*
The 3 enter the conspicuous door, the only exit to the room that they had teleported to after their battle with the ArcMaidens. Her footsteps felt heavy as she trudged through her fraying nerves, it was even more severe as a magical girl. They had enhanced senses, so when Kaori was nervous she could feel the sweat dripping down her neck and palms even more vividly, she could also listen to her own heartbeat gradually grow louder and louder without a stethoscope.
On the other side of the door was a magnificent hallway that spanned around 20 metres in breadth and 100 metres in length, it was decorated with numerous white marble pillars that blend into the obsidian glass like floor and ceiling. The chiseled striped pattern spirals around the entire circumference of the pillar before spreading out like a star fish across the ceiling and floor, giving one the impression that they would get sucked in into the spiral if they stared at it for too long.
The air was cool as if it was devoid of warmth due to the nature of the place, it was completely closed up and likely never sees sunlight, people don't come here often as well so there isn't much transferrance of body heat to the environment. It was as if they had set foot into the ancient ruins of a lost civilisation, the place was completely devoid of any life signs. Not even the lights gave off heat as they had a specific property unique to magical lights. The place was located at just the right altitude to avoid the heat of the sun's rays and the earth's core, so it cooled perfectly down to 10 degrees Celsius.
Arriving at the end of the corridor, it opened to an even larger space. To give a rough estimate, it was around a kilometre in all dimensions. It was a large space, but it was also cramp compared to the open fields outside the cities of The Sanctuary. We could easily reach from one end of the room to another in less than a second.
In the centre of the room... How could anyone describe it? It was like a massive plant that nearly dwarfed the room, it was like a giant tree lodged into the roof and ceiling of the room, it's wood trunk like body twists into countless spirals that branch off into other parts of the room. It had no leaves and the trunk had a dark purplish black hue with bright cherry red highlights. Just looking at it would send a wave of ominous premonition down one's throat, making them parched in an absolute fear.
This is the divine charisma of the one known as The Eye God, a sense of sacredness shrouds its entire being, making any magical girl in the vicinity... Stop using their sense of magical particles out of reverence of fear. It was because if they did use it... It would be akin to measuring God's worth and doubting their power... Or provoking them, it was a blasphemous act for any follower of The Eye God. But all of this was done on an instinctive level
Another thing... It was as if an invisible pressure was forcing down their heads. Their gaze, stuck to the ground, shook heavily as if the air was attempting to snap their necks. They grit their teeth, bearing with all the difficulties in simply facing The Eye God. A consultation that they risked their lives for fighting the ArcMaidens, and now subsequently... They have to survive the consultation itself. As HuoLi, the strongest ArcMaidens said... Even the answer to the consultation questions were decided on The Eye God's whims.
Surrounding the top and bottom of the giant black trunk were numerous webbed cracks in the ceiling and floor. Light slips through these cracks and converges into a single point in front of the 3, shaping itself into a certain silhouette. The humanoid light silhouette raises its arm, causing the obsidian ground to rise and shatter into fragments before what seemed to be a part of the giant trunk forms a throne like structure right under the silhouette. She sits onto the seat while propping her head on her arm. The light fades away, revealing the figure underneath.
***
3 flashes of light converged at a point each, despite seeming like tiny laser pointers compared to the room's gargantuan size, the entire room lights up in their individual colours. Light purple, faint emerald, fading grey, the lights vanish back into transient sparkles as they finish their duty. Revealed under the 3 converging points of light... Was Kaori, Myuu and Paridia respectively. In response to The Eye God's actions, they transformed into their magical combat dresses. How else can they even respond to her transgression?
***(A day later)
"We've received the coordinates, let's head on in now. You guys ready? " (Kaori)
She flashes a determined smile at the other 2, raising her clenched fist as if they were going to visit a park. The desert wind flushes past her loose locks of snow white hair, painting a glimmer of light in the floating sand. Her Stick was also ready to be activated, protruding out of her head as 2 curved S-shape horns with sharp ends, their jet black exterior seemed like it would suck everything in but they were actually repelling the sand around them.
"Mhmm." (Myuu)
She agrees without hesitation, her heart had already been sorted out the day before. Her resolve was apparent in her actions as every tiny movement was without waste and her gaze laid straight forward. She initially had brown pigtails when they first started as magical girls in the academy, she had kept the same hairstyle but grew them out into twintails. She had gotten used to the weight of these 2 tails as if she was breathing, but every once in a while their weight reminded her of how much it took to get here.
"Yeah." (Paridia)
She had reverted to her cold efficient state, she was ready to risk tooth and nail to avenge Gerald. Scrapped away was her thoughts of protecting Gerald and the other orphans. All that was left in her mind was the plan on assassinating the progenitor. Not only did they learn about the progenitor's location, but also her powers.
The progenitor had the ability to multiply, delete, give and take skills. She also had the ability to read the skills of others without any preconditions, though that was a passive. Her other passive allows her to learn and master other skills or magic instantly. The Eye God couldn't tell which of her other skills were actually the progenitor's and not one that was stolen from someone else. There were too many to sift through to analyse and guess.
They had arrived at a place far away from Central, it had turned out that the progenitor was hiding out at an obscure place that nobody could even discover. Masked under numerous different layers of concealment, the place was even more armed to the teeth and hidden than The Eye God's palace.
In the first place... The geography of The Sanctuary of The Eye God was diverse, having taken the place of a mashed up and scrambled Asia post-The Great Disaster. The land was vast and full of wreckage, it took even the magical girls sleepless weeks to clear the ruins of what used to be modern society, and recycle their building materials into the new foundation of the faction's housing.
Naturally people would then gather around where most magical girls did their wreckage cleaning and housing development, forming towns and then cities from then on. While there is no shortage of people living in obscure villages interspersed all over The Sanctuary, most people had gathered at these cities to salvage some semblance of their previously modern lifestyles.
Due to the large amount of land in its territory, people form dense gatherings at each key area of the The Sanctuary... Forming cities and leaving behind ridiculously large swathes of uninhabited land. Similar to Russia before The Great Disaster, most of its territory was unoccupied due to being less than favourable for humans to live there, or that there was too little people to occupy every bit of space.
As such... Scanning the entire Sanctuary for the progenitor was not realistic at all... However the progenitor's hideout was here... In the middle of an uninhabited zone. It was truly a desolate place meant for hiding rather than living, no normal human being could survive here when both water and food is inaccessible. The nearest source of these basic human needs is an entire country away. It's a vague measurement, but simply put it was impossible to cross by walking an entire day, perhaps even a few weeks was not enough.
It looked like any other empty dessert, a truly repulsive environment for living, it was filled to the brim with monsters and demon miasma. Demons were rare high ranking intelligent monsters, it's safe to assume that they are as strong as magical girls in the same grade. Part of their daily life functions include the conversion of magical particles into demon miasma, it was invisible to the naked eye but incredible putrid for someone with the ability to perceive magical particles.
In other words, any magical girl would be disgusted by this air. It was beneficial and easier to utilise for demons, but it was the opposite for magical girls. As beings that can exist solely on magical particles, being surrounded in an environment of magical particles makes a magical girl feel safe. So for another substance, demon miasma to block off this connection to magical particles, it would make a novice magical girl feel insecure. It impedes what is essentially their lifeline or margin of error.
There was a large amount of casualties during The Great Disaster... Magical girl casualties. It was due to the demon miasma present. Magical girls operating in certain areas were killed indiscriminately whether they were weak or strong. The only answer to that mystery was the natural enemy of magical girls, demons. They saw the opportunity to cull humanity and they did.
More than 80% of humanity is gone, monsters now roam all over the earth and the demons have gathered enough power to form a country without toppling. It's a constant war zone over there, where demon citizens are constantly harassed and killed by invading magical girls. Their peace walks on a tightrope. The rope is their king, but it makes no difference if the humans keep bombing their citizens.
After the Gangrea monarchy was dissolved based on their alliance with the demon country, most of the resources of the holy kingdom of Blumford, the Illnoia Administration and the Grundo alliance are concentrated on the demon country. That's why their attacking force on The sanctuary was so weak. Anyway The sanctuary was a human faction, rather than an outright invasion they would rather sapped them dry of economic power first.
"... The demon miasma here is certainly concerning, but let's wipe out this plague first before bothering about other factions." (Kaori)
"Keep your guards up, in a few steps a bunch of defences will activate. We have to act quick." (Paridia)
Rushing forward, they entered enemy territory. Upon the first step, countless mines activated as well as tens of homing magic missiles were launched at once. Within a step, they accelerated to their maximum speed, blowing a crater at where they were standing and triggering the nearby minds. 4 mushroom clouds surfaced as intense heat engulfed the entire field. Landmines on the level of nuclear explosions began to expand wildly across the entire desert as the rushed forward as fast as they could.
It was early, but Kaori had already activated pseudo last pace and was carrying Paridia. Myuu had also activated [Grail of the centralised nebula] and was gradually out running the radius of the explosions while avoiding the missiles raining from the skies. All of these traps... No they can't even be called traps anymore. These weapons of mass destruction acted as security traps with enough energy to take out A grade magical girls the moment one of them makes contact with the magical girl. They even have some trace of anti magic to disable the magical girl's regeneration.
Kaori forms her trusty vacuum blade in hand, spinning around as she sliced the missiles in half before running out of the blast radius. A trail of light purple could be seen running under the bright sun followed by explosions wherever it went. A perpetual flow of magic arrows... Or more accurately lasers were mixed inbetween the missiles as they lash around like whips. Kaori applies reinforcement with her first skill onto her foot before kicking through some of the whips as they attempted to strike her down.
Due to her skill, she was able to repel sand away and keep her view clear in a very large field, not that she couldn't use her passive to see instead. The only way the enemy could conceal a trap... Is to hide them within another trap. After slicing down one of the missiles, it doesn't explode immediately like the rest. Instead, a metallic claw stretches out and reaches for her neck. Having relied on her passive all this time, a multilayered trap isn't something she could prepare. The composition of every missile was the same, they were completely made of magic. So adding a bit more magic wouldn't even be noticed by her.