The second day after the victory banquet, early morning.
As dawn broke over the eastern horizon illuminating the South Pacific, under Hibiscus's control, Hermit Island officially set sail. Personally adjusted by a Blooming Stage ti magic Magical Girl, it was quite stable—no turbulence could be felt, the sea breeze was pleasant, and the island cut through the waves.
The beach breeze stirred a strand of Tulip's red hair. Having stayed awake all night, she stared absently at the rustling palm trees, unable to help looking back.
"Farewell, Departure Island. You really did let set off from here..."
Before she could feel too sentintal, she suddenly heard fireworks launching into the sky, accompanied by ceremonial cannon fire—coming from the command base.
Including but not limited to the encirclent troops returning from the front lines, garrison troops, and rotating legion soldiers, all saluted to see off Hermit Island's departure. They sincerely thanked the Church's trendous contribution—otherwise, it was hard to imagine how much greater the losses would have been. Also present on the shore were Holy Relics like Kale, Snow Maiden, and Pasha. Though they would still be stationed for so ti, everyone would rotate shifts, so it would be a while before they t again.
As for Bull and Staff Officer Croft, their feelings were complicated. After all, the Magical Girls had stolen too much of the spotlight, but regardless, they chose to applaud in farewell.
Goodbye.
The myriad expressions of all living beings converged in Tulip's mind. At this mont, the girl sat cross-legged on the beach, sparks occasionally flickering at her temples, representing ntal perception enhanced by Pseudo Magnetic Field magic.
A detection map comparable to radar slowly unfolded, and the risk of losing control that had once troubled her dissipated into nothingness.
Accepting herself, accepting the world—each step toward the outside world opened vast skies and seas.
"Blooming Stage? I'll catch up."
She glanced at the watchtower atop the hill behind her, where the navigation room was located. With the strongest Magical Girl's perception, she would surely notice the loosening of her own constraints.
"I heard what you said!" Suddenly, Jin Yulu returned from a long run along the beach in her half-beast state, still energetic. "Want to spar? Reach Magical Girl Blooming Stage sooner—can't let the boss wait alone in the first tier too long."
"Thank you for the invitation, Miss Protea, but you seem to have so misunderstanding about . I've always fought for hunting, not out of love for battle."
"So?"
After taking a deep breath, Tulip crossed her arms and murmured: "I feel a strong sense of security. The world is accepting —vast skies, wide seas, calm winds and peaceful waves... I'm certain that Elental magic Blooming Stage varies for each type, but there's one universal aspect: energy transformation. It's not far off. You might also try calming your mind more. Though I don't understand Mythology magic, perhaps this approach would be useful."
As soon as she finished speaking, Jin Yulu's magic aura quickly converged.
She lowered her head slightly, and her broad 2-ter dragon-person form stead and shrank, scales receding, muscle lines returning to the girl's original softness. Not only her body—even the golden dragon robe Regalia was dismissed. Rarely relaxed, she did several stretching movents, feeling refreshed.
"You're right. I also have a feeling that the path to Blooming Stage can't rely entirely on past forced training. The World Serpent's essence involves circulation..."
Speaking of this, the girl extended her right arm—from supple and watery to wrinkled with age spots, then shrinking like an infant's before returning to normal.
She could even control youth.
This divine skill amazed Tulip.
During the intense Fallen Zone battle, several Mythology magic Magical Girls had displayed their power, but none had completely mastered their own flesh like Protea.
"Rember when we fought the armored cannon together? At that ti, I was thinking—our first contact, your daily accumulated resistance couldn't possibly have weakened the electromagnetic cannon damage to that extent... There must be so key factor we both overlooked."
"It's adaptation within circulation. The key isn't resistance but the endless wheel of reincarnation. My World Serpent is the Ouroboros—devouring and growing, harmonizing yin and yang to give birth."
Jin Yulu ford a ring of magic power in her hand—clearly a snake eating its own tail yet growing longer and longer.
The Ouroboros.
No wonder Hibiscus had evaluated the strongest Mythology magic this way when they first t, then stopped ntioning it because she needed to figure it out herself. That's right—the World Serpent's strength lay in adaptation through endless cycles, self-reincarnation, self-iteration, both devouring and growing.
Generally speaking, when fighting, Jin Yulu would occasionally transform into different animal forms, especially inspired by the efficient changes of intelligent subspecies.
Right—she could transform all along.
World Serpent Blooming Stage corresponded to transforming into ancient creatures, gaining different adaptabilities in longer, more turbulent environnts to cope with broader circumstances. So that was it—the answer had been revealed long ago. Now the vision in Jin Yulu's mind grew clearer, understanding thoroughly. Having grasped the general direction, she just needed to ditate and train more, this ti focusing on internal developnt to improve operational control...
"Has your origin already reached the shaping stage?"
Noting this, Tulip was slightly surprised, then demonstrated her Regalia's third-stage upper body activation. Without the damage mitigation it provided, she didn't know how many tis she would have died.
"Is it strange?"
"I thought defeating so many Disaster Beasts and devouring them should count as quite strong among Magical Girls. Indeed, there are always people beyond people, skies beyond skies. The Church is filled with talent—truly worthy of an organization capable of defeating the Disaster Beast forces in the Fallen Zone depths."
"It's not that exaggerated. Actually, everyone still has many shortcomings..."
Boom!
Suddenly there was a huge explosion on the beach, a blast cloud shot skyward, sand and dust surged violently, and a gas sll spread.
The two looked toward the sound to see Jin Ruochu kneeling beside a barbecue stand, scratching her head with an embarrassed smile. Obviously wanting an early morning snack, she had accidentally caused a gas explosion.
So cooking equipnt from last night's banquet hadn't been cleared away because it might still be needed over the next few days. The explosion destroyed most of it, nearly startling distant Magical Girls into activating their Regalia. Taking a closer look—oh, it was Senior Manjusaka, so it wasn't strange. Just daily activities.
Jin Yulu puffed out her fragrant cheeks and blew fiercely, like a storm passing through, scattering the flas—simple, brutal force completely suppressing the fire risk.
The two exchanged glances and hurried over to the barbecue stand, where they saw Jin Ruochu's pink hair blown backward and black ash marks on her face, looking like a beggar.
"Achoo."
However, with just one sneeze, she was completely refreshed.
Even the usually serious Jin Yulu couldn't help complaining: "Does your magic show signs of losing control?"
"It's fine. I'm just experinting with making Fortune and Misfortune more precise and applicable on a larger scale. As you know, we Causality magic users don't have clear skill-based changes—we lean more toward precision and operational scale. I've decided—large-scale damage is cool. I want to reach the level where I can stably trigger natural disasters." Jin Ruochu excitedly declared: "Standing on the ground causes earthquakes, flying in the sky brings storms, swimming in water creates tsunamis—I am the approaching natural disaster!"
A fully automatic mobile natural disaster?
Even Magical Girls Tulip and Protea, who had experienced countless difficult battles, had to admit this idea was good. With Manjusaka's magic chanism, it was indeed achievable—the key lay in controlling scale and precision.
From current observations, Causality magic Fortune and Misfortune focused on damage immunity protection and forced negative status judgnts, capable of summoning teors but hardly counting as positive combat power.
Of course, these two aspects alone were already impressive, especially when fighting intelligent subspecies.
Thinking back to how Obsidian nearly killed Flowering Crabapple still sent chills down their spines. If it had really succeeded in killing the save point user, the previously severely injured Church mbers would have died as well. Fortunately, at the crucial mont, it slipped and failed to execute the beheading—thanks to Fortune and Misfortune's high judgnt priority, often able to play key roles in cross-level combat. Truly worthy of being the top-tier universal support type recognized by Hibiscus.
"I want to possess stronger frontal combat ability, making misfortune strike wherever I point—that would count as my Blooming Stage."
Jin Ruochu decided with shining eyes.
"It's probably because the special effects in gas you've played are cool, right?" Jin Yulu hit the nail on the head. "But it doesn't matter where the inspiration cos from. With your luck, the principles you comprehend definitely won't be wrong."
"Of course. My developnt might be like Dr. Mu's ti magic—unable to see the original principle, which would be truly profound and mysterious."
"Indeed. I'd say if you were in a ga, you'd belong to the type that's incomprehensible without a strategy guide."
As teammates over these days, Jin Yulu understood too well how deeply Fortune and Misfortune was hidden. People instinctively overlooked bad luck, making it hard to directly associate with Causality magic.
So it was even more likely to catch people off guard.
And who could expect that Magical Girl Manjusaka could transfer damage and provide luck enhancent? It was always biased toward conceptual descriptions. Even she herself didn't fully understand the specific chanisms, consistently catching enemies off guard.
"Wait." Tulip suddenly interrupted: "What gas are you talking about?"
"Miss Coral Red still has much to learn. Co on, let show you around Hermit Island first. Want to co along?"
"Sure."
Jin Ruochu ostensibly asked for opinions but actually led the two away without allowing refusal. Seeing this, they went with the flow, treating it as more rest ti. Within a few steps, they arrived at a port area with stacks of containers piled up, so exceeding 20 stories in height—quite impressive.
Though Tulip had grown accustod to the majesty of large cargo ships coming and going over these past days, she hadn't expected Hermit Island to directly open a warehouse district for orderly storage.
So Magical Girls were sorting goods here—often a single levitation spell handled everything. Ordinary items were casually moved away, while slightly heavier ones were handed to tad Disaster Beasts. The entire area looked bustling with human activity.
"In a sense, what you're seeing is the heart of everything," Jin Ruochu said.
"Why?"
"The warehouse district is responsible for supplying resources to the entire island, covering everything we eat, wear, and use—all-encompassing. You can find products from all over the world. Don't let its plainness fool you. Under my managent, it's no less rich and luxurious than Fifth Avenue stores in terms of variety and extravagance. Whatever you want—watches, jewelry, or gold—can be obtained. You'll gradually understand that we're not short of money. The Salvation Church will beco the world's highest market value enterprise."
Jin Yulu raised an eyebrow. "You actually stuffed in so much useless stuff? Wouldn't that just waste space?"
"Don't worry. I only buy from luxury companies that Five-Color Narcissus holds shares in—supporting our own products. Money has no aning to the Church anyway."
"That does make sense."
"Currently, the Church has about 1,200 people total—not even as many as so oil-rich royal families. My goal is to make per capita assets catch up with the Middle East's wealthiest families."
Jin Ruochu crossed her arms, full of anticipation as she revealed her ambitions.
In contrast, Tulip, who completely didn't understand the underlying concepts, shifted her gaze to a military green vehicle with what looked like tree branch-like objects on it. She seed to have seen it at the New Zealand base...
"As you can see, we've stockpiled a lot of military hardware. In terms of conventional firepower alone, we could match a fleet," Jin Yulu introduced.
"I know about fleet-level firepower, but they're too fragile—easily neutralized."
"What did you say!" Both suddenly asked in unison.
"Just what it sounds like. These things can be easily paralyzed under electromagnetic interference. But if they underwent magnetization enchantnt to beco projectiles, they should work well. If you have tens of thousands of tons of abandoned ships, you could hand them to for processing—using them as electromagnetic cannon projectiles would definitely be powerful."
While speaking, Tulip beckoned, and a hundred-plus-kilogram aerial bomb automatically floated into her hand, yet remained docile and unthreatening in her grasp.
"I'm from the military and sowhat understand that high-tech weapons all have backdoors—this isn't a secret. So I've always suggested being aware not to stockpile too much military hardware, as it easily becos a breakthrough point for enemies to strike us. If we had related Technique magic users examine them one by one, it would be too slow and wasteful of resources... Now it's different. With Pseudo Magnetic Field abilities, I can neutralize them once to dismantle the backdoors."
"Adding my luck protection should be enough to refurbish all weapons once."
"For stockpiling."
"For selling."
Only on usage thods did Jin Yulu and Jin Ruochu fail to reach consensus, the two looking at each other.
However, they had no objections to refurbishing weapons. Whether selling to the black market or using them themselves, everything would be reliable—the key was whether Magical Girl Tulip would expend the effort.
"Don't worry." The red-haired girl nodded. "Since I've joined you all, I need to contribute. With here, these weapons won't pose any threat."
"Also, I've blocked radar detection too. Those noisy signals are annoying, like a peeping tom."
Tulip's casual ntion of one of Pseudo Magnetic Field's abilities made both girls' eyes light up. It was indeed convenient—no wonder even Hibiscus, who knew all sorts of strange magic, praised it highly. The functionality was too strong and quite extensive. Its strength lay in how its power multiplied in modern society. Electric and magnetic forces constructed today's world—if possible, she could make the era regress back to the steam engine days.
Now Hermit Island was equivalent to an invisible warship.
Though they didn't need radio silence to ambush any base, they still didn't want people knowing their specific movents.
The Salvation Church already possessed Magical Girl Narcissus's concealnt abilities. Adding electromagnetic shielding would make them even better—they could completely traverse the seas freely in the future, not having to find storm clouds to hide in or maintain barrier concealnt.
Jin Ruochu smiled charmingly and suggested: "How about we train together?"
"I'd love to. I really want to test what level of misfortune curse can break through scale armor defense."
"Seconded."
The three hit it off imdiately.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Life at sea was monotonous.
As night fell, starlight stread through the navigation room windows. The silver-haired girl who had been ditating alone slowly opened a pair of wine-red eyes. It was her turn to control the spatial relic—after all, this journey from the Fallen Zone toward the North Pacific wasn't safe. It was best to keep watch throughout for peace of mind.
Looking at the sparkling sea surface in the distance, Hibiscus stretched lazily to relax her muscles. Her body remained light as ever.
Blooming Stage Magical Girls had profound effects on themselves. Since advancing, she hadn't exited transformation state yet remained energetic without a trace of fatigue.
It felt amazing.
Full transformation state was equivalent to comprehensive physical liberation—sharp hearing and clear sight, imnse strength, as if returning to the experience of first awakening Magical Girl power. It was complete transformation. Reaching Blooming Stage ant transformation beca permanently resident for Magical Girls, even indistinguishable from base form, seemingly opening a path toward becoming another species.
She didn't dare conclude whether this was good or bad. Pioneers only had progress itself—what it actually ant would be left for posterity to judge.
Hibiscus brewed a cup of mocha coffee, its rich aroma floating, refreshing and awakening.
After adding two sugar cubes and stirring evenly, sweetness filled her mouth.
Theoretically, she no longer needed to eat, but normal sensations hadn't changed much—or rather, past life experiences created instinctive impressions and reactions to coffee.
So speaking of which, how would Magical Girl Tulip view the world after reaching Blooming Stage? Without fixed concepts, she didn't even have the idea of three als a day—just hungry, ate when hungry. In the future, she might not eat or drink at all for convenience.
...Unknown. But the first to experience all this was indeed Hibiscus herself, almost suspecting she was becoming sothing completely inhuman.
Bang bang!
Suddenly, knocking sounded.
For top-tier Magical Girls, they knew the situation on the other side even through doors, so Nan Zhiyi rely went through the motions before turning the handle and entering. Before her was the silver-haired girl drinking alone in the moonlight.
She slowly set down the white porcelain cup and turned to ask: "So late—is there so situation?"
"You know I like using telescopes to look at stars at night, right?"
"Of course, Miss astronomy enthusiast."
"As you might expect, I indeed discovered so unusual phenona in Earth-Moon orbit regarding ancient Holy Relics. Anyway, co to the observatory."
Hearing this, Hibiscus frowned slightly, then followed Nan Zhiyi to the large telescope also located at the hilltop.
Hermit Island often needed observational positioning, and because it frequently faced complex electromagnetic environnts, the most ancient and reliable stellar observation had to be brought out again. For this purpose, they established a telescope eting top laboratory standards. Plus, Magical Girl Dandelion understood astronomical knowledge—with navigation skills that would absolutely count as first-rate seafarer level in ancient tis, guiding the island was no problem.
The observatory was a hemispherical structure with an opening in the do for the telescope to extend through—5 ters long, with two girls observing below.
"The paraters are all calibrated. Aim at the moon and look carefully..."
"Flas?"
In Hibiscus's field of view, a streak of light clearly appeared falling from the moon's direction into the atmosphere, right next to the space elevator enhanced by the Ring of Levitation. There were usually quite a few cargo transport traces, but this ti was different—obvious distorted flas appeared around the reentry capsule, defying logic.
For those skilled in magic power, this wasn't unfamiliar—it represented origin external release protecting the shell.
How strong must the origin be to protect the shell during atmospheric reentry? Moreover, according to telescope calculations, it had exceeded Mach 20—ridiculously fast, like a sharp sword piercing the atmosphere, overlooking this azure world.
Connecting keywords like lunar base, powerful origin, and returning to Earth's surface, the answer was obvious—it indeed ca from the Holy City Association.
"How is it?" Nan Zhiyi asked.
Hibiscus's gaze left the telescope eyepiece as she answered: "More than one powerful origin in the reentry capsule—obviously considerable combat power has been mobilized. Coming neither early nor late—truly a group that likes staying out of affairs yet can't let go of influence."
"Also, we've crossed the equator and are in the Northern Hemisphere now, so Northern Hemisphere organizations should all be able to detect us, like the Ranger group you ntioned."
"So you think the ancient Holy Relics might be coming for us?"
"Mm."
"I can't deny it. After all, most of them lack normal morality—they're just weapon-wielding entities."
Hearing the prophet's evaluation, Nan Zhiyi sighed: "I don't want the Salvation Church to have just ended a Fallen Zone recovery battle only to fall into so internal power struggle. Dealing with those people is too troubleso... But it's useless, Hibiscus. Unknowingly, we've gotten too deeply involved. You, , and everyone are like being driven by rolling waves—enemies are rely stumbling blocks swept along, fighting together with no end in sight..."
Worry appeared on her brow, like a dandelion bowing its head, inexplicably giving a lancholic feeling that inspired pity.
Hibiscus, who had grown up with her childhood friend, understood the other too well. The rationality hanging on her face was for outsiders—toward close people, Nan Zhiyi was often emotionally rich and easily moved to sadness.
This journey was indeed very tiring for the housekeeper miss—she had to fight while coordinating Church affairs, interspersed with scheming against military command.
"It's okay."
Hibiscus slowly embraced the black-haired girl's shoulders, pulling her into her arms. Fragrance filled the air as the soft, boneless figure trembled slightly at first, then naturally nestled close. Since growing up, they rarely seed this intimate.
"...Actually, I keep thinking how wonderful it would be if this companionship could last forever?"
"Everyone will certainly be forever."
"Though it sounds a bit selfish, I an forever with just the two of us." Nan Zhiyi said with a half-smile.
"That would require giving up too much—not just about , but many experiences about you as well. We've had too many inseparable connections along this journey, right?" Hibiscus stroked the black-haired girl's head. "What's most precious is now—we both look back at the past and can decide the future. I've decided—when we return to Ningfeng Harbor, I'll process leave from school to focus on Church matters."
Hearing this news, Nan Zhiyi was stunned, asking with confusion: "I thought you cared a lot? Or do you think there's no point since there'll be chaos anyway?"
"It's just so obsessions I had before, always feeling that taking leave seed like abandoning years of diligent study. But I was wrong. Past accumulation is for welcoming a new era—I need to be more serious."
"I support you."
After speaking, the black-haired girl rested her head on Hibiscus's shoulder. The two leaned against the observatory gazing at the starry sky—the quiet night belonged to each other.
Only after completely escaping the Fallen Zone's sphere of influence did they discover how beautiful the long-missed firmant was.
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