*
She could freely shape her void rapier as she wanted, after all it was a weapon formed from intense application of her first skill [Hollow Calamity]. Kaori must have used it so much for her proficiency to have risen this high, even if Kaede was moving subconsciously on the whims of her muscle memory.
By changing gradients to the maximum, she can determine a set space where any substance is constantly flowing outwards at maximum speed, causing the space to become a vacuum of air. It moves according to her will, but she usually leaves it as a wieldable object, so she could train her sword handling and fight properly. When shoved against an object, that object is forced to 'go out' of that space to allow a vacuum to form there.
Usually gradients move accordingly towards an equilibrium, a balance of things in the universe that is the baseline state of stability. In other words, when 0 increases to 1,it then goes back to 0, like how a person jumps and then falls back down to the ground. What her skill does is set a new equilibrium, the more magic she puts into it, the more she can manipulate it to go further.
Altering her needle width blade in her palms, she slots it into the 'keyhole', filling it as fluidly as if her weapon had become liquid. She could freely change her weapons state of mobility from a lethal stake stuck in space to a fluid liquid that flowed freely to wherever it wants. When she uses her blade, she imagines where it is and fills her magic into the skill then into that space, the skill ends up like a filter that channels the beginning of phenomena.
She senses the empty air and materialises her blade there, but since this was a lock formed from magical particles, it existed out of space. Inbetween magic was only the void, not even space was there. She fills in this void and dissolves the magic holding together this memory, sending her to the next one. It was a new scenery of a city that greeted her, this time it was a completely normal urban city... No, after The Great Disaster this scene had become abnormal to behold.
Her void rapier materialises the void outside of space, 'placing' itself between whatever obstacles and seperating things as if using magic that manipulated space. A form of her first skill that had transcended any waste and inefficiencies, shaving away any and all inadequacies and evolving into a single perfect blade. Unlike the vacuum blade, the void rapier wa perfectly capable of severing magic itself.
She releases her rapier, letting it dissipate back into magical particles. Despite the bustling atmosphere of the original urban city... It was vacant. There was nobody around here but Kaede. A dead cold city that betrays the eyes despite the glowing billboards and smoking chimneys.
She steps through the asphalt roads, examining the blocks of steel that lay nearby. She could recognise seats inside those cars, but couldn't imagine how such heavy objects could move and carry people. Dim street lamps line up along the road in precise intervals and trash cans lay conspicuously around everywhere. After The Great Disaster, there was none of these. Sure, there were trash disposal areas, but they were pretty much dumping on the ground.
She saunters along the concrete pavement at the side of the road, seeing as a fence ran down the middle blocking off the other half of traffic. Looking to her side, a row of beautifully polished stone and pretty reflective glass decorates the shops held inside these walls, transparent automatic doors, perfectly treated wood furnishings, plastic purposed into many items and uses, it was something she couldn't observe in the present day.
She could tell because of her radar passive, the elemental composition of these objects that lay around. She couldn't imagine how the processing and filtering went about to bring such complex products, and they were readily mass produced at that as they were everywhere.
The temperature and wind wasn't anything notable, other than the blatant desolation, there wasn't anything really anomalous about the situation. She walked through the city with such an empty feeling, her thoughts withering into bare instructions.
This time, there was no lock. She suspected that this was the final area and that there was a different form of exit for the last memory. Perhaps a single doorway hidden amongst this entire city. At any rate, panicking now wouldn't solve anything, so she advanced. The material around reacts as if they were real, despite her rapier tearing through to leave a mark in the pavement like butter, she feels the slight bit of resistance against her sword that she should feel. The subtle vibrations transmit into the skin of her supple fingers.
"Thankfully I was able to leave a mark in this room. Otherwise, navigating this space might have seem impossible." (Kaede)
"..." (Grail)
She continues to drag her rapier across the ground as she observes for an exit. She puts her radar and senses to full use, maximising coverage and observation depth at the same time. Still nothing.
"... Damn, it might take a while, but we'll get out of here. We'll get back and return to Barius and Neli." (Kaede)
She twists her neck, catching as much information as she possibly could while looking out for any details hidden in plain site. It was taxing for her mind, expending large amounts of magical particles for both her first skill and her radar, searching for the exit.
A large magical particle signature shows up, it's magic was as dense as Kaede's and it materialises nearby. Lime green light shot from unknown directions, converging into a single figure on the middle of the pavement, forming a dainty silhouette with twintails.
"... Myuu?" (Kaede)
"Think again!!!" (Grail)
The new figure vanishes into thin air, drawing a ravine across the ground as she travels with immense force. In her arms were emerald green spears that sparkled under the aura of her magic. The exact same magical particle signature clads the spear just as it did for the owner. Its tip grows narrower and sharpens with a fearsome gleam as it inches closer to Kaede's face.
"Tch!! What the hell are you doing, Grail!!!!" (Kaede)
With a quick swing, she parries the spear with a twist to her wrist, swerving the rapier into the spear's trajectory. Nevermind how Grail had even attained her own body that was real enough to trade blows with her, but why attack her?perhaps Grail had finally gained independance, no longer an obligate parasite, she finally achieved the ability to exist on her own.
"Weak weak weak weak weak. I'm only as strong as you." (Grail)
"!? Isn't it normal to struggle against an opponent with equal strength!!" (Kaede)
2 spears swing down at once, while they had overwhelming reach compared to traditional swords, Kaede's rapier could extent and change rigidity as much as she wanted. She turns it into a 2 metre long crescent, shifting nearer to her center of gravity by bending her knees, then flicking her wrist once more. Her rapier collides against both spears with a metallic clang, the after effects resounded like the echoes of a triangle instrument.
She then twists her rapier's orientation in quick succession and leaps inwards, thrusting it straight at Grail.
"... Too little, you underestimate me... You underestimated yourself. At this point... I might as well go against my original direction and kill you myself!!! Whether Kaori lives or dies, I disappear either way! Like if a fireball hits or misses it's targets, nothing will change for me!!! " (Grail)
Grail seemed to be crying about something important once more, but truth be told Kaede couldn't wrap her head around Gail's struggle... No, she fails to see why she should care. From the very start, she had been working for the sake of self gain, to survive and to sacrifice others to do so. Both of these actions were pretty much the same to her. So if she needed to discard Grail to live... She will do so.
Kaede leaps into the air at maximum speed, a large crater the size of a small house forms in the road, it was a dent compared to the ravine that Grail created, but it had superior force funneled towards the use of it's function. She lands with one sliding leg, her rapier positioned at Gail's neck, ready to decapitate it as she slides past her on the ground at high speeds.
After killing her momentum, she turns around to see that Grail had vanished. A rattling sensation travels through the hilt of her rapier and then into her arm.
"Right here, burden." (Grail)
There was unprecedented amounts of resentment packed in every fibre of Gail's being. Her voice was laced with ridicule and oozed out hostility as it resonated behind her.
With a swing along the knuckle guard of her rapier, she redirects it into a backhand grip, blocking the spear attack that was aimed at her back. The force of her spears blows against the rapier roughly, forcing the rapier to be pressed against her own body. It was possible for her own rapier to hurt her body, however she had an innate resistance against her own skill. Her second passive was recoil canceling, specifically it nullified any recoil that could hurt her body arising from the changing of gradients.
Her rapier became counted as a form of self induced recoil, so her body fared well getting beaten by her own rapier than actually taking a hit from any of Gail's spears. Nevertheless, the force was so great that it blew both her and her rapier to a distance far away. As if she was thrown, her body bounced across the ground roughly before stopping. Pain permeated all over her body as she came to terms with her frailty. She was weak, Grail had the same stats as her yet she was the one being thrown so roughly across the battle.
"You still don't get it, I'll have to beat it into you. If this was a test, you fail. You can not match up to Kaori." (Grail)
"SHUT UP!!!" (Kaede)
She materialises 2 more rapiers, one her left arm and one on hanging on her hip, reaching closer to Grail, Grail instead jumps backwards to create distance between them, at the same time she thrusts her spears to shake off Kaede from her pursuit.
"Revived technique! Super Hollow Propulsion!" (Kaede)
An explosion of power erupts underneath her feet, propelling herself at unprecedented speeds that she hasn't reached. She finally closes the distance with Grail, slamming her right rapier into Grail which blocked with the shaft of her left spear. Kaede then slams her feet into Grail in quick succession, with no buffer time, her leg strikes into the rapier as her right hand draws the third rapier hanging on her waist.
Her left hand slides inwards, knocking against Grail's remaining spear. With her third and final rapier remaining and with Grail lacking any remaining means to defend, Kaede thrusts her blade through the centre at her chest where she was least defended.
The sound of a blade tearing through flesh echoes vividly in front of them. Grail summoned a spear in front of her, taking inspiration from Kaede's rapier block, her own flesh collides with her spear, absorbing all the power put into it and turning it into blunt force. Grail breaks the balance by swinging her knee forward, crashing it into Kaede's abdomen and causing her to fly a few metres away.
Kaede lands on her legs with her knees bent like a frog, she allows the rapiers she lost to dissipate and resummons them back into her palms. She might have felt too confused to fight at the start, but now her blood was beginning to boil, the adrenaline was finally filling every vein in her body. With another super hollow propulsion, she shoots forward several times faster than rockets, leaving behind a large crater the size of a building. It looked like a meteor had crashed in that area due to how a large area was unearthed and distorted.
She positions her rapiers in front of her, ready to make the precise sword plays that she envisioned.
"Weak! Weak! Weak!!!" (Grail)
Walls of vines shot forth from the ground and the sky, forming numerous thick layers of defences. With the flick of her wrist, Kaede tears through multiple walls in a row, slashing them down with ease. Her momentum slows down, but it continues to carry her forward without pause...
"Why must I follow your rules?" (Kaede)
She jumps out of the way from the row of vine walls and uses the propulsion technique to make a sharp turn, circumventing the walls altogether by going around it. She stacks multiple propulsion together to increase her velocity, slicing through the new walls conjured by Grail in a panic. Eventually Grail's walls were too slow to block her as she ducks or jumps over them.
Grail greets her at the end with a spear approaching her face.