*
In a word, the developments in this world can be summed up. Small. There weren't any Trace encounters yet, when the world inevitably breaks down in a month, they will slip through a crack and go berserk. However not even a month has passed yet. Online lessons went by smoothly, and it was now the 15th day they've been in this world. Yggdrasil has properly calculated the past, there aren't any detectable temporal discrepancies in this world such as carbon dating giving the wrong values.
No Traces, no heavenly kings. There were numerous reports of terrorist attacks in other zones as well. A few mere humans armed with hot weapons don't pose a threat to magical girls as much as Heavenly Kings do. Anything that happens in this world enters Yggdrasil's database, a repository of history in this world. Yet, she could never foresee the attacks. Almost as if they occur spontaneously, and fire arms materialise out of thin air to aid these terrorists.
It has occurred enough for her to confirm her hypothesis. Divine conscious cognitive inhibition, sophisticated high level awareness restriction. It was advanced magic that prevented even the world itself from observing itself. With no preliminary set ups like human sacrifices or magic circles, she can only conclude that it was the spontaneous activation of a skill. Even Traces can wield skills, anything could have a skill as long as they were related to magic. She couldn't confirm if the opponent was a magical girl or a monster.
The question was how? If magical particles have been isolated outside the radius of radio blackout, then it made sense that information couldn't be transmitted through. However if it was isolated, no one could use magic in that zone. In the first place magical particles ignore time space, there's plenty of ways to get around a spacial or temporal isolation. The lacking of a need for preparatory actions indicates it's a skill that caused the blackout and the explosion. What is she dealing with here?
An opponent she can't see... Can still be dealt with, granted she's aware of their motives. However this was indiscriminate bombing, other than alerting the government nothing would change. The world government holds centralised hegemonic power, a zone A2 would surely fall under one of the first targets for terroristic dissidents. This was similar to the inevitable crack, heralding the end of this world. Yet it was so small it was practically imperceptible to higher beings like Yggdrasil.
There is always purpose. A sacrifice? All the terrorist so far have perished together with their ideals. Or a distraction for a more clandestine operation? That's right... In the first place they shouldn't be aware that she resided in zone 2A. Her encounters thus far could be coincidental. This would favour the distraction interpretation. However she could never shake the unsettling premonition that things weren't so simple. No background, no motive, an enemy springs out of nowhere. An enemy hidden from the start... Primordial Shadow?
No, that's impossible. She's too proud to go about in such a manner. She should at least try to probe. Maybe she has a clue?
"... Hey Tia." (Arin)
"What's up? You looking mighty suspicious there." (Lastia)
"Uhh... Uhm... Do you have any clue how those buildings were destroyed?" (Arin)
"So that's what this is about... Yeah, I do. Signal interference on that level is easy to bypass, though it might be difficult for someone like you." (Lastia)
Yggdrasil could feel her vein bulge under her temple, ready to burst from anger. This smug prick! Though she wasn't wrong. Likely, she wanted Yggdrasil to solve this on her own. Asking her for help is out of the question. She might get killed on the spot. At the very least, there is a consolation. Something or someone is opposing her in this world, something aside from Traces. She won't make the same mistake.
"Through every world, I will make the same decisions. An envoy is perfect for one thing after all. " (Arin)
"... Stop fooling around, your own destruction isn't worth this puppet show. Don't run from battle." (Lastia)
"Do you sense it? This fragility of this yolk?" (Arin)
"Yeah, it's about to burst." (Lastia)
Lastia notices the deflated tone, close to defeat but not quite. A gloomy acceptance bordering on despair. It was a world determined to carry out its own destruction. Traces are purely an external force, they are wholly unnecessary for destruction. Apoptosis, this was the natural self destruction impulse of all things in existence. This place was simply meeting the end of its life span, it was never meant to last long.
We can call those terrorist attacks an anomaly in the era of abundance, a microscopic skirmish in the false garden of unprecedented tranquility. However, that anomaly is part of the world regardless. Eterna is the goddess of the garden, the goddess of tranquility. That was her true identity. She would naturally be the strongest manifestation of a being in this era.
This world could not exist without Eterna. Yggdrasil couldn't take her place. It will lose meaning, lose existence, no matter how much meddling they pull in these smokes and mirrors.
"However, that's no reason to give up." (Arin)
The day's lessons were over, they languidly sat around the couch in the living room, conversing on what should never be conversed. The dark secrets of this world involve its own creation.
"... You are challenging fate a second time. The first time, you lost. You're living on borrowed time, on the fate of others like a deflagration.
It's no different from pointing a loaded revolver at your temple and pulling the trigger yourself, then expecting the bullet to pass through via the tunneling effect. " (Lastia)
" If not me, then who? " (Arin)
Even within the shallow dimness of this living space, her eyes seemed to radiate a brilliance like no other.
" It is no different from cowardice. You would not face me in battle, and I generously honoured that. Your disgrace is your own disgrace, understand? " (Lastia)
"... You mentioned as much. I am not blind to my own hubris, challenging the heavens when I exist thanks their mercy... If I can trade this pathetic fate to attempt a miracle, isn't that fine? " (Arin)
Lastia fires back with scathing words in an unrestrained icy tone.
" Your disgusting trash of an existence? I will personally deny your miracle even if it were to occur, and stomp out what little meaning you had in stored for fate." (Lastia)