“This… it really seems like this is the only way left.” When she heard Luo Shuangyue’s idea, Xia Mo felt it was a bit unreliable at first, but thinking it over carefully, it did seem like the most reliable solution right now.
But there was still one problem facing the two of them—they were both First Bloom-Class Magical Girls, and for Luo Shuangyue to let Xia Mo manipulate her magic, their magic had to be completely merged.
This was a totally different concept from when Luo Shuangxing and Xiao Mimi had supplied their magic to Xia Mo before.
When Luo Shuangxing and Xiao Mimi sent magic to Xia Mo, the real meaning was more symbolic than practical.
Xia Mo had just stuffed the magic they’d given her into her own cannons and fired them.
Those Magic Artillery shots were, in the end, still Xia Mo’s; they had little to do with Luo Shuangxing and Xiao Mimi.
But this time was different.
Luo Shuangyue was stronger than Xia Mo, so Xia Mo couldn’t just stuff the magic into her own cannon like before.
And this cannon blast wasn’t simply a matter of firing it off.
She had to preserve the withered property of Luo Shuangyue’s magic; only then could it deal effective damage to the Resentful Spirit Demon King.
For Xia Mo, this was no small challenge.
Magical Girls could certainly use all sorts of Combi Techniques, merging their magic to unleash powerful moves was a common thing.
But all of those had a premise—the Magical Girls using the Combi Technique had to be familiar with each other. Not just familiar as people, but familiar with each other’s magic, so much so that they were as used to the other’s magic as their own.
The first half was fine for Xia Mo and Luo Shuangyue; they’d been neighbors for so long, they’d be hard-pressed not to know each other.
But the second half… Xia Mo didn’t think her relationship with Luo Shuangyue had reached the level for Combi Techniques yet.
“We haven’t practiced this beforehand. If we force a merge here….”
“We don’t have time to worry about that now, let’s just try it!” Luo Shuangyue interrupted Xia Mo. Of course she knew this wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
But right now, this was the only way. It was still more reliable than her trying to learn Magic Artillery on the spot.
“Or you could give me your four big cannons, then we wouldn’t need to merge magic at all.”
As they talked, the Resentful Spirit Demon King had already charged right up to them—or more precisely, to Luo Shuangyue—shouting about how hungry it was as it tried to bite her.
Luo Shuangyue hurriedly raised her Scythe to fight back, but after just a few moves, the Resentful Spirit Demon King had bitten off several black spikes from her body.
You couldn’t really blame her for poor fighting skills.
The Resentful Spirit Demon King was just too bizarre, attacking in ways you couldn’t possibly predict.
Fighting something like that up close was pure torture—who knew what strange move it would pull next? You thought the black mist sticking out of its body was a mouth, but it turned out to be a pair of huge claws.
You thought it was claws, but it was actually a mouth.
It left people completely baffled, with no real way to counter it.
Luo Shuangyue only had two hands and one Scythe, while the Resentful Spirit Demon King had at least dozens of mouths, maybe more. It was a true case of two fists being no match for a hundred mouths.
As for sending her Butterflies to interfere with the Resentful Spirit Demon King, Luo Shuangyue didn’t think that was a good idea.
Her Butterflies worked well against big, dumb enemies—those who, once fighting her, couldn’t spare attention for anything else.
But the Resentful Spirit Demon King was not a normal enemy. If Luo Shuangyue’s Butterflies pounced on it, the Demon King might just see them as dessert.
With dozens of mouths, it surely wouldn’t mind using a few to eat Luo Shuangyue’s Butterflies.
Seeing Luo Shuangyue struggling so hard, Xia Mo knew the best solution now was the one Luo Shuangyue had said—merge their magic and fire the Magic Artillery to poison the Resentful Spirit Demon King.
If things kept going like this, neither of them would last until the Blooming-Rank battlefield was won.
She unleashed a short, rapid barrage at the Resentful Spirit Demon King, blasting it away from Luo Shuangyue, and shouted, “Grab my hand, let’s give it a try!”
“No, that would hurt you!” Luo Shuangyue instinctively refused.
“I’ll just get behind you.” Right now, the magic in her body was even more agitated than before.
If Xia Mo grabbed her hand, the spikes would surely pierce right through Xia Mo’s palm.
“We don’t have time to worry about that! This is the best way to merge magic!” Ignoring Luo Shuangyue’s refusal, Xia Mo firmly grasped her hand.
She immediately felt stabbing pain in her palm, as if a thousand needles were piercing her skin.
“Send me your magic!” Xia Mo gritted her teeth and said to Luo Shuangyue.
It was too late to let go, so Luo Shuangyue didn’t bother saying anything else and directly sent her magic into Xia Mo’s body.
Cold. Deathly stillness. That was the first impression Luo Shuangyue’s magic gave Xia Mo.
Once Luo Shuangyue’s magic entered her, Xia Mo felt her body slowly grow cold, her limbs stiff, no longer obeying her commands.
Her own magic instinctively clashed violently with Luo Shuangyue’s, trying to drive out the invader.
No good! Xia Mo took a deep breath, forcing herself to control her magic and stop it from attacking that chilling, deathly magic.
“Give me a moment, I need to fuse them together.”
“I’ll do my best to buy you time…” Luo Shuangyue pulled the now-rigid Xia Mo into her arms. She couldn’t care whether it was appropriate or not—they just had to get through this crisis.
Xia Mo needed time to merge their magic.
During that time, they couldn’t be separated.
Which meant Luo Shuangyue had to hold onto the immobilized Xia Mo and dodge the Resentful Spirit Demon King’s attacks.
One of her hands was gripped by Xia Mo, the other was busy holding her so she wouldn’t fall. Luo Shuangyue, being human, only had two hands.
So, she had no hands left for weapons.
Her Scythe had already become a flying sword, and she was awkwardly trying to control it purely by thought, but the effect was less than ideal.
A weapon controlled solely by thought was far less powerful and flexible than wielded by hand.
The Resentful Spirit Demon King easily broke through the Scythe’s block and closed in on Luo Shuangyue.
Left with no choice, Luo Shuangyue used her magic to manifest Butterfly Wings and beat them hard, starting to run.
Seeing her meal about to escape, the Demon King shrieked sharply, black mist on its back spreading into several pairs of wings, and chased Luo Shuangyue at high speed.
“It’s so fast at flying too…” Dodging a swooping attack from the Demon King at the last moment, cold sweat dripped down Luo Shuangyue’s forehead.
She couldn’t help but think, those rumors about Emperor-class monsters were true.
The Resentful Spirit Demon King really didn’t have any weaknesses. Except for being a bit crazy, it was truly an all-around warrior.
It could do everything, and do it well.
Melee, it could transform a thousand ways; ranged, it had all kinds of techniques inherited from other monsters; it was lightning-fast; aside from being a little vulnerable to attacks at the Soul level, it didn’t seem to have any other flaws.
While Luo Shuangyue was dancing with the Demon King with Xia Mo in her arms, Xia Mo had completely immersed her consciousness inside herself, focusing everything on making her magic compatible with Luo Shuangyue’s.
It was hard—very hard.
Luo Shuangyue’s magic was utterly different from Luo Shuangxing’s and the others’, to the point where Xia Mo wondered if it was even magic from a Magical Girl.
She tried desperately to fuse their magics, but nothing worked—they just couldn’t merge.
‘No, at this rate, fusion is impossible. I need another method…’
Xia Mo realized the way she was using wouldn’t work. It was a dead end.
What to do?
Staring at the two incompatible streams of magic in her body, Xia Mo felt her head hurt.
Was there any roundabout way to shove Luo Shuangyue’s magic into her own cannon and fire it?
Xia Mo pondered and pondered.
No matter what, if she wanted to use her cannons, Luo Shuangyue’s magic had to go through her as a transfer station.
Unless she could temporarily hand over control of the four Floating Cannons to Luo Shuangyue, so Luo Shuangyue could use them directly without going through her.
How could she do that?
Xia Mo thought hard, and then she remembered something she’d read in a book.
A sudden inspiration flashed.
She remembered!
There was a way to become one!
If the bond between two Magical Girls was deep enough, they could share weapons.
Fusion was still too far for Xia Mo, but borrowing a weapon wasn’t as hard as it seemed.
As long as their hearts were connected, borrowing weapons temporarily wasn’t a big deal.
And there was a shortcut to connecting hearts.
Xia Mo opened her eyes and whispered to Luo Shuangyue, “Our magic can’t merge, so we have to use another way.” “Just say what it is!” Luo Shuangyue, dodging the Demon King’s attacks, had no patience for explanations. She just wanted to defeat the enemy, whatever it took!
“Let me lend you my weapon!” Xia Mo shouted.
“How?” Luo Shuangyue thought to herself, Can you even do that?
Xia Mo’s Floating Cannons were like her personal treasures—how could she lend them? Weren’t they bound to her?
“Like this!”
Still held in Luo Shuangyue’s arms, Xia Mo tilted her head up and pressed herself close to Luo Shuangyue, closing the distance to nothing.
?!
Luo Shuangyue was stunned. What the heck was this?!
“Focus on sensing the trajectory of my magic, hurry!”
The magic trajectory?
Luo Shuangyue quickly steadied her mind, carefully feeling the small rune Xia Mo had left on her tongue.
So, what was the use of this?
‘Now you make a matching rune on my tongue, and we’ll be able to temporarily enter a state of sensory link!’ So I have to do one on you too… Luo Shuangyue felt her brain was reaching its limit, but she instinctively followed Xia Mo’s instructions, imprinting a matching rune on Xia Mo’s tongue.
As soon as the rune formed, Luo Shuangyue suddenly felt her mind filling with new things—new emotions.
It was as if she had another body, able to feel everything coming from that body…
The double sensations made her already muddled mind even more chaotic.
Xia Mo didn’t feel much better.
Once the two runes formed, their senses were synchronized—anything one of them felt, the other could feel as well.
They were like two avatars of one person. Aside from their consciousnesses, everything else became something they shared.
Naturally, that included their magic and weapons.
“This is a Sensory Link Rune. It’s a bit of a forbidden technique, but it’s the only way right now.” After completing the rune, Xia Mo quickly released Luo Shuangyue.
She couldn’t get used to the double senses either, especially since, during that close contact just now, her feelings were completely scrambled.
Who did I just kiss? Who kissed me? Was it me kissing myself?
With a wave, a Scythe spun into Xia Mo’s hand.
The moment it touched her, the cold, black-purple blade instantly shed its chill, blooming with pale purple flowers on the handle and blade, matching Xia Mo’s own style.
“You use my cannons!” Xia Mo tested out Luo Shuangyue’s Scythe and found it wasn’t as heavy as she’d imagined.
Saying that, she charged straight at the Resentful Spirit Demon King, fighting to buy time for Luo Shuangyue to fire the Magic Artillery.
It was a nice idea, but a little awkward in practice.
Xia Mo was never a melee-type Magical Girl, and now with the sensory link debuff, she couldn’t even control her body properly, let alone fight the Demon King up close.
After just a few exchanges, the Demon King slapped her across the face with a wing, sending her flying.
Helpless, Xia Mo could only hold up the Scythe and unleash Bladed Light at the Demon King, sending one crescent slash after another to barely keep it at bay.
“Hurry up! I can’t hold out much longer!”
Luo Shuangyue wanted to hurry too, but Xia Mo’s Floating Cannon wasn’t as easy to use as she’d thought.
Her face stung with pain—sensation coming from Xia Mo’s side. Her body was clearly full of magic, yet a voice in her mind loudly warned her magic was being rapidly consumed.
The Sensory Link Rune was really too powerful…
“It’s simple, just aim and fire.” Dividing her magic into four streams for the Floating Cannons behind her, Luo Shuangyue encouraged herself.
The four Floating Cannons on her back changed to match her own style.
Black-purple magic light glowed at the muzzles, and then four beams burst from the cannons, merging into one giant beam in front of Luo Shuangyue, blasting toward the Resentful Spirit Demon King.
The Demon King didn’t dodge. It just pulled all its mouths back, then grew one huge mouth, gleefully gulping down Luo Shuangyue’s Magic Artillery.
Compared to Xia Mo’s, Luo Shuangyue’s Magic Artillery was much weaker—not much impact at all. To the Demon King, it was just a light snack.
It tasted a little weird, but delicious! More!
The Demon King failed to notice gray markings spreading rapidly all over its body.
The fish had taken the bait!