*
*ping*
Akin to a cyclone, Kaede's aura rose into the air, dove into the ground where Kaede was and rose up once more. A constant cycle of magical particles was converted into a cycle of aura that continuously flowed in and out of her body, forming a large infinite sign of faint translucent purple. Pressure also began to build up as the aura gained velocity and her body gained more aura, increasing her magic and strength as much as possibly held within her body.
Fully Retained Magia, arguably the pinnacle of Kaori's techniques, only second to its evolved form that has a time limit. On the other hand, having used its evolved form already, she had gain enough resistance to use Fully Retained Magia for a very long time. It sucked in magic from the atmosphere and forced it within her body, her well is crushed into the newfound magic and processes it into aura without rest.
For other magical girls, aura is a leakage of excess magical particles that the body was no longer able to contain. When one's well grows larger, they also absorb magical particles at highers rates to compensate, so a person with a larger well could have even more aura without worry. Well... For Kaede, her aura was not a leakage. Because she could keep recycling it and absorbing it back in. Her first skill affects gradients, one of the few skills that could forcefully manipulate the movement of magical particles, an option that is not possessed by most magical girls.
In other words, she was recharging back to a full well, her entire body glowed faint purple as she was submerged in her own aura.
"Making it easy?" (Hikari)
An omni directional attack, with the Demon King at the centre... A pink bubble expands and subsumes everything in the throne room.
"...?!?!! Ghhhgh" (Kaede)
He had been waiting. He had plenty of attacks that could affect the whole room, making Last pace's functionality of helping Kaede dodge obsolete. But he abstained. He kept his hand and waited while Kaede continuously showed more of hers. At this point, Hikari must know every move that she could possibly have.
This time specifically, Hikari waited for her to use Fully Retained Magia as that would be when she had just enough magical particles and not too much unlike Magia Retainment: Perpetual. Using anti magic against this amount would severely impair her. As evident, the pressure build up by her own magic collapsed in onto her own body, crushing her organs into a pulp.
Blood and fragments of her torn organs slid through her throat and nostril as yellowish red liquid propelled out of her body like a broken hose.
"Agh?!! Sh... It...." (Kaede)
It was akin to a slap to the face, reality gave her a rude awakening. Despite everything she did... It all amounted to just this much... The anti-magic had taken everything out of her, and allowed the recoil of her own forceful retainment of magical particles completely destroy her insides. Magical particles began to fade into the air, her well might have been damaged once more. It was like a bandage over an open wound anyway, all the Demon King did was rip off the bandage and allowed it to fester once more.
Right now... She was truly helpless. Her magic was barely keeping her alive, if not for her A grade endurance she would have become insignificant mist by now. Most of her body had practically become powder, her skin was rotting and falling off her flesh and her vision was darker than the night sky. Her mind barely resisted the excruciating pain of a body that was constantly falling apart, every bit of her body's surface felt like a knife was being run through it. Her consciousness hanged on by a microscopic tether, ready to shatter its connection to reality at any moment.
Her magic was completely directed towards regeneration, but she was finding difficulty gathering magical particles. Hikari was fast, he wouldn't allow her to recover.
'Damn... I got this far... Just to die here. Hehe he... Fuhahaha?! What a joke!
I am Kaori. As such, I can't stop. I won't... I'll fight even if my magic is only enough to keep me alive, my capabilities would be just as my appearance suggest...
A frail human girl around the age of 16-18...average muscles, average stamina. That's it. I've encountered this before, isn't it natural if I gain a tiny bit of resistance? '
A feverish smile adorns her little face. A bright idea sparks in her mind. Haven't these situations been encountered before? Anti-magic, destruction of the well, natural limitations... One by one, they were overcome eventually. This goes back to her roots, her first encounter with Ray's antimagic. A device was needed to compensate for her damaged body. But hasn't she been inadvertently creating unique devices all this time?
Sticks, magical rods that show up in magical girl shows. Unique items that are usually irreproducible. Well, these items are to put it simply, unique magical girl skills applied into physical objects. Just casting one's skill on any physical object might create a Stick, though this brute force method will have drastically low results. Kaori had been creating new technique after new technique, that's how it always had been.
Despite her natural limits, she compensated with forceful invention of techniques to triumph that specific circumstance. But this... This goes back all the way. But currently, her magic wasn't having much of an effect on reality, it was drastically more difficult to recover now than ever, for that... A Stick is necessary.
She manifests the one and only Stick that she had created. Its ability was simple, simultaneous usage of her first skill, she can program it to execute one technique while her actual mind executed another. Right now, she used these radiant black horns to absorb magical particles from her surroundings, hastening her recovery efforts. It glowed with a dim greyish black light that distorted the air around it.
'... She looks incredibly frail and her body has already been destroyed to this extent... Why the hell is she still fighting... It's meaningless.' (Hikari)
The Demon King mercilessly threw a cold and swift attack, with a single swipe of his gauntlet covered claws, the air splits apart and pressure assails Kaede. She was at the level of a normal human, she couldn't dodge in time nor could she survive this attack. Her eyes shut tightly in anticipation of her demise.
*Bang*
A unnatural metallic noise rang out. When her eyes allowed light to set in, a figure in all red appeared before her. It wasn't blood. It was Ruby.
Ruby hero, Shining Miliacrul Evradenia.
' [Ruby Hero's obligation] ', a skill with a multitude of effects expected from a hero's skill. This was one of the defensive effects, the forceful protection of a target. Ignoring causality to shelter the weak at the cost of her body. Her bones shatter from the impact, but for a magical girl it was nothing.
She began shielding Kaede from a few more hits, deflecting attack after attack. Other than [Ruby hero's senses], Evradenia had a second passive called [Ruby hero's duty]. All hero's had a 'duty' passive skill that raised their parameters to S grade when facing the Demon King. It was more like an anti-demon power, the stronger the demon, the more the passive allows them to ignore the world's laws. That is the blessing of the hero. Similar to the law of magical girls, no one is sure if such laws are natural.
Thrown out of the world of normality, then awakening into a magical girl, these laws and phenomena would all seem far too foreign and alien. But nevertheless, they are laws that are put into place. Evradenia has to entrust her life to this 'law of heroes' to reap the most benefit. In her right hand held the blade of charity, its ruby red hue encapsulates all of her beliefs and wishes into its sharpened edge.
It glowed with a slight lustre, possibly reflecting off of her aura imbuing the weapon. However, she could only fight defensively. Hikari threw an unrelenting assault, his claws sliced from up high, slamming down onto her sword with the weight of an entire castle. Her arms creaked under the continuous barrage, twisting at the pommel and hilt to redirect her sword and block off each attack.
"Kgh!?!! I'll keep... Defending!!! Until you can... Recover and... Escape!!!" (Ruby)
"...?! Don't mess with me! I have to fight!!!" (Kaede)
"... NO YOU DON'T!!!!...
You... Are just another... Magical girl... You're not... Kghh! A hero...!! "(Ruby)
Kaede's heart sunk. Not for the fact that Ruby wouldn't acknowledge her... No, this was the reason it sunk, but she wasn't feeling downcast because of it. She felt abject fear at the chance of losing this chance to fight. She pressed on, after all, what else would she do? She applies all of her magic into Magia Retainment and active absorbance of magical particles, forcing them through her pores.
All magical girls have to rely on natural generation of processed magical particles, passively absorbing them from the atmosphere and processing into aura like material for use. She would casually violate this law of magical girls to attain her goals, even to the point that she would forego most of her regeneration.
"Hugh!!! This is... My answer." (Kaede)
The pain compounded, but she had no time to distribute her magic. Her mind single handedly fixated on the recovery of her magic over her health. It felt like her head was about to burst from a hydraulic press crushing it. Her vision blurred into double then triple and her peripherals darkened. At any second, she was about to collapse.
"[Blessing of Morgan]" (Sease)
"[Temporal fruit of contribution]" (Wizard)
The other 2 heroes return with Karell in tow, Sease's magic manages to reach Kaede at the last moment, saving her in time but rapidly recovering her body with Sease's magical particles. Wizard casts a cloak of sorts, camouflaging their position while shielding them effortlessly from the shock waves of battle. A conceptual shield of sorts. The heroes have utility skills that give them far more versatility than only having attack magic.
The cloak might have had an illusion feature as well, by deceiving everyone they could have even tricked the Demon King into thinking they were dead. The Demon King himself should know if he had decisively landed a killing blow, but since the illusion still managed to fool him... Was memory manipulation also packed into it? Or perhaps it was the psychological magic removal of incongruity and suspicion. Doubt and scrutiny are avoided as a result.
Their inclusion and reentering of battle had given her the last push she needed. This time, the heroes weren't alone. Even if Sease acts as a Healer, buffer and scout, and Wizard provides minor protection, concealment and magic attack, and Ruby acts as a tank and physical attacker... They were somehow still insufficient in their ability to subjugate the Demon King.
But this time, the 2 human king candidates were with them. It was already an astounding success to have delivered all 3 heroes to their destination, but for the 2 king candidates to manage to rejoin them too... This is the best that humanity can throw at the Demon King at this point in time. If they can't do this, then nobody can. The demon side will undoubtedly prepare some defensive measures against their current method of invasion. In other words, from today, there might never be another party who reaches this far into the Demon King's throne.
While recovering her magic, Kaede wouldn't let her mind stay idle. She thought about the antimagic field that the Demon King unleashed, where she went wrong and how she was going to rectify this mistake. Her mild success at surviving the battle had caused her to be overconfident, she wasn't that confident and was hanging by a thread, but it was still too confident nonetheless. She needed to be more pessimistic and prudent.
The antimagic field moves as fast as Hikari, so there's no chance of dodging it. Even if it wasn't that fast... It was an expanding sphere of antimagic, there was no room to escape to. They were in an enclosed space.
'I see... It was that simple.' (Kaede)
The Demon King's antimagic was a simple all encompassing attack that phased through everything immediately. So how did the hero party survive? Did Hikari simply not use it on them?
Well: 20% full
The antimagic will crash into everything inevitably, but... There's always enough magical particles in the air for magical girls to keep generating fuel for their well. Magical particles do not obey time and space, it is safe to assume that everytime you use magical particles, it is a new batch of it and not a particle that was recycled by another magical girl at some point in time. After using it, the particles fall into a lower energy state and begin recharging, there is no set duration of time for this recharging.
People took this recharging at face value, they put faith into the belief that magical particles are like oxygen, that there is a limited amount in the air, so it would have been inside another organism at another point in history. But there is no such guarantee, the recharge could take a millenia and nobody would notice... Because the amount of magical particles available in the universe is infinite.
'This should be it, no wonder my Stick stood out to me.' (Kaede)
Changing its current command from 'absorb' to 'store', she gradually amassed more power.