*
"... I'm not afraid of you. But I can sense it. You're stronger than me, yet I am unafraid. That in itself is unnatural, sending me into so much unease. As if you altered my mind to be unable to feel fear." (Yggdrasil)
She mustered her courage and spoke. Her fear didn't stem from the enemy's presence, the unfamiliar environment didn't infantilise her either. She wasn't a child afraid of being lost, she can find her way back wherever she was. Then perhaps... It was something else that she sensed, something her body couldn't make sense of. The disembodied voice spoke up, a sneer hidden within its tone.
"... Hmm... Then it's probably because... This is my Oblivion Magia. Sound familiar?" (?)
The edge between the inner world and the outer world. The boundary of the universe itself.
"I'm a special being, apologies for the rudeness. I deploy this space the moment I interact with reality. Otherwise, all of space time would collapse." (?)
It felt like a frigid gale brushed her back, like countless freezing fingers caressed her neck. Her head sounded alarms. As a high grade magical girl, her mind was practically the same as a super computer. It didn't require much calculation to relise the enemy's strength, causing the alarms to explode in a deluge. Nothing but warning signs, nothing but terror... She took a step back and got into fighting stance.
Her body began to extend fine wires of {Feed} energy in all directions. As if removing a layer of camouflage, a silhouette appears under her sight. It seemed almost shapeless, but it was simply that everything around it was pitch black. With no depth, she couldn't ascertain where the edges of the body were, mixed with the unnatural outlines of the opponent's clothes it was near impossible to distinguish the squirming black mass in from of her.
The worst part? She can feel its gaze.
"How is it? Not bad right? This space is similar to the edge of the world, gods arrive there when interlocked in battle. Well, it's only similar.
A semi spiritual being like you will no longer face any limits. You can feel free to ascend into a deity here. Apotheosis! Isn't that the dream of any mortal? " (?)
"... " (Yggdrasil)
Cautious, refined, a powerful heart. Such a promising magical girl, what a waste, thought the unidentified figure. How did someone like this become a traitor to the world? Killing the vessel of the world's will isn't enough, not especially if it was consensual. Was it the law of magical girls? In a time period where humanity's population is at its zenith, the appearance of the world tree alerted the commons to the arcane. The mystics responded.
The arcane, the law of magical girls and the law of magic. Subordinate law to akasha and the rule of information. Mystics, the spiritual side of magic, rule of reincarnation's cycle. Before deities, they are mere suggestions to be trifled with, but deities have their own deity things to worry about. Such was how the world's mechanisms rolled.
The arcane and the mystics are interchangeable paths that magic can explore, if you have the skill you can break the rule. There isn't anything special other than how only magical girls and spiritual beings can use magic. Monsters, Traces, enemies of mankind are often semi spiritual themselves. Everything was related in the way rivers glide through caves and circumvent mountains. They're just things that are there, nothing special.
"... So, how did you become a traitor?" (?)
"... I don't know. I just wanted to protect everyone. I didn't even kill anyone until that last battle, when a massive number of people got caught up in a battle between S grades." (Yggdrasil)
She will shed no remorse. She will relieve no regret. Destiny pushed her onto this path, and even by rebelling against destiny, she is still guided and influenced by it. Not that she was blaming it. She did everything of her own accord and she won't forsake herself or the meaning in her actions.
"... Protect everyone... The law of magical girls... An external being like you would protect false humanity?" (?)
"False... Humanity...?" (Yggdrasil)
Was that how it is? Was that why the universal forces outside thus world created beings like Traces and Heavenly kings to invade? Their goal was extermination, and what was barely resisting back was the pitiful meagre magic humans could hold... The right humankind and the false humanity, what was the difference? Who decided that the humanity that raised Yggdrasil didn't deserve happiness?
"... How long has it been...? I suppose it's impossible for the right information to come by now. I'll tell you before I execute you.
An envoy like you will have your soul return to wherever you came from anyway, not of this world. In what you call the era of mystery where information has mysteriously been plundered, humanity got replaced. The people you are with aren't humanity, but humanity's successor. Not through birth or evolution, but through conquest.
And I... I'm a shadow of a shadow, a remnant of an old deity form the era of origin. That unease in your blood, it's telling you that even if you ascend into a false god here with infinite power at your fingertips... You're not going to win. " (?)
What the hell is she saying? What the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell-
She feels a pressure squeezing her head tight, pressing down on her temples.
"Oi. I can't have you breaking here. A traitor needs to be properly punished. For serving false human kind." (?)
So that's the crux of the issue. For protecting the wrong humanity, any deity level being or close to it would face the hero of the world and be brought here. Like a security mechanism that would ensure the false humankind never gets above a certain level and invade other universes.
Yggdrasil was named after the world tree, but perhaps the naming was not coincidental. Sure she was a mere emulation, but even an emulation had a connection if it's a spiritual concept on this level. The informational entity holding every realm in existence, even a coincidence can be a connection. Rather it's the connection that will manifest in reality as a 'coincidence', a simple application of cognitive blocking, similar to how the law of magical girls will block the minds of normal people from recognising the identity of magical girls.
Sure the mechanism is simple to explain, as for the application itself... It was fooling the universe itself that held Yggdrasil, all of space-time was forced to accept this facade. So... Did that mean she had no right to stand by Arin? Ah... Before she knew it, she seemed to have fallen for Arin.