Hope born of solitus

*

My body smashed deep into the nearby building, causing the concrete wall to crumble into dust. My muscles and bones somehow remain intact, I didn't expect the Remnant to pursue me all the way here...

I thought I gave it the slip, but there isn't much of choice now, is there? I lift my body from the whole I embedded into, rather than where I hit the building, the parts where The Remnant hit hurt way more. My skin had gone beyond red and resembled the purple of my dress, but...

My bones weren't broken. Sure, it hurt like hell, but if I could withstand her attack without paralysing my limbs, that's good. Was it weakened by fighting other magical girls on the way here? I stepped forward, stretching my arms and flexing my joints in the air. They were bent and facing the ground like a broken scarecrow. I won't die, as long as I stay prudent it's possible to live. Just this sliver of hope was enough to give my disposition a complete 180 from what happened this late Afternoon.

I sidestepped to the right and finally see the culprit, her body flashed before reappearing at my side. Her fist planted deep into building, causing a heavy tremor as her eyes widened on sight. After all, I finally dodged despite her superior speed.

"I can see you..." (Lastia)

With more clarity than ever... Her words trailed off before she revealed that much. This was her enemy's territory, the monochromatic world of another frequency. Everything exists at a certain frequency, somethings such as buildings even exist in multiple frequencies once they are old enough. Unfortunately magic only exists in one frequency, not due to physics, but due to the rules of The Remnant's magic.

Her hood slips off, revealing long golden brown hair and a side ponytail on her right. Underneath looked like what seem to be an upgraded version of her previous ogre Trace armour. It went from a loin cloth with chiseled stone kneepads and shoes to full body chain mail, metal plating, leather greaves. Her gloves and boots seemed to be metallic, yet her fingers could stretch dexterously without restriction. The chain mail only reached her chest and the back of her arms, leaving her shoulders, clavicle and armpit bare.

The chest area was protected by one big metal plate and the rest was chain mail meshing and cloth binding at the waist, it resembled a one piece dress in shape. She was still an A rank threat. The ranks are arranged according to the amount of danger they pose to me, with C ranks indicating that I have a 80% chance of victory faring against them, B ranks would be 50%, and A ranks are 30% or below. These unique threat levels only apply to me and who I face, arbitrary unit measurements aren't reliable since there currently isn't a concrete way to quantify and attribute an absolute value to fighting ability.

A 10% chance of victory is enough, it's better than 1% or 0.5%. I won't falter. She swings her leg, it's too near the centre of my body. I can't dodge this one on a whim, so I wrapped my limbs together to endure. A thunderous roar soared through the air after a hot sensation engulfs my forearms, it felt like a cobweb of cracks had formed all over my arms. Beyond that, there was a sensation of weightlessness as I flew through the streets in a fetal position. Did she break my arms this time?!

My bones didn't break before, because my flesh took the majority of the damage. However that didn't mean they could withstand repeated bashings... If there were only 2 hits I could withstand, did I use both up?! No... There were some fractures, but they were light and would heal in a minute. I stretched my legs onto the ground, slowing the momentum throwing me back. All at once, my toes and knees bent, and I leapt forward. If I use {Feed} and absorb enough energy, I could even heal instantly!

What's more... The environment is far different. I thrusted my leg into the ground, forming a web of cracks on the road as I sidestepped out of The Remnants sight. While the main road stretches into a grid like network, there were still narrow alleyways between almost every building. I've never felt more energetic, a lasting effect of dinner perhaps?

One step, two steps, I rushed forward and weaved between alleyways, leaping diagonally to the next alleyway and changing directions to run along the main road. There are two outcomes, I miraculously lose the Remnant and survive to live another day... Or The Remnant catches up to me. I don't have much faith in losing The Remnant, at the end of the day it's faster than me. Of course it will catch me... That's why, I will temporarily use one of these corners to ambush it.

There is no longer any running to be done here, it would be unsuccessful here. What I'm doing, was leading it to a sight of ambush. If I buy enough time, the local magical girls who are alert might even come in to save me.

A thunderous crash resounded, as if a meteor struck the earth, piercing my ear drums. I cranked my neck slightly, the sight almost unbelievable and fantasy like. She stopped playing around, The Remnant with two bluish silver horns erected proudly above her brunette hair didn't play my game. She directly crashed through every building and ran towards me in a straight line, thoroughly crushing the distance I put between us. It hadn't been 5 seconds...

"You can't escape the sins of days past, even if you don't remember me." (Remnant)

It whispered in my ear and an unseen force blasts me into the tarred ground, sending debris flying high into the air. The force was enough to rupture some of my organs, causing an extensive amount of internal bleeding. My flesh, my blood vessels were thoroughly blended up... Her {Anxiety} bypassed the magic covering my body and chopped up my insides... And it was in such a large volume too...

This was the effect of her overwhelming magic.