Chapter 270: Measurement

The scenery raced forward in Yachigusa's vision; amid the deserted streets, the massive Remnant Beast was the sole focus of her sight.

Despite its nearly thirty-meter size, the Remnant Beast moved with extraordinary agility—especially in straight-line pursuit, its speed even surpassed that of the two magical girls flying.

Thus, even though its first lunge had been dodged by Yachigusa's threads, it swiftly readjusted its posture and extended its claws once more toward the two magical girls in the air.

The slime coating its entire body proved effective at this moment: not only did it allow the creature to glide like ice-skating on dry land through the narrow street, but the splattered slime also shot forward at a speed faster than its own, drenching the two ahead.

Yachigusa had no intention of letting that strange slime touch her—the charred ground already proved these things were no ordinary substance.

"One."

So after explaining her intent to Nina, she unhesitatingly activated the ruler in her hand.

First, she pulled Nina away from the incoming slime—the slime had been flung wide from the start, leaving them almost no room to avoid it entirely—then maintained her motion without distortion, slowly raising the ruler before her.

"Two."

With the slime dodged, the few spots left in this space where she could pause were extremely limited; the remaining positions, as expected, became targets for the Remnant Beast's charge. In fact, if Yachigusa failed to produce a countermeasure now, they would almost certainly be struck head-on by this Remnant Beast.

Yet Yachigusa retained her final calm; the ruler moved steadily within her vision, seeking the most suitable position.

"Three."

Finally, the ruler halted at a precise angle in Yachigusa's sight—she judged that at this moment, the ruler perfectly connected the Remnant Beast's claw to the nearby empty building.

As she spoke, Nina obediently halted her backward momentum; just before the claw reached her face, she plunged downward sharply and lowered her head.

The displacement she made in that instant was insufficient to evade the Remnant Beast's strike—so she did this, entrusting all her faith to Yachigusa's prior command.

——"Crack!"

A tremendous sound struck her ears; she heard the instant shattering of some structure, followed by the sickening, teeth-grating crack of flesh and chitin being crushed and twisted.

"Whoosh!"

Violent wind howled past her ears—as if something had just swept over her head, leaving even the sound behind.

"Boom!"

Then, behind her, came the violent, earth-shaking impact.

Nina lifted her head and realized the Remnant Beast was gone from before her. Turning back, she saw the Remnant Beast—once nearly upon them—now buried in the ground in a dog-pile posture; cracked stones and collapsing buildings around it silently testified to the force and intensity of the collision.

One of the Remnant Beast's claws still stretched out stubbornly, but Mohe could see the "shell" covering its body had shattered into fragments, revealing the same pus-and-blood-soaked, twisted mass of flesh beneath. Undoubtedly, the cracking sound she had heard was the sound of the Remnant Beast's arm tearing apart.

"... Incredible."

She knew this was surely the result of her team leader doing something just now; though she didn't know the method, creating such a scene could only mean some extraordinary ability.

"Not over yet. Stay alert."

Beside her, Yachigusa remained composed; she did not lower her ruler but swiftly raised it again. As she re-centered the Remnant Beast and the ruler in her vision, she had already linked a part of the Remnant Beast's body to the ground via the ruler.

This time, the "0" mark on the ruler aligned with the surface of the crater, while the "10" mark corresponded to the Remnant Beast's mouthparts.

Several streaks of light flashed across the ruler's surface—brief radiance proving the magic device was functioning. Then, in Nina's eyes, the Remnant Beast, which had been trying to push itself upright, suddenly moved in a bizarre manner.

Though nothing physically restrained it, the Remnant Beast's head seemed frozen in place; it strained to lift its deformed skull, but no matter how hard it tried, it could not move.

It attempted to shift its head left and right, but only managed a comical arc motion around a single point on the ground—as if an invisible "rod" connected its mouthparts to the ground.

It could not move away, because the rod linked its mouthparts; it could not move closer, because the rod blocked its mouthparts.

Seeing this, Nina's brain—nearly frozen from tension and fear—regained some capacity for thought, and deduced what had happened during her moment of lowering her head.

—That was: the Remnant Beast's claw had been connected, by her team leader, in the same way to the nearby building.

Because at the moment of connection, it still carried its forward momentum, so when it realized its claw could not swing down or grip the magical girls, its body continued moving forward due to inertia.

At near-supersonic speed, its body flew over the magical girls—but at the same time, its claw remained anchored to the ground, firmly fixed to the building's facade. In that instant, its charging speed became a weapon tearing itself apart, completely ripping off its upper limbs.

Then, the building's facade shattered under the immense force, no longer able to restrain the Remnant Beast; deprived of that pulling force, the Remnant Beast fell like a tug-of-war opponent whose side suddenly released—straight down from midair, smashing into the ground and leaving a shallow crater.

After several failed attempts, the Remnant Beast finally seemed to grasp what had happened: it continued tugging at its head while simultaneously using all four limbs. Its twisted claws twitched aimlessly on the ground, then suddenly jerked upward like injected with stimulants, reaching for its own mouthparts—it clearly intended to tear off this limb that restricted its movement and regain freedom.

But Yachigusa had no intention of giving it that chance.

She revealed her ruler again; this time, she aligned the "0" mark with the Remnant Beast's claw, and the other end pointed directly at its head.

Instantly, the claw that had nearly touched the mouthparts froze midair, unable to advance an inch.

Afterward, she used the same method to immobilize the Remnant Beast's other limbs; the creature immediately knelt as if bound by heavy chains, only able to writhe unnaturally in place.

This was the power of Yachigusa's "Weaving Fate" magic device: the ruler's "Measurement and Fixation."

Any "distance" measured by this ruler would be fixed as an unchangeable value during Yachigusa's magical activation.

But this "distance" had to be a very specific concept—for example, what she now fixed was the "distance between the Remnant Beast's mouthparts and the ground," and the "distance between its limbs' skin and the ground." That was precisely why, when she fixed the "distance between the Remnant Beast's claw muscles and the building's wall," the wall could not withstand the tearing force and shattered, causing the Remnant Beast to be flung outward.