*
"... At the present, we're all pretty much attack oriented magical girls. The Intelligence gatherers like Sufia have stayed back..." (HuoLi)
"... We might have a couple left. People who could find the entrance. " (De Lan)
She stares at the 3rd hero, Sease and Kaede, sizing them up. She tries to give a reassuring smile, but her cramped cheeks and shoddy lip movements showed that she wasn't really used to it.
" It's your turn, put yourself to good use and help us find the entrance. Meanwhile, we have to keep moving." (De Lan)
"... Alright, I'll go first. [Survey]." (Sease)
A surprisingly simple skill name, this was the trend with the skill names of weak monsters. It was an enormous anomaly among magical girls, at this stage no one would dare doubt her for having come this far and still maintaining her composure. Instead, it drew far more intrigued. Her hair was completely black which was also rare among magical girls, typically the transformation process dyes one's hair with the colour of their aura.
It could be said that white meant that their hair reflected every colour, meaning that their aura was every colour combined but only one colour was actually able to leak out as their aura. As for black, it signified that their hair absorbed the entire spectrum of light, the energy pulled from the sun and their surroundings were absorbed completely, a super magic efficient warrior.
Her scruffy hair parted on her left, revealing her hair line as all the hair to her left was tied back into a side tail. Complimenting the slick glistening black was her scarf of pure white and black body suit. It was no exaggeration to say her combat dress was ninja like, perhaps that was the type of hero she was.
A master of intelligence gathering suddenly became much more plausible. At her waist was a thin white belt that extended behind her similarly like her scarf. Her scarf at her neck and her belt at her waist, these white bands feature four flowing 'tails' that constantly glided in the win produced by her aura. A normal person would find it hard to stand near her without being carried away by the wind. Over the ninja suit, her combat dress carried countless small plates like plated armour over the vital parts of her body, such as the chest, knees, thighs, arms and waist.
The only feature that wasn't ninja like was this additional black plated armour and her face being exposed, her eyes were slanted and confident, her cheeks shaped nicely around her jaw as she strikes a pose while her scarf 'tails' fluttered in the wind. A greyish crystal sat on her ear and had a single kink that bent it slightly upwards from its original trajectory, like an ear microphone. It was similar to the Ruby Hero's own vibrant red version.
The second hero, Wizard possessed one that was sky blue. Well her dress was way more mainstream, featuring a fluttering ballet like piece on her lower half and an elegant western top adorn with a corset and rows of frills. Her entire motive was sky blue, matching her blond hair that parted in the middle and slowly transition into azure tufts at the tips. Her wizard hat was sharp like a fedora that was dark navy blue, her dark crimson iris stood out among her outfit. She also had white kneesocks and white boots that reached halfway up her shins.
"... HGHHH, AGHHHH!??!!!!" (Sease)
Not a moment later, her fingers tightly cool around her throat as blood poured out of her throat like a fountain.
"...?! What happened." (Wizard)
"... What the hell... I've seen this... That poison isn't..." (Ruby)
"It... Isn't... Physical..." (Sease)
She spoke in between agonising wheezes, it felt like she was driving a knife down her flesh inside of her throat. Her lips were covered with blood, emanating the tangy metallic odor of her ravaged insides.
" Quick! Someone heal her! I've... Received a report... The frontline is vaporising... The warlord is being pushed back as we speak." (HuoLi)
Through unknown means, HuoLi was able to inquire information from so far away. The rest didn't stop to think how, but why. There was no time to question such a thing, if a natural disaster occurred, the only thing people should be spending their time on was evacuating, and if they are rescue workers then they should focus on finding survivors. This was no different, only that they were on the latter side of things, they were people with the power to do things.
"Quick! What happened!" (Kaede)
"Kugh!!! The coated antimagic toxin...! When I sent my magic into it... The toxin used that route of magical particles.... It forged it's own path to me and was aimed to destroy my eyes... My [Survey] was able to redirect it to my stomach... Tread carefully. " (Sease)
Kaede looked around only to meet grim expressions, this shouldn't be the face of the Sanctuary's prided assault squad, meant to be capable of saving humanity on its own. Sease was out of commission for a bit as she had to deal with the antimagic, but it shouldn't take much time. Yes, theoretically, if she could find the entrance now... Then the time taken to find that entrance would be just enough for Sease to clear her system and recover.
"... Is [Survey] a wave type that sweeps across areas? What's the largest area you can cover. " (Kaede)
"... It's as its name suggest, so yes... It's like a metal detector, but wider... My maximum area... Maybe a city... Why? Are you going to force me to-" (Sease)
"Force you to-?" (Kaede)
"..." (Sease)
To scan the entire castle at once, it would be the fastest way to find an opening, an entrance. At this point, the castle was like a 2d structure in front of them, with a entrance somewhere in the middle of that continents sized plane. The insides of the castle was likely contained in another dimension, and this was the only entrance.
"Heh, you can't do it. Just a city? Then I have no choice, mine isn't a wave type. It'll scan the entire thing at the same time. " (Kaede)
Her passive isn't a conventional bounce return wave type like sonar mapping of the sea and echolocation. Her passive was the constant activation of a phenomena that took and analysed information from her surroundings, all at once. Her magic spreads far, but it doesn't return, only the information does. It was like closing one's eyes and feeling the wall that's far away with their hand. They don't need to retract that hand, they already know the wall is there.
Her range was 100 km, in truth she could only do a small city, similar to Sease. But... Clearly there was fear in the girl in front of her, even speaking seemed to have made her tremble with an ominous premonition. Sease believed that she would be forced to do this for the greater good of humanity, no one would blame the person who forced them, that's what was so terrifying in this demonic land.
"Fuuh~ I'll have to do it all at once huh. Refined technique. Fully Retained Magia." (Kaede)
Her aura shot into air like a blazing flame reached the skies themselves, a constantly flickering pillar of light that touches the heavens. She's never tried it before, hell the last time she used her radar, she felt like she could handle 100 km and kept it to 100 km. A continent ranges in size... But 4000 km should be the average. Even with that, it could easily be larger than that, the castle stretched off into the skies further than her aura ever did, even her augmented eyes cannot capture the vast distance between her and the top of the castle.
"... WAIT!!! THIS.... THE ENTIRE CASTLE'S TOXIN WILL ALL GO INTO YOU!!!" (Sease)
"And? Then what do you propose we do? You heard HuoLi, time's running out." (Kaede)
The toxin was apparently advanced enough to detect oncoming magic and build a pathway to travel back to its direct source. The demon castle was observed due to its massive size with the naked eye, but not with magic. Because if some magical girl use their skill of clairvoyance... They might die if they were under A grade. That was why even the ArcMaiden of clairvoyance, Sufia wasn't able to obtain much information.
Kaori's passive worked in that it was creating a phenomena that constantly read the gradient of everything in her vicinity. This constant usage lead to its explosive growth in ability, ever since Kaori first awakened as a magical girl, it grew from 20 metres to 1 km to 10 km, and finally to 100 km. But Kaori had long since reached 100km, before Kaede even gained awareness. She was a foreign ego with access to her skills and passives, so all these unique magic clearly resided in the body...
Akin to muscle memory, the ability was always there. Even the techniques forged into her body through repeated usage, forced her body to remember the sensation the Magia Retainment, the pinnacle of Kaori's techniques. Then... What about her passives. The first passive was the reading of gradients. The second was immunity against gradients, shielding her body from herself but not others.
The first passive was the reading of gradients. The phenomena upheld by the passive is constantly reading the gradients of her surroundings. It's limit now, 10 000 km. What Kaori has been referring as her radar... Was the conscious choice to read this gathered data. The data has always been gathering throughout her active time as a magical girl, as long as she was transformed the data would be accumulating continuously. Then why did it seem more like a hidden skill instead? An active skill that she sometimes used and sometimes didn't?
There was no way to house all of that information inside her mind at all times, it was inhuman even for magical girl's extreme standards. The data was stored in the environment itself, that's why her magic goes out but doesn't come back. Then why was her limit 100km? It was because she could only read that much information at once. What she was training wasn't her range, but her reading ability.
Right now as we speak, the data is stored in the demon castle's walls. The magic has no path towards her body, her passive does not create the data gathering phenomena inside her dress. It creates it across the target, across the 10 000 km that she stands on with minimal magic usage. Truly absurd. The anti magic detects the phenomena inside itself and stays there. But the phenomena persists and continues to gather data as long as time moves.
However, the final stage of her passive, her reading of the gathered data... There was no telling if that byte transfer would trigger the castle's antimagic.
Sease was unable to answer Kaede, her lips muted as she pondered over a solution that didn't involve a sacrifice.
"Whoops, I did it." (Kaede)
"Ah?!" (Sease)
The data gathering phenomena occurs all at once across the 10 000 km range. Now this entire range is flowing into one point.
"[Boundary of radiance, indifference of aether], attack priority. [Grail of the cradling nebula]." (HuoLi)
HuoLi rapidly forms a scythe made off an incomprehensible substance, it shone off white light but had so many colours that constantly transitioned into other colours and textures that it disoriented the eyes. With a single flick, she used her attack priority skill to delay Kaede's passive, then used the scythe to sever the connection. The information transferred to Kaede instantly, but not the antimagic. So hopefully, if HuoLi cut off the path beforehand...
She didn't think the antimagic could travel towards a magic source when Sease attempted it, but now she did. It was a faint hope that she carried since Sease had her stomach ruptured and she pondered over how to prevent it since. If the information transfer was faster than the antimagic... Then...
The white substance formed a barrier over the operation squad as the antimagic of the entire continent sized castle wall converged at a single point. Streams of reddish purple extended from the mucous like layer coating the castle wall, stretching like vast appendages towards Kaede's position but stop just short in front of her as it was impeded by the barrier, countless appendages strike at that single point with the velocity created by its distance, meaning that it sped up even more as it travelled further.
A muffled banging sound smashes into barrier like a gatling gun of pellets hitting a car's windscreen repetitively. Gradually, the antimagic accumulated at single point, pushing against the barrier like a ceaseless drill. While it did cost magic to create the substance, it was still physical matter that had the ability to block any substance. It was akin to a spatial barrier, but as a spatial barrier is a conceptual shield made of magic, it would get melted through by the antimagic.
Antimagic, as its name suggested, was a substance that eliminated magical particles. But as there was an infinite amount of magical particles, there was no real concern over this phenomena. Some individuals were able to create antimagic through magic, others found ancient relics or Sticks of the past that could eliminate magical particles. There was no fixed way to attain such a cursed substance that was the bane of magical girls.
In the first place, it was rare. Even on the Demon castle's walls, they were spread evenly across the size of a continent. What happens when a continent full of antimagic gathered into a single spot? At that moment, all of the antimagic, all of the toxin squirmed like tentacles as they gathered into a single spot, as if falling into the end of a whirlpool. Even light was gathered into that single point, causing the world to be pitch black for a single moment.
Remember how monsters were born?