The purple-black magic power dissipated, and the putrid stench grew more intense as the shrieks of the Remnant Beasts echoed throughout the lair. The figure of the spider was gradually enveloped by the smoky veil of magical power, and that blurred silhouette twisted under the watchful eyes of the two Magical Girls, emitting a grating sound that made one's teeth ache.
The shadow grew from the size of an ordinary person to sothing much taller, rging with the spider Remnant Beast beneath it. When the smokescreen cleared, standing before the two was no longer the man they had seen, but a monster with an upright torso covered in an exoskeleton.
The monster was about the sa height as the previously encountered white spider, with a vaguely recognizable original form. Its relationship with the spider was unclear, but its transformation seed to further evolve it into sothing even more terrifying.
Gazing at the Erald Sparrow, trapped within the network of flesh and blood alongside her magical armor, the monster slightly raised its head and split its mouthparts, emitting a hissing sound akin to laughter.
However, during the brief seconds of its transformation, Erald Sparrow was not without action.
Almost at the sa instant the purple-black magic power erupted, the Heart's Gem on her neck, along with her eyes, began to shine, and a blue light burst from her flesh. In a mont of eye contact with the Remnant Beast, she burst through the restraints surrounding her.
Bearing the intense headache that erupted almost simultaneously, Erald Sparrow commanded the magical armor to leap forward and shouted, "Lamp, act now!"
The enemy chose to turn into a Remnant Beast, leaving no room for debate—only a fight to the death remained between them.
The deep brown Flow of Magical Power fell with her words, and the glowing nail gun made a series of breaking sounds as it thrust towards the beast on the ground.
"Squeak—"
The Remnant Beast responded to the attack of the two Magical Girls with its own shriek, as purple-black magic power swept up from around them, entangling the girls in battle.
After a brief series of booms and impacts, the two Magical Girls retreated back out of the magic smoke and landed on the ground.
"So—hard!" Lamp shook her hand and winced, "It's shell is several tis harder than a pupa's! Is the Half-Molt really that strong?"
"...No." Erald Sparrow replied indifferently, "That thing hasn't molted yet."
"Eh?" Lamp turned her head in surprise, "So it's a pupa?"
"It's not a pupa either."
Erald Sparrow released the masterpiece blade that she had been gripping tightly in her hand, and as the threads reford, a weapon resembling a two-handed sword appeared in her hand: "More precisely, such a creature should be called a 'Shell Breaker,' or 'Half-Molt.'
"That sounds like such an odd na..." Lamp murmured.
"A true Molt is sothing only a Bloom class can handle."
Grasping the two-handed sword in her hands, Erald Sparrow lowered her center of gravity and her voice: "If it were truly a Molt, you would never have had the chance to see alive before."
"Is it really that exaggerated?" Lamp was now properly shaken, "I thought the Bud class was already a match for a Molt, after all, look, powerful Leaf class can generally take on a pupa alone, right?"
"The evolutionary stages of the Remnant Beasts are only related to their life stages, not directly corresponding to the Magical Girls' awakening of powers."
Erald Sparrow sighed: "Why don't you, a Bud class, even know this? What level is your certification badge?"
"White badge..."
Lamp mumbled with so embarrassnt: "I was promoted to Bud class at the beginning of the year, I went to take the certification exam for the alphabet badge in March, and I failed..."
Erald Sparrow glanced at her sowhat helplessly, about to say sothing when threads of flesh shot explosively out of the smoke towards their direction.
The expressions of the two Magical Girls turned serious again as they leaped in different directions, dodging the attack.
However, what surprised them was that the strand of shot thread seed to lack force. After missing its target, it briefly flew a distance before slamming into the wall of the lair beside them and bursting into a splatter of blood with a "pop."
Almost at the sa ti, the lair was filled with the sounds of "pop" "pop," incessant to the ear.
Hearing these sounds, Erald Sparrow paused briefly, then as if realizing sothing, she urgently shouted at Lamp, "Barrier!"
"Eh?" Lamp sounded puzzled, but she still instinctively threw out a Favo Rune from her sleeve, erecting a Magical Barrier in the blink of an eye before her.
That was not the end, as Erald Sparrow also activated her magical armor, weaving the threads once again into a hollow protective net, encompassing both of them inside.
Then, intense rumbles made the whole lair shake violently.
"What is this exactly?" Amidst the noise, Lamp raised her voice and asked Erald Sparrow.
"It's the lair,"
Erald Sparrow watched the changes outside her magical armor intently, gritting her teeth as she forced out the words, "The previous lair belonged to that big puppet, but this is its own lair."
"A lair beyond a pupa, does that an..."
Lamp pondered Erald Sparrow's words, looking up with her at the sky above.
After the booming noise, they found themselves completely imrsed in a different space.
Unlike the style of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau with its bright white lights and silvery-white walls, the lair had changed into sothing repulsive.
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