Chapter 0: The Witch of the Azure Heart

The night seemed to have sunk into some kind of illusory shadow.

The semi-mechanized buildings extended along the streets into the distance.

Steam pipes coiled around the outer walls, and gears quietly operated in the night, decorating this modern metropolis into a cold yet magnificent steel maze.

Looking up, the bright moon hanging in the sky emitted a dim yellow light.

That was not natural moonlight —

In the depths of that soft halo, one could vaguely hear the creak, creak of old clockwork turning, as if some mechanism long forgotten by the era was still reluctantly performing its duty.

It was as if one had merely passed by the entrance of an old toy store.

In the glass display window, parts of modern civilization and the steam era were casually pieced together, appearing bizarre yet inexplicably harmonious.

This was —

This world.

Here, it was one of the most representative steam zones in Blue Hearts: Arena Online —

the world that players called Canglan Zhixin.

White steam rolled and spread across the ground.

They slowly but stubbornly corroded the ankles of the semi-mechanical zombies, emitting a teeth-grinding hiss.

These monsters had no thoughts.

They were merely defective products discarded in this endless world.

They quietly waited for “fresh food” that could fill their empty mechanical bodies.

The way to judge prey was also pitifully simple.

Footsteps.

Pat~

The faint sound was captured by the old-style phonograph.

In its already deformed ear structure, it was amplified and echoed as a sounding tube.

Immediately afterward, the gear mechanism at the jaw began to engage.

Amid the metal friction screech, the mechanical structure rapidly adjusted.

Sharp teeth slowly protruded, reinforcing power for the next bite.

“Seriously… so noisy.”

A girl’s voice, clearly laced with impatience, came from high above.

“Get lost, you scum~

Lowly monsters of the endless world,

Not even worth a single hair on a witch’s head, you know?”

In the next instant, gunfire flared up abruptly.

Dense bullets poured down like tongues of fire.

Clear clangs of metal collisions rang out one after another, immediately followed by explosions triggered by overload in one body after another.

Oil pipes burst.

Energy circuits lost balance.

No matter which fault, for these half-finished machines it was a fatal verdict.

Thus, their end was almost without suspense.

The dark red lamp tubes struggled within the filaments for a mere few seconds before completely extinguishing.

The powerless wreckage collapsed onto the ground.

It waited to be sent to the waste processing plant to become meaningless recycled material.

However, death did not bring peace to this area.

The slanted barrage continued to spin in the air.

Yet the air of the steam world seemed unwilling to be ignited by mere bullets.

Flying knives slashed through the night.

Fireballs dragged tails of flame.

Arrows whistled past carrying magical fluctuations.

Modern and ancient.

Technology and magic.

Here, they were blended together as a matter of course.

This was a world so mysterious it drove one mad.

“Witch! You’ve been surrounded by us!”

“Be a good girl and remove the mask hidden beneath the night, and hand over the ‘Mechanical Core’!”

Voices came from below the street.

On the rooftop, a black-robed figure nimbly leaped.

That was exactly the target of this team’s expedition.

The dark woolen fabric nearly merged with the night, outlining the girl’s slender yet dangerous silhouette.

Her long legs stepped across the roof tiles, each footfall precisely landing on the load-bearing nodes between the tiles.

It was as if the structure of the entire city had long been etched into her mind.

In her hand, she gripped a golden gear.

That was the goal the pursuers craved —

the core emblem symbolizing the entire steam world, also the honorary badge the semi-science faction took pride in.

“NORDON, FEISAKAER——”

The girl softly chanted an incomprehensible incantation.

It was gentle, yet carried an unsettling cadence.

That voice seemed not to travel through the air, but like a rain of arrows, directly piercing everyone’s nerves.

A sense of crisis spread in an instant.

“Can someone interrupt her spellcasting?!”

“The witch is chanting! Stop her right now!”

“C-Captain! I—I can—”

The one responding was the shortest boy in the team.

His youthful voice mixed with unmistakable anticipation.

If he could earn merit here.

If he could personally stop the witch.

Then perhaps he could become the most vital link in this mission.

A brave one.

A hero.

Neither title would be bad for him.

As long as he could obtain one, it would be enough.

However —

What answered him was not the captain’s command.

Only the night wind.

And the abruptly approaching cold gleam.

The boy widened his eyes.

His gaze vacant, filled with incomprehensible bewilderment.

That instantaneous expression also entered the leader’s view.

“Hey! Light Feather! Hey! You—”

Surprise was only natural.

Because in the next second, the boy’s body had already separated from his head.

“Welcome to death~☆”

A cheerful voice carrying undisguised mockery came from the rooftop.

It came from beneath that black robe.

Fear rapidly spread across the leader’s face.

Apart from the witch on the rooftop, almost everyone displayed the same expression.

Invisible hands of shadow quietly crept up their backs.

Cold and merciless scythes drew close to their throats.

Their bodies could not move.

They could only quietly await the arrival of death.

“Bye~bye~”

The witch lightly waved her hand and casually removed her mask.

What was revealed was a cute smiling face completely incompatible with slaughter.

And that —

was the last scene they could see.

In the next second, blood sprayed everywhere.

It dyed red the slowly turning gears of the steam city.