Eagle Company Laboratory Center, specialized ward.
A nurse and a doctor conducted their routine rounds accompanied by mercenaries, but unfortunately Minase Kaori on the bed remained sleeping soundly and steadily, as if having sweet dreams. This wasn't an act—the monitoring equipment could prove everything. Yet no problems could be detected either; she simply remained unconscious like a vegetable.
The nurse pulled open the curtains, sunlight suddenly spilled in, warmth spread throughout the ward, making the narrow-leaf narcissus potted plant on the windowsill appear even more crystal clear.
The attending physician carefully examined the instruments once more and muttered: "Strange, the patient's metabolism has also dropped to its limit, no response for almost 48 hours..."
"Could it really be that magic power sustains bodily functions?" the nurse asked.
"It's possible."
The laboratory had observed more than once magical girls going on hunger strikes in protest, clearly having only slightly more magic power than ordinary people yet persisting for remarkably long periods. Then the only magical awakener so far should be even more resilient. No, that needed the prefix of "only one under control," so any data was precious—no need to wake her. Moreover, they had to consider Pasha's opinion; mercenary companies should maintain some face between each other.
The rounds concluded, leaving only the nurse on duty, with mercenaries outside the door ready to respond to emergencies at any moment.
Out of boredom, she turned on the TV to watch the news:
Major media outlets were still broadcasting rolling coverage of Councilman Shifang's public execution, its impact lingering long, as the nature of the event was too shocking—like a slap in the face to everyone. Many TV stations were still replaying the footage.
The nurse whispered "This is real magic" then fearfully glanced back at the sleeping Minase Kaori, afraid she might suddenly attack.
She was just a working office lady herself—no need to take risks. Getting through this safely would be best.
Careful attention to the media's tone would reveal a comical shift in direction.
Even ordinary people could guess that such a magical scene was connected to the Salvation Church—most likely the perpetrator. The result? Before the incident occurred, various political voices had been hurling insults, criticism, accusations, and malicious slanders from afar, but now they all fell silent. That perpetrator's thunderous methods had indeed indirectly protected the girls in the laboratory, leaving many researchers speechless with fear.
Official sources had begun floating trial balloons: "Currently lacking evidence, no information supports that Councilman Shifang was murdered, no witnesses exist at the scene"—clearly trying to minimize the major incident.
What should follow was making the minor incident disappear entirely.
After suspected time magic power publicly executed a politician, they instead dared not clamor, their words and actions even filled with awe. The criticism target they once named directly had now become taboo vocabulary.
On some TV interview talk shows discussing the topic, hosts would even say "You know, that Church..."
Hearing this segment, the nurse couldn't help but laugh heartily—it was too ridiculous, perfectly illustrating what it meant to bully the weak and fear the strong. The Salvation Church's small display of power had intimidated those with ill intentions. Even if they truly planned to be enemies, they should consider other methods rather than jumping out to become targets.
Planet Gaia's world once again witnessed supernatural power pressuring order.
As an ordinary person, the nurse was quite worried.
It was well known that the Salvation Church was most likely a magical girl organization, and now Eagle Company's various methods against them were probably accumulating hatred points.
Between a giant mercenary company capable of handling Cluster Type Disaster Beast incidents and it, who was more formidable?
Honestly speaking, she leaned toward the former, knowing its strength was powerful, but what meaning did that have for the audience? When gods fight, mortals suffer—just sparks from war would be deadly enough, not to mention their big boss never showed restraint when starting wars, possessing power sufficient to destroy a medium-sized city.
"...Should I resign?"
Before her words finished, the television flickered and turned to static, and from the crackling sounds emerged the phantom of a woman in white kimono, instantly darkening the entire room.
The nurse was so frightened she tried to flee, but was firmly grasped by a hand. Somehow Minase Kaori had broken free from her restraints and seized her, saying quietly: "You must be obedient, miss. You're not a bad person, we won't harm innocents—just stay in place and hold your head to avoid accidental injury. Don't be afraid, keep the lights on, night is coming—"
"Night?"
The nurse looked out the window to see a starry sky background, with celestial stars seemingly within reach, as if wrapped by a giant screen.
On the nearby hillside, Nan Zhiyi had just drunk a diluted enhancement potion.
The dandelion girl covered herself with a layer of camouflage cloth, even lowering her body temperature to match the environment, then elegantly knelt and maintained meditation. At this moment, her Small Universe domain extended in a hemisphere covering the laboratory surroundings within a 200-meter diameter.
The fully armed mercenaries had originally been aggressive and ready to attack, but now found themselves in weightless states, struggling helplessly yet unable to grasp any fixed objects.
Such a high-profile large-scale magic directly caused air raid sirens to sound throughout Los Angeles, with military forces rapidly assembling. If dragged on too long, they would change the battle situation with powerful firepower—every second counted.
Nan Zhiyi once again thanked Hibiscus for having her train more in magic power manipulation, so now she could limit certain areas from being affected, only isolating them.
Separating the ward area from the heavily guarded laboratory command headquarters.
"I leave it to you, Miss Jin Ruochu."
The cherry blossom petal girl stepped into the detention area, and in an instant all precision instruments failed. Many girls wearing electronic shackles discovered with joy that they were already free.
Pipes sprayed out large amounts of anesthetic gas, then mercenaries whose gas masks "happened" to malfunction fell over snoring, while the magical girls still trapped in isolation wards were all safe and sound.
Jin Ruochu grabbed an IV stand, extending it to its limit to brace against both ends of the corridor. The next moment she gripped the metal pole and ran along it.
"Open up, open up, open—"
All the adjacent wards she indirectly contacted opened together. Heavy materials, precision electronic locks, mathematicians' passwords—none of it lasted even a second against the unreasonable strongest causal magic. Faced with such logic-defying power, ordinary reasoning meant nothing, which was why Hibiscus had chosen the protagonist to handle the rescue mission with the most variables. Yes, there were indeed many unexpected developments, so fight poison with poison.
The moment all doors made opening sounds and slowly opened, Jin Ruochu, having finally completed her actions, leaned against the corridor's end and vomited a rainbow with a pained expression.
She hadn't just opened doors but also distributed a bit of good luck to the girls inside, creating no small burden on herself.
However, at this moment mercenaries guarding the ward area entered in force.
Clang!
Minase Kaori kicked open the slow-moving metal door, her figure in a thin blue hospital gown blocking the path of the armed men.
The first ward meant an important person who absolutely couldn't be harmed, and geographically it also protected all the wards behind her. Seeing this scene, the mercenaries hesitated for a moment, uncertain what dosage of anesthetic to use to avoid serious aftereffects, not knowing that for magical girls, victory was often decided within a single second.
The next moment, Hundred Demons Night Parade flooded the passage.
...
Laboratory command headquarters—the mysterious, profound starry sphere had extended here and finally stopped expanding, frightening numerous researchers into standing against walls, not daring to move.
Dennis sneered: "Idiots? Breaking domain magic causes severe backlash."
He took a deep breath, causing all the Disaster Beast parts surgically fused to his body to surge with energy. Stepping into a bow stance, he twisted his waist and threw a mighty punch, rolling up gales, roaring like thunder, pouring all his power in without obstruction.
Thud!
The tremendous sound echoed through the hall, shattering all glass but achieving nothing.
Seeing this, Dennis widened his eyes in confusion. Logically he should have shattered the domain, but this thing's surface was actually soft and absorbed his power like hitting cotton.
Gallup warned seriously: "Put away your contempt. The observer's... no, Dandelion's domain isn't on the same level as half-baked abilities. Don't forget she can already precisely control deformation. As long as she doesn't adopt a fully enclosed imprisonment posture, domains are difficult to break and can avoid backlash."
"I see. This thing shouldn't be a sphere but hemisphere-shaped, so the Church people aren't afraid of us entering."
"We might be too late. They're moving fast, directly targeting the ward area. Though it sounds harsh, there should be results inside already."
Both their faces darkened.
"No, everything is going according to plan." Quincy's words stopped the headquarters' commotion.
So far developments matched the Prophecy Book's contents, better matching the Oracle Book's specifications. The goal was to lure them into the trap. The domain magic caster outside the laboratory had specialized forces to capture, while the ward area had always been impregnable. Having no allies was better—including but not limited to anesthetic agents, poison gas bombs, flooding and other methods could all be used. As long as they were willing to invest the engineering effort, creating a super-large cage wasn't difficult.
Quincy had forcibly created a massive system covering the entire laboratory center for this operation—every area could be independently partitioned and closed while applying abnormal status effects.
The Salvation Church thought they had subdued the mechanisms, but that wasn't so. Earlier, Gallup's poison mist had spread throughout the city, colorless, odorless, and traceless, while the sealed laboratory was filled with the "key" to activate it—once opened, immediate paralysis would result.
Foresight wasn't something they could see through.
But it still wasn't enough. No rush to activate the paralyzing poison mist—they needed to coordinate all methods at the crucial moment to suppress the enemy.
Quincy said: "Your mission isn't combat, Dennis. You're responsible for adjusting the central control system to turn the laboratory into a prison. Go ahead and do it. We're now accumulating inertial energy—the attackers will jump into the trap themselves."
"Yes, sir."
Humans with large amounts of Disaster Beast remains fused into their bodies could exert some control over Disaster Beasts, plus the laboratory's Disaster Beast captives forcibly trained for years—just right.
The next moment, hundreds and thousands of Disaster Beasts' coordinated pressure swept in all directions, stirring wind and clouds.
Individual Disaster Beasts certainly couldn't achieve this, but with human adjustments it became possible, even precisely targeting through electronic devices implanted in their bodies: limited to the attackers' aura fluctuations.
Instantly, the magical girls still in the ward area felt weak and exhausted all over, even the Triple Awakened Jin Ruochu was in agonizing pain.
She temporarily lacked the ability to set up teleportation magic circles.
Eagle Company's strategy was simple and brutal—with intelligence support, they deployed large-scale abnormal status effects. Since they knew the prey would come, they might as well invest resources. Facts proved it quite effective, as the opponents' auras became dormant, showing considerable effectiveness. Even Dennis himself hadn't expected such good results. Though unclear what exactly happened, the impact waves from combat were clearly slowing.
Gallup withdrew his hand that had been in contact with the wall since earlier, reporting: "The relic's magic power has all been fed in. The alloy cage can be activated shortly."
Quincy nodded. "Even time magic can't block large-scale area effects and abnormal statuses. This is our home field."
"What do we do next?"
"All special forces immediately support the ward area, or there'll be complications—"
Before he finished speaking, a tremendous crash suddenly sounded. The ceiling that could withstand cruise missiles cracked layer by layer—something was approaching at ultra-high speed.
The mercenaries who had been armed and ready to fight all went silent, huddling defensively in wall corners, unable to muster the strength to raise their guns, because tremendous pressure had already suppressed the command hall—the opponent was using their own methods against them.
Boom!
Rubble collapsed, dust rose, and from the ruins emerged a heroic figure. The newcomer wore a bright yellow robe embroidered with soaring dragons, long hair with jade hairpins, growing horns on her head, cinnabar eye shadow, and key areas like arms and neck covered with golden scales, like a general in full battle dress.
Jin Yulu found herself in the enemy camp but smiled casually, then untied her dragon robe and wrapped the sleeves around her waist, revealing scale-like form-fitting light armor for easier movement—the most suitable state.
At the same time she breathed out flames, her figure swelling to 1.9 meters and even growing a dragon tail that smashed the ground to pieces.
World Serpent magic's new stage—half-beast transformation form.
Jin Yulu's basic physical qualities were rapidly climbing at this moment, with survival adaptation efficiency at maximum. The cost was that it couldn't be permanently recorded, but handling a single battle was no problem. Feeling the abundant power, she beckoned: "Only the dead can pass behind me."
The mercenaries led by Quincy weren't fools—they recognized this one by her identification code Golden Dragon Emperor, called Imperial Flower within the Church, an absolute major threat.
"Freeze."
He didn't dare be careless at all, using a binding technique while gesturing for his subordinates to surround her. Feeling the relic power rapidly consuming within his body, the battle-hardened mercenary leader knew he'd encountered a tough opponent.
Jin Yulu's body remained motionless but her face kept its smile, saying quietly:
"Sir, did you know? Actually freeze has a hidden condition—the target's combat parts must all be within view."
"So what?"
Crack—the dragon-robed girl grew two more pairs of arms behind her, and two more heads facing the surrounding soldiers with sinister smiles, presenting a three-headed, six-armed appearance. This immediately broke the binding word-spirit. Seeing this, Quincy was first to react, releasing a shockwave, but Jin Yulu lightning-fast grabbed Gallup's head and hurled it at him like a cannonball.
At the same time Dennis led fusion warriors in a charge, but the dragon-robed girl's six arms each wielded staff infused with magic power, transforming into various weapons.
"Today let's try making havoc in heaven."
Golden scales blazed with flowing flames, infusing her body with vast power that drove Jin Yulu to sweep through everything invincibly. Originally tasked with temporarily blocking Eagle Company's strongest fighters, she now single-handedly suppressed all elite forces, bathing in gunfire and shells unmoved—every attack only made her stronger.