Origin Plunder

Luo You was still Luo You.

But the aura radiating from her had undergone an earth-shattering change, making her completely unrecognizable.

Once, her presence had been fathomless, like the starry sky or the depths of a mountain.

Now it was laid bare in full, not the slightest attempt to conceal the terror from the world.

The most shocking detail was the power surging from within her.

It wasn’t as vast nor as domineering as Wangchuan’s, but it was steadier, purer, and perfectly merged with the material corruption of the inner and outer worlds.

Just one glance was enough.

Wangchuan immediately realized this aura was identical to that of Chiyu from those years past—exactly the same.

“Impossible… Chiyu? Is it really Chiyu? Exactly the same?”

Wangchuan’s lips quivered, its face twisting unconsciously.

After countless nights obsessing, striving to recreate Chiyu’s overwhelming might, it had believed at last it had surpassed that figure in purity.

Now, someone stood before it, declaring its path was wrong—and revealing the right one.

“C-could it be Chiyu never died… You—”

“I am not Chiyu,” Luo You answered simply.

“Then why do you feel exactly like her? And where did this magic come from!?”

“Magic is the wondrous power exclusive to magical girls.

Even the Aurora Witch Herrera herself never used magic.

Aside from her, no precedent exists for anyone mastering magic.

You, Wangchuan, only gained it after stealing the Singularity Core. It never truly belonged to you.”

“I shouldn’t be wrong! I even sought the corpse of the Plunder-Light beast that once polluted her—so why!”

Wangchuan raved, refusing to accept it.

Without knowing the reason, it couldn’t rest even in death.

“You think raw magical quantity is enough? Even if your reserves rival a top Ten Seat, I’m sure that once they learned your methods, any of them could defeat you in the end.”

Luo You had watched Chiyu slay the dragon-class dimensional beast in the Jiuming Sea.

Her estimation of the Ten Seats had risen greatly since then.

She admitted: today’s Ten Seats were no longer what they had once been.

And the reason for their growth was, as expected—

“The true factor that creates an insurmountable gap,” Luo You declared, “is their innate magic.”

Her words struck Wangchuan like lightning.

“You mean… I took the wrong path because I lack Chiyu’s innate magic!?”

“Correct. Whatever you learned doesn’t matter. Innate magic is a personal trait unique to magical girls. No amount of study can reproduce it. You wear Chiyu’s shape, but not the foundation of her strength.”

“Then how did you do it!?”

“To ask such a childish question tells me there’s no point in more words.

I’ll show you—using the very power you covet—how utterly unworthy you are of it.”

Luo You inhaled deeply.

That simple motion stirred a tide of magic, like tsunamis hundreds of meters tall crashing silently through the air.

Wangchuan felt, for a moment, like a tiny ant about to be squashed.

Then, crazed laughter burst from it.

[Divinity Particles! Hahaha… it must be the work of Divinity Particles… nothing else could explain this!]

[That golden fruit she swallowed earlier—it has to be the source! If I could seize that fruit… no, if I could wrest the secret from her very body… strip those Divinity Particles as my own—]

Its gaze burned feverishly.

Compared to this, Aula seemed shallow, blind, foolish beyond forgiveness.

“Wake up! Do you think I’ve shown all my cards yet? On what grounds do you think you can defeat me?”

But Luo You only looked at its scheming expression in disdain.

Her calm words fell like splitting thunder.

Wangchuan’s body jolted—and then vanished.

“…”

Amplified by the crimson energy vortex, Luo You’s composure was inhuman.

Her situational perception—woven from scent, sound, touch, vision—peeled data from reality itself, building endless simulations, branching futures.

Every possible path Wangchuan could take, every counterattack, every thought—she had already seen.

Unless a wholly unknown variable emerged, Wangchuan’s probability of death was absolute.

“Teleportation? I also know a little magic.”

She raised her hand before her chest and whispered:

“Magic Perception.”

The instant she perceived Wangchuan’s position, possibilities collapsed into one.

Her hand thrust forward without hesitation.

“First-Order Magic: Let There Be Light.”

It looked instantaneous, but in truth, her mind had chosen this result from thousands of iterations.

Once celebrated as Luo Zining’s radiant spell, the same light blossomed again in Luo You’s hands—but transformed by her corrupted, Sea-of-Realms-tainted magic.

A dark gray radiance pierced Reality itself, riddling the colorful world with abyssal holes.

Light split and twisted everything, parading phantom horrors across the human realm.

A single glimpse was enough to torments one’s mind for a month with nightmares.

“AAAAAAA—!”

Wangchuan took the spell head-on, flesh cracking, black blood gushing, body nearly annihilated.

“Not done yet!”

It spread its arms, desperately channeling Sea substance from below to repair itself.

Luo You calmly pointed at its feet.

“Second-Order Magic: Teleportation.”

“Huh—?”

It barely cried out before the teleportation array swallowed it whole.

Vision spun.

“Almost over.”

Her voice followed, paired with an unknown spell.

Wangchuan’s flesh began to peel away—layer by layer—like livestock butchered alive.

Skin, muscle, bone scattered into the air like thrown scrap.

[Sea substance sensed… can regenerate.]

It realized it was high above, flung but not far.

“As long as I’m in the Sea, you cannot kill me!” it snarled, even as Sea matter rushed up to support it.

“No,” Luo You’s voice cut down, “you are nowhere near a true Plunder-Light. They regenerate without aid of the Sea, their very essence transmuted. You beg from the Sea to survive. The gap is immeasurable.”

Driven mad, Wangchuan released its last weapon.

Thick deathly fog spewed from its body, corrosive and unholy, bursting from its core essence.

The Sea shuddered with despair. This was the primal matter of the Plunder-Light class: eternally corrupting, permanently staining environment and soul alike.

But with its release, Wangchuan’s stolen life force shriveled.

This fragment of core essence was all that allowed it to resurrect at all.

Spent now, it was a death sentence.

“Die!”

The gray mists surged like a hellspring, drowning Luo You.

“Not good—Herrera!”

Wu Yu took to the skies in alarm but was forced back as her magic corroded instantly against the fog.

Jin Wang dragged her away, grim. “Don’t worry. If it’s her, she’ll be fine. But this… this matter itself…”

The fog’s heavy stench mirrored that ancient monster, threatening to deform the land itself.

Wangchuan exhaled relief inside the storm.

[Even if she’s blessed by Divinity Particles, she must fall to this!]

But when it turned its gaze—

The mist parted.

A graceful figure walked unharmed through the haze.

Absolute confidence. Absolute composure.

“You really know nothing.”

Luo You’s voice was calm.

“The concentration of Plunder-Light essence would kill even a magical girl instantly. Why do you think Chiyu survived all those years ago—and even transcended because of it?”

Wangchuan froze in terror.

“Don’t tell me… her innate magic was—?!”

“Exactly as you think. That Plunder-Light beast perished in the end because of her innate magic.”

Horror consumed Wangchuan as it tried to reclaim its leaking essence.

“Too late,” Luo You said.

“Even without Chiyu’s magic, Divinity Particles restrain these substances. You never had a chance.”

“No! Give it back!”

Its dying shriek echoed before its body collapsed into ruin, reduced to fragments sinking into the endless Sea.

This time, it was truly dead.

Its innermost essence unreclaimed, its chance of revival gone forever.

“How should I deal with this…”

Luo You exhaled, her body flaring with nine-colored particles, surrounding and binding the stray essence Wangchuan left behind.

She considered tossing it back to the Sea.

Unlike Chiyu, she had no intention of integrating it into herself.

But a thought struck her.

Her eyes flicked downwards.

Snow, who had been lying in a crater, perked up as she landed before her.

“Yo! All done?”

“Mm. Come with me.”

Luo You hoisted her up and raced back to where the corrupted essence lingered.

Holding Snow aloft, she asked evenly:

“Snow. Do you want this?”

“…”

“I’ll let you try. Just a tiny bit. Don’t force it.”

Snow obediently opened her mouth like a child sucking smoke, drawing in the essence without hesitation.

“Mmph! It works! My old strength is coming back!”

“Oh? Then have a little more.”

Luo You raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised.

If memory served, each Plunder-Light beast’s essence was unique, incompatible with others.

Yet Snow showed no rejection at all.

“Didn’t you once say it was disgusting?” Luo You teased.

“Mm… that one’s existence was wrong. It wasn’t just the essence I hated—it itself was an abomination.”

“I see.”

“Any objections? If not, I’m gonna start flaunting!”

“Go ahead,” Luo You said indifferently.

If the essence empowered her pet detector, all the better.

As Snow reveled, Luo You’s thoughts turned quietly icy.

[So, someone really dug up Chiyu’s bones and tried to resurrect her path…]

And behind it, there could only be one faction bold enough.

Across her mind, an image flickered like a whip cracking down—

“Oula…”

Her gaze turned glacial, sharp with promise.

“This woman needs to be beaten into line.”