Boom!
A small mushroom cloud slowly rose at the edge of the horizon.
A silver giant dragon shot out from the cloud, battered and panicked, streaking towards them like an arrow released from the string.
Behind the dragon, a shadow as deep as the sea followed in relentless pursuit.
“Demon Emperor?!” Luo Shuangyue leapt straight up from the ground.
So this was the danger her premonition had sensed?
Come on, are Demon creatures in this place really so common? I just tamed a Demon King yesterday, and today a Demon Emperor shows up?
The explosion just now startled Xia Mo awake too. After glancing into the distance, she didn’t say a word.
She pulled out a Magic Stone and transformed.
“This kind of enemy isn’t one we can handle. Shuangyue, you should go first.”
“I think that even if we left Taya behind and tried to run now, it’s already too late to escape.” Luo Shuangyue clenched her fists, her face helpless.
The Demon Emperor was just too fast. Far too fast.
That white giant dragon should be Taya’s true form, and now Taya couldn’t shake off the Demon Emperor behind her at all.
Luo Shuangyue’s strength hadn’t recovered much yet—she was even weaker than her former Magical Girl state, let alone able to confront a Demon Emperor at full power.
Xia Mo might be able to get away if she ran alone, but there was no way she’d abandon Luo Shuangyue and flee by herself.
Those with Bond Magic were always like this: they’d rather die together with their companions than leave them behind to save their own skin.
Black Starlight fell upon the giant dragon again, shattering its silvery scales into powder and exposing the charred flesh beneath.
This time the attack landed right near Taya’s wing.
The poor thing let out a wail, like a bird with a broken wing, and tumbled from the sky.
Bang!
The giant dragon crashed down, leaving a huge pit in the Sea of Flowers.
The Demon Emperor pursuing her had no intention of letting up. She raised her hand, about to finish Taya off with a Star Spear.
But just before delivering the final blow, her gaze drifted to Xia Mo and Luo Shuangyue standing not far away, poised for battle.
And, to the little girl hiding behind Luo Shuangyue, glaring at her timidly like a shy kitten.
“Two of my kind, and… one more…” The Demon Emperor frowned.
There was something odd about Xia Mo’s aura—it felt familiar, but at the same time, deeply unpleasant.
Especially when she saw Xia Mo’s clothes, that strange feeling grew even stronger.
Without thinking, she lowered the Black Starlight that had been aimed at Taya’s head, watching as the wounded Taya turned back into her human form and fled to the other two.
Meanwhile, the two girls across from her were whispering amongst themselves.
“What does she mean, exactly? Why doesn’t she seem that hostile?” Luo Shuangyue had already prepared herself for a desperate last stand, but after seeing them, the Demon Emperor didn’t strike.
Surely she wasn’t planning to spare them for the sake of kinship?
Are Demon creatures in another world really this polite?
But Xia Mo, staring at the Demon Emperor’s face, was lost in thought.
She felt as if she’d seen this face somewhere before.
Where was it…? Suddenly, she remembered those Magical Girl posters she’d bought before.
One of the Magical Girls looked almost exactly like this Demon Emperor.
Except, the senior’s eyes weren’t pure black like now, and her clothes weren’t just a scrap of cloth.
More importantly, everyone knew that the senior had already fallen in battle at the front lines against the Demons!
“Morning Star-senpai?!” Xia Mo whispered the codename.
“Who? Her? Morning Star?” Luo Shuangyue turned to look at Xia Mo, then at the Demon Emperor, who looked even more like a Demon Emperor than herself.
Senpai?
But hadn’t Morning Star died? How did she end up resurrected as a Demon in this other world?
Hiss…
“Who’s that?” The Demon Emperor, who looked 99% like Morning Star, took a step forward.
One moment she was a hundred meters away; the next, she was right before them.
Teleportation! Luo Shuangyue’s pupils shrank.
And this Demon Emperor could actually speak human language!
“Senpai, don’t you remember anything? You’re a Full Bloom-Class Magical Girl, you…” Xia Mo tried her best to explain, hoping to awaken the senior this way.
But no matter how long she spoke, the girl before her just shook her head indifferently, showing no sign of recalling anything Xia Mo said.
“Since I became aware, I’ve always been in this world. As for what you mentioned, I know nothing of it.” She spoke with a cold voice.
“And you, my kin—why are you traveling with her?”
Her gaze landed on Luo Shuangyue.
“Because I’ve always been with her.” Luo Shuangyue instinctively shielded Xia Mo behind her.
“No, I’m asking why you’re with her.” The girl raised her hand to point at the shivering Taya hiding at the very back. “You should destroy her, not protect her.”
Her feelings towards Xia Mo were a little complicated—a sort of internal struggle between wanting to attack and holding back. So she chose to let Xia Mo go for now.
But it was different with Taya.
To her, Taya was just a pest that needed extermination.
Her kin ought to share the same viewpoint.
Yet what did Luo Shuangyue do? She protected Taya behind her, and Taya even looked at Luo Shuangyue with a trusting expression.
This was simply too strange.
“After seeing her, didn’t you feel any urge to destroy her?”
“Not really.” Luo Shuangyue answered awkwardly.
The Demon Emperor before them was invincible.
Now that there was a chance to talk, of course she wouldn’t miss it.
No way she’d refuse to cooperate when they couldn’t win a fight, right? Luo Shuangyue had no leverage for that now.
“Though my situation is a bit special. I’ll ask someone else, okay?”
All those negative emotions of Luo Shuangyue’s were stashed with Little Butterfly.
When she’d tried to consume Little Butterfly earlier, she really had felt a surge of bloodlust—but she wasn’t sure who that bloodlust was actually for.
So she decided to ask Little Butterfly directly about her feelings towards Taya.
And Little Butterfly gave her an answer: could eat, but not as tasty as Xia Mo.
“Um, ‘could eat, but not as tasty as her.’” Luo Shuangyue pointed at Xia Mo, trying to keep a straight face.
After speaking, she immediately threw Xia Mo an apologetic glance, indicating that she was just passing on the message, and it absolutely wasn’t her own idea.
This answer took the girl by surprise.
Because, regarding Xia Mo, her own feelings were exactly the same as Luo Shuangyue’s feelings about Taya.