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Startled, she had to forcefully interrupt her laughter, and as a result, she nearly choked herself. The homebody witch coughed a few times, then looked somewhat awkwardly at this person who should be considered a long-lost childhood sweetheart.

But just one look, and she almost instinctively felt weak at the knees because Denisha's changes over the years were, well, pretty huge.

The girl who could once be considered only a plain country beauty had now become more and more beautiful and majestic, with an aura so fierce and pure that at first glance, she looked exactly like the statue of the God King Dorothy had seen when she was copying the household registration at the God King Cathedral.

Ah, it couldn't be that Denisha had awakened to become the real God King, could it? Geez, that's kind of scary. I'm sorry, that was just me getting carried away, laughing too loudly.

"Well, I came when you were just summoning Ice Crystals and showing off."

Luckily, just as the homebody witch was feeling anxious, wondering whether to pay her respects to the God King, Miss Shepherdess smiled—that familiar smile of fond indulgence that belonged only to a big sister towards her younger sister—which immediately put Dorothy at ease.

That's right, she was still the Denisha she knew, not some aloof, high-and-mighty God King.

"Doesn't that mean you were here from the very beginning?"

Dorothy felt even more embarrassed. The thought that Denisha had seen her showing off and acting all adolescent made her want to dig a hole right then and there with her foot to build some marvelous architecture.

But then again, she didn't notice Denisha's arrival at all just now. Those 500k mana of magic power might not be real, right? Weren't they supposed to make me feel awesome and cool?

She thought so with a shiver of annoyance in her heart.

But that was only what she thought. After all, not long ago...

Okay, to Dorothy herself, not long ago was right before she logged off. She had already understood that her big sister had always been hiding her skills, and now, hundreds of years have passed in this world. The current strength of Denisha was something she dared not even contemplate.

"After 500 years, 233 days, six hours, and five minutes and 32 seconds, you finally returned, Dorothy."

Beside her, Miss Shepherdess simply watched her embarrassed sister picking at her feet with a smile, staying silent until Dorothy regained her composure before she finally spoke.

"Welcome back, my conscienceless and irresponsible little sister."

She stepped forward and then hugged the homebody witch, who felt even more guilty upon hearing how long she had been gone.

"Uh..."

Suddenly being embraced by her sister, Dorothy tensed up. She wasn't used to such close physical contact and instinctively wanted to struggle. Moreover, why was Denisha being so bold? She wasn't like this before.

But indeed, I have been away for too long. It must have been hard for Denisha on her own. Letting her hug me isn't going to cost me a piece of flesh. Besides, this is a hug from a God King. It's a brag worthy of a lifetime.

In the end, the homebody witch suppressed her instincts. Her body, stiffened by the embrace, relaxed again, and gradually, she also hugged Denisha back.

"Yes, I've come back, sister," she said softly.

.......

Of course, this was a touching reunion between sisters, but to the outsider witch students who had just arrived for the public beta testing, things were somewhat confusing.

Like Christina...

"What in the world is all this? Have I traveled through time? Is this really the Witch World, and not some sci-fi world?"

This third-ranked genius student of the Witch Academy, a rare primeval witch and Club President of the Glorious Sun Society, who was also the new Judge Elemental Empress of the Judgment Court, stood in front of the window at that moment, gazing down at the very cyberpunk massive city and fell silent.

This was just too high-tech, certainly not magical enough.

That's what Christina thought to herself.

To be fair, she was also a beta tester who had descended during the beta phase, except her identity at the time was somewhat unique. She was a princess of the Human Empire, which made it inconvenient for her to wander about. In fact, it was quite a hassle for her just to leave the Royal Palace.

So, in the end, all she could do was lay low, thinking to finish the main quest line first—ascend to a Transcendent and then wait for the rise of the God King to establish the Holy City Pandora.

But as she waited and waited, the familiar storyline never arrived. Instead, what came was the news from the Royal Spy that the God King had been captured and executed without ever awakening.

At a loss for how to deal with this runaway plot, she could only try to strengthen herself as much as possible. Meanwhile, she even got bored enough to start participating in the trivial struggle for the throne with her adoptive siblings.

Yeah, she won quite easily. In just one year, her father, who originally had over a hundred children, was left with only her by his side. The rest were either exiled or had passed away. Just as she was about to ascend to the throne as an Empress, at her coronation ceremony, she suddenly received a message that the main quest was complete?

At that moment, Christina was bewildered as she was teleported away, completely clueless about what had just happened.

Wasn't the God King supposed to have not awakened? How did the Holy City Pandora suddenly get built?

Anyway, this primeval witch was quite baffled, but she could still vaguely sense that the history of this world line seemed to have undergone a dramatic mutation.

But there was nothing to be done. She could only watch as she vanished into light under the gaze of the countless populace who had come to witness the coronation.

And now, here she was, descending for a second time, with a different identity: she was no longer an empress, since that very Human Empire no longer existed. Her nominal identity was a descendant of that inexpensive little sister of hers, who had been exiled from the country back then.

It seemed that after leaving the Empire, that adopted sister had taken refuge in Holy City Pandora and settled down. Later, she married, had children, and continued the lineage of the Empire's royal blood.

Of course, with the Empire gone, royal bloodlines and such no longer meant much. Her new identity was actually quite special; she was a freshly graduated Magic Girl.

As for what a Magic Girl is, don't ask her. Christina herself didn't know; she had only heard about it for the first time in her life.

However, based on the brief conclusion she reached after flipping through the materials in the room, it might possibly just be the technological version of a witch.

After all, just by hearing the term Magic Girl, one knows it's a female-exclusive profession, comprised entirely of women, and their main combat power derives from something called Magic Equipment, which is necessary for using Techniques.

As for this so-called Technique...

No matter how Christina looked at it, she felt it was basically magic.

In this world line, since the God King did not awaken, there was no birth of the Witch Clan, and everyone remained weak humans.

However, it seems precisely because there was no interference from the overwhelming magic of the witches, the world's mechanical technology found fertile ground to grow. A power known as the Church of Machinery began to rise fiercely, spreading the Power of Machinery throughout the world.

Even the Holy City Pandora was established by the Church of Machinery.

Now, there were only two major powers left in this world. One was the Glorious Divine Realm ruled by the Church of Glory, and the other was the Magic Republic led by the Church of Machinery. The two powers were in a closely matched and hard-fought struggle, neither able to gain the upper hand over the other.

The Glorious Divine Kingdom had the Angel Army and a massive Holy Knight Army at its disposal, while the Magic Republic relied on the Magic Equipment Army, Heroic Spirit Army, and countless mechanically augmented Mortals support troops.

Magic Girl, that was one of the two trump cards of the Magic Republic's combat power.

As for the so-called Magic Equipment, it was a product of the combination of magic and machinery. Human bodies were too frail to bear the operation of vast amounts of Magic Power; an excess would overwhelm a mortal vessel. So, Magic Equipment was developed to bear this burden.

Donning Magic Equipment to handle Magic Power can greatly reduce the strain on the body, allowing humans to unleash Great Magic that surpasses their limits and wield power comparable to Angels.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, I get it. Since there's no natural Talent specialty from the power of evolution as witches did, they couldn't evolve on their own. So, they just take a shortcut to Mechanical Ascension, creating external specialties with the Power of Machinery.

Huh, no wonder the Magic Girls of this world are also referred to as witches.

Alright, let's see how to be a Magic Girl then.

...Christina is cramming...