Ahhh, My Power of the King!!!
"Death, what a wonderful word. If someone could bring it to me, I would be willing to pay any price."
Hearing Yao's cringeworthy remark, the girl in leather pants walking ahead suddenly showed a sorrowful expression. Her voice was somewhat hoarse, carrying an intense sense of loneliness.
"Huh? Are you making fun of me? I'll bring death to you right now, how about it? Trash~ loser~ If you lose, how about giving up the lead singer position?" Yao drew her blade, but a strong hand pressed it back into its sheath.
"Lost lamb, may Father God forgive you." With a compassionate expression, the nun carefully pinched Yao's little hand gripping the sword with two fingers, as if afraid that using too much force would crush it.
"Felia! Stop acting like some peacemaker. Everyone knows you've killed more people than anyone else here!" Though Yao's words remained sharp, she still gave Felia some face and sheathed the half-drawn blade.
"Felia~ Felia, can't finish it... help..." The little girl hiding behind the nun tugged at the hem of her habit.
"No problem." Felia smiled kindly and turned to take the ice cream cone from the little girl's hand.
"Ice cream, for Felia. Cone... for Black Cat." The little girl hurriedly added.
"Okay." Felia answered briefly. Carefully pinching the cone with two fingers, she tilted her head back and tossed the ice cream into her mouth, then handed the cone back to her.
"If you like it that much, why not just buy more?" The girl in leather pants impatiently walked over to the ice cream machine, grabbed the stack of cones beside it, glared at the shop owner who tried to stop her, tossed down a bill, and turned toward the little girl.
"Here, eat as much as you want." Saroye said, handing over a stack of cones nearly as tall as Black Cat herself.
"Can't finish them... Saroye, you're wasting food... your sins will grow heavier." Black Cat clung fearfully to the nun's leg and hid behind her, poking her head out to softly accuse her.
"Rejected... Felia, give me the bass. I want to write a song." Saroye froze for a moment, then revealed a heartbroken expression and reached toward Felia for the instrument.
"Want to put on a street performance? Too bad there's no drum kit or piano here—Yao, are you interested? Want the guitar?" Felia turned and asked.
"Who the hell would be interested in this weather? Go settle the lodging first before asking such stupid questions!" As Yao spoke, she suddenly drew her long blade. A flash of steel severed the stack of cones in Saroye's hand.
"Didn't you hear? Black Cat said we can't waste food." Felia swiftly caught the falling cones and stuffed them into her mouth along with the ones in Saroye's hand, crunching away as easily as an ordinary person eating corn chips.
"Felia, good. Yao, bad." Black Cat said, raising her two soft pink fists before her chest.
"One day, I'm going to kill every last one of you." Yao sheathed her long blade and shot Felia a vicious glare.
"Yao, these cones smell like fresh blood. Did you kill someone again?" Felia asked with a frown.
"Didn't kill him. I just removed one of his arms." Yao said indifferently.
"What did that poor person do? We were just walking down the street. We hadn't offended anyone." Felia asked in confusion.
"He looked at us through binoculars."
"He looked once? You chopped someone up for looking once? Maybe he was just a photographer gathering material on the street? Father God, this really is..." Felia looked utterly heartbroken.
"Quit pretending. When a performance failed before, didn't you also spray the audience with a heavy machine gun? When it comes to indiscriminate slaughter, I'm not even worth one of your fingers." Yao said, unable to endure it any longer.
"That was onstage! Shooting the audience is part of rock and roll, something that must be tasted. Besides, they threw mineral water bottles first. How can that count as indiscriminate slaughter?" Felia argued.
"Felia, you really were wrong about that. A heavy machine gun was excessive no matter how you look at it. Next time, my pistol will do." As Saroye spoke, she pulled a revolver from the back of her leather pants.
"The pistol's trigger guard is too small. My fingers can't fit inside..." Felia explained.
While the four argued endlessly, Li Xuan had already opened a portal and fled back into the Delusive Badlands. This skill required only mental power and involved no Evil Energy at all, so it was not detected by Yao's senses again.
"Ahhh, my Power of the King!!!"
Holding his severed arm, Li Xuan could not help recalling a line.
No, why was I thinking about that at a time like this? The enemy was way too strong, wasn't she? And completely unreasonable. She clearly hadn't seen through my identity, yet she still slashed at me. That meant she didn't care about civilian casualties at all. Tricks like taking hostages to force them to surrender, like I did with Xu Rou, were nothing but empty talk.
Li Xuan thought gloomily.
"Master? What happened?!" The magical girls sensed Li Xuan's aura and hurried over. Seeing his severed arm, all of them were startled.
"Who hurt you?! I'll kill his whole family!" Xu Rou carried her giant axe on her shoulder, looking ready to kill.
"Forget that for now—Qi Mo, heal me." Li Xuan said, pressing his severed arm back against the wound.
"Yes! Tang Xi, could you help keep the arm in place? I can only use one spell at a time." Qi Mo asked.
"Of course." Tang Xi hurried forward and used a seal to secure the severed arm while Qi Mo focused on casting healing magic.
Because of his monster traits, Li Xuan possessed some natural healing ability. However, an injury as serious as a severed arm was nearly impossible to recover from through self-healing alone.
Thinking of this, Li Xuan could not help feeling glad that he had not revealed his identity as a monster earlier. Otherwise, what would have been cut off probably would not have been his arm, but his head. At that point, even immortals would have been unable to save him.
Still, the trip had not been completely fruitless. Li Xuan had at least locked down information on one of the magical girls. It would be stored in the system like an archive and could be accessed anytime.
"Yao? What a strange name. But why does her data show two different types? Could she possess both the perception of a Sealing Type and the monstrous physical abilities of a Battle Type?" Li Xuan pondered silently.
"Master, did a very strong opponent arrive outside?" Wu Yan asked worriedly from the side.
"That's right. There are four enemies, all Grade A. Do not transform outside under any circumstances, or you could be killed at any moment." Li Xuan warned.
"Four Grade As?" Everyone was shocked, while only Tang Xi fell into thought.
"That's right. The Church hired them to deal with me. This arm was cut off by one of them, a shark-toothed punk girl carrying a katana." Li Xuan said.
"Master was already amazing to make it back alive after encountering a Grade A magical girl. Have an orange slice to calm down." Wu Yan said, stuffing an orange segment she had brought from who knew where into Li Xuan's mouth.
"Shark teeth and a katana... Master, could the enemies you mentioned be the Witch Band?" Tang Xi suddenly asked after thinking for a long time.
Tang Xi's Intelligence and Terrible Idea
"Oh? Do you know something?" Li Xuan asked in surprise.
"It really was them? When I was researching the principles of 'curses and blessings' at Guardian Abbey, I briefly worked with them. Honestly, it was an unpleasant experience. Aside from one nun who was more polite, the others did not treat us researchers like human beings. I never thought the Church would be so short-handed that it would even hire scum like them." Tang Xi shook her head.
"Tell me everything you know about them. I'm severely lacking information on them right now, especially their combat styles and magic." Li Xuan urged.
"I don't know that much..." Tang Xi scratched her head. "The four of them all have nicknames, like they're heroes from the Marsh. The bassist and lead singer is called 'Undying Saroye'; the drummer is called 'Peaceful Felia'; the keyboardist is called 'Lost Black Cat'; and the guitarist is called 'Puppet Yao.' Their nicknames reflect their abilities and styles to some extent."
"That's right. This arm was cut off by that Yao person. That name is really obscure. What decent family gives their child a name like that?" Thinking of that terrifyingly fast slash, Li Xuan's severed arm began to ache faintly again.
"I'm not very familiar with her. My research subjects were Black Cat and Saroye, the two people cursed by the world." Tang Xi shook her head.
"Curses? You magical girls really have all kinds of tricks. What is that supposed to be?" Li Xuan asked curiously.
"It's actually not hard to understand. Whether curses or blessings, they are permanent buffs given by the 'world.' And Master, you've actually seen one before." Tang Xi explained.
"I have? When?" Li Xuan asked curiously.
"Bing Rui has the blessing of Immunity to All Mental Attacks. Otherwise, facing Alice in a dream would be no different from suicide." Tang Xi reminded him.
"I remember now! That did happen." Li Xuan suddenly understood. He recalled that the file Li Sijie had given him seemed to mention it: there were only three magical girls in the world immune to mental attacks, and Bing Rui was clearly one of them. He had once used Mind Interference on her to trigger Demonfall, but it had had no effect whatsoever.
Come to think of it, could Bing Rui have held out for so long without falling because of that blessing too?
Li Xuan felt he had drifted off topic, so he quickly continued, "Then what about the curses on those two? Can they become weaknesses we can exploit?"
"That's hard to say. Black Cat's curse is Eternal Wandering. Experimental results suggest that she gets lost anytime, anywhere, and cannot remember anything related to 'home.' Aside from that, there is nothing particularly special." Tang Xi answered.
"And the other one..."
"The other one is much simpler. Just like her nickname, Saroye's curse is Undying. In the literal sense, she cannot be killed no matter what you do. She heals wounds at an astonishing speed. Decapitation, suffocation, burning, or even nuclear radiation cannot make her stop breathing. But experiments in that area are very inhumane. Even though she requested them herself, we did not conduct much testing." Tang Xi continued.
"Wouldn't that make her invincible? How the hell are we supposed to fight that? Shouldn't such a freakish ability belong to some final boss-type character?" Li Xuan fired off three questions in shock.
"Not exactly. If her body is damaged beyond a certain threshold, she will still lose the ability to move. And once she loses consciousness, her recovery becomes much slower than usual." Tang Xi said as she recalled.
Li Xuan nodded and firmly committed that intelligence to memory. By then, Qi Mo had reattached his arm. He tried moving it and found that it was no longer a problem—thanks to Yao's blade being sharp enough that the cut surfaces fit together perfectly.
"Master, what should we do next? If we can't beat them, why not surrender?" Tang Xi suggested, relapsing into her old habit.
"Shut up—Qi Mo, tell me what you think." Li Xuan slapped Tang Xi's butt, then turned to Qi Mo.
Among all the magical girls, only her strategic thinking was worth considering.
"Master, the gap in strength between us and the enemy is truly difficult to overcome. I think we should keep hiding in this space. Since they have no way to find us here, why not simply drag things out until they leave?" Qi Mo suggested cautiously.
"Hide until the end? If all we want is to survive, then of course that would work." Li Xuan smiled. Qi Mo's proposal did not surprise him. The Delusive Badlands was a safe place; even Li Sijie had been amazed by it.
Besides, over the past week, he had stored quite a few supplies here. There was food, entertainment, and a whole group of cute and charming magical girls to keep him company. To anyone, it would undoubtedly look like a perfect little haven.
However, staying tucked away in a corner was not Li Xuan's style. He could accept lying low temporarily, but he could never watch magical girls wander around his doorstep without trying to capture them.
But what exactly should he do? Yao alone had already given him a massive headache. Her Sealing Type traits allowed her to easily sense his location, while her Battle Type traits gave her the power to kill him instantly. Detection and attack in one package, without a single weakness. He had not even had time to place a mark before being attacked.
"Master, if surrendering won't work, I have another plan." Tang Xi said mysteriously.
"Oh? You have a plan too? Let's hear it."
Li Xuan had read Tang Xi's books long ago and knew that she actually had plenty of ideas. She was just usually too lazy to think. But at such a life-or-death moment, perhaps she really could propose something that would turn the situation around.
"Monsters live longer than magical girls. Some monsters have even survived for thousands of years in seals. So my idea is, we should just make children here and pass things down generation after generation. With Master's excellent genes, we'll eventually produce descendants strong enough. Then we can send them out to wash away our humiliation and rule the world! Then I'll be one of the demon realm's empresses, wahahaha!!!" Tang Xi grew more and more excited, as though the world were already in her grasp.
"Enough. Take her away!" Li Xuan held his forehead and waved at Wu Yan.
"Take her away? Where's Take Her Away?" Tang Xi continued playing dumb, but Wu Yan had already opened a portal and shoved her butt-first into the mana-draining Tentacle Wall in the wine cellar.
Li Xuan naturally knew Tang Xi was spouting nonsense only because she wanted to slack off in the rear, so he granted her wish.
"Master, please do not worry. No matter how strong the enemy is, we will fight to the end." Wu Yan said firmly.
"No, you're wrong. Fighting to the end is not enough. What we want is not mutual destruction, but victory." Li Xuan said, swinging his reattached arm as Evil Energy burst from his body, giving him a rather imposing presence.
"Everyone! Do not lose heart. Do you truly think I've been forced into a desperate situation? No, I was merely testing you. Once I get serious, what Witch Band? I'll make sure they never return! Come, shout it with me: We will win!"
All Magical Girls Are Mine!
"We will win!" The magical girls were infected by Li Xuan's baseless confidence and shouted in unison.
Li Xuan knew perfectly well that this was merely blind loyalty brought about by Fallen Blood, but he truly needed that loyalty now to support his resolve and maintain his invincible image as their master.
"I can't hear you at all! With voices that quiet, you still want to be magical girls?!" Li Xuan shouted.
"We will win!" The magical girls raised their voices and shouted again in unison.
"Good! That's the spirit! Qi Mo stays behind. The other three, go to the wine cellar and each spank Tang Xi twenty times. Dismiss after that." Li Xuan immediately ordered.
"Yay!" Xu Rou, enthusiastic about everything, forgot that Wu Yan could open portals and charged toward the wine cellar first. Wu Yan could not stop her in time, so she could only hold hands with Tan Xiang and teleport over together.
As a result, only Qi Mo and Li Xuan remained in the area.
"Qi Mo, you seem somewhat worried. Do you lack confidence in our victory?" Li Xuan asked.
"Master, your momentum just now was very good, it's just... it's just..." Qi Mo hesitated, not daring to speak.
"Just empty slogans without any brains, right?" Li Xuan smiled.
"No, how could I possibly think that?" Qi Mo hurriedly waved her hands in denial.
"It's fine. It's just the two of us now. Say whatever you think." Li Xuan encouraged.
"I still stand by my view. Four Grade As are simply enemies we cannot deal with right now. Strategies may allow us to defeat enemies several times stronger than ourselves. But once the gap in strength reaches a certain level, sheer power crushes all techniques. No matter how much spirit we have, we absolutely cannot win." Qi Mo said anxiously.
"I appreciate your strategy greatly, but I want to go one step further. Since the Delusive Badlands is an impregnable fortress, then conversely, it can also become a trap no one can escape from." Li Xuan said quietly.
"A trap? Master means luring them in and using a vast number of monsters and traps to surround and kill them? That is indeed a good plan, but it would also cut off our escape route. If we fail, we'll die without even a place to be buried!" Qi Mo hurriedly warned.
"There's no need to consider that. The only thing we need to do is capture magical girls. Capture them! Capture them! Capture them by any means necessary! Every magical girl in the world belongs to me! I'll beat every last one of them to their knees, then add them to my harem!" Li Xuan spread his arms and loudly declared his true thoughts.
"I understand. A desperate gamble is still better than no plan at all. Qi Mo is willing to follow Master and fight until victory!" Qi Mo was finally swept up by Li Xuan's emotions and no longer felt this was a hopeless battle.
"That's good. But our current intelligence is not enough to support a concrete plan—speaking of intelligence, do you like watching band performances?" Li Xuan suddenly asked.
"Wu Yan likes them, so I've gone to a few with her. But at a time like this..." Qi Mo trailed off, then suddenly understood. "Master intends to watch their performance as an ordinary person to gather intelligence?"
"That's right! Yao's senses are keen, but she did not distinguish me from ordinary people. Otherwise, she would not have stopped after slashing me once. So my plan is this: buy tickets and attend their show. They are a band in name, after all. They wouldn't come here without performing even once, would they?" Li Xuan analyzed.
"Master is brilliant! Leave this to me. I will safely obtain tickets for their performance without attracting attention!" Qi Mo said confidently.
"As expected of you. You understand immediately. Go! Remember, do not take any risks. I cannot accept losing even a single one of you." Li Xuan said, opening a portal and sending Qi Mo into the real world.
While Li Xuan was delivering his pre-battle speech, the Witch Band had already reached the destination of their trip: a detached villa with a swimming pool.
"We're here! This is the place the Church arranged for us. It looks so luxurious!" Felia, whose field of view was the widest, said excitedly.
"Tch, the style is too conservative. It doesn't have any band atmosphere at all." Saroye said disdainfully.
"What do you want, then? Sleep in a garage without air conditioning? Please, don't be so naive. We're people who make big money now. How can we still live in such shabby places?" Yao sneered.
"You have no musician's soul at all..." Saroye was about to step forward and argue when a Flesh Wall blocked the two of them.
"You two, how about saving the argument for tonight? The Church promised to provide us with a rehearsal and recording room. Black Cat and I want to try out the drum kit and piano. Before that, it would be a real headache if either the bassist or guitarist died." Felia stood between them and tried to persuade them.
"The one who'll die is her. I can't die... If I could die, that would be nice. Why not go die once?" Saroye painfully clawed at her chest, showing no intention of stopping even after her sharp nails drew blood.
"Self-harm is bad. Father God does not wish to see it." Felia frowned, reached out, lifted Saroye, tucked her beneath one arm, and forcibly led the group to the front of the villa.
Before you continue