*
"... Did... Did the Demon King tell you the name of THIS skill?" (Kanou)
Her black leather armour with gold engravings shone under the rising sun. Her face was partially hidden by the morning glare, and fully hidden from Kaede's vision. However she could tell that Kanou was staring right at her through her radar. It was something that would never turn off anyway. It processes information and localises it, only accessing information when she wants to, but the processing is perpetually active and was what allowed her to bypass the demon castle's security. Once processed, it could no longer be tracked down to her.
Simply making her analysis a 2 step process like this was enough to bypass the security. Perhaps information magic was not that advanced yet. Kanou's expression was clear as day even if Kaede were to close her eyes. Her neck was a little stiff, but she tried her best to nod a little.
"What was it called?" (Kanou)
"The Great Disaster." (Kaede)
Kanou's thoughts raced, not only her but that triggered everyone's minds. If the spectacle they see in front of them was not an illusion but actually a recreation... How much of humanity has survived? While the previous humanity had been crushed by their hubris in the form of tall skyscrapers and a sea of concrete... What was the state of humanity now?
And... It would make sense if Kaede ran off because she wanted to save the other humans first... But it seems we were too late. A warlord from the Grundo alliance side spoke up.
"... Our informants in charge of this area have some news. The Demon King clones were vanquished and a large part of the demon army was vanquished after collapsing from the inside.
The blow that we dealt has caused their frontlines to shrink into their own walls. Casualties from the second Great Disaster... Appears to be less than 1% at the moment. There is mass destruction, but locally stationed magical girls have managed to rescue most people. " (3rd warlord, Mavi)
Most of their hearts felt relief. In the first disaster, casualties could rise up to as high as 60% in some of the countries. This feat that humanity has produced... To survive the second disaster, a lot of countermeasures must have been put into place without her notice. She was a magical girl, she never knew if the citizens had some sort of procedure or preparation for the next disaster or not.
It lightened her heart. To think that humanity could reduce their casualties by around 300 times, like an improved immune system after the first infection. The fact that architecture was far sparser and lower in height compared to before would have helped significantly. But... This also impedes humanity in constructing tall buildings if they remained in fear of great disasters, which would contribute to decreasing living spaces and explosion of the human population, problems that occurred before the first Great Disaster, problems that caused casualties to skyrocket the first time round.
"... De Lan, take Kaori to find The Eye God." (HuoLi)
After brainstorming for a couple minutes, she arrived at a farfetched conclusion. Looks of surprise and confuzzlement cloaked their expressions. Perhaps it was an emergency, deduced from the tone of HuoLi's voice. The bystanders were sensible enough to remain silent to let De Lan speak.
"Why?! What are you on about?! Shouldn't we form one last stand here? We've removed all problems from our side of the border! We just need to excise one last-! " (De Lan)
"... I see. The Demon King evolved into a Biodemonic God, holding a domain over biology. The ancient demonic god and demon castle embodiment, Euclidia Aevilli would also revive soon.
I will hold the both of them back, Kaori, you're in no state to defeat the Demon King, right? Leave this to me, find The Eye God, she'll know what to do. All this time, she's still somewhere in her throne, albeit in a place all of us ArcMaiden cannot find or access. " (HuoLi)
" Wait! But I can-!! " (Kaede)
" GO!!! " (HuoLi)
A plan that was formed spontaneously. De Lan took the orders without any hesitation, she picked up Kaede princess style and their figure's vanished in an instant.
"... What about the rest of us?" (Karell)
"Yeah, I woke up to something quite shocking..." (Ruby)
The rest remained silent, almost making it palpable. They all looked to HuoLi for the next orders. To safeguard humanity, to correct their mistake of making a young girl like Kaede try to kill the Demon King for them. One thing remained vivid in everyone's minds when they observed her despondency. Ah, she was just a normal girl after all.
Who wouldn't be afraid of such a threat? Especially The Great Disaster. Only Kanou and Barius would hazard a guess that Kaori had trauma with The Great Disaster. It was the only explanation, other than the threat that the Demon King directly posed, there had to be such an additional issue to have caused this much distress for Kaori. HuoLi had such an inkling as well, so she made Kaori exit the stage.
"isn't it simple? Form a layered formation, we're intercepting the Demon King's chase on Kaori. Buy as much time as possible, expect the worse." (HuoLi)
"Jeez, you were so harsh... What if you get hated?" (Triney)
"That... Would be convenient..." (HuoLi)
"How cute~" (Triney)
If she was truly giving chase from the start, these elite members of humanity would no longer be around. The order of succession went like this, Hikari -> biomechanical god -> Great Disaster incarnate. While she had turned into a disaster beyond human comprehension, she had also limited herself physically. She hasn't incarnated an avatar yet, for now she was a mindless disaster hellbent on wiping out humanity.
In the distance they could see her... They could see it. A massive wall of flesh was rapidly encroaching upon them, Hikari had swallowed up all of the other demons as she swept across the continent like a moon sized flesh tsunami. With Euclidia the ancient demon god around, they could perhaps recreate demon kind, it didn't matter how much of demon kind was extinct at the moment, even if 50% of their elite forces were gone.
They watched as the wall of flesh closed the distance at a rapid pace. It wasn't a magical girl but it was still faster than a car could evacuate. Demon civilisation faced their end at the hands of their own king.
"... This fucking sucks... Some newbie got one over on me. Even though I've been fighting for so long to ascend..." (HuoLi)
She muttered to no one in particular. They were all at least A grades and mostly S grades here, a solemn atmosphere shrouded the members as they silently respected her lament.
" Hmpf, I've been trying for 300 years, I don't know how long you've been alive or how long you've been trying. But I think that radiance and beauty of having unique skills makes it so she cannot replace you in anyway.
If anything you are irreplaceable, it's the Eye God who is in danger of losing her position, Hahah! " (Triney)
A chorus of laughters spread amongst them, livening up the mood once more.
" Maintain formation, I'll handle the wave so you do your jobs too. [A maiden's median of the world's end]!! " (HuoLi)
The rapidly encroaching flesh wave towered over them as it grew taller than mountains and the eiffel tower. But all of a sudden the brilliance of morning dawn returned as it vanished all too quickly. Nothing could survive the environment of the End of the world... Not unless it's immortal....
It's blood reddish beidge mixture of a hue flashes in the sky, as if it was a malfunctioning projection in a classroom. The Great Disaster was resisting HuoLi's final skill, it took an absurd amount of her well to send the entire thing into that alternate reality, yet it was still resisting as if mocking her entire being. One's final skill is after all the accumulation of their entire life's destiny, it is the peak of their power confined by their lifetimes.
With how capricious magic is, there is no guarantee that the peak of one's lifetime can stay constant. Throughout human history, it was a given that many individuals attempted to increase their peak and break past their limits. A demon would describe it as the apex of an individual's destiny. If a person was to live a short life, their apex would come sooner wouldn't it?
Like Paridia and Myuu for instance... They unlocked their final skills earlier because that was as far as their lives would go. It is not certain that death was concomitant with final skills, but it would explain early awakenings of final skills.
As such, resisting a final skill was akin to mocking their entire life and being. Everything they stood for, it's being crushed and spat on. Not even all immortals could survive in that environment, even Euclidia had to abandon her avatar. Well practically all magical girls and demons were immortals anyway. It takes a special kind to resist the world's end. But Hikari was still resisting and flickering back to the normal reality... Was the connection too weak?
"DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME!!!" (HuoLi)
She spent a total of 75% of her well, to start the skill and to strengthen it. It stopped flickering back to the real world, as it phased in and out of existence at slower rates it's size began to shrunk too. Corpses aren't left behind under that End World environment, it meant that Hikari was being shredded at the other side. Gradually, the moon sized foe became reduced to continent sized then city sized. The other magical girls began to rain energy attacks at the fearsome being, burning and destroying it to the best of their ability.
Most of them were low and magic considering the large scale war, but if they considered how Hikari swallowed most of the Demon army... The only threat left around would have to be Hikari.
"...?! MOVE BACK!!! FORM LINES AND TEAMS! THE DEMONS AREN'T DONE!" (HuoLi)
Barking out swift orders, HuoLi used her first skill. An incomprehensible, reality distorting substance slips out of her pores, forming a shield with a hue that was impossible to process for the human mind. It switched textures continuously, creating an overload of information should one stare straight into it. For magical girls, they had the will stat so they were somewhat resistant to its effects which were like a mental attack.
The shield sustains heavy hits as booming sounds rang out throughout the land, reverberating through the ground despite all parties being in mid air.
"Tch! Maintain formation! Don't let them get through us! Now it's our turn to be on the defensive side!" (HuoLi)
Divine knights and demonic heavenly kings descend from the sky like angels... Well, they were actually demons and scummy humans, but that didn't matter at the moment. The other S grades heeded her instructions... Right, there was only one piece of hope left for humanity... If Kaede couldn't deal with The Great Disaster, then... All that's left is to find an older more reliable god magical girl. The ArcMaiden have known her for a long time.
The Eye God was their last shot. The Dragon God was busy fighting the pope saintess, the local god magical girl of the kingdom of Blumford. Then... They were willing to offer everything here.
HuoLi used the substance made from her first skill, a substance resistant to time and space. With it, she swiftly bisected one of the divine knights, but their regenerative ability allowed them to swiftly reattach their halved body. Another divine knight arrives, their bright yellow armour reflected the rising sun as if they were using it as a spotlight. Despite having confirmed that they were all magical girls, this knight's androgynous features threw off some people.
She swung her giant axe held to her back, it's pale yellow edge gleemed with a threatening sheen as it approached HuoLi's neck. She stops moving. HuoLi doesn't bother to dodge, she forms a set of bars that block off the axe, catching it like a drain mesh grating swallows a dropped pencil. Its handle smashes against the surface of the grating as the blade barely fits into the hole purposefully created.
The blade was a hair's breadth away from HuoLi, threatening to leave a little cut on her vacantly gazing eyes. She stared straight at the weapon as the enemy tried to shake free from the trap, vibrating vigorously to cause the clattering collisions of metal against metal, screeching every now and then. The war axe begins to leave a little cut on the edges of the mesh, inching closer to HuoLi who finally moved back.
Manipulating the substance's shape, she send a few spikes into the divine knight's back. They lodged into her back, refusing the come back out. But it didn't hamper the divine knight's vigour in the slightest.
***(A few moments back)
"I haven't exercised this much of my power before. Do you know how much restrain it takes not to crush that little girl's ego?" (Barius)
Spears of pressurised and hardened water surround Aubrey from all sides. His subordinates were torn down individually by the water jets at first, but eventually a rain of spear... From the front of their bodies skewered them. Their bodies remained far more mangled than anything Aubrey had inflicted torture upon.
His silent anger boiled.