Over ten thousand mutated beasts surged from the seabed, landing at the port of Donghai City and breaching the city’s defenses.
Several Militia Corps hastily organized preliminary defenses on the streets, but the makeshift barricades were no match for such a vast number of beasts.
The blocks near Century Avenue were fiercely contested, with brutal fighting breaking out repeatedly.
Without support from the Magical Girl Defense Force and compounded by the complex terrain of urban warfare, aerial support was largely ineffective, resulting in heavy casualties among the ground militia units.
Fortunately, the subsequent arrival of regular army reinforcements barely stabilized the front line.
This sudden, large-scale beast assault was completely unexpected.
Since there were no longer any surviving empire-level beasts in the world, organizing such a massive attack was beyond the capability of ordinary kingdom-level beasts.
The beasts caused over a thousand civilian casualties, while the remaining civilians were rapidly evacuated to underground shelters within the city.
The enemy had arrived, yet the city’s Magical Girl Defense Force was paralyzed.
The mastermind behind all this was an S-rank magical girl named Xing Luo.
“Damn it… who exactly are you!?”
Tao Ying struggled to maintain her pink magical shield. The unfamiliar and terrifying magical girl before her filled her with genuine fear.
Xing Luo’s domain extended over the entire Donghai City, sparing only the area beneath Tao Ying’s feet.
“There’s no need to be afraid, no need to resist. Just immerse yourself in a beautiful dream…”
Xing Luo formed a magic array, creating a Barrier around Tao Ying. Her power gradually seeped into Tao Ying’s defenses.
“I can’t hold on much longer…”
In an instant, Tao Ying’s magical shield shattered. She was completely controlled by the Barrier, unable to move.
Xing Luo approached slowly, removing Tao Ying’s combat uniform…
“My dear little girl, may you have sweet dreams.”
Tao Ying’s consciousness was drawn into a meticulously crafted dream space, rendering her unable to awaken for a time.
Two hours later, a transport plane reached the airspace over Donghai City.
The long night was about to end, and the dawn was gradually rising on the horizon.
Yet beneath this morning sun, Donghai City lay in ruins. Burning wreckage billowed thick smoke, visible even from tens of thousands of meters up.
The Tidal Headland where the beasts had landed was pockmarked with craters from aerial bombardment, with small bursts of explosions still flickering intermittently.
“The kingdom-level beast known as the Sea Demon has been located roughly; its position is marked on your Tactical Monocle,” the communications officer said.
The holographic Tactical Monocle displayed the enormous silhouette of the Sea Demon detected beneath the bay by sonar instruments.
“This is a great gadget. Why didn’t I have one of these before?” Ciyue was quite fond of this novel piece of equipment.
***
At the rear of the cabin, soldiers began jumping from the Transport Plane’s lowered ramp. They were set to land on a relatively flat area.
Their drop point was still some distance from Ciyue’s own landing zone; she planned to descend onto the sea surface.
She moved to the deck’s edge. Below, ten thousand meters of altitude stretched out. The air was cold and thin, chilling her to the bone.
Eight years ago, when Chilian had stood here, she must have felt the same—leaping from the sky to fight powerful beasts.
But at that time, Ciyue was not yet a magical girl, just an ordinary recruit.
Unfortunately, Chilian disappeared two years ago.
The official line was that she died heroically fighting the empire-level beast Chiyou, but things were never that simple…
After all, she was the strongest magical girl in history.
“Ciyue, you’ve reached the target area.”
“I know.”
She leapt into the dawn’s light, passing through thick clouds. In her battle form, she resembled a pure white warplane, leaving contrail-like streaks across the sky.
“Crystalline Bloom!”
Her crystal wings unfolded, slowing her descent.
She manifested a giant crystal bow in her hand, condensing magical power into an energy arrow. Drawing the bowstring, she aimed at the Sea Demon’s position marked in her Tactical Monocle.
Ciyue released the arrow, which shot swiftly toward the vast sea surface…
But the arrow did not explode into a misty plume as she expected. Instead, it struck a black magical shield and detonated dozens of meters above the water.
“Hm?”
Sensing something wrong, she dodged quickly.
Sure enough, a cross-shaped light spot on the sea surface rapidly expanded—it was a reflected Cross Magic Cannon, returning Ciyue’s magic in full.
The Cross Magic Cannon exploded behind Ciyue.
But the attack was not over. The magic blast formed a complex array in the air, its center also glowing with a cross-shaped light.
“Space Transfer!?” Ciyue gasped in disbelief.
The magical cannon from behind caught her off guard. She gathered magic at the tip of her crystal wings, preparing to dash away.
“You can’t escape.”
Her.
Xing Luo’s deep purple pupils stared intently at Ciyue.
Her domain unfurled from her eyes, corrupting Ciyue’s space and dragging her unprepared consciousness into a dream.
Ciyue’s body became immobile. In the interwoven visions of dream and reality, the Cross Magic Cannon slowed but inevitably struck.
The restrained purple pupil transformed into a clock, replacing the rising sun and emitting a demonic purple glow.
The clock counted down, and when its hand reached twelve, the magic cannon would pierce Ciyue.
“You think I have no means of resistance just because you dragged me into a dream?”
Ciyue formed a mental barrier, blocking Xing Luo’s influence and escaping the dream.
The Cross Magic Cannon ultimately struck an office building on land, punching through it from top to bottom.
Ciyue counterattacked, transforming her crystal bow into a greatsword and slashing at the girl in the air.
Xing Luo nimbly dodged the blow, raising her hand to form another complex magic array overhead.
Only then did Ciyue realize this girl was exactly the same Xing Luo she had seen in Tianlang’s memories.
“Wait, you’re Xing Luo?” Ciyue paused and asked.
Their voices traveled through the domain connection, allowing S-rank magical girls to communicate remotely.
“I don’t have time to answer your questions now. Space Banishment—”
The array on Xing Luo’s hand activated. The space around Ciyue began to contract; the light warped. As it reached negative curvature, darkness enveloped her in an isolated, sealed-off space.
The space where Ciyue was became completely disconnected from reality.
A temporal-spatial turbulence tossed Ciyue’s pocket dimension away from its original coordinates into the unknown…
“I finally caught you. It took quite a lot of effort these past few months.”
Xing Luo sighed. After all, she was only skilled at manipulating dreams; real combat was unfamiliar territory.
“If not for that person’s request, I wouldn’t have bothered arranging to capture you…”
She ordered the Sea Demon to swim eastward, retreating into the deep sea.
Their strategic objective had been achieved.
The attack.
However, as Xing Luo prepared to retreat, she sensed spatial fluctuations.
“How is this possible!?”
Staring at the distortions in space, a hand suddenly emerged from the warped light. Following it came Ciyue, breaking free from the spatial prison, already in full combat mode.
By her side, vast magical power condensed into several Solid-State White Geometric Bodies, assembling into four floating turrets.
This was a skill Chilian had taught her, allowing simultaneous multi-shot magical cannon fire.
But maintaining these floating turrets consumed immense magic, a feat only a few S-rank magical girls could accomplish.
Beams of light shot toward Xing Luo from multiple directions, leaving her nowhere to hide.
“Tch… I’ve long mastered this move.”
Xing Luo manipulated her magic arrays, bending the trajectories of the cannons to shoot elsewhere.
But Ciyue gave her no respite. Like lightning, she closed in instantly. The clash of purple and white magic sparked violently…
Yet Ciyue’s ruthless hand ignored everything, piercing through Xing Luo’s shield barehanded, grabbing her neck and forcing her down.
“Cough…” Xing Luo struggled for breath, meeting Ciyue’s murderous gaze. She fought back with all her strength, but Ciyue’s grip was unyielding.
Xing Luo had no choice but to unleash her special ability.
Her left pupil, resembling a starry sky, burst with purple flames, as if burning.
Just one glance at Xing Luo’s left eye caused Ciyue to experience intense hallucinations. Her vision exploded into kaleidoscopic, dreamlike scenes, pulling her back into a dream.
Ciyue felt as if she had traveled through a wormhole. When she came to, she found herself inside a starry sky.
She tried to escape, but in this unique consciousness space, all her attempts were futile—it was an inescapable prison. This was Xing Luo’s special ability.
“Phew… her mental power is too strong. I can’t control others anymore, but it doesn’t matter now…”
Midair, Xing Luo cradled the unconscious Ciyue.
“This one is truly special. To be able to warp space without their help… I have no idea how. I guess I’ll leave that mystery to the base team to figure out.”
Xing Luo, holding Ciyue, vanished into the warped space.
“Who—?”
“Ciyue? Can you hear me!?”
“Commander, she’s disappeared.”
“Damn it, this is organized crime. Their backing is no ordinary force. There must be foreign aid…”
“But according to our intel, no other country has developed this kind of spatial manipulation technology…”
“America? Japan? Russia? The EU? None fit. Currently, Huaguo has no disputes or conflicts with other major powers. Who exactly are they?”