*
Myuu slips in closer, despite wielding 2 spears and having slashed at Mai countless times from a distance, she was not getting any closer to breaking through her defences. So she forces through. She intercepts Mai's hand and invades her space, making her uncomfortable. But the tension of battle won't let discomfort affect her battle performance, she seized the opportunity and deflects both spears with her single blade.
At this distance, Mai was at an advantage. Her weapon was shorter and her positioning was better, her footwork gave her balance and gyroscopic force, enhancing her attacks. Holding the handle with one hand and the flat of the blade with the other, she turns her waist to block one of the spears before turning the other way to block the other.
She pulls off this move in an instant, before removing her other hand from the flat of the blade and rotating the direction of its tip with the hand on the handle. She then leaps straight forward, with no time lag. Her sword pierces Myuu's neck straight through.
Myuu stops using her body like normal, and instead emulates chemical signals with magical particles. It was what every magical girl could do during battle, after all even if the magical girl transformation optimises the magical girl's body for battle, it still functioned like that of a human's. If a muscle, bone or nerve is torn, then it can no longer move no matter how much one wills it.
But conversely, it's because the body is optimised for magic that it could substitute every process in the body with magical particles. That's why no one would think of magical girls as humans. They could regenerate organs in an instant as long as they don't lose their head. They could vaporise buildings and some such as S grades could erase countries.
They are much closer to the semi-spiritual semi-organic monsters than they are to humans. Replicating human functions with magic, is second nature. It's just like regenerating a lost limb or continuing to fight despite powderising or cooking their bones.
Myuu doesn't die despite having her neck penetrated my Mai's blade. She was one of the few exceptions to the rule... Because she was one of those obnoxious healing types that can plant healing spells with theirs skills ahead of time. No, even without that an A grade would usually survive such an attack. Mai was just too slow since Myuu counter attacked just as her throat was stabbed into.
She wouldn't stand still after all, so she summoned spears from behind Mai and skewered her brain. That was the only way to kill off an A grade and above, to destroy the brain. But then why didn't Mai aim for the brain? In the heat of the moment, she saw that Myuu's neck was open and went for it without thinking. She simply underestimated Myuu and thought she would continue living after stabbing her throat, she believed she had time afterwards to drag the blade upwards and scramble Myuu's brain after.
She didn't underestimate Myuu, at least not in a blatant way. It was subconscious, she was fighting another person after all. So deep in her conscious she became impatient and thought it would end with a stab to the neck. Myuu looked human, so she would probably die from that right?
Since the spear pierced through her skull from the back, Mai's face had become too disfigured to be recognised. Myuu touches her untouched cheek, a soft warmth leaves her palm.
"MAI!!" (Guli)
Deploying her own Oblivion Magia, the space around them was instantly wrapped in a dark crimson. Even our vision was blocked by it, leaving the 3 of us blind. But before long it vanished as well, returning us back to the corridor. The familiar stench of corpses lined the hallway behind us as it wafts into our olfactory senses. Myuu stares on into the empty side of the corridor, the path ahead of us that we needed to thread. Her mind scans over her thoughts, the way her opponent's companion had so vividly screamed her name as she saw her die resurfaced like a recording.
Despite wanting to go have a normal life and a happy family, despite having the desire to go back to those times before The Great Disaster and wanting to enjoy the company of her parents... She wanted to be human again yet she treated her enemies as if they weren't human. Massacring them like livestock. At the last moment, she had used a healing spell on Mai... Because she was strong and she wanted to honour that by only temporarily killing her. She could bring her back like she brings the ancient plants back from the past.
Her fingers tremble heavily as if they were cold. Her sweat profusely poured over her face. She looks behind, at all the corpses left by Kaori. She then questions if it was necessary, before concluding that it was. She could see the rationale of killing all her enemies, yet she had just let some escape forming an exception. What made them more worth to keep alive? The fact that they were A grades? Are the stronger ones worth more? How can a life's value be reduced to its strength... If that is so, then she should have been put down before she became a magical girl...
A turmoil brews up as her conscious gnaws at her actions. What she had been doing the entire time until now, how much she had killed at the other cult bases in the name of revenge or vigilantism... Her palms were covered in blood... Why did she only realised it this late?
Before, it was simply 'They are the enemy. They don't deserve to live or they'll get in the way'... She always used her full strength as she plans to repay Kaori by protecting her with her superior stats... She ended up omitting the normal line of reasoning that comes with killing a person. She didn't feel anything killing monsters or animals, and annihilating her enemies was similar. It was only at this moment, when her enemies displayed a hint of humanity that shook her up.
Before she had even noticed, Myuu was sitting on the ground staring at her palms. It didn't take much for anyone to notice that something was wrong.
Kaori walks in front of her. 19%, 20%, 21%. She squats down in front of her, but it was to no avail as Myuu kept her gaze to her palms. She places her hand onto Myuu's palm, gently grabbing it firmly. Myuu finally responds to her surroundings by tightening her own hand onto Kaori's palm.
"OI, don't tell me you're getting cold feet this late into the game. Do you regret killing? What did you think I've been doing up until now? Sinning for your sake?" (Kaori)
A cold voice escapes the familiar pair of lips right in front of her, she turns her gaze up in shock. Her eyes widen in the confusion to see Kaori has already stood back up and was looking away, as if she was saying it wasn't worth it to look at her anymore. This tiny gesture pricked her heart slightly, though it was tough to make sense of it. To see someone who had always been kind to you and treated you well act this cold, it was as if she lost something that she had owned for a long time, and the sentimentality of it drugged into her heart driven by the amount of time spent together.
In the corner, Paridia was eyeing the 2 while examining her surroundings at the same time. It would be unfortunate if they got attacked while their guard was down. With how heavily armed to the teeth the place was with the traps... At that point they couldn't be called traps. The sand in the desert above was equipped to the brim with magic missile launchers that occupied any tiny little modicum of space available. It was akin to a military fortress designed to wipe out armies before they arrive.
It was fortunate the 3 didn't bring in any low grade helpers, if they had to use their new techniques that help them survive the S grades, only to survive these traps, what could individuals below them even do? There were more missiles in the air than there was breathable air. One of the traps even hit Kaori and circulated anti-magic into her body. If she was any other A grade they would have died with that hidden ambush below the anti magic.
Paridia was too busy fathoming and estimating the power of the cult, to have lined up this many absurdly powerful weapons. If they had made this lair mobile, they could go around wiping out small countries out of sheer boredom. There was definitely a magical girl around who could manipulate the sand to cover up their traps. In any case, the problem faced by Myuu was irrelevant to her. She had long gotten acquainted with taking the lives of others since her assassin days.
"How carefree... Not that it matters here." (Paridia)
She whispered under her breath while looking away. They were all magical girls, so they all heard that. The other 2 couldn't make sense of it so they ignored it in the end. But now the air was heavy between the 2. Paridia wasn't worried because she had long noticed. Perhaps telling them would be beneficial as well, so she opened her mouth in the middle of their walk towards the end.
28%, 29%, 30%.
"... If you guys haven't noticed... All of those low grades you killed, they're all fakes." (Paridia)
"... So it was designed to affect someone like Myuu? She never regretted killing her enemies before, so you're saying all the work I've been doing has been to crumble her will? " (Kaori)
"... Looks like it worked on you too." (Paridia)
" HUH!?! WHA-!... ... " (Kaori)
She noticed in an instant, the anomaly in her interaction with Paridia. Strangely enough she never shouted at Paridia before, and even more strange was that her own loud voice was what actually woke her up. Why did I raise my voice at Paridia? Why was I so agitated? She pondered and linked it back instantly, it seems the corridor itself was... Amplifying their emotions.
Then what Myuu was feeling now... And what she did to her... Kaori definitely made it worse... But regretting her own decisions was not like Kaori. Everything she does... She does so for-
Raising her right arm into the air and extending it straight to the side, she takes in a deep breath.
"Myuu, stop being weak. You have no time to think about such things! Instead, do what you've always done. It's plenty for me." (Kaori)
31%, 32%, 33%, 34%.
"Just follow me, and it'll end up like usual. You can throw away your frustrations! Your anger! Your regrets! And all the other undesirable feelings at me. After all, I'll always come out on top! " (Kaori)
Kaori's aura begins to leak from her pores, finally reaching a third of her usual power has given everyone strength. Myuu picks herself back up, her body was still shaking a little, the aftereffects of diving into a whirlpool of emotions. But her eyes returned to their usual firm hue that enveloped her surroundings, a warmth circulating in her stomach.
Paridia on the other hand had approached the heightened emotions the other way. Rather than facing the emotions head on and changing them, she decided to suppress them as much as possible so that even the amplified feelings weren't much. Her assassin training had given her this much control over her mental state. As cool as steel, she trods onwards with her battle ready relaxed stature.
"It's getting close now. Be on your guards, we won't know what we'll see or even be able to trust once we reach there." (Paridia)
The walls zoom past their body long ago as all that's left in front was a vague emanating mirage.
35%, 36%, 37%, 38%.
Myuu materialises her twin spears, Kaori gets to the front with her fists and Paridia lines herself at the back. Beneath the dimming light and at the end of the corridor was... A large cubic room that led to similar corridors. But the sheer scale of the lair has not made them anxious about the time limit of killing the progenitor, because the progenitor showed up in front of them herself.
Long pure locks that reach her hips, and what could only be described as a blindingly clean set of a wedding dress. It was sleeveless and there was no covering above her collar bones, the top was similar to that of a bunny girl costume but in white. It contained plenty of frills that lined 3 layers over her slightly peaking mounts, gold embroidery decorated her torso in intricate patterns that swirl and curve around with great detail and dynamic flair, as well as it spread out to the lower part of the dress as well.
The dress reached her knees with a black line lining near the edge of it's silhouette, which stood floating over her light grey semi transparent thigh highs. Her heels were of a shining auburn gold that nearly illuminated the room and her elbow to finger area was covered by an external black sleeve that wasn't connected to her wedding dress like costume.
A large gold collar the size of her head hanged loosely around each of her wrists and seemed to be loosely connected to the black sleeve. The sleeve fluttered over her hands and covered her palms as well, leaving only tiny portions of her fingers exposed as she hanged her arms by her side.
At the side of the room, there was a small pile of cloth resembling a big robe that cultist would wear. Then tension soared to immeasurably high heights, sparking the start of the battle.