Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 125

Urzana's original plan was that if any action "damaged" Mayumi Haga, her blessing would be triggered passively, blocking three instances of damage for Mayumi Haga...

...However, the first time I used it, the scene was very awkward.

Ulzana saw her junior being... well, what's that word again...?

Calling it an invasion seems a bit much, but calling it flirting doesn't seem very convincing to Mayumi either... or teasing?

Urzana's CPU burned out on the spot.

Of course, later on, Urzana finally realized that it was the wizard named Lania who was examining Mayumi Haga's body.

Frustrated by her inappropriate timing, Urzana quietly adjusted the mechanism for triggering the blessing skill.

After all, it's something that makes the patriarch very happy to see Mayumi Haga being liked by other girls, and she can't always be the one to get in the way of Mayumi Haga's love life.

Therefore, she handed over the initiative to trigger this blessing skill to Mayumi Haga.

She will only be triggered when Mayumi Haga considers it a "threat".

This way, the blessing skill won't be stuck on cooldown at crucial moments, which is quite good.

But then a problem arises.

Haga Mayumi rarely triggers this skill intentionally.

For her, getting hurt is nothing. She usually only triggers this skill when there is someone behind her who needs protection.

Ulzana knew that Mayumi Haga was stubborn, and after sighing alone in the core, she stopped caring about anything else.

In any case, Zhen Gong knows his limits.

Ulzana continued her slumber, but quite some time had passed, and Mayumi Haga had not activated her blessing skill again.

Today, she was forced to awaken from her deep sleep.

Because something foreign seems to have squeezed into her guardian core.

"?! What's going on... Ah? Fuyun, what are you doing here?" Urzana suddenly woke up when she sensed a soul invading her Guardian Core.

But after she recognized the soul that had squeezed in, the dark-skinned, half-giant giant froze: "Floating Cloud...you weren't dead after all?"

God knows how happy it is to see an old friend again under these circumstances!

Fuyun was a close friend of Urzana's from her youth. Shortly after Urzana became a guardian, she met Fuyun, who came from an ancient country in the East.

Fuyun was active even before Ulzana, and his origins are quite mysterious. The two met at a forest inn in the north when Ulzana had just become a guardian.

After just one drink together, the two guardians, both with very cheerful personalities, became friends.

Since then, Urzana has occasionally encountered clouds during her travels.

This "occasionally" period can range from several decades to a hundred years.

During the era when the two of them were active, there were quite a few guardians roaming the continent. At least back then, Urzana always encountered colleagues and frequently exchanged information.

As time passed, the Guardians became increasingly rare. Fewer letters were sent out each year, but the number of replies decreased even faster.

Before the appearance of Mayumi Haga, the last guardian, there had actually been no new guardians with contracts for nearly a thousand years.

It was already quite remarkable that Fuyun was still able to communicate with Urzana at that time.

On one occasion, Fuyun sent a letter to Urzana from a small island in the south, hoping that Urzana could help her complete a task. Considering her extremely poor swimming skills and also wanting Mayumi Haga to get some training, Urzana sent Mayumi Haga instead.

At first, both Fukumo and Mayumi Haga would send her letters. The former would write about Mayumi Haga's daily life, complain about some old topics, and even write about his own romantic history.

When Mayumi Haga first arrived at the Labyrinth Island, she diligently wrote down everything she saw and heard there. Later, her letters began to contain subtle complaints about the unreliability of her senior, Fukumo, and finally, the changes in the labyrinth made her uneasy.

Urzana was in the North at the time, which was quite far from the Labyrinth Island in the South. When the messenger delivered the last letter to her, it was actually Mayumi Haga who arrived one after the other.

Mayumi Haga returned from the labyrinth island, bringing with her the worst possible news:

The floating clouds remained forever in the labyrinth.

Moreover, due to the labyrinth's special rules, the guardian's contract was distorted. After giving its blessing skill to Mayumi Haga, the core of the cloud shattered, losing its ability to regenerate...

Unable to return to the River of Life, nor to be resurrected as a guardian, her soul is trapped and dies in the labyrinth along with others. Yuga Mayumi cannot even bring the clouds out, because she has no magical abilities and cannot interfere with the sleeping souls.

All she could bring back was this devastating news and a fragment of Fuyun's clothing.

Urzana instinctively wanted to hug Mayumi Haga to comfort her, but Mayumi Haga was no longer a child who would shed tears over such things, and simply remained silent for a long time.

She asked Urzana, "Not returning to the river, not falling asleep... is this death?"

“I’m afraid so,” Urzana said. “Death means never seeing each other again.”

The soul no longer reincarnates and can no longer be seen anywhere.

In fact, it wasn't just Mayumi Haga who was saddened by this.

Ulzana was also deeply saddened when she learned of Fuyun's death.

Her friendship with Fuyun has lasted for thousands of years, and in this era where the Guardians are gradually disappearing, she can be said to be their only remaining old friend.

Unexpectedly, after the world was destroyed, I found the soul of Fuyun here.

However, Ulzana sensed something was amiss: "...Wait? What are you doing squeezing into my core?"

For the first time, she felt crowded and suffocated in the core state.

"Can I borrow your place, you big oaf?" Fuyun said without any politeness. "Make way, give me a spot... This place is fine, I want to see how Zhen Gong transforms into a dragon."

Main text: Chapter 197 In a normal work, this scene would need to be cut off quickly.

Completely unaware of what the cloud that she had stuffed into the Guardian Core Pendant of Urzana was up to, Mayumi Haga was preparing for her first dragon transformation.

To be honest, such an ability is far too exaggerated, and if used in the real world, it would definitely cause unexpected trouble, and the follow-up would be very troublesome...

Therefore, after obtaining such an ability, Mayumi Haga would not think of using it unless absolutely necessary.

After all, in daily life, there is no crisis that would require her to expend all the magic power she has accumulated to transform into a black dragon.

It's obvious that this time, he absolutely has to transform into a black dragon.

However, this ability has significant side effects.

Unlike the blessing she possesses, [Companion], which allows her to transform into an animal, dragonification is clearly not something that can be achieved simply by changing flesh and blood.

To transform into such a colossal beast, one must consume a vast amount of magic power to shape the body.

Haga Mayumi herself does not have the ability to generate magic power; she can only accumulate enough magic power by using magic power replenishment or by replenishing magic power with other people.

The maximum amount of magic she can store is roughly equivalent to the amount consumed by using Dragon Transformation once; just three minutes is enough to completely drain her.

It's not just about being drained; it's about being severely overdrawn, even affecting the most basic self-healing ability of a guardian.

That is, to be in a state of weakness for about 24 hours.

In a weakened state, Mayumi Haga's self-healing ability will be suppressed, and there is a risk of incomplete transformation. She may leave some dragon-like features on her body, such as horns or a tail.

This means that you cannot fight for 24 hours, and if you do not replenish enough magic power in a short period of time, the dragon characteristics on your body will not be eliminated, and even your sanity may be affected.

Mayumi Haga... I actually still really dislike this kind of thing.

She was more accustomed to her identity as a human, and neither the elf nor the dragon she could transform into after using forbidden magic felt real to her.

The side effects of dragon transformation were too great, and this was also the first time she had actively tried to control such a dangerous power. She would never practice it casually on her own without a reliable person by her side.

Fortunately, Urzana and Fuyun are both conscious, which gives Mayumi Haga a bit of confidence to take the risk.

As a spirit of the dead, Fukumo possessed an innate ability to attack at the soul level. If Mayumi Haga completely loses her mind, then Fukumo can awaken her by stimulating her soul.

Moreover, the situation is critical now, and it would be difficult to lead three people out of the maze without taking a shortcut.

and so……

Haga Mayumi must do it.

She gestured for the others to stand further apart, and then, under the bewildered gazes of the other three, she began to remove the outer garment of her Guardian suit.

Cloak, arm guards, breastplate, gloves... the seemingly complicated clothing is actually easy to take off. When she takes off the equipment, she puts it back into her backpack.

Soon, only the undershirt and trousers remained; the shoes had been taken back.

The inner lining is still the anime T-shirt I casually stuffed into my backpack last time, printed with a big-nosed octopus that always has a grumpy expression.

...Ah, it was Sugiyama Rika who bought it for her.

Sugiyama Rika would buy any clothes for Haga Mayumi. The reason she bought this particular outfit, which seemed completely mismatched with Haga Mayumi, was because she thought it would look comical on Mayumi.

This has proven to be true.

At least when this outfit appeared, everyone except Mayumi Haga, who didn't care much about her appearance, froze.

...No, for such a serious occasion, could you please dress a little more formally...?

Fortunately, this rather comical scene soon ended with screams.

Because Mayumi Haga suddenly started bleeding.

While it is described as "bleeding," it is not entirely clear in a strict sense.

The sickening sound of bones growing was particularly jarring on the tall girl. In that instant, her body was pierced through like a sieve by the rapidly growing bones, leaving her a bloody mess!

The behemoth awoke within a slender body of flesh and blood, first its bones, which expanded at an extraordinary speed, its claws piercing human skin, and its muscles beginning to grow.

Then, scales quickly covered it, as if it were covered in steaming blood, sticky and scalding hot.

Intense pain swept through Mayumi Haga's nerves. She could feel every inch of her body enduring unbearable torment. The energy of self-healing, regeneration, and limb growth had never been so intense. Blood and flesh grew wildly as if without restraint, and bones were crushed and then reshaped.

She couldn't feel her eyes, mouth, or nose, nor could she grasp her fingers. Her waist felt as if it had been completely severed, and her legs felt as if they were being sewn back together.

She vaguely heard a near-hysterical scream, but it wasn't her voice.

Indeed, Mayumi Haga was already used to this level of pain. At most, the speed at which her flesh swelled was beyond her expectations, and the feeling of hovering on the edge of losing control was slightly novel.

Then, amidst the thick, unyielding blood, the black dragon opened its enormous, scarlet vertical pupils.

He was so enormous that his eyelids opened with a sticky sound, and the human figures reflected in his pupils were so tiny.

Fuyun and Urzana: "...Wow."

While Mayumi Haga couldn't see herself transform into a dragon, the two senior guardians who occupied VIP positions could see it clearly.

The scene was indeed cool, and it matched their understanding perfectly. So this is what happens when a Guardian's self-healing ability goes out of control.

But the other three have never been seen.

The two children from the world were stunned when Mayumi Haga's flesh and blood surged towards them. The blond-haired child fainted on the spot, while the blue-haired one could be said to be barely holding on, not quite understanding what was going on.

Needless to say, 3904, although this half-human had seen many cruel scenes, the dragon's dominance over all wild beasts was no joke. She was lying on the ground trembling, just short of exposing her belly and wagging her tail.

The animal's instincts had completely overwhelmed its mind; it tucked its tail between its legs and whimpered, looking utterly pitiful.

The second level of the labyrinth was actually expanded considerably by witchcraft, so even if someone's size increased thousands of times, they could still be barely accommodated.

When the black dragon opened its eyes, it was lying on the ground, trying its best to be gentle with the three fragile people, being extremely careful, for fear that it might blow them away with a single breath.

He looked at the three terrified people, unable to speak human language or communicate, and unable to grasp them precisely with his dragon claws...

After thinking it over, he gently placed his kiss on the ground, signaling the three of them to come up.

Main text: Chapter 198 The Forgotten

Hitomi Tono felt that something was off about her life lately.

Hitomi Tohno, a seventeen-year-old high school student in Miracle City, appears to be an ordinary high school student, but in reality, she is a magical girl busy maintaining world peace and saving the world.

Of course, she hasn't actually saved the world yet, but according to her mentor Rika Sugiyama, who led her down the path of becoming a magical girl, almost every magical girl will save the world at least once.

However, in Sugiyama Rika's generation, which was Tohno Hitomi's generation, the number of magical girls in Miracle City was about the same as the superhero teams in tokusatsu dramas.

But when it came to Hitomi Tono, she was all alone.

Yes, Hitomi Tono—a magical girl known as "Magical Girl Crimson" after her transformation—is currently the only magical girl in Miracle City.

She had been working alone for several years. She had thought that Sugiyama Rika would be able to find her other partners soon to lighten her burden, but things didn't go as planned, and she had not been able to find any peers with the qualifications of magical girls.

In other words, for all this time, Hitomi Tono has been single-handedly maintaining the magical order of Miracle City.

Is that really the case?

Hitomi Tono felt something was off.

She wasn't a withdrawn child, but she couldn't fit in with her classmates.

It's not that she was isolated, but rather that everyone else had formed their own circles and had extended invitations to her, but she always maintained a proper distance and didn't become closer friends with any of them.

What's even stranger is that she suddenly realized she seemed to be surrounded by empty seats.