The villainous magical girl's daily mission is to find fault.

Chapter 703 The True and False Lilac

The strong support from the lilac was like providing an umbrella in the rain or adding fuel to the fire.

Hyacinth, mindful of the safety of the civilians around her, dared not launch a full-scale attack. Maintaining a defensive posture, she broke through the encirclement of the hydra swarm along the corridor opened up by her predecessors and fled towards the city of Rongcheng.

When the commoner girls around them were panting and exhausted from running, the magical girls found a relatively safe roadside shop to hide in, and only then did they have a chance to rest for a while.

Hyacinth turned to look at the senior beside her, whose breathing was steady, and a sudden desire to be a fan sprouted in her heart.

I've hardly ever seen Lilac-senpai transform into her fighting form. I only saw her on TV when I was a child. But soon I heard the news that Lilac had retired due to illness. I was depressed for several days before I recovered.

Seeing his senior make a comeback in such prime, Nan Xiaofeng was overjoyed and couldn't wait to chat with him.

"Senior! Your support just now was so cool!" Hyacinth resisted the urge to shower her with praise, trying her best to make her compliments sound less exaggerated.

Hearing her say that, Lilac hesitated for a moment, as if she finally had time to turn around and look at the sky-blue junior beside her. Her gaze swept over the happy Hyacinth from head to toe for a moment, and more hesitation flashed in her eyes.

After a brief silence, Lilac said softly:

"Hmm...it feels a bit strange to hear such praise...but thank you anyway."

"No way, Senior's move just now was super cool. You smashed all those hydras in one go. If it weren't for your help, we would still be worried about how to escape the encirclement."

"Oh, well..."

The girl blushed slightly and didn't dare to continue accepting the hyacinth's praise. She turned her gaze away, her face slightly red, to calm herself down.

Hyacinth wanted to say something more, but Lilac stood up first and said:

"If you've rested enough, we still need to head towards the safe zone. Hey, can you still walk? If not, we can carry you."

The commoner girl stood up to show that she was still able to move. The two magical girls exchanged a glance, nodded slightly, and embarked on their brief escape journey once more.

Along the way, Hyacinth's gaze kept sweeping over the roadside shops.

The shops along the streets of Chengdu in this era were completely different from what I had seen before—there were no experience stores selling smartphones and various electronic products; instead, there were mostly individually owned mobile phone shops, and you could even see GG's offering ringback tone services and mobile phone-on-demand TV animation.

Upon reflection, I realized I had indeed heard that before set-top boxes and internet TVs existed, people used to watch cartoons on demand via telephone. The price wasn't low, and watching just a few episodes could cost a month's phone bill, which would most likely result in a beating.

Lilac led the way, her sword slashing down any hydra or jellyfish that tried to approach.

Her magic output wasn't as high as his, but she excelled in precise control of magic, able to cut the attacking jellyfish into tiny pieces, greatly slowing down their regeneration.

The jellyfish, cut into pieces, tried to form independent individuals, but their crowding interfered with their growth and recovery, forcing them to merge back into their original individual jellyfish.

"Senior, you... you actually managed to chop them into such fine pieces...?"

Hyacinth glanced at the jellyfish fragments scattered by the roadside and couldn't help but ask.

Lilac didn't hold back either, briefly explaining her specific methods, which left Hyacinth feeling overwhelmed:

The principle is actually quite simple: just mix some complex magic into the process of forming sword energy with magic. However, the simpler the principle, the more complicated it is in actual operation. Hyacinth is obviously such a case.

After exchanging a few words, the atmosphere gradually became silent.

Hyacinth couldn't find anything to say, and Lilac was busy eliminating the hydra jellyfish that tried to get closer. The commoner girl didn't even have time to speak. She had exhausted all her strength and could barely keep up with the magical girl who was deliberately slowing down. Apart from panting, she had nothing to say at all.

The next topic was brought up by Lilac.

Perhaps sensing the awkward silence that had fallen, Lilac took the initiative to bring up a new topic:

"Um... when did you become a magical girl?"

"Are you asking me, senior?" Hyacinth asked curiously. "I met the stargazer more than a year ago... no, if I think about it carefully, it's been almost two years."

"Two years... If it's two years... um... 200X... that shouldn't be the case..."

Lilac said thoughtfully, without saying anything more, but her eyes showed a lot of confusion as she looked at Hyacinth.

Hyacinth had no idea why her senior would suddenly ask her when she became a magical girl. She had never been active in secret in Rongcheng; she had always appeared in public to fight against monsters. How could her senior not know that?

Could it be because the senior has seen too many things in their life that they are not quite sure of their exact active time? Hmm, that must be it.

"...We're almost there."

"Lilac spoke up."

Ahead was a garden that seemed to have been built recently. The newly transplanted trees were supported by scaffolds, and the lawns and shrubs were still growing. The park was bare, and even the artificial fountain in the middle was not spraying water at this moment.

"This is a temporary shelter. Stay here and wait a little while. A Hero Association helicopter will come to pick you up and take you away."

Lilac walked to an open space in the park, glanced at the deserted park, and said softly.

Hyacinth followed closely behind, her expression equally complex as she looked around, even seeming to have an urge to ask a question—

Isn't this another dimension? Why are you still saying you're waiting for the Hero Association to pick you up? And what's with the helicopter?

Meteor currently handles almost all of the Hero Association's emergency field missions during working hours. Her teleportation ability can easily achieve ten or even a hundred times the efficiency of a helicopter, not to mention cars.

Does this mean that Teacher Meteor can't enter the alternate dimension for the time being, and Kokoro and the others have no choice but to send a helicopter into the alternate dimension for rescue? But isn't that a bit too risky?

The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Coupled with her senior's series of bizarre actions just now, Hyacinth switched the video communication on the Divine Stone to headset mode and whispered a question to the communication terminal:

"The hyacinth is calling, please respond."

"We could hear you. We heard your conversation on the road very clearly."

Instead of Nightingale's voice coming from the terminal, Xin Yuehu's voice was heard. Unlike his usual relaxed and playful tone, it sounded deep, serious, and solemn, as if he was talking about something very important.

"I made contact with Senior Lilac. She led us to escape from the encirclement, but she told us to wait here for support. Did you arrange some special rescue team?" Hyacinth asked softly, in a voice only she and her communication terminal could hear.

The strange feeling in his heart kept lingering, and after hearing Xin Yuehu's serious tone, he became even more certain of his thoughts.

But no matter what, Senior Lilac...

"No, we haven't arranged any rescue equipment like helicopters for you."

Xin Yuehu directly refuted Hyacinth's previous statement, leaving her speechless.

It even gave rise to a strong sense of fear.

What exactly did I just experience? Who was I evacuating with?

Is the magical girl senior in front of me, who is curiously looking around and muttering "Why hasn't the support arrived yet?", the one who retired and returned to life from her memories, or some non-human being in this other world?

Just as Hyacinth was about to raise her shield to wary of this "senior" before her—in the center of the park's open space, a clear and piercing magical buzz suddenly appeared:

"Snap!!"

A spatial rift inexplicably tore open, and another purple figure emerged from it. It immediately spotted Hyacinth standing not far away and shouted to her:

"It really is here. Xin Yuehu was right."

"Hyacinth! Come quick! This is the rift leading to the present world—"

Before she could finish speaking, the magical girl in the purple dress suddenly froze.

Her gaze fell on another magical girl in a purple dress, wielding a sword. The two stared at each other across the distance, their expressions incredibly complex.

—Surprised, amazed, puzzled

This was followed by the instinctive raising of their swords, the magical sword energy gathering at the blades, and the stern shouts from their mouths:

"Who are you?" "I'd like to ask you that too, who are you?"

Hyacinth stared blankly at the scene before her that only deepened her confusion.

The two Lilacs were dressed exactly alike, and their fighting stances with their weapons raised were identical. They were even unable to distinguish which one was the real Lilac from the magical fluctuations.

What... what exactly is going on?