***(Gerald)
I picked myself up right after the fall, my physical enhancements were one of the highest as long as I put the darkness inside my body. It didn't make much sense, but I discovered it way earlier when I first awakened as a magical girl. I had accidentally infused the darkness created by my skill into my own body, and it showed a really efficient amount of conversion to raw power.
So it really surprised me to meet a second person who was able to match up to me, surpassing me even. Was my own impression of my power really this wrong? Or was I surrounded by a yes man like Paridia that created this awful thinking? If it was this troublesome and dangerous, I'd be better off assuming everyone is stronger than myself.
From then, I could fight both close and long range. But since people kept annoying me by forcing close range battles, my melee combat has gotten stronger instead. My body moved on its own without needing any conscious thought, jett black blades materialised in my palms as I stepped into an offensive stance. I rush in with the surroundings turning into a blur in an instant, leaving nothing but my target in view.
A white wall materialises right before I make contact, I charge ahead regardless. I point one of my blades forward and cause it to detonate, causing an explosive burst of darkness to erupt against the wall while dropping slowing speed in the slightest. How long do you think I've been fighting for? As long as you're not too fast, my reaction wouldn't fail even if my enemies were slightly faster than me.
I can see it happen in broad daylight you know? The arachne raised her arm in this direction and tried to assist the masked magical girl. In return, Myuu had swung 2 spears towards the arachne's front, causing her to jump back against the vine spears Myuu summoned from behind her. The spears broke as they weren't reinforced much, but they managed to make an uncomfortable dent in her exoskeleton.
The masked magical girl jumps backwards to maintain more distance. It's fine, it gives me more time to materialise a second blade to replace the one I detonated. This time I'll keep my guard up. This battle brings me back... But unlike the progenitor, this enemy couldn't stop my rush. I would say my dealing with the cult was one of the more light weighted ones... A simple hostage situation, she didn't do much more than that, supposedly because I was a 'valuable' A grade.
The others... The more disposable ones had it even worse. The weaker you are, the crueler the cult was to you. Drugs, blood money, executing their families in front of them, defiling their families, they were all normal individuals who had simply fallen into this deep dark inescapable hole. Maybe some of them had hope that they would one day be free, maybe they would rather have died. I was no angel sent from heaven, that was for sure. Other than the ones Kaori had spared, I had killed all the rest. Young or old, human or magical.
I won't stop, I can not stop. This was my purpose, and if I have to give my life in the process, I didn't mind at all. That was why, asking me to regret now was simply too late. No matter what attachment you had to your subordinates, how pure and happy you think they were, I'll kill them all. As long as you are under the cult, I'll see to it that you die.
Reaching closer to the masked magical girl, I reached closer to her neck with my blade while multiple stakes of darkness surrounded her from all directions. After I reach a certain distance, I didn't even need my Oblivion Magia to output this much power. I had more control over the conceptual darkness created as long as I was nearby, die!
"Oblivion Magia" (?)
A blinding light explodes from her body, taking her faint whisper as a cue, I blocked my eyes with my left hand before hand. Even if I could continue attacking while blinded, it would still mess up my movements even if only on the short term. On the other hand, my right never stopped. I sliced apart her neck and through the materialised cogwheel that tried to protect her. It was a shallow cut but it showed she could bleed as a trace amount of blood flew into the air.
All the other attacks weren't as enhanced by my magic so they were stopped by the surrounding cogwheels. Wires rose from the ground carrying cogwheels as they struck at me like living tendrils. Causing an explosion of darkness under my feet, I jumped into the air before creating a foothold with that darkness. I combined my blades into a single giant scythe, with this my reach will extend far more while retaining the sharpness.
The shaft of the scythe was around 5 metres long as the blade was around half that length. Twisting my hips and knees, I lowered my centre of gravity before jumping off the foothold at a narrow angle of depression, rapidly approaching where the enemy stood. Rising below my feet, the ground morphed into a different and more distinct shape as it forcibly pushed me into the air, it was fast enough to intercept my rush. The metallic sheen slowly morphed into the right places as black smog poured out at some kind of protruding apparatus.
It was the steam engine of a train. As different items materialised from her Oblivion Magia, I begin to understand her power. It was only due to Paridia's Oblivion Magia counteracting hers, that made it so she couldn't form those constructs inside my body and cause internal injuries. The same goes for Paridia, as she no longer held control over the space around us she couldn't cause light to explode from within the enemy's body.
I slice the train apart with my scythe before sending black spears flying at her. She desperate deflects them with stray cogwheels, it took a large amount of precision but they seemed to be the only things with enough power to deflect the spears, as they concentrate her own magic power into a small area unlike the steam trains. It was hard to make sense of the ever-changing battlefield, what with steam trains raining out of the sky.
As I was busy with closing the distance, she sent an array of obstacles and each time I got closer wire's would rise out of the ground to restrict my legs, arms or the scythe itself. It took a bit of time to break out of the restraints, and it was more than enough for her to escape out of my range. Running sideways, I decided to change my movement patterns. I take a quick backwards jump before materialising guns out of darkness and shot black bullets. With a quick explosive gatling of magically enhanced bullets, her constructs easily fell apart from the pressure leaving herself with almost nothing to shield her from the oncoming bullets.
With the bullets hiding another barrage of bullets right behind, there was no way for her to block them. Her most optimal move was to dodge them, though she had no way to do that after having her movements controlled by my control fire. Her blood splattered across the ground like spider lilies, their soft petals extended outwards without resistance as they meet the ground.
"Tch!.... PUI!" (?)
She spat out her blood while gritting her teeth in between, her face reddening behind the mask as her veins bulged on her exposed right arm. The broken pieces of cogwheel and steam trains everywhere began to converge into one point as she raised up her left arm. An odd short stick like object had materialised in her left arm.
Her first skill, the primary skill meant for attack, was likely the ability to conjure and manipulate old machinery. As long as it was modern and has existed before, it wasn't a skill that materialised technology out of the future or created technology. Second skills were usually supportive in nature rather than act as another offensive skill. That is not to say second skills can't be offensive, it wasn't rare for magical girls to have a second method of attacking as well. Sometimes the supportive nature of the skill can act as a poison for the enemy as well.
Anyway, those were not common cogwheels at all, they were packed with so much magic energy that it was insane for my nerves, they were likely ancient cogwheels used as a weapon by ancient magical girls. It meant that despite all the random machine rabble that she has used up so far, she still hasn't shown her true power.
That would be summoning ancient Sticks. Unique magic items created by a magical girl's skill rather than the fruit of magic research by magic scientist. Normal magic items didn't require a skill to forge, and even if it did, if multiple magical girls could recreate it then it was no longer unique. It needed to be unique and powerful to be counted as a Stick, usually one wouldn't fill in the 2 checkmarks when trying to forge a Stick. The uniqueness just came with it, people only aimed for power.
But I suppose materialising such a powerful ancient weapon would drain her well dry pretty fast, there were countless Sticks lost to time after all. Usually they were made by S grades or someone who could match up to them in magic item forging ingenuity. This was her last resort, seeing her Oblivion Magia was wasted. A flashing red light buried the mountain of machinery flying towards her as everyone was blinded without warning.
Looks like I pushed her this far, it was a good sign. I had more tricks up my sleeve while she didn't. When my eyesight recovered, a giant fist of metal and a magical girl with a cracked mask was nearing towards me.
Tch, I got too cocky way too fast. Well, no harm in using my second skill. It should take her a bit of time to figure it out just as I took a bit to guess what her first skill did. While it was disadvantageous having such a simple first skill, It doesn't mean my repertoire suddenly becomes useless.
"Second skill, [Deluded hope], become helpless before my very eyes. "
Just as the sun always sets, the balance always returns. Even if you are in an advantageous position. The only thing this skill does, is allowing me to choose when that happens. Standing still, I watched as she punches to her right instead of continuing the attack towards me. Despite not doing much, this skill was still really useful depending on when I use it.
"HEHEHEHEHAHAHAH Did you think you've gotten me? You haven't seen anything but the tip of my first skill!!!"
Perhaps I could convince her this second skill effect was one brought about my first skill. It would make her more paranoid and wary of something that doesn't exist! If that brought her anxiety, it would be beneficial to me. If it didn't, then it didn't matter! It was useful either way!
As she faced the side for a second while punching towards that direction, I summoned a large wave of darkness towards her. Up close, it looked like a massive black wall. It was like cold crushing tsunami of despair, yet it held searing warmth for those that touch it.
"Damn... How annoying. Haa~, guess I have to step in. Mostruosita della origin labyrinth." (Aubrey)
Before the wave could consume the masked magical girl, the half lizard man had chanted something foreign to our ears. His body glowed a grotesque murky green before it extended. It extended far beyond whatever we could imagine and what was basically a wall of flesh had blocked off the black wave that was going to kill his comrade. In the distance where Paridia was... She was laying on the ground unconscious. She had just been knocked out from what seemed to be a long drawn out fight.
Was she not able to drown this enemy in unbearable heat and radiation? Why was he still alive? I guess I can't make an excuse, I left my opponent alive too. I couldn't kill her in time before his interception. I'll help you take out both of them, so rest easy, Paridia. Thankfully, on the other side at Myuu's battle, it was going in her favour. There were so many spear wounds on the arachne that the regeneration from her well was barely catching up.
"Tch, so I needed to cover for both of you." (Aubrey)
His deep bellowing voice resounded from the sky as a tail the size of a building crashed into where Myuu was fighting. Despite its massive size, it was very agile and nearly crushed Myuu and the Arachne with its weight. It was only because he held back that allowed both of them to live, he wanted Arachne to be safe after all, what would be the point of mindlessly crushing everything?
The Arachne quickly retreated to the giant lizard's side, his head more akin to that of a crocodile's than a lizards. Its scale filled head gazed at us from his side as Myuu reconvened with me. Currently 1 Oblivion Magia has been used from our side, and the enemy has used 1 Oblivion Magia and what seemed to be the ultimate technique of monsters. It was fatal to assume this gigantification was the ultimate technique of monsters, but what else was I suppose to do? Wouldn't it be even more hopeless if it wasn't?
Paridia's Oblivion Magia begins to fade. Myuu and I, our auras began to flare up around the same time. It was obvious what we should do next.