Chapter 128: Not Bad Progress
“Then I will… respectfully comply.” Fei Hongzhi did not refuse Luo Shuangyue’s kindness. After all, this was only a spar. Being defeated by Luo Shuangyue without even firing a shot would have left her feeling quite frustrated.
Now that Luo Shuangyue had given her a chance to fire her cannon, she certainly would not decline.
In order not to let down Luo Shuangyue’s goodwill, she would definitely use her maximum power to fulfill Luo Shuangyue’s wish for a peak battle with her!
The red cannon in her hands transformed and bloomed like a flower, a fiery red magic circle slowly appearing at the cannon’s mouth, and a scorching aura seemed to distort the space, even Luo Shuangyue could feel the warmth emanating from the Ocean of Magical Power.
This genius from headquarters really was extraordinarily powerful.
If it weren’t for the fact that her combat style happened to counter hers, taking down this opponent would probably not have been an easy task.
The magic cannon that Fei Hongzhi was charging up had much greater power than Xia Mo’s, even Luo Shuangyue was doubting whether she could handle the next blast.
After all, without relying on You Lian’s power, her resistance to magic cannons wasn’t particularly high; she was not much different from an ordinary magical girl.
Moreover, magical girls were typically glass cannons, with destructive power far exceeding their defense.
Luo Shuangyue’s own defense was not particularly high either.
“Dark Butterfly, are you ready?” Seeing Luo Shuangyue standing still, Fei Hongzhi loudly reminded her that she could fire at any time.
“Come on! I’m already ready!” Throwing her scythe aside, Luo Shuangyue unleashed her magical power.
A layer of smoky black-purple magic surged from her body, transforming into a giant butterfly phantom on the outside.
Then, the butterfly gently flapped its wings and charged toward Fei Hongzhi like a shooting star.
At the same time, the magic cannon that Fei Hongzhi had been charging up also fired, a flame that seemed almost tangible traced a vivid red line in the pitch-black cosmic space.
In the next moment, the black-purple meteor collided heavily with the fire magic cannon. After less than a second of stalemate, the black meteor began to push forward against the magic cannon.
At this moment, Luo Shuangyue appeared like a sage parting the sea in legends, as the ocean of flames split before her, not harming her in the slightest, nor preventing her advance.
She only felt a bit of resistance, as though she was moving against a slow river—a little more effort than usual.
Before long, she charged right in front of Fei Hongzhi, the meteor reverting back to a butterfly shape, raising its wings toward the fire-spewing magic circle.
But before she could flap her wings, Fei Hongzhi voluntarily stopped her attack.
The outcome was already determined; she was not someone who could not afford to lose.
If it weren’t for sparring, Luo Shuangyue definitely would not have stopped in front of her magic circle but would have crashed in and pulverized her.
This girl truly had strength deserving of her proud attitude.
“You are indeed much stronger than Rosemary; her magic cannon couldn’t even make me slow down.” The black mist was retracted back into Luo Shuangyue’s body, and she comforted Fei Hongzhi with a few words.
“Don’t let me break your resolve! I’m special, and you’re much stronger than the other magical girls.”
Hearing Luo Shuangyue’s consolation, Fei Hongzhi let out a somewhat powerless laugh. Being soundly defeated like this would definitely take her some time to adjust her mentality.
Then she heard Luo Shuangyue’s mischievous reminder, “You might want to shed a few tears and find Fei Yue for comfort; trust me, she won’t refuse you.”
Why are you still thinking about this? How much do you want to see me cry?
Fei Hongzhi lightly huffed and turned away from the battlefield.
But while turning, she was indeed considering Luo Shuangyue’s words—perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea after all, right?
Her sister had just cheered her on, but now she had lost. It seemed she could use this as an excuse to get closer to her sister and apologize…
The more she thought about it, the more ardent Fei Hongzhi’s feelings became, and even the disappointment of being easily defeated faded from her mind.
As for the shouts of “I’ll take on ten!” coming from behind, she paid them little mind.
…
“Your sister is coming over,” Luo Shuangxing nudged Fei Yue with her elbow.
“Mm…” Fei Yue bit her lip, unsure of what to do.
Should she turn and run, or stand there doing nothing?
“Your sister just lost a spar; you better go comfort her!” Luo Shuangxing insisted, wanting to push Fei Yue out.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; she couldn’t do nothing!
Fei Yue was still somewhat resistant; she was like someone with social anxiety, instinctively wanting to shrink back behind Luo Shuangxing.
As Fei Hongzhi drew closer, her resistance only grew stronger.
As the two younger sisters played tug-of-war, trying to save face while everyone’s attention was on Luo Shuangyue’s ten-on-one, they wrestled in the vast expanse of cosmic space.
Luo Shuangxing was trying to push Fei Yue out, while Fei Yue wanted to hide behind Luo Shuangxing; the two ended up spinning around and around.
With a twist, Fei Yue was flung out, landing right in Fei Hongzhi’s path.
“Huh?!”
Fei Hongzhi’s eyes widened; it felt like she was being ambushed!
Before she could react, she fell into a warm, soft embrace.
With slightly narrowed pupils, Fei Yue couldn’t help but lower her head, looking at the arms holding her tightly.
“I’m sorry, sister, I lost,” a slightly despondent voice rang in Fei Yue’s ears, prompting an instinctive response from her, “Sister did her best!”
Only after saying that did she realize what she had just blurted out, her face turning bright red.
What, what did I just say?!
The arms around her tightened, and Fei Hongzhi’s despondent voice sounded again, “Is sister very embarrassing?”
Embarrassing?
Fei Yue shook her head immediately.
How could she think her sister was embarrassing? To her, her sister was the most dazzling presence.
She always felt proud of her sister; it was she who felt unworthy of being her sister.
“Sister is amazing; it’s all my fault…” she said softly.
“Fei Yue is amazing too! If it weren’t for you cheering me on, I would have lost even worse,” Fei Hongzhi buried her head in her sister’s hair, inhaling deeply. “Instead, I’m the unqualified sister here.”
“Not at all! Sister is always great…”
Looking at the two red sisters embracing without a care in the world, Luo Shuangxing wore a deadpan expression.
“Such a touching scene of sisterly love.”
Hugging and whispering sweet nothings in a situation like this… Honestly, Luo Shuangxing could only think about it in her heart.
She and Luo Shuangyue were so close that they barely needed to hug to express their feelings; they resolved matters through bickering.
Any unspoken words could simply be expressed with a punch… probably.
“Are you envious of them?” Xia Mo floated over to Luo Shuangxing, wrapping an arm around her neck.
The warmth that Luo Shuangxing couldn’t get from Luo Shuangyue, Xia Mo could provide.
Gently grasping Xia Mo’s wrist, Luo Shuangxing let out a vague murmuring sound, not even sure what she wanted to say—she just wanted to vent her dissatisfaction.
In the distant battlefield, Luo Shuangyue, who had already gone all out, was like a fierce beast. Although she was the one being besieged, it felt as though she surrounded everyone else.
Gorgeous, dangerous, powerful; all the magical girls were captivated by Luo Shuangyue’s dance-like battle. This girl was fluttering through the black starry sky like a butterfly, while those surrounding her were like children trying to catch a butterfly—hopelessly bouncing around.
It was as if she was amusing herself with them!
“I hope these kids won’t be psychologically scarred by Dark Butterfly.”
Where the Initial Bloom Level magical girls had not noticed, several Blooming Level magical girls stood watching Dark Butterfly’s grand performance in silence.
They had anticipated the outcome of this battle, but the process had surprised some of them.
They had expected Dark Butterfly to win only after a hard-fought battle, never expecting the final result to turn out like this.
What should have been a siege seemed to transform into Dark Butterfly’s solo performance, with everyone’s gaze captivated by the butterfly dancing among the crowd. As for the others… ah, there are other people too?
“Her speed is just too fast; these kids can only cluster together and barely defend themselves,” Longwen remarked, looking at the magical girls gradually being pressed into a group, her expression somewhat complex.
Watching the headquarters geniuses being toyed with by Dark Butterfly felt somewhat unpleasant to her.
“She hasn’t even used her full power,” another Blooming Level magical girl from the Magic Department quietly added.
You Lian, Luo Shuangyue’s weapon spirit, had not yet appeared.
She was fighting solely with her own power, and the Blooming Level magical girls were not about to forget that a substantial portion of Luo Shuangyue’s combat ability lay with You Lian.
There was no need for this battle to continue. Ten against one, yet that one was cornering the others in a small area and brutally beating them; what difference was there from losing?
“Well, let’s not forget who discovered her,” Soul Guide crossed her arms, a proud look on her face.
This remark made Longwen roll her eyes. Didn’t Dark Butterfly have anything to do with you, Soul Guide?
The person was from Polar Night; going to Eastern Extreme City was introduced by me, and you’re just now trying to take credit?
Have some shame!
Before she could rebut, the communicator hanging at her waist suddenly screeched with a harsh sound.
Quickly taking the communicator to check, Longwen’s eyes narrowed.
“Qidian has discovered a small number of monster troops in the Jupiter orbit, heading straight for us.”
“A small number? How many?”
“She didn’t specify, but the implication of the message seems to indicate that this wave is not made up of stragglers but a properly scaled army.” Longwen’s golden eyes glinted as she quickly pressed a couple of buttons on the communicator.
In the next moment, all the magical girls at the Moonbase received a message.
‘Monsters are about to attack; enter first-level combat readiness.’
…
“Relying solely on myself, there’s no way to hold such a vast expanse of space,” Qidian sighed helplessly while standing in the deep darkness.
She had eliminated all the monsters she had seen, causing them to vanish completely within her sights, but the area she could monitor was ultimately limited; she could not stop all incoming enemies alone.
This was also the reason the Magic Department chose to fight near their home planet. Although that was humanity’s home, being there at least allowed them to wait for incoming monsters.
If they expanded the front line, the Magic Department had no capability to guard the entire starry sky tightly; if several armies slipped through, it wouldn’t bode well for the home planet, which was already under-equipped.
It was better to build a defense line close to the home planet and blow up any monsters that came.
“However, they seem a little strange? As though something intercepted them midway…”
Qidian closed her eyes in thought, when suddenly, a huge monster pounced toward her at high speed.
In the next moment, the monster’s form began to distort, instantly crumbling into a cloud of black mist, then being sucked into a pitch-black point from which even light could not escape.
Attempting to ambush a Blooming Level magical girl, this royal-class monster was clearly overestimating its own capabilities.
“Indeed, the power level is not the same as those previously attacked.” Exhaling softly, the laziness on Qidian’s face gradually disappeared, replaced by anticipation for battle.
Facing those enemies and fighting in cosmic space—ah, it seemed she could show off her skills!
…
In a more distant planetary orbit, the remaining vanguard monster troops had used the corpses of their companions to construct a massive circular structure. Dark energy flowed around the circular building, linking it to another structure far away.
At this moment, a passage leading directly through the Ocean of Magical Power to two large gates took shape. Now, the monsters waiting in the distant starry sky could arrive here at speeds unimaginable to ordinary beings.
Crack… crack…
But this building seemed far less sturdy than originally planned.
At the other end of the gates, a royal-class monster trying to pass through sensed the exit’s frailty—if it went through now, it might just blow the exit apart.
It would not fare well in that case.
Such a massive body brought not only an absurdly thick health bar.
Its subordinates could rely on the Ocean of Magical Power for high-speed movement, but it could not. If it entered that place, it would suffer from the incessant waves of magical power; resisting those would be quite the hassle, not to mention navigating through it.
That was why it needed the vanguard troops to build the transmission gate; only in this way could it smoothly traverse the vast distance to the star domain it aimed to destroy.
…
“Those guys are arriving even faster than we imagined.” Gazing at the boundless dark starry sky, Longwen gently stroked the silver dragon beside her, letting out a soft sigh.
Behind her, a translucent barrier, almost invisible, had enveloped the azure planet—this was the planetary defense shield that the Magic Department had spent tremendous effort to complete.
With it in place, at least they could ensure that the home planet would not easily be raided.
“The attacking forces are not royal-class monsters; letting those little kids have some practice is pretty good.”
Beside Longwen, Soul Guide’s expression was considerably more relaxed.
The attacking monsters were only royal-class—this was not a difficult presence for the magical girls.
They could even use these monsters to help the little ones get accustomed to the battles to come.
First, dealing with a few scattered cosmic monsters to gain experience, then going into a major battle against the monsters; gradually raising the challenge level was far better than sending inexperienced juniors into desperate situations, right?
“Then let’s hope they do well in their first battle.”
…
Luo Shuangyue’s team encountered a severely damaged royal-class monster. This royal-class monster seemed to be the leader of a small monster team, followed closely by five general-class monsters.
The Blooming Level senior leading the team immediately flew aside with arms crossed upon seeing this configuration, clearly indicating: let you guys handle these few monsters for practice.
Taking a look at the somewhat sinister-looking royal-class monster, Luo Shuangyue rested her scythe on her shoulder and said to Xia Mo and Fei Hongzhi, “This royal-class monster is all yours.”
She had fought these monsters a few times and gained some experience, while Fei Hongzhi was encountering such monsters for the first time.
Thus, Luo Shuangyue had no qualms about leaving this royal-class monster to the other girls in her team.
Fei Hongzhi nodded understandingly; she definitely knew what Luo Shuangyue meant.
“Okay, we’ll take care of it swiftly and decisively!”
After delegating the toughest royal-class monster to her teammates, Luo Shuangyue charged toward the general-class monsters behind it.
The general-class monsters initially did not realize that Luo Shuangyue’s target was them. By the time they sensed the danger, her scythe had already descended upon them.
The distance between them and Luo Shuangyue was merely a small step easily crossed in her eyes.
The sharp scythe blade tore through the monster’s body, and the black mist clinging to it devoured the monster like a living entity—this mist was You Lian’s power, and the little one was floating a short distance away, watching the royal-class monster with a gluttonous stare.
Classic case of eyeing the dish while eating what’s in hand.
After all, the general-class monsters weren’t even worth a snack to this greedy little thing; the royal-class was merely a delicious appetizer.
Only royal-class monsters were regarded as a culinary delight by You Lian; unfortunately, these delicacies could bite back, and You Lian was likely the more appetizing one in their eyes.
The general-class monsters were not much of a threat; with just a few strokes, Luo Shuangyue knocked them all down and polished off whatever they left behind.
Oh, the original magical power should be saved; this was now a strategic resource she shouldn’t hoard all to herself.
When she finished dealing with the general-class monsters, the royal-class monster was already feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Magical girls mostly favored long-range attacks, making their magic cannons their primary means of combat.
To deal with the tough outer shell of monsters, the magical girls here had nearly all learned how to make their magic cannons more penetrating.
Now, this royal-class monster had become the target for the Initial Bloom Level magical girls to test their training成果.
Various types of magic cannons bombarded its body continuously, chiseling away at the already cracked outer shell.
As these chunks flew into the starry sky, a few wisps of mist stealthily gathered them up. Because Luo Shuangyue had ordered not to disturb the magical girls’ merciless barrage on the royal-class monster, You Lian could only snack on some tidbits in this manner.
In this battle, Luo Shuangyue also witnessed Fei Hongzhi’s true strength; this magical girl was indeed worthy of the genius title, dealing the highest damage to the royal-class monster.
Each of her magic cannon blasts caused violent explosions on the monster, preventing it from launching a proper counterattack.
Every time the monster tried to charge at the magical girls, the red magic cannon would come just in time to knock it flying.
As for the monster’s long-range attacks… it also had a kind of magic cannon, but how could a monster compete with a magical girl in terms of proficiency with magic cannons?
Before it could fire twice, Ye Lin had accurately detonated it with her armor-piercing magic cannon.
At this moment, Ye Lin had transformed Xia Mo’s four floating cannons into a sniper cannon—or rather a sniping cannon, each blast capable of inflicting considerable damage on the monster.
Xia Mo didn’t even do anything; she merely stood there, watching Ye Lin fire furiously at the monster.
She felt quite relaxed, as though her weapon spirit was seemingly more useful than she was.
Each shot from the light purple magic cannon pierced through the monster’s body, and after several punctures, this monster finally exploded into a brilliant firework amidst the collective magic cannons released by several magical girls.
Its total survival time was less than a minute.
While the outcome appeared favorable, it did not bring joy to the senior leading the team.
After all, this was just an already injured royal-class monster. There would likely be many more monsters like this in the future. If each could delay for so long, the pressure on humanity would be far too great.
Just how large was the scale of the monster army? How many royal-class monsters were there among them?
No one held the answers to these questions.
Even those who had suffered annihilation at the hands of monsters could not provide an accurate answer. The elves had never dealt effective damage to the monsters from start to finish; they could only offer a very vague concept.
That is, these monsters were generally of the elite team leader level within the monster army.
In any case, even the most optimistic estimates, the number of royal-class monsters in the monster army likely exceeded the existing Initial Bloom Level magical girls by a couple of orders of magnitude; after all, this was an army sweeping through the starry sea.
Yet humanity was still confined to that tiny little planet.
“Sigh, the outlook is not good.” The senior sighed softly.
But she also understood that relying on Initial Bloom Level magical girls to treat these royal-class monsters as easy targets was just a pipe dream.
Though Initial Bloom Level magical girls could generally secure an advantage when fighting one-on-one, capturing opportunities could lead to decisive kills; ultimately, their strengths were still in the same tier.
Having both superior and inferior levels was normal, and in an unrealistic mindset, magical girls could only dominate one-on-one situations.
Once caught in one-against-many situations, there was practically no solution.
And unfortunate as it was, the situation humanity faced was exactly one where they needed the Initial Bloom Level magical girls to overcome the monsters in one-against-many scenarios.
…
Tap, tap, tap; pale fingers lightly drummed against the armrest. Monise sat in a chair, her expression cold.
On the hospital bed in front of her lay a cat-eared girl with her eyes tightly shut, various detection devices inserted into her, projecting her life signs on several large screens throughout the room.
This latest transformation of Jiuye represented Monise’s most significant step in years, all modifications she was unsure of, applied completely to Jiuye.
If these modifications succeeded, everything would be perfect.
If failed… no, she didn’t want to fail.
Perhaps due to having undergone a transformation previously, Jiuye’s second transformation was extremely challenging, with multiple unexpected situations arising throughout.
The newly injected magical power was incompatible with her original magical power, too strong a force damaging her original body, and various issues Monise anticipated or didn’t arose.
After five long days and nights, Monise finally completed the transformation on Jiuye.
However, after completion, Jiuye fell into a prolonged coma, and it had been a full four days since then.
Although all bodily indexes met expectations and brainwave readings were normal, why couldn’t Jiuye wake up?
Monise couldn’t figure it out.
The Magic Department had repeatedly urged her for a definitive answer, but she truly couldn’t provide one right now.
Without Jiuye waking up, she couldn’t ascertain whether the new technology had issues.
“Lady Monise, a messenger from the Magic Department brought a confidential letter, stating it can only be opened by you,” Black Dragonfly entered the room holding a letter.
“Didn’t I tell them I don’t have results yet?” A flash of annoyance crossed Monise’s face. Why was it now that the Magic Department was more impatient than her?
Before, they scoffed at her research, deeming it quackery. Now, when they encountered trouble, they suddenly remembered her technology—could they please have some self-respect?
This was a matter of human body modification! One mistake could cost lives; did these magical girls have any kindness in their hearts?
“The Moonbase has started sporadic skirmishes with monsters; the Magic Department probably feels time is running out.” Black Dragonfly reported Monise what she knew.
They had already gone to battle? No wonder. The Magic Department was acting like a drowning person desperately grasping for what seemed to be salvation.
Among them, Monise’s modification technology was considered the thickest rope.
Even if she couldn’t produce high-tier combat power in bulk, creating numerous low-tier combatants capable of sensing and using magical power would still be a good outcome.
With these people around, the Magic Department could have more confidence.
Monise took the confidential letter from Black Dragonfly and opened it, her pupils slightly contracting.
After reading the letter, it spontaneously ignited, instantaneously transforming into a wisp of azure smoke dissipating into thin air.
The contents were indeed not something that could be exposed.
“Do you want me to use those weirdos for experiments? This really is desperate measures,” Monise sighed. Upon seeing this letter, she understood just how anxious the Magic Department was.
Even coming up with ideas that would cause the Magic Department’s reputation to plummet was now on the table; if she continued to lay low, in just two days, the Magic Department would likely send over two or three old acquaintances to haul her back to headquarters.
The Magic Department’s intention was clear: if your failure rate is high, that’s fine!
Let those damn guys contribute their part to humanity’s survival!
This was not at all like Monise’s usual style of operation, but she had to admit this was indeed the most effective method under the circumstances.
“Hah…” Closing her notebook, Monise stood up, “Black Dragonfly, I need to leave for a while. The organization’s basic operations…”
Before Monise could finish speaking, she saw Black Dragonfly’s eyes widen.
Through the girl’s pitch-black pupils, Monise saw the scene behind her.
That girl, who had been comatose for four days, slowly opened her eyes.
…
“The number of attacking monsters has increased greatly lately. I heard that Qidian-senpai glanced in the direction of the monster attacks and discovered that these monsters had built a huge gate deep in the starry sky; those attacking monsters came out from there.”
Luo Shuangyue stretched, lazily leaning against Xia Mo’s lap.
The monster attack alarms had not ceased these days; it seemed they were trying to make up for the downtime from earlier, with monsters rushing in day and night.
If it weren’t for Qidian having raised a transmission gate, the monster attacks would likely be even more intense.
But clearly, destroying one transmission gate was merely a drop in the bucket. Before Qidian discovered that gate, quite a number of monsters had probably already come through, hiding in the dim, lightless deep space.
They could set up the same gate anywhere else at any time, leading the monster army to descend, and the magical girls had little recourse against that.
The cosmic space was just too vast, and only Blooming Level magic could tread there.
Most Blooming Level magical girls could only stay in orbit around the home planet, and those capable of seeking out transmission gates were few; relying on them to destroy gates one by one was indeed a pipe dream.
“When do you think the monster army will finally appear before us?” Xia Mo asked softly, gazing at Luo Shuangyue with affection.
“Who knows? It won’t be slow for sure; their speed is really fast,” Luo Shuangyue flipped over to meet Xia Mo’s gaze.
Compared to a few days ago, there was also a hint of faint fatigue on Xia Mo’s face. These days, she had been at the forefront of combating monsters, ranking among the leading magical girls of the Magic Department.
Previously, she felt somewhat challenged against these cosmic monsters, but now she could systematically defeat those nearly identical ones.
Her progress was astonishingly rapid.
