A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

A few minutes ago, after shaking off the pursuit of the black magic hands in a corner of the port, Blue Pigeon had transformed into a bolt of dark lightning and dashed into the shipping container area.

Right now, Ke Mingqing was hiding behind one of the containers. He pulled off his shattered helmet, revealing blood-soaked bangs.

He tilted his head back, drew a deep breath of fresh air, and stripped off the bloodstained battle suit.

’I don’t want to be cannon fodder... but I can’t just leave my sister alone. I’ll just use the puppet to play Blue Pigeon from now on.’

With that in mind, the young man quietly summoned Theater Puppet Number Two beside him.

’Let’s see if I can keep my sister alive. If she dies, my main quest is gone.’ Ke Mingqing glanced out at the battlefield while directing Theater Puppet Number Two to put on the Blue Pigeon Battle Suit.

A moment later, the Theater Puppet stepped out from behind the container, wearing the battle suit.

Watching ”Blue Pigeon” leave, Ke Mingqing sat down and leaned against the container wall. He used his Disguiser Talent to alter his appearance, transforming into the guise of White Jack:

A split, gaping mouth and hollow eyes. Otherwise, his face was completely blank. Every inch of skin on his body gradually faded to a ghastly white; there was no risk of exposure even without clothes.

Of course, this was Ke Mingqing’s first time playing White Jack with his real body, and his first time using the puppet as Blue Pigeon.The resulting sense of displacement was bizarre; he almost confused the priority of his two identities.

Ke Mingqing quickly concealed his presence, closed his eyes, and shifted his focus to Blue Pigeon’s perspective.

From an outsider’s vantage point, he had a much better view of the entire battlefield. The fights scattered across the container yard had already reached their conclusions. It was an almost total defeat across the board.

Little Red Riding Hood and Sakurahime were heavily injured and unconscious. Ember was the only magical girl still standing.

’Since it’s come to this, there doesn’t seem to be any need for me to get involved,’ Ke Mingqing thought in silence. ’What is Second Sister doing... Is she still reluctant to unleash her mythic vessel?’

He knew perfectly well that Xia Lingxue was only a genuine S Rank after unleashing her mythic vessel. If she relied purely on her esper abilities without tapping into her mythic legacy, the difference in power was night and day.

But the problem was that Xia Lingxue refused to expose her identity as a mythic vessel.

Therefore, whether she would unleash it in this battle was something she had to weigh carefully. Meanwhile, Xia Ningzhi, fighting alone against the A+ Rank Bai and the A Rank Cosimo, naturally couldn’t hold out and was quickly defeated.

But Ke Mingqing truly had no time to worry about those two anymore. He directed Blue Pigeon’s gaze toward the center of the container yard.

While Ember was tangled up with the pirates, Bandage Man hung upside down beneath a crane without a sound, like a spider lying in wait on a web.

In the distance, Guchen lowered the brim of his hat, aimed his revolver at the silhouette of the gothic-dressed girl, and rested his finger on the trigger.

Ke Mingqing stared blankly. ’Why is my sister’s attention so scattered? Hasn’t she noticed Bandage Man and the cowboy?’

He bit his thumb, his gaze shifting rapidly.

’Damn it, it’s too late for White Jack to make an entrance now. Should I send Blue Pigeon over to help her... But with the situation this dangerous, it might prematurely trigger my faked death plan and cost me a lot of quest rewards. Wouldn’t the loss outweigh the gain?’

Suddenly, Ke Mingqing lowered his head. ’She can’t die, she can’t die just yet...’ he thought. ’At the very least, I need to let her undergo Witchification. That’s a good thing for us players... She’ll kill a lot of people; she is still useful.’

In an instant, a roaring boom tore through his silent thoughts.

Ke Mingqing drove Blue Pigeon forward, turning him into a bolt of sea-blue lightning that hurtled directly toward the magical girl Ember.

Just as Bandage Man dropped from the crane, a sudden flash of lightning illuminated Ember’s pupils.

Blue Pigeon shoved Ember aside from the flank. A split second later, a silver bullet shot from the distance and tore straight through Blue Pigeon’s abdomen.

With a heavy thud, Blue Pigeon collapsed, slamming headfirst into the ground.

Amid the absolute silence, the girl in the gothic dress slowly lowered her eyes. She stared blankly at the blue figure kneeling on the ground, fresh blood continuously seeping from the wound in his abdomen.

The bullet had blasted an enormous hole entirely through his body. His internal organs couldn’t be seen, nor could bone or flesh. There was nothing but an empty void.

The blood bubbled outward, spreading across the pavement until it reached the soles of the girl’s shoes.

Ember stood there dumbly for a long while. As the sea breeze blew past, her face gradually turned pale. Even her eyes lost their color, and a wisp of blue flame drifted up from the corners of her eyes.

In that moment, she saw the shadow of the witch. It grinned with blood-red lips, a shadow resembling a crude stick figure that now blanketed the entire sky. Mocking laughter echoed from all directions, and the world spun wildly.

But she couldn’t bring herself to care about any of that.

Ember swayed and took two steps forward.

Suddenly, her legs gave out. She fell to her knees, collapsing over the young man, and reached out to gently cradle his head.

”...Bro?”

She tilted her head slightly, gazing at his injured cheek, and called out to him softly.

”Brother...”

The girl pressed her face close, feeling the warmth radiating from his skin.

”Say something to me, okay...?”

The blue flames at the corners of her eyes grew weaker and weaker, looking as if they might extinguish at any moment.

”Stop messing with me. We can play when we get home...”

”Say something...”

”I... hate you.”

”I hate you.”

”Why would you do this to me...”

Yet for a long while, no response came from the body that was steadily growing cold. The blood kept spreading, staining the hem of the girl’s skirt red.

The world fell into absolute silence. Only the mocking laughter and cold sneers of the witch still echoed in her ears.

The moment she pressed against his cheek, Ember suddenly felt a faint breath from his nose. She froze in a daze, and a faint light returned to her eyes.

”R-Right... I still have that.”

Ember cradled Blue Pigeon as she knelt on the ground. She murmured with trembling lips like an aphasia patient. In a daze, she summoned the book that stored her Magic Cards.

Ordinarily, she would have found the Firefly card in an instant. But right now, her consciousness was becoming increasingly blurry. She kept her head down, fumbling in a panic like a puppet with broken strings for a long time before she finally pulled out the card.

However, the very moment she drew the card, a roar suddenly echoed from afar. It was a gunshot.

A silver bullet tore through the air and struck the girl’s wrist.

A streak of blood splattered, and her body twitched slightly. The card slipped from her grasp, fluttering through the air alongside the girl’s blood.

With a sharp crack, the card shattered.

On the other side of the yard, Bandage Man looked at the man holding the revolver and sneered. ”Vincent, your aim is pretty terrible.”

”Bullshit. I said I don’t kill little girls. I just didn’t want her trying any tricks. We cowboys have principles too,” Guchen said in a deep voice, pulling down the brim of his hat.

At this moment, the girl in the gothic dress was kneeling on the ground, her shoulders trembling as she stared blankly at the shattered fragments of Firefly scattering in the air.

In her arms, the young man’s body was turning cold.

The world fell into absolute silence, as if all color and sound were fading away. Ember’s gaze gradually grew hollow, and her pitch-black hair veiled her eyes.

She slowly lowered her head.

Looking at the young man’s face, she whispered something softly.

She raised her hand and brushed her fingers over the wound on his cheek.

A single tear slid silently from the corner of the girl’s eye, but right before it fell, it was burned away by a sudden flare of blue flame.

The next second, blue fire roared violently from the corners of her eyes, surging upward until it formed a magnificent curtain of flames. It burned away all the colors of the world, dyeing everything in intertwined shades of black and blue.

Amid the absolute silence, Ember’s lips parted slightly.

”I’ll kill you all...” she said hoarsely.

The girl’s umbrella was quietly dyed a profound blue.

”I’ll kill... you all,” she murmured.

The hem of her dress transformed into a tattered array of black and blue.

”I’ll kill, you all.” She suddenly pulled the corners of her mouth back into a smile.

Immediately after, the girl’s body seemed to be buoyed by an unseen force, slowly ascending into the night sky.

”I’m going to... kill you all,” she said once more, but her tone was entirely flat, as cold as a machine.

The girl raised her right hand, and a pitch-black longsword extended from her palm. It slowly pierced through the deep blue umbrella, forming a uniquely shaped weapon.

At this very moment, behind one of the containers at the port, Ke Mingqing, who had taken on the form of White Jack, abruptly raised his head.

He stared blankly at the awe-inspiring figure rising into the air.

Ke Mingqing had already considered that trying to guide Xia Zili toward Witchification was the only way she would have a chance to escape from Death Crow alive. But when this scene actually unfolded in front of him, he couldn’t help but hold his breath.

’Is it here...?’ he thought, as a dark-colored super-human species interface slowly popped up in his vision.

[Super-human species codename: ”Magical Girl Ember” (Half-Witchification Form)]

[Danger Rating: S Rank]

[Description: A seed watered by extreme love and extreme hatred, though it has not yet fully sprouted.]

’Are you kidding me... My sister is already at S Rank strength in her half-Witchification state?’ Ke Mingqing froze slightly. ’Then how strong will she be when she fully becomes a witch?’

...

...

At the same time, in a certain corner of the container area, the magical girl Little Red Riding Hood woke up.

She raised her head from beside the container and peeked through her messy blonde hair at the imposing blue-and-black figure hovering in midair. She couldn’t help but blurt out:

”A witch... Why is there a witch here? Where’s Senior? And where is Sakurahime?”

The quirky girl clutched her head, spacing out in a daze for a moment. Then, as if catching sight of something out of the corner of her eye, she abruptly whipped her head around to look into the distance.

She saw Blue Pigeon slumped on the ground.

Little Red Riding Hood froze for a second before scrambling up. She struggled to climb atop her Christmas Sleigh.

The two reindeer had already disappeared, but as she channeled her mana into the sleigh, a blizzard immediately roared to life, carrying the sleigh as it tore forward. In just a moment, she rocketed over to Blue Pigeon’s side.

Little Red Riding Hood vaulted off the sleigh, simultaneously summoning her Magic Card binder. She drew a Firefly card from it and crushed it in her grip.

A crisp snap rang out, and a faint fluorescent glow cascaded down, enveloping the young man’s entire body and pouring into the bloody wound on his abdomen.

His flesh and bone regenerated at a visible rate. Even the cut on his face began to disappear.

Seeing this, Little Red Riding Hood secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She slowly lifted her blue eyes and gazed at the black-and-blue figure suspended under the night sky, finally seeing the other girl’s face clearly.

”Oh no... Could that be... Senior?” she murmured blankly.