Halna Midi Meren
The situation was miserable. They had drawn the enemy into the courtyard with the strategy of getting them in a scissor attack between the storage shed and the provisional base inside, and as a result, they had allowed them into a place that fundamentally shouldn’t have been possible to open. Furthermore, they had even gotten into the storage shed, and Halna had somehow managed to scramble to the entrance of the ruins. Then the enemy had destroyed the root in the storage shed, and the ruins and relic had reacted abnormally.
There were some good things. The robbers must have been wary of the shaking in the ground, as they had backed out of the courtyard. Currently, the Lightnings were positioned encircling the courtyard.
The attack was at a lull. But that was ultimately no more than a temporary thing. Up against these thieves, it was best to abandon any optimistic thinking.
So this unexpected rest period was precisely the moment to act, but contact had cut off with Kumi-Kumi and Lillian, whom Halna had sent into the ruins. Halna had arranged for a degree of communication by having Lillian tie her yarn around her waist and pulling a certain number of times, but before long, all reaction had ceased, and she pulled the yarn to no resistance at all. All that came back was a yarn that had been frayed at the end.
She had created this fusion technology after an initial failure. So she could guarantee on paper, at the very least, that they could operate within the ruins. Worst case, it should take more time for fused magical girls to exhaust themselves due to the negative effects of the ruins. It was incomprehensible that they would disappear in such a short time.
Something clearly strange was going on, but Halna didn’t have the personnel or equipment to look into it. The ruins seemed to be in a different state from usual. Something was cutting off contact with the fused magical girls, who were supposed to be resistant to magic effects. But that cause was unknown. Had the intruders done something? Was it related to these strange occurrences? Or was there some other reason? Right now, all Halna could do near the dark, cramped, musky ruins entrance was bite her nails.
She snorted.
Biting my nails? Ridiculous!
Giving up at this juncture wasn’t Halna’s style.
How about deploying another party into the depths of the ruins? If a second group met disaster, then she really would be out of luck. She was stuck. The enemy had numerical superiority. Halna had retrieved all of the fused students, but it was still not enough. The remaining students were probably dead. She couldn’t count on them. She could count on the strength of the Snow White homunculus, but there was a limit to it.
Couldn’t she make use of the provisional base? But since she had been assuming a pincer attack with the storage shed, it was not good for protecting the entrance of the ruins. And Kumi-Kumi and Lillian, who could reconstruct and repair, were gone now. Mephis and Tetty were doing their best up above, but that was it.
It’s all useless. There’s no point to any of this!
Halna looked over at the Snow White homunculus at her side. It was a little wounded, but could still fight. Her time to shine was originally supposed to have been after this fight, but getting through this was inevitably the priority.
What should I do? What should I do?
As she was thinking, time passed on by. She just paced to the right and to the left with her hands behind her back, over and over. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering if she couldn’t come up with some great plan. All she found was the dark gray stone. She looked down. Stone paving. On the way, white boots entered the corner of her vision, and her eyes went there.
Her eyes met with those of the fallen Snow White—the real one, whom she had just captured.
Snow White was staring back at Halna. Snow White slid her eyes away and lowered her face.
She was completely exhausted. Halna could sense no strength.
Halna felt that, considering the situation, of course she would be. She felt sorry for her. But more than that, Halna was disappointed in her. She was too weak to be a banner for new magical girls. Weren’t magical girls supposed to shine in difficult situations?
No, that’s not right.
It wasn’t very mature to force her own selfish ideals on the girl and then be disappointed in the reality. She was still a young girl. There was no way she wouldn’t be stricken by this situation. That was what fusion was for. First, her body would be strengthened. Bolstered by her enhanced body, she would gain confidence. If that was still no good, then Halna would use her magic. By doing this, she could eliminate Snow White’s mental weakness.
Fusing Snow White to brainwash and enhance her was one of the more realistic options, but the root in the storage shed had been severed. A number of new roots had grown out, but they had to be processed with spells, or you couldn’t draw power from them. She had no supply of energy, she was the only caster, and the tools she could use were limited—nothing was lining up, and she didn’t really want to try.
In that case…
She put her hand against the wall to steady herself. The wall was shaking quite badly, but this was no earthquake. The earthquake prevention measures for the ruins were perfect. So then what was it? She looked up the stairs. While the magical girls had been fighting, there had been some minor shaking, but never anything like this.