*(Kanou)
"You sure you should leave your subordinates alone? In the end they are fighting a S grade magical girl you know? Being one yourself you should know the magnitude of that." (Edalsear)
"Let's quickly get this over with, so I can finish off your friend too." (Kanou)
The white haired girl didn't look particularly displease. She had simply reverted from her playful demeanour to a poker face. Her facial muscles were completely relaxed, giving the impression that the dialogue earlier was just a facade that would never show up again. Like a short dream.
"..."
She wasn't emotionless persay, she had simply lost interest in the middle of their dialogue. She saw no more point in talking to who was essentially a person doomed to lose to her.
"Technique. 4 stars(280% strength enhancement) [Beneath the ground]. " (Edalsear)
They had both activated their Oblivion Magia, but as they weren't expending all of their strength at the start, it was a canvas of snow white. It was the full spectrum of every colour combined, as such magical girls with pure white hair were usually considered one of the strongests. One could say that the world was a mere story that was unfolding, as such, white was simply the colour that played the biggest role. Even though everyone's lives had become so dim.
Edalsear bent her left knee to lower her entire body, the flexing of her leg muscles alone unleashed a small shock wave on it surroundings. Before an average person could blink, she launched her right fist into the ground. Cracks of black formed in every direction, exposing the fragility of their confronting Oblivion Magias. Before long, Edalsear had vanished from her spot and reappeared right in front of Kanou's eyes, her fist closing in on her face the moment she appeared.
Just as she had done, Kanou vanished from her spot as well. She effortlessly launched a kick onto Edalsear's back, sending her flying into the empty clear void. Edalsear drove her left arm into the air nearby as cracks in the air formed near her. She became to roll at an unnatural angle, as if there was ground right underneath her when she was in the mid-air. After all, her Oblivion Magia had also been activated, she could freely forge her surroundings if she wished.
Ultimately, Edalsear had landed with her body upright in the air, as if she hadn't been thrown around yet. She looked at Kanou, her opinion slightly shifting due to the sheer power that has jsut been displayed. It was as if she had to surmount a wall she couldn't see. It was the limit of her enemy, but she was so tall that the summit could not even be found.
"Tch, [Beneath the ground] complete technique, 7 stars. 490% strength enhancement." (Edalsear)
Her magic aura continued to envelop her body much more intense than before, a clear black hue wrapped itself around her body. It was like her face had completely changed. Her eyebrows knit, the ridge on her nose wrinkle, her eyes lowered in concentration.
"You know, there are other reasons to activating an Oblivion Magia other than trapping an enemy. It makes things much easier to have a conceptual bullseye on you." (Edalsear)
It makes it far easier to unleash attacks on an opponent. All she had to do was completely activate her Oblivion Magia as she said and it would allow her to get a good lethal punch in. Especially with her above average strength enhancement. But for some reason, she couldn't do anything.
"[Damnation overshock]. You can't use any magic that affects the environment outside of your body. You were about to use Oblivion Magia weren't you? I won't let you." (Kanou)
"Paaaaa!"
The glaring echoes that resounded from her attacks would shatter anyone's ear drums. She was using her first skill to attack once again. It allowed her to move instantaneously, giving her attack priority over her opponent in any situation. Even if it was just a normal conversation, she wouldn't let her guard down.
"Tch! URGHHH!!! URP!" (Edalsear)
The brunt of the attacks had sent shock waves through her entire body from the force they carried alone. Her body began to bleed and fracture all over from the inside, and after continuous attacks their effects have finally caught up to her. She vomited her guts out, any and all possible fluid has been spewed forth from her throat, expelled into the clear white ground.
"Ugh, second skill... Now that your magic stun lock has ended its duration, I can turn things over. [Alignment constellation interlock]." (Edalsear)
Orbs that look like imitations of the sun had gathered around he rbody, before shooting off beams that aimed at Kanou and shrunk into nothingness.
" Tch?! " (Kanou)
Why can't I dodge them? That question softly lingered at the forefront of he remind, occupying her disturbed and frustrated thoughts. Her anger slowly rose like the temperature reading of a thermometer, it gradually went up and up and up. Until it eventually hit a breaking point. Edalsear's new long range attacks could strike far earlier than Kanou's reaction time. It had taken everything she could muster to continuously use her first skill and teleport before Edalsear could react. Essentially they were stucked in an exchange and couldn't do anything about it. A rain of shining yellow follows Kanou to her next location until she vanishes once more.
This time she appears closely next to Edalsear, her right leg in full motion goes for a large powerful quick with the power of her first skill behind it. It struck a thin sheet of yellow protecting Edalsear.... Before it smashed through like a ball thrown into a neighbours window frame. The protective barrier shattered completely with Kanou's foot launching straight into Edalsear's cheek.
"GHAAAGGHHH!!" (Edalsear)
The force swung her skull straight into the ground, her eyes showed its whites very visibly for a moment before she jumped back up. Her vision had been made dizzy and no matter what she did, she couldn't bypss Kanou's action priority without her partner around. Her partner's job was to hold Kanou down as she was able to manipulate space, but now that they had been seperated it was a completely different matter.
Kanou could easily observe that Edalsear was getting nervous by the flow of her magical particles. Instead of a clear constant stream, they had begun to erratically jump about. Since it was a magic that was already activated, it should be able to maintain itself normally, but after a certain point it may just collapse. Magic was controlled by a magical girl's mind, if it went past a certain point of instability, so too would the magic follow up.
"Fine. I didn't want to do this since it'll exhaust myself so much, but it's for the administration. For the world. Final skill - [Advent of the great crunch]." (Edalsear)
The surroundings had turned dark immediately with nothing around that could be perceived by the senses. Every single physical sense felt like it had been turned off before... They were never there. As the world has its time physically reverse, no one can feel anything nor can they be aware of anything. Everything they've felt in the past is slowly leaving their body, pulling apart what is left of their insignificant identity to be lost in the universe.
The only person conscious and mobile during this session is Edalsear. Only her body and mind is immune to its effects, in exchange all that time she experiences is stored into her body. Even if her body doesn't age, her mind does. As it slowly fills to the brim and more after, it slowly loses its grip on reality. But that wouldn't be for a few more decades, maybe even hundreds or thousands of years. She could control the rate at which time reverses, and resume the flow of time from any point. This may cause it to seem like she attacked ahead of time, making her unfathomably early and exist in 2 locations. From the natives of that present, it would seemed like an attack from a person from the future. Or it would look like she has future sight since she had seen everything before.
She reverses back to the start of her battle with Kanou. Now there was 2 of her to fight Kanou. Then 3, then 4, then 5, and soon there was an army of herself, much too overwhelming for the world to handle. As an army of her had appeared, Kanou had no choice but to use her final skill.
"[Inutile purgatory], Oblivion Magia - unique technique, 'Infinite theoretical annihilation.'
[Pain is for the still] [Damnation overshock]
Were you perhaps planning to overwhelm me with yourself in so many different time states? Each instance that you traveled in time, you haven't used all your magical particles. I can see it inside every single one of you, similar patterns of magical particles that just happen to be from different time periods.
Do you understand?" (Kanou)
" Tch.... Another stun effect skill, I can't use anymore skills and if I release my magical girl transformation here, I wouldn't be able to transform again... So that's your final skill. Huh. Even though I've fought you so many times, you've never used your final skill until now. "(Edalsear)
" I would admit that you are extremely powerful. But there is more to a battle than raw power. You have a skill that enhances your strength, another skill that shoots magic at the speed of light relative to everyone and a final skill that manipulates time. Your first skill draws power from the alignment of the stars, they form a magical circle larger than solar systems in the galaxy... No maybe you're using the entire galaxy. With your time manipulation skill, you can access multiple of those galaxy sized magical circles and raise your strength into infinity.
All this time you've been fighting normally and only now you're using that technique to raise your strength to infinity, correct? "(Kanou)
"... I see. It turns out you had some intelligence on us all this time. And you only happen to reveal that to us now. No wonder you weren't caught off guard by my second skill... You were anticipating for it from the start... " (Edalsear)
Finally, Kanou smiled. She hadn't smile for every loop until now, always putting on a serious expression during their battle. It was strange, so very strange for Edalsear. Even though she had finally been the one to corner her with herself, an anomaly was occurring.
"... Just how many magical girls do you think can manipulate time?" (Kanou)
"......" (Edalsear)
She finally understood. She was not unique. Her power wasn't unique. There was no advantage that she had truly brought here. Her card had been layed bare on this battlefield. She could simply go back into the past and kill Kanou's past self, but she would have to wait for quite a while to return to the present. She could only reverse time, but not fast forward it. Kanou had been putting on a front, pretended her skills weren't what they actually were. Naturally that was the way magical girls fought their battle. They tricked or surprised their opponent. Or they overwhelmed them. But past a certain point of diminishing returns, stats were worthless and skills were overwhelmingly powerful. Skills affected reality in its own way, pressing its effects in and causing a phenomenon.
"The effects of your skills, I have to know them in order for [Damnation overshock] to work. If not it simply doesn't work. It's like a key and lock, and if I manage to slide in the right key, you wouldn't be able to use that skill ever again.
Of course, I never know the exact way your skills work. So I try, again and again I used my first skill to kick and punch at your body. I slide my magical particles into you and activate my second skill, experimenting with which one orientation fits accurately. In other words, I lock pick by brute forcing magic into your body.
Even so, the brute forcing is a mere rough shape, so your skills cannot be disabled for a long time by me. Instead I have to make contact each time I want to disable you. Do you understand now? "(Kanou)
" You recreated my magic with that rough shape... The way your skill disables is by helping you shape that key... And when it's perfectly shaped it cancels out my skills... If it's roughly shaped it disables it for a short time... Wait... Then you..." (Edalsear)
" Yeah, since the skill is not perfect, I'm not gonna adjust to the present time. The world is gonna kick me out like a virus or bacteria. I'm going to die. "(Kanou)
" Then... " (Edalsear)
" Past me is still alive and well, watching from afar. It was easy to switch seeing that we kept using our first skill to blink in and out of existence. But now I'll be using my first skill here within my Oblivion Magia. 'Infinite theoretical annhilation', I hop over an infinite distance within this Oblivon Magia by aiming so far in one direction that it ends up right back here. The recoil is converted into destructive force and contained within this dimension, so our universe wouldn't get fried. I can't use this outside, and I would also get fried. So I suppose this is thanks for the opportunity to use it. "(Kanou)
***
" Tch! One got away... " (Kanou)