A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

September 30, 2026, 8:00 AM. China’s capital, Leijing.

In a corner of the clear blue sky, Xi Ziyue, chief of the Magical Girl Three Giants, stood atop a floating train car.

She had twisted Magical Relic No. 19, the ”Super Space-Time Train,” into the shape of a Möbius Strip. Car after car bit into the next like snakes swallowing each other’s tails, forming an eerie ring in midair.

Hovering motionless four hundred meters above the ground, it served as everyone’s foothold.

Right now, Magical Girl Sakurahime, Mizumio Akari, Little Red Riding Hood, and Owl Judge stood atop the ring, staring blankly into the distance at a dark-gold figure holding an Umbrella Sword.

Under everyone’s gaze, the Witch of Finale and Ashes stood high in the heavens, her chin slightly raised and her expression indifferent.

Just then, Magical Girl Winter Hunter slowly opened her eyes, braced her arms against the iron plating, and pushed herself up from the roof of the car.

When she caught sight of the scene, her pupils shrank. Her lips went pale as she murmured, ”—Am I still dreaming?”

Magical Girl Sakurahime was frozen too. She gripped the hilt of her blade, unable to speak for a long while as her miko robes fluttered aimlessly in the wind.

Little Red Riding Hood parted her lips and murmured in a daze, ”Senior... Ember.”Xi Ziyue remained silent for a moment before speaking. ”The ’Gate of Generations’ stopped the sacrificial process of the Stage Apparatus, Terminus Night, yet it failed to stop Little Li’s complete Witchification?”

Mizumio Akari said expressionlessly, ”You thought it would be too easy. Xia Zili’s willpower isn’t that strong.”

”Little Li...”

Owl Judge frowned tightly, mouthing his younger sister’s name without a sound as he unconsciously held Red Lotus tighter in his arms.

The Witch of Finale and Ashes remained expressionless, her golden pupils looking down upon the earth, her face completely drained of color. A paper ring revolved around her body, expanding and contracting in turn.

For a long time, she didn’t make a single sound, standing in dead silence like the statue of a monarch.

”A’Qing... Wait, where’s Blue Pigeon?” Realizing something, Owl Judge whipped his head around to scan the area and asked hoarsely, ”Have any of you seen Blue Pigeon?”

Silence hung over the train car. Xi Ziyue, Sakurahime, and Winter Hunter said nothing, turning their heads toward another corner of the roof.

Owl Judge followed their gaze. Little Red Riding Hood had her eyes lowered, while Mizumio Akari stood with her arms crossed, looking as if she wanted to speak but holding back. Neither of them said a word for a long moment.

He froze for an instant. Pitch-Black Moonlight erupted around him all at once, thrashing erratically like a cluster of scythe blades.

”I’ll ask one more time—where is Blue Pigeon?” Owl Judge lowered his head, his voice raspy.

Right at that moment, however, a faint disturbance rippled through the distant sky.

Only Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood noticed it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a long, narrow Spatial Rift suddenly tear open in the distance, spitting Ke Mingqing’s figure out to plummet straight toward the earth.

Little Red Riding Hood whipped her head around, her eyes widening as she locked onto that figure and blurted out, ”Mr... Blue Pigeon?”

Her hoarse voice reached the others on the car. They froze, then followed her gaze to see Ke Mingqing falling headfirst through the air.

”—A’Qing?!”

Owl Judge blanked for a second before shouting out.

”I’ll catch him!” Little Red Riding Hood gave a low shout, vaulted onto her sleigh, and spurred the reindeer forward, shooting off into the distance.

Not far away, Ke Mingqing clutched his fractured right arm as he hurtled uncontrollably toward the ground.

”Shit, shit, shit!”

The howling wind whipped the boy’s hair upward as crushing air pressure battered every pore on his body. His orange windbreaker billowed high behind him like the tail feathers of a bird.

He had never expected that by the time ”Allegory of the Cave” wore off, the entire Stage Apparatus would have been destroyed by Xia Zili, leaving him with nothing to stand on. Worse still, his D Rank skill ”Rainbow Bubbles” was still on cooldown, and so was ”Theater Puppet,” which meant he couldn’t pull out White Jack’s top hat to use, nor could he blow a bubble to float himself up.

With no way to fly, what else could he do besides fall?

Just then, a flurry of wind and snow blew over from the distance. Throwing both arms in front of his forehead to shield against the air pressure, Ke Mingqing jerked his head around and squinted with one eye.

A girl in a Christmas dress was racing toward him on a sleigh, holding out her hand. Her hair shone like gold in the sunlight, and her eyes were as blue as the sea.

”Little Red Riding Hood?”

Ke Mingqing froze for a moment, then thrust out his left arm with all his might. His index and middle fingers cut through the air and hooked around Little Red Riding Hood’s right hand, and she hauled him up onto the sleigh.

Watching this, Owl Judge quietly breathed a sigh of relief, the taut strings of his nerves finally loosening.

”Thank goodness Mr. Blue Pigeon is all right...” Xi Ziyue stopped mid-sentence.

At that exact instant, the dark-gold figure high in the sky moved. Everyone on the train car, along with the two on the distant sleigh, looked up.

They stared into the distant sky.

”Little... sis?” Ke Mingqing’s lips parted slightly.

The Witch of Finale and Ashes suddenly raised her right arm and slowly reached her right hand toward the giant sun on the horizon. The cross-shaped Umbrella Sword slipped from her grasp.

The massive Umbrella Sword rose slowly until it came to a dead stop right beneath the sun, never shifting position again.

A moment later, the girl’s body rose into the air as well, coming to a slow halt directly in front of the Umbrella Sword for reasons unknown.

The paper ring that had been circling her suddenly constricted—turning into paper chains that bound her figure tightly to the Umbrella Sword.

From afar, the Umbrella Sword looked just like the Cross that held Jesus in the Bible, suspending the girl’s figure high above.

In the ensuing silence, the Witch of Finale and Ashes slowly closed her eyes and hung her head.

Parting her lips slightly, she let out a sigh of despair.

The breath that left her lips carried faint ripples of magic power. Like a sudden rainfall, a damp sensation washed across the heavens, making the heart of every figure on the distant train car clench.

Right after that, an unthinkable scene unfolded. As if wringing the girl’s body dry, dark-gold magic power cascaded out from within her like a waterfall.

Little by little, the magic power enveloped the massive ”Cross.”

Then that expanse of magic power surged outward like a flood, coalescing into a colossal tornado wide enough to sweep across a thousand-meter radius.

At the very eye of the storm, the girl hung motionless, her gaze as hollow as a corpse’s. Behind her, the massive Cross was steadily turning red, as though her own blood were pouring into it.

Thump...

Thump-thump...

Thump-thump-thump...

The Cross trembled slightly, sending out a booming roar like a beating heart. The entire sky shuddered, dimming even the light of the sun.

Right then, Little Red Riding Hood shot back from the distance on her sleigh and came to a stop atop one of the cars of the Space-Time Train.

She and Ke Mingqing climbed off the sleigh, stumbling onto the roof of the car. Their heads were still ringing, yet their eyes remained glued to the sight in the sky.

Cradling Red Lotus’s body, Owl Judge tilted his head back and stared motionless at the dark-blue figure in midair. ”What... is she doing?” he asked hoarsely.

Winter Hunter, Sakurahime, and Little Red Riding Hood all shook their heads, then turned in unison to look at Xi Ziyue and Mizumio Akari.

Xi Ziyue looked up at the girl on the Cross, pondered for a moment, and said in a heavy voice, ”It looks as though she intends to... self-destruct.”

”Self... destruct?” Owl Judge couldn’t understand.

Mizumio Akari fell silent for a moment before speaking. ”Literally. What she’s doing right now is sacrificing every drop of her life force to trigger a self-detonation.”

She paused, lowering her voice. ”A catastrophe triggered by a Dual Crown Name Witch at the cost of her own life will probably bury half of Leijing with her. I don’t even dare imagine how many people will die—”

At her words, everyone atop the car except Xi Ziyue froze.

”But why would she want to do that?” Winter Hunter asked in confusion.

”I don’t know,” Xi Ziyue hesitated, shaking her head.

Owl Judge stared blankly for a moment before a layer of crimson bled into his pupils. He and Ke Mingqing blurted out at almost the exact same time:

”What kind of joke is that?”

”Hey, hey, Xi Ziyue, can you talk some sense?”

”No one is joking with you,” Xi Ziyue said softly. ”If we had a choice, we wouldn’t want to see this happen either. Ember is a very important student to me, and I have been trying hard to protect her all this time.”

She lowered her eyes. ”Sadly, it still came to this—and we cannot stop it. If you have a way, you are more than welcome to try, rather than venting your anger pointlessly.”

Owl Judge’s cheek twitched slightly.

Ke Mingqing froze for a moment, then turned to look at Mizumio Akari.

Mizumio Akari remained silent. She knew full well how terrifying the magic storm raging across the sky was right now; getting anywhere near the Witch of Ashes on that Cross was practically impossible.

Magical Girl Sakurahime took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh before speaking. ”Senior Ember really is something else. How is she still this crazy even after becoming a witch—”

”Are we... done for?” Winter Hunter asked blankly.

Sakurahime shook her head. ”We’re not done for, dummy. Teacher Xi Ziyue can take us away on the Space-Time Train.”

Ke Mingqing clenched his fist, silently pulling a weirdly colored card from his inventory and gripping it in his palm.

Beside him, Little Red Riding Hood had been staring blankly in silence for a long time. Finally, she tore her gaze away from the sky, whipped her head around, and fixed her eyes unblinkingly on Xi Ziyue. ”Teacher Xi Ziyue, is there really no way at all for us to stop Senior?”

Xi Ziyue was silent for a long while before shaking her head, her fine hair fluttering in the wind.

”All we can do now is board the Space-Time Train and take as many people away from here as possible,” the girl in the qipao said softly. ”Forget Little Li—there are countless others we can’t save either. The self-destruction of a Dual Crown Name Witch will kill tens of thousands of people. Buildings and residents within dozens of kilometers will likely be caught in the blast.”

Dead silence fell over the train car.

Above them, the magic storm kept raging across the heavens, the howling gale whipping across everyone’s cheeks and stinging their skin.

Little Red Riding Hood hung her head in silence for a long time. Then she shook her head and said suddenly, ”No, you must have a way.”

Xi Ziyue said nothing.

”Please tell me you still have a way,” Little Red Riding Hood said softly, raising her head.

Xi Ziyue remained silent.

”You’re so strong! You’re the number one magical girl of the modern era, the goal all of us look up to! Until now, no matter what problem came up, you solved it for us! There must be a way this time too, right?” Little Red Riding Hood looked straight into her eyes, practically begging.

Both Owl Judge and Ke Mingqing froze slightly.

The two turned to look at Little Red Riding Hood as the howling gale from the heavens whipped at their figures, making the train cars beneath them creak and groan.

Xi Ziyue stayed silent a while longer. As Little Red Riding Hood watched her, the light in her own eyes gradually dimmed.

The girl in the Christmas dress slowly lowered her head. After a moment, she spoke in a hoarse voice. ”Senior is my friend. I don’t want to watch her die like this, and even more than that, I don’t want to watch her become a sinner—a sinner who kills so many people... So, I’m begging you.”

Complicated expressions crossed the faces of everyone on the car.

Right then, however, Xi Ziyue let out a soft breath and raised eyes as clear as green bamboo.

Looking straight at Little Red Riding Hood, she broke the silence hanging over the roof of the car. ”Indeed, just as you said—I do have one more way. A very extreme way.”

At that, everyone standing atop the train car froze.

Little Red Riding Hood was staring down at the iron plating of the car. It took her a long moment to register the words, and her eyes gradually lit up.

Xi Ziyue paused, then added, ”But the chance is slim. The odds of success are less than one percent.”

Little Red Riding Hood threw her head up, looking into Xi Ziyue’s eyes in earnest. ”It doesn’t matter. No matter how slim the chance is, as long as there’s a possibility of saving Senior, I want to try.”

Mizumio Akari knitted her brows as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, her lips only parted slightly without a sound.

With everyone watching her, Xi Ziyue spoke at an unhurried pace. ”A magical girl’s physique comes with an innate resistance to magic power, and that applies even to a witch’s magic power. If anyone can cross the magic storm overhead and reach Xia Zili, it is only a magical girl.

”However, after the battle of Terminus Night, all of us have almost no magic power left. It is practically impossible to pull off. If we force our way through, we will most likely die a thousand, ten thousand times over on the way before we even get close to Little Li—”

She paused here, shifting her tone. ”However, I have a Magic Card in my possession that can gather the remaining magic power of other magical girls into a single person. That may be the only way to get close to Little Li.”

With that, Xi Ziyue pulled a Magic Card from her card holder. The back of the card was printed with a sky full of stars, while the front bore its name: [Starlight].

Staring at the starlit card in her hand, Ke Mingqing and Owl Judge exchanged a glance. Obviously, neither of them was a magical girl, so they couldn’t use it.

The two brothers turned their gazes toward the magical girls on the car. Winter Hunter and Sakurahime both froze for a moment, saying nothing for a long while.

Mizumio Akari kept her head lowered in silence.

In truth, the moment Xi Ziyue started speaking, she already knew who the final choice would be—Xi Ziyue needed to use the Space-Time Train to evacuate the VIPs of Leijing so they wouldn’t die in the witch’s self-immolation, which meant she couldn’t be the one to take the risk.

As for Sakurahime and Winter Hunter, their magical weapons had zero chance of breaking through the magic storm.

That left only one candidate.

From the very beginning, there had only ever been one choice.

”Please let me go.”

A clear, bright voice broke the dead silence hanging over the train car.

Everyone turned toward the voice. The girl in the Christmas dress took a deep breath and slowly raised her head, her eyes burning like torches. ”Teacher Xi Ziyue—please use the Space-Time Train to evacuate the others from Leijing. That way, even if I fail, at least the others will survive.”

She paused, then added, ”And since Teacher Mizumio Akari’s, Miss Kiyono Sakura’s, and Miss Winter Hunter’s magical weapons aren’t suited for a breakthrough charge, I’m the best person for the job.”

Xi Ziyue stayed silent for a very, very long time before nodding.

”Have you thought this through?” she asked, fixing her gaze on the girl in the Christmas dress to confirm one more time.

Little Red Riding Hood gave a silent nod.

Xi Ziyue studied Little Red Riding Hood’s face quietly for a moment, then said no more. Raising her right arm across her chest, she crushed the glowing card in her hand.

The instant the card shattered, a brilliant light bloomed from the chests of the magical girls atop the car, shooting high into the sky like rising stars and lighting up the darkened heavens.

Magical Girl Xi Ziyue, Mizumio Akari, Sakurahime, and Winter Hunter all half-closed their eyes and bowed their heads, as if offering a prayer for someone.

Then they reached out and rested their hands lightly on the shoulders of the girl in the Christmas dress. Light like the morning stars gradually converged into her body.

After a while, as the glow at the four magical girls’ chests faded, they opened their eyes again and looked at the girl in the Christmas dress. Radiant light was now flowing through Little Red Riding Hood’s body like spring water.

She let out a long breath, then lifted her blue eyes, sweeping her gaze across the faces of the four as she waited quietly for them to speak.

”I’m sorry for making you bear this burden,” Winter Hunter said in a low voice.

”Make sure you bring Senior back, okay? I still have so many things I want to ask her,” Sakurahime said with a faint smile.

”Don’t disappoint me,” Mizumio Akari said, folding her arms and looking slightly away.

”Take care—”

Last was Xi Ziyue, parting her lips to speak softly as her fine hair danced in the wind.

Little Red Riding Hood gave a soft ”Mm” and nodded to them. Then she blew a whistle, and the Christmas Sleigh came hurtling over in a swirl of blizzard, skidding to a halt right beneath her feet.

Right at that moment, someone on the car suddenly spoke up. ”I’m going too.”

The moment the words fell, everyone else atop the car froze. They turned their heads to look at the boy in the orange windbreaker, with Owl Judge staring in the greatest disbelief of all.

Ke Mingqing tucked his fractured right hand into his pocket, doing his best to hide anything amiss. Then he rubbed his nose with his left hand and said casually, ”Little Red Riding Hood’s sleigh can fit more than one person. Everyone already gave their magic power to her, so don’t wear yourselves out. Big bro Judge, you still have to look after Red Lotus, so don’t you fuss either. My injuries are the lightest here, and I know Xia Zili best. I’m her family. I’m the only one who can bring her back.”

Xi Ziyue fell silent, while complex expressions crossed the faces of the other magical girls.

Owl Judge stood frozen on the spot, violent red light flickering across his owl mask.

Little Red Riding Hood blanked for a moment, staring at Ke Mingqing’s face, before letting out a soft laugh.

She raised her eyes and lowered them again, speaking in a quiet voice. ”I think Mr. Blue Pigeon is right. I’m not enough on my own. Even if I make it through the magic storm, I have no way of turning Senior Ember back to normal, so...”

She paused for a moment, turning her head to meet Ke Mingqing’s gaze. ”I need Mr. Blue Pigeon to come with me.”

The two looked at each other quietly for a moment while the others waited for Xi Ziyue to shoot down this foolish proposal.

To their surprise, however, Xi Ziyue’s answer was the exact opposite.

”All right, let’s do that,” she said softly, lifting her eyes to look straight at Ke Mingqing. ”Mr. Blue Pigeon, please bring her back safely with you.”

Right then, Owl Judge finally raised his head. Crimson light flashed in his pupils as he ground out almost word by word in a low voice, ”You—cannot go. Absolutely not.”

Ke Mingqing paused for a second, wondering who was talking, only to shrug it off and laugh once it registered.

Then, shuffling over toward Little Red Riding Hood, he said, ”Save your breath, big bro. No wonder nobody ever celebrates your birthday with you. How can one guy have this little EQ?”

Before he could even finish, a streak of Pitch-Black Moonlight flashed from Owl Judge’s fingertip, slicing a bloody line across Ke Mingqing’s cheek.

In the dead silence, fresh blood trickled slowly down, staining half of Ke Mingqing’s face red. Yet he stood with his head lowered and his face expressionless, as if nothing had happened at all.

Owl Judge stared fixedly at him, erratic Pitch-Black Moonlight coiling around his body and casting flickering shadows over his mask as his cheek twitched slightly.

Ke Mingqing kept his head down in silence for a very long time before raising the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his face. Turning his head, he looked up straight into Owl Judge’s eyes and spoke slowly. ”I promised my little sis—even if one day she really turned into a witch, I’d definitely bring her home.”

Ke Mingqing paused, his voice dropping low. ”So I’m going no matter what. Even if you break my legs, it won’t stop me.”

Staring into the boy’s unnervingly calm eyes, Owl Judge froze on the spot.

In all the years they had grown up together, he had never once seen an expression like that on his younger brother’s face—and a moment later, Owl Judge slowly lowered his head, his shoulders slumping like a dog with its spine pulled out.

Xi Ziyue watched Ke Mingqing’s profile quietly. The boy’s bangs whipped in the wind, his gaze as calm and steady as iron.

”Just like you back then, down to the very look in his eyes...” After a moment, the girl in the qipao curved her lips into a faint smile and spoke up.

In the quiet, she turned her head to look at Owl Judge. ”Mr. Judge, while I can use the Space-Time Train to take all of you away from here, what about everyone else? If we cannot stop Ember’s self-destruction, tens of thousands of people will die after this—I believe there is good reason to let Blue Pigeon try.”

Owl Judge stood motionless with his head bowed, his trench coat snapping loudly in the gale howling down from the sky.

”There isn’t much time left...” Mizumio Akari murmured, her eyes fixed on the outline of the Cross at the center of the storm.

Sakurahime chimed in as well. ”If we hesitate any longer, it’ll be too late.”

Ke Mingqing looked away from Owl Judge’s face.

”Take Third Sis home,” he said softly, glancing at the unconscious Red Lotus.

Owl Judge stayed silent for a very, very long time before suddenly letting out a laugh. Taking a deep breath, he tilted his head and said in a low voice, ”Come back alive—or else your Second Sis will twist my head right off.”

”Who doesn’t know Second Sis is a tigress? Guaranteed I’ll be back—I’m off, big bro.”

Leaving those words behind, Ke Mingqing turned around and walked toward the other end of the car’s roof without looking back.

”Hold on, your arm looks injured,” Xi Ziyue said, walking over to meet him as she pulled the Magic Card ”Firefly” from the sleeve of her qipao.

Ke Mingqing froze.

Halting in his tracks, he bared his teeth in an awkward grin. ”Crap, you even spotted that—” His right hand really was fractured and still tingling with numbness, though he hadn’t dared let anyone know for fear his big brother really wouldn’t let him go.

Owl Judge said nothing, raising a hand to cover his owl mask as he held back the urge to break his little brother’s legs and force him to stay behind.

Little Red Riding Hood stared silently at Ke Mingqing and asked coldly, ”Are you serious? Planning to drag me down with an injury?”

”I just forgot about it, why so serious?” Ke Mingqing muttered, pulling his right hand out of his jacket pocket.

Xi Ziyue crushed the card, and a warm glow drifted down like fireflies, settling over Ke Mingqing’s right arm.

”By the way—if you make it back alive, there is something I want to tell you,” she said suddenly.

”Whoa, hey, people who get told stuff like that usually don’t make it back alive.”

”Please be sure to return safely.”

”Got it, got it—see ya.”

Flexing the fingers of his now fully healed right hand as he spoke, the boy grabbed the edge of the sleigh and vaulted aboard.

Right now, holding the combined magic power of every magical girl present, the antlers of the two reindeer gleamed as bright as the Icelandic aurora. Silence hung over the train car as the biting wind and snow whipped across everyone’s faces.

Little Red Riding Hood looked back one last time at the group on the car, curving her lips into a faint smile. ”We’re off,” she said softly. ”Goodbye, everyone.”

The instant her voice fell, the reindeer kicked off the empty air, stirring up a sky-filling blizzard. In a flash, the sleigh shot forward like a giant snow-white python, and the figures of Ke Mingqing and Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood were quickly swallowed up by the gray-blue magic storm.

The moment they plunged into the storm, the entire world went dark.

Blazing, brilliant magic power like an aurora spread out from the reindeer’s antlers, forming a barrier that shielded the boy and girl on the sleigh.

Ke Mingqing took a deep breath. Everywhere he looked, dark-gold light was surging like a bottomless abyss. Slowly looking away, he fixed his eyes on the massive Cross at the heart of the storm.

One thousand meters...

Nine hundred meters...

Bathed in the aurora, the sleigh tore wildly through the storm. Every time the reindeer stomped on the empty air, they kicked up a sweeping blizzard that blocked the pair’s view.

”You really do love showing off, don’t you...” Little Red Riding Hood said suddenly, covering her nose. ”It was a bit much back on the train.”

”Hey, hey, how can you still talk trash at a time like this?” Ke Mingqing stared in disbelief.

”Can’t help it. Country girls like us just like talking trash when we’re nervous—is that against the rules?” Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head, asking softly.

Ke Mingqing went quiet, keeping his gaze locked straight ahead on the girl on the Cross.

Eight hundred meters...

Seven hundred meters...

As the sleigh pushed deeper toward the eye of the storm, the two reindeer slowed down more and more. Ahead of them, dark-gold magic power flowed like magma, relentlessly eating away at the wind and snow shrouding the sleigh and the aurora-like magic barrier.

On the sleigh, Little Red Riding Hood’s face was expressionless, while Ke Mingqing kept staring quietly at the Cross.

”What happens if you die?” she asked out of nowhere.

”What do you mean, what happens?”

Little Red Riding Hood was silent for a long while before speaking. ”I don’t have any family, you know. I’m an orphan. Only My Lady will remember me—but you still have so much family.”

”Family’s all fake anyway—” Ke Mingqing was already babbling nonsense.

”Heartless two-timer.”

”Is that even how you use the word two-timer?” Ke Mingqing paused, turning his head to glance at the pale face of the girl in the Christmas dress. ”Stop talking for now and save your strength.”

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent for a moment. ”It doesn’t matter. Talking to you makes me feel a little more at ease.”

”Really?” Ke Mingqing asked casually.

”Nope...”

At that moment, the sleigh carried the two of them through a narrow gap in the magic storm. Light and shadow flashed before their eyes, as if they had slipped through a crack in the world.

Six hundred meters...

Five hundred meters...

The closer they got to the Cross at the center of the storm, the more violently the air pressure crushed in from all sides, nearly suffocating them.

By this point, the boy and girl were almost completely swallowed by the churning dark gold. A deafening roar thundered in their ears, yet they could still hear each other’s voices.

”Scared?” Ke Mingqing asked suddenly in the dark.

”Coward. Usually the person asking that is the one who’s scared,” Little Red Riding Hood said offhandedly, her voice raspy.

Ke Mingqing turned his head to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. Not a trace of color remained in her skin, and the aurora barrier enveloping the sleigh was slowly cracking apart.

Five hundred meters...

Four hundred meters...

Three hundred meters.

The Christmas Sleigh kept charging forward, but the light on the reindeer’s antlers had grown terribly dim. Covered in cuts and gashes, their bodies were bleeding freely, and even the wind and snow gathered beneath their hooves was nearly vanishing without a trace.

”All right, this is far enough.”

Ke Mingqing raised an arm in front of his forehead to shield against the gray-blue magic storm blasting his face. ”There isn’t much left of the magic power Xi Ziyue and the others gave you. If you don’t turn back now, you’ll die.”

Little Red Riding Hood kept her eyes lowered in silence for a moment, then shook her head. Her face was frighteningly pale, and a bright red line of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth like red beans dripping onto paper.

”No... If I drop you off here, you’re the one who’ll die,” she said softly.

”You don’t need to worry about me.” Ke Mingqing tightened his grip on the dark card in his hand.

”It’s fine.”

Little Red Riding Hood paused for a beat. ”Actually, I never planned on leaving in the first place.”

”Did you eat garbage and rot your brain?” Ke Mingqing froze, whipping his head around to stare at her profile, his voice hardening. ”You’ll die, you idiot!”

”’Oh, then let’s die together’...” Little Red Riding Hood paused there.

Lowering her eyelashes, she curved her lips into a faint smile. ”That’s what I originally wanted to say to you. Though I felt like saying that might sound a little like a double suicide.”

The girl’s voice was already so hoarse it was barely audible.

Ke Mingqing was about to snap at her, but she quickly cut him off. ”Just to be clear, I don’t want to die in a double suicide with you, and I don’t like you either... Please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m only doing this for Senior Ember.”

Two hundred meters...

One hundred and eighty meters...

One hundred and sixty meters...

”Say.”

”Do you... really not know how hurt My Lady is?” She looked as if she could barely keep her eyes open anymore, her azure eyes half-lidded.

”I know.”

”Then why don’t you do something?”

Ke Mingqing hesitated for a moment before speaking softly. ”Because she’s... a player.”

Beside him, the girl in the Christmas dress froze slightly.

”The Kuroki Hitomi you knew died a long time ago,” Ke Mingqing went on.

”...Since when?” Little Red Riding Hood touched her eyes.

”Three months ago.”

Silence fell over the sleigh. For some reason, Little Red Riding Hood actually seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. After a long while, she curved her lips into a smile. ”Then... I can rest easy.”

”Why?”

”Because... there’s no doubt about it. My Lady over these past three months... is the exact same Lady I’ve always known. She wasn’t replaced by anyone at all. I grew up with her since I was little—I know her better than anyone.”

Ke Mingqing froze, then slowly turned his head away.

”Thank you... for telling me this at the very end. No wonder My Lady has been acting a little strange lately,” the girl in the Christmas dress said softly.

One hundred and forty meters...

One hundred and twenty meters...

The barrier enveloping the sleigh had almost completely shattered. The battered sleigh tore through a bizarre swirl of light and shadow—one moment dark gold, the next a sheet of white snow.

”It’s like walking inside a volcano on a snowy day... Kind of romantic,” Little Red Riding Hood murmured offhandedly.

Ke Mingqing said nothing. Having pushed this deep inside, there was no way the sleigh could ever make it back out. He knew it full well, so he swallowed back the retort rising in his throat.

”A little bit, yeah,” he said softly.

”Right?” The girl in the Christmas dress gave a soft, childlike laugh.

One hundred meters...

Ninety meters...

”By the way... Mr. Blue Pigeon, do you want to hear a secret?” Little Red Riding Hood asked suddenly.

”What secret?” Ke Mingqing asked softly.

He didn’t dare turn his head to look at her anymore. Her body was now as withered and shriveled as a corpse, her skin livid, her mouth smeared with bloody foam welling up from ruptured alveoli.

”Truth is... I actually had a little bit of a crush on you,” she said hoarsely after a moment.

”What do you mean?”

”Hmm... what do I mean?” The girl tilted her head and rested it against the sleigh, fighting to keep her eyelids from closing. ”Maybe it’s... because the two people closest to me kept talking about you all the time... Of course, at first I was really puzzled, wondering what was so great about this guy. Later, after getting to know you, I slowly realized you weren’t so bad—a little better than I imagined... Though... I still don’t think you’re as great as My Lady and Ember say you are.”

She coughed twice. ”So I figured I only had a tiny bit of a fondness for you, not enough to like you the way they do.”

Ke Mingqing fell silent.

”So what am I supposed to say to that...” He thought for a moment. ”Thanks?”

”No... you don’t have to say anything at all. Country kids like us are just like this—nobody cares about us anyway.” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, a dazed smile on her face.

”Idiot.”

”Stop scolding me... I’ve been scolded my whole life... Back in the slums when I was little, too... When we got caught stealing bread, because I was the oldest kid, they only hit me, only scolded me... At the very end, don’t bully me too.”

Listening to the girl’s raspy murmurs, Ke Mingqing lowered his head, his black bangs hiding his eyes.

After a long pause, he said softly, ”I won’t... You’re just an idiot, dumb as hell.”

Little Red Riding Hood coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her lips curved slightly as she rambled in broken gasps, ”I’m not an idiot, I’m just a little nervous, so I’m just... saying whatever pointless stuff comes to mind to distract, distract myself.”

One of the reindeer fell behind. The instant it was swallowed by the dark-gold magic power, it burst into a mist of blood and was obliterated in the storm. In Ke Mingqing’s field of view, the Cross was now terribly close, yet from start to finish, the girl upon it had never once raised her head.

Eighty meters...

Seventy meters...

The sleigh was splitting apart as the last reindeer galloped wildly on, drenched in blood. Beside him, the girl in the Christmas dress seemed to be saying something, but Ke Mingqing could no longer make it out. Her voice was growing fainter and fainter, and every time she tried to speak, the bloody foam in her mouth choked her, keeping her from getting a single full sentence out.

Ke Mingqing stayed silent for a moment before asking her, ”Do you have anything else you want to say?”

”So much... there’s still so much I wanted to say to you... but I don’t have any strength left,” the girl rasped. ”Um... can I ask you for a favor?”

”What favor?”

”My Lady became a player... That means if she doesn’t exterminate the super-human species, she’ll die, right?”

”...Yeah.”

”Oh... Then please... protect her for me.”

The dark-gold magic power had reached its thickest point, like a swamp that would never let go once you sank in. The sleigh had been battered down to a single red wooden plank. Holding the girl’s hand with one of his and gripping the last support board with the other, the boy held on by sheer grit as the air sliced across their bodies like a thousand scythes, opening wound after wound.

”I... might not be able to pull it off,” Ke Mingqing said softly.

”Then that means you’re promising,” the girl said, word by word. ”I know you too well... By the way, earlier... I told you a lie.”

”When?”

”After... we entered the magic storm.”

”Come on, you talked so much trash, how am I supposed to know which line was a lie?”

”Mm, you can take your time guessing later...” Pale and shriveled as a mummy, the girl tilted her head and rested it against his shoulder. ”Goodbye, Mr. Blue Pigeon... Still, I hope you’ll remember me.”

”Fine, fine, fine—you win.”

”It’s a promise?”

”Yeah, it’s a promise.”

At that moment, the sleigh shattered completely, and the last reindeer plunged into the bottomless dark.

All of a sudden, however, a crimson light enveloped Little Red Riding Hood’s body, becoming the brightest light in the world. That magnificent beam shot straight through the clouds, bringing with it a snowfall—a snowfall that blanketed nearly the entire city.

And amid that roaring wind and snow, a colossal Christmas tree appeared high in the sky. Like Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology, every branch of the Christmas tree stretched deep into the clouds, glowing with shimmering lights that illuminated the gray, dreary world.

Over a thousand meters away on the roof of the Space-Time Train, Xi Ziyue watched the scene, her clear eyes widening slightly as her bamboo hair ornament swayed in the wind and snow.

”Little Red Riding Hood...”

She murmured softly.

”What is that?” Winter Hunter pointed at the figure in the sky, while Sakurahime’s eyes went wide as if watching a grand fireworks display.

Mizumio Akari froze too. A moment later, she blurted out in disbelief, ”Could that be... Witchification?”

Owl Judge said nothing.

Amid the blizzard, tens of thousands of little paper figures wearing Christmas top hats held hands in a ring, singing Christmas carols at the top of their lungs. Right in the middle of that eerie circle, a giant figure appeared, wearing a red hat and a red coat just like Santa Claus.

The giant figure of the girl slowly spread her arms, gathering Ke Mingqing into her embrace and carrying him deeper into the magic storm. Ke Mingqing stared blankly up at the top of her head.

[Super-human Species Codename: Christmas Witch (Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood - Witch Form)]

[Danger Rating: S Rank]

Sixty meters...

Forty meters...

Twenty meters...

In that dark-gold world, the giant figure of the Christmas Witch slowly crumbled apart.

Unyielding wind and snow blanketed the way ahead like a lighthouse searchlight, carving out a snow-white path for Ke Mingqing.

Mustering the last of his strength, he leaped forward. In midair, a card materialized in his hand. Crushing it like striking a match to light a cigarette, he heard a cold system prompt chime in his ear.

[Prompt: Consumable item ”One-Time Magical Girl Transformation Card” has been used.]

The next instant, Ke Mingqing’s body was completely swallowed by the dark-gold magic storm. When he came to his senses, he found a dark, gray halo enveloping his body.

He was wrapped inside a cocoon. The cocoon pulsed violently like a beating heart, booming like thunder.

Thump—

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—

With every heartbeat echoing through the cocoon, a head pushed out from inside Ke Mingqing’s body—one moment White Jack, the next Giovanni, then Bai, and then a magical girl whose name he didn’t even know—

Those heads rammed against the very top of the cocoon, pressing the outlines of human faces against the wall. Some were roaring, some laughing wildly, some howling, and some weeping bitterly—

Like a symphony straight out of hell, thick malice poured forth like a flood. And right there in the darkness, Ke Mingqing caught sight of a bizarre super-human species panel.

[Super-human Species Codename: Witch of World Destruction, Reincarnation, and Tyranny (Near-Death Remnant Form)]

[Danger Rating: S++ Rank]

[Description: She is a tyrant in the eyes of all witches, the supreme ruler seated upon the throne, commanding time itself and the most tyrannical power in the world...]