Regardless of the monster's origins, Little Herta could immediately sense that the space surrounding the factory in the Outer World was exceptionally fragile.
If normal space felt as solid as alloy, the space here felt like a thin sheet of paper, as if a gentle poke could tear it apart.
No, more accurately, the space had already been pierced. Little Herta looked up at the sky and noticed an irregular black rift, stark against the backdrop.
She couldn't help but ponder. Although the experiment had been conducted in the Inner World, Great Britain's barrier technology wasn't advanced enough to conjure space from nothing. Therefore, the Inner and Outer Worlds shared the same spatial fabric.
The Portal Gun experiment had been the final straw, accelerating the formation of this dimensional rift.
Yes, "accelerating," not "causing." Little Herta could tell that even without the experiment, a dimensional rift would have inevitably appeared in the factory within a few days. This was simply a matter of unfortunate timing.
Regardless, this incident served as a wake-up call for Herta. Even if she shifted her research from Dimensional Rifts to other space-related phenomena, the unusually fragile spatial fabric of this world could still lead to the formation of more rifts.
As Little Herta pondered this, the five official personnel from Great Britain engaged the monster in battle. They formed an inverted trapezoid formation, with three members in front and two behind.
The three at the front waved their magic wands rhythmically, like conductors leading an orchestra. Three Fire Serpents materialized, coiling around them. From three different angles, the trio launched a coordinated pincer attack, sending the fiery serpents hurtling toward the monster.
Simultaneously, the two rear members cast supportive magic, bestowing various buffs—shields, enhanced durability, acceleration, and more—upon their comrades.
True to their professional training, the British personnel displayed near-flawless teamwork. However, the monster proved equally formidable. Instead of dodging the incoming assault, it charged straight into the central Fire Serpent.
A long serpent of fire coiled around the monster, its orange-yellow flames searing relentlessly. Yet the intense heat only made the monster's obsidian-like scales glow faintly red.
In mere seconds, the creature had closed the distance to the three spellcasters, its massive, blood-stained maw gaping wide.
"No. 3 Plan!"
At the command, the five official personnel, still empowered by the acceleration magic, scattered in different directions. Their objective was clear: to secure strategic corners of the factory, encircling the monster in a coordinated assault.
The plan was simple: whoever the monster targeted would focus on stalling for time, allowing the other four to freely unleash their attacks—a textbook kiting strategy.
But in their haste, the officials overlooked one crucial detail. Only after they had dispersed did they realize they weren't alone on this mission. A Senior Member of Parliament and a little girl were also present!
Predictably, the monster charged straight toward Newman and Little Herta, each thunderous step echoing like the advance of an unstoppable tank.
One of the officials, witnessing this, abruptly halted his retreat and doubled back, racing toward Newman and Little Herta.
Did the official resent Little Herta and Newman for holding him back? No, such thoughts were far from his mind. In this dire situation, there was no time for resentment. He simply reacted instinctively, turning back to do what needed to be done.
But what happened next froze him in his tracks. Little Herta gently raised her right hand, pointing her index finger forward. Without uttering a spell or wielding a magic wand, a magical barrier thinner than paper materialized before her.
The monster charged headfirst into the barrier, the visual impact akin to a tank colliding with a sheet of paper.
With a deafening CRASH, everyone clearly saw the monster's nose shatter into a bloody pulp. The force of its momentum sent its body tilting forward, its back slamming against the barrier with another resounding impact.
Yet Little Herta's barrier remained unshaken. After all, this was one of the S-class magic spells she had secretly learned from Queen Elizabeth herself—an extraordinarily potent technique.
Little Herta then began chanting a spell, using the high-speed casting technique she had secretly learned from Elizabeth. What would normally take a person over ten seconds to complete, she finished in under two.
A massive, crescent-shaped Wind Blade sliced through the monster's body, bisecting it cleanly at the waist. The creature collapsed into two halves.
"This..." The British official who had turned back had barely reached Little Herta's side, while the other four were still scrambling to their designated positions to form an encirclement. The battle was already over?
"Is that S-class magic?!"
"How is that possible? She looks barely ten years old!"
"Incredible..."
"Wait, she isn't she holding a Magic Wand? Is that wandless casting?!"
The officials were stunned by what they had just witnessed. In Great Britain, magic was naturally categorized into tiers, ranging from weakest to strongest and simplest to most complex: C, B, A, and S. Herta, however, had never paid much attention to these distinctions. For her, learning a C-class spell was no more difficult than mastering an S-class one.
One glance, and she knew it.
The official who had rushed back stared blankly at Little Herta. "Just who exactly are you...?"
Little Herta ignored the newcomer, her attention fixed on the dimensional rift in the sky. She meticulously observed its complete disappearance, then nodded thoughtfully. "So that's how it works?"
If dimensional rifts were like foreign diseases—bacteria or viruses—then the world itself naturally possessed self-healing capabilities. Now that the monstrous pathogen had been eradicated, the wound—the dimensional rift—was gradually closing.
From this, Little Herta deduced that if a Birth-type rift were left unaddressed, with its monsters allowed to proliferate, new creatures would likely emerge over time, and the rift would grow larger, like an untreated wound festering and worsening.
Consider the Beast-Eared Girl World, for example, with its endless tide of monsters and massive rift spanning the horizon. It was a vicious cycle, each element exacerbating the others, spiraling into disaster.
However, this scenario hadn't occurred in the Main World, where all emerging monsters had been swiftly dealt with.
Probably...?