Magical Girl: Human Rebellion

In the middle of the second trial chamber stood the man I had hoped to never see again.

“When I heard that Master Baal Zebul wanted to test the strength of four human meddlers, I of course volunteered immediately. After all, who else could it be than you four?”

“An entire legion of demons to work with, and Baal Zebul sent the snivelling coward we’ve already beaten once after us? He must be getting desperate.” I spat as I talked, my sincere hatred for the man before me taking over my emotions.

“You did manage a lucky victory over me in the past, that much is true. But that was before my powers had fully manifested. I can assure you, such an event will not happen again.”

Unfortunately, it was easy to tell that he wasn’t bluffing. The suffocating amount of magic leaking from his body felt more refined than last time, just as it had with Descartes. His body had seemingly undergone a transformation too. He was still human-sized, but his skin had paled and two red horns grew from atop his head.

I also wouldn’t be able to use 「Sensory Deprivation」as a crutch this time since I had already used so much magic over the day.

Despite that, I wanted to get the trial started as soon as possible. I had been here all of 30 seconds and I was already sick of the Director’s presence.

“Come on then, out with it. What’s the bloody trial you’ve come up with for us? Gonna have a teenage girl come out and see which one of us is less scared of her?”

“If you’d stow your paltry witticisms for a moment, I’d tell you.” Though I had urged him to get on with it, I was secretly pleased to have gotten under his skin a little. “The trial is simple. I joined hell because I believed in the power of the individual. You remain on the side of Earth because you still believe there’s some value in the collective. Prove that value to me. Work as one to beat me in combat. If the four of you together can beat me alone, I’ll declare you the victor.”

A simple slug fest. When it comes to this bastard, an opportunity to kick his ass to the ground is one I’m more than happy to take when presented to me. But considering how hard he was to beat last time, and how fatigued the four of us already were, I knew this wouldn’t be an easy fight to win.

“All three of you guys are hurting for magic power at the moment, maybe we should try and stall?”

“The longer we stall, the higher the chance that we lose Hana and her army. We don’t have time to waste.”

“You’re not wrong, but we won’t be able to save them at all if we die here.”

Saki raised a fair point, but we still had no good option. It was either delay and let Hana’s Spartans get torn to shreds, or go now and risk getting ourselves killed. The rock might soften with time, but the hard place grew closer every second.

“I think we have to just go for it. We have another trial after this too, if we delay at that one as well we’ll just be inviting their deaths,” I said to Saki’s mind

“…fuck’s sake, I think you’re right. We’ll accept the trial and get on with it. No more delays.”

It seemed the other two were in agreement too. There was no time left to waste.

“Alright, half-demon, we’ll accept your challenge,” said Saki, though she didn’t entirely hide the worry in her voice. “Any rules or stipulations we have to follow?”

“Simply stay within the arena and do not die. The death of any one of you will render the trial ended, and the survivors will be denied entry to Lord Baal Zebul’s chamber.”

“Don’t worry, Director,” I said, venom in my voice, “none of us plan to die today.”

“We’ll see what strength backs those words, boy.”

One moment, the Director and I were several metres apart on the arena floor. The next, he stood where I had previously, and I was on the floor, clutching my stomach in pain.

He had closed the distance so quickly that I had barely a moment to react to it. Dodging wasn’t an option, so I blocked the tip of his spear with my axes, but he readjusted his grip quickly and slammed in the stomach with the butt end. It was an immeasurable pain.

“Shin!” Mai called out and ran toward me, only to suddenly dive-roll sideways at the ground, dodging the Director’s stab by a hair's breadth. Even with foresight, his attacks were too fast to easily keep up with.

Mai scrambled to her feet and got to me, quickly helping me up from the ground. We both took a defensive stance, though I doubted we’d be able to do much against a head on attack anyway.

“Any weaknesses you can detect?” I asked Mai.

“None to speak of. His magic power supply is limited, but vast. To beat him in a fight of attrition is beyond what we can manage.”

“You’re saying we have to counterattack?”

“I’m saying we have to get lucky.”

It seemed this would be an even tougher fight than Descartes. I had no cheap tricks like manipulating magic detection, and I barely had the magic to use illusion at all. Several hours of running had hardly given me the time to rest and recharge.

Seeing Mai and I backing each other up, the Director turned his attention to the girls behind him.

“Nao, get in the air!” Saki yelled as she dodged a stab aimed at her throat, before blocking two more strikes with her katana. On the second block, the director’s magical spear shattered into a fine mist, forcing him to summon another before he continued his attack.

“Shattering weapons… I wonder…” Mai mused beside me, as Nao took to the skies and Saki put distance between herself and the Director.

“You have a plan?”

“I have an idea. Calling it a plan would be generous, to say the least.”

“What’s the idea?”

“Well, it looks like the Director’s weapons are brittle, meaning he has to summon new ones every now and then.” Even as Mai spoke, Saki shattered another of the director’s spears, forcing him to rematerialise it in the other hand. “By my estimate, it takes him a tenth of a second to get his weapon back.”

“Not much of a window.”

“You might be able to extend it. Reckon you can throw off his magic perception a little? Just enough to throw him off?”

“I can certainly try, but even that won’t slow him down much.”

“Not enough for you or I to take advantage of. But we’re not her.” Mai pointed at the only person I knew who could take advantage of such a short window of opportunity: Saki Tachibana.

It was an insanely bold plan. Were she to misjudge the timing by a few hundredths of a second, it would mean her death. But if I knew Saki Tachibana, that would only embolden her more.

“God dammit… nothing can ever be easy.”

I could think of no alternative. It was time for Saki to stare down death for the second time. And she couldn’t afford to blink this time; there would be no safety net to catch her.