*
".... That's a stupid amount of confidence you have there..." (Kenzi)
Her exasperated expression was also cute with her mouth agape and eyebrows crooked. I could feel my own breath brushing against my lips everytime my chest heaved, fighting and talking to Kenzi had unexpectedly taken a lot out of me.
" Of course. I need at least that much if I want to gather more influence."
".... Wouldn't that make you more of a trickster? You're not always going to be able to follow up with your words, right?" (Kenzi)
"Enough, let's go." There are times when one could be lenient and gentle, and there are times when one cannot get by with just that. Even from here, which was a far off distance, I could sense it. A massive storm of magical particles back at the station we resided in.
"Are you serious?! How can we fight against that? Surely your senses have not dulled... Whatever is there is insanely more powerful than you..." (Kenzi)
".... Does it look like I have a choice? Myuu... Everyone is back there. If you leave them for dead could you confidently say you won't regret it? "
There was no more need for anymore words. In an instant, I gathered all my strength into my legs before kicking off the ground. Tearing through the air, a deep sound of an explosion was left in my dust. Turning my head a little, it seemed that Kenzi had also broken past the sound barrier with me. I had hoped general Frena wouldn't lay a hand on the rest of them, even convincing myself so. But if it's this much magical particles, even as an attempt at deceit it would still hurt everyone pretty badly with its shockwaves.
As we arrived, I had to catch my own breath. There was no doubt, a colossally huge amount of magical particles had been gathered above our lodgings. It covered a few kilometres in the base length along, followed by 2.5 times the height. It was practically a nuke waiting to get launched. The air itself felt heavy, there was a distinct lack of magical particles near the ground, as if oxygen itself was being drained it had such a suffocating effect.
Taking a few steps, I open the door. Everything was as per normal, the thick walls emitted their distinct scent of wood. The floor creaked occasionally letting off a squeaky noise, making it hard not to wake the others up at night. The soft yellow lighting of the primitive torches on the wall released a golden hue onto its surroundings, each step felt heavier than the last as I approached the shared living room. It was the last door, an even denser of cloud of magical particles was present there, much more dense than the column of it above the sky. If it was quantified, I would say at least 8 times the amount of magical particles in the cuboid above our lodging is currently present in the room.
Remember, one needs.... Confidence... When fighting such a fearsome enemy. Not arrogance, not impatience, not anger, not anything. I need... Faith in myself. I open the final door, surprisingly there wasn't more pressure than there was outside. I had expected if general Frena was present, her killing intent would radiate enough magical particles to push me down.
"... So you're finally here." (Frena)
It was her usual jet black military uniform, she had sat down on the couch with the rest of the magical girl's watching her. They were able to walk around, so it didn't seem like they were being held captive. Perhaps they were eyeing her like a hawk and preparing to take action.
A soft 'clink' emitted out from the other side of the couch. As it stands, I was facing the back of the couch the general was sitting on. And what was that sound! She had tea?! Damn her privileges... I wish I had some tea too. It's been more than half a year...
"Yeah, I was out on a little patrol. What brings you here, great general?" I squeeze out a smile and play with my voice a little. After awakening as a magical girl, I did try out and had some fun with my voice on some nights. Testing its range and singing some songs I could remember.
"... To kill you. I'm not dumb, what you've been doing is as clear as day.
Magical girls like you are ambitious, they desire, dream, aspire for goals too large for themselves. It isn't the first time someone has found a route to absolute power.
Be it a mass ritual foreign to the major powers, or the discovery, creation and exploitation of new substances. They all lead to one thing, war. "(General Frena)
"... Are you accusing me of starting a war? When I've only been working hard to contribute to the great Illnoia administration? "
" I'm not accusing you of starting a war. You ARE starting a war. All the signs have been in place for a while, propaganda, converging influence, trifle rumours.
Most importantly, you've chosen your pieces. It's beyond foolish to challenge me."
Title: Richovik Urstl Frena, one of 8 great generals of Illnoia administration.
Magical girl effectiveness level: S
Perimeters:
- Physical: S
- endurance: S
- speed: S
- will:?
- well:?
I used the tool given to us. At this point it seemed to be as useful as a certain index of creatures. It displayed her most well known name and her stat grades. What I've never seen before was the '?' grade. But as a slight majority of her stat grades were S, her magical girl effectiveness level was also S. As expected of a general. Not only was her strategical prowess that of a genius's, she was extremely strong to boot.
[Moving imperial wrath], spouts of a black purplish substance spews forth from the ground, covering sky and ground. The violent thrashing of shockwaves litter the ground with large holes and spiked wooden planks. Numerous holes have formed in the walls with a storm like wind erupting with the general in the centre, brought with it was the sound of the overwhelming roar of breezes. It was as if a miniature typhoon has hit our lodging.
Along with the others, I could only afford to jump out of the building as it got swallowed into a hemisphere of darkness. When the hemisphere vanished a large crater formed where the lodgings used to be and in the centre was general Frena. Before I had noticed, there was a Cape blowing upwards into the wind from her shoulders. Her expression kept its usual deadpan intimidation. A quiet ferocity lay underneath ready to unleash attacks at any moment, for now it was an attack with large area of effect, so it may have been slightly slower. Thus allowing our escape, perhaps to toy with us.
Large columns of mana burst forth from the ground, dying the sky in purplish black as debris shattered and flew around. Mana was another form of magical particles that have been condensed enough to gain physical properties. It was akin to the ferocity and danger of low silica magma, but it with no mass. As it was a weapon used by magical girls or anyone dealing with magic, it was also numerous magnitudes higher in destructive power.
These columns expand further into the sky before forming a parabola in the air to rush at some of us. Twisting and coiling like tentacles of black light, just grazing the ground had formed a small decline in the ground with red heated soil. They were fast, too fast in fact. The only way to possibly dodge them was to predict their trajectory, they were too fast to react to.
Small vines sprouted out of the ground to coil around Frena's legs, they burst open and implode in the instant they finished going around her shin. A few clouds of soil and debris exploded around her, as if coming from invisible attacks. Just like the vines, they did absolutely nothing.
"Let's cease this foolery, just doubling my destruction tendrils will finish you off. Line up and I'll make this fast." (Frena)
... What was that...? We've been trying to fight this monster? It had taken my all just to predict her attacks, now that she had stopped moving my adrenaline had also stopped flowing. No matter how one looks at it, this was absurd. All of the attacks did nothing, Myuu's vines actually imploded and the wind or vacuum attacks didn't leave a single scratch. Everyone could see that she had an S grade endurance stat, so we all kept our distance and fired from afar with magic attacks...
The stat identification magic tool was like a chip one could fit in their clothes, on activation it sends the information into their user's brain. The tool generally works by somehow measuring the magical girl's capabilities against a normal human's, assigning a letter after these measurements pass a certain threshold. Past 50 times human ability, an E grade will be assigned to that stat. 300 for D, 800 for C, 4000 for B, 100 000 for A and finally 1000000 for S.
What did a question mark mean? No matter what, as long as it had passed a certain amount a letter will be assigned from which mile point it passed... So if it passed 4000 times human capability it will be B even if it's 99 000 which was closer to A. So why...? Did it give a question mark. Assigning a grade assumes that the magical tool had finished its measuring of the the opponent's power...., was this it? It couldn't stop measuring?
If the tool could measure up to an S grade which was 1 000 000, perhaps it was more than 1 000 000 away from an S grade, so 2 000 000 plus. That was the best case scenario, when the opponent's power barely exceeds the tool's measuring capabilities. What if it was more? What if the tool didn't have such limits and simply couldn't stop measuring... Forever. I'll dub this '?' as SS grade, 2 million to infinite. General Frena's well and will stat are infinite, she can use as much magic as she wants and suffers absolutely no damage from magic at all. Then this is up to them, this was why I needed more allies.
The dumbest way to lose was to assume I was the strongest. That was impossible, even Myuu was stronger than me. I suppose I've grown slightly, to rely more on my friends, not to depend on my own strength. Well, for now I'll at least assist then.
"EVERYONE, MAGIC ATTACKS DON'T WORK, USE PHYSICAL SKILLS OR RETREAT."
[Hollow calamity] -secondary technique-, ally wind and magic clad. A faded whitish glow envelops everyone.
"First skill mastered, say the words Kaorin." (Kenzi)
"I need you! To beat Frena's ass!!!"
Her mud brown hair fluttered like velvet in the wind, while her skin and clothes seemed to sparkle a tiny bit with the boosts I gave her. Her fluttery dress transformed into long baggy pants, under the excess cloth was heavy pads of armour. The top half of her dress stayed roughly the same as her corset changed in colour from brown to silver, the neck of her dress had a fluttery scalloped design which was white with silver highlights. Her back was exposed and her sleeves covered all the way to her wrist, ending in a small puffy but above the cuff. A thin transparent gauntlet was wrapped around her knuckles and fingers.
"Hahah! Did you get embarrassed after all this time? Well, I guess you were always like that. Second skill awakened, [The path shared by all is arbitrary]. It was probably suicidal to test in the middle of battle, but I think I understand [Enhance sense] a little more]. (Kenzi)
Iron plated pauldrons glimmered under the setting sun, a lavender robe wrapped around her figure as her brown ponytail swayed along the wind. Her wrist rested on her scabbard, but attention was drawn towards her robe instead with numerous hues and pink and blue flowers embroidered upon it. She wore steel geta sandals the clattered over the soil as two transparent lenses floated in front of her eyes.
"I've surpassed it... I won't let you kill my friends." (Izumi)
Leather gauntlets also had their own kind of shimmer, light bounced off their smooth texture unobstructed. A thin small stick akin to that of a conductor's baton was gripped in her small-now slightly larger hands. The two pins on her top secure a small white cape, it was able to wrap around her chest like a cloak, though she avoids that for other reasons.
Her plump chest larger than others her age was emphasised by the thin dark grey cloth top that flowed like silk before getting secured under a belt near her hips. Under the belt, the robe split off into 2 to reveal high brown leather boots with long straps and her short black shorts that blended with her dark grey pantyhose.
Her jet black hair contrasted with the golden shine of sun set, highlighting her presence and tough will. Also, she had used her skill to raise the ground under her feet, this also had an effect in attracting everyone's attention.
"I can still fight. I won't give up that easily." (Kreumier fiel)