The coordinates of Glacier Island flickered continuously on the radar display.
Snow Maiden in the icebreaker's command room interrupted her meditative state and gazed out the window at the Arctic ice and snow.
"Far enough. Just to hand over some Holy Relics, yet we have to travel this far." She took a deep breath and asked, "Witch, how's the engine performance? Is it adequate?"
"No problem, please don't worry. My techniques are also maintaining stability."
This icebreaker was already nuclear-powered, and with some relics' abilities boosting the power output, it could achieve an astonishing speed of 60 knots, racing all the way to the rendezvous point.
On the other side, Trident reported: "We're heading toward each other. Yesterday the Bering Strait observation station mentioned the glacier had departed from the Arctic Ocean. We'll most likely meet up in the Sea of Okhotsk, and fortunately the weather is clear with calm seas."
"Good."
This rendezvous was a continuation of the signing of the Magical Girl Rights Expansion Act and the result of close cooperation with the Holy City Association.
The two major organizations would increase personnel exchanges.
One way to avoid conflicts was through more communication, so both sides simply decided to station some personnel together at the Glacier Island training base.
After the battle at the Fallen Zone core, the Holy Relics also began contemplating the future. Even the Pope suggested that Codename Holy Relics and those who had just achieved complete fusion should temporarily halt their magic power cultivation to avoid premature erosion. There was no need for everyone to engage in such self-destructive enhancement as before.
Part of the reason for allowing the Magical Girls to take over power was that they themselves could no longer continue.
This journey should come to an end—there were better options available. As for some voices claiming the girls weren't trustworthy? Too naive. One couldn't dismiss the entire organization's cooperation value based on generalizations, especially when everyone had no other choice.
"Snow Maiden, thank you for bringing us here."
The handover supervisor expressed gratitude for who knows how many times. For them, avoiding the fate of continuous erosion on the front lines was naturally good.
She frowned: "I've mentioned before not to display such defeatist rhetoric. Isn't the withdrawal of the Holy City Association's grassroots forces a regrettable matter? I'm only helping because the Antarctic Base is cooperating with official dispatch—it has nothing to do with personal preference."
"Alright."
"No one can stay away from the battlefield. When you initially mustered the courage to fuse with relics as compatible individuals, there was no turning back. Everything now is fortunate—don't treat it as escaping from suffering."
Snow Maiden's attitude left the command room in stunned silence, with no one daring to speak up.
After returning victorious from the Fallen Zone, the Antarctic Base Commander's strength had advanced further, even achieving the extremely rare stable complete liberation, and at such a young age, she could resist erosion for a long time. She indeed had the qualification to criticize the organization's fighting spirit. Everyone was convinced, though that didn't mean they wanted to continue fighting.
After delivering the reprimand, she went back to drinking her coffee, grabbing a handful of sugar cubes to dump in—a lethal dose of sweetness.
The morale of the Holy City Association's middle and lower ranks had dissipated.
Even though everyone still maintained basic organizational operations and continued to guard various locations and even strike at scattered Disaster Beasts, their morale couldn't be concealed.
The departure of their absolute pillar, King, had caused them to lose a rallying banner. The halo effect of being the world's strongest Holy Relic was incomparable.
What made it worse was that 9 Ancient Holy Relics had left in a short period, severely damaging their vitality.
If the Holy City Association's previous accumulation had been lacking even slightly, they would have collapsed on the spot and been unable to support themselves any longer. There was no helping it—the battles in the Fallen Zone were too brutal, not to mention the intense combat events from South Africa to the Congo Forest that had occurred before.
The tide had turned.
Many people interpreted the power transition between the two major organizations from a historical perspective, calling it a relatively peaceful transition—nothing more than former rulers stepping down from the throne and now having to hand over some personnel as well.
Snow Maiden naturally understood this was a win-win situation and was even grateful from the bottom of her heart for the victory the Magical Girls had brought.
But the decline of the organization she belonged to was indeed regrettable.
Beep beep!
The radar alert suddenly intensified—a huge shadow was passing ahead. Upon careful examination, it appeared to be a glacier with ice walls erected on it, semi-transparent and reflecting the appearance of tall buildings like a mirage. No way? Had the Church developed Base No. 2 into an urban prototype during this time?
Bang! A signal flare rose into the sky as the agreed-upon signal, bursting into fireworks as if welcoming guests. The icebreaker thus proceeded to the port.
Only when truly approaching did they realize how massive it was—a natural super-giant glacier processed into a permanent stronghold, capable of docking ten-thousand-ton ships or even fleets, with strong mobility.
Logically, Glacier Island should only be able to operate in polar circles, but true powerhouses believed this was merely "maintaining the setting" to create stereotypical impressions. With countless magical enhancements maintaining stability, it could probably traverse tropical regions.
Aside from initially being built on a glacier, this base no longer had anything to do with glaciers.
"Quick, take photos—"
"We've finally boarded Glacier Island."
"This is the first time it's been opened."
Another bothersome matter was that many media personnel were accompanying them. Their lackadaisical attitude disgusted Snow Maiden—they only focused on trivial details. They most enjoyed stirring up opposition and taking things out of context, turning it into a profession of insulting specific groups to provoke abuse and profit.
Others catered to their audience; these people made their audience angry. Compared to herself, young people were indeed better at dealing with them.
The one leading the reception was Dandelion, with an unexpected face beside her: why was Hyacinth still active here?
Snow Maiden hurriedly disembarked with her subordinates, and indeed the silver-haired girl came to greet them.
Not only the Holy Relics, but the reporters also fell silent. Many restless followers were now dumbfounded. The strongest and oldest Magical Girl hadn't left? What exactly had happened? It didn't seem like a disguise either—if it were, it would be hard to fool various informants.
"Shouldn't you be in the Fairy Realm?" Snow Maiden asked in surprise.
"I am, and I'm not. I think showing some presence would be convenient, right?" Hyacinth smiled, then said to her companion beside her: "I won't steal the spotlight. I'll leave the rest to you, Dandelion."
"Yes, ma'am."
Then Hyacinth left together with Tulip, heading toward the island's energy core crystal. After just being supplemented with large quantities of Disaster Beast materials, they needed to pay more attention to ensure safety.
Her simple and modest appearance caused various parties' hearts to flutter. Some quickly guessed the possibility of a time clone, but her presence was undeniable—reputation preceded her, impossible to ignore.
Everyone's reaction brought honor to Nan Zhiyi's face. Even being praised herself wasn't as satisfying as others' admiration for her childhood friend.
The answer was simple: Time Slice.
Before leaving, Hibiscus had retained a Seedling Stage clone level. Because of the low standard, its duration was long, and with slight energy supply, it could operate even longer.
Although separated by worlds and unable to synchronously share information, the clone's state also reflected the main body's condition. If it suddenly suffered severe damage or magic power disruption, it would mean the Salvation Church should completely close the base and enter defensive mode—serving as a weather vane.
"Come with me." Nan Zhiyi smiled warmly in invitation.
Glacier Island's reception lineup this time included not only the housekeeper miss but also familiar faces like Elsa and Anri Sakagami.
For the officials, they were quite familiar, having met and talked many times. Of course, the most special was Magical Girl Peony's casual greeting.
Snow Maiden's mouth twitched but she still responded.
As everyone knew, during the Antarctic battle, she was still in the Growth Stage when she fought a great battle with the Relic Treasury, leaving the latter quite embarrassed. Even considering that the Holy Relic hadn't used full strength, it couldn't change the fact that they had suffered at the time.
That said, both sides still communicated harmoniously about handover matters.
Past friction couldn't change their comradeship in the Fallen Zone. Everyone knew how reliable the other was and was willing to entrust important responsibilities. It should be said that before the Catastrophic Disaster Beasts, they had already entrusted their lives to each other.
Nan Zhiyi said: "Since some Holy Relics are joining the joint training, we'll add an area for everyone. However, you mentioned preferring second-line work, so we'll reduce combat power requirements. Handling Disaster Beast experiments and materials would be quite suitable. Are you satisfied?"
"They're very satisfied."
When it came to this point, Snow Maiden didn't hide her disappointed sigh of "hating iron for not becoming steel," though she was also happy for them—staying alive was important.
"You don't need to be too regretful. There are always people standing at the front, and there are always people who can stay at the rear. But refusing the option of courage will cost a lot..."
"Right, the Holy City Association's blade will become duller and duller until it can cut nothing."
"From another perspective, Holy Relics will continue to exist in another way, and you'll still help greatly." Nan Zhiyi said sincerely: "Regardless, you've laid the foundation for today's situation. The world should thank everyone for their contributions."
"So be it. We were originally products of an extreme way of fighting enemies. There's no need to torture ourselves anymore."
Crackle pop!
Suddenly a huge ball of lightning rose in the sky, with threads of electric current penetrating everywhere and stirring up blue ripples as energy suddenly erupted.
Reporters had caught a glimpse of similar energy devices on Hermit Island—probably no less than a nuclear power station's supply, providing the mobile base with endless self-sufficiency, more powerful than imagined.
When Magical Girls gathered together, there was never a lack of good ideas.
Besides this, Domesticated Disaster Beasts indeed appeared here as well, probably from Hermit Island, letting newcomers adapt first. Speaking of these newcomers, they were already releasing various large-scale magical phenomena in training, clearly having completed assimilation. The Salvation Church's style emphasized grand and bold approaches—the bigger the daily drills, the better. Newly joined Magical Girls also enjoyed this immensely.
They were growing into a new force at an astonishing rate, fresh and powerful blood.
Glacier Island had gathered quite a portion of Magical Girl new members from First to Third Awakening to Seedling Stage. Just their intimidating aura was enough to make people tremble with fear.
There were thousands of them!
Adding those scattered elsewhere, there should be over ten thousand.
The Salvation Church had never reported exactly how many personnel they controlled. Now just this tip of the iceberg was impressive, beyond expectations.
Snow Maiden hurriedly asked: "So your organization begins seamless training immediately after recruitment? They can actually adapt? Peony, what kind of battle plan have you arranged?"
"It's not that mysterious—just give adequate compensation. What we lack least is money."
"You avoided the most crucial question: where does their original motivation come from... in these chaotic times?"
"Magical Girl awakenings are relatively evenly distributed. Most people come from underdeveloped regions, and those who can accelerate awakening have definitely encountered a certain amount of infection—that's not a beautiful origin. The Church's conditions are good, so isn't it nice to fight together? Of course, there are also reasons related to military protection failures."
Jin Yulu evaluated mercilessly.
Cruelly speaking, pulling people onto battlefields during peacetime disrupts their established lives, so naturally they wouldn't be active and might even slack off. Conversely, during unrest, fighting becomes survival itself.
The more chaotic this world became, the more active the blood supply to the Salvation Church became—in a sense, profiting greatly from war.
At this thought, Snow Maiden sighed: "Indeed, you've been active since the Magic Power Revival era and united because of it. Neither Disaster Beasts nor Holy Relics had time to react before you became the first organization."
"It wasn't that easy. We couldn't afford to take a wrong step during that period." Nan Zhiyi said modestly.
They reached the artificial island.
This was an extended outer port area specifically arranged for Holy Relics, where everyone would coordinate work and fulfill their respective duties.
Witch led the group to formally move in. Walking into this port area, they found the ground quite solid—more durable than ten-thousand-year glaciers, and with strong magical reactions.
Following the sound, she saw a Magical Girl continuously releasing freezing air to reinforce the extended artificial island—obviously corresponding elemental magic, simple, crude, yet convenient. Ordinary forces couldn't come up with such solutions and indeed couldn't replicate them.
Additionally, underwater currents and crustal movements also helped with reinforcement.
Glacier Island seemed fragile but had actually considered all aspects to ensure risk resistance capability. Even encountering strong winds, big waves, and earthquakes would be no problem. Or rather, it simply didn't matter—there was corresponding magic for everything anyway.
Elemental types excelled in quantity, coverage, and conceptual nature, making them perfect for infrastructure.
Crack crack crack!
At almost visible speed, it rose in place and expanded its area. No wonder satellite observations showed Glacier Island constantly changing shape.
Though it didn't have Hermit Island's concealment, it wasn't easy to find either.
The reporters were again excited, taking photos and conducting interviews.
Glacier Island's surprises never stopped. Worthy of being one of the Salvation Church's base strongholds, this place had clearly been built into a super military fortress, probably stockpiling large amounts of weapons.
From another perspective, it was like an aircraft carrier fully loaded with aviation squadrons—naturally a huge deterrent.
"Are you satisfied?" Nan Zhiyi asked.
"Well, they're not here to fight anyway—just sitting in second-line missions, so such high requirements aren't necessary." Snow Maiden shrugged, then changed topic: "The Church is becoming increasingly active though. You and the fairies are partners striking scattered Disaster Beasts worldwide—we're all idle now."
"This isn't market competition, is it? We just want our juniors to get necessary training. Otherwise, they'll suffer when facing real battlefields in the future. Everyone understands this."
The seasoned nature of Magical Girl Dandelion was clear to anyone who had dealt with her. Even when dealing with official old foxes, she didn't fall behind.
Really troublesome.
For example, last time the Rights Expansion Act was almost entirely established through this person's maneuvering for leading advantage.
At this point, they should indeed seek help from the world's number one supernatural organization, so Snow Maiden got to the point: "You should be aware of the commotion caused by the Ring of Levitation user? Many people don't trust her stability..."
"To resolve this, we need to return to the relic excavation site, but it's dangerous and requires your support."