Breaking the Rule

--"really."

In the silent, deserted mountain forest, Mimosa put down her tambourine, opened her eyes from their closed state, looked around, and pondered, "With my eyes closed, I can hear the sounds of battle, but when I open them, all the sounds disappear."

She discovered this pattern by accident just now.

She discovered this because she habitually closes her eyes and focuses her attention on her hearing when using her Magic Armament's sensory abilities.

Although she didn't understand the underlying principle, after repeated attempts, she could now confirm the truth of this rule: she could sense the movements of her companions with her eyes closed, but not with her eyes open.

So, why is that?

After a moment's thought, she couldn't help but raise her head and look up at the Blue Moon in the sky.

The moon, which was not originally in the night sky, is now seamlessly embedded in the pitch-black night, as if it were always meant to be there.

But the Mimosa knew that it wasn't the real moon, and that their current predicament had begun with the appearance of this Blue Moon.

Therefore, it is naturally the most suspicious one.

Is there something strange about the moonlight? Or does looking directly at the moon cause some kind of cognitive interference? Or perhaps it's some other form of interference?

Thinking this through, the Mimosa chose to close its eyes once more.

This was the most likely way for her to find the truth; she had no other choice.

This time, when she closed her eyes, all she heard was the sound of breathing in front of her, almost right next to her.

Then came a voice from the owner of the aura, tinged with a hint of doubt:

"Who are you! No, you're... the Mimosa?"

The voice wasn't very familiar to Mimosa, but she could still recognize the voice. If her memory served her correctly, it should belong to the magical girl named "White Rose" from Fangting City.

In other words, this time when I closed my eyes, I heard the other person's voice.

But that's still not the key point; there's a more important message hidden in the other person's words:

"Can you see me?"

She didn't rush to open her eyes to confirm the other person's identity, but chose to maintain the status quo, because all the known signs told her that even if she opened her eyes now, she probably still wouldn't be able to see anything.

"I can definitely see you..."

The voice from "White Rose" carried a hint of uncertainty. "So what exactly is going on? What did that Aberrant Beast do? Where were you all before?"

"There is no 'you'."

The Mimosa took a deep breath, trying to keep thinking, "I'm all alone too. I don't know where anyone else is."

"... Just as I thought."

White Rose paused for a moment, then replied with some understanding, "When I was fighting that Aberrant Beast just now, I was thinking that I might not be the only one who was separated."

"A battle?" Mimosa was slightly taken aback.

She clearly remembered that the magical girl junior in front of her was only at the Seed level, while the enemy Semi had already reached the level of Half-Molt or above. If a battle were to break out between the two, there was no reason why this junior named White Rose would survive.

But if the other person is already dead, then who is standing in front of me—a human or a ghost?

"Don't look so terrified, okay? I'm not a ghost, I'm not dead."

Perhaps because her expression was too obvious, White Rose could tell at a glance what the Mimosa was thinking, so she explained with a slightly helpless tone, "Well... although it might sound strange, I suddenly awakened my Magic Armament while fighting that guy, and then I chased it away."

The Mimosa used all its willpower to keep itself from opening its eyes after hearing those words.

"Awakened Magic Armament?" But she couldn't help but ask.

"Hmm," White Rose replied with certainty.

"Drive it away?"

"Um."

After receiving these two affirmative answers, the Mimosa turned and ran away without saying another word.

As a magical girl with over a year of combat experience, Mimosa has seen far too many bizarre and monstrous Aberrant Beast in her past battles.

Once Nest is set up, the Aberrant Beast can use their strange abilities within it, including some capable of creating illusions or disguising Aberrant Beast.

After encountering such an Aberrant Beast, the Mimosa would always be cautious whenever it entered Aberrant Beast Nest. It would constantly observe its surroundings, verify the words and actions of its companions, and avoid being deceived, thus preventing itself from falling into danger.

At this moment, the voice seems to belong to "White Rose," but her words are illogical and full of loopholes. Such a clumsy lie could not possibly be her; it is very likely an illusion or disguise created by the Aberrant Beast in the Nest.

In other words, he had stumbled into a trap.

The Mimosa made this judgment with absolute certainty.

So she turned and ran without hesitation, trying to get as far away from the attack range as possible before the other party could react.

However, before she could run a few steps, she felt as if something was pulling her body, and then something tugged at the back of her collar.

"Wait a minute, why are you suddenly running away?"

What followed was White Rose's slightly puzzled inquiry.

"Don't try to fool me, Aberrant Beast!"

The Mimosa plant let out a defiant shout, then picked up its tambourine and slammed it behind it.

Bang!

The sudden burst of sound waves sent the two people flying in different directions. After that, Mimosa didn't bother to check the effect of her attack; instead, she ran away again.

"Hey, I told you to wait a minute, what's wrong with you?!"

White Rose, who had been thrown back, immediately gave chase, shouting behind her, "What did you say about Aberrant Beast? I'm White Rose from Fangting City!"

"You're not!" The Mimosa continued to run away.

"Why wouldn't I be one!" White Rose exclaimed, bewildered. "You should at least have a reason, shouldn't you?"

"Bud Rank magical girl can't possibly defeat Half-Molt one by herself!" Mimosa shouted as she ran.

"Just because of this?" White Rose exclaimed incredulously, "I was clearly telling the truth!"

Don't try to fool me!

"Why would I lie about something like this... Oh, right, magic! Sense my magic! Magic doesn't lie!"

White Rose, quick-witted, said, "Aberrant Beast can't fake the magic of a magical girl, right? Besides, if I were Aberrant Beast, why would I be talking to you so politely?"

"This kind of thing doesn't require any perception at all Aberrant Beast; I can just concentrate my mind a little and..."

Mimosa instinctively wanted to retort, but as she diverted some of her attention to sensing the other party's magic, the words she was about to say got stuck in her throat.

Because what she sensed was indeed the magic of a magical girl, and the fluctuations of that magic felt somewhat familiar, seemingly belonging to the White Rose she knew.

"You really are white..." She suddenly stopped, instinctively turning back to confirm with the other person, but what followed was a huge shock and a sharp pain in her forehead.

Bang!

There was another muffled thud, this time because White Rose's head collided with the Mimosa's.

White Rose, who had been chasing from behind, never expected that just a few seconds after she shouted, the other party would suddenly change his expression, brake abruptly in mid-air, and even have time to turn his head around, so that Bai Mei had no time to react.

It was precisely this delayed reaction that ultimately led to this result.

Both the Mimosa and the White Rose fell to the ground due to the unexpected impact. One of them knelt on the ground, holding his head; the other covered his forehead and curled up, both of them grimacing and unable to utter a word for a long time.

After a while, feeling the pain slightly subside, Mimosa slowly raised her head and continued her unfinished question in a somewhat hoarse voice, "... Are you really White Rose?"

"I already told you, I really am."

White Rose, or rather Lin Xiaolu, who was also in excruciating pain, subconsciously wiped her eyes, feeling dizzy and seeing stars. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"You really survived that Aberrant Beast?"

"Of course it's true, it's just that my Magic Armament and magical power are a bit special."

"And you even chased it away?"

"Yes."

Lin Xiaolu nodded. "It's just that the way that guy ran was very strange, it was like he suddenly disappeared, he just vanished."

The Mimosa remained silent.

After calming down slightly, she fell into deep thought once again.

Putting aside the doubts about its combat capabilities, since the "White Rose" opposite them was not a fake but real, it actually provided a huge amount of clues for Mimosa's previous reasoning.

First, the phenomenon of everyone on our side being separated is likely related to the Blue Moon in the sky.

Secondly, when you close your eyes, you seem to be able to communicate with your companions, but when you open your eyes, you lose each other's perception.

Furthermore, Semi, as the master of the Nest, does indeed intend to defeat them one by one. She can freely fight any magical girl in the Nest and can disappear at any time.

Finally, there is...

Thinking of this, the Mimosa finally spoke again, "White Rose, help me with an experiment."

"Huh? Oh."

Lin Xiaolu blinked upon hearing this. "How?"

"Don't move, look at me, and don't blink."

After giving these instructions, the Mimosa tilted its head back and opened its eyes.

There was nothing before her, only the silent forest in the night. There was no White Rose, no Aberrant Beast, nothing at all, as if everything she had heard with her eyes closed had been an illusion.

But this was actually not unexpected for her.

The Mimosa plant remained expressionless, glanced around slightly, then nodded and closed its eyes again.

"Huh? You're back again?"

Then, she heard a gasp of surprise from White Rose.

"What did you see?" Mimosa asked without further ado.

"I saw... you suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared after a while?"

Lin Xiaolu carefully chose her words: "And just like that Aberrant Beast, it suddenly disappeared."

Really.

The Mimosa thought to itself.

At this point, she believed she was incredibly close to the answer, because everything was within her expectations. Undoubtedly, she was about to guess the Rule of this Nest.

At this point, she only had one thing left to confirm.

"I understand, there's one more step."

So she spoke again, instructing Lin Xiaolu, "Close your eyes. If you hear me speaking to you, respond to me."

"That's it?" Lin Xiaolu asked, slightly puzzled.

"That's it," Mimosa said confidently. "I'll count to three, and then you can close your eyes."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

After counting to three, the Mimosa paused for a moment as the words fell, but did not immediately open its eyes.

She kept her eyes closed and asked again, "White Rose, can you hear me?"

No one responded.

"I am Mimosa, can you hear me?" Just in case, she asked again.

There was still no sound.

Having found the answer, the Mimosa opened its eyes once more without further delay.

This time, when she opened her eyes, she saw the magical girl in a light blue dress kneeling in front of her with her eyes closed.

Without a doubt, this was the White Rose she knew.

What she saw, what she heard, True Form she felt—all the signs told her that the person in front of her was indeed her colleague and junior from the Fangting City Squad.

"White Rose," she called softly once more.

"Hmm?" Lin Xiaolu responded with a questioning tone.

"I know the Rule here. I have a way to help you quickly find the other people and the location of that Aberrant Beast."

The Mimosa looked at her. "However, I might not be able to participate in the battle next, so I hope you can remember a few key points."

"Oh, uh... ah?"

After vaguely listening to Mimosa's words, Lin Xiaolu finally extracted the most important information after a long while. "You already know the Rule?"

"Don't open your eyes yet, it's probably true."

The Mimosa said firmly, "So we need to hurry, we've already been delayed because of the misunderstanding."

"That wasn't my fault, was it...?"

Lin Xiaolu muttered softly, "Anyway, you say it."

"In this Nest, we can assume there are two states: 'eyes open' and 'eyes closed'."

The Mimosa continued without hesitation, "Now, our situation is that those with open eyes cannot see those with open eyes, but those with open eyes can see those with closed eyes; those with closed eyes cannot hear those with closed eyes, but those with closed eyes can hear those with open eyes."

"... A tongue twister?" Lin Xiaolu stammered.

"It's okay if you can't remember. Just remember to keep your eyes open and absolutely do not close them."

Mimosa solemnly said, "Then, I will have Wood Lily and the others close their eyes, so that you can see everyone."

"Uh, them?"

Lin Xiaolu felt increasingly confused as she listened. "But the other two aren't here right now?"

"It's okay, you don't need to worry about it."

The Mimosa calmly said, "But you must assure me that what you said before, that you could repel that Aberrant Beast, is true."

"This is definitely true," Lin Xiaolu said earnestly.

"... Okay, then you can open your eyes now."

Without a second thought, Mimosa said this, and then took out her Magic Armament once again.

Its Magic Armament, called Paiyan, possesses the ability to utilize and control sound waves.

She can sense the propagation of sound waves, thus indirectly perceiving her surroundings; she can enhance or weaken the intensity of sound waves, turning them into her weapons and armor; she can even combine magic with sound waves to accomplish things that are physically impossible.

For example, what she's going to do next.

With a gentle tap of the tambourine in her hand, her magic flowed through her Magic Armament and slowly permeated the surrounding environment. Waves of sound, invisible to ordinary people, spread outwards and bounced back, sensing the surrounding environment like radar.

In her perception, her magic continued to spread with the sound waves, until her magic was almost depleted, and she finally touched upon some insurmountable barrier.

She then knew that she had touched the edge of the Nest.

The Nest of Aberrant Beast alters the space within Nest, often resulting in a size that differs from its original area. In her perception, the area of this Nest far exceeds the original size of Silver Screen Mountain.

"It's a bit of a stretch... but it's not impossible."

Muttering to herself, she struck the tambourine once more. Then, she closed her eyes, imbuing her voice with magic, and sent it through the sound waves.

"Wood Lily, Bo Xue, if you can hear my voice, do as I say right now."

"If you are currently in the middle of a battle, please try to hold on, and immediately launch several magic bullets into the sky. Then close your eyes and wait a few seconds."

"Then repeat this process until you hear White Rose's voice. After hearing White Rose's voice, do not open your eyes; keep them closed and communicate with her."

"If you are not currently in combat, please fly into the air, search for the trail of another companion's magic bullet, and move in that direction."

"When you arrive, please close your eyes immediately and wait for White Rose with your eyes closed to communicate with her."

"To reiterate, if you are currently in combat..."

Her voice, moving with the rhythm of her Magic Armament, echoed throughout the entire Nest.

Mimosa repeated the above three times to make sure that even Wood Lily could understand before finally stopping and slowly putting down the tambourine.

Then, just seconds later, Lin Xiaolu watched in disbelief as several magic bullets rose from the nearby woods and exploded in the air like fireworks.

Along with it came a black magic mixed in, seemingly trying to obstruct it, which undoubtedly came from Semi.

Meanwhile, the one engaged in a fierce battle with it was Bai Jingxuan, who had already unleashed the Aberrant Beast.

Semi had a very tough time in this fight.

It was because the leader had specifically requested it that they approached Bai Jingxuan to see if they could capture the little guy first and complete part of the mission ahead of schedule.

Originally, before it actually found the other, it was thinking about how to continue fighting with the little one after it caught her, but when the battle started, it realized that it had been thinking too soon.

Because the opponent is really tough to deal with.

Although it had an advantage in terms of ability level and mastered the Rule, allowing it to quickly avoid many attacks that were detrimental to it and remain unharmed for the time being, it actually found almost no opening to retaliate.

The fact that the opponent also uses the magic of the Aberrant Beast means that my magic has no effect in countering it; the fact that the opponent can also use some basic Spell Formula means that it is not superior in terms of attack methods; the fact that the opponent's magic power is inexplicably no less than mine means that a war of attrition is not feasible.

More importantly, its opponent's fighting style was even more reckless.

While magical girls are indeed immune to fatal injuries until their True Form is damaged, is it really the proper fighting style for a magical girl to allow her claws to pierce through the abdomen and gouge out the opponent's eyes?

More importantly, the opponent's Magic Armament seemed to have some kind of auxiliary effect. From the moment it approached the opponent, Semi could feel that her condition was getting better and better as the fight went on. Her magic power was not decreasing, her injuries were recovering in an instant, and even her attacks were getting heavier and heavier, to the point that Semi, who was at the Half-Molt level, found it somewhat difficult to cope.

To be honest, after fighting this far, it's starting to think about running away again.

In fact, it knew that even if it dealt with these girls here, the stone tower, which served as a ritual device, was likely doomed.

But there's no turning back now. After all, it's no longer a question of how quickly it can resolve the battle, but whether it can even win.

The battle situation changed once again when Bai Jingxuan suddenly threw several magic bullets into the air.

Although she didn't know the meaning behind this behavior, Semi, out of caution, also released her magic in an attempt to stop it.

The attempt to block them wasn't entirely successful, but in reality, the magic projectiles didn't undergo any further changes after being launched into the sky. So, Semi quickly forgot about it as the battle unfolded.

It never imagined that its Rule would be broken under these circumstances.

So, a few minutes later, when it saw the pale blue magical trajectory descending from the sky, and the magical girl wielding the spear landing on the battlefield, blocking its way, it realized just how big a mistake it had made.

"Are you alright? Bo Xue, you look like this, with Claw Mark..."

"No problem, little sister White Rose, I'm feeling great right now."

"You weren't tricked or anything by that guy?"

"Ah, they didn't do this, it has nothing to do with what's happening now."

"... Is that so? Then I'll ask you again when we get back."

Two magical girls stood side by side, one with her eyes open, the other with her eyes closed at some point.

The light blue and dark green magic surged wildly, momentarily overpowering the magic emanating from Semi.

Looking at the two who were rubbing their hands together in anticipation, and sensing that he had already consumed a lot of magic power, Semi raised his head again and looked at the light yellow magic trail that was heading towards him not far away.

Never mind, let's leave it at that.

With that thought in mind, Semi stopped thinking about it.