“What were you doing?”
“I said I was making a call. Just using a bit of Star Fury. Why are you asking so much? Mind your own business!”
The bratty little demon continued indulging in primitive pleasure, while the strongest magical girl honed her skills.
During this time, who suffered the most torment?
There were those who heard things they shouldn’t have, troubled and anxious because of it.
There were those struggling in pain, trying to salvage the situation.
There were those for whom everything was ready, only waiting for a favorable wind to soar high.
And there were those who remained calm in crisis, manipulating the chess pieces…
The very first shot in this war rang out at the distant northwest—at the furthest border outpost.
In the frozen tundra, at the Gate of the Sea Boundary—
“The observation equipment’s malfunctioned?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes, all of it.”
Shortie Squad—Rank Four Magical Girl, Jingting, was reporting the frontline situation to Zhizhi.
“The last image from the observer showed that the sky over there had turned black.”
“Black?”
Zhizhi was confused, her eyes wide—one bigger, one smaller.
The sky above the Sea Boundary was always gray, and in its depths, it was red. She’d never seen it black.
At least, not anywhere known so far. Maybe only past the Lost Boundary would you see a black sky.
“Something’s about to happen!”
Zhizhi snapped to attention, “When did this happen?”
“Two hours ago.”
“Two hours?! What was the garrison doing?!”
“They sent out long-range drones as soon as all the observation equipment failed, but all contact was lost when they neared the destination. That’s when the news reached us…”
Just as Zhizhi was cursing her teammates’ incompetence, a ruckus broke out outside.
The clamor was like a summer downpour, growing louder and quickly descending into chaos.
Someone’s messing with the sea wall again?!
Zhizhi immediately flew out, heading for the sea wall.
But—
Jingting, trembling, pointed to the other side of the Gate of the Sea Boundary and asked, “Lord Zhizhi, do you see that?”
“You don’t need your eyes to see it. You can feel it on your skin!”
All the arrogance vanished from Zhizhi’s little face. She looked down at her arm and found her skin trembling on its own!
Looking ahead, the far side of the Gate of the Sea Boundary had turned pitch-black. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The darkness was slowly devouring all sources of light. Even though it was still far away, the light around Zhizhi was already dimming. The depths of the black cloud felt like the bottom of the ocean—no light at all. The darkness spread, carrying a formless terror.
But more than the visual impact, it was the colossal black cloud itself that filled Zhizhi with dread. At first glance, no one would believe it was a living thing—it was just too massive. If it was a creature and fell from the sky, the destruction would rival the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
The oppressive presence emanating from the black cloud was like the moon suddenly coming ten times closer to the earth, making it hard to breathe. Even the BGM Zhizhi used to boost her morale was nearly drowned out by this oppressive force!
“Use the backup mode of the ultra-large Star Ring for detection!”
Zhizhi gave the order, but had to repeat it several times before getting a response—the people on the Star Ring were paralyzed with fear at the presence of the black cloud. Even at nearly twenty thousand meters up, they felt no sense of safety. All they wanted was to pilot the Moonwatcher-class Star Ring away from here right now, abandoning the Gate of the Sea Boundary altogether.
The Moonwatcher-class ultra-large Star Ring could detect dimension beasts from Feral to mid-Dragon level, covering tens of thousands of square kilometers. That’s just the theoretical value; at full power, it could sense peak Dragon-level beings, though the range shrunk to just two thousand square meters—not much use in combat.
But when the ultra-large Star Ring scanned the black cloud with all its power, it still couldn’t get any specific readings.
What did that mean?
“It’s a Plundering Light-class dimension beast!” someone shouted from the Star Ring.
This time, Jingting was truly frightened. Her legs gave out, and she stammered, “Is… is it the Black Candle Colossus!?”
“Impossible. The Black Candle Colossus doesn’t look like that,” Zhizhi said in a low voice.
But that didn’t change the fact that it was a Plundering Light-class dimension beast.
“Call for reinforcements immediately! We can’t stop that thing!”
“Y-yes!”
Even so, Zhizhi was already commanding the local garrison to withdraw in full.
Because, though the black cloud looked slow, that was only a trick of its massive size.
In reality, from the moment Zhizhi and the others first saw it, to the time they called for help, the thing was already about to make landfall!
Upon estimation, its speed outpaced a typhoon—reaching 280km/h!
Suddenly, Zhizhi recalled that recently a team returned from the depths of the Sea Boundary—a team sent two years ago. The members had been comatose ever since, with some already martyrs.
They were the only exploration team ever to come back from the depths. In their logbook, they described countless withered tree-like worshipers and vast swathes of Black Miasma covering the sea.
Thinking about it now, this Black Miasma must be the thing before her eyes.
And the recent wave of dimension beasts invading the border all had black, sticky substances on their bodies. They must’ve been contaminated by this black mist as well.
Zhizhi had considered the Black Miasma as a potential threat lurking in the Sea Boundary, but never imagined it would turn out to be a Plundering Light-class dimension beast?!
And such a massive one!
A Plundering Light-class dimension beast of this size—if it broke into the mainland, it could traverse an entire city in just ten minutes and kill millions in its wake!
Ideally, if five out of the Ten Seats gathered—especially the top three—they could fight a Plundering Light-class. After all, such beasts lacked self-awareness.
But the beast before them defied all norms, and no one knew if ordinary attacks would even work.
Perhaps only Zero-Order magic could stop such an enemy.
Yet in this moment, Zhizhi was terrified.
Right now, the Magic Alliance was in chaos. Xingyue had been captured. Today, rumors were even spreading that Xingyue was a foot fetishist—something Zhizhi had laughed about before, but she couldn’t laugh at all now.
Even a fool could see—the enemy was attacking at the Magic Alliance’s weakest moment!
[The enemy attacking now means the Black Candle Colossus is probably about to break free as well. Are we really going to face two Plundering Light-class beasts at once this time?!]
Zhizhi gritted her teeth, feeling the situation slipping from her grasp.
Using Zero-Order magic carried enormous backlash—even the Ten Seats were little more than sacrifices for it.
Last time, when they fought the Black Candle Colossus, two of the Ten Seats died from the backlash of Zero-Order magic, and the rest were all injured.
And now, facing a never-before-seen Plundering Light-class beast—one so colossal—how long would it take for Zero-Order magic to seal it?
How many more of the Ten Seats would die in that time?
Assuming the best, they might be able to slay this Plundering Light-class dimension beast at the cost of two Seats, with the rest wounded—but then how would they handle the Black Candle Colossus?
“Ahhh Xingyue, you idiot! How could you let Herrera capture you!!”
Zhizhi screamed in fury.
At that very moment—
The black cloud crossed the sea wall and made landfall!
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