The Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror operated smoothly.
Thanks to the existence of the spaceti magic sisters Ruan Xinyue and Ruan Manyue, soone could maintain control of the relic while Hibiscus and Anri Sakagami were in combat. The shift system ensured there was always an attribute-compatible person guiding the relic's power, so by the ti they defeated the Water Monster, Hermit Island was already prepared.
Even without the sudden Disaster Beast attack, the Church would have invited the fleet into the harbor and then jumped en masse.
However, out of responsibility, she had to confirm everyone's status before proceeding.
"How are you? You weren't seriously injured, were you? After all, that was a hegemon cluster-ruling Disaster Beast. Light Anemone especially loves ultra-large-scale destruction, very troubleso."
"Rest assured, it couldn't take down. However, your prophecy was indeed very accurate. That guy excels at large-scale group combat—having too many allies around would actually be disadvantageous. Next ti we should use spearhead tactics for direct annihilation. My domain is perfectly suited for it. Light Anemone's corpse will beco a monunt for the Church." Nan Zhiyi answered in her characteristically serious manner, like delivering a report summary.
"I look forward to the remaining hegemons." Jin Yulu's statent was as fitting to her style as always.
"Very good."
Seeing everyone in perfect ntal condition, Hibiscus had no doubts. The four pillars of Salvation Church, tempered through countless battles, were no joke. This level of encounter couldn't shake their foundation, not to ntion the Fallen Zone faction suffered greater losses in this conflict.
She then looked toward Hermit Island, her expression serious, since she had sensed many mbers' auras suddenly dropping and then rising again during the battle—they must have had a rough ti.
On the beach, Jin Ruochu and Elsa were directing the battlefield cleanup, the wounded had been properly treated, and the two great contributors Flowering Crabapple and Minase Kaori were already able to move normally. Truly worthy of the logistics support group she had carefully built—they could be pulled back into extended combat imdiately.
The Disaster Beasts' surprise attack ended in failure.
Train hard in peaceti, bleed less in warti. Facts proved the organization's long-term training was very effective—being able to withstand adverse situations was the true test of an army's ttle.
Actually, there were still so Magical Girls unsuited for combat who hadn't been summoned.
If the South Pacific Theater forces were all elite, then the Church was no different—tough battles relied entirely on a pack of wolves.
Hibiscus breathed a sigh of relief and then said: "I apologize. This ti, due to so personal reasons, I was sowhat sluggish in combat with the Water Monster. It won't happen again. If similar surprise attacks occur in the Fallen Zone, I will end the enemy at maximum speed."
"You have your considerations, it doesn't matter. Besides, the results look pretty good." Faced with her slightly self-critical childhood friend, Nan Zhiyi was the first to speak in defense.
"Follow your own rhythm."
Jin Yulu considered these all part of battle planning—it didn't matter, since Boss Mu would absolutely never harm anyone.
After confirming the situation once more, Hibiscus finally felt at ease. Facts proved that a single hegemon and a single ordinary high-tier beast could control the damage, but both had essentially charged in as solo infiltrators, lacking mid-tier cluster support—the outco of a full-scale conflict remained unknown.
"You have a very good team." Even the well-traveled Kale couldn't help joking: "A few hundred years ago, this might have been enough to unify the Central Plains."
"What about now?"
"The world's ceiling has risen, so your organization's achievents will be even higher."
"...Let's discuss the next move with General Josh, since the military has suffered so losses."
Leaving it at that, Hibiscus and Kale then went to the flagship's command room. Though it was a ss, the atmosphere was still uplifting.
Upon learning the spatial relic was ready, Josh was slightly stunned, raising her evaluation of Salvation Church's mobility another level—she hadn't expected they could move the entire fleet together. If this had been an hour ago, she would have agreed without hesitation, but now that the Fallen Zone core's terror had revealed just the tip of the iceberg, could she really establish a foothold? The objective had to be achieved—the key was whether these personnel could withstand the attrition.
A place of life and death that must be carefully examined.
Neither the superiors' hard targets nor Josh's own fighting spirit would choose retreat, so losses had to be endured. How far could organizational discipline hold? She had to know.
She said seriously: "Miss Hyacinth, according to what you've said, Hegemon Disaster Beasts aren't common, and the Church will handle them. Does that an the actual danger level in the core zone isn't as severe as today?"
"Correct. Today's difficulty level is almost impossible in the Fallen Zone core, because higher-tier Disaster Beasts hate low-magic environnts more."
"So actually continuing our plan should work..."
"Captain, don't forget that Hermit Island has been using elental magic to transform the environnt and open shipping lanes, with follow-up forces continuously reinforcing. Moreover, I'll guard the base—no matter what, I'll ensure the core zone maintains a forward position." Kale stated decisively.
"Thank you all. At this point, if I hesitated further, wouldn't I be letting down everyone's efforts along the way?"
"Hyacinth, please activate the relic."
The decision process went more smoothly than expected. Josh's style indeed never dragged—once she made up her mind, she imdiately ordered all forces to their positions.
Spatial jumping was never easy. According to Hibiscus's kind explanation: even Magical Girls would feel dizzy and might faint for a while on their first ti. They hadn't tested it on ordinary people, so everyone should prepare.
Though there was so risk, boldly advancing from their current position to the carefully chosen base location was more dangerous. Of two evils, choose the lesser—only forge ahead.
Hermit Island.
Four Magical Girls gathered in the room storing the Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror and serving as the navigation center: Hyacinth, Dieffenbachia, Flowering Crabapple, and Rose.
All of Salvation Church's spaceti magic practitioners assembled.
This situation differed from the past—they had to transport an enormous fleet and large numbers of ordinary people, requiring operation by the most skilled users for safety, avoiding complications. Only the world's premier supernatural organization could barely assemble such a lineup, showing the Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror was definitely a luxury relic. In other organizations' hands, accidents would probably happen daily, let alone conducting such ultra-large-scale teleportation.
As the relic's qualified user, Hibiscus naturally took main control, with the other three Magical Girls assisting from the side. In fact, any spaceti magic power was enough to increase stability.
Additionally, they each prepared mana recovery potions, and beside the magic circle lay a high-tier Disaster Beast corpse for materials. The unfortunate Water Monster's dropped equipnt hadn't been used yet but had to fuel the relic—putting everything to good use.
"Begin teleportation."
The command was given to the co-pilots and broadcast across the entire island. Instantly, four streams of magic power flowed into the relic.
Buzz—a ringing in the ears, vision rapidly distorting and changing. Though it was broad daylight, a starry sky appeared, then stretched infinitely into tracks.
It seed to outline velocity motion lines, but no one had ti to appreciate it as violent tremors assaulted their entire bodies.
Spatial relic at full power!
In the navigation room, Hibiscus led Ruan Xinyue, Ruan Manyue, and Anri Sakagami—three spaceti magic users—pouring all their energy into the Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror, ensuring maximum operation. At this mont, with Hermit Island as the center, all phenona transford into streaks rapidly retreating.
Everyone present felt no sense of speed or pulling—rather, it was more like the world departing from them, lonely and ethereal.
The Magical Girls had seen this several tis, but never on such a large scale. So even took out caras for commoration—this scene was absolutely unique.
The most worried were the Church backbone mbers. If any accidents occurred mid-teleportation, each needed to gather groups of people or getting scattered would be troubleso. Jin Ruochu was especially busy, going all-in and injecting fortune.
For the military, it wasn't so pleasant.
Even with fusion warriors' physiques far superior to ordinary people, they couldn't withstand spatial teleportation's turbulence.
"So dizzy!"
"Am I flying—"
They passed out one by one. Fortunately, most were on beds waiting for teleportation to end, so no major incidents occurred. As long as people didn't move around, the warships wouldn't have additional accidents. Moreover, Holy Relics were watching in the command room. Josh felt it quite intensely, supporting herself against the table while struggling to keep her body upright, still feeling pressure from all directions... indescribable as pain, simply surrounded by discomfort, dizzy and confused.
Fortunately, this experience quickly lessened, seemingly as her internal magic power automatically adapted and resonated. If she hadn't completed fusion, it would probably be worse.
The example was right before her—those below Holy Relic designation had severe symptoms. These ordinary Holy Relics could at most stay conscious, but expecting free movent or doing anything during teleportation jumps was impossible. Everyone had to tough it out.
In contrast, Kale showed only surprise but no other emotions—everything was normal.
Why?
Clearly feeling this spatial turbulence was intense, yet she had no reaction? Perhaps it was thanks to her true body not being present—the soul possession magic avoided being affected.
Kale's true awakening from slumber would take so ti, but it didn't matter. Actually, she increasingly used the permanent magic state, which was very convenient. Precisely because of this, she dared to "risk herself" entering the Fallen Zone.
Compared to herself with trump cards, Salvation Church charging in directly was more impressive—truly domineering.
While contemplating, the spatial turbulence grew calr, the surrounding starry sky stretching phenonon gradually disappeared, and the discomfort subsided.
Then many people started retching, crying bitterly, muttering things like "finally over," "this is crazier than my first pilot training," "did I see my great-great-grandfather...?" At least they had the energy to talk.
The aircraft carrier settled with a bang.
"Congratulations, General. Our expeditionary force has successfully reached the middle section of the core zone—a record even the furthest reconnaissance teams never achieved."
After sincere admiration, Kale took Josh's hand to help her stand.
Supporting herself with both hands on the table, she had ti to survey the surroundings. Looking out from the carrier's island, there was azure sea and blue sky. The horizon had a slight curve, dotted with scattered reefs.
The Fallen Zone?
If not for the instrunt panel showing correct coordinates, Josh would suspect the spatial relic had transported them to so resort. Too beautiful—completely impossible to associate with Disaster Beast rampage. It seed these monsters hadn't polluted everywhere, which could serve so purpose in future land recovery.
"The magic concentration indeed ets core zone middle section standards. No Disaster Beasts should have been scared away."
"Seems Salvation Church had advance plans." Kale pointed outside the window, where corrosive poison gas perated the beach in all directions.
Biological weapons against Disaster Beasts produced by the relic Black Jar.
anwhile, Josh answered a phone call, listened for a mont, then replied: "Okay, I understand... You'll station here for extended rest and reorganization? Thank you very much. In any case, we'll begin base construction work as soon as possible."
After supplentary communication on several matters, she finally breathed a long sigh and hung up the dedicated line.
"How is it?"
"Miss Dandelion handles things flawlessly—she even said they'd go to the Fallen Zone depths later to protect the fleet a while longer. We owe them a favor." Josh shrugged and continued: "In any case, base construction work will proceed jointly for the first five days. But no matter what, the Church will eventually leave for the depths. Pharmacist, until backup forces arrive, it's all up to us."
"Rest assured, I believe in everyone. Besides, another group will catch up to the route soon. There have been so twists and turns so far, but haven't we co all this way?"
After brief exchanges, the two began directing work. Even though so were just recovering from dizziness, they had to act.
Every mont of delay ant more danger.
Every second counted.
It had to be admitted that Salvation Church was indeed reliable in their work, actually teleporting directly to one of the predetermined base station island destinations. Thus, the engineering fleet imdiately began operations. Massive amounts of building materials poured onto the beachhead, assembling at a visibly rapid pace in modular fashion—definitely warti island battle standards.
Moreover, they deployed relevant relics for double efficiency. As long as good construction environnts existed, building temporary bases wasn't a problem—at least enough to establish a foothold.
Each step of faster construction progress allowed Josh and Kale to relax a bit more.
Hermit Island.
As evening approached, the Magical Girls went to rest one after another. After all, they'd been exhausted all day—from encountering high-tier Disaster Beasts and Hegemon Disaster Beasts to spatial teleportation without stopping. Even iron-bodied people needed to catch their breath. Under Elsa's arrangents, everyone took shifts before resting. The beachhead was peaceful.
Most Magical Girls with combat capability had so consumption, so the high command needed to stand guard.
"I'm going to sleep beautifully, might be a while." After greeting everyone, Jin Ruochu simply lay down on a beach chair and fell asleep.
"Should be the price." Nan Zhiyi speculated: "During spatial teleportation just now, I felt several powerful auras investigating, and there was definitely power that could block it, but didn't. Thanks to Fortune and Misfortune's protection."
Jin Yulu scratched her head. "I didn't feel anything."
"Because normally, domain magic users have stronger range perception, though it can also be enhanced through magic skills or exceptional talent."
The Dandelion girl looked toward the silver-haired girl walking down from the navigation room hilltop.
After settling the other three spaceti magic users, she ca to the guard duty position, consciously taking responsibility and starting to work hard, showing no fatigue from the great battle but rather being spirited and in high form.
"...Boss, you got stronger again, right?"
"Sort of." She picked up the previous topic to answer: "Those auras ca from Hegemon Disaster Beasts, our target, and secrets from the Fallen Zone depths—I don't quite understand the last one either. But we've already made our presence known, so we might cause bigger commotions later. And there's bad news."
Hearing bad news, Jin Yulu and Nan Zhiyi's minds imdiately buzzed.
Even Jin Ruochu on the nearby beach chair mumbled "beat down all the bad guys" in her sleep talk, then rolled over and continued snoring. Expecting the optimistic, lively girl to worry was impossible.
Seeing this, the three couldn't help but relax—this girl prevented negative emotions even while sleeping. Was this also causality magic?
"The bad news is that after ultra-large-scale spatial jumping, the relic needs to cool down for a month, during which we can only rely on the island's own navigation."
Hibiscus supplented: "Actually, I've already thought of counterasures—having Zoe and Helen's magic intervene with the island's permanent magic effects as substitute power support. And it's just that the entire island can't disappear on the spot; point-to-point spatial teleportation arrays still function normally, not affecting escape routes if absolutely necessary."
She described the situation in a relaxed tone.
Hearing this, her two companions also felt sowhat relieved. It was indeed bad news, but not too serious.
Abandon ship?
If it really ca to a critical mont, even the magnificent Magical Girl Hyacinth would pat her butt and flee without psychological burden. Preserve people, lose land—keep both people and land. As long as the Church's foundation remained, re storms were nothing. Of course, from another angle, the danger of entering the Fallen Zone depths increased by one point. Insufficient mobility would definitely make disengagent difficult, adding variables.
Besides, thinking about it logically, to restart the Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror, they'd need to hunt at least one more high-tier Disaster Beast for materials, or this super engine would just sit idle.
"So we have another reason to go to the Fallen Zone depths? Very good—just right to test everyone's capabilities."
Jin Yulu's eyes lit up. For her, adversity was the real test.
"But at this point, shouldn't you explain our specific objective for entering the Fallen Zone depths?" Nan Zhiyi asked with concern.
"Indeed, it's ti to tell you. Share this with everyone afterward." After pondering a mont, Hibiscus said word by word: "The strongest elental magic user is trapped inside. I want to rescue her. It would be best to recruit her into the Church, but I absolutely cannot let Miss Tulip stay in the most dangerous place."
Another one!
Hearing this, Jin Yulu and Nan Zhiyi looked at each other. They hadn't expected to witness another case of strongest magic. Truly worthy of the prophet Magical Girl. In other words, wouldn't the Church be invincible? Mastering the five strongest magics would definitely pack enough punch.
Seeing their excited expressions, Hibiscus poured cold water on them.
"There's another objective—at least kill one Hegemon Disaster Beast to break the Fallen Zone's power balance, or these Disaster Beasts will unite and we'll lose our chance. We need to act early."
"...Setting aside whether things will go smoothly, the Church's goals aren't just causing trouble on Planet Gaia. The so-called Holy City Association, Disaster Beast realm, and Fairy Realm are all very powerful, and quite different from the Magical Girl system. One step at a ti—be careful and take it slowly."
Of course, another reason was that entering the Fallen Zone depths would yield dium magic advancent stone fragnts—the highest tier so far, not to be missed.
Nan Zhiyi said: "Holy City Association seems to have a common goal—seeking relics that supposedly enable transcendence."
"When did you find this out?" Jin Yulu looked completely confused.
"Why else do you think I've been liaising with General Josh so long? It seems the military is quite wary of secret groups where ancient Holy Relics band together, so they shared intelligence. They're not as united as they appear on the surface."
"Those guys are much more mysterious than us, and have a religious atmosphere. I don't like it."
Hibiscus added: "Codena Holy Relics possess certain control over Knowledge Poison, so theoretically they're better at counter-reconnaissance. Besides, they're all big shots. rcenaries gaining power represents supernatural forces taking the dominant position, making it easy to stir up trouble. Maintaining distance for now is fine—I haven't communicated much with Pharmacist either. Anyway, this bodyguard's work is concluded. You should rest soon."
"Good night."
The most tired was Nan Zhiyi, who had to command the rear and fight a great battle with a Hegemon Disaster Beast. After waving, she went to rest in the beach resort house.
As for Jin Yulu, she began jogging around the island for exercise. Precisely because everyone was resting was the best ti to strive. Clearly, Minase Kaori's breakthrough gave her so urgency.
Hibiscus remained in place, gazing toward Outpost Island No. 1.
Even at night, they continued ultra-high-efficiency construction, working overti—truly life-or-death speed.
The Fallen Zone core circle wasn't so hospitable place. During the day, the expeditionary force top to bottom had experienced it and understood one principle: lacking land support points was very dangerous. So the forward base had to be built at maximum speed to better handle any returning Disaster Beasts.
Josh happened to send a radio signal: "I forgot to ntion earlier—Miss Hyacinth, we're very grateful for your organization's strong support."
"Just lending a hand."
"You needn't be modest. Thanks to the Salvation Church, the military avoided major losses. Otherwise, I really don't know how many would remain upon reaching the outpost island... Battle results co from comparison. I just received news that forces clearing the outer zones encountered fierce Disaster Beast resistance, with casualties exceeding ten thousand—all tough nuts to crack."
"No wonder you're telling this. I deeply regret the sacrificial heroes. The living are indeed fortunate, but we've all established our foothold regardless."
"Additionally, we've discovered the proportion of intelligent Disaster Beasts in the Fallen Zone is quite high."
Josh's voice was filled with confusion and profound fear.
As fellow human faction mbers, Hibiscus naturally understood. The normal ecosystem had long been transford and infiltrated by Disaster Beasts, becoming bizarre beyond asure. Now language and thought representing wisdom were being expressed from more and more Disaster Beast mouths—how could that not raise goosebumps? With their vast information, their thinking was more diverse. Currently, it seed Disaster Beasts were no longer just invading but taking root here.
"In terms of sheer numbers, intelligent Disaster Beasts are rare as phoenix feathers, but proportionally it's one in ten thousand to one in a thousand, and they're capturing prisoners to obtain our military intelligence."
"The general trend is indeed correct. We're not fighting a bunch of pure monsters, but killing another intelligent species."
"...Though saying this might sound pretentious, the world has gone half a century without large-scale fratricidal wars. Social morality and values have changed greatly. I'm unclear how people should interpret this trend. I'd like to hear Miss Hyacinth's judgnt."
"It doesn't matter. War is war, especially racial conflict—until one side can no longer fight."
"You're right."
Originally, Josh was actually worried the Church might develop so unnecessary sympathy. Seems she worried for nothing. No matter—she just wanted to find soone to exchange views with.
"Seems your organization has great resolve. I won't disturb you further then. See you later."
Though the call ended, Hibiscus didn't calm down. Since they were about to enter the Fallen Zone depths, it was ti to update intelligence.
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