Outer Space Station.
Only about twenty minutes had passed since the crisis threatening the annihilation of the Northern Hemisphere began.
A certain bun-girl felt her head grow dizzy, a powerful wave of vertigo washing over her without end. She barely managed to steady herself.
When she drew that wooden bow, it was as if she had brushed against some unknown realm, triggering a bizarre shift in her perception.
It was different from sight, hearing, touch, even the thermal sensing her esper ability provided.
This feeling was utterly strange. Natsume-san couldn't immediately find proof of its existence.
It was as if everything around her was actively speaking to her, as if her 'eyes' had extended into a much broader world.
Though everything she 'saw' had become surreal and kaleidoscopic, aside from the unscientific magical chains, the other strange sights felt vaguely familiar, reminiscent of those basic particle diagrams from textbooks.
It was then that Natsume-san realized with sudden clarity—this wondrous world she was perceiving was actually all around her.
It was the so-called microscopic world.
The micro world was fundamentally different from the macro world; their natures and governing laws had drastically changed, belonging to two entirely separate domains.
In essence, it was an ultra-tiny world composed of molecules, atoms, and even smaller particles.
With little time to delve into the cause of this sensation, Natsume-san immediately encountered a bigger problem.
As this perception emerged, her brain, striving to comprehend this newfound world, quickly entered an overloaded state.
The range of this perception continuously expanded, rapidly spreading out from around Natsume-san's body.
Similar to the range of her ability, it radiated outward from herself, forming a perfectly regular circle.
There always seemed to be a saying that the circle was the fundamental shape of the world.
While a perfect circle might not exist, and whether pi had a limit remained a mystery, Natsume-san rather agreed with the sentiment.
Back on topic, the radius of her perception grew from one meter to two, eventually extending all the way to where Ladylee stood.
Seemingly having reached Natsume-san's limit, or perhaps bound by some unknown restriction, the perception finally halted at a radius of three meters.
Simultaneously, as the range increased, the information contained within began to expand exponentially.
Perhaps, like sight and hearing, she could learn to selectively ignore some of this information, but this was her first time in such a state, and the bun-girl clearly hadn't mastered that yet.
The sheer volume of information contained within the microscopic world was immense, and it quickly overwhelmed the inexperienced girl, leaving her disoriented and dizzy—the very reason for her earlier lightheadedness.
In just a brief moment, Natsume-san's eyes began to redden, tiny blue veins spreading around her pupils, as if she'd activated a Sharingan.
By shifting over half of her focus, Natsume-san transferred most of the computational burden to Reiko-san's side.
Reiko-san had, of course, also been affected by the cold light and had taken shelter inside with the Sisters.
Thanks to the regenerative genes within her body, she was faring much better than the Sisters were.
As the 'red eye' condition manifested, Natsume-san's mind finally recovered from the massive informational assault, allowing her to properly observe the suddenly revealed microscopic world before her.
Not everyone was qualified to gaze directly upon such a magnificent and strange world. Natsume-san had the qualification, but it wasn't quite enough just yet.
Under this microscopic perspective, Ladylee appeared like a mysterious structure built from countless, massive foundation stones.
These stones were the various cells and tissues that constituted the human body.
As the arrow was shot, Ladylee's body moved to meet it, and was undoubtedly struck by the magic released by a certain bun-girl.
This mana, imbued with a power that induced calm, linked together in an interconnected state, forming a chain-like appearance.
Thus, upon being struck, Ladylee's body became as if encircled by innumerable tiny chains.
In the real world, this manifested as a great surge of light, completely burying Ladylee in an ocean of brilliance.
This light showed no sign of dissipating, firmly fixed around Ladylee, preventing the space elevator from absorbing any energy.
In an instant, this magic began invading Ladylee's body.
Natsume-san's perception immediately became even more chaotic and complex, but she could grudgingly make out what was happening.
Typically, cells are larger than molecules, and molecules are larger than atoms.
These chains seemed to exist somewhere between atoms and molecules in size, but were far smaller than human cells.
As Ladylee's body cells were invaded by countless microscopic chains, her entire form began to swell.
The chains passed effortlessly through cells; the cell membranes, which control what enters and exits, were powerless to stop these rampant, minuscule magical chains. Thus, they rapidly filled every cell.
The gothic lolita's body instantly became bloated, transforming from a small doll into a larger, overweight one, creating a true sense of 'how the mighty have fallen'.
But the next scene made even the well-experienced bun-girl startle violently. It was genuinely frightening, enough to make her suck in a sharp breath.
After these chains had occupied all the cells, Ladylee's cellular body began to grow illusory.
It wasn't a normal fading or transparency. Instead, the spaces between the cells began to increase dramatically, giving a feeling as if her body was full of leaks.
Yet, these gaps were bridged by numerous chains, resulting in a bizarre, paradoxical sense of solidity.
As if detecting the anomalous changes in Ladylee's body, the Elixir of Life within her finally reacted.
No matter how severe the injury, any act that damaged her vitality would trigger these two elixirs to impose a curse of 'absolute unkillability', restoring the body to a perfectly normal state.
Furthermore, these two elixirs were exceptionally cunning.
Ladylee had naturally sought out top-tier surgeons to search her body for any trace of them, regardless of the physical damage caused, but they remained as if invisible, utterly undetectable.
Now, however, as her body was being endlessly disrupted by these chains, that elusive thing called vitality began to drain away rapidly.
But because both the Elixir and the magical chains coexisted within her body, this vitality, while not leaking out entirely, became trapped in an intermediate state—wanting to restore her but unable to do so.
In this intermediate state, the magical curse of the Elixir continuously activated, and its traces were soon detected by the magical chains spread throughout her body.
As if the two were mutually attractive, the moment the Elixir was found, it was immediately and tightly wrapped by the vast number of chains.
Then, they began pulling it through the cellular gaps, drawing it out of her body.
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T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.