Pacific War Zone Headquarters, South Reef Island.
In the conference room, Adjutant Li Yingge brought over a thick stack of materials and placed them on the mahogany desk. Such commotion made Josh raise an eyebrow and nearly lose composure. If you didn't tell , I'd think Catastrophic Disaster Beasts were knocking at our door. I'm busy reclaiming territory from fallen zones—can you not add to the chaos?
She casually flipped through the papers and beca even more confused. "Why is this all about that damn Salvation Church business?"
"Headquarters produced a lot of analysis materials hoping you'd verify them, since you're among the very few military personnel who've fought alongside them."
"I don't care about their persecution complex—"
Josh was complaining when she spotted a photograph—it was exactly the sa magic circle pattern as inside Island 24's volcanic crater. Though both sides were smashed to pieces, they were still recognizably the sa design.
In other words, the relic excavation team's conclusion that the legendary Hermit Island truly existed and preserved spatial relics was correct—now captured by the Salvation Church.
So that's how it is.
This finally explained why the usually low-profile magical girls were willing to deploy in force for that battle. Indeed, spatial relics were absolutely worth the great effort—if she was certain they existed, she'd be willing to stake an entire army group.
Humanity understood very little about previous epoch relics, but had established a classification standard so far:
Common. Things casually processed from Disaster Beast remains, like resistance potions, pollution-suppressing agarwood, etc.
Rare. Fewer than the previous grade, with certain non-renewable characteristics.
National Treasure. Objects fused by Holy Relics all belonged to this grade without exception, because they were often powerful in function, costly in price, and very particular about compatibility, so were usually wielded by individuals or extrely small groups. Correspondingly, their performance was quite excellent, with visible achievents.
Top Secret. Or called supre relics, capable of changing civilization's course, with details completely classified and even their existence hidden. Of course, things like the Ring of Levitation were individual cases.
The above classification based on the vague definition of "effectiveness" was actually unreliable. So people preferred "nature determines relic strength"—for example, the destructive sound wave oriented toward lethality was quite strong, with theoretically very high limits. Similarly, extending this logic, spatial relics were the most incredible—coming and going freely, traversing at will, sufficient to rank as top secret grade, greatly beneficial to entire civilization.
The Salvation Church held it in their hands.
Li Yingge said: "Many people express wariness, thinking it's like a civilian organization keeping nuclear bombs."
Josh disagreed: "Talking about this is useless—the facts are before us. Fight? Can't win. Negotiate? They don't want to talk. What to do? Still assigning a pile of howork—so annoying."
"The key is having you verify and understand related materials, because Disaster Beast Counterasure Organizations are considering future strategic cooperation with the Salvation Church."
"...What power could make these people change their nature?"
"So believe the Church's refusal to accept dialogue while acting high-profile shows they're certain this year's Disaster Beast attacks will greatly weaken official power. They're very worried."
"Makes sense."
Both were smart people who understood the connections with just a few words. This judgnt indeed had supporting evidence—for instance, calculations based on spatial rift fluctuations showed this year-end's Disaster Beast intensity would surge dramatically, different from the past.
So devotees of the Salvation Church also claid the future would turn toward a supernatural epoch—sounded intimidating, but the ideological influence had to be considered.
No matter what happened then, one more friend was better than one more enemy.
The human faction couldn't afford to simultaneously war against magical girls and Disaster Beasts—simply impossible. Moreover, the forr were clearly their own people; minor misunderstandings weren't worth ntioning.
Josh understood the logic and couldn't help but smile with amusent. Though higher-ups would definitely never admit it, they'd just been beaten into submission. What were you doing before? Did you turn a blind eye to the huge commotion of Island 24's offensive-defensive battle? Thought that fight relied entirely on garrison forces? Even as commanding officer, she understood without Church support it would have been more bad luck than good, yet you wrote off all achievents to my credit and deceived yourselves into thinking magical girls were a rabble?
Foolish.
Coming back to her senses, she began pondering their intelligence—psychological profiling, eyewitness evidence, scene exploration, etc.
Josh opened the file bag containing a stack of photos including but not limited to teorite craters, cutting cross-sections, Disaster Beast corpses, shattered ceilings... all telling of the Salvation Church's power. Much stronger than during Island 24's war, or rather they'd never tested their limits, always shrouded in mystery.
Officials had even produced a current threat level ranking, appearing quite serious.
First Place: Hyacinth. Identification code Lyra.
Cautious, strong, resourceful, decisive in action—confird as core leadership figure. Most recorded activities, most spectacular achievents, mastering ti magic. Specific chanisms, conditions, principles all unclear, but had demonstrated assassination, stealth, large-area attack thods—a comprehensive all-rounder raising deterrent power single-handedly. Most importantly, Hyacinth's personality was far from as normal as her performance suggested—strong psychological battle desire, persistent, never willing to be subordinate, definitely the troublemaking type.
Second Place: Manjusaka. Identification code Cherry Blossom Storm.
Most mysterious chanism magical girl—still couldn't figure out what it related to, abilities truly abstract. Yet from performances like volcanic rock avoidance and automatic door opening, no connections were visible, but with teorite summoning's destructive power, she firmly held second place.
Third Place: Dandelion. Identification code Observer.
Recording ti second only to Hyacinth, domain magic's various performances need no elaboration, and she currently showed low battle desire, relatively low threat level.
Fourth Place: Imperial Flower. Identification code Golden Dragon Emperor.
Most stable psychological profile—inferred military background, quite strong in frontal combat but also stable, the executor type who didn't actively cause trouble. Leaning toward order, could even be called very safe—if this personality belonged to officials, she'd definitely be very useful.
The list had also considered so other recorded awakening-stage magical girls, but they were too weak to list. These four were already troubleso enough.
Li Yingge instructed: "Sir, according to higher-ups' intentions, we should try to understand their intelligence, also convenient for handling future magical girl cases."
Josh nodded.
"Speaking of which, there's currently no ans to contact the Church, right?"
"Indeed, but since Hyacinth ntioned having magical girls wait for her, there must be a way, possibly already proceeding in secret... but that's unrelated to us."
"I dare bet when Disaster Beasts attack on a large scale, the Salvation Church will make big moves, because their leader Hyacinth is the type who absolutely can't stay idle."
...
Hermit Island.
Intense and exciting magical girl work had been ongoing for 72 hours straight.
The beach had many pits, fallen trees, fleeing Disaster Beasts, and so recently built houses were also damaged... The reason was simple—everyone was accelerating awakening from first to second tier, or second to third tier. With a total of 340 people, it was easy to cause rampage and loss of control, with battles every day.
The silver-haired girl looked at the smoke-filled island and sighed. Fortunately, she'd reached Seedling Stage and could easily suppress loss of control, or who knew what would happen?
Luckily everything was going smoothly so far.
The children were all good children, quickly bonding with Hibiscus and others upon arrival. Everyone was very grateful to the rescue team, or rather had been looking forward to it—thanks to the Salvation Church building reputation and giving everyone hope. Who would have thought that casual ntion in Edo had beco a place many novice magical girls yearned for, at least letting them know there were others like them, organizations that would definitely co save them. So Jin Yulu, Jin Ruochu, and Nan Zhiyi naturally carried halos and easily beca seniors.
Hibiscus realized that magical girl group psychology had been different from the original storyline much earlier.
When you knew there were others like you and hope existed, the encouragent was imasurable—at least they weren't so easily broken. Everyone could be called psychologically healthy normal people.
dical examinations proved Eagle Company hadn't had ti to fully launch experints.
This was the first good news.
According to netizens, many magical girls had been fused with Disaster Beast remains, forcibly awakened magic, stimulated to improve Origin... and so experints had already been done during that period, but why didn't it happen?
The answer was still the Salvation Church. Because continuous active performances made Eagle Company quite wary, experintal progress kept being delayed and left undecided.
Unintentional success—Hibiscus had unknowingly protected many magical girls. If it were the original storyline's racial supremacist Ti Priestess, she'd probably be greatly comforted. The girls understood this reasoning too, clearly knowing the Church had helped them greatly.
More importantly, Minase Kaori's advance ideological work made everyone easily accept this—smooth sailing.
Except for so small episodes...
Boom!
An explosion on the beach accompanied Jin Yulu's shout: "Terrible aim—target properly before shooting. Don't think all enemies are stationary targets."
Before finishing, she stepped forward and gave each of the dozen girls a brain flick, everyone calling out "Instructor, lighter!" "You're too fast!" amid cries of pain.
After the Eagle Company incident, the magical girls' enthusiasm was maxed out. Everyone clearly understood they had to beco stronger to deal with threats. Upon reaching Hermit Island, they imdiately requested seniors to share experience, perfectly hitting Jin Yulu's strike zone—the forr retired officer couldn't hold back.
The children had high enthusiasm, durable bodies, exceptional talent—excellent soldier material.
She naturally beca instructor for over three hundred people total.
Jin Yulu was indeed suited for this job. Even her companions saw her different gentle side from usual, bonding with newcor juniors, teaching patiently and carefully. Then gradually expanding training—rough but detailed, balancing tension and relaxation, strict yet caring. Occasionally she'd reveal her pressure-monster nature, but with companions' intervention this weakness was eliminated. Currently magical girls were familiarizing themselves with magic performance under Jin Yulu's guidance.
Additionally, Jin Ruochu, with the highest theoretical education, was pulled by Nan Zhiyi, who was actually most knowledgeable, to teach cultural classes.
The forr was actually high school level, just operating in a bizarre way equivalent to mixing philosophy master's degree at foreign universities, but lecturing from textbooks was no problem.
Undoubtedly first in comprehensive knowledge was Nan Zhiyi—magical girl mory made her even better, teaching juniors with ease.
But the most important teacher was Hibiscus. At this mont she had over a hundred awakening-stage magical girls before her learning basic ditation, helping them control their power and initially contact magic manipulation.
She'd just recognized its importance.
Its level affected how magic was realized, how it was realized, consumption distribution—making you budget your mana carefully for twice the result with half the effort. For example, Ti Slash had extrely high operational requirents. Similarly, domain transformation and movent all relied on operation, even turning decay into miracle.
Hibiscus taught everything—complete technique knowledge, partial magic intelligence, Origin training thods, Regalia developnt... worthy of master inheritance.
Magical girl domain god, grand appearance.
Even Jin Yulu, Nan Zhiyi, and Jin Ruochu occasionally ca to audit. They were most puzzled why Miss Hyacinth had new activities every so often—was it prophecy? Worthy of ti series' strongest magic, just ridiculous. re Prophecy Books and Oracle Books had beco waste paper in Church leadership's eyes, feeling inferior to Hibiscus.
Several veterans' praise, repeated human dia ntions, Minase Kaori's ideological work, now personal display of abilities... various factors forged leadership.
The silver-haired girl looked at the girls listening intently with starry eyes and felt quite accomplished.
Really no need for worship—you're making feel even more responsible.
Without asking netizens, Hibiscus knew these people occupying the first batch of awakened magical girls' earlier period were destined for greatness, with unlimited futures. Even without her help, they'd still create careers—no need for respectful expressions.
But things went against her wishes.
Hyacinth with trans-tiline perspective and novice magical girls had different positions—the latter just found everything fresh, thinking big sister knew everything.
Once Quincy had boasted to them about how powerful human relics were, vowing to capture the entire Church, frightening them.
The result?
Who got beaten up in front of the whole world, exhausting all underhanded tricks without making a dent—utterly insignificant.
Eagle Company's prestige built on terror rule instantly collapsed in the girls' hearts, replaced by the Salvation Church. Suffering world malice, they understood an organization could unite through idealism and defeat that big demon. The aning behind this war planted a seed in the girls' hearts—justice, truth, goodness, beauty, friendship bonds were indeed real.
Hibiscus only knew the original storyline's magical girls once used violence with violence—when would grudges end? She didn't know how significant her current actions were.
So-called techniques, training thods, or magic knowledge—what were they? A race believing in their hearts and condensing collective pride was truly fearso.
Not just magical girls controlled by Eagle Company—hidden compatriots worldwide had their cognition overturned, understanding that unity, justice, courage were right, and the Salvation Church had practiced this for them.
"...Speaking of which, Teacher Hyacinth, aren't you afraid we'll leave the Church after teaching us so much?"
Gu Rubai asked timidly.
Many of them didn't understand why the big sisters taught everything.
At these words the scene imdiately quieted. Even the cultural and training classes fell temporarily silent, everyone focusing on why the Salvation Church was so generous. After all, many magical girls still had psychological shadows and couldn't help being suspicious.
Hibiscus showed a gentle smile and spoke frankly: "Because I'm selling you favors, hoping you'll all devote yourselves to the Church's cause in the future."
"Of course, staying or leaving is up to you—you can leave anyti."
"Setting aside those utilitarian words, I want to say sothing more genuine: so-called magic is an incredible power that should be more regulated, controllable, and well-utilized. We face Disaster Beast threats while needing to continue coexisting with human society, plus future chaos... without power it simply won't work. Before that, I hope you learn as many skills as possible to cope. As for where to go? I won't interfere."
"On a small scale, you need to understand controlling power to avoid incidents that damage collective image and save us trouble."
"On a large scale, I hope the unified Anti-Disaster Beast front gains more fresh strength. After all, we share the sa fate—it's inescapable anyway, so let's prepare for battle from now."
Hibiscus's words carried only sincerity.
Deception was aningless to magical girls. Even without ntioning keen senses, what if they encountered lie detector-like magic effects? A thousand words weren't as good as honest truth.
The silver-haired girl's words made everyone think, having to weigh current situations and future goals.
Minase Kaori raised her hand: "Sister Hyacinth, I've wanted to ask—if this is Salvation Church headquarters, why so few people?"
Her doubt was also many magical girls' wariness point—too discordant. The cold, deserted scene was completely different from the world-famous super organization impression. Bluntly speaking, quite shabby, lacking grandeur. Eagle Company's experintal laboratory headquarters was a landmark building. What about us?
High EQ: Tropical island tourist paradise, facing the sea with spring warmth and blooming flowers.
Low EQ: Baring teeth with sharks.
Was there a possibility that Sister Hyacinth was jealous of Eagle Company's building being too pretentious and casually dismantled it into building blocks?
Hibiscus originally wanted to blurt out that it was indeed the team's startup phase, but being too direct would shatter the children's innocent fairy tale psychology and wasn't good for managent. In a flash of inspiration she changed approach, starting publicity recruitnt now...
She smiled and said: "I'll answer Minase's question shortly. I want everyone to first consider another question—if it were you, how would you run the Church?"
"Build the world's tallest building as headquarters."
"Cafeteria with resident Michelin chefs."
"Control wealth rivaling nations, ten tis richer than Eagle Company."
"Beco an ideal ho for magical girls."
"Every move changes the world—can't be looked down on, much less bullied."
Hibiscus kept nodding, agreeing with these views. Unexpectedly, no world domination ideas appeared—more conservative than even Nan Zhiyi. Perhaps laboratory experiences made them cautious, not even daring to let imagination run free. This wouldn't do—a magical girl most couldn't lack a romantic heart.
Clap!
She clapped to signal pause, then said: "Proposal eting ends here. Back to the previous question—shall I show you Salvation Church mbers?"
While speaking, the silver-haired girl called the other two classes to gather over. Now even Jin Yulu, Nan Zhiyi, and Jin Ruochu didn't know what to do. Everyone followed her to the seaside with puzzled faces, seeing clear water reflecting graceful silhouettes.
"As you can see, the Salvation Church's first batch of mbers are all here. We were established less than a quarter."
The explosive fact left the girls dumbfounded, but didn't cause commotion—instead stirred enthusiasm in their hearts, anticipating Hibiscus's next words:
"The organization is currently very difficult. Precisely because of this, I hope everyone will join—not demanding, but requesting. Or from another angle: what's studying for? Getting jobs. What are jobs for? Living better. So as Five-Color Narcissus Company chairman, I sincerely invite everyone to accept employnt. Given ti, you can all build the Church according to your own ideas. Let's run this magical girl family together."
The company Hibiscus ntioned could be called famous.
Even while under house arrest, they'd heard about infection disease miracle drugs—so the backing was magical girls, no wonder.
They began seriously considering this matter. After all, from a utilitarian perspective, it was equivalent to a giant company extending job offers, moreover in the team's startup phase—first co, first served.
"...It's actually that company? I heard once public, it's worth billions."
"Knowing this, we can't not join."
"I want to join the Salvation Church—bring on any missions. I'll be a senior in the future."
The girls were inexperienced and actually didn't consider much, but accidentally made one of the most important life choices, showing quite enthusiasm, agreeing in just a few words, even still envisioning the future Church reaching power matching its reputation.
Worthy of you!
Even the other three veterans who considered themselves socially seasoned looked at Boss Mu with new eyes—first letting little sisters imagine how the Church should be, awakening ownership consciousness. Then revealing difficulties, finally showing strength. Throughout there were twists, sincerity, pie-in-the-sky promises. Forget underage girls—adults who'd rolled around for years would be fooled. Their boss couldn't do practical work, but put all skill points into team building.
Perhaps Hibiscus hadn't prepared beforehand, more like improvised rhetoric change, but combined with her natural leadership charisma, she completely won everyone's trust.
Boom!
Suddenly the island center's altar representing spatial relics trembled violently, then everyone felt magic fluctuations plumt.
Nan Zhiyi shrugged: "The Thousand-Li Viewing Mirror needs Disaster Beast materials for power—now it's broken down. Currently need to do two things: First, collect sufficient fuel reserves. Second, have everyone master Hibiscus's Hypnosis Technique and Presence Reduction Technique. Then consider external actions."
Leave pie-drawing to the boss—specific execution still depended on themselves.
Jin Ruochu added: "Processing miracle drugs also needs so materials. Plus since we plan to seriously build the Church, we should spread branch companies in various places for footholds, like those rcenaries. It'll be very busy ahead."
"You're all rookie newbies—what'll you do when encountering Disaster Beasts?" Jin Yulu pointed at everyone. "Extra training, keep training. I'll accompany you all—reach minimum goals first."
"Yes, Instructor."
"Then everyone take action. Though I guess I don't need to say it." Hibiscus inexplicably witnessed magical girls starting work like they'd been injected with chicken blood.
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