My ex-girlfriend is a magical girl junior?

Deep blue magic exploded on the beast's carapace, and the glass blade sliced ​​through the air, bringing with it tiny ice crystals. The beast's scarlet compound eyes dimmed abruptly, and net-like frost patterns spread wildly along the lines of its carapace.

Liuli gave it no chance to breathe, raising its long right leg high and slamming down its boot heel like a guillotine, the cold air carrying it with it.

With a crisp cracking sound, the frozen shell crumbled beneath her feet, turning into a pile of glistening ice shards.

"The twenty-seventh..." The girl's panting was particularly clear in the enclosed corridor. She pressed her burning right shoulder, and the single blade that her wand had transformed into trembled slightly in her hand.

The iconic white and blue skirt of the combat suit had long been corroded with spiderweb-like holes, and the fine wounds on the arms were constantly oozing blood beads, which quickly congealed in the low temperature.

A chilling rustling sound came from the depths of the corridor, the rustling of carapaces rubbing together growing louder as the tide approached. More beasts emerged from the shadows, their arthropod-like limbs striking the tiled floor with a dense clicking sound.

"This is... never-ending." Liuli took a deep breath, a hint of weariness flashing in her icy blue eyes.

She lowered her body, holding the blade horizontally in front of her: "Come on!"

The next moment, she shot out like an arrow, her blade aimed straight for the joint gap of the nearest phantom beast.

Deep blue magic surged from the blade, freezing the beast's limbs completely the instant it struck, before shattering them with a spinning kick.

But more Void Beasts had already surrounded her, and their sharp bone spikes nearly grazed her cheeks several times.

"There are too many..." Liuli gritted her teeth, took a step back, and quickly switched her short blade back into staff form. The deep blue magic beam gathered at the tip of the staff was as dazzling as the aurora.

"Freeze it!"

The beam of light pierced through the three ethereal beasts in front of her, and ice crystals began to spread from their ferocious mouths, freezing the monsters into distorted ice sculptures in the blink of an eye. However, the excessive consumption of magic power made her vision go black and her breathing become disordered and rapid.

"My magic power is running low..."

She glanced down at her battered combat suit, where newly torn areas revealed porcelain-white skin, with fine beads of blood seeping from the wounds. Clearly, the suit's self-healing function was no longer keeping up with the rate of injury.

"Liuli!" Ruby frantically circled around her, "Reinforcements haven't arrived yet—"

"...Whatever." She shook her numb arm and gripped her wand tightly again. "Anyway...I'm used to it."

......

On the night of her eighth birthday, moonlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, drawing a pale line on the floor. Liuli curled up on one side of the line, clutching her perfect test paper tightly to her chest, silently listening to the sounds coming from the living room.

The "Remember to buy a cake" note on the refrigerator had fallen down at some point and was now lying quietly among the shards of a mug and a porcelain plate. The adults' arguing was like a sharp awl, chiseling at her eardrums.

"All you ever do is work! Have you ever cared about the children?!"

"You think I want this?! If I don't work hard to earn money, what will you eat?!"

The cramping pain in her stomach was nothing compared to the tightness in her chest. Xiao Liuli buried her face in her knees and started counting with her eyes closed. She forgot how many she had counted when a deafening slamming sound came from the entrance hall.

The next morning, she heated up the cold fried rice in the microwave by herself. Her mother, with red and swollen eyes, combed her hair, breaking several strands of hair with the comb teeth.

The father didn't come home for three days. When he reappeared, he smelled of an unfamiliar perfume. Two months later, they signed a divorce agreement in the living room, but argued until late at night about child support.

"My new boyfriend and I live in a place that's too small."

"How do I take care of my child when I travel frequently for work?"

"The court has granted you guardianship!"

"Then why don't you just pay for it!"

In the end, she was sent to her grandmother in the countryside. The day before she was to transfer schools, she squatted in the empty classroom and tore the test paper that she had treasured for so long to shreds.

From that moment on, she understood that adults were unreliable, so she learned to rely on herself alone.

"Haa...!"

The glass blade severed the head of another illusory beast, its movements now noticeably slower.

"The thirty-fifth one..." The wound on her arm, which had initially throbbed with a dull ache, turned into a sharp, stabbing pain. "...I can hold on a little longer."

She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to stand upright. "I absolutely...can't fall!"

Just then—

"Liuli!"

A familiar voice came from behind her, and a bright green light streaked across the sky like a meteor, accurately striking the group of virtual beasts in front of her. The shockwave from the explosion sent several virtual beasts flying, and Yin Xue's figure landed lightly, blocking her way.

"What are you doing back here?!" Liuli's eyes widened, her voice filled with annoyance, but the corners of her mouth involuntarily relaxed for a moment.

She noticed that the hem of Yin Xue's combat suit was also badly damaged, and his usually smooth sideburns were stuck to his cheeks with sweat—this guy must have fought his way here too.

Yin Xue didn't turn around. He held his wand horizontally in front of him, and a green barrier unfolded, blocking the bone needle attack from the Void Beast.

"Because..." The moment the barrier blocked the bone needles, she turned her head and revealed the smile that Liuli knew best, "A partner can't abandon their partner."

A sudden flashback to the day they first met occurred to her. She had maintained a cold expression the whole time, while that idiot extended his hand with a smile like this: "My name is Yin Xue, nice to meet you!"

Liuli paused for a second, then clicked her tongue, but didn't stop what she was doing. "Suit yourself!"

—Yes, adults are unreliable, but that doesn’t mean there are no people you can rely on.

Yin Xue—this meddlesome idiot, who became a magical girl later than me, always takes care of me in battles and in life.

They are the closest partners and the most compatible collaborators.

After her grandmother passed away, no one in the world was more important to her than Yin Xue.

The two stood back to back, their deep blue and emerald green lights intertwining. The glass blade froze another illusory beast, while Silver Snow's healing magic quietly covered the wound on her arm, beginning to heal her without regard for its cost.

"...Idiot." Liuli cursed inwardly, but the force of her sudden thrust was even more fierce than before.

The tide of battle began to turn, and the number of Void Beasts gradually decreased with the cooperation of the two, leaving the corridor filled with frozen and shattered remains.

"It's almost over..." Liuli had just breathed a sigh of relief when suddenly—

The entire building suddenly trembled violently, and with a deafening crash as the load-bearing walls collapsed, dust surged in like waves. A colossal creature slowly crawled out of the darkness, appearing before them as if a nightmare had materialized.

—The queen ant.

Its size is more than ten times that of an ordinary ant-shaped Void Beast, and its size is close to that of the previous lizard-shaped Void Beast.

Its dark purple carapace had a matte finish, and its compound eyes were as scarlet and terrifying as two blood moons. With each opening and closing of its mouthparts, the dripping mucus directly corroded the ground, creating deep pits that emitted white smoke.

The most terrifying thing is its writhing abdomen—not a bone needle protruding from the end, but an ovipositor covered with barbs. With each contraction, it expels a viscous egg sac, and the embryos can already be seen writhing inside those translucent membranes.

"...What a joke." Liuli's fingers trembled slightly uncontrollably, and Yinxue's face turned deathly pale instantly.

"This... is beyond our capabilities..." Yin Xue's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

This queen ant is clearly an erosion-level being. Even if they were at full strength now, they would absolutely not be able to contend with it, let alone the fact that the two of them are already at their last gasp.

Liuli gripped her wand tightly and took a deep breath: "But if we don't stop it, the people outside will be doomed." She took a step forward and stood in front of Yinxue.

"Hey, Yin Xue," she said without turning her head, her voice deliberately cold, "If you want to run away now, I won't blame you."

Yin Xue paused for a second, then stood firmly beside her, the tip of his wand shining with an emerald light once more.

"Who's trying to run away?" she answered softly, her voice carrying the gentleness and determination that Liuli knew best. "Let's attack together."

Liuli smiled slightly: "What an idiot duo."

"Hold it off and wait for reinforcements." Yin Xue once again deployed a verdant light barrier around Liu Li. "The seniors should be arriving soon."

"Although I really don't want to rely on them..." Ruri poured her last bit of magic into the tip of her blade, and the icy blue light surged like a new moon, "but there's no other way now."

The two transformed into streaks of light and charged toward the terrifying beast.

At the same time, Lin Che's lips twitched when he heard the rustling sound coming from the passageway again.