*
"Taneda." (Lastia)
"... What is it?" (Taneda)
She bears some skepticism. The real Lastia has died for some time, but her clones persist. So who is this talking to her?
"Yggdrasil kept 'my' memories, so... Let's finish this." (Lastia)
"... That's all well and good, but how...?" (Taneda)
"The real me is gone. There is no longer a restriction on the quantity of magic I can wield. For a short moment, I can exert a similar level of magic as the heavenly king, but I need to make sure the attack hits.
Do you have any ideas for that? " (Lastia)
It's not just that... The fight between mediums of communication, radio waves and images. As a whole, images were older, existing on the walls of caves inhabited by prehistoric humans. As for the camera... It was also before radiowaves were discovered. However, their power was judged by the impact they brought to humanity. Radiowaves were the medium used to transmit images from far distances instantaneously, pushing global interconnectivity and trade. Allowing countries to cooperate pushed technology and culture into a new era.
Photos were also seen as revolutionary for its time, but it paled in comparison. If the criteria to judge which is stronger was its impact on society...
Then Eterna is stronger. It's no coincidence that the cradle of humanity now is named 'Eterna's garden'. For good or worse, the fate of humanity rested in her palms. For 11508 years no less. So why isn't she coming out? What's stopping her?
"Taneda, where's Eterna. Why couldn't she help..." (Lastia)
Her eyes moistened, her tone grew slightly emotional. She died after all, if there was someone stronger than everyone here who could have helped... None of the undesirable would have happened. The dead city, the real Lastia who perished...
"... I'm only telling you now, because we're likely not gonna make it.
Eterna is dead. 11508 years ago, that date marked her death." (Taneda)
Then the suppression force? The law of magical girls...? Everything...
" A fragment of her consciousness exists. She's able to govern, but she's powerless. The suppression force is a magic left behind by the real Eterna, loosely controlled by that fragmented conscious. Like a person using tools suited to their talents." (Taneda)
" I see. What is it are you protecting? " (Lastia)
She sort of understood how Taneda's power worked now. Mixed with the heavy knight theme, it's likely that she has a target of protection and helping protect that target makes her stronger.
"... Eterna. And humanity. "(Taneda)
"Got it. Change it from Eterna to me. I'm going in." (Lastia)
"Huh!? Wha-! " (Taneda)
Despite her confused groaning, she fulfills her orders. At this rate everything was doomed, it would be far more productive to see what eccentric antics Lastia was up to, and indulge in it instead. The Fragment was as powerful as how much it contributed to humanity. What if that same humanity was torn down? In this loose connection driven by its characteristic as radiowave incarnate, if Lastia destroyed humanity it would lose all of its power.
But killing Eterna didn't make sense, she was suppressing the Fragment. The Frament's plan was to defeat her and annihilate humankind, if defeating humanity's protector would cause itself to lose power, how was that logical? Therefore, it needed to kill Taneda first to eliminate that connection between humanity and Eterna, or to slaughter the humans before Taneda got in the way.
With its ability to sense magic sent into heavy disarray, Lastia drew close and mustered all the energy Yggdrasil saved up. With a normal shaped pitch black blade, she slammed it into the heavenly king's head, red vines and thorns exploded out of its skull and grew into the sky and ground. The heavenly king turns around in surprise, swords and thorns lodged into its scrambled brain. 70% of its brain mass was gone. Before she noticed, the heavenly king's claw was firmly gripping her neck.
*snap*
With no resistance, Lastia was killed... Taneda's target of protection was Lastia, and it was also humanity. Lastia = humanity, designated as its representative conceptually via Taneda's power. Weakened further, Taneda stepped close and drove her great sword through the remaining 30% brain mass. While dead, Yggdrasil's simulation controlled the crimson thorns to spread over the giant satellite. It swiftly found the core, restrained the unmanned turrets guarding it by snapping them off their platforms, and crushed the core.
Without the heavenly king guarding the core, Yggdrasil no longer needed to feign ignorance. Devoured. In a single word, it was covered in dark red thorns, the sight visceral and off putting. It wasn't that far, rather it was separate from its body, in another dimension. Without the heavenly king(?) in this world protecting the gate that maintained the connection between worlds, Yggdrasil's simulation easily found the gate's connection on its corpse. It was like a mass of energy and a massive volume of computation technology.
In a reduced way of describing, the core was maintaining the separate dimension that it was hiding in, the massive satellite in our world was a shell full of firing armaments and barriers meant to fight space faring civilisations. It was powered by the core, with its computation power relegated to maintenance and operation. With its massive capabilities, Yggdrasil was practically a tiny blip on the radar that it would consume in an instant. The size was why it had let its guard down, believing it was an easy to delete malware.
Magic was not a straight forward law of the universe. It's a concept, irrational, capricious and utterly selfish. It didn't take so much as a single contact to consume everything. No fights, no dialogue exchanged. Completely unclimactically, the magic module stretched its cold claws over the opponent's being and warped it into its own.
"What are you going to do now?" (Taneda)
Her voice reached a lower registry, as if echolocating for any potential threats to humanity. Numerous broken bones and ruptured organs, it was easier to list down which parts of her body were still intact. Her skin glistened under a coating of blood, grimly painting over her textureless cloak and white button shirt. Multiple splotches lay harden over her aquamarine dress, putting up a beautiful polka dot painting.
Christine was out like a light. Who was she talking to, in particular? She was in no condition to intimidate as well. How could she see me? Even Lastia didn't notice until I spoke.
"... My directive was to preserve the host's being, even in her memories. She poured all her energy into defeating the enemy and drawing its attention away from you.
I am now... Contemplating. It's hard to find words to draw upon... From her memories.
Is it worth it? To bring her once more into this world... Just for her to suffer? " (Yggdrasil)
A voice spoke to Taneda without a body. Sound was being produced somewhere and flowing into Taneda's ears. Rather there is always a sense of 'distance' to sound, and this one was only right in front of her. Like a close friend, sharing some inconvenient troubles...