*
"What's wrong? You look a little pale... Sorry, unlike the rest you were on your own weren't you?" (Sariel)
"Huh?! Why'd you leave her alone! You saved magical girls, added them to your army and then headed to the next family home, but you didn't help her?" (Aura)
"Sorry, I thought you were strong, Faramicia. I believed you could do what I couldn't. " (Sariel)
... Strong... Strength, what is that? What did she see in me? I have to wonder... I'm here, shaken up after killing those who were after the lives of my family. Who were planning to leverage my parents life to take mine, a decision no one should ever make. Yet...
"I killed 7 people." (Faramicia)
"Oh? Are you bragging? Personally my kill count is 3 digits!" (Sariel)
So she thought nothing of it, of human lives. It was kinda monstrous, inhumane. Yet it was necessary if we want to defeat the government. If she wanted to impose her justice on the world, she needed a tool like Sariel.
"Don't be cocky just yet, I'll surpass you one day!" (Faramicia)
Burning fiery wroth anger, it blazes in the pits of her guts. Sariel is an obstacle on the way to becoming the best magical girl, but for now she'll be the tool to cripple the government.
" That's why... You don't have to worry about me." (Faramicia)
"Good eyes." (Sariel)
***
Magical girls are typically girls of adolescence, if possible Sariel didn't want any of them to bloody their hands with human lives. No matter who they were before, as long as they were a normal student... Taking a life has to have an impact on their psyche. Sorry, Faramicia. I need to break you in earlier, I trust you the most so you have to grow the fastest and become my greatest asset.
I need everyone here to grow stronger. They're all magical girls, even if they can't react to those enhanced guns like I could, they can still use their skills and kill the enemy before they're even noticed. What I need is for their minds to grow, to accept killing. It sounds horrible, and to be honest it might be too early to know if it's a necessity. However there is a need to accept this idea, that magical girls have lives worth more than the average human.
To get back to the present, Alice knew the addresses of some 300 magical girls. Each time I saved someone, I added them to my group and we teleport to the next home together. There were some magical girls that didn't hesitate to help out, though most of the work is done by me. Using {Swap} on humans with zero resistance to magic, I removed their hands, feet and head from their body simultaneously. The corpses are still lying around fresh as we gathered on the school rooftop.
I was concerned that the nearby B and C residential zones would face the same issue, but Alice informed me that their attacks were staggard due to the scale being too large to coordinate across the planet.
"Alright, attention everyone." (Sariel)
She didn't speak with too loud of a voice, yet her words carried weight and resounded with clarity. This is the air of someone ready to face the world on a whim, someone poached by Alice a mere few days ago.
" I think you'd be more relief guarding your own homes with your own hands. Things aren't so dire that we have to go to war, when I need you I'll come and bring you-" (Sariel)
On a distant rooftop, a large boom echoed. The sound of piercing wind envelopes the sky before dissipating into air.
" {Swap}. " (Sariel)
"...!? "(Alice)
Alice was strong. There was no doubt after this time loop, her magic had gotten stronger. Magic not only increased in quantity with how much mental strength a magical girl possessed, but it also increased in quality. How to best circulate magical energy, how to conjure it in the most conservative way, how to utilise it most discretely without your enemy noticing, there are many other considerations that could improve one's magic beyond brute force. Techniques and strength that carry beyond time and remain in a magical girl's time-worn soul.
That was an enhanced sniper shot, aimed to kill Sariel. The government had already identified her as the leader of an organised resistance, with such a weapon there was potential that even normal people could end the gathered magical girls here in eby one. That was supposed to be the warning... But in that small pocket of time it took Alice to recognise the attack, Sariel had identified its coordinates and sent it back at the sniper's head.
Besides Sariel, Alice was the most attuned to space. Only she had honed her own detection to this far of a range, wary of snipers all the time. The problem was that the number of potential enemies could populate a single residential zone, anyone could be dragged in to work for the government and be the next sniper. There's no telling who you should kill, who you shouldn't, short of killing all of humanity.
"Is this really okay?" (Alice)
"What is?" (Sariel)
She simply smiled knowingly at Alice. There's too many things to consider, Sariel couldn't guess Alice's intentions. Perhaps this was more a mockery or a slight show of jess on her part. How could she abandon human life this easily? How could she be this ruthless... Really, everytime Sariel was dragged into conflict with the government, this happened. Maybe this was what's needed. Maybe, Alice was wary and weary of playing at being humanitarian. 'These guys are just victims, they couldn't refuse the government'. All of that was thrown out of the window when Alice decided Sariel will be the head of this project.
Maybe she decided... People had it too good. Magical girls were too kind, that's exactly what the government preyed on to subjugate them. They would rather let themselves get killed unilaterally than let an innocent bystander get shot by a stray bullet, or put their hands on an enemy gunman. This was the first time it ever ends this well, the first time they laid their hands on those attacking the homes of magical girls.
Every time, she just let it happen, thinking that it was the right thing. That they deserved for it to be happen, that those magical girls had made their choice to be killed by the government to save their parents. That she couldn't trample over their resolves without her bones dipped in cynicism and resentment. That her own thoughts had to be twisted and corrupted into something entirely foreign to allow their wishes to be superceded with her own.
"Nothing. I'm counting on you." (Alice)
I'm betting on you. Your way of life, your alien sense of perspective, I once believed I wanted to understand you and that it would be impossible. Now I see, you achieved at your own answer just like how everyone else did, by the circumstances of your life. It's only because I'm getting dragged lower into the abyss, closer to you. So I figured, someone like you who's been drowning longer than I have would far exceed my performance.