Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Poor child, you're just unlucky... No, in this world, fate is predetermined.

Alice raised her hand, and a wisp of magic coalesced into a small, peaceful talisman. This would be a tracking device—invisible, harmless, yet concealed.

The talisman then floated towards the boy's forehead.

then……

Before they even arrived, the magic that formed the structure of the spell vanished as quietly as snow under the sun.

Alice squinted.

“Ah…you’re here.” She said softly, her sharp, slender eyebrows twitching slightly. “This child seems to be of some use to you.”

She heard the crackling of electrical sparks coming from the school building below, likely caused by aging circuits and short circuits in some critical components. Unmoved, she used the anti-gravity field and optical shielding to propel herself like a falling leaf towards the boy's classroom.

The next moment, a violent explosion erupted inside the school building. Accompanied by the students' terrified screams, scorching flames and violent gusts of air shot out from the concrete building. No one knew what was hidden within this elementary school. These intense flames were capable of eroding steel, turning even solid metal objects into molten steel. Several unfortunate souls, caught off guard, were splashed by the molten steel, and in an instant, their flesh and blood were burned into mangled skeletons!

Thermite.

While not as destructive as acetylene, it can be quite troublesome if it gets stuck to you.

A thought flashed through her mind. She raised her hand, and a powerful gravitational field suddenly formed around her, creating a solid wall that completely blocked the molten iron. The molten iron then rapidly solidified, turning into a solid metal block in mid-air!

The flames continued, and more explosions followed due to the chain reaction. The power poles outside William Dawes Elementary School were bent and bent by the blast, and the transformer exploded, the shockwave snapping the dilapidated concrete support pillars. A series of snapping sounds echoed as the power cables, stretched to their limit by gravity due to the broken support pillars, broke completely. Blue sparks danced on the thick cables, like alien tentacles lashing towards Alice's location!

A futile effort.

This force couldn't kill Alice; even without the transformer, a mere few thousand volts couldn't break through the elemental defenses on her body. But she wouldn't allow herself to be hit by such a crude attack either. She simply shifted slightly to the side, maneuvering slightly in the air to easily dodge all the cables!

And the next moment, boom—!

A cable fell straight to the ground, shattering the substandard manhole cover provided by the manufacturer and then crashing into the ground with a shower of sparks.

The earth trembled.

As if a ferocious beast were struggling and roaring, trying to escape from underground, the smooth concrete ground within a one-kilometer radius suddenly bulged upwards by at least half a meter. Then, countless huge cracks bursting with crimson light appeared from the earth.

A stench and filth filled the air; in that instant, the defensive barrier around the girl was activated to its maximum. The next moment, her vision was completely obscured by the filth filling the air. All she could hear was the booming sound of explosions, and what she saw... even after activating the anti-gravity field to its maximum to completely repel the filth and foul air, the pungent smell still seemed to linger around her nose, causing her an unusual sense of unease.

This is the school's underground biogas digester, unlike the powerful but relatively clean natural gas pit in the suburbs. This fifty-year-old elementary school has a long-standing, stale stench beneath its walls. Rotten food, incompletely decomposed excrement, and a yellowish-green, utterly incomprehensible mess cover most of the block. The flames are still burning, and those innocently caught in the blaze scream, groan, and then… vomit violently.

Alice felt the veins on her forehead starting to throb.

She's a germaphobe—most women who have lived in the leisurely comforts of Gensokyo for many years have a bit of that. She's not without hardship. If she's mentally prepared and determined to achieve a goal at all costs, she can trample all her pride and self-respect into the mud—if she's mentally prepared.

"Well done, well done," the girl said coldly. She rapidly ascended into the sky, reaching a height of several kilometers above the ground in the blink of an eye. She summoned vast gusts of wind, quickly replacing the air in that area.

Without a doubt, the boy had escaped in the chaos. Death had gone to great lengths to stop Alice from getting close to him—though using methods that were largely harmless. But as long as he hindered her, it was a victory. However, Death's victory was also Alice's victory; at least, she understood the boy's importance.

"He can't die, can he?" Alice pursed her lips, her gaze fixed intently on the burning, chaotic ground. She suddenly realized a piece of information she hadn't paid much attention to before.

Apocalypse: Apocalypse. This was intelligence Zhao Ying found empty-handed. It contained a rough record of information about the Apocalypse users. It described their abilities, characteristics, and an inconspicuous description at the end—'Those who possess this ability are usually not very old, mostly between fifteen and twenty-five years old. There are also Apocalypse users under fifteen years old, but they can usually only see or hear a series of meaningless numbers, which should be considered as their ability not yet being fully developed.'

She remembered the hearing aid hanging in the boy's ear. Based on this wave of attacks from Death, she was over 90% certain that the child was also an Awakened One.

So why do the angels need to protect this child? Why are they willing to kill so many people with calamities just to ensure this child is unaffected? Isn't the end of the world just around the corner? Everyone is going to die anyway, so dying a few days earlier won't really affect the outcome, will it?

Unless, of course, this boy is destined to live until after the apocalypse.

Alice closed her eyes and quickly gathered all the existing information about the papacy's mythology. Then, she began to calculate.

Those who receive the divine guidance can die; Death does not care about their lives.

Death is an angel, either a single one or a group, and is influenced by papal mythology.

This boy is protected by Death; he might also be one of the Awakened.

The world will end in five days; angels will cleanse it with a solar storm.

Solar storms, the sun, endless flames... a sea of ​​fire.

【Understood.】

Alice slowly opened her eyes, her gaze devoid of joy or sorrow.

"So... this isn't just the Book of Revelation, it's also Noah's Ark. You plan to cleanse the world with the flames of the sun, leaving only the children and animals you've chosen to regrow in the cleansed world. Then, you'll build civilization and begin another cycle... Is that how it is?"

Alice murmured, "You really enjoy writing scripts, you scum of the Vatican."

"So……"

She raised her hand, conjuring a massive ritual several kilometers above the ground. Clouds hundreds of kilometers away churned and churned, generating tremendous winds, which gathered and merged above her, transforming into a gigantic vortex in the air!

“A child may run fast, but he is still just a child. The city is in chaos, and to escape, you must pay the price with time. But if I raze the entire city to the ground, how can you possibly save it?”

A massive vortex of air then descended, like a heavy hammer, about to crush everything living below into dust.

Alice showed no pity whatsoever.

Section 47 Angelology

The wind, a massive wind. Its essence was a vortex constructed by magic, amplified and magnified by magic, weather, and the panic among the city's inhabitants, ultimately transforming within seconds into a colossal vortex of endless thunder and dark clouds covering most of Boston.

It formed high in the sky, descending like a massive, collapsing mountain slowly pressing down on the city. Even before touching the ground, the sudden increase in air pressure snapped the city's greenbelts. Burning biogas digesters were instantly extinguished, and people screamed, their faces pale and helpless. Streets unaffected by the explosion were in chaos, vehicles colliding and crashing as people scrambled to escape. The extent of the damage caused in those few seconds is unknown.

And the enormous vortex of wind continued to press down.

“You can’t escape.” Alice gazed at the chaotic city below, speaking as if to herself, or perhaps to something in the void. “The technology of this era cannot produce a vehicle capable of moving someone out of my attack range in just a few seconds. And when this storm subsides, that boy will surely die.”

“So…” she subtly shifted some of her focus from the storm. “If you want to save his life, you’ll have to show some real skill.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a burst of white light suddenly erupt from somewhere in the city!

I've got you!

The massive storm abruptly stopped, the magic dissipated, and the hurricane, no longer sustained by magic, crumbled into equally violent but less catastrophic gales. The largest of these gusts, however, was intervened by Alice, who enveloped her and rushed towards the source of the light!

Before they even arrived, the gale, guided by Alice, transformed into a sharp, massive sword and slammed into them—what had been a city park was instantly transformed into a giant, sunken crater under the wind pressure. Underground water spewed out, mixing with mud and dust to form several murky fountains.

[...Missing their target on the first strike, tsk, they got away?]

Alice reached the top of the crater a few milliseconds later, and with a sudden wave of her hand, the fountain shattered into splattering, murky ice fragments in the sudden burst of low temperature. They swarmed through the park ruins like a swarm of bees. But Alice was returned with nothing but emptiness, having failed to capture her target.

The other party had already left, taking the boy with them, disappearing so casually right under her nose—this didn't prove that the other party was stronger than her, but at least for now, she was at a disadvantage in the technical field.

This is terrible.

Alice exhaled softly, calming the surging blood within her. In her perception, the surrounding environment had transformed into a boiling cauldron. The angel's whereabouts were completely unknown, as was the little boy's.

The out-of-control hurricane finally disintegrated completely at this moment. Without magical support or external intervention, it quickly disintegrated into hundreds of vortices of varying sizes. They collided, wore down, neutralized, and merged, disappearing without a trace over Boston in no time. The lightning hidden in the clouds also dissipated—although it still damaged quite a few plants, compared to the hurricane's arrival and the destruction of half the city, this ending could almost be called a comedy.

Alice breathed a slight sigh of relief—while she was ruthless, she wouldn't drag ordinary people into her battles unless absolutely necessary. The curse of mortals might be a tonic for her, but there's a saying that one's constitution cannot withstand such tonics. She would naturally restrain herself when there was no need to create enemies, while also considering the values ​​of the righteous people in her group.

[What a pity, I wish I could have been faster.]

She couldn't help but yearn for the individual spatial jump technology of outsiders—as a witch, as a qualified information mage. Although she could fly, and fly very fast, compared to spatial jumps that ignored distance, this outdated method of movement was far too rudimentary.

However, not understanding is not understanding. The technological gap between her and others troubled her; this wasn't a simple technology that could be reverse-engineered by simply acquiring a couple of sets of equipment from outsiders. To master it, she had to collect all the relevant formulas, data, and research diagrams, and then spend a significant amount of time analyzing them.

[Damn it, outsiders are so possessive of their advanced technology. Short-range individual space jumps... Ugh, I want one too! Oh well... next time in the next reincarnation... never mind, I'll just buy it from the Supreme God, or wait for Patchouli to get those space bridges sorted out. I don't want to become a rare specimen in a museum!]

[But Patchouli... she should be awake by now. It's already morning, has she eaten? Is she cold...? Honestly, what am I thinking? With the little devil around, how could she not be well taken care of?]

She couldn't help but chuckle. She quickly dismissed the pointless thought and focused her attention elsewhere.

Death... the angel has appeared and unleashed its true power. Although its true form has not yet been captured, its threat level has been greatly reduced, at least for now, due to its appearance.

A weapon is most threatening when it is yet to be used. A monster is most terrifying when it has not yet revealed itself. Once traces are left, the fear stemming from the 'unknown' diminishes rapidly. And the traces left by the angels are more than enough for Alice.

The sound of sirens came from outside the park, probably from patrol officers nearby, or perhaps from the Apocalypse Creators who had been interfered with by the angels and deliberately leaked information to cause trouble for Alice. A cacophony of voices came from all directions after the storm had subsided; perhaps it was the sound of panicked residents instinctively approaching the park.

"Get out of my way, all of you," Alice said in a deep voice, her voice mixed with high-frequency sound waves that could stimulate specific brain tissues. The result of this sound wave stimulation was a disruption of the body's hormones, causing disorientation in those nearby and a significant decrease in their initiative.

In her world, this was a simple spell known as 'Expelling Idlers'. It had significant flaws, unable to handle intelligent machines, cyborgs, or warriors with extremely strong wills. But in this place, dealing with a group of ordinary people was no problem at all.

Her voice, amplified by magic, spread in all directions, and the surroundings fell silent. She lifted her foot and walked towards the spot where the angel had last stood, where remnants of the angel's power lingered. Her objective, seconds earlier, had shifted from capturing the angel to analyzing this energy.

If you can observe, you can analyze. If you can analyze, you can interfere. If you can interfere, you can control—this is the rule witches usually follow when studying the unknown.

She reached out and touched the embers that still held some energy.

............................................................

"Master Patchouli, are you awake?"

As Patchouli opened her eyes from the velvet mattress, intending to count the number of rose petals scattered on the canopy, she heard the imp's voice in her ear.

“Little devil,” Patchouli said calmly, “Where is Alice now?”

"Master Alice is currently in Boston working on a research project. She has confirmed the hypothesis that Death is essentially an angel and made indirect contact during a trial. Although no samples have been captured yet, Master Alice has sent a test report describing the nature of an energy used by angels—would you like to take a look now?"

Patchouli gently pressed her forehead—her head still ached, and her body felt as heavy as lead. Even just raising her hand caused noticeable fatigue and muscle soreness… This forced her to expend some magic to stimulate her body's tissues to ensure their activity.

"How long did I sleep?" she asked casually.

“Fourteen hours in total, my mistress,” the little devil replied. “If we use Washington, D.C. as the standard, then it should be five o’clock in the afternoon.”

"..."

Patchouli slowly turned her head, her spine cracking like rusty gears turning.

"I slept... for fourteen hours?"

"Yes, my mistress."

"It's...5 PM now?"

"Yes, my mistress."

Patchouli raised her right hand and slowly clenched her fist. Then... she slammed it down on her forehead with a 'smack'!

"Ugh." The girl's eyebrows trembled from the dull pain, but this also stimulated her mind, allowing her to concentrate her energy in a very short time.

this is normal.

She didn't sleep in late as usual in the early hours of the morning because Alice had tormented her so much during the night that she fell asleep quickly. Her good sleep today was actually due to a sense of security, which allowed her to relax—she knew she couldn't hide what she had done from Alice for long, but at the same time, she was also afraid of the day Alice would find out the truth.

She was afraid that Alice would leave her.

Therefore, when the matter was resolved and their relationship remained unchanged, she felt a great sense of relief and became exceptionally relaxed. Thus, waking up with hangover-like symptoms was hardly noteworthy.

"What is Alice doing right now..." she began, then abruptly stopped. "Well, you already told me she's working on a project, right, little devil?"

"Yes, my mistress."

She rubbed her forehead vigorously, and then, as her thoughts barely returned to normal, she focused her attention on the report in her hand.