Falling.

Falling…

The wind howled past her ears.

Jiang Wanfeng could feel her body rapidly losing its strength.

It wasn’t just simple exhaustion.

Instead, something cold and sinister had drilled into her body along the Mutant’s black threads, like countless tiny insects nibbling away at the Mana inside her bit by bit.

The light of her attire began to dim. The orange-gold glow that had surrounded her flickered weakly, like a flame being extinguished by the rain.

The Marigold crest on her chest flashed a few times, then gradually grew dim and transparent.

“Xiao Feng! Xiao Feng!”

Lulu’s anxious voice came from above.

It flapped its short arms desperately, trying to catch up with the falling Jiang Wanfeng.

“Don’t go to sleep! Wake up! If your transformation cancels now, you’ll die!”

Jiang Wanfeng heard it.

But the voice sounded like it was coming from very, very far away.

She wanted to reply, but found it difficult to even open her eyes.

Her body felt so heavy, so cold.

Her transformation was about to give out. If she hit the ground in a half-untransformed state like this, she would probably die.

Jiang Wanfeng knew this very well.

But now, her body felt as if it no longer belonged to her, and her consciousness was sinking deeper.

For a moment, she even had a very weak thought.

Maybe, she should just let it end here.

Anyway, she had already tried.

Anyway, she had already done her best.

Anyway, even if she kept struggling, it might not change anything…

Once, she had a similar thought.

That was when she was even younger. She had been hugging a stuffed toy, huddled in a corner, feeling like she had been thrown into a box with no way out.

At that time, she had also thought—

Maybe she should just close her eyes like this.

As long as she didn’t look at anything or listen to anything, she wouldn’t be afraid.

But it was right at that moment that someone reached out a hand to her.

Jiang Wanfeng always remembered when that hand took hers. It was the first time she felt that she might not be an abandoned thing after all.

Amidst her fall, she opened her eyes in a blur.

The sky was grayish-black, and the wind whipped her hair around, tearing her vision into fragments.

And in that chaotic play of light and shadow, she seemed to see that hand that had held hers once again.

The hand reached out toward her, feeling so familiar that it made her nose sting.

Jiang Wanfeng stared blankly and murmured softly.

“Brother…”

If this was an illusion, it didn’t seem so bad. At least this was the last thing she would see.

She slowly reached out and grasped that hand.

“…Eh?”

Jiang Wanfeng froze.

The sensation was wrong…

This hand was too small, and too soft.

It didn’t feel like Lin Han’s hand, but rather like a girl’s.

Before she could react, a gentle yet irresistible force pulled her over.

The hazy illusion suddenly shattered, and she realized that she was actually being held by someone, and the person holding her was not Lin Han.

The falling stopped.

The sound of the wind faded from her ears as she fell into an embrace, a slender, icy embrace that carried a faint, sweet scent.

Jiang Wanfeng dazedly widened her eyes.

Silvery-white long hair draped before her eyes. The girl’s profile was close at hand, so beautiful it was almost unreal.

A delicate nose, slightly raised corners of the lips, and ruby-like eyes reflecting the grayish-black sky and the splattering blood in the distance.

She held Jiang Wanfeng, her posture as relaxed as if she had just caught a falling leaf in a garden.

From not far away came Veil Weaver’s hoarse, furious roar.

“Who are you… Who on earth are you?! Why are you interfering!”

Jiang Wanfeng looked at Veil Weaver.

Right now, she had completely lost the elegance from a few minutes ago. She looked more like an injured beast; her eyes clearly revealed fear, and all her movements and shouts were mere bluster.

So this is how it is…

The fear in Jiang Wanfeng’s heart toward her opponent gradually dissipated.

So an enemy so powerful that she couldn’t defeat would also show such an expression when facing an even stronger existence?

“So noisy. I thought you’d say something more interesting.”

Jiang Wanfeng heard the girl holding her say this.

As if bored, her gaze lazily swept over Veil Weaver, and then she said indifferently:

“You’re holding your head too high.”

The next second, Veil Weaver felt a massive force descend upon her out of thin air.

Her bones shattered inch by inch, and the excruciating pain caused Veil Weaver to let out a miserable shriek:

“Telekinesis?!”

“Correct answer. Your reward is a fall.”

Phil gently waved her hand, and the Telekinesis applied to Veil Weaver violently multiplied several times over.

Veil Weaver could no longer endure it and plummeted straight down.

Boom!

Dust scattered, and the concrete ground cracked. Looking down from the sky, the agonizingly struggling Veil Weaver looked like a writhing bug.

Jiang Wanfeng stared blankly at all of this. Only this time, the one lying on the ground wasn’t her, but that once insufferably arrogant Mutant.

She just spaced out like that, her head a bit dizzy, things had changed so fast that she couldn’t quite process it.

Even when she was put down by that unfamiliar girl, she subconsciously flailed her legs a couple of times, ending up sitting flat on her bottom on the ground.

Only then did she realize that the girl had already landed on the ground with her in her arms at some point.

“Do you still want to be held by me?”

Phil’s tone was somewhat teasing.

“I…”

Jiang Wanfeng blushed, quickly stood up, and patted the non-existent dust off her Magical Girl outfit.

She somewhat didn’t want to admit that, even though it was only their first meeting, the embrace of this strange girl who looked even slightly younger than herself gave her a sense of security and even familiarity.

At the very least, she didn’t dislike it…

Maybe… she even liked it a little?

Lulu, who was equally confused about the situation, finally flew back to Jiang Wanfeng’s side. It looked at Phil with a vigilant expression and asked:

“Marigold, what’s the situation now?”

With someone else present, Lulu chose to use Jiang Wanfeng’s code name.

In its eyes, Phil exuded a power stronger than Veil Weaver, and it was different from the power used by Ability Users and Magical Girls. She was clearly a much more dangerous individual!

“I, I don’t know…” Jiang Wanfeng was even more baffled than Lulu.

While Lulu and Jiang Wanfeng were watching Phil, Phil was also observing “Magical Girl Marigold.”

Hmm… very similar…

Looking at Marigold, whose light had grown incredibly dim, Phil felt there was at least a sixty percent chance that this was her own silly little sister.

As for why she still couldn’t be certain, it was because Marigold hadn’t canceled her transformation yet, so her features still appeared somewhat blurry to Phil. Moreover, the stark contrast between this appearance and her actual sister was simply too vast.

—In any case, Phil found it hard to imagine that little sister of hers fighting someone while wearing such a frilly, overwhelmingly girly outfit.

Besides, Jiang Wanfeng had never mentioned anything about this to her…

So, was it a misjudgment?

Or was Jiang Wanfeng really keeping it a secret from her?

If it was the latter, then Phil genuinely felt a little hurt.

To think her little sister wouldn’t even discuss such an important matter with her older brother.

Has her rebellious phase really arrived…?

“Eww—I don’t want my clothes washed with my brother’s, they stink—”

Perhaps it wouldn’t be long before Jiang Wanfeng would say such things to her at home with a look of utter disgust… She absolutely didn’t want that to happen…

Seeing this girl of unknown origin staring at her with constantly shifting expressions—sometimes thoughtful, sometimes heartbroken—Jiang Wanfeng felt her skin crawl.

Fortunately, Phil quickly snapped out of her delusions and returned to normal.

“I am not your enemy.”

She said this while looking toward Veil Weaver, who was still struggling to her feet not far away.

“Right now, rather than figuring out who I am, let’s take care of more important matters first.”

“Promptly finishing off the enemy is a good habit.”