Time ticked by, and Luo Shuangyue could already feel her body nearing its limits—she could last for no more than a minute longer.
Yet in the current situation, relying on basic attacks alone, a minute wasn’t nearly enough to finish off this Royal-Class Magic Beast.
She would have to use a much more powerful move.
But once she used that kind of attack, her transformation time would be dramatically shortened—it was a gamble, betting that this attack would be strong enough to kill the Demon outright.
Luo Shuangyue hesitated only a moment before deciding to bet it all!
Even if her attack failed to kill the Demon, as long as she interrupted the self-destruction and pushed it to the brink of death, Long Wen could clean up whatever was left!
She wasn’t fighting alone!
“Long Wen! Get back!” Luo Shuangyue shouted to the dragon-rider, her sword blazing with a blinding light.
Seeing this, Long Wen instantly understood Luo Shuangyue’s intentions.
“Aurora of White Night?” She hurriedly had her beloved dragon retreat, lest her own weapon be caught in the crossfire of White Night’s ultimate move.
Facing the terrifying pressure before her, the Demon’s heart was eerily calm—even a bit elated.
To die under such an attack—there’s no way the Magical Girls would suspect anything!
Come on, Dark Moth—blast me to death, then absorb my magic power!
To ensure the attack was enough to kill her, the Demon even weakened her own defensive magic, just to make her death under this strike appear reasonable.
Three seconds later, a brilliant white light fell from the sky, completely enveloping the Demon.
Bathed in the dazzling glow, the Demon let out a wretched scream, her body gradually dissolving, turning into jet-black magic, and was then wholly purified by the white brilliance.
“White Night! White Night!!!”
Every Magical Girl in the city heard the Demon’s venomous roar, and understood that it had entered its death throes.
The white radiance lasted about ten seconds. The Royal-Class Magic Beast now lay sprawled on the ground, her body covered in white scars.
Her body continued to collapse, and with every bit that disintegrated, the black aura in the vicinity grew deeper.
Luo Shuangyue’s body could no longer withstand such intense power; otherwise, the Royal-Class Magic Beast would have been completely purified by now, with no lingering danger.
The Demon’s body was disintegrating faster and faster. Soon, the concentration of demonic energy in the area had far exceeded the Magic Department’s alert threshold, and was still rising.
Long Wen circled back, landing nearby. Seeing the scene, she frowned in distress. “This level of magic pollution… it’s going to be a real headache to handle.”
“You can’t take care of it?” Luo Shuangyue looked at Long Wen in confusion. Didn’t the Magic Department already have ways to handle demonic energy?
“The Magic Department can only handle pollution below a certain concentration. This is already far beyond their capacity. The only option is to station people here and slowly weaken the effect over years until it dissipates.”
The Magic Department weren’t gods, after all. Cleaning up this level of magic pollution required Magical Girls who specialized in purification, and there were only a handful of such girls in the whole world.
And Long Wen clearly wasn’t one of them.
“The few Magical Girls who possess strong purification powers are all busy elsewhere; they can’t spare the time,” Long Wen sighed. “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.”
Luo Shuangyue shook her head, signaling she was fine—just about to explode, that’s all.
This place was close to the Eternal Night Base. If the Magic Department sealed this area off as forbidden, she wouldn’t be able to come back to the organization’s base for missions.
That wouldn’t do. Luo Shuangyue decided to help the Magic Department deal with the demonic energy while she still could.
White Night wasn’t especially skilled at purification, but she was a master of sealing. If she sealed the demonic energy into a Sealing Card and handed it to Long Wen to toss somewhere far away, wouldn’t that solve the problem?
With that, Luo Shuangyue, still holding on, summoned White Night’s magic power once more and gathered all the black energy before her into a single Sealing Card, its surface covered in thorny patterns.
Having finished, she quickly handed the card to Long Wen. “My seal won’t last long, hurry up and throw it somewhere deserted.”
Long Wen took the Sealing Card, worry evident in her gaze as she looked at Luo Shuangyue. “Are you really alright?” She felt something was seriously off about White Night today; she seemed completely different from before.
The old White Night was generous, confident, radiating a charm that made people want to follow and believe in her. Today’s White Night, however, looked like she was barely holding herself together.
“I’m fine, just hurry and get rid of the card—otherwise, the magic will leak out.”
No sooner had Luo Shuangyue finished speaking than a tiny crack appeared in the card in Long Wen’s hand, and tendrils of demonic energy began to seep out.
Seeing this, Long Wen could no longer afford to ask questions. She leapt onto her dragon and flew out of the city.
As soon as she left, Luo Shuangyue immediately cancelled her White Night transformation—if Long Wen had delayed any longer, she really might have exploded.
Her body was soaked with cold sweat, every inch of her aching as if about to tear apart from the strain of that tremendous power. Luo Shuangyue slumped against the ruins, staring emptily up at the sky.
This power really does wring you dry.
After a couple deep breaths and using her recently acquired skill to patch up her battered body a little, Luo Shuangyue barely managed to stand, eager to get away from this wretched place.
As she passed the spot where the Demon’s body had crumbled, several black crystals left behind caught her eye.
These crystals still emitted faint wisps of black smoke, their aura similar to that of the Royal-Class Magic Beast, but much weaker—more like the magic she had absorbed from those cyborgs earlier.
What are these? Relics?
Luo Shuangyue had a rather irreverent thought, but since these things were left here, she figured she might as well take them back and try absorbing them.
After all, the Royal-Class Magic Beast was already dead; there should be no danger in absorbing the magic she left behind.
With that in mind, Luo Shuangyue crouched down and picked up the thumb-sized black crystals.
But the moment they touched her skin, the crystals immediately dissolved into her body like alcohol mixing with water.
“What the…?”
Luo Shuangyue froze. How did these crystals just merge into her?
Could this be a problem?
She checked herself over, but could find nothing amiss—truly strange.
The plan had succeeded.
But there was a little hiccup.
The Royal-Class Magic Beast stared stiffly at the Butterfly of Netherworld before her.
“H-hi?” She raised a bramble-vine arm, greeting the black-violet butterfly hovering in front of her.
She had indeed staged a convincing fake death before Dark Moth and the Magical Girls, and had even managed to send her consciousness and Original Magic Power into Dark Moth’s body.
But could someone please tell her—why was there another presence inside Dark Moth, almost identical to herself?
So Dark Moth already had a master?!
The Butterfly of Netherworld said nothing at all. It was as if it were pure, mindless energy.
Even when the Royal-Class Magic Beast stretched out a vine to touch it, there was no response.
But just a single light touch, and the vine instantly turned ashen, lifeless—the sheer force of death made the Royal-Class Magic Beast shudder.
Such power… truly unimaginable.
What shocked her even more was the aura emanating from this butterfly—it was exactly like her own.
Dark Moth’s source of power was completely different from other Magical Girls! Her power came from a Demon!
A Demon so strong it defied every known classification!
How could this be? Magical Girls and Demons were supposed to be arch-enemies, irreconcilable foes.
Unable to make sense of it, the Royal-Class Magic Beast forced her confusion aside. Though Dark Moth was abnormal in many ways, it did not hinder her plan.
All she needed to do was occupy Dark Moth’s body from within, and she could resurrect right under the noses of those foolish Magical Girls.
No one would ever guess that the “dead” Royal-Class Magic Beast could rise again.
Now, she just needed to grow her own magic power, quietly take control, and the plan would be complete.
This should be simple—there were already some unidentified magical residues in Luo Shuangyue’s body, and with those, the Royal-Class Magic Beast could easily restore her power.
The Original Magic Power she brought along would also strengthen over time.
Just a bit more time, and she’d be…
“Where’s my Original Magic Power?!” Suddenly, she realized something was terribly wrong.
Her Original Magic Power was gone.
She looked up at the Butterfly of Netherworld—and found the butterfly hugging a black crystal to its chest, licking it bit by bit.
No way… That’s my Original Magic Power, isn’t it?
The Royal-Class Magic Beast blinked once. Then again.
And then she let out a shrill, miserable wail: “You bastard! Give me back my Original Magic Power! Stop eating it!”