Chapter 78: The World

Thinking back to Lightningman’s charged punch, that single blow could have nearly killed her.

Without Jinluan’s cover, Lightningman was about to unleash his charged punch again.

If she didn’t fire now, she would be hit by it.

No! I can still hold on a bit longer.

At this moment, her charge level was about 62%.

Every extra second she endured increased the probability of killing Lightningman.

Yinlin made the bravest decision.

After Lightningman got caught in the electric net, Yinlin began to ascend, and her current altitude was still acceptable.

As expected, he started his trick again—breaking a streetlamp pole, throwing it, then running onto the flying pole and riding it to catch up with Yinlin, who was high in the air.

This could very well be the last chance to fire. Still no shot?!

Fear urged her to act.

But Yinlin held back; the charge level wasn’t high enough yet.

Even if she dodged with all her might, she still couldn’t avoid Lightningman’s attack.

That guy jumped onto her head and slammed down a fierce kick.

Sure enough, the shield shattered again, and her body plunged sharply toward the ground.

She quickly deployed her shield again before impact, which reduced some of the damage.

The ground was smashed into a huge crater.

The items dropped from the plane flying overhead finally landed and exploded almost simultaneously—but they weren’t bombs, rather something like smoke grenades.

These smoke grenades were interesting—large and plentiful, instantly shrouding the ground in thick mist, blocking vision.

The Human Alliance clearly understood who the main force of this battle was—not the humans, but the magical girls.

After covering the battlefield with smoke, Lightningman’s offensive was indeed weakened.

Yinlin struggled to get up, coughing softly while hiding within the smoke.

Lightningman could sense magic power and hear sounds but only had a rough idea of Yinlin’s location.

After searching several times, it still couldn’t find her.

The smoke delayed critical time, allowing Yinlin’s charge to reach 79%.

Lightningman’s intelligence began to take effect; standing within the smoke, it charged up and threw a punch.

This time, not only Yinlin, but the Human Alliance and Liang Tai watching from afar all felt the shock.

Liang Tai had just said, “Family, we’re back at the scene again, huh.”

Far from the convention center, a thunderous roar suddenly rang out.

Looking at the battle site, the previously mist-covered area erupted with a shockwave, scattering the smoke.

The cement ground was lifted by the blast, cracks appeared in a nearby building, and the roof was blown off.

Even the clouds above were pushed apart by the shockwave, as if the Earth had been parted down the middle.

Yinlin’s eyes widened, sweat pouring down her face, filled with terror.

This was the same punch she took in the sewer last time, except this time it seemed even stronger.

Is this… a monster that magical girls can contend with?

“Request rescue from the Alliance.”

The middle-aged man immediately made a decisive decision, very resolute.

“This might be a city-destroying disaster. My judgment was wrong; I might become a historical sinner.”

He muttered to himself, somewhat distraught.

He knew well how terrifying cadre-level aberrations were—the events on Qianlong Island were fresh in his memory.

Yinlin had given him hope, leading him to mistakenly believe she could defeat this cadre-level aberration who seemingly had no ranged attacks and couldn’t even fly.

He was wrong—very, very wrong.

“No matter how strong they are, they’re just a group of teenage girls.”

The man admitted he had overestimated them.

And even if Lightningman was weak, he was still a cadre-level aberration.

Seeing Lightningman’s earth-shattering punch, he knew that this was not something the Jin, Yin, and Hong sisters could handle.

It would take a huge sacrifice of magical girls and humans to solve.

Thinking they could take down Lightningman with just three magical girls and human support?

Wrong, terribly wrong.

They hadn’t given enough respect from the start—they had underestimated him.

The battle over there seemed about to conclude.

Lightningman disappeared from sight but kept attacking.

In the next moment, Yinlin fell.

He didn’t use the charged punch but struck first with control, forcing Yinlin onto her back, her staff aimed upward—any magic blast would be fired at the sky, not the ground.

She hadn’t even fallen fully to the ground yet and was still mid-fall when she finally caught sight of Lightningman.

This meant Lightningman had stopped moving.

It had amassed a massive amount of magic power.

One second later, Yinlin landed and raised a new shield.

Lightningman’s punch followed, landing a hit.

The ground was smashed into a crater more than 20 meters deep, and the cracks spread several kilometers out.

Magical girls really are a high-level profession.

That was Yinlin’s biggest thought right now.

That’s why she didn’t want to be a magical girl—this thankless, exhausting job was better left to others.

Someone has to bear the burden and push forward; others can live peaceful lives.

So why can’t I be one of those living peacefully, letting others carry the weight?

She lay in a pool of blood, a huge hole torn from her chest to abdomen, completely penetrated.

Her organs were destroyed, her body shriveled, blood covering her entire body.

Last time was just a serious injury; this time, she was probably going to die.

She struggled to move her right hand holding the staff, wanting one last aim at Lightningman searching her body.

What was he looking for?

She didn’t know.

He searched her for a long time.

She still couldn’t raise her hand; her strength was fading, and her eyelids were growing unbearably heavy.

Ah, looks like work is over for me too.

I guess I’m getting fired.

Her right hand weakly fell to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the scene before her changed—no longer familiar.

Everything froze.

This scene was familiar too; she had seen it twice before.

Lightningman was frozen, bent over searching her body, seemingly unaware that time had stopped.

“Cough cough.”

A tailless, cat-like creature approached, stopping beside Yinlin.

Yinlin’s eyes could still move, but she couldn’t speak.

Diamond pulled something out of its fur—the fruit of the World Tree.

Huh?

Where did that come from?

Diamond seemed to read her thoughts and said, “I didn’t eat it last time. I knew I couldn’t hold on any longer—it was only a matter of time. I thought maybe someday you’d need it more than I do.”

It placed the World Tree fruit near Yinlin’s mouth, but she didn’t open it, clenching her teeth.

Diamond tried to pinch her cheek, but it was useless.

It didn’t have enough strength to force her mouth open.

“I’m leaving soon. Even if you don’t eat it, the outcome won’t change.” Diamond sounded very calm.

Yinlin noticed Diamond’s right leg slowly dissolving into points of light, disappearing like fireflies.

The fading was slow.

Diamond seemed to be burning its life force to use this time stop once more.