Chapter 121: Ascending to Heaven
When Luo Shuangyue and Luo Shuangxing met Xia Mo in front of the Magic Department in Xinghai City while in their transformation state, all three had somewhat awkward expressions.
“Are we really going to ascend to heaven now?” Their eyes revealed the same thought.
The news came too suddenly, making it hard for anyone to prepare.
“Have you explained it to your family and friends? If you really can’t find a reason, just let the Magic Department know; they should be able to help you solve this problem,” the Soul Guide reminded from the side.
The three looked at each other and nodded simultaneously, “Explained it.”
In fact, none of them had sent messages to each other, let alone explanations.
What’s there to explain? Let’s just pretend we all went out together these past few days.
“You’ll need to stay up there for more than a month, and since the lunar base is still under construction, we can’t arrange separate rooms for you, so you’ll have to share a room. Is that okay?” the Soul Guide asked again.
Sharing a room?
Luo Shuangyue glanced at Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing. Though there was a bit of reluctance, it was not insurmountable.
“It’s not like the apartment you’re living in now; it’s more like a smaller dormitory.”
While speaking, the Soul Guide gestured with her hand to indicate the approximate size of the room.
It was about the same size as a typical school dormitory, so living together wouldn’t be too cramped.
“I’m fine with that,” Luo Shuangyue spoke up first.
Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing each expressed their agreement after her.
Or rather, they were both looking forward to living under the same roof as Luo Shuangyue.
Xia Mo was even more delighted; the closer she was to Luo Shuangyue, the happier she became. After all, after ascending to heaven, Luo Shuangyue would become a Dark Butterfly and could only act under that identity, which meant that the Luo Shuangyue in the sky would be a sweet and lovely girl at all times, much better than being on the ground.
As for Luo Shuangxing, she shared the same thought. Living in a dormitory wasn’t hard to accept; it’s not about the height of the mountain but whether it has deities.
As long as her sister was there, she really didn’t care.
Besides, the Magic Department wasn’t going to be so poor as to make the dorms drafty and uninhabitable; they could at least guarantee basic comfort.
“That’s good. Grab my hand, and I’ll take you up,” the Soul Guide nodded in satisfaction.
Before the monster disaster broke out, it was a difficult task for humans to reach the star closest to their home planet. After the disaster, a lot of technology was lost in the turmoil of those years, and modern humans didn’t actually have the ability to leave the surface.
But humans couldn’t, yet magical girls could! They didn’t need those gigantic rockets or complete life-support devices to reach the cold and silent starry sky.
Initial Bloom Magical Girls might still struggle to undertake such a distant journey alone, but with the help of Blooming Level Magical Girls, heading to the stars wasn’t more challenging than visiting a neighboring city.
As the altitude increased, Luo Shuangyue saw the earth beneath her transform into a massive sphere of blue, green, and black. The black areas represented those severely affected by the monster disaster years ago, where human habitation was still unsuitable.
Only the magical girl cleanup teams regularly went there to eliminate newly spawned magical creatures.
The home planet grew farther beneath her, and Luo Shuangyue sensed that her magical power consumption began to rise gradually, as the current environment could no longer support her normal life activities. Her magical power started taking effect, maintaining her magical girl state through self-consumption.
“We’ve truly entered the starry sky. Hold on tight; I’m about to accelerate!” the Soul Guide reminded, then her speed began to increase dramatically.
Blooming Level Magical Girls are greatly restricted on the ground, particularly in speed, while in the space of the universe, free from resistance, the speed at which they can burst forth is nearly a hundred times faster than on the ground.
From a distance, one could see a purple meteor rushing toward the moon at incredible speed, but from Luo Shuangyue’s perspective, it didn’t seem that fast.
The universe was simply too vast; without reference points, her perception of speed became very vague.
It was only during the initial acceleration that she felt her speed was quite fast, but as the speed gradually stabilized, she realized her magical power consumption had dropped significantly.
In the nearly frictionless universe, magical girls didn’t need to expend much magical power to fly at high speeds.
If they wanted, they could even slightly touch upon what once was deemed unattainable by scientists.
Soon, the moon grew larger, and they saw many large machines working on the lunar surface, manipulated by magical girls, rapidly constructing various things.
At the center of these machines stood a simple silver-gray building that gleamed with a metallic luster.
The building looked like a tall, straight cylinder, devoid of any unnecessary decorations, with the words “Magic Department” inscribed on the exterior in large letters.
How straightforward, Luo Shuangyue thought to herself.
“Prepare to slow down; this time, you’ll try it yourselves,” the Soul Guide’s voice came from beside them.
She accelerated with the three juniors but let them figure out the deceleration on their own.
In the cosmic operational environment, this ability could not be neglected.
Luo Shuangyue summoned the butterfly wings she usually used to enhance her mobility, hoping to slow down but found the effect only mediocre, not nearly as effective as she had envisioned.
Xia Mo’s performance was significantly better; she directly used the four-barreled magic cannon as a braking engine, and although it was a bit slow to decelerate, it would certainly work before reaching the base.
Seeing Xia Mo’s method, Luo Shuangyue felt a bit envious; it seemed like she couldn’t use that method as well.
She pondered other deceleration techniques… Those butterfly wings originally relied on the air present on her home planet for deceleration and acceleration, but in the vacuum of space, how could she decelerate like she would on her home planet?
Hmm… As Luo Shuangyue thought, a bold idea suddenly crossed her mind.
Her butterfly wings didn’t necessarily have to rely on air to slow down; there had to be something in the universe that her wings could interact with to reduce her speed.
But what should she choose?
Things that exist everywhere in the universe… Suddenly, an idea sparked!
Her butterfly wings became slightly ethereal, and indeed her speed began to decrease gradually.
“I did it!”
What exists in the starry sky and can be perceived and touched by a magical girl?
Luo Shuangyue answered: magical power.
The power of magic permeated the starry sky; relying on it, she could easily perform actions similar to those on the ground, and she could even enhance her mobility by adjusting the sensitivity of her wings to magical power.
Hey, why didn’t I think of this earlier? Luo Shuangyue murmured softly.
Regardless, she had successfully achieved her goal of slowing down.
“To think you found this method; not bad.” The Soul Guide understood how Luo Shuangyue decelerated. The ability to think of using magical power to slow down without guidance showed that Luo Shuangyue was indeed someone she valued.
While the two Initial Bloom Magical Girls successfully decelerated, the last member of their trio had no such luck.
“I can’t stop!” Luo Shuangxing exclaimed. She tried to slow down using her magic cannon like Xia Mo, but her efficiency couldn’t compare to Xia Mo’s at all.
At her current rate of deceleration, she might not slow down until crashing into the moon.
As for Luo Shuangyue’s method, she couldn’t use it either. She could indeed sense the omnipresent ocean of magical power beside her, but she couldn’t interfere with that ocean.
It was as if they were two parallel lines; Luo Shuangxing could see the other, yet couldn’t affect herself with it.
In the end, the Soul Guide pulled Luo Shuangxing to help her slow down.
However, the Soul Guide didn’t blame Luo Shuangxing, for this child was just a budding newcomer and certainly couldn’t compare to Xia Mo or Luo Shuangyue, who had years of combat experience.
She never expected Luo Shuangxing to stop on her own.
As the group of four approached the Magic Department building, several spherical objects flew over, circling around them a few times, then the lights on the spheres changed from yellow to green.
Was that for identity confirmation? Luo Shuangyue thought to herself.
“These are the new inventions from the Magic Department, said to be flying machines with ultra-long endurance; I don’t know where they found such good stuff,” the Soul Guide introduced the spheres.
In order to face those formidable foes, the Magic Department now resorts to anything they can find. Things with safety hazards are placed in unsafe locations; those without hazards are deployed regardless of resource consumption.
As for these spherical flying machines, the Soul Guide didn’t know how long they had been developed by the Magic Department.
Landing in front of the huge cylindrical building, the four passed through three layers of gates, finally entering the building’s interior.
The building was quite deserted, with no one walking inside, only various robots present.
However, the environment inside was much better than outside; at least the temperature was suitable, and there was breathable air. The magical girls no longer needed to consume magical power to sustain their lives here.
In the entire first-floor lobby of the building, there was only one living person: a bored-looking black-haired girl sitting at the front desk.
“Xinghai City, right? Here are three room cards; you take care of them. If you lose them, remember to come to me for replacements,” the girl looked up at the four and casually handed over a box labeled “Xinghai City” to Xia Mo.
“All the daily necessities are already placed in the rooms; if you need anything else, you can say so, but we might not be able to fulfill excessive requests.”
It was a special period, and they could not meet all the magical girls’ demands.
“Okay, got it.” Xia Mo took the box and politely thanked the black-haired girl.
Just thinking about who could sit here at the front desk told her that this girl probably had an impressive identity, likely a well-respected senior.
And the following conversation between the Soul Guide and the black-haired girl confirmed Xia Mo’s suspicion.
“Acting this lazy will create a bad influence on your juniors.”
“I’m like this, and everyone knows. Besides, isn’t it that other places don’t want me?”
“When those guys arrive, you’ll be busy.” The Soul Guide chuckled lightly, then introduced the three girls behind her to this esteemed senior, “‘Qidian,’ the Magic Department’s ace.”
On hearing this name, Luo Shuangyue immediately showed an expression of awe; she really was a significant senior!
If Longwen ranked in the top five in combat strength within the Magic Department, then this person surpassed Longwen in sheer fighting capability, even the pinnacle of destructive power in the Magic Department could be attributed to this seemingly languid girl.
However, possessing such overwhelming destructive power came at the cost of lacking functional capabilities.
This resulted in her often being unable to take on any tasks unless royal-class monsters appeared, as the Magic Department would only allow her to check on them.
Moreover, if the situation could be controlled, she couldn’t intervene either, for her actions would likely cause more destruction than the monsters themselves.
Currently, the Blooming Level Magical Girls in the Magic Department had their own tasks to attend to, while the most functionless task at the front desk fell to this big shot.
Just standing in the lobby handing out things to magical girls shouldn’t cause any problems… right?
The boxes were all clearly labeled with various information; it shouldn’t be too hard to get it right, right?
Probably?
“Senior! You gave me the wrong room card!” A bright voice from above Luo Shuangyue and the others rang out.
Luo Shuangyue instinctively looked up to see a lively red-haired girl jump down from upstairs.
Thud! The girl landed steadily, holding her card and complaining to Qidian.
Yes, this building lacked stairs or elevators, as all the residents were magical girls, and they could fly directly where they wanted to go.
No unnecessary designs were needed!
“Wrong card? Let me see.” Qidian took a moment, then examined the girl’s card carefully, expressing confusion, “Aren’t you ‘Fei Hongzhi’?”
“Of course not! I’m ‘Fei Yue’! ‘Fei Hongzhi’ is my sister; we’re not in the same room!” The red-haired girl shook her head vigorously.
“Ah, then I must have made a mistake.” Facing her error, Qidian showed no embarrassment at all; she simply collected the wrongly given card and bent down to search through a pile of boxes for Fei Yue’s box.
While she searched, the red-haired girl locked eyes with Luo Shuangyue and the others.
“Hello! I’m Fei Yue from the Magic Department!” She greeted the three with a friendly smile.
