Chapter 160 – What Kind of Bizarre Magical Girl Is This?!

“Oh noooo!!!” Qin Ling warned them urgently. “I just intercepted their communications. They’re calling Misaka Shirai and Su Tang over too!”

Lin Xi: “…”

“Thor! Fly faster! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

“Master, this is already my maximum flight speed,” Thor said. “I’m not flying slowly. Xia Xun is simply too close on our heels!”

“She’s right,” Shi Yu said. “We’re exactly the group Xia Xun dreams of catching.”

“And Xia Xun is the last person I’d ever want to get caught by.” Lin Xi could only curse her rotten luck.

Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to run into Xia Xun in Shuguang Technology’s secret laboratory tonight.

Thor said coldly, “At this point, our only option is to eliminate Xia Xun-“

“Thor, why are you always trying to talk me into killing Xia Xun?”

“Master! You can’t bear to hurt Xia Xun… Don’t tell me you’ve actually fallen for her! Nooo, you can’t!”

“Why do you have so much nonsense to say?!” Lin Xi told Thor to focus on flying at full speed. “Give me some time. I’ll find a way to trap Xia Xun with my flames.”

Lin Xi wanted to restrain Xia Xun without hurting her.

That meant controlling her output with perfect precision. She couldn’t just mindlessly unleash her ultimate move and risk seriously injuring Xia Xun.

…

Xia Xun was utterly baffled. She had already launched more than a dozen attacks.

Ice spikes, ice balls, ice pillars, Ice Sword… She had thrown everything at them, yet her opponent had done nothing but neutralize her attacks, never once striking back.

“Damn it!”

Xia Xun gritted her teeth in fury. “Is that fire-slinging bastard looking down on me?!”

This wasn’t Xia Xun’s first time fighting a Special-Grade Disaster, but it was the first time she had ever been belittled and toyed with like this.

“You bastard!”

“I’ll make you regret underestimating me!”

Terrifying cold erupted around Xia Xun and spread at incredible speed.

The moisture in the air rapidly condensed and froze, slowly forming a colossal sphere of ice…

…

“Master! That’s a whole lot of cold and killing intent! Is Xia Xun about to unleash her ultimate move?!” Thor cried in alarm.

“I know,” Lin Xi said. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt her, and I won’t let her hurt you either.”

As Xia Xun intensified her offensive, Lin Xi increased her output as well.

When Xia Xun hurled the colossal ice sphere at them, Lin Xi used forty percent of her power to form an equally massive Fireball, forcefully intercepting the incoming attack.

The instant Xia Xun saw the Fireball, her eyes widened.

“I increase my output, so you increase yours too?!”

“This is infuriating!”

Xia Xun was beside herself with rage. The Fireball was just strong enough to melt her ice sphere, yet posed no threat to her personally.

“What the hell is this bastard trying to do?!”

“Why won’t they attack me?!”

“Don’t tell me… they don’t want to hurt me?”

Xia Xun certainly didn’t remember being friends with any Special-Grade Disaster.

“Contempt! This is blatant contempt!”

“Even if I have to exhaust every last bit of my power today, I’ll make sure you never leave this place!”

Xia Xun erupted with terrifying power once more.

“Ice Crystal Prison!”

…

“Master! That ice cage is about to trap us!” Thor cried anxiously. “I never expected Xia Xun to be this strong. If I fought her one-on-one, I might really lose.”

Walls of ice crystals suddenly rose around them, growing thicker by the second. Thor had become a bird in a cage.

“Don’t panic.” Lin Xi slammed her palm against the ice-crystal wall.

Seventy percent output!

Rumble-BOOM!!!

A Fireball exploded from within the ice-crystal barrier.

The Ice Crystal Prison shattered into countless fragments.

Shards of ice filled the sky before raining down in a glittering cascade.

“Xia Xun really is impressive.” Even Lin Xi was starting to feel tired after using so much power. “Thor, get ready. I’m going to trap Xia Xun now. Once I do, carry us out of here in one go!”

“Understood, Master!”

Thor suddenly sensed an incomparably scorching surge of energy overhead.

She looked up, and the sight of the dazzling, colossal Fire Ring made her heart clench.

“Is… is this Master’s ultimate power?”

“Has she finally made up her mind to kill Xia Xun?”

“Yay!”

Thor would be more than happy to see Xia Xun reduced to ashes…

…

“I’m finished.”

The moment Xia Xun saw the enormous Fire Ring filling half the sky, she knew she was doomed.

“It shattered my Ice Crystal Prison in an instant, and it can unleash flames this terrifying… This thing isn’t just Special Grade. It’s Super Grade!”

“It’s a Super-Grade Disaster!”

Xia Xun had never fought a Super-Grade Disaster before.

The only person in Z City with a confirmed kill against one was Su Tang.

But there was no way Su Tang and Misaka Shirai could get here in time…

As a Magical Girl sworn to protect Z City, Xia Xun had long since prepared herself to die in battle.

Death itself wasn’t frightening. What frightened her was… never seeing the person she loved again…

Xia Xun knew that resisting or fleeing would be pointless. So before she was burned to death, she had to hear Lin Xi accept her confession!

…

“What kind of ridiculous Magical Girl is she?!”

Lin Xi hadn’t answered Xia Xun’s call, but she had received a voice message from her:

[Lin Xi! I’m about to die! Hurry up and accept my confession! Otherwise, I’ll die with unfinished business, become a ghost, and keep haunting you!]

Lin Xi silently sent the Fire Ring hurtling toward Xia Xun. Although it looked powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth, it wouldn’t actually burn Xia Xun to death.

The idea had come from Xia Xun’s Ice Crystal Prison. Lin Xi was simply returning the favor by trapping her inside a Fire Ring.

“Master, you’ve finally decided to burn that troublesome Magical Girl to death! As expected of my master!”

“Xia Xun isn’t going to burn to death,” Lin Xi revealed. “The inside of the Fire Ring isn’t hot at all. It’ll gradually weaken over time, and then Xia Xun will be able to charge out completely unharmed.”

“It should hold her for about five minutes. So, Thor, use those five minutes to run!”

Thor fell silent.

“Master, showing mercy to your enemy is the same as being cruel to yourself!”

“Oh, spare me,” Lin Xi said. “Xia Xun was never our enemy. Right, Shi Yu?”

“That’s right. Righteous Magical Girls aren’t enemies of ZERO,” Shi Yu said. “But she is my rival in love!”

Thor voiced her agreement.

Lin Xi was speechless.

“Can you two learn from Lu Yi and stop talking nonsense?”

Lin Xi truly admired Lu Yi. Even in a situation like this, she could still use Lin Xi’s lap as a pillow and sleep soundly.

Lu Yi trusted that Lin Xi and the others would find a way out of this predicament, so she had gone ahead and “escaped” first…

…

“It’s really not hot at all?!”

Xia Xun cautiously tested it. The inside of the Fire Ring wasn’t hot in the slightest, but as soon as she moved even a little toward the outside, the heat became unbearable.

As long as she stayed put and waited for the energy around the outside of the Fire Ring to weaken, she would be able to charge out unharmed.

“Could this… could this Super-Grade Disaster really have no intention of hurting me?”

Xia Xun couldn’t understand it. She couldn’t understand it at all.

“I guess I’ll have to wait until I catch her someday and ask…”

Just then, her phone rang.

Xia Xun hurriedly pulled it out and checked.

Sure enough, it was a reply from Lin Xi:

[Are you okay?]

Seeing the message she had sent Lin Xi earlier, Xia Xun couldn’t help blushing.

“Become a ghost and haunt her…? Seriously, what kind of stupid nonsense was I saying…?”

Xia Xun replied:

[I’m fine.]

…

Lin Xi glanced at the message.

Xia Xun was fine.

That was all that mattered.