ryethenovel Chapter 599 The Raptor of the Night
Chapter 599 The Raptor of the Night
[Legendary Quest, Burning Skies]
[Final Stage: Destroy the Astral Behemoth Garuda]
Garuda's location has been identified, and a battle plan against the astral behemoth has been formulated.
After a series of experiments eliminated all other impossible factors, the final conclusion was presented to everyone:
The colossal beast Garuda has broken through the true heavens. Inari speculates that the rift torn open when Akatsuki descended upon the astral jellyfish has not yet fully healed, which gave Garuda an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Thanks to Xin Yuehu's constant arrangement of the mental world, which she was too lazy to dismantle properly, a solid protective shield has been formed "above" Rongcheng, firmly isolating Garuda in the gap between the sky and the real world.
It can only be said that every cloud has a silver lining—Xin Yuehu's amusing behavior and subsequent laziness inadvertently built a protective barrier for Rongcheng against the invisible astral behemoth, and also provided the magical girls with very important evidence to deduce Garuda's location.
Upon hearing the news, after an emergency meeting overnight, the Hero Association launched an emergency evacuation that had already been carried out in the port city. All heroes were mobilized to ensure that no one would be left behind or go missing.
"Using the entire city of Chengdu as bait, we will replicate the punitive expedition against Hong Kong and do everything in our power to stop Garuda from invading the present world."
This is what Red Rose said in her opening speech.
Countless magical girls responded to the call of this senior and rushed from all around Rongcheng and even further to support the evacuation of Rongcheng. Many teams also applied to join the battle against Garuda, but after screening them one by one, Red Rose declined their requests to participate in the battle.
"This is not a blood-pumping battle, but a struggle to protect what we cherish. We cannot commit all our forces at once."
"If we fall in battle, you will serve as the reserve force, taking up our baton and doing everything in your power to complete this campaign!"
Red Rose's speech was as infectious as ever, bringing tears to the eyes of the team that had come to support her. Before leaving, they even paid her the highest respect.
"Now that we've decided to launch a decisive battle, what are our specific action plans?"
Sitting in the villain's rooftop living room, which had been transformed into a command center, Xin Yuehu looked at the holographic magic map of Rongcheng that Inari had modified and altered, and spoke to the people in front of her.
Mercury is still seeking outside help in the Astral Plane, and there has been no news so far. Su Tianqing vaguely felt that this senior must have found some important clues, which is why he hasn't replied. However, now that the decisive battle has arrived, she had no choice but to send her a one-way Divine Stone message, hoping that she could provide some support at that time.
Next came Inari Red Rose Crimson Snow—plus herself, the only three owners of the Heart Moon Fox in the world—gathered together to hear Inari recount her entire battle plan.
"How do we fight against an unidentified astral behemoth? What will it look like once it enters the mortal realm?" Chi Xue asked her first question.
"To address this issue, we plan to use a radical approach to 'give' Garuda a physical form."
Inari waved her wand, and the holographic map transformed into a three-dimensional light screen, revealing the appearance of the giant black-patterned egg.
"Garuda anchors its fundamental existence in the mortal world or in the dream world by dropping giant eggs. It can invade and descend into that world after hatching in a disordered situation where the incubator is 'lacking observers'. This is reflected in Miss Heartmoon Fox's Gate of Virtue and Fox Kov."
"In this state of 'disorder,' Garuda is in its strongest and most elusive state... At this time, it is formless, more like a tangible 'concept' than a physical entity that can be destroyed—we can never destroy a 'concept.'"
"The shadow monster you encountered in Sparrow Village, Chi Xue, has now been confirmed as the 'projected avatar' that is closest to the Garuda theory in the real world. In this state, it can be banished back to the astral plane and has a certain degree of influence on Garuda's main body, but it still cannot play a decisive role in its destruction."
Through a series of reasoning, Inari proved the feasibility of his theory, while also proposing a most radical idea:
"Therefore, we need to find the giant egg that it will place in the next dream vision, let it 'hatch' according to our ideas, and use the observer effect to make Garuda 'born' in the giant egg."
"...This is too dangerous." Chi Xue couldn't help but sigh.
"Leaving aside whether Garuda will fall for the trap, if Garuda actually appears inside the giant egg, it means the incubator will have to face the beast in its entirety, which is extremely dangerous! Who will be that dangerous incubator?"
"It's my turn to make my appearance," Red Rose said.
Everyone looked at this senior, and Chi Xue, slightly puzzled, quickly asked:
"But, but Red Rose, no matter what, you can't compare to an opponent of the level of a celestial behemoth, even if your magic power is inexhaustible..."
"I know I can't face it alone. I mean, I have experience trapping an astral behemoth."
Red Rose added with a smile
"Leviathan. It entered the mortal realm through the astral rift in Suicheng. At that time, our understanding of behemoths was not comprehensive enough. I trapped it in my mental world for more than twenty years. Even if Garuda is much stronger than Leviathan at that time, it should still be able to trap it for two or three months."
Chi Xue opened her mouth slightly, but then slowly closed it, unable to refute Hong Qiangwei's words.
This person truly sealed the rift and trapped the giant beast all by himself, which is absolutely no less impressive than that of the Azure Reaper who physically traversed the Star Realm to pull in outside help.
With the plan finalized and manpower assigned, everyone had their own tasks to complete, awaiting the unfolding of the dreamlike mental imagery that evening.
"When entering your respective mental worlds tonight, everyone must enter in their original form and try to eliminate all NPCs and quest objectives as quickly as possible. Senior Red Rose will be entering the dream world to try to confront Garuda directly today and will be unable to bounce us back to the real world."
"In other words, it is imperative to quickly understand each other's mental images and not delay, because the longer it is delayed, the more dangerous the situation will become."
As the spokesperson, Kokoro edited a message in the Divine Stone and sent it to all the magical girls guarding the Heart Image.
Phew... All the preliminary work is done now... Su Tianqing thought to herself.
By entering the mental world in their physical form and using the magic isolation taught by Inari beforehand to avoid being affected by the rules of the mental world to some extent, the magical girls can use some basic magic and magic defense within it to speed up the completion of their respective tasks.
Simply put, it's about using magic to cheat. You can use magic to print cards on the spot when playing cards or racing. Foxkov is about flying, teleporting, and using magic bullets to shoot through walls in seconds... It's easy to understand.
Before that, there was another thing I needed to do—
"Little Sasha, so you've been here all along."
On the rooftop of the Hero Association, the figure of Magical Girl Dandelion slowly flew over from afar, looking at the owl-winged man standing on the rooftop gazing at the sky.
"Sister Dandelion... how did you know I was here...?" The girl turned her head 120 degrees, and this startling angle of her head turn no longer made Su Tianqing feel uncomfortable.
As for her question earlier—this fox's magical girl compass is a very useful little fox gadget; it can now accurately identify the location of even reserve magical girls.
"You flew away without a word just now, and I was a little worried about you, so I came here specifically to check on you," Su Tianqing answered honestly.
Worried about Sasha's mental state, I specially came to visit her in the form of a dandelion to make sure she hadn't gone into Yu Yu mode after learning the truth.
After all, it is common for people to "break down and fall into depression and anxiety after learning the truth." If Sasha were to fall into such a depressed and lost state while facing the threat of Garuda, things would probably get very bad.
Fortunately, she seemed quite relaxed, without any signs of dejection—but the angry look she gave the sky when the meeting ended was still firmly imprinted in my mind.
"...I'm sorry, Dandelion sister, I...I just wanted to be alone to think things through." Sasha answered hesitantly, wrapping her wings around herself a little tighter.
"It's alright, everyone has their own secrets. I will respect all your decisions, sister," the golden fox girl said with a smile, her fox tail swaying a few times, captivating the eagle owl girl's amber eyes.
Taking the opportunity, Su Tianqing moved closer to her and looked up at the sky in the direction Sasha had been looking. A sparse cloud drifted across the horizon.
I didn't see anything myself, but I could imagine what the sky looked like in Sasha's eyes.
"You're looking at those eyes, aren't you?" Su Tianqing asked.
The eagle-owl girl nodded gently.
In her eyes, a pair of eyes, shining like molten gold, always hung high in the sky. She thought this was the true appearance of the starry sky, but now she realized that it was actually the gaze cast by Garuda: bringing chaos and destruction, leaving everything in ruins.
"My parents told me a long time ago that they found me at their doorstep."
Sasha said softly.
"I've never really cared about these things—since my parents raised me like any other siblings, I'm no different from their biological daughter. This is my home, and I've never thought about finding out my true origins."
"...Later, Mom was eaten by that monster, and my brothers and sisters were eaten too."
"I don't know why these things happened... My mom, she still wanted to protect me until the very end..."
"It's all because of me. If they hadn't found me, hadn't hatched me, that shadow monster wouldn't have—"
"No, Sasha," Dandelion said softly, interrupting the eagle owl girl's mutterings.
The girl looked at the golden fox beside her, whose expression was calm.
"Sister Dandelion?... "
"If your parents hadn't incubated you, but instead abandoned you somewhere, you would have become a shadow monster controlled and manipulated by Garuda at that time."
"They are heroes, heroes who saved countless people. They also saved you, allowing you to live like this for over a decade."
“…………”
The eagle-owl girl remained silent, and Su Tianqing continued:
"I know that Bai Ling and Xiao Yue see your potential as a magical girl and want to develop you into one... but if you don't want to, I won't force you to participate in this operation, after all..."
A brief silence.
"...I don't know if we can succeed. If we put all our hopes on you, you will be under more pressure than anyone else."
"You're just a reserve member, you haven't even become a magical girl yet, this is too cruel for you, I..." "I will participate."
Sasha murmured softly.
She took the shining guardian star out of her handbag, and the magical hands gathered at the tips of her wings held it up in front of her, gazing at the bright light it reflected.
"I want to avenge my mother."
"I will avenge my brothers and sisters."
Her amber eyes were filled with the ferocity of a raptor of the night, her ear feathers stood up high, and her heart was burning with rage.
The guardian star did not transform her into a magical girl at this moment, but the radiance it reflected was so dazzling and brilliant.