Southern Desert Fortress, Inner World.
Xia Naxin gazed at the shattered remains of the information nexus, a silent question forming in her mind: ‘Surely, all communications have been severed now?’ Her next objective was to cripple the core magic reactor.
Suddenly, the sky above was abruptly stained a chilling, eerie green, as a dense volley of arrows poured down from the churning, twisted clouds. Xia Naxin’s heart lurched. Instinctively, she sought to leverage her superior speed to escape the arrow rain’s deadly reach. Yet, the arrows seemed to have locked onto her, impossible to shake. They arced through the air, relentless in their pursuit.
Left with no other choice, Xia Naxin halted, her will manifesting a faintly glowing square shield which she raised above her head. Immediately, fine cracks began to spiderweb across the shield’s edges—
Just then, a chilling glint of steel tore through the air from her side! An unfamiliar female spirit materialized beside her, a butterfly knife in her hand glinting with a cold, sharp light, aimed directly at Xia Naxin’s waist and abdomen.
‘Damn it…’
Xia Naxin’s pupils constricted, a silent alarm ringing in her mind. However, being a soul entity, she possessed the power of ideation—to create with her will—and to alter her own form. Instantly, she underwent a transformation—two additional arms burst forth from her shoulders, clamping down tightly on the assailant’s wrists…
As the arrow rain ceased, Xia Naxin finally got a clear look at her attacker. It was a young girl with medium-short hair and wispy bangs, almost transparent in her spirit form, her figure flickering in and out of view. Compared to Xia Naxin’s more solidified, semi-transparent soul body, she appeared significantly weaker.
The woman clearly hadn’t anticipated her surprise back attack being so easily thwarted, a flicker of astonishment crossing her eyes. Immediately, she pushed off Xia Naxin’s shoulder with the tip of her foot, using the momentum to spring away. Simultaneously, her other hand formed into a palm, striking with fierce force towards Xia Naxin’s chest, seemingly aiming to assault… her breast? No, it was more likely a feint to attack her vitals, using the contact as leverage…
Xia Naxin sidestepped, and the two women passed each other in mid-air. Upon landing, the woman stood firmly atop the remnants of the information nexus, casually flicking her wrist. The butterfly knife spun deftly between her fingers, emitting a crisp, metallic clink.
“Well, well. My sisters have been tearing the fortress apart looking for you, and here you are, hiding in the Inner World…”
Her voice dripped with a hint of mockery. At her words, Xia Naxin’s gaze swept over the woman, noticing a tube connected to the back of her head, extending into empty space. A sneer touched Xia Naxin’s lips.
“And here I thought you were someone formidable. Turns out you’re just using a connector to get in…”
Xia Naxin was not mistaken. This woman indeed lacked her ability to freely traverse between the real world and the Inner World. However, the woman could enter by utilizing a piece of black technology developed by the Magical Girl Association—a psychic connector that allowed the soul of a person lying in a special chamber to enter the Inner World. Should danger arise, it would automatically protect the user’s soul, ensuring a safe awakening…
Hearing this, the woman frowned, still toying with her butterfly knife, though her movements had become slightly more agitated.
“You’re a witch, aren’t you? Soul-type… and psychic-type, huh? Such rare affinities, and they both fell to you… Damn it, what kind of background do you have?”
Her voice carried a hint of jealousy and resentment. Xia Naxin merely offered a faint smile.
“Guess.”
Immediately afterward, Xia Naxin continued her ideation, summoning countless metal components, along with blueprints for cannons and firearms, to coalesce from thin air—she intended to end this quickly… Before their eyes, countless gun barrels extended from nowhere, cannon turrets slammed onto the ground, and thousands of hovering cannons deployed behind her, their muzzles glowing ominously. In an instant, a dense web of infrared beams illuminated the woman.
At the sight, the woman’s face twitched. ‘Wait, how can she create things in the Inner World?!’
Those who entered the Inner World via a psychic connector had their magic significantly weakened. Aside from summoning the arrow rain, she could only retrieve another bayonet from her waist—this was practically the full extent of the weaponry she could summon through the psychic connector… ‘Unlike this intruder? She’s practically cheating…’
The next moment, from Xia Naxin’s side, heavy machine guns began to spin their barrels, their roars twisting and trembling through the air. The array of hovering cannons continuously unleashed beams of light, carving scorched fissures into the very fabric of space. The woman dodged frantically within the barrage of fire, her spirit body constantly singed with holes, gradually becoming riddled with perforations. The butterfly knife in her hand had long since vanished.
“How am I supposed to fight this?!”
The woman shrieked, stumbling and crashing into the wreckage of the information nexus. From the prominent ‘cleavage’ of her chest, she pulled out a square device—an emergency communicator linked to the real world. Activating it would send news of the Inner World’s invasion back to the outside…
A cold sneer escaped from beneath Xia Naxin’s mask. Immediately, countless hovering cannons swiveled their muzzles, precisely locking onto the communicator in the woman’s hand. Beams of light tore through the air, but the woman twisted her body, pressing the communicator tightly against her chest.
“The Inner World has been invad—”
Her shriek was swallowed by the roar of explosions as the communicator disintegrated into dust under the barrage, her remaining spirit body engulfed by the cannon fire…
“Huh? Invaded? Please, *I* am a person… don’t be so insulting.”
Xia Naxin murmured, and the array of hovering cannons in the air gradually dissipated, leaving behind a scorched wasteland. In the real world, such heavy firepower might not have been enough to subdue her, but this was the Inner World—Xia Naxin’s ‘home turf’. By engaging this assailant, she had exposed herself. Time was of the essence. She needed to disable the entire magic reactor system before the magical girls from outside flooded in to apprehend her…
But then. Beneath the cannon pit, the woman’s almost transparent spirit body trembled. The protective shield provided by her psychic connector… was now rippling unstably.
“Th-that was… close. I almost died.”
She let out a breath of relief, preparing to retreat by following the tube connecting her to reality at the back of her head, when she was suddenly enveloped by a chilling aura… Xia Naxin abruptly stepped forward, seizing the tube connected to the back of the woman’s head!
“Heh heh~ Did you think triggering the protection mechanism would allow you to escape?”
Now, Xia Naxin was about to put her ideation to work. She intended to modify this psychic connector, which linked to reality! ‘According to my will, it’ll become a ‘brainwashing device’~’ With a mere thought, powerful psychic energy surged through the tube, forcibly beginning to modify this conduit to reality. As expected, being seized in this manner effectively interrupted her return journey… The protective shield vanished. Thus, the woman was forcibly detained in the Inner World. Moreover, her very soul was now ‘in Xia Naxin’s grasp’, as Xia Naxin held the tube, much like… a dog leash.
At this moment, the woman was overcome with dread, for the heavy machine guns, cannon turrets, and hovering cannons had all locked onto her! Countless infrared beams wove into a deadly grid, casting an ominous greenish-grey hue upon her pale face. Gazing at the gaping muzzles of the cannons, she finally grasped the extreme peril of her situation—in the Inner World, once severed from the psychic connector’s protection, the dissipation of one’s soul… signified true death. Leaving behind only a soulless body in the real world—in essence, brain death.
“W-what… what are you going to do?”
The woman’s voice trembled noticeably.
“What do you think I’m going to do?”
Xia Naxin’s voice trailed off with a dangerous lilt. Her palm abruptly tightened, the tube indenting, and the woman let out a bloodcurdling shriek. An ominous grey mist began to bloom at the edges of her spirit body, the precursor to its imminent dissipation…
“Your ‘little life’ is in my hands right now~”
Xia Naxin gently swayed the ‘leash’ in her hand.
“I just need to squeeze, and you’ll go~ *bang*…”
At this, the woman clearly panicked. She immediately pleaded: “No, don’t…”
Hearing her plea, Xia Naxin gave the tube a satisfied tug, ensuring it was firmly attached to the woman’s neck. Only then did she ask: “What is your name, and your codename?”
The woman replied: “My name is Gu Yueqingtang, and my codename is Intermediate Magical Girl Haitang Zui…”
Upon hearing Gu Yueqingtang’s revelation, Xia Naxin first checked her wrist-mounted projection. Time… was ticking on her retina. ‘Time waits for no one~’ There was no other option. Xia Naxin lightly tapped her brow, and a clone, identical to her original body, instantly coalesced. She then handed the ‘leash’ to her clone, with whom she shared a perfect mental connection, knowing she herself needed to attend to more pressing matters.
“She’s all yours…”
With that, Xia Naxin’s original body transformed into a streak of light, streaking away in a certain direction—along the way, as she passed each magic conduit, she casually scattered golden lime powder, sowing ‘hidden dangers’ for subsequent destruction…
****
Back in the cannon pit, the clone of Xia Naxin, of course, intended to thoroughly ‘brainwash’ this magical girl. “Sometimes, infiltrating the enemy’s ranks… isn’t it quite amusing?”
Once her original body had departed, the clone of Xia Naxin immediately moved closer, ‘ideating’ countless ropes… which descended from above. Before Gu Yueqingtang could even react, her limbs were bound behind her and she was hoisted into the air. She had been suspended!
“Do you know what a defeat CG is?”
The clone of Xia Naxin leaned in, stroking Gu Yueqingtang’s cheek, even inserting her thumb into the girl’s lips and onto her tongue.
“W-what… what is that?”
Gu Yueqingtang twisted her body in terror, yet could not break free from her bonds…
“It’s… an animation played in adult games after a character fails, capturing their most vulnerable moment in the cruelest possible way.”
“Huh?”
“Next, I want you to experience it firsthand. After all, you are my ‘war prize’ now.”
As she spoke, the clone of Xia Naxin retrieved a long-barreled shotgun, and without a word, used the barrel to lift Gu Yueqingtang’s chin. Then, she shoved the muzzle into Gu Yueqingtang’s mouth.
“Heh heh~ Want to taste a bullet? It’s the flavor of lead and fire, you know.”
Before Gu Yueqingtang could answer, the barrel was brutally thrust into her mouth, pressing against the base of her tongue.
“Mmph mmph mmph~”
Gu Yueqingtang shook her head, muffled whimpers escaping her mouth as tears mingled with saliva, dripping down the gun barrel… ‘If she took this shot, she would truly die!’
“Oh? If you don’t want to ‘eat’ with *this*, then let’s try another place.”
The clone of Xia Naxin chuckled softly, and the gun barrel moved downwards… ‘As for where it moved…’ The next moment, seeing where the gun barrel now rested, Gu Yueqingtang never imagined a woman could do such a thing?! Gu Yueqingtang shrieked wildly: “Pervert!! No, noooo~ You can’t, no, no…”
But in the end, the gun still fired… Gu Yueqingtang suffered a penetrating gunshot wound, the bullet exiting through the top of her head… The trajectory was all too clear…
Of course, the clone of Xia Naxin wouldn’t let her die so easily. She injected gentle soul power into Gu Yueqingtang’s still-dissipating spirit body, forcibly piecing together Gu Yueqingtang’s scattered consciousness—and truly brought her back to life. However, the reborn Gu Yueqingtang let out another scream from the agony of rebirth, and seeing the shotgun, was terrified beyond measure.
“No… please, don’t torture me like this~”
But the clone of Xia Naxin merely twirled the gun barrel elegantly. ‘To completely ‘break’ Gu Yueqingtang’s consciousness,’ she mused, ‘her soul needs to ‘jump’ repeatedly between life and death…’ So, the clone of Xia Naxin continued to gesture with the shotgun.
“Are you well-rested? Shall I continue? There’s still another ‘opening’ that hasn’t tasted a bullet yet~ Oh, right, humans have seven orifices, and all should bear the kiss-mark of a bullet, shouldn’t they? Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth. We’ll try them one by one later…”
“No, no—I don’t want to, please, I don’t want to~ Wuwuwu, Sister, quickly, save me…”
Gu Yueqingtang finally understood: she… had encountered a pervert, and a cycle of endless suffering awaited her. She was utterly powerless to resist.
“How can you not want to? Defeat CGs… of course, they have to be unlocked one by one~”
The clone of Xia Naxin aimed the shotgun at her trembling chest, then began to move the muzzle… “No, don’t, ahhh~”
The pressure of it against her eyeball, the stinging pain as it was inserted into her ear canal, and even… the suffocation as it probed her nasal cavity…
****
Meanwhile, in the real world, alarms blared across the Southern Desert Fortress. Large numbers of magical girls were rushing towards the psychic connector chambers. They had no idea that, at this very moment… Gu Yueqingtang, lying in her chamber, was enduring a ‘cycle’ far more terrifying than death—in the Inner World, her soul was being repeatedly shattered and reshaped, gradually losing all will to resist through successive acts of torment…