In the midsummer afternoon, in the living room with the air conditioner on, Lin Xiaolu returned to consciousness from a long period of spiritual thought, leaned on the sofa, and picked up her mobile phone a little bored.

casually watched some boring news on social media, and enjoyed a few short videos twice, she put down her phone when she realized that something was wrong, and said suspiciously: "Has Moke been out for too long?" ”

"Well, it has its own things to do."

Xia Liang on the side leaned lazily on the sofa and dragged out his voice: "Didn't you say it before, there is progress in finding a preparatory magical girl or something." ”

"But it's been too long, I used to go out for a while around lunch, but today it's almost three o'clock in the afternoon."

Holding his chin, Lin Xiaolu thought for a moment, raised his eyes after a while, and made a judgment a little abruptly: "It's weird." ”

"What's weird?" Xia Liang on the sofa was accustomed to her somewhat jumping thinking logic, and continued to ask lazily.

"Moko has something to hide from us." Lin Xiaolu's tone was firm.

"Fairies also have their own privacy. But I really didn't expect that Xiaolu, you usually quarrel with Moco at every turn, and you actually care about it? "The sound of the summer cool urn urn is angry.

Lin Xiaolu rolled her eyes and patted the sofa cushion beside her: "This is called caring? I'm skeptical! ”

"Okay, okay."

Xia Liang sat up on the back of the sofa and stretched: "Well-if you are in doubt, do you want to go over and have a look?" ”

"No, right? Isn't it time for the afternoon study? ”

"Wouldn't it be nice to ask the junior for a leave."

"How can you disturb the delphinium for such a reason?"

"Well, what you say ......"

Some noncommittally took out his mobile phone and entered a message into the group of three, Xia Liang said quite simply: "Okay, send it out!" ”

"Huh? I just told you not to do this, why did you send a message without permission! Hurry up and withdraw! ”

Seeing her doing this, Lin Xiaolu raised her eyebrows, and then stretched out her hand sideways, wanting to grab Xia Liang's mobile phone: "Give me the phone!" ”

"Hmph, if you don't give it, you should be frank at this time."

Relying on his slight height and arm span advantage to raise his mobile phone, Xia Liang shook his arms from side to side, dodging Lin Xiaolu's scramble, and laughed with ease. After playing around for a while, she suddenly felt the mobile phone in her hand vibrate, so she blinked and put down the mobile phone held high: "...... Ah, replied? ”

However, Lin Xiaolu, who was a little annoyed, was also stunned: "Reply? So fast? ”

"Well, it's back in seconds."

Xia Liang swiped the message page, dragging out his voice, imitating Delfinch's usual cold and calm tone: "I'll read it, what she said is: 'You can go, but remember to come back in time at night, if there is really a new person to inform me, I will come later.'" ’”

After reading the content of the message page, she lit up the screen at Lin Xiaolu: "That's pretty much it, she seems to agree?" ”

Lin Xiaolu didn't pay attention to her, but retracted her body, took out her mobile phone, and read Delphia's words carefully. After confirming that it was consistent with what Xia Liang said, she found that there was a string of other content behind her: "What is this?" Address? ”

"150 meters west of the intersection of Xihe Road and Yuyun Road, Lixing District......"

Xia Liang immediately read along: "Hey, this neighborhood is the No. 1 Welfare Institute in Fangting City?" ”

"Is this Moko's location?"

"It seems to be, but why would the juniors know where Moco is?"

"It's just a location, and what does Delphinium know is strange?"

Lin Xiaolu didn't think there was a problem at all, and said proudly: "A magical girl like her, there should be many means that have not been shown, but don't use your narrow vision to limit her ability." ”

Just looking at her look, and not listening to what she said, I'm afraid I still think that she is so proud because of herself.

"Haha...... Also, most of the juniors were prepared. In the face of Lin Xiaolu's fanatical fan speech, Xia Liang could only laugh dryly.

The two reached a consensus on strange things, so they no longer dwelled on this topic, and soon, Lin Xiaolu discovered the next suspicion:

"Speaking of which, in the welfare home, are there a lot of children there?"

"Saying that others are children, but they are not necessarily younger than us."

Xia Liang reluctantly pointed and said, "But it's really suspicious to say so." Let's go now, maybe we can catch it, right? ”

"However, the matter of cultivation ......" Lin Xiaolu was still a little hesitant.

She couldn't make up her mind for a long time, so Xia Liang raised her index finger and proposed: "Then I'll go and see it alone and tell you the result?" ”

"Ahh You really are! ”

This sentence became the last straw that overwhelmed Lin Xiaolu's inner defense, making her unable to sit still anymore, and the struggle in her heart finally prevailed with curiosity, so she stood up suddenly: "I can't help it!" Go and go, who is afraid of whom! ”

It's summer vacation now, and Delphinium has given the green light to their itinerary, so there is naturally no longer any obstacle for the two of them to go out.

So, after simply changing into plain clothes for travel, the two of them took the light rail tram to Lixing District together.

The location of the No. 1 Welfare Institute in Fangting City is on the edge of Lixing District, close to the outskirts of the city, but fortunately, the transportation is very convenient, and it does not take much effort to get there.

Passing through the slightly deserted station, Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang strolled along the somewhat old streets together, looking left and right from time to time, looking at the surrounding scenery.

Lixing District is located in the easternmost part of Fangting City, and is one of the earliest administrative divisions of Fangting City, so the infrastructure construction is relatively early, both the road surface and the surrounding buildings are relatively old, and because the main body later developed to the west, it eventually became the so-called "old city", and both the flow of people and traffic became relatively thin.

In addition, it was a weekday afternoon, so when Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang came to this neighborhood, they could obviously feel that their popularity was insufficient.

Fortunately, not far away is the goal of their trip - the No. 1 Welfare Institute of Fangting City, as a building that accommodates a large number of people, and its surrounding supporting facilities are very complete, which somewhat makes up for this faint sense of loneliness.

After a few minutes of further walking, the two of them were able to look at the building and fence of the orphanage, and after confirming that the location provided by Delphinium was correct, they quickened their pace, thinking about catching Moke by surprise.

This plan fell through after getting close to the welfare home.

Because they found that an invisible wall had appeared in front of them at some point, blocking them from moving forward.

Reaching out and touching around, and looking closer, Xia Liang found that the obstacles blocking them in front of them were not really "invisible", but just difficult to see.

With her perceptual ability, she would have sensed that there was quite a lot of magic circulating in the structure in front of her, obviously, this was a magic barrier.

"Xiaolu."

Xia Liang's expression then became a little solemn, and the habitual smile on his face also retracted a little: "I'm afraid the situation is different from what we thought." ”

Lin Xiaolu stretched out her hand and touched the transparent wall in front of her, as if she remembered some bad memories, and frowned: "Is this ...... Magic Barrier? ”

The two of them are no longer rookies like when they first became magical girls, and they already have a lot of understanding of basic techniques such as "magic barrier".

And there are not many people in this world who can use magic, either they are magicians in the material world, or magical girls whose abilities have reached the level of leaves or above. No matter which of the above people appear, it is not normal for them to appear around the welfare institute and place a magic barrier here.

"Inform the delphinium first."

Lin Xiaolu's memory of the magic barrier is really not good, and even faintly feels an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, and her first reaction is to ask for help, so she immediately took out her mobile phone and dialed Delfinch's number.

Delphinium had repeatedly stressed to her that if she encountered an incident that might be beyond her ability, she must be notified first. Although I don't know what this overprotective request is, it doesn't prevent Lin Xiaolu from abiding by his advice.

Only this time, after holding up the phone and waiting for a while, her expression became a little dazed: the outgoing call went through a long call, and in the end, there was only an unanswered voice notification.

"No one answered?" This is something Lin Xiaolu had not expected before.

"Leave a message in the group, let's see if we can break the barrier with magic first."

Faced with some urgent situations, Xia Liang took out his heart sprout, and directly turned on the transformation: "In this situation, if you have to wait for the junior to answer the phone, I'm afraid that Mo Ke will encounter danger inside." ”

Hearing her reminder, Lin Xiaolu realized that now was not the time to stand dry. After simply leaving a message in the group, he also took out the seed of the heart and became a magical girl.

After the two people transformed, they began to bombard the barrier with their respective magic beams, trying to break it with violence. However, while their attacks caused the barrier to vibrate, they were unable to completely destroy its structure.

After several attempts to no avail, they had to stop again when they saw that their magic was rapidly consumed.

Lin Xiaolu obviously showed a somewhat anxious expression, and although Xia Liang on the other side failed to make contributions, he looked at the barrier in front of him and thought thoughtfully: "Perhaps, you can think differently." ”

"What's the idea? What's your best idea? Lin Xiaolu was a little puzzled when she heard this.

"Give it a try and you'll find out."

Xia Liang smiled a little mysteriously, and then raised his wand: "Xiaojin, the magic power is precipitated." ”

As she spoke, the wand in her hand turned into a magical nebula, which regrouped and turned into a small vanity mirror, which was her magical construct - Leadaway.

Lin Xiaolu on the side also knew Xia Liang's magic construction, but he didn't think of any use: "What are you doing with it?" ”

"Okay, don't ask so much, just look at it."

Without much explanation, Xia Liang directly started his own attempt. She split the mirror in her hand into several facets, then resized one of the mirrors to be large enough to be as tall as a person.

Then, she attached the human-height mirror to the magic barrier in front of her.

"One of the abilities of the Diversion is to teleport mana from mirror to mirror. In other words, any magic that touches its surface is teleported to another mirror. ”

Xia Liang began to explain: "The junior said in his lecture before that although the magic barrier is a magic method, the magic form is still magic in nature, but the magic power in it is arranged into a specific state according to the structure of the spell, so if I guess correctly......"

She reached out and pointed to another mirror that wasn't attached to the barrier.

Lin Xiaolu turned her head to look, and saw that there was a faint light flashing on the mirror at the moment, obviously with magic power circulating. And the magic that is transmitted on this mirror means that it must have a source.

At this moment, no matter how weak her comprehension ability was, she guessed what Xia Liang wanted to do.

At the same time, Xia Liang moved the half-human-high mirror in front of him, like a magician, facing Xiaolu sideways, and stretched out his hand to the position where the mirror had fitted before:

"You see, my guess is right."

In the direction she was pointing, above the originally integrated barrier, there was a faint flow of magic power, and at some point there was a gap that was enough for people to pass through.

……

……

"The barrier outside didn't react at all, it looks like you've used some strange little tricks."

In the barrier, after the upcoming victory was interrupted, facing the two new magical girls, the black-robed man felt annoyed at first, but he quickly adjusted his emotions and glanced at the lineup in front of him: "However, light blue and purple, there is still one last person who hasn't come?" Then those bastards are still somewhat useful. ”

The failure to kill Mo Ke and let him escape successfully while in the chaos certainly inspired the anger in his heart. But this is not his core purpose in the first place, so it will not be lost.

"You know us?" The other party's words revealed an inexplicable confidence, which made Lin Xiaolu feel slightly disobedient, and asked with some vigilance.

"Know you guys? Rather, why don't you know? ”

After regaining his composure, the man shook his head and grinned a strange smile on the corner of his mouth: "For example, the strongest among you is the shortest little blue brat, right?" She's not acting with you right now? ”

"We have no reason to inform the enemy about the whereabouts of our partners."

Xia Liang on the side saw that Lin Xiaolu's expression became a little wrong, and took the initiative to take over the conversation: "Whether she comes or not, we will subdue you here and use magic to carry out a terrorist attack, and the only way waiting for you is to be arrested." ”

"Oh? Really, is it unwilling to report or unable to report? ”

The man didn't care about her words, as if he didn't care about the situation of being besieged, but stretched out his hand and counted the few people in front of him as if he were counting the goods: "Three magical girls, one goblin, and a pig...... Not counting, but at the end there are four sources of mana? That's it, and I can make up for some of the loss of a sacrificial son. ”

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Lin Xiaolu read a few different meanings from his words, and realized that the reason why Delphinium didn't answer the phone before might not be so simple, and asked seriously: "What happened to Delphinch!" Do you have any other accomplices? ”

"Delphinium? Is that the code name for that little blue brat? ”

The man shrugged, "I'm sorry, I don't really know what's going to happen on her side, but anyway, you and her will only have the same ending - that is, death." ”

With that, a chilling magic suddenly spread around him.

I saw that he took out a purple-black lump of flesh from some point and held it flat in front of him. The mass of flesh emitted a strange halo and pulsated from time to time, as if it had a life of its own.

"That's ...... What is it? ”

Xia Liang, who had a slightly stronger ability to perceive magic, couldn't help but cover his mouth and nose: "I feel so disgusting." ”

"Disgusting? What foolishness, this is a treasure of the same nature as the jewel of your heart. ”

Looking at the meat ball in his hand, the smile on the man's face was a little pious and soft: "Don't you think it has an irresistible beauty?" After all, if you want to name it the way you want it, you can call it 'Beast's Intestine'. ”

"The Beast's Intestines" ......"

It wasn't until he saw his posture that Lin Xiaolu, who had been haunting a strong sense of déjà vu in her heart before, showed a somewhat trance-like expression as if she had finally figured out something.

She finally knew why she had been feeling a faint sense of irritability in her heart since she saw the magical barrier that enveloped the welfare home.

Because a few months ago, when she became a magical girl for a week, she encountered something similar in a wetland park on the outskirts of the city.

Trapped in the wetland park by the barrier and encountering the remnants of the beetle, if it weren't for the timely rescue of the delphinch, I am afraid she would have died there.

And now, at this moment, she suddenly recalled the night she was in distress in the wetland park, and recalled a doubt that she had almost forgotten.

That was the almost human-like expression she saw on the face of the remnant beast as she struggled to support herself under the claws of the remnant beast.

Is it possible for a cripple to make such a humane expression?

After all, the intelligence of a low-level remnant beast should be quite low.

After that, Lin Xiaolu actually followed the delphinium to defeat many remnant beasts, most of them were huge and distorted, not to mention that most of them were like a mass of rotten flesh egg-level remnant beasts, even among the beetles, there were few individuals who stood on two legs.

Perhaps, they were not "mere remnants" from the beginning.

"You are, no, are you ......"

Lin Xiaolu opened her mouth in some amazement, but stopped halfway through her words.

Because she realized something deeper.

When she first became a magical girl, she was besieged by a barrier and hunted like a trap; Now in this welfare home, it seems that the same thing is happening with the new magical girl.

Well, there was another question that made her shudder even more.

“…… Fangting City has not had a magical girl for nearly two years before, what does this matter have to do with you? ”

When she asked this, she felt her brain buzz herself.

"Oh? What do you seem to be thinking about? Do you need me to compliment you on your acumen? ”

For her question, the man didn't answer, but just asked rhetorically, and the smile on his face became more and more fierce: "Or did the previous worker in Fangting lose contact with you?" ”

"It really has something to do with you?"

Lin Xiaolu no longer knew what mood she was in in the conversation, but she still asked persistently: "What have you all done?" ”

"You should understand, right? Even if it's not a priest, the magical girl's heart gem is an extremely valuable magical material. Pure interest is enough to make people's hearts move, let alone face a mortal enemy? ”

Some answered Lin Xiaolu's question, and the man was a little speechless: "Not only did he die in office but also leaked the news, but Gongtouch Eleven really left a mess...... But forget it, it has nothing to do with me anyway, it's just useless waste after all, and if it's dead, it's dead. ”

At this point in the conversation, even Xia Liang, who didn't understand what was going on, came back to his senses and looked at the black-robed man with some horror: "You mean, you guys are ...... Hunting magical girls? ”

At this time, the man was no longer willing to talk to them.

Pressing the lump of flesh in his hand to his chest, the man's expression became more and more fanatical and fierce, and even began to become a little crazy.

"Now, O despicable pseudo-royal court, it will be the time for me to carry out the will of the Lord and destroy you all!"

He shouted, shouted, and chanted, and the flesh in his hands erupted with intense magic. He looked at the several magical girls in front of him, his eyes widened, and sharp teeth appeared in the cracked corners of his mouth:

"This is the time of hoe and rebellion."

As his words fell, the pitch-black magic enveloped his body, and a black mist surged, and in the clouds, the man's original human figure gradually became taller, and finally reached a height of several meters.

In the surging mist, a beast head with a mouth full of fangs and red eyes poked out of the black mist, and in the flickering golden runes, the beast body full of exaggerated and terrifying pipes also appeared from the cold magic.

At this moment, it was no longer the man who appeared in front of everyone.

Even, if it is commensurate with their essence, what they have in front of them is no longer a human being.

— but a remnant beast.