The greenery, that football field, the Math Department... Natasha passed by them all in her ride to where she felt like Leon was.

  She could also feel two similar presences near him; she didn’t know what this sense was, but she could probably guess that it was due to the Corastrum strung across her chest. The thing never stopped glowing.

  "'How do you find the game? Is it good? Sorry, bad English.’ No, it’s cool. It’s a cool game for sure, just that I'm kind of pissed that I became fodder... Also, your English isn’t that bad. Have you ever tried having a Russian-Japanese English accent? ‘This has nothing to do with what bro said, though.' But I felt like flexing bro what about it?”

  Natasha, who was doing her best to keep the bike steady, suddenly felt herself losing ground and felt rumbling again. It must be that, yes. Her face was slightly red, and her eyes remained closed. She stopped for a while, wondering why this campus was so big that even riding a bike through it took tremendous amounts of time.

  ‘There’s too many stairs in this campus,’ Natasha frowned. It was true that this was an international boarding school, but did they have to be so extravagant?

  The rumbling intensified, telling of a tumultuous event about to take place. Unconsciously, Natasha braced herself; she suddenly ducked her head.

  A spear made of flaming air and heat made its way over her head. The “spear” that wasn’t really a spear and was more of a line made of light—although it had yet to move at such speed and wasn’t close to it either—the speed at which it moved and the power contained within it made it a sufficiently dangerous attack.

  The “line of light” that wasn’t really lightspeed continued it’s journey after missing it’s intended target; it cut through everything in its way, like tofu. The air, any wall, any metal, and basically everything was burned away. And although it’s height above the ground was quite substantial, it still dug quite a bit into the surrounding earth and concrete.

  Her hair raised on end, each prickling into her forever winter uniform, and despite the sweltering heat that was suddenly brought in—her teeth clattered as if it were not the heat she was almost immersed in and swallowed by, but something much more of a frosty environmental texture.

  Natasha didn’t even bother turning back; she immediately went crazy on the peddles and turned a corner. She already knew what was behind her. The building complex she was in trembled, and the average heat in the area increased dramatically. From the surrounding space, the sound of a monkey roaring was heard.

  ‘Why is it chasing me...? Why is it chasing me?! I could have sworn that I escaped a few moments ago too!’ Natasha furiously peddled, her mind racing as she quickly dipped into another corner, the area behind her being promptly obliterated.

  The dense lower floor walkways and the numerous cut-ins and outs that branched out from all around the entire school complex finally had more of use than something that annoyed students with how large it was.

  ‘The fact that we need actual vehicles and chauffeurs to get us from class to class depending on where we are is another problem in and of itself. Sigh. thinking of those people, I really hope they’re okay.’

  Natasha bit the inside of her mouth; the heat around her was continuously increasing, which choked her lungs of valuable air, but she didn’t dare to stop breathing. She didn't dare to stop pedaling either. Natasha couldn't help but moan at how her life was now continuously in danger, and this was only a one-star meta-beast. She couldn't imagine what the others would be like.

  Speaking of...

  Natasha wondered how Leon and the others were doing. She didn't know the name of the girl with him. But she was pretty sure she had seen her somewhere and that she had another friend. It was quite possible that Leon was with those two friends when he died.

  And maybe she, Natasha, died along the way due to mysterious circumstances in the original story.

  She didn't know the plot of the story, as she obviously didn't play it. She only received some furious snippets from her alternate self, who didn't even realize that she was listening, so she couldn't really absorb or attain any useful or in-depth information, to be exact.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  This fact made her quite angry, but she didn't really have the luxury to be so, as the flame monkey kept chasing her over the campus. Natasha now realizes how fantastical her bike skill was.

  She didn't even know she could move like that.

  Right now she popped a wheelie and turned a corner, balancing the tire on the wall before going down again, narrowly dodging one of those fire lights that the flame monkey threw out.

  ‘I have to say this monkey is really a pain in the ass; doesn't it ever get tired? Doesn't it have other targets that it needs to be chasing after? Why does it chase after me? Do I have anything special? Wait, anything special? Wait, oh no, is that... No. Natasha suddenly looked at her chest in horror, a vague realization suddenly springing in her heart as she looked at the gem object on her pendant.

  It was probably the Corastrum that was attracting the beast, but she didn't particularly know this and only made assumptions.

  The blasts from the beasts attacks were continuous, and the buildings around her and the walls around her and all the floors, concrete, leaves, anything that was flammable or inflammable was set on fire or either exploded, melting into puddles and puddles of lava and molten rock, molten dirt, and sand.

  ‘I don't know their faces, I don't know their powers, I don't know what they are or what they are here for. Well, I do know what they are here for... They are probably here for my heart of hearts, my beloved Corastrum. But I won't give it to them, I won't give them my life, I won't give them Leon's life, I won't give them anything but death, yes, they have to die, they do, or they have to get out of here, or we have to get out of here...

  Natasha scratched her head, and then she suddenly made a mistake. It was a mild mistake. On the ground were some remnant amounts of liquid. She ran over it and her bike suddenly became unsteady.

  This time she didn't manage to narrowly dodge the beast's attacks.

  Instead, it gripped her shoulder by a smidgen. And that was all it took for her clothes to catch fire. But Natasha didn't stop. She couldn't. If she stopped, her life would be over.

  Her eyes, clothes, and shoulder burned. But she held in her screams and bit her lip hard.

  ‘Just move your legs, just move your legs, don't, don't, don't, just move your legs, just move your legs, just move your legs, It hurts, it hurts, it burns, is burning—is this what burning feels like? Burns, burns, heat. I can smell my own flesh. Just keep moving, just keep...’

  She was only barely managing to dodge the beast's flare attacks due to her mysterious instinct that she likely got from her heart of hearts, the Corastrum, and the speed of the bike and her apparent skill of navigating with it.

  Which she still didn't know how she got, but at this point she began to place everything, every skill she had or gained in the past 10 minutes, on the head of the Corastrum. Her heart of hearts, her heart of stars, whatever the game developers called it, or the reality developers in her case.

  Slightly wincing at the reminder that she was a game character, Natasha continued to pedal, heading towards where Leon and the others were.

  After having her shoulder grazed, turning was slightly more difficult than before, and she could feel that her right arm, which was grazed, was slowly beginning to lose power and mobility. Natasha sighed, knowing that she didn't have much time left, but she still pedaled on.

  With part obsession and part will to live, she didn't have much choice. If only her alternate self could miraculously just give her some pointers on how to awaken her true magical capabilities so she could use them consciously, as if she ever used it unconsciously...

  Even using it unconsciously, it would be a good thing, but she wasn't sure that was the case at all. But consciously controlling her powers meant that she had some control and she liked that

  Although she didn't know what would be the consequences of reading another piece, she did know, but she at least wanted to see if she could find the time looper before then so they could plan together, something, anything to get them out of this situation because she knew that in order for Leon and the others to die, there had to be another one of these meta-beasts around.

  In coming to a conclusion, Natasha had her own thoughts.

  ‘Assuming that the other magical girl has these instincts and such as well, another human would never be able to kill her, so it could only be something with similar powers. As for another magical girl? By mistake? Probably. But intentional? Unlikely, by the looks of it so far, none of us can control our powers in anyway, so it would be absurd and terrifying if there was a Magical Girl capable of this.’

  So now that she had partially confirmed that there were at least two, Natasha hoped that there wouldn't be another one; otherwise, they would stand little chance of going out of this place alive without some of them perishing in it.

  Thanking whoever she could for life, Natasha gripped the bike that was still holding up in the face of the Flame Monkey’s attacks and continued peddling for as long as she could. Maybe, with any luck, the time loop would start again. Then she could escape with her life for a few more seconds, maybe even a minute.