Entering the Pumpkin Carriage felt like stepping into a miniature world; its internal expanse was far beyond the scale of a mere vehicle.
Myriad stars hung in the sky. To the left lay the Shiwan Dashan, and to the right, the Baili Chuanhe. Before and behind were equally bizarre and grotesque spectacles.
Most eye-catching of all were the colored particles drifting through the air like dancing fireflies. They were breathtakingly beautiful, flickering in and out like a rhythmic breath, possessing a splendor rivaling a fairyland.
When Xue regained her senses, she found herself sitting on a seat within the Pumpkin Carriage. While the surroundings remained the same, a coachman had appeared in front of her. It possessed a roughly humanoid shape, though its body was a void of starlight-speckled black. It had no front or back, no facial features, and no detailed anatomy; it was as if it were merely a silhouette.
However, the colored particles in the air seemed particularly dense around it.
“You?” Xue asked.
This coachman gave her a feeling very similar to Luo You.
“Who is You?” the coachman asked back.
“Eh? You… You is… very unique… hard to describe…”
“Then what about you?”
“Me… what does that have to do with you?”
Xue felt she was being a bit clumsy with her words, but since this coachman wasn’t Luo You, she dared to be defiant. “What kind of thing are you anyway? Playing tricks and acting just like You!” A pair of eerie eyes appeared on the coachman’s deep, starry face.
That familiar gaze caused Xue’s body to instantly tense up.
“Vi… vio… lation…” Her lips trembled as she stumbled back.
“Come back…”
Facing the other’s question, Xue felt so tongue-tied that she couldn’t even organize her words.
Conversely, the coachman’s presence grew increasingly intense.
“Since you have no lingering attachment to your current life, why not choose to come back?”
The colored particles swarmed forward, surrounding Xue’s body and glowing with an ultimate brilliance. Every bizarre sight in the surroundings was stained with a single color.
It was Frost White, a shade symbolizing the end of infinite time, spreading in every direction like ink.
—
Reality Changming City –
“Strange, why did it get so cold?”
People walking on the streets, people watching TV at home, and even those lost in drunken dreams suddenly shivered and clutched their shoulders.
And then, there was no more “after.”
Everything and everyone vanished along with the freezing cold.
A hole cracked open in the sky, and from it, a blizzard poured forth like a torrential downpour, creating a spectacle far more grand than the Milky Way. The sheer volume was so immense that onlookers from afar thought an entire ocean was falling. The rising tide of snow was so great that the blizzard alone pulverized the entire city.
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Unlike the tropes shown in movies, even in a city-destroying disaster, a tiny number of survivors usually manage to persist in some unexpected corners.
But what Changming City encountered now was completely different.
It was a total, thorough, and ultimate extinction that allowed for no fluke of survival or hope. Therefore, the death toll was quite easy to estimate.
The Black Candle Colossus’s first stop—-Death Toll: Approximately 3.23 million people.
“?!”
En route to Wugang City, Luo You suddenly turned her head. The cold wind blowing toward her was as sharp as a blade. Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from that direction, she wasn’t overly surprised or angry; she simply let out a flat exhale.
Having just spoken on the phone a few minutes ago only to now realize the other party was gone—this was the first time she had ever experienced such a complicated feeling.
“So, man proposes but heaven disposes after all…”
It didn’t appear sooner or later, but chose to show up right when she was heading to Wugang City. She had originally intended to take a wait-and-see approach regarding the appearance of the Black Candle Colossus; she wouldn’t have interfered with it until she obtained precise information about The Box.
However—-
The reason still came down to Xue.
Luo You’s attitude toward Xue had always been the same: not only was she unhelpful, but she had also forced Luo You to run around many times because of her; she was a complete burden. So as long as Xue didn’t cause her trouble, she wouldn’t give up on her. But if things didn’t go as planned… Furthermore, she was currently preparing to go and settle accounts with those who were exploiting Red Feather’s existence.
The priorities were obvious; Xue’s existence could not be allowed to hinder her steps. [Anyway, that girl has felt that this kind of life was meaningless for a long time now. I might as well just let her have her wish.]
Just as Luo You thought this, she suddenly seemed to realize something she had been ignoring, and her pupils trembled slightly. A moment later, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“It seems that bastard Xingyue has made some progress compared to Red Feather…”
Luo You turned around and looked toward Changming City. Fine then, I’ll give you a chance.
Having made up her mind, Luo You no longer hesitated. The trajectory of He Guang; Tian Lan headed straight for Changming City.
The extreme cold was spreading, and solid ice was piling up. This time, no alarm was needed; people in the surrounding cities began to flee like mad. They didn’t care where they went, as long as they could get away from this land.
Broken-Winged Butterfly and Lark, who were the first to arrive at the scene in Changming City, trembled deep inside as they gazed upon the sight. “How… how many people died?”
Lark covered her mouth, terrified tears streaming continuously from her eyes. Sometimes, death arrived all too suddenly. To say nothing of the deaths of so many people. Broken-Winged Butterfly’s fingertips also trembled violently as she watched.
This scene had occurred once before at the Jiuming Sea, but back then, the residents had been evacuated in time. They had powerful support from all over and Rank Zero Magic to stall the Black Candle Colossus immediately, allowing them to subjugate it with minimal casualties.
However, they had nothing now. No emergency evacuation, no Rank Zero Magic, and no reinforcements from any direction. –And even worse, there was no one left to rescue.
In a disaster-stricken area, the lack of sound is often the most despair-inducing thing of all.
It was unimaginable that a city with a resident and floating population of over three million could become so quiet in less than a few minutes after the disaster struck.
If there had been even a single sound, they would have ignited their fighting spirit and risked their lives to drag people out. But reality was the cruelest mirror. It was this absolute silence that instantly shattered Lark’s psychological defenses, making her wail in grief.
“Lark, pull back. There won’t be any survivors here,” Broken-Winged Butterfly said with difficulty. “…Sister, will… will there be other places like this later?”
Lark’s tears froze in the cold wind. Under this level of low temperature, even words seemed to lose their emotional tone, leaving only numbness and emptiness. “As long as we contain it, there won’t be,” Broken-Winged Butterfly whispered.
However, her voice could not carry in the freezing wind. The rolling waves of the blizzard continued to flow, violently consuming their magic. At this rate, it would be over before they could even formally begin the fight.
The military units attempting to come to the rescue at any cost also stepped into a silent death one after another as they drew near. The remaining soldiers could only escort civilians as they retreated into the distance. This was already an abandoned zone.
Even the Magical Girls, whose destiny was to save the dying and heal the wounded, were forced to abandon this place. Left with no choice as she watched Lark’s refusal to leave, Broken-Winged Butterfly had to forcibly restrain her and take her away.
While she was retreating with Lark, she caught sight of a pink trail falling through the pale sky, its beauty beyond the description of any language.
â—Ž
[That’s—!?] Broken-Winged Butterfly turned her head in a panic.
It looked too similar. It was as if she had suddenly been transported back to her infancy, to that soul-shaking trail she had occasionally glimpsed through a window, falling straight into that hopeless, unknown territory of the Realm Sea.
That magnificent scene was something that even an infant who shouldn’t have been able to remember things, like Broken-Winged Butterfly back then, had firmly engraved into her mind. The roar that pierced the air–
“How staggering…”
Broken-Winged Butterfly couldn’t help but let out a thin smile. It was as if her heart began to beat with a renewed, surging intensity.