Chapter 4: Let Him Be My Divine Choice

Akesiya didn’t give Xia Lan any extra free time.

His white eyes suddenly sharpened, and the wings behind the angel swelled, each feather transforming into a blade of pure white light, raining down like a storm.

Every feather carried enough heat to melt steel, tearing through the air with mournful shrieks.

Xia Lan’s pupils contracted.

Her body instinctively exploded into a dark swarm of flies.

The light blades pierced through the swarm, burning with a sizzling, rancid stench.

Hundreds of flies fell as ash, while the remaining mass reformed on the other side of the classroom, coalescing back into the green-clad girl’s figure.

Smoke still rose from the edges of Xia Lan’s dress.

She lightly brushed the ash off her shoulder, but her fingertips trembled slightly.

That attack had cost her about 3 percent of her swarm.

Nagu’s power relied on her very life—

Every fly was a part of her vitality.

Losing them felt like carving out chunks of her own flesh.

[As expected of a champion angel. Even as an avatar, it still outperforms the true form of a low-ranked angel. ]

Liu Hua’s voice rang in her mind, steady as always.

“Troublesome.”

Xia Lan responded calmly in her thoughts, but her eyes never left Akesiya.

The angel descended slowly, his toes touching the ground with a dull thud.

He tilted his head, as if examining an interesting bug.

“Your power is impure.”

Akesiya spoke, his voice carrying the coldness of judgment.

“The power of Nagu flows through you like venom diluted a thousand times. The true magical girl [Nagu] could rot this vessel from the marrow with a single breath of her plague.”

“But you…”

He raised his hand and casually waved.

An invisible shockwave sent Xia Lan flying through the air.

Her body crashed through the blackboard at the back of the classroom, shattering it into pieces that fell with a clatter, raising a cloud of chalk dust.

“You can’t even make my skin itch!”

Xia Lan crawled out of the debris, a trickle of dark green liquid dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Her right arm had twisted into an unnatural angle from the impact, but under the glow of green light, the bones cracked and quickly reset.

“Sister Liu Hua, were you really this strong back then?”

Xia Lan wiped her mouth, still keeping a smile on her face.

“It really is a waste having you stuck inside me like this.”

[You flatter me. ]

Liu Hua paused.

[Xia Lan, I suggest you release your true form. Akesiya is not someone you can easily deal with in this state. ]

“No need, Sister Liu Hua. I already have an idea.”

Xia Lan raised her hand, and a writhing green orb appeared in her palm.

Inside that orb, countless tiny filths and germs were breeding, fusing, and breeding again, completing a microcosmic cycle of life.

Pus dripped from between her fingers, and each drop corroded the concrete floor with a sizzling hiss, leaving pits.

Akesiya stared at the green orb in Xia Lan’s hand, his brows furrowed.

Then the orb suddenly burst, shooting toward the four walls of the classroom.

The green mucus spread rapidly, covering the walls, windows, ceiling, and even the fallen students, turning everything into a writhing, living meat wall.

In an instant, the classroom was transformed into a green cocoon, completely sealed off from the outside.

A foul stench spread.

Pus dripped from the ceiling, landing beside Akesiya’s feet with a plop.

A green mist filled the filthy space, attempting to climb up Akesiya’s wings, but it was scorched away by their radiant glow.

Akesiya looked around, a flicker of impatience in his white eyes.

“A barrier? Futile struggle.”

The angel raised his hand, and a sword of light formed in his palm.

The tip blazed like the sun, causing large patches of the green walls to crack, peel off, and emit deathly screams.

“Under the light of the divine, all filth will be burned to nothing.”

Watching her barrier being easily destroyed, Xia Lan didn’t panic.

The purpose of spreading the barrier wasn’t to fight Akesiya—

It was to protect the still-unconscious students in the classroom, shielding them from the battlefield.

The holy sword swung down, carving a slash.

Xia Lan’s form flickered, and the swarm carried her backward in a rapid retreat, but the slash seemed alive, curving through the air in a blinding arc as it gave chase.

She could clearly feel the heat behind her.

The light carried by the slash was burning her swarm, fly after fly turning to nothing in the radiance.

Too late.

Xia Lan gritted her teeth and crossed her hands in front of her.

A shield of flesh made from bacteria and rotting flesh materialized out of thin air.

The slash struck the shield.

Boom!

White and green power clashed in the most primal way.

The rotting flesh on the shield turned to ash in the heat, but regenerated under Nagu’s power.

Each advance of the slash was wrapped and devoured by layers upon layers of dense germs.

Xia Lan’s feet carved two deep furrows into the floor.

Sweat dripped from her temple onto her tense hands.

[Xia Lan! Now! ]

The moment the slash’s momentum stalled, Xia Lan decisively pulled away the shield, sidestepping.

The slash grazed past her collarbone and exploded a scorching hole in the wall of the cocoon.

A sharp pain shot through her.

Her collarbone had been seared into a deep, blackened mark.

But ignoring the wound, Xia Lan thrust her right hand forward, her fingers turning into countless sticky tentacles, straight for Akesiya’s face.

Just as the tentacles were about to touch, the corner of Akesiya’s mouth curved into a smile.

“Got you.”

The angel’s hand grabbed the tentacles at a speed Xia Lan couldn’t react to, and he yanked.

Xia Lan was hurled through the air by the immense force, slamming into Akesiya.

His other hand caught her by the throat with precision.

Suffocation instantly overwhelmed Xia Lan’s nerves.

“A fake is just a fake.”

Akesiya sneered mercilessly.

But at that moment, Xia Lan revealed a triumphant smile.

“Fooled you.”

Before Akesiya could react, Xia Lan’s hands grabbed his arm that held her throat.

The next moment, her entire body exploded.

Viscous green fluid carried rotting flesh, and countless tiny germs submerged Akesiya’s body in the blast.

The explosion’s power far exceeded Xia Lan’s normal attacks, breaking through Akesiya’s force field.

The repulsive rotting liquid writhed on his skin like a living thing.

“Tch!”

Caught off guard, Akesiya quickly retreated, but a familiar foul stench appeared behind him.

A hand covered in slime gently pressed against his back.

Akesiya didn’t need to turn around to know it was Xia Lan.

Now the tables had turned.

The plague from the self-destruction was slowly eating away at the body’s insides—

The lungs, blood vessels, bones…

All being steadily corrupted.

Akesiya could purify them with the power of light, but if he used power beyond what the vessel could withstand, this container would be completely destroyed, and that would be no different from losing.

“A substitute?”

Akesiya didn’t act rashly and spoke calmly.

“No, that was my real body. If it were a substitute, you might have seen through it.”

Xia Lan’s voice behind him remained gentle.

“I simply prepared a spare body while spreading the barrier, hidden inside it. For [Nagu], who rules over life, this isn’t difficult.”

“And as I guessed, your identity as a fake made you let your guard down.”

“…So that means the real you did die.”

Akesiya said.

“Think whatever you want.”

Xia Lan murmured.

“I’ll give you a dignified exit. Leave his body, Akesiya. You, a champion angel, don’t want word getting out that you were killed by a fake magical girl, do you?”

Akesiya was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” Xia Lan frowned.

“I said from the very beginning—this vessel is special.”

Akesiya’s voice was full of amusement.

“This human boy’s soul has an affinity for divine power that is the purest I’ve seen in this world ten thousand years later. Even Light Church’s pawns can’t compare.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“In other words, this kid’s soul has been latched onto by mine. Though it hasn’t been fully assimilated yet, the moment I leave this vessel…”

“This boy named Luo Xiao will die along with me.”

Xia Lan’s smile vanished for the first time.

Her expression turned serious.

“You fake, or rather, the current world’s magical girl [Nagu], what will you do? Kill this human?”

Kill him?

No.

She was a magical girl.

Even if her power was so blasphemous, even if she never dared to show her true form, even if she was a fake.

She was still a magical girl.

She would never abandon an innocent person.

And Luo Xiao—

That idiot who shouted at her “What matters is a magical girl’s heart” when everyone feared her,

that boy who would force a smile and say he was fine,

that naive fool who asked her if she believed in magical girls.

How could she choose to sacrifice him?

Now, to save Luo Xiao, there was only one way.

“Sister Liu Hua.”

Xia Lan whispered in her mind.

[…You’re not thinking of using that method, are you?]

Liu Hua’s voice rarely wavered.

“Yes.”

Xia Lan murmured.

“Let him become my chosen.”