*
Off into another side of the world, a sight no other spread off under the twilight dawn like the yellow of a sunflower field. It flickered, flew, festered and raged like no other. The silent cries of a girl echo into the night sky, -no one is there to hear. -No one was there to hear, the cries of her victims either. As if they never came, a small congregation of elite forces was wiped out by a conflagration.
" You're not like the others huh, dodging my attack..." (?)
" And you're a genuine monster, shaking off mine like they're just measly mosquito bites..." (?)
"Hmpf, I didn't even notice it. You need to put everything into it if you want to even make a scratch. Sentinel, Crone Meurs" (?)
"My~, so the great dragon-dono even knows a small existence such as I. I am honored. So it looks like I have to use my final skill... [Deus ex machina] " (Crone)
Her eyes had twitched at first knowing that her enemy had Intelligence on her, the logical conclusion was to retreat with this information. However, it didn't seem like she was allowed to retreat. Her only chance at survival now is to put everything on the line. Her magical girl costume had a colour scheme of black and white, a large collar akin to a funnel covered the bottom half of her head while connected to a hoodie like top.
Below that was a pure black pleated skirt, grey translucent thigh-highs, school shoes. The hoodie was checkered in black and white squares, her supple white glove-covered fingers dug into her pockets deeper, attempting to release her pent up tension. Her collar that was half white on the right and half black on the left could only flutter under the pressure of her ascend. Soon she made eye contact with the beast before her, one of the few dragons in this world.
In fact, dragons weren't suppose to exist. They were a fictional high-fantasy element that only existed in kids storybooks, or the recently flourishing fantasy light novels. Of course, that was before the Great disaster happened to purge all forms of entertainment, by wiping out 85% of humanity and their creations. The only reason there could be one dragon here was standing,or rather flying right in front of her. -It was a magical girl. And not just anyone, it was the draconic deity, the supreme leader of the Illnoia administration.
The magical girl that went by the title, Sentinel, Crone, flew into the sky with a neon sky blue glow wrapped by a vibrant sheen of metallic covering everywhere. One small metallic ball was below her legs, with the futuristic hissing of some unknown mechanism, she was propelling far into the sky to meet the Draconic Deity at eye level. Similarly, numerous strips of metal with half a metre width rose out of the ground to fly with her on the way there, blocking small projectiles from unknown assailants.
The projectiles moved at high speeds invisible to the average human eye, yet they met their timely demise on the metal strips with the arrival of several loud booming sounds. Clouds of ash and other contaminants dispersed around the point of collisions, leaving behind the same reflective metal strips that were there before, as if the attacks sent did absolutely nothing or didn't exist in the first place.
"Now, that's just rude. Attacking before the full effects of my last skill. Did your subordinates perhaps had gotten frighten? You may survive but what about them?" (Crone)
As if shifting around in reaction, the large dragon's 10 metre neck craned in confusion at the mere mention of Crone's question. It seemed to have never crossed her mind for her subordinates to be in danger, but she retained her tranquility nonetheless. Her large wings continuing to flap loudly as her altitude fluctuated a little. Black scales gleamed under the twilight, now replaced with moon light and star light. The dragon's fierce eyes stared on in monotony, as if the city destroyer before her was a mere bug. Destroying cities weren't such a big deal after all, relative to this dragon at least, who could effectively end the world if she wanted to.
"Get on with it, your last rites are taking too long. I'll make sure not even your will is left behind." (Draconic deity)
"Fine, Final skill, [Deus ex machina] activate. Behold your end before the automatic deity." (Crone)
The metal strips originally surrounding her grew in length to cover her in a large sphere, along with the emergence of numerous more strips that clawed themselves out of the ground. Cracks spread far and wide in a few kilometres of radius, shaking the ground with a skyscraper trembling tremour. It seemed like the moon had fallen and was pulling the earth upwards with each other's gravity dragging the other in into a collision. Around 300+ strips and millions of tons of metal converged at one point before a neon light escaped from the inside, like an egg cracking under pressure and the egg white splurting out.
The metal slowly gave way to what was inside, more like it was absorbed, giving it a shrinking image. Neon blue light flashed for a second, blocking out even the moon light before fading to reveal Crone's final form, Futuristic neon blue blade-like wings hovered on one side of Crone, they shone with so much vigour one could swear that one wing exploding can bring down a city with it. Crone's right armed was also wrapped in a skin-fitting metallic lustre that looked both sturdy and flexible, it stretched forth, straight and facing the large black scaled dragon.
A visor like metallic strip hovered gently over her left cheek with circles and other glyphs hovering on the air like a hologram, relaying information. All together, the 20 large artificial wings shot a neon blue laser into one point. Into a blue light converging at the tip of her fingers like a certain bomb made out of spirits. It grew 5 times larger than the dragon in an instant and prepared to fire.
"How dull. Then I shall do the same. No need to add any more effort since my first skill has already been activated. First skill, full power. [Dragon god constitution(beam)]." (Draconic deity)
A similar ball of energy was forming around the dragon's jaw, only that it was a shade between dark purple and hot pink. One could feel the palpatating pressure from a few kilometres away, 2 extreme attacks were to be released. Unfortunately for the weaker one, the attacks differed in scale.
"HAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!" (Crone)
"Die." (Draconic deity)
The 2 orbs of neon sky blue and purplish pink extended forth into beams rather than become bullets. It conserved the total energy stored inside the orb and didn't waste it all at once, though it of course made the attack weaker. For the Crone's attack, the beam was a feint and she quickly released the whole attack at once. Anticlimactically, there was no collision of giant laser beams or anything epic. The purplish-pink beam simply swallowed everything in its wake, even Crone's full powered attack.
***
"Huuuuaaaaaaah~~~"
Stifling a yawn, my soft fingers dug around into my uniform's pockets to check if I brought all the things I needed. Keys? Check. Magical girl stat analysis orb? Check. Trouble some life support pole? Check. Or rather it was stuck to my elbow and was hard to bring down the stairs of my apartment. In the underground base, I had rented a place here as I couldn't exactly live as a magical girl at my previous place of residence. It was a multi floor apartment, but as it only has 4 floors, there was no elevator. Resulting in an anxiety filled morning every day.
Navigating through to classroom's layout of tables and chairs, and the schedule of to and fro movement through the door was also quite annoying. If I dropped this thing and it seperate from my arm forcefully, it would self destruct as the researchers don't want their technology going to an enemy faction. So there was also that, essentially I was strapped to a bomb! How worrisome~
Shifting around in my seat, my excitement could barely be contained. As the learning process demanded some variation, we would visit the training facilities on the second day. Not that I could use much of it in my condition, I could potentially be stuck to this machine for the rest of my life if the anti-magic wound persisted. The aftereffects of Ray's attack still remained at my torso, as if it was permanent.
The outside bits had been mainly closed up with normal skin grafting technology and science to stop the bleeding, what wasn't working well was recovery magic. Basically, it was an S-class level attack that would take months to years for the machine to finally overpower and cause the anti-magic to run out. It was like pasting a bandage on a crack of a large dam and waiting for the water on the other side to dry up. It all came down to my natural recovery which was unaffected by the anti-magic.
Strolling out of the classroom with the machine in tow, the wheels under it released squeaking sounds as they brush against the ceramic tiles. At this point, some people may be tempted to play with it so that it makes more squeaking noises for their amusement. But it was once again linked to my life and death, So I hugged it close to my chest in awareness.
The ceiling lights flickered, exposing the age of the building as foot steps echoed into the hallway. The classroom was closer to the elevator and stairs than the training facility was, so this was unexplored territory on the other end of the hallway. With an abrupt stop, the sound of clicking and something heavy shifting could be heard from the back, followed by everyone continuing their walk into the new room. The distant whirling of an engine revving up could be heard as stale air was replaced with fresh air.
In that room was a boxing ring, target practice mannequins, assisting magic tools, weird tables with mysterious glyphs on them, a projecter , a meeting table, tools used to make other tools, swords, guns and other weaponry. It was pretty cramped and looked more like a messy workshop filled with random things an uncle collected over the years. Mysterious totems and dolls were also kept in one place, while another corner of the room was burned into a sooty black mess.
Myuu's eyes were laced with excitement, practically everyone was jumping out to try something. From alchemic tables to special space that boosts one ability to summon, the training space was rather versatile and full of useful objects. It was practically a playground for us who haven't used much of our abilities. Though for those of us who did use our magic skills before, the impact diminished quite a bit.
We would later go on to enjoy ourselves for the rest of the day. It lasted no longer than 10 minutes of exploring before we were forced back into the curriculum. Some students were protesting with dissatisfaction, though a quick glare from Jein sensei quickly shut them up. As we were finally in a place with lots of space, we were also taught some movement and fighting technics. Overall, it was an eventful and sweaty day. The site of over 10 magical girls sweating may suddenly awake something inside me, so I gingerly rushed back home.
Changing out of my school uniform into my magical girl combat dress, I headed towards the hospital for a quick check up. By the way, the usual magical girl costume was officially called a magical girl combat dress by the faction and was stated as fact in the syllabus. Since it sounded cool, I would just call it like that from now on too. It wasn't particularly much of a surprise for magical girls to be wearing their combat dress in this underground base. Many were doing the same, mostly because they don't live around here and are rather only here for some errand.
It was pleasant to be reassured that no one finds wearing their magical girl combat dress weird. It would break my heart if everyone here found it cringy and it became an unspoken rule not to wear it. It's like part of my identity, you know? Even if my magic combat dress looks a bit out there with no sleeves and a scarf like collar covering the back of my neck, while 2 strips of cloth fluttered behind me like imaginary capes. Along with a 45 degree tilted-to-one-side skirt and another layer underneath tilting to the other side.
But man, these thigh-high are awesome. Not only do they look cute, they also keep my legs warm from the relatively cold temperature down here. Since it was heavily ventilated or air conditioned with magic, the temperature in this underground base is lower than the one at earth's surface. There was also no sun here to heat it up after all, so it became decently cold. A short amount of time int his cold is okay, but prolonged exposure is just a pain. My legs wouldn't stop shivering then, making walking hard to do as well.
Anyway, the results of the check up: it would still take quite a few months to recover. It was the estimated time it took for my passive magic regeneration to overpower the anti-magic and make recovery more swift.