Chapter 5: Black Calamity
“Gaaah!!!”
At the break of dawn, a high-pitched dragon’s roar shattered the tranquility of the flower sea.
Xia Mo, immersed in her sweet dreams, was startled awake and jumped directly off Luo Shuangyue’s lap, accidentally colliding foreheads with the girl who was gently looking down at her sleeping face.
Bang!
Luo Shuangyue clutched her forehead and fell to the ground.
Xia Mo, dazed from the strong impact, lay back down for a couple of seconds before quickly getting up to help Luo Shuangyue.
“Shuangyue, are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you were looking down…” Xia Mo said urgently, her forehead flushed, even though she was the one more seriously injured.
“I’m fine, just a bit dazed,” Luo Shuangyue hurriedly shook her head.
She didn’t have anything important in her head, a bump wouldn’t be a big deal.
On the contrary, Xia Mo must be in quite a bit of pain from that solid hit.
“You must be hurting.” Looking at the red mark on Xia Mo’s forehead with concern, Luo Shuangyue didn’t know what to do.
There were no medicinal materials here, and she couldn’t use healing magic, what should she do?
“It doesn’t hurt,” Xia Mo said firmly, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.
If she could hold back those tears, her words would sound more convincing.
The real culprit behind it all had no intention of apologizing and was still shouting at the morning sky.
If this were a human society, the police would have quickly taken her away for a chat.
Making such a ruckus early in the morning, doesn’t she know what it means to disturb the peace?
“I’ll go make her quiet down.” Wiping away the tear stains, Xia Mo took out a somewhat shiny purple gem from her pocket.
After a whole night of rapid recovery, she could finally transform and do something serious after transforming.
“Transformation!”
Purple light erupted from Xia Mo, and in her Rosemary state, she smiled as she summoned her magic cannon, lifting one of its barrels as she walked towards the dragon girl.
“Wait, wait! Teacher Xia, don’t confront this child with a cannon; no matter what, that’s too much!” Luo Shuangyue quickly lunged to grab Xia Mo’s hand, her instincts telling her that Xia Mo was a bit too excited at the moment.
Her way of quieting the dragon girl might not be through reasoning, but rather through force.
The disturbance finally made the dragon girl stop her loud howling. Turning her head, she glanced at the completely transformed Xia Mo and gasped.
“You’ve changed!”
Xia Mo’s purple eyes sparkled slightly; she finally understood what the dragon girl was saying.
“Come over here; I’ll give you a buff.” Xia Mo sighed and waved at the dragon girl.
The meaning behind her words was also understood by the dragon girl, and this finally achieved communication brightened the dragon girl’s eyes.
Without suspicion, she ran up to Xia Mo, eagerly wanting to know what kind of buff Xia Mo was going to give her.
The magic cannon in Xia Mo’s hand quickly shrank in size as if by magic, finally becoming the size of a pen. She gestured for the dragon girl to lean in, then began to draw on the girl’s forehead using the pen.
A few minutes later, a relatively simple magic circle formed on the girl’s forehead.
“This is a magic spell for facilitating communication between two people who don’t speak the same language; it was researched by a senior long ago.” After drawing the magic circle on the dragon girl, Xia Mo patted her thigh, signaling Luo Shuangyue to come over obediently for her drawing.
Glancing at the dragon girl, who seemed to want to play with the magic circle on her head, Xia Mo quickly reminded, “Don’t touch it, the magic circle is fragile; I don’t have much magical power left and won’t be able to draw another one for you.”
Upon hearing this, the dragon girl’s restless little hands immediately dropped.
This little girl was quite obedient.
Soon, Xia Mo left a similar magic circle on Luo Shuangyue’s forehead so they could communicate with one another.
“Phew, to return to my best state, I need a few days of rest. Right now, using two spells feels like my body can’t handle it…”
After releasing the spells, Xia Mo quickly exited her transformation state. Maintaining the transformed form also drains magical power; she couldn’t afford to waste her magic on unnecessary things.
As for why she didn’t cast a similar spell on herself… the first reason was that it was unnecessary, and the second was that the magic a magical girl releases on herself resets after the transformation ends.
The buff she provided was for Rosemary; what did it have to do with her?
That was probably the case.
The magic she just used was called ‘Expressing Hidden Feelings,’ considered a “cheat” communication spell.
Anyone with this spell on their head would involuntarily express their true feelings, and such feelings are fluctuations of mental energy, something everyone could comprehend but not necessarily fully understand.
Although it sure wasn’t as good as being able to directly understand what the other person said, it was the best spell Xia Mo had for the current situation.
Not being able to understand much was certainly better than not understanding at all.
“Hello~” Since Xia Mo didn’t have this spell on her forehead, the task of communicating with the dragon girl had to fall to Luo Shuangyue. “My name is Luo Shuangyue; what’s your name?”
This simple greeting was easily conveyed as a hidden feeling, and the dragon girl understood Luo Shuangyue’s intent with ease.
“I’m not good; I’m Taya. I came to a strange place.” The dragon girl babbled.
Although her phrasing was a bit awkward, they had at least established some communication.
“Taya?” Luo Shuangyue mimicked the dragon girl’s tone, pronouncing the somewhat difficult name.
“Mm-hmm, this name was given to Taya by the Holy Being.” The dragon girl nodded happily.
The other name that appeared in her words made Luo Shuangyue’s expression turn serious.
Holy Being? She wasn’t sure if the translation of hidden feelings was correct, but one thing was for certain: Taya held great admiration for this Holy Being.
Just like the admiration magical girls had for Bai Ye?
“Who is the Holy Being?”
“The Holy Being is the Holy Being, the most magnificent Holy Being!”
Well, this topic was going nowhere, and Luo Shuangyue covered her face and sighed.
It wasn’t that Taya didn’t want to cooperate, but with Taya’s little head and Xia Mo’s magic, it was impossible to explain such a complex concept clearly.
Forget about that so-called Holy Being for now; let’s ask about the gray wasteland they were in before.
“What was the place we encountered earlier?”
“That place? That’s the land of the dead, oh!”
Land of the dead; that was the name of the gray wasteland according to Taya.
It was inhabited by beings that were wholly incompatible with living creatures, unable to communicate at all yet causing irreparable impacts on this world.
“Magical power is fading; the world used to be beautiful, but now it is slowly dying,” Taya said as she looked at the distant purple flowers tinged with darkness, an inexplicable emotion flashing in her eyes.
Once, there hadn’t been a land of the dead in this world, and the living beings within it had no need to communicate with each other.
All beings were born with their own territory and could do anything within it, and the territory was vast enough that they could play around as they pleased.
Most living beings wouldn’t even meet their neighbors before their long lives came to an end.
Only a small portion of the more active lives would choose to leave their own territories and roam around this vast world, becoming what could be described as unwanted vagabonds.
However, this all changed many years ago; due to a disaster of unknown origins, a phenomenon called the Black Calamity appeared in this world.
Lives corroded by the black would die in agony; their forms would be completely twisted, turning into terrifying monsters.
With the appearance of the Black Calamity, the entire world’s magical power concentration began to decrease rapidly, as if the drain valve of a swimming pool had suddenly been opened.
“Everyone doesn’t want to be turned into monsters by the Black Calamity, so the Holy Being gathered everyone together to hide in the Sacred Domain,” Taya continued to explain.
This flower sea had been eroded by the Black Calamity, and once the life in this world discovered signs of black corrosion in their territories, they would immediately abandon the corroded territory and leave.
Thus, the owner of this place must have left long ago.
“The Holy Being found the land of the dead; she said that all the deceased went there, but everyone there is no longer who we knew.”
“The black soil has the ability to resist the Black Calamity, and we need to enter the land of the dead to secretly dig up the black soil.”
Taya stated her objective for entering the land of the dead; her target was the black soil beneath those black monsters.
Of course, this soil had already turned into a mass of murky energy after leaving the land of the dead, no longer resembling soil from that world.
“Great, mom’s magic sent us to another world.” Luo Shuangyue pressed her forehead, sighing.
From Taya’s description, even a fool could tell they weren’t in a world they were familiar with.
But to say that the two worlds were completely unrelated would not be entirely true; the white shadows in the land of the dead indeed resembled Luo Shuangyue’s mother.
And Luo Shuangyue’s mother was certainly not from this world; she must have been human before becoming a magical girl.
“So, the land of the dead is like a bridge, connecting our world with Taya’s world.”
Luo Shuangyue drew two circles on the ground with her finger, then connected the circles with a line.
“Taya, do you know what the white magic circle in the land of the dead and the white shadow chasing the black monsters are?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t exist before; it only appeared recently.” Taya shook her head; she didn’t have many opportunities to think deeply, her thoughts barely skimming the surface.
“It can help us chase away the black things; it’s a good thing.”
She said so.
“I feel like I can’t get any more information from her…” Luo Shuangyue scratched her head; this dragon girl from another world seemed to be a bit too innocent.
Although this purity made it very easy for her to obtain basic information about this world, more in-depth information remained elusive.
If she wanted to know more, including how to return, perhaps they would have to ask that Holy Being in the Sacred Domain that Taya mentioned.
“Taya, we want to go to the Sacred Domain to meet the Holy Being; is that okay?”
“Of course! The Sacred Domain welcomes everyone.” Taya nodded excitedly, showing no suspicion of Luo Shuangyue possibly having ulterior motives.
However, after her happiness, this little dragon girl fell back into a glum state.
“But I don’t know how to get back.”
The purple flower sea was a place she had never been to, and she had no idea how to find the direction to the Sacred Domain.
Although the Sacred Domain welcomed everyone, it wouldn’t come all the way here to look for three lost children, would it?
“Um… let me ask to be sure; how big is this world you’re in?”
“I don’t know!”
“Then how did you go to the Sacred Domain before?”
“…Um, a big butterfly woke me up while I was sleeping, told me about the Sacred Domain, and let me choose whether to go or not.” Taya tapped her chin with her claw, struggling to remember something from long ago.
Her memory wasn’t great, but she could vaguely recall that day.
“I don’t know how long I flew; I just flew there eventually.”
“Flew?” Luo Shuangyue looked at Taya, who showed no signs of being able to fly at all; it seemed this little girl still had some hidden talents.
But she didn’t know how long it took to get to the Sacred Domain… this world seemed bigger than she thought.
“Hmph, I’m pretty amazing, okay? Very few can enter the land of the dead to explore alone.”
This wasn’t mere self-praise; Luo Shuangyue did not doubt Taya’s strength. Just looking at her appearance, Luo Shuangyue felt that this child couldn’t be too weak.
After all, being a girl with dragon traits all over her body, dragons were generally symbols of great combat power, right?
“Oh, oh, Taya is awesome…”
Just as Luo Shuangyue was about to say a couple of polite words, Xia Mo, who was sitting aside as a listener, suddenly poked her in the waist.
“What’s wrong?” Luo Shuangyue quickly shut her mouth and looked at Xia Mo.
She didn’t believe Xia Mo interrupted because she was jealous of Taya being complimented; this sudden interruption must mean there was something important she wanted to tell her.
“Something feels off; the black spots on those flowers suddenly increased and grew larger.” Xia Mo quietly reminded, pointing toward the drooping flowers in the flower sea.
Perhaps it was because this flower sea reminded Xia Mo of her own traits as a magical girl that she had always been quite focused on it.
And it was this attention that made her notice the abnormalities in the flowers.
The flowers soaked in black seemed to have multiplied…
“Um, Taya, can I ask you something?”
“What question?”
“If the black flowers around us suddenly multiplied, what would that generally mean?”
“Oh, that means the Black Calamity has erupted; those polluted flowers will soon turn into terrifying black monsters… eh!”
With a very stiff motion, Taya turned her head in the direction Luo Shuangyue was looking at.
The blackness rapidly spread through the purple flower sea, quickly corrupting the entire flower field.
“The Black Calamity has erupted!!!” Taya, who had been acting rather offbeat, leaped up from the ground, as if encountering something terrifying, and quickly ran deeper into the flower sea that hadn’t been infested by the black.
Seeing that Taya had turned into a cowardly lizard, Luo Shuangyue and Xia Mo exchanged glances, helplessly following after her. They only had Taya as their guide and couldn’t let her just run away.
Since Luo Shuangyue had mobility issues, Xia Mo simply carried Luo Shuangyue on her back, straining to chase after the suddenly escaping Taya.
But Taya was evidently much faster than Xia Mo, who was carrying Luo Shuangyue; in the blink of an eye, Taya disappeared into the flower sea.
“She runs really fast; is the Black Calamity that terrifying?” Seeing that they couldn’t catch up with Taya, Xia Mo slowed her pace, muttering quietly.
Taya’s reaction was like a mouse seeing a cat; just how horrifying was this calamity called the Black Calamity in Taya’s eyes?
Moreover, Taya had mentioned that things polluted by black would turn into pitch-black monsters…
That sounded somewhat familiar.
“To be fair, the commotion seems pretty similar to when monsters appear on our side.” Luo Shuangyue had already thought of how the Black Calamity was reminiscent of something on their side.
In their world, there were always signs before monsters appeared; magical energy would overflow from the space, corroding nearby objects, and then, when the corrosion peaked, monsters would suddenly emerge.
However, Luo Shuangyue had never personally witnessed any exaggerated signs of monsters appearing. Now, the Magic Department had various methods to lock onto all kinds of signs before a monster’s appearance. For royal-class and emperor-class monsters, which took forever to fully manifest, the Magic Department wouldn’t watch them grow peacefully.
When it came to interrupting a monster’s growth, the Magic Department had countless methods, ranging from violent demolitions to precise bomb disarmament, hundreds of solutions.
There was bound to be a method suitable for interrupting the birth of a monster.
“Look, the place we just exited should be the outskirts affected by the Black Calamity. From the looks of it, what’s coming out will likely be a royal-class monster.”
After glancing back at the now-distorted sky behind them, Luo Shuangyue quickly made her judgment.
This was actually easy to guess; minor-class and general-class monsters didn’t create such exaggerated disturbances when they were born. The appearance of emperor-class monsters was catastrophic, while the current situation was just exaggerated enough to indicate it was a royal-class monster.
“A royal-class… that’s not easy to deal with.”
“You’re an Initial Bloom Level Magical Girl; how can you be afraid of a mere quarterly royal-class monster?” Luo Shuangyue lightly punched Xia Mo’s shoulder playfully.
Xia Mo pressed her lips together, continuing deeper into the flower sea.
While walking, she explained, “I’m not in the best state; even a very ordinary royal-class monster wouldn’t be easy to defeat.”
If she had even half of her power at her disposal, she wouldn’t be afraid of this unborn royal-class monster.
Intervening in the monster’s birth process and following the standard procedure to defeat it wouldn’t even require half of her magical power.
But now, she only had a tiny bit of magical power to use, and she absolutely couldn’t afford to fight a hard battle.
So, all she could do now was run as fast as possible, as far away as possible, hoping the monster wouldn’t find her while she regained her strength.
“Once I’ve regained my power, that monster will be in trouble,” Xia Mo said angrily.
“There’s no need to rush; the birth process of a royal-class monster takes quite a while, giving us enough time to run far away and hide.”
While she said that, Luo Shuangyue knew that traveling on foot would take quite some time, and the monster wouldn’t take too long to catch up.
Now that Taya had completely vanished, the two could only wander aimlessly through the flower sea, feeling certain they would eventually be chased down by a monster.
“If only there were some method to quickly recover magical energy…”
“If you were me, you could try eating the flowers here; the magical power content in these flowers isn’t low, though it can’t compare to monsters.” Luo Shuangyue glanced at You Lian, who had been stealthily munching on flowers.
This little one was even picky, only eating the petals and wasting the stems.
Feeling the dissatisfaction emanating from Luo Shuangyue, You Lian looked pitifully up, stating she was using the most efficient method to restore her power. The magical power in petals was easier to digest, while eating the stems wasn’t as easy.
In terms of obtaining a unit of magical power, eating petals took just a minute, but eating stems required three to four minutes; the efficiency gap was too huge.
Furthermore, no one lived here anymore, so what was the harm in You Lian eating a bit more?
“That does make sense. You Lian, can you take down that monster over there?”
You Lian, who had returned with a slightly deeper color than yesterday, flew back to Luo Shuangyue’s side, munching on flowers while using her body to indicate she didn’t have much better status than her owner.
The taste of the flowers was indeed pretty good and could restore magical power, but relying on this to quickly regain fighting capacity was wishful thinking.
Unless there were some treasure-level flowers in this sea that could instantly replenish a blooming level magical girl’s power, You Lian would need several days of continuous eating to gain enough strength to challenge a Demon Lord.
And in those first few days before adequate combat power was regained, You Lian would be almost useless in battle.
If Xia Mo’s recovery was a straight line, then You Lian’s was a curve that was steep at the end but shallow at the beginning. As her strength gradually returned, the speed of her recovery would increase.
But for the first few days, this adorable little one was best regarded as an eating mascot.
“Then, You Lian, how about you try some of my mom’s magical power?” Luo Shuangyue reached into her belly and, under Xia Mo’s horrified gaze, pulled out a white orb wrapped in blackish-purple flesh.
At this moment, Xia Mo finally felt the reality of having a girlfriend who was no longer human.
So you can actually take out the magical power orbs after swallowing them!
Then why were you pretending to be sick on my back? If you had to run away, couldn’t you just take the orb out and run on your own?
“Don’t look at me like that; this magical power is currently unstable. I can only absorb and stabilize it by keeping it in my belly, so if I take it out, it will explode!”
Luo Shuangyue was not trying to be lazy; rather, she couldn’t keep this orb outside for too long.
Did you think the fleshy bits on the surface of the white orb were because she didn’t clean it properly? No, those chunks were to stabilize the power.
Without this magical energy, the white orb would have exploded long ago.
“Is that so…” Xia Mo carefully touched the orb, her eyes filled with curiosity.
Of course, she couldn’t absorb the magical power inside it, even if that portion had already lost its owner.
In the absence of the magical power owner cooperating, attempting to absorb power that didn’t belong to her was less effective than drawing on the unowned magical energy in the air, at least for Xia Mo.
As for Luo Shuangyue… she was currently a Demon Lord and couldn’t be judged by common standards.
“And with this in my belly, I won’t need to look for food for the next few days. Since you haven’t fully recovered yet, you’ll need to rely on this orb to get through the initial days.”
If better food substitutes appeared, Luo Shuangyue certainly wouldn’t willingly eat this tasteless and difficult-to-digest orb, but this was the only long-term supply she could find right now.
Once Xia Mo regained her powers, she would certainly have the potential to become Luo Shuangyue’s caretaker, but that took time. During this waiting period, to prevent the little butterfly in her mind from popping out to cause trouble, Luo Shuangyue might as well obediently gnaw on this orb.
“You mean, while alone with me, you plan to take a bite and start gorging on me?”
Saying this, Luo Shuangyue opened her mouth, revealing her sharp teeth.
These sharp teeth were also a symbol that Luo Shuangyue had transformed into a non-human being; when she was a magical girl, her teeth had still looked normal.
“You said this thing will explode outside your body due to instability, can it be used against monsters?” Xia Mo swiftly changed the topic away.
It was impressive that she could find a direction for conversation in such a short time, and it was a fairly constructive direction.
“Sure, it can, but this magical power is just… wait, this is my mom’s magical power, so we can’t view it with ordinary magical standards.”
In terms of quantity, this magical power was roughly equivalent to an Initial Bloom Level Magical Girl’s attack, and after being digested by Luo Shuangyue for several days, not much magical power remained.
But in terms of quality, this magical power was remarkable.
Legendary Magical Girl, the strongest Magical Girl, and the Magical Girl known as a goddess; these were all titles belonging to Luo Shuangyue’s mother.
If this magical power were to explode, an ordinary royal-class monster wouldn’t be able to withstand it, and at best, it would be severely injured and unable to fight.
Then Xia Mo just needed to land the finishing blow with her ordinary magic cannon to easily achieve victory.
“As long as we can explode it on a monster, we can win!” Luo Shuangyue quickly reached this conclusion.
Now the problem was, how could they make sure to detonate it on that monster?
Hmm, that was a good question, so good that Luo Shuangyue couldn’t find any solution at the moment.
Neither she nor Xia Mo had enough strength to fight monsters in close combat. Royal-class monsters weren’t just fools who would let themselves be hit; they were intelligent beings that knew how to fight.
It was impossible to expect them to obediently accept this orb as if they were idiots!
“Forget it; I’ll just think about it on the way,” Luo Shuangyue sighed, shoving the white orb back into her belly reluctantly.
All they needed was two days of rest, and a royal-class monster wouldn’t be a threat.
If they didn’t have those two days… then they’d have to grit their teeth and use the white orb as a hand grenade.
“Hey, come here!”
A loud voice rang from afar.
The horned dragon girl stood at a distance, waving vigorously at the two.
“Hey, Taya didn’t abandon us; this child has a kind heart.”
To be honest, Luo Shuangyue had been prepared for Taya to leave without looking back, but Taya gave her a delightful surprise.
After being scared into running away, she actually waited for her two unknown companions to catch up.
In Luo Shuangyue’s home, Taya would definitely be the kind of person who could find magical gems!
“Taya, you ran too fast; we couldn’t catch up to you!” Luo Shuangyue puffed her cheeks, pretending to be unhappy as she walked over to Taya with Xia Mo’s support.
Taya felt the slight dissatisfaction in Luo Shuangyue’s heart and scratched her head in embarrassment.
It seemed leaving her companions behind was seen as a mistake in Taya’s eyes.
“The Black Calamity is terrifying; only the warriors inside the Sacred Domain can fight against the monsters born from it.” Taya solemnly and seriously addressed Luo Shuangyue.
However, there was a hint of serious self-justification in her thoughts.
This was the downside of the hidden feelings magic; those under this magic essentially could not tell lies, and even if they did, their true thoughts would be revealed through their expressions of hidden feelings.
Just like Taya at this moment, she appeared serious in her explanation of the dangers of the Black Calamity, but her actual thoughts were more about justifying her panic and flight.
“Those monsters are so scary! They’re small but very powerful; I’ve seen the warriors from the Sacred Domain fight the monsters, and they even collapsed the mountains next to the Sacred Domain!”
Taya gestured vividly about the strength of the monsters and, this time, she didn’t embellish her words; her emotions reflected mainly fear.
Well, for ordinary people who lacked combat capability, monsters could indeed be termed as invincible creatures.
Even if Taya didn’t seem like an ordinary person who couldn’t even swat a fly, she probably wouldn’t fare well against a slightly stronger monster.
After all, relying solely on physical strength wouldn’t defeat a monster; only magic could defeat monsters.
“But Taya, you’ve lived here all your life; it’s impossible that you don’t fight using magical power, right?” Luo Shuangyue asked curiously.
In the human world, it was common for most people not to know how to use magic since it didn’t exist.
However, Taya was a native of this world and exuded an air that indicated she was more than just an ordinary person. Luo Shuangyue found it hard to believe that she was completely clueless about magic.
“I can, but my current body can’t fight like that.” Taya scratched her head.
“And with the Black Calamity being so severe over there, any monsters appearing are definitely going to be very powerful. I wouldn’t be able to win.”
When she said this, her thoughts probably leaned towards “I’m just logistics; I don’t have the strength of actual fighters.”
Mm, Luo Shuangyue had her reservations about that.
