*
Her movements bordered on the divine, almost swimming past the world itself as she weaved through time and space and stirred destiny with her blade. Time, space, distance, speed, breath, stance, fortune, everything falls apart into an inconsequential concept as she dances past her own weakness. Her body shifted low as she swung horizontally, before assaulting with more swings from every other direction at once. Arasovi's field of view changed to white as the rapier attacks formed countless mirages and covered her vision.
Arasovi arrived behind Kaori and sent a high kick into the back of her head. Taking the hit, Kaori's body dove with the momentum from the kick and spun enough to swing her rapier at Arasovi's neck. Arasovi's head slides off her neck slightly before readjusting itself back to normal. She stares down at the readjusted Kaori, a simple smile but confident smile adorns her face like a blooming flower, it was no longer the air of arrogance or graceful composure of a goddess that she kept putting up as a facade, but a simple blooming flower, a basic captivating smile fitting for her age.
She finished her third year in the labyrinth to get the magical girl license... So now she should be halfway through the year that she turns 19. Her eyes narrow in interest, as if teasing her opponent for failing to put her down. Without any effort, she steps forward and reaches breathing distance in one motion, her elbows bent and her wrist locked on as her blade is once again held against Arasovi's neck, barely blocked by her greatsword that managed to slip inbetween the rapier and her neck.
Both stood at an awkward angle, but continued to hold their pose as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Kaori held both of her hands in front of her, with her rapier gripped by the two hands and pointing backwards with its tip, as if in prime position to cut her own neck. But it was pushing forward against Arasovi's neck, which made their heads right next to each other. Bent at a low angle, Arasovi's greatsword slipped inbetween within a hair's breadth.
But this was fine, she would no longer be deterred by her own past. Kaori slips back into the calamitous dance, her senses heightened and her reflexes transcend common sense. Her body repositioned higher into the air, and her arm swing her rapier downwards before she was conscious of it. Arasovi swings her greatsword upwards and parries it, designating Kaori as a target for her destruction magic. A large cuboid of area around Kaori was designated to be erased by her destruction magic, but her rapier cracks open the targeting cuboid.
Then she slips away once more. Everytime her figure surfaces into sight, it's followed by a rapier attack and a subsequent parry by a greatsword. Gradually, her rapier chips away at the greatsword, and the attacks only grew faster and more frequent, leaving the greatsword heavily damaged. Her figure appears at multiple locations once, each one a mirage, yet completely real and full of substance. She was moving fast enough to be in multiple places at once, Arasovi follows up by doing the same, parrying multiple rapier attacks at once.
Then Arasovi vanishes, multiple of her reappear to deal a thrusting attack with her greatsword. Kaori reciprocates by having multiple Kaoris thrust their rapier at each sword, before even more Kaoris appear behind the Arasovis, followed up by Arasovi doing the same. The number of each person continue to increase exponentially, filling the grey edge of the world.
Until... It finally cracked... Arasovi's greatsword had appeared in the hands of numerous copies of Arasovi, but she was simply moving fast enough to be in multiple places at once, it was the exact same greatsword that was being used. And the same greatsword was receiving a straight thrust from a rapier with each instance of Arasovi and Kaori fighting. At once, every single Kaori and Arasovi vanished with the exception of one of each.
"... You... You surpassed it... I don't get it... How...?" (Arasovi)
She couldn't contained her surprise, her eyes widened as she choked her words out. Her greatsword had cracks spread across its side and fragmented the entire thing into something unusable. Maybe a normal human could pick it up and the energy it contained could cause a lot of change, enough to conquer a continent with. But to these two, it was worthless.
Arasovi glanced at the fragments scattered across the void that was the edge of the world. They floated in place, only split apart and sent away from their original position by Kaori's momentum.
"Hubris. I simply had a little more of it than you, but even an infinitesimally small difference is amplified to a great extent when in a battle between gods.
The rest of the time, all the stalemates and parries were possible... Because we were exactly evenly matched with not an ounce of deviation. But now with a slight deviation... " (Kaori)
The past could never be resolved, Kaori did nothing but accept that. Regret was something that was a natural part of life, she shouldn't run from everything and call her efforts useless just because of a little regret, she should stop running from an emotion as fundamental and instrumental as regret. She accepted her weakness before as Kaori and Kaede, accepted her circumstances and position that she put herself in...
But all it took was a little regret that pushed her over the edge? A little defeat that ruined a festival that she was looking forward to, made her completely lose track of daily life and spiral into an abyss of resignation. She could change the past, but should she? She can revive the dead and solve all of the world's problems, but was it really right to take away what humanity is meant to face? All the other God magical girls have quite a clear stance, all they do is govern, they don't take away suffering more than necessary. They simply allowed humanity to recover from The Great Disaster and nothing more, a second chance at civilisation and society.
But in the end, it was a question that she must answer herself, it wasn't something that anyone else should shoulder. The answer of the other God magical girls is worthless if she doesn't arrive at it by herself and her own convictions. It was a trial that she has to undertake due to the powers she possessed, a line that she cannot avoid crossing and regretting. A wall that she must inevitably run into and smash into with all of her being. Nothing can change that, but she can still change her own outlook, her own emotions, her own resolve.
The answer was not correct, there were no correct answers, it was simply a hard choice. Then... Her answer was to just face the present. It's not fair to not save everyone, it's not fair that she doesn't solve all the problems in the world and only solves what she likes... But that is all based on the premise that she must be fair. Who would enforce it? Who would cruelly force her to save everyone and guide her towards certain regret? Only Kaori has the power to do that, then she should just step back and look in front. Instead of looking at the big picture, look at what is actually in front of her.
'I choose the present.' (Kaori)
A secretive silent vow that no one would ever know, a soft smile of satisfaction crests her lips. Her gaze trained intently onto Arasovi, she was beautiful and intimidating all the same, a true goddess of destruction that was ruthless yet without self-doubt. A model figure that she might want to strive for.
Her footsteps felt light, the world felt brighter than usual. The present looked to be more beautiful than ever, a scenic gracefulness that could never be taken away. Her rapier thrusts forward with all of her strength, yet none of the strain of the body and soul. Her mind felt light and her actions felt certain, there was no more hesitation or second thoughts. This was the calamitous dance that would fell gods.
Her blade glowed brilliantly, filling the realm of grey in a shower of white particles that reached its vast ends. Arasovi summons another greatsword and swings at her white rapier, but the brilliance eclipsed the darkness and without much effort... And obliterated the greatsword. Once more, her greatsword had been fragmented into countless pieces, the rapier flies towards Arasovi's body. When it makes contact, this would undoubtedly be the end.
***(?)
It wasn't much of a surprise when they ended up dead. They were rebelling, we were finally making a dent into their pockets and ruling structure. The world was clouded under one entity that ruled the entirety of earth. They had roughly 40 S grades under their belt and 4 SS grades working as their exclusive bodyguard. If any of those SS grades were to come near, the resistance would vanish in an instant.
So we sought to deal some damage in some inconspicuous way. Petty theft, destruction of property, disturbance of their work. In one year, we killed 2 of the S grades. In the next it was 5. In the third it was 12. Then another 12 in the next. The world was split apart to be governed by the remaining 9. In these past 4 years, the infighting between the SS grades had made it all easy to take down the S grades under their nose. Arasovi was one of the only 2 S grades under the resistance, and she managed to kill 22 of them while her partner took down 9 of them.
The remaining 9 were sent to their deaths by the SS grades or caught up in the crossfire. The 4 SS grades finally came out in the open to fight amongst themselves, they always saw the resistance as insects and didn't bother with them. Especially since after the 1st year, most of the resistance was slaughtered and nothing other than Arasovi and her partner has showed up since. In a single day, half the world was set a lazed and the rest of it pretty much vanished into the sea. Only a 20th of the land was habitable, and the remaining humans weren't really doing too good. It was a situation far worse than The Great Disaster, Arasovi's killings of the S grades was easily identified as the cause that accelerated the conflict between the SS grades, since the S grades served as pawns in their proxy battles. Taking their pawns forced them to come out themselves and resulted in the current situation.
This wasn't meant to happen... Arasovi set out to rebel to give everyone a better life... When most of the resistance was simply slaughtered while she wasn't around, she tightened her resolve even more. Otherwise their deaths would be in vain. But... Now that... More than 99% of humanity is gone, what was the point in any of her actions? Wasn't it counterproductive instead?
2 of the SS grades died to infighting. Arasovi fought one of them, and finished them off with the authority granted by her second skill. She also achieved godhood with her second skill and promptly killed the last SS grade without much difficulty. The remaining humans, the meagre global population of around 50 000 only stared at her in fear. She had brought down the previous tyrannical entity, a pathetic human who was elected the ruler of earth, who was now powerless without his bodyguards. She did so much and lost the things she loved so excessively, only to be met with fear.
If anyone should question the meaning to her life's actions, it should be her. It was a world that only rewarded her with contempt, and when she rebelled there was only more contempt. Her partner died trying to save others when the SS grades began infighting. She has nothing left but an empty world. In a fit of despair, there was nothing she could do... But to erase it all and pretend none of it happened. With her final skill, she erased her own world and travelled to others to do the same. Her grudge is solely on the worlds that house human lives, entrap them with the cycle of reincarnation and allow suffering.
She was a girl who always ignored the good and only heeded the bad, using it as reason to erase every world she came across. A world that would take away everything she loved, a world that would ignore the sufferings of its denizens... None of them deserve to exist. That was her conclusion. Nothing more, nothing less.
***(Present)
A drop of tear slides down the side of her cheek, parting with her luscious eyelashes. Her plump cherry red lips part to utter what seemed to be a parting verse.
"... Final skill... [Gospel that derides all that belongs, it simply couldn't be helped]." (Arasovi)