*
It had been a week since Paridia and I arrived. We learned more and more about the company each day and how the Rising Knight Order was faring in society. They had some food chains and small stores that sell things like key chains and notepads, their income wasn't the main focus but it certainly helps with some of their endeavours. So the revenue part wasn't doing that well when a lot of the profit goes into their own research.
After a little training, we were ready to go. When we caught a glimpse of the powers of our enemy, we knew there was no way to brute force it. Most of the week was put into rest and planning instead of training. Apparently Kyou would come with us, and while the rest would play the role of distracting the enemy, we would sneak in and assassinate their boss.
Usually killing the leader of organisations would be pointless, since they could just be replaced. But if it was a faction of magical girl's, they wouldn't be able to function. Most factions operate on the basis of the protection that the leader gives. When the leader is strong and wise, one could feel secure and safe to join the organisation. Especially for magical girls, the leader was the symbol of strength. In a defeating scenario, the leader would be the first or the last to go down. They would either throw themselves in to protect their subordinates, or they would wait until the last person died to step in. At that point, an organisation would not exist if there were no members.
In the case of the cult, they were like cockroaches. No matter how much we kill, more would come out of nowhere. Their leaders are simply the ones that fly around before one could kill them.
"How do we find them?" (Kyou)
"They know they have an opposition so they can't be lured out. I don't think hostages would work on them either. We'll have to find them normally, and to raise our chances we'll split up. I don't see other ways to find their hiding spots if they stayed cautious. "
Scrunching up the ridge of her nose, her frustration became evident as Kyou thought hard about what to do next.
" And what if we get ambushed? "(Paridia)
" That's what the Rising Knight Order is for. They'll deploy a small combat team to each of us, who will act as radars to scan the city at different radiuses."
"Radius? We'll be scanning in a circle?" (Kyou)
Giving her a knowing look, I proceeded to reveal the rest of my plan as I answered a few of their doubts. This was a key operation for the local region, it needed the utmost carefulness. In the end even if we say we're manually searching out their base, we're still attempting to lure them to ambush us by acting as the bait.
"Acting as bait once again... What if they don't fall for it?" (Paridia)
"We're scanning every nook and cranny of this region. Or at least I am going to scan in ranges of 10 kilometres."
"If you were to go in a circle, that would be 10 km in each side..., that's 20km and a tenth of this region..." (Kyou)
"You guys will start from the edges, and I'll start from the centre. It shouldn't take long if they built their base in a random location."
Leading a group of 5 C grades each, we went out to do our task. With the massive coverage in area, it would be like a race against time for them. Will their base get tracked first? Or will they kill us first? In truth, 10 km was my previous range. It had extended into 20 km since then. It was also done by my passive skill instead of the usual technique, meaning that it was more efficient and gave far more information. Since the base itself has a 20 km range security, I can cover 160 km in 2 rounds around it. Just in case, I activate my radar now and push it to the max, and as expected there was nothing conspicuous around the base.
It was a monotonous 2 rounds, with Paridia and Kyou covering the 4 edges nothing happened. That meant that there was 2 possibilities left. It was quite simple, their base was outside our jurisdiction and therefore another branch's problem. Or they had used a teleporting tool to get to their base. Which was either in the sky or underground. I extended my radar to below ground after all, there was nothing much but some private basements with funny tools. No elevators or secret bases. I can tell what material is there, but not how loose the soil is or if a tunnel had been dug in the past.
"What do we do now?" (Kyou)
"... They wouldn't be able to sustain an air base. Let's go underground, likely more than 20 km." (Paridia)
"Alright. [The gap of impermanence is a cage] technique - Drill pattern removal."
It was akin to an invisible drill where the materials of the ground were constantly dug through without rest. In reality they were moved to the side, thanks to the underground air pockets leaving in space. As the ground got harder, it used more magical particles. It was harder, heavier to move more troublesome to push through.
"AAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!"
"You're gonna waste your magical particles! Stop it! We'll continue another way..." (Paridia)
"....! I.... WILLL... NOTT.... BE USELESS!!!!!!"
If I were to describe it, it felt like I was trying to punch through a wall with my bare fist. And my friends were on the other side of this wall. If I don't work 2 times harder than them, 3 times, a hundred times... How will I get past this wall? It affected my motivation, and then my ideals. If I don't do this, what will I ever do? Myuu fought me to help me learn the joy I experienced. It helped me regain my motivation.
Even though it was a battle of life and death, I enjoyed it as if it was merely a video game. It was naive but it kept me going. I understood that I am more naive than others, hoping for the best possible scenario while not expecting any worse. That's why I have to be strong. Even if all 3 of my current teamates are stronger than me, what would the point of being the figure head be? I can't lead them, I can't strategise as well as them, I can't fight as well as them. They merely follow me for reasons I don't understand.
"Kaori! I can do the rest! So please rest..." (Paridia)
"Ah... Un..."
Impatience, anyone could see that. Why was I so impatient... I could feel it. Even if I became creative and invented many techniques with my skills, I am rapidly approaching my limit. I wonder, how did other people feel when they hit their limit. Were they satisfied? Were they disappointed? Or did they just accept it as part of life?
It was just like our human lifespans. Before becoming a magical girl, we had very measurable lifespans. About 80+ years of age. Most people just accepted that as fact. But what if you can't accept it? You would be deemed mentally ill. Depressed. Schizophrenic. Unwell, unable to think independantly. In fact there were already many things that unless you agree with the majority, you would be deemed a heretic in society. This limit in my combat ability, it was similar to that. It was something I cannot do anything about, something I disagreed with, something I can never accept yet cannot change. I can't break through, I can only sit here and do nothing about it.
There were many things that we have no solution for, things even most of humanity can not work together to solve.
Paridia holds her palm over the hole I made, the hole that gradually got smaller as the earth got denser. A bright light flashed for a second before the ground shook with a loud boom. Looking a down, a bright light was gradually moving deeper and deeper until it was consumed by the darkness itself. It had hit the enemy's defenses and vaporised. But that meant that we finally found their base. Jumping down the hole, I positioned myself to go in headfirst as I felt inertia's grip on me strengthen in response.
I coat my fist with as much of my first skill as possible, a gyrating and dense wind that moved at unbelievable speeds matching that of a typhoon. It spun further and further until it made contact. I swung my arm with all my force, the other 2 had followed closely behind me, the 15 C grades from the Rising Knight Order behind them. Twisting around the material below me like a drill, the basic magic defenses was ripped apart by the wind and my strength. Landing with a crater under my feet, there were about 3 others in the base.
I shot wind blades at the 3 of them, impacting their heads to incapacitate them. It hit hard enough to knock their skulls into their brains, one of them even landed on the ground with a 'crack'... Hopefully I didn't overdo it. We needed all the time we could get. As the rest fell in behind me, the C grades got to work while Paridia and Kyou followed closely behind me. The base was large, it was like a labyrinth itself. We were just lucky enough to find it right below us, it was way bigger than 20 km as it exceeded my radar.
To estimate it, it was around 40km by 40 km but only 1 storey high. It was spread thin and far, likely so it would be easier on the teleporting devices. We did find some of their teleporting devices to estimate the range of their base and how large it may be, but honestly we were just going to bore 25 of these holes or however many holes we need to cover this entire region. While the C grades have the same initial mission a sus to gather and steal information, our is to kill their boss of this local branch, the dragonoid magical girl.
We rushed in while trying to keep our footsteps as quiet as possible, break through walls to move in a straight line while scanning everything with my radar. Eventually we found a room super dense in magical particles and guarded tightly with other magical girls. The materials use to build those walls were also far different from what we've been breaking through. Stopping at about a kilometre away from that room, I wrapped my fist in my first skill to protect Paridia's flank, while Kyou made a sword out of the ground to cover the other half.
Paridia was charging, she gathered light into her palms to use her first skill, on the map it would look like a second room of highly dense magical particles would appear. Her rainbow cloak flew and slapped the air around as she kept her eyes on a single direction. Her palms were relaxed and they moved gently around the white orb floating in the middle, though the heat from the orb caused her palms to sweat greatly. Dense, even more dense! Make the attack much more powerful! So strong that the enemy will get overwhelmed!
On the way here, Kyou tempered with the surrounding walls and floor and ceiling. Sure enough, her preparations were useful as enemy reinforcements rush through the corridors to get sliced apart. Swords materialise and flew from the walls, rending apart anybody passing mercilessly. In some other corridors, I could feel more coming our way so I shot wind blades in that direction. Sure enough the sound of flesh ripping smoothly resounded along with some screams.
Our job was to guard Paridia while she fire a massive attack. She charged it up to 40% before releasing a beam of white with radius reaching 10 metres. We quickly closed our eyes as Paridia warned us to.
"Fire! [Noble vapour beam]! 40%!" (Paridia)
It tore through everything mercilessly, its destruction akin to a nuclear bomb as it vaporised any and all material in its trajectory, then the shock waves and radiation came. The energy could not all be converted into destruction, there was bound to be excess energy that would naturally turn into shock waves and radiation to wreck havoc in the surroundings.
Sure enough it ploughed through the enemy lines, with one of the Dragonoids close subordinates caught in the blast. Half her body was burnt up beyond recognition, it must have hit her brain and killed her. While magical girls can usually survive any wound that looks fatal to humans, our brains were still our weakness. The soul doesn't possess any cognitive features if it existed, so we can't rely on an existence as vague as the soul to help regenerate the brain. Once the brain is gone, so were we.
The dragonoid magical girl walked into the hole Paridia made, her eyes teeming with rage as veins popped out of her limbs. The ridge of her nose was distorted and her wrinkle creased deeply while her cheeks stretched as far as it could across her face. Her gait was like that of a beast, a little hunched forward while her arms were in the posture of holding claws.
"I swear I will kill you!" (Dragonoid)