Chapter 31: When Combustion Stops

When a magical girl’s mana isn’t fully depleted but she has no spare mana to repair her outfit, she enters the so-called “battle-damaged form.”

At this moment, Sakura Blizzard’s outfit was in tatters.

Wounds large and small all over her body were bleeding, making her look like a bloody mess.

Strangled by the neck, the girl’s limbs hung limply.

She struggled to turn her head, her bloodstained face twisting into a forced smile:

“Sorry…”

“Senior Sakura Blizzard…”

Feizuan’s whole body was trembling.

Zhan Che spoke up:

“You’re tougher than I imagined, but this ends now.”

He was about to snap the girl’s neck.

But a flaming broken sword sliced straight through his elbow.

He instantly lost strength and released Sakura Blizzard.

Sakura Blizzard fell.

Feizuan rushed over and caught her.

Just as Feizuan was about to return, the wound that had been cut had already healed!

Zhan Che reached back to grab Feizuan, but this time, a petite figure stood in front of her!

Ding!

Crimson mana erupted violently.

Zhan Che felt a tremendous force coming from his arm, but the direction of this force was completely opposite to what he expected.

He staggered back several steps before stopping.

“Oh…?”

Zhan Che examined his hand, then looked at Hui Jin:

“Your power… tsk… very interesting.”

Hui Jin couldn’t be bothered to respond to Zhan Che.

She turned and shouted at Feizuan:

“Feizuan, take Sakura Blizzard and Xia Che and get out of here!”

“Okay!”

This time, Feizuan didn’t hesitate.

She immediately pushed off the ground and shot toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

Zhan Che noticed and instantly stomped the ground, launching himself like a missile!

“Like hell I will!”

Hui Jin flashed in front of Feizuan, the broken sword once again blazing with crimson light.

Ding!

The sound of a successful parry rang out, but this time, Hui Jin clearly felt that the force hadn’t been fully deflected.

A considerable portion slammed into her body!

“Ugh!”

The girl grunted, flew backward, rolled several times on the ground, and curled up in pain.

So painful!

It felt like all her bones were about to shatter!

Hui Jin’s parry magic essentially concentrated mana at a single point, using the strength of that “point” to deflect incoming attacks.

This meant that if the opponent’s attack was stronger than that “point,” the parry magic would fail!

“What a fucking numbers monster…”

Hui Jin’s vision was already blurring.

The gap between E-rank and A-rank stats was still too big.

But, it’s fine…

The time she bought was enough for Xiao Chi to escape with the other two.

That should be…

She watched as Feizuan pushed off again, leaping high, about to break through the window.

But just then, a dark figure dove from the sky.

It flapped its wings, cawed loudly, and dropped a giant net!

Thus, the girl, like a bird with broken wings, fell straight back!

“Xiao Chi…!”

Hui Jin used all her strength to get up, but as soon as she rose, her body uncontrollably fell back.

“Good work, Yuyan.”

Zhan Che gave a thumbs-up to the strange bird in the sky.

“They really did try to escape. Leaving me here to wait, Lord Zhan Che, you truly are omniscient!”

“I told you, my brilliance needs no praise!”

Zhan Che, as if he had become a different person, laughed heartily with his hands on his hips.

He walked toward the giant net and examined the girl inside:

“…As I thought, you are the perfect ‘gene.'”

By now, Feizuan had used mana to cut the net.

As soon as Zhan Che approached, she aimed her wand at his head.

Smack!

Zhan Che slapped the wand away, violently grabbed the girl by the throat, and lifted her easily.

“Ghk…”

Feizuan groaned in pain, her face turning red.

“Even though you’ve just awakened, you’re at this level. Amazing!”

Zhan Che’s tone was extremely fanatical, like a zealot who had witnessed a miracle.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you die yet.”

Feizuan’s struggles gradually weakened, and soon she fell unconscious from suffocation.

Xia Che knelt on the ground, his trembling black eyes reflecting the figure of Zhan Che.

Unbeatable, unreachable.

At this moment, even if he wanted to blow himself up with this damn shadow, he didn’t know how!

The power gap between an ordinary person and an A-rank shadow was hopelessly huge.

He couldn’t do anything…!

The boy hugged his head, covering his ears with his arms, as if he wanted to grind his teeth to dust and tear off his scalp.

As if by not hearing or seeing, none of this would have happened.

Think, Xia Che, think!

There must be some way!

If it were Hui Jin…!

Xia Che stiffly raised his head and looked through his fingers at the girl curled up not far away.

He instinctively wanted to rely on the person who could give him a sense of security.

But this time, even she…

Xia Che’s hand dropped limply.

“Yuyan, objective achieved. Let’s go,” Zhan Che said.

“Yes, Lord Zhan Che! Caw caw!”

‘Again…’

Hui Jin’s vision was already mostly consumed by darkness.

The only thing left in her sight was the unconscious Feizuan.

She was being dragged by Zhan Che, like a broken ragdoll.

‘Once again…’

Before her eyes flashed the figure of a white-clad girl lying in a pool of blood.

“For me and for Xiao Chi, live on,” she said.

“I’m sorry, An Wan…”

Hui Jin slowly closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest.

She had no Soul Gem; her source of mana was that false heart.

For Xiao Chi, I might have to die.

A wisp of flame sprang from her heart.

It clung to the girl’s smooth skin, like a bone-gnawing maggot, quickly spreading from her chest to her whole body, engulfing her entirely.

She was burning.

This was a flame of the soul.

It would make her feel extreme pain every moment, and when the flame went out, it meant her soul had withered.

When the burning stopped, she would die.

“Help me one last time, An Wan…”

She murmured.

An endless stream of mana surged from the fire source.

The wounds on her body had already healed.

Hui Jin pushed herself off the ground with both hands and slowly stood up.

She said:

“…Put her down.”

“Hm?”

Zhan Che turned around and looked behind him at the gray-haired girl standing atop the black blood, burning in the rain.

At this moment, her entire body, even her delicate face, was covered in cracks, like fire marks carved into rock by magma, like layers of flame patterns on embers that hadn’t fully burned out.

“Hui Jin…” Xia Che stared blankly at her.

“…I told you to put her down. Are you deaf?”

Hui Jin’s tone was filled with barely suppressed killing intent.

“Caw caw! That’s hilarious!”

Yuyan mocked.

“Why don’t you look in the mirror and see what you look like? Before we even fight, you’ll shatter first—”

Boom!

A greatsword for two hands stabbed straight into Yuyan’s chest.

The terrifying force left it no room to struggle, and it was pinned to the ceiling.

Immediately, brilliant flames erupted, instantly burning the strange bird to charcoal.

Hui Jin slowly lowered her raised hand, and at the same time, a new greatsword formed in her hand.

“You… I see…!”

Zhan Che’s tone became even more excited.

He threw Feizuan aside.

“You… tsk… are a vessel.”

“Shut up!”

Hui Jin shouted angrily.

She gripped the greatsword’s hilt with both hands.

The blade was red as molten iron.

Then she leaped and slashed straight at Zhan Che!

“Who understands your riddles?!”

Zhan Che didn’t dodge or duck.

He crossed his arms like a shield in front of him.

Clang—!!

Flesh and steel clashed, but let out a tremendous sound of metal striking metal!

The greatsword roared, surging with a violent power that didn’t belong to the girl herself, instantly cracking the ground beneath them into several deep fissures!

But then, the greatsword’s blade slowly cut into Zhan Che’s arm, like a hot knife cutting through butter.

“You… it really is you!”

Zhan Che’s arms were easily severed, falling to the ground with a crash, leaving his shoulders empty.

But he roared in excitement, and his arms grew back.

“You’re not dead!”

“Who the hell are you cursing dead?!”

Hui Jin suddenly twisted her wrist, changing the slash into a spin.

The greatsword spun the girl around, and flames burst from the blade!

Whirlwind Slash!

Zhan Che stomped the ground and leaped back.

The blade nearly grazed his chest.

“You’re stronger than before! But not strong enough! You can’t kill me!”

He plunged both hands into the ground, assuming a sprinter’s starting pose, and roared:

“The gene and the vessel, I’ll take them both!!!”

Zhan Che charged forward like an out-of-control heavy truck.

Every step left a deep crater in the ground.

His speed was so fast he was just a blurry gray shadow.

This was Zhan Che.

He scorned learning any techniques.

Only pure power, pure crushing force!

Hui Jin hoisted the greatsword and charged at Zhan Che.

Debris flew.

Even though she carried a huge sword, the girl nimbly dodged and weaved, like a butterfly treading on fire.

In the moment they met, she thrust the greatsword into the ground, then used the hilt as a pivot to perform a nimble somersault, like a small gray deer.

Meanwhile, the crimson greatsword burst into a wave of flame, cutting through marble like paper like a guillotine, slashing toward Zhan Che’s head!

In an instant, Zhan Che was split in half down the middle.

The two halves collapsed like lumps of rotten flesh.

But soon, the black flesh began to writhe, searching for each other.

As long as they could connect, they could reform.

Zhan Che would come back to life!

But the greatsword’s flame didn’t go out.

Its fire was brilliant, orange-red with a hint of gold.

If the flesh were spiders, then the flame was an army of ants, surging forward to divide and surround the rotten meat.

“…No. You won’t take anything away,” Hui Jin said.

In the end, the flesh was devoured by the flame, and even the black blood was evaporated without a trace.

A-rank shadow, Zhan Che, successfully subjugated.