It was a gigantic black lizard with spiked fangs. Black scales rippled all over its body, and bright cyan light shone from beneath them. The monster had grown from a little over ten meters tall to more than thirty, and a red horn about half a meter long had sprouted from its head. But none of that was the point. The real problem was the immense pressure it exuded. It was as if even the flow of magic had become difficult, and everything within a certain radius seemed affected by the “domain” it carried with it.

Qu Mengting frantically requested reinforcements from headquarters. They responded quickly, but Tianhai City was a long way away, and even the nearest S-Rank Magical Girl would need more than ten minutes to arrive. With every second counting, they wouldn’t last long—not even three minutes—with just their few team members and one A-Rank Magical Girl rushing over from the neighboring city.

After exchanging code names and the most basic information, the group temporarily put Starlight in charge as their combat leader.

Starlight was the A-Rank Magical Girl who’d just rushed over from the neighboring city. Just as her code name suggested, her white skirt, pinned-up black hair, and even the heels of her shoes were decorated with shining stars. She was about the same build as Lu Wanxin, but her looks leaned more toward a mature woman than a young girl.

“Jade Light, Mianmian, protect the surrounding buildings! Tianyuan, Lihua, Pink Jade—help me attack its eyes!”

Starlight flung a series of black spheres that hit the monster’s eyes with pinpoint accuracy, then she and the other three surrounded it. Unfortunately, her attacks didn’t seem to hurt the Returning Sea Demon Lizard. If anything, they only enraged it.

Without so much as a moment to charge up, it unleashed a breath of cyan light from its enormous, fang-filled maw. The blast struck the exact spot where Starlight had just been standing. Fortunately, she’d anticipated the monster’s attack and dodged at the last possible moment.

The breath tore through the sky and blasted a huge hole through the clouds. Bai Xiaoxiao was already sweating profusely. This was the first time in her life she’d faced such a powerful enemy. One mistake, and she might not make it through the night.

“Pink Jade! Lihua! Try a binding spell—see if you can hold it for a second or two!”

“Got it!”

Bai Xiaoxiao thrust out both hands and cast a spell. When her magic touched the ground, it turned the earth beneath the monster into a swamp. At the same time, Lihua worked with her, summoning enormous branches from the mire to bind the monster’s ankles. But before even a second had passed, the Returning Sea Demon Lizard roared. A laser shot from its back nearly hit Bai Xiaoxiao, then it stomped hard. The swamp shattered and collapsed like glass, and the entire forest plunged downward at incredible speed. The monster stood steady on an air barrier it had created beneath its feet. Its vicious gaze fixed on Bai Xiaoxiao. It seemed to know that her attacks were powerful, but that she lacked real combat experience—and planned to take her out first.

“Pink Jade, watch out!”

The attack, coming from point-blank range, scorched Bai Xiaoxiao’s outfit. Even the magic-empowered fabric was easily torn at the hem. Fortunately, she could teleport fast. Otherwise, that laser breath would’ve killed her.

Starlight didn’t bother coordinating with the others. After taking a deep breath, she summoned a scythe about one and a half meters long—almost as tall as she was. An ominous purple aura radiated from its blade. She rapidly channeled magic into it, and the purple scythe grew enormous. Once she was ready to attack, she gave the others a look.

“Atomic Hundredfold Slash!”

It was an attack that could slice through a monster of the same rank with ease. Starlight had really used it to cut down an A-Rank monster before. She struck the same spot over a hundred times in an instant, certain that even an A-Rank monster would die beneath her blows.

The cost was roughly a month of her lifespan. It was an enhanced skill obtained from her contracted spirit.

Miracles and magic weren’t free. Not only were they not free—the price was steep.

After swinging her scythe hundreds of times, the monster’s position was completely obscured by a mist of blood splattered from its body.

The air reeked of blood. Starlight was about to use her magic to sense whether the monster was really dead when a black laser swept across the sky and struck the group in midair. Starlight reacted fastest. She raised a barrier and used her Spatial Leap ability to save three of them, but the barrier shattered, and the tremendous recoil sent her flying several kilometers away.

Bai Xiaoxiao was lucky. She’d been closest to Starlight and was the first one Starlight saved. Jade Light and Lihua were unharmed, too.

But the other two hadn’t had time to react. A cloud of blood burst into the air, and they plummeted straight to the ground.

“Senior?!”

Bai Xiaoxiao couldn’t tell whether it was Tianyuan or Mianmian. She teleported to her side, hoping to heal her and check her condition. The monster seemed to have been waiting for this moment. It predicted where Bai Xiaoxiao would appear—or maybe it had simply intended to finish off the Magical Girl its attack had already caught. Either way, Bai Xiaoxiao appeared right in the path of its attack and paid the price.

In that instant, a white-and-cyan laser came rushing straight at her. Her mind couldn’t react to the attack in time. All she could see was the cyan-white glow of death.

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. Maybe that was what was happening now.

It was as if the world around her had fallen silent. Time froze in that single second.

Bai Xiaoxiao stared blankly at her past. A year ago, she’d suddenly been chosen to become a Magical Girl. She’d been overjoyed and signed the contract without hesitation, paying twenty years of her lifespan to become one.

After that, Captain Qu Mengting of Tianhai City sensed her. When Qu Mengting invited her, she successfully joined Tianhai City’s Magical Girl team.

On the surface, she worked as a trainee idol. In secret, she was a Magical Girl protecting all of Tianhai City.

She’d fought twice in the past six months. Both times, she’d faced low-rank monsters that weren’t even B-Rank. When she first joined, her strength had already tested at A-Rank. Even headquarters thought it was a miracle.

The highest rank a newly contracted Magical Girl had ever reached was B-Rank. Xiaoxiao was the first of her kind—a pioneer without precedent.

She’d once dreamed of living that way forever, surrounded by endless possibilities. Chatting with her friends every day, taking on missions to deal with monsters that couldn’t hurt her. For a moment, she’d truly believed it would last forever.

Time began to flow again. More accurately, Bai Xiaoxiao’s life had finished flashing before her eyes. Next, she’d probably have to face her own death.

Haha. So she’d only been fooling herself. If you were a Magical Girl, all kinds of dangers were bound to come with the job.

If she could die protecting the people of this country, that wouldn’t be such a bad ending.

Then… goodbye, world.