The Collapse Race

(Ceruno)

Perhaps due to entering the wormhole and the weakened connection with Earth, Sirius has replaced Miss Terra and returned to the online world.

"Don't get too caught up in the power so quickly. Terra is bewitching you. Your existence can compensate for her system's flaws, so she wants to integrate you into her system."

Miss Terra didn't force me, and she told me without any hesitation that overusing power would turn me into Crystal.

"But she didn't stop you, and she even gagged me to stop me from speaking. How is that any different from those unscrupulous sales scammers?"

Hmm...

"Besides, knowing you'll die, you still plan to use her power? Are you stupid?"

Without her power, I couldn't protect the entire City School. If absorbing her power could protect the whole world, then my sacrifice would have been worthwhile, wouldn't it?

"Have you considered Miluno- chan... or our feelings? We don't want you to sacrifice yourself so easily. This war is already nearing its end. Don't put yourself on the scales of victory and defeat so readily. Otherwise, how is your thinking any different from A-Ji's?"

With Dad?

"Yes! Victory should be won through struggle. No one should be forced to make sacrifices, whether it's you or anyone else."

But I sacrificed myself willingly...

"No!"

Sirius is truly unreasonable.

If this continues, we might be dragged to the "The Other Side," wouldn't we?

Antarctic Star stood by the railing, then picked up a pebble from her feet. Two magical girls put their arms around her shoulders, one on each side. Then four more magical girls put their arms around the shoulders of the first two, then eight, sixteen, and thirty-two.

Just like when they hugged me before, these magical girls formed a trapezoidal formation to provide magic to the Antarctic Star...

"Oh! What is Teacher Antarctic Star going to do?"

Xiaoling followed along.

It's not hard to deduce her motives for expending so much magic to cast a spell on a stone.

She once said on Nabu Island that if she had an inexhaustible supply of magic, she could make the relative mass of an object infinitely large.

"To create... a black hole? A celestial body? Something with enough mass to affect the flight trajectory of those magnets, specifically targeting magnets."

The Antarctic Star threw the stone.

Although she is intelligent, she is also a melee-type magical girl. Her excellent physical abilities enabled the stone to make a loud bang when thrown into the wormhole. Combined with the zero-gravity nature of the wormhole, the stone flew straight out... and rolled into a ball with countless "magnets" in it.

But that's not all. The "magnetic" mass surrounding the stone began to roll rapidly to the "The Other Side," absorbing even more "magnetic" masses along the way, clearing a path through the Locust swarm.

"Oh! It seems that Professor Antarctic Star has found the answer for us?"

The answer is actually quite simple if we analyze the properties of these magnets.

They drifted along the wormhole, then returned, attaching themselves to whatever they came into contact with.

The things they came into contact with weren't limited to the City School; they included anything inside the wormhole... as well as other "magnets."

"By throwing out enough bait, we can significantly reduce the pressure on the City School and let the magical girls of creation deal with the magnets... Oh, and that one too!"

I looked at Xiao Yi...

The Proxy behind him.

"If you're awake, stop pretending to be unconscious. Get up and do something to reduce your sentence, how about that?"

The bubbles I create can block "magnets," but the Proxy's petals can have the same effect.

No response, is he really still not awake?

Is he still playing dead?

Is there any way to tell if someone is awake?

When I asked that, Xiaoling blinked and then took off the Proxy's boots.

It smells a bit bad

Rows of magical girls are striving to create the largest or the smallest objects with the least amount of magic power...

My bubbles are very cost-effective, and the magic similar to blizzards and sandstorms is also quite good. Even the frontal cyclones created by Hualun and Haite can make these magnets kill each other.

The Proxy was also working hard to create petals. Xiaoling removed her feet and threatened to throw her feet out and take away the magnets if she didn't work.

"All the Power Crystal below the factory area have been repaired! Girls, it's time to go home!"

Metal's excited voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Wuhu! Take off!"

Unseen underground, the damage control team diligently completed their mission. All forty-eight Crystal located beneath the City School were restored to power. Fully powered, the City School, resisting the onslaught of the "magnets," began to slowly accelerate towards the exit.

"Haha! They can't keep us here!"

Upon hearing this good news, Xiaoling jumped up and down, holding her Proxy's foot.

No! No, no, no!

But then Metal's urgent call came through the walkie-talkie.

"W-What's wrong?"

Her flustered tone affected me as well.

"The wormhole is about to collapse!"

The inner walls of the wormhole were contracting at a visible speed, and the magical girls who looked up noticed the anomaly, causing a brief moment of chaos...

If they can't keep us here, are they planning to destroy us inside the wormhole?

"What would happen to the objects left inside the wormhole if it collapsed?" I asked.

Xiao Yi shrugged and replied indifferently:

"Of course it would be crushed; your bubbles probably wouldn't hold up either."

That won't do...

"Miss Metal, can't you go any faster? The City School didn't fly this slowly before!"

"No way! Acceleration takes time, and those 'magnets' are still pulling on your bubble... We can't fly fast... I have an idea. Let's use the traction of these 'magnets' to get out from that side?"

I understand what she means.

"But wouldn't doing that be like walking into a trap?"

"Going out offers a glimmer of hope, but staying here means losing everything!"

While I was still hesitating, Principal Xiao Yi had already given the order.

"Metal, reverse acceleration! Everyone, pay attention... we're about to charge Past!"

Is it okay to make such a hasty decision?

"Don't be impatient, Ceruno- chan~ Xiao Yi wasn't being hasty, you know? Her judgment was correct."

Sirius, however, expressed his support for Xiao Yi's decision.

In such an urgent situation, their tone was still so nonchalant...

"Extremely urgent? We've only just arrived, and it's already extremely urgent? We can't hesitate when we need to be decisive. If we're too indecisive, we won't even have a chance to escape the wormhole from the 'The Other Side'."

"I know... but perhaps there's a better way..."

"You're not as experienced as she is. Don't treat her like a little sister. She's much calmer than you. SpiCa and I didn't bring her in as principal just to find a mascot, you know?"

Although I can no longer become a magical girl.

But was it also a legend in the past?

The magical girls no longer tried to stop the "magnet," and in the blink of an eye, a large number of black iron blocks covered the huge bubble surrounding the City School. These iron blocks pulled the bubble, causing the entire City School to accelerate in the "The Other Side."

But the wormhole seems to be collapsing... seems to be happening even faster?