Chapter 141: Measuring
The scenery around her sped past in Cornflower's vision, and on the now-deserted street, the massive Remnant Beast was the only focal point in sight.
Despite its nearly 30-meter giant size, this Remnant Beast exhibited extraordinary agility, especially in its straight-line pursuit, where its speed even surpassed the flight speed of the two Magical Girls.
As a result, even though Cornflower used her thread to dodge its initial pounce, it quickly adjusted its stance and extended its claws towards the two Magical Girls in the air once again.
The slime covering its entire body came into play at this moment, enabling it to slide rapidly on the relatively narrow street like skating on dry ice. At the same time, the splattering slime flew towards the two with a speed even faster than its own.
Cornflower had no intention of getting hit by this strange slime; the charred ground already indicated that these substances were far from benign.
"One."
So after explaining her intention to Nina, she unhesitatingly used the ruler in her hand.
First, she led Nina to dodge the impending slime—the slime was scattered widely from the beginning with the purpose of casting a wide net, leaving minimal room for them to maneuver—and then, without changing her stance, she slowly raised the ruler in front of her.
"Two."
While dodging the slime, the space where she could briefly stay was extremely limited. The few remaining positions were likewise targeted by the Remnant Beast's charges. In fact, if Cornflower couldn't come up with a countermeasure next, they would almost certainly be hit head-on by the Remnant Beast.
But Cornflower remained calm until the end, moving the ruler in her vision continuously to find the most suitable position.
"Three."
Finally, the ruler hovered at a certain angle in Cornflower's view. To her, the ruler now connected the beast's claws and a nearby vacant building.
With this call, Nina immediately stopped her retreating momentum and abruptly dropped her head just before the claws almost touched her.
The displacement she made in that second was not enough to evade the beast's attack, so her action was based entirely on the trust she placed in Cornflower's earlier commands.
—"Crack"!
A tremendous sound rang in her ears at that moment. She heard the instant destruction of an edifice followed closely by the grating sound of flesh and carapace being crushed and twisted.
"Whoosh"!
The fierce wind rushed past her ears, seemingly as if something swept over her head in that instant, leaving even the sound lagging behind it.
"Boom"!
Then came the thunderous impact of a ground-wrenching crash behind her.
Nina lifted her head and found that the Remnant Beast had vanished from in front of her. Looking back, she saw that the beast, which had almost clawed at her, was now lying on the ground in a heap, the shattered stones and collapsing structures around it silently testifying to the severity of the collision.
One of its claws still reached out stubbornly, but Mo He could see that the "shell" covering its body had now cracked, exposing the pus-oozing, twisted flesh within. Without a doubt, the cracking sound she heard was the beast's arm splitting open.
"... Incredible."
She knew that her Captain had done something extraordinary. Although she didn't understand the method, creating such a scene was without a doubt the result of an extraordinary ability.
"It's not over yet, be cautious,"
But Cornflower remained calm. She didn't put away her ruler but quickly lifted it again. At the same time, she refocused on the Remnant Beast, aligning a part of its body with the ground through the ruler.
This time, the "0" mark on the ruler aligned with the pit's surface, while the "10" mark aligned with the Remnant Beast's mouth.
A few gleams flashed across the ruler's surface, and the brief luminescence indicated that the magic armor was doing its job. In Nina's view, the Remnant Beast, which had been trying to stand, suddenly started acting strangely.
Even though nothing seemed to be holding it back, the beast's head appeared stuck in place. It tried to lift its deformed head, but to no avail.
It attempted to move its head left and right, but only managed to move in a curve around a fixed point on the ground. Visually, it appeared as though an invisible "pole" connected its mouth to the ground.
It couldn't move away because the pole connected to its mouth, and it couldn't move closer because the pole restricted its mouth.
Upon seeing this, Nina's fear-paralyzed brain finally resumed some level of thinking and deduced what occurred: evidently, Cornflower's captain had connected the beast's claw to the building in the same manner.
Because it maintained the charging momentum at the moment of connection, when the beast discovered it couldn't move its claw or swing it down to grasp the Magical Girls, its body's forward momentum tore its forearm apart.
Then, the side of the building was torn apart by the immense force, losing its constraint on the beast. Like a losing participant in a tug-of-war, the Remnant Beast crashed straight into the ground, creating a shallow crater.
After several failed attempts, the Remnant Beast seemed to realize what had happened. It continued to drag its head while simultaneously using its limbs. The twisted claws twitched on the ground momentarily before abruptly rising like they were stimulated, reaching toward its mouth—clearly intending to tear off the part of its body restraining it to regain freedom.
But Cornflower had no intention of giving it this chance.
Raising the ruler in her hand once more, she aligned the "0" mark with the Remnant Beast's claw, and the other end pointed directly at its head.
At that moment, the beast's claw, which was almost about to touch its mouth, hovered frozen in the air.
Then, using the same method, she immobilized the beast's other limbs, locking them in place. The Remnant Beast, seemingly shackled by heavy chains, could only wriggle unnaturally.
This was the power of Cornflower's "Weave of Fate" magical armor: "Measure and Immobilize."
As long as the distance measured by this ruler was within Cornflower's magic power, it would be fixed as a constant, unchanging value.