Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

"So if it weren't for you interfering, I could have taken her body with me."

"Whether I can take it or not is another matter. Fine, since you can't offer anything of sincerity, then I'll offer something of sincerity. After all, I'm quite curious about how you'll break free from your magical girl identity."

"If you hand Madoka over to me, I can free her from the identity of a magical girl."

"This... is the sincerity I want to show, because Xiaoyuan is like this now..."

A gray world suddenly descended, and Sayaka, who was about to reveal information that would break Homura's defenses, froze in place.

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 Okay, this time I'll seriously ask for recommendation votes~

Destiny's Eighteen Weavings and Flames (Part Two)

The device on the shield activated, and the clock-shaped gears suddenly jammed, causing the world within the witch's barrier to come to a standstill for a moment.

However, the figure that Flame most desperately needed to stop time was still rushing through this gray world.

"What?! You bastard!"

The gears started spinning again, only to get stuck the next second; the world resumed its flow, only to be swallowed by gray and white the next moment.

The figure with deep purple flames on its shoulder continued running unaffected.

This time it was Flame's turn to be surprised. Her ability to fight, and even to reincarnate, had failed for the first time?

"Damn it, you really are connected to that witch!"

Flame pulled a GLOCK19 pistol from his shield and pulled the trigger as he canceled the time stop.

The bullet burst through the gunfire, ripped through the smoke, and whistled as it passed between the two men.

As for Iori, who had already activated her Mystic Eyes, she made a dodging motion the moment Flame pulled the trigger.

Her running body suddenly swerved to the side, and the bullet grazed her thigh, leaving a charred trail on the road.

Flame raised an eyebrow, his fingers snapping shut, and several bullets blocked Zhi's path.

"Ugh! Where's the magic?! Why are magical girls using guns?!"

With the same complaints she'd already made to Xiaoyan, Zhi had no chance to escape anymore. She could only face the incoming bullets head-on and carve a path through the attack.

The pistol's rate of fire gave her time to judge the bullet's trajectory by her movements. She drew her katana and charged into Flame's firing range, ignoring the bullets blocking her movement, and cleaved the bullet aimed at her abdomen in two with a single strike.

"I feel like I'm no longer surprised by your amazing performances."

With his right hand maintaining the frequency of pulling the trigger, Flame swung his left hand, and the Colt M1911 pistol slid from the shield into his hand. In an instant, another pistol joined the barrage of fire.

The pressure on her suddenly increased, and she no longer had the chance to perform her cool bullet-slashing skills. The doubled rate of fire meant that she could only keep her katana on the trajectory of the bullets and keep deflecting them.

Bullets began to chip and puncture the finely forged blade.

She knew that if she didn't get close enough to interrupt the bullet that would kill her, she would fall into Yan's clutches.

With a change in footwork, the figure rushing towards Yan suddenly became dazed, with large and small turns, right-angle sliding steps, and elusive movements, instantly reducing the threat of the suppressive barrage.

Zhi hadn't run very far, and the distance between the two was rapidly closing, but Yan remained calm and gently tossed the two pistols upwards.

That's a very familiar pose.

An alarm bell rang in Zhi's mind. The last time Homura made this move, she drew a longsword, but she didn't think that Homura, as a magical girl, could draw a cold weapon from the world of fire.

No longer caring about making elusive movements, Zhi cut through the last few bullets and immediately ran in a large arc, using Yan as the center.

As it turns out, if magical girls can't pull out melee weapons, they'll only pull out something even more dangerous.

The MG-42 general-purpose machine gun, infamous as the "cloth ripper," was fitted with a double drum magazine by Xiao Yan, and the bolt was pulled back.

"Damn it! Why did they skip submachine guns and assault rifles and jump straight to a general-purpose machine gun?! At least give us a light machine gun to get through this!"

Although he didn't know the gun model, the two drum magazines, which clearly had a ferocious magazine capacity, made Zhi immediately increase his speed as fast as he could.

A deafening gunshot, like tearing cloth, rang out, followed by the flashes of bullets hitting the weaver's back and the flying debris.

The machine gun, with a maximum rate of fire of 1200 rounds per minute, plowed through the ground as Zhi ran, tearing everything in its path to shreds.

Zhi should be grateful that Yan didn't intend to kill her directly; all the bullets were aimed at her feet, so at least she wouldn't be torn apart by the bullets just because she slowed down a little.

Even so, she showed no sign of slowing down. Her plan to get close had failed once again. Now, she was no longer thinking about attacking or escaping, but simply trying to survive before she ran out of bullets.

The river beside the road gave her this opportunity; having nowhere else to go, she jumped into the river without hesitation.

The bullets pierced the water's surface, leaving trails of white streaks as they disappeared into the water, as if a pure white icy rain was falling on the river, threatening to take the lives of those being baptized.

Weaving on the riverbed, she struggled to turn over, dodging the falling white ribbons. Her vision was already obscured by white bubbles, so she could only rely on the judgment of her demonic eyes to move her katana to her vital points to avoid serious injury.

Before she could awaken, the shrouded creature, now reduced to ashes, began to bleed crimson blood from its wounded body. With each movement it made, it left a trail of red blood.

Finally, the sound of tearing cloth stopped, and the river surface, which had been churned into a snowy white by the bubbles, slowly returned to calm.

Flame put away the overheated general-purpose machine gun, re-equipped himself with two pistols, and walked to the riverbank.

There were traces of blood seeping into the water, but otherwise, there was no other movement.

Yan raised an eyebrow again, her gaze sweeping across the river. She refused to believe that the guy could stay in the water all night.

Whether magical girls can stay in the water for a night is unknown, but Iori feels that she can definitely stay here for a night.

She's ashes now, ashes that can jump around even without eating or drinking. So it's perfectly reasonable that she doesn't need to ingest food or water and doesn't need oxygen to support her body's movement, isn't it?

Ashes are insoluble in water and will only sink to the bottom. Ashes that sink to the bottom do not need to breathe, so Zhi is currently crawling forward on the riverbed.

She had to get away from where she had just been shot at, otherwise if the enemy fired another round of bullets, she would be finished.

"I'm telling you, are you really planning to hide in the water and never come out?"

After waiting for a while, Yan also realized something was wrong. Even if someone could hold their breath for a long time, they should at least have a few bubbles rising to the surface, but apart from some blood, there was no other movement in the river.

“I didn’t originally intend to kill you, but if you continue to resist, I don’t mind blowing the riverbed upside down.”

Regardless of whether her voice could reach underwater, Yan walked to the riverbank and pulled out an oval, pineapple-shaped, pitted, dangerous object from her shield.

"I'll count to three. If you don't come out, I'll attack."

Because of the river, her voice was muffled and indistinct in the water. Zhi could only barely make out a few keywords such as "don't kill her," "count to three," and "attack."

Having missed the most important information, she was still contemplating whether to surrender, while Flame had already begun the countdown.

"one."

His finger was on the pin of the grenade.

"two."

The insurance was suppressed.

"……three."

The pull ring was pulled out, and with a soft "ding," the safety mechanism popped open completely.

A sense of crisis gnawed at Zhi's nerves like a leech, and she could no longer care about whether to surrender or not. She crawled towards the riverbank using both her hands and feet.

Flame gently tossed the grenade into the river. The next moment, churning water droplets burst from the surface, creating a fountain in the air that only one person could see.

A light rain began to fall along the riverbank. Zhi managed to climb out of the water just as the explosion occurred, but was also thrown onto the embankment by the force of the blast.

Thankfully, she didn't die. She lay on the embankment, panting, her heart pounding. But in her mind, she was thinking that if she ever had the chance to accompany Xiaoyan to other worlds again, she would definitely stop her from collecting modern weapons!

"Now, you're finally not running away, right?"

Flame walked up to Zhi in the drizzle she had created, bent down, and examined the cheerful girl who was covered in scars.

"Haha, it's not that I don't want to run, it's just that I'm too tired to run anymore!"

Her entire body was tattered and torn. She raised her hand slightly, a cheerful smile on her face, in response to Yan's cold expression.

"Very well, then as a prisoner, I hope you can be somewhat self-aware. I'll ask you a question, and you answer it, okay?"

"Oh, oh, oh! Of course, no problem, after all, I'm receiving pretty good benefits right now! But if you could take that next step, I might be even more cooperative~"

The interrogation atmosphere, which was originally quite pleasant, was ruined by a lewd remark.

Yan was stunned for a moment and immediately realized something was wrong. In order to increase her intimidation, she had walked close to Zhi's head and bent down to talk to her. Zhi's same-sex identity made her subconsciously ignore the possibility of her exposing herself. However, her smug tone now made Yan feel very cheated.

"Ouch! She wasn't wearing leggings! But I have to give those black pantyhose a thumbs up! ...Wait! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

The interrogator felt he had been cheated, so the prisoner naturally suffered. Flame kicked Zhi in the head as she was about to lean back to increase her field of vision, making her spin around on the ground. Then he stomped on her abdomen, pulled out a Colt M1911, and pressed it against her head.

"I'll ask a question, and you answer it, okay?"

"No problem! No problem! Please, Your Highness, tell me what you need!"

Indeed, the replacement of cold weapons with firearms as the mainstream of warfare was a historical inevitability. Even the Ashes, who once dominated the Undead Street, would be defeated under the suppression of machine guns and grenades.

Zhi was lost in thought, simply because she had absolutely no idea how to get through the questioning.

"...First question, where is that witch?"

"Wait, wait! Your Highness, you're not playing by the rules again! During an interrogation, shouldn't you first ask me my name, where I live, and what I'm doing here before getting to the point?"

boom--!

A .0.45 ACP bullet drilled a hole in the ground next to Zhi's head. A large bead of cold sweat slid down her forehead. Yan moved the still-warm muzzle of the gun and pressed it against her forehead again.

"First question, where is that witch?"

"Your Highness, it's not that I don't want to answer, it's just that I really don't know!"

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 is earnestly asking for votes~

Destiny 19: Ashes and Magical Girl

A gray world suddenly descended, and Sayaka, who was about to reveal information that would break Homura's defenses, froze in place.

Xiaoyan was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized that it must be another version of herself who used the ability to stop time.

But there are no nightmares now, and Sayaka is still here, so there shouldn't be any other situation where she needs to use her abilities, unless she finds the witch who trapped everyone, or... that guy Ori has provoked her.

"Xiao Yuan, she..."

In the brief moment she was stunned, the graying disappeared, but Sayaka only had time to say a few more words before she was frozen again.

Tsk tsk, canceling and then reactivating an ability in such a short time seems like an attempt to fix something that's wrong with the ability. So, the possibility that Zhi is being targeted has increased again.

But it really helped a lot. I was just worried about how to get rid of this girl who was both a magical girl and a witch, so I used a time stop on her.