togophonebook Chapter 632 Is it a mistake to haunt a magical world?
Chapter 632 Is it a mistake to haunt a magical world?
The piercing sound of police sirens echoed throughout Chengdu.
People curiously peered out of their windows at the Hero Association convoy speeding past on the road, scratching their heads, wondering what was going on.
The Chengdu Hero Association rarely mobilizes on such a large scale. Due to the existence of the S-class hero [Meteor], large-scale personnel mobilizations are almost entirely handled by this superhero with outstanding spatial abilities. People have almost forgotten that the Hero Association's convoy is actually the most common occurrence.
The convoy was heading towards the edge of Chengdu's urban area—where there was a long-abandoned, unfinished factory building that had been preserved as an abandoned structure amidst Chengdu's massive reconstruction efforts.
Logically speaking, such an unfinished building shouldn't have alarmed the Hero Association, unless it's hiding a vicious supervillain, or...
"Click".
The convoy stopped beside the cordon in front of the factory. The frontline personnel in charge of maintaining order at the scene came forward, the car door opened, and a burly man with blond hair got out of the passenger seat.
S-Class Hero, [Iron] Frank.
"Thank you for your hard work. How's the factory? Has anything changed?" Frank asked his colleague.
The frontline colleague in uniform saluted, glanced back at the dark, abandoned factory, and shook his head.
"Currently, the optical sensors have not detected any changes, and the sensors for the magic are still en route and will take at least five minutes to arrive at the site."
"By the time that thing arrives, the tofu pudding in the clay pot will probably be cold. What about the analysis team? Do you have any other valuable intelligence?"
"..."
The two glanced at their colleagues who were still staring at the machinery and equipment not far away. Frank didn't ask any more questions and just sighed helplessly.
Why would this factory attract the attention of S-class heroes and numerous superheroes? Perhaps a glimpse into the reason can be found in a video post from a certain account half an hour ago:
Good evening, everyone in Chengdu!
[FoxFox, I have something very important to say. Remember that abandoned, unfinished factory on XX Street? I detected an incredible residual magical energy there!]
For everyone's safety, I have dispatched my familiars to set up a powerful magical seal around the area. Please do not approach that area to avoid any dangerous situations.
The brief post, without any accompanying image, was enough to cause a strong shock within the Hero Association.
The residual magic in Chengdu? Without a doubt, it can only be the residual magic of Garuda! This is a very serious situation, even leading the heroes in the video conference to consider the possibility of another Garuda crisis.
The Hero Association immediately placed the factory under complete lockdown and urgently contacted the Hyacinth Squad, who were on hiatus, asking them to rush to the scene as quickly as possible to conduct an investigation.
"Hyacinth and the others should be arriving soon... Ah."
Before the words were even finished, several magical trails of flight magic streaked across the sky. The heroes all looked up at the sky-blue magical girl who had braked mid-air, creating a gust of wind, their hearts pounding with excitement as if they had seen a savior.
"It's a hyacinth." "The hyacinths have arrived." "The irises and nightingales are here too."
The staff members whispered among themselves, and Frank stepped forward, waving and greeting the magical girls who had landed steadily in front of him.
"Oh, hyacinths, irises, and nightingales."
"Uncle Frank." Hyacinth straightened her back and greeted him upon seeing an acquaintance present.
Iris stepped back and bowed, and Nightingale also pulled Arisaema along to greet him, but Bern Mountain seemed more interested in wagging its tail and getting closer to observe this two-meter-tall steel giant.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the group turned their gazes to the abandoned factory building shrouded in darkness not far away.
Hyacinth's brows furrowed instantly.
He was all too familiar with this magic—scorching, dark, and unfathomable. It was clearly the same as the heavy darkness of Garuda, and he could easily recognize it even with his eyes closed.
It must be a fragment of a dreamlike image that wasn't completely burned.
But behind this darkness, I sensed another, more familiar scent... gentle, soft, with the fragrance of gardenias, like the embrace of a mother I'd never met...
No, that strange description that popped into her subconscious at the end wasn't right. It should be the smell of a nasty, big-tailed fox. Hyacinth quickly changed her mind.
"You're experts in magic, do you have a way to handle this?" Frank asked.
"There should be a way. The intensity of this magic is not high. From the analysis, it only blocks optical sensors and sound, which is somewhat similar to the cognitive blocking effect of astral magic, but much weaker."
The nightingale presented her analytical conclusions in a very logical and well-reasoned manner.
"We can go inside to investigate the specific source of the magic. I suspect this is a fragment that was overlooked during the Garuda campaign and remained here after Garuda was banished to the Astral Plane."
"Then why didn't anyone notice this place when it was rebuilt before?" Tian Nanxing asked curiously.
The group looked at each other in silence, then simultaneously shrugged.
After all, everyone was busy making commissions to earn tickets to exchange for merchandise back then, so who would have noticed such a dilapidated and abandoned building?
"Luckily we found this place in advance. Let's go inside and see what's going on!" Hyacinth said confidently, leading the team through the dark curtain as a sword and shield knight.
Watching the girls disappear behind the curtain, Frank immediately took over the optical sensor beside him, trying to observe inside from the angle they entered.
No matter how high the sensor power was set, it was impossible to see what was going on inside. So, I had no choice but to give up and found a camping folding stool to sit on and idly browsed this month's Hero University Study.
And behind the curtain of darkness...
"Whoosh..."
A faint hum of magic rang out, and a ball of light from the tip of Nightingale's wand lit up, illuminating the surroundings.
After passing through that dark curtain, the entire factory instantly became pitch black, and all outside sounds were cut off. It was eerily quiet, with only the faint footsteps of one's companions faintly audible.
"Wow...it's so quiet in here..." Hyacinth exclaimed in surprise.
"Be careful, there might be lingering Garuda magic here, the danger level might be higher than we think," Iris warned.
She didn't use her magic cannon in the current indoor battle. She gripped her wand tightly, preparing to respond with agile, rapid-fire small-caliber shots, but she was still somewhat intimidated by the eerie darkness around her, and felt her heart beating faster.
"I'm a little afraid of the dark," Iris thought to herself.
Because of what happened in the past, she has an instinctive fear of such dark and secluded buildings, which she cannot completely eliminate even after transforming into a magical girl. She can only try to get closer to the hyacinth.
The cheerful Bernese mountain bird, Arum, was also frightened by the surrounding darkness and shrank back to the hyacinth. The nightingale also had to squeeze next to its companions. The four of them were almost huddled together, and even walking was a bit of a stumbling block.
"Could you please not stand so close? Don't you think you might kick me when you walk?"
When Tiannanxing kicked her heel for the fifth time, Hyacinth finally couldn't take it anymore and said to her companions.
"But it's a little scary, woof..." Tian Nanxing said pitifully. The dog girl acted cute, and Fengxinzi had no choice but to let her shrink into her side.
Walking from the entrance of the unfinished building to the central courtyard, looking up at the unfinished factory buildings surrounding her, and seeing those dark, unlit rooms, Hyacinth's fear reached its peak.
Even the nightingale crowded around her, trying to dispel the fear by amplifying the light... but the dark shadow cast on the wall only intensified the fear.
Quiet.
pitch black.
Profound.
Only the nightingale's illumination magic provided light; everything else was pitch black...
"————"
In the darkness, a faint rustling sound arose.
Hyacinth instinctively turned her head to look at the source of the sound, but saw nothing but darkness.
"Hey...did you hear anything just now?" Hyacinth asked tentatively.
These words startled the stiff iris, making her tense all over. She turned her head to look in the direction the hyacinth pointed out, shaking her head nervously.
"No, Hyacinth, what did you hear?" Iris pressed.
"A strange sound...like someone walking over there..." Hyacinth replied.
"Don't joke around, there's no one else here besides us," Nightingale replied.
"Could this place be haunted...? This is completely different from the Garuda magic remnants we remember..." the dog girl muttered to herself.
Ghosts shouldn't happen to magical girls... but in Rongcheng after Garuda's attack, nothing would be surprising. After all, this place might be a fragment of the Dream Image, so it's not impossible for some terrifying illusions to appear...
"……hello."
A whisper came from right next to the dog girl's ear.
It was a warm breath carrying a smile, as if it were ringing directly in my ear and piercing the depths of my mind.
The dog-girl's taut nerves were instantly ignited by this sudden whisper, causing her to jump three meters into the air, her fur standing on end, and scream in terror:
"Woof woof woof woof aa ...
"Waaaaaaahh ...
Nightingale was startled by the dog girl's sudden outburst and scream—her scream in turn startled Iris and Hyacinth, instantly turning the place into chaos.
Looking at the terrified and wailing magical girls before him, a crescent-shaped smile of pleasure appeared in the dark corner.