Su Fang widened her eyes, staring at Tang Keren, whose face had flushed completely, and at the calm-looking red magical girl, and finally understood what was going on.

So that was why... when she had met Senior Mengmengxiang before, she had acted like that?

Tang Keren inhaled deeply, suddenly straightened her expression, and glared at Lin Guang angrily, “That’s why you never listen.”

“Time after time, you bawl about being scared while stubborn as a mule, and you even used your real name as your code name, which made everyone at school look at us weirdly…”

“I’ve told you countless times, the seniors ten years ago saved you from that monster attack. The Sacred Tree gave you a Soul Gem, not to send you back to die again. So if your performance isn’t up to par, even if I have to break your hands and feet, I will make you stay—”

Lin Guang suddenly spoke up, “Thank you.”

“!!!”

She looked at Tang Keren’s face and said softly, “So I definitely won’t hold you back.”

Tang Keren’s hand, which had been wiping her forehead, froze. After more than ten seconds she reacted, pulling her hand back as if shocked by an electric jolt, “Idiot! Big idiot!”

At the same time, Airwen leaned against the tree, listening to the girls’ words and gazing off slightly.

............

The fifty-sixth trial.

Outer Realm.

The peak of a huge mountain.

Crack, crack, crack...

The massive spherical barrier smashed apart with a roar, revealing the scene inside the domain.

The air reeked of scorched smells, violet arcs of electricity dancing among the shattered walls.

The bearer of the third Fragment of Hope, a mid-level Nightmare Seed, a witch who commanded thunder and lightning, let out a shrill scream.

Her body was encased in dazzling blue crystals like a ceremonial dress, but the skin of her exposed head and limbs was pure raging electrical current. Under Zihan’s scythe, which slashed like a phantom, she kept retreating.

The crystals shattered, and the body formed of raw electrical current became increasingly exposed.

Ah!!!

Seemingly realizing she was cornered, amid cries like a thousand birds, several roaring thunder beasts condensed around her again, forcing Zihan into mist form to evade, then splitting off to pounce in every direction.

Not only that, a torrential downpour of lightning descended from the sky, swirling around her.

The silver-haired magical girl swung her longsword in layers upon layers. Phantom silver swords, like afterimages, cut the air with dreamlike radiance.

Several thunder beasts were instantly trapped by a massive circular formation, unable to break free in the swordlight, slowly worn down to nothing.

Dense pink stars and heart-shaped barrages howled forth, interweaving with the overwhelming tide of blue bullets.

Su Fang and Tang Keren almost simultaneously unleashed their maximum firepower.

But this was only a cover.

All of that fire was to protect the figure at the very front, like a crimson comet, colliding with the lightning in the sky.

The crimson magical girl had already charged straight into the witch’s attack zone.

At that moment, the fluctuations of her magic power had become ferocious beyond words, the Spirit Outfit field had almost fully materialized, like a flaming mantle draped over the girl, leaping and dancing with seemingly independent sentience.

Yet every time she swung the staff, every dodge, every flight and landing for momentum was executed with razor-sharp precision.

[Spirit Outfit Mastery · Activating the Spirit Outfit], full activation.

Sidestep.

Thrust.

Then—

A downward strike!

While pulling the trigger, Su Fang’s peripheral vision swept over the figure at the center of the battlefield.

Her microphone was used like a heavy staff, smashing into the witch’s torso with unstoppable force. The staff’s tip burst into blazing light, dispersing the increasingly violent lightning that resembled a pool of thunder.

“Amazing...”

A glow of astonishment flickered in Su Fang’s blue pupils.

Even though the two sides’ magic power differed so drastically, why did that red figure exude such brutal, extreme pressure, relentlessly chasing the witch?

So strong...

Both beautiful and badass...

With Lin Guang’s final strike of the crimson staff, everyone’s magic power, guided together, converged into a destructive torrent that utterly engulfed the witch.

Boom—!

The witch’s body shattered with a crash, turning into scattered sparks of lightning.

The battle was over.

They stood on the rubble, chests heaving, sweat streaming down their faces.

Magic power nearly drained, fatigue rolled in like a tide.

But that wasn’t the key point.

The important thing was none of the girls bled—there wasn’t a single wound on any of them.

“We... really did it?”

Su Fang looked at her intact Spirit Outfit, her arm trembling slightly from excessive firing, “This was a mid-level Nightmare Seed... we defeated it with everyone uninjured?”

“This feels like a dream...”

Tang Keren panted heavily, the proud air she usually wore gone from her face, “Monsters of that rank would usually seriously injure anyone who even grazed them... I thought someone’d hit Full Bloom.”

Tang Keren knew the terror of Nightmare Seeds well.

Just three days earlier, when they had first set out on the expedition, encountering even a mere low-level Nightmare Seed would almost certainly lead to the whole team’s annihilation.

And now they had beaten a mid-level Nightmare Seed without a scratch?

Plus there was one more Sacred Tree blessing upcoming, which meant...

All of this felt unreal.

Zihan quietly wiped the sweat from her forehead, saying nothing. Her gaze toward Lin Guang was filled with unprecedented trust.

Lin Guang looked at everyone and nodded slightly.

Fifty-six trials.

Countless deaths and resets had been traded for this flawless coordination.

No.

It was more accurate to say it was the perfect coordination guided by her and Airwen together.

“Perhaps...”

Su Fang tightened her twin guns, excitement and determination shining in her eyes, “If we keep this up, maybe we really can... recover all the Fragments of Hope in one go!”

If that happened,

the chime of wind, the fate of humanity,

might...

............

Twelve hours later.

Rumble—rumble—

It felt as if the sky itself trembled.

A massive upper-level Nightmare Seed, like a giant starfish, hovered above. Its body was pitch black, with tentacles radiating from the main limbs patterned in dizzying geometric designs like a kaleidoscope.

That huge form drifted in the sky, becoming a canopy that blotted out the heavens.

A crushing pressure pressed down on everyone, slowing their movements to a crawl.

Worse, it opened its central maw right in front of them. The deep black energy core at its center ravenously devoured the surrounding black fog, even warping and swallowing light itself.

Without doubt, a cataclysmic attack was about to erupt.

And everyone could do nothing but brace under that immense pressure.

“!!!”

Zihan reflexively reached for her eye shield.

She wanted to Full Bloom!

Yet a promise she had made to a dear friend flashed through her mind, causing her hand to falter.

And at that instant,

a brilliant red meteor suddenly surged upward through the pressure.

Then...

It charged straight at the black core about to erupt from the monster’s maw!

Boom—!

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