*
"... Listen well, go back to whence you came. It's nice to know that there are other strong individuals like you out there, it would be a lost to the world to immediately eliminate you. This is a rare show of mercy shown only to those with potential.
I stand at the end of all journeys, of all wishes. I am the finality of such lofty dreams, obstacle to all salvation that might come to fruition. My passives include not only my tough body, but the attraction of those with the strongest wills and wishes. Of course, no one has been able to defeat me, so any such wishes have never been realised. " (Yiren)
.... It was this damn guy's passive that was making her feel like she was nearing her goal... In the first place, there was no guarantee that the Demon King would have what she wanted... She was infuriated. As a unicorn, there was a possibility that he might grant a wish upon his defeat, as such his passive attracts those on a grand journey to meet him... At the end of their own respective stories. They meet their end at his hands. If not for Kaede, the heroes would be the ones facing him.
Only for this single tidbit of truth could she be grateful about this encounter. Otherwise, she really tried. She swung her weapon in what she thought was the best way to apply force and deal damage, she thrusted using her rapier with all her strength and then even more. No matter what she does, he denies all that is brought by her efforts of practice and diligence. It took spontaneous and irrational decisions to finally deal a sliver of damage.
" Aa~, there were many others with this kind of look too. I'm telling you, go back home and I'll put in a word with the Demon King for you. Continuing now... You have no chance of winning." (Yiren)
These weird observations were not the result of magic. Denying efforts regardless of the duration spent to hone ones capabilities and allowing spontnaous attacks to deal damage... She noticed this fact, but it's not an absolute rule. For example, she had managed to damage him with her rapier multiple times before resorting to her instinct to fight. This meant the opposite was also true.
Just because she had abandoned reason, doesn't mean she will suddenly win. No, it was super clear that if she continued this way, her opponent t would simply adapt to it and defeat her with it. Then what was the answer? What are the use of trends if such exceptions blatantly exist to deny what she observed? It meant that her defeat was not definite as well, that there is a solution. A path forward that crushes the denier of dreams and ambitions.
Such a being stands in front of her, bending reality to fit its description as the destroyer of dreams... But that is simply it. Even if it was solely due to unicorn biology that causes those on a great journey to meet the unicorn... Fulfilling the legend that only those chosen by the unicorn get to see it, it didn't mean that he was invincible. It was all a mechanism, fate, destiny, predistination.
"DO NOT KID YOURSELF!!! EVEN IF YOU CONTROL FATE, IT IS BUT A MECHANISM CONTAINED WITHIN YOUR FLESH!!!" (Kaede)
Rationalise, gather information, repeat. One simply doesn't survive fights with other magical girls without using their mind. It was a constant contest of information, the first to grasp critical information wins. That's how it has always been. Taking what the unicorn said... She can't win... On her own. She's not alone right now, humanity is with her, Karell is with her. Carrying such a burden naturally makes her a representative of humanity, it's impossible for her to be alone right now.
"... Prava Phantasia. Closure, the land where dreams die." (Yiren)
A lustrous green land spreads out before their sight, the scent of wild grass travels into the rough breeze that tickles Kaede's nose as it passed by. There were no trees in sight, anything that was 100 metres away was shrouded in a dense sky blue fog that concealed all there is. Yiren was nowhere in sight. The sound of a distant wind breeze alerts her ears, but the fog... Was somehow affecting her passive.
Antimagic properties...? No... It's jamming properties... Her passive sends information into her mind... It was akin to radio waves or wifi.
"Looks like he's trying to waste our time... Let's find him and eliminate him fast." (Karell)
She turned to face Kaede's eyes and nodded to her when Kaede noticed. Kaede nodded back.
"Let's scour this place quickly. " (Kaede)
"Mhmm." (Karell)
In an instant, 100 metres was crossed. At this stage, such a distance took so little time that it wasn't even worth mentioning. When he landed from each 100 metre hop, the fog returned to its distance of being 100 metres away, the fog was Localised. This meant that the realm they were in could easily be more than a km large, the information of its size was completely obscured from Kaede and Karell.
After a few hops, a forest came within sight. Each individual trunk had its width the size of an adult human, while its height stretched so far into the sky that its tip was unrecognisable. At the very least, every single tree was more than 100 metres tall. She had never seen such trees before, the only one that matched them in size was the mature spears that Myuu summoned, though those were the size of a small mountain. It was an ostentatious mythical forest that evoked curiosity on how its biology worked, how long it lived for, how it survived...
None of this was real, they were traversing through an instance of Yiren's Prava Phantasia. Nevertheless, the sight astounded Kaede. Oblivion Magia were usually a blend of colours that represented a magical girl's inner state, their feelings, their rampant emotions, their goals were mixed into a hodgepodge that painted the background. Usually if an Oblivion Magia were to simulate reality this well, packed with smell and hearing on top of sight, it would be the effect of a skill.
But Prava Phantasia was blatantly different... It could be counted as a 4th skill on its own. It has its own effects, its own rules. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy, as if weights had been applied to them via tape... Magical girls are able to resist the urge to sleep for more than a year... This phenomena wasn't normal at all, it was the effect of Yiren's magic.
Her fingers outstretched, she trekked the land with heavy eyes and a drowsy mind, her heartbeat slowed down and her movements dulled. It felt like her entire body was a corpse and she was forcefully dragging it along.
"Haaaa~~~" (Kaede)
She had split up with Karell to cover more area effectively. In the end, if the enemy wanted to seperate them they would have done it by setting them apart in the Prava Phantasia... Being seperated was an inevitability that allows Yiren to pick them off one by one. Who knows, perhaps Karell was fighting him right now. She let off a groan full of exhaustion as she conjured a void dagger. Maybe here...?
A swift strike, the blade enters her skin where she allowed the augmentation to be weak. A magical girl's natural state usually has the entire body augmented by the endurance stay, causing muscles and flesh to be incredibly hard to pierce through, resistant to blunt and piercing force.
"Aaaaaghhhhhaaaaagghhhh!!!!" (Kaede)
She attempted to conceal her screams as she dug the knife into her flesh to force herself awake. A skillful magical girl could control how much she augmented her body and where, it reminded her of Kaori's very first encounter with Ray. It may have seemed that she fought the epitome of hubris. That was even what Kaori thought...
Not augmenting one's insides to save magic power... Was not the entire picture. Ray might have been an A grade magical girl, that was why she was mostly under the radar. An S grade's presence is so large that they wouldn't even hide it, meanwhile Ray hid under the shadows like a rat before she went on a rampage.
In actuality, Ray condensed her augmentations from covering the whole body into only covering the surface, her skin was even tougher and destructive than if she had just augmented her entire body normally. This caused her to attained an S grade in endurance strength and speed, manipulating her stats at the same time as the magic scanner detects magical girl augmentations by quantified thresholds, not whether the augmentations were actually homogenised over one's body.
In other words, it was like becoming a glass cannon, as well as a loophole that tricks scanners. It was also the reveal of an opening to her insides through her mouth that led to her downfall. In part, it could be attributed to her overconfidence for letting that slip. A product of circumstances, Kaede can neither say the victory was completely due to prowess nor the opponent's folly. Moreover, there was another girl there with her, who had a support skill that boosted accuracy.
"That's a nice idea. Though I can't believe I would even try it when it killed Ray. " (Kaede)
First she needed to find the unicorn though. After a few hops from the forest, she arrives at the sea. From a short distance away, she could see the surface bubbling with an ominous glow. To find the unicorn, she needed to figure out the rule of this place. Outside the Prava Phantasia... She wasn't actually a chosen one. She didn't meet the unicorn because the unicorn chose them and revealed itself.
She met the unicorn, because she was an enemy. A vastly different perspective than the legends of virgin maidens given more than a glimpse of this mythical creature. However, in this realm created by the unicorn's magic... It must be a simulation of the ancient past when unicorns thrived and we're common in nature, this was their natural habitat...
Well it's silly, but it's only one perspective. An alternative that is far more feasible and common in magic... It is a simulation of a hypothetical environment where unicorns thrived, a land described in legends of dubious and unverifiable veracity. Much of the magic that exists falls into this category, described by stories, legend and myths, but never observed in real life.
These fantasies and stories can be real, or they can be fake. But whether they exist is not the point, as long as information that describes them exist, magic will make it real for a short amount of time. The ability to cut souls in half is an example, souls might not exist, then the skill will create the concept of souls, tie it to the target's life and cut it in half. But they might also exist, instead the skill makes the soul tangible for the blade.
This is the land where dreams come to die. Maybe they die of boredom because the unicorn is too scared to show himself. Or maybe when dreams manifest strongly... And Kaede becomes a chosen one... The unicorn will reveal himself to those who are chosen. No matter how much they travel, it was futile. The entire point of this space was to make the targets enter the land of dreams, so the unicorn could kill them in their sleep... Then...
"Karell, let's gather. The target isn't localised to this realm, rather it's conjured." (Kaede)
"Hmm? I don't have to hide myself anymore?" (Karell)
"Yeah, sorry for making you go through extra work." (Kaede)
"It's fine. So, have you figure out how to do the conjuring part? I'm seriously so sleepy... " (Karell)
Looks like Karell somehow kept herself awake too. That's good, she was a competent partner, being able to survive this long and to read her thoughts like a book. She got the cue to follow Kaede despite having never planned it before. Well, there wa sonly 'follow' and 'don't follow', it should be the one contradicting Kaede's verbal instructions.
"This is the land where dreams come to die, if you fall asleep you'll die. We have to summon and beat the unicorn before then...
Karell, are you a virgin?" (Kaede)
Karell's eyes widened in recoil before shifting to disgust as she covered her chest with her arms. Her right arm hugged her torso while her left laid over her right.
"... The unicorn only reveals itself to maidens so..." (Kaede)
"....ot...." (Karell)
"Hmm...???" (Kaede)
"I said! I'm not!!" (Karell)
"... How old are you..." (Kaede)
Her voice became shaky as she inquired. She hoped that she didn't have to encounter anymore troubles with the law, after the massacre... Now there's this too... Wait... But she didn't do anything to Karell, so... Kaede should be safe?
"... Middle twenties. Rather... you behave like one! So YOU should be the bait!" (Karell)
"Argh?!" (Kaede)
A stake to the heart... Karell isn't wrong, but Kaede thought they were comrades... Then... Karell was purposefully acting childish?