“Xiaolu, calm down first. The Witch Church only kidnapped Xiaocheng. She isn’t in any immediate life-threatening danger right now,” Youzi said, pointing at the candle on the table as she tried to soothe Lu Yinxi.
The candle was one of Xiaobai’s special items.
It had been made in advance using blood collected from all the Magical Girls in Anning City and could display the general life status of any Magical Girl.
Lu Yinxi paced back and forth in the lounge.
“How can I not be anxious? This is the Witch Church we’re talking about. Even if Xiaocheng isn’t in immediate danger of dying, with an A-rank Witch and Pride right there, her life is completely in their hands.”
The Witch Church was a notorious evil cult.
Its members mainly consisted of ordinary human followers and the Seven Deadly Sins Deacons.
The Seven Deadly Sins Deacons were originally Magical Girls who had used unknown methods to abandon their contracts while retaining their human sanity.
Every time they appeared in the world, they would at minimum trigger an A-rank disaster.
A year ago, Lu Yinxi had fought against the Witch Church’s Envy Deacon.
It was during that battle that Lu Yinxi had broken through her limits, mastered her own Domain, and stepped into A-rank, ultimately managing to repel the Envy Deacon.
“Big Sister, it’s all because I’m too useless…” Su Xiaowei sat to the side, crying softly in self-reproach.
Youzi comforted her.
“The request for reinforcements has already been sent. Before the appointed time, two A-rank Magical Girls will arrive to support us. The Witch Deacons always try their best to fulfill their corresponding sin. Since this one’s sin is Pride, Xiaocheng should generally be safe until the appointed time.”
Lu Yinxi took out her terminal and continued directing personnel to search for traces of Su Xiaocheng.
Although the chances of ordinary people finding clues were low, it was still better than doing nothing.
As for using magic to locate her, that was impossible.
With the enemy on guard, it would turn into a contest of magic power reserves.
The other side had two A-ranks; even if they squeezed Xiaobai dry, they still couldn’t win.
The rules of magic were just that straightforward. Specialties could reduce some consumption, but in the end, it all came down to magic power reserves.
The reason mastering an Inherent Domain could greatly increase one’s strength was fundamentally because the Domain could serve as a vessel for magic power, dramatically raising the upper limit.
This was also why A-ranks held an overwhelming advantage over lower ranks.
***
“Mm…”
Su Xiaocheng groggily opened her eyes and found her limbs bound by tentacles, suspended spread-eagle inside a small room.
Pride was sitting leisurely to the side, sipping tea.
After checking her own condition, Su Xiaocheng discovered that her magic power was almost completely depleted.
The Shadow Group Queen had used the simplest method of magic power collision to drain her reserves to the absolute limit.
Just a little more and she would be forced to pay the Contract Price.
“The time is about right. Lord Saint Envoy, I’ll have to trouble you to take action now.”
A black cat jumped in front of Su Xiaocheng. It examined her carefully and said, “Human, are you sure you want to waste my last chance to act on her?”
“That’s right. Using it on her is perfect. As for Lu Yinxi, I will corrupt her completely using my own methods,” Pride declared arrogantly.
“As you wish.”
The black cat placed its paw on Su Xiaocheng.
A strange power spread throughout her body, directly pulling out both her Maiden Heart and Xiaotuan.
“Don’t come any closer meow!”
Xiaotuan tried to hiss, but the black cat swatted it to the ground with one paw.
The black cat gave Xiaotuan a complicated look.
It slightly adjusted the angle of its sharp claws, slicing across Xiaotuan’s neck and staining them with the contractor’s blood.
Then it kicked the barely conscious Xiaotuan aside and approached the Maiden Heart.
Am I going to turn into a Witch too? Su Xiaocheng thought sorrowfully.
It felt as if a montage of her ordinary life was flashing before her eyes.
Thinking back carefully, these past few days since becoming a Magical Girl had been the happiest days of her life.
Even though her current predicament was entirely because she was a Magical Girl, Su Xiaocheng didn’t regret it at all.
The black cat’s claw slashed at the Maiden Heart.
Ding~
To everyone’s surprise, the claw stained with the contractor’s blood was directly repelled, leaving not a single scratch on the Maiden Heart.
“Hm? What’s going on?”
Pride frowned. She hated this feeling of things slipping out of her control.
The black cat remained silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t know, but my ability has no effect on her.”
Cursing inwardly, Pride spoke up.
“There’s no time left to use conventional corruption methods. Just take her directly to the appointed location.”
The conventional method involved continuously draining magic power to force the Maiden Heart into overdraw until it became corrupted, but it was very inefficient.
Because the Magical Girl was currently very weak, outputting too much magic power would directly cause her death.
However, the time it took for a dead Magical Girl to transform into a Witch was purely up to luck, which didn’t align with Pride’s plan.
“What a shame. I won’t get to see Magical Girls killing each other out of twisted love.”
Pride said with regret.
“We’ll just execute her in front of the other Magical Girls when they arrive. The effect should be similar.”
The tentacles wrapped around Su Xiaocheng. The group set off for the abandoned construction site.
Before leaving, Su Xiaocheng gritted her teeth and recalled Xiaotuan back into her body.
A contractor’s injuries could slowly recover inside a Magical Girl’s body.
Even with insufficient magic power, it could at least keep it hanging on by a thread.
***
Inside a helicopter flying toward Anning City, an A-rank Magical Girl was resting.
Suddenly, an invisible force wrapped around the helicopter and began contracting, attempting to crush it flat.
The Magical Girl shattered the invisible magic power, flew out of the helicopter, and saw a black-robed figure blocking the way ahead.
“Witch Deacon Envy, I’ve been waiting for you.”
At the same time, on a highway elsewhere, the Witch Church’s Wrath Deacon twisted her body.
Her bones let out a series of cracking sounds as she smashed a fist through an overpass, forcing the special car carrying the other reinforcement Magical Girl to stop.
***
Youzi opened her terminal, looked at the new emergency message, and said angrily, “The two A-rank Magical Girls coming to support us have both been intercepted by other Witch Deacons. How does the Witch Church have information on the support Magical Girls’ routes?”
Lu Yinxi put away her terminal.
“Then I’ll go alone.”
Facing two A-ranks, if Youzi and the others—who hadn’t mastered their own Domains—rushed in recklessly, they would likely just die for nothing and increase the casualties.
Youzi shook her head.
“I’m going too. I still have a trump card.”
Lu Yinxi disagreed. “Youzi, you’ll lose control if you do that.”
Youzi replied indifferently, “Dragging myself along like this isn’t meaningful anyway. Saving Xiaocheng would make it worth it.”
“I’m going too.” Su Xiaowei wiped away her tears and stood up resolutely.
“If anything happens to Big Sister, my Contract Price will cause me to lose control sooner or later anyway. I might as well go and be of some help instead of staying here.”
Xiaobai wanted to say something, but Youzi cut her off.
“Xiaobai, you stay behind. The Shadow Group Queen clearly has the ability to create clones. Anning City’s safety cannot be left unprotected. If the pressure becomes too great, contact us for support.”
“Understood~”
Xiaobai sat back down.
Although she was also very worried about Xiaocheng, what Youzi said made sense. Besides, a B-rank going along really wouldn’t be able to help much.
After making the arrangements, Lu Yinxi and the other two set off for the abandoned construction site in the northern district.