*Crack, crack…*
One after another, pitch-black rifts began to spread across the flat space, forcing the magical girls guarding the Starlight Lighthouse to retreat.
For those who did not yet understand the mysteries of space, shattered reality was an absolute danger. A single slip-up could plunge them into a fatal crisis. However, this spatial fragmentation was not bad news. On the contrary, seeing the space break apart brought joyful expressions to the faces of the magical girls.
It meant the plan had successfully progressed to its final stages. Once this channel was fully opened, everything else would become much simpler.
“It’s so close to the lighthouse. They’ve done a fantastic job.”
The center of the spatial fragmentation was very close to the Starlight Lighthouse they were guarding. In fact, the cracks had already completely destroyed the structure. But that was no big deal. It would have been worse if the spatial rifts *hadn’t* destroyed it, as that would mean the spatial exit was misaligned.
The current situation proved the exit was exactly where it needed to be. Everything could proceed according to plan.
As more cracks appeared in space, the magical girls felt a vast surge of magic power coming from the other side. It was the familiar aura of their companions. This emboldened them even further.
Opening the spatial exit took nearly half a day. The original patch of space was now replaced by a massive, pitch-black hole. Looking through the hole, one could see faint, shimmering traces of starlight.
“We did it! The coordinates are correct!” a brave spatial-type magical girl shouted. She flew out from the spatial channel and cheered excitedly upon seeing her familiar companions.
The joy spread from one person to another, providing a moment of relief to the girls who had been living under a constant cloud of dread. Perhaps they really could succeed.
“Watch out, they’re coming!”
“Ring Armament, lock on targets! Initiation of suppression program!”
“First Squad, follow me! Purify them as fast as possible!”
Black Qi erupted from the exit of the spatial channel. Before these Dark Mist Monsters could even announce their arrival to the world, they were blasted in the face by a torrent of magic power.
The dazed and confused clouds of Black Qi didn’t understand what was happening. Instinctively, they felt that things shouldn’t be like this. Why was their power so weak? It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Of course, the Black Qi had no way of knowing that the Demonic Energy they had gathered had already been devoured by a Path Creature with a massive appetite, turning into a gourmet meal. Not only was their energy being eaten, but they were also about to be consumed by that same monster.
From the outside, the area was divided into several layers. At the center was the spatial channel and the Black Qi. Surrounding them were the Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls acting as the primary purification force. Beyond them was the Ring Armament providing fire suppression. Finally, the outermost layer was a thin but vast black mist capable of absorbing every drop of Demonic Energy that gathered.
In the vacuum of space, there was no up, down, left, or right. The Demonic Energy drawn in by the Black Qi wouldn’t appear in a fixed spot in the sky like it did on the Mother Star. Here, the Demonic Energy appeared randomly.
Because of this, Luo Xiangyue had chosen to expand her body until she was gargantuan—large enough to completely envelop the entire area. As it turned out, her method was highly effective, and she was the only one capable of such a feat.
Of course, the Nightmare Emperor, that massive eyeball, could have done it too, but it was already dead. Thus, Luo Xiangyue had become the only entity capable of this.
Countless silk threads extended from Luo Shuangyue’s body, reaching deep into space. These tough threads transmitted all the energy she could absorb back into her body, allowing her strength to grow steadily. These threads did not spread through the physical world but sank into the Sea of Magic, connecting everything under the protection of Starlight Magic.
Currently, Luo Shuangyue looked like a butterfly, but she functioned like a spider—a spider that relied on her web to drain the strength of her prey.
The Black Qi, its consciousness purified by the magical girls’ magic, turned light gray. Losing its cohesion, it was scattered in all directions by the powerful torrent of magic power. These scattered gray mists were quickly captured by the magic threads hidden within the Sea of Magic, becoming pure energy for Luo Shuangyue to inhale.
Everything moved as smoothly as clockwork. It was like a slaughterhouse designed specifically for Path Creatures, eliminating the threat of the Dark Mist Monsters with maximum efficiency.
So, would the Dark Mist Monsters really be completely purified in their dazed state, becoming the intended sacrifices of the plan?
Of course not.
“Be careful, they’re reacting!”
Watching the distant Black Qi suddenly begin to riot, White Night spoke to the Holy Sovereign standing beside her.
The reaction speed of the Black Qi was faster than anyone had anticipated. In just half a day, the Black Qi realized something was wrong. Unlike the countless disorganized charges they had launched at White Night in the past, the Black Qi now seemed to be guided by a unified consciousness. All the chaotic mists lunged toward the largest monster, even those that Luo Shuangyue had pinned down with magic.
Even among the rational monsters watching from the periphery, some could not resist the impulse surging from deep within their hearts and threw themselves toward the giant creature.
In an instant, all the Black Qi in the area concentrated onto the massive Path Creature, transforming it into a terrifying entity that seemed capable of obscuring the heavens and the earth.
“I feel like I kind of don’t want to attack this guy…” the Holy Sovereign whispered as she watched the black giant solidify.
Even though she had prepared herself to fight this monster, she found herself hesitating now that she was actually facing it.
“It’s normal. After all, you share the same boss. Theoretically, you two are colleagues.” White Night drew her sword. “Just like how I can’t suppress the killing intent in my heart when I look at this thing.”
This was the power of the world. White Night felt a faint, intangible gaze upon her. The disturbance here must have caught the attention of the two clashing worlds, causing them to divert some focus to this location.
“Hey! Can you two stop fighting? We’re all going to be finished if you keep this up!” White Night shouted toward the sky. After waiting for a moment, she received no response.
‘Tsk, those two are really deaf!’
Negotiations had failed, so fighting was the only option. The original Path Creatures could hold their own against White Night briefly, but after this new round of empowerment, its strength likely rivaled her own.
“I’ll take point. You support me from the back,” White Night said to the Holy Sovereign without looking back.
Since the Holy Sovereign felt reluctant to strike, White Night would act as the primary attacker.
“I’m not that narrow-minded.” Silver butterflies flew from the Holy Sovereign’s raised hand. She gave White Night an annoyed look. What kind of person did White Night take her for?
She had only wavered for a split second before adjusting her mindset. She knew that if this monster broke into the other world, the living beings of both worlds would suffer unbearable pain. To prevent that disastrous future from becoming a reality, she had to stop this creature here alongside White Night.
After applying several buffs to White Night with her magic, the Holy Sovereign turned and shouted to the magical girls guarding the spatial rift: “Tell the others outside that we will stall for enough time! Tell them not to worry about us!”
“Hey, our goal isn’t to stall for time. It’s to kill this guy, chop him up, and send him through piece by piece!”
White Night, already charging the monster with her sword, threw the remark back over her shoulder before colliding heavily with the giant beast.
This time, the white light failed to tear through the massive body of Black Qi. The creature blocked White Night’s attack with its arm.
*Boom!*
After blocking the strike, the monster exerted a second burst of force, blowing White Night backward. It seemed the monster held a slight advantage in that exchange.
“Tsk, you’ve gotten quite strong. It feels like you’ve been given some strange powers.” White Night stabilized herself mid-air and stared intensely at the monster.
This creature was entirely different from before. Her magic no longer seemed to counter the Black Qi as effectively. Perhaps a certain world consciousness, unwilling to see its useful tool destroyed, had secretly slipped the monster something extra?
As she thought this, White Night suddenly noticed several strands of gold-tinted energy appearing on her sword. The power radiating from them made even her heart skip a beat.
As expected, neither of these two worlds was the type to back down. Since the opponent had secretly buffed its weapon, how could the world behind White Night remain indifferent?
“Hmph, now we’re even again. I want to see which of us is actually stronger!”
White Night flicked her long sword upward, unleashing a brilliant white sword light, and followed the strike as she lunged at the creature. The creature raised a fist larger than a mountain range and slammed it down toward her.
Sword and fist collided. The clash of these two terrifying powers caused the stability of the space fragment to plummet. At the center of their battle, the space showed signs of being overburdened, on the verge of shattering.
This region couldn’t even support three White Night-level powerhouses living in peace, let alone two at full power who had been empowered by their respective worlds. The only reason the space fragment hadn’t been blasted to pieces was due to its own inherent durability.
The monster and White Night realized simultaneously what the result of a battle here would be. Before they could determine a winner, the space fragment would collapse. This was an unacceptable outcome for both sides.
The spatial channel was the monsters’ bridgehead for invading the other world and the most convenient way for the giant creature to descend. Conversely, it was a critical node in the humans’ plan. Without it, the effort required for humanity to clear the accumulated Dark Mist Monsters would be immeasurable.
The monster was the first to make a move. It let out a roar, physically shattering the space around it, and stepped inside. It chose to leave this fragment and fight White Night in a different layer of space.
As for whether White Night would follow, the monster wasn’t worried. If she didn’t pursue, it would simply open a new spatial channel to descend upon the other world. If it could successfully descend, victory would be its.
White Night understood this. As the monster shattered the space and left, she immediately tore open a rift to follow.
“I’m leaving this to you! Guard this place well!” Leaving those words for the Holy Sovereign, White Night left this space for the first time in years.
With White Night and the monster gone, the space did not become quiet; instead, it grew even more chaotic. The Path Creatures that hadn’t participated in the fight weren’t peaceful little things. They had only held back because White Night’s lingering intimidation made them fear crossing the line.
Now that White Night had left and the mountain weighing on their heads had vanished, what was there to fear?
Charge! The day of the great counterattack had arrived!
A dark tide of monsters surged toward the spatial rift. If the Holy Sovereign hadn’t been there, the few Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls left behind would have been swallowed by the death-defying horde in seconds.
But this once-fatal situation had already been solved.
The monsters were not only facing the strongest being from the other world but the strongest of their own world as well. The Holy Sovereign might not be as strong as the world-empowered White Night, but suppressing an unorganized army of creatures was simple for her. Human wave tactics of this low quality could not trouble her.
A giant silver butterfly took to the sky, and a staggering amount of silver light rained down from her wings. Amidst this inescapable brilliance, the monsters dissolved into pitch-black currents without resistance. They were then drawn into the attraction magic set up by the magical girls and continuously funneled into the purification land of the other world.
The situation was temporarily under control, but the Holy Sovereign did not lower her guard. She knew things wouldn’t go that smoothly; her world wouldn’t simply watch as these monsters were purified. All she could hope for was that the clash between the two worlds would become even more intense, leaving her world with no time to interfere with what was happening here.
‘Why do I feel like a traitor?’ As she watched a somewhat familiar black monster dissolve under her radiance, a sense of guilt welled up in the Holy Sovereign’s heart.
This guilt had nothing to do with her subjective thoughts. It felt more like an instinct… engraved deep within her soul.