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Name: Hikari vee Lixia
Title: Biodemonic God, Demon King of Lament
Demon King effectiveness level: SS
Perimeters:
- Physical: SS
- endurance: SS
- speed: SS
- will: SS
- well: SS
Kaede already had plenty of trouble before Hikari used her second skill. Now, what could she even do? There was no way Kaede could comprehend or deal with Hikari now. Then what should she do? At this point, everyone knew the answer. She was going to commit to what she had always done. Her faith in herself was magical, Magia Fidelis. So she shall keep going no matter what.
Magia Retainment:Perpetual kept growing in tandem with Hikari's augmentations... But it still wasn't considered infinite, and for good reason. For better or worse, Kaede could easily quantify the buff applied by it. Even if her growth was exponential, a buff that was insane even by magical girl standards, it still wasn't enough to reach the summit of the world stage. Was she thinking right now? How many more of these short instances does she still have? Hikari would decimate her before she even noticed, perhaps she was already dead.
Things were impossible as it stood. But... She had finally achieved the same standing as Kaori. She can't stop now, or all of it would have been a waste. She can't stop now, or everything would become in vain.
"I see it now." (Kaede)
A phrase she liked to throw whenever she was in trouble, as if forcefully lighting up the dark path in front of her to find the solution. Did it work? It was always a gamble, but only this time did it seem especially bleak. A difficulty like no other. Perhaps Hikari saw through her, sneering at her in ridicule. Her expression was enough to mock Kaede's pretense of composure. She spoke like she found a solution, but it was a fact that she was stunned here.
Perhaps it was time. She saw no other way out. It wasn't as if this had always been an option, it was a spontaneous decision that she just came up with, assailed with the current situation which pressured her beyond respite. Ah~. I wish I could have stayed around longer... Even Kaori may never come back because of this.
Using her gradients, she burned all of her magic. Even the magical particles forcefully wrestled out of the atmosphere by Magia Retainment:Perpetual. Her body had adapted to this nonsensical technique, surviving and resisting the monumental influx of magical particles. But now, even this was no longer enough. It was perhaps sufficient to fight S grades for a short period of time, but nothing towards SS grades.
Now she actually saw a flicker of light through the dark clouds of her own helplessness. These clouds would continue to consume her, but for that tiny flicker of light, that sliver of hope... At least humanity would live on if she won here, that was consolation enough. Thinking about it, it was absurd to get here only based on one's egotistical desires, she should throw everything away like the others, for the sake of humanity. Then it would be far more normal...
"fufu fufuhahahahah!!?!" (Kaede)
Contain her ego?! Hasn't that been the utter complete opposite of everything she has worked towards so far. Hell, right now Hikari is hesitating because her Oblivion Magia is in place. Once Hikari was finally amused, her infinite power could simply crush the trajectory alteration ability of Kaede's Oblivion Magia. The damage reflection wouldn't activate if Kaede was already dead. Then... She laughed maniacally to sort her thoughts one last time, buying a sliver of time by amusing the enemy.
She could tell Hikari's patience was running short, any moment now. I will throw everything away, yet retain my ego. The entire moment lasted for 2 seconds, 2 seconds of Hikari witnessing her opponent's last moments. 1 second to arrive at the conclusion that nothing would work if things continued this way, another to carry out the necessary.
That is the purpose of Kaede's existence, to shave every aspect of Kaori down, down to the very essence of her ideals. Saviour of saviours? It was a front to say that she wanted to be the main character, The Great Disaster greatly induced despair in her, so she strived for something lofty and beautiful to distract herself and occupy her life. Almost as if she had been living in a dream all this while.
That's right, shred this body as much as you need. She used all magic she possessed at that time... To grab onto more and more, it was still the exact same as Magia Retainment Perpetual... Then a final source of inspiration hit her right as she carried out her last futile actions. The problem was no longer the source of magical particles, since she was sourcing it from the atmosphere which was an endless source of magical particles. The issue now layed in her immortal organic body. It was so simple, just follow suit with the enemy who reforged hers.
All magic condensed at once into her body, the energy density was so high her innards had already disintegrated and left nothing behind. Her skin glowed like a lamp, before the blinding light consumed everything in the throne room. She was now merely skin. Magical girls can replace all of their life functions with magic, using their natural regeneration, their magic imitates their metabolism and inner workings.
After all, magic has always been intimately tied to genetics. It was the magic gene that began expressing itself during times of stress, more specifically stress that originated from a place beyond human comprehension, like The Great Disaster. It meant that before the disaster struck, only fear caused by magic could awaken magical girls.
Magic tools and gadgets permeated the experimental facility that awakened Gerald, Paridia, Kanou and Grey. This has always been the case for all regeneration, except for the brain. Then she must make one last gamble, to ascend into a spiritual lifeform, an organism of pure magic. It would solve the issue of input and output.
Using her first skill, she copies all possible gradients that keep her alive, from her brainwaves to her memories, she overlays all of it with magic circuits, transferring her mind into the magic circuits. This was only possible because of her first skill in the first place, that she could even begin to ascend beyond the immortal limits of her flesh. Her organic body disintegrates and becomes reintegrated to her new spiritual body, made purely of magical particles, but these magical particles imitate her actual body enough to be indistinguishable.
A perk, now she could freely alter the appearance of her combat dress.
"This apotheosis calls for a celebration." (Kaede)
She spoke with a sly smile, unable to contain her excitement and fervour.
Her combat dress changed from her second more covered form with a scarf... To a completely new appearance. To sum it up, it was a wedding dress, its pure white lustre stood out especially in this Oblivion Magia with lavender skies. A thin veil that seemed to be thinner than paper and more fragile than tissue paper covered her face with a miniscule sheet of transparent white. The veil was split into 3 portions, the front was transparent, the sides that covered her ears were translucent, the entire article was white.
Her dress was reminiscent of snow, brilliantly glowing under any condition, it seemed to even overpower her natural faint purple aura. The top was fluffy and akin to a bunny girl's corset, but it was covered with a further layer of frills that concealed her flesh with warmth, her shoulders and arms were fully exposed, with tiny bracelets at her wrist similar to the bracelets she wore in her usual combat dress. One look at her dress and some people would swear that they could feel a chill radiating from it.
Branching from her waist down, it spread around like a normal dress with tiny frills that lined its edges. Another layer of frills swerve near the edges of her dress like 2 alternating sine graphs, forming a helical pattern like DNA. She didn't have shoes, but her legs perpetually floated above the floor, as if she could never touch its filthy presence. Two large vertical horns extended from behind her neck akin to two twisted traffic cones of jett black, followed by a new hairstyle. All of her hair had gathered to the back in the form of a ponytail.
Bridal mode.
There was no other way to go about it, she had to throw all of herself away for the sake of this fight... As if it was a marriage, one had to sacrifice all of themselves for the sake of their shared future. Now, who did she marry? It might as well be humanity. There were always certain traditions in some parts of the world where a priestess was offered to marry a God, essentially it was a human sacrifice. This was similar. Then, was humanity a god? Nah, the only thing in common here was the sacrifice.
Now... She no longer had the limit of logic, she was a fully spiritual being who could utilise the entire atmosphere, the entire universe at once. She had finally entered the world stage at the cost of her existence. She could no longer assure herself that she was Kaede. The original organic body was gone, she could be the successful transfer of Kaede's soul into a spiritual body... Or she could simply be a perfect copy of the original. A necessary price, an existential crisis... Was practically nothing in the face of the stakes of this battle.
She was an existence similar to Grail now, a being forged from her first skill. She didn't know if she would simply disappear after the battle is over or persists until the end of time. Both sound like they suck, but what could she do? She made the choice to continuously advance even at the cost of her humanity. Hikari stared at her in vigilance, both of their presences clashed with a mere staring contest, tearing apart the primitive Oblivion Magia activated by Kaede.
Sorry, Kaori. I'm going on ahead.
No regrets was Kaori's motto and life goal, being the main character was her ideal. She had at long last surpassed Kaori.
"..." (Hikari)
Hikari stared suspiciously at her newly formed saintly aura of white... Of course, it was not real. Similarly to her combat dress, she could now alter the colour of her aura. She chose white not only because it was cute like the snow bunnies and it fit her dress, but because it would also blind her enemies if they weren't careful. Her expression was the very embodiment of composure and tranquility at the moment.
No... Please hold it in a bit longer... She wanted to bring out the most ugliest shit eating grin inhumanely possible, after all she just matched Hikari in strength and ascended to Godhood, Godmagicalgirlhood. To hell with the philosophical questions like if she was still Kaede, Kaori or neither! The her that is here and now should be all that matters to her. And... She would continue to have a magical faith in herself, an aura of the absolute that would bring herself forward without any regrets.
I'm no longer human nor am I Kaede? Who cares! Kaede wouldn't, so I shouldn't!
Name: Kaoru Hisugawa,
Title: Kaorin(Bridal mode), Kaede Kaitmei, Human King Candidate, God of Allflow and Calamity, Frigid Divine Reigning Bride
Magical girl (Bride) effectiveness level: A(SS)
Perimeters:
- Physical: A(SS)
- endurance: A(SS)
- speed: A(SS)
- will: A(SS)
- well: A(SS)
At long last... She couldn't hold it in.
"Heheh~" (Kaede)
She smirks as the castle collapses over Hikari from behind. She has no idea why the material is indestructible even before spatial magic, it must be some higher form of dimensional magic, every bit of material in the castle is the boundary of the dimension itself. In other words the compression of an entire universe, it had infinite hardness. But with her new found power, why worry? She could just move it around or even turn it into her weapon.
Even the Demon King lived in this castle for their entire lives, treating its infrastructure as an absolute law of nature. They never expected the walls or ceiling could ever come apart. The ceiling crushes Hikari, the end.
... Of course, it could never be so easy. Her flesh slipped through the cracks of the infinitely heavy rubble, even assimilating some of the smaller fragments into her body... Curses, she got even stronger because of that. If she was as strong as an entire universe, wouldn't it be over?
Nope. It wouldn't! Someone used magic to sculp this castle. In another comparison, this castle was basically a stronger Oblivion Magia. It is another dimension, cut off from the main universe by space or time. But with great gimmicks comes great loopholes. If time and space is cutoff, then if someone like Karell exists who could penetrate different spaces... Then wouldn't she be able to choose any time to enter?
She can track down traces of other dimensions, perhaps she couldn't choose the time, but if the Oblivion Magia was occurring in the present, then she could still go in and fight them. Then is only space truly cut off? If the events are concurrent with the main universe... No, the events could have technically already taken place. It was jsut easier to infiltrate an Oblivion Magia by treating the events as concurrent, as it was easier to visualise and used less energy. In other words, time travelling to a specific target that used the least amount of energy.
In any case, with magic, lots of things could happen. Even time manipulation or spatial drilling. The walls contained so much space, Karell's attacks were like a needle slicing a tiny sliver off a stack of papers, then the papers repair themselves afterwards. If Hikari was as hard as infinite mass, she wouldn't be any different from before with SS grade endurance. The mission hasn't changed.