The straight-line distance between Gunma and Osaka exceeds four hundred kilometers.
Therefore, Asakura did not set out by directly driving the old Ford car, but instead used a forced exit to teleport straight to the Table of Lost Grace at the Roundhold Table—starting from Sobu High was actually a bit closer to Osaka.
Other than that, he naturally had some other things to do.
For instance, bringing along some things that might be used, like Essence of Dittany and the like.
"Every time at a moment like this, I envy Yui's Napoleon... shouldn't storage space be a standard setup for a protagonist?"
Asakura mumbled.
The light source inside the coven cabin remained unidentified; even though there were no electric lights, it didn't appear excessively dim, but rather the light wobbled and wavered, carrying the kind of beauty found in an old witch's house in a fairy tale.
A massive cauldron sat at the edge of the room, its iron walls blackened repeatedly by smoke, with remnants of uncleansed marks lingering around the rim. If one poked their head into the pot, they could still smell an indescribable scent of rotten cabbage—this thing clearly reinforced the déjà vu of an old witch's house.
Looking at this thing, if the situation weren't so urgent right now, Asakura even had an urge to refer to the Half-Blood Prince's notes and try brewing a new potion formula.
The shelves against the wall were piled high with materials of unknown purpose; those were things Asakura had fleeced from his own system before obtaining magic spells, and the vast majority of them remained "meaningless" even now. The more legitimate ones, like gemstones, had been sold off by him to exchange for living expenses, which felt a bit regrettable thinking about it now, as he had no idea what those gemstones were actually used for.
On one side of the shelves, a small space was partitioned off with wooden boards, which had been set up by Asagumo Chahaya. Stacked neatly upon it were various tea canisters, ranging from black tea to flower teas that looked like dried floral specimens, all the way to various nameless blended teas that Asakura couldn't even recognize—in a certain sense, these teas were more trustworthy than the other magical materials on the shelves themselves.
A dilapidated sofa sat in the corner of the room, its springs collapsed and fabric worn, yet it was surprisingly soft.
Honestly, compared to calling the coven cabin by the strangely ambiguous name of 'Ministry of Magic', it looked much more like a base where a group of people had seriously fooled around.
"Oh."
At this moment, an indistinct voice came from inside the room, sounding a bit like a sleep-muttering: "How come you're here?"
Asakura turned his head to look, and found that within the poster on the wall, Hoshino Ai was rubbing her bleary eyes while asking him.
"Just coming over to grab some things."
Asakura retracted his gaze, dragged out a backup hiking backpack from under the sofa, and then stuffed the Essence of Dittany from the shelves into the backpack all at once.
He pondered for another brief moment, then grabbed the Sorting Hat from the top of the shelves.
"Looks like a major operation this time." The Sorting Hat, which had originally stayed completely silent pretending to be a normal hat, mumbled: "Being able to go out for some fresh air, fantastic."
"If you can be a bit quieter, perhaps I will bring you out a few more times," Asakura said.
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"
The Sorting Hat protested by hardening its resolve—even though it didn't have a scalp.
"Are you on good terms with Nukimizu?" Asakura asked out of the blue.
"He is a brave and loyal Gryffindor," the Sorting Hat lamented, clearly thinking very highly of Nukumizu Kazuhiko.
At the very least, its attitude was a whole lot better than back when it had screamed 'Azkaban' at Asakura.
"Keke, if you don't want Nukimizu to run into trouble, then cooperate well with my work," Asakura said.
"Do you even count as a wizard like this!" the hat shouted.
"I'm sorry, I am Azkaban," Asakura replied with a cold face, and then stuffed it into the hiking backpack.
"At least keep my disposable underwear separated ga-ah-ah-ah-ah..."
The hat's pathetic wail was coldly cut off behind the zipper by Asakura.
He put on the backpack properly, confirmed that the shoulder straps hadn't loosened, and subsequently pushed the door open to leave the coven cabin.
During the summer vacation, the lights in the hallway were naturally not turned on. The rain clouds over a hundred kilometers away had not been able to affect this area, and the moonlight outside drifted through the glass into the hallway, allowing Asakura to barely see the path beneath his feet.
He quickened his steps, arrived before the window on the side of the hallway, and reached out to push the window open.
He adjusted his backpack forward a bit first to avoid it swaying during the drop, then gripped the windowsill with both hands, leaned his body out of the window, and simply leaped straight down. With the magic spell [Scale] creating an invisible landing point, jumping down from a height like the second floor was a total piece of cake.
After standing firmly with the ease of a cat, he quickly took a step back and looked up at the location of the security booth not far away, confirming that the commotion just now hadn't alerted the school's security—though even if it had alerted them, it wouldn't matter; worst-case scenario he'd just turn them into snakes and let them curl up anywhere to deal with the night, but doing that would inevitably leave a bit of a sequel.
For instance, the bullfrogs in the nearby Chinese restaurants might become exceptionally hot sellers or something.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, it was better to depart secretly like this without a soul knowing.
Plus, it had a lot of style.
Asakura instinctively tightened the shoulder straps of his backpack and turned to run toward the sports field.
The old Ford car was already waiting for him there; if his movements were any slower, that fellow might just start running off to chase grasshoppers.
"Alright, let's set out quickly. Hopefully things can still hold out on Ruri's end."
☆
The empty ground on the outskirts of Osaka was enveloped by a thick, heavy fog, but despite it being foggy weather, the air remained terrifyingly dry, making one unable to stop themselves from wondering what the true nature of the 'fog' actually was.
What was even more anomalous was that even though the visibility range of the fog had clearly been compressed to less than ten meters, 'certain things' were able to violate common sense, showing their bizarrely distorted, massive silhouettes in the distance.
Along the breakwater on the outskirts, weeds and collapsed fences overlapped and covered one another.
Ruri and Haruno stood in the distance, noticing the massive silhouette ahead.
Different from the humanoid Siren Head, that thing's body size was far more immense—if one used the high-rise skyscrapers beside it, which were almost turning into tiny specks, as a reference point, its body size had already exceeded a hundred meters, heading toward a terrifying scale measured in kilometers.
An ordinary biological creature on Earth could not possibly grow to such a massive size, because bones and muscles would be unable to support that hyper-normal, terrifying weight.
To put it in simpler and more easily understandable terms, it meant that 'only creatures possessing supernatural power can become this colossal'.
The physical characteristics of the giant beast were also completely different from natural organisms. Its arms—if those things covered in tentacles could even be called arms—were abnormally long, their joint angles naturally looking up toward the sky, and its body was covered in a dull white, rough material close to the color of a tree trunk, though contours of joints and muscles could occasionally be seen.
The fog flowed slowly around it, yet it was unable to conceal its volume.
The monster's head had no obvious facial features; only two recessed areas could be distinguished, resembling eyes, but it was impossible to confirm whether they possessed visual functions.
Its specific form was so bizarre that even a monster like Siren Head appeared far more docile by comparison.
Here is the exact translation of the text, keeping the paragraph breaks entirely intact, followed by the list of new names and terms.
A terrifying body size exceeding a kilometer, even if standing completely still, could bring a sense of oppression to the surrounding air. At least, both Ruri and Haruno clearly felt the heavy constraint in the atmosphere—the street, which had been quite lively just a moment ago, was now much quieter. An instinctive fear of colossal things drove people to leave the completely exposed streets and flee into buildings. The faint roar of car engines could still be heard; clearly, some people felt that rather than being viewed as prey by this kind of monster, it was better to take the risk of driving through the fog and leave immediately. However, the violent sounds of crashes and the indistinct cries and wails a moment later proved that the other party had lost the gamble.
A low, deep howling diffused through the fog.
Ruri and Haruno made almost no sound of breathing; even a slight movement beneath their feet at a time like this felt as though it would be infinitely magnified.
The fog swirled around it, disrupting the sense of space and making it appear even taller, larger, and more ground-occupying than it actually was.
"Master Ruri, a monster of this size... can you deal with it?" Haruno asked in a low voice.
"There is no necessity for battle."
Ruri replied, looking extremely calm, but in reality, her heart was in utter turmoil.
The monster clearly looked as if it were right before their eyes, but this was actually a visual illusion. It was just like how a mountain appears to be not far away, yet trying to reach the foot of it actually requires walking for an entire day—the saying "looking at a mountain rides a horse to death" operates on exactly this principle.
It was the same at this moment; the monster appeared to be within arm's reach, but the young girl discovered that her magic spell could not lock onto the target, clearly indicating it was well out of range.
Perhaps in a certain sense it could be considered a good thing? At least it looked like it would be relatively safe.
"According to the monster universe mythos created by Trevor Henderson, the thing appearing right now is named 'The Birdwatcher', which is a relatively docile type among the Titans."
Ruri continued.
"Docile, well that's good then..."
Haruno had barely finished speaking when she saw the giant monster, as if peeling open a tin can, plunge that arm-like contraption straight into a skyscraper right by its feet.
When that massive, limb-like structure pulled back out, the tentacles on it were already completely filled with screaming humans.
Yet the monster paid absolutely no heed, simply shoving the limb into an oral cavity that was presumably its mouth to lick it, swallowing the humans on top straight into its mouth.
"Do... docile...?"
Haruno looked back at Ruri again, her tone sounding rather skeptical.
"It is also very normal for differences to exist between a creation and reality."
Ruri took a deep breath.
She had no idea when Takuma-senpai would be able to rush over; had she known earlier when the fog began to permeate, she should have contacted him directly the moment she sensed something was amiss.
It was all my own conceit that allowed the situation to progress to such a terrible state.
The kind-hearted girl blamed herself in her heart.
The fact that people were dying at every single moment made it impossible for her to feel at peace with herself.
If things continued like this, the number of casualties and deaths would probably exceed several thousand, making it far more hazardous than even a standard natural disaster.
She could no longer sit by idly and watch, living out a cowardly, stolen peace.
"Although it hasn't truly been tested yet..."
Ruri continued to breathe deeply.
It wasn't purely for the sake of calming down, but carried a far more definite purpose.
That was the further refining of her magical energy.
"Miss Yukinoshita, you should leave first. The battle that follows might very well spread over to your side."
"Even if Master Ruri puts it that way, the reality is that inside this fog right now, I don't even know where would count as safe. It's better for me to continue staying by your side; at least psychologically it gives me some comfort."
Haruno, however, had absolutely no intention of leaving.
Aside from the reasons she stated, there were naturally deeper levels of motivation.
For instance, if she were to run away now, her impression points with Ruri—and especially with Asakura Takuma—would likely take a massive hit, which was clearly not a good bargain.
For another instance, Asakura Takuma was already rushing back toward this location right now. Compared to Ruri, that person was clearly the true heavyweight. If she left now, he probably wouldn't be in a hurry to look for her when he arrived; at that point, her safety would be entirely left to fate. It was better to continue waiting right here until Asakura Takuma reached the battlefield to ensure her safety.
Ruri glanced at her and didn't say much else.
Although she was somewhat touched that the other party trusted her so much, during her interactions with Haruno, Ruri always felt that the woman's thoughts weren't entirely pure—at the very least, interacting with Yukino, who seemed difficult to get along with on the surface, was far less draining than dealing with Haruno.
Ruri forced herself to re-concentrate her attention.
Takuma-senpai had once discussed advanced applications of magic spells with her, such as flash-sigils or composite magic spells.
However, back then, the young girl had only mastered a single magic spell, [Beast], so she didn't truly grasp much from Asakura's experiences; she merely felt a sense of blankness akin to learning mathematics, and advanced calculus at that.
But this didn't mean the young girl would perpetually stand still; Takuma-senpai wouldn't wait around for her forever in the same spot.
Ever since the incident at Chiba Port Tower, Ruri had constantly questioned herself internally, hoping that she could take a step further. It made her exceptionally sad whenever things went wrong with her magic spells.
Yet once she crossed that threshold and her magic spell returned transformed into [Beast], Ruri also felt that her own mindset had undergone a slight change. Her comprehension of the magic spell itself had developed further, and she began to understand a portion of the things she previously found completely incomprehensible.
"Magical energy... refining complete..."
Although she only possessed a single magic spell and couldn't achieve a 'composite' form like Takuma-senpai, conversely, [Beast]—which allowed her to transform into and manipulate beast-types at will—inherently possessed the characteristics of a composite magic spell.
Since that was the case, on the foundation of refining magical energy, if she threw in a large-scale magic spell output, would she be able to unleash even greater power?
The answer was no.
The output of a magic spell, or rather the consumption of magical energy, was in most cases calculated based on the final effect brought about by the spell. In other words, as long as the magical energy was sufficient, the inherent output of the magic spell itself was infinite.
Then, to further bring out the power of a magic spell, what needed to be done?
Ruri agonized over it for a long time, eventually arriving at a few answers after referencing the [Candle Flash Sigil] that Takuma-senpai had once left with her.
Since she couldn't alter the output, she would optimize the framework of the magic spell, allowing it to more easily achieve effects that were originally unattainable.
The original magic spell [Beast] could only create creatures that existed in reality, at most throwing together a flesh-stitched chimera—the kind where all body parts had to belong to normal organisms, and which generally could only sustain activity for a period of time before dying of organ failure.
But now, what the young girl desired was a magic spell that could truly create creatures that did not exist in reality.
She named it—
"Magic - [Great Beast]!"