Magical Girl Heavy Dependence

Chapter 81, Iron Horse and the Girls

A biting wind suddenly swept up from all around.

Amidst the cold wave, a mournful neighing sound rose again, followed by the muffled thunder of hooves, each beat like a war drum striking the hearts of everyone.

Iron Steed, a beast from beyond the heavens.

These are wondrous creatures existing in nature, possessing no magic but an unparalleled pure power.

They are less like living beings and more like a personified form of "natural disaster." Their instinctive behaviors, etched into their genes, change with the seasons, and they roam the cosmos like comets, constantly drifting beyond the stars.

There is only one condition that can bring them to fruition.

That is, like this: a ritual is performed, their true names are called, and then the extraterrestrial beasts will be drawn away from their original paths and come into the mortal world.

"Do you know, Momo? They never actually came down."

In the apartment, Ah Hui stared at the screen while obsessively stroking the cold cheek of the girl's corpse beside him, showing off his knowledge.

"They are survivors of all the mass extinctions on this planet, or perhaps the instigators of those extinctions. It is said that when the Iron Horse entered the galaxy, the entire world was directly pulled into a great ice age, with temperatures plummeting by tens of degrees, causing mass extinctions in the early Quaternary period."

The girl's corpse had fried chicken oil stains from his fingers on her face. Ahui was stunned for a moment, then quickly took out a tissue to wipe it off, which also made the foundation underneath the oil stains look patchy.

A flash of embarrassment and annoyance crossed his face. He tossed the tissue aside and indifferently turned to the screen.

"Of course, among those extraterrestrial beasts, Iron Steed is not considered a true monster. Those extraterrestrial beasts that truly caused mass extinctions are terrifying just to think about."

"However, that's enough. Look at their agile figures; what could be more suitable as nourishment for the 'Holy Embryo'?"

Iron horses and icy rivers, arriving as if stepping into thin air.

The moment the ceremony was completed, a headless, four-legged horse stepped into the world from beyond the heavens.

Its neck, covered in thick ice armor, was held high, and its forehooves stomped heavily on the streets of the Dragon's Blood District with immense force.

Click!

The frost spread rapidly from its center, and large swathes of sharp ice crystals condensed in the air. In the blink of an eye, this bustling modern city was forcibly stripped of its color, turning into a dazzling and deathly white expanse.

What awaited the Iron Steed was... a scarlet holy sword that pierced right through its body!

"Hiss!!"

Iron Horse let out a deafening scream and struggled wildly.

The girls materialized from nothingness, and holy swords pierced its body, pinning it to the ground.

Iron Horse still tried to struggle, but a much larger main sword appeared in the hands of the leading girl. She raised the holy sword high above her head, and the other girls surrounded her, gathering their swords together with it.

A pillar of light descended, annihilating everything.

The iron steed's mournful cry abruptly ceased, turning into dust and scattering away.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Cheng Chen, whose abdomen was still bleeding, had stood up straight with a blank expression.

He looked around and saw the magical girl corpses that served as the foundation of the ritual, arranged in a special array; he saw the calamity beast at the center of the ritual, whose once full body had been completely dried up and turned into withered branches that would crumble at the slightest touch.

"An ordinary extraterrestrial beast? That's a gross underestimation of the weight of the word 'miracle'."

A miracle is a miracle precisely because such magic transcends the limits that conventional logic can conceive of.

The extraterrestrial beasts were indeed terrifying, but in front of the girls, they were nothing more than slightly stronger minions.

Cheng Chen lowered his head slightly and glanced at his palm.

The flesh-colored skin was actually translucent, making it look somewhat blurry.

She became that statue, waiting to awaken again.

The phrase describing the "girls" came back to mind.

So this is the price to pay?

He remained silent.

The girls materialized from nothingness, and in return, he himself was being erased and would eventually return to nothingness.

Shake off unnecessary thoughts and clench your fist.

"Then let's end this before then." His eyes blazed with undisguised killing intent as he stared intently at a certain spot—a security camera. "Found you!"

Boom!

Before the words were finished, a sudden, muffled bang shattered the brief silence.

A girl who had just been flying in the sky suddenly plummeted straight down from mid-air, spinning as she crashed to the ground, shattering into flying ice shards.

Immediately afterwards, the surrounding air began to vibrate wildly, and the sound of hooves rang out ten or a hundred times louder, like a torrent bursting its banks, with thousands of horses galloping!

Through the camera, Ahui and Cheng Chen stared at each other coldly, unsurprised that he could stand up after being ambushed.

"Brilliant, Evil Lord. Unfortunately, the 'Holy Embryo' had already calculated everything... The extraterrestrial beasts have always referred to a race, not an individual. Enjoy the glacial feast I have prepared for you," he murmured.

Bang!

Bang!

Swish!

The situation instantly reversed; the girls were surrounded by an unimaginable number of iron steeds. As the holy sword slew one, another would take its place.

The girl was kicked by a giant iron hoof, fell from the sky and shattered; but immediately afterward, a new girl would appear in the void, take up the holy sword, and charge fearlessly into the beast tide.

Similarly, iron steeds were constantly being cut and pierced by the holy sword, turning into swirling gray smoke; but the ritual was not over yet, and extraterrestrial beasts continued to appear.

The two sides clashed in a straightforward and brutal war of attrition.

At the heart of everything is azure.

As a sacrificial offering for the ritual, the only vessel that could bear the arrival of the extraterrestrial beast, the unconscious magical girl still knelt numbly in the center of the ceremony, chanting prayers.

Given Cheng Chen's distance, he could easily crush her and end it all.

But his choice remained unchanged.

The translucency is accelerating, the body is becoming increasingly ethereal, and one can feel the erosion of 'existence' itself.

Cheng Chen looked up at the chaotic figures of people and horses dancing in the air and muttered to himself, "Hurry up, little cat, I can't hold on much longer."

"Meow?"

Ahui heard a cat meow and his hair stood on end instantly.

There couldn't possibly be a cat here, or any creature at all, that could bypass his guard and arrive here without him noticing!

His first reaction was not to defend or be on guard, but to pounce on the girl's corpse next to him.

The afterimage flashed by in an instant.

Before Ahui could even defend himself, before he could even feel a single ounce of pain, his vision began to spin.

A head flew high into the air, spinning and spraying blood droplets, before crashing to the ground.

"The evil master's... retinue!?"

The head lying on the floor moved its lips, and it saw a kitten with its tail raised, walking towards it with elegant cat steps.

The kitten lowered its head and sniffed, a fleeting look of displeasure flashing in its emerald-like eyes, before raising its little paw high.

"I see."

Ahui closed his eyes.

At this moment, a sudden change occurs!

Not far away, Ah Hui's headless corpse, which was still gushing blood, suddenly moved, grabbed Xiao Tao's hand, and activated the magic circle engraved in the room.

Their figures suddenly twisted, and it looked like they were about to be teleported away from this place.

Bai Xing reacted quickly, arriving in front of them in an instant. Her front paws transformed into a fierce, cold light in the air, and she swung them fiercely!

Ah Hui's body was torn to pieces, turning into neatly cut chunks of flesh, which, along with one of 'Xiao Tao's' severed hands, fell to the ground.

The remaining part disappeared.

"Meow~"

Bai Xing wagged her tail irritably and grinned, revealing a row of sharp kitten teeth.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield of the devastated Longyin District.

Everything Bai Xing saw was simultaneously transmitted to Cheng Chen's mind.

"Did they run away?"

He quietly contemplated it.

The other party was more cautious than he had expected.

Would you rather die yourself than not send that corpse away?

The other party's purpose in targeting him might not only be to obtain methods that transcend the conventional magic system, but also something else.

However, it wasn't entirely fruitless.

That severed hand... might reveal the true identity of its owner, and thus understand what the corpse meant to that person.

Cheng Chen slowly regained his composure and, when he opened his eyes again, his attention was finally focused entirely on the mess in front of him.

The girls and the Iron Horses were fighting fiercely, and the Dragon's Blood District was almost completely leveled.

He took one step, then two, toward the azure at the center of the ceremony.

……