The 30-Year-Old Magical Girl - Chapter 65

“Senior, she’s not coming again today?”

“No, You Xi isn’t coming. It’s just us.”

On a quiet street at night, Huangxing and Tidal met up.

As usual, their mission was routine patrol and tracking the Nightmare Fiend.

Since their last encounter, however, the Magic Kingdom’s tracking program had been unable to detect the enemy.

According to Lao Lin, the reason was that the Nightmare Fiend’s magic particles had changed.

The data they had previously collected was no longer useful.

To update the tracking system, they would have to wait for the Nightmare Fiend to appear again, collect new data, analyze it, and then update the app.

The entire process could take an unknown amount of time.

And during that period, more innocent people could become victims.

“Hmph. If you’re not motivated, why don’t you just quit?”

Huangxing crossed her arms, pretending to be indifferent.

“What a troublesome person.”

Yet the way her eyes kept darting around betrayed the anxiety beneath her words.

Tidal noticed the subtle change in her expression but said nothing.

She simply led the way into the sky.

The two of them flew side by side at a steady pace.

“Senior…”

Huangxing hesitated.

“That Nightmare Fiend…”

She swallowed.

“She’s the friend of that person in real life, right?”

“You know, don’t you?”

Huangxing suddenly asked.

“I know.”

Tidal glanced at her.

“What about it?”

Huangxing’s voice became cautious.

“If we find her…”

She hesitated.

“What will you do?”

Her voice grew quieter.

“Will you… eliminate her?”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest.

Fear seemed to have caught in her throat.

But Tidal understood perfectly.

Kill Bai Mian—the best friend of Huangxing’s closest friend.

Is that really something I have to do?

It was the question she had been avoiding.

A question she had barely even dared to think about.

Now, Huangxing had finally said it aloud.

“I think…”

Tidal was silent for a moment.

“There must be another way.”

“There has to be a better solution…”

She lowered her eyes.

“…other than killing her.”

She repeated the same thought twice.

Perhaps because, deep down, she wasn’t completely convinced herself.

Could there really be a future where everyone survives?

Tidal had no idea.

“…I see.”

Huangxing quietly exhaled in relief.

“If Bai Mian dies…”

She thought about You Xi curled up on her bed, broken and lifeless.

Her heart clenched painfully.

“…that person…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

She wanted to help.

But she didn’t know how.

The two girls continued flying over the city, both carrying the same heavy and conflicted emotions.

“Let’s call it a night.”

Perhaps because neither of them was particularly motivated—or perhaps because Tidal was afraid of actually encountering Bai Mian—they ended their patrol barely thirty minutes later.

“We’re near the office.”

Tidal looked down at the glittering cityscape below.

A modest white office building soon came into view.

“Office?”

Huangxing looked confused.

“You’ve never been there, have you?”

Tidal smiled faintly.

“I’ll show you.”

“Follow me.”

“Oh?”

The moment they entered the building, they found the office brightly lit.

Lao Lin was sitting at a desk, sorting through documents.

He looked up in surprise.

“What brings you two here?”

“You came back from the Magic Kingdom?”

Tidal asked.

“Yeah. I returned this afternoon.”

“Did they figure out what happened that day?”

Tidal immediately remembered the bottomless abyss beneath Sunlight Shopping Plaza.

Even after several days, thinking about the colossal unknown lurking beneath the city still sent a chill through her.

“The current plan is for the Shangjing government and the Special Operations Bureau to demolish Sunlight Shopping Plaza.”

Lao Lin continued organizing the documents as he spoke.

“They’ll build a sealed research facility around the hole. After that, the Magic Kingdom will send an Expedition Team to explore the cavern.”

“That’s it?”

Tidal sighed.

“No real answers?”

“Yeah. That’s all we have for now.”

Lao Lin shrugged.

“Not that I blame them. If I don’t know what’s down there, then it’s probably genuinely unexplored territory.”

“You’re saying…”

Huangxing’s eyes widened.

“Demolish Sunlight Shopping Plaza?”

Tidal glanced at her.

Since Huangxing didn’t know the complete truth about what had happened that day, Tidal deliberately changed the subject.

“Lao Lin, I need to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

Tidal’s expression became serious.

“I want you to tell me the truth.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll be direct.”

Tidal took a breath.

“That Nightmare Fiend…”

“You’ve probably already guessed, right?”

She continued before Lao Lin could respond.

“It’s possessing someone. I don’t know if that’s the correct term, but the body it’s using now belongs to someone named Bai Mian.”

“She’s Raging Flame’s best friend in real life.”

“Yeah.”

Lao Lin made a troubled expression and stuck out his tongue.

“We knew that the same night.”

He sighed.

“Not that I blame you. What are the odds of something like this happening?”

“Because of that connection…”

Tidal looked at Huangxing.

“The three of us want to know if there’s a way to defeat the Nightmare Fiend without harming Bai Mian.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Huangxing immediately jumped in.

“That’s exactly what we want to know!”

Lao Lin looked thoughtful.

“You mean… can we extract the Nightmare Fiend from Bai Mian’s body?”

“Exactly.”

Tidal nodded.

“That’s a better way to put it.”

“There is a method.”

Lao Lin leaned back.

“The same technology used during de-transformation can be applied here.”

“If we capture her, the Magic Kingdom has methods to forcibly separate the two.”

“Really?”

Tidal and Huangxing both let out long breaths of relief.

“But…”

Lao Lin’s expression suddenly became serious.

“There’s a condition.”

He continued.

“It depends on the level of fusion.”

“There have been cases where magical girls experienced certain events that caused them to become permanently unable to return to their human forms.”

“That happens because their magic particles fuse too deeply with their bodies, making de-transformation impossible.”

Tidal’s expression tightened.

“You know about the tracking program, right?”

Lao Lin continued.

“It failed.”

“The technical team’s analysis is that the Nightmare Fiend has altered its magic-particle data by fusing with Bai Mian.”

“At this point, it may no longer be the same Nightmare Fiend.”

“It could have become an entirely new type of aberration.”

“You’re saying…”

Tidal’s voice rose with urgency.

“They might already be completely fused?”

“They might not be able to separate?”

“I don’t know.”

Lao Lin shook his head.

“We need more data—or we need to capture her directly before we can know for certain.”

He paused.

“But one thing is certain.”

“The longer this continues, the higher the fusion level will become.”

“So we need to find Bai Mian quickly?”

Huangxing immediately cut in.

“Exactly.”

Lao Lin nodded.

“But there’s one more thing I need to warn you about.”

“As Raging Flame’s teammates, you obviously have every reason not to kill the Nightmare Fiend.”

“But…”

He paused.

His tone became deeper and more serious.

“You need to understand something.”

“This city isn’t just home to the three of you.”

Tidal’s expression changed.

“There are other Ring-line magical girls.”

“Independent ones.”

“Even rogue and fallen magical girls.”

“Right now, they’re all after the magic crystal of this A-rank aberration.”

“So…”

Lao Lin looked at them.

“Do you understand what that means?”

Tidal understood immediately.

Just thinking about it made the situation far more complicated.

In simple terms, Bai Mian—or rather, the Nightmare Fiend inside her—was now like a piece of Tang Monk’s flesh.

And there were countless demons and monsters eager to take a bite.

If other magical girls wanted to claim her, Tidal might not only have to fight aberrations.

Even magical girls who were supposedly allies could become enemies in the struggle over the magic crystal.

“Setting aside the uncontrollable ones…”

Tidal frowned.

“Can we at least stop the other Ring-line magical girls from targeting the Fifth Ring?”

“…Difficult.”

Lao Lin shook his head with a bitter smile.

“Not every magical girl is as kind and pure as the four in the Second Ring.”

“You might end up fighting each other over this.”

“So we have to find her before the fusion becomes irreversible…”

Tidal thought carefully.

“And we also have to make sure she isn’t killed by another magical girl?”

“Exactly.”

“It’s too hard…”

Tidal felt a crushing headache just thinking about everything ahead.

“For now…”

She took a breath.

“Let’s focus on finding her.”

“There’s one idea I have.”

Lao Lin suddenly spoke.

Tidal looked at him.

“Oh?”

“What idea?”