***
At that time she also unlocked her final skill. The grief had sent her over the edge, as if it was a pair of invisible hands pushing her into the abyss. If anything, she would gladly exchange these skills for the life of her senior. From then on, she donned the name of Titania. It was inspired by her senior, Tifanny.
Final skill, legend emulation mythical unleash [Azure martial conqueror, guardian of peace].
Her witch robes faded away to reveal a set of metallic blue armour underneath, along with cloth armour below to properly clothe her body. An undershirt like corset with exposed shoulders and light skirt waved about under the metallic attachments. Most notably was a set of twin azure swords hanging by her waist.
As long as Titania recognised the person as a hero, she could emulate them. Whether they were a real person or not didn't matter.
Tifanny's weapons could shapeshift into any weapon she wanted. Her skill gave her mastery over handling any weapon, so she frequently kept shifting between weapon types to overwhelm the enemy. Right now she felt like she could defeat the vampire all on her own. Her fingers flexed and cranked as if they were a completely unique body part separate from the usual hands or legs, they spun smoothly with vigorous energy and dexterity around the twin swords, rotating the swords by their handles with so much power the caused sharp winds to fly off.
The resulting winds cut deep holes into the ground, leaving her surroundings in a sea of scratches and slices. Her jets activate, shooting into the air to launch her closer. The distance disappears in the blink of an eye, her blades swing without much difficulty as they pass through the vampire's body. The enemy had turned her body partially incorporeal to allow the blades to pass through. But Titania just morphs them into a shorter dagger, swinging them faster than the vampire could expect.
It was only a light slash that tore through the pale gleaming skin of the vampire, but it was an indication that catching her off guard could cause damage. It was not an impossible opponent. The vampire turns completely immaterial, vanishing into a black fog that blended with the darkness of early morning. Using her analysis skill, Titania immediately tracked down any possible dangers and avoided them.
She pounced backwards and a heavy sounding rupture opened in the air. Just for a second, only the vampire's claws materialised and slashed at her previous location. It was close, her analysis had basically functioned as precognition and predicted the enemy's moves. It gave the information to her by highlighting the air in a red aura, an area of danger with some error range in case the analysis was inaccurate.
It wasn't actually precognition, so there might be some natural inaccuracies. Slash! Titania swings her blade at the predicted choke points, scattering the fog far away and preventing it from materialising, no it's because the vampire saw that Titania knew exactly where she was going that she turned tail and moved away. If Titania always knew where she was going and was cutting up the areas where she might materialise with her sword, then what was the point of turning into fog?
Now she can't even return into being a physical entity and deal any damage. At most she could chock Titania with fog, but using that on a magical girl was like trying to trying to drown a fish. It might happen on the off chance, but it was nearly impossible.
In the end, it ended up as a lot of stalling. With no clear victor, it turned into a stalemate. Eventually an unfamiliar flash of white breezed by before either of them noticed. When she appeared, she was dazzling unlike any other, with smooth pale skin that seemed to sparkle with just its presence. The fabric containing her body was also a pure white, like an untainted lily blooming in the middle of a bloody battlefield.
With a single swing, her rapier gathered all of the fog and vaporised it. Kaori had arrived, and as soon as she did she was in a new combat dress and she finished the battle as fast as she arrived. But strangely enough, she wore an expression nobody could expect. Ah, I see, was all Titania could muster. It was a very familiar expression, the same one she wore when Tifanny was gone.
Even with this momentary victory, nothing could eclipse the grief that one felt from losing a loved one. That's why at this point of time, Titania was the one best suited for this. Before the wilting amaryllis before her disappears, she must reach out her hands. Please, make it in time.
"...?" (Kaede)
Of course, she would wonder what was going on. But there was no time, she was clearly rushing, chasing after something. If so, then this is all she can offer. She who has reached the end of her own respective journey, lost her senior, but ended up working for the Sanctuary anyway. When the government of every country collapsed and could only nominate their representatives to run for the continental government, she decided to serve as an ArcMaiden to contribute greatly to the faction, after all, now everyone belonged here.
To protect a shared home. She thought that was more important than any petty feelings of hatred. The monster was the one who killed Tifanny, not the Eye God anyway. The Eye God could bring her back, but she wouldn't be the same person. The original is well and truly dead, so as someone who has suffered enough of that kind of pain. Someone younger than her like Kaori shouldn't be making that kind of expression... At least that was how Titania strongly felt.
"... Hang in there. Things will work out." (Titania)
"... Mmm..." (Kaede)
She nodded with a mix of confusion and a mix of relief. For some reason, she felt like those words lightened her heart a bit. Despite defeating these enemy generals with ease, she had been through such a hectic episode that she didn't notice all her emotions were on full display. She simply kept running. At the same time, there were waves of white light that washed over the demon territory like a high tide, pushing back a vague and blurry mess in the back.
Titania had no idea what it was, but the amount of mystery it had... Looks like it was in another dimension compared to everything she fought so far. It looked like the mystery would fill and ravage her isolated dimension, break some cracks into it and leak through it without much of a difficulty. The white waves barely slowly it down a little, when she saw the other ArcMaidens were frantically running from it.
The white waves also ravaged the demon territory and turned the metropolis to ashes. If there were any surviving demons who didn't evacuate, they wouldn't have stood much of a chance against that overwhelmingly bright energy. Ah, I see. Titania could only conclude a single thing, it tied everything together with a beautiful bow. In other words, she failed.
But how could anyone make such a cute girl make such a sad face? Titania wouldn't forgive anyone who would make Kaori cry. Were these her sentiments because she felt like a senior? Did she wish to be some sort of lenient veteran? Her thoughts swirl a little, but nothing would stop the approach of that giant mass.
"Titania! Go with Rei and run now! I'll get the others!" (Kanou)
Ever quick to make a decision, they were around the same age but she wonders why they are so different. To a certain extent a person would be influenced by their skills, is that why? Though it was the same as saying someone's hobbies affected their personality. It would only influence them to the extent that the person allows themselves to be influenced.
She runs. For now, she doesn't have to make any decisions. Decisions are scary, Tifanny use to make all of them for her even if she was the one offering suggestions. In other words she has always given the burden of deciding to others. It was a cowardly thing to do, not that she found anything wrong with it. She acknowledges it as cowardly, but if you were born short, you were born short, you know what I mean? She accepted it as an inherent flaw of herself. Desiring change... Was too scary.
Because her ambition had led to her senior's death. Her teacher, her senior, and her friend. Tifanny was now gone. She can't do anything about it, except pray no one else shares the same fate. That means it's fine isn't it? Leave everything to everyone else, Kanou has given me permission to run... So I should prioritise my own life... At that moment, she felt like she was falling into the endless abyss of her own mind.
Sure she's the only one feeling such a strange thing, but... Even if she knows it was all in her head... No, there's a very specific reason why it's in her head in the first place. The feeling of free fall, her limbs and digits going numb, her mind flaring up with heat and pain. Her emotions ravaging her soul with regret. Ah... What is this... What's going on? She knows what's going on, but she can't bring herself to admit it.
Then, a girl in a white dress and locks of pure white engulfed her with her white aura. She looks almost heavenly, no, she could feel it just by looking at her, it was heavenly. Kaori had achieved something beyond the ArcMaidens... Yet she still cared and worried about how they looked at her. Someone this compassionate shouldn't exist, now that she had power, isn't it natural if she breaks free of her obligation to save humanity and prioritise herself?
She was the opposite of Titania. She had power, but she never wished to run. Compared to her who had less power but always wanted to run... Hey, isn't it natural to run then if she's weaker? But her words slapped her like a violent storm that penetrated the deepest recesses of her thoughts.
Kaori looks at her with an awkward but comforting smile.
"If you're hesitating so much, isn't it obvious what you want to do? You want to fight too, don't you?" (Kaede)
"... T-that's easy for you to say, you're stronger now..." (Titania)
She immediately rebuked with an excuse. She herself knew it, so it didn't take much for Kaori to notice. In turn, Kaede did not admonish her. At times like these, was it better to be admonished? Yes, perhaps she wanted to be admonished. She wanted to throw away the responsibility of the decision making to her junior here, Kaori. Ah... How cowardly I am... That's why, Kaori held the best approach and used it.
"Sorry, but... I have something else to do. It's fine if you want to run away, I cannot deny that. So do what you will." (Kaede)
It was also the cruelest approach. To dangle Titania in the pit of her own insecurity, to leave the decision making to herself. She was fearful of responsibility over her own actions, and it was given to her. In a high tension situation like this chase by the Demon King, it was the worst thing anyone could do. The abyss was swallowing her once more, and the light of Kaori flew away and vanished. But this time, she stopped falling and merely floated in the pit.
What the hell... Of course she couldn't forget her words. "if you hesitate this much, isn't it obvious what you want to do?" She didn't need Kaori to tell her that, but now that she was slapped in the face with it... She could only meekly internalise it.
"[Just wait here and break down]!!" (Titania)
She twisted her entire body and turned around, the momentum of her sprinting still dragging her as she slid across countless metres per second. She was as faster than a jett, which caused the ground to alight on fire as her feet dragged shoddily against its surface.
Were these words for her enemy? Or were they for herself? She could only chuckle at this depreciating thoughts, for she was furious at her own indecision. Kaori's motto of having no regrets lit the embers in her heart for a small moment. She directed her magic and sent the giant flesh wave into her isolated dimension.
Immediately, it was bursting apart at the seams, its hideous beidge complexion spills out, but Titania pours more magic into her skill which pulls it back in. Cracks in reality hovered over the point where the flesh wave vanished, but these were actually just holes to to isolated dimension. The Demon King must have access to the library of Akasha if it could defy all skills in this manner.
Akasha grants the ability to replicate any skill in existence, but the natural difference of using someone else's skill is that they had more practice and control over it. It's like picking up a new sports, naturally the athlete who has had years of practice would be better than a newbie to an unbridgeable extent.