*
Chestnut brown hair gleaming under artifical lights, black and blue dress fit for a masquerade ball. Dashing and free frills flutter over stale galeless air. Her eyes were sharp but also large and glossy like a doll's, under her visage lay a fiery will akin to tempered steel.
"{Against the looking glass}." (?)
Instantly, the air between them shatters into countless shards, with numerous microscopic fractures rushing towards Sariel. Transforming the moment she heard what sounded like a skill, Sariel calmly fired her back with her own magic.
"{Swap}." (Sariel)
Without a pause, the fractures completely vanished, as if nothing had ever happened. The mysterious brunette quietly observed her, not making any further moves.
"You're strong. That was the density of a B grade attack, Traces never manifest beyond C grade. Any of them would be instantly decimated..." (Sariel)
"Fufu... No need to be so humble. You instantly took a guess at the mechanism and reversed it. My attack alters reality into a specific spacial state, you put it back like fixing a child's puzzles pieces." (?)
"You wanted help? Didn't you? What help could you get from a corpse? The attack was slowed down until a human could react and transform leisurely." (Sariel)
The girl smiled wryly in response, as if she heard something absurd and was forced to swallow something bitter.
" The speed is roughly... C grade. You reacted ahead of time the moment you noticed I was a magical girl. Your guard was up before I attacked." (?)
"Alright, enough banter. You've come here expecting reinforcements, and you didn't know our capabilities... I just want to say not to expect much, the other two are complete newbies.
My old teammates... Might have died." (Sariel)
" You don't seem very affected. Isn't it fine to retire by then? Let a third girl awaken into a magical girl. " (?)
" I don't have time to be affected. I'm busy finding a way to defy death. In case those two are really gone." (Sariel)
" How intense... " (?)
She seemed a little put off, who starts with such a heavy topic? This person might be gone in the head after her friends disappeared. In the first place if she was in this mental state, she might have not known retirement was possible in the first place. Simply refrain from using magic for a month, she'd lose her ability to use magic and someone new would be chosen by the world, by Eterna.
"Well, my name is Alicia Verynout. Call me Alice. My ability not only does conceptual glass based spacial attacks, there are also some abilities related to spying." (Alice)
"I see... I'm Sariel. Sariel Letasigil. My ability is to switch the positions of two items. Over some time, I learned that I can overcome my limits with training, limits pertaining to 'two' and 'items'." (Sariel)
"I'm sure you have some questions for me. Now that introductions out of the way, let it rip." (Alice)
"Alright. What are you doing here, and why?" (Sariel)
Passively, Alice shifted her leg into a comfortable stance as she determined where to begin in a few seconds. A small grin graces her face as her eyes focused on the girl before her.
" You're going to do great. You'll be the best magical girl of our generation. After extensive efforts, the answer we arrived at was a girl named Sariel...
Compared to what we're about to face, coordinating this meeting with the government was nothing. " (Alice)
Incomprehensible. Lacking in information at too many spots, utterly ridiculous. This profound sense of confidence she placed in Sariel, this sacred pedestal perched under a stranger like Sariel... It didn't make any sense to her. Nevertheless, from what Alice mentioned... This collaboration is pertaining to a threat they'll face in the future. Do they have someone with clairvoyance? Or was she looking too deeply into things?
"Alright, what do you need me to do?" (Sariel)
"... That's it? I know it's strange coming from me, but I thought you'd be more skeptical." (Alice)
" It doesn't hurt to listen, does it? Even so, how could a magical girl stand by in front of someone earnestly begging for help." (Sariel)
"... Thank you. " (Alice)
She really was that great of a person, Alice heaved a sigh of relief in her heart. Or was this an attitude only the strong could adopt? Even then... Alice felt warmth in her chest. She closed her eyes for a couple seconds before mustering her courage. If she was too aggressive, none of the information would get through, and everything would have been for nothing. So it must be something balancing triviality and significance.
"Don't trust... Eterna." (Alice)
A world of white consumes her surroundings, leaving the world in utter silence. A phenomenon not unlike an 'Event', only far crueler. There was too much light, too much noise, a world of black and white born from physics rather than magic. The station was blasted to smithereens. Oddly enough, no one was hurt. True to her word, Sariel {Swapped} everyone out of the blast radius.
They sat in silence right outside the blazing building, charred and utterly wrecked to the point there isn't any debris to be found, because everything had disintegrated into fine dust.
"Haaah~!? Cough! cough! that... She shot a missile at us, there's no escaping her range in this garden.
She's a deity, mentioning her by name is like sending her our location. From now on don't call out the owner of the garden..." (Alice)
She choked with pained breaths, squeezing out words of warning between the agonising aches piercing into her throat and lungs. For a moment, she thought she was dead. She didn't think she could survive, she didn't think anyone aside from Sariel would endure that attack and come out of it alive. She was prepared to sacrifice everyone in that building... She was prepared to lose everything... So she cried. The tears flow down her cheeks uncontrollably, the crushing despair mixed with the joy of having everyone survive this disaster.
"Thank god.... Thank god it wasn't all for nothing." (Alice)
A magical girl usually fights alone. Having companions only opens up spots of weaknesses. Inevitably, someone will be stronger and someone will be weaker. Someone will sacrifice themselves and someone will be saved. In a battle against time, Alice found her wonderland.