*
The plan... Was to use herself as the lure. They were already next to the sea, as long as she ignored whatever was glowing in the deep recesses of water's bottom floor, things should go fine...
"..." (Kaede)
She felt uncomfortable having to do this, it had led her to delegating this task to Karell after all... Usually Kaede wouldn't pass up on a front row seat like this... She untied her collar which led to a center strip down her torso that she could unzip. Slowly, she lower the cloth of the combat dress as she stepped into the water. She could feel the heat accumulating in her cheeks, burning her facial skin.
"Fuh~ I just have to win." (Kaede)
She assured herself before continuing, it wasn't long before her skin was bare above her hips.
"... Uwah~ I didnt see you change back at the hotsprings, but braless? It's not uncommon for combat dresses... But for someone who stays transformed for long periods of time..." (Karell)
"Tch! It's fine because I'm a magical girl! It'll be alright!" (Kaede)
Karell thought that Kaede wasn't wrong, though there was a level of psychological comfort to it... She dismisses it as the same arguement could be made for the other side, for Kaede it might feel weird instead. Anyway, legends of unicorns weren't so obscure that Karell wouldn't be aware of them, in fact she had a story book about it back when she lived in that village.
The village remained outside the reaches of civilisation until The Great Disaster displace everyone. From a population of over 1600, it was reduced to 400. After The Great Disaster, another 140 of them fell to illness and the elements.
Still, it was likely very displeasing to go through... Kaede covered herself with her arms instead and waited at where the water was above her hips.
"huu~" (Kaede)
She felt a little cold creep up shoulders as she looked around, waiting for the unicorn to show up. Despite only dipping her lower half into the water, her hair was damp. Droplets drip down her temples then her cheeks, all the while the urge to sleep was getting stronger as the second goes by.
"Hmm~ I see you down there." (Kaede)
In a flash, she swings her rapier at the water, for a moment there was a large visible gap in the water next to her, forming a temporary mini whirlpool. Whatever was glowing down there, it was no longer going to come near her after what she did. Just as they were beginning to get bored of waiting, they could hear footsteps coming from the forest of giant trees.
Walking between the absurd trunks was Yiren. He seemed to be in a trance with listless eyes, that was until he finally stepped out of the forest and reached the shore of the sea or lake that they found. Beyond a certain distance there was only fog, for the extent of this battle it would just be called a lake.
"Huh~?!" (Yiren)
He let out a sharp gasp as his sight focused on the girl standing before him, half covered in the water. She promptly reequipped her combat dress before gradually stepping out of the water. They did it, Karell fulfilled her job of trapping his presence in the surrounding space.
"Make it quick. I can only temporarily stop the movements of his magical particles... It will prevent him for leaving for a bit..." (Karell)
Whatever was going to happen next, it would signify that his death would take place in his own Prava Phantasia. Is this why magical girls all transformed into young girls? No, to potentially lure a single mythical monster... That would be too absurd of a reason. Kaede hoped that there would be other reasons, but no one would ever know. For now, her thoughts on this matter can rest easy. Battle easily invaded the deepest reaches of her mind, permeating into and monopolising her attention.
Her body vanished as she accelerated to maximum speed in a trained fashion, even with her feet partially submerged in water, she did not slow down in the slightest. Tracking her movements, the unicorn slashes at the space behind him, causing a glass like crack to rupture in reality. A web of thin black lines spread across the air. What he struck... Was merely a mirage left in the wake of her ability.
"Refined technique, synchronise calamity. A single fake signal, but more realistic and believable than the numerous decoys I used in previous battles." (Kaede)
By using her first skill to tweak the information available in a localised space, such as light refraction, colour, magic signature and aura, she could effectively trick the senses of those who do not rely on their eyes. For example, an experienced opponent fighting at top speed would rely on their eyes to a smaller extent, instead giving in to their instincts or techniques. Illusions employing solely light are not effective on them, what they depend on the most is the opponent's magic signature or the aura left in their wake.
Kaede forced this further ahead, she accelerated to get his eyes off her for a single moment to create the double, and then she made her double slightly slower than herself. Meaning that by the time Yiren noticed her mirage behind him... She drove her rapier into his right shoulder, severing the bone between his arm and torso.
"Agh?!" (Yiren)
He swings his blade wildly at where Kaede stood, but by deploying a repulsing force in the front, she was shot backwards and out of the blade's range. It was her propulsion technique, but this time it was in the opposite direction. The edge of his blade tears through the air slightly in front of her a sit narrowly leave her out of its grasp. The power swing caused the surrounding air to burst spontaneously as the momentum carried in his muscles transmitted into the air.
Travelling faster by shortening the space between them, Karell's figure reappears behind Yiren as an unparalleled amount of force struck into his back, pushing him forward and knocking his body of balance. Reusing her technique, Kaede trusted her rapier into his heart under the safety of her decoy.
"PUHAH?!!" (Yiren)
He spat out a large volume of blood as one of his lungs ruptured and his internal bleeding seeped into his windpipe, which induced a chocking relfex as the blood congealed over the surface.
"... The Prava Phantasia still isn't letting up..." (Kaede)
"Haa~ haah! I'm way sturdier than that, no matter how much you cut me up, my magic would still maintain this phenomenon. Go to sleep~, go to sleep~" (Yiren)
It was beginning to dull her movements and weaken her attacks, she would give anything to have the luxury to sleep there at that very moment. She scrunched up her eyelids and nose and bit her lips to keep herself further awake, but even a stimulus like pain was starting to go numb under the effects of this place. Boasting a near indestructible body allowed for this tactic, that was why Yiren placed emphasis on honing his body's toughness. This was the exact position that he prepared for.
"... Save your magic, Kaori. I'll bring out my own. Oblivion Magia, nuclear cosmos death tether." (Karell)
It felt as if the air became 100 000 times denser, breathing became far harder as a familiar yet unfamiliar sensation takes ahold over her body. It wasn't impossible to move her body, but each breath became heavier, more sluggish and more exhausting. There was also a disconnect between her perception speed and movement speed, it looked like everything was moving in slower motion... After all, the gravity was harder to resist.
Slowing down her perception speed to match it, she could see that Yiren was facing the same situation. It was indiscriminate, the only person unaffected was Karell. She carried off Kaede to a safe distance before launching successive projectiles at Yiren, recreating the nuclear explosions that she made back in Sanctuary territory. Her thoughts raced, as she took in the situation.
... Right, this feeling that her body felt under the influence of the super gravity... It was if she wasn't transformed into a magical girl. Her thoughts could still move far faster and perceive things faster, but there would be no point if her body couldn't react. She could spend the time calculating the future, but she could simply leave it to Karell to finish him off. She was unhindered after all.
The air was also considerably more dense, it had been compressed by the gravity... But they were indoors... So it wasn't the air that impeded their movements, but the gravity itself. They were moving in a vacuum, due to the air being stuck to the ground as a thin layer. That was why it became harder to breath... No, it wasn't gravity. That was wrong, gravity was unidirectional and easy to challenge. This was something far worse, space itself was forcefully compressed, it felt like she was being crushed from every direction.
The explosions shook the entire realm, the ground trembled as heat wave after heat wave barraged Yiren, followed by the residual becoming compressed into Yiren's flesh. At the end, he should be pretty charred, but he had been shown to have incredibly high endurance. It might be because it was an entire grade above their own, but even with this many advantageous factors they were still struggling to land damage on him.
Flying high into air, brilliant crimson magic converged into Karell's palm, forming the shape of a large spear. The magic continued to gather as the sky grew darker and darker. Her arm began to shiver under the pressure of her magic as she holds it in place, continuously enhancing it with more magic energy. With her Oblivion Magia isolating Yiren in this space, there was no longer any need to worry whether he'll escape or not. As such, she could focus all of her efforts into this single attack while he helplessly struggles.
Yiren began to run towards Kaede, who foresaw it before hand. Kaede responded by keeping a considerable distance before Karell had even begun conjuring the super magic attack. She shot some vacuum rods in as she widened the distance, to which he side steps to successfully dodge. Nevertheless, he was able to maintain the distance and kept running towards her.
"Tch, you're gonna make this difficult?" (Kaede)
She spat under her breath as she noticed him inching closer. In this near untransformed state, it was no surprise who had better physicality. Her best line of action was to keep running in a straight line, but he was gradually catching up. She would only get in the way of the attack. Just a little more... Just a bit more time until Karell finishes charging up. She had to keep running. She uses her first skill to reduce the resistance on her body, causing her to get faster and faster.
But it wasn't enough, was Yiren also acclimating to this harsh environment? Due to the spatial compression, her propulsion technique wouldn't get her far, it might even destroy her momentum on the spot. But this was not the end. It might be because she was forming some sort of wind shield, reducing the resistance in front of her also allowed Yiren to use her as such a thing. It may be the reason behind his speed increasing in tandem with hers.
She had panicked earlier, but with gradual thinking, she spotted that error. She then piled on the resistances, reversing the gradients right behind her to cause the opposite effect on Yiren. It didn't have much of a visible effect, but after a few moments she could tell that he was slightly farther away. Her radar told her, a single metre was not discernible by the naked eye, but her radar assured her that her efforts weren't meaningless.
At that moment, a brilliant crimson light swallowed his figure into a chaotic deluge of destructive force, ravaging his body like a wild beast. It kept spinning like a tornado, twisting his flesh in a circle around the point of collision. It was an attack that only Karell could pull off. His body was chiseled to perfection... His passive made it so. It manages to withstand any attack at least once, then it stops being able to nullify the attack, but it gradually builds up more and more resistance.
But Karell's constant application of her first skill had affinity with this passive, after collision it keeps compressing the subsequent shock waves and residual energy into another attack, constantly barraging him. What's more, they were spatial attacks courtesy of her first skill. Everytime it tears into his skin, it returns with an even more vicious tear a second time. It uses the resultant energy of the first attack to build a second attack stronger than the previous.
It only kept growing stronger and stronger, until the damage gradually accumulated and breach his flesh at once. His body collapsed into compressed space, crushing itself into a basketball sized cube of meat, then into a golf ball sized cube. It kept getting smaller until it was no longer observable.