Chapter 7 : Magical Girl: Transformation!

“Zhou Xi!!”

The tide of battle shifted in an instant, so suddenly that even Yueyuezi found herself flustered and overwhelmed.

What… just happened?

“Banlan! Go check on Zhou Xi’s condition!”

“U-Understood!”

“Red Riding Hood, take Zhou Xi’s position and coordinate with me! Everyone else, provide support from the flanks! Don’t let that thing take a single step beyond this point!”

With Zhou Xi down, the responsibility of leading the team naturally fell to Yueyuezi.

Without hesitation, she designated Luo Zining as her second-in-command.

Right now, the only way to maintain control of the battlefield was to rely on Luo Zining’s overwhelming firepower.

This rookie, nicknamed “Little Sun,” had been a rising star in the Magic Alliance for the past two years—lacking only practical combat experience.

“I’m not familiar with your exact capabilities. Adjust your attacks to support mine depending on the situation.”

Yueyuezi shifted to a more cautious approach, testing the waters to gauge the dimensional beast’s abilities.

“Spatial suppression—huh?”

The dimensional beast suddenly crashed into a nearby residential building, vanishing inside its complex corridors.

Its ten-meter-long frame slipped entirely out of sight.

“Stay alert!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of cracks echoed from within the building as stone walls crumbled.

Without warning, a massive slab of concrete burst through the exterior and flew toward Luo Zining.

She instinctively raised her wand to blast it apart—but a panicked shout from Yueyuezi stopped her.

“It’s an illusion! Dodge it!”

“Waaah—! That was close!”

Luo Zining leapt aside just in time.

Behind the stone wall was a devastating energy blast—the same one that had launched Zhou Xi across several kilometers.

If she’d taken that hit head-on, the fight would’ve been over right then and there.

With its deception foiled, the dimensional beast rampaged even more violently inside the structure.

It tore through every load-bearing wall, causing the entire building to collapse in a cloud of choking dust.

The magical girls lost all visibility—and with it, their target.

“This thing… It’s not stupid at all! It was pretending to be weak this whole time!”

A chill shot down Yueyuezi’s spine.

If the beast had deliberately feigned helplessness to lure Zhou Xi into a trap, only to take her out in one blow—then its cunning was terrifyingly deep.

As she backed away, Luo Zining asked anxiously, “Didn’t Senior Zhou Xi say that dimensional beasts below the king-class don’t have any intelligence?”

She paused mid-sentence.

Her body trembled.

Could this thing be king-class…?

“No! Its aura is definitely peak ghost-class!”

Zhao Xin’s voice crackled in through the earpiece.

“And even if it were king-class, none of them are this calculating! This dimensional beast… something’s off!”

“A special specimen? Then we have to capture it alive.”

Yueyuezi ordered the team to cast magic that cleared the dust and restored visibility.

They spotted the beast’s hiding place—it had covered itself entirely in dust and lay in wait, camouflaged like a chameleon in a corner!

“Red Riding Hood! Engage it with sustained fire, as if preparing for a drawn-out battle! I’ll restrict its movements!”

“Roger that!”

Without hesitation, Luo Zining dropped all restraint.

The two short antennae on her red hood began to wiggle, and her wand transformed into a round, plush toy, which she tossed into the air—

Firepower: Maximum Overdrive!

BOOM!

Nine glowing orbs shot into the sky, hovering like miniature suns.

They emitted a fierce orange glow, drifting ominously above the battlefield.

These were known as Radiant Aphids—nearly extinct magical creatures that could absorb Luo Zining’s mana and launch long-range attacks.

“Zing zing! Time to blast you full of holes!”

The nine aphids swarmed around the dimensional beast, striking in staggered bursts.

Some missed, scorching holes into buildings and pavement.

Though the beams looked deceptively simple, the air temperature had spiked by 18°C, and the agony in the beast’s contorted face was clear.

“Is… is this really suited for a tug-of-war kind of battle?”

Yueyuezi stood stunned.

If this was Luo Zining holding back for a sustained fight, then her true full-power output was terrifying.

If Zhou Xi were still in fighting condition, the two of them could likely finish off this unnervingly intelligent creature with ease.

But after taking that direct blast, Zhou Xi returning to the battlefield was a fantasy.

Surviving it at all was already a miracle.

“Hold the line! Reinforcements are on their way!”

Zhao Xin’s voice came through, urgent and tense.

Reinforcements?

Yueyuezi blinked in surprise.

All the magical girls in the city were already here.

Pulling in aid from a neighboring city would take at least half an hour.

Could they even last that long?

Wait… could it be that the reinforcements are—?

Command Center

Zhao Xin clenched her teeth, face full of humiliation, as she submitted a request for assistance to the Magic Alliance’s sworn enemies: the Strangers Organization.

In this world, dimensional beasts weren’t the only threat to peace.

There were also psionic-powered chaos-makers called Chao Disruptors—who were the primary targets of the Strangers Organization.

Meanwhile, magical girls specialized in combating dimensional beasts.

Typically, if a magical girl encountered a Chao Disruptor, she’d act on her own initiative.

But the Strangers?

They would never help magical girls with dimensional beasts unless heavily compensated—or absolutely forced to.

So when Zhao Xin submitted the request, she was fully prepared to be extorted.

Yet… approval came almost instantly.

No demands.

No payment.

“The Strangers’ reinforcements will be there soon. Hang in there!”

“Tch! What good will those weaklings do?”

Yueyuezi scoffed.

She held no respect for the Strangers—they couldn’t fly, they couldn’t teleport, and their damage output was pitiful compared to the magical girls’.

As long as they didn’t get in the way, she’d already be grateful.

But before they arrive… they needed to finish this fight!

“Red Riding Hood, forget about collateral damage. Go all out. I’ll create the opening—grab the chance when it comes!”

“Heh, leave it to me! My full power is totally insane!”

Luo Zining had been waiting for this moment.

Her magical output surged, the quality of her mana instantly doubling.

“Radiant Aphids! Switch to burst mode!”

The floating aphids glowed from orange to a deep reddish-orange, the heat they released so intense it ignited papers over a hundred meters away.

Seeing this, Yueyuezi didn’t hesitate to change the plan.

“Qiushui!”

The girl named Qiushui—one of the more seasoned magical girls who had cleared the dust earlier—instantly caught Yueyuezi’s intention.

“Oh children of the wind… rise and dance like the fluttering of fae…”

In an instant, the dust that had begun to settle was swept up again by swirling gusts, forming a dense vortex around the dimensional beast’s position.

At the same time, Yueyuezi drained the last of her remaining mana to seal off every possible escape route.

“Red Riding Hood!”

“On it!”

The Radiant Aphids charged up like anti-planetary cannons and fired simultaneously into the dust-shrouded area—nine beams in unison.

Huahai City was rocked by its loudest explosion of the day.

A column of fire roared skyward, followed by eight more deep, thunderous booms in quick succession.

The blasts merged into a single, unrelenting roar, while clouds of dust and debris billowed outward.

…

Two kilometers away, on top of the City Trade Building—

“Oho, not bad. I thought for sure they were gonna wipe.”

Luo You leaned against the railing, resting her upper body on the metal bar.

Her feet tiptoed for balance, and her butt stuck out, exaggeratedly high.

“As expected… no matter how many times I watch them, magical girls are always such a refreshing sight. That’s why I adore you all~~ Now then, it’s time for the beau~~~tiful yellow bird to make her entrance.”

She spread her arms wide and spun dramatically, shouting out the familiar words:

“Transform!”

Nine-colored particles burst into a swirling mist, enveloping her.

When the cloud dissipated, her appearance had completely changed.

Her figure was a bit curvier than before, now dressed in a vintage-style black-and-white sleeveless ball gown.

Her chest strained against the fabric, impossible to ignore, and her right hand was covered with a sleek black silk glove.

From the front, the deeply slit, flowing gown exposed her long, slender legs—now clad in glossy, white thigh-high stockings.

Finally, she donned a V-shaped visor that had cognitive interference effects, masking everything above her mouth.

With this, no one would be able to recognize her transformed form as the same person from moments ago.

“Phew, it’s been a while since I transformed. I’m a little rusty… Huh? My chest feels tighter than before—did I overtrain my pecs or something?”

Transformation and spirit-armor switching were originally abilities exclusive to magical girls.

Luo You had no idea why she could use them too—but as long as it worked, she didn’t care.

She opened her palm.

On her middle, ring, and pinky fingers, three gemstone rings gleamed—pink, teal, and orange.

“Pink, teal, and orange this time… Hmph. Kinda annoying without a blue pairing, but this’ll do.”

She formed a ring with her hand and peeked through it like a spyglass, as if trying to spot something far off in the distance.

“Now then~ Which lucky magical girl will be graced by the great Lady Herrera this time? Hmm hmm, they all look delicious… Let’s go with… that one who looks like Little Red Riding Hood.”

The fairy-tale inspired outfit instantly drew her attention.

She’d never tasted a magical girl like that before.

Surely, one with such a costume must be innocent to the core, pure as a white blossom, the kind that makes people fall in love just from looking.

Luo You had a feeling—defiling a girl so pure and snow-white would bring her the kind of twisted, forbidden pleasure she longed for.

“Hehehe… Is the memory stone recording? I expect at least a hundred new CGs out of you.”

She let out a laugh so deranged, so outright perverse, that had this been medieval Europe during the witch hunts, they would’ve needed two extra logs and a splash of gasoline just to feel safe burning her.

“Now then—let the hunt begin! Ah—huh?”

Just as she took her first dramatic step into this “new chapter,” her foot caught on something, and she nearly toppled head-first into a nearby fountain.

She glanced down in disbelief—

Slippers?!

Why the hell am I still wearing house slippers?!

Luo You stared blankly at her feet, where elegant glass heels should have been.

Instead, she found herself in the same white stockings she borrowed from her daughter—paired with her own fluffy, open-toed home slippers.

“…That looks so wrong.”

She awkwardly flexed her toes, hooking a slipper halfway off to reveal the slightly pink sheen of her heel.

“Has it really been so long since I transformed that I messed it up?”

BOOM!

Just as she was trying to adjust her outfit, another massive blast erupted from the magical girls’ side of the battlefield.

“…Did that dimensional beast just… give birth?”