NOVPUB"Is it...ugh, is it settled?"
Because one hand was still clenched into a fist, Nina couldn't fully cover her ears. When she heard the howls of the Remnant Beasts, she instinctively opened her eyes wide, trying to see their condition through her blurry vision. She spat out some liquid melting with Magic Power from her mouth and asked, looking pale.
"Not yet."
Cornflower's condition wasn't any better, but compared to Nina, she had diverted some Magic Power to repair her body, so she could still stand steadily: "Magic Power is still melting, which means this thing hasn't given up yet."
Once the Corrosion Resistance was stripped away, the Remnant Beasts in front of them were almost instantly hurt by the liquid leaking from their bodies, even the Nest Building action became a desperate move to hurt the enemy and themselves. Despite this, it still insisted on completing everything, so after being interrupted by Cornflower for a moment, it reactivated its rules.
The Remnant Beasts' lack of intelligence made it impossible for them to understand the reality that their own body fluids were hurting them, so they only thought that the Magical Girls in front of them were causing harm, and they had to eat these two Magical Girls to stop getting hurt.
Undoubtedly, Cornflower's actions made the Remnant Beasts as miserable as them, finally allowing both sides to continue fighting on the same starting line; however, if the Remnant Beasts' rules continued to operate, the final result would likely be both the Magical Girls and the Remnant Beasts melting together here.
That's not the result Cornflower wanted.
So, she had to go one step further.
Slightly prying the scissors Magic Armor in her hand, accompanied by the flickers of silver-blue light, the ruler and threads appeared in her hand once again. The three forms of "Weave of Fate" were simultaneously present in front of Cornflower.
She hooked her fingers, suspending several Magic Silk Threads in front of her, calmly observing their changes while silently counting the seconds in her heart. Finally, from the appearance to the melting of these threads, she derived an observation result of "3 seconds."
"Captain, is there still a way?"
Relying on Cornflower, Nina couldn't help but gasp—this was a sign of nearing exhaustion of the total Magic Power in her body. As a Leaf Level Magical Girl, Nina's internal Magic Power was far less than Bud Level Cornflower's, and in front of the Half-Molt, her body and Magic Power were continuously melting, while still using Magic Armor, she was clearly barely holding on: "I-I feel like I might not be able to maintain control for long..."
The part of the liquid wall blocked by the power of Control had started to spread around, showing a trend of bypassing the stagnant air, so Nina had to continuously add more air into the range of her Magic Armor's abilities. This also caused her Magic Power Consumption to rise higher and her consumption to grow faster.
"What to do... I don't want to die." She almost squeezed this sentence out from her throat in a moaning tone.
"Don't worry, you won't die."
Cornflower's incredibly calm voice reached her ears.
Relaxing her fingers hooked on the threads and silently reciting the "3 seconds" number she observed, Cornflower slightly curled her lips and raised the ruler in her hand: "3 seconds, that's enough. Next, it's execution time for this damned thing."
"Eh? How are you going to do it?"
Nina instinctively looked at Cornflower: "Using Magic Armor to attack it will melt, Magic Techniques, I tried earlier, even the Runes turn to water... Is there any way to attack it?"
Her concerns were not without reason. From previous situations, all their attack methods, under the bizarre rules of the Remnant Beasts, seemed powerless. Even rushing up for a physical confrontation with the Remnant Beasts had to consider the enormous size difference and the corrosive liquid covering its body.
In this situation, Cornflower said she was going to "execute" the Remnant Beasts, which sounded almost like a fantasy to Nina.
However, Cornflower did not answer Nina further. Because at that moment, she had already begun her actions.
Extending the slightly melted ruler forward, Cornflower squinted one eye, as if aiming at the target, aligning the "0" mark with the center of the Remnant Beast's body.
Then, with her other hand, she slightly opened the other end of the ruler, like drawing a bowstring, aligning a segment of the thread with the "10" mark on the ruler.
Weave of Fate.
She silently chanted the name, activating the ruler's ability, fixing the distance between the thread and the Remnant Beasts' body at "10" on the ruler.
No need to calculate units, no need to match real spatial positions, just measuring, for her Magic Armor, this distance between the two entities would always be "10."
Next, Emerald Sparrow released her control of the threads and picked up the scissors nearby.
To free up her Magic Power Consumption, she abandoned the concept of "Corrosion Resistance" at that moment. The Remnant Beasts in front of her had been severely hurt by the corrosive liquid, continuing this concept would not cause much damage in a short time, so she chose to pause.
Afterward, she fully mobilized her Magic Power Output and aimed the scissors' blades at the ruler in her hand.
From the moment she conjured the threads, 1 second had passed.
"10."
Like some sort of declaration, she softly spoke this word.
The "snip" sound of the scissors rang out with the declaration, the blades closed, directly cutting the ruler in her hand.
Silver-blue light blossomed from the scissors' blade, spreading to the ruler, finally shining together with the threads.
Then, the distance between the "0" and "10" marks on the ruler in Emerald Sparrow's hand disappeared.
Along with it, the thread that should have aligned with the "10" mark also disappeared. When these threads appeared again, the location was already aligned with the "0" mark.
The "0" and "10" marks overlapped.
The Remnant Beasts' body and the threads similarly overlapped.
2 seconds had passed, which meant that the thread only had 1 second before melting.
But for Cornflower, that was enough.
The scissors in her hand turned into scattered Magic Power light points, Emerald Sparrow reached out and touched the threads again, then suddenly pulled down.
Blue light traced a light trajectory on the Remnant Beasts' body, leaving behind a segment of residual shadows. The threads originally overlapping with the Remnant Beasts' body suddenly dispersed into countless segments, spreading from the origin point within the Remnant Beasts' body into a large web.
The 3 seconds ended at that moment. Despite reaching the time limit, the threads forming the web showed no signs of melting.
Even the Remnant Beasts itself was unaware of what happened, it reached out its claws, still trying to approach the Magical Girls in front because it needed food, it needed to stop being hurt by food.
However, the extended claws were destined never to touch the "prey" in front of it.
Because, the claws were already turned into countless fragmented flesh pieces at the moment they were about to straighten, falling to the ground.
