*
Walking to an office building, it seemed that they had such an ostentatious budget to rent these fancy places. As if sensing our curiosity, Kyou decided to explain it to us.
"... During the daytime we need jobs as well to blend into society and have funds. While the general funds were mainly donations since we don't charge a membership fee, there's some welfare here and there.
With the combined labour of so many people, selling some goods competitively was no obstacle. We can offer you positions if you want. " (Kyou)
" When did this turn into an ad... " (Paridia)
" No thanks... We're here to kill the progenitor. You had probably already known, but they operate like a mafia of sorts. Slave trading and drug trafficking to say the least. "
"Guess that's failed. Well, for now we'll be operating with the same objective right?" (Kyou)
"Ah... I should have guessed you were trying to recruit us..."
Dashing in a hurry was an average looking girl, she scurried as quickly as she could to the door before opening it. Though she was indeed cute, what caught my attention even more was the person behind that door. We had just entered that door ourselves, it was the entrance to this floor of the office building, the 5th floor. There weren't any elevators and a person of that stature... I couldn't imagine her taking the stairs....
It was Palmicia, the semi-healer and gunner vice commander of the Rising Knight Order. The one that sticks next to Celistane Frey, the one said to have ascended into a sun god in her fight with the Eye God. I wonder how they are doing now. Palmicia had light grey hair, almost white as if to show she has almost reached the pinnacle of power. White hairs, usually a magical girl with dark grey could grow stronger and show their growth with the colour of their hair, growing lighter in tone as signs of their growth in fighting ability. For context, I had started with dark grey too and progress to normal grey at C grade, then to light grey at B grade.
It was just one of the few physical expressions of growth in a magical girl's combat ability. There were other signs too, like if a magical girl had horns they would grow larger and longer. Tails would become muscular and wings would become wider and larger to the point the body looks like a small bean in proportion to butterfly wings.
Palmicia wore a lab coat with an orange sweater underneath, her grey miniskirt wrapped around every movement of her legs as she walked closer to us. She had black stockings and black heels, and she looked like the type to pull out a knife from her miniskirt when fighting. Her hands were kept inside her labcoat as she approached us, and though it is public information that she hit her limit in A grade, the difference between us was far too much.
The pinnacle of A grade that was only a sliver away from S, and me who's B grade is high but not high enough. Seeing her there, I realise. Perhaps, have I truly hit my limit? What use would my techniques be if I couldn't react to my enemy's attacks. Her daunting aura was just proof of that, even though she had hit her limit she was stronger than any of us here in the building, even as a healer.
There's a reason why tanks and healers are almost synonymous in regards to magical girls. They could keep healing their own injuries away and push on to inflict damage, while their enemies don't have such privileges. She Bents her back to lower her high stature down to look at me. She may recognise me from that labyrinth, not that it would matter. Her sharp eyes held a stern aura that shut off anything in my peripherals, as if it was forcing my iris too look into hers. Even if a little, I hope she sees something in me.
She pulls back. No... Don't... Please... Don't give that look.... She smirks instead. Giving off the aura of a reliable older women. Maybe older sister would be less offensive... She glares at me as if reading my mind but laughs it off.
"Glad to have you here. Well, I didn't come to check you out anyway. Where are the reports?" (Palmicia)
"..."
Some girls come running to her with notepads and pens, and they got to business.
"Kaori, your expression..." (Paridia)
"Haghh!"
Through that experience, I had forgotten to breath. How did my face look like? For now, I quickly covered my face as I force it to relax and calm down. Ugh, how awkward was that. Did she spare me an interrogation because of it? I could be a spy you know?
For now I took the cup of water that Kyou offered to cool my throat. To say it was like an office building was just stating its purpose, aesthetically it looked nothing like one. It looked more like a building for housing needs as it had open balconies and open walls without windows. They may just not be able to afford windows, or the ability to produce windows. The only clue that this was an office building was due to the walls being open that we can see inside the office filled with desks and employees.
"... So when will we kill that dragonoid. We just need you guys to distract the small fries, we'll take care of the boss."
"And you have a plan to take care of the boss?" (Palmicia)
Out of nowhere, she arrives. Though she could probably brute force her way and immobilise the dragonoid with her strength, she didn't have any definitive way of killing her. She didn't have a skill suited towards close range fighting, so she just depended on her high parameters from her magical girl augmentations. The augmentations referred to the boost in strength, endurance, speed, will and well, shown by the grades given by the scanning tool. She had A grade magical girl effectiveness, that meant that her average grade was A or that she had at least 3 grade As in her parameters.
Palmicia had come out of nowhere, she probably left out of consideration for me. But now she's back to continue to discussion.
"I need to know one thing though. Will you be participating?"
This was important. I stare straight into her eyes, my eyelids widened and my entire body tensed up. This was how I pressure those stronger than myself, I present my resolve.
"Does your plan hinge on my participation?" (Palmicia)
In contrast, she was the definition of relaxed. Her cheeks and eyelids were relaxed, as if it was just another Tuesday.
"No, I'll kill her myself. I may need time to train, so in the meantime I'll have to leech off of your company. Heheh"
"..... Hmpf, fine. It looks like you do have something up your sleeve. And that training, it must not be that exhaustive if you want to do it right before battle." (Palmicia)
She gives a little smile, as if seeing her pet do a little trick. She must be really satisfied with it as she let's off a soft giggle before walking away. Meanwhile, Paridia was trying to get as much welfare off of this company as possible. Not hesitating to ask if there's any shared pantry for her to loot snacks from. Just where is she getting that confidence?
***
"How are you doing on your end?" (Gerald)
She asked with an eyebrow raised, slowly steadying the rhythm of her breath as she recovered from fatigue.
"Sent some crashing into the concrete and the rest either got impaled or retreated." (Myuu)
She spoke about the atrocities casually, as if she had become numb to it. Her eyes remained unchanging as she inspected her own body for any injuries, treating it all like it was just another Tuesday. Her interest was drawn elsewhere.
"How merciless huh..." (Gerald)
As if releasing a little sigh, she shakes her head laterally with her eyes closed and chin angled down.
"... Kaori isn't here to get his feelings hurt, plus I'm not the one beheading all of them. Your power was the most advantageous and brutal in the dark. (Myuu)
While it was a harsh sentiment, it was ultimately shared by the other party as well. Kaori was... Way too soft thought Gerald in her mind. Everytime she saw Kaori, she saw a naivety that should never exist in this world of magical girls. Around every corner was a looming despair. To lose hope, it was only natural to do so in such a harsh environment.
" You got me. Only those with acute perception of magical particles like you could tell if my attacks are coming.
It isn't like my Oblivion Magia where I can cause attacks from within my opponents, but if they can't see them coming in the dark then it won't matter. " (Gerald)
" So they just didn't have the capacity to sense your attacks whether it was their magical particle perception or a precise detection skill... " (Myuu)
" Neither did they have the speed, my attacks flew faster than their body, making slicing off their heads easier than cutting paper with a knife. " (Gerald)
As if boasting, she added on to what Myuu thought about Gerald's methods. Her pitch like velvet spoke as if it was an obvious outcome. One that she had experienced before.
"... Alright, we're here. We've walked enough. " (Myuu)
They had approached a dark alleyway and kept up their conversation while sifting through alleys. The moment when morning came and the light lit up everything under the sky, they had gone right into the shadows as if it was natural. After all, they were here to kill the progenitor or their subordinates. In such an assassination hit, they needed to hide their presences before the enemy knows where they were.
"We know you're here. Only your detection range could extend that far, if you found us in the middle of the night." (Gerald)
She stares back at the corridor that they had just walked past. Myuu looks back at it too in anticipation. Their eyes sharpen and their magical particles activate, sending out a faint aura around themselves. When magical particles are activated subconsciously like this, they are usually classified into 2 categories. Auras and killing intent.
In some cases, they are pretty much the same thing. An aura is a highly pressurised environment around the user, caused by subconscious activation of magical particles. Killing intent is like an aura, but it is directed at individuals, making their vicinity highly pressurised and hard to breath in. And in some cases, a person's aura's range can extend so far that it hits other individuals indiscriminately, classifying it as both an aura and a killing intent.
Now Gerald and Myuu was going to face the third case. An aura so large that it is also killing intent. Naturally the only way to resist it is to somehow lighten the pressure or get used to it. The pressure is caused by subconsciously activated magical particles, meaning it can be recreated manually.
Just by transforming into a magical girl, some magical particles in the body get activated. When they push their body's augmentation, more get activated. An aura is merely the manifestation of this activation 'leaked' outside the body. That's why it is subconscious, because it is not meant to be leaked.
It also means that stronger magical girls are more used to higher pressure, and so can't resist each other's aura or killing intent without breaking a sweat. An aura that can make Gerald and Myuu break a sweat, an S grade magical girl. Self-proclaimed Sun God, Celistane Frey. Sure enough the alleyways became much brighter all of a sudden, Frey leaks her own aura, drowning the alleys in a deluge of pressure and terror. Cold sweat can't help but be perspirated out from the 2.
But they were ready. If Frey was hostile, they needed to respond back. Friend or foe, nothing mattered if one was dead. So it was safe to keep one's guard up and kill the other. For all they knew, one blink could spell their death. For now:
"Oblivion Magia." (Gerald)
"Oblivion Magia!!" (Myuu)
"... Oblivion. Magia." (Frey)
A dimension of pure white is what appears before getting dyed in the colours of their users. 3 Oblivion Magias intersect to form a catastrophic dimension of chaos and rearrangement. As if standing in their individual territories, the ground and sky was a different colour where each of them were standing at. An Oblivion Magia, an advanced technique that required at least A grade well to power it for a short time, and a technique that seperated space and time from the natural world.
3 seperate dimensions vying for supremacy intersect into a moshpit of unknown nature in the centre. There was an uneven pressure between the 3, with Frey exerting the most. It seemed that this uneven pressure caused that unknown phenomenon at the centre. A void between space and time, only possible between 3 Oblivion Magias and above.
"Ready when you are." (Frey)