Chapter 23: The Price of Concealment

The apocalypse, a topic now unspoken by all survivors, was not merely the result of singular elements like “zombies,” “floods,” or “extreme heat.”

In less than a year, a pandemonium of distinct horrors descended upon Earth. To categorize them, the Academy collectively termed each overarching element a ‘Disaster.’

While the term ‘Disaster’ acquired new meanings in the later stages of the apocalypse, it remained true that each ‘Disaster’ corresponded to a broad category of catastrophe with a distinct style.

Among these, ‘Mental Disintegration’ primarily manifested through amorphous monsters that, upon attacking, would shatter human minds.

Those whose minds were destroyed often transformed into deranged ‘fiends.’ While their physical attributes were enhanced, they also gained the chilling ability to merge into shadows.

On the surface, it sounded like a relatively ‘conventional’ Disaster, one that generated catastrophe through the exponential reproduction of individual entities by a ‘mother’ creature.

However, the true difficulty of ‘Mental Disintegration’ lay in the fact that these amorphous monsters could wield magic, often proving extraordinarily powerful without a single universal weakness.

Furthermore, their numbers were staggering; sometimes, there were more mother creatures than fiends.

Su Qingyao distinctly remembered her debut battle.

She had charged in with brimming confidence to fight a horde of mother creatures, only to be nearly overwhelmed by the torrent of magic.

Hence, she preferred overwhelming firepower.

Su Qingyao softly murmured, countless convoluted syllables weaving together to form phrases of incantation.

In an era where modern magical girls swiftly cast spells using ‘chant names,’ Su Qingyao still employed the ancient methods of spellcasting.

“Woah, woah, woah!”

The non-combatants, acting as the ‘atmosphere group,’ gasped in astonishment.

This was because the young girl, with herself and Xiaohua at the center, was continuously drawing one exquisite magical array after another within a one-meter radius.

In contrast to the intricate magical arrays, the number of fiends was pitifully few.

They moved ceaselessly through the shadows, attempting to evade the danger that set their instincts screaming.

Su Qingyao’s current magical attire possessed only one core ability: “Healing.”

Therefore, the sole shortcut to combat was to practice the most fundamental and ancient universal magic available to magical girls:

“Mana Cannon: Freestyle.”

Su Qingyao closed her eyes.

She gently waved the staff in her hand, and the light from its tip traced a brilliant arc of seven colors, like a conductor wielding their baton.

“Buzz!”

The arrays erupted, bursting forth with dazzling white brilliance.

“Nyaa!” Xiaohua, momentarily blinded by the white light that filled their entire vision, let out a series of frantic meows.

In an instant, the saturating radiance swept across the entire circular area, mercilessly unleashing the magical girl’s light and love.

The ability to traverse shadows was indeed troublesome.

However, if the “shadows” themselves vanished, then even the greatest skill would be rendered useless.

One after another, the fiends’ bodies were mercilessly torn to shreds.

Even their so-called “blood” evaporated into gas by the instantaneous high temperature, silently dissipating into the air.

In stark contrast to the Blue Witch, who would gently use magic to heal everyone as much as possible, Su Qingyao, when acting alone, preferred this efficient and thorough “slaughter” style of combat.

In a way, it brought her a peculiar sense of “joy.”

Su Qingyao narrowed her eyes, peering through the constricted view, quietly counting each unresponsive inverse mana source. Simultaneously, under the continuous illumination, she diligently searched for the ‘mother’ creature.

Yet, the answer was ‘none.’

It was as if they were truly just lingering wild beasts, disturbed from their slumber by the girl and the cat.

“Senior,” Su Qingyao said, stroking the fantastical creature’s cartoonishly bristling fur, attempting to soothe it. “I have a theory.”

“You mentioned sensing something amiss earlier. I believe it’s possible these very fiends were the cause.”

“Guwa!” Xiaohua startled.

Calming down, they disregarded the drain on their magic and launched themselves into the sky on a rainbow-hued trail of light.

Soon, a frantic, startled cry echoed down:

“It seems to be true, Little Qingyao!”

Xiaohua swooped down before the girl. “Doesn’t that mean it has nothing to do with Xiaobai’s disappearance, then?”

“Possibly.”

Su Qingyao nodded thoughtfully.

Truthfully, it wasn’t impossible to simply explain them away as remnants of apocalypse fiends.

However, within the girl’s heart, other questions still lingered.

Still lost in thought, Su Qingyao and Xiaohua both looked towards a certain direction in the night sky.

Multiple mana signatures were approaching them.

But this time, they weren’t fiends.

“Excuse me, what happened here?”

Several colorful streaks of light finally descended mid-air before the girl and the cat, maintaining their casting stances.

Speaking was clearly the magical girl positioned at the forefront.

“Look here, Little Star! It’s me, meow!”

Xiaohua actively responded. “There were fiends here just now.”

“Fiends?”

The magical girl called Little Star wore an entirely silver-and-black Lolita dress as her magical attire. Numerous colorful gem ornaments hung from its layered ruffles, shimmering like a starry night sky as she moved.

She had clearly just recognized Xiaohua, shifting her attention from Su Qingyao to the cat. “But I didn’t sense any surging mana signatures beforehand?”

“They were special fiends.”

Su Qingyao held her staff horizontally before her, smiling serenely. “They could hide in the shadows, so we had no choice but to use saturation magic strikes.”

From Xiaohua’s reaction, it seemed that modern magical girls barely recognized ‘Mental Disintegration’ anymore. Could memories truly fade so quickly?

“Oh, I see.”

Little Star, or rather, Magical Girl Silver Star, witnessed the fiend corpses littering the ground and pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement.

“That is indeed a reasonable approach.”

“Excuse me, do you still require our assistance?”

“If possible, there might still be a few other locations where these fiends exist.”

Su Qingyao lowered her gaze, just as Xiaohua was looking at her.

The cartoonish white cat seemed to hesitate for a moment, then finally nodded and said, “That’s right, meow.”

“Little Star, get a map out, and I’ll show you, meow.”

****

After their exchange with the magical girl patrol squad concluded, the investigative duo of girl and cat naturally disbanded.

Although Xiaohua promised to owe Su Qingyao a favor, as she walked home, the girl’s expression remained somewhat somber.

What Su Qingyao hadn’t voiced was that if her barely plausible hypothesis was flawed, then at least a ‘mother’ creature had been lurking in that area just a few days prior.

In that case, Lin Xiaobai’s disappearance might have a chilling explanation:

Lin Xiaobai, taking a shortcut through the pre-apocalypse ruins on her way to visit the children at the orphanage, was attacked by a ‘Mental Disintegration’ mother creature.

Ultimately, she would have transformed into one of the ‘fiends’ that attacked Su Qingyao, or one lying in wait in some corner to ambush passersby.

Su Qingyao had considered voicing her suspicion midway.

However, partly from reason and partly from self-interest, she ultimately chose to conceal it.

Reason told Su Qingyao that this was merely a hypothesis riddled with holes. Blurring it out rashly could, in turn, risk misleading the search.

Her self-interest whispered to the girl, ‘How would a magical girl from the countryside know about Mental Disintegration?’ If her identity were questioned because of this, leading to uncontrollable consequences regarding Su Muxue’s adoption, this was absolutely unacceptable to Su Qingyao.

“Sigh, no matter what I do, I’ll feel guilty,” Su Qingyao murmured, shaking her head.

She looked towards the nearby residential area, Su Muxue’s image surfacing in her mind.

For Su Qingyao, there was no doubt: Su Muxue was more important than Lin Xiaobai.

This was the self-interest of a former ‘Leader’ who had once selflessly dedicated themselves.