Severely injured, Shiya flew a great distance, but the black monster behind her relentlessly pursued.
It seemed extraordinarily furious, its nauseating howls barely ceasing.
“I feel like this monster is really angry!” Saga said as she quickly flew forward.
“It doesn’t just feel angry—it’s been killed by this girl countless times! This isn’t just simple anger anymore!” Xiao Mo replied.
From behind came a crashing sound, like trees being snapped.
Saga glanced back and saw a whole uprooted tree flying toward her.
“Damn!”
She maneuvered her broomstick upward swiftly, narrowly avoiding the tree as its trunk scraped past the broom’s tail.
“This monster is incredibly strong!”
Her heart pounded wildly, the terrifying moment still vivid in her mind when Xiao Mo shouted, “Here it comes again, dodge!”
Before Saga could even turn to see the direction the tree was flying from, the broomstick’s tail was struck by the incoming tree trunk.
“Ahhh!!”
Saga and Aurora, who was riding behind her, both plummeted from the sky.
The monster seized the opportunity, opening its blood-red maw as it leapt into the air, aiming to swallow her whole.
“Saga!”
Xiao Mo dove downward on her broomstick, stretching out her hand to grab Saga’s wrist.
But her speed was no match for the monster’s; before she could get close to the falling Saga, the monster’s huge jaws had already reached Saga’s face.
This was it—she was going to die, to be eaten…
Despair filled Saga’s heart. Faced with that gaping mouth, she couldn’t fight back at all.
At that moment, how she wished she had paid more attention in class—maybe then she would know a spell to get out of this predicament.
She closed her eyes tightly and nervously awaited death.
She only hoped that the monster wouldn’t chew her too finely; perhaps she could be rescued before being fully digested, or at least some remains could be sent home for burial.
Her mind began to wander in wild thoughts, but the expected pain of fangs piercing flesh never came. Instead, a dazzling golden light pierced through her tightly shut eyes.
When she opened them again, a giant golden bell-shaped magic circle hovered in the air.
Beneath the magic circle, the monster appeared frozen, as if time itself had stopped.
In fact, the entire area seemed suspended in time—the monster hung mid-air with its mouth agape, the surrounding flowers and trees no longer swayed, and even raindrops hung motionless.
Raindrops frozen in midair, wildflowers and grass drifting on the breeze, and the gentle wind itself—all stopped instantly upon entering this magic circle.
Her eyes could blink and move, and she could feel her heart pounding violently, but her limbs remained immobile, and her lips couldn’t move a fraction.
She anxiously shifted her gaze, trying to figure out what was happening.
When she glanced at Aurora, she saw her floating in midair too.
But unlike Saga, Aurora could still move her limbs.
In Aurora’s pupils, a golden clock face slowly turned until the hour and minute hands formed a straight line, paused at twelve and six o’clock.
Suddenly, the hands in her pupils began to move again, and the enormous golden bell-shaped magic circle started to rotate.
The hour and minute hands overlapped, stopping at the second tick.
Moments later, Saga felt a force lifting her upward, along with the falling raindrops that shot back into the air.
Time seemed to rewind continuously, and everything around them reversed until Saga was seated back on her broom.
The sharp wind bit at her skin again, raindrops fell once more, accompanied by the crashing roar of the tree trunk breaking through the air toward her.
This time, Saga reacted quickly and dodged the giant tree.
“What is going on?!”
The monster on the ground looked bewildered, stumbling and falling flat on its face as time resumed.
“Saga! Are you okay?” Xiao Mo hurriedly flew to her side and examined her thoroughly before relaxing upon seeing no wounds.
“I—I think I’m fine? At least, I don’t feel any pain.”
“What was that just now…?”
“Don’t ask now! Listen, that monster just fell to the ground, I have a good idea…”
The monster, missing several teeth, staggered to its feet, tilting its head as its blood-red eyes searched for the four of them.
But all it could see was a mass of dark clouds.
It sniffed the air but couldn’t detect their scent—the heavy rain had masked it completely. All it smelled was the acrid stench of its own burning flesh.
“Come here, Xiao Mo!”
A call came from behind.
The monster quickly turned, roared toward the sky, and charged in that direction…
In the branches of a large tree, the four of them hid in the canopy, quietly watching the monster. Only after it ran off did they descend with their broomsticks.
“You’re really smart, Xiao Mo!”
“Shh, keep your voice down. That rag won’t hold up much longer in this rain.”
“If it gets soaked through, both your abilities and mine will fail.”
Using the same method they had when communicating with Aurora, Saga tore off a corner of her dress and imprinted her voice onto it.
Then Xiao Mo transformed it into a hummingbird, letting it lure the monster in the opposite direction.
“We need to hurry. Soon the academy will have moved somewhere else.”
“Mm.”
The two mounted their broomsticks again and flew off toward the distance…
Meanwhile,
The monster suddenly stopped halfway through the chase.
A powerful pressure approached from afar.
It involuntarily took a step back, the oppressive aura drawing closer, carrying the deeply detested scent of the goddess.
It turned to flee, but just as its four legs moved, it felt its body pressed down as if by a massive jack.
Its limbs sank into the soil, and it couldn’t even raise its head.
“You carry my sister’s scent…”
A strange female voice came from ahead, but the monster’s head was firmly pinned down; it couldn’t look up to see the woman’s face.
The heavy clank of armor grew closer step by step. The monster struggled fiercely, even attempting to dig into the earth to escape.
“Don’t play mute with me, artificial being. You can speak, right?”
The pressure holding down its head vanished. Before the monster could lift its head, a boot crushed into the ground on it with brutal force.
Its skull was slowly ground to pieces. When it barely recovered, it was crushed again into charred fragments.
This cycle repeated countless times until the monster finally submitted.
It stopped struggling and allowed the woman to destroy its body.
“I’ll ask you one more time—why is my sister’s scent mixed with the fresh blood on your mouth?”
The monster finally raised its head, bloodshot eyes reflecting the woman’s face.
“I… don’t… know…”
“Count.”
The monster had barely started to answer when its skull was smashed to pieces once again.