Nagi flew briskly through the void-like space chasing the thread of Koami Aria. Her Mazoku form had two long thin horns which bent forward at an angle, four wings whose membranes ended with lace-like texturing and flair. Her tail was longer than Kikyo's and had an additional barb, but it was her lolita outfit that really stood out in this dark place; the fabric was reinforced with magic that manifested itself in sprawling patterns like runes or hieroglyphs. In actuality, they were neither, simply a pattern which contained no language.
After reaching a certain point the disk had absorbed enough to begin summoning Aria's instinctual defenses. Nagi halted mid air, shielding her eyes as the area around her was suddenly flooded with light. Blinking away the spots, Nagi examined the area again.
It was all light. Just light. Objects and creatures made of crystallized light!
Nagi blanched, “Give me a break...”
Immediately some of the light creatures noticed her dark attire and wandered over. Nagi followed the path of the remaining thread with her eyes, “Lovely to meet you but I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain check, tootle-loo!”
She flew after the thread at mach speed. She turned to look and saw several creatures keeping up with no problem, in fact, two raced ahead of her and looped back energetically.
“You're a lot friendlier than I expected...I am technically an intruder you know?”
One of the creatures made a low sound, somewhere in between a cow's moo and whale song.
Nagi continued collecting the thread, some of the creatures would lose interest in her after a while, but she was always passing by others who would see her dark clothing and give chase. She started to enjoy flying with the odd beings made of light, looping and laughing, when suddenly they halted and made distressed sounding calls. Nagi looked ahead of her, and saw a patch of void-terrain that hadn't been devoured by the odd crystalline light. Hung upon it was a silver mirror.
“I'm not sure I like the looks of that...”
The creatures around her cooed as if in agreement.
Nagi cautiously approached the mirror and gazed within. The part which should have been reflective was pitch black like the void around it. Nagi was about to make another comment aloud when a white eye appeared with a bass note. Nagi flinched, then stared into the eye.
“Um, hello?”
They eye said nothing, it was an eye not a mouth after all, but it blinked twice rapidly. Nagi sensing something was amiss ducked, and a gout of chaotic magic shot like a beam out of the mirror. Nagi looked incredulously at the mass of violently rampaging magic, to which the end of the thread was connected.
“You must be joking...”
She had no time for idle chatter though, the mass of chaos absorbed one of the creatures she had been playing with!
After a few tense moments, the mass shuttered and began to crystallize into a large purple variant of the creatures. A malevolent aura hung about it, this wasn't in the same league as the others, who at this time had fled after seeing their comrade was devoured.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The purple light crystal golem took a hulking step forward, and raised an arm. The end blossomed open like a geometric flower. From the elbow Nagi saw energy building into a powerful beam ready to be launched in seconds.
“That's not going to be good for my health!” She said, calculating a teleportation spell.
The beam fired, but she appeared right above its head. The beam carved a deep purple path though the landscape of crystallized light, arcs of purple energy jumped in the trench.
Nagi dropped down onto its head, and peered into the body. She spotted what she was looking for! A core deep within the golem's structure that was essentially a tangled ball of the thread that once was the Magical Girl Koami Aria!
“Excuse me a moment,” Nagi said, carving a magic circle directly into the crystal behemoth's head. She leapt back, and a sky blue beam accented with black lightning shot through the golem and high into the sky of the void-like Lesser Mirror. She was glad she could fly, as when the beam tried to exit the bottom of the golem it was splintered into a myraid of smaller beams by its crystalline body, amplifying the damage to the golem and the terrain at its feet. It wailed, and began to crack, but it would seem that wasn't quite enough to finish it off.
“Quite the sturdy fellow, aren't you? How's this then?” Nagi said, drawing a bow that appeared in her hands as she made the motion. Magic gathered at the tip of the arrow, coalescing into a single four pointed star with a radiant aura. Nagi squinted, then released, a burst of wind from the pure tension ruffled her clothes.
For a moment there was silence, such that one might have thought Nagi had missed.
KAT THOOOOOOON!!!
Like glitter dust, an innumerable amount of four pointed stars materialized inside the golem for less than an instant before each one detonated its magical payload! Purple crystal chunks flew far and wide across the Lesser Mirror, dispersing into light and mana seconds after impact.
“Ah, I'll be taking all of that, thank you!” Nagi said frantically dashing, flying, and teleporting around to collect every last particle of Aria's magic. The disk made a chattering sound!
Koami Aria appeared in a flash of light, in Magical Girl garb, absorbing the disk into her body.
Her eyes fluttered open, “Who...are you?” a weak smile crossed her lips, “Somehow I think you're a really nice person...”
Nagi replied with a smirk, “You're lucky I am, haven't you ever heard of not talking to strangers?”
“But everyone has a story!” Aria replied, sitting up.
Nagi sighed, then smiled, “Well, your ridiculously trusting personality made things a little easier so what do you say we get out of this creepy mirror?”
Nagi looked back to the silver mirror, but it was gone.
Aria stood up, shakily at first, then nodded.
Together they made their way through a pathway Aria found she was able to open into the Greater Mirror.