*
Yeah... This is how things should be. To protect just one more smile, even if it was that of a killer's... As long as she was a magical girl who believed she was right... If she told me it was revenge with such an anguished expression I would believe her. Her beautiful quivering white eyelashes and fluttering shoulder length hair, her white dress with black highlights and magic staff. Above everything else, Kaede simply wanted to trust a magical girl rather than the nameless masses.
It was clear as day in how the girl was hesitating to leave right before her. In a few seconds, she would be slaughtered by a group of elite magical girls alerted by the massive explosion. It was as if a nuke had been dropped in Central, it was easy for certain parties to raise an uproar out of it to create unrest and tension among the citizens. When in reality, it was simply infighting between magical girls of the Sanctuary.
Fact was that... They had unleashed an atrocity on the people living here. Whether they were evil or good, they all still had their fundamental human rights, they weren't death row prisoners. It was an unforgivable crime, even if Kaede didn't do it directly, she had still started the fight. Perhaps if she wasn't here, there would be far less casualties. Namely, the ones at the event stage. What was the right thing to do? She can't revive the dead, so what should she do at this point?
Damage control, the magical girl in front of her was undoubtedly stronger than her. Perhaps she would save far more people than Kaede would in the future. When the mines had activated back at the stage area, she realised that it was impossible to save everyone. She realised it was like this everywhere and not just here where it happened in front of her eyes, in other words the general situation was that she had to choose who to save in this world. That meant that strength was more important than everything else.
"... You... You're a fucking idiot." (Karell)
"..." (Kaede)
She simply threw out her tongue cutely as if she made a trivial mischief. *teehee*, her expression radiated as Karell gazed at her seriously. If she made Karell mad by underestimating the situation, perhaps Karell would leave quicker. Their circumstances were becoming more and more dire, every second that passes by was every second that the hunting team could arrive. She knew, because she had knowledge of Kaori's time as part of the border patrol at the South labyrinth, not to mention security must be tighter in Central.
Shockingly, Karell covered her face. Kaede didn't miss the droplets of tears leaking through her fingers and sliding down her fist and elbow. She was puzzled by it. From the start, she thought that Karell was a ruthless misanthrope who wanted nothing but the end of mankind. Becoming the human King would have made things more convenient for her, she could kill off the heroes in the guise of commanding. All answers led to her being the cold machine that eliminated the other candidates before hand to win.
But her impression had drastically shifted. Of course, she had some doubts that Karell may be lying. It was the final test to gauge her morals by offering to sacrifice herself, she had lied about being powerless now. She would slice Karell's neck off the moment that she turned her back. But she was having so much trouble deciding that it was almost cute. Kaede operated with decisions that are made on a whim, but there were certain objectives that she had always kept to.
1. Save as many lives as possible,
2. Don't ruin Kaori's reputation,
3. Don't leave an enemy alive.
Honestly, even if Karell was actually a good person, Kaede would have taken her head the very moment she turned around. It was true that she was weak, but not enough to prevent movement. As long as she could twist her fingers and jump in an instant, she would be fixated on the opponent's neck.
Karell lifted her fingers from her face and stared directly into Kaede's eyes with a fierce glare. Her scrunched up eyebrows and nose ridge and her heavy breathing accompanied her words.
"I am a magical girl too!" (Karell)
It seemed like she had gotten weirdly childish, refusing help from another person. Anyone might think this was strange, but it was par for the course when dealing with magical girls. Many of them were actually young girls before they awakened, doing young girl things during their lives. Most people were forced to grow up to survive The Great Disaster, but little specks of their personality and traits like this would remain.
It was beautiful to her, despite being an ego with the most concrete sense of self, she was ironically jealous of others who could go on with their lives while remaining self-obssessive. Maybe it was just her type, or a remnant of her previous personality. She wouldn't know, she wouldn't care. Karell's point was made clear, refusing her help. At that point, Kaede was fine even if Karell bashed her with the staff then and there. She was simply eccentric like that, willing to put an unlimited amount of faith in someone so risky.
Then there was no choice, they had to team up and survive the incoming assault.
*Boom*
10 metres away, a large cloud of ash flew into the air as thunderous clap grazed their ears. Kaede easily recognised her, so she held her hand in front of Karell to block her.
"She's my friend." (Kaede)
Hearing that, Karell oddly got a sense of safety from her words, calming down her heart rate as her shoulders dropped. The jet black ash clears up, revealing a familiar girl in a light sucking black cardigan that reached her toes, an inner white button shirt tucked under her medium sized grey skirt.
Her feet was snugged over a layer of water which looked much like a bubble the size of a brick, her piercing white hair overshadowed the darkness of the vast swathe of her cardigan which looked more like a robe that opened in the middle. It had a hood which had covered her head, but her white locks escaped the shelter of it.
"Yo, bad news..." (Barius)
Puzzled, their Jaws gaped in front of her in tandem. Usually seeing an ally here would have been good news, their minds seemed to have been left behind after so much tussling.
"What's the bad news other than having this many casualties from our battle?" (Kaede)
"... The demon army broke through. All the authorities and the Sanctuary's military forces are at war with demons, that's why they can't spare a soldier to come after you now. " (Barius)
"..." (Karell)
She wordlessly gazed at Kaede, there was only one thought that could run through her mind at this moment. Kaede nodded back before facing Barius.
" Please take us to the frontline." (Kaede)
"... Aren't you guys low on magic? The land has been scorched as far as I could see... You should leave it to me." (Barius)
A calming smile blooms on Kaede's cheeks, it felt as if even the setting sun was a prop for her beauty to shine.
"... Hell no. I want to fight some demons. " (Kaede)
A sense of nostalgia strikes Barius. This was the battle junkie that she had always been working with. Though lately, Kaede always seemed to have a gloomy air about her, it felt like the old Kaori returned for a moment. The Kaori that made her stick to her, the one that charmed everyone around her.
"My skills are cost efficient, you don't have to worry about me holding you guys back." (Karell)
"I still have some things up my sleeve, I want to save as many people as I can after what happened today." (Kaede)
She spoke with all the conviction in the world, leaving no room for otherwise. It looked like she would run in without a care if Barius didn't concede here. Barius heaved a deep sigh of exhaustion, she had come all the way here to warn them, so that they could hide somewhere until their magic replenishes.
"Fine. You support me, I'll do the heavy lifting.
The situation as follows, the demon army made through at a single point along the frontline. This has lead to a 'spillage' of enemies and deaths within human territory. The situation is messy, and they even got close to the Sanctuary. " (Barius)
That's why the Sanctuary abandoned a passive approach and began sending more reinforcements and helped. The severity of the situation has even reached all the way here, no one could afford to ignore it anymore. This was concerning the fate of the entirety of humanity... She felt like such significance need not be said, a species wide threat has done the impossible, made every person cooperate.
The pair followed Barius to the place where demons were last spotted in the Sanctuary.
"... There should be an advanced party around, this place is eerily silent..." (Barius)
They could only imagine what happened to them and hope that it did not actually occur.
"Be on your guards. I can't completely protect you guys." (Barius)
They trode along the cobblestone path in the middle of this village. Houses were chaotically strewn about, giving the impression that the village once had a lively atmosphere. The scent of fresh grass permeated their noses as the stones crumbled under their feets.
"Whoops, the stone are so soft." (Kaede)
"... No, you're just not controlling your strength. Be careful when you walk, don't damage the ground. It'll be used in the future!" (Karell)
Karell was more particular than she thought, while she was strict on everyone she was also strict on herself. She much like Kaede in that she was a self proclaimed ally of justice... It was dubious since she's killed so many in the name of revenge, but Kaede wouldn't question it. Perhaps when the world unlikely became peaceful, then she would judge her and be judged for their sins.
For now, she would move on with her goals and prioritised whatever was in front of her. Barius was right... The silence was overwhelmingly creepy, the village was too empty. There weren't anybody else there with them. They continued moving along the path, looking for signs of life. The soft tapping of the stones under their feet echoed as the only source of sound other than their breathing.
Empty. It was tiring to see the desolation of the village.
"Could they be using camouflage?" (Barius)
"I'm not picking up on anything, my radar would see through camouflage by assessing the material composition of the surroundings." (Kaede)
"... You're a scout type?" (Karell)
Kaede gave a sheepish smile, it would indeed explain why she's weak compared to pure attacker types like Barius and Karell, but she regards herself as an attacker type. She also had expectations of herself that she wanted to fulfill no matter what, what Karell said hit right where it hurts, mistaking her for an Intelligence gathering magical girl.
"... That would make me feel better but no." (Kaede)
They were simply too late, there were fresh signs of life as old as yesterday. However all the residents were gone, not even a single corpse was left, but the buildings remained. This sparked a thought, only the residents were taken away from the village... No, the demons were probably taken too.
"... Could it be? Someone used an Oblivion Magia, taking them to another dimension. Something like that I wouldn't be able to detect since it's in a different time and space." (Kaede)
"... Then... How do we fight the demons if we can't find them?" (Barius)
" Leave that to me. I can open holes into other spaces, but I need to find them first. " (Karell)
" Guess we're back to searching. " (Kaede)
"... Kaede, can you read the flow of magic and predict the previous positions of the magical particles? Especially a super dense section. " (Barius)
" Yeah, Ka- I've done it before. I have it a simple name, reverse tracking." (Kaede)
She closed her eyes as the other 2 felt the magical particles in their vicinity rush their trajectory backwards, colliding and swirling around. Kaede uses her first skill to completely reverse the gradients of the magical particles, then she uses her second skill to rush this process. It was akin to reversing time a little, but she was manually things back to their previous position like going back on a cassette tape rather than actually messing with time.
"Over there, a massive void in the environment of magical particles." (Kaede)
The other 2 followed along as Karell perked up. She had finally sensed something strange in the air.
"Here... A new dimension was birthed here. When Oblivion Magia is used, it slightly distorts time and space though not enough to affect anything in the real world. Only enough for me to have an odd feeling." (Karell)
"Alright, let's go in." (Barius)