Then, she converted that mana inside her body into a different color.
It wasn't Star-trail's silver-white starlight, but an extremely pale, almost transparent, warm white sunlight.
Having worked at the observatory for many years, she knew that starlight and sunlight were essentially the same thing, just at different distances. And distance could be faked.
Qiluo channeled the restructured mana into a temporary circuit she had constructed, layering it step by step. The first layer was the basic framework, using the sunlight-colored mana to simulate the transformation foundation of this world's Magical Girls.
That was right—Qiluo planned to transform into a Magical Girl. There was no better disguise than that.
I just need to step in and resolve this crisis, and then I'll never transform again!
The second layer was attribute specialization. She chose light—a pure light devoid of any celestial characteristics.
This would completely sever any connection to Star-trail's spectrum. The third layer was weapon materialization.
In her original world, she had seen extremely fine threads of mana, a spell used by the temple's Lightweavers to bind high-tier magical beasts.
She rewrote this spell into the mana language of this world, gathering a handful of invisible threads in her palm.
The moment the transformation halo lit up around her, a question suddenly popped into her head: she needed a new name. A name to be used only once and then discarded. She silently repeated the code name “Lightweaver” in her mind, then leaped out of the window.
Hopefully, this name would only be used once. Transforming into this kind of Magical Girl was actually pretty embarrassing.
Mingyue had just pulled her scythe out of an Erosion Body's carapace when her peripheral vision caught a warm white streak shooting out from the side of the viewing tower, landing right in the center of the plaza trailing a razor-thin stream of light. Only when the light hit the ground did it reveal itself to be a human figure.
Her short white hair fluttered slightly in the wind, the tips dyed with a streak of red.
It was the color of embers, as if light itself had singed the ends of her hair. The hem of her skirt was an extremely pale, warm white, its texture so light and airy it looked as though a section of the morning sun had been snipped off and sewn directly into a dress.
She held no weapon in her hands, but the moment she spread her fingers, something in the air began to glow—crisscrossing threads of light that blanketed the sky over the entire plaza.
“Who are you—?” Mingyue leaped down from the tower's framework, holding her scythe across her chest, her eyes locked onto the newly arrived figure.
“Just passing through,” the newly arrived Magical Girl replied. Her voice, filtered through the transformation's perception barrier, sounded crisp and clean.
“The two on the ground are mine. If you can't handle the one up there, wait for me.” Without waiting for a response, she clenched her right hand.
The net of threads hanging over the plaza suddenly pressed down. The two mid-tier Erosion Bodies rushing toward the entrance of the viewing tower looked as if they had crashed into a red-hot wire mesh.
The glowing threads sliced into their carapaces, sizzling with white smoke. The Erosion Bodies screeched and struggled, but the more they thrashed, the tighter the threads bound them.
Mingyue cast another glance at her, then kicked off the ground and leaped upward, her scythe sending a trail of sparks flying along the tower's tracks.
The mid-tier Erosion Body above had already had half of its carapace sliced off by her earlier strikes, leaving its core exposed.
Mingyue cut in from the side, plunging her scythe into the crack in the carapace. Leveraging her weight, she twisted her wrist and pried the entire Erosion Body off the tower.
The mid-tier Erosion Body crashed onto the plaza ground, cracking the asphalt. Mingyue descended from above, delivering the final blow with her scythe, causing black mist to burst forth.
She sheathed her weapon and turned around, only to find that the two mid-tier ones on the ground had been sliced into countless neat, uniform pieces by the net of glowing threads, with every cut surface burning. The warm white flames burned silently, slowly consuming the black mist until nothing remained.
The white-haired Magical Girl with red streaks stood in the center of the thread net, her right hand still in a retrieving posture with fingers slightly splayed. The glowing threads slowly wound back into her fingers like receding waves. Having reeled in the last thread, she brushed off non-existent dust from her hands and turned to leave.
“Wait.” Mingyue planted her scythe in the ground and quickly caught up to her. “Who are you? There's no Magical Girl like you in this district. Are you from the Association—?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here? And those threads just now! A mana construct of that level isn't something an ordinary Magical Girl can pull off! Who on earth are you—?”
“I'm just passing through,” Qiluo said without looking back. She had to leave immediately; every second was draining a massive amount of mana. If she didn't leave now, her transformation would collapse first. She took two more steps forward, then stopped.
Behind her, Mingyue spoke. Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was crystal clear: “You saved my life. At least tell me your name.”
Qiluo tilted her head, her short, warm white hair brushing against her shoulder. The streak of red at the tips of her hair glinted under the sky as the gray clouds began to disperse.
She looked at Mingyue, who stood in the midst of the shredded remains of the Erosion Bodies, her scythe planted by her feet, a streak of black soot on her face. There was a very earnest, stubborn look in her dark blue eyes, showing she was someone who hated being in debt to others.
“...Lightweaver.” After she spoke, she pulled the glowing threads taut and launched herself along their trajectory, vanishing among the amusement park's buildings in a few bounds.
Mingyue stood where she was, looking up at the direction where the warm white streak had vanished. Her lips moved slightly as she silently repeated the name.
Qiluo landed at the entrance of the employee passage behind the viewing tower, using the wall for support as she walked into the darkness. The moment she stepped into the shadows, her transformation automatically deactivated; her mana was completely depleted.
She stumbled a few steps, leaning her shoulder against the cold concrete wall before slowly sliding down to a sitting position.
Her breathing was ragged, her heart racing as if she had just stepped off the roller coaster. Her left hand still retained the sensation of the glowing threads, her fingers trembling slightly.
She looked down at her hand. There was a faint burn mark on her fingertip, where her own mana had scorched her when she reeled in the threads.
“...Ouch,” Qiluo murmured softly. The wound didn't actually hurt; the burn mark was very shallow and would heal by tomorrow with a bit of ointment.
She was hurting for her weekend—the precious weekend she had finally managed to scrape together was gone again.
Outside the employee passage, the park broadcast started up again. Staff members were organizing the orderly evacuation of tourists; someone was shouting, “There are still children over here!” while others reported the current situation over walkie-talkies.
Mingyue and Nuomi were probably cleaning up the remaining debris of the Erosion Bodies to make sure nothing was left behind. Everything was slowly returning to normal.
Qiluo sat against the wall for a few more minutes. Once her breathing steadied, she pushed herself up. Brushing off a patch of dust on her knee with her palm, she walked out along the employee passage.
By the time she walked out of the amusement park gates, the setting sun was painting the sky in colors entirely different from what she had seen from the viewing tower. She pulled the crumpled ticket from her pocket, glanced at it, and tossed it into a nearby trash can.
Rate on N.U.
