*
Their smiles hang onto their face vividly, their eyes full of their resolution stood like undying embers in the middle of a storm. The Eye God steps forward, her throne converts into golden pillars of light that stretched off into the sky, vanishing into the jett black darkness of the world. Moving faster than light, they were battling in perpetual darkness.
The enormous bell that towered over them also vanished into fading beams of yellow light. Sweat dripped down Zedicia's temple as she took the opportunity to secretly recover her breath. Rather, she didn't need to breath air anymore, but doing so was 'human' and it helped her keep her mind composed.
They materialised their weapons once more, now in the form of blades. The throne and the church bell had become dense weapons of absurd magical proportions, akin to an S grade's final skill. They tore through the air and reach the other without pause. They fought at such high speeds that they stopped caring about the present, and began to predict the future to send pre moves at their opponent.
Like a black hole, The Eye God's weapon sucked in any light in the surroundings. Although they were already moving faster than light, their battlefield had been wrapped in complete darkness the whole time. Yet her weapon makes her opponent 'feel' like she is trapped in darkness.
Under that light absorption, the cross guard was a massive crescent the size of her fist, it had a simple engraving that outlined the curved edge, the handle and blade lined up with the flat side. The handle had spikes lining it vertically, it ended right before the cross guard, leaving just enough space for her fingers and palm. On the other side, the blade was more akin to a giant pole. The pole wielded a large curved blade at the end, shaped like a fish's top side, curving upwards then arching downwards and back up for the tail.
Attached to the tip of the pole right before the fish shaped blade was a big gold ring the size of 2.5 times her fist. The gold ring was attached by other gold rings, forming a chain that kept spreading into more branches. Eventually, it filled up one side with a mountain of jagged gold.
The progenitor's weapon was a white rapier with a black crossguard and striped handle of black and white. The strips spiraled like a helix. Her weapon looked simple and assuming as far as a magical girl's weapon goes, but it was packed with just as much magic as The Eye God's staff-sword. With a single swing of the staff-sword into the air in front of her, a magic circle materialises under Zedicia, then it begun to expand continuously without pause.
She couldn't step out of the magic circle while it was actively expanding, but it quickly expanded to cover The Eye God as well, it puzzled her why there was such a pointless mechanic. It protected The Eye God at the start and then it stopped.
"?!" (Zedicia)
She thrusts her blade at the magic circle, but an incorporeal arm reaches out of the ground to stop it. The blade effortlessly tears through the arm's flash, but that tiny bit of resistance was all that was needed. Even if one could move at infinite speed, to the person moving it would look like time is stopped and nothing is progressing. In other words, they can not see their opponent's next move if they kept employing such an absurd concept such as 'infinite speed'.
It would be more accurate to call it 'boundless speed' that is constantly increasing at exponential rates, a feat capable when the speed stat is SS grade. In other words, their reality moves at a rate that keeps going slower. Certainly, that would make it possible to thwart any threat... But would such a thing be so simple when dealing with The Eye God?
"Let's try it, I'll deal with things with pre moves as things go." (Zedicia)
As the air molecules themselves slow down in her acute vision, colour itself began to take on a new meaning. She fell into the trap. Just as she could keep going faster and faster, The Eye God can follow up by adding more layers of traps. A simple trap was set first, a magic that erases existence. From once to never, it changes the state and possibility of existence to 0. A hole opens up at Zedicia's centre, her body gradually recedes into the hole, into nothingness.
She plunges her fist into the whole, activating her own magic to reverse the process. Rather than reversing time, she was reassembling her existence from nothing. From never to once. A skinless arm crawls out of the hole, making her skin squirm in discomfort as it grabs at her arm. It was The Eye God.
She has permeated deeply into the reality surrounding them, in a sense Zedicia was now isolated inside The Eye God's body. She has less control over her surroundings now, but she still retains some degree of autonomy and resting space.
"I see, by going faster and reducing the duration of the spell needed, you can also cast it faster." (Zedicia)
The cost of magic was no longer the issue. Part of being a God magical girl was having endless supplies of magical energy, it was the casting speed that posed an issue. The more magic you need beyond an S grade amount, the longer time it takes to cast. That's why they mainly use pre moves that transcend time and save up on casting time.
At this point, the moment it took Zedicia to formulate all of these thoughts was enough for the gaping hole to swallow up most of her body. Only her wrists, feet and head are left. And her limbs are being dragged in to accelerate the process. With what is left of her energy, she snaps with her right palm and fingers. The hole stops swallowing her at once.
When casting such a shoddy and rushed spell, there were bound to be plenty of vulnerabilities for its effects. One of the weaknesses is that it still obeys the flow of time. The Eye God can move in stopped time, but her magic can't. Without a break in her movements, Zedicia was whole again and standing outside the hole in reality swallowing her body up. She reassembled her existence completely this time in a safe location.
"Heh~ So you do~ know what you are doing." (Himei)
The mischievous fox eared god stares back at Zedicia from a short distance away. She shows herself... No, she stopped dissolving herself into the surroundings and simply regathered her existence back into a whole person. In other words, she did the same thing as Zedicia. She opens the conversation with a taunt, her lips curved up like a smug crescent bow, but her eyes weren't smiling.
Undeniably, she held in a storm of emotions that could flood out at nay moment. Her discomposure oozed from her soul, layered with numerous sheets of murderous intent. If something like unease is infinitely diluted compared to anger, would someone still consider unease to still be present in their emotions?
Their battle began to transcend time, countless magical blades surrounded The progenitor, forming a barrage from all angles. But she knocks them away without lifting another finger. A wall of light starting as a spher surrounding her expands and knocks away the blades, expanding at an exponential rate and swallowing the entire world in an instant. The wall of light served as protecting as well as a super heated layer that disintegrated everything in existence.
They had long escaped the normal dimension that everyone originally resided in. When the battle started and they reach incomprehensible speeds, they became stuck in a tiny pocket of time in the real world. As such, just a single second moving in the real world would seem like an eternity to them. They could no longer escape back to the normal world, they have isolated themselves in another dimension formed from their movements.
They have physically walked into another dimension, isolating all the destruction that they've caused there. It would look like they are still fighting in the real world, if the sun turned off. Despite the sheer level of destruction that they emitted against one another, the real world wasn't affected at all.
In the real world, the things that they've done happened in such a short time that when the process of their magic is done, the heat and destruction produced only exists for an instant. Having an infinite amount of time to disperse, the universe got slightly warmer but weren't affected physically at all. But it also isolated the 2 into another physical dimension that only exists in that instant, and since they are stuck there physically for eternity they cannot return.
Moving at such high speeds, no one can observe them either as they no longer exist in the same space and time as the present. That is why they've been reported to be missing during the Demon King incident. But the matter is of no consequence. The victor can simply stop moving.
Time would move exponentially faster in their own perception, and they would explode forward in the timeline back to the present. The energy released would likely be able to annihilate a continent completely, and the aftershocks would blow countries to smithereens, but as a God magical girl, she was confident that she could minimise the destruction.
***
It's been a year and a day since The Great Disaster.
"There's been a series of killings in this neighbourhood... For some reason, no one can spot them. Do stay safe." (Willen)
"Alright..." (Harald)
The thing outside spoke with Willen's voice, but Harald was sure of it. It was not Willen outside, but the source of the killings. 'Be wary of anyone who claims to be a magical girl.' Someone was taking advantage of the populace's trust in The Rising Knight order to pose as patrolling magical girls... And killing civilians. The rumour spread across the community within hours, from neighbour to neighbour. He had never seen people work so coordinated before without prior practice... This was undoubtedly the power of fear.
The shadow under the door walks away, but he doesn't cut his breath. He hides under the table nearest to the staircase. He had answered 'Willen''s call from the staircase, he understood that they have a keen sense of hearing and that they may have pinpointed his position from his voice alone. So he climbs up the stairs, slams the door shut without going in, locks it and then jumps down without a sound before hiding.
A few seconds later, his wooden door is kicked in. The messenger that warned everyone of the impending danger was someone who lived quite far from him, he hadn't seen the person before and he knew everyone who lived in his vicinity. It meant that the messenger ran quite a distance to warn anyone who was nearby.
Now that the door was kicked in, 'Willen' walked in. The sound of liquid dripping onto the floor, the collision between the wooden floorboard and drops of liquid dampening the sound. It was very vivid. He was sure, it was someone's blood. Whether it was blood dripping down the murderer's weapon, or from a head that the murderer took... He didn't know.
He didn't dare to peak from outside the cloth draping the sides of all his tables. On top of the tables were the wares that he was selling, so to make it more presentable, he coloured some cloth in red and covered all the fables with it.
The murderer's footsteps were also silent, slowly but steadily approaching the stairs. He kept his breathing still and clutched at his chest, his eyes shut tight and his eyeballs squirm under his eyelids. His forehead formed even more wrinkles than usual and were knit tightly together. Then... A soft breeze blows against his table, raising the flaps of cloth covering the table's sides. He could feel an unnatural amount of wind brushing his face, setting his heart rate ablaze.
"...?!" (Harald)
"FOUND YOU!!! HEHEHEHAHAH!?!"
('Willen')
He hears the cloth of a nearby table being flipped, his wares spilling over the floor with the tumultuous chaos of metal clanging and rubbing against metal. His heart rate begins to recover, he opens his eyes, the cloth was now pushed to one side, raised higher on the other. And it was the side facing the staircase that was raised.
'Willen' sees the staircase and walks towards it. Then she gazes at the lifted cloth. She goes over to be vigilant and check... There... She didn't find him. He had moved behind the pile of metal and hid there before she checked. As he hears the creaking of the staircase's steps, he sneaks away and out of his shop. Then he hides at the back of his building until 'Willen' goes away.
Willen would never attempt to look for Harald, she would know where he was based on her knowledge of him.