Chapter 184: I Can't Win? I Don't Understand

Boom—!

Along with her chanting-like words, this false world trembled violently once again.

Thunder-like shattering sounds echoed through the sky, as if proclaiming the return of its master, or as if joining Amber in lamenting the birth of that fated king.

In an instant.

It was as if burning flames spread across the azure sky, a hellish crimson covering the heavens above Kazenari Town.

Under the Abyss's targeted assault, the Sacred Tree Barrier's ability to simulate the normal cycle of day and night could no longer be sustained.

In an instant, the breach in the Sacred Tree Barrier expanded once more to dozens of meters, and even more demon beasts tried to squeeze through into the Sacred Tree's domain.

The earthquake struck again.

The ground shook, the mountains trembled, and buildings teetered precariously.

The citizens who had entered the bunkers were equally panicked.

Parents clutched their children tightly, the elderly huddled together, and only a handful of people stubbornly stared at the flickering beams of light on the screen—dozens of them.

They were the magical girls still fighting.

But at that moment.

In the breach above the sea, a head suddenly poked through.

It was a ferocious, terrifying dragon head, adorned with a crown-like, fearsome crest.

Judging by just the head and neck, one could tell that its body was a hundred-meter-long crimson evil dragon, radiating a dreadful aura. It flapped one wing that had already entered the barrier, carrying the scent of flames and brimstone.

It struggled against the suppressive force within the domain, letting out furious roars and howls.

Even though the magical girls guarding that spot had already begun unleashing their full power to attack, they could only make it roar in response, unable to halt its invasion.

—The first upper-level Nightmare Seed of this mutation!

Even suppressed by the barrier, it still retained strength surpassing ordinary mid-level Nightmare Seeds!

But at this moment, the atmosphere in the tea party room remained deathly still.

Knowing Phoenix as well as they did, she should have been shouting and screaming, yet this bird was not.

Right now, she stood silently atop the Sacred Tree's avatar, like an ornament on a Christmas tree.

As for Amber, after speaking those words, she seemed to have exhausted all her strength, lowering her head until her face was nearly buried in her chest.

Working together for three hundred years—even a stone would have become enlightened and awakened by now.

Let alone magical girls, whose emotions were the most sincere and delicate.

For transcendents who could not escape this hopeless world of infinite loops and who might have even grown weary of "being alive" itself...

What did it mean to have someone who could walk alongside them forever?

Perhaps, to them...

Each other's existence was even more important than their own life or death.

The three young magical girls' eyes were equally filled with chaos.

Everything they had just learned seemed to point to a certain truth.

If one were to spin a conspiracy theory...

Airwen.

That silver-haired, taciturn figure they knew so well might just be the mastermind behind everything, the one who benefited from it all.

Even...

Su Fang's eyes revealed an indescribable complexity.

Had Su Jingyan been reduced to a puppet of the Abyss? Had the Sacred Tree's initial injury and contamination at the hands of the Abyss also been caused by Airwen?

But just then.

Swoosh.

It was the sound of someone suddenly standing up, slender legs pushing the chair backward.

Under everyone's gaze, the cherry-haired girl walked to the door of the tea party room.

Then—

She grabbed Phoenix, who was on a potted plant by the door, in one hand.

Even Phoenix, whose mind was in turmoil, couldn't help but yelp, "Hey! What are you doing?!"

Lin Guang looked at the distant sea and said calmly, "Push my magic power to the limit."

Phoenix took a deep breath, her voice trembling with sobs, "It's meaningless!"

"Didn't you understand from that tremor just now? The Abyss's authority that Su Jingyan was holding has been reclaimed by Airwen!"

Su Fang's eyes went wide.

Her father's authority was taken back... Did that mean he had already—

"The Abyss has welcomed its true master! The Abyss, which was originally just a chaotic, mindless consciousness, has now birthed a clear will!"

"Before, the Abyss, relying solely on that chaotic instinct, already had an absolute advantage. Now Airwen has reclaimed that power! And on top of that, she still holds one-third of the Sacred Tree's authority!"

"If she wants to, there's nothing we can do to stop her!!"

"This upper-level Nightmare Seed is just the beginning. Soon there will be ten, then twenty! How many can you take down alone?!"

After this little bird finished shouting, she drooped her head dejectedly in the cherry-haired girl's palm. "Fake... it's all fake... all our efforts were lies... we can't win..."

Even Zihan and Tang Keren seemed unable to refute these words.

A situation that was already hopeless enough was now sliding into an even more unpredictable abyss.

Phoenix suddenly began to cry in big drops, her emotions completely out of control. In Lin Guang's hand, she wailed loudly:

"Mengmengxiang, you don't have to face an enemy we can never defeat..."

"Every single time, without even those fake, beautiful memories being implanted... you go out to suffer over and over again... it's all my fault and Amber's fault... I can't even make bento..."

"I'm sorry... if only I could have let you know sooner... waaah..."

"Stop crying."

But the next moment, that sweet yet indifferent voice sounded again, showing no sign of discouragement.

"I can't win? I don't understand."

Phoenix jerked her head up and looked at the cherry-haired girl before her.

She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she thought she saw a flicker of gentleness in the eyes of this girl, who had been expressionless ever since she lost her memories.

"And besides..."

The girl turned her head to look out the window and said calmly:

"They don't understand, either."

At this very moment.

On the battlefield above the sea.

Just as the massive red dragon completely squeezed its entire body through—

In the center of the battlefield, countless golden threads grew out, coalescing into a magnificent flintlock pistol aimed at the dragon's slowly rising head.

A magical girl named [Golden Rose] flew in the air, her eyes shining with bright golden light: "Full salvo, fire!!!"

In an instant, golden light bullets accompanied by the sound of hammers striking, shooting out in a deluge that drowned the evil dragon, forcing it to let out a heart-shaking roar of agony.

But that roar was immediately drowned out by an even louder shout from another girl.

"Who! Do you think! We are!"

In the blink of an eye, another massive drill, condensed from golden magical power, bored into the dragon's head, striking one of its eyes and shattering the crystalline lens in a shower of sparks.

It was a magical girl wearing a blue-gold spirit outfit, her whole being shining like a star.

[Star Heir]!

The next moment, the radiance of the magical girls blazed up again, as if it would never end, reflected in everyone's eyes.