*
The first agenda of the meeting was to consolidate their forces. There was a joint agreement between the continental factions that they would offer mutual aid in this species wide war.
The one at the helm of the discussion was none other than the one touted as the strongest ArcMaiden and warrior in the Sanctuary, the ArcMaiden of the NorthWest, War and World's End, Huo lily Dendnavia. The ArcMaidens were the first to introduce themselves. Speaking of which, it was common for some to have multiple titles if they kill too many enemies.
Usually it was the fear driven remnants of forces these powerful magical girls did not annhilate that have the motivation to give such nicknames. A decent portion of people saw it as harassment knowing how embarrassing the nicknames could get. Well, it was akin to worship of the divine. Especially in the religions with extensive pantheons, gods have been given many names since ancient times. This was just a diminished form of that phenomena.
Next was the one governing the West, the one that had arguably been facing this dire situation the most intensely. Kageyama Rei. ArcMaiden of attrition was the pathetic name given to her. Occasionally there would be dangerous leakages from the frontlines... Escaped demons, magical girls who have turned to crime under the rhetoric that it was the end of the human race. All manners of strange cases had occurred, and they were concentrated in the West zone of the Sanctuary.
ArcMaiden of the SouthWest, Triney. She was given the moniker of wisdom and fortitude given how she led much of the education system's basis. Her words were the prototype blueprint of their school curriculum, her name was always mentioned on the textbooks provided in their magical girl education. There weren't many textbooks in the first place given that the teacher holds a single holistic manual that held almost everything, but at certain times they were told to compare between old and newer textbooks to see how magic had evolved. She had chosen to omit her last name.
Arcmaiden of the South, Maiden of retribution, Kanou Lagia Fila. Boasting one of the highest raw firepower among the ArcMaidens, a formidable foe for any one being. Repelled the Zenith commander of the Rising Knight Order, Celistane Frey. The commander wielded the primordial might of the sun, or at least a remnant of it. Speaking of which, there are other wandering S grades similar to her who are not affiliated with any one faction, but are instead aligned to their own Order or military force.
ArcMaiden of the SouthEast, Titania Vericia. Maiden of lucidity. An Authority that precided over the abstract, she was the go to solution to solving mysteries that were beyond human comprehension. She either summed up a mystery that was overestimated to be beyong human thinking, or she altered an incomprehensible mystery into a comprehensible one. An executor of the unknown and apt Intelligence gatherer as well.
East, Sufia Telas, Maiden of clairvoyance. A so called apprentice of the Eye God. Most people would acknowledge this as fact having seen the depths of her power in action... But magical girls who are far stronger and more accustomed to magic than the general population scrutinised these facts more closely with dubiousness. In fact, some believe she only has as much contact with the Eye God as the other ArcMaidens. A self proclaimed apprentice to the Eye God who boasts similar powers...
NorthEast, Miwa Violetta. Maiden of destruction. She, like the Southeast and East maiden hadn't actually seen much action. She boasts a formidable title but behaves as if it was still peacetime... As if The Great Disaster never happened. It seems that there were some warnings given beforehand for anyone working with her.
North, De Lan. Maiden of futility. She single handedly held back the main forces of the Illnoia Administration on her own for over a year. She had also sent the Ruby hero into Illnoia federation early last year to save the captured magical girls in their border side camps. The Illnoian military had found a magical girl who could control mines of those below A grade and was slowly converting the captured subjects into their own army, positioning them at the border while assuming the other side was oblivious.
In truth, the great general Frena was ordered to let Kaori and the others go at the last second when the ruby hero was seen rampaging nearby at around 300 km away. She was outside of Kaori's range but picked up by the Illnoian Intelligence network. And CCTV...
With them out of the way, the next were the commanders. Barius stood up from her seat when the commander of the South was called up. It looked to be more like roll call to make sure everyone was present. Was it really that difficult to summon magical girls for a meeting? Surely they were all cooperative adults... No, some of them might not be. In Kaori's case, she had just turn 18 last year after The Great Disaster. Some of them while extremely powerful... Might have been even younger.
She didn't know how to feel about putting underage girls in danger by making them fight for humanity... Especially because she was in that exact position only a year ago. On one side there was this noble duty that they upheld for humanity... On the other... They shouldn't be made to fight. Modern morality standards... Was not something that Kaede had. She simply had memories of Kaori's one year in education, recounting such moments as if they were in a peaceful time far removed from the present. Anyone should be able to enjoy that peace, not just kids.
She was concerned if such individuals were pressured by the adults into this. It wasn't as if she could do anything about it. Everyone in this room was A grade and above. Realistically she might be the weakest magical girl in the room. It wasn't her place to pretend to be able to protect anyone else here. Last but not least, the remaining individuals... The 4 King candidates. The heroes were at elsewhere. Just like with the commanders, there was nothing notable, they hadn't accomplished a recognised feat yet.
1st Karell candidate, the Karell that they had met up with. Not once did she shed this moniker. Unless she was really named as such... She wielded a long staff and boasted space cutting and freezing magic. A well rounded warrior, one of the more stronger individuals in the king candidates.
1st Kaitmei candidate. She had ashen skin and greyish lavender hair that reached her back. Her hair parted on her right with small drills curling down her neck. Her dress had a standard silhouette but varied design. What seemed to be bone armour was stuck on the side of her dress, its horns curved around her waist and a large bone grey great sword hung on the side of her hip. A deep mix of crimson and lavender hung in her iris under her relaxed eyelashes. If Karell's word were to be believed, then she had been preparing for that genocide the entire time of her candidacy. Meaning that the only one responsible for the other candidate deaths would be her.
2nd Karell candidate, Neli. Her cactus green hair and dress blended with the wooden vicinity of this meeting. For the duration of the meeting, she hadn't smiled once... Well, she doesn't smile normally either, but her eyes and cheeks seemed to be more tense than before.
Finally, the last member. 2nd Kaitmei candidate, Kaori. She shares a title with her first skill, Hollow calamity as the harbinger of misfortune. But the 'hollow' part stuck on because... She wasn't that powerful compared to the others in this room. The only people she could reasonably defeat are the B grade commanders. With Kaori's memories, she knew that everyone here was just giving their magical girl name. Everyone puts on a different name as a magical girl, a guise that is in effect under the law of magical girls. It even obscures identities to other magical girls to a small extent, unless it was deliberately exposed.
"Well, well, let's get this discussion started~!" (Rei, West)
She spoke in an uncharacteristic cheery voice, breaking the oppressive atmosphere apart like a gleaming spear tearing through flesh.
"..." (Rei, West)
She puffed her cheeks as her dirty blond hair shivered in tandem, clearly she wants someone to say something here! Despite being a functionally newly born being, Kaede had Kaori's memories to rely on for socialisation with other humans... Well, they weren't that much of a help. Just judging from the memories that she parsed through, Kaori herself was a bit of a weirdo... But she was always this lovable weirdo that her friends had accepted, so Kaede had always dismissed it without a second thought.
"Oh. Uoohhh!!!! Let's starttttttt!!!!!" (Kaede)
She spoke whatever came to her mind as she raised a fist into the air, releasing a primitive war cry to instill morale in these board meeting members. The fellow members at the table all turned to her next, like predators staring down injured prey. Her cheeks burned rosy red and her eyes swam in her self-made terror. Why did she have to embarrass herself!?!!
Despite what many may think... Some social cues may just be innate. Primordial embarrassment, perhaps it's because she's experiencing it newly that she can feel the effects to an even more pronounced extent. She squirmed in the discomfort under the eyes of many, her lips pressed against one another as she gradually became more conscious of their gazes. It was only getting worse and worse...
"Ahem! To first get some business rolling, we have to go through the information that miss Sufia and Titania have gathered up on the enemy.
As the head of the western front, I've been the one in charge of general operations, organising the integration of our military forces, logistics, Intelligence and peacetime preparation. " (Rei, West)
Nice cover! Now, Kaede just wanted everyone to forget what she just said... It turns out that Rei was the leader of this mission in a sense, of course she would be the one talking to everyone... She wasn't trying to be a mood maker, rather it was her duty to do so... Kaede's input was completely unnecessary... This thought would continue to haunt her for the rest of the meeting.
Taking everyone's silent attention as affirmation to proceed, she began to dive into the useful details and summed them up.
"Alright, first off I have to say... This will not be easy in any capacity whatsoever. Disregarding the demons, the continental factions have only agreed to mount a joint assault, they never yielded command over their soldiers... Meaning that from the very start it'll be difficult to coordinate...
Obviously this is really bad, if they simply gathered all their forces and concentrated on a single faction, that faction will be taken out...
Here's the second bad news that supports the first. There are these entities called the Demonic Heavenly Kings...they are the S grades of the demon race and they easily number above 12..." (Rei, West)
There were no exasperated murmurs or gasps of shock, but unnatural movements spread over even some of the ArcMaidens. This was truly a den a weirdos... Everyone here was too egotistic to show any weakness, so they wouldn't articulate their surprise but would easily show it through body language to be polite to Rei.
Setting that aside... They have the largest force of S grades on earth... Even the Illnoia administration's 13 great generals... Was only increased from 8 to 13 because 2 of them had died and 1 had retired, so they sought for replacements. As a result, it became a force of 5 S grades and 8 A grades. Grundo alliance had around 12 Warlords. A couple of them were A grades.
On the other side of the continent... The holy kingdom of Blumford residing over the americas had what they called divine knights, and around 6 of them. Being so far away, we couldn't obtained the exact numbers. They reported 6, but unlike the 2 neighbours of the Sanctuary, this couldn't be physically verified.
"... I assume the prophecy was revealed globally, so how is it? The distribution of King candidates and heroes." (Kaede)
She inquired on a topic related to her. It might have been considered rude to interrupt Rei's flow here, but... There didn't seem to be anything else for her to add, so she decided on this timing. Perhaps they had already crafted a plan, but with how the human forces are isolated within their continental factions... It would be a micro plan.
Anyway, this was a battle of magic, attrition doesn't exist. It was based on which side had more firepower. Maybe the demon side would adopt an attrition approach considering their smaller strength compared to the combine might of humanity...
Something like that, it's unimaginable for Kaori. Attack at the same time, that was what the big shots had already decided at the start. Then... She wanted to know where the heroes are so she could fulfill her side of the prophecy, a king will slay the other king.
Every faction likely had their own candidates, an excuse to accumulate A grade forces or hidden talents to up their chances of victory. She needed to know where the heroes are. The last part of the prophecy was that the king banded with a group of valiant heroes to slay the other king.
In other words, since it wasn't specified... The last king candidate and the target to be slayed... Was the Demon King.