Chapter 81: Black Ember Dawn (4k)

The Mirage Realm is an ability that only Magical Girls who have reached the Bud Grade can master.

As the true outward manifestation of soul and willpower, it has intricate connections with the Magic Armor.

In Sparrow's imagination, as a Magical Girl who had once bloomed and reached the Bud Grade, Cornflower undoubtedly should have mastered this ability.

And since she had already demonstrated the ability to suppress Cornflower when she did not use the Mirage Realm, under such circumstances, Cornflower had no reason not to unfold her own Mirage Realm.

This undoubtedly confirmed a rumor she had once heard: that during the "Garden" Defense Battle, Cornflower had damaged her Heart Gem by exceeding her limits in using power, and after persisting in battle for another year, chose to retire in self-imposed exile. As for the location of her retirement, it was the city she had once guarded—Fang Ting City.

Such a rumor, at first hearing, did not sound very reliable: damage to the Heart Gem should be nearly crippling for a Magical Girl; if the injury to the source of magic power was too severe, one might even become a mentally disabled cripple. How could she possibly retire in peace and safety?

But if one followed this logic to think, one would feel the rumor had its rationality.

Because everyone knew that Cornflower's teammate, also a lifelong Magical Girl and the Magical Girl "Sakura" of the "Strongest Flower Card," had also been active in Fang Ting City. If Cornflower was indeed hiding somewhere in the material world, Fang Ting City was undoubtedly the most likely place.

Now, every piece of content in the rumors known to Sparrow was gradually being verified, causing her to begin believing: perhaps that last point, that Cornflower's Heart Gem was damaged, was also true!

Coming to Fang Ting City, Sparrow's original purpose, besides gathering some information, was to conduct a transaction with those madmen who called themselves Black Ember Dawn.

Because before coming, she had learned: a squad of the Imperial Guard from Black Ember Dawn had arrived in Fang Ting City and planned to stay there for a period of time.

Black Ember Dawn was a strange organization that began activities in the material world about ten years ago; most within it were human magic users of the material world, and a few were otherworlders who had defected from Kingdoms or Interstitial Realms. They gathered together, refusing to recognize the rule of the current Wang Ting of the Magic Kingdom, while secretly researching the power of the Remnant Beasts.

And to achieve the goal of resisting the Wang Ting, their actions could be described as having no bottom line: whether slaughtering or torturing civilians, carrying out terrorist attacks on city public facilities or even the municipal government, or privately trafficking various contraband items, all were common occurrences; they could be said to have done every evil deed.

Their conduct was so rampant that it naturally attracted a massive crackdown by the Investigation Bureau, but they were like rats that could not be exterminated; one batch was caught, and another arrived, blooming everywhere in the world, committing crimes while on the run.

As one born a Magical Girl, she, who prided herself on having a righteous and pure power system, had always looked down on this group of freaks, but she had to admit that among the rare magic materials in the material world, aside from those Magical Girls still in service, this group of madmen possessed the most.

If she had still been in service in the past, she naturally would not have needed to go through such gray channels to obtain materials. But having defected from the Kingdom for many years and since joining Claw Marks, she had to seriously consider the issue of daily research expenses.

Having arrived in Fang Ting City and gathered some local intelligence, she suddenly remembered the rumors she had once heard.

This city was the place where that "Cornflower" retired.

Two years ago, Sakura, the strongest Flower Card Magical Girl of the Kingdom, died for unknown reasons. This incident caused strong shock among many Magical Girls on the magic side, and even a small group of people—also Sakura's fans—had gone to Fang Ting City to conduct an investigation.

These visitors turned Fang Ting City upside down, casually killing all the Remnant Beasts around the city clean, and had also approached Sakura's teammates and husband to inquire about the situation, yet they did not obtain any useful information.

Among them, there were not people who did not believe the rumors, believing that Cornflower was hiding in Fang Ting City, and wanting to question her regarding Sakura's death.

But no matter how they searched, no one had ever found where Cornflower was.

It seemed the rumors were truly just rumors, like some people's unrealistic imaginations.

And when Sparrow came to this city, this wave of enthusiasm had long since faded; whether it was Sakura's teammates or her fans, they all believed the culprit had already fled and gone to another city to pursue their tracks. Having lost multiple elite-level Magical Girls in one breath, Fang Ting City also seemed to have entered a gap period for magic-side forces, with the Magical Girl squad stationed here showing a strong trend of having no successors to take over.

Under such circumstances, Sparrow made contact with the local Black Ember Dawn squad.

She did not know why this group of madmen chose to stay in Fang Ting City, nor did she know where they got their information; in any case, regarding the transaction with Sparrow, they proposed an exchange requirement: that she go on a specific day to deal with Fang Ting City's current Magical Girl squad.

It would be best to be able to kill these few Magical Girls; if she could not kill them, she must at least hold them up, and the key target among them was a Magical Girl wearing navy blue clothes with long blue hair.

According to them, this Magical Girl had demonstrated the ability to use techniques, at least Leaf Grade, far beyond the other two rookie newbies; absolutely do not let her disrupt their plans.

Sparrow had long since defected from the Kingdom and turned her sword against her former colleagues; she had no resistance to the matter of killing Magical Girls and naturally agreed to their request.

Then, she began her observation targeting the "Blue Magical Girl."

At the very beginning, she waited near the scene where Remnant Beasts appeared, first confirming what the target actually looked like.

Because she worried about being sensed by the opponent's magic power and thus startling the snake, she always had her accompanying little sparrows observe from far away. Afterwards, based on the locations where Remnant Beasts appeared, combined with the time and direction of the Blue Magical Girl's appearance, she had the sparrows track and deduce the opponent's departure point.

To confirm the opponent's route of action, she specially lured some Remnant Beasts to attack the crowd she had specifically marked as suspected. Then, during an attack on a light rail train, that Blue Magical Girl truly appeared.

She thus confirmed that this Blue Magical Girl's daily area of activity must be Luoming District of Fang Ting City.

And with the subsequent deep tracking, she not only gradually determined the place where the opponent usually operated—a office building—but also gradually discovered one thing: this Blue Magical Girl seemed to have many similarities with the "Cornflower" in the rumors.

Without telling this news to anyone, she turned to gather some photos from twenty years ago; even without needing to compare, she could confirm that this Magical Girl was Cornflower!

Thus came today's battle, carefully prepared.

Sparrow's plan was that she would defeat Cornflower here, and preferably be able to capture her alive. This would not only achieve her own fame but should also allow her to make a fortune: she remembered that many years ago, someone in Claw Marks had said they were very interested in this former legend.

And when she used her Half-Beast Form, she even once thought she was about to win.

She could penetrate Cornflower's magic barrier, could also knock her down from the sky, and could even attack the turtle shell woven by the opponent's threads like beating a punching bag. It was just that as the battle dragged on longer and longer, she discovered a very serious problem: the opponent had not been injured from beginning to end.

Furthermore, because of the difference in precision in magic power planning strategies, although her own magic power had been largely consumed, Cornflower was still hiding inside her Magic Armor turtle shell, unwilling to show her head.

This could not go on; she realized this point.

Although unwilling to admit it, if Cornflower maintained a defensive posture, then before completely shattering her defensive means, her own magic power would surely be exhausted first.

She must force the opponent to expose themselves from the defense.

"I don't mind, but you, do you really intend to keep shrinking behind your turtle shell?"

So she spoke, waving her Magic Armor: "If you do not unfold the Mirage Realm and keep dragging things out like this, your little companions might be in danger."

This sentence was actually made up. Rather, she herself was very curious where those few rookie newbies actually were. But as the saying goes, in war there is no deception; if merely making up a few random sentences could disrupt the opponent's formation, that was undoubtedly a very cost-effective strategy.

Her casually fabricated words of provocation produced an unexpected effect. As soon as the words fell, Senior Cuique behind the Masterpiece's expression suddenly stiffened.

Hearing Sparrow's words, she almost instantly remembered that phone call she had failed to answer before, and also remembered the whereabouts reported by Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu not long ago.

They went to Lixing District to find Moke; could there really be something wrong with this matter?

Although she also knew it might be verbal deception, she still divided a part of her mind during the battle to sense her own techniques. Immediately, she was shocked to discover: the positioning technique she had set up on Moke had failed.

"You have accomplices?" Her gaze began to become heavy and solemn.

"Accomplices? Forget it, I am not an accomplice with that group of mad freaks."

Sparrow sneered contemptuously and continued to provoke: "But you thought correctly, your little companions are not here; perhaps they are fighting a group of desperate villains right now? Without your help, can they really win?"

Putting aside the nonsense she spoke earlier, this sentence, she actually did not tell a lie.

Although she did not know what that group from Black Ember Dawn wanted to find, once they found it, given their habits, a bloody and brutal blood sacrifice was likely unavoidable. And in this process, if the other rookie newbies of Fang Ting City clashed with them, the odds were likely to be dire.

"If you unfold the Mirage Realm now, perhaps you can defeat me and go to support them?"

Feeling her words indeed produced a smile, she began to add fuel to the fire, trying to further arouse the opponent's emotions: "Of course, this is the smoothest situation; if the development on that side is too fast, the few seedlings you worked hard to raise might already be dead, or perhaps not?"

Then, whether it was an illusion or not, the surrounding air seemed to suddenly solidify.

Immediately, as if the air pressure had dropped, making people feel it was somewhat difficult to breathe.

"Indeed, it is about time to end this."

Her tense fingers gradually relaxed; the masterpiece shield that had been gathered before her body once again dispersed into a web of magic threads, and Senior Cuique thus abandoned all defense.

She shook her somewhat stiff palm, her somewhat cold gaze focusing on Sparrow:

"Most likely, we won't get any answers about your origins; strange black magic, seemingly a characteristic of the entire organization; a half-beast form, a special state that seems linked to the Remnant Beasts; purple-black magic gems, the fundamental hue of the magic source has changed... It seems that is all there is."

As she muttered to herself, the azure magic that had originally shown signs of decline around her gradually faded, dimming like a flame losing its heat.

"Oh? You actually came out like this? It seems that although you have spent many years in retirement, you still possess a measure of courage."

The calm attitude Senior Cuique suddenly displayed made Sparrow feel somewhat strange, yet she could not discern where this inexplicable sense of dissonance originated. Satisfied that her provocation had succeeded, she then shouted loudly: "But bluffing is useless! I can feel it; your current total magic is not even as much as a typical Level-R!"

"Mm, you are right." Senior Cuique suddenly admitted it calmly.

"Hah? What do you mean 'right'?" This straightforward attitude actually surprised Sparrow. "Has your brain broken?"

"As you say, my current state is very poor."

As if speaking of something unrelated to herself, Senior Cuique spoke in a steady tone: "Due to the accumulation of multiple causes, I must admit that I currently do not reach the strength of my peak period."

"Bringing this up now? Are you admitting defeat?"

Her heart gave an unexplained lurch, even producing a slight feeling of unease, yet Sparrow could not figure out where this sense of unease came from: "Are you telling me you cannot deploy the Mirage Realm and cannot defeat me, hoping to beg for mercy?"

"No, I simply wish to clarify one thing."

The long hair at the back of her head rose without wind, strands of soft hair dancing in the air. A rustling sound of air currents arose, and the magic threads around Senior Cuique rippled together, carving out soft waves as if chasing the traces of the wind.

Looking at the figure half-encased in pitch-black magic not far away, she spoke calmly and naturally, as if stating something self-evident:

"To defeat you, I do not need the Mirage Realm at all."

In the next instant, the azure magic erupted once more, but this time, it reversed the momentum of before. Her magic no longer presented a regular form; instead, it overflowed and scattered in all directions, so overpowering that it made one unable to keep one's eyes open.

If the magic Senior Cuique had displayed before was merely a trickling stream, now it surged like a rushing river, ceaseless and magnificent in momentum.

Senior Cuique raised her head; both her eyes flickered with azure light, and the Heart Gem beneath her neck seemed filled with magic as well, becoming incredibly bright.

She extended one hand, and even the nails at her fingertips seemed coated with fluorescent nail polish, glowing with azure light:

"It is about time. Let us finish this quickly."