It was so dark.

Jiang Wanfeng curled up in a corner of the room.

She didn’t know when she had returned home, nor did she know why she was here.

The house was pitch black; the lights were not on, and the curtains were drawn.

Outside, there was no sound of wind, no sound of cars, and no sound of neighbors walking in the hallway. Even the faint hum of running appliances in the house had vanished.

The whole world seemed to have been forgotten, plunged into darkness and a deathly silence.

Jiang Wanfeng hugged her knees, burying her face in her arms.

She vaguely felt that she should be waiting for something, but she had already forgotten what it was.

Waiting for whom?

Why wait?

What would happen even if they came?

She couldn’t remember.

Her head was empty, and her chest was empty too, as if the most important piece of her had been gouged out, leaving only a hole that could never be filled.

It felt so hollow…

Why was it so empty?

Jiang Wanfeng slowly raised her head and looked around her room.

There was nothing in the room, the desk was gone, the bed was gone, and the plushies she had tossed about, the half-finished novels, the snack bags, the phone charging cables… they had all disappeared.

Only pitch black darkness remained.

It was completely void.

She stared for a moment, then suddenly seemed to understand.

Ah.

So it was because nothing existed anymore.

Since nothing existed, then it was only natural for it to be empty…

She buried her face in her knees again.

So be it.

There was nothing left to do anyway.

Ding-dong.

Outside the room, the front doorbell rang.

But Jiang Wanfeng didn’t move.

It was probably just some boring person; even if they came in, they would only say things she didn’t care about at all.

If she didn’t open the door, that kind of person would soon leave.

So, just endure it for a bit…

Thinking this, Jiang Wanfeng closed her eyes.

Ding-dong.

The doorbell rang again.

Jiang Wanfeng’s brow furrowed slightly.

So noisy.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong…

The ringing didn’t stop.

It rang stubbornly, one chime after another, sounding particularly grating in this deathly silent darkness.

Jiang Wanfeng grew weary.

How annoying.

Why won’t they leave?

She wasn’t going to open the door.

There was nothing left in this house. No matter who it was, they wouldn’t find what they were looking for here.

But the doorbell kept ringing.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong.

It was as if the person outside was even more stubborn than she was, refusing to leave until the door opened.

In that case, Jiang Wanfeng also began to wonder what kind of fool would waste their time on such a meaningless thing.

Jiang Wanfeng stood up slowly. Her body felt very light, as if she were standing on clouds.

Since there was nothing else to do, she might as well go and take a look.

If it was some strange sales pitch, she would tell them to leave.

If it was those people saying nonsensical things, she would tell them to shut up.

If it was someone coming to confirm she was still alive, she would tell them that she was.

She was probably still alive, more or less…

Jiang Wanfeng dragged her swaying body through the pitch black living room.

The living room was empty too; even the sofa she used to lie on while eating snacks had disappeared at some point.

By the time she reached the entryway, the doorbell was still ringing persistently, making one admire the person’s perseverance.

Jiang Wanfeng raised her hand and gripped the doorknob.

So cold.

Then, she opened the door.

There was no salesperson standing outside, nor were there any of those annoying adults. The hallway was pitch black, seemingly endless and silent.

Jiang Wanfeng stood blankly at the door, her hand still on the knob.

She suddenly felt very tired, an indescribable exhaustion washing over her entire body.

As expected, there was nothing.

Just like this home, just like her.

Only “emptiness” remained…

The girl lowered her eyes, preparing to close the door again.

But just a moment before the door clicked shut, a hand reached out from the darkness and lightly pressed against the door panel.

Jiang Wanfeng’s movements froze, and then she dully raised her head.

A person appeared abruptly out of the darkness, looking at her through the crack in the door.

The person stood facing Jiang Wanfeng, as if they had finally finished a very, very long journey, arriving before her covered in exhaustion.

Then, that person spoke softly:

“I’m back.”

Jiang Wanfeng watched the white-haired, red-eyed girl outside the door greeting her, her pupils gradually dilating.

“Phildeia…”

Blurred memories began to resurface. Jiang Wanfeng looked at the girl before her—whom she had actually only met once—yet for some reason, she felt such a sense of familiarity.

She remembered now. This person had saved her once; she had even been held by her.

At the time, she had almost thought the person holding her was her brother, because the feeling had been so familiar.

That was why she had subconsciously admired her.

But…

No… that’s not right…

Jiang Wanfeng’s fingers instinctively gripped the doorframe, and then she recoiled.

Inside the room, the darkness began to surge. In the empty living room, countless pitch black palms suddenly materialized, lunging violently toward Phil.

Those black hands seemed to grow from the walls, the ceiling, and even the darkness itself. They were dense and layered, surging forward with a suffocating chill.

White threads manifested around Phil, attempting to slice through them. However, the threads passed right through, and her telekinesis proved equally ineffective.

The dark hands lacked physical form; they were an instinctive counterattack of the witch’s mental plane. This was a confrontation of the mental domain, where only the one with the firmer will could prevail.

A moment later, a hand seized Phil’s wrist, sending a bone-chilling sensation through her. A pitch black mark immediately surfaced on Phil’s skin, as if something were burrowing through her flesh and into her soul, trying to drag her into the void.

“Get lost.”

As Phil steadied her mind, the dark hands closing in were blasted back. She pushed the door open and stepped into the room, walking toward Jiang Wanfeng one step at a time. Although only a few steps separated them, the distance seemed to stretch infinitely, making it agonizingly difficult to close the gap.

After a brief retreat, even more dark hands lunged forward. Like tentacles, they tried to entwine themselves around Phil’s shoulders, arms, waist, and ankles; some tore at the hem of her dress, while others clawed at her throat…

With every touch, another scar appeared on Phil’s body, and pain radiated from every part of her. Like someone who had gone days without sleep craving rest, Phil felt an irrepressible exhaustion deep within her mind.

But she never stopped moving forward.

“Stop being so difficult.”

Phil’s voice was weak, yet it remained filled with the same doting affection for her only little sister that it always had.

“The way you are right now isn’t cute at all.”

Jiang Wanfeng was the sister she had spoiled into having a “princess complex,” the sister who always took an inch and wanted a mile, the sister who habitually acted sweet in front of her with blatant ulterior motives, the sister who would boss her around, the sister who would act cute to comfort her when she was emotionally fragile, the sister who would be so anxious she’d burst into tears when Phil was sick…

But she was anything but this hollow, fragile creature.

“Give her back, Witch.”

Phil finally reached Jiang Wanfeng just as the Dark Hands nearly submerged her entire body. Even so, she reached out from that darkness and grabbed Jiang Wanfeng’s icy wrist.

The next second, Phil pulled hard, drawing her into an embrace.

Jiang Wanfeng froze.

Then, her tensed body slowly relaxed in Phil’s arms.

The Dark Hands stopped at the same time. One by one, they released Phil and retreated silently into the depths of the darkness.

Silence returned to the empty house.

Jiang Wanfeng slumped in Phil’s arms, her body feeling impossibly light.

Her eyes were wide, as if she were completely unable to comprehend what had happened.

This was the second time she had been held in Phil’s arms, yet Jiang Wanfeng still couldn’t understand why the sensation felt so familiar.

But the moment she was embraced, that sense of security flickered back to life from the depths of her memory like a lamp from days gone by.

Just like many years ago, when she was trembling in fear at the voices of those adults, Lin Han had held her in the exact same way.

Jiang Wanfeng’s tears finally fell. She grabbed Phil’s tattered lapel and sobbed,

“Phil… help me… I can’t find my brother…”

Phil’s arms tightened around her slightly.

“Alright. I will definitely help you find Lin Han.”

Before Jiang Wanfeng could say anything, Phil let go of her and extended her pinky finger.

“Let’s make a pinky promise.”

Through her tear-blurred vision, Jiang Wanfeng slowly extended her own pinky, as if guided by some instinct.

Then, the two hooked their fingers.

Their thumbs touched as lightly as a kiss.

Jiang Wanfeng’s eyelashes trembled.

Belatedly, she realized that she hadn’t mentioned her brother’s name, yet Phil had accurately said the name “Lin Han.”

Deep within her memories, the face of that boy gradually overlapped with the white-haired, red-eyed girl before her.

“You…”

“The contract is established.”

Phil raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

Snap.

The crisp sound echoed in this empty space.

A gale swept through, tossing the two girls’ hair, and the illusory room was scattered by the wind, dissolving into nothingness.

“Ask whatever questions you have once we’re out.”

Phil gave a relieved laugh and said softly:

“It’s time to go home.”

Within the Witch’s Domain, Phil’s hand finally touched the eerie, jet-black flower on the Witch’s chest.

In an instant, the entire domain shook as if struck by an earthquake.

The path paved with blades crumbled, and the mocking paper dolls lining both sides shrieked in unison before disintegrating into a flurry of paper scraps.

The broken halo above the Witch’s head flickered violently, her tattered wings shattered inch by inch, and her battle skirt dissipated into specks of light…

And that jet-black flower, as if it had finally found a new vessel, suddenly erupted with a bottomless black light.

In the next second, a massive, nearly terrifying amount of black mana surged through Phil’s palm and into her body.

This was the mana Jiang Wanfeng had obtained from slaying magic beasts while out of control, and it was the primary reason she had transformed into a Witch so quickly.

Boom!

Phil’s mind felt as though it had been struck by a black tsunami. Loneliness, fear, resentment, sorrow, the despair of being left behind…

Countless emotions churned into a viscous black sludge, flooding her consciousness in a frantic attempt to drag her down into the Witch’s abyss as well.

A pitch-black fruit condensed within her mind, the Witch Core had found its new host.

Phil’s face turned pale in an instant, and her body swayed unsteadily, yet she never let go.

The pitch black flower began to wither; its petals curled and fell one by one, finally turning into black ash and drifting away.

The shattered gem on the Witch’s chest reappeared, its cracks healing.

The foul darkness receded from deep within the gem, revealing once more the orange-gold glow of the Marigold.

The Fallen Valkyrie was vanishing, and Jiang Wanfeng’s form gradually returned.

On the other side, Lulu stared blankly at the scene, having even forgotten to cry.

It could not understand at all what Phil was doing.

Absorbing a Witch’s power?

How could anyone possibly do such a thing?

More importantly, even if it were possible, how could anyone dare to do it?

That was a Witch’s despair, a power of calamity capable of tainting Magical Girls, eroding reality, and expanding Domains.

Ordinary people might be swallowed up just by getting close, yet Phil had actively taken it into her own body.

Was she not afraid of being consumed?

Doing this was practically suicidal… Had she gone mad?

Seeing Phil’s face grow paler and paler, Lulu was utterly terrified, its fears seemed to be becoming a reality!

If another Witch were to be born… especially one transformed from someone already so powerful, Lulu could hardly imagine what a terrifying disaster that would be.

Deep within Phil’s consciousness, black tides surged relentlessly. Countless voices whispered in her ears, the cacophony nearly driving her mad.

Phil grit her teeth.

“Shut up…”

But the voices grew more numerous and louder. Terrifying illusions even began to surface before her eyes, her precious friends and family members dying miserable deaths one by one before her…

Phil’s hands began to tremble; she was on the verge of breaking.

Right then, a golden light emerged in her mind.

This light carried a sense of absolute dominance, supreme and utterly inviolable.

In the next second, an indescribably massive power came crashing down, forcibly suppressing the black tide.

The golden light and the black mana began to clash, and the Crown’s mutterings also surfaced, “This is much more troublesome than I imagined…”

Along with the Crown’s words, the golden light completely overwhelmed the black mana.

The frantically struggling Witch Core was compressed and sealed inch by inch, finally transforming into a small black flower bud.

Those noisy whispers were as if strangled by an invisible hand; they were then swept up by the golden light along with the flower bud, sinking into the deepest depths of consciousness.

Phil gasped sharply, like someone finally surfacing from drowning, her entire body drenched in sweat.

In reality, the Domain had almost completely collapsed. The scene of the abandoned arcade reappeared around them, and the old commercial street outside, which had been partially eroded by the Domain, also returned to its original state.

In front of Phil, the Witch had vanished. Replacing her was a scorched-out, unconscious Jiang Wanfeng.

Jiang Wanfeng’s body went limp, and she toppled forward.

Phil reached out and caught her.

After confirming she was still breathing, that her heartbeat was steady, and that the Witch’s aura had completely disappeared, Phil finally closed her eyes.

Phil felt weaker than she ever had before; since transforming into this form, this was the first time her entire body had felt this soft and powerless.

“It’s finally… over.”

Phil felt as if she had just finished running ten marathons. If there were a bed in front of her, she would probably collapse onto it without hesitation.

To the side, Lulu had witnessed the entire process of these dramatic ups and downs. Although it didn’t understand the underlying principle, it seemed like…

Problem solved?

Before it could even rejoice, Lulu suddenly realized something—

How was it suddenly missing one of its “Seeds”?

One had to understand that every single Seed was something it had earned through life-and-death contributions to the Kingdom.

Furthermore, a Seed would only vanish when it merged into the body of a new Magical Girl upon the formation of a contract; they never just disappeared for no reason.

Therefore, the disappearance of a Seed meant…

A new Magical Girl had been born?

Lulu seemed to realize something, and it turned its vacant gaze toward Phil.

…Eh? Ehhh?!

What was going on?!