distribute rewards, but as the one dating a magical girl, Lord Black Owl had more to consider.
By the time he finished organizing his rewards, Xia Yuanhua had almost finished dealing with the familiars.
Now, it was time for the main event.
The **Mirror Monster**.
While observing Xia Yuanhua, Fang Wei opened a second projection, using his undershirt and scarf as a medium.
The undershirt had been bought for him by Qi Qiancao, and the scarf was from Zhuge Yu.
With these two items, the battle on the other side also came into view.
—
A massive prism was currently levitating over Nantong City.
Under police evacuation orders, most of the citizens had already taken refuge in basements, though some residents were still fast asleep, completely unaware.
The transparent, diamond-shaped construct floated in mid-air, reflecting intense light from a massive ring with a 3-kilometer radius.
The outer side of the ring also had six pairs of smaller diamond-shaped mirrors that acted like satellites, rotating slowly around the center in sync with the ring.
The diamond crystal structure, as imposing as a mobile fortress, was displayed without reservation over the city.
It looked like an Eden fallen from heaven, while the six pairs of prisms seemed to proclaim it as a divine punishment from the archangel Michael.
[Status Window]
Name: Mirror Monster
Level: Level 5
Corruption: 100%
Vwoom—
The diamond mirrors reflected a searing beam of light, slicing through the reinforced concrete of a skyscraper like a knife through butter.
It then carved through the ground and eventually plunged into the sea.
The seawater it touched evaporated instantly, creating a massive rift that was quickly refilled by the surrounding water.
In that moment, the night was as bright as day.
Its massive ring emitted a low hum, and mana patterns resembling the aurora appeared.
Soon, another beam of light descended upon the world, firing toward a densely populated area.
Fang Wei couldn’t help but frown at the sight.
The destructive power of a Level 5 monster was far beyond his expectations.
He didn’t know how many ordinary people would die from that single shot.
Although the Kaxiu organization would modify the memories of those affected by monster disasters—disguising them as earthquakes to avoid creating even more dangerous monsters through panic—this situation tonight couldn’t be brushed off as a minor tremor.
Moreover, after the memory modification, many friends and relatives would forget the victims, as if they had never existed.
He didn’t want to see such a purely tragic plot unfold.
However, in the next moment…
In his field of vision, that beam of light hit a solid wall of steel mid-slice.
Instead of exploding, the flowing massive energy was reflected back at another angle, striking the **Mirror Monster’s** own gargantuan ring!
**[MAGICAL GIRL COUNTER]**
A buckler on a right wrist had blocked the strike.
Fang Wei’s eyes widened.
Little General Yu!
Her short, starlight-blue hair billowed from the impact.
After the white-robed magical girl blocked the beam, her body spun rapidly in the air several times to dissipate the force of the collision.
Her combat boots skidded dozens of feet across the ground.
Zhuge Yu pinned her katana into the earth, using her legs in their thigh-high white stockings for support as she barely managed to stabilize herself.
As a Level 4 magical girl who once had the powerful record of soloing the entire Kaxiu organization, Zhuge Yu knew exactly how much weight that strike carried.
The opponent was strong!
There was no time to think as another beam fell.
This time it didn’t sweep diagonally; it shot directly above Zhuge Yu’s head before snapping down at a 90-degree angle.
The **Mirror Monster’s** micro-management was impossibly precise.
It could even accurately change the direction of its attack mid-shot and had immediately shifted its strategy after Zhuge Yu blocked the first strike.
Several more beams followed, reflecting from different angles on the left and right!
Zhuge Yu felt a sweet taste in the back of her throat.
The buckler on her wrist expanded into a soft, water-like ripple barrier, using the power of total rejection to block the beams.
**[MAGICAL GIRL FIELD]**
Ever since the girl had made a wish to never be hurt again while being bullied 3 years ago, defensive magic had been born within her.
Her essence was that of the magical girl of “rejection.”
As the buckler rotated, the three searing beams were deflected in three different directions.
However, because they were beams that had already been reflected once, they couldn’t be sent back to their source.
One flew toward the sky, while the other two charged toward residential buildings on either side.
But the expected explosion never happened.
The residential buildings began to twist and stretch in an incomprehensibly eerie way, elongating to a distance the beams couldn’t reach.
The infinitely stretched buildings didn’t return to their original positions until the beams were exhausted.
A magical girl in a pink idol outfit stood on the rooftop, her pink twin-tails swaying behind her.
As the magical girl of “dreams,” Qi Qiancao could twist any non-magical object at will using her power as the center of the distortion.
“Is Yu okay?”
“…”
Ignoring Qi Qiancao’s sweet, soft voice, Zhuge Yu averted her eyes and said coldly, “Be careful. All we need to do is hold this thing back until the Ferret brings reinforcements.”
In reality, neither Zhuge Yu nor Qi Qiancao were combat-focused magical girls.
One specialized in defense, and the other was essentially a support.
In the past, they could solve monster problems through pure slaughter, but the opponent they faced this time was clearly different.
Though she was loath to admit it, they needed a high-damage dealer.
Zhuge Yu’s arm felt sore and heavy, shaking uncontrollably.
They had been resisting this monster for half an hour, but the enemy’s attacks had no blind spots, and they hadn’t even been able to touch the opponent’s health bar yet.
The most damage they had dealt was through the beams sent back by **Magical Girl Counter**, but such attacks were the equivalent of hurting the enemy a little while sacrificing a lot of themselves.
Cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she felt the pain in her arm slightly subside.
Qi Qiancao was using her reality-warping magic.
“Don’t waste your mana on me.”
Zhuge Yu took a deep breath to stay steady.
Her mind was a bit of a mess—seeing Qi Qiancao made it messy, and realizing that the monster was heading toward her own apartment made it even messier.
‘Has that annoying guy… evacuated?’
“It’s coming again… get ready!”
Casting aside her chaotic thoughts, Zhuge Yu raised her buckler.
Her remaining mana could probably only withstand one last attack.
If hit again, half her body would be blown to bits.
But she couldn’t worry about that now.
A dazzling ball of light gathered on the **Mirror Monster’s** prism.
It emitted a groan representing judgment, and the beam fell—
Boom!
A brilliant beam of light cut through the long night.
It wasn’t the **Mirror Monster’s** beam.
That blast came from beneath the **Mirror Monster**, punching cracks across its entire body!
“So strong… that person is… Senior?”
Zhuge Yu stared blankly.
The sea erupted into turbulent waves.
The golden orb of light from the cannon exploded in an instant, slamming into the surface of the **Mirror Monster**.
Because the light cannon required charging, Xia Yuanhua immediately swapped to a brand-new cannon the moment she finished a shot.
Holding a weapon several times larger than herself, her movements were light and elegant, like a professional ice dancer.
Zhuge Yu clutched her uncontrollably trembling chest.
If the heart that wants to protect is the magic that makes one stronger, then did Senior also have someone she wanted to protect?