Chapter 355: Shion’s Defeat CG
The starry sky made Shion's existence seem infinitely small.
Beneath her feet flowed a river of stars, and the surrounding grains of sand revolved around it in a regular pattern, like decorations.
Was this Black Keke's Mental Landscape?
After seizing Keke's Miracle Seed, Black Keke herself shouldn't have had the ability to transform into a Magical Girl anymore.
Shion could tell that the other party wasn't expanding her Mental Landscape in the form of a Magical Girl.
Instead, she was expanding her Mental Landscape as a pure human...
However, Shion herself had accomplished this before, so she wasn't particularly surprised.
What was strange was that Black Keke's Mental Landscape was clearly different from every Mental Landscape she had encountered in the past.
It had no boundaries, and you couldn't even find the location of the Mental Landscape from the outside.
Normally, with a standard Mental Landscape expansion, whether it had boundaries or not, you could actually find and lock onto its position from the outside.
This was also how Magical Girls without a Mental Landscape could defeat those who had one.
As long as a Magical Girl destroyed the Mental Landscape from the outside, she could gain an absolute advantage. After all, once the Mental Landscape was damaged, Personal Reality would also be temporarily melted down, making magic unusable.
But Black Keke's Mental Landscape left no trace from the outside. It could even be said to have disappeared.
An independent space?
Or had she truly come to the heart of Black Keke?
Or had she compressed the entire Mental Landscape to an undetectable level after expanding it?
There were many possibilities.
Shion looked carefully around. Beneath this starry sky, every grain of sand contained thousands of worlds.
In each of those tiny, sand-sized Small Worlds, a pair of eyes was staring at her.
Before she could release her Divine Sense to carefully examine that "one sand, one world," an attack came from behind her!
"!"
Shion slightly turned her body, looking at the bullet that wasn't fast in her eyes, and flicked it gently with her finger.
The bullet burst apart instantly.
Immediately after, thousands of grains of sand splashed all over her body, and a crackling, snapping sound erupted from her Magical Outfit!
The world rules within those grains of sand were all denying Shion's existence!
"There are many worlds in this universe that don't have Magical Girls, and the underlying rules of those worlds are to deny the miracles and mana of Magical Girls."
Walking through the river of stars, Black Keke held a strange gun in her hand. She casually grabbed the surrounding sand, as if it were her powder flask. After grabbing a handful, in a wild way that would make a professional have a meltdown, she casually stuffed those grains of sand into the chamber. Then, she casually grabbed a planet as a lead ball and rammed it into the muzzle.
"Like this, by stuffing the sand from different worlds into a specially made weapon..."
After loading, Black Keke raised that less-than-standard gun in a less-than-standard pose, aiming it at Shion. "You can tear apart a Magical Girl's Magical Outfit by firing different worlds."
Another bullet shot over, but its essence was the collision and tearing of countless major worlds!
Shion casually pinched the bullet again.
This time, she didn't exert any force, but the bullet exploded on its own, and thousands of grains of sand sprayed out once more!
Black Keke watched as Shion unhurriedly reached out her hand.
Those slender, even somewhat short, fair-skinned fingers pressed down on every single grain of sand!
Although the speed of her fingers didn't seem fast, and you could even see the movements clearly.
Not a single one of those splashing grains of sand was missed. They were all crushed by her fingertips.
Even though her physical abilities had been amplified after entering the Mental Landscape, making her comparable to a Magical Girl, and even though she had mentally prepared herself for Shion's strength, the sight before her was still unimaginable.
Black Keke still felt a shocking absurdity...
How did her big brother take her down?
They must have reproductive isolation by now, right? When they're dating or getting close on a daily basis, doesn't it feel like she's carrying a steel coil? She looks small, but when she moves, she's lethal.
Wouldn't she crush her big brother to pieces without even noticing?
A bunch of messy thoughts flashed through her mind, and Jiang Si inexplicably came to her again.
On the other side, Shion gently stirred the river of stars.
With just a wave of her hand, that long river of stars was lifted like a tsunami!
All the stars flew up like splashing water, creating long cracks in the entire night sky, and Black Keke was engulfed in this roaring tsunami.
When she opened her eyes, all four of her limbs had been pierced through, and she was lying in a pile of sand, almost unable to move.
Bang!
Another javelin was thrust into the ground in front of her. The place where Black Keke lay was a garden. As the javelin pierced down, blood splattered everywhere, and the surrounding flower petals drooped under the weight of the blood droplets.
But Black Keke wasn't dead, just a wound cut open on her face.
"Is that all you've got?"
Shion's hand was gripping the javelin, but she didn't pull it out. Instead, she crouched down. Her small hand gripped the purple shaft and slid down slowly, then she lowered her head.
Her face was almost pressed against Black Keke's. Even her breathing was clearly audible.
Shion's body carried a fragrance that Black Keke found hard to place. It wasn't like a flower, but more like a spring of water—cold and clear, with a pleasant, tinkling sound.
Black Keke felt like her perception was all mixed up. She didn't know why she could smell the sound of a spring on Shion's body.
What was this called again?
Synesthesia, or a transparent world or something...
She had basically returned all the knowledge from elementary school to her teacher, and besides, the pain all over her body didn't leave much room for thinking. What she was wondering was whether she had any fragrance on her.
They all said girls smell nice, but Black Keke had never felt she had any particular scent. It would be a godsend if she didn't smell of sweat...
"Then what else do you want? Expanding your Mental Landscape with your physical body is already incredibly impressive, isn't it? And I've also torn through your Magical Outfit. You've rivaled the gods with a mortal body. You won't forget me for the rest of your life, will you?"
"If it's just this, I'd probably forget you in the next second."
It was hard to say how much hatred there really was.
After all, Black Keke and Shion didn't have any grudges. Although the fact that the Witch Association's plans were all ruined by her had annoyed Black Keke at one point.
But when it came down to it, those plans weren't very rigorous anyway, and Black Keke hadn't taken them to heart. Failure was failure; no big deal. After all, her true goal was something more mysterious, like the Magic Kingdom...
Although now, she probably had to change her goal a little bit again.
"Are you the same as my big brother?"
"What?"
"I mean, do you think that after a restart, those people are no longer themselves?" Black Keke asked in a low voice. "Do you think that way too? The pinnacle of Magical Girls, Miss Shion."
"Is my answer that important?"
Shion grabbed her collar, looked up at the starry sky.
This domain had no gaps.
In terms of pure mastery and control over the Mental Landscape, Black Keke might be the strongest she had ever seen.
But aside from the boundaries being unobservable from the outside, it seemed the rules of this Mental Landscape were just storing the rules of different worlds?
She still hadn't figured out what this place was actually for. She had even wasted a lot of time being on guard...
"Of course, it's important. You helped Jade Fox resolve her inner conflict and let her die as a Magical Girl in the end. That story is widely spread in the Witch Association. The Magical Girl Shion, the one who knows everything, who can answer everything..."
"Ignorant people always mistake someone who knows a little more for someone who knows everything."
"No, no, no, in everyone's eyes, you are all-knowing and all-powerful, Miss Shion." Black Keke grabbed her wrist again.
Shion's wrist was very small, feeling like it could be lifted with just one finger. But when she touched it, besides the smooth texture,
there was more of a pressure from a colossal force.
But sometimes, this kind of terrifying pressure was an unparalleled sense of security.
"So, can you answer a question for this lost lamb? After a restart, are you no longer yourself?"
"Your tone doesn't sound lost at all."
Shion looked down at her. "I don't like answering questions that someone has already answered for themselves."
"Alright, alright."
As expected, she knew everything.
"Of course, I'm not going to change just because of your answer, Shion."
If she was going to change, she would have done so long ago. She wouldn't have made it to meeting Jiang Si, nor would she have made it to getting an answer from Shion.
"It's just that, for me, your answer is still worth referencing. After all, your strength, your omniscience—whether you give an affirmative or a negative, it will fill me with motivation."
But Shion wasn't in a hurry to answer her. Instead, she asked, "What do you think is the most important thing in life?"
"Tsk, I don't think this is a good time for a classroom Q&A..." Despite saying that, Black Keke still thought about it. "Probably eating, drinking, and taking a dump."
"A lot of people answer that." Shion dragged Black Keke to a river. This domain was simply too big. It was a boundless domain, with all kinds of terrain. Shion casually shoved Black Keke's head into the water. "What about now?"
"Damn it, damn it!" Black Keke struggled, thrashing on the water's surface. "Give me air, give me air..."
When Black Keke's voice started to become gurgling sounds, Shion finally lifted her up. "Only then do people realize that what they need first is air."
"Can we stop with the riddles? What does this have to do with me..."
"You've restarted so many times, and you've sacrificed and given a lot. But most of the time, to everyone, you were just like air."
Shion grabbed Black Keke by the collar and looked at the drenched girl. "What you should do first is try to hold someone's head underwater."
"I don't get it."
"Before things get too bad to fix, no one takes your words seriously."
Shion casually tossed her to the riverbank and slowly drew her sword. "What I'm saying is, you need to make this world face a crisis so desperate that it makes everyone feel hopeless."
A single sword stroke came down.
The Sword Energy shot up along the river, a brilliant sword light like a clear, solemn moonlight, enveloping the entire starry sky!
The starry river parted to both sides. In the originally pitch-black night sky, a bright light burst forth!
Black Keke was stunned.
This boundless Mental Landscape had actually been forcibly cut open, creating a crack.
This was Shion...
"Otherwise, no one will take the air seriously."
The hem of the purple Magical Outfit slowly fell in the raging wind. The surging river gradually converged again, and the crack in the Mental Landscape also healed.
After taking a deep breath, Black Keke smiled. "A desperate crisis? You mean, kill you?"
"That's one way to put it." Shion nodded. "If you do it, Jiang Si will support you too."
"Sounds good." Black Keke laughed, but the smile on her face gradually became more malicious. "Then I'll get serious. If you really die, don't blame me."
Shion looked at Black Keke, who was radiating a different aura. She just nodded. "Come."
Seeing Black Keke slowly get up and pick up her gun again, Shion became a little more serious, waiting for her attack.
"Let's fall into hell together."
Black Keke suddenly raised her gun. Shion raised her hand directly, intending to completely crush her with a single move...
"!"
But Black Keke's gun, in an instant, was aimed only at her own head. She pulled the trigger and blew her own brains out!
"Matrix Restart."
The starry river inverted, the long river flowed backward, and time, along with the wind, traced back from the end of the world to its beginning.
It was the moment the Mental Landscape had just been expanded—
A huge space rapidly separated the two.
And Shion, at the center of the Mental Landscape, was looking around, still observing and examining the scale and abilities of the Mental Landscape.
Black Keke looked at the gun in her hand and was also back at the moment she had loaded the first bullet.
This was her Mental Landscape domain: the ability of eternal reincarnation.
When an enemy was pulled in, by anchoring a resurrection time point, she could continuously restart through death.
This was the condensation and manifestation of her own journey and abilities.
This was the miracle that only her Personal Reality could create.
A Mental Landscape domain where she could freely control the time of reincarnation!
Compared to reincarnation after the world was destroyed, a backtrack within the Mental Landscape domain was much more convenient. She could even freely set the time and place of the restart.
This was the foundation of her courage to stand against Shion and the Beast of Eternity.
After the restart, the other party would lose their memory of the backtrack. For Shion, this was probably still the first time she had entered this Mental Landscape.
She was still observing and examining as usual.
Hiding in the shadows, Black Keke found the perfect position. Hitting a perfect sneak attack on the first shot wasn't difficult...
But she sighed tiredly and didn't rush to attack.
Actually, this was the 1,461st restart.
She had found an opening for a successful sneak attack on the 964th try.
Of course, it wasn't until the 1,461st try that she finally got an answer from Shion's mouth.
Then, something began to sprout in her heart, gradually twisting.
Maybe she should just kill Shion right here, in this cycle.
From initially testing the waters, gathering information, and preparing for the next cycle, it had turned into wanting to kill her in this one.
It was hard to say if it was because of what she heard Shion say.
That Jiang Si would support her.
Even though she had walked this path alone all the way, she didn't really care about others' support anymore.
After all, in the next cycle, it would all be meaningless.
But now, Black Keke suddenly wanted to hear Jiang Si's support, his encouragement.
There was no particular reason. She was already almost an empty shell, running around for her goals. Her obsession and inertia had even surpassed some emotions.
It was just a sudden curiosity. How would Jiang Si cheer her on?
So, kill Shion.
Black Keke took a deep breath, organizing some information in her mind.
Show up in front of Shion at three seconds into the start, and she would start with Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger.
Show up at five seconds, Magical Eight Extremities Collapse.
Show up at seven seconds, Emperor Seal.
Show up at eight seconds, Sword Storm.
No matter what move she started with, after taking the hit, she would have two breaths left, and then Shion would immediately close in with the Elbow Technique Secret, leaving her with just one breath.
If she just hid at the start and ignored Shion, after seven seconds, Shion would use Divine Sense to scan.
After ten seconds, she would start extinguishing lights everywhere.
If she ignored Shion for thirty seconds, Shion would get impatient and blow up the place with Buddha's Fury Lotus. Was she a child...?
Every reaction had a corresponding countermeasure. Over a thousand reincarnations had gathered enough intel.
Her preparations against Shion were also very thorough. Now it was just a process of continuous trial and error.
"Shion."
The first attempt, initiated with a call.
This time, the target wasn't the Magical Outfit, but a point-blank shot aimed at Shion's heart. It was a bomb formed by compressing half the worlds within the Mental Landscape.
The Mental Landscape domain was engraved on the heart.
For a Magical Girl, the heart was the real vital point.
Even if the brain was destroyed, miracles could still achieve incredible reversals through Personal Reality.
But once the heart was destroyed, it meant the Mental Landscape domain would melt down, and Personal Reality would also be disrupted. This was an extremely fatal injury for a Magical Girl.
After 1,461 reincarnations, there was only one successful sneak attack opportunity—
The other party just backhanded her with a sword.
"Matrix Restart."
The 1,462nd time.
Back at the starting point, Black Keke clicked her tongue and looked again at Shion, who was still surveying the Mental Landscape, completely unaware.
In their previous fights, Shion hadn't actually gone for the kill. But she had kept committing suicide to prevent a dead save, making sure the backtrack time point didn't move forward.
The moment she showed even a sliver of killing intent, she was immediately met with a devastatingly fatal strike.
Her perception was too sharp.
Restrain the killing intent, block the aura, treat yourself as the breeze and the shadow. Even erase your own existence within the Mental Landscape.
A shot with no killing intent, but it was still stopped.
Wrong position. Angle, speed, timing, trigger pressure, including the aura, all needed to be readjusted...
Before Shion could speak, Black Keke shot herself in the head again.
South by north, downwind, mana interference, perception lockdown...
Failed.
Suicide.
Failed.
Suicide.
Failed...
The 2,766th time. Successfully hit the heart.
Re-anchor the backtrack point, move forward...
Just as she took a step forward, planning to press the advantage...
Shion's right hand directly plunged into her own chest.
Then, the destroyed heart was pulled out by Shion herself. The world rules within the sand had made the heart almost irreparably damaged.
But then, Shion suddenly clenched her hand!
A terrifying explosion directly engulfed Black Keke!
When her vision returned, the backtrack time point had already been pushed forward to the moment when Shion had just had her heart blown out.
The next second, before Black Keke could react, Shion had already pulled out her shattered heart again.
She clenched it again!
Black Keke opened her eyes again, looking at Shion, whose heart was destroyed. This time, without a second thought, she immediately retreated!
But the speed of the explosion was far faster than her escape!
It was over.
As she was engulfed again, Black Keke's heart sank.
It was going to be a dead save...
The 4,126th time.
"Mercy!"
First attempt at verbal interference.
Failed.
"Teacher Shion, it's me, Keke!"
Failed.
"Wait, I have something to..."
Failed.
"Sister-in-law..."
Failed.
The 4,211th time.
"Big brother! Save me!"
Success.
The explosion was delayed. Shion, who had pulled out her heart, stopped and looked at her.
Black Keke immediately pushed the save point forward.
She hadn't expected that she would have to beg Jiang Si for help in such an ugly way for Shion to stop.
She had been trying to beg for mercy and negotiate with Shion, which had been a mistake. After all, the thinking time was too short. As soon as she backtracked, the explosion would come immediately. She had almost gotten a dead save from thinking too much...
After finally escaping from a near-dead save, Black Keke looked at Shion, who was clutching her own heart but showed no sign of being weakened, and let out a tired sigh.
She had miscalculated. Should she have brought her big brother in here? Big brother, save me! I'm really about to be beaten to death by your beloved little steel coil...
"Jiang Si can't hear you." The little steel coil was talking.
So Black Keke, delirious and babbling, said:
"Can you stop using your own heart as a bomb?"
"Still want to continue?"
"Of course. I'm going to kill you."
There was no hesitation in her reply.
So Shion crushed her own heart again.
But with the buffer time, Black Keke finally managed to survive by using a spatial displacement within the Mental Landscape domain.
After repositioning and getting out of sight, she didn't rush to push the save point. She had to make sure everything was fine before saving. Facing Shion, saving prematurely would result in a dead save...
She looked at Shion again from the displaced space.
The petite girl was strolling slowly on the starry sand river, ignoring the gaping hole in her chest. It seemed that the fatal injury for a Magical Girl was just... barely anything. And just sensing the gaze, Shion looked up at her position.
Quiet, vast, majestic. Even after countless restarts, every single move of hers still made Black Keke's heart race with fear. The pressure and unfamiliarity were becoming harder and harder to breathe.
Shion might not even be a Magical Girl.
Black Keke let out a long breath.
"Honestly, you monster, you're even more troublesome than the Beast of Eternity..."
"Are you going to give up?" Shion tilted her head.
"But your luck doesn't seem to be very good today."
While adjusting her breathing, Black Keke leaned against the mountain and pointed up at the sky. "Have you seen today's stars?"
"I'm a materialist."
"Wow, someone who uses magic claims to be a materialist?"
"If it can appear, it's material."
"If that's the case..."
With Shion's earth-shattering surge of mana, the sent flying Black Keke tumbled and splashed into the water.
She poked her head out from the bottom of the water. The calm water's surface reflected the stars in the sky.
"The stars don't look good, but that's also material. Miss Shion, Mercury is now in a retrograde stall at the terminal degree of 26° in Cancer. In other words, it's what they call Mercury retrograde."
Black Keke extended her dripping wet hand. "Your malefic planet is flickering."
When Shion swung her sword again, her body stumbled slightly.
That originally overwhelming, magnificent mana suddenly became scarce. This single sword stroke even made her unsteady.
"It seems the prediction came true. The stars really are very bad today."
Black Keke drew her gun and aimed it at Shion, who had lost her mana.
But the next second, even with scarce mana, the small sword still pierced through in an instant.
The gun exploded directly!
"Matrix Restart."
The 4,212th death.
She opened her eyes. The river water was cold.
Black Keke, soaked in the water, extended her wet hand and let out a slight sigh of relief.
"Didn't I tell you? The stars don't look good..."
A safe, absolutely safe save point.
She looked up at Shion, who seemed suddenly smaller and more petite. It wasn't that her body had actually shrunk, but without that immense mana, she gave off a miniature, shrunken feeling.
[Mana Swap]. Finally successful.
What made Shion truly terrifying was her seemingly infinite mana.
And the main reason Black Keke no longer considered getting stronger was the rule ability she possessed within this Mental Landscape domain:
Ability Swap.
By being continuously killed, she could swap one of her own attributes with the enemy.
This was one of the trump cards that could even work against the Beast of Eternity. Even the strongest enemies could be gradually weakened this way.
But this time, it took far more time than the fight against the End. The Beast of Eternity had been swapped on the 3,664th attempt.
But for Shion's mana swap, she had to die a full 4,212 times before it succeeded.
Perhaps in terms of metaphysical rank, the Beast of Eternity was stronger, but when it came to pure mana volume, Shion was still superior...
When she acquired Shion's mana.
The first thing Black Keke felt was the power flooding her brain, mana replacing thought.
She directly released mana and attacked Shion head-on!
With a power wheelchair like that, it was no different from just sitting in it. Anyone else would be drooling with joy...
But when, with mana far exceeding Shion's, she tried to crush her head-on, Shion's form moved like a ghost, precisely weaving through her torrential mana.
Then their figures crossed.
Blood splashed from her neck!
A fatal slash to the throat!
Reincarnation again. Soaked in the water, Black Keke wiped her face and looked at Shion, somewhat in disbelief.
Then she stood up and charged again!
A sword pierced through her heart.
The 8,643rd time.
Her stomach was instantly slashed open. Black Keke, with her innards spilling out, finally took a breath.
When she reincarnated again, looking up at Shion, Black Keke wiped the river water clinging to the corner of her mouth and gave up on a head-on assault.
She had gotten a bit carried away.
The gap in mana had reached an absurd level.
But every magical attack and ocean of mana she unleashed was skillfully dodged by Shion, followed by a precise, fatal blow.
So, even after getting the god-mode stats, this girl hadn't just sat in the wheelchair and drooled.
She had been diligently training her skills?
What kind of person was this...
On the other hand, Black Keke had become a bit too reliant on reincarnation, making it hard to get results even when she had overwhelming power...
Then, after that, as the reincarnations continued, the mana began to wax and wane...
The other party's Personal Reality was transcending the reincarnations?
But it didn't matter.
The 16,024th reincarnation.
[Mana Swap Successful. ]
Shion's originally immense mana returned to Black Keke's body.
The second stripping of mana had taken quite some effort, wasting the mana recovery that had surpassed the reincarnations.
The 24,068th reincarnation.
[Magic: Buddha's Fury Lotus Swap Successful. ]
Swapped with a curse that Black Keke and Lu Ya had researched together: Mana Immunity Curse.
Activated as a passive.
The 37,041st reincarnation.
[Magic: Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger Swap Successful. ]
Swapped with a research result from Black Keke in the Witch Association: Personal Reality Contraction Curse.
Activated as a passive.
The 66,021st reincarnation.
[Magic: Perception Obstruction Swap Successful. ]
Swapped with a magic Black Keke had stolen from a Magical Girl: Healing Aura.
A passive magic that only doesn't work on its owner.
The 84,699th reincarnation.
[Magic: Sword Energy Swap Successful. ]
Swapped with a magic Black Keke had learned herself: Personal Gravity Doubling.
Activated as a passive.
The 100,064th reincarnation.
[Magic: Puppet Clone Swap Successful. ]
Swapped with a curse Black Keke found in the Curse Realm: Mana Consumption Doubling.
Activated as an active.
The 102,624th reincarnation.
[Magic: Absolute Zero Swap Successful. ]
Black Keke stared blankly at Shion in front of her.
She could no longer tell what exactly made this person strong.
She had thought it was mana.
But after swapping the mana, without combat experience, she could barely gain an advantage.
She had thought it was magic.
But after swapping so many magics, the effects were worlds apart when she used them versus when Shion did.
Buddha's Fury Lotus had blown herself to pieces hundreds of times. Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger almost never hit. The effect of Perception Obstruction was completely useless. Sword Energy's attack range was even smaller than Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger. Puppet Clones just provided a few more cannon fodder to get beaten up, and they were particularly time-consuming.
When she expanded Absolute Zero, it was herself who died first.
Other people specialized in one thing, or had many but shallow ones.
The Magical Girl Shion had achieved both: many and deep mastery.
This would take a lot of time. Just swapping them over was useless.
And throughout these hundred thousand-plus attempts, whenever she clashed with Shion, the actual combat time was basically measured in seconds.
The slowest was a four-second kill.
Black Keke had used Eternal Reincarnation to kill countless strong enemies.
Including many proxies of the Beast of Eternity—those who held most of the Beast's power—most of them had died by her hands.
She had even personally fought the Beast of Eternity, eventually making it close its eyes and stop looking into the future.
Even the later-stage Beast of Eternity, when stripped of its mana, magic, and those strange abilities, would be weakened, at least no longer capable of one-shotting her.
Shion was the only exception.
In over a hundred thousand attempts, every single one ended in an instant kill.
Whether she lost her mana, her magic, or even her Mental Landscape domain.
Shion could still kill her in one blow.
It wasn't relying on mana, not relying on magic, but purely on her own existence, that body. It naturally devoured all the surrounding mana to strengthen itself.
Even without mana enhancement, her physical capabilities had already reached an incomprehensibly exaggerated level.
This meant that on a daily basis, besides training her magic and mana usage, she also trained her physical body purely...
A gym-going Magical Girl?
A rare irritation appeared in her heart.
She had also died many times in her fight against the Beast of Eternity, but she had never felt such irritation.
A hopelessness that seemed to have no end. The resulting exhaustion was almost unbearable.
Advancing the save point was incredibly difficult.
The 136,712th reincarnation.
A perfectly controlled Buddha's Fury Lotus and Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger were skillfully fused together.
Then she used Absolute Zero to freeze time for an instant, forcibly hitting the target...
A purple streak of light pierced through the ice and the Buddha's Fury Lotus shaped by the Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger, boring straight through her head again.
Reincarnation, once more!
At the 280,000th restart, just as Shion burst out from the flames and ice, appearing behind her like a demon, Black Keke finally seized the opening she had found earlier.
For the first time, she severed one of Shion's little fingers!
Then, her head was smashed in.
When she backtracked and opened her eyes.
Shion's palm was coming down.
Her head was smashed again.
Another dead save.
There wasn't even any reaction time.
In the later stages, it was basically one blink of the eye and the world restarted.
With the constant reincarnation, her consciousness began to blur.
Just as Black Keke was about to lose the ability to think...
The 700,000th reincarnation.
The eye of the Beast of Eternity opened in the sky above the domain.
Then, all the stars in the sky turned into the pupils of the Beast of Eternity, all staring down!
Shion's hand finally missed.
Having gained a moment to breathe, Black Keke, still in a daze, instinctively dodged away from Shion.
Great Barren Imprisoning Heaven Finger, Buddha's Fury Lotus, Swift Wind Step, Critical Strike, Puppet Clone, Absolute Zero, Blue Silver Entanglement, Guanyin's Tears, Bodhi Blood, Seven Bans and Seven Curses, Dark Word Nine Techniques, Arc Sword Energy, Primordial Moon Qi Blade... Countless spells engulfed Shion.
Finally, Black Keke managed to escape the dead save. After creating some distance, she clutched her head, panting heavily.
Seven hundred thousand reincarnations. Same as last time.
The Beast of Eternity's limit of tolerance.
"You're really an annoying bastard." The Beast of Eternity's voice, full of disgust, sounded in her ear.
"Oh, don't say that, my good friend. This is just a safety measure."
A little safety measure that could pull her out when Shion cornered her into a dead save.
The starry sky in this Mental Landscape domain wasn't a real starry sky, nor was it a texture.
Those stars were actually all the eyes of the Beast of Eternity.
She had transferred the Beast of Eternity's gaze over the countless worlds here. Once a certain threshold was exceeded, the Beast of Eternity would be unable to resist interfering.
But what had that dead save earlier been about?
Shion had controlled time?
So much so that she had been killed without even realizing it?
Had she already begun to master the power of the World Tree's branches?
No wonder the effect of the reincarnation was getting weaker and weaker...
She needed to finish this quickly.
Even without mana or magic, with only a physical body, Shion still faced the countless eyes of the Beast of Eternity without changing her expression. On the contrary, her fighting spirit was even higher.
"Come."
But Shion's invitation was flatly rejected by the Beast of Eternity. "This is your fight. I'm not interested."
"Yeah, and it's not over yet, Miss Shion. Let me show you something good."
While speaking, Black Keke reached out and touched the sky.
Or rather, the sky itself came down to let her touch it.
Then, all the pupils formed by the stars, like glass marbles trapped under a black cloth, came pouring down toward Black Keke with a clattering sound!
Those eyes slid down from the night sky, landing on Black Keke's body. They kept flowing over her, like countless whirlpools in the deep sea, and finally settled on her.
Countless eyes kept opening and closing, looking both sacred and terrifying.
Six enormous white feathered wings spread from her back. As the feathers fell, Black Keke stretched her body.
Those pupils covered her entire body, eventually converging on the six pairs of white wings.
Then, even the appearance of Black Keke's true form began to distort. A white radiance kept enveloping her head and body, making her look like a monster formed from a pillar of white light.
"Keke."
The Beast of Eternity's voice carried a hint of displeasure.
"Don't be so stingy, okay?"
Black Keke simply opened all her eyes and looked at Shion. "I'm just borrowing your body for a bit."
This was the plan Black Keke had been preparing ever since she came here to reincarnate.
Borrow the Beast of Eternity's body to use as her own Perfect Body.
Now, with Shion's help, she had finally succeeded.
Although it was only half of the true Beast of Eternity's body, the essence of that power was already completely different.
"Even if the Beast of Eternity can't fight you..."
"But you still have me. I can be the Beast of Eternity perfectly and satisfy your expectations."
Shion slightly tilted her head.
She pressed her fingers together like a sword and gently swiped.
The wings and Black Keke's body were both cut apart, spraying blood, and she immediately lost all signs of life.
"Even if the Beast of Eternity doesn't want to fight you..."
Another death.
"Even if the End..."
Her head exploded.
She kept provoking Shion like this, and Shion didn't hesitate to kill her.
Each time lasted no more than a second.
For a total of 990,000 times.
Until the 990,000th time, Black Keke finally stopped provoking Shion.
And Shion didn't rush to kill her either. She just looked at her like this.
"This should be enough, right?"
Facing Black Keke's muttering to herself, Shion just gave a faint smile. "What, did reincarnation help you find a way to beat me?"
Black Keke wasn't surprised either. She sized up Shion. "Pretty good guess."
"Didn't need to guess. Your ability itself is reincarnation, plus in this Mental Landscape, you can predict my movements every time... How many times have you reincarnated?"
"Exactly 990,000 times."
Shion was silent for a long time.
Black Keke tilted her head. "What's wrong? Shocked? It's really not that big a deal. For me, I've long since gotten used to it..."
"No, I just think you don't have a concrete concept of numbers. 990,000 times, that's too much of an exaggeration. Human memory can't remember that much. Numbers that big lose their impact, you know?"
"...Then how many times do you think would be more believable?"
"90,000 times is already a big deal. 900 times would make you seem weak. 9,000 times is about right."
Black Keke couldn't help but laugh and cry. "What's the evidence?"
"Reasonable deduction."
"It doesn't match the facts at all."
Black Keke tiredly rubbed her forehead, then pointed to the bottom of the river. "You can see for yourself."
Shion looked down.
The bottom of the river was completely covered with Black Keke's corpses!
Burned, frozen, decapitated, exploded...
Miserable bodies littered the riverbed, yet the water remained crystal clear.
"Can't drink this water anymore."
"The water in a Mental Landscape is just an image anyway!" Black Keke sounded exhausted.
Shion finally nodded. "Alright, every death produces a corpse? It doesn't seem like enough for 990,000."
"Of course, not every death produces a corpse. But in most reincarnations, the bodies pile up."
"So those corpses in the End Land were the same?"
"That's right. They were the bodies I accumulated in Eternal Reincarnation. I threw them there. Actually, convincing the Beast of Eternity was accomplished in a single reincarnation."
Shion looked somewhat admiring.
She hadn't expected the other party to actually withstand so many thousands of reincarnations.
Black Keke's ability far exceeded her expectations...
"So, you're coming clean now because you've found a way to beat me?"
"Pretty much."
In the pitch-black Mental Landscape domain, there were no stars, no moon, no sun.
Only Black Keke, spreading her six pairs of white feathered wings, holy like an angel, bathing the Mental Landscape space in holy white light.
But her face was blurry, and her body was covered in pupils, giving it a slightly eerie look.
"Do you know why this body is the Perfect Body?"
Black Keke asked and answered herself, not waiting for Shion to reply. "It's not because it's strong. With only half of the Beast of Eternity's empty shell, it doesn't actually have much power. At least, not enough to deal with you."
Shion watched the flying Black Keke, reached out, and conjured a longbow.
She drew the bowstring taut like a full moon!
"What's important is this body's strong resistance to certain things. Because it's not human. And each pupil represents a brain, capable of processing and judging information simultaneously."
The six-winged envoy looked down at the Magical Girl Shion. "This Mental Landscape domain doesn't delete memories during each reincarnation. Instead, it compresses and hides all memories. But as the owner of the Mental Landscape, I can read and process them at any time."
Shion's brow furrowed slightly.
"It seems you've realized it."
Black Keke tapped her own temple. "Your memories, however, have all been compressed and hidden. Throughout 990,000 reincarnations, you had no idea what was happening. Now, I'll return those 990,000 reincarnations' worth of memories to you~"
Shion suddenly drew her sword. A magnificent sword light bloomed, about to completely engulf Black Keke!
But Black Keke just unhurriedly flapped her wings.
"The stars are really bad today."
It was not a good time to act. Not a good time to look back.
"Matrix Overwrite. "
All the memories from 990,000 reincarnations instantly exploded in Shion's mind!
Even with Shion's super-brain, the impact of the information torrent caused it to crash!
Her pupils dilated slightly, and a thread of drool began to flow slowly from the corner of her mouth.
The magnificent sword light in Shion's hand dissipated with a "puff."
Black Keke walked over to this little girl, who was still beautiful and adorable enough to captivate anyone even in her daze, and gently touched her soft cheek.
Then, the six wings covered Shion's body, gradually enveloping and swallowing her.
"This is Eternal Reincarnation. Good night, dear Teacher Shion."
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