Even if you're a corrupted magical girl, you still have to try to redeem yourself.

Yuki finished speaking for Baqi and saw Baqi nod slightly. Yuki knew that she and Baqi had really thought of the same thing.

Yuki Yui also glanced at Lin Jiezi, whom she was protecting, out of the corner of her eye. Lin Jiezi still had the same expression as before, so Yuki Yui couldn't tell that anything was wrong.

If you just looked at her normally, you would never associate her with the original magical girl. Apart from those few outbursts, Lin Jiezi did not show anything unusual.

At first, Yuuki Yuuki also failed to notice anything unusual about the huge underground sanctuary of the St. Yūkyū Academy.

It was only now that she realized that the source of the unsettling, strange magic she had felt since her first visit to the Holy Eternal Academy was not the coffin, but the Great Cathedral itself.

Because the coffin was stored in the Grand Cathedral, and the wand had fallen into a deep sleep along with the cathedral's owner, Yuuki Yuuki failed to discover the crux of the matter and mistakenly believed that the coffin was the problem.

Now it seems that the coffin might really be suppressing something unspeakable, and the relationship between Saint Youyou Academy and the original owner of the coffin is even more intriguing.

"You mean... this entire building... is made entirely of wands? Shouldn't wands be... small... at most like my hammer... or a greatsword, or something like that?"

Helica was so surprised that she couldn't speak. She stammered for a long time, and what she said was incoherent. Then she lost her voice because of her unclear expression.

But everyone could understand her surprise. Apart from Nishio Reki himself, who seemed to already know the truth, everyone else would be shocked by this.

Aside from incredibly powerful magical artifacts, it seems that only a magic wand can withstand such intense combat.

The largest wand anyone has ever seen is the giant sword of the Lava Mountain Lamp, and the coffin is about the same size. Even if Sumireko Yumehara said that the chariot she was shattered by Eri Yuuki was a wand, people would at most be surprised, but wouldn't have such a big reaction.

But the difference between a giant sword and a building is so great that even with this fact right in front of everyone, they still refuse to believe it's real.

“The scariest thing isn’t that the wand is big, it’s that it’s just too big.” Baggi frowned, unconsciously lowering her center of gravity as if she were staring at a restless beast, as if she might pounce at any moment.

"Do you want to hear what you're saying?" Seeing Baqi say such a completely incomprehensible line so seriously, Helica couldn't help but play the role of the吐槽 (tu cao, meaning to criticize or ridicule).

Yuuki Yui understood what Baki was trying to say once again, and answered for Baki once more: "What Baki is trying to say is that wands need to be maintained with magic. Although a wand is a reflection of a person's personality, and one's own wand is definitely the most suitable for oneself, even though they are all wands, the physical strength of the wand itself is different depending on the form and the fighting style."

Baki nodded repeatedly, while Helica understood even less.

"So what? The physical strength is different, what does that mean?" Helica pressed.

“My Nyarlathotep is practically useless in combat. My fighting style isn’t about carrying Nyarlathotep up and smashing people. Sakura Hanako is the same. Mizuno Yu and Tomoe’s attack methods are related to wands, but they’re not direct attacks. Instead, they shoot bullets with their wands.”

Yuuki Yui looked at the gun blade in Tomoe's hand and added, "Not to mention divine liberation, at least this is what Tomoe's true name liberation looked like."

Baqi's musket, Mizuno Yu's bow, and Yuuki Yui's grimoire are all practically useless in terms of strength. They have been broken in battle many times, and can be said to shatter at the slightest touch, making them utterly ineffective in combat.

Even if they wanted wands to be able to withstand more attacks, it wouldn't make sense for bows or grimoires to have the same physical strength as melee wands. It would be unrealistic to use wands of that strength in a physical fight against someone.

“But you, Koumori, or Koyomi are different. Your most accustomed fighting style is close combat using your wands, so your wands are the most durable type,” Yuuki Yui continued, pausing briefly before pointing out the key point.

"To maintain the existence of such a large sanctuary and ensure that the entire sanctuary is strong enough to withstand our attacks."

Helica understood completely and couldn't help but exclaim, "That magical power... isn't it a bit terrifying..."

This is exactly what Yuuki Yukino wanted to say.

Yuuki Yui's own magical power was already terrifyingly abundant, but it paled in comparison to Asahi Miya, who was able to control the entire sanctuary, so many tentacles, the many nuns, and the entire Grand Cathedral.

The difference is like everyone has some gold, but a typical magical girl uses gold to forge a golden finger, while Asahimi, the creator of the magical girl, directly uses gold to build an entire golden palace. Even though the materials used are both gold, the scale of the two is completely different.

Even if Yuuki Yui could use Asahimi's wand, it's hard to say whether she would have enough magic power for even a few uses.

That's what makes Asahi so terrifying.

Summoning weak nuns and tentacles is as extravagant and impractical as using gold arrows for an attack, but Asahi is incredibly wealthy and can afford such a cost, and can use this inefficient method to achieve final victory.

Regardless of efficiency, let's just talk about whether we won or not in the end.

Only now did Helica realize what kind of enemy she was fighting.

Even if Asahimi is weak, others would need to be able to hold out until they reach her and fight her one-on-one.

Just like in high-difficulty action games, the most annoying thing is not the powerful BOSS, but the monsters scattered all over the map.

"The trouble isn't just about Asahimi's magical power, but also this enormous magic wand driven by that terrifying magical power. If Asahimi really intends to stay hidden in the sanctuary and not come out, it won't be an easy task for all of us to break in together."

Nishio Reki followed up.

Her words hit the nail on the head. Just thinking about how everyone had attacked with all their might but had limited effect made everyone feel even more heavy-hearted.

As if the sanctuary understood the girls' words and therefore had to respond, it suddenly began to tremble violently without warning.

This isn't the real world, so earthquakes are impossible here. Besides, the magic emanating from the cathedral is clearly signaling to the girls that it's about to make a new move.

wrong!

Yuuki Yukino immediately noticed the anomaly.

The magic wasn't simply emanating from inside the Grand Cathedral; it was the Grand Cathedral itself that was radiating the magic.

Knowing that the Grand Cathedral is Asahi Miyabi's wand, the implications are self-evident.

At the same time, the black mud beneath the sanctuary boiled even more violently, as if the entire sanctuary were being simmered in a black broth, giving the impression that something extraordinary was about to burst forth from the impenetrable darkness beneath the sanctuary.

The thick, black liquid splattered onto the brick walls of the sanctuary, gurgling and flowing down in streaks of black ink, making the sanctuary even more filthy and reminding Yuuki Yuki of the desecrated idols.

In a corner unnoticed by anyone, a nun opened her arms and embraced the base of the sanctuary, which was many times larger than herself, pressing her lips to the filthy stone bricks.

The nun's body gradually melted and then merged into the interior of the sanctuary, slightly amplifying the magical power emanating from the sanctuary.

One, two... a few might be overlooked, but when the surviving nuns and the newborn nuns all devoted themselves to the sanctuary, the magical girls could no longer fail to notice.

"What...what is this?"

Herlica scrunched up her facial muscles in disgust. Just seeing this bizarre and illogical scene made her feel so nauseous she almost vomited.

"Who cares what it is, just blow it up first."

Baqi pointed a single finger at the Great Cathedral below, and scorching magic emanated violently from the girl's body, causing her large coat to flutter loudly.

"Gleipnir!"

The chains that restrained the giant wolf could also become its weapons. Countless rusty chains, as thick as a young girl's thigh, slithered through the black mud like venomous snakes, their sweeping motions sending rows of approaching nuns flying.

When they swam to the very bottom of the sanctuary, they suddenly launched their attack.

The chains pierced through the thick black mud, tightly binding the main body of the cathedral like the tentacles of a giant octopus in the ocean. Baki's hand gesture turned into an empty clench, as if she were holding the cathedral in her own palm, her five fingers slowly and powerfully closing together.

The thick metal chain rattled and clattered against the stone bricks as it tightened, the sound penetrating deep into the brain.

puff.

Baqi clenched her fist with her five fingers together.

Boom!

The metal chains wrapped around the main body of the cathedral were firmly embedded in the walls, making the cathedral look like an ugly black rice dumpling.

"Bomb it!"

Upon receiving Baqi's order, the chains exploded, each link acting like a small bomb, creating a chain reaction that went off like strings of firecrackers being set off for the New Year.

Baqi's attack is far more destructive than ordinary firecrackers. If it had targeted Moonsea Tower, the iconic landmark of Moonsea City, instead of this sanctuary, the tower would have been reduced to ruins by now.

Unfortunately, its effect is now extremely limited; the stone bricks that emerge from the smoke have only accumulated a few white marks that seem like they could be wiped away with a sleeve.

It was more than enough to prevent the nuns from integrating, but it was negligible in changing the status quo.

The tremors in the sanctuary continued, and even those nuns who were blown to pieces ran towards the sanctuary without regard for their own safety, smearing their remains on the profaned stone walls.

Their twisted belief that they were ready to die and even actively sought death made Yuuki Yuuki's scalp tingle. Yuuki Yuuki didn't dare to call herself a lover of world peace; she was just the type who would try to save six people when faced with a trolley problem. Naturally, she couldn't bear to see this group of people lining up to head towards their deaths.

But the nuns rushing towards their doom are feeding an even bigger monster with their sacrifice.

……

Beyond the Dreamland, in Moonsea City.

"They...disappeared?"

The middle-aged office worker, who was bruised and battered from being beaten by the nun, clung to the telephone pole and dared not let go. He watched helplessly as the nun, who was climbing the pole, suddenly and silently slipped down, crashing to the ground like a water-filled balloon and shattering into a puddle of black mud. He could hardly believe his eyes.

Another person, who had been hiding in the bare flower bed, slowly crawled out, looked around at the gradually receding black mud, and let out a cheer.

"That's right! They've disappeared! Great! We're saved!"

The scattered crowd, driven away, gradually began to gather again. "Finally... finally! I thought! I thought I was going to die!"

Cheers and celebrations rang out all around, and the entire block was filled with jubilation at the prospect of surviving a disaster.

In the past, Moonsea City has also experienced large-scale destruction caused by corrupted magical girls, many of which could be described as disasters. However, this is the first time that the entire Moonsea City has been engulfed like this.

Hearing that a place has been attacked by magical girls is a completely different feeling from actually being caught in the wave of disaster caused by the nuns.

In particular, whenever she escaped from one location, she would be caught up and brutally trampled by nuns who appeared out of nowhere before she could only run a few steps. No matter where she hid, the nuns would drag her out from the corner. Even when she hid at home, she could hear the nuns knocking on the windows and their unrestrained laughter outside the door. The psychological pressure was indescribable.

What's even more terrifying is not that they are experiencing darkness, but that they don't know when the light will shine on them again, or whether they will even have the right to see the light again.

Amidst the jubilant crowd, Sakura Hanako, who landed lightly like a falling leaf beside Mizuno Yu, had a serious expression.

This wasn't because she failed to protect more people, although that was indeed the case. In the entire city, there were only two magical girls capable of fighting: Kurenai and Hyakki, along with the weak-willed Sakuragawa Nana and Kuroba Ryou, who merely cleared out the miscellaneous enemies on the road.

Even though they were constantly shifting the battlefield to help as many people as possible escape the nuns' pursuit, the strength of six people was still too small for the entire city.

As long as these nuns continue to spread fear throughout the city, these magical girls will be unable to take care of the bigger picture. The monsters born from the black mud will only increase in number, eventually overwhelming them.

But the fact that the nuns retreated on their own when the other side had such an overwhelming advantage indicates that something must have happened in the Dream Realm.

Perhaps it was just intuition, but Sakura Hanako had a bad feeling.

"Senior Mizuno..."

"Ah."

Mizuno Yuya nodded seriously; that call had made her realize that what she was considering was also what Sakura Hanako was worried about.

"The nauseating smell on them didn't disappear; instead, it went somewhere else. I'm more worried about the other side than about us."

……

The mud-covered bricks cracked very slowly with a dull thud, looking like a sponge cake being slowly torn apart by an unseen giant hand.

However, the broken section of the stone pillar did not collapse as the girls had expected. Instead, countless strands of black viscous fluid, pulled out from between the stone bricks, remained connected, resembling the veins of muscles, a horrifying sight.

The pillar, submerged in the black mud, did not rise high. The black mud was reshaping the stone pillar, molding it into the shape of a huge even-toed ungulate's foot.

The second and third pillars, the pillars that were split off from the main body of the sanctuary, became the sanctuary's feet, making a total of eight, allowing it to stand firm in this sea of ​​black mud.

The shattered porch plunged into the black mud, thirstily drinking in the mud that covered the ground.

The mud was rapidly decreasing, and the scene that Yuuki had witnessed earlier, where Hanzawa Kuriko had drained all the filthy magic power in the entire dreamscape in order to fight her, now seemed nothing compared to the shock of what was happening now.

There were other magical girls who helped to stop it back then, but now they are all fighting outside the Dream Realm. Even if the magical girls inside the Dream Realm risk all their power, the effect is nothing more than slowing down its progress.