Chapter 24: External Crisis

“Please do not panic, citizens. We will protect everyone here.”

Beside the police duty booth in the center of the plaza, dozens of police officers tightly shielded the crowd of civilians behind them.

Yu Xiaoyan was also among these people. She had come out earlier to find the police, originally intending to go back inside and stay with the child’s mother.

She had never expected to witness the entire process from outside.

The upper half of the entire building had been torn apart by a gigantic rift.

The rift was long and strip-shaped. The surrounding area had a shattered-glass visual effect, while the middle was a bottomless black, as if a gash had been torn open in this world itself.

“I have to go in and find my classmates! They’re in danger.” Yu Xiaoyan said agitatedly to the police.

“No. You cannot go in. The situation inside is complicated and very dangerous. If you go in you will only throw your life away for nothing.”

A young police officer directly reached out and stopped Yu Xiaoyan, who was preparing to charge inside.

“Everyone look, what’s that?”

The rift stopped expanding and instead began to wriggle like a living thing.

Then a thick, black gelatinous substance of unknown material sprayed out from the rift.

From a distance it looked like a large pool of slime, but up close one would discover that it was not liquid at all.

It was a beast tide composed of clusters of monsters.

Some charged downward along the gaps in the building, while a smaller portion directly smashed through the outer walls of the building and fell onto the ground.

Yu Xiaoyan watched with her own eyes as those monsters fell from upstairs and then smashed a large crater into the ground.

“Are they dead?”

The police also looked at each other. Their hands tightly gripped the pistols they had already drawn, ready for action.

Gurgling and roaring sounds came from inside the large crater.

A monster that resembled a wolf-dog climbed out.

It let out a low growl, twisted its head to look around, then locked onto a target and charged straight toward this side at a run.

“Magic bullets loaded. All units, fire.”

Seeing the monsters charging toward them, the police also fell into a brief panic. They normally only dealt with criminals and had never seen a formation like this.

Fortunately the leader remained relatively calm and directed everyone to open fire.

Bang bang bang.

The bullet trajectories emitted a bright light, like tracer rounds.

These were the magic bullets the Association had allocated to the police stations. They could inflict damage on some small, weaker Demonic Beasts.

Pfft.

One bullet struck the wolf-shaped Demonic Beast’s body and created a circular wound. Black liquid flowed out. That viscous texture was nothing like the blood of a normal living creature.

Yet the effect seemed very poor. The monster only staggered for a moment before continuing to charge over.

“Keep shooting. Don’t stop.”

Under the leader’s command, several more rounds of shooting followed. Although they managed to keep the monsters outside, they did not succeed in killing any.

“No, don’t come over… sob sob.”

Yu Xiaoyan completely lost her composure. Her entire body curled up as she squatted on the ground.

Both hands hugged her head while her eyes stared fixedly at the Demonic Beast.

Earlier the distance had been too great for her to see clearly. Only now did she get a clear look at the things magical girls had always been fighting against.

From what she had learned on television and online, she had thought these Demonic Beasts were merely ferocious wild beasts.

But observing them up close, it was completely different.

These ghostly things only had an outline that resembled wild beasts.

Their bodies were like rolling black viscous liquid, looking both like flesh and blood and like petroleum.

Their limbs and torsos were twisted, bent backward, and pieced together, unlike anything produced by nature.

There were no fangs in their mouths either. Instead, tentacle-like mucus continuously bubbled up from their throats.

“Ugh… retch. Someone save me.”

Yu Xiaoyan covered her mouth, forcibly holding back the wave of nausea so she would not vomit.

Just looking at these things once was enough to assault a person with that bizarre sense of disharmony until they nearly lost their sanity.

“Waaah… We can’t hold them back anymore. Run!”

One man finally could not endure it. He stood up and tried to flee directly in a certain direction.

“Idiot, do you want to die? If we could run we would have run long ago. Stop right there. Can you outrun a Demonic Beast?!”

A police officer on guard at the rear side saw his behavior and directly shouted at him loudly.

But the man did not listen at all. He fled like a madman in the direction opposite the rift.

Then, not long after this person left the crowd, a Demonic Beast similar to the previous one suddenly shot out from the shadows of a certain alley.

It lunged up and directly bit the man’s neck and head into its abdomen without even a chewing motion.

The monster seemed to sense something. It turned its head and looked toward the people in the plaza. Its ferocious light intensified, and it charged over at a run.

“That idiot attracted another one. Quick, rear personnel, open fire.”

“Report. There’s one coming from the left as well. Our side’s firepower is insufficient.”

“There’s one on the right too, and it’s two of them.”

The situation escalated instantly. As more and more Demonic Beasts poured out from the crack, these people inevitably came under siege.

“Damn it. The captain can’t cover everything. We have to fight while withdrawing…” one of the police officers shouted anxiously.

“No. If we leave the police booth, the supply of magic bullets will not keep up. We won’t even last fifteen minutes.” The captain also wanted to withdraw, but he could not.

Only magic bullets could inflict damage on these Demonic Beasts, yet this type of ammunition could only be produced through the device inside the police booth that could attach magic power to the bullets.

Once they left, the only weapon that could protect them would also turn into scrap metal.

“Awoo~~ awoo~~~”

A leopard-shaped Demonic Beast weaved back and forth through the hail of bullets. Its speed was so fast that it actually broke through the blockade.

Everyone was startled!

Thud. One police officer was instantly pounced to the ground by overwhelming force. The Demonic Beast let out a low roar, then that mouth grew larger and larger, like the giant maw of an abyss. Inside the mouth there was no tongue, but a mass of worm-like mouthparts.

Whoosh. That poor young police officer was swallowed into its belly in one gulp, without even a scrap remaining.

“Waaahhh~” Yu Xiaoyan, who had witnessed this scene with her own eyes, directly let out a pained howl.

Her entire body was already unable to move from extreme fear. She could only watch helplessly as the Demonic Beast that had just “eaten its fill” charged toward her.

“No~ Save me~” Yu Xiaoyan tightly closed her eyes. She could even already smell that extremely nauseating, chaotic sour stench from the Demonic Beast’s mouth.

Boom.

Another sound. Yu Xiaoyan did not feel any sensation of being eaten. On the contrary, that stench completely disappeared.

What happened? Had she been saved?

Yu Xiaoyan opened her eyes and saw that the Demonic Beast that had been baring its fangs and claws just moments ago now had its upper half of the body completely gone. An impact crater remained on the scene, along with the lower half of the Demonic Beast.

“I am the magical girl Blue Speech Butterfly. I have come to provide support. I will cover everyone’s withdrawal to the safe point.”

A magical girl wearing a unique blue long dress landed among the crowd. Her posture was upright and her eyes were sharp.

She lightly raised her magic wand and pointed it into empty space toward a Demonic Beast that was charging over at a run.

A complex circular magical pattern appeared at the front of the magic wand. Afterward a pure orb of magical light abruptly emerged, then was instantly compressed and shot out.

The light bullet’s flying speed was extremely fast. The Demonic Beast had no way to dodge and directly collided with it head-on.

Boom. Another sound rang out, kicking up clouds of dust.

When the dust settled, the monster could be seen blasted into pieces, with no more signs of life.