*
The materials of the floor rose into the air in the shape of cuboids, slowly changing colours as they stuck to one another. The other demons continued to struggle to get to their feet as they watched on in horror. A single individual was able to get this far undetected and had amassed enough power to put all of them down. Never ming the 16 A grades of 6 division generals and 10 section commanders, this crowd included the 16 S grade demonic heavenly kings, some of which practically had power so boundless they couldn't imagine.
The materials docked into one another mechanically.
"I see, a technology based skill. One with limitless potential and are quite an irritating bug to see.
The main principle of my [Demon King constitution] is control of demonic biology. So you simply evolved past it, you are no longer a demon but a mechanical being. " (Demon King)
"... " (Pellia)
He might have hit the nail right on the head as the rebel was silent for a short moment. But a glint appears in the rebel's eye. Dressed from head to toe in a ragged black cloak, she takes off the cloak. She looked human, like a magical girl even, but the cause of her flawless pale skin and supple flesh wasn't due to her being human. She was through and through a demon...
On the inside that is. She had 'evolved' as demons like to mention, a mythical awakening that brought infinite potential power. A story of legends taught to demon children to feed them hope just as their parents had fed to them. In truth, she reformed her body with her tech related magic skill, evolving into a mechanical being also meant that she could customise however she wanted to look like.
More materials converged into her being at the instant, combining the castle's building materials and her body into a mecha. She fire beams of magical energy at the Demon King as hidden turrets rose out of the ground and ceiling to join the barrage. But the beams stop short of hitting him, crashing into his ultra dense magical barrier... A barrier of magical erasure, it effortlessly dispelled away the hyperviolent hostile fire. Without another interruption, a large arm formed from the castle's walls smashes the mecha into the ground, powderising its materials.
"Come out with the real you, sending a mechanical minion like that is very disrespectful. Are you looking down on me?" (Demon King)
Human arms begin to crawl out of the darkness behind the throne, wrapping around the seat and grabbing at the Demon King. It wasn't just 2 arms but countless arms pull and twist at the Demon King, some tried to restrict his movements by pressing his gauntlets and chest against the chair, while others tried to twist his head off his neck. Even the throne began to dismantle itself, coiling into tentacles that tangled at his limbs and trying to strangle him.
"I wouldn't risk coming there myself at all. But I'll bring me full power to you, just you wait." (Pellia)
"...?! Defend!!!!" (Demon King)
Freeing his subordinates from whatever was holding them down, he instantly gave a simple command. His swiftness showed his expert judgement as... A giant beam of light swallow the castle whole. On that day, an enormous pillar of light was seen swallowing the castle in the demon kingdom. In the throne room....
Countless layers of black magic shields could be seen floating above the occupants of the room. They completely fend off the laser beam of gargantuan proportions, ignoring the structural collapse surround them. When the violent energy engulfing their vicinity had subsided, the shields also dissipated, revealing a single figure in front of them. It was the rebel, Pellia. She was holding a flag, a different flag from the usual Demon kingdom.
It was clear what she was planning. A flag of rebellion, she was rallying dissent against the Demon King. So even if she didn't win this battle, she would have won by telling the other rebels out there that they had allies. They would truly never get rid of all the rebels. She was truly on a different level that the rest couldn't follow her movements, she swiftly entered into the centre of the crowd and kicked away a bunch of A grades. The S grades would likely have enough strength to defend against her attacks.
It was a troublesome turn of events, if they got organised right now and attacked her in a properly managed manner, she would simply fall from the numbers available to them. A new light shines from the middle of the crowd, another activation of her skill. Mecha formation. As hatches detach and open up around her suit, missiles flew out in quick succession, wrapping everything in a cloud of smoke. At present, they acted like smoke bombs, she spent most of her magic energy suppressing the other demons and then shooting off that giant laser that struck the castle earlier.
She could send another orbital strike at the cost of the orbital weapon, but right now she was simply in no condition to fight the Demon King. The Demon King casually watched her struggle, as if to say even her S grade power was like a mere ant under his presence. The Demon King calmly walks up to her, for some reason she thinks she can see an evil smirk under that portcullis like helmet.
"Do your best, rebel-chan~<3" (Demon King)
Before she was able to react, the Demon King's metallic feet was planted deeply into her side. She was wearing a gothic dress that was lined with white frills and black inner design. It was closer to a French maid costume than an excessively frilly gothic or jirai-kei outfit, its simplicity gave it an elegant shine. Her body bent towards the point of collision with Demon King's foot and was sent flying like a white comet.
His foot had powderised all of her organs up to the neck. When she crashed, she was already unable to feel most of her body. So she tried her best to shield her head instead. She ended up surviving really far away, in a random spot in the Demon Kingdom. If someone was there, they would have witnessed an actual shooting star crashing into the earth, leaving behind an enormous crater that told everything about the damage done to her. Despite being an S grade who overpowered every demon superior in the army's hiearchy, the Demon King was still able to handle her and almost killed her in a single kick.
At this point, the fight inside the throne room must have seemed more like playing with a toy to the Demon King, which was why he was so composed the whole time. She didn't pose a threat to him.
"Tch, let's at least recharge the orbital cannon 100 times over. Or maybe have built a hundred more of them. Accursed Demon King... One day... I'll-"(Pellia)
She gently shuts her lips, as if sealing away her thoughts forever. Despite her landing place being desolate, it felt she was still trying to hide something, even while on the verge of death. A secret that she would take to the grave, perhaps the person she wanted to hide it from the most is herself? In any case, she knew what she was doing would become futile in some way or form. The one destined to kill the Demon King was the Hero, a magical girl who was in the holy kingdom in the americas.
Well, there were multiple Heroes, they were a group of magical girls that spontaneously arise out of the need to slay the Demon King. If one had to describe how they came about... It's super capricious. It was as if the entirety of humanity held the aptitude to kill the Demon King and that the one with the highest aptitude would awaken during times of crisis. However... The Great Disaster was the biggest crisis known to men, it wouldn't be surprising if a few heroes popped up just from that.
"Heh, even so, it is definitely not the end of the road for me." (Pellia)
After resting for a slight bit, her body had fully recovered. With a determined stride, she began to walk towards her future.
***(Kaede)
Despite absorbing an A grade well, all that Kaede recovered was a B grade capacity of magic. While it was already a miracle tk have been able to implant someone else's well into her own, it was more she ripped out and consumed the flesh of another, patching up a leak in the dam with a bandaid. It was crudely done and caused her magic stats to be stuck around B grade as a result.
To others, her magical circuits must look like an abomination for having accommodated the foreign well.
"Ahhh???!!! " (Kaede)
As I was saying... It had only been shortly after the investigation of Willen's suspicious activities. Kaede who was acting like a gangster here had just encountered some robbers. It was the evening after, and she decided to sneak out and enjoy herself in the town's services. Seeing a girl by herself must have gotten them excited beyond rational thought. They wore ragged cloth and held knifes and machetes. It was like an enemy encounter in the middle of the forest.
Perhaps she had a little reservation. A B grade magical girl's aura could kill a human if exposed onto them spontaneously. Anybody could simmer in steadily increasing magic to survive, but most magical girls wouldn't be able to carefully control their aura like that just to keep someone alive. It was either 100 or 0, so she suppressed her aura completely. But her augmentations were still completely on.
She walks closer into them, her gait was more like a gangster's than their's were. Her palms were kept inside her cardigan's pockets, her jeans wrapped around her shapely thighs that were actually composed of extremely compressed and dense muscles. The 3 go on to surround her, but before they noticed-
She was behind the robber who was suppose to block her back. And not just that, her foot was on the back of his head. He was still standing, conscious. She simply laid the sole of her ankle on the skull. She presses it slightly, and it feels as if the weight of a block of concrete was squishing the neck into his spine. It didn't take much for him to collapse on the ground out of exhaustion. She then places a foot on the back of his neck.
"Oi, do you want to hear how it sounds like? Splitting an important bone right here... He wouldn't be able to move anything below the neck from then on... But we would get an entertainingly crisp shatter." (Kaede)
"Hii~!!!" (them)
Was she really this mad? Why was she entertaining the idea of hurting a weak human...? They attempted to rob her, but they hadn't yet. She still has their lives in her hands, it's not like they could escape her. Was she actually relieving stress about something else? She trains her body to get stronger in the mornings then does some errands in the afternoon for the Rising Knight Order. Finally, she starts her leisure time in the evening.
8 hours of sleep, 5 hours of training, 5 hours of work. Then 6 hours of rest. Of course she didn't strictly adhere to it, but that was the gist of it. She willingly wanted to train to get stronger, so realistically she only had 5 short hours of work. She spent plenty of time doing deliveries as she was also sightseeing at the same time rather than trying to complete her job in the fastest time possible.
Ah... That was close. She was daydreaming there and was close to almost snapping his neck. At that point he might even have died on the spot. She lifted her foot of his neck and... A random passerby knocks into her back. She was off guard so she lost her sense of balance and fell forward.
*Krack!*
Her knee landed too hard and crushed his windpipe. He died without much struggle, it was over before she even gained awareness.
"..." (Kaede)
At that moment, her heart felt heavy. She took a life. Accident or not, she had just ended a living breathing being much similar to herself. Her heart beats harder and slower, forcing her to take deeper breaths and more too. Her mistake wrenched at her heart, as if pulling it out to bare her shame in front of everyone. She couldn't feel the air entering her nose, so she gasped even heavier.
The other 2 had ran off right away the moment their buddy died. They would collect what was left of the body tomorrow and stop trying to rob others in the future... Out of the trauma born from that day. Someone they had been together with for a very long time... A great buddy of theirs... Would never be able to smile with them again. An irreversible mistake with a permanent impact.
"Haa~ haa~ haa~ haa~...! " (Kaede)
She clutched at her chest, attempting to assuage her own mental duress. Like an invisible force that pushed her into the ground, amplifying inertia's hold over her body.
"... De!... A... De!.... Kaede...! You have to rub! Kaede!" (Grail)
She forced herself up her feet and made a large leap into the air. It was a memory that would likely haunt her for a while.