*
Despite skills being unique to their user, due to the nature of the skill having to match with their body and magical signature, there is only so much that magic can do. Eventually there may be some overlaps, though there might be slight differences in potency of the magic. Generally, the first skill is suited to the role of the magical girl, it decides their role and fighting style. Before that, they were moldable into any form.
As such, magical girls always start with the familiar first skill to fight with. The second skill will generally be in a more supportive role for combat oriented magical girls, and combative role for support oriented magical girls. They intertwine and complement, or they exist as opposites and clash. The use is up to the user and the possibilities up to their wit.
And so, they begin by deploying their first skills.
"[Will of the dying sun]." (Frey)
"[Truth is despair]!" (Gerald)
"[Vigour of damned nature]!" (Myuu)
In an instant, a yellow sphere with the radius of 5 floors appear on the tip of Frey's fingers. Her aura exerting more pressure now than at any moment before. It was a suffocating atmosphere that made one want to reflexively close their eyes and cry.
Tens of black orbs materialise behind Gerald while a giant humanoid shaped tree materialised in front of Myuu. Throwing the not so miniature anymore sun at them, Frey swings her arm forward with her index finger pointing to do a slash before the sun actually moved. But with a speed uncharacteristic to its size, the sun crashed into the other.
A wall with wood and darkness in each layer materialised as well, only to get vaporised in an instant, forcing the 2 to dodge as far as they can. The sun bursts like a bubble before a deluge of white light consumed everything. Using her surroundings, Gerald formed a black wall over and over, trying to contain the explosiveness of Frey's attacks. Build and break down, build and break down, it felt like it went on forever as Gerald's body and mind strains to keep recreating black barriers.
"UGHhhhhhhhgaaaaaaaghhhhh!!!!" (Gerald)
The burning sun pushes through with its intense vaporising power, it felt as if she was carrying the earth on her shoulder like the titan atlas. Her body feels itself growing weak, a numbing sensation that exacerbated itself over time as her limbs collapse and her entire body collapses onto the ground. A few spears fly toward Frey's neck. They either and burn up moments before they touch her, before the pressure from battle blows away the ashes like nothing happened.
Their second skills would not be helpful in this situation, they were being suppressed by brute force, causing them to cave under the pressure. Her ears were ringing loudly, her heartbeat reverberated throughout her body as if to taunt Gerald.
"Kghh!!! Damn it...!!! I... Won't.... Go down... Here... " (Gerald)
From the start, she knew Kaori was different. Call it experience or maybe even intuition, it was not something that could be explained. A mere vague feeling that something was horribly wrong with the world. That was her initial impression of Kaori and her interpretation of the unforgiving cold reality. To put in her own words, 'There is something seriously wrong here'. There was no way her head wasn't completely f**ked up.
"I won't be beat by this... Mentally ill person ever again." (Gerald)
"... Are you talking about... Kaori?" (Myuu)
They begin to converse despite a crushing sun pushing down on their magic barriers. Soon, there would be nothing to shield them against the burning hot sun wielded by the merciless Frey. Her cold gaze bore even further into their spirits, they felt that they were being looked down on if the opponent could have such a relaxed yet demeaning expression.
"So what if I was. Better get it all out before I die... I hated that happy go lucky attitude of hers, she may think we're idiots but anyone can read that she is weak in the heart..." (Gerald)
"Same, honestly I had the same opinion in the past." (Myuu)
"Had?" (Gerald)
The miniature sun bores down further, exacerbating their struggle. Their tears and blood vaporised from the sheer heat, leaving only magical particles in the air. Everything else was gone or out of reach.
"Gerald. You will come to change your mind. For now, I'll keep investing my faith into her." (Myuu)
"an investment... Is your relationship transactional?" (Gerald)
Myuu makes a complicated face, her eyelids close a tiny bit more than before, though it was so minimal that unless one was looking directly at her face they wouldn't notice. In this Gerald saw it. Not only that, but her slight pout and a small shiver from her eyebrows. She had been in this business for quite a while, every once in a while her boss would want some information. A weekly report persay, and so she would capture a magical girl from another faction and get information out of them.
Her methods diversified the more she did this, and the more cruel she got the more her stomach could not handle it. Eventually both her stomach and mind had strengthened itself against these brutal methods of information gathering. Torture, blackmail, death threat, scamming to artificially make them indebted, gaining their trust, destroying their belongings and finally, even killing. She had numbed her emotions in the end, yet her experience allowed her to be more perceptive of the emotions of others.
What kind of hell is that?
These subtle cues that she picked up on Myuu and even more elsewhere, she understood immediately. A pang of guilt did... Not hit her. She felt nothing, like there was a hole of emptiness in her heart. But she has had to live like this for a long time. So she was used to it. She figured there was no more need to continue.
Their second skills may not work, but they still have their first skills which were more direct and physical. They acted as a buffer for the sun that spun and drilled against their feeble defences. It was so dumb, they overlooked what was under their feet the entire time.
"Myuu, the Oblivion Magias. We forgot about their main function. We pull back and let the sun enter our territory before using our techniques on it." (Gerald)
"What a small and absurd time frame... That sun moves faster than us you know?" (Myuu)
Myuu smiled in a ridiculing manner, but she knew as well that that was the only way left. They could keep burning their magical particles away by regenerating their protective barrier, or let the sun enter their Oblivion Magias and erase it all at once.
"Ready?" (Gerald)
She jumped back and released the barrier, at the same time she used her skill simultaneously.
"[Truth is despair]" (Gerald)
"[Vigour of damned nature]!" (Myuu)
Since it was in her own Oblivion Magia, Gerald could use her first skill on the entire area at once. Seperating a conceptual darkness from the light of the sun. Just as the sun was hot, she managed to extract an equally cold darkness to push it away. It seemed like the sun had split into 2, a white one and a black one. The difference was that the black one was under Gerald's control while the white one was under nobody's. Frey lost control of the sun and could no longer keep pushing it against them.
On the other hand, Myuu made a large tree grow inside the sun from her Oblivion Magia. Despite being so flammable, it split the sun into fragments before turning into ashes. Over and over, she expended magical particles over many times more than Gerald did, to split it even further and further into tiny pieces. In their own right, they had exceeded at least one of Frey's attacks.
A flash of light covers Myuu and Gerald's eyes like a flashbang, likely generated from Frey's first skill. She must have created a dense and tiny sun and only released the light without the heat. It was a pure show of technique and manipulation ability over the 2. The Oblivion Magias had all vanished and they were back in an alleyway.
Frey stepped forward, her black hair with red tint at the end of each strand and on the inner side of her hair fluttered violently as she moved. A unique pattern where one colour is only present on the innerside was rare. She had a business suit on unlike when they were fighting just now where she wore a combat dress. Her combat dress had a female Knight top armour accompanied by a white and fluttery dress, while her current full body dressed in dark grey emanated an elegant aura as she proceeded to inform them on what was happening.
"I just received a report that one of our branches came in contact with your friends. Do you want to eliminate this area's cult branch first, or meet up with your friends?" (Frey)
"You're... From the rising Knight order. Why did you come and meet us first..." (Gerald).
Frey gives a little smile before nodding 2 times. Then released a slight chuckle as she spoke, as if she ahd wanted to say this for a long time.
" I was merely testing you! "(Frey)
The 2 girls look at her as if she had a well known disease. Their expressions shot pity at her as if they were looking at an ugly insect.
"Wh...! Why are you... Looking at me l-like that!" (Frey)
She was clearly the commander of the Rising Knight Order, the one in the highest position. Where did her dignified self go? Maybe she wants to be amicable... Now the 2 give her knowing smiles with their eyes closed. She must have no friends in such a high position, was what they rudely thought. In any case, she was the real deal. The one and only Frey, having such an ally would be a huge gain. But if she was so powerful, why hasn't she eliminated the cult yet? The cult was allies with the Eye God, so they were her enemies by association.
That meant that even someone lik Frey was having trouble.
"... We'll take out the nearby cult branch before meeting back. Will you be joining us?" (Gerald)
"... No. We have something they want, it's important so I'll be guarding it while you're out." (Frey)
"... Has this thing been paralysing you for a year? " (Gerald)
"... I see you cut straight to where you need. No. If there was an enemy strong enough that would warrant my strict guarding, we would have been wiped out by their numbers. I can't say it. " (Frey)
A cursed huh. Maybe from the Eye God. Even if she was an S grade that was growing stronger, she could never beat an SS grade like the Eye God. If she had survived like what our eyes suggests, that she is still alive, it wouldn't be a surprise if the Eye God left a curse or 2. After all, the threshold to hit SS grade, was to be unmeasurable. Like much of anything else, the current combat measuring system is a mere average, it takes in the target's magical signature and predicts their current level of strength, endurance, speed, will and well.
If that average cannot even be measured, it meant that they have surpassed light. The average speed of light could be measured, but its speed in on direction couldn't. Same with a magical girl's combat ability. On one side was their skills, their proficiency and the effects of those skills cannot be measured. But their basic parameters can be estimated.
They should be prepared for things to not make sense. Things beyond comprehension. After all, that is the enemy that they have resolved to take down. It was such an irrational decision that nothing could justify it. Kill God? Anyone would laugh at such a statement. Even so, they have decided to use their lives like this. If no one would, then they will.
"I will represent the statistical anomaly. The impossibly tiny possibility that will overthrow the heavens." (Gerald)
Declaring so, everyone would begin to think she was insane. But even then, 'My father would be their last victim'. Even when controlling the power of darkness, her heart begins to burn brighter. She takes the torch passed on from Frey.