Chapter 1 Mom Loves You
In a gray world, wandering souls, if it weren’t for the slight feeling of repulsion in Luo Shuangyue’s body reminding her that she was still alive, she might have suspected that she was now in hell.
Unconsciously, her hand stretched toward the neck of the girl beside her, sharp nails pressing against the delicate skin of the sleeping girl. With just a gentle push, blood could burst forth from the pierced artery, completely cutting off the girl’s life.
“Tsk, here we go again.” Luo Shuangyue quickly grabbed her errant hand; as soon as she relaxed her focus a little, another consciousness within her body began to fight for control.
If she could, she would prefer to tie herself up with a rope right now to avoid accidentally hurting Xia Mo.
When she had just arrived in this strange space, the taste of blood in her mouth and the messy wound on Xia Mo’s shoulder were reminders of how excessively she had harmed Xia Mo.
This made Luo Shuangyue feel very disgusted; she hated this feeling, the feeling of hurting someone important to her.
“You Ji, can you hear me?” She lightly tapped her own head, making her third attempt to communicate with her spirit.
Since being teleported here, Xia Mo had fallen into a deep sleep due to exhaustion, and Luo Shuangyue’s current physical state was also quite terrible, making it impossible for her to carry the sleeping Xia Mo away.
She could only sit still, trying to wake You Ji while growing accustomed to her new body.
Yes, new body.
If the previous Dark Butterfly was just an appearance disguised by magical power, then now the Dark Butterfly had become Luo Shuangyue herself.
This was not a transformation but her true appearance.
Her existence was also vastly different from that of a magical girl; she was now more like a demon lord, a demon lord weakened to the extreme.
Having always been a human, Luo Shuangyue did not know what a demon lord was like, but she realized that her body had now turned to a pile of mush, and she felt she could no longer be considered human.
She had no heartbeat, no breath, no flowing blood; her body was composed of magical energy, and her current appearance was merely an embodiment of that energy.
Once this layer was stripped away, she had no fundamental difference from those terrifying magical beasts.
‘Hungry…’ A faint voice echoed in Luo Shuangyue’s ears.
You Ji finally responded to Luo Shuangyue’s call. She surged from Luo Shuangyue’s fingertips; while she could still maintain the form of a small girl, she now resembled a wisp of green smoke.
It was evident that everyone was in poor condition.
In such a state, You Ji couldn’t be of much use, and Luo Shuangyue reluctantly sent You Ji back inside her body to rest.
She would find something to eat later and then call this little one up.
But in this desolate land, where it seemed only souls wandered, would there truly be something to eat?
A translucent white spirit passed through Luo Shuangyue’s body. She tried to reach out and catch it to test its flavor, but her fingertips passed directly through the middle of the spirit’s body.
These guys have no tangible form at all.
Just as she thought this, her other hand acted on its own, dark magical power covering her palm, catching the departing spirit.
This time, her hand didn’t pass through the spirit; instead, it firmly grasped the opponent.
The texture was very soft, like a ball of very fluffy cotton.
The struggling strength was minimal, not even strong enough to escape from her hand.
It had no flavor, as if she had eaten a cloud.
The magical power replenished was still less than what was consumed; these spirits had no need to be prey… Huh?
Staring blankly at the spirit that had already been chewed through by herself, Luo Shuangyue’s pupils contracted sharply.
What did I just do? Why was I completely unaware of what I was doing?
If it were her, there was no way she could naturally grab a spirit like this and eat it, not to mention coldly evaluate its taste and nutritional value.
Had she really gotten to the point where she could eat such things?
Looking at the disintegrating spirit in her hand, a thought of not wasting it surged in Luo Shuangyue’s mind again, but this time she firmly refused this horrifying idea.
She would not eat these disgusting things!
Even if her body was weak, even if she was starving, there were still things that were not meant to be eaten!
If she were to act like a beast, indiscriminately consuming anything in sight, then the existence of Luo Shuangyue would be completely replaced.
This was Luo Shuangyue’s instinctive warning; this was a taboo she absolutely could not touch.
Fortunately, it seemed that the beast inside her also realized that forcing Luo Shuangyue to eat those spirits was a waste of effort, so in the following duration, Luo Shuangyue did not feel her body fall out of control.
Time passed, and just as Luo Shuangyue watched a familiar spirit floating around her for the eighteenth time, Xia Mo finally began to wake up slowly.
“Shuangyue? Are you okay?” The moment she woke up, Xia Mo began to care about Luo Shuangyue’s condition.
She reached out to cup Luo Shuangyue’s face, staring intently into her eyes, the distance between them so close that their noses almost touched.
“I’m fine, but don’t get so close, or I won’t be able to hold myself back.” Luo Shuangyue struggled to suppress the strange restlessness surging within her. When Xia Mo was lying down, it was tolerable, but now that Xia Mo was closer, she could smell that special fragrance on her.
It was floral, mixed with the aroma of food.
The beast in my heart can’t hold back anymore!
“Quick, tie me up!”
“Huh?”
Luo Shuangyue pushed the still dazed Xia Mo away hard, then put on a spectacular performance of fighting herself in front of Xia Mo.
Look at how the left side of the body fought against the right side, so real! The expressions changing on her face were even more impressive than those of big-name actors.
A few seconds later, just after waking up from a long sleep and still feeling a bit dazed, Xia Mo finally realized what Luo Shuangyue meant.
Luo Shuangyue had indeed regained consciousness, but it was not complete; the ‘Luo Shuangyue’ that had gnawed on her earlier was still vying for control of her body.
“I can’t use magic right now!” Even realizing this, Xia Mo had no way to solve the current problem.
She had been forced to disintegrate; her magical gem was still recovering its magical power. Just having had a short rest was not enough for her to regain her transformation ability.
“Should I just hold you tight so you can’t move?”
“Don’t! It’s better if you stay away from me. The closer you get, the less I can control myself!” Taking back control of her mouth, Luo Shuangyue urgently reminded.
Minutes later, Luo Shuangyue finally reclaimed control of her body from the other consciousness, but she could clearly feel that the desire was still lurking in her heart, restless and ready to pounce on Xia Mo.
At least until Xia Mo had the ability to control her, she couldn’t get too close to Xia Mo.
“Yes, just stay there and don’t move. If you get any closer, I can smell you.”
Xia Mo, pushed about fifty meters away by Luo Shuangyue, squatted on the ground, looking innocent as she stared at Luo Shuangyue.
At this distance, they had to shout to speak.
“Shuangyue, what exactly happened before?”
After confirming that the Luo Shuangyue in the distance was the one she was familiar with, Xia Mo finally recalled to ask an important question.
What had happened to Luo Shuangyue that had caused her to encounter an accident while advancing?
At that time, it was clearly Bai Ye unilaterally beating the Demon Lord; how could things go wrong when she was already beating so hard?
“I’m not really sure.” Luo Shuangyue was also unsure of what had happened before. “Perhaps this is the process I need to go through to advance.”
“I’ve never heard of magical girls needing to go through this process to advance!”
“Because I’m not a magical girl; I’m now a demon lord!” Maybe because the girl opposite her was the person she trusted most in this world, Luo Shuangyue didn’t hide her current identity at all.
She was no longer human; she was a magical beast, a magical beast in human skin.
Even her way of thinking had begun to align more with that of magical beasts, hadn’t it?
If she were still a normal person, how could the first thought that came to her mind upon seeing Xia Mo be to pounce and bite?
While saying this, she took off the butterfly hairpin that was hanging on her forehead.
Normally, doing this would cause her to exit her transformation state and return to her original Luo Shuangyue form.
But now, the butterfly hairpin seemed to function merely as a very simple accessory; taking it off did not change Luo Shuangyue in the slightest.
Moreover, the texture of this hairpin was also not quite right; it felt nothing like a hairpin and was a bit soft, more like biological tissue.
Not only this hairpin, but also her clothes were similar, their texture completely different from ordinary clothing; they seemed to have turned into the skin of the existence that was ‘Luo Shuangyue’.
Scratching it with her nails even revealed faint white marks that appeared and quickly disappeared on the clothing.
The butterfly wings on her back were also firmly fixed to her body, and tugging at them caused Luo Shuangyue to feel a strange pain that was completely absent before.
In that black cocoon, everything about her seemed to have changed; the only thing that perhaps hadn’t changed was her consciousness.
“So where is this place?” Xia Mo had no reaction to Luo Shuangyue calling herself a demon lord. It didn’t matter whether the person in front was human or a ghost, as long as it was the Luo Shuangyue she was familiar with.
Demon lords could be good or bad, and she believed Luo Shuangyue would be a good demon lord.
Since this was no longer an issue, they should discuss other important topics, the most pressing question being where they were now.
What was this gray, misty space? Surely it wasn’t the mother planet anymore?
What were those white spirits? Could it be that this was hell?
“Not sure, but the banishment magic Mom prepared is definitely not simple; after all, it was prepared by Mom!” Luo Shuangyue shook her head. Even though she was the one victimized by this magic, she had no thoughts of complaints.
On the contrary, she seemed quite proud, proud that her mother’s power was still so formidable.
But pride aside, she genuinely didn’t know what this strange space was; her mother throwing her here must have had deeper meaning, right?
She couldn’t really just abandon her daughter in such a wild and desolate place and ignore her, could she?
Luo Shuangyue believed her mother’s character wouldn’t allow her to act so ruthlessly.
“Perhaps my mom will come to get me soon.” She chuckled lightly.
Of course, this was a joke. If the purpose of that banishment magic was truly to send Luo Shuangyue to her mother, then she should have seen her mother the moment she opened her eyes.
Instead of standing here dumbly waiting for half a day without seeing a trace of anyone.
Boom!
A distant rumble echoed through the air.
Curiously, Luo Shuangyue turned to look toward the source of the sound, and her expression immediately paled.
A new color appeared in the gray space, one that was different from the gray of this space and the dead white of the spirits.
It was a pure and warm white.
This isn’t good, this isn’t good, this isn’t good. Before Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness could react to what that white color meant, her body had already reacted.
Almost instinctively, she rolled to the side, narrowly evading a pure white arrow that shot toward her heart.
“This is… Mom’s power?” Looking at the white arrow embedded in the ground, a cold sweat broke out on Luo Shuangyue’s forehead.
She would never mistake this; this aura absolutely belonged to her mother.
Does Mom want to kill me?
Bang!
The arrow embedded in the ground suddenly exploded, and pure white magical power transformed into a phantom.
A familiar face, a familiar sword, a familiar color.
“Mom?” Staring dumbly at the white phantom not far away, Luo Shuangyue’s gaze turned blank.
She wouldn’t mistake this; this phantom was definitely Bai Ye, her mother!
But why… does she want to raise her sword against me? Why is she charging at me as if she doesn’t even recognize me…
Luo Shuangyue couldn’t understand; she really couldn’t.
She was stunned, but another consciousness within her body had already made a choice for her.
With her body lowered, the girl revealed a fierce expression only beasts would make and let out a frantic roar at the approaching white figure.
Just before the white sword was about to strike, the girl twisted her body to dodge it.
After dodging, dark light appeared in her palm; she planned to smash the enemy’s head with this move.
But her attack hadn’t even begun, and the miss was followed by the white figure swiftly elbowing the girl in the stomach, knocking the beast-like girl away.
In terms of combat experience, this girl was still quite inexperienced.
Moreover, her current physical state could only be described as fragile; facing an enemy like the white figure, she would be unable to put up any respectable resistance.
The pain jolted Luo Shuangyue awake from her confusion. She didn’t know what the situation was, but she understood that if she kept dawdling, her mother’s sword would truly fall upon her.
Her intuition told her that the white figure in front of her was not truly her mother. There was not a shred of emotional fluctuation about her, and she resembled a robot programmed with a pre-set routine.
What kind of program would her mother, a magical girl, set for such a robot?
Would it be to see someone who looked like her daughter and bring her back?
Haha, Luo Shuangyue thought there should be limits to dreaming.
The program set by her mother was obviously to kill any magical beast she saw!
Thus, the white figure before her was merely a simple-minded robot left by her mother, and there was no need for her to feel guilty about striking at it!
Having convinced herself in her heart, Luo Shuangyue hissed at the part within her that was stirring restlessly, ‘Don’t disrupt my battle; you’ll die quicker if you do!’
That part inside her, whose thoughts only revolved around eating, had no combat experience. Letting her deal with the shadow left by her mother, Luo Shuangyue estimated that within three moves, she would end up pierced through by her mother’s sword.
Hearing Luo Shuangyue’s shout, the consciousness within submitted with a hint of grievance, as if saying, “It’s not my fault I can’t win?”
But she indeed understood Luo Shuangyue’s words, completely surrendering control of the body to her.
Finally gaining full control of her body, Luo Shuangyue exhaled lightly and swiftly reacted to the white sword that was drawing closer.
Based on her years of combat experience, this was how she should dodge… Huh?
Instinctively trying to teleport, Luo Shuangyue’s current state could not support such a maneuver; she couldn’t even spread her butterfly wings behind her.
So, predictably, she fell to the ground in quite a clumsy way.
Well, at least she managed to dodge that sword, right?
As the sword missed its target, the white figure immediately launched a relentless pursuit at Luo Shuangyue, raining down strikes like a torrential storm. Luo Shuangyue had to roll around frantically to evade them.
Perhaps because the arrow contained too little magical power, the white figure didn’t use magic; she simply engaged in basic physical attacks against Luo Shuangyue, giving her a brief opportunity to breathe.
“Wait, stop hitting!” Xia Mo hurriedly ran over, placing herself in front of the white figure.
She recognized that the white phantom before her was the Bai Ye who had once saved her, but she could not allow Bai Ye to kill Luo Shuangyue.
Compared to her relentless attitude toward Luo Shuangyue, the white figure was much more gentle toward Xia Mo. She scanned Xia Mo from top to bottom and then pointed in a direction.
“Is this child accidentally falling into the underworld? You can leave by going in this direction.”
A crisp, gentle, and slightly lively voice emanated from the white figure’s core.
“Mom, isn’t this treatment too biased?!” Luo Shuangyue, who had rolled ten meters away, was almost numb upon hearing this.
Why was Bai Ye attacking her with no words, but then responding kindly to Xia Mo, pointing out the way to leave? Who was your real daughter here, Mom?
The white figure obviously wouldn’t respond to Luo Shuangyue’s complaint. She was a simple execution machine, and that line had been programmed into her when she was created.
The intelligence of the white figure didn’t even match those robots humans currently used; her functions were just two: to kill and to guide those who should not be killed.
Xia Mo was someone who should not be killed, so she would lead Xia Mo to safety.
Luo Shuangyue was a monster that must be killed, so she would stop at nothing to do so.
Simple and hard to bear.
“This shadow’s physical quality must at least be at Initial Bloom level; how am I supposed to defeat her?”
In the previous encounter of being unilaterally beaten, Luo Shuangyue had roughly estimated her opponent’s physical quality.
If Xia Mo could transform or if her own state were good, such a shadow would not be their opponent at all.
Unfortunately, neither condition could be fulfilled right now.
Xia Mo was still in a recovery phase after disintegrating, and Luo Shuangyue’s state was equally as fragile.
What to do?
The white figure had already darted around Xia Mo and continued to pounce toward her. Luo Shuangyue prepared to roll again while contemplating how to respond.
The other me in my head, can’t you do something besides eat?!
The second personality from others’ stories is so impressive, instantly turning invincible upon switching; why is this one so useless?
Ding!
The white sword plunged into the ground, mere millimeters from Luo Shuangyue’s head. If she hadn’t instinctively tilted her head, she feared she might have been pierced through.
Although she could no longer be considered human and her head was filled with a strange mass instead of a brain, Luo Shuangyue didn’t dare gamble that being pierced through would leave her unscathed.
The consciousness that Luo Shuangyue was complaining about felt quite wronged; she was just a newborn, being able to think of eating was already impressive, okay?
‘Eat?’
And the only suggestion she could offer was just that.
Can’t you just eat this white figure and win?
Luo Shuangyue’s face fell; indeed, eating this white figure would lead to victory, but how could she eat this thing?
She was the one getting beat; it wasn’t the white figure! If she wanted to get close to that thing to bite, she had to endure a sword strike.
‘You won’t die; just go eat!’ The voice within continued.
I won’t die from a sword strike? Is that what you mean? Luo Shuangyue hesitated.
But left with no other choice, if she continued to evade like this, she would eventually take a sword strike. It would be better to trust her inner consciousness; that being should know this body better than she did.
Her gaze turned resolute; seizing the moment when the white figure mechanically stabbed forward with her sword, Luo Shuangyue leapt up from the ground like a cheetah. After dodging the thrust of the white sword, she heavily collided with the white figure.
The white figure stood steadfast like a pillar, whereas Luo Shuangyue felt as if her body was about to shatter from the impact.
Nevertheless, she had gotten close; next… following her instincts, Luo Shuangyue opened her mouth and bit hard onto the white figure’s shoulder.
Pitch-black energy began to spread from the shoulder of the white figure, and Luo Shuangyue felt a flow of boiling hot magical power surging into her body.
The taste of this thing… was dreadful.
In the next moment, as Luo Shuangyue struggled to adapt to the horrid taste of this magical power, the white figure, held captive, swung its sword and pierced Luo Shuangyue as well.
Then, the same scorching sensation began to spread from the wound in Luo Shuangyue’s abdomen.
Oh no, this thing is really reckless… Right, this creature doesn’t even have the concept of dying, so being reckless is just a false premise.
The very existence of the white figure was to accomplish a task; what was stabbing itself with a sword to achieve that goal?
Anyway, she wasn’t human; whether or not she got stabbed was irrelevant.
All that mattered was that Luo Shuangyue was now physically connected to this white figure, and she had no way out but to desperately absorb all the power within this white figure.
The magic power within the white figure was still considerable, but this meal was simply a form of torture for Luo Shuangyue; even the part of her that had been constantly thinking about eating didn’t show its face now, not a hint of interest in taking over control.
Clearly, even though she loved to eat, she was also aware of what was good to eat and what was not.
Luo Shuangyue figured that in the days to come, her first reaction upon seeing her mother would definitely not be “I want to eat this,” but rather “This thing tastes awful.”
It was fine to eat occasionally to stay alive, but who would eat such a terrifying thing out of boredom?
The torture lasted for a considerable time, only for Luo Shuangyue to finally absorb all of this white figure’s magical power.
Good news, she was no longer hungry.
Bad news, her stomach hurt now.
The disappearance of the white figure conveyed a lesson to Luo Shuangyue: no matter how much you can eat this white figure, you still won’t feel good afterward.
Holding her aching stomach, Luo Shuangyue curled up into a ball in Xia Mo’s embrace, trembling and muttering, “I might as well be dead…”
She indeed absorbed the magical power of the white figure, but the source of that magic power was her mother, the legendary magical girl Bai Ye!
The magical power from such an existence was not so easy to digest. Just like when You Ji had eaten Luo Shuangxing’s sealing card, Luo Shuangyue was now experiencing indigestion.
Her mother’s magical power condensed into a small sphere within her body, constantly radiating a blazing heat, subjecting Luo Shuangyue to dual torment in both body and soul.
All she could do was wait for her body to gradually scrape off the magic power from the small sphere, slowly digesting it into her own strength.
The amount of magical power wasn’t much, but the quality was indeed superb. At least Luo Shuangyue felt that she wouldn’t feel hungry for the short term.
“I’m going to faint for a while; be careful not to get bitten by the other one.” Unable to endure the torment any longer, Luo Shuangyue decided to escape, letting another part of herself take the damage.
She was clear about her current physical state; as long as Xia Mo was careful, she wouldn’t be caught off guard by the other one.
Almost all of her strength was now being used to digest her mother’s magical power, and she barely had the strength to walk.
“Yes, I will definitely protect you.” Xia Mo nodded vigorously, holding Luo Shuangyue tightly in her arms.
Those white figures wouldn’t attack her, so she felt that this should make the unconscious Luo Shuangyue more secure.
The girl in her arms closed her eyes, her once tense body relaxing in an instant, combined with her completely lifeless physical traits, creating a subtle sense of unease within Xia Mo.
Why did the girl she was holding seem like a corpse?
No, no, don’t think that way. Just now, Shuangyue was still talking to me; she definitely isn’t dead.
“We still have so many things to do; you promised me.” Holding the completely unresponsive body tightly, Xia Mo mumbled quietly.
…
“Hiss… Is this still my consciousness space?”
In the ruins, the constricted space, Luo Shuangyue looked around in surprise, feeling she might be in the wrong place.
But not far away, sitting by a bonfire were two silhouettes that silently confirmed to Luo Shuangyue that this was indeed her joyful old home.
“Where’s Your Ji’s big house? Why has You Ji become so pitiful?”
You Ji sitting by the bonfire looked just like before, but a strange expression had appeared on her face.
But You Ji was in a tragic state; she was just a wisp of extremely thin mist, just like when she had appeared in the outside world previously.
Looking up a bit more, Luo Shuangyue noticed that the grand butterfly that had been hanging in the sky was no longer visible. Could it be that all the changes began with the disappearance of that grand butterfly?
“It’s a long story, sigh…” You Ji beckoned Luo Shuangyue to come sit beside her.
“So what exactly happened?”
“In short, the grand butterfly has come to life.” Handing a hot tea to Luo Shuangyue, You Ji exhaled a cloud of white breath and explained in a melancholic tone, “My previous guess was indeed correct; you are completely different from those magical girls.”
If it were the old Luo Shuangyue, she would have scoffed at You Ji’s words, but now she could only awkwardly nod in silence.
Her current physical state truly bore no difference from that of magical beasts.
“That grand butterfly does not harbor any malicious intent toward you; it merely wishes for you to grow stronger and closer to it. However, some things do not turn into good things just because it believes they are.”
“You were previously troubled about how to break through to the Blooming Level, but due to your unique constitution, you cannot break through in the way a magical girl would. You need to absorb the magical energy of magical beasts to achieve a qualitative change in your body.”
“And that Demon Lord you encountered at that time was undoubtedly the perfect nourishment, so it took action to seize that nourishment for you.”
After that, Luo Shuangyue understood everything clearly. The seniors had interrupted the grand butterfly’s feeding process, allowing it to only bring back a portion of the Demon Lord’s energy, and she had transformed into her current state under the influence of that energy.
So, there was no conspiracy or villainous takeover; the grand butterfly was entirely for my good?
No, wait, what about that consciousness in my head that is fighting me for control? What is it?
“You’re asking about that? That’s a bit complicated.” You Ji scratched her head. “I have a very limited understanding of your evolution, but I estimate that consciousness was meant to merge with you. However, due to the insufficient energy brought back by the grand butterfly, you two didn’t reach the fusion stage before breaking free of the cocoon.”
Merge? Merge with that thing that only thinks about eating and even wants to eat Xia Mo?
Luo Shuangyue, who had thought the grand butterfly was a misunderstood good person, wanted to go back in time and slap her past self a few times. If the grand butterfly’s purpose had really been fulfilled, would she have emerged from the black cocoon still being herself?
What is she really, the Luo Shuangyue we know, or the Dark Butterfly Demon Lord with Luo Shuangyue’s memories?
