Magical Girl? There's No Going Back Now!

"But I saw you shoot at the audience with my own eyes, just because someone threw a bottle of mineral water..." Yao said weakly.

"It was a bottle of mineral water filled with vodka, and the cap wasn't even screwed on properly. It sullied my sacred nun's habit." Felia emphasized.

"But wasn't the result still the same? I saw those people get blown to pieces by you..."

"You ran away too quickly and didn't see what happened afterward. I am peaceful Felia. My bullets have never wrongfully killed a single person." Felia smiled faintly and pulled the trigger with magic. A dense barrage of bullets instantly shot toward the audience below the stage at astonishing speed. Their velocity was so great that it seemed like a metallic storm had been unleashed, making Li Xuan secretly shudder. Good thing he had not infiltrated the crowd himself.

"Don't look!" Yao hurriedly pounced forward and covered Black Cat's eyes, yet she herself could not resist looking at the bloody scene of flying flesh.

Felia's weapons were formed from magic, and naturally, the bullets they fired were also constructed from magic. Their power far exceeded that of ordinary machine-gun rounds. Often, a single shot would send someone flying away like dust blown by the wind.

Yao looked at the hellish sight before her, like a pool of blood, and nearly vomited. She turned to Saroye, only to find her wearing the same blank expression as ever. She had even begun playing a low, somber accompaniment on her bass.

"One psychopath, one homicidal maniac!" Yao glared hatefully at their backs. Once this job was over, she would definitely quit King's Edict and cut ties with those two completely—she would take Black Cat with her too. She absolutely could not let such a cute child be led astray by them!

"That's enough. There isn't a single intact person left below the stage," Saroye said loudly, patting Felia on the shoulder.

"Thanks. The barrels were overheating anyway." Only then did Felia stop firing and blow on the smoking muzzles.

"Sorry, Yao. This was your first time seeing something this exciting since joining the team, wasn't it? Get some rest. There's still work to do later, and I doubt this will end so easily." Felia set down her machine guns and smiled as she extended a hand to Yao.

"Drop the fake smile. Let me tell you this: I'm quitting King's Edict!" Yao snapped angrily at Felia.

"Huh? Why so suddenly? Did something happen?" Felia asked in confusion.

"It's my own problem." Yao glared at Saroye again, seemingly demanding to know why she could be so cold-blooded.

Li Xuan, watching from outside, was equally stunned. Seriously, sis? You really sprayed the audience with bullets?! Back in the day, delinquent Jotaro couldn't tell who the enemy was, but he only Ora Ora'd everyone once. You, delinquent nun, couldn't tell where the monsters were, so you just gunned down the entire audience? The student truly surpasses the master. No wonder you've got tire shoulders and Araki lines—you don't even look like you belong in the same art style as everyone else!

Just as Li Xuan was wildly roasting her in his mind, the blood pooled below the stage seemed to stir. A few minutes later, the shattered audience members began restoring themselves as though the footage were being played in reverse. Even the blood on the ground returned to their bodies.

"What... happened?" Yao stared wide-eyed at the unharmed crowd below, then at the bullet marks everywhere, unable to help doubting her own eyes.

"Black Cat, count them."

"Four hundred forty-three people. All restored. None missing," Black Cat said calmly.

"This is troublesome. So there weren't any monsters disguised as humans among them?" Felia said with a frown.

"Looks that way. Yao, let them go," Saroye said.

"No, can someone tell me what just happened? Healing magic? That stuff doesn't work on dead people, does it?" Yao removed the barrier sealing the exits, but she still could not understand what had just happened.

"Felia is a believer in the Orthodoxy, so her guns only fire peaceful bullets. Only monsters struck by them are harmed. If other living beings are accidentally hit, then the 'world' automatically turns the fact that they were struck into a dream. To them, it is like having a nightmare. You only joined recently, so it's normal that you didn't know," Saroye explained.

"So that's how it is. Why didn't you tell me earlier? I kept thinking Felia was some cheerful serial killer!" Yao let out a long breath.

"You always wear that sour face, and every word out of your mouth has a barb in it. Who could explain things to you properly?" Felia shot Yao a glance, then turned and stuffed another candy ball into Black Cat's mouth.

"Word Spirit: Full-Scope Capture. Please leave the venue in an orderly manner. Thank you for watching King's Edict's performance." After eating the candy ball, Black Cat got to work, swiftly evacuating all the ordinary people from the venue. Then she bowed toward the crowd's retreating backs as though taking a curtain call.

"Alright, while everyone's spirits are high, let's play the fourth piece." Felia spoke as she returned to the drummer's position with satisfaction.

"The fourth piece? But we only prepared three songs. And the audience has all left..." Yao felt as though she was struggling to keep up with Felia's rhythm.

"Just play by feel. This piece requires four magical girls with Grade A magic power and basic musical ability to perform it. They also need to have perfect mutual understanding, or the performance will not turn out well. Do you know why I didn't do anything until now? I was waiting for the moment when we could understand each other." Felia smiled at Yao.

"That sounds less like a performance and more like magic."

"It is a performance, and it is magic. This quartet version of Myriad-Tone Resonance can forcibly induce energy resonance and expose every hidden monster within an enormous area. Unless the monster has already fled Clear Lotus City, the moment this piece begins, it will have no choice but to reveal itself!"

After speaking, Felia raised her drumsticks and began an intense performance. The other three began playing as well.

Under Felia's guidance, the magic power of all four poured into their instruments at once. Their coordinated performance triggered a powerful resonance. The range of that resonance grew wider and wider until it quickly reached Li Xuan.

Li Xuan felt the Evil Energy inside him begin to churn like boiling water, unable to remain calm. This resonance, which targeted energy alone, left him nowhere to hide. In an instant, he was exposed within Yao's perception range.

"One... two, three... four, five, six. Six Grade B Evil Energy signatures in total, all near the live house. The enemy really came! Felia, you're amazing!" Yao swept her fingers across the strings, and her gaze toward Felia unconsciously gained a touch of admiration.

"Guns in hand, follow me! Kill monsters, earn bounties!" Felia charged out of the venue first, carrying two heavy machine guns.

Before the magical girls who had just reconciled, Li Xuan seemed to have been forced into a dead end.

"Heh heh, do you really think you can find me?"

After a brief moment of panic, Li Xuan quickly regained his meaningful smile. Felia's earlier seeming dereliction of duty had actually been preparation for a cheat-like magic that revealed everything across the map. That truly caught him by surprise.

However, his contingency plans were thorough. An accident of this level was entirely within acceptable limits.

"You like sensing things, don't you? Then I'll let you sense your fill." Li Xuan smiled as he retreated into the distance. At the same time, he opened more than a dozen enormous portals in the air, unleashing the entire monster army that had been standing by in the Delusive Badlands.

"There are more magic signatures! Grade D, Grade C... and a few Grade Bs too. My God, there are too many! It's already over a hundred... a thousand... ten thousand! No, it's more than ten thousand!"

Yao's face went pale as she sensed the explosive increase in monsters.

"Don't worry. No matter how many ants there are, can they bite an elephant to death?" Felia led everyone outside with disdain. What greeted them was a boundless sea of monsters. Surging Evil Energy shot into the sky, dimming even the light.

"How many Grade As?" Felia asked.

"No Grade As. The ones that could count as Grade B... around ten or twenty, maybe? I'm sure most are Grade C to Grade D, or even fodder not worthy of Grade D. There may be more hidden ones... There are simply too many. I can't sense them all clearly." Yao looked at the monsters filling the sky with anxiety. Her magic had no area-of-effect capability whatsoever, making it difficult for her to deal with enemies swarming together like this.

"That doesn't matter. The enemy army may be vast, but it is nothing but a rabble. The problem is, where exactly were all these monsters hiding? If I remember correctly, they only appeared after the quartet stopped performing, right?" Felia said calmly.

"That's right. The quartet initially found only six enemies. All the other monsters appeared out of nowhere." Yao's eyes widened as though she had realized something.

"Spatial magic, and exceptionally sophisticated spatial magic at that. Otherwise, it would be impossible to conceal so many monsters. The enemy's nest is very likely a hidden independent space, perhaps even a semipermanent spatial fragment," Felia concluded.

"You mean the enemy's base might be hidden there?"

"Exactly. That also explains why a large number of monsters suddenly appeared in Flower River City, as well as why the Church has never been able to find the culprit's true body." As Felia spoke, she skillfully pulled two heavy machine guns out from beneath her skirt.

"Black Cat and I will deal with the monsters. Yao and Saroye will enter the battlefield and look for traces of spatial fluctuations. You two must not split up, and you must not stray too far from us!"

As soon as Felia finished speaking, she opened fire into the air. The monsters were struck by bullets one after another, turning into ash in great swathes.

Watching from behind the scenes, Li Xuan could not help marveling at Felia's analytical ability. She had only just arrived and possessed very little information, yet through brilliant reasoning, she had nearly guessed the truth of the matter.

This woman cannot be allowed to live!

Li Xuan immediately ordered the monsters to scatter, intending to dilute Felia's firepower with a loose formation.

Yet Black Cat's next words nearly rendered his command meaningless.

"Word Spirit: Full-Scope Capture. Remain where you are. Maximum capture count reached: 9,999. Ah, my magic power is draining so quickly. Felia, hurry up~"

With Black Cat's command, more than half of Li Xuan's monster army lost the ability to move. They could only remain where they were and let Felia mow them down. Meanwhile, Saroye and Yao had already plunged into the monster horde, cutting through it as they searched for his trail.

"Is this what Grade A means? Isn't this way too ridiculous?! One sentence hard-locked ten thousand monsters?!" Though shocked, Li Xuan still commanded the several thousand monsters that could move to attack and interfere with Felia. Yet the monsters' attacks seemed like nothing to Felia. Even when they occasionally inflicted minor wounds, she could swiftly heal them with magic.

As for Black Cat, she directly crawled under Felia's skirt and hid herself completely, not exposing even the slightest part of her body. Naturally, the monsters' attacks could not reach her either.

At that moment, the first group of magical girls under Li Xuan's command made their move.

"Grand Magic: Calamity Blaze!"

"Judgment!"

Tan Xiang and Wu Yan, two magical girls with tremendous explosive power, attacked one after the other. Both possessed Grade B magic power and had drunk Wine of Ecstasy, which enhanced their magical strength. With the two joining forces, the towering waves of flame were enough that even Felia could not ignore them.

"Cat!" Felia only had time to shout, but Black Cat beneath her skirt seemed to have already understood her intent.

"Pupil Transformation!" Black Cat crawled out from beneath the skirt and glanced in the direction the flames were coming from. Her round pupils suddenly narrowed into vertical slits, like a feline's eyes beneath bright light.

At the same time, the flames unleashed by the pair of arsonists seemed to freeze solid, turning directly into hard stones. Though they continued forward unabated, they lost their original scorching heat.

"Nicely done!" Felia turned around, pulled out a twenty-four-barreled rocket launcher, and bombarded the incoming stones.

The stones were blown to pieces in an instant, no longer posing any threat to Felia. Although their magic astonished Black Cat, their attack had still briefly disrupted the restraints of her Word Spirit, allowing Li Xuan to disperse the monster formation considerably.

"Everyone, be careful. I'm increasing the firepower!" Seeing the monsters spread out, Felia grew somewhat anxious. She pulled two oversized Vulcan rotary Gatling guns from beneath her skirt and poured fire into the monster army at an even more astonishing rate.

"There are two humanoid monsters near Felia! I remember the Oracle Machine's intelligence said the main culprit this time was humanoid!" Yao, deep within the battlefield, suddenly sensed Tan Xiang and Wu Yan's attack and immediately prepared to rush back and support Felia.

However, at that moment, she suddenly felt a headache as though she had suffered a mental attack. Judging from the strength of the signal, the attacker seemed to be nearby.

"Little brat, aren't you being a bit hasty?" Li Xuan appeared before Yao with a smile. His Mind Interference had caused the attack just now. Though it could not inflict substantial damage on Yao, it was enough to halt her actions.

"A talking monster? Then you're the main culprit, right? Wahahaha, the top credit for this mission is mine!" Yao excitedly raised her long blade, lowering her stance as though preparing to kill Li Xuan in a single slash.

"Little brat, have you forgotten your benefactor so quickly? You sing my lyrics, yet you want to kill the person who helped you?" Li Xuan laughed.

"Benefactor? Lyrics?" Yao froze, seemingly unable to connect those two things.

"If you see this, you should remember, right?" Li Xuan said as he picked up a filthy striped sock and a soaking wet uniform shoe, tossing them before Yao.

"You're that weird old man?! No, your face shouldn't have been this handsome, should it? Did I see it wrong?" Yao stared at Li Xuan in shock, her expression changing instantly.

"That isn't important. What matters is... you really put your heart into that sole service, didn't you? Tsk, tsk, tsk. If your teammates found out what you did to trade for those lyrics, I wonder what they would think?" Li Xuan said with a wicked grin.

"Stop talking!" Yao was furious and humiliated. Her long blade rang as her original magic, Single-Stroke Slash, activated.

Li Xuan's body was sliced in half with a single sound. He fell to the ground with an incredulous expression, leaving only half his body crawling forward.

Having killed Li Xuan, Yao immediately began humming Flower of Hope in excitement. Amid the beautiful song, Li Xuan stretched one finger ahead, then stopped breathing forever.

"Fodder old man~ Your lyrics were indeed good, but you were just too disgusting!" Yao proudly looked behind her. The smug grin on her face had yet to fade when she discovered that the Li Xuan she had just cut in two had turned into slime all over the ground.

"A mimic monster. Amazing, isn't it? Since it can instantly and perfectly replicate the appearance of whatever it mimics, I named it Instant Mimicry. Still, little brat, one slash from you costs me a thousand milliliters of Fallen Blood. That really pains me." The real Li Xuan laughed unrestrainedly amid the monsters surrounding him.

At this point, she could only make him shut up forever!

Yao gritted her teeth in hatred. She could no longer think about anything else. Her mind was filled with the urge to cut this creepy old man in half and bury her dark history forever.

However, Li Xuan gave her no chance to approach. He retreated amid the monsters surrounding him. Without another word, Yao raised her blade and chased after him. Saroye hurriedly shouted, "Yao! We can't go too far!"

But Yao was now consumed by shame and anger, unable to listen to a single word of advice. She only slashed open a bloody path with her blade and charged straight toward Li Xuan.

Saroye could only follow helplessly. Yet at that moment, the second group of magical girls under Li Xuan's command made their move.

"Gravity Vortex: Quartet!"

"O bubbles, vanish into the light!"

With the two chants, four enormous gravity vortices appeared beneath Saroye's feet. Rings made of foam appeared around her wrists, ankles, and neck. The rings were connected to the ground by foam that looked impossibly fragile, yet proved incredibly tough. Together with the greatly increased gravity around her, they pressed Saroye down until she could barely move.

The attackers were naturally Qi Mo and Tang Xi, two Grade B magical girls of the Sealing Type. They had drunk wine that enhanced magical effects, pushing the controlling power of Sealing Type magic to its utmost limits. Tang Xi's quadruple casting in particular was an incredibly powerful magic that exhausted her magic power in an instant.

Yet it did not end there. While Saroye was so restricted that even raising a hand was difficult, Xu Rou suddenly descended from the sky. She had drunk a potion that enhanced strength, and now swung her giant axe, unleashing Clear Lotus City Guillotine at Saroye's head.

"You really are troublesome... I have no choice—Tyrant!" Saroye shouted. Her hair stood on end, and the veins beneath her skin swelled until they were clearly visible. Her originally pale skin suddenly took on a faint reddish hue, as though the capillaries throughout her entire body were bleeding.

With the activation of this magic, Qi Mo and Tang Xi's control seemed to lose its effect. Saroye raised one forearm horizontally and easily blocked Xu Rou's long-prepared strike. She even sent Xu Rou flying back with a single rebound.

"How did she block that?" Qi Mo was stunned, but soon noticed that Saroye held a metal crutch in each hand. Since they did not stand out much, everyone had believed until then that she had been fighting barehanded.

"Control doesn't work. Her magic seems to grant continuous immunity to control effects! Look at her—Gravity Vortex isn't affecting her at all!" Tang Xi pointed anxiously at Saroye, whose veins were still bulging. Her frightened appearance made Qi Mo fear that her next words would be something like, "Let's surrender!"

"If we can't control her, then we'll just smash her to pieces!" Xu Rou, who had been sent flying earlier, seemed not to have suffered much damage. She had simultaneously drunk two kinds of Wine of Ecstasy, one that enhanced berserk power and one that enhanced physical abilities. Her mind was now in an extremely excited state. Ignoring the vast gap between them, she rushed forward with her giant axe and swung.

Faced with Xu Rou's powerful blow, Saroye did not dodge. She used the crutch in her left hand to meet the strike head-on, then closed in and struck Xu Rou's abdomen with the other crutch.

"Puh—" Xu Rou suffered a heavy blow to the stomach and immediately spat blood. Though she was not sent flying, the damage she took from that strike was clearly far greater than before.

"Xiao Rou!" Qi Mo hurried forward, intending to use a defensive barrier to block Saroye and save Xu Rou. Yet this basic magical barrier could not hinder Saroye's movement at all. With a light touch, Saroye shattered Qi Mo's barrier like glass, then struck Qi Mo to her knees with a crutch. Qi Mo clutched her stomach, unable to straighten up.

"Secret Art: Flesh Seal!" At the crucial moment, Tang Xi unexpectedly rushed forward. From behind, she used a rear naked choke to restrain Saroye, wrapping her legs around Saroye's arm as well to keep her from exerting force. At the same time, she used magic to seal her own body, indirectly sealing Saroye. By using herself as a human restraint layer, she prevented Saroye's Tyrant magic, which granted super armor, from taking effect.

"You're really troublesome!" Saroye struggled fiercely. Though Tang Xi had been strengthened by both Demonfall and upgrade wine, she was still far below Grade A. Her creative Flesh Seal lasted only a few seconds before Saroye violently broke free and sent her flying aside with a strike of her crutch.

Fortunately, Qi Mo endured the severe pain through the power of love and saved Xu Rou. The surrounding monsters swarmed forward to entangle Saroye, allowing the three half-crippled magical girls to retreat safely.

Ordinary monsters were far weaker than the combined strength of three Grade B magical girls. Saroye only needed a few seconds to cut her way out. However, the time wasted going back and forth had already opened a gap between her and Yao.

"Creepy old man! Stop running! Let me slash you once! I swear, just once!" Yao chased Li Xuan relentlessly with her long blade. Li Xuan had long since drunk Wine of Ecstasy that enhanced speed. As he fled desperately, he constantly summoned monsters to block Yao's path.

Although these monsters were all worthless fodder that died in one slash, they still slowed Yao's pursuit enough to keep her at a distance where she could not catch Li Xuan, while steadily widening the distance between her and Saroye.

"Damn it, just a little more... Is the distance still not enough?" Yao gripped the Yao-shaped wooden piece in her left hand, wishing she could immobilize Li Xuan and cut him down immediately. Yet he always maintained a considerable distance, keeping him beyond the reach of her puppet technique.

"Just as I thought. Those thread tricks are magic that can only be used at close range. As long as I stay far enough away, there's nothing you can do, right? Fodder? Little brat~" Li Xuan laughed wildly, mimicking Yao's tone.

"Don't get cocky! Second Cry: Cross Slash!" Yao liked mocking others to gain a sense of superiority, but she could not stand being mocked herself. She instantly flew into a rage, put away the wooden piece, drew her short blade, and made a cross-shaped slash. The monsters blocking her path were immediately cut to pieces, and she closed a huge stretch of distance at once.

"What was that? You're not so impressive after all!" Seeing that she had successfully closed the distance, a smile reappeared at the corner of Yao's lips. Yet before she could celebrate for long, Li Xuan released a cloud of alcohol mist directly in front of her.

"Damn, alcohol mist with a petrification effect!" Yao was startled as her limbs began stiffening. Fortunately, she possessed Sealing Type abilities, and one barrier was enough to disperse the mist before she resumed pursuit. However, that inevitably allowed Li Xuan to widen the distance once again.