"God, you're one of those 'edgy' personas, aren't you? I was never a fan of those, too wrapped up in 'muh tragic pasts' and 'muh sacrifices' and 'muh power of love and friendship' to ever actually amount to anything. Oh, and also..."
The smile Erika donned shifted, writhing from the carefree grin of a child to the sneer of an utter sadist as Neku moved towards her.
"Don't tell me what to do, insect."
Such are the words of Erika as she idly threw a punch forward.
Midgard Skin activated. Eye of Providence active.
Devil's Maze active.
Devil's Maze. Allows for a something to impose itself upon different spatial states of affairs.
From earlier discussions, you know what this means, but let's pretend you don't.
Say that you are standing twenty meters away from Person X. You throw a punch at the air before you.
Of course nothing happens. At this time and place there is nothing to hit.
But now throw another punch, and as the attack is made use Devil's Maze in reference to twenty meters forwards.
You may either send the attack itself, the physical form of a fast-moving fist, or the effect of the attack, a forward-oriented force that the fist would impose on whatever it met. Because you want your hand to stay attached to your body, let's say you chose the latter.
The effect of the attack then changes from being imposed on the current spatial state to one of twenty minutes forward. Meaning that at that moment, the person who was standing twenty meters from you was now hit by a blow from nowhere.
The time the attack affected wasn't changed, but the space was.
Next was the supplement known as Compounding. This spell allowed for Devil's Maze to do one of two things. Either expand its effective radius, or be used to make the same thing affect multiple states of space at one time. For instance, that once punch you moved forward, you compounded, so at the same time you punched their stomach, their head, their kidney, their liver, their heart, all from twenty meters away.
And of course, the Midgard Skin was a hardening of the body, making it resilient enough to stand up to Demon Weapons, and boosting the physical ability of the user.
All of this build-up had one simple effect.
Before Neku had ever reached the top of the stairs, he was simultaneously struck by ten different punches to a different part of his body, each carrying strength that would rival Fleshmonger's earlier attacks.
Of course, the head wasn't struck. She had no plans on killing anyone just yet. But instead of the glorious confrontation Neku had imagined, he'd simply be blasted backwards down the stairs, battered and confused.
To the onlookers, there would have been a brief flare of magic, and the next thing they had seen Neku had been knocked backwards by some effect of the magic, though the "mechanics" would remain unknown.
"Any other questions~?"