“Construction and destruction, back and forth. Life and death, taking turns. The forging of all things—”

That was Aphrodite’s final Magic Spell. The Eye Orb in her left eye socket seemed to answer her wish, erupting with unprecedented energy. In only a dozen seconds, that energy covered the entire Twelfth District.

The Eye Orb began to expand at terrifying speed. It grew until it could blot out the sun in the heavens, yet that still didn’t seem to be its limit.

The Eye Orb gazed down coldly at everything in the Twelfth District. In its sight, Night Frost and the others were no more than ants.

Reflected in the Eye Orb, the air, earth, stones, and even some weaker lifeforms were being forged together with that immense energy into a Magic Tool that could envelop the entire Twelfth District.

*We can’t let that Eye Orb finish its forging!*

The thought burst into Night Frost’s mind.

She believed it was the right choice. She had to act. Who knew what that Eye Orb would create?

The Zone Fifteen Guardian and Thunder Slash understood this as well. They both unleashed all their Mana, determined to destroy the forging process.

“Unlock.”

“Black Flame.”

“Dragon Transformation.”

“Array Pattern, bind!”

Patterns formed from Black Flame crawled across Night Frost’s entire body. Under the influence of the Black Flame, they looked especially deep and twisted.

At that moment, Night Frost resembled an envoy of calamity—or some great evil that had crawled out of the Abyss.

A pitch-black Spear hovered before her chest, also covered in Array Patterns. Black flames spread outward without restraint, intent on devouring everything around them.

“Inferno burns all!”

Night Frost swung the Spear in her hand.

The Spear, black as ink, seemed to come alive. An eerie light flickered across it in the gloom.

She gathered all her strength and thrust forward.

The Spear tore through the air with a sharp whistle, shooting straight toward the rapidly expanding Eye Orb.

Its tip touched the membrane on the Eye Orb’s surface.

The instant they collided, dazzling sparks exploded. The sparks sank into the Black Flame forming the Spear, feeding the flames even further.

The Black Flame coiled around the Eye Orb.

It seemed not to care about the membrane covering its surface. It leaped straight over it and scorched the Eye Orb itself.

The Eye Orb recoiled in pain and quickly closed its eye. Then it plunged straight down from the sky.

Even though Night Frost had dealt with the Eye Orb in the air, the forging had not ended.

Night Frost had reacted quickly, but she seemed to have been a step too late. The forging had already reached its final stage.

The heavens turned utterly dim. A darkness that had appeared without warning completely swallowed the sky.

The ground beneath their feet began to collapse, revealing a spiraling staircase with no end in sight—and darkness so deep that its bottom could not be seen.

Everyone around them began to fall, plunging into that boundless darkness.

Night Frost gritted her teeth. Controlling the pitch-black Spear, she pushed forward with every ounce of her strength, trying to shatter the dark “sky” above them.

“Break open for me!!”

The moment her voice fell, the ground beneath Night Frost also shattered.

She ignored the darkness behind her, which pulled and dragged at her body. She focused every bit of her mind on the pitch-black Spear she had created.

Points of silver appeared before Night Frost’s chest. They gathered into a single strand of silver thread.

The thread looked light and fragile, yet it could pierce through the black barrier!

The Black Flame answered Night Frost’s expectations as well. Strands of flame squeezed into the hole pierced by the silver thread, burning both the interior and the shell of the enormous Magic Tool.

“Just a little more…”

Night Frost condensed another Crimson Gold Lance.

Just as she was about to throw it, a woman’s voice came from behind her.

A bright golden bolt of lightning burst from the darkness behind Night Frost.

It was Thunder Slash.

Thunder Slash was also carrying a white-haired girl in her arms.

Night Frost knew that girl very well.

“Gather all the Mana in your Magic Armor into the weapon you’ve created. Then you can unleash an extremely powerful strike.”

“I don’t know what happened before or after this, but I believe that, as a dragon, you should be able to withstand the backlash from an ‘Unlocked’ weapon.”

Night Frost didn’t know Thunder Slash, but her words seemed to make some sense.

Thunder Slash had been fighting two members of 【Cantata Three】 earlier. Now, all of them were trapped inside the Magic Tool.

Night Frost chose to trust her.

“Release the Unlock, then Unlock it again. Draw out your Mana and gather it into the Spear in your hand!”

As Thunder Slash spoke, she began chanting the Unlock Magic Spell. But halfway through, she gathered all her Mana into a strand of lightning in her palm.

Night Frost imitated her as best she could.

Thunder Slash helped guide the flow of Mana through Night Frost’s body. After Night Frost released the Unlock, she chanted the Magic Spell again and poured all her Mana into the Crimson Gold Lance condensed in her palm.

“It feels a little heavier than before. More solid, too… But it doesn’t seem much stronger.”

“That’s because you only just learned it.”

Thunder Slash gestured for Night Frost to throw the Lance.

Illusory Glass cast a time-acceleration effect on Night Frost’s weapon. Under her enhancement, the Crimson Gold Lance became a streak of afterimage and slammed into the rear end of the pitch-black Spear.

In that instant, the pitch-black Spear was blasted apart by the Crimson Gold Lance Night Frost had condensed.

But the Crimson Gold Lance did not slow down. With unstoppable force, it struck the hole pierced by that strand of silver light…

Cracks like a spiderweb spread downward from the black dome.

They quickly covered the entire space.

Blinding sunlight pierced through the cracks from outside.

Night Frost swung the hand that had transformed into a dragon claw. She easily tore through the barrier before her.

The endless corridor stretching downward and the bottomless darkness were split open by Night Frost just like that.

The sensation of falling into the depths vanished.

The earth had not collapsed. The sun in the sky had not been devoured by darkness.

Night Frost stood on the ground, then her legs gave out. She dropped into a sitting crouch.

The black scales covering her body withdrew. She released her Unlocked form.

First, she had fought Blood. Then she had dealt with the limb controlling the Blood Mist and stealing the Key.

After that, she had pursued the members of 【Cantata Two】 who had picked up the Key. Then came her battle with Aphrodite, followed by using all her strength to shatter the Magic Tool she had forged with her own life.

At this moment, Night Frost’s Mana was completely exhausted.

She wasn’t the only one.

Thunder Slash, who had fought two opponents alone, and the Zone Fifteen Guardian nearby had both exhausted their Mana as well.

The Zone Fifteen Guardian lay on the ground, her chest rising and falling slightly.

“I hope I made the right choice.”

“I don’t know what we’ll become, but I promise this: if we can save one, we’ll save one.”

Now that she had made a contract, Night Frost would naturally keep her word.

But not now.

The Key had not been recovered yet, and the crisis in the Twelfth District had not been resolved.

Zhao Qingsnow and the others sprinted across the ruins.

Ever since Moon Owl had closed the spatial passage, they could no longer enjoy its convenience.

“How are these people moving so fast?”

Zhao Qingsnow clutched the Key.

They had spent quite a bit of Mana, but they had finally caught sight of the backs of the black-robed Seekers.

Yet the moment the Seekers saw the people from the Twelfth District, they sped up even more.

Even after exhausting a great deal of Mana, Zhao Qingsnow and the others still couldn’t catch them.

“I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”

Qianchun charged ahead.

The wind made her body light. She crossed each stride as though it were two.

Not only that, but the wind pushed against Qianchun’s back. It truly helped her catch up with the Seeker ahead!

But at that moment, darkness fell over the heavens of the Twelfth District.

The pressure radiating from that enormous Eye Orb made everyone stop. They all turned to look.

Darkness covered the sky.

The earth beneath their feet began to collapse.

Everyone fell toward the abyss below, including the Seekers.

Qianchun grabbed the corner of the black-robed woman’s clothes. She fell alongside her target.

Grimacing through clenched teeth, Qianchun swung a Blade of wind through the weightlessness and pierced the woman’s chest.

Her movements flowed like water. They seemed engraved into her body.

Before she joined Aklatia—three months earlier—this had been her job.

Although she had been unable to fight these past few months and had instead done clerical work, that didn’t mean she had let herself grow lax.

She easily sliced off the woman’s head.

Yet even in death, the woman could still swing her fist.

The punch carried considerable force, but that small amount of pain could not make Qianchun release her robes.

Qianchun pulled the Seeker in front of her closer and carefully checked her tightly clenched hand.

There was nothing inside.

The Key wasn’t with her.

“It’s not her!”

Qianchun turned her gaze toward the other Seekers.

Feeling the Mana inside her body nearing its limit, she began chanting a Magic Spell. She intended to leave every black-robed woman behind.

But the Seekers weren’t unaware of her intentions.

They moved even faster, arriving around Qianchun in a flash.

They all used the same opening stance. Their movements were perfectly synchronized.

Mana swirled around their arms as they swung, sending streaks of silver light toward Qianchun.

Qianchun had no choice but to stop chanting the Magic Spell and raise a pure-white shield.

The silver light sliced through the shield with little resistance.

Just as it was about to strike Qianchun, a figure tackled her out of the way.

“Are you all right?”

Qiu Sheng gripped her longsword and guarded Qianchun like a knight.

Several new wounds covered her body. She hadn’t managed to evade all the silver light.

“You moved pretty fast. You juniors, stand back and watch.”

“What true composure from the older generation looks like!”

Zhao Qingsnow and the Old Woman stood in front of Qiu Sheng and Qianchun.

The moment they finished speaking, the pitch-black sky was torn open.

After a wave of dizziness, everyone found themselves standing on the ground again.

The Seekers seemed barely affected. They continued sprinting into the distance.

Zhao Qingsnow took two deep breaths, suppressing the nausea in her chest, and chased after them.

The Old Woman, meanwhile, clutched her back.

The shaking just now had been too violent. She had wrenched her waist.

Qianchun looked at the Old Woman with concern and helped her to her feet.

She gestured for Qiu Sheng to go on ahead. She would catch up later.

Before Qiu Sheng left, Qianchun sent a gentle breeze after her, allowing her to run faster.

“Are you all right…?”

“It’s just… my waist. I twisted it. Nothing serious.”

Qianchun recalled what the Old Woman had just said:

*You juniors, stand back and watch. This is what true composure from the older generation looks like!*

She quickly covered her mouth to hide her smile.

“I’ll help you back.”

“Back? Keep chasing them! Don’t worry about me. The Twelfth District matters more than I do.”

After the Old Woman’s urging, Qianchun stopped being coy and hurried after the others.

The Old Woman supported herself with Mana and found a corner of the wall to lean against and rest.

“People… really do grow old…”

(Note: The latest retirement age for a Magic Maiden is seventy.)