Do What Heaven Demands

Three severed wrists. Three knees pierced clean through.

The scar-faced brute rolled across the floor, clutching his severed wrist. His demon mask had split in two. The lanky man curled up in a corner and howled, while the short, stocky man gripped his knee, blood filling the gaps between his fingers.

"Mercy... Lady Ziwei, have mercy!"

The scar-faced brute pushed himself backward on his mangled arm. "Take the money! Take the goods! We're just errand boys on the outside. We were following orders!"

"Orders." Ziwei walked over, her boot heel stopping at the edge of the blood. "Whose orders? What were you doing? What's the account password?"

"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything—"

"Too slow."

She raised a hand. More than a dozen purple-gold threads of light, almost too fine to see, emerged from her fingertips and pierced the flesh behind their ears and along their necks.

"Aah—!!"

Their screams rose an octave.

The Companion Magic Book at Ziwei's chest floated out on its own.

Purple light swirled as its pages flipped rapidly, stopping on a newly illuminated page.

[Second Ring · Magic Skill—Twilight Coffin]

[Shape a force field into a coffin and seal all clamor within. Inside the coffin, energy falls silent.]

[Note: The target and any energy devices carried by the target can be compressed and sealed together.]

A matching incantation was printed at the bottom of the page.

Ziwei glanced at it and recited without expression:

"Twilight for the coffin, dusk for the nails. Let clamor cease and sleep last forever."

"Twilight Coffin."

Master, you put no feeling into that incantation.

It worked, didn't it?

She raised her hand and lightly tapped the page.

Three translucent purple-gold force fields opened around the men. Rectangular and sharply defined, they enclosed them and all their equipment.

"Wait! My lady! You haven't even asked us... We'll talk—"

"Heh. Too late."

An instant before the force fields contracted, three threads of light slipped inside, wrapped around the high-grade storage pouches at their waists, and yanked them free.

"My card! There's—"

The scar-faced brute got only half his cry out.

The force fields closed inward.

Bones creaked under the pressure. None of the three could even manage a full scream. The abyssal-energy devices inside their bodies and the guns at their waists were crushed, compressed, and sealed with them. Not a trace of energy escaped.

"My... my magic power... It's gone..."

"Mercy... My lady, have mercy..."

The coffins of light dissolved. All three men sprawled limply on the floor, their magic power gone. They couldn't lift a finger.

"I could have killed you." Ziwei pulled the high-grade storage pouches from their waists one by one. "I took your magic power and left you alive. Merciful of me, wasn't it?"

She turned and surveyed the wrecked dorm room.

Broken glass, pools of blood, a splintered doorframe, and bullets scattered across the floor.

"A girl's dorm room shouldn't be this filthy."

The dark-gold Great Scythe turned lightly in her palm, its blade brushing along the wall.

A faint purple-gold glow flowed from the blade and spread across the walls, floor, and ceiling.

The bloodstains faded, the bullets dissolved, broken glass reassembled itself in the window frame, and the dented security door returned to its original shape. The half-burned stick of Demon-Attracting Incense turned to ash and blew out the window.

Three seconds later, room 502 was spotless, with only a trace of floral fragrance lingering.

As for the three ruined men on the floor, the Monster Hunting Bureau could collect them.

By the foot of the bed, Ye Qingqing hugged her knees and stared at it all.

The silver pocket watch against her chest was still hot. A turquoise glow pulsed through her clothes, brightening and dimming.

She braced herself against the wall to stand. Her knees buckled, and she fell back down. She tried again and fell again. On the third attempt, she finally stood upright, though both legs still trembled.

"Th-thank you, Lady Ziwei."

She bent at the waist in an awkward bow.

"Can I ask... this thing against my chest has been hot since this morning. And there's wind rushing around inside me... What's happening to me?"

Ziwei turned around.

Her eyes swept over Ye Qingqing, cold and unreadable.

Ye Qingqing's skin prickled under that gaze. Her fingers twisted the hem of her shirt.

"M-my lady?"

"An excellent wind-attribute candidate, with a top-grade Source Core." Ziwei spoke. "Those three scum watched you for three days. They wanted to dig the Source Core out of your chest and try to become Magical Girls."

Ye Qingqing's lips moved, but no sound came out.

"Dig... dig it out?"

"If they did, you'd die."

"..."

"Scared?"

"Yes." Ye Qingqing's voice wavered, but she lifted her head. "But you saved me. Could I... become someone like you?"

Ziwei didn't answer.

She turned her hand and took a Spirit-Breath Primeval Stone from one of the storage pouches she had just confiscated. It was high-purity, worth at least two hundred thousand on the market.

The Origin Stone landed in Ye Qingqing's lap.

"Take it."

"This is too valuable..."

"A gift for our first meeting." Ziwei cut her off. "Since you've earned the Will of the World's approval, hold your head high from now on."

"Approval?"

Ziwei walked toward the balcony. "You'll awaken in as little as half a day, or as long as half a month. After that, you'll be a Magical Girl. Stop playing the fragile young lady at school. When trouble comes, think about how to fight back before you think about crying."

She stopped at the edge of the balcony and turned her face slightly.

"Rest and recover. Someone will come for you. The Star Magical Girls protect the city in the name of love and justice."

"The Star Magical Girls..." Ye Qingqing clutched the Origin Stone in her palm, her eyes gradually lighting up. "My lady! I want to join!"

Master! Kabi's voice sounded just then. There's an ambush on the high ground by the sports field!

Ziwei stood at the balcony's edge and looked toward the source of the magic power fluctuations.

Three hundred meters away, three agents in black trench coats lay prone atop the sports field bleachers, ready to kill. Their three heavy black sniper rifles were trained steadily on room 502's balcony.

Night Watch Special Squad! The Monster Hunting Bureau's best. Every one of them has a Magic Power Scale reading above eight thousand!

Those three rifles are specially made magic devices. They're designed to pierce protective magic!

Liang Bing is here too?

Under the bleachers. The terminal signal in that black command vehicle is hers.

"Heh."

Three hundred meters away, inside the command vehicle.

Liang Bing stared at the thermal image on the screen, her palms slick with sweat.

Half an hour earlier, the bureau's monitoring network had detected an unusual fluctuation above the campus. Senior officials had issued orders that night: deploy the Night Watch Special Squad. If the Magical Girl appeared, locate her and open negotiations. If necessary, attempt to capture her.

Someone who could kill a lord with one slash was moving freely through the city, beyond their control. Many of the senior officials hadn't slept well in days.

"Attempt to capture her?" Liang Bing had pushed back on those words immediately. "With what? Our lives?"

The reply had been four words: Carry out your orders.

"Enforcer Liang, the target's on the balcony," a sniper whispered through her earpiece. "Target acquired. Awaiting instructions."

On the screen, a purple-gold figure stood at the balcony's edge, gazing toward the command vehicle from afar.

Liang Bing's breath caught.

She watched the woman raise her dark-gold Great Scythe and sweep it through the air.

No pillar of light. No thunderous display. A small crescent of light flew from the blade and silently crossed three hundred meters.

Crack.

The half-meter-thick alloy blast barriers in front of all three sniper positions snapped in two. The gust that followed swept across the bleachers, throwing the three Night Watchers and their rifles aside.

The command vehicle rocked.

Inside, only the low hum of instruments remained.

"The barriers broke..." The sniper's voice shook uncontrollably over the earpiece. "Those things can withstand a direct charge from a D-Rank Demon..."

"Enforcer Liang, do we... do we keep her targeted?"

Liang Bing stared at the screen.

The figure still stood at the balcony's edge, her long scythe angled downward. Liang Bing could even make out the woman tilting her head.

She was waiting for an answer.

"Retreat."

Liang Bing heard her own voice. Her back teeth ground together.

"Everyone retreat. Release the target. Now."

"But our orders—"

"I said, retreat!" Liang Bing slammed a palm onto the console. "Anyone who wants to die can stay. I'll write the compensation claim myself!"

The channel fell silent for two seconds.

"Understood."

"Understood..."