Chapter 273: Execution

"Resolved… puked, resolved it?"

Because one hand still maintained a clenched fist, Nina couldn't fully cover her ears. When she heard the Remnant Beast's howls, she instinctively widened her eyes, trying to see the Remnant Beast's condition through her blurred vision. She spat out a liquid formed from melted magic, her face pale as she asked.

"Not yet."

Cornflower's condition wasn't good either, but compared to Nina, she had enough spare magic to repair her body, so she could still stand steadily: "The magic is still melting—this thing hasn't given up."

After losing its corrosion resistance, the Remnant Beast was instantly wounded by the fluids seeping from its own body; even its nest-building behavior became a suicidal tactic of killing a thousand while losing eight hundred. Yet despite this, it persisted in completing its goal, and after being interrupted by Cornflower for a moment, it reactivated its rule.

The Remnant Beast's deficient intelligence prevented it from understanding the reality that "its own bodily fluids were harming it," so it believed only the magical girl before it was hurting it, and that it must devour these two magical girls to stop being injured.

Undoubtedly, Cornflower's actions had brought the Remnant Beast's condition to the same dire state as theirs; both sides were finally on equal footing to continue fighting. Yet if the Remnant Beast's rule continued unchecked, the end result would likely be both the magical girl and the Remnant Beast melting together here.

This was not the outcome Cornflower wanted.

So, she had to go further.

With a slight adjustment of her scissors magic device, silver-blue light points flickered, and the ruler and threads reappeared in her hands. All three forms of "Weaving Fate" now coexisted before Cornflower.

She curled her fingers, suspending several magic threads before her, calmly observing their changes while silently counting seconds. Ultimately, from their appearance to their melting, she concluded an observation of "3 seconds."

"Captain, is there still a way?"

Nina, leaning on Cornflower, could no longer control her breathing—this was a sign her magic reserves were nearing depletion. As a Leaf-level magical girl, Nina's magic was far inferior to Cornflower's Bud-level and the Remnant Beast's half-transcended state. With massive amounts of magic and her body continuously melting, and her magic device still active, she was clearly on the verge of collapse: "I—I feel I can't hold on much longer…"

The wall of viscous fluid blocked by Hold Now had begun spreading outward, showing signs of bypassing the stagnant air, forcing Nina to continuously draw more air into her device's range. This caused her magic consumption to rise sharply and accelerate.

"What do we do… I don't want to die." She nearly groaned the words from her throat.

"Don't worry, you won't die."

Cornflower's voice, impossibly calm, reached her ears.

Releasing her grip on the threads, silently reciting the "3 seconds" she had observed, Cornflower slightly smiled and raised her ruler: "Three seconds is enough. Now, it's time to execute this damn thing."

"Huh? How?"

Nina instinctively looked at Cornflower: "Attacking it with a magic device will melt it. If I use a spell, I just tried—the runes turned to water… Is there any other way to attack it?"

Her concern was not unfounded. From previous events, all their attack methods had become ineffective under the Remnant Beast's bizarre rule. Even charging in for hand-to-hand combat would require overcoming its massive size difference and its entire body covered in corrosive slime.

Under these circumstances, Cornflower's claim of "execution" sounded like a fairy tale to Nina.

But Cornflower didn't answer Nina again. She had already begun her action.

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

Then, with her other hand, she slightly spread open the other end of the ruler, like drawing a bowstring, letting the thread lock onto the "10" mark.

Weaving Fate.

She silently chanted the name, and the ruler's ability activated, fixing the distance between the thread and the Remnant Beast's body as exactly "10" on the ruler.

No calculation of units was needed, nor did it need to conform to real spatial positions. As long as it was measured, for her magic device, the distance between the two was forever "10."

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

To free up her own magic expenditure, she abandoned the separation of the concept "corrosion resistance." The Remnant Beast had already been severely wounded by its own fluids; further separation of this concept wouldn't inflict much damage in a short time, so she chose to pause.

Then, she channeled all the freed magic output, directing the scissors' blades toward the ruler in her hand.

One second had passed since she first formed the threads.

"10."

Like a declaration, she softly spoke the number.

The "click" of the scissors echoed with the declaration—the blades closed, cleanly cutting directly across the ruler in her hand.

Silver-blue light erupted from the scissors' blades, spreading to the extended ruler, and finally radiating along with the thread.

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

Simultaneously, the thread that should have aligned with the "10" mark also vanished. When the thread reappeared, it was now aligned with the "0" mark.

The "0" and "10" marks had merged.

The Remnant Beast's body and the thread had merged.

Two seconds had passed, meaning only one second remained before the thread melted.

But for Cornflower, this was enough.

The scissors in her hand dissolved into scattered magic light points. Cornflower touched the thread again with her fingers, then yanked downward sharply.

Blue light traced a light trajectory, leaving a series of afterimages across the Remnant Beast's body. The thread that had merged with the Remnant Beast's form suddenly split into countless segments, radiating outward from a single origin point into a vast web.

Three seconds had ended. Yet despite reaching its limit, the webbed threads showed no sign of melting.

Even the Remnant Beast itself didn't understand what had happened. It extended its claws, still trying to approach the magical girls, for it needed food—it needed to stop being harmed by food.

But its extended claws were doomed to never touch the "prey" before it.

For at the moment its claws were about to fully extend, they had already turned into countless fragments of flesh, falling to the ground.