*
"Alright, I get the gist of it. I should be the most familiar with your situation. " (Taneda Vila)
"Thank you, Ms sentinel." (Arin)
The residential A zones are under her jurisdiction after all. If any sentinel was familiar with a tree's sudden appearance, it would be her.
"We'll have some experts sent to both sites, you'll have to wait a while. There isn't a command system in place for magical girls, local teams like you work independently. So you will have to make do with ordinary human experts." (Taneda)
Ignoring her sarcasm, she resumed explaining as if to say her hands were also tied. If it weren't for the current catastrophe, they might have fought on the spot. That was the current atmosphere permeating the government office.
"... Don't you have teleportation technology?" (Sariel)
An incredulous expression reached her pristine lips, melting her face as if having tasted something bitter mixed with a little confuzzlement.
"Are you serious? And how would we go about that? Imitate the mythical golden age of revival?
Humanity was facing a disaster back then that wiped out 80% of the population. Through severance of laws and effect, the law of magical girls activated the magic gene and created an abundant quantity of magical girls.
The atmospherical environment and expertise of today has degenerated so much that it would never be allowed. There's only around 20 S grade magical girls in existence today, a small continent alone had that many as assets back then. Not the entire planet. " (Taneda)
The ancient era of origin, when civilisation first formed, ranging roughly from 300000 bc to 2000ad. It includes multiple ages with the most iconic age of myths, age of modernity, and lastly the golden age of revival. Magical particles do not obey time and space, but by denoting spacial and temporal axis, one can form a certain void where magic cannot be accessed with a skill or special technology. In the grand ages of myth and revival, humanity was facing unprecedented threats and overall a much larger number of magical girls were being awakened. This increased the quantity of magical waste released into air, dubbed as aura.
Magical particles are used as fuel for magic, once used they go from a high energy state to a low energy state, and ultimately do not disappear. Aura is made up of these low energy state particles that are temporarily able to be manipulated by time space fabrics, before being recharged by other magical particles into high energy states, they can be manipulated by magical girls in their transitional 'recharging' state. In other words the air itself was even more concentrated with 'recharging' particles that monsters could form from, and magical technology could utilise. Otherwise the particles in their purest fully charged form couldn't even be detected by magical technology.
This resulted in the technology being rejected when the atmospherical transitional magic energy could no longer support the usage. A time period filled with peace leads to less magical girls or less magic being used, leading to less utilisable magical energy in the air. It's like having machines without any battery to power them, they became useless and eventually scrapped. The transition period from useful to useless was just enough to reinvent analogue scientific technology devoid of magic utilisation, hence the name of age of revival.
Some historians believe this was a recurrent cycle where after a period of human history with mythical level atmospheric mana, there will be a peace filled period with almost no atmospheric mana.
After the ancient era of origin, was the era of mystery. Unidentified life forms, strange technology unearthed, inexplicable phenomenons. One of the most mysterious phenomenons of all time... Was the erasure of the era of mystery's historical records at the end of the era. Right after is the era of abundance where we are right now. No one knows how much time had elapsed in the era of mystery or why there is such a big gaping hole in the information available.
"Tch, we have no choice but to leave this to them." (Arin)
Following Arin out of the building, Sariel mulled over her thoughts. They race and race, picking apart whatever information she could chew on. For a clue, for a way forward. The road ahead is dark and pathless.
" Arin... You're on our side, aren't you?" (Sariel)
She heaved a deep sigh and put up a resolute facade. Her fingers were shaking but she vomited out the question, squeezed the courage out of her soul.
The day had reached night, sparse Street lights were intermittently positioned to bring clarity to the streets. There is no place for darkness in this residential mega zone. There is roughly 3-6 million residents per zone, and roughly 2500 zones. Humanity's population had tapered to 10 billion via natural factors, the planet couldn't support more.
Arin stopped in her tracks thoughtfully, upon hearing Sariel's soft inquiry. She could tell what Sariel was feeling, truthfully she didn't want to hurt her. Sariel was practically someone who was uninvolved in Arin's issues. A mere observer along the few millenia long journey. Of course, no one else was aware of it. As far as other people are concern, Sariel was the perpetrator behind the memory wiping curse, for a profound reason that would not be revealed. The curse is already gone, at least ostensibly so on the outside.
Arin's very perspective has been skewed by the scale of time. She saw this as a mere speck in her journey, almost forgetting everyone else's existence at times.
"... I wasn't on your side from the very start." (Arin)
"Then... Why have you been helping me! Why have you been guiding us and getting us to grow stronger! Don't think I've never noticed!
The magical girls of this era cannot reach B grade via natural processes! Only once in a few century or millenia geniuses like the Sentinels reach S grade. " (Sariel)
Her voice grows hoarse, her breathing laboured. Is pouring out her feelings such a fearful thing to do? That's when she noticed...
The reason why she felt so much fear, was that she simply didn't know Arin enough. She didn't know how Arin would react, how Arin would deal with her. She first met Lastia in school, when Lastia spontaneously awakened as a magical girl due to a Trace attack targeted at her. Finally, Arin entered their lives out of nowhere. Was she always in their class? She introduced herself as someone who knew Lastia from before she lost her memories. The curse having started about a year before the awakening.
"... I don't know. I'm just as lost as you are. Whatever you make me out to be, evil or useless, the truth is much lamer than your think." (Arin)
"... Lamer..." (Sariel)