*
For now, Kaori coerced Chu Qie into leading her to the corrupt official helping out in her crime. The average magical girl was around C grade, so Chu Qie having a few stats in B grade was enough to deter most people from intervening. At the same time, she's such a small time thief that she doesn't catch the attention of the stronger officers that could easily subdue her.
"This is a headache, so how about this? [Idealism of a magical maiden's transient heroism: panta rhei], slow down time by a factor of 1 000 000 with the exceptions being us." (Kaori)
"... What the fuck... Universal time stop... You... What are you... " (Chu Qie)
" What...? Isn't that a little rude? Don't you mean, 'who' are you? I'm just a passing magical girl with a stronger sense of justice than you. It's a shame, well it's just stealing. But if I find out you did something unforgivable, you know what will happen. " (Kaori)
She shook her head vigorously, her words garbled in a mess as she desperately tried to choke her words out.
" A... Ah... Wait... I'll confess! Don't kill me! I'll tell you their names! I'm sure there's an entire group of them for you to squash, but I'm practically an outsider, I only enlisted their service as a customer... I just steal stuff like vending machines and bikes as a hobby! I'll bring you to the warehouse and return everything, I promise! " (Chu Qie)
" Alright. Out with it. Also, shouldn't the Progenitor's cult have cut down on activities already...?" (Kaori)
" T... The cult? I overheard something about less activity, but... I'm just an insignificant thief, I don't dabble too much in the underworld.
I work a normal day shop making pastry... " (Chu Qie)
"... You have pastry, why do you have any need to steal, what else could you possibly want? Never mind... Just tell em their names already. " (Kaori)
" Alright, but please don't ever mention me...
It's a group opposing The Progenitor's cult, they named themselves the Goroshinkai cult. A radical sect of the Vermanian faith... They've infiltrated into this labyrinth's society in a wide variety of roles, but they aren't too numerous. " (Chu Qie)
Vermanian faith, a new faith that emerged together with the world wide discovery of magical particles... The Law of magic used to keep the existence of magic a secret, but The Great Disaster served as an example of 'incomprehensibility caused by magic', bringing it into light. Due to this new awareness of magic, an independent faith group separated from any continental faction was born. The God's Corpse theory is the basis of their existence, the theory that states that once there was nothing in the world.
Then from nothing arose matter and antimatter, like 0 splitting into 1 and -1. These 2 fuse to create the explosion that was the big bang, but during the moment right before it exploded, when it fused into one.... The single fused entity was god. Different sects split off from here, arguing if god was sentient or not, and if there was intelligent design. But these semantics aren't the point, the primary focus is on the fact that the big bang was God's 'death' and the universe was his corpse. But since the universe birthed life, naturally every animal is born in God's 'image', just as they are equally a part of his corpse.
The word that the faith wanted to spread the most, was that humans are living instances of God's corpse. Depending on the sect, this message will be twisted in some way to fit the group's agenda. For the Goroshinkai sect, it must be something like reviving God's consciousness by killing all living things. Kaori's guess was partially right. They do want to revive god out of reverence, but not just through killing all humans...
"Goroshinkai... They really aren't too numerous? How would you know...?" (Kaori)
"... Who would believe that crazy shit?" (Chu Qie)
"..." (Kaori)
With Chu Qie's aid, it wasn't that hard. The cult really burrowed deep if the members could just stand in the open... As the largest occupation in the labyrinth with 20% employment being solely attributed, the security sector in the labyrinth clearly needed to be managed. An office space with multiple tall buildings tower over the surrounding buildings, it wasn't so hard to find them.
Generally, there was an odd hierarchy going on where magical girls like to live or work in high places, so the price and job pay is usually higher too. As such, the height of a building could an indicator of status, though that wouldn't reflect Kanou's status as the resident ArcMaiden. Kanou lives further underground...
"... Look, your skills could augment you to fight B grades, but there are many of those in the office. They've likely already resisted your time warping...
Don't throw your life away here, you can be my lackey and help me steal bikes. I swear, it's more exhilirating than any job you could find down here! " (Chu Qie)
"... I'd rather learn to bake. Did you master it so well that you got bored of it? Teach me to bake after this. " (Kaori)
"... When I was young... " (Chu Qie)
As it suggested, her slowing down of time had forcefully dragged the universe into a crawl. She could have a really powerful skill, perhaps she used this skill and defeated Chu Qie with it. Chu Qie had weak magic defence, so she would be susceptible to this sort of attack and other non physical magic. Things such as poison, mental attacks, Chu Qie was only physically strong...
The streets shifted into a harsher hue of grey, like dug up coarse gravel that could easily cut one's skin. They strolled under the dimmer environment of the labyrinth as Chu Qie began to talk about herself... To be honest, Kaori didn't have any interest. She tried to tune it out, but having superior senses, some bits and pieces inevitably got into her mind.
"blah blah blah-love baking-blah blah blah." (Chu Qie)
"They weren't supportive of it blah blah." (Chu Qie)
"In other words, you've rekindled my love for baking. Blah blah." (Chu Qie)
It was only an off handed comment... She didn't really take the situation or promise too seriously. But she trudged on, she felt like they were one the verge of something great, nonetheless. It was that sensation of adventure and unknown that fueled her heart rate and drove it to go faster.
Without much time passing, they arrived on the floor of the designated target. Kaori jumped up with Chu Qie in tow, smashed through the window then rewound time to repair it. At the same time, it was a little difficult to rewind time while it was slowed down, so she released all effects of her magic before repairing it.
"... Did it run out at the worse moment? There's about 5 B grades and the A grade boss here, what are we going to do...?" (Chu Qie)
She hid behind Kaori like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. Only a single B grade came out, it was a brunette in a proper 2 piece black suit, akin to an office worker or some sort of special agent. Breaking into the security office's security... Wouldn't this be an outright disrespect to the labyrinth's military force?
"W... Who are you! What are you doing here!" (Officer A)
"Hey can you sift out which one's a mole and which one's aren't? I don't have memory reading capabilities." (Kaori)
"No... But it might just be all of them. The only thing keeping them in check is Kanou. Anyway, aren't we about to die?!" (Chu Qie)
"Standard case of corruption then? We can't link them to the cult, but we can still arrest all of them..." (Kaori)
"Cult? Arrest? Who do you think you are?" (Officer A)
As usual, they read the fake stats and get all cocky. They're looking down on her a little too much, but... Perhaps it's because they're fake that it would instill fear in them. After she reveals her real stats, they wouldn't be able to trust anyone and might think it was Kaori in disguise again. A feeling of surveillance and oppression would consume their work life like a curse. No one else would believe them.
"... I'm under an independent organisation, but I have permission granted by The Eye God to inspect for corruption.
Now, it takes but a single second for her to find your slimy comrades, surrender now and the sentence will be light." (Kaori)
" Huh~? And what Authority do you have that you pulled out of your-" (Officer A)
Her chest was caved in, Kaori had to hold back her strength so rather than impaling the target's torso, she would knock them away like a base ball instead. Her body flew through the walls like ragdoll and even bounced a little, alerting the rest.
"huh?" (Chu Qie)
"Well if we can't arrest them, we can at least beat them within an inch of their lives." (Kaori)
Knocked out, the B grade will wake in a couple moments, magical girls don't get knocked out so easily. 4 B grades come out, their boss is still in the back. Not even worth talking to.
" Kneel, before mine divine charisma. Veil of Determinism - lite...?! " (Kaori)
Chu Qie jumps in front of Kaori, spreading her arms wide.
"Run!!! I made you come here, I'm not about to let you die!!!" (Chu Qie)
She shut her eyes in terror, failing to observe the spectacle before her.
"... Uhh, open your eyes. It's already over." (Kaori)
"No! I feel strong now! As if their attacks haven't hit yet! It must be the adrenaline, run now while my body can still hold up! There is still hope!" (Chu Qie)
With her fingers, Kaori gently opens her eyes, her breath brushing past her neck in a languid sigh.
" Eh? What the hell... Why are they kneeling... They couldn't... Resist the magic? " (Chu Qie)
Her character is jumpy at times and a little adorable. A sense of justice does exist in her heart after all, is this how mother's feel? No way, Kaori has only met her for around 5 minutes... Well, she was proud to have such an upstanding citizen in the same faction nonetheless.
"... Who are you? Is this a similar skill to mine which can ignore augmentations?" (Chu Qie)
Before them was 5 B grades forced to kneel on the ground. An unknown source pressure was crushing their knees down. But their boss should be able to take care of this, she's A grade after all. Instead of black, a woman comes out of the crumbling walls behind in a white suit.
Her black hair draped loosely behind her back, her eyes hidden by her sun glasses in this enclosed space... It must be part of her combat dress.
"Cloaking...? An executioner? Is there such a force in the Sanctuary too, or did you come from outside...?" (Boss)
There are stat cloaking devices outside the Sanctuary? This must be reported... The first stat checking device was a chip distributed by the Haradell Union, the largest organisation preciding Authority over magical girls and magical research. It was a country on a floating island above Europe, a country of magical girls and... Human slaves.
The Gangrea Monarchy was dissolved early, the Haradell Union has no god magical girl but has someone capable of killing one. They destroyed the Gangrea Monarchy that was the authority of Europe and annexed the people as slaves along with the surrounding factions. There are plenty of migrants because of that, some managed to escape to the Sanctuary. After the war with the Demon King, it's not really a sure thing if the Holy kingdom of Blumford is still in existence, since they sold themselves out to the demons.
The left side of the world is in such shambles, there's no continental faction there anymore, only warring tribes of smaller countries. Cults and the Haradell Union can run rampant there, conducting human experiments to research magic. Point was that the Haradell union's issued chip was not trustworthy. That's why it's been destroyed and replaced with Sanctuary tech.
"Whatever, if we kill you then all our problems go away. [Void laying under the sun and moon], face your biggest fear and collapse." (Boss)
"..." (Kaori)
"... H-hey... You okay? If you can't deal with it, we can still run... Living another day is always be-" (Chu Qie)
"... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" (Kaori)
Chu Qie's words were cut short, like someone had seized not only her neck but her entire pair of lungs and torso. An invisible pressure spreads out and crushes her body in the ground, she could feel the air pull out of her body as she lid there and her body's cells decayed. She looked over to see Kaori to be the source of the pressure, and the rest had suffered a similar fate to her.
Who the hell is she...? Did we anger a god...?
The entire building instantly shook, crashing the floor she stood on down every storey. Everything flew upwards, as if carried by her rage. This pressure... Was merely from her aura expanding, and it has encapsulated the entire region... That's why it's invisible, only the border of the aura is lightly coloured and it's far away from here...