Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity

Iris was carrying the unconscious Hongmian on her back, panting heavily.

Due to the collapse of space, they had gotten separated while chasing the Calamity Dragon, but Iris had still managed to find Teacher Hongmian.

The danger level of the Heart Image Remnant had truly exceeded her imagination.

From the moment they entered, her nerves had been stretched taut almost every single moment, and every battle had been incredibly difficult.

Fortunately, it was her, the strongest Magical Girl Iris, who was here.

Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to Teacher Hongmian and that idiot Qingying.

"Thank goodness I insisted on taking the exam back then, taking it several times before I passed. Hmph, I'll have to have a good talk with Senior Jincha when I get back. If I hadn't insisted on entering the Heart Image Remnant, this mission would have been a complete failure from the start!"

She muttered to herself as she walked.

The empty Beihai had not a single soul. If she didn't talk a bit, muttering to herself, it would be boring to death.

"I haven't found Qingluán yet, but she's definitely heading for the core. For me, I just need to take Teacher Hongmian and proceed to the core along the planned route." Iris leapt and jumped between buildings. In the current situation, it was better to conserve mana a bit.

"But..."

Iris stopped on a relatively tall building, looking around. Although what met her eyes was still Beihai, it was already vastly different from the city she remembered.

"Where's the road?"

Shorter buildings, narrower roads, a smaller city; the girl felt dizzy looking at it, as if facing a formidable enemy: "...Where's the road!?"

"May I ask where the road is—!?" Iris cried out weirdly, "Without an honor guard and a band, I can't find the road ahhhhhhhhh!"

Perhaps because she shouted too loudly, the Teacher Hongmian she was dragging finally woke up.

"Can you not walk without someone to guide the way, Iris? Is the strongest Magical Girl so inflexible?"

Iris happily continued her weird cry: "Hong—mian—Tea—cher—!"

Although she had already exited her transformed state and couldn't transform again for a short while, Hongmian still knocked on Iris's forehead.

"Be a little quieter, Student Iris."

"It's not class time now, Teacher Hongmian."

"Ah, are you trying to rebel against the heavens?"

"A teacher riding on a student's back has no right to say that."

Looking at Iris, who was still bursting with energy, Hongmian couldn't help but sigh in relief, saying softly, "You've really worked hard, Iris. I didn't expect to become your burden."

"Ahaha, why is Teacher suddenly saying such things? If you really feel sorry, you can help me make up for the previous course credits..."

"Don't even think about it."

"Tch, so insincere." Iris wasn't too bothered anyway. "I can make them up myself. If you don't want to, fine, whatever, really whatever!"

Looking at Iris who emphasized "whatever" a few times, Hongmian couldn't help but laugh. "If we can really solve the problem here, you won't have to worry about those few credits either."

"That's true." Iris suddenly grinned mischievously. "Then I'll help you deduct fewer of Mùjǐn's credits, that way you win too!"

"Him..."

Hongmian was just about to chide her a bit when the entire space suddenly shook.

Immediately after, the space in the sky began to distort, cracks appearing one after another across the firmament.

Before Iris could even react, massive purple mana overflowed from the cracks.

Then it rapidly turned into a torrent, instantly shattering the sky above!

Purple mana poured down like an ocean. Neither of them had time to react before being blasted away.

Fortunately, Iris was still maintaining her transformed state and could protect Hongmian the whole time.

She herself, however, inevitably got pressed down by the purple mana and plummeted straight into a building, taking a good while to climb back out.

She immediately looked at Teacher Hongmian. "Are you okay, Teacher!?"

"I'm fine." Hongmian floated in the air, looking up at the seemingly endless mana. "This is..."

"It must be that guy!"

"That guy, that guy—"

Iris pulled Teacher Hongmian to a safe spot, then stood atop a tall building herself, pretending to be serious as she gazed at the purple mana waterfall:

"—The envoy from Beihai, the petite girl from Beihai, the Witch's nemesis, the Witch Association's killer, the dainty Magical Girl who crushes evil plans, the expert at eliminating Disaster Beasts, the short-haired girl who bleeds for love, the world champion of fighting techniques, the petite Magical Girl who stakes the name of Beihai's strongest, the not-tall-but-super-strong 600-level Perfection Blooming, my super rival! The Azure Cloud Sect's Shion!" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Hongmian's heart trembled. "How did she get in!?"

"Who knows? That guy is amazing, has lots of tricks, after all, she's my rival!"

More than that, Hongmian was even more shocked by this mana.

The Central Bureau already had quite a bit of information on Shion, but clearly, everyone had some misunderstandings about her.

Especially this kind of power, it's simply not something a Blooming-level Magical Girl could possibly possess...

BOOM!

Although they couldn't see what was happening above from the lower layer, they could still sense the strange flow of mana. Especially when the Heart Image Remnant was pierced through, that intense feeling of shattering was incredibly clear even if they couldn't see it.

The entire Beihai was enveloped in a sea of purple mana, which only slowly dispersed after a long time.

Layer after layer of space began to crack. The dense web of cracks from above extended all the way down, spreading from overhead to beneath their feet.

Next came mirror fragments falling like a torrential rain. After the barrier of the space above disappeared, she finally figured out their location—the third layer.

So in that instant, Iris looked up, wanting to confirm what had happened above.

And then she saw:

The six stacked layers of Beihai, all spaces dyed a uniform purple, all spaces raining down countless fragments.

The fourth layer was shattered beyond recognition. The fifth layer, as if the entire space had been destroyed by magma, with Qingying's figure standing on the only patch of still-intact ground, staring dumbfoundedly upward alongside the Incubator.

The sixth layer, dozens of purple-black rainbows completely cutting through and melting the space.

The first layer, several Mirror Beasts struggled to emerge from the mirror fragments, only to be instantly vaporized by a particularly massive purple streak.

The fourth layer, the Calamity Dragon flew about chaotically, roaring, continuously spewing dragon breath, yet a wisp of purple energy falling inadvertently from above would melt large swathes of it.

All the way to the ninth layer, the end of the defensive line, the center of the sky's rend, that almost indiscernible purple figure...

And, the tattered, pale green Magical Girl standing beside her...

But a moment later, Iris lowered her head.

She didn't have time to carefully observe who that pale green Magical Girl was, because the space below was collapsing, and her own gravity magic was being affected.

She couldn't even protect Teacher Hongmian!

Perhaps for that Magical Girl, it was just a casual strike.

But for them, it was a major disaster!

Watching Teacher Hongmian plummet to the layer below, just as Iris was about to chase after her, she heard Teacher Hongmian shout loudly: "Don't worry about me! Go up and help Qingman! Remember to follow Qingman to the Hidden Danger! Close the Hidden Danger first! These Mirror Beasts will disappear then!"

She saw Teacher Hongmian transform, but her falling speed didn't slow. Mirror Beasts even pounced on her, causing Teacher Hongmian to fall even deeper.

But when Teacher Hongmian's mana radiance exploded from below, Iris felt slightly relieved.

After all, she was a veteran. Although Teacher Hongmian specialized in combating Witches, facing ordinary Disaster Beasts, even if she couldn't kill them all, protecting herself shouldn't be a problem.

The entire Heart Image Remnant looked like it was about to fail to hold together. Once the Heart Image Remnant collapsed and the Hidden Danger wasn't closed, endless Mirror Beasts would be born continuously.

Moreover, Mirror Beasts had a particularly troublesome characteristic: wherever there were mirrors, Mirror Beasts could travel. If this place crumbled without closing the Hidden Danger, these Mirror Beasts would scatter, making them hard to even find.

If that happened, all the sacrifices Magical Girl Senior Mùjǐn had made would be completely meaningless...

Even if Iris was an idiot, she knew priorities. Giving her teacher one last worried glance from afar and confirming she'd be fine, she immediately charged towards Qingluán. "Qingman! Hurry and go close the Hidden Dan..."

Before she could finish, a Calamity Dragon from the eighth layer suddenly plummeted down!

Shion's strike hadn't just caused the Heart Image Remnant to begin collapsing; it had also made the barriers between the spatial layers disappear. Now monsters from the upper layers could also fall down!

But fortunately, the barriers of each spatial layer were starting to recover.

Only one of the piled-up Calamity Dragons from the eighth layer fell through.

Qingluán, who had been immersed in the shock of Shion's strike, also snapped back to reality. She looked down at Iris, who was falling alongside the Calamity Dragon, and immediately wanted to go down and help.

Seeing her friend actually wanting to come down, Iris, while using gravity to press the Calamity Dragon in front of her to the ground, imitated Teacher Hongmian and shouted, "Don't worry about me! If you come down, it'll be hard to go back up! The Heart Image Remnant is about to collapse, hurry and close the Hidden Danger! The safe path Teacher told you about, do you still remember it!?"

"Of course I remember!" Qingluán said while clinging to the gradually recovering barrier, worriedly instructing, "Be careful! Don't push yourself! I'll be right back! Wait for me!"

In the final moment before the spatial barrier completely recovered, Iris smiled.

"Heh, who do you think you're talking to!?"

Iris looked at the Calamity Dragon swinging its tail before her, her fighting spirit soaring.

"You are the strongest Magical Girl Iris! Don't get lost and drag me down!"

......

Qingluán looked at the Magical Girl Shion, whose half of her head had been destroyed yet could still maintain movement.

She tilted her head slightly, somewhat surprised. This was the first time she had seen an existence that could take that strike at close range and not die.

Although half her face was like shattered glass, constantly shedding fragments, with cracks even spreading across the other intact half...

But, the other party was indeed not dead, still maintaining mobility, and had not even canceled her transformation.

She just didn't know if this Mùjǐn replicated by the Mirror Kingdom would even know how to cancel transformation.

Most importantly, the other party had used spatial dislocation to escape from her suppression.

Now that distance had been opened, just as Shion was about to close in, the area originally located at the ninth layer, after resealing, suddenly changed.

[Heavenly Post King]?

Not only that, the Beihai beneath her feet turned into a boundless sea. Shion looked down.

The sea surface reflected the scenery on the other side. Bai Mei and Winter were desperately trying to freeze the entire collapsing Heart Image Remnant.

Transferred to a mirror space?

This place clearly shouldn't be inside the Heart Image Remnant anymore. The Mirror Kingdom's system had already carved out a new mirror space...

[Observed dangerous target exceeding processing expectations, transferring to independent space.]

[Objective changed: Exert all efforts to slow the collapse of the Heart Image Remnant, accelerate erosion speed.]

[Objective changed: From defeating dangerous target, to delaying dangerous target...]

Before the mechanical voice could finish reporting, Shion had already stepped through the air and arrived. Faster speed, greater strength. Before that Magical Girl Mùjǐn could fully deploy her spatial expansion, a fist had already smashed out!

Playing the profound mystery of [Curtain Hanging Moon Shadow, a Foot is a World Away] with me?

[Masterpiece, the third...]

The magic expansion was a moment too slow. The person had already flown out like a meteor!

The sound of breaking air drew a white trail across the sky. When she hit the sea surface, she skipped several times like a stone, but ultimately stood up on the water.

[Woven Brocade's Remnant Trace of Ruin.]

Dense spatial cracks opened around Mùjǐn. However, Shion wasn't in a hurry to chase.

"Buying time?"

Looking at the already tattered and broken replicated Mùjǐn, who was just quietly waiting for her attack, the space around her constantly distorting, covering her entire body, determined to defend, to endure all her attacks, without the slightest desire to counterattack,

Shion raised her right hand. Five streams of mana of different colors converged in her palm.

The originally calm seawater began to make gurgling sounds.

From lightly simmering warm water, it gradually grew hotter and hotter, until it began to boil, roar, heat continuously rising from the sea surface!

The replicated Mùjǐn stared blankly at her surroundings. Any fragments peeling off her body melted rapidly upon hitting the sea surface.

She looked up. In Magical Girl Shion's hand, a lotus flower had silently appeared.

A lotus formed from the convergence of five-colored mana, small, exquisite, quietly rotating slightly, like a piece of art.

But the violent, restless, unstable, terrifying mana within it was felt clearly even by that Mùjǐn standing in an extremely distant place!

The seawater beneath her feet had already boiled like magma!

Shion wasn't in a hurry to throw the fire lotus. Instead, she grabbed the fire lotus with both hands and gently pulled.

The already extremely unstable fire lotus was actually stretched by her like this, gradually turning into a five-colored flowing spear!

Then, it precisely locked onto Mùjǐn standing on the sea surface.

Even as a machine executing a mission, the replicated Mùjǐn still instinctively took a step back.

Immediately after, [Heaven-Grade Spell·Buddha's Fury Lotus·Modified·Spear Version], abruptly shot forth!

The seawater below erupted and roared like volcanic magma, yet completely evaporated the moment the spear fell!

Massive amounts of steam from the high-temperature evaporation of seawater rose, the surrounding space cracking.

Mùjǐn immediately extended both hands, using all the spatial abilities she could muster since her birth.

[Mediocre Work, the third...]

[Masterpiece, the sixth...]

[Masterpiece...]

Yet all the spatial constructs were swallowed up by massive amounts of scorching mana the moment they contacted the spear, continuously shattering and exploding!

The spear traced a blazing purple trail. Countless spatial explosions made this long purple streak look like a shattered, extended galaxy!

[Applying for Mental Landscape permissions...]

The five-colored flowing spear fiercely stabbed into the other half of Mùjǐn's eye socket!

Terrifying high temperatures spread along her skull. The sea beneath her feet instantly evaporated. The spear, carrying the now fully ignited Mùjǐn, plummeted into the dry seabed. Mùjǐn desperately grabbed the spear piercing her head, spatial dislocation on her body madly devouring the flames and the surrounding seawater!

Heat waves spread out in circles. Seawater within a radius of hundreds of kilometers evaporated upon contact. Massive amounts of seawater poured into the drought-stricken seabed around the five-colored spear, yet could never extinguish the intense burning!

Seen from high above, a huge vortex appeared in the center of the sea, swallowing everything around it like an abyss!

Until a petite purple figure plummeted from the sky, her beautiful purple boots slamming down onto the spear!

The Mùjǐn who had been desperately gripping the spear let out a piercing scream!

The five-colored spear instantly pierced completely through Mùjǐn's head! Its momentum unabated, it pierced through the space of the seabed!

The seabed shattered like a mirror. The five-colored spear, skewering Mùjǐn's corpse, passed through the seabed space and was nailed directly onto the wall of the next layer's space!

Shion then jumped down from the opening pierced by the spear version of the modified Buddha's Fury Lotus. She glanced at Mùjǐn's corpse hanging limply on the spear, turning into fragments and disintegrating. Probably dead for good.

She then looked around.

This was a city she didn't recognize. The surrounding buildings were also of styles she hadn't seen before, but all the buildings were made of glass.

These beautiful, enormous glass structures looked like some kind of palace, gorgeous and orderly.

In the very center was a huge plaza, and on the plaza stood a massive pillar. The pillar was transparent, and inside it, a girl slept peacefully.

An Shiyu.

[Warning, warning, core area invaded.]

[Warning, entering emergency full defense.]

[Proposal: Release all Magical Girl Mùjǐn replicas.]

[Proposal approved, releasing all Magical Girl Mùjǐn replicas.]

Five or six Magical Girl Mùjǐns walked out from the mirrors.

The five or six Mùjǐns even gathered together. The leading Mùjǐn was quite human-like, smiling. "You are indeed very powerful. But now there are six of us. Sorry, we're going to bully you with numbers."

Shion nodded, then clapped her hands.

Seizing the surrounding mana, this mana condensed and took shape in a strange way.

One Shion puppet after another converged from all directions.

In no time, they had surrounded the six Mùjǐns.

The Mùjǐns, who had been smiling just moments before, once again stared blankly as they looked around.

The mana of each one was almost no different from the original!

"No problem."

Hundreds of Shions drew their bows together. Dense purple beams of light blotted out the sky.

"I like that too."