*
"Arin, do you feel anything strange?" (Lastia)
It was difficult to talk about magic in front of others, but she unexpectedly learned tact. Still, it didn't came off as intended.
"Strange!?" (Arin)
"...?" (Lastia)
She gave off a strange yelp, deepening Yggdrasil's confusion. Lastia leaned in closer to whisper.
'something like {Feed}. Anything to cut the electricity... ' (Lastia)
There was no magic usage nearby, this attack isn't contained to this area. If someone sabotaged the power grid, they would be reasonably far away. Can't do anything about that, even if she could it would raise up a fuss. The world has been concealing the existence of magical girls... Needless to say, we know now that it's the work of Eterna.
The rest of her actions lay in the objective of helping people, if keeping magical girls a secret aids this then she saw no qualms with keeping her secrecy.
"Let's evacuate. Everyone, watch your steps." (Sariel)
Calmly, she pulled out her phone. In fact there had been some glowing motes increasing numbers for a while now. They were likely the other customers navigating their way through the dark. Everyone was so accustomed to relying on their phones, it did prove its utility in this case, in the end it managed to help others reach a solution long before Yggdrasil did.
Clearly, she was still inexperienced, she lamented quietly in her heart. She stopped hugging Arin, noticing that Arin was quite a bit shorter. Her eyes reached Arin's forehead as Arin's warmth transmitted into her cold possessed body, causing the sensation to be even more pronounced. Like a cloud of cushy warm air wrapping around her torso.
From a distance, she could hear the sound of running accompanied by an unfiltered crude raucous. Intermittent shouts mixed with fast heavy footsteps produced by reinforced boots, causing a soft thundering the echo across the ground.
"We have this facility under control! Get down if you know what's good for you!" (?)
A thundering boom escaped as the newly darkened world flashed white for a moment. Remnants of rubble collapsed to the ground in clouds of concrete dust, everyone instinctively knew what the unknown intruder had pulled out. It was a dangerous weapon, military grade and designed to instantly disintegrate humans whole. The physics were incomprehensible to the average joe, but the energy that was shot out had the visible capability to home into its target slightly and wrap them whole.
She only knew about these weapons because they were government owned, a show of force towards any threat on this planet. Naturally with the government owning the entire planet, it was basically impossible to amass a large enough military force that could put up any semblance of resistance.
Despite the abundance of resources and lack of crime or danger in this era, Eterna did well to bolster her civil forces to the point that their excessive power is well known. These needlessly fantasy like super weapon technologies were enough proof of it, the inner workings aren't public knowledge, but there's nothing protecting that information either. Call it complacency for depending on the general public's goodwill and impulse control, but with nothing to be materially dissatisfied about, there isn't anyone willing to load their lives into a chamber for anything resembling a meaningful cause.
No one is questioning what these weapons are, but how these evidently foolish terrorist acquired them. If the rapid response force is similarly equipped, it will devolve into a nasty hostage situation. That's why...
Yggdrasil rested her hand on Arin's shoulder as she stood up. Light leaked through the singular hole in the ceiling caused by the terrorist's armaments, lightening up the pitch black darkness of the mall suffering from a power outage. It was dim, but anyone could see Lastia if she stood up then, it was just enough light for the terrorist to keep an eye on everyone, but not enough to do any particularly erratic movements.
In that instant when her torso rose, she transformed. Corpse possession, carbon based respiration and circulation simulation. There were many loopholes taken to get here, and if there weren't any Yggdrasil had to make one, but no one would deny the sight before them. What stood at the forefront in an instant was a magical girl, her aura glowed and gave the darkness a soft reddish tint like a bright scarlet bulb.
A circumstance that Yggdrasil crashed her entire being and threw herself into creating, despite her outrageous computational power, she needed to use her full capacity or processing to accurately portray Lastia as a living breathing human. The terrorist? She didn't know a single thing about them or their backers, neither did she care about their motives or modus operandi.
They watched her warily, at least the henchmen did. Whoever was the leader was trigger happy enough, with an exaggerated swing he aimed the super weapon at her and fired. It wasn't an unknown level of sophistication, there were experts and enthusiast out there that similarly knew the inner workings. Again, Eterna was strangely accommodating and while she patented the military technology, anyone could recreate it as long as they weren't using it for crime or profit.
The inner workings of the military was also mostly public, this was one of the downsides to being a world government. Ruling the entire planet, there require excessive compromise to keep everyone under control. Understanding the military structure eases the citizens into not believing in any unfounded fears, it hands them a platter of trust to treasure and protect. This is my military, these are our soldiers, such sentiment ideally instills pride and safety in the common people, at the very least it's meant to quell any fear of the unknown.
It was with common understanding that threats and lawbreakers are contested with an appropriate level of violence and control. These weapons are stored deep into their armory, meant to deter other potential military forces. They could fight an entire army of a lower armaments level, and every civil defence hub is similarly equipped in their respective armouries.
The gun fired and the laser poured into the costume girl. The mall goers watched with bated breath as a blinding lights burst forth from the barrel and into Lastia. Once the lights stopped flashing... Nothing had changed. Lastia stood there unharmed.