Malevolent Shrine! (Two-in-one)

Inside the Witch Barrier.

Lin Xiaohong held Tang Xiaoyu close and stared fixedly at the swirling deep-water vortex.

"Something's wrong. Why did this witch forcibly begin a second witch transformation...? What is she using as nourishment?!"

Hearing that, Hell glanced back at Tang Xiaoyu. The magic gradually leaking from her had already revealed her identity.

A magical girl who had yet to awaken.

But Tang Xiaoyu had already been rescued by Hell. So what was the Siren Witch using as nourishment for her second evolution?

Frowning, Hell fixed her gaze on the vortex below, raised one hand slightly, and unleashed a full-power enhanced slash.

The attack had no effect.

The entire Witch Barrier was protecting the Siren Witch now. Hell's attack was like trying to wrestle a typhoon, nowhere near enough to make a difference.

Beside her, Lin Xiaohong was drenched in sweat. Suddenly, something occurred to her. "Could it be... she's using Golden Feather's soul as nourishment?"

Hell raised an eyebrow.

A second later, Lin Xiaohong's guess proved true.

As the vortex churned, the Siren Witch reappeared. This time, however, she had completely abandoned the last of her humanity.

What emerged from the vortex was a gigantic, deep-blue sea serpent covered in reverse-pointing scales, like the legendary Tiamat.

Her head trembled slightly, and the umbrella-like membrane around her neck slowly spread as she hissed furiously at Hell and Lin Xiaohong.

It's all these people's fault! Otherwise, my second witch transformation wouldn't have been so hasty!

[Codename: "Witch of the Siren"]

[Danger level: B+.]

It could be said that, without Lin Xiaohong's Extra-Large Fire, the Siren Witch would actually have had a chance to leap straight to A-rank after making landfall in Taiping Prefecture.

Unfortunately, because Hell had appeared, the Siren Witch had been forced to begin her transformation early to protect herself.

As a result, she had ended up "underdeveloped."

"Get back a little."

As Hell called out her warning, the Siren Witch launched an attack at her.

The witch was unbelievably fast. She lunged to bite Hell, eager to tear her head off along with her Soul Gem.

"Tch, I really don't want to end up dying the same way as that senior."

Hell grumbled inwardly as she darted around the spectator seats, dodging attacks while continuously unleashing slashes.

During the fight, she tried to use Cleave by touching her opponent, but the Siren Witch was simply too fast. The closer Hell got, the greater her risk of injury.

So she gave up.

Unlike a good-for-nothing like Golden Feather, the Siren Witch, who controlled the power of a natural disaster, was already at the very top of B+ rank.

Huddled in the farthest corner, Lin Xiaohong and the others watched with pounding hearts, terrified that the giant serpent would bite Miss Hell's head off at any moment.

The Siren Witch was now infinitely close to A-rank, a terrifying being truly capable of threatening an entire city.

If left alone, she would need less than three days to use the typhoon's tremendous destructive power to devour more souls and resentment, raising her danger level to an even more terrifying height.

Just as Lin Xiaohong was trying desperately to think of a way to help Hell...

The Siren Witch, unable to catch Hell and constantly battered by invisible slashes, began to grow furious with frustration.

She turned in midair and bit her own tail. Immediately afterward, a terrifying heartbeat thundered in everyone's ears.

Thump...!!

One magical girl's soul after another appeared on the Siren Witch's serpentine body, struggling in pain and unwilling to accept their fate.

"It hurts..."

"Help me..."

"I don't want to die!!"

The girls' anguished voices left Lin Xiaohong pale.

"Ah-!"

They opened their mouths in unison and began to sing the Song of the Siren.

Lin Xiaohong braced herself, shielding Nightingale and Morning Star behind her with all her might...

"It's a Witch Domain...!" Despair began to rise in her heart.

Swoosh!!

The Siren Witch unleashed her Witch Domain, drawing everyone who heard the song into it.

Viewed from a distance, it resembled a semicircular Magic Curtain, enclosing Hell and the others and taking them into Subspace.

Inside the domain, the suffering magical girls opened their mouths again.

"Ah! Ah-! Ah~~~!"

In an instant, the power of the Song of the Siren was amplified dozens of times, easily shattering the magical defenses of Lin Xiaohong and the others.

"Ugh, cough, cough-!"

Lin Xiaohong, Nightingale, and Morning Star were forced to their knees. Overwhelmed by the song, they lowered their heads and coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, bleeding ceaselessly from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

"At this rate... we'll die here...!"

Unwilling to accept it, Lin Xiaohong raised her head to check on Miss Hell.

She then discovered, to her concern, that Hell was also pale, and her movements as she dodged the attacks had slowed considerably.

But suddenly...

Miss Hell gently wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

She landed on the other side of the aquarium, instantly raised both hands, and formed a mysterious hand seal before her that Lin Xiaohong could not understand.

"Ah-!" The Siren Witch continued singing.

But Miss Hell simply ignored the song and gently closed her eyes.

At the same time, a terrifying, immense surge of magic began to blaze around her.

As though sensing danger, the Siren Witch grew frenzied and made the Song of the Siren even louder.

"Ah-!!"

But at that moment, Hell's voice was utterly cold.

Domain Expansion...

"Malevolent Shrine-!"

Heaven and earth fell silent in an instant, and a power capable of contending with the Siren Witch's domain intervened.

Lin Xiaohong and the others were suppressed as well.

Drip-!

Their eyes widened as they watched a drop of blood fall from the sky, staining the entire floor of the orca performance hall blood-red.

Rumble!

An eerie shrine built entirely from bones and ox heads rose from the ground beneath Miss Hell.

The two sides' powers split the entire aquarium in half: Hell's pool-of-blood domain on one side, and the Siren Witch's deep-sea domain on the other.

Nightingale kept one bleeding eye closed as she looked up at the scene and said blankly, "That's... Senior Hell's Magic Domain? It can't be a mistake... it definitely is!"

In Nightingale's memory, Magic Domains were things that existed only in stories passed down by word of mouth among ancient legendary magicians.

They were said to have been created by those powerful magicians before magical girls came into being, for the purpose of fighting calamity-class witches.

What they represented... was the pinnacle of magical attainment!

Even Nightingale, who came from a declining magical family, had only heard a few fragments about them from her now-deceased grandfather.

At that moment, the girl atop the shrine gave the Siren Witch an arrogant, confident smile.

"Louder."

"You're too quiet. I can't hear you!"

Miss Hell was determined to obtain the trait upgrade.

So the Siren Witch had to die here today, no matter what.

As for the risk of exposing her domain, faced with the greater temptation of a trait upgrade, anyone would know what to choose.

"Wuaaah-!!"

The Siren Witch broke free of Malevolent Shrine's suppression, and the suffering souls of the magical girls on her body opened their mouths once more.

"Ah-!"

Splurt!

They had barely uttered a single syllable when a slash tore through flesh, instantly cutting deep enough to expose bone on the Siren Witch.

Immediately afterward... a sight that sent the hearts of Lin Xiaohong, Nightingale, and Morning Star racing unfolded.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

Endless Cleaves, like divine punishment from God, carved the Siren Witch's body to pieces. Every cut drew blood and exposed bone.

Not long after the slashes began, Miss Hell suddenly noticed something. The smile in her eyes deepened.

"I remember now. A Witch Domain is sturdy on the inside, but its outer shell is very fragile, isn't that right?"

The Siren Witch seemed to realize something. The suffering souls on her body opened their mouths again, trying to stop Hell.

But that was impossible.

Outside the domain, Miss Hell had a thought.

Dozens upon dozens of Dismantles instantly struck the outer shell of the Witch Domain.

After all, her Malevolent Shrine was an Open Domain. With a Binding Vow, it had a range extending to a radius of 200 meters!

Thus, as soon as Hell's domain expanded, it enveloped the Siren Witch's domain from the outside.

Bang!!

The Witch Domain connected to Subspace shattered in an instant, unable to hold out even for a second.

"Uwaaah-!"

The suffering souls on the Siren Witch's body cried out in anguish.

Miss Hell paid them no heed. She merely closed her eyes and increased her domain's output.

What followed was a one-sided slaughter.

Splurt, splurt, splurt-!

Even describing the scene as being carved to pieces would have been putting it too lightly.

In mere seconds, the Siren Witch's enormous body went from shimmering with light to a jagged mass of exposed bone.

Splurt-!

As the final slash fell, her enormous sea-serpent head was severed, bone and all.

The head flew high into the air, traced a graceful arc, and finally crashed to the ground in front of Miss Hell.

Rustle...!

The magic slowly dissipated, and the Siren's head turned into a girl.

Her little face was deathly pale. Curled up on the ground, she parted her lips slightly, seeming to say something in unwillingness.

Miss Hell had assumed it would be a curse directed at her.

But all she heard was the girl's trembling sobs.

"I'm sorry..."

"I didn't want to become like this either..."

She's apologizing?

Hell lowered her eyes, her emotions somewhat complicated. Even she did not know what to say.

In the end, she said only one thing softly.

"Then close your eyes and rest in peace."

Crack-!!

The Witch Barrier covering the entire aquarium shattered in an instant.

Almost at the same moment, the eye of Typhoon Siren began to break apart and dissipate, because a calamity-class witch and a natural disaster existed in a symbiotic relationship.

Whichever of the two collapsed first would deal a heavy blow to the other.

Typhoon Siren plummeted from a force-14 severe typhoon to a force-9 tropical storm, making both the Taiping Prefecture Meteorological Bureau and the Ministry of Magic breathe a sigh of relief.

"Did Xiaohong succeed?"

Inside the Ministry of Magic.

Hu Xueting frowned deeply as she looked at the typhoon data on her laptop screen, unsure whether she felt pleased or not.

The good news was that shortly after the calamity-class witch Siren made landfall in Taiping Prefecture, the Ministry of Magic had sent someone to eliminate her, earning great credit.

After all, when a calamity-class witch had made landfall in Taiping Prefecture seven months ago, she had nearly wiped out the local magical girls outright.

The Ministry of Magic had been frantic at the time, but every magical girl squad sent in from elsewhere had been killed.

After devouring countless souls, the witch's danger level had soared all the way to A+.

In the end, the magical girl Eclipse, who had been away in Europe on business, had rushed back and joined forces with the magical girl Moon God.

Only then had they defeated and eliminated the witch.

Later, because that calamity-class witch had caused so many casualties, the Ministry of Magic had removed her name from its records.

After all, witches could also make use of human resentment.

What troubled Hu Xueting was this.

If the credit went to Xiaohong, she would no longer have any grounds to keep Xiaohong in her grasp. After all, one achievement and one mistake would cancel each other out.

There would even be credit to spare.

Hu Xueting frowned deeply and thought for a while.

She picked up the phone and called the minister of magic. She could not simply stand by and watch Lin Xiaohong take this enormous credit.

In theory, Hu Xueting deserved credit for coordinating the response and was also Lin Xiaohong's superior. When the report was submitted to the United Government, her name should appear before Lin Xiaohong's.

Meanwhile, inside the orca performance hall.

[Miss Witch, congratulations on completing a special event!]

[You have received: Trait upgrade +1 (can be used on any trait that is not at maximum level).]

Only after receiving the system notification did Miss Hell finally breathe an inward sigh of relief and leap down from the shrine,

She landed gracefully on the ground like a kitten, watching the magical girl Siren's body gradually dissipate.

Malevolent Shrine vanished at the same time.

Suddenly, a current of magical power as gentle as a sea breeze brushed against Miss Hell's face.

Faintly, on a beach filled with tides and waves, a long-haired girl in a white dress and a wide-brimmed sun hat stood with her back to the sea,

and smiled at Hell:

"Thank you... for not letting me stay out of control forever."

With that, the girl gently opened her arms and fell into the boundless waves behind her.

Splash!

Her magical power dissipated completely.

Only then did Miss Hell come back to her senses. She took a deep breath and looked at Lin Xiaohong and the other two nearby. "Can you still stand?"

The three of them struggled to their feet. Throughout the fight, Lin Xiaohong had kept Tang Xiaoyu protected beneath her, with her ears covered.

So Tang Xiaoyu's injuries weren't too serious.

Hell had seen it all and couldn't help feeling a little emotional. No matter how rotten the Ministry of Magic's top leadership was,

the kindness of these children, who fought on the front lines and risked their lives against magical beasts and witches, was truly pure.

Even the witch Siren was just a pitiful girl whose reason and thoughts had been eroded by Subspace.

Before that, perhaps she too had been a magical girl who would do anything for her companions, just like Lin Xiaohong now.

Stare...

With Miss Hell's complicated gaze fixed on her, Lin Xiaohong grew nervous.

She stammered, "Um... Miss Hell, that move you just used...?"

"Was it Magic Domain?" she asked uncertainly.

Hearing that, Hell put aside the jumble of thoughts in her head. "Magic Domain?"

Nightingale wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her violet eyes also filled with surprise and curiosity over what she had just seen.

Little Morning Star blinked and tilted her head slightly, speaking for Hell. "Magic Domain? What's that?"

Nightingale reached out and rubbed her little white-haired head, explaining:

"Magic Domain is a spatial Cursed Technique that only super powerful magical girls or legendary magicians can master."

"More specifically, it uses Barrier Technique as a foundation to create a spatial barrier similar to a Witch Domain, then projects a Cursed Technique into it."

"Inside a Magic Domain, a magical girl's Cursed Technique becomes much more powerful, and it can even hit the opponent without aiming."

Little Morning Star caught on quickly. "It's that powerful? Then if I learned Magic Domain, wouldn't I be able to freeze people solid from a distance?"

Nightingale nodded. "Yep, but Barrier Technique is already really hard to learn, even harder than Magic Curtain... um, at least ten thousand times harder."

Morning Star was horrified. "That hard?!"

It had taken her a whole week just to learn Magic Curtain! D-didn't that mean she'd never learn Magic Domain in her entire life?

While the two little ones whispered to each other,

Hell stared at Lin Xiaohong, then suddenly reached out and touched her cheek as Lin Xiaohong watched with extreme nervousness.

A great many thoughts flashed through Lin Xiaohong's mind in that instant.

For a moment, she even saw her life flash before her eyes.

As far as Lin Xiaohong knew, among all the magical girls across the world, the strongest magical girl, Eclipse, was the only one publicly known to have mastered this technique.

After all, magical girls were different from witches.

Witches' souls had already fallen. They devoured Subspace's magical power, and deploying a domain was something they could do with ease.

But for a magical girl to learn this move, she needed both talent and time.

Fortunately, Miss Hell had no intention of killing her to silence her for the time being.

Under Xiaohong's nervous gaze, she merely wiped the still-wet blood from the corner of her mouth and said calmly:

"Miss Red Sparrow, could you keep the matter of Magic Domain a secret for me?"

"N-no problem!"

Lin Xiaohong nodded at once, mumbling:

"Don't worry, Miss Hell. I swear I won't tell a soul. If I do, may I be struck by lightning, step in dog poop every time I go out, never get a fork with my instant noodles or a straw with my milk tea, get nothing but seeds when I eat watermelon, and never get married for the rest of my life!"

Hell: "...?"

She blinked. She could understand the earlier parts, but what was that about never getting married for the rest of her life?

Still, she nodded.

"All right."

Nightingale and Morning Star, meanwhile, were dazed by the flood of information. They blinked blankly, as if to say:

D-do I have to make that vow too?

Fortunately, Miss Hell didn't ask them to. She only told them to keep it secret and not tell outsiders.

The two little ones nodded vigorously.

"All right, hurry outside. Water's been leaking in here this whole time."

Miss Hell suddenly urged them on.

"Okay!"

Lin Xiaohong hurriedly picked up Tang Xiaoyu and led Nightingale and Morning Star back the way they had come.

But then Lin Xiaohong turned around, wondering why Hell hadn't followed.

Just in time, she saw... Miss Hell holding her forehead and shaking her head gently before suddenly falling into a chair beside her.

The gray-haired girl hung her head, her delicate, pretty face deathly pale. She looked fragile and vulnerable all over, with none of the power and arrogance she had shown not long ago.

Xiaohong froze.

Miss Hell seems to have... exhausted her magical power?!

No! Magical girls are at their most vulnerable at a time like this. What if a familiar ambushes her?!

A protective urge surged wildly in Xiaohong's heart. She was a senior; how could she leave Hell there all alone?!

The girl was only sixteen years old!

"Nightingale! Morning Star, I'll leave this child with you. I'm going to check on Miss Hell! She seems to have used up a lot of energy."

Lin Xiaohong stopped and handed Tang Xiaoyu to Nightingale.

Nightingale was puzzled, but she did as she was told and took the unconscious Tang Xiaoyu.

Morning Star quickly said, "Please take care of her, Senior Xiaohong!"

Lin Xiaohong raced straight back to the performance hall, where she saw Miss Hell lowering her head and gently unwrapping a chocolate lollipop.

"Nom."

She bit into it, and the sugar left her contented. Miss Hell narrowed her eyes in bliss.

Her brain didn't feel quite so awful after Cursed Technique Burnout anymore.

"Hm?"

Hearing footsteps beside her, Hell looked up and met Lin Xiaohong's worried gaze.

"Hehe."

Lin Xiaohong's face filled with embarrassment. She scratched her head and looked around at the leaking walls, feeling as though she had discovered some incredible secret.

Miss Hell is even cuter in private than she is in the videos...!

Also, these walls sure are walls.

Why did this girl come running back?!

She's shattered the powerful expert image I worked so hard to create!

Hell's earlobes turned slightly red, but she pretended nothing was wrong. "What is it? Did you need something else?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Lin Xiaohong nodded repeatedly and ran over to the Siren Witch's head. She gently raised her staff and extracted a pitch-black Grief Seed.

She walked over and handed the Grief Seed to Hell. "Miss Hell, this is your loot."

Hell blinked gently and accepted it without refusing, planning to feed it to her little sapling later.

Lin Xiaohong breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile.

Outside the barrier, Scarlet Spider hung upside down beneath a billboard, sheltering from the rain as he watched a Q&A interview with the magical girl Hell on his phone with great interest.

He casually tipped it two coins.

Miss Hell is so cute~

Suddenly, a message popped up on his phone:

Red Owl: "Still playing on your phone? The barrier's gone."

"Huh? What?!"

Scarlet Spider jolted, then quickly flipped onto the billboard and looked up. Sure enough, the Witch Barrier had vanished.

The force of the Category 14 super typhoon that had made landfall in Taiping Prefecture was also rapidly weakening.

"Oh my god."

Scarlet Spider was stunned. "The Ministry of Magic's magical girls succeeded?"

The superheroes had rushed to the scene partly to rescue people from the disaster area, and partly to prevent other bad guys from ambushing the magical girls after they finished fighting the witch.

Every rule had a case behind it, as the saying went. In any event, Scarlet Spider and the others really had come with good intentions.

However, Red Owl's voice came through his earpiece. "No, I'm afraid it wasn't the Ministry of Magic."

Scarlet Spider scratched his head in confusion. "Then who was it?"

"Look toward your eight o'clock. That car belongs to Colossus Company, and inside are Moon Studio's director and the A-class superhero Firebird."

Scarlet Spider blinked behind his mask:

"Boss, you mean Miss Hell... took part in this battle too?"

Red Owl: "Yes."