Measurement

The surrounding scenery rushed forward in Cornflower's vision, and in the deserted streets, the huge, Aberrant Beast was the only focus of her view.

Despite its enormous size of nearly 30 meters, this Aberrant Beast was surprisingly agile, especially in straight-line chases, where its speed even exceeded that of the two magical girls in flight.

That's why, even though its first attack was dodged by Cornflower's silk Tether, it was able to quickly adjust its posture and once again extend its claws towards the two magical girls in the air.

Its body-covering slime came in handy at this moment, not only allowing it to glide swiftly through the rather narrow street as if skating on dry land, but also spraying the two people in front of it with slime at an even faster speed.

The Cornflower had no desire to touch this strange slime; the scorched ground already indicated that these things were no benevolent creatures.

"One."

So when she explained her intentions to Nina, she didn't hesitate to use the ruler in her hand.

She first led Nina to dodge the slime that was about to come at them—this slime had been thrown out in a wide net from the beginning, so there was very little room for them to maneuver if they wanted to avoid getting wet—then, keeping her movements steady, she slowly raised the ruler in front of her.

"Two."

While dodging the slime, the space left for her to linger was extremely limited, and the few remaining spots unsurprisingly became targets for the Aberrant Beast's charge. In fact, if Cornflower couldn't come up with a countermeasure, they would almost certainly be hit head-on by the Aberrant Beast.

But Cornflower maintained her composure to the end, the ruler constantly shifting within her sight, searching for the most suitable position for it.

"Three."

Finally, the ruler hovered at a certain angle in Cornflower's field of vision. In her view, the ruler at that moment connected the Aberrant Beast's claw to the deserted building beside it.

As she shouted, Nina stopped retreating, abruptly lowering her head just before the claw that was almost touching her.

The movement she made in that instant was far from enough to dodge the Aberrant Beast's attack, so by doing so, she was placing all her trust in Cornflower's previous instructions.

--"Cross-cut!"

A tremendous sound reached her ears at that moment. She could hear the sound of a building being torn apart instantly, but then there was the sound of flesh and even carapace being crushed and twisted, a sound that made her teeth ache.

"Whoosh!"

A fierce gust of wind howled past her ears, as if something had swept over her head in that instant, leaving even the sound behind.

"Boom"!

Then came the violent, earth-shattering impact that rang out behind her.

Nina looked up and realized that the Aberrant Beast was no longer in front of her. Turning around, she saw that the Aberrant Beast had been about to pounce on her, had somehow crashed face-first into the ground behind her. The cracked rocks and the surrounding collapsing buildings silently testified to the force and intensity of the impact.

One of the Aberrant Beast's claws was still stubbornly extended, but Ink Lotus could see that the "shell" that had covered its body had shattered inch by inch, revealing the flesh inside, which was also oozing pus and blood and twisted into a ball. Without a doubt, the cracking sound she had just heard was the sound of this Aberrant Beast's arm splitting open.

"... That's amazing."

She knew that her captain had done something just now. Although she didn't know what method it was, the ability to create such a scene was definitely a very peculiar one.

"It's not over yet, be careful."

Cornflower, however, remained calm. She didn't put away the ruler in her hand, but quickly held it up again. As she brought the Aberrant Beast and the ruler back into view, she also connected a part of the Aberrant Beast's body to the ground using the ruler.

This time, the "0" mark on her ruler was aligned with the surface of the pit, while the "10" mark corresponded to the mouthparts of the Aberrant Beast.

Several streaks of light flashed across the surface of the ruler, the brief brilliance proving that the Magic Armament was functioning. Then, in Nina's eyes, the Aberrant Beast that had been trying to support her as she stood up suddenly began to move strangely.

Even though it wasn't stuck by anything, the Aberrant Beast's head seemed to be frozen in place. It tried to lift its deformed head, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't do it.

It tried to move its head left and right, but could only comically move in an arc around a certain point on the ground. Visually, it looked as if there was an invisible "pole" connecting the Aberrant Beast's mouth to the ground.

It cannot stray far, for the rod is connected to its mouthparts; it cannot approach, for the rod obstructs its mouthparts.

Upon seeing this, Nina's brain, which had been nearly shut down due to tension and fear, finally regained some of its thinking ability and deduced what had happened in the moment she lowered her head.

--That means the claws of that Aberrant Beast must have been connected to the building next to it by her captain in the same way.

Because it maintained its forward momentum at the moment of connection, when it realized that its claws could not swing and could not continue downward to grab the magical girl in front of it, its body still maintained its forward inertia.

Its near-sonic speed allowed it to leap directly over the magical girls, but at the same time, its claws remained firmly pinned to the facade of a nearby building. In that instant, its initial speed transformed into a weapon that tore itself apart, completely ripping its upper limbs.

Then, the building's facade was torn apart by the enormous force, unable to further restrict the movement of the Aberrant Beast. Without this pulling force, the crippled Aberrant Beast, like an unlucky person who suddenly lets go during a tug-of-war, crashed straight down from mid-air to the ground, finally creating a shallow crater.

After several unsuccessful attempts, the Aberrant Beast finally realized what was happening. It continued to drag its head while simultaneously using all four limbs. Its twisted claws twitched unconsciously on the ground, then suddenly rose up as if injected with hormones, reaching for its mouthparts—clearly, it intended to tear off the part of its body that restricted its movement to regain its freedom.

But the Cornflower wasn't going to give it that chance.

She then revealed the ruler in her hand again. This time, she aligned the zero mark on the ruler with the claw of the Aberrant Beast, and pointed the other end directly at the Aberrant Beast's head.

Instantly, the claws of the Aberrant Beast, which were about to touch its mandibles, hovered in mid-air, unable to advance an inch.

After that, she used the same method to fix the other four limbs of the Aberrant Beast. The Aberrant Beast immediately knelt down as if it were wearing heavy shackles, and could only wriggle unnaturally in place.

This is the power of the ruler within the Cornflower "Weave Destiny" Magic Armament: "Measurement and Fixation".

Any "distance" measured by this ruler will be fixed to an unchangeable value during the Cornflower's magical effect.

However, this "distance" must be a very specific concept. For example, what she is currently fixing is the distance Aberrant Beast's "mouthparts and the ground" and the distance between the "skin of its limbs and the ground." It is precisely because of this that the situation just occurred. When she fixed the distance between the Aberrant Beast's "claw muscles and the building wall," the building could not withstand the tearing force, causing the wall to break and the Aberrant Beast to fly out.