“She simply fainted, most likely due to work stress these past few days, which caused mental exhaustion leading to her loss of consciousness.”
Miss Doctor concluded, and she was also a Magical Girl.
“Is that so? It’s all my fault… for not noticing how weak she was,” Xing Luo blamed herself in guilt.
“It’s alright. After a bit of rest, she’ll be fine. I’ve already used magic to restore her spirit. She’s probably having a beautiful dream right now, and should wake up again soon.”
“Thank you, Miss Doctor.”
“No need to thank me, this is our duty.” Miss Doctor smiled like a blossoming flower.
But Xing Luo’s doubts were not dispelled.
What exactly did Xia Xue see?
And does she herself have a special constitution?
With these questions in mind, Xing Luo asked the doctor, “Miss Doctor, I’m a new Magical Girl and haven’t fully mastered the art of dream-walking yet. Can you teach me?”
“Huh? But aren’t there instructors for newcomers?”
“She is my instructor…”
“I see, in that case, I’ll help you then—I’m not very skilled with dreams myself, but I can help you awaken into the dream realm.”
The doctor agreed.
Following the doctor’s guidance, Xing Luo entered the proper state.
“The first time you enter a dream, you need to be mentally prepared. You may experience powerful hallucinations, but don’t worry, these are all part of the dream realm—manifestations of your inner mind space.”
“I’ve already entered once,” Xing Luo said.
But that time probably didn’t count as Xing Luo’s own dream space, did it? According to Xin Yu, that space existed independently outside of Xing Luo. Xing Luo had never understood this issue.
“That’s good, then.”
With Miss Doctor’s guidance, Xing Luo felt her magical core quiver slightly.
At this moment, hallucinations appeared. Her mind became dazed, detached from reality.
Suddenly, something from reality touched her.
“No… don’t! Xing Luo, you mustn’t!”
It was Xia Xue’s voice. Xia Xue grabbed Xing Luo tightly, trying to stop her from sinking deeper into the dream.
But it was already too late.
***
In a space of endless darkness, a lone figure sat upon a throne, issuing orders to the raggedly dressed people below.
“Drag her away. Flog her!”
A cold man’s voice echoed hollowly.
The girl was roughly pulled to the Execution Platform, her limbs bound.
The foreman drew out a whip and swung it hard. With each broken, hoarse cry from the girl, bloody welts bloomed across her body.
Agony filled the chamber, pitch-black blood seeping from the ground.
“It’s because you lowlifes don’t work hard enough that we suffer these miserable days! You must…”
The whip fell again, and the girl’s flesh was torn to shreds, her body losing all signs of struggle.
She slumped like a pile of rotten meat, awaiting the vultures’ feast.
Some stood for justice and resisted the rule. The result: a gunshot, and the just man fell.
She saw the face of that righteous man—Uncle Wu, choking on blood.
Tears, mingled with mud, fell in her silent weeping.
Someone knelt at the foot of a cross, begging heaven for forgiveness, to pardon their Sin of Original Guilt, yet they bore no sin to begin with.
The so-called Original Guilt was but a Redemption Ticket forced upon themselves, praying for a false salvation.
No matter how they pleaded, it was useless. Justice would never descend upon those content in their own weakness.
The punishments heaped upon her grew ever heavier—she was made to bear a massive boulder, her limbs hacked off, and forced to endure torturous execution.
“You guilty witch! You refuse to serve us, refuse to offer your soul, and still dare to resist?”
Her body began to demonize, becoming ugly—just as they claimed, a wicked witch burdened by Sin of Original Guilt.
So she whispered in a low sigh:
“I am a born lowly wretch…”
“I am a witch burdened by Sin of Original Guilt…”
By magic’s power, her limbs regrew. She bore the boulder, kneeling before the throne.
“Please, master, grant me death, release me from my sins.”
The factory chief’s face twisted hideously.
He said, “No, you may not die. I won’t give you a chance for redemption—your sins cannot disappear so easily, for you must serve us as a loyal servant. Only then can you truly atone.”
She could only bow her head in acceptance.
Xing Luo watched the scene before her in despair, like an evil spirit doomed to never reincarnate, trapped in this nightmare.
She saw the face of the girl.
“How… how could it be you? Han Yu!!!”
The fire of hatred blazed, and she began to lose control, rushing at the one on the throne like a rabid hound.
But quickly, a servant behind her shattered her legs, throwing her to the ground.
“Another one, looks like another guilty witch. Seize her and shackle her.”
Chains coiled tight, choking her throat so she couldn’t breathe.
She was thrown into a cage.
“No! Someone save us…” Xing Luo cried out in despair.
“You dare to resist? You can only be executed.” The factory chief said to Han Yu.
Han Yu was brought before the Guillotine.
“Hmph, witches truly are fickle creatures. For the peace of the world, it’s best to exterminate them early.”
Resistance was useless. With a crisp snap, Han Yu’s head rolled from her shoulders.
She was dead.
Xing Luo was powerless to resist, forced to watch everything in silence, not even the strength for anger left within her.
“So be it. To die like this… perhaps it’s for the best…”
Then, a scarlet-haired girl appeared before her gaze, an insidious smile on her lips as she stared directly at her.
“Do you desire the power of destruction? I can give it to you.”
Xing Luo was already dazed, unable to comprehend the words of the scarlet girl.
The scarlet-haired girl lifted her chin, mocking, “Hey hey hey, you blockhead—answer me! Just nod, and I’ll grant you the power to destroy all this injustice. How about it?”
The scarlet-haired girl let go, and Xing Luo bowed her head.
“So you’re nodding, aren’t you? Heh, then I’ll grant you this power.”
On Xing Luo’s body, the Burning Lotus blossomed, a surge of tremendous magical power erupting, her spirit recovering, and her consciousness returning.
With it, the fire of hatred blazed anew.
The chains that bound her melted away under the Burning Lotus, the cage incinerated.
The onlookers gasped in astonishment, while the factory chief shrieked in fear, “Shoot her! This cursed witch—the Summoning Beasts are sent by them to destroy us!”
Bullets poured down like rain, but the powerless shots were vaporized upon striking the magical shield, doing no harm at all.
“You who bear guilt—shouldn’t it be you? Therefore, I will deliver equal judgment upon you all.”
With a snap of her fingers, countless Summoning Beasts burst forth from the torn rifts in space, roaring and charging, bringing annihilation.
The army was easily defeated, and the stubborn ones who clung to resistance were blasted away by magical cannon fire.
Xing Luo grabbed the factory chief’s ruined body, dragged him from the throne, and hauled him before the Guillotine.
The blade rose—fell, and another head rolled across the ground.
“Next, I will purify this irredeemable world that harbors injustice and filth.”
Xing Luo seated herself on the throne, snapped her fingers. In the sky, a magnificent magic array appeared, gathering the might of a super-ion cannon.
Once the gathering was complete, with but an instant, the city was obliterated—under that terminal light, all things burned to ash.
Xing Luo sat high upon the throne, coldly watching all that burned.
“Let it be my duty, let me bear the weight. See me as dog or swine, slay my own kin. Law and justice sealed, righteousness no more. I wield slaughter on Heaven’s behalf, let my body be stained with blood.”
“Hah… Chi Lian, what are you doing!? You’re interfering in my dream!”
Xing Luo snapped back from the depths of her dream-memory. Chi Lian had been at her side, watching her memories, yet had apparently intervened from the shadows.
“I merely gave things a little push, that’s all. You already had such thoughts within you, didn’t you? Heh heh.”
“These things didn’t objectively happen, Chi Lian. You can’t interfere with my memories anymore.”
Chi Lian put her hands on her hips, saying, “Alright, alright, let’s keep watching—what happens next?”
[Was that world-destroying dream truly your real desire, Chi Lian?]