Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 209

Compared to the enormous, unapproachable sea slugs, the countless humanoid familiars mingling among their tentacles pose the greatest threat.

They have brains and self-awareness; they know how to avoid Mana's attack range and how to use the sea slug's attacks to push forward.

Not to mention that after the Sea Witch's true form appeared, the fighting spirit and power of the familiars surged. Some of them even seemed to have been blessed, knowing to find small entrances that the familiars couldn't reach to enter the indoor space, forcing the magical girls who had only recently arrived to come and help to follow them into the room and find any gaps.

Just when Mana felt she couldn't hold on any longer—an arrow, not fired by her, with a pink trail of flame, pierced into the pile of familiars.

Immediately afterwards, one after another, military knives fell from the sky, pinning a group of familiars who were hiding among the tentacles and trying to sneak into the room to the ground.

"Eh?"

Mana raised her head and looked up at the sky.

Pink and blue magical girls descended from the sky and landed in front of Mana.

"Sorry we're late!"

......

On the forward deck of the String Roll, Hailing leaned against the hatch and took a deep breath.

She was the only living person on the entire foredeck.

But even just one person posed a significant obstacle to the group of familiars.

With his left hand, he aimed the wakizashi at the enemy's eyes—these guys wouldn't die, but once they lost their eyesight, they wouldn't be much of a threat. His right hand held the katana, covered in blood, at his side, maintaining a horizontal position from his shoulder to his wrist to the tip of the blade.

Her dual blades, combined with her long arms, give her an exceptionally wide defensive range.

The wakizashi in the left hand can blind the enemy who comes forward. The enemy targeted by the wakizashi is like a dragonfly stuck on a bamboo pole, unable to fly away and in a dilemma.

After being deprived of his sight by the wakizashi, in the blink of an eye, the katana in his right hand had already been swung out, and a living head—or a severed upper body—fell to the ground like sparks.

Scattered on the ground were writhing corpses, and humanoid familiars formed a vacuum around her.

As long as Hailing stands at the doorway, no one can pass through.

The problem is that there is more than one entrance to the interior, and no matter how powerful Hailing is, it is difficult to guard every entrance.

At other, less spacious entrances, some humanoid familiars had already slipped through.

Trouble.

Hailing turned her head and glanced at the familiars sneaking towards the emergency exit. There weren't many of them, but she couldn't care less.

at this time.

A spear more than three meters long landed in front of the familiars, startling them.

"Hmm?" Hailing raised an eyebrow.

A red figure appeared beside the spear at some unknown time, grasped the shaft, and disassembled the three-meter-long shaft into a three-section staff-like structure. The spearhead, when swung out, instantly sliced ​​off the heads of several familiars.

The gun barrel was put back together, and the newcomer slung the spear over his shoulder and snapped off the chocolate bar in his mouth with a swift bite.

"Humph!"

Her eyes, as red as her hair, glanced at Hailing.

“You are…” Hai Ling’s tense shoulders relaxed a little.

"The guy who stole my food."

The two of them called out each other's names in unison.

Wait, is this a name?

"What are you doing here?" Hailing asked.

"Why can't I be here?" the other person replied irritably. "Has someone forbidden me from being here?"

“I didn’t introduce myself at the last meal. My name is Hachiman Kairin.” Kairin tactfully avoided the other person’s sharp words. “Also, thank you for helping me.”

"Huh? Why are you suddenly introducing yourself?" The red-haired girl looked at her in surprise, then her expression softened a bit, and she snorted inwardly, "You're smart enough to know what's good for you. My name is Sakura Kyoko."

“We were originally going to leave Ryukyu, but Kyubey told us that there were signs of witches around here, so we decided to come and take a look before leaving.”

"Apricot said."

"I didn't expect such a big scene as soon as I arrived."

She carried her spear, shifted her gaze from Hailing, and looked at the familiars who were huddled in a circle, too afraid to approach.

"You're pretty impressive, handling so many familiars all by yourself."

"They're alright," Hailing said. "They're not that strong."

"That's true, but even if it's not strong, it's still quite remarkable that they can handle such a large number of them with ease."

Xingzi took out a box of chocolate bars from her pocket, tapped one out like a cigarette, and handed it to Hailing.

"Want to eat?"

"Thank you." Hailing didn't refuse at all, took out a chocolate bar, and put it in her mouth like she was holding a cigarette.

Although they are two girls of similar age, their dialogue and atmosphere are as mature as two middle-aged men in their forties or fifties playing an old game from decades ago in an internet cafe and suddenly becoming fast friends.

"Hey, I like you." Anzu took back the chocolate bar with satisfaction.

"Thank you for the compliment, but..."

I already have someone I like.

Of course not.

Hailing bit off the chocolate bar and turned her gaze to the group of familiars who had been silent for a long time. Based on her limited understanding of these guys, especially the talkative leader, what she and Kyoko had just said could be considered an insult to him.

Normally, Aden would have jumped up and down, and said a few angry words.

But he hasn't made any move yet.

Not only him, but all his familiars were silent, lying dormant in the darkness where no light could reach, as if... dead.

A strong, ominous scent wafted into Hailing's nostrils.

The noisy night suddenly became quiet.

The magical girls on the ship looked at the suddenly silent group of familiars with puzzled expressions. But before they could even wonder, something unexpected happened.

"But what?" Kyoko looked over, puzzled.

Just as she finished speaking...

A colossal, dark shadow, obscuring the sky, blocked out the moonlight above Xingzi's head.

She followed Hailing's gaze and saw a sight she would never forget.

All the familiars—including Aden and the already enormous sea slug—had a tentacle extending from their backs. These tentacles were connected to the object that had blocked out the sky—the tentacle that had just torn through the ship's hull and was comparable in size to the String of Stars.

The tentacles lifted them up, suspending them in the sky. The fanatical expression was no longer visible on the faces of the familiars; instead, their faces were covered with all sorts of astonishment, anger, despair, and madness, or their faces were completely covered by newly grown tentacles, making it impossible to see any expression at all.

The sea monster, who had been hiding in the clouds and whose true nature remained unknown, finally revealed her true face.

The moon's position was replaced by a wavy eye. What emerged from the clouds was not the vaguely visible human figure from before; the human-shaped shadow was merely an illusion created when the cloud had not yet fully extended its body.

It was a creature beyond description. Its tentacles, nearly the size of a horn, were merely part of its body. Emerging from the clouds, its body was elongated, with the roots of the tentacles connecting to different parts of the elongated body, forming twisted organs that resembled wings, yet had nothing to do with wings at all.

The creature's head hangs high in the air, its wavy eyes overlooking the sea, exuding an aura of dominance over all living beings.

"Is this... a witch?"

Xingzi tilted her head back and said blankly.

"This should be a mountain, right?"

The Lost Tale: A Young Man's Spirit: Chapter 253 So it turns out you can live even with half your head rotten!

"I'm not some stupid villain from an anime who will give you a chance to stop me before my plan is complete."

Mio sat on the boulder as if she were sitting on her own throne, her head bowed, looking at Hatsuka with a mocking expression.

"While you and the guardian knights were wasting time, my true form had already completed its 'ascension'."

She raised a hand and showed Chu Hua the creature in the picture that looked like an octopus, yet also somewhat similar to a sea dragon from fantasy works.

“I am free now, and no one can stop me from taking my revenge on the sea and the land.”

"you!"

Chu Hua saw the completely destroyed island in the picture through Xiangzi's eyes, and almost couldn't control her emotions.

That's her home!

Just like that, it was destroyed. The entire island was completely destroyed, not a single piece was left!

"Calm down, Chu Hua."

Xiangzi whispered in Chuhua's ear.

"She's trying to provoke you."

"..."

Chu Hua's chest heaved violently several times before finally calming down, and she nodded.

"I can control myself."

Xiangzi calmed Chuhua down a bit and finally had time to focus his attention on the huge creature that appeared in the picture.

That is the true form of Ji, the complete form that has completed its metamorphosis.

Xiangzi pursed his lips.

Ascension... is indeed a very vivid term.

It seems that witches who possess flowers all undergo a similar incubation process:

First, she forms a cocoon. During this period, the witch is at her most vulnerable and needs to be protected in various ways.

After that, she emerges from her cocoon, which means she has been reborn, but she is still not fully formed. This is because the new witch has not yet adapted to the new world, just like a butterfly needs time to dry its wings after emerging from its cocoon.

In the final step, the butterfly fully transforms and its wings dry—meaning the witch has adapted to the new world and is now able to unleash her full power.

Nirvana had only gone through the first two stages and had not yet fully adapted to this world when Xiangzi ended his own life and sealed himself within the newborn soul gem.

This is because Xiangzi himself had the idea of ​​preventing Nirvana, and the conflict between human thinking and the witch's body led to this ending.

But what about the pool?

It's likely that its human mind—that is, Mio—is aligned with the witch's body. Mio yielded to the witch's instinct to destroy everything, allowing the creature to successfully hatch.

Moreover, it completed the ascension stage that Nirvana had not yet completed, and became the complete form.

Is this what they call the "complete form"?

Xiangzi couldn't hide his surprise at all.

She turned her head to look at the sea witch in the picture, now in her complete form. The String Ship stood beside her, looking no different from a toy boat.

However, its overall shape is streamlined and should look very nice, but the pool appears unusually distorted.

Eight tentacles, arranged in pairs in four rows, grow out of its slender body. Although it has eight octopus tentacles, Ji's appearance is not like an octopus; its long, snake-like body makes the eight tentacles look like fluttering ribbons.

At first glance, it has a dreamlike and ethereal feel, but upon closer inspection, you will find that the tentacles are covered with dense, fine hairs. These are not hairs, but countless familiars suspended by the tentacles.

Dragging eight enormous tentacles, it soared into the sky over a thousand meters high. It had a head that resembled a sea dragon with two pairs of eyes: a pair of bright yellow vertical pupils on the sides of its head, and a pair of octopus eyes with wavy pupils in the center of the vertical pupils.

It wasn't just a pair of octopus eyes, but a complete face, just like when Chu Hua saw her father's face emerge from the sea slug's body, Mio's face also emerged from the sea slug's head.

Ji's body, just by floating in the air, already possessed enough oppressive power; her body, over a thousand meters tall, far exceeded the magical girls' understanding of ordinary witches.

You should know that Nirvana was the biggest witch Xiangzi had ever seen, a full 150 meters tall. Ordinary residential buildings would only reach her waist in comparison.

However, the size of the pool is beyond what can be described simply as large.

What does "over a thousand meters" mean? To be precise, it's 1,600 meters.

The stringed horn is nearly 300 meters long and over 60 meters high, and can accommodate 2,600 people. This is not the maximum number of people, but the most comfortable full capacity.

The body of the ji is as long as five strings of a bow, and with its eight deformed tentacles that are only slightly thinner than a snake's body, it is no exaggeration to describe it as a "mountain".

This is a mountain that floats in the sky, embodying both the contradictory qualities of beauty and ugliness.

The waterfall hovers in the sky, like a deity.

"Is it shocking?"