Blocking

Lin Xiaolu covered her head and got up from the sofa. The chaotic memories in her mind made it almost impossible for her to tell where she was.

When she saw her surroundings and Lin Yun sitting behind her desk making a phone call, she remembered what had just happened—she tried to stop the woman who called herself "Claw Mark," and then she was suddenly knocked unconscious.

"Yes, the location is Silver Screen Mountain, probably near the summit. The other side shouldn't be hiding, so we should be able to find their location quickly... You guys should get there as soon as possible; I'll arrange the rest."

Almost simultaneously, Lin Yun ended the call on his phone.

Putting away his phone and standing up, Lin Yun felt an immense headache coming on. He sighed subconsciously, looked up, and met Lin Xiaolu's gaze again.

"Woke up?"

Seeing that his daughter was indeed alright, he finally relaxed a little and went straight to Lin Xiaolu's side. "How are you feeling? Is there anything else that's bothering you?"

"... It should be fine."

Releasing her hands from her head, Lin Xiaolu shook her head, struggling to get up. "Where's that woman?"

"They're gone."

Lin Yun pointed to the window. "About ten minutes ago, she knocked you unconscious and then flew away."

"Ten minutes..."

Upon hearing the exact time she had fainted, Lin Xiaolu stiffened, then slumped back down. "Well, looks like I can't catch up."

"Stop thinking about chasing him; you're clearly no match for him."

Lin Yun gently rubbed Lin Xiaolu's head and said helplessly, "What you should do now is rest and recover. As for stopping that person, I've already notified the other members of your team. Larkspur and Hong Siyu lead the team to deal with it."

"Larkspur already left?"

Upon hearing Lin Yun's words, Lin Xiaolu, who had just lain down, immediately sat up with a start. "Where? Silver Screen Mountain? I want to go there too!"

I've already told you, you can't go.

Lin Yun removed his hand from Lin Xiaolu's head. "This enemy is no ordinary danger. According to the intelligence I've received, it's even more dangerous than the giant Aberrant Beast we encountered during the Full Moon Festival. This is not a battle you can handle right now."

"But Larkspur went, right? Everyone has to go to battle!"

Lin Xiaolu still clung to the key information. "If Larkspur goes, even if she can only help in the smallest way, I definitely have to go!"

Lin Yun was speechless. He wanted to tell Lin Xiaolu, "Going there now might actually make things worse," but he felt that saying that would be too harsh.

"Be good, Lulu."

After much thought, he realized that his only option was to appeal to Lin Xiaolu's emotions. So he knelt down and looked directly into her eyes. "Daddy will take care of everything, so please don't do anything that will worry Daddy anymore, okay?"

Lin Xiaolu quieted down.

"But I am a magical girl from Fangting City. I cannot back down alone at a time like this."

After a long pause, she spoke again with a conflicted expression, "If you choose to back down just because the enemy is dangerous, then you can't be considered a proper magical girl at all..."

"Once you've grown up, you'll have more opportunities to face even stronger enemies. When that time comes, I definitely won't stop you anymore."

Lin Yun said seriously, "But this time, even if it's just this once, you really don't need to deal with an enemy like this."

Lin Xiaolu looked up and could see the seriousness in Lin Yun's eyes, and the worry beneath that seriousness.

She opened her mouth again, but the words of refusal she wanted to say became rather hesitant and awkward.

"... All right."

She didn't know when, but in a moment she herself didn't even notice, the words she uttered had become those two.

Then she saw her father's expression relax considerably.

"Okay, that's settled then. Dad has to arrange other emergency matters, so I probably won't be able to stay with you in the office for the rest of the time. You should rest a little longer and then go back to the base by yourself."

Reaching out again, this time to smooth Lin Xiaolu's hair, Lin Yun's voice softened. "I'm sorry, we were supposed to spend the New Year together, but it ended up like this. Is there anything else? We can talk about it properly later."

"Fine."

Lin Xiaolu shook her head, looking a little uncomfortable. "There's nothing we can do if the enemy comes. You should go and do your thing."

For some reason, she suddenly remembered when she was in elementary school. Her father often had to work overtime or attend social events, but he never apologized to her like this.

And now, she doesn't know when it started, but she feels that her father has changed a lot.

It's not just a change in identity and behavior, but also some changes in personality.

If the former change made her feel somewhat unfamiliar, then the latter change brought her a subtle sense of familiarity.

It was this familiar, even somewhat comfortable feeling that made her subconsciously agree with what the other person said.

Watching her father twitch the corners of his mouth, a smile appearing on his usually serious face, before he put on his suit jacket and left the office, Lin Xiaolu sat obediently on the sofa, watching him leave until the office door clicked shut.

She sat silently for a while, then looked out the window not far away.

Just now, the woman who called herself Claw Mark left through that window.

With her thoughts swirling in her mind, Lin Xiaolu first stared blankly out the window, then a conflicted expression appeared on her face. After a while, she finally let out a sigh as if she had made up her mind.

She stood up.

As the night deepened on a dark and windy night, strange noises emanated from the depths of the densely wooded Silver Screen Mountain.

As a mountain far from Fangting City and with relatively low tourism development, Silver Screen Mountain sees few tourists throughout the year. In addition, on New Year's Eve, most citizens choose to spend the night with their families, so there is hardly anyone on the mountain at this time.

In this environment, a tall tower made of rubble and mud was erected at some unknown time.

The tower is about ten meters tall and half a meter thick, with strange patterns etched crookedly on its surface. The tower's height is just above the surrounding trees, penetrating the layers of canopy to stand tall under the night sky. And if someone looks closely, they can see a strange purplish-black light seemingly flickering at the top of the tower.

A Black Cat was sitting there.

To be precise, it was a Fairy resembling Black Cat crouching there.

The patterns on the stone tower continued to extend upwards, gradually intertwining and tangling together. These patterns eventually converged at the top, where they were then covered by Semi's claws.

It is imbuing these patterns with its own magic in an attempt to complete some kind of ritual. And the purpose of this ritual is quite simple—to blow up the mountain beneath its feet, along with a portion of Fangting City's City Barrier Network.

Such a crazy act naturally requires a huge amount of magic power, and for Fairy who have never been good at magic, this task becomes particularly difficult. That's why Semi had to build this stone tower to assist her ritual.

Squatting motionless atop the stone tower, time seemed to stand still around him. After an unknown amount of time had passed outside, Semi suddenly opened his eyes.

It detected a sound coming from high above.

A white trail stretched from afar toward Silver Screen Mountain, and a continuous sound, as if something was being torn apart, came from the top of the trail and then disappeared above Semi's head.

About ten seconds later, a figure suddenly fell from the sky and landed quite lightly in front of it.

"Ready?"

Yuan smoothed her hair and walked towards the stone tower. "Will it succeed?"

"The rituals the chief taught me will not go wrong."

Squatting atop the stone tower, Semi's face showed signs of exhaustion. It lowered its head and looked at Kite: "But you, going to such lengths to declare war on the magical girls of Fangting City, how could they let you come back so easily?"

"I didn't go directly to Cornflower, and besides, I don't know where all the magical girls in Fangting City are. I might as well just have someone from the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau pass on my message."

When Yuan mentioned this, it was as casually as if she had just gone to buy a bottle of water. "Anyway, the effect is the same, all we need to do now is wait for them to arrive."

"Hmm." Semi nodded, having no objection.

The two were silent for a moment.

Yuan sat cross-legged on the ground floor of the stone tower, leaning against it, quietly gazing at the almost pitch-black night sky. The new moon at the end of the year was nowhere to be seen; only a few stars twinkled through the thick clouds, making the night seem exceptionally lonely.

Semi focused on the magic of guiding the ritual. Although the process was mechanical and tedious, it did not prevent her from being completely absorbed in it, and naturally she had no time to look for topics to talk about.

This situation continued for an unknown period of time before Yuan suddenly spoke.

"Hey, Semi."

"What's wrong?"

"How have you felt about these two months in this city?" Yuan tilted her head slightly, seemingly casually asking, "Have you been happy?"

"... Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"It's nothing, I was just bored and started a conversation," Yuan explained. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine too."

"Oh." Semi believed her, gently wagging his tail as he reflected on his life recently, finally concluding. "Not good, terrible."

"Is it bad?"

"Need I say more? I've been living a life of hardship with you, this unreliable guy, sometimes even having to fight with those rude stray cats for leftovers in the trash can. And before that, some random stray cat even came up to me to mate... If I had to pick the most miserable experience of my life, it would probably all be in these last two months."

Looking down in the direction of the kite, Semi said with a hint of resentment, "The thought of finally being able to say goodbye to this kind of life makes me not want to stay in this place full of painful memories for even a second longer."

"Wow, are you really that dissatisfied? I think it's fine," Yuan said with a laugh.

"I'm extremely dissatisfied! You should at least reflect on your actions!" Semi said righteously, "Anyway, it's all because of this mission with you, so you have to make it up to me when we get back!"

"Okay, okay," Yuan replied rather perfunctorily. "What kind of compensation do you want?"

"I need five Echo of at least the level of metamorphosis," Semi stated without hesitation.

Five? You couldn't get that many even if you sold me!

"Stop pretending to be poor. After all these years, don't you have any savings of your own?"

"Where did the stockpile come from? All my resources and money have become the foundation of my strength." Yuan pointed to her arm with a rather smug look.

"... Then four will do."

"Not even four, forget about it."

"No, I want four!"

"I won't do it. If I have to pay that much, I might as well just default on the debt."

"You... three! This is my bottom line! If you don't agree to this, I'll first complain to the leader, and then I'll get the deputy leader to beat you up!"

The two haggled like this for a long time, arguing without reaching a conclusion. In addition, the whole process was just shouting at each other, and by the end they were both hoarse and forced to stop.

And so, the depths of Silver Screen Mountain returned to silence.

Yuan continued to lean against the stone tower, closing her eyes to rest, while Semi continued to guide her magic. After an unknown amount of time, Yuan spoke again.

"Semi."

"... What's wrong now?"

"You might not believe it, but I actually quite enjoyed these past two months."

"Oh, really?" Semi replied indifferently, still reeling from the argument.

"Aren't you surprised?" the kite asked.

"Why are you surprised? It's not like I can't see it."

"Was I that obvious?"

"You've practically been to every place in and around the neighborhood, and you spend money recklessly as soon as you get it. You even sleep like a log under the bridge. You seem to really enjoy this kind of life." Semi couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Although to me, you're just plain stupid."

"Is he out of his mind...?"

Yuan looked slightly taken aback. "Probably."

"What does that mean?" Semi asked, puzzled.

"It means I don't understand it either. Even though you're criticizing me, I think it's possible that's true."

"Can you please stop doing this?" Semi said helplessly, "I'm the one scolding you, but you're starting to reflect on it instead. It makes me feel really awkward..."

"Semi," the kite called out once more.

"What is it now!"

"Maybe we should just quit?"

Silence fell over the woods once more.

In the depths of winter, perhaps because the snow in the mountains has not yet melted, most of the noise is drowned out by the snow, and when no one is speaking, the surroundings are exceptionally quiet.

"Kite."

Then this time, it was Semi who spoke first:

"You should remember that we are here on the leader's mission."

"Yes, I remember." Yuan did not deny it at all.

"What the people in this city are like is none of our business; we're just villains here to do bad things."

"Yes, I understand."

"This plan was originally your own idea. You said that carrying out a massacre according to the leader's plan would be too drastic and might attract unnecessary enemies. It would be better to destroy the city's defenses so that there wouldn't be too many civilian casualties in the short term. After the incident, the disaster in the city could also tie down the Kingdom's fighting forces."

"Yes, I understand."

"So, what exactly are you talking about now?"

Semi's voice carried a hint of coldness. "'Stop doing it'—what do you mean? Things have already progressed to this point, and I've tried my best to accommodate your sudden outburst of sympathy. I've even sent out the challenge, and now you're suddenly saying 'stop doing it'? Are you really that stupid, or do you no longer want to listen to the leader's orders?"

"If I could choose, I'd probably hope I'm stupid?"

Lowering her gaze slightly, Yuan said softly, "I can't bear to go against the leader's wishes."

"Kite, do you still remember the leader's wish... no, it's our Claw Mark's wish, isn't it?" Semi asked.

"Yes, of course." Yuan nodded.

"To create a home for all magical girls abandoned by their Kingdom, a home for our fellow countrymen no longer bound by the Kingdom and queens, and a path to freedom for all future magical girls."

Semi shouted, "No matter how much blood is shed or how much sin we bear in the process, as long as it is for our homeland, we are willing to give our lives."

"A beautiful dream," the kite commented.

"It's almost no longer a dream."

Semi emphasized, "We have made so many efforts, sacrificed so many comrades, and stained the blood of so many innocent people over the past ten years to get to this point. Now, there is no turning back."

"We are bad people, undeniably bad people. The evil deeds we have committed no longer allow us to claim innocence. And if we cannot even achieve our ultimate goal, then even as bad people, we have failed and accomplished nothing."

"I don't want things to turn out that way, or rather, things absolutely cannot turn out that way. I'd rather be a stubborn, ruthless villain than a hesitant, hypocritical one."

"There are only a few hours left until the next Queen Year. We don't have much time left. We must complete the remaining tasks as quickly as possible, otherwise the leader's dream... our dreams will all vanish."

"Stop being foolish, Yuan. We don't have time to sympathize with others. If we really 'quit' like you said, we'll be the ones who are doomed..."

Semi stopped there.

It wasn't because it had nothing more to say, but because it and the kite both saw several magical trails extending from the sky.

Dark blue, magenta, and orange. These are the three colors of magic at the forefront.

Light blue, Hibiscus Purple, green, cyan, pale red, and pale yellow. These are the next six colors.

Regardless of the color, the number is always correct; so many magical trails mean that there are a total of nine magical girls who have come here.

"Yuan, what exactly did you do to issue this challenge? Did you blow up their base?" Semi couldn't help but ask, gazing at the colorful magic in the sky.

That's why I just said, "Stop doing it."

Yuan slowly stood up, shaking her legs which had gone numb from sitting. She stretched out her hand, and a jet-black magic wand appeared in her hand, then melted, turning into liquid metal as black as ink.

"However, you're right, it's too late now."