deltrittennovels Chapter 601 The Visitors from the Astral Realm
Chapter 601 The Visitors from the Astral Realm
"Has it started?"
"Yes, Ms. Qi Yun from the Hero Association has completely taken control of all of Sasha's network devices. Today, no matter which website she visits, she can only see what we want her to see."
"That's good. With Marigold guiding her around the city, she won't have much of a chance to learn about other people's situations. Theoretically, we can use this method to ensure to some extent that the victim who enters the Dreamscape tonight is the one we want."
After dinner, on the rooftop of an office building in downtown Chengdu.
The magical girls have all entered their respective mental worlds and taken their positions. Red Rose stands calmly on the rooftop, waiting for news of the giant egg's deployment to come from one of the mental worlds.
Heart Moon Fox waited quietly by the side—according to the pre-arranged plan, after confirming that Garuda had invaded a certain mental world, Red Rose would immediately take over that mental world. She would personally enter it to find the giant egg and, as the sole "observer," hatch the giant egg and face Garuda alone.
Then, depending on the situation, decide whether to release Garuda out of the mental world or to engage in a final battle with Garuda directly within the mental world.
This is actually a huge gamble.
It was a gamble that Garuda hadn't seen through the trap set for it, a gamble that it didn't know Inari had deduced its exact location, and a gamble that it would definitely descend into the giant egg in its true form.
This incredible gamble, if successful, will grant her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to confront Garuda in its physical form. But if she fails, Red Rose, as the one facing Garuda, will inevitably be subjected to Garuda's relentless attacks. And if even this veteran falls before Garuda...
...As expected, I still need to prepare a few backup plans.
While thinking to herself, Su Tianqing controlled her familiar to open the collection vault deep within the magic space and retrieved a seemingly ordinary strange capsule into the spare slot.
If I ever really reach a dead end with no other options, I'll just put all the enhancements and special abilities of the Heartmoon Wand onto this thing and let it go and explode against Garuda.
It might not be able to directly destroy Garuda, but its appearance will definitely shock it and cause a lot of damage.
But before that, let's quietly wait for tonight's dreamlike visions to arrive.
"...It's getting a little boring." Chi Xue suddenly spoke up from not far away, bringing Su Tianqing's thoughts back to reality.
She was leaning back in a chair formed by magic, staring blankly at the clear night sky, utterly bored.
"There's no cell phone signal, no signal at the Divine Stone, no wired broadband, and even satellite communications are cut off..."
Chi Xue muttered about what had happened to her that day, her expression of utter despair making Su Tianqing quite agree with her thoughts.
Internet outages and power outages are two things that significantly diminish the quality of life in modern cities. After all, modern people really don't know how to live without electricity and the internet. You can't exactly stay at home and read by candlelight, can you?
"Heart Moon Fox! Why is it that none of us have a network signal, but you can send video calls today!?"
Suddenly remembering something, Chi Xue sprang up from her chair and shouted loudly at Su Tianqing.
The latter shrugged, its tail wagging from side to side, and grinned mischievously, indicating that it knew nothing.
[Exclusive High-Speed Wireless WLAN Network], a wonderful little item I obtained from the daily shop of the Secret Codex, has become the MVP due to its low price of 100 Divine Codex Stones and its powerful effect.
I don't know the underlying principle, but once I think of the existence of the S-class hero [Electromagnetic], I feel that the Secret Codex seems quite normal.
"Hey Inari, could you use magic to create a wireless signal relay station? At least that would help us pass the time, right?"
"There's no such magic," Inari replied with a wry smile.
As night deepened, the moon gradually rose from the horizon. Chengdu had never been so quiet—there were no cars, no lights, the power grid was cut off and blocked, and an unprecedentedly clear starry sky hung high in the sky, illuminating the faces of the girls on the rooftop.
"I haven't seen such a beautiful night sky in a long time," Su Tianqing said.
"Yes, it's only at times like this that we can avoid all light pollution and see such a beautiful starry sky. It's quite nostalgic."
Chi Xue was the first to speak.
"When I was a child, Chengdu would sometimes shut off the power to conserve electricity. Sometimes the power would be out for two or three hours at night. Everyone would play wildly in the dark by candlelight, and we would feel quite disappointed when the power came back on."
"Red roses and inari, do you have them where you live too?"
"When I was little... to tell you the truth, I used to cook with firewood back in my hometown. After becoming a magical girl, I'm super fast at starting fires," Red Rose replied with a smile.
On the contrary, Inari didn't know what to say. After thinking for a long time, she could only manage to squeeze out the sentence, "I think the city has developed so fast in the last ten years."
As for Shingetsuko... everyone tacitly refrained from asking the golden-haired fox who had only been a magical girl for a short time, knowing full well that even if they did, they probably wouldn't get any information.
Suddenly, a clear surge of magical energy emanated from it.
The ongoing lighthearted conversation abruptly stopped, and they immediately looked up at the magical light screen behind them, where a bright red dot was flashing conspicuously.
"We've located Garuda dropping a giant egg in the mental world! We'll need to analyze the exact coordinates for a while longer," Inari said.
"Well done, it really took the bait!" Chi Xue clenched her fist and waved it lightly, with a look of certainty on her face.
As expected, Garuda continued its invasion rhythm, relentlessly dropping giant eggs in an attempt to breach the defenses erected by the mental world. But this time, it plunged headlong into a carefully prepared trap—if it chose to respond to Red Rose, the observer, and hatch from the giant egg in its true form, this would be its only chance to directly confront Garuda in its physical form!
But which mental world did it invade?
With a wave of her Heart Moon Wand, layers upon layers of mental images appeared in Su Tianqing's mind, pinpointing the exact location of the magical energy fluctuation from just now...
"Found it, it's here."
The golden fox opened its eyes, and the magical light screen infused with magic power from Inari revealed the mental image most closely aligned with the magical fluctuations:
A mental world guarded by hyacinths, [Escape from Foxkov].
Upon seeing this name, Su Tianqing was initially surprised, but she immediately realized that it was entirely expected and nothing to be surprised about. After all, Hyacinth, the main character of the main storyline, always rushed to the front during the battles against the astral beasts, truly receiving the treatment of a main character.
Let's not even talk about getting beaten up; isn't it normal for the protagonist to unleash their full power after getting beaten up?
"Okay. Quickly notify the other garrison members in the mind-image to check who the victim is tonight and whether it matches our plan. I'll go in first and bring Hyacinth out."
Red Rose decisively unfolded her mental world, and Su Tianqing immediately handed over control of the mental world to this senior, and then began to send magical communications to the guardians in each mental world.
[This is Heartmoon Fox. Garuda's giant egg has landed in the heart image guarded by Hyacinth. Everyone must quickly eliminate the enemies and complete the tasks at hand, and get to a safe area to be ready to rush to support at any time. Over.]
The echo of the magical communication followed shortly afterward.
However, after the golden-haired fox girl checked each victim, she found no trace of any victim being drawn into the dreamlike mental imagery.
Hmm? Isn't something a little off? Su Tianqing wondered.
The Hero Association has completely blocked Sasha from accessing information about other magical girls, only allowing her to view designated content—Fenrir and Iris, and at most, to associate them with Hellcat and Lily White.
But the victim this time is not among these four people at all. The four of them replied very quickly, and judging from the wording, there doesn't seem to be any confusion about names. What's going on? Could it be that the previous deduction that "Sasha's gaze will guide Garuda's gaze" was wrong?
That's impossible. It can't be a coincidence, can it? If it were, the coincidence would be far too...
"Whoosh!"
A clear, magical hum came from afar.
In the quiet night, such a commotion was quite noticeable, and the bright contrail of the flying magic was truly eye-catching in the night sky. Everyone looked at the girl who was hurriedly flying towards them:
Magical Girl Marigold.
"Oh no! Senior, oh no!" The girl shouted as she landed on the edge of the rooftop. She almost fell headfirst because she lost her balance. Fortunately, Chi Xue reacted in time and caught her, preventing her from falling.
"Marigold? Why the rush? What happened?"
Xin Yuehu stepped forward to help her stand up, and Daohe also rushed over, looking on curiously, wanting to hear what had happened. Only when she recovered from the exhaustion of using her flight magic at full power did she have a chance to answer:
"Huff...huff..."
"Oh no...! Sasha, Sasha, she... she just suddenly disappeared right before my eyes!"
Su Tianqing's heart skipped a beat.
Chi Xue's condition was similar to that of the golden-haired fox girl. The two exchanged a glance and immediately sensed that something was wrong. They quickly looked at Inari, the only one who could possibly explain the phenomenon.
"Sasha is missing? Could you describe in detail her condition when she disappeared and what happened at that time?"
"It was that one, that one... we were chatting and talking, we were looking at the sky and eating a bag of potato chips, and then suddenly... suddenly she disappeared... before she even had a chance to put the chips in her mouth..."
Marigold's eyes welled up with tears, fearing something might have happened to Sasha. She grabbed Chixue's arm and pleaded:
"Senior Chixue, please... please save her...!"
"Even if you ask me to save her, I need to know where she went first," Chi Xue said helplessly.
"She should be... um..." "Don't worry, with Senior Red Rose here, Sasha will definitely be alright."
The golden-haired fox girl leaned forward and gently patted Marigold's back, which calmed the tense girl down.
But Su Tianqing knew very well that Sasha's inexplicable disappearance could only mean one thing—
She is the victim of Garuda's manipulation of her illusory mental imagery tonight.