Chapter 175 Crisis
When her identity as "Cornflower" was exposed, Delphinium pursed her lips slightly and did not respond to the other party's provocation.
She did not open her mouth to admit or deny it, nor did she even show any desire to continue the conversation. Instead, she straightened her posture slightly and looked at the magical girl in front of her with a serious look.
Compared to these minor matters, the strength that the other party had just displayed made her more alert. The reason was that the other party's attack was too fast and too secretive.
Even the fluctuation of magical power was hardly leaked. If Delphinium had not reacted quickly enough, just that one probing attack would have been enough to cause an ordinary magical girl to suffer a loss.
Since the other party has chosen to attack, it is equivalent to putting the hostility out in the open. Rhetoric and deception have lost their meaning, and what remains is only a competition of hard power.
But Delphinium knew her situation: she couldn't win.
She didn't think that the people of Claw Mark were a bunch of fools who would send an underpowered member to seize the Beast Origin. Since the magical girl in front of her, who called herself "Gladiolus", was once a karuta, her current combat ability would definitely not be inferior to that of a karuta.
Flower cards mean that the opponent will definitely be able to use wonders and rules.
Now I have completely lost the ability to unfold the wonderland normally. Once I enter the realm of rule-based battle with the opponent, I will inevitably fall into a huge disadvantage.
If she wanted to equalize this disadvantage, she only had one card left, but one that she couldn't actually use - destroying the last form of the Magic Weaving and overdrawing the power of the silk thread.
But even Delphinium itself knew that this was impossible.
The magic suit is closely related to the true nature of the magical girl. When the magic suit is completely destroyed, no one can tell what will happen to her. The best case scenario is that the source of magic power will be destroyed and she will never be able to use magic power again; the worst case scenario is that she will become a vegetable or even die.
There was no way she could take the risk of using a move with uncertain results.
This certainly gives you a great chance of defeating or even killing the enemy, but you will also suffer heavy damage yourself. It can be said that you will kill one thousand enemies but lose ten thousand of your own, which has nothing to do with the concept of "winning".
"You, why don't you speak? I guessed wrong, didn't I?"
Yuan put down the wine glass and tilted her head. As she exhaled a white mist, the blush on her face faded a lot. "Speaking of which, I always feel that you are considering something very dangerous, so I have to make it clear in advance: we don't have to fight to the death."
"Let's put aside the matter of the origin of the beast. What I said before was not false. If you are really Cornflower, our leader sincerely welcomes you to join us."
"After all, I can feel the fluctuations of your magic power. I'm afraid your current condition is quite bad, right?"
As she said this, Yuan slowly narrowed her eyes, and her originally dark pupils suddenly changed to black and white pupils: "The true form, the source of magic power, and the heart gem, which should have been a trinity, have become misplaced. It's like a bucket with a hole in it, constantly leaking magic power. A normal magical girl who becomes like you is half dead."
"Thank you for your reminder, but you don't need to bother."
Delphinium said coldly: "If the advice you give is to change your allegiance, I have no intention of turning myself into a crippled beast."
She didn't really believe that Claw's technology could heal her injuries. After all, even the chief emerald of the institute could only promise to stop losses to a certain extent. How could Claw master more advanced technology than the institute? Even if there was such a possibility, it would inevitably be based on betraying the magic kingdom. She would never choose this path.
From the perspective of interests, Lin Xiaolu and the other two still have the power to transfer as magical girls. She got it with great difficulty after catching the omission of Golden Green Cat's Eye. Only by continuing to be a magical girl can she keep this power in her hands. With this power, the three girls can avoid being unnecessarily involved in the power turmoil of the country. If they really accept this so-called invitation to join Claw Mark, the power to transfer will become a piece of paper. How can they be protected at that time?
Among the younger generation, there is also a magical girl like Bai Jingxuan who has a special situation. I have just made up my mind to guide her onto the right path. If I choose to join Claw Mark here, I will have no position to educate that child at that time.
From a moral and ethical perspective, there is no reason to join an organization as notorious as Claw.
Perhaps they were not as morally corrupt and inhumane as the Black Dawn, but after betraying their country, these rebellious magical girls did a lot of bad things like burning, killing and looting, and they were definitely not good people.
Then, it seems clear what she can do: delay.
In terms of hard power, they were at an absolute disadvantage. If they fought, they would most likely lose. Running away was not an option either. Fangting City was their home ground, and there were three juniors here. They could run away, but not the temple. So, the only option left was to delay.
The purpose of delaying time is to wait for Emerald's assistance.
When the call with the magic mirror was interrupted, Emerald obviously had something to say, which meant that she should have some countermeasures. I have already told her about the situation of the Strategy Bureau. Once the other party noticed the enemy's actions, there is a high probability that they will take countermeasures.
Before that, what he should do is to find ways to delay time, prevent the battlefield from shifting, and ensure that reinforcements can arrive at the scene as soon as possible.
The implementation of this decision will lead to a stalemate.
Through an attitude of half-belief, half-doubt, hostility and trust, the other party is put in a dilemma between taking action and not taking action.
Every time when Kuizi rejected the other party's proposal, she would not say it completely, but deliberately leave some handles to ensure that the other party could continue the conversation. At the same time, she showed an attitude of "rejecting on the surface, but actually a little hesitant", which made people feel that there was hope for peaceful evolution.
When the other party talked about her injuries, she hinted that she valued her reputation more; when the other party suggested that she could join him secretly, she deliberately did not mention the few advantages of joining him secretly when she refused; when the other party listed these advantages, she used flawed rhetoric to make a weak rebuttal.
As they went back and forth, she actually aroused Yuan's interest in talking, and a confrontation inexplicably turned into a lecture on the theme of "the benefits of joining Claw Mark". While Kuei-Chrysanthemum spoke less and less, Yuan spoke more and more. In the end, they even had an arm-in-arm relationship. If an uninformed person saw this, they might really think that their relationship was as close as Yuan had boasted before, "as close as sisters".
Time passed gradually in the conversation that went off track inexplicably. Cuiqiao even had the leisure to secretly press twice on his mobile phone with an expressionless face, reminding the three juniors that a strong enemy was approaching and not to act rashly.
However, this delay is not without cost.
She didn't know if the other party was drunk, or if this kind of persuasion and oppression would give people strange hints. After Delphinium deliberately showed weakness several times to extend the topic, she felt that the nature of the conversation between them was gradually changing.
Perhaps because the other party was relatively older, Kuei always felt that Yuan treated him as a child. The conversation between the two changed from trying to recruit people to join the gang to being like a man trying to trick an ignorant child on the street.
If they continued chatting, the conversation would probably drag on until the afternoon without any results, but after all, not everyone would be trapped by Delphinium's rhetoric.
"Wait, Kite, you just said that this cornflower is in a bad state?"
Just as the conversation between the two was going off the track, Semi suddenly interrupted and said, "So she can't really exert much of her strength right now?"
"Hmm? Ah, that's for sure."
Yuan, who had already become familiar with the conversation, reached out and touched Cuique's head, and nodded: "Even at my distance, I can feel the flow of magic coming towards me. Her ability to control her own magic is already very weak, and I'm afraid that the strength she can exert is only one tenth of it."
"Then why are you still talking nonsense with her here!"
Sammy pointed at Delphinium and said, "The source of the beast is in her hands. She is here too. Why are you still negotiating with her? We can just capture her alive and take her away. She and her belongings will all belong to us. Wouldn't that mean that we have accomplished more than half of the mission this time? We can go back and report now, right?"
"That's the truth."
Yuan nodded after thinking about it, but seemed a little embarrassed: "But I don't really want to take advantage of a wounded man and fight him. As the saying goes, a tiger in plain land is bullied by a dog. It is meaningless to humiliate a strong man in this way."
"I've already told you not to worry about your sense of fairness at a time like this!"
Semi said helplessly: "We will capture her and the leader will transform her magic source. Then she can regain her former strength! Can't you fight her fairly?"
"...Ah, so there is such a method."
Kite blinked and turned to look at Delphinium: "Look, this is what it said."
Delphinium looked at Kite, then at Semi, and somehow for the first time she felt a chill.
If the other party had the same attitude as himself before, half suspicious and half hesitant, then when Semi proposed this plan, the other party looked at him with full aggression.
It's like the big bad wolf watching the little white rabbit.
Although the other party's purpose was definitely not to eat like the wolf, but being brought to the leader of Claw Mark like this would probably not be a good thing.
Should I run away now?
This was the first time that this thought came to her mind, but before Kuei-Chrysanthemum could take action, she found that Yuan had already put his arm around her shoulders and said with a smile on his face: "Then, shall we go?"
“…I don’t think I’ve fully bought into your philosophy yet.”
Delphinium felt her hair stand on end and her back went cold for a moment, but she still resisted the feeling and said calmly and coldly: "We may need to talk more."
"It's okay, it's okay. We have a long way to go back, so we have plenty of time to chat slowly."
Yuan said loudly, and then took out a pair of handcuffs from somewhere: "But I may need to inconvenience you when the time comes, in order to prevent you from causing trouble in the wilderness, it is better to be prepared."
Cuique recognized it at a glance. It was the same pair of handcuffs that Yuan had worn in the interrogation room. No one knew when she had stolen them, but none of the staff at the Bureau of Strategy realized it.
Looking at the handcuffs, Delphinium fell silent again.
She knew very well that this pair of handcuffs had little restraining power on the magical girl, but the magic-suppressing technique on them was not fake. If the other party really had some attainments in related techniques, or even really understood some restraining techniques, and modified them slightly, and then put them on herself, then she would have no chance of turning the tables.
However, if they disagreed and started a battle, I would have no chance of winning even if I used normal means. If I really lost, I would probably be captured.
So what should I do? In the silence, Kuei-Jin's mind was working rapidly, constantly coming up with plans, and then refuting and screening them. But when the strength is at an absolute disadvantage, any plan seems so powerless.
"We can recover a lot of strength by returning to the magic kingdom." The plan proposed by Emerald seemed to be fine, but no one would have thought that less than a month after the Full Moon Festival, an enemy with a similar or even higher level than the Moth would appear in Fangting City.
Facing such an enemy, even Delphinium, whose scissors had not yet been destroyed, could not guarantee victory, let alone now that his injuries had worsened.
Slightly tilting her head back and looking at the pair of double pupils that looked like yin and yang fish, Cuiqiao's heart gradually turned cold. Her clenched fists gradually loosened, and even showed signs of rising.
Crash!
Just when she wanted to choose to retain her strength and save the last glimmer of hope, there was a loud sound of glass breaking at the window of the reception room.
——"That's not necessarily true, is it?"
The strong wind from the upper floors of the building suddenly rushed into the house from the window, and along with the strong airflow, a figure rushed into the house at an extremely high speed.
Several purple-red magic beams shot out from the figure's hands and rushed towards Yuan's direction. Yuan calmly raised his hand to block it, but found that the simple spell could not stop the purple-red magic at all, and the barrier was instantly penetrated.
With her eyes slightly narrowed, the magic power around her suddenly stagnated. The originally invisible magic power silently turned into a pool of strange liquid metal, which barely stopped the surging magic attack.
In the blink of an eye, the figure that rushed in from the window grabbed Delphinium's legs and neck and retreated to the other side of the room.
In the scattered purple-red magical light, Delphinium raised her head slightly and saw a face that was somewhat familiar, yet somewhat unfamiliar.
It was a face that he had seen not long ago, but it looked much younger.
Her fair face, with a gentle yet firm expression, her low ponytails lying on both sides of her neck, and her purple eyes under her bangs. Her eyes were slightly drooping, making her look a little weak, but she stood still while holding the Delphinium, her strong fighting spirit seemed to overflow, making her thin figure look extremely upright.
"It's all right now."
She lowered her eyes, gave Delphinium a somewhat brilliant smile, and then uttered a sentence that only the two of them could understand: "Because, the magical girl is here!"
——"Magical girl, card certification number 41422, Asagao, the protection mission begins!"
(End of this chapter)
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