*
".... I see you have resolved yourself to death. That only makes me more infuriated." (Alcide)
"Whether I have resolve or not doesn't matter anymore. What matters is I'm about to do now. Pretty words like resolve won't do my wish any justice."
Her Bright orange hair had become slightly dirty, her white suit full of black spots and dirt, with some tears in her miniskirt. There was only silence in the atmosphere as we absorbed each other's words. As if affirming each other's thoughts, our eyes bore into each other as if trying to read the other's mind. We proceed with another slow walk, this was like to end in another slugfest. She throws a right cross, I block it with my bent left hand and throw my own right punch.
She grabs and pulls on it instead of intercepting my punch, the force conjured damages her chest but my arm joint had been locked by her arms. It must have been her intention to do that as she she threw me on the ground immediately afterward.
"Agh?!"
It blew all the oxygen out of my lungs, disorienting me for a bit. She didn't miss this opening as she threw me once more, nearly going into a repetitive loop of throwing me against the ground until I died. On the second fall, I pushed against the ground while twisting my waist. In the process, I slipped through her grip and gave her a headbutt. It knocked the air out of her lungs, so it was my turn to slug her face. My elbows drew an arc as my wrist twisted against my fist on her face.
She smashes her left arm onto the ground for propulsion and balance, swing her entire body and her right leg at my head, sending my conscious into the ground along with my skull. This time I didn't even have time to cry out in pain, it was a silent paint stuck in my entire body, but my throat was too clogged and dry to speak. Kghkkk!!
I move with a wider and more violent pace, twisting my hips and arms, I launch one more punch into her abdomen. She slams her left leg into my waist as my fist impacted her stomach. Causing me to fly backwards once more. My body trembles from the impact, but I shake it off. Apparently my attack had some effect as well as she was getting visibly tired though not as exhausted as me.
***(Alcide)
Is it wrong? I don't believe so. Snow as far as the eye could see, I moved past many continents to arrive here. A land of snow and unrestricted freedom. The peaceful silence speaks to me. Relax, be free, it whispers off into the wind for me. I want to see that snow one more time. At least one more time before I die. Clean pristine quartz white snow, it soothes the eyes and the mind.
I want to see her again.
***
"I won't lose here. I have far too much to lose. Far too much taken from me, far too much I want to take back." (Alcide)
"I have nothing more to take, but I have things that may get taken from me... No, that was only an excuse. I will fight not because I have such a self righteous reason, but because this is my way of being."
"... Then come, I shall end your pain. " (Alcide)
For a moment, a relative warmth filled my heart. Just how messed up is that? But nonetheless my eyes stay on the road in front of me. My body moves on its own as if its no longer my own, at the same time it was move by my own will itself. It was like my will gained its own sentience. My body moves subconsciously, fights before I think. It got used to getting hit over and over again, and now it wants to taste its own power growing.
My limbs leap off the ground, My fist matching hers in rhythm as consecutive clashes manage to meet each other in the middle she may be focusing on where she was attacking as her hits slowly got stronger as the battle went on. My mind was fully occupied with fighting, punching, kicking, grabbing, throwing, finding ways to turn the tide to my side and win. But she was also the same.
".... We...! We can help you save your family!"
She continues throwing punch after punch, her wrist turns unleashing deadly shock waves in every direction. Her expression remains stoic and cold, as if looking at an insect.
"... They're not holding my family hostage. They simply give me the monthly wage I need to raise them and grant protection 24/7."(Alcide)
Then why are we fighting?!?!!.... No I couldn't refute him out loud, because secretly I knew... He was just in that kind of situation. While there are some cases like Gerald where her loyalty was forced out of her through a hostage, it wouldn't bar other cases where the followers are genuinely loyal to the cult. The progenitor magical girl, the one that created magical girls. Even though most of us awaken naturally, she had the ability to artificially create more magical girls, likely through her skill. Then it stands to assume her powers were centered around magical girls themselves.
Most of the time, the skills of magical girls had themes. For example, Barius' theme was water, Garion was ice, Myuu was nature and mine was wind. It was a simple scheme that is usually decided at the first glance of our first skills. That was why some people call it the primary skill, instead of the first skill. We mainly use the first skill to fight and the second to support, and the third as the trump card. That was the general pattern that has shown up in countless magical girls. It would be even more strange if that pattern was not followed.
The researchers decided to attribute it to the law of magical girls. The one that obscures the mind of normal people so they don't find out a magical girl's actual identity. Since I've awakened into one, I have noticed a few new laws that apply to this world. Laws regarding the behaviour of magical particles and the law of magical girls. Some rules are absolute, broken only by the skills of rare magical girls. Skills are able to break laws sometimes. Surprise was the biggest weakness of magical girls. That's why no matter what happens in battle, we must stay calm and react.
React as fast as you can. React as fast as you notice. React before you know. React before your body moves. Though not absolute, it was one of the most important guidelines in a magical girl's battle. That was why I won't be surprise now that I've deduced Alcide's loyalty to the cult. The progenitor undeniably made many normal people into magical girls, changing their lives whether it was for the better or the worse. The facilities that experiment with young girls to find the ideal environment for natural awakening of magical girls was most likely owned by the Eye God's government.
Meaning that Gerald wasn't turned into a magical girl by the progenitor, but by the Eye God's researchers. She was roped entirely into this cult, not naturally joining like Alcide who was awakened by the progenitor. The progenitor was said to have been behind everyone's awakening, that was why they regarded her as a god. That was besides the fact that she had unmatched strength and lived for centuries.
Alcide was purely indebted to the progenitor naturally, since the progenitor had likely extended aid to her during or right after The Great Disaster. My ideals fall short, like strength sapped from my body. My Vitality akin to tree sap had begun to leak out. My will to fight was like a candlelit fire blown out, that is if I had relied on my ideals to live my life. Ideally, naively, childishly, absurdly, ridiculously, strangely, abnormally, I understood that my ideals were flawed from the start. The will to fight according to my ideals died down. I wanted to be the ideal magical girl, and why would the ideal magical girl kill an innocent?
Alcide was just like anyone else, her circumstances simply saw her working for the cult due to her debt and admiration. In Alcide's heart, she was right. But this was just the ideal magical girl part of me screaming 'No!', at this moment I felt the other part of me grow exponentially in size. My ideals waned, but my rationality did not. In fact it strengthened itself. This fight was still kill or be killed. If there was any other way out, that would involve negotiating. And the way I see it, that was impossible.
This other part of me, one that had died down for the sake of my ideals and motivation had been revived. It was the will to live. It was not even a debate, but an instant flip of my priorities. Kill her, if you want to live.
My body aches. It cries. Over and over, it seeks help from beyond the horizon. The only one who can answer is itself. I originally believed Kyou to have come here just to be our lock picker, but since Paridia just blasted through all the obstacles that didn't happen. I wonder if Kyou has resolved himself. I look over to her. Her reaction... It was painfully normal. She saw the humanity in Alcide, and unlike myself she hesitated. Like a normal person. I suppose I cannot count on her.
Even if my veins burst and my limbs get torned off, I won't stop fighting until I win. I leaped off to fire a strong and straightforward punch, it was simple but packed a lot of power with it. She dodged in an instant by ducking and lodging her fist into my stomach. Her strong blow certainly did impact me, the resultant shock waves tearing through my muscle and organs. I spit out the blood gathered from my internal bleeding before jabbing her face with my left arm.
The strike reached her. Even though there had been a massive gap in strength and speed at the start, I slowly patched this gap up while slowly distracting her with words. The growth in my speed and strength was so slow that she didn't even notice it. It was a dire situation that needed ample luck. I was stealing the activated magical particles, in other words the magic that she had already expended to power myself up.
Usually it would be impossible to extract any more magic from such a thing, as activated magical particles below a certain threshold refuse to stay in a magical girl's body. They were activated, meaning they had released energy for the magical girl to cast magic, so they become more unstable without that energy holding them down. Like a gradient, they would flow outwards into the environment to collect energy once more. While my first skill manipulated this gradient to keep the activated magical particles inside me, I used my second skill the move her activated magical particles inside me.
It was like squeezing the last bit of water out of a nearly empty water bottle. But I was able to keep this water in my mouth once it was out of the bottle. And holding this water in my mouth was what was causing me so much pain. As my left fist connected with her face, a small blow and a shock wave resulted from it. Even though it took a while, I finally caught up. It was a small attack, maybe even meaningless for her. It was practically a surprise attack which is when her guard is down the most, yet all it did was blow some air off her forehead.
But it showed this, I could deal damage. Even if her experience and technique was better than mine, even if I would never land another hit ever again. It showed that I could threaten her existence, even if that single hit hinged on dumb luck. As if affirming my guess, she threw me onto the ground in the next encounter immediately and sent my entire body flying with a kick. Then she materialised the draconic scales on her knuckles and gave a hard punch as I recovered from her kick, knocking me back down onto the ground unable to breath and catch a break.
It was a ruthless onslaught that left many scratches and bruises on my frail body, nevertheless Paridia and Kyou went back into battle to give me a moment of respite. Even if it was just a tiny moment, I did a quick painfilled inhalation and stood back up. It felt like there were cuts all over my lungs and broken ribs piercing it, my body was in no shape to function as so much of the insides had ruptured. But I've endured this much pain before, since I've been retaining the expended magical particles, it felt like I was boiling my own organs since the start. These injuries meant nothing in the way of that resolve.
I stood back up once more, her hands open up and try to reach my arm to throw me again, but I dodge it by moving to the right with my entire body. Her palm passes over my shoulder and- there... She opened her mouth gaping wide to fire an energy beam. She let me dodge on purpose so I would get tired right after evading. Now I cannot escape her breath attack.
Finally. I place my left arm on her neck as she is about to fire.
"Checkmate"