novelraw Chapter 134: The Strongest in the Mirror!
Chapter 134: The Strongest in the Mirror!
Hyacinth watched the various figures passing by like they were going through the motions.
Her parents, and the members of the Magical Girl Combat Team—
Peony, Yueji, Mianmian, Ruri, Zhu Lu and Silver Lotus who had lost their Magical Girl abilities.
But she just watched coldly from the sidelines and did nothing.
All the scenes were no different from her memories, all devoid of color.
Hyacinth had long forgotten what a world with color looked like.
Those black-and-white images passed by one by one like an old movie, and she stood quietly among them watching.
She didn't know what the point was.
There was nothing she wanted to change, no existence she missed, and not a single emotional fluctuation.
Only a deep, profound boredom.Only when Shion appeared did the world of memories finally gain a bit of color.
But it was only for an instant, after all, after defeating her, Shion left immediately.
As for losing to Shion, she didn't feel there was anything that needed changing—no matter how many times she tried, she would still lose.
After that, communicating with the Witch Association, retiring, returning to the boring daily life at school.
Until Jiang Si came looking for her, the colorless Jiang Si from her original memories appeared with a faint purple hue.
This time, although there was still nothing she particularly wanted to change, she casually reached out and felt Jiang Si's muscles.
Unlike how they looked, they felt like iron blocks to the touch, but when poked, they were quite elastic.
She wanted to take a bite.
Jiang Si's body was probably far more terrifying than it appeared. If she had reached out and felt it back then, she might have discovered Jiang Si wasn't an ordinary person.
But they weren't familiar back then, so it would have been inappropriate to get handsy.
Later, there was the final transformation for Keke and Li Yi, making a deal with her mirror self to regain the power to transform.
Finally, fighting Shion, losing again, although that hint of purple was incredibly vivid.
Yet she still couldn't find any necessity to change anything.
It wasn't until Ruo Yun took her to kidnap members of the Witch Association and captured Zhang Qiling's family that Hyacinth's pupils finally gained a bit more color.
Because throughout her boring life, from beginning to end, Hyacinth couldn't find any necessity to change anything.
Compared to the past, she always looked forward to the future more.
She hoped the future wouldn't be so boring.
After everything ended, she naturally opened her eyes.
Sure enough, even if her life were to repeat, she couldn't find any fun or meaning in it.
She couldn't even find an opportunity to change something to make her life more interesting.
Thinking of Jiang Si's muscles she had touched in her mind, she didn't know if they were real in the illusion, and in the end, she didn't take a bite.
It would be nice if she could verify it with Jiang Si in the future.
Then she thought of the relationship between Keke and Jiang Si. She was considered Keke's senior, after all. Using this connection, she might even be able to go play at Keke's house and chat with Jiang Si.
Clearly having such an amazing older brother, yet still coming to ask her for tips on how Magical Girls get stronger.
Thinking that she used her final transformation to teach Shion's little sister how to get stronger...
It was somewhat amusing.
But she didn't regret it much, since she later regained the power to transform from the Mirror Kingdom.
Looking at her own Miracle Seed, Hyacinth took a deep breath.
Regardless, she was still very grateful to Splash, the Mirror Kingdom member who appeared back then.
Although her motives were questionable, the help she provided was real...
"You're finally awake."
A somewhat cold and stiff voice came from beside her. Turning her head, she saw Ruo Yun, surrounded by some Mirror Beasts, expressionlessly reloading the pistol in her hand while firing a few more shots into the Mirror Beast she was stepping on. "I thought you were going to sleep through the entire assessment."
"When did you wake up?"
"A long time ago."
Ruo Yun fired a few more shots, repelling the charging Mirror Beasts, and gasped for breath. "If you hadn't woken up soon, I was considering leaving you here and going to complete the mission first."
"That's too cold."
Hyacinth looked at the endless Mirror Beasts and also took out her Magic Wand. "We're teammates, after all."
"If you're just going to hold me back, it's better to split up." The two stood back-to-back, their mana blooming respectively as they each cleared the Mirror Beasts pouncing from their front. "Senior Hyacinth probably doesn't need my assistance either."
Erecting a mirror with mana on the side to deflect the breath attack from a distant Disaster Beast, Hyacinth tilted her head. "Classmate Ruo Yun, you should go train more with the Magical Girl Combat Team."
Without even looking back, Ruo Yun fired a shot behind her, blowing apart the Disaster Beast trying to sneak up on Hyacinth. "No need."
"Team coordination and trust are the fastest and most effective ways for Magical Girls to grow stronger."
"But if our ideals and strength levels differ, we'll just hold each other back instead." Ruo Yun created two fully automatic machine guns and placed them on either side.
Without needing her to pull the triggers manually, the two machine guns automatically rotated, sweeping the area and firing at all the surrounding Mirror Beasts.
She then tossed an infinite ammo bullet pouch onto them, watching as they rotated and rose into the sky to provide longer-range fire coverage.
Ruo Yun named this: Masterpiece, Big Brother's Two Overlord-Class Machine Guns M249.
But back then, her master thought this probably shouldn't count as a proper Magical Girl technique, so it was never officially named.
Automatic trigger, lock-on, penetration, damage amplification, and infinite ammo.
These two machine guns basically had all the attributes she had designed enabled. Their aiming was crisp, smooth, and efficient, not a single bullet was wasted.
However, the mana consumption was also top-tier.
Hyacinth glanced at them and then relaxed, looking at Ruo Yun who was disassembling her pistol again. "Did you see anything in the illusion?"
"Some boring stuff."
"I thought you might be fooled by the things in the illusion."
"If I were that easily swayed, I wouldn't have joined the Saint Hall in the first place." Ruo Yun tapped her forehead with the gun's stock. "A single second of hesitation would mean I'm not suited to stay in the Saint Hall."
"...You don't have to be so harsh on yourself." For some reason, Hyacinth suddenly felt a bit of interest. Taking advantage of the moment when the surrounding Disaster Beasts couldn't get close, she asked, "Have you never doubted what would happen if the Saint Hall turned out to be fake?"
Ruo Yun glanced at Hyacinth, whose eyes were sparkling with anticipation, and for a moment felt this Magical Girl senior was acting a bit strange.
But she didn't dwell on it. "If it really is fake, I'll give up on being a Magical Girl."
Hyacinth actually felt a bit of admiration now.
If she had initially been partly watching for amusement, now she was genuinely curious about how far Ruo Yun would go.
What exactly did Jiang Si, or rather, Miss Shion, plan to mold Ruo Yun into?
"Ultimately, I joined the Saint Hall just to train myself and become stronger."
Ruo Yun suddenly shouldered a rocket launcher. The huge rocket launcher pressed down on her shoulder, even causing Ruo Yun to bend slightly at the waist.
"The fact that I am gradually becoming stronger has never been fake, Senior Hyacinth."
As the massive rocket exploded amidst the swarm of Mirror Beasts, Ruo Yun tilted her head and looked at Hyacinth. "While you were unconscious in that space, I was fighting desperately all by myself."
Staring blankly at the girl before her, Hyacinth felt a surge of surprise.
She's almost about to advance to the Blooming Magical Girl rank... she's gotten so much stronger again...
After the surrounding Mirror Beasts thinned out, Ruo Yun put away the machine guns. "I've already locked onto Xilan's location. The Witch Association is cooperating with the Mirror Kingdom. Following them will definitely lead us to information and the legacy of the Mirror Kingdom. That's a huge amount of points. Let's go."
"When did you lock on?"
"I had it prepared before we even came in."
"Wow... Captain Ruo Yun is so reliable."
"...Could you also do a bit more work?"
"Sorry."
"Forget it, let's go."
......
"That sound?"
The Calamity Dragon flew while listening to the warning sound. The surrounding mirror surfaces were dyed red. "The Mirror Kingdom's system?"
An Shiyu, holding onto it from behind, was somewhat shocked. "? How do you know?"
"Ran into it once before." Jiang Si snorted coldly. "As expected, the Mirror Kingdom has already occupied the Heart Image Remnant. To actually issue such an alarm to hinder me from saving your Heart Image Remnant."
"Wait, first of all, it's not *my* Heart Image Remnant! Secondly, that message just now wasn't issued by the Mirror Kingdom's system!"
An Shiyu said angrily, "The Heart Image Remnant also controls a part of the Mirror Kingdom's system, so it can requisition some of its functions. That warning was issued by the Heart Image Remnant because you're threatening its existence!"
"Nonsense! The Mirror Kingdom must have bewitched the Heart Image Remnant, that's why it issued such an alarm."
"You're charging around recklessly like this, the Heart Image Remnant can't hold up at all! It's already struggling enough to block the Mirror Beasts. With you causing trouble like this, many Mirror Beasts will slip through! There's no leeway left to repair the outer layers of the Beihai space, and you're still acting recklessly. Of course it's going to warn..."
"It seems you're about to be controlled by the Mirror Kingdom's system as well."
"Will you listen to what people are saying?!"
"The current situation is too dangerous to waste time."
"Wait! I haven't finished explaining the setting..."
The Calamity Dragon's speed increased again!
Layer after layer of barriers shattered under its charge. An Shiyu behind it completely lost the ability to speak.
An Shiyu could only cling desperately to the dragon horns, screaming "Wah wah!" all the way in the gale-force winds, being flung back and forth, but she never let go.
The Calamity Dragon then discovered that along this entire journey, there was only Beihai.
Layer upon layer of Beihai.
And aside from the Beihai that went through the heart realm world and the outer few layers of Beihai, the other Beihai spaces actually didn't have many Mirror Beasts.
The further south it went, Beihai would enlarge proportionally, and the mana also began to show subtle differences.
It also noticed that the city's state seemed to be regressing, because when passing through the seventh layer of Beihai, a certain impressively tall building from its memory wasn't there.
That was the building a Disaster Beast was hanging from when it witnessed a Disaster Beast for the first time three years ago. It was destroyed back then, and later rebuilt by the Beihai construction team into a memorial building for Disaster Beast victims.
After breaking through the twentieth Beihai, the Calamity Dragon finally stopped.
Because the space here was clearly different.
Not only was the mana somewhat complex, with pure mana and polluted mana mixed together, the stability of the entire space also fluctuated up and down, as if a violently shaking mirror was about to shatter.
Looking down at an unstable spot below its feet, it turned out to be a group of Mirror Beasts fighting each other.
"Why are Mirror Beasts fighting among themselves?"
An Shiyu, who had been shaken until she was dizzy, finally climbed up and clung tightly to the dragon horns, taking a deep breath. "I told you! Listen to me finish explaining the setting before you go!"
"Skip."
"Skip my foot!"
The Calamity Dragon snorted coldly. It dared to skip the settings of *Profound Mirror Demonic Sects* and *Lord of Mysteries*, and you expect it to listen to your miscellaneous settings?
Just as it opened its mouth to clear out all the Mirror Beasts below, An Shiyu hurriedly covered the dragon's mouth.
"Wait! Wait! Listen to me finish, please, I'm begging you, okay?"
An Shiyu looked like she was about to kneel to her ancestor. "Some of the Mirror Beasts below were created by the Heart Image Remnant, they are the Heart Image Remnant's defense mechanism..."
Before she could finish, the Calamity Dragon unleashed a breath attack, instantly engulfing all the Mirror Beasts constructed from polluted mana!
"Ahhhh!" An Shiyu screamed, clutching her head. "No! Those were mine! The Mirror Beasts created by my... by the Heart Image Remnant! They're the good ones!"
"You didn't say so earlier."
The Calamity Dragon glanced at her. "Just got here, how was I supposed to know which are good and which are bad?"
"Then listen to me finish explaining!" An Shiyu's eyes welled up with tears. She never used to cry, but she didn't know how many times she had cried since meeting this ancestor. "The Disaster Beasts made from pure mana are the ones the Mirror Kingdom uses to erode our Heart Image Remnant..."
"You admit it's your Heart Image Remnant?"
"No, no!" An Shiyu immediately denied. "It just slipped out! How could I possibly use something so powerful... A-anyway, the enemies are those Mirror Beasts made from pure mana."
The Calamity Dragon turned its head and stared at her suspiciously. "You're not really a Mirror Kingdom mole, are you?"
An Shiyu gritted her teeth in frustration. Just now it suspected she was the master of the Heart Image Remnant.
Now it suspects she's a Mirror Kingdom mole!
What a big pig's trotter! Why did she ever like someone like this!
"You're the Mirror Kingdom mole! Your whole family are Mirror Kingdom moles!" An Shiyu was so angry she stomped frantically on its back. "Take a good look yourself, where do those pure mana Mirror Beasts disappear to?"
The Calamity Dragon didn't waste time either, instead blasting out a dragon's breath.
The pure mana Mirror Beasts were also annihilated in the mana, and then it sensed it.
When only the polluted mana Mirror Beasts remained, the unstable state of this space disappeared.
Looking into the distance, the unstable areas of this Beihai were precisely where Mirror Beasts were fighting. In contrast, areas where only one type of mana-natured Mirror Beasts existed were more stable.
It was precisely because of the intense entanglement between pure mana and polluted mana that the entire Beihai space became somewhat unstable.
No, it was that this pure mana itself was erosive.
The mere existence of pure mana Mirror Beasts was eroding the entire Beihai space? That's why it led to unstable results.
And the polluted mana Mirror Beasts were instead constantly reducing the number of pure mana Mirror Beasts, consuming that erosive pure mana to ensure the stability of the Beihai space.
"After the Mirror Kingdom was sealed, their system quickly began learning and looking for the Heart Image Remnant's weaknesses. Over all these years, they indeed found it and managed to imitate and create pure mana. But the underlying code of this pure mana is still the power of the Mirror Kingdom, causing it to spread and damage my... damage this Heart Image Remnant, allowing them to take control."
An Shiyu continued, "To ensure the control of the Heart Image Remnant isn't stolen, that's why there are layer upon layer of Beihai spaces, intercepting these Mirror Beasts so they can't quickly gain control of the Heart Image Remnant..."
Before she could finish, the Calamity Dragon had already started spewing wildly.
It quickly flew a circle over Beihai. All the Mirror Beasts in the entire Beihai space, whether polluted mana or pure mana Disaster Beasts, were completely annihilated!
An Shiyu stared dumbfounded at this guy who simply wouldn't listen, as it cleared out Beihai.
"Anyway, killing them all solves the problem, right?"
The girl finally closed her mouth after a long while. "O-okay, okay, seems like there's no problem..."
The Calamity Dragon watched as the polluted mana rose up and casually absorbed it.
"Speaking of which, where does this polluted mana come from?"
"It's just some negative emotions from the master of the Heart Image Remnant." An Shiyu said quietly. "Magical Girls have negative emotions too, it's not strange, right? Using one's own negative emotions to create polluted mana, then generating Mirror Beasts to fight against them. It's a genius-level idea, isn't it?"
"Can't tell." The Calamity Dragon sensed those negative emotions, then paused. "Seems like I can hear voices within the negative emotions?"
Then, the voices from the negative emotions within the polluted mana were amplified, echoing over Beihai:
"Want to see the ending of the little spirits, ah, I really want to see it, want to know what Charizard's mega evolution looks like, don't wanna die before seeing the ending or anything..."
Cold sweat poured down An Shiyu's back, and she forced out a guilty smile. "Ah, ahaha, what a coincidence, it's actually a Magical Girl who likes little spirits just like me. But to generate so many negative emotions just because she can't see the ending of the little spirits, that's really, really a bit childish..."
"What an idiot."
"Hey!" An Shiyu immediately shouted. "Of course you'd be sad if you couldn't see the grand finale of a story! Isn't that normal? You'd definitely have negative emotions too if a novel you liked didn't have an ending, right?"
"I never read books that might not be finished."
The Calamity Dragon declared proudly. "Authors who go on hiatus, all blacklisted."
"..." An Shiyu raised her hands in surrender. "I lose, okay? Having so many negative emotions just because you can't see the ending is a bit stupid..."
The Calamity Dragon didn't dwell on it with her either, vibrating its wings to continue flying south.
"Beyond this are the nine strongest defensive layers of the Mirror Kingdom. You have to..."
Before the words "be careful" could be uttered, a slight misalignment appeared in the upper part of the Beihai spatial layer, then it shattered like glass.
An Shiyu was slightly stunned, looking up at the dim, colorful space revealed behind the suddenly shattered barrier ahead. A light green Magical Girl was currently standing cross-legged in the shadows, with only a corner of the shattered barrier visible.
Her light green pupils gazed coldly in this direction, devoid of any emotion.
"Responding to highest threat elimination protocol."
"Be careful!" An Shiyu immediately shouted. "It's the Full Bloom Magical Girl, Mujin!"
Over there, Mujin extended her index finger along the spatial crack and gently drew a line.
"It's a spatial slash..."
Before she could finish, the Calamity Dragon's form suddenly contracted. Its originally somewhat massive body shrank down to human size. A spatial fissure slashed past along the edge of the Calamity Dragon's body.
An Shiyu, who was behind it, was instantly bisected at the waist. Although she was just an illusory energy body, for a moment, she actually found it difficult to heal.
The Mujin on the other side looked at the agile Calamity Dragon, simply waved her hand, and the dim, colorful space instantly tore open the sky. The surrounding Beihai spatial environment abruptly changed.
"Danger level four, transfer to fifth layer... failed."
"Transfer to second layer, successful."
"Mission completed."
The world spun. The aura of Magical Girl Mujin also instantly vanished.
The Calamity Dragon looked around and discovered this was actually a nighttime Beihai. An Shiyu's phantom was gone, and the surroundings were very quiet.
It flew up, intending to continue heading south, when it saw a huge mirror.
And standing opposite the huge mirror were three familiar Magical Girls.
Those three Magical Girls quickly noticed it too and immediately looked at it with tension and seriousness.
Naturally, it was Iris and the other two. They had taken a route only known to the Disaster Control Bureau, ran all the way here, were finally blocked by the mirror, and were still looking for a solution when they ran into the Calamity Dragon like this.
Really, bad luck...
"This place is sealed off by the Mirror Kingdom. We can temporarily join forces." Hongmian suddenly said seriously. "Whatever issues we have, let's discuss them after we get out, okay?"
Qingluán and Iris both stared dumbfounded at their teacher, not expecting her to say something like that, actually proposing to join forces with someone from the Witch Association.
Although the Calamity Dragon ignored them, it also didn't immediately attack. It just swung its dragon tail at the mirror.
[Detecting dangerous targets. Total targets: 4.]
[Initiating single-copy individual emergency processing.]
[Target selection: Strongest individual.]
[Selection complete.]
[Strongest individual, copy complete. Engaging.]
After that series of announcements, Hongmian and the other two felt their hearts tighten!
Great, one Calamity Dragon was already enough of a headache, and now this thing is going to copy another Calamity Dragon!
Then, the mirror began to glow. Accompanied by a piercing noise, under the three's tense gazes.
A girl walked out—
Magical Girl Iris.