novelslam Chapter 588 What exactly are you?
Chapter 588 What exactly are you?
The black-winged man rose from the giant egg.
It spread its jet-black wings, and the dazzling starlight flowed from the tips of the feathers, turning into viscous, solid dark droplets that accumulated and from which the form of a shadowy monster was born.
"Hey, Akashi, is this the kind of thing you were fighting in Sparrow Village?" Fenrir held back from firing and turned to ask Akashi behind him.
Chi Xue stared wide-eyed, her eyes filled with doubt, and shook her head in denial.
"No...no, the shadowy figures I encountered in that village weren't like this..."
"It should be a gigantic monster, ten or twenty meters tall, resembling a giant black bird. It definitely can't be this... This one looks more like an ordinary winged person..."
"Don't talk about that yet! They're about to attack!"
Jack and Alice each raised their submachine guns, loading magic bullets into the chambers. The intense firepower instantly suppressed the shadow monster that was about to pounce, and after a round of attacks, it was scattered in all directions.
The two changed magazines and reloaded bullets. Fenrir still did not rush to launch an attack, keeping his gaze fixed on the black winged figure that was still half-standing in the eggshell.
Even Chi Xue had never seen a winged shadow before. What was its origin? Was it truly a projection of Garuda?
But why does its appearance give me such a strong sense of déjà vu, as if I've seen it somewhere before?
"...Fox, what do you think?" Fenrir asked Su Tianqing without turning her head, maintaining a serious and vigilant demeanor.
The golden-haired fox girl didn't rush to answer, staring intently at the face and familiar features of the shadow winged man, unable to comprehend what was happening.
This jet-black winged being, seemingly a projection of Garuda, looked exactly like Sasha, a winged being he knew, with only differences in color scheme. It was even more similar to Little Jack and Alice.
If there were differences in demeanor and expression between Jack and Alice, then the calm expression of the dark shadow before them was exactly the same as Sasha's calm face!
Why? Is my intuition really that accurate? Su Tianqing questioned inwardly.
Before this giant egg hatched, I had thought about what it might look like, but in the end I could only imagine it as a winged being like Sasha and her sparrow father. I even imagined what Garuda might look like because of the subtle relationship between Sasha and Garuda.
But why?
Why is the appearance of this projected avatar exactly as I imagined? Is it because my intuition is too accurate, or is it due to some other reason that I haven't yet noticed?
Just as Su Tianqing was about to continue pondering, Fenrir opened fire with his light machine gun.
"Clang clang clang clang!!"
The magic bullets were activated, unleashing a torrent of firepower that instantly shattered several dark figures that rushed forward into pieces.
The terrifying sound of machine gun fire interrupted everyone's thoughts. Even the black winged man inside the eggshell showed a similar "surprise" expression. This was the first time Su Tianqing had ever seen such an "expression" on the faces of the shadows.
None of the Shadows before had ever shown this state. Back then, they didn't even have beast-like instincts; they were just countless puppets without their own will, acting according to the commands of a controller.
This black-winged being was not one of those shadow monsters; she was an unknown being with her own will, and perhaps she really was just a shadow cast by Garuda in this dreamlike vision.
The shadow monsters were torn apart and fell by the firepower of Fenrir's machine gun, unable to resist the immense power of the magical bullets.
Even with firepower capable of suppressing individual monsters, Fenrir still didn't fire directly at the black-winged figure. An inexplicable sense of danger made her avoid firing at the black figure within the eggshell, sensing a huge, unseen danger lurking within her—
Her intuition proved correct.
The last shadow monster fell silently, its body collapsing into the maze floor and gradually melting, transforming into a wisp of shadow that merged into the black winged man inside the eggshell.
The shadow-winged creature that looked exactly like Sasha folded its wings and stood quietly inside the eggshell, scanning the craters and rubble around it that had been shattered by magic bullets. Its eyes, as bright as molten gold, showed no extra emotion, but the black magic gathering around it slowly condensed into the shape of a machine gun.
"What the hell... it can actually...?" Fenrir was stunned, and his action of loading bullets stopped abruptly, almost letting out a cry of surprise.
Can it use magic to gather into the shape of a weapon? Isn't this the kind of weapon transformation that magical girls possess? Could it be that Garuda has completely analyzed the underlying logic of this dreamlike mental image and is already able to freely control the abilities granted to it by the rules?
We must find a way to eliminate it as soon as possible! We can't let it continue to erode the rules and logic of this dreamlike mind! Otherwise, the hard-won intelligence will be...
*Smack!*
A sudden gunshot rang out.
The machine gun that was just taking shape was shattered and destroyed by a magic bullet. Following the trajectory of the bullet, Su Tianqing saw Chi Xue raising her lever shotgun and aiming it, as well as her action of pulling the lever to chamber a round.
"..."
The black-winged man slowly turned his head, glanced at the shadow machine gun beside him that had been shattered by magic bullets, and then silently turned his gaze to Chi Xue, who had fired the shot.
"Stop with all this fancy stuff," Chi Xue said coldly.
"Where is your true power? Where is the raging fire that night when you screamed and turned the entire village into a sea of flames? Where is the bizarre shock of your distorted perception?"
"What exactly are you? What do you want to do?"
In response to Chi Xue's series of questions, the black-winged man made neither a word nor any other movement.
It simply raised its pair of jet-black wings again, dripping more darkness from the tips of its feathers, which gathered into even more shadow monsters, responding to Chi Xue's doubts with its actions.
"Heh... That's right, this is how you should look." Chi Xue grinned and let out a mocking laugh.
Her trendy spring outfit was covered in magic, a crimson hooded cloak billowed behind her and above her head, nebulae swirled and drifted on the ribbons of her magical attire, and the guardian star on her chest shone with brilliant starlight.
Magical Girl Crimson Snow☆Shadows of the Stars
"I'll hold it off, and we'll work together to take it down!"
……
……
……
Late at night, on the rooftop of Chengdu, a city known for its villains.
Cheshire Rabbit lay sprawled on the sofa, listlessly scrolling through videos on her phone. Her bunny ears were drooping completely behind her head, and she looked sleepy and listless.
Meanwhile, Nan Jiayu, on the other hand, seemed full of energy, sitting next to the golden-haired fox girl's recliner without leaving her side, as if afraid that the blanket would slip off Su Tianqing and make her catch a cold.
"Phew... Sometimes I really envy you felines, you can stay up all night and still have so much energy."
Xia Taotao yawned, rolled over and lay down on the sofa. She was too lazy to watch the video on her phone. If she had a pillow, she would have fallen asleep instantly.
"Then you haven't seen me dozing off during the day," Nan Jiayu replied with a smile.
The saying "If you don't keep a cat up all day, it will keep you up all night" applies perfectly to feline beastmen as well. Xia Taotao couldn't help but think to herself.
Taking a deep breath, Xia Taotao sat up from the sofa, stretched, and casually stuffed her phone into the chest of her bunny girl dress to save it into her magical space. She glanced at Fenrir, Alice, and the other two who were still lying on the bed without any reaction.
"Two or three hours have passed... It seems like they're in serious trouble this time..."
"Don't worry, with Chi Xue here, and besides, that illusion was built based on Tian Qing's own mental image, they can escape even in a crisis. We can just go investigate the intelligence again tomorrow," Nan Jiayu said, without any doubt about her fox's strength.
Xia Taotao thought about it again and realized that it made sense: You can doubt Su Tianqing's (Xin Yuehu) mediocre physical abilities, and you can doubt any crazy ideas she comes up with when she does things, but you can't doubt her incredible strength in magic.
Although she gets out of breath after running a hundred meters or so, and her tricky ideas and novel solutions when she's looking for trouble are chilling, her magic is absolutely flawless.
Even so, Xia Taotao still couldn't completely calm down, and couldn't help but mutter to herself:
What exactly did they find in the dream? Was it really worth taking so long? Could it be that this dream contained information more important than the patterned eggshell? But if that's the case…
I can't take it anymore! My mind is already a bit foggy in the middle of the night, and thinking about this will only make me sleepier.
Xia Taotao picked up the water glass on the coffee table and took a sip.
Before she could even swallow a sip of warm water, a chorus of gasps from everyone present nearly made her smash the water glass in her face:
"Waaaaaaahhhhh!!!"
"puff!!"
Water sprayed all over the coffee table. Xia Taotao wiped her face with her hand, coughed as she got up, and looked at the figures who were struggling to get up from the bed and recliner.
The golden fox girl jumped the highest, almost jumping off the recliner onto the floor. Luckily, the cat girl next to her was prepared and reached out to catch the nervous, bristling fox girl, preventing the tragedy of her tail falling to the ground.
"Huff, huff... Aha... Ahahaha! We did it!" Fenrir gasped for breath, a joyful smile spreading across his face as he sat on the bed and burst into laughter.
Su Tianqing, however, was not as cheerful as the others. Her face was full of relief at escaping death. Leaning against the catgirl's shoulder, she breathed heavily to calm her wildly beating heart and murmured softly:
"Kitty, the information we've uncovered this time might be a bit bad."
"Don't talk about that now. You should get some rest first. We can talk about any intelligence you have after you've rested."
Nan Jiayu said with concern. Su Tianqing didn't have the energy to continue speaking at this moment. She nodded slightly, then leaned her head against her familiar shoulder and closed her eyes to rest for a while.