*
"Sariel... don't worry. There's always something you can do. In a fight involving magic, it's the first one to give up that loses." (Arin)
Losing Lastia again made her feel like her heart got crushed to pulp, searing lava poured down her lungs and her throat constricted around a metal rod. It was painful, it was immensely depressing, but what can she do? She has to dress the wounds, pick her body up, walk. If she gave up so easily, how would she have made it this far, 11508 years in the future?
Right, almost as if it was a long dream, and when she woke up, all of it would return to how it was... Ethereal, yet lucid. Reality was like a rough surface of numerous materials cobbled together into fine grain, there's no end to the impediments in one's path. At the end of the day, she will trek over it. Whether she accepts her circumstances or not, whether she emotionally internalised it or mentally shunned it.
Her mind is a cobbled amalgamation of these grains, of the obstacles she's trudged past and overcome whether she did it voluntarily or not.
"I'll make sure of it. You just need to tell me what you want to come true, and we'll tackle it head on." (Arin)
The deep resolve in her eyes emanated a faint halation, her magic was on the verge of acting up and becoming visible light. Such waste magic that's unable to be used for skills, was called a magical girl's aura. It contained their signature, and the colour of their life.
"... Let's do it. I don't want to be left behind like this...
I want to find our enemies and defeat them. At the head of all these Traces, there is a heavenly king isn't there?" (Sariel)
Observing Sariel's renewed determination, Arin felt subtly proud that her friend was strong. She wasn't this headstrong back then. If she were, maybe things would have been different.
" The problem is, where to start..." (Sariel)
"... They're careful, they wouldn't leave any traces behind, unless they were attacked..." (Arin)
She clicked her phone a few times with one hand as she spoke, her eyes glued to the screen instead of Sariel. She seemed to have some sort of clue, perhaps from conversing with Yggdrasil earlier. Yggdrasil evolved, could she have already left destruction in her wake when she found the enemy?
"That would mean someone had attacked them. It all came down to searching for them once again..." (Sariel)
"Look... It's here." (Arin)
She shows her screen to Sariel, abrupt news from a far off commercial zone information outlet was being shown on their website. What was explained as a gas leak had caused the top chunk of a building to violently vaporise. No imaging tools have been able to capture it in action, but a before and after picture taken by a reporter had shown the sheer difference. Temperature difference resulting in ash and soot remains litter the exposed surfaces of the building, suggesting intense heat and pressure caused not a single bit of the building's higher floors to remain.
It happened not long ago, even the air hasn't cooled down until it was safe to start repairs. Of course there was some bureaucracy lag, the building's managers had to receive permission from the owners and the authorities to start commissioning contractors, all these and more work just to clear the debris not to mention renovations to restore or refurbish the original building.
In other words. "There are still fresh clues here, take us there with {Swap}." (Arin)
"Let's go, {Swap}." (Sariel)
For a split moment there was a distortion left in the air, the exchange of personnel location had to return whatever that was at the venue where they landed. Switching places with air instantly, there was a small gap in time where light had to adjust itself. However moments later, it was as if they had never been there.
"Almost charred clean, anything that could burn like paper would have disintegrated." (Arin)
"This couldn't have been planned, it's only feeding us a bone unless it was a trap to eliminate us." (Sariel)
"It wasn't spontaneous, they were attacked so they had to leave something behind, you were saying?" (Arin)
"Right, since it's unplanned by the heavenly king in this case, the explosion radius couldn't neatly fit the entire floor. The ground would have melted into a bowl shape otherwise.
Leaving the site leveled uniformly here is a feat on the attacker's side, surely there's something hidden somewhere. " (Sariel)
Arin didn't give her a incredulous look, rather she believed in Sariel's hypothesis. The enemy was one sidedly attacked, there must have been some evidence hidden out of sight. Perhaps a concealed store of documents. Or perhaps leveling this floor into ashes suggested that the enemy baited the attacks into erasing all the evidence. Falling for convenient interpretations was unlikely to get anywhere, but this was what it felt like to grasp at straws.
She walked above the building unobstructed, there were even walls left or at least much of it that remains to impede her. The bottom floor has been cordoned off, likely for investigation by the government. The sentinels are a military force under Eterna, they definitely noticed something was off and are in the process of getting their own magical girls to investigate.
There was always the question of where magical girls went after they graduated from school. Did they head into a university and found something fulfilling in life? Did they settle as a family and began raising the next generation? This was undoubtedly one of the answers, becoming a drone of the government. Being a magical girl in an official capacity not only secured their safety but also their financial welfare, they were an elite soldier that could match an army, they would be paid handsomely for their services.
Not to mention that it's common for governments to stoop to tactics like appealing to one's sense of belonging in their home and family. They'll make the soldiers want to serve the nation of their own volition.
"... Sariel, I found something." (Arin)
Viscous dark crimson liquid happened to pool at one spot of these burnt ruins. It's no coincidence, this was an escape path for the enemies.
"Blood... They likely won't be in the family registry..." (Sariel)
"We need all the help we can get, let's give the government a request. Not with normal means, but with magical means, use these traces to locate our enemy.
Surely, they can do that much. " (Arin)