readease Chapter 278 Who are you?
Chapter 278 Who are you?
Su Tianqing stared ahead.
【Inari's Amulet】
This is the 9th item left by Inari that I've collected.
I sent a familiar to retrieve it this morning, and I also took a look at the memories. There was nothing special about them; it was just Inari explaining the details of the barrier setup in the port city.
It's nowhere near as good as the memories that came with the amulet this afternoon.
"There are still people in those ruins! You guys hurry over there! I'll hold them off!"
The red fox girl flew through the air, her magic wand maintaining a powerful binding spell, firmly fixing the three monsters in mid-air.
"...Then I'll leave it to you, Ms. Inari."
The association hero behind him nodded and immediately ran towards the building indicated by Inari. He activated his psychic abilities and rescued several residents buried in the ruins, quickly moving away from the battlefield.
The girl pushed up the fox mask on her face and turned to look at the strange people who were controlled by binding magic.
Why? The simultaneous appearance of three strange individuals is unprecedented! This doesn't conform to the characteristics of astral magic!
Inari's inner monologue echoed in Su Tianqing's mind.
But the situation on the battlefield did not allow her to be distracted like that—the strange bird broke free of its restraints and took to the air. Inari quickly removed the binding magic on the remaining two strange men, dodging the bird's attacks while thinking of a countermeasure.
The dodging, maneuvering, precise spellcasting, and the remarkable effects of each spell all amazed Su Tianqing, showcasing Inari's magical prowess.
Her magic missiles can form and launch from a distance far from the body, or even appear directly behind the monster, and their flight speed is astonishing.
Her ability to unleash magical missiles at will is already astonishing, not to mention her other diverse offensive and defensive magic. Calling her a genius is no exaggeration.
The strange bird's struggle briefly plunged Inari into a fierce battle, but she quickly used a barrage of magic to subdue the three monsters again.
While enjoying the dazzling magic show of Inari, Su Tianqing also focused her attention on observing the situation of the three strange people.
The more closely Su Tianqing observed, the more suspicious she became, and she even frowned.
Why is the teamwork between the three of them so outstanding?
The strange bird's pounce was exceptionally precise. The python and the black wolf monster would attack together, trying to seize and squeeze Inari's position in the ruins in order to interrupt Inari's spellcasting.
Their perfect coordination and overwhelming pressure meant that if their opponent hadn't been Inari, they would have been defeated long ago by their perfectly coordinated attack.
Something's not right.
Su Tianqing murmured, as if she were talking to the red fox girl beside her, or as if she were talking to herself.
"If wild monsters happened to appear in a place, they should have fought each other because of their animal instincts."
"Instead of engaging in coordinated battles like this."
After speaking, Su Tianqing wanted to turn around to see Inari's reaction, but Inari seemed not to have heard her words at all, and smiled as she looked ahead.
"The Law of Time is a fundamental rule that my magic cannot surpass."
"Miss Xinyuehu, I couldn't hear what you just said. Those words must have contained information that I shouldn't have access to at this time."
"But judging from your expression, you must have already noticed something unusual about this battle?"
Su Tianqing remained silent, saying nothing more, only nodding slightly in response.
As expected, even a powerful magic like the ability to see the future has its limitations; at the very least, I cannot use this method to convey crucial information to Inari.
But from my perspective, there's only one possibility why these three strange individuals were able to perform so exceptionally well:
"Someone is manipulating them from behind," the golden-haired fox girl said softly.
This is the only possibility.
The ability to summon and command other strange beings—besides her own Heart Moon Magic Wand—was something else Su Tianqing had only ever seen before.
That was the Leviathan, the behemoth from the recent Suicheng Astral Rift incident.
"The most likely scenario is that the behemoth Jormungandr is the mastermind behind these strange beings."
"But why would it control a monster to attack Kowloon City? This is just a slum, a lawless zone, and the earth's ley line magic is extremely scarce. What is its purpose?"
meditation.
Constrained by the laws of time, Inari couldn't hear her own self-talk at all; she responded to herself with a bitter smile.
Su Tianqing decided to continue reading.
Since the existing information is insufficient to draw a conclusion, let's see what happens next; perhaps the key to deciphering the mystery lies hidden there.
After looking down for a while, Su Tianqing suddenly raised her hand and said to Inari beside her:
"Can this memory be paused? I want to see what just happened again."
"sure."
With a casual wave of her hand, the girl rewound the scene from her memory, stopping at the moment when Inari used magic to strike the strange bird-man.
"This is it," Su Tianqing said.
"You see, the strange bird clearly wasn't paying full attention to you, otherwise, given its mobility, it wouldn't have been unable to dodge this magic ray."
"Hmm... but what does that prove?"
"Let's rewind a bit and see what it was doing just now."
A brief rewind.
The image freezes on the moment the strange bird scans its surroundings.
Su Tianqing pointed to the strange bird in the sky that was scanning the ground as if searching for something. She didn't say anything, but it was as if she had said everything she knew.
Inari wasn't stupid either. After staring intently at the strange bird's movements for a while, she suddenly realized:
"The strange bird is looking for something," Inari muttered to himself.
"But Kowloon Walled City is a lawless zone. What exactly do its controllers want it to find?"
"Think about it carefully, Inari, as a lawless area, what is Kowloon Walled City best able to hide?"
They exchanged a glance and simultaneously gave the same answer:
""people.""
"Whether they are residents or criminals, gang members or casino gamblers, once they enter this lawless zone, they will disappear without a trace and become undetectable."
"So, Jormungandr is controlling the monsters to find someone?"
"This is just my speculation, and I dare not say what its real purpose is."
Su Tianqing murmured.
But if we're looking for a specific person, what is it about that person that could attract the attention of a powerful astral behemoth?
What is so special about him or her?
Just as Su Tianqing was about to give up on this line of thought because she couldn't understand the logic, a figure suddenly appeared in the corner of the memory.
It was a beastman girl crying as she fled through a gap in the building.
Her gray wolf ears and tail, and her tattered clothes, all tell the story of her background and experiences.
However, the sight of the three strange men staring at the gray wolf girl simultaneously stunned both fox girls.
"stop!"
"It's been paused."
The two stared intently at the girl who was fleeing in panic.
Taking advantage of the three monsters' distraction, Inari pierced the bird's head with a deadly charged magic cannon, forcing the python and black wolf to refocus their attention on Inari, allowing the gray wolf girl to escape.
However, the strange people's synchronized movements left a deep impression on the fox girls.
"...Do you believe in fate, Inari-san?"
"Sometimes I believe, but I never imagined fate would play such a cruel trick on me."
Inari took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
Su Tianqing's expression was just as surprised as Inari's.
If I'm not mistaken, the fleeing gray wolf girl... looks at least nine-tenths like someone I know.
"Gray wolf, oh gray wolf..."
"Who exactly are you?"