*
Skill resistance through absurd biology... It was utterly ridiculous to think that an organism could evolve in a way that makes them resistant to magic attacks... But it was due to evolution that humans could possibly wield magic in the first place. It was akin to a recessive gene, a portion of the population had the magic gene at all times. There were some humans who had what the demons would call a 'destiny' or 'purpose'.
As they were born as demons, they had a slightly different worldview pertaining to magic compared to humans. Instead of 'awakening', the demons were born with the ability to manipulate magic and have skills from since they were mere infants. They also had evolutions where they metamorphosised into higher beings. A common horseman demon could evolve into a unicorn demon like Yiren. But one thing was for certain, all of those individuals within the same species will have the exact same skills.
Their ability to manipulate and control said skills might differ, similarly with the size of their wells. But to demons, skills have never been unique unless it was the Demon King who boasted the ability to wield all demon skills. They do not hold the innumerable and capricious variation that humans possess. As such, what seemed like sheer random chance to humans looked like destiny to the monsters. The human was born different from the others, they were born special to do this or that.
Certain people like HuoLi was born to counteract the end of the world, deducing her role from her skills. Heroes whose strength exceeds their limits during battles with demon kind were destined to fight demon kind for humanity. The gene pool rarely decided one's own skill combinations, unless they were a clairvoyant god like The Eye God of the Sanctuary, then it would be impossible to predict the skills that others were born with.
Many magical girls request a consult with The Eye God when they become curious about their own skills, wondering if they would ever unlock their third skill or perhaps they wrap their boundless curiosity in the form of a request. When demons find Kaede, they wonder, what is her destiny? To control the weather with gradients? To form a great shield for humanity out of vaccums? Or to subjugate gigantic monsters with her wits and repertoire?
Many find that she has strayed from her true purpose, forging her body and soul towards battle instead. The manipulation of gradients... Was easily a production skill that played with the specificities of materials and magic item construction. She would make a great boon for humanity just as rifles and guns once did. But she strayed, she strayed so far even the concept of destiny could no longer contain her in the eyes of the demons.
My destiny... Is to be Kaori! For now, it was Kaede in the body and that would be the answer that she would give. Her heart and her mind synchronised, her perfect divine mimicry spiritual body could feel her own will seeping into every tiny nook and cranny of her body, as if her soul was a giant ember engulfing and moving her insides like a marionette. Her condition couldn't be better if not for the significant despair that dawned on her psyche.
Hikari was nearly indestructible. Hikari will gain resistance to her skills as she evolves. It's like a wall that keeps growing taller everytime Kaede pulls out a ladder to prop herself up further. A light at the end of a tunnel that stretched on forever, an illusion of hope that is constantly pulled away at the last second. Then what should she do? If she doesn't get stronger on the spot, which was a miracle for most individuals, but somehow commonplace for her she wouldn't survive.
The enemy got stronger in tandem with her she would be subjugated if she stopped miraculously growing stronger. She had always kept growing stronger by devising techniques that would bridge the gap in her weaknesses or brute force her way through limits. Yet... She had met a foe that did the exact same but better... It wasn't as if she always got new techniques, sometimes her allies would play a vital role in place of it. She only invented an arsenal of techniques when she saw a weakness to fill in her fights.
This time it was the opposite. She was inspecting the enemy for weaknesses to form possible counters. She was in the exact opposite position compared to all her previous battles. It was an assassination of the Demon King, this time she was the attacker.
She released all the magic that she had been casting, her skill returned all the magical particles to her, forming a single blinding white rapier.
"Let's stop with the flashy show." (Kaede)
She whispered to no one in particular, she didn't know if Hikari could hear in the state that she was in. Hikari might have developed evil looking red eyes without the rest of her face, but that was just it. With eyes, the monster would stop blindly attacking.
The rapier hovered in mid air as Kaede held her palm above the guard, in an instant the rapier turned back into a familiar jett black and her aura was now a deep purplish black instead of white. It might overlap with Hikari's blood reddish black, but she no longer cared. These aesthetic changes might have cost minimal magical particles compared to her overall infinite reserve, but... It doesn't feel right. Something doesn't feel right ever since she entered this position as the attacker.
Having to conjure new techniques and attacks just for it to be thwarted... It was a sickening hassle that she finally found a way to put a stop to. All of her magic flowed into her rapier, the magic density soared so highly that it affected the world physically, emanating pressure and weight just from behind near it. It commands all to kneel, the appendages fell to the ground as those peaking red eyes stared curiously at Kaede.
The appendages resisted and resisted, a red light flashed and now Hikari was more humanoid in shape. Her biology was perfect for her form, but now it was going beyond even that. At first she was the perfect organism in terms of ability and shape as shape was intimately intertwined with function. Her thin stature allowed magic to flow more effectively, her appendages allowed her to attack multiple times at once.
But now it has all gone back to square 1, the square 1 of humanity that is. Perfection and efficiency beyond the shape, wielding unimaginable power that an appearance would otherwise dictate. If they can wield power while in any shape, why not be a cute innocuous little girl who would sooner garner sympathy and catch people off guard? Hikari was back to her original shape, but her body was made of a strange wood like structure and there were still countless tendril attached to the back of her waist.
She had evolved in response to her newest tactic, but it didn't dishearten Kaede. Kaede merely continued to channel her everything into her black rapier, holding it closely and tightly next to her. In fact Hikari's evolution was an affirmation that this tactic was stronger than all of her last. While Hikari merely gained a little resistance to attacks before, now she had made her completely change in shape and enter a new level of power.
Her rapier absorbed all surrounding light, glowing a black light that radiated in the closest 2 metres next to it. With her capability, she should be able to pull this off.
Hikari was wary as she should be. But she could not run from inevitability or destiny as the demons would call it. If the heroes destiny was to fight demon kind, then this tendency to continuously evolve in her own way... Indicated that Kaede's destiny was to fight the Demon King who similarly kept evolving on her last crutches.
Her wedding dress flapped violently, threatening to tear off her body as the black light grew large, swallowing a larger area into darkness. Her fingers felt that it was too heavy but she grit her teeth and bared her frustrations inwardly anyway. She must evolve faster, she must make use of humanity's greatest counter against Hikari, her genes to keep growing stronger. If Kaori was destined to kill the Demon King, that might explain why she grows strong at a fast rate.
But usually this sort of power begets arrogance. Her hubris was insane sure, but she never overestimated her own capabilities. Who could go against her wish of saving everyone? Saviour of saviours, an idealistic lofty dream beyond most imaginations. It was absurd and frankly insane, undoubtedly something a mentally unfit person would think up.
But that's fine. Who cares about what others think if Kaori accepted herself, if Kaede accepted herself. After concealing herself in the black light, it grew to engulf the entire throne room in black. Rather it was not a light that was black in colour, it was a direction absorbance of light causing there to be localised darkness in spite of present lighting. She simply took all the light in the room into her sword.
Moving at a speed far out of reach of Last Pace, and breaching the speed of light once more since she ascended to magical girl godhood, her body stretched itself wide, sliding her rapier forward with a thrust, putting all of her strength into her wrist as it inched forward. The appendages formed a wall, as Kaede was wholly focusing her magic on her rapier, she ignored it by crashing through it. With infinite strength against infinite endurance, it comes down to a tiny margin over whose infinity is larger.
Even if Hikari had evolved once more into the vague shape of a magical girl, she was merely on step short of being able to defend against this attack. Kaede pierced through the wall without effort, causing a big hole to be formed from disintegration of the appendages. Her momentum didn't stop in the slightest. Hikari dodges to Kaede's left while launching her right fist at Kaede's face. Kaede ducked and shifted her head left, her rapier pierced a hard slab of skin on Hikari's neck, resisted by that patch of skin as electric crackled at the point of collision.
Hikari kneed her in the chest, but she resisted despite the sunked lung and broken ribcage. Kaede spat that gathered blood into Hikari's eyes and punched her in the cheek with her left fist. Hikari threw a left kick into Kaede's waist, to which she could only persevere and hold in the pain. Her nose bled and her joints were aching from all the continuous fighting wearing down her cartilage, but since she concentrated all of her magic in her rapier she didn't have much to regenerate her body with.
Kaede threw another punch at Hikari's cheek as she took the hit to the waist, then another and another. She kept wailing before Hikari's right arm smacked her cleanly in the nose. Kaede was stuck there with her arm to the rapier, but Hikari wasn't, so Hikari could gather more force and fight close combat easier. As if the heavens saw her predicament, the rapier slipped in and bisected Hikari's neck, penetrating her hard defensive skin at long last. The appendages were soft because most of the defense magic was enforcing her skin and main body.
Kaede couldn't rebuke that, she was another extreme that put everything into attack instead of defense. Hikari's head was lopped off and the energy contained inside the rapier finally broke out, disintegrating her insides. Like a crab shell getting its meat dug out. The energy escaped in the form of black light that disintegrated her insides in an instant. The appendages rotted off and faded into magical particles, they stopped becoming part of the main body but persisted as magic extensions right after she evolved into the shape of a magical girl.
The energy continued to ravage her after clearing her insides, her exterior of skin still looked the same as ever if not for the black lightning crackling around and breaking down her body into ashes. Her face looked melancholic as if she had evolved to gain the ability to express her feelings from that mindless tree-flesh monster. All that was left now was the floating head that looked gloomy.
Her eyes faced the ground, in repentance for the sin of not being able to protect her own people. Fighting for one's species also meant that they would lose their own in the scenario where they lost. Kaede's heart was heavy but she stood rooted in front of Hikari. The black lightning began to crackle around her hollow eyes, gradually breaking down her head. The back was already gone and now only the front was left, akin to a creepily realistic mask.
Despite her brain being broken down first, she looked strangely able to express herself.... The eyes were the next to go, then the nose, leaving the mouth. She smiled...
Kaede's eyes widened as she propped up her rapier, ready to pierce through the viciously evil set of grinning teeth.
"Final skill, [The Great Disaster(imitation)]."
(Hikari)