*
They had a small amount of elites here, how would they deal with the large quantities of soldiers coming their way? The solution was for them to sneak past their military in the dead of night... But, they were demons. Unlike humans, they need no awakening to use magic. They were such horrifying beings that were born as C grades. Their innate superiority had presented an unprecedented threat to the rule of humanity.
It was selfish to want to be the one on top all the time, it was unfair to choose who gets to be superior and who gets to be inferior. Even so, Kaede at least wanted to be on the side that survives. If it has to be done through the execution of the other side... Kaori would want the humans to win, isn't that obvious? Then she'll just follow what Kaori wanted.
The smell of burnt air filled her nostrils, overpowering any scent offered by the nearby greenery. It was as if bombs had been constantly setting off nearby, heavily polluting its vicinity with suffocating ash. But it was just the aftereffects of the battles between the Demon King and the Warlord, it had set lots of things in its surroundings on fire. They wade through the darkness at their highest speed... The reason for this was that...
Her breath grew softer but deeper, her eyes sharped and she felt her strength well up into her fingers gripping her rapier. She stood from a long distance away, they had to break through the frontline and the wall of Demon King's if they were to initiate their plan. The information would be sent back to the original Demon King through his clones as a result.
There was no way to actually sneak past this dense network of magic, not to mention that the Demon country was an advanced society of magic technology. Just stepping into its old border should set off warnings to their security already.
Then... There was no other way about it. The clones were intelligent, they would be able to tell right away that something was up. Her aura increased in density and her strength was enhanced by her first skill. If she were to kill him in a single strike, she had to be thorough.
"... Magia Retainment. 50%" (Kaede)
The black sheen of her rapier bursts into a shower of aura from its hilt, dark grey and black light began radiating along the edge of the blade like a destructive geiser. She could feel the magic flowing back into her body through the phenomena of Magia Retainment, empowering her limbs even more. In a single swift motion, she shot forward through the sky.
Under this velocity, she could properly feel the weight of her attack, otherwise her weapons were usually weightless to her. Usually she could only feel the resistance when her blade is parrying something that's pushing back. The Demon Kings could sense her presence from a long distance away, so they were given plenty of time to react. They crossed their arms, forming a formidable wall with their thick metallic black gauntlets.
With a single swing... Her rapier tears through their magic barriers and armour like paper, their gauntlets and flesh bent seem to bend around its edge, spilling blood as their torsos are torn away from their pelvis. Neli follows up by crushing all of their heads with her gravity magic. By leaving the combat to a few select people, the rest would be able to conserve their magic. Well, at this distance it would not do to leave anyone around unless they were preparing an emergency exit route.
That wouldn't be desirable due to 2 reasons. They would be exposing their backs to the enemy if they ran. They would also be prepared to lose. Maybe it was just the worthless pride of some magical girls, but if asked, anybody in this party would answer that they were fighting to win.
They collectively rushed deeper into enemy territory, signs of security had already reached them as small units of demon soldiers came to intercept their assault. Trails of light are traced in the air like comets rushing across the dim night sky, a wild whirring like vibration could be heard following closely behind. They were barrages of missiles heading their way, exceeding the speed of conventional weaponry as they were reinforced and accelerated by magical particles. They also contained enough magical particles to strike down A grades or level a small city.
They followed closely behind, but with a few swings, Kaede was able to detonate them preemptively while another magical girl deployed a weak shield behind them, so they didn't damage the party too much. In the centre of this large mass of rapidly moving magical girls were the 3 heroes in question. They were to be led to the Demon King with at least a single king candidate. As more and more demons pile up onto them, they were forced to abandon a few commander level magical girls in their party.
"... Kaori, save your strength. I'll act as an all encompassing shield and hold them back once we reach enough of a distance." (Barius)
They needed to conserve their magic, so they were moving around 10 km per second while having roughly 4000 km to traverse, it was pretty much the length of a continent from before The Great Disaster. The disaster had, in a simple way to put it, mashed all the continents together back into a single pangaea. There was no longer a concept of continents here unless when referring to the new ruling factions of the human world. At that point it was more out of convenience as continental factions were used in favour of the obsolete pre-disaster countries.
With around 6-7 minutes to carry out the transfer of the heroes, periodic dispatchment of the current party was necessary. Currently 4 human factions were doing the same, the security should be spread out. But when most of the enemy military is formed from A grades... It becomes more challenging than expected. Even with all the conditions that favour the human subjugation squads, it would still prove to be a hard battle.
***
"I'm sure none of you were planning to die. But if there was no other choice... Do it. I command you to die for your the Sanctuary, and take as many demon lives as possible with you. We either win, or we deal a large enough blow to their forces that the other factions could pick up where we left off and win. " (HuoLi)
***
It wasn't a matter of whether it will happen or where it will happen, but when. Leading an elite squad like this gave the enemy an attractive approach to vanquishing their forces. It was simple, split them up. This was a strategy that favoured both sides, shaving off any extraneous or complex factors in a conflict and leaving it down to the individual capabilities of each side's members.
*Voom!*
*Voom!*
"Mostruosita della origin labyrinth." (Aubrey)
"Oblivion Magia, citadel of purity." (Barius)
A swamp green and translucent teal light engulfs their surroundings. The commander level magical girls and king candidates were abducted, but it was quickly countered with one of their own. Barius pointed to the back where there was an opening on her side of the territory creation, it was a darkness that led to the outside.
"Get out, I'll deal with him alone." (Barius)
"Are you sure? I'm not going to be alone, you know~?" (Aubrey)
Just as the Lizardman in formal 2 piece attire spoke, big bipedal lizards in military gear began to walk in from portals that opened up behind him. Before some of them exploded... Sending the crowd of lizard soldiers into mayhem while the magical girls left that space. They understood what Barius meant, they were fine with leaving this place alone to her.
"I'm staying with you, let's clean them up. I've heard... Aubrey abducted one of your own didn't he." (Hyura malovi)
Another one of the commanders, one that works with the SouthWest ArcMaiden, Titania. Hyura occasionally aids in the investigations that Titania conducts, her skills include interception, such as detonating the portals to prevent further reinforcements of lizard soldiers from getting in. They wielded black guns similar to those that humans had before The Great Disaster, and murky green camouflage uniforms.
There was no chance that these soldiers who were basically all A grade would use something like a normal gun. If they had absurd strength by human standards before they took up arms, then how strong were the guns? One of the lizard soldiers stepped forward, his head began to balloon up and swell, before it exploded. The built up pressure caused quite a large sound, lizardmen were incredibly durable... So naturally the pressure that broke his skull would be incredibly loud and destructive. The surrounding lizardmen had their uniforms and weapons destroyed by it.
"..." (Aubrey)
He was caught dumbfounded. If that were to happen to him... He wouldn't be able to explain how. Their antimagic and high resistance to any attack made them one of the strongest forces in the demon country, used strategically to cut the enemy forces from the Sanctuary in half and survive. After that they were to proceed by pincering the rest.
Her porcelain skin pressed into each other, contorting into an evil smile. Her black coat flitted wildly over the pressure created by her aura. Her white suit under her black coat seemed to shine even brighter, as if it could overpower even her magic aura. Her eyelashes fluttered with every movement as she stepped closer to the large army of monsters, her smile wide and exposed, her teeth grit together tightly under the rapture that she felt at that moment.
Barius felt overwhelming joy. It wasn't as if she felt overconfident or that she would definitely. It was unrelated, at least not directly, but it still struck fear into the lizard soldiers. They began to open fire in their disciplined formations and practiced movements, countless hours of effort and hardworking was used to achieve something they could proudly boast as the spear of their country. But the magic bullets they shot had all stopped short of their target, freezing at a tiny distance away from Barius' face.
She continued to walk forward. She felt like she was walking on clouds. There was now a reason to use all of her power... Maybe she had been suppressing her innate sadism. She always soft on those that she loved. At her core, she wanted affirmation. As a good child from her parents, as the perfect magical girl by her friends. Kaori had given her the confirmation she needed, Kaori had given her the opportunity to avenge Gerald for her. Despite being the last living being that was the closest to Gerald, since Myuu and Paridia were gone... She left the revenge up to Barius.
A wall of light floated in front of her as she continuously stepped forward. The ground she stepped on became her territory, consumed by the colour of her Oblivion Magia. She stepped into the enemy's territory, the soldiers began to surround her to shoot from all angles while she continuously walked forward. Hyura was focused on closing any portals of reinforcements that tried to open, so she watched on in anticipation.
She respected Barius and her capabilities, if she walked that far, it meant that there was a reason. Well, with how ecstatic Barius seemed, there wasn't any reason for concern.
Aubrey stepped on the small trail of Oblivion Magia that Barius left behind.
"What was your plan? You've isolated yourself from your Oblivio-" (Aubrey)
As if he was in shock, his words were cut short. The wall of light shot outwards at the soldiers, but disintegrated due to their antimagic. It seemed every lizardman here had the antimagic and transformation skills that Aubrey boasted. But did it really matter? It took a few seconds, but after Aubrey stepped in her territory... She froze his surroundings in time and then his body. Since he stepped inside her territory, even a single footprint was enough for her magic to get inside his body...
Akin to freeze thawing, she consumed the entire vicinity in her Oblivion Magia. Freeze the enemy in time, get thawed by antimagic, there is now less antimagic left, freeze more. With her magic getting inside Aubrey's body, it was far quicker. She left a small trail of her Oblivion Magia on purpose, to lead on Aubrey into thinking he could isolate her by forcefully cutting off its connection... Connecting it to his body.
It looked like her Oblivion Magia was only expanding in that tiny narrow space that she walked on... But it was gradually submerging the monster labyrinth from the outside. She froze the entire army in an instant. Her territory was in a constant state of freezing and unfreezing, Hyura was actually frozen on the spot. Using her first skill... Barius hardened and shot out all of the blood inside the bodies of the lizard soldiers. Spikes of dark crimson pierce through their scales, flesh and eyeballs, leaving muffled screams of anguish of those who were unfortunate.
This blood impalement was random, she let her magical particles run wild. Those who were lucky had their brains pierced for a quick death, those who weren't had to endure the pain of their vitals barely dodging her attacks. The rest of their body was riddled with holes. Aubrey freed himself from Barius' hold right before the spikes formed, leaving himself only a small piece of territory left which formed around him in a 1 metre radius. Hyura was freed, so she layed invisible magic traps surrounding his territory.