“Little sister, wake up, it’s time to get up!” Luo Shuangyue shook Xixi’s shoulder hard, trying to rouse the girl from her deep sleep.
But no matter how much she shook her, the girl in her arms didn’t react at all, as if she were completely dead.
“She’s never waking up. Do you really think I’d allow a presence inside this body that could compete with me for control?” The two remaining fist-sized fragments of the consumed monster sneered mockingly.
“I’m keeping her consciousness only to let that girl feel even deeper pain.”
Her plan was simple: slowly tear apart Xixi’s consciousness right in front of Xiao Yi and consume it, then use Xixi’s body to send Xiao Yi to her death.
A twisted sort of dark amusement, but for this monster who had reached a major milestone yet now lacked direction, it was quite an entertaining pastime.
Royal-Class Magic Beasts possess intelligence equal to or surpassing humans. They think, feel joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—but their fundamental nature is evil, a born corruption.
They are the exact opposite of Magical Girls.
“Exactly because of that, you must have a way to wake her up again.” Luo Shuangyue put down Xixi and fixed her gaze on the monster.
The monster’s goal was to torture Xiao Yi, to make her die in utter despair and regret, so it could never allow Xixi to remain asleep forever.
It wanted to utterly kill Xixi in front of Xiao Yi. Given the monster’s cruelty, Luo Shuangyue was confident that at that moment the monster would awaken Xixi’s consciousness.
Then Xiao Yi would have to listen to Xixi’s screams as she was slowly torn apart.
“You definitely know!”
“So what if I do? I won’t tell you a thing!”
“I don’t need you to tell me—I can find out myself.” Luo Shuangyue pressed her hand against the mass of flesh the monster had become and used thorns to wrap it in a spiritual cocoon. Then, carrying it, she flew into her own spiritual world.
After a sensation both brief and endless, Luo Shuangyue arrived deep within her spiritual realm. Phantom Thorn was already waiting there.
“You’re a bit late.”
“So, you had me bring her here. What exactly do you want to do?” Luo Shuangyue threw the wrapped mass to Phantom Thorn, puzzled.
Catching the flesh mass, Phantom Thorn glanced at the sky.
The Butterfly of Netherworld had lowered its head, eyes fixed intently on the Demon Emperor’s consciousness held by Phantom Thorn.
That gaze was filled with hunger.
“See? It’s not me, it’s it.” “Wait—I still need to interrogate her myself…”
Before Luo Shuangyue finished speaking, Phantom Thorn threw the mass forcefully upward, and the Butterfly of Netherworld skillfully caught it in its mouth.
Accompanied by a chilling, blood-curdling scream, Luo Shuangyue was stunned as she watched the Demon Emperor’s consciousness she had brought being devoured completely by the Butterfly.
“You!” She glared at Phantom Thorn in frustration. “At least wait until I finish asking what I need!”
You just fed it to the butterfly—what am I supposed to ask now?
“Don’t worry, you wouldn’t get her to speak by normal means. If you consume her and digest her spiritual energy, naturally you’ll get the information you want.” Phantom Thorn explained helplessly.
The Butterfly of Netherworld was a strange existence; whatever it ate would be transformed into Luo Shuangyue’s power.
After the Demon Emperor’s spiritual energy was consumed, the information contained within it settled deep in Luo Shuangyue’s mind.
Just like her.
Phantom Thorn wasn’t even sure if she was still the monster she used to be. She thought she was, but… there was another possibility.
She might just be a false existence created by the Butterfly of Netherworld from the Demon Emperor’s original magical power—shaped from memories contained in that power.
Her memories, her consciousness, might all be fabricated. She was always just a part of Luo Shuangyue.
Perhaps, at the time, Luo Shuangyue’s spiritual strength wasn’t enough to handle the impact of those memories, so in self-protection she created a being like Phantom Thorn, who had accepted all the monster’s memories.
But Phantom Thorn didn’t care much—dead was dead. Whether she was truly herself didn’t matter; lately, she had been quite happy.
That was enough.
“It’s coming…” Phantom Thorn felt new things appearing in her mind. She had guessed right—after consuming the spiritual energy, the Butterfly had extracted the monster’s memories!
“This portion of spiritual energy is too small, so the information it carries is limited. Only the details about Yi and Xixi are complete.”
Spreading out her hands, Phantom Thorn projected the memories she had acquired in visual form for Luo Shuangyue.
The truth was just as Luo Shuangyue suspected: after destroying the Elf fleet, the monster captured Xixi and performed brutal physical modifications, injecting its own consciousness into her body.
Then, following the faint connection between two pendants, it came here to hunt down Xiao Yi, the escaped fugitive at the last moment.
But the monster’s torture plan was only halfway through before being suddenly interrupted and beaten down by a magical girl—leading to its collapse.
“The memory about her and the Elf war is vague, but it’s clear there were no Magical Girls among the Elves.” Phantom Thorn muttered, stroking her chin.
Without Magical Girls, the Elves’ defeat was almost inevitable.
That also explained why this monster was instantly defeated by Luo Shuangyue with one strike when controlling Xixi’s body—she had never fought a Magical Girl before and never expected such a situation.
The environmental intelligence gleaned from several ordinary people on this planet didn’t reveal any personal powers comparable or superior to monsters.
But these powers weren’t afraid of the monsters’ strange stance toward technology—in fact, their abilities were highly effective against monsters.
“Simply put, it’s like blowing up fish and accidentally hitting a shark that bit you to death.” The monster never expected it either.
It easily destroyed an interstellar civilization but got taken down on this small planet with only surface-level civilization.
What was this Magical Girl? Its existence was utterly illogical!
But the monster no longer had a chance to transmit this information back—it had been completely devoured by the Butterfly.
“By the way, there’s bad news too. The girl’s body is deteriorating rapidly; she won’t survive more than two days.” The monster had never considered sustainability during Xixi’s modifications—everything was done roughly and recklessly, causing massive internal conflicts.
While the monster’s consciousness still existed, these conflicts could be barely suppressed. Now that it was gone, these contradictions would fully erupt.
Two days was an optimistic estimate. Pessimistically, Xixi’s body might collapse within a day.
“Sigh…” Hearing this, Luo Shuangyue sighed regretfully.
Though she knew it was wishful thinking, she had hoped to save Xixi’s life—after all, this child had suffered greatly.
But reality was harsh; there were no miracles, only endless regrets.
Slowly opening her eyes, Luo Shuangyue rubbed her slightly dizzy head and stood up from the ground.
She said to the Soul Summoner Princess, who had already withdrawn her Soulfire, “I’ve completely cleared the monster’s consciousness. Xixi will wake up soon.”
“Mm, we already know.” The Soul Summoner Princess nodded and pointed at the now lifeless flesh mass on Xixi’s back.
Not long ago, that mass had exploded in a sharp, piercing scream. After it ended, the flesh lost all vitality. At that moment, the Soul Summoner Princess had guessed Luo Shuangyue’s victory in the spiritual world.
Why it then took so long for Xixi to wake up, she couldn’t say—maybe they were trying to find a way to awaken her.
“But her body…” Luo Shuangyue hesitated.
“It won’t last long. The modifications are too crude, completely ignoring the subject’s tolerance. The methods are crude—a total zero score.” Compared to Luo Shuangyue’s worry, Monice was much more straightforward and bluntly revealed Xixi’s condition.
She had been curious about Xixi’s modification techniques, but now she wasn’t curious at all.
Such a futureless modification method was something she wouldn’t want even if it was offered.
“Go and say your last words to your sister.” Monice untied the restraints on Xiao Yi and spoke coldly, “This is your last chance.”
Before she finished, Xiao Yi crawled desperately to Xixi’s side, ignoring the ugly flesh mass attached to her sister, and hugged her tightly, crying bitterly.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Perhaps hearing Xiao Yi’s sobs, the girl with tightly shut eyes slowly opened them.
“Sister?”
Xixi’s voice was hoarse and barely audible. Her vocal cords were so damaged she could no longer produce her original voice.
Xiao Yi said nothing, just clung to her sister and cried, endlessly apologizing.
Luo Shuangyue felt a gentle bump against her shoulder.
Turning, she saw the Soul Summoner Princess nodding toward the door with a slight smile.
‘This is better left to the two sisters,’ the Soul Summoner Princess’s meaning was clear.
Luo Shuangyue was silent for a few seconds, then tiptoed out of the room with the Soul Summoner Princess.
As for Monice, the cold-hearted scientist showed no reaction, silently observing the physical data of the two sisters inside.
“Parting in life and death—every time I see it, it makes my heart ache.” Standing in the corridor, the Soul Summoner Princess spoke softly.
Magical Girls like Monice, cold and emotionless, were rare exceptions. Most Magical Girls were sensitive and empathetic.
That empathy meant they easily became melancholy, saddened by the sorrows of others.
Life-and-death separations like this always touched the deepest part of a Magical Girl’s heart.
“Yeah… Although I’m not close to that girl, I feel like I can understand her feelings—that suffocating sensation.” Luo Shuangyue looked at Xiao Yi, holding her sister and crying, feeling her own nose tingle.
It wasn’t because she was close to Xiao Yi; simply because she was also a sister.
If she were in Xiao Yi’s place, she would cry louder and suffer more.
“There are too many tragedies in this world, so many that tears could run dry. But what use are tears? Do they kill monsters? Do they bring the dead back?” The Soul Summoner Princess didn’t look inside the room but gazed down the corridor as she spoke quietly.
“Lord Dark Moth, you also have someone precious, right?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“You’re willing to do anything for them, right?”
“Even sacrifice myself, I would.”
That straightforward, unwavering answer made the Soul Summoner Princess smile with satisfaction.
She hadn’t been wrong—Lord Dark Moth was truly a standard Magical Girl.
“Then, do you want to become stronger?” The Soul Summoner Princess straightened up and turned to Luo Shuangyue, her eyes sharp and piercing.
Her gaze seemed to pierce Luo Shuangyue’s body, searching for even the slightest trace of deceit in her heart.
Facing such an unflinching look, Luo Shuangyue did not retreat.
Their eyes locked midair, and the Soul Summoner Princess nodded slightly.
She was very pleased with the firm look.
“I have a bad feeling. Perhaps soon, we will face a terrifying enemy, one that no matter how hard we fight, we cannot defeat.” She looked up at the ceiling, as if she could see through the cold, silver-gray steel to the vast starry sky beyond.
“So many things have happened in these past months, like an omen warning that a great crisis is approaching.”
First, Royal-Class Magic Beasts hiding in human society, then the Resentful Spirit Demon King who nearly destroyed all of Jidong City, and now a monster army capable of annihilating an entire alien civilization.
A string of incidents exploded within just two months, forcing the Soul Summoner Princess to have some very bad feelings.
“Do you think the monster in the sky is that big threat?”
“Maybe, but I think it’s only a vanguard. The real crisis is still ahead.” The Soul Summoner Princess shook her head.
“Dark Moth, you’re the most talented Magical Girl I’ve ever seen, so I want you to become the strongest Magical Girl!”
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