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1 month has past since we got our licenses. To be specific, these were certificates that granted us the privileges of magical girls that serve this faction. Other than being born in this area, we have no other reason to be tied to this faction. They simply took charge after The Great Disaster wiped put the previous governments and world powers.
God magical girls, beings that possess powers beyond our comprehension have taken control over the world in the form of continent sized factions. As existing governments have collapsed or shrunk, the new entities at the top weren't presidents or monarchs but instead they are magical girls. In the first place their hold so much power that they earned the title of "God magical girl". If it was asked to visualise their power, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they can easily erase countries, and were only bound to their own territories by the other god magical girls.
Even if previous societies and order has basically vanished off the face of the earth, humans retain some sense of moral and mostly avoid war.... Except for the faction in Europe. All the continents except for the icy poles have fused together unnaturally, so rather than a continent called Europe, it is now referred to as the europic region or the ruins of the Gangrea monarchy. Even as the people suffer from attack after attack, their ruler mysteriously vanished and was assumed to have been killed by another god magical girl before their territory was conquered. These wars were sparked by the surrounding faction's Greed for resources, as most of the land and civilisation has been ruined.
The faction in East Asia, Sanctuary of the Eye God was one of the few that didn't participate in such a large scale war. It may be attributed to luck that they were mostly left alone by the other major factions, so they could devote almost entirely to self sufficiency. They recovered their society the fastest as they had the most manpower with the largest population, and they avoided large scale conflicts. That was not to say there was no conflict, minor factions had broken off due to their dissatisfaction with the Eye God and caused some trouble. There were many minor factions that formed their own villages.
Villages had become common, and now that a year has passed, stone housing had also expanded across the world. It was similar to the medieval era, save for some remnant of technology that was saved. Advanced sanitation and luxurious food are only available for the affluent, with the majority of people not being able to access these privileges.
There was also the discovery of a new phenomenon... No, rather than a discovery it simply grew in magnitude... Monsters. Previously hidden in the guise of easily faked supernatural events, the triviality of these events caused people to subvert their attention away. Never suspecting them as anything more than attention grabbing internet videos, monsters continued to hide in plain side of humanity.
As monsters were beings born from nature, humans that ruin nature with their overwhelmingly large population frighten the monsters, deterring them to never show themselves anymore than necessary. They previously existed solely on magical particles and their concept. They are vague beings made out of magical particles in the wild, and they are made base on human ideas such as dragons or goblins, though their nature and characteristics vary so much they are practically different creatures.
It had been observed when magical girls held captive an obscure species of monsters, their concept was not widely known by the general public. Their reproduction rates were observed and more research was funneled into investigating the conditions of their birth. After experiments, it was observed that people needed to know about their 'concept' before they can exist. For example, if nobody in the world knew what a goblin was, the 'goblin' monster would not exist. They didn't have to believe in it, but simple be aware that such ideas exist, even inside games or literature.
This meant that the only way to wipe out monsters was to wipe out humanity, causing their goal of humanity's safety to be counterproductive. Well, they were in luck. The Great Disaster wiped out at least 80% of humanity, causing them to be more bold to show themselves in public. They hunt humans for sport, while needing humans to exist. They are a strange contradictory existence that cannot be comprehend.
Some people state that they are agents of nature that keep humanity in check, to prevent global warming or mass extinction events from occurring again. In any case, magical girls are commonly dispatched or sent to patrols to manage them. While they can exist solely on magical particles, they are like hostile wild animals that explicitly hate humanity. In a way, they are phantoms of nature. Even though they've revealed themselves, their purpose is still vague and indecipherable.
The only thing people are sure of is their threat. Apparently there was even a kingdom of these monsters somewhere, an intelligent monster king that was able to grant intelligence to the rest and build their own society. They call him, the demon king... Well, the rather Chuuni ones do. Anyone else would casually call him the monster king. People don't see him as a threat that attacks mindlessly yet, he is rather smart with his resource conservation. He won't attack unless he found a way to surmount the threat of the god magical girls. He must be considerably strong, at least on the level of a S-grade magical girl.
As for myself, I continue to train daily and patrol a small perimeter of the border. Over the labyrinth, and quite a few kilometres inwards was the town. It had only been a year and a month since The Great Disaster, so there was no chance that a city would have been built. Though there are super large towns full of stone houses, and occasionally houses made of brick and concrete. The border of the Sanctuary territory was ridiculously large. It took half a day just to cover my section of it.
Sometimes nothing would happen. Sometimes something would. Giant blades of diamond shaped metal fell from the sky, that struck the ground around me, kicking up rocks and soil into the air. A single blade was floating above my head, barely stopped by my barrier. I walk a few steps forward, the blade still carrying momentum in mid air his the ground with an earth shaking force. There were many types of monsters, the second largest group were not born from concepts, but they were instead animals or humans that have gone through instantaneous evolution, triggered by magical particles.
This one was the average alloy crane. They boast feathers made out of metal and super tough leather skin that can withstand metal and bullets. A common trait shared by a majority of monsters is how they've become partially made of metal. Instead of having proteins that flowed through their veins, these animals have magical particles flow through their blood vessels. The most basic way to classify a monster is with 2 conditions. 1, it is able to survive solely on magical particles. 2, it is hostile or harmful to humanity.
As these monsters are often made out of thick layers of metal, even low ranking magical girls have to watch out for their lives. C grade, Alloy Crane. Their primary skill is shooting their metallic feathers and growing them back. Their second skill is advanced flight and the manipulation of air to create wind blades. As it got desperate seeing how futile its attacks are, it began to launch everything it had. Metal and air blades, a storm of death riddled the ground with countless holes.
After 20 seconds, it stopped attacking and began to look for cracks in my barrier. Attacking at lower angles and flying around more actively instead of attacking from one spot.
[The gap of impermanence is a cage], I began to launch the metallic feathers it had sent at me. As they were deflected by my barrier with a lot of resistance, they were all embedded in the ground I wasn't standing on. I began clearing a path by sending all the metal blades in one direction into the alloy crane. Putting strength into my ankles and knees, I twisted my body to leap into the path I cleared. Now that it has begun to move around, I shouldn't stay still and let it have the initiative. I also continued to pressure its movements with the remaining blades in the ground, sending them back at it.
The more magical particles I put into my skill, the faster and stronger the projectiles launch. It also strengthened the barrier that covered me. As the barrier was made of air that was completely still, solidifying it into a stone like property, it became weaker when I moved about. I could somewhat control its shape to perfectly coat my body as I moved, but that small bit of movement weakened its durability. As the energy was not put all into stopping the air in place, it had slightly lesser protection which may or may not affect the battle.
I continue to round a curved route, sending back new ammunition that it was launching at me. Neither of us were hitting our shots as the projectiles were simply too slow. If a magical girl had been any slower than me, they would already have gotten hit a while ago. It's aim was also locked to hit behind me as it was too stressed by the metal blades that I sent back. Even if any were to hit me, I'm positive that they would just bounce off.
A bright light white as snow engulfs my entire view. I reflexively held my left arm up to block the light and shield my eyes. Just in case, I strengthened my barrier a bit more in front of my arm.
Why was there a blinding light?! Did it somehow gain a flash bang ability? Or was it...?
Before, its appearance suited its name of Alloy crane. But now, it was completely different. Spanning 3 pairs of wings, with the middle pair shaped like a massive flat sword in the air. It's head was like the opposite of a hammerhead sharks, it was in a vertical curved shape like that of a flying dinosaur. It's neck had extended to roughly 3 times its normal length and its body expanded to fit its new proportions. Its claws and talons had also become much larger, with claws that were the size of my arm.
It was an extremely rare phenomenon. Like how a human can awaken into a magical girl, this monster had also gotten much stronger in a new form of its own. Combat evolution. All it's previous skills compile into 1 and it gains a new second skill. In a second, it vanished. Thankfully its next attack, a simple kick with a leg that was the size of my body. It got caught against my barrier, the evolved monster was still trying to push through with all my strength.
In a battle, strength was important. But next to that, information would be the second most important. Even against a foe like this that I could easily kill, it wouldn't be good to use all my strength at the start. If I somehow fell for a trap, I would be in danger. It was how a lot of magical girls lose their life. The monsters have some sort of basic understanding of combat, they could at least recognise if their own strength was not enough. So I deliberately used less magical particles in my defense.
I wouldn't want to use up all my magical particles right away. As a magical girl, I could passively regenerate them from the environment, but it would put too much strain on my well. Being able to save up and deceive the enemy was like killing 2 birds with one stone, or killing one combat evolved alloy crane with my fist.
As it pushed against my barrier with its leg, I caught hold of its leg before it realised its attacks were futile. Getting a hold of it with my right hand, I immediately follow up with a punch with my left arm. Pushing Strength into the ground and my left fist, my magic enhanced fist shattered the leg. Bits of metal flew around in the air, with a deep shriek released from the monster's vocal chords. Strangely enough, it had some organic organs despite its metallic exterior that gave off a robotic atmosphere.
Turning my body around, I swing my own kick at its body as it dodged by jumping back a little.