Chains vs. Vines

"This guy actually ignored me!"

"Alright, alright, Xiaoxia." Yu Muqiu tried to persuade her. "Xiao Bai is right. Our top priority is to get the civilians out before the Demon takes shape."

Although they did not know why these people had been dragged into the barrier and guided into forming a Demon and Nightmare Seeds, as long as they teleported everyone away, this crisis would naturally be resolved.

With Xiao Bai taking the lead, the other Magical Girls began to act as well, running all over the festival within the barrier and sending people out one after another.

However, before they had even evacuated half the bystanders, another change occurred within the barrier.

The Demon, which had yet to fully form, suddenly took shape at a terrifying speed. Countless vines shot out from the black mist nurturing it like chains, flying toward the four Magical Girls rescuing people!

"!!!"

Xiao Bai reacted first. Chains surged from the empty air behind her, countless chains tangling and colliding with the incoming vines in an attempt to block them.

Yu Muqiu was the next to react.

With a wave of her wand, pink light formed flying blades around her, slicing apart all the incoming vines.

Chen Xiaoxia and Xiao Chun also unleashed their respective magic at the same time, following Yu Muqiu's spell.

Chen Xiaoxia swung her greatsword and chopped all the vines to pieces. Then she flicked the blade aside, raised it one-handed, and pointed it at the shadow in the sky.

"Can't hold back anymore? Then show yourself already! What kind of skill is hiding in the shadows and controlling Demons from behind the scenes?!"

Chen Xiaoxia truly was the simplest-minded among the three.

The moment she realized the person behind this could no longer resist making a move, she immediately launched a provocation attack at them. It was only because Chen Xiaoxia had never trained on internet forums; otherwise, her aggression would have been maxed out by now.

Perhaps the person behind it could not stand Chen Xiaoxia's taunts, or perhaps she simply stood out too much. In any case, the vines in the sky seemed to find their target at once, and most of them swarmed toward Chen Xiaoxia!

"Perfect timing!"

Facing the vines filling the sky, Chen Xiaoxia stomped down with her right foot. As the ground cracked beneath her, she shot straight toward the vines.

"Take this!! Blade Storm!"

Chen Xiaoxia shouted, borrowing the name of some game skill or another. She spun through the air, and the blade of her greatsword truly became like a raging gale, shredding the incoming vines to pieces.

Fragments of vines fell from the sky like a rain of green.

Xiao Bai stared at the falling vine fragments. Suddenly, her pupils constricted, and she shouted at Chen Xiaoxia.

"Blue idiot! Stop fighting!! Look under your feet!!!"

"Huh?"

The blue idiot froze for a moment, then immediately turned to look below herself.

Then the blue idiot cried out, "What is this?!!!"

The vines that had fallen to the ground took root before Chen Xiaoxia's eyes, growing again into even larger and tougher vines!

Those vines altered the environment within the Magic Barrier, transforming the entire barrier into a rainforest-like expanse of green.

What was worse, the countless vines were winding toward the four Magical Girls!

"That's cheating, that's cheating! Why can the pieces grow back after being cut apart?! Even the last Sixth-Level Demon didn't have power this ridiculous!"

A Sixth-Level Demon was a Demon with six Nightmare Seeds contained within its body.

That was the official ranking system.

One Nightmare Seed represented one level. Therefore, the Speed Demon was Level Three, the Fish Monster Demon was Level Four, and the Demon that would likely serve as the final boss of the first season, with six Nightmare Seeds inside it, was Level Six.

Yet although the Sixth-Level Demon they had faced last time was powerful, it did not possess such an unreasonable ability.

The fragments of a severed attack actually took root and became new attacks. That clearly surpassed the limits of a Sixth-Level Demon!

Could this newborn Demon possess strength above Level Seven?

That was obviously not normal!

"W-what do we do?! My Light Magic isn't working either!"

There were too many vines. Even if Yu Muqiu used Light Magic to create slashing attacks, she would only cause more vines to grow, with no way to clear them all away.

As for using a Magic Cannon, it was not impossible, but Yu Muqiu could only use a high-output Magic Cannon three times now.

There were also still many civilians who had not escaped. Using a Magic Cannon could easily injure them by mistake, leaving Yu Muqiu heavily restrained and unwilling to use attacks that were too powerful.

Xiao Bai's mind raced as she scanned her surroundings.

There were too many vines. Unless they used a large-scale attack, they would only keep multiplying.

Then they could not resolve this crisis through combat.

The purpose! She needed to figure out the purpose of the person behind all this!

Since the person behind this had created such a huge spectacle, they clearly were not doing it merely to show off their strength. They definitely had their own purpose!

So what was that person's purpose?

Xiao Bai thought as her gaze darted around the area.

Until...

She saw a mass of vines dragging away Nino, who had been watching the fight below, and instantly understood everything.

Nino!!

The person behind this was after Nino!

Nino, a Magical Creature from another world, did not know much magic herself. Most of her magic was support-oriented.

In the first episode of the first season, when Yu Muqiu had just become a Magical Girl and did not yet know how to set up a Magic Barrier, Nino had been the one to create the barrier.

Although Fang Ming initially always compared Nino to Kyubey, Nino was actually more like Yuno's role in Magic Naye.

And unlike Yuno, Nino's true form was already like this. She had no human form, and strictly speaking, she was female, which was why Fang Ming stopped targeting Nino so much afterward.

Normally, Nino was almost no different from a complete background character.

She would explain the origins of Demons and monsters, or explain the difference between Nightmare Barriers and Magic Barriers.

Or she would identify a Demon's weakness at a critical moment.

She was a completely support-oriented character.

Then why did the person behind this want to capture Nino?

Fang Ming, in his Xiao Bai form, thought about it seriously. He could only think of two possible reasons.

One was that Nino came from another world, and someone wanted to study a creature from another world.

The other... was the twenty-four Nightmare Seeds Nino was safeguarding!

Nightmare Seeds were extremely dangerous. Simply existing in reality, they could activate the Desires buried deep in other people's hearts and turn their dreams into Nightmares while they slept at night, thereby creating Demons.

So if they did not want Demons to appear, the only option was to store those Nightmare Seeds in a special space.

Nino's true form resembled a calico cat, and there was an orange heart-shaped mark on her chest.

That mark did not look special at all. One might not even notice it without looking closely, since it was on her chest.

But in reality, it was a storage space that came with Nino herself.

The Nightmare Seeds were kept in that heart-shaped space on her chest!

If the person behind this truly wanted Nino's Nightmare Seeds... then once that person succeeded, the Magical Girls might have to face a fusion of twenty-four Nightmare Seeds!

According to the official setting, that would be a Level Twenty-Four Demon!

It had taken Fang Ming and the Magical Girls working together just to defeat a Sixth-Level Demon. A Level Twenty-Four Demon... perhaps no one would be able to stop it.

All of that flashed through Xiao Bai's mind in an instant, and she quickly made her decision.

The moment she realized Nino had been dragged away by the vines, Xiao Bai plunged from the sky without saying a word. The scythe spun around her as she ignored whether the vines would continue growing and turned countless vines into fragments.

The vines seemed to realize Xiao Bai's goal. They formed more thick, long vines and smashed them down at her!

"Heh, you're using this kind of magic against me?"

As the soft vines were about to fall onto her, Xiao Bai smiled disdainfully. Then she waved her right hand, and endless chains flew out from behind her, striking the tips of those vines with perfect accuracy!

What Xiao Bai excelled at most was Chain Magic. Compared to that, her Severing Magic was far weaker.

Her favorite attack was also forging chains out of the void and firing them out like the treasury of a king, much like a certain golden friend.

And chains themselves possessed a flexible nature. At certain times, chains were even more flexible than vines!

Using vines against Xiao Bai was no different from using chains against Xiao Bai.

You actually used my magic against me?.jpg

The only thing limiting Xiao Bai was probably her magic power.

But the vines themselves were not sturdy, so Xiao Bai did not need to spend much magic power reinforcing her chains.

Right now, she only needed quantity, not quality!

Clang, clang, clang—

The collision points between the chains and vines actually produced sounds like metal striking metal.

Those sounds also alerted the Magical Girls, who were dealing with the vines and protecting the other bystanders.

It was only then that the Magical Girls realized something was wrong.

"Nino!! Nino was taken away!!!"

Yu Muqiu cried out.

Xiao Chun also froze sharply. Seeming to realize something, she said nothing and immediately raised her longbow.

The bow grew larger and larger. Xiao Chun drew it, and a jade-green Arrow appeared upon the bowstring.

Twang!

She released the string, and the jade-green Arrow shot out. It instantly became a gigantic Arrow in midair and flew toward the densely packed mass of vines!

Boom!!!

The green Arrow struck the vines with an effect like a bomb.

Surging magic power spread in a circle, destroying every vine. Nino, who had been wrapped so tightly in the vines that she could not even speak, was completely blasted away by the magical impact!

Xiao Bai reacted extremely quickly. The instant Nino was sent flying, she stepped onto a Chain that suddenly appeared beneath her feet, rapidly approached Nino, and caught her in her arms.

Then Xiao Bai called to Yu Muqiu.

"Xiao Qiu! The Demon has fully formed!! Now's the time!!!"

The vine magic seemed endless, and its power had increased by several degrees, representing that the Demon itself had reached its complete state.

Before a Demon fully formed, it was merely a collection of illusory Desires, and attacks of any nature could not affect it.

That was why Xiao Bai and the others could only choose to evacuate people first.

But now that the Demon had formed, although it had become extraordinarily powerful, it had lost its trait of being impossible to affect.

In other words, its invincibility phase had ended, and its health bar had appeared!

Now was the time to attack!

"Alright!!"

Yu Muqiu had no resistance whatsoever to Xiao Bai's command.

She immediately flew into the sky. A magic circle formed from pink light appeared beneath her feet, and the Magic Cannon she had once used on Xiao Bai appeared within the Convergence Rings once more, its gathered power aimed directly at the Demon in the sky!

"Angel—Impact Cannon!!"

Boom!!!

The overwhelming blast was like a sword splitting open the heavens. With the trajectory of the cannon fire as its dividing line, it cleaved the sky in two.

The pink blast annihilated the Demon and shot farther into the distance, even shattering the Magic Barrier and opening a breach in it.

When the light faded, the Demon had vanished without a trace.

Not even a Nightmare Seed remained.

After all, this was still an immature Demon. Its Nightmare Seeds had not fully formed either, so calling it an underage Demon would not be inaccurate.

Yu Muqiu's cannon blast had been somewhat like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.