Chapter 76: A Moment of Stasis

Su Muxue and Fang Xiaobai understood clearly.

Interrupting the beast’s casting process, and more specifically, damaging its wings with their previous attack, had all been nothing more than a coincidence.

Just as Su Qingyao had initially explained to Su Muxue, the part of the beast that absorbed magic would not inherently become a glaring weakness.

Its defensive strength remained unchanged, and their attacks would not suddenly become more effective against it.

The only reason their efforts had yielded results was that Su Muxue’s attack had coincidentally struck one of the beast’s actual vulnerabilities.

So, what then was the true purpose of targeting the magic absorption points?

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Su Muxue felt the magic swiftly surge into the vacuum, allowing the magical girls to regain flight and preventing them from plummeting to their demise.

Yet, the wings that had just siphoned a vast amount of magic, storing it in crimson, blood-stained “alveoli,” were already trembling incessantly, clearly preparing to cast a second spell.

This next spell would undoubtedly be the beast’s most terrifying assault yet.

Even under Fang Xiaobai’s magic, no exploitable weaknesses could be discerned any longer.

Every fruit suspended in the sky represented a high-intensity magical reaction; even if the magical girls concentrated their attacks to destroy one, it would prove utterly futile.

“This truly is bad luck, wouldn’t you say?” Su Muxue remarked, her voice flat.

The two magical beasts they had proactively summoned today were entirely unlike the ones she remembered battling, existing on a completely different level of power.

Normally, no matter how cunning a magical beast, its magical strength and limits were fixed; a typical Tier 3 beast being overwhelmed and defeated by six trainees should have been a matter of course.

Yet, something was undeniably amiss.

First, there was the Bat Serpent, and now this twisted, somewhat indescribable creature.

Could it simply be that their luck was extraordinarily poor?

Fortunately, this streak of ‘bad luck’ did not impede the plan they had laid out.

“Well, can you still see it now?” Su Muxue asked, casually dismissing her magic staff.

She pressed both hands to her head, slowly rubbing the brim of her hat.

Her mood was inevitably a little tense now.

The other four magical girls were retreating, while Teacher Xu Yanqing had already begun casting her [Starfall Night].

Beneath the blood-scented dome, only two young Tier 3 magical girls remained, calmly suspended mid-air, attending to their tasks.

No, more accurately, Su Muxue was idle until Fang Xiaobai completed her mission.

She even found a moment to glance back at Su Qingyao, who stood within the barrier.

Su Muxue saw her mother standing quietly by the window, watching her.

The silent figure, with a smile that made Su Muxue’s heart tremble, was seeing her daughter off as she engaged in such perilous actions.

Su Qingyao did not intervene.

Therefore, Su Muxue understood that Su Qingyao had faith in her.

The cat-like girl tightened her grip on her hat brim, then turned her head to face the magic fruits filling the sky.

“Su Muxue, Fang Xiaobai, retreat now!” Xu Yanqing’s shout arrived belatedly.

If Su Muxue and Fang Xiaobai were to retreat voluntarily, they might just manage to escape the range before the spell completed.

However, both Xu Yanqing and Su Muxue knew this was an impossible feat.

The coalescing masses of magic were undeniably locked onto the white-haired magical girl who had inflicted countless injuries and obstacles earlier.

In the preceding battle, Su Muxue had caused an excessively severe amount of damage.

So much so that she had irrevocably become a thorn in the beast’s side.

The others’ orderly retreat was contingent upon Su Muxue, the primary target, remaining perfectly still.

But what did that have to do with Su Muxue herself?

At a certain point.

Su Muxue lifted her gaze, looking up at the false, obscured sky, her serene face devoid of fear.

Behind her, Xu Yanqing’s completed Starfall Night was poised, awaiting only the caster to pull the ‘trigger’.

Though Starfall Night would likely fail to catch the ‘constellation’ that had already begun to flicker in the reeking sky, soon to burst forth in a grand display.

Yet, even this constellation was not the first to usher in the true magic of this moment.

This time, once again, a single beam of light guided everything.

Fang Xiaobai’s light reflected off the colossal, sky-obscuring wings, pinpointing an ordinary, unassuming spot.

Then, following closely, was the surging magical power erupting from a pristine white figure.

Between the ravaged, scarred, and muddy earth, and the black, false ‘night sky’ littered with grotesque stars—

The pure, untainted magical girl stood firm.

Su Muxue tugged at her hat brim with one hand, concealing her chaotic, lusterless eyes within the faint shadows.

The girl extended her other hand, pointing towards the sky, and then calmly declared:

“Stop.”

Spoken with a slightly childish accent, yet it sounded like an irrefutable command.

Immediately after, an eerie crackling sound resonated, like an old motor suddenly sputtering with an unexpected malfunction.

The air solidified for a fleeting instant.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Masses of purple magic detonated in a chain reaction, each explosion interlocking with the next in a colossal burst.

Su Muxue’s magic, in reality, was not about low temperatures at all.

To put it another way: the ‘low temperature’ aspect of her unique magic was merely a fallback, a result of her magical intensity being temporarily insufficient to achieve the spell’s ‘original objective’.

This then raised a question: what was the true nature of Su Muxue’s magic?

Pondering this, Su Muxue had once embarked on numerous attempts and experiments, eventually stumbling upon a method that allowed her to ‘transcend’ her current level and experience the full potential of her magic.

It was a power so immense, so overwhelming, that it pushed Su Muxue’s magic to a degree that even her own magical core could barely withstand.

Under such conditions, Su Muxue was granted a glimpse into the future trajectory of her unique magic, allowing her to deduce the core ‘reason’ that had initially led to its manifestation.

So, what was the outcome of Su Muxue’s experiments?

It was, in fact, remarkably simple: [Stasis].

It was a magic born from a moment when Su Muxue was in a state where consciousness should have been utterly impossible.

It was a unique magic, stemming from the girl’s profound desire to preserve something.

It allowed the girl to fix a concept.

Thus, Su Muxue leveraged the very concept of the magical beast absorbing magic, using its body to push the magical concentration past the ‘qualitative change’ threshold.

With Fang Xiaobai’s assistance, Su Muxue had simply located her own magical essence.

She ultimately chose to ‘fix’ a portion of the magic’s flow.

To magic that was constantly in motion and intensely active, the sudden appearance of static magic was akin to an unexpected obstruction.

It wasn’t merely about disrupting a spell’s application.

The answer was a malfunction, followed by the magic spiraling out of control—

And a spectacular explosion, much like a grand fireworks display.