Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 1208: Chapter 1207: Magical Girl Madoka (V)

Fang Zheng’s main objective in this world is to tackle QB, solve the witch transformation of magical girls, and combat Witch’s Night.

Fang Zheng already has a plan to deal with the entire QB incubator alien civilization, but it’s not yet the time to implement it. After being killed once, QB seems to have sensed some kind of dangerous aura and hasn’t appeared in Mitakihara since.

As for Witch’s Night, it’s not time yet, and besides waiting, Fang Zheng has no other solutions.

So the remaining issue is to solve the magical girls’ witch transformation.

This aspect, for now, is relatively simple.

After investigating Mami Tomoe, Akemi Homura, and Sakurazawa Kyoko, Fang Zheng discovered a very crucial characteristic.

The reason magical girls undergo witch transformation is often not because they harbor despair, but because they exhaust their magic power, their soul gems get tainted, and they lack Seeds of Lament—indeed, it’s the food chain created by QB that forms part of the tragic fate of magical girls.

Magical girls must use their power to defeat witches, and witches have a certain chance of ”dropping” a Seed of Lament for the magical girls to replenish their magic. If a magical girl continuously fights but fails to obtain a Seed of Lament, her MP will eventually be depleted, leading to her transformation into a witch.

This is also why Fang Zheng views QB as a malevolent civilization.

On the surface, as QB claims, the soul is extracted and stored in the soul gem, and the magical girl’s body is transformed into something like a tool, allowing them to exert extraordinary power, endure pain, and even accomplish feats impossible for ordinary people.

Even if the body is damaged, as long as the soul gem remains, they can be reborn.

While it sounds convenient, Fang Zheng knows full well that this is a trap specifically designed to exploit these magical girls.

Though Fang Zheng is not a Necromancer, he is a Paladin, and with the advanced soul system in the Main World, Fang Zheng naturally understands the relationship between the soul and the body. For the soul, the body isn’t a burden but more like a filter.

To put it metaphorically, if a person is in an environment filled with cold, evil energy, they will first feel uncomfortable. If they don’t leave, they will eventually die. But if they leave, they might just fall seriously ill and gradually recover.

However, if you place a soul in such a place, it will turn into an evil spirit in just a few days.

The soul itself offers almost no resistance to external influences, so the body serves as the soul’s shield, umbrella, and filter, protecting it from the evil energy’s influence and infiltration. Even if damaged, as long as the body remains healthy, it can slowly recover.

However, the soul gem created by QB places the human soul in the external environment almost unprotected!

This means that when magical girls fight witches, their souls are unprotected within the witch’s evil barrier!

This is why magical girls can’t replenish their magic on their own after battling witches, and their soul gems become clouded and tainted!

Since their souls have left their bodies, the body can’t actively supply the soul with energy to replenish its magic. Without the body’s protection, their souls have no defense against the witch’s barrier’s corruptive and polluting influence!

Once a soul is tainted, a person’s spirit naturally becomes distorted, extreme, and eventually collapses.

So this is essentially an unsolvable predicament!

After realizing this, Fang Zheng immediately speculated that QB is the mastermind behind everything. Neither magical girls, witches, nor curses are naturally occurring in this world; they were manufactured by QB!

This is a malevolent civilization!

Having identified the cause, resolving the magical girls’ witch transformation isn’t a complex issue.

First, Fang Zheng used some magic artifacts designed to protect souls to seal the soul gems—although outwardly, this only looks like adding a peculiar accessory to the soul gem. However, these magic artifacts primarily serve to shield the soul gem from external influences, so there’s no concern about other problems.

Of course, this only stops the contamination. Magical girls still need to fight, and fighting consumes magic. Often, even if they are not fully tainted, once depleted of magic, they will still turn into witches.

This point was confidently confirmed by Akemi Homura.

Fang Zheng’s solution to this is even simpler: change their equipment!

Although the Magitech Device terminals developed by Precia are not mass-producible—and even if they were, one would have to return to Nanoha and Little Sakura’s world and use tools from Mid Zhilanda to mass-produce them—Fang Zheng’s personal terminal already features hard light armor. Even if it can’t launch barrages or magic cannon fire, purely relying on hard light armor, these magical girls can easily exert power comparable to Asuna, Eiriri, and Black Cat.

Moreover, most witches and familiar spirits are not very powerful; a fully equipped mechanic can easily handle them without needing any special blessings or magic weapons. Ordinary tanks, missiles, and TNT can resolve the issues.

So why must magical girls be necessary in this world?

There’s only one reason: ordinary people can’t see witches and familiar spirits, and it’s challenging for them to enter witch barriers. Witches are despairing and twisted but not fools; they wouldn’t blatantly open a barrier to swallow an army.

If that happened, it would be unclear who would end up dead.

So Fang Zheng simply replaced Mami Tomoe, Sakurazawa Kyoko, and the other magical girls’ equipment with hard light armor. This way, even during battles, these girls don’t consume magic but instead fight using the hard light armor from their personal terminals.

Certainly, this is a temporary fix, not a fundamental solution, but at least it provides an immediate fix!

Afterward, under Fang Zheng’s leadership, the magical girls embarked on a new round of activities.

Which were... witch hunting and reversal!!

In the pure white space, the fierce battle continued.

”Beep—beep—”

The cold, piercing electronic waves echoed within the witch barrier’s pure white space, where several figures swiftly circled, engaging the central witch in battle!

”Mami!”

After swinging the Long Spear in her hand and knocking away the Familiar Spirits whistling past her, Anzu also shouted loudly. Hearing Anzu’s call, Mami Tomoe hurriedly raised the Firearm in her hand and pulled the trigger at the target before her. Soon, behind Mami, a flurry of Firearms appeared instantly, quickly turning the Familiar Spirits in front of her into sieves.

However, just at this moment, the Witch floating in the pure white space suddenly moved. It was a strange Witch composed of ribs and an electrocardiogram device, frantically flailing its arm that looked like a straitjacket, emitting an ear-piercing scream.

The invisible sound waves erupted around, mingling with a massive electric current to form an almost indestructible Barrier.

”Little Nagi!”

Seeing this, Mami Tomoe quickly retreated, then loudly called out again. This time, responding to Mami’s call, a girl with long silver hair, wearing a cloak and pumpkin pants, rushed out. She tightly gripped a pitch-black object that looked like a toy trumpet and blew it forcefully towards the Witch in front of her!

”Ba-ba-ba!!”

Bubbles shot out from the trumpet, striking the electromagnetic Barrier, and immediately blasted a big hole in it. Because of this, the formerly rampant electric current gradually weakened and dissipated.

”Come on out!”

As the electromagnetic Barrier broke open, another Magical Girl leaped out. She wore a purple coat and short skirt, had long golden hair, and held in her hand a hammer larger than herself. Taking advantage of the moment when the Barrier was broken, the girl smashed the hammer towards the Witch inside. Accompanied by a scream, the Witch, originally floating in the air, was like a golf ball knocked flying, crashing heavily into the corner of the wall, collapsed.

”Home run!”

Watching this, the Purple-Clad Girl excitedly waved the hammer in her hand.

”At least say it’s a hole-in-one!”

While everyone was making noise, a figure appeared swiftly.

”Nice work, leave the rest to me!”

Looking at the petite figure with the burning Red Ponytail before them, the Magical Girls immediately stepped aside. Then, they saw the Red Ponytail extend a hand, reaching towards the Witch lying on the ground with a grasp in the air.

Soon, a flaming Array formed, binding the Witch tightly. It began to spin rapidly, and before long, the peculiar-looking electrocardiogram Witch quickly vanished, transforming into a girl with light shoulder-length hair, dressed in a robe similar to a white Magitech Mentor’s cloak.

”All done.”

Fang Zheng snapped his fingers, then reverted to his original form.

”The recovery work from here is up to you guys.”

”You can rely on us, boss!”

Hearing Fang Zheng’s words, the Magical Girl holding the hammer nearby patted her chest with a grin and responded loudly.

”We’ll get it done!”

”This is already the fifth one, big brother.”

At this moment, Little Hei also came over to join the fun.

”Seems like we’re doing pretty well.”

”Of course, that’s how it is for now.”

Hearing Little Hei speak, Fang Zheng nodded. Ever since transforming Momoe Nagisa back from a Witch to a Magical Girl, Fang Zheng’s other major task was to revert all the Witches they could find around Mitakihara back into Magical Girls.

Firstly, it was to save these girls.

Secondly, to increase enough combat power and personnel, after all, Fang Zheng’s Magical Girl Management Office of Heavenly Dao Palace couldn’t just stand as an empty shell!

The Magical Girls who had been reverted and saved by Fang Zheng included three people apart from Momoe Nagisa. One of them was the Magical Girl wielding the giant hammer just earlier, Fumitsuki Felicia, as well as Kagami Masayoshi, Rika Ayano, and Natsume Yoshiko. Including the girl before him, they’ve almost gathered enough for another team.

Anyway, for Fang Zheng, having more people was naturally better.

”Beep beep beep...”

Just then, Fang Zheng’s personal device rang with a call. Fang Zheng gestured to Little Hei not to speak and then opened the communication.

”Hello?”

”Is that Mr. Fang Zheng? It’s me.”

On the other side, a somewhat nervous voice of Akemi Homura came through.

”What’s the matter, Homura?”

Fang Zheng hadn’t let Akemi Homura join the battles of Witch hunting and reverting because her ability was purely auxiliary—in other words, if Akemi Homura didn’t use her Magic to fight, her combat strength would rank as the lowest among these Magical Girls. Therefore, Fang Zheng had Akemi Homura stay by Madoka Kaname’s side, observing the situation and staying alert for QB’s reappearance.

Could it be, QB has appeared again?

”It’s like this...”

Speaking at this point, Akemi Homura hesitated a bit, but she continued.

”Just two days ago, I learned from Kyoko that Miki Sayaka’s childhood friend was hospitalized.”