Execution

"Resolved... ugh, is it resolved?"

Because one hand was still clenched into a fist, Nina couldn't completely cover her ears. When she heard the Aberrant Beast's howl, she instinctively opened her eyes wide, trying to make out the Aberrant Beast's condition through her blurred vision. She spat out a mouthful of liquid formed from melted magic and asked, her face pale.

"Not yet."

Cornflower's condition wasn't much better, but compared to Nina, she had some spare magic power to repair her body, so she could still stand steadily. "The magic power is still melting, which means this guy hasn't given up yet."

After its Corrosion Resistance was removed, the Aberrant Beast in front of the two was almost instantly injured by the liquid seeping from its own body. Even its nest-building behavior turned into a desperate gamble that would hurt both sides. However, even so, it still insisted on completing all of this, so after being interrupted by the Cornflower for a moment, it reactivated its own Rule.

The Aberrant Beast's limited intelligence prevented it from understanding the reality that its own bodily fluids were harming it. Therefore, it believed that the magical girls in front of it were the ones who had hurt it, and that it had to eat the two magical girls to stop being injured.

Undoubtedly, Cornflower's actions have made the Aberrant Beast's condition just as bad as theirs, allowing both sides to finally start fighting on equal footing; however, if the Aberrant Beast's Rule are allowed to continue, the final result will likely be that the magical girl and the Aberrant Beast melt together here.

This is not the result Cornflower wanted.

Therefore, she needs to go even further.

With a slight manipulation of the Scissor Magic Armament in her hands, accompanied by flashes of silver-blue light, the ruler and silk threads reappeared in her grasp. The three forms of "Weave Destiny" now existed simultaneously before Cornflower.

She flicked her finger, suspending several magical threads in front of her, calmly observing their changes while silently counting the seconds. Ultimately, from the appearance of the threads to their melting, she concluded that it took "3 seconds."

"Captain, is there any other way?"

Nina, leaning against the Cornflower, began to gasp for breath—a sign that her magical energy was nearing depletion. As Leaf Rank magical girl, Nina's magical energy was far less than that of the Blossom Rank Cornflower, and even less than that of the Half-Molt before her. With a large amount of magical energy melting along with her body, and with the continuous use of her Magic Armament, she was clearly about to collapse. "I... I feel like I might not be able to hold on for much longer..."

The slime wall that Grip of the Present ability was blocking has begun to spread outwards, showing a tendency to bypass the stagnant air. Therefore, Nina can only continuously bring more air into the range of her Magic Armament's ability. This also causes her magical energy consumption to increase and decrease faster.

"What should I do... I don't want to die." She almost groaned as she squeezed out the words.

Don't worry, you won't die.

Cornflower's incredibly calming voice reached her ears.

She released her fingers from the thread, silently counting the "3 seconds" she had observed. Cornflower curled her lips slightly and held up the ruler in her hand. "3 seconds, that's enough. Next, it's time to execute this wretched thing."

"Huh? How do I do it?"

Nina almost instinctively looked at the Cornflower: "Attack it with Magic Armament and it will melt. As for Spell Formula, I just tried one, and even the runes turned into water... Is there any other way to attack it?"

Her concerns were not unfounded. Judging from the previous situation, all of their attack methods had become somewhat ineffective under the strange Rule of this Aberrant Beast. Even if they rushed up to fight the Aberrant Beast hand-to-hand, they had to take into account the huge size difference and the corrosive slime covering the Aberrant Beast's body.

In this situation, Cornflower's suggestion to "execute" the Aberrant Beast seemed utterly absurd to Nina.

However, Cornflower did not answer Nina's question. She had already begun her own actions.

Extending the slightly melted ruler forward, Cornflower squinted one eye, as if aiming an arrow, aligning the "0" mark on it with the center of the Aberrant Beast's body.

Then, she used her other hand to slightly open the other end of the ruler, as if drawing a bowstring, so that the thread would get stuck at the "10" mark on the ruler.

Weave Destiny.

She silently recited the incantation, and the ruler's power activated, fixing the distance between the silk thread and the Aberrant Beast's body to "10" on the ruler.

There's no need to calculate units or conform to real-world spatial positions; as long as it's measured, the distance between the two will always be "10" for her Magic Armament.

Then, Cornflower released her grip on the thread and picked up the scissors beside her.

In order to free up her own magic power, she abandoned the separation of the concept of "Corrosion Resistance" for a moment. The Aberrant Beast in front of her was already severely injured by the liquid corrosion, and continuing to separate the concept would not cause much damage in a short time, so she chose to pause.

Then, she fully mobilized her spare magic power, pointing the blade of the scissors at the ruler in her hand.

One second has passed since she began to condense the silk threads.

10.

As if making some kind of declaration, she uttered the number softly.

The "snip" of the scissors rang out along with the announcement, the blade closed, and it cut straight into the ruler in her hand.

A silvery-blue light emanated from the blade of the scissors, then spread to the extended ruler, and finally, shone brightly along with the silk thread.

Then, the distance between the "0" and "10" marks on the ruler in Cornflower's hand disappeared.

Along with it, the silk threads that should have been aligned with the "10" mark also disappeared. When these silk threads reappeared, they were now aligned with the "0" mark.

The "0" and "10" markings overlap.

The Aberrant Beast's body overlapped with the silk threads.

Two seconds have passed, which means that the thread has only one second left before it melts.

But that's enough for Cornflower.

The scissors in her hand transformed into scattered magical specks of light. Cornflower touched her fingers to the silk thread again, and then suddenly pulled downwards.

The blue light traced a light trajectory, leaving afterimages on the Aberrant Beast's body. The thread that was originally overlapping with the Aberrant Beast's shape suddenly dispersed into countless segments, unfolding from the original point in the Aberrant Beast's body into a huge silk net.

The three seconds had come to an end, but even though the time limit had been reached, the threads that had spread out into a net-like shape showed no signs of melting for some reason.

Even the Aberrant Beast itself was unaware of what was happening. It stretched out its claws, still trying to approach the magical girls in front of it, because it needed food and needed to stop itself from being harmed by food.

However, the outstretched claws were destined never to touch the "prey" before them.

Because, just as its claws were about to straighten, they had already turned into countless scattered pieces of flesh, which fell to the ground.