First District.

The vast region was covered in intricate Array Patterns. Not a trace of life remained within it.

Only the surging black mud rolled and churned. With every heave, muffled snarls rose from within it. Each roar left anyone who drew near trembling with fear and dread.

This had once been a beautiful region. Its Guardian had been diligent and devoted, and its people had lived in peace.

Then a pool of black mud accidentally “slipped” out through a crack.

Because of its nature, it was extremely difficult to kill.

It could corrode anything it touched and turn it into the swamp that formed its body. With almost no natural enemy, it began to grow and spread like mad.

Until at last…it covered the entire First District.

Its growth was extraordinary. Before long, it reached a realm most Magic Maidens could never touch in their entire lives—

【Cantata Three】.

The First District’s residents discovered the enormous muddy body and reported it to the local branch.

The branch mobilized every available force to eliminate the monster. They gave it a name:

“The Mud King.”

The purge against the Mud King failed.

The First District branch was nearly wiped out. Even the Guardian’s intervention couldn’t stop the Mud King from spreading outward.

So the First District called for outside assistance.

Three 【Cantata Three】 users and fourteen 【Cantata Two】 users joined forces. Yet they still couldn’t kill it.

Thus, the First District’s Guardian announced that the district would be abandoned. Everyone was to evacuate.

One 【Cantata Three】 specialist in sealing magic joined forces with the others and established a massive sealing formation around the First District, locking the Mud King firmly inside.

Everyone estimated that the Mud King would need fifty years to break through the seal.

They had fifty years to grow stronger.

By then, they hoped they would have found a way to eradicate the Mud King completely.

But would they truly have fifty years?

After the Mud King devoured every visible thing within the First District, it eventually found the sealed Key.

And the door that concealed the unknown.

It spent more than a decade corroding one corner of that door.

At last, a single drop of the Mud King fell beyond the sealed doorway—

And landed upon the pulsing lung.

The lung began to resist.

Metal might pierce the Mud King, but it couldn’t kill that single drop of muddy water. It could only allow the water to keep corroding it.

In the end, the drop fused completely with the lung.

The lung, now transformed into liquid, crawled through the crack and merged entirely with the Mud King’s enormous body.

The Mud King of the First District was pushed to a height it had never reached before.

It gently struck the sealing formation imprisoning it.

Then, with ease, it broke through the curtain of light in the sky.

More than twenty years had passed.

At last, it could stretch its body without restraint and spread toward the distant reaches of the First District.

A silver figure tore across the sky.

A girl in a pure white dress floated silently above the Mud King. She raised her slender hand, and the surrounding Mana transformed into pure-white chains under her control.

“Chains of Order.”

The chains pierced through the Mud King, yet failed to harm it in the slightest.

The Mud King sensed the massive Mana within the girl. The mud forming its body spread flat, transforming into a huge mouth capable of devouring everything.

It intended to swallow the girl whole.

“Expansion: Forbidden.”

The instant the girl spoke, spiderweb-like cracks spread across her body.

Blood burst from the wounds.

Yet she only knitted her brows slightly and stared at the Mud King without a trace of emotion.

No matter how it struggled, the Mud King could no longer expand outward.

It seemed to have been sealed behind an invisible curtain of light. It thrashed wildly in place.

“Mission complete.”

Inside the laboratory, tens of thousands of girls with appearances identical to hers turned into piles of dry bones the instant her voice fell.

The researchers removed the test subjects from the incubation chambers and began cultivating new ones.

An aged woman watched everything in silence.

But when she looked at the white-haired girl on the screen, an unprecedented fervor appeared on her face.

“There are still a few flaws…but once we take that step…”

She turned around.

Behind her stood an uninvited guest with a pair of scarlet eyes. Her slender fingers toyed with strands of jet-black hair, while her other hand held a cup of milk tea.

She sipped a scarlet liquid from it.

“My clone died. Someone killed her.”

Blood showed no courtesy at all. She found a chair and sat down, treating herself as though she were the owner rather than a guest.

The old woman’s expression shifted slightly.

Although the clone wasn’t as powerful as Blood herself, she still possessed the strength of 【Cantata Three】.

With Hrubess, Aphrodite, and the Zone Fifteen Guardian, four 【Cantata Three】 users had joined forces.

And yet Blood’s clone had still been killed?

“Did a new 【Cantata Three】 appear in the Twelfth District?”

Otherwise, the old woman couldn’t believe that Moon Owl alone could withstand the assault of four 【Cantata Three】 users.

“The Twelfth District really is a wonderful place. So many 【Cantata Three】 users can be born there…”

“Even after suffering such a devastating blow, it can still find a trace of hope in the depths of despair. How miraculous…”

Blood slit her own wrist and suspended a mass of blood before the old woman.

Blood didn’t need to say anything. The old woman already knew what she wanted.

The old woman walked to an incubation chamber and gestured for Blood to place her blood inside.

“A new clone will be finished in a month. I truly envy your blood.”

Blood’s blood was rich in Mana. Once separated from her body, it could be preserved for a long time without special treatment.

As long as enough of her blood remained outside, Blood could reconstruct herself after her main body died.

Blood had sought out the old woman because of this unique property.

She used Blood’s blood to cultivate more of it, then transferred part of her soul through a Magic Tool and copied her memories.

That was how she created so many clones.

“If Order were like you, she probably wouldn’t have been killed, would she?”

Blood spread her hands.

If that abnormal woman possessed blood and a physique like hers, how would she be any different from a god?

Blood understood the limitations of Order’s magic very well.

To change a person required a far greater price than changing the environment.

“In the end, she’s only human. No matter how powerful her magic is, how many times can she use it? When I found her, she was already at the end of her strength.”

Blood suddenly thought of something, and a smile touched the corners of her eyes.

“You analyzed my blood before. Why haven’t you used it in your own creations?”

“Leaving aside the rejection reaction, your blood can indeed improve a creation’s durability and strength. But it still can’t let them draw upon the Magic Stone’s power multiple times.”

“We chose a more practical method. We transferred the cost of using the Magic Stone onto other creations, allowing them to bear it instead.”

The old woman couldn’t find a better solution.

She could only use overwhelming numbers to achieve a qualitative change in their abilities.

“The number of creations we have left is enough to inflict irreversible damage upon this planet.”

“But we only have one chance. Once they use it, every creation here will die.”

“That’s quite impressive. Your creations have already touched the realm of the ‘Ultimate,’ haven’t they?”

“I have one more question. If your creation possessed a dragon’s body, how many times could it use its abilities?”

Blood had secretly gone to the Twelfth District when her clone was killed.

Aphrodite had created the Endless Corridor, intending to erase the Twelfth District from the world.

But Blood had witnessed a flash of silver light tear through that endless corridor.

Close behind it came a figure surrounded by Black Flame.

Blood happened to recognize that Black Flame.

And she recognized that silver radiance as well.

It was only a guess, but could she have been Order’s hidden trump card?

After all, half of the Magic Stone was still missing…

“That Black Dragon? With its body, it should be able to reach the level you described.”

“But I believe she’ll die as well.”

Blood nodded.

She had a rough idea of Night Frost’s limits.

It seemed that obtaining the Twelfth District’s Key would require some effort after all.

“You saw that, didn’t you, Crimson?”

Azure held up a tablet near the prison.

The screen showed the silver-haired girl using magic to seal the Mud King.

At the center of the prison, iron locks covered in Array Patterns wrapped around Crimson’s body.

She didn’t struggle.

She knew very well that without the Magic Stone, she had no power to break free from the garment she wore.

Nor could she escape the iron locks binding her limbs.

Azure had specifically asked the Fourth District Guardian to make that garment.

The clothing she created possessed various properties, including—but not limited to—restricting a person’s strength and magic.

“That was…Order?”

Crimson stared at the figure on the screen in disbelief.

“No. It isn’t her. She’s already dead.”

Azure’s next words made Crimson’s body tremble violently. For a long while, she couldn’t calm herself.

“Yes. She died at the hands of Blood and me.”

“Why?”

Crimson thought of many things in that instant.

But in the end, only one question escaped her lips.

“Why?”

She still couldn’t accept it.

Azure and Blood had fought beside her for so long. How could they have turned against their own teammate?

“Because you two were in the way!”

Azure pointed at the mechanical device strapped to her leg. Fury and resentment surfaced in her eyes.

“You were both geniuses of magic, while I could only use machinery to close the gap between us!”

“Without this thing, I can’t even release magic properly!”

Crimson remembered what had happened back then.

Azure’s Mana-release device had been corroded by the Mud King. After the three of them linked their Mana, Azure had left.

At the time, she had told Crimson that her device was broken and that she could no longer fight alongside them.

“Without that device, I couldn’t even defeat a clone of the Mud King.”

“After losing to its clone, I kept wondering how I could grow stronger. What method could I use to catch up with you?”

“Then Blood found me. She told me she had a way to increase my strength.”

“She took me to Order—the pure-white girl.”

“Order didn’t agree to my request. She only said, 【Only knowledge can bring you change.】”

“I won’t deny it. Because of knowledge, I created this Wand and gained the ability to fire Magic Cannons without restraint.”

“But it still wasn’t enough!”

“That ability was completely useless against that Black Dragon. Its scales blocked every Magic Cannon I fired.”

Azure recalled that day.

Everyone had joined forces to fight the Calamity Dragon.

Her Magic Cannons had barely damaged the Black Dragon. Its glossy black scales blocked them all.

“After that day, Blood came to me. She said:”

【Order can make you stronger, but she simply doesn’t want to pay the price…】

【All we need to do is let the disobedient Order die, then create a new Order in her place…】