Chapter 271: Melting

After restricting the movements of the remaining beast, Cornflower briefly sensed her current magic usage, then stopped measuring and ceased using the ability of her Ruler Magic Gear.

The half-molt she now faced possessed a total magic reserve far deeper than that of an ordinary remaining beast, so the consumption when using her ability against it increased significantly; merely initially restraining the opponent's movements had already consumed nearly forty percent of her output.

She did not intend to pour the remaining sixty percent of her output into the Ruler's ability, because achieving the current level was already sufficient; if this remaining beast possessed no other tricks, it would be almost impossible for it to break free from the Magic Gear's shackles.

So, would this half-molt be completely out of tricks now?

A sense of danger, sharp as a thorn in her back, told Cornflower that it probably would not.

From the moment she first saw this remaining beast, she had always had this premonition: when the beast broke free from its cage, when it pursued the two of them, and now, even though the beast appeared to be kneeling on the ground, seemingly unable to counterattack, the feeling remained the same.

Largely due to this psychological pressure, Cornflower felt sweat sliding down her cheek; she almost instinctively reached out and wiped it away with the back of her hand, but immediately froze in surprise.

Sweat?

She repeated the word in her mind, looked at the back of her hand, and felt a slight burning sensation now clinging to her cheek and the back of her hand; moreover, she could even see tiny magic particles slowly rising from the spot where she had wiped away the "sweat."

If one were to ask whether magical girls actually sweat, the answer is yes. Because high-intensity activity and magic usage inevitably raise body temperature, and to cool the body to a certain extent, as well as to align with the physiological habits magical girls had as humans, magical girls also produce sweat and tears.

However, correspondingly, to elicit a reaction like "sweating" from a magical girl requires extremely high intensity, a battle so consuming that it drains one severely.

For Cornflower, the process of the game between the two sides since she first saw this remaining beast was indeed thrilling. But up until now, she had not consumed too much magic, or rather, her body was not yet "tired" on the level of a magical girl, so there was no reason for sweat to appear at this moment.

Then, what was this somewhat damp feeling all over her body?

"C-captain, I feel something is not quite right..."

At this moment, Nina on the side also spoke up to remind her. Cornflower looked in the direction of the other and found that Nina's face was also glistening with moisture, looking quite wet:

"I just feel a suffocating sensation, as if being trapped underwater."

What Nina said was almost exactly what Cornflower was feeling at this moment.

Clearly, the surroundings were still the streets of Runore, but Cornflower now felt as though she were stepping in a swamp, or even in a pool of water, and was constantly sinking deeper into the water. The damp and suffocating sensation began at her neck and constantly spread upward until it completely submerged her body.

She must deal with this remaining beast in front of her as soon as possible.

In the next instant, she made this decision and almost immediately deployed her threads, but when she prepared to strike this already trapped half-beast, she witnessed an extremely shocking scene.

—This remaining beast, amidst constant writhing, seemed to shed its outer skin like molting.

The term "molting" is not even strictly accurate, because when that layer of skin fell from its body, it could hardly be called "skin" or "shell" anymore; it was a semi-solid, semi-liquid mixture resembling rotten mud.

Its previously comical writhing was not useless struggling, but an effort to "drill out" from within this outer skin. Once it broke free from that layer of skin locked to the ground, it naturally regained the ability to move.

The slime that had originally seeped from its body was now overflowing and flowing down from it like a faucet, constantly. It stood up unsteadily, resembling a broken water pipe constantly leaking.

Seeing this scene, Cornflower could no longer allow it to take further action, so she directly manipulated her threads, intending to turn them directly into blades to slice apart the remaining beast, which had lost the protection of its pupal shell. But even this plan failed, because she discovered that her threads had turned soft and limp almost before they even touched the remaining beast's body, resembling noodles soaked in water.

These noodle-like threads draped over the remaining beast, were quickly shaken off by it, splashed onto the ground, and merged with the slime.

The threads had failed.

This fact made Cornflower's heart sink.

The premonition of danger from her arrival had now almost solidified into substance, turning into a chorus of alarms in Cornflower's mind. These alarms desperately warned her of certain terrible situations occurring and seemed to want her to notice something.

What had she overlooked?

Cornflower constantly forced herself to think, her eyes darting rapidly as she observed everything happening around her: the slime splattered everywhere on the streets and surrounding buildings, the remaining beast constantly oozing liquid from somewhere like a broken water pipe, and herself and Nina, who for some reason were becoming increasingly wet.

In this entire scene, there seemed to be a certain common keyword.

—Getting wet.

Yes, everything around was getting wet.

From the moment this remaining beast broke free from that cage, this process had been continuing; while this remaining beast pursued the two magical girls, it was also constantly splashing the slime from its body onto the surroundings.

And if this process of getting wet only affected itself and the surrounding environment, that would be one thing, but now it seemed to be affecting Cornflower and Nina as well. Then, the nature of this behavior also seemed to have a corresponding answer.

—This is its Rule.

Although the specific principle of this Rule was still unknown, its effect seemed to be making things wet. Moreover, the liquid produced by this wetting was extremely similar in composition to the slime on its body, so both possessed strong corrosive properties.

"Aaaaaah, Captain, Captain, my clothes!"

Cornflower could already hear Nina screaming. She glanced to her side and saw that Nina's entire body was beginning to become soaked. Amber magic points constantly floated up from around her, indicating that her body was constantly leaking magic, and these were clearly manifestations of her magic body being corroded.

Of course, what Nina cared about most at this moment was actually another matter—her magic outfit was also being corroded.

That witch-style dress, which originally looked incredibly thick and sturdy, began to become ragged; while dripping water constantly, it started to collapse with more and more holes, like a paper napkin soaked through by water.

Seeing this scene, Cornflower silently turned her head away, not continuing to watch Nina's miserable state, and instead raised her hand to look at her own clothes. Only upon looking did she discover that her magic outfit, just like Mohe's, was showing signs of corrosion.

However, this scene, which might be considered "indecent," could not make Cornflower feel any sentimental emotions in her heart, simply because her vision revealed an even more shocking, and extremely ominous, scene:

Her hand was melting too.

A magical girl's body is primarily composed of magic, so when magic encounters problems, it inevitably manifests on the body. Even the most dull-witted person should have realized the current situation and gradually understood what this remaining beast in front of them had actually done.

—Turning magic into corrosive slime.

This was one of the Rules belonging to the half-molt on this remaining beast.

It had already used its Rule, even at the cost of turning its own body and its own pupal shell into slime, into resources, simply because it wanted to use this slime to do something more beneficial to it:

Build a nest.