Chapter 23: The Abyss Cutter

The evening breeze brushed against their faces, and the night view was as picturesque as a painting. The only thing that seemed out of place was a young girl devouring her food with gusto. Even her smartphone—the second life of any modern person—had been pushed aside by an assortment of grilled skewers, left to watch its gluttonous owner with a "tearful" screen. Even when notifications lit up the display, she ignored them completely.

Bai Yuze ate very little after taking his seat. He merely tasted a few skewers from each plate before quietly watching his younger sister eat. Thanks to his meticulous training, the methods used by Abyss Calamity Beasts to capture Magical Girls had become truly unscrupulous.

"Brother, are you only going to eat that much?" Bai Youqing’s attention wasn't entirely on the skewers; she still cared about her brother.

"Whether I eat a lot or a little depends on who I'm comparing myself to. If I compare myself to a big eater like you, I have to admit I'm no match." Bai Yuze relaxed, enjoying the scenery of the lake, until his gaze inadvertently caught a familiar figure, causing his eyes to narrow slightly.

"Hmph!" Bai Youqing snorted, ignoring her brother's mockery and turning her focus back to her food.

"Your phone vibrated just now. Aren't you going to check it?"

"What else could it be? It’s probably just Gu Xiaorou reminding me not to be late for tutoring tomorrow."

"Oh, is that so?" Bai Yuze fell silent. Watching his sister eat with such relish, he wasn't in a hurry. Ever since he found out his sister had become a Magical Girl, he had been fretting over how to mentor her. When she was just an ordinary human, no witch or Abyssal creature had the spare time to target her. But the moment she became a Magical Girl, the malice from Abyssal creatures and witches would swarm in. All sorts of snipes and ambushes would be impossible to guard against, so she had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious when out in public.

And now, the witches had delivered the textbook right to their doorstep.

Half an hour later, Bai Youqing rubbed her rounded belly, staring at the last grilled fish ball skewer in her hand with a conflicted expression.

"If you're full, just leave it. Don't overeat," Bai Yuze said with a faint smile, having grown full just watching her.

Bai Youqing scanned the desolate, empty plates on the table and looked at the last fish ball. Reluctant to part with it, she took a big bite, but seeing how little was left, she ultimately couldn't bring herself to throw it away and shoved the rest into Bai Yuze’s mouth.

"Cough, cough..." Bai Yuze was caught off guard by the sudden gesture and nearly choked. He shot his sister a look of utter disdain, chewed, and swallowed it directly.

"Full?"

"Burp~ Mmm, I'm so full." Bai Youqing lay back against her chair comfortably.

"Shall we head home then?" Bai Yuze asked, slowly withdrawing his gaze from the yellow balloon stuck in the tree.

"Brother, you really don't know the first thing about courting a girl!" Bai Youqing said with a look of contempt, lecturing him, "At a time like this, you should go buy some drinks! Eating skewers is definitely going to make one very thirsty and leave a spicy aftertaste."

"Then what do you want to drink?"

"Strawberry-flavored Nutri-Express."

Bai Yuze rolled his eyes at his sister and headed to the small convenience store next door to buy two bottles. But in that short span of time, a major incident had occurred by the time he stepped out. A pile of indescribable, terrifying Calamity Beasts had appeared as if out of thin air, surrounding the crowd at the barbecue stall.

The leader of the Abyssal monsters was known as an [Abyss Cutter]. It possessed a humanoid form, with sickle-like arms protruding from its spine, standing tall like rows of sharpened blades that chilled the bone. The razor-sharp edges glinted under the night lights, as if ready to tear through anything in their path. Its body was covered in dark, strange organs that emitted a faint, reddish fluorescent glow. Around it gathered a group of fearsome, humanoid-looking Abyssal monsters.

They were tall, possessed three heads, and dozens of tentacles covered in fresh, red eyeballs sprouted from their backs. Their bodies were masses of twisting, writhing flesh, and several mouths filled with jagged teeth opened and closed, looking utterly grotesque.

The young couples at the barbecue stall had never seen such a terrifying scene and scrambled toward the center of the crowd, screaming incessantly.

Upon seeing the appearance of the Calamity Beasts, two young, beautiful girls in the crowd were not only unafraid but even seemed eager to fight. They blocked the crowd behind them and said with extreme confidence, "With us here, you don't need to be afraid."

The level of the Abyssal monsters they encountered this time didn't seem particularly high; aside from the Abyss Cutter leading them, the other Calamity Beasts were quite simple to handle. The two girls spoke in low voices, yet carried unparalleled confidence.

Magical Girls had always been the symbol of protection against Calamity Beasts in the city. In the public's perception, the appearance of a Magical Girl meant victory was at hand.

The arrival of the two girls immediately calmed the bustling crowd. With Magical Girls present, what did they have to fear? They were no longer nervous; instead, they began pulling out their phones to record videos and cheer the girls on.

"Go, Magical Girls!"

"My god, I never expected to see a Magical Girl this close in my life."

"Go, big sister! Beat that ugly monster!"

Bai Yuze watched from a distance. To his surprise, Bai Youqing was not among the two Magical Girls. Was she afraid of revealing her identity in front of her brother? Or had she already realized that she couldn't transform here? Since when had his sister become so level-headed?

When Bai Youqing saw the Abyss Cutter appear, her first instinct was to rush out and stand in front of the crowd, just like the two predecessors before her. But halfway there, she retreated silently, her heart filled with regret and pain.

It was like walking along and suddenly discovering an unexplored pond, rippling with potential, only to realize she didn't have a fishing rod. In her dreams, she had lost count of how many times she had imagined transforming into a Magical Girl, standing before the masses, defeating various Abyssal Calamity Beasts, and receiving the grateful, admiring, and praising gazes of the people.

After a long sigh, she slowly remembered: her brother had gone to buy her a drink and hadn't come back yet. Could something have happened to him? *Sigh... my brother is truly a handful.*

At the front of the crowd, it was noisy and bustling. The two Magical Girls couldn't help but feel a bit smug; they were from the neighboring district of Yeqiu City and were just here for a vacation. They never expected to run into this—this was a merit point drop from heaven. It was hard not to be excited.

However, when they tried to tap into the power of their Magic Cores, their expressions changed drastically. The magic within their cores remained completely unresponsive. The two looked at each other, seeing shock and fear in each other's eyes.

"Xiao Qin, you can't transform either?"

"Forget transforming, I can't even contact headquarters."

The girl named Xiao Qin, realizing they couldn't transform, tried to sneakily open her phone to call the vice-captain for backup, only to find that she had lost signal somewhere along the way.

The Abyss Cutter’s dark green eyes locked onto the two Magical Girls, filled with hatred. If not for the interference of these Magical Girls, they would have already occupied Earth and had an endless supply of food, rather than hiding in dark corners eating rats. It didn't hate that life, but it felt an inexplicable sense of frustration. It didn't move, waiting for orders from the person beside it. The Magical Girls didn't move because they simply couldn't transform. For a moment, both sides reached a stalemate.

However, it was clear that the human side would soon break.

Perhaps because the sight of the Calamity Beasts was too terrifying, a woman dressed in expensive clothing could no longer hold back and screamed at the two girls, "Why haven't you transformed yet?! The monster is coming over!"

"You don't need to wait for them to transform; they’ve already lost the ability to do so."

At that moment, a figure in a black robe wearing a blank white mask stepped out from behind the hideous Abyss Cutter, gloating.

"..." The two Magical Girls said nothing, as if silently confirming the black-robed figure's words.

The woman’s screaming, the appearance of the black-robed figure, and the silence of the Magical Girls acted like a switch for panic. The calm, positive energy of the crowd vanished, and chaos began to spread.

"I shouldn't have trusted these little brat Magical Girls."

"If we knew you were this useless, we would have run away long ago instead of standing here waiting to die."

"Exactly! We pay your taxes, and when we actually need you, you’re completely worthless!"

The black-robed figure seemed to have anticipated the chaos. Her raspy voice wasn't loud, but it echoed in everyone's ears, like a key unlocking the deepest darkness within their hearts.

"Hehe~ I can give you a choice to survive. As long as you hand over these two Magical Girls yourselves, I can let you go! Don't worry, before they transform, Magical Girls are no different from ordinary humans. Of course, you can choose to resist, and the Calamity Beasts behind me will eat all of you. Also, don't bother trying to call the police; there is a signal jammer here. If you don't believe me, check your phones to see if you have any signal. Now, choose for yourselves!"

People frantically pulled out their phones and found that, just as the black-robed figure said, the signal in this area had been cut off. More alarmingly, the barbecue stall was in an extremely remote location; it would be quite some time before anyone realized something was wrong.

"Maybe we should just hand them over!" a young man in a suit said in terror. He had too much wealth to inherit to be willing to die here.

"Slap!" A beautiful young woman with light makeup delivered a sharp blow to the man's face.

"Xiang Yujia, I really misjudged you."

"Why can't we sacrifice two people to save all of us? At worst, after we get out, I'll give their families a million each as compensation. We won't be indebted to them for saving our lives."

These voices came from every corner of the crowd, like thorns piercing the hearts of the two girls who had just stood in front of them. Bled dry, the sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls had never experienced such verbal violence and abuse. A wave of grievance surged within them—why, why did the humans they had sworn to protect say such things?

"No, don't do this!" Their eyes were rimmed with red, their bodies trembling, and they couldn't stop the sobs in their voices.

"Hmph, if you're not skilled enough, don't come out and embarrass yourselves!"

"Exactly, I really don't know what you're good for."

More and more cold words were hurled at them, seemingly to convince themselves, or perhaps to convince the people around them.

Across from the crowd, the Abyss Cutter wasn't in a hurry. It watched the spreading fear among the crowd with interest, a thick, yellowish, murky liquid dripping from its hideous, leaking lips. It had been slashed by some unknown Magical Girl a long time ago, and due to the influence of holy power, the wound had never healed, causing it to whistle whenever it spoke.

This time, having accepted the orders of the Flame Demon, Bing He, to assist in the capture of Magical Girls, it had been so confused it was dizzy, but after an explanation from an Abyssal Listener who possessed a 'Human Language Translator,' it understood. Whatever the black-robed figure wanted it to do, it would do. If the black-robed figure didn't speak, it would just stand by and watch the show.

It had been watching quite happily, until its gaze swept over and landed on a flat-chested loli who was watching it with great interest...