*
Her body convulsed from the extensive loss of blood, the appendages physically impeded her from regenerating from her wounds. Her lips were stained with pulmonary blood as her squinting eyes focused on her opponent's monstrous body. One of the appendages that grew into a tree sized tentacle with a dragon at the end, bit into her collar, aiming for her carotid artery. They both possessed infinite power and endurance, but that meant that in a fight between each other... They were both glass cannons.
Defence was no longer a reliable concept, regeneration speed or regenerative potency became more important. Especially the ability to revive oneself from the dead. Well, she wouldn't forget that she was currently only a spiritual body, she left her flesh behind and recycled it into herself.
Ah. It was no wonder she could receive damage. Rather than focusing on her own greatness, she could now see how the opponent was also ridiculously capable. Despite being an embodiment of physical perfection, Hikari could damage spiritual bodies like hers. No matter, it wasn't as if it was absorbing her magic. Hikari's body was simply so dense magically that her body couldn't ignore it. Hikari was semi spiritual by nature now even if she was a product of physical perfecting.
The dragon head inverted itself, splashing its 'blood' over the ground like a shower, she popped all of its cytoplasms releasing the content of Hikari's cells. The appendages didn't follow up, there were already gone before Hikari could notice. Kaede disassembled and reassembled her body next to Hikari, rather than teleportation it was more closer to high speed movement. But her entire body was reassembled, her wounds were now gone.
As long as she had access to magic, she could reassemble herself anywhere. She could even copy and paste exact clones of herself, but that was a little... She swung her leg high, her pristine pale skin peaks from her flapping wedding dress as it smashes through the next wave of murderous appendages. She follows it up by swinging her other leg and landing the initial one for balance, spinning her body. Her body tears through space, launching a shock wave towards Hikari despite the lack of air.
Hikari's flame coated main body hasn't moved yet, but it was certainly strong. All this while Kaede had a more defensive stance, but perhaps now that she had a slightly better grasp over Hikari's abilities, she could begin to switch up the pace. Summoning 10 rapiers to hover above the ground and one in her palm, she shot forth at a low angle. She no longer had to activate last pace manually, it was on at all times. Well, it was as such for the both of them.
Her surroundings no longer blurred as she moved at this transcendant speed, her heart.... Did not beat. Her body was built by her own magic, gradients and equilibrium were fixed in place to stimulate a body, but certain organs like hearts, muscles or cells weren't necessary. A walking mass of efficient bloodstreams and magic channels and magianeurological circuits. Maybe she was closer to a robot chock full of wires? She mused to herself as all 11 rapiers struck everytime she hoped from spot in the throne room to another.
Hikari could react, but the rapier's acted as Sticks that deflected the trajectory of her attacks. Even if Hikari could resist the deflection to some extent, using numbers, the rapiers warded off all attacks as Kaede launched her assault. They shifted into the realm of infinite speed, a singularity where time has stopped for the outside world. The reddish black hue of the throne room shifted into a greyish realm of nothing but a mirror like sky and a rippling wet ground.
At the edge of the world - Hyouri.
If the Eye God fought the progenitor, was this where they went? If they kept fighting to a tie for eternity... Then they wouldn't be able to come back from this place. Was this fate going to await her? Her ironic, mortal beings like humans ascend into godlike beings like magical girls. Subsequently when two of such beings fight, the fight at infinite speed and strength, testing the universe's integrity and physically entering an entire new realm on their own. This, was the edge of the world, the edge of the universe that could barely contain their might.
A fitting place for a God magical girl's ending... 'DON'T JOKE WITH ME! THERE' S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I'M GONNA LET IT END HERE! '(Kaede)
Her soul screamed back at all those disappointing revelations. There is no need to heed them. Her rapier thrusted through the air with the rest of the other rapiers flying at high speeds to rend apart the appendages approaching her. She swung and swung, then launched a devastating kick for good measure. She then reversed the flow of energy to put out the white flames over Hikari's body and absorbed them back into her body as magical particles.
Her figure hovers over the ground as if she was floating, but she was simply carrying herself with her own momentum, it was sufficient to keep her afloat and constantly moving in one direction. Passing by Hikari once, her rapier tightened under her fingers as Hikari was bisected behind her. But her regeneration was so fast that no ordinary magical girl would even be able to notice it. Synchronising her rapiers, she launched a combined assault.
A net of white light flashed across Hikari's body, slicing her into cubes of meat that fell apart somewhat. The centre of Hikari's body was able to stay intact, her regeneration was getting faster, faster than even Kaede could observe. The gaping dragon mouths were sliced horizontally, dropping their jaws on the ground. But they didn't react like actual dragons did, instead they gazed straight at her in silence, as if they were trying to get something across.
Was Hikari bound by her own body? The circumstances of the enemy didn't concern her... But... Through and through, Kaede had now become Kaori. Even if it was only for a brief instance, she thought about saving Hikari. But nothing could change the fact that Hikari was the Demon King.
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to die." (Kaede)
Her tone was slightly solemn but mostly cold, as if she was speaking to a corpse. She didn't regard the creature in front of her as a living thing at all. It is hideous, monstrous and the enemy of humanity. It deserves no courtesy no dignity. Continuously, she sliced through the appendages, with all 11 rapiers attacking at once, even the absurd regeneration that Hikari boasted was falling steadily.
"fuh~" (Kaede)
She hoped in once more as she exhaled a deep breath, her mind regained composure as she hacked away at the foul beast. With a leap, her right leg sliced through the monster's flesh while glowing a brilliant white, from the inside she tore open countless holes with her hand held rapier. Then she spawned more of those white fires that constantly ate magic to fuel itself. The white flames envelop Hikari's flesh as she pounced closer to Kaede.
Hikari wound up a large swing as she arrived in front of Kaede. Twisting her wrists, Kaede turns her rapier to use it as shield by parrying the appendages, the remaining rapier's shot at full speed, piercing through Hikari's body while shooting at Kaede... Since they were in close proximity, Kaede dodged to the left, avoiding the high speed rapier by a hair's breadth. Multiple more rapiers flew by, blowing large circular holes into Hikari's body as they passed by.
Hikari foresaw it and ignored the attacks, creeping closer to swing her appendage at Kaede's neck. With her best reaction speed, Kaede swung her hand held rapier vertically and entered the gaping maw of Hikari's body that she forcefully formed. She closed her body together as Hikari began trying to crush her with her insides, constricting her flesh around Kaede's body.
Simultaneously, numerous rapiers shot out of her body from various angles, piercing through Hikari's flesh with white spikes as if she was a white puffer fish. A giant white light broke through her flesh like sunlight entering through the gaps of a curtain, bisecting Hikari in half to let herself escape. Kaede was all covered in an odd coloured fluid, her skills swiftly cleaned her body by extracting the substance as she trudged over the ground.
With another leap, her figure vanished. In the middle of the leap, she disassembled and reassembled behind Hikari, retaining her momentum with her skills and redirecting it towards Hikari. Her right arm clenched her rapier in a thrusting position as she flew towards Hikari at incomprehensible speeds. With a single blow, she blew up a large chunk of Hikari's flesh, leaving a rain of blood and a wide gaping hole the size of a truck in the monster called Hikari.
Hikari seized the opportunity to rain down countless appendages from the sky, she had been waiting for opportunities to ambush, finding difficulty in this task due to Kaede's nimbleness. Finally, she was caught. The appendages rained down from the outside then to the inside, though Kaede blocked a portion of it, numerous appendages sliced apart her flesh, lopping her left arm off while piercing her heart and throat.
Blood spewed without pause, as if she was a fountain built to dispense blood and sweat.
"Ah... Agh...." (Kaede)
She struggled to formulate any words under the certain pain of her injuries, her airway was also clogged up by an appendage, preventing her voice from physically forming properly.
"Ugh... Aghhh..." (Kaede)
She groaned with fervour as she grabbed at the appendages with her bare fingers... And ripped them apart with sheer strength. She focused her aura to suppress Hikari with magical density, her overwhelming presence almost felt like there was an invisible rule to avoid eye contact with her. She crushed the portions of the appendages wriggling around her neck and body, then she launched her fist at the nearest appendage.
No matter how much she destroys, the appendages keep growing back. Repeated serrations by her rapiers were no use at all, the white fire and energy attacks that she devised didn't help much either. What could she do? What should she do? Her thoughts accelerated at unquantifiable speeds, almost stopping time in her own vision.
"Haa~" (Kaede)
She released a deep sigh at her own ineptitude and simply hopped into battle once more. Stopping just right in front of Hikari, she threw countless slashes in a single moment, the appendages were thrown back to attack against Kaede, but they were inevitably sliced through. Her rapier penetrates the appendages before injuring the owner of those appendages.
The appendages squirmed once more before condensing into itself to for a more humanoid main body than before. A small androgynous figure equivalent to a late teen or young adult stood before her, but its surface was not skin coloured like some sort of meat puppet. They were dark red and sharpened into a greater tool of destruction. It evolved once more.
Was it tracing the evolutionary lineage of humans? The monster might end up awakening as a magical girl if it keeps going on like this, that would be bad news. She was already having trouble as is, her thoughts focused once more onto the battle in front of her. Her mind had never been more sharpened, slashing countless holes open into Hikari's skin before bending gravity to condense it once more. This time, she must finish her off. Compressing Hikari into the size of a single cell, she cuts it in half with her rapier.
Her rapier clashes against the cell, unable to break it. Fusing the rapiers together, she thrusted at the cell once more with all of her strength, sending ripples over the greyish mirror ground under their feet. With countless slashes, she repeatedly attacked the cell, but it didn't budged. Just as she thought about finding some way to seal it, the cell vanished.
"Tch!" (Kaede)
Turning around, the reddish black figure coloured like a bloody scab that forms over an injury stared right at her. This time she had eyes. The figure gazes at her wide eyed as an awful premonition struck Kaede. Was she even compressed in the first place? What if Hikari had already grown from her previous experience? If Hikari could resist the compression, then Kaede might not know how to seal her. She used the fundamental forces of her skills to compress Hikari, if that was resisted then her skill might rapidly diminish in effect...