*
"This is a classic. Prototype technique - Quantum teleportation." (Ledia)
With Himei's finger on her forehead, Ledia smirks with a wide grin. It was a commonly used theory in magic. Quantum referred to the smallest possible unit of observation, and discrepancies in these observations lead to theorised teleportation of quantum particles. Subjective Idealism, bundle theory and quantum teleportation... With Ledia's combined assault on the senses, she played with these concepts like a bucket of new toys.
But this technique of hers was more closer to what people would call substitution. Once observed, Ledia would decide if she was the real Ledia or not. For a split moment in reality, all the mirages and herself were converted to magical energy, switched places, then converted back.
Of course, Himei did not fail to entertain the idea that Ledia set an outlier on purpose to fool her into thinking that was the real Ledia, but there wasn't much that she would lose by picking out the real Ledia and pretending she was completely confident. In the end, the simplest and most optimal way was to eliminate every mirage at once. But... Having fun? In the middle of a spar? She was looked down upon too much, this was meant to be a life and death struggle.
Her techniques were thought up while she had her composure, none of the desparation that Himei seeked was there. That was why the techniques were so perfunctory and for better or worse, bereft of substance. If one just thought about it for a few seconds, why use illusion techniques on The Eye God? The one boasting the highest computation and comprehension power in the universe. It was foolish, it was a little high of her own. Did the adrenaline rush to her head and block everything out?
When Himei meant desparation on the border of life and death, it did not mean that she wanted a technique forged without thought. She wanted desparation, the urge to rush forward with all their might and create a new light of hope. This necessitated thought as well, in fact it required all of it, everything that Ledia's mind could possibly muster and put together.
That's why they are all considered 'prototype techniques', that's why she had not enough confidence to say these techniques are complete and whole. They are mere fragments of a view inside her mind, but they were more than enough for Himei to understand it all. A true technique is considered true and whole, because the inventor has acknowledged that they put their all, body and soul, into forging it to perfection.
"Haa~ bottom of the barrel, disappointing. That is my assessment." (Himei)
"..." (Ledia)
She stared in wide eyed surprise, her expression became a blank as her energy was put to pondering instead of moving her facial muscles. It felt like the world was boring onto her, pressing down on her soul. What went wrong? Doesn't this make the entire thing a waste of time? They only had less than an hour... She wasn't optimistic enough to think that this would be the last loop, but...
Disappointment?
This was intuitive enough. Or obvious really, the techniques were prototypes, incomplete. The hypothesis that 'Himei wants refined techniques' was enough of an answer to it all. So Himei remained silent. She walked closer to Ledia, her approach bearing unfathomable pressure.
But something was odd... Ledia was getting used to it. After repeatedly dying in Kaori and the destroyer's divine aura, and continuous exposure to Himei's... It was just a meagre degree, but her the load on her body had lightened up. She had to power through it, resist it and ignore it during battle. If her body was getting tempered enough to withstand it, it would be hugely beneficial. But it might have been a psychological phenomenon, since her trained body won't carry over subsequent loops. That's why they were focusing on techniques, knowledge that would carried over, rather than stats.
In a flash, Himei closes the distance to within breathing distance, her black and gold robe flailing magnificently in the air like an angel's feathered wings. Her right leg slices forward without hesitation, she couldn't aim for the head or Ledia would die. So once again, she took Ledia's left arm off. Pain will be the teacher here, Himei will just be here to facilitate it.
Ledia had already understood her monumental inferiority from the start, an S grade fighting an SS grade. As the grading gets higher, the gap between each grade also gets exponentially higher, and at last, an S grade reaching towards an SS grade is the same as the ground grasping for the heavens. But that is not why she's here, to dwell in this fact and lament with futility. Think, think. Her previous techniques only bloomed disappointment, she cannot let up with just that result. She can not show that she was a disappointment.
As much as she is resigned to being a an ordinary person fighting against a cruel, unyielding and u merciful fate, she still had a modicum of pride left. An ordinary person's pride, arrogance that would otherwise have no room to exist in this world or be actualised in society. Her right arm reaches forward as her left arm was taken, focus on a single point. If spreader flames and explosions are scattering the energy too much to deal noticeable damage, she has to concentrate them.
Energy is not an issue, so... Use magic energy to produce chemical energy, compress and detonate! Nuclear fusion once, twice, thrice... Not enough, she has to breach reality with this... It must be enough to bust through an entire dimension... She can't continuously hold and possess more energy like Kaori can, but she can freely convert them... Then... This is it, the only way... To form a technique, imagination and willpower is a must, so... Put your all to prove Himei wrong!!!
Compress further and further!!! Convert and combine into a compound!! The limit with manipulation... Is volume and size! There was a range limit to her manipulation of energy, not a quantity limit! So keep compressing and compressing until it reaches the density of the furthest ends, until it breaches the abyss beyond the heavenly veil!!! A blinding light flashed in her right palm for a short moment.
The energy in it was so dense that Himei had to use her final skill if she wanted to get rid of it.
Reach the density of a neutron star!! No, it must go even further... Remember, energy was not a problem.... Use magic to automatically assembled another sphere of equal density then fuse them together! Just command her first skill to do it... Copy and combine! She struggles to push her fingers forward, the air itself begun to bend space as radiation was endlessly pouring out, resisting the approach of her fingers. Bend it... Bend the gravity and radiation away and thrust your palm forward...
Himei watched in awe as her palm closed onto the sphere and covered it with one mighty and valiant grasp.
"It's heavy... And it's tearing my cells apart but... This is simply the weight of the universe." (Ledia)
Her gaze trained into Himei sharply, outwardly declaring her resolve to tear through reality with absurdity. Her passive skill nullifies herself against energy based attacks, similar to Himei she would be weak against physical attacks instead. But it also meant... The entire mass of the universe can remain weightless in her palm.
Information... Density... Memorised. The weight of the universe, the sensation of its birth and destruction... They now remain in her mind. Constructing new augmentation... In the form of a spiritual body. An armour that boasts the toughness of a universe, a spiritual Stick that remains in the sea of time and space, ready to be summoned at any time.
Malicious grand cornerstone, Atlas.
It was a set of arms that boasts infinite durability, yet weighed infinitely. The only possible good thing that could be said about it... Was that it was transparent and thinly coated Ledia's body, so her combat dress was visible and she didn't need to worry about wearing ugly armour.
Himei set out to test it immediately, flashing by and throwing a punch to her spine with all her strength. The shock wave of Himei's punch collided into the armour and... None of it was released into the environment. The armour imitated the universe... So attacks sent at Ledia were absorbed and were also infinitely far away. To simplify it, it's the same as the extradimensional coating that the destroyer's have. Ledia breached the gap between them significantly, though the destroyer's would still boast infinite stats without their extradimensional coating.
Himei launched a flying kick next, then in quick succession she bent her knee to bring her torso closer to throw a flurry of punches. *bash bash*, almost silent yet heavy pounds could be heard in the air surrounding them. It was more impressive for Himei to punch a literal pseudo universe and still be able to make a sound. It was the product of her infinite strength stat, in other words...
"Looks like you finally breached the realm of God's. But you have yet to graze the edge of the world..." (Himei)
She lands a knee slam into Ledia's head, this time the impact was loud and audible, flying into the distance like a roar signalling the end of the world.
" Now it is not finite vs infinite, but infinite vs infinite... Do you understand? It is still very far from over..." (Himei)
As if to reinforce her own words... Himei launched one final kick to Ledia's torso, the wind blew up between the 2 into a violent explosion of hale that launched smoke and radiation in every direction.
" I am no stranger to fighting gods, if you think having infinite stats is enough to save you... You are wrong!" (Himei)
The armour fractures at where Himei kicked. The armour is a malleable coating of energy that continuously generates more energy, hence infinite and self repairing function. Yet the fractures remained in the armour from Himei's kick. Infinity that was overcomes is no longer useful... Her attack was also continuously increasing in damage, reinflicting and maintaining the cracks in the armour.
Ledia hops back to create distance, but Himei ignores inertia and flies through the air horizontally to land a devastating punch. The fractures burst apart and do not repair, Ledia could feel her body exposed to the warm air of the Southern desert. The armour barely falls apart like shards of glass, miraculously there was no damage on her body.
"5 minutes left, repair your armour." (Himei)
She steps closer, Ledia simply knew the fight wasn't over yet. Not only technique, but also intelligence. She must put her all into everything if she even wanted a chance to live.
Ledia steps forward, her silhouette vanishing into the light of the afternoon sun.
"Compound technique - Pandora's box." (Ledia)
Subjective illusion, bundle mirage, quantum substitution. Fusing all the techniques... And then more. To go beyond the capability of what is already present and to surpass it even further. As if... The world itself has changed, within the box was a different world... With no space for 2 worlds in the same universe, laws collapse and bend to the chaos of Ledia's will.
The ability to construct a virtual world consisting solely of stimuli, is that a good enough technique? A way to show the opponent a different scene without having to breach their magic defence and attack their mind. Himei can observe everything in the universe, but what if the universe itself is deceiving her? Not through lies, but through convincing stimuli. For the first time, Himei cannot see Ledia.
When Ledia finally appeared within her view, Ledia launched a punch at Himei, but she received it in a different location from where she got hit. The Ledia in her eyes were fake, but it was indistinguishable from the real Ledia. At once, Himei swiped her hand down. The force of her fingers cut through the air and crush everything in the surroundings into pieces. The virtual world collapses, leaving cracks in its facade which reveal the familiar afternoon sun. It was visibly dimmer than before. 2 minutes left, before the destroyer's arrive.
The virtual world repairs itself. It was no means of attack even if it was really good to ambush with, Ledia was actually buying time to mend her armour. She was putting a significant chunk of energy into the armour with her first skill, copy and paste, mend together the fragments and fix up the fractures. At her command, her magic could double the energy available and use it for repair. It could multiply the energy a lot more than that, leading to the creation of the armour.
Now... Multiply the number of Ledias...a single punch impacts Himei's face, then another, and another, and then another. A flurry of punches toss her body around until Himei stood her ground, repelling all the Ledias in the vicinity. Stimuli included attacks too, she can create a phantom punch from a distance... And anumerous amount more than with just 2 arms. Himei snaps her finger, Pandora's box closes and they return under the white sky... With a black crack.
They've arrived.