*
Her heart rate remained high, beating through her chest like a vicious drum. The rhythmic bass of her body echoing in her ears as she watched the black rift expand through the sky like a spider web catching the earth.
External augmentation... Linked. Universal armour, malicious grand cornerstone, Atlas... Connected. Virtual world simulation... Ready to deploy. A world that fools even magic, there's no telling what the destroyers would think about it... But... She should assume it was easy for them to turn it to dust. So the proper use of it... Has to be subtle. Like shifting the position of her enemies to a slightly different location, shifting her own position or disorienting their sense of distance. Small adjustments that are near impossible detect... No, they are completely detected but do not make the target aware of them.
With a leap, she reached inside the black space. Second skill activation, [Human ingenuity surpasses the secret of the stars]. A very manifestation of humanity's ability to cross the boundary and surpass limits, it might have had an effect in helping her achieve her newly created techniques. The black realm lights up, illuminating the world with white and removing the dimensional masking. This place was originally meant to be brightly lit, it was only pitch black to outsiders due to the dimensional masking.
Now... While they're sizing her up. Virtual world deployment, Pandora's box. During the spar she would announce her techniques, they were to be judged. But now... What she needs is subtle deceit. So she can't really announce them now, can she?
The 6 individuals lay their heavy gaze upon her, staring like hawks who had found their next meal. When Ledia closed the distance in one breath, the 6 split into different directions at the same time. The world began to slow down even further, dimming the light around them to a dull grey as 6 simultaneous attacks shot at her. In a single moment, she was forced to enter the edge of the world and brace for multiple attacks. Each one capable of ending a god, their specialised destruction can definitely overcome infinite without any difficulty. All she can do now... Would be to use her virtual world for substitution.
Barely escaping with her life, the attacks collided with pinpoint accuracy and collapsed into a point before vanishing... She would have been the one to vanish had they hit her instead. Without a trace, a perfect magic that erases the existence of anything... Overcoming infinity was only the baseline of its effects, what it set out to achieve was clearly a lot more... These attacks were meant to kill gods with power over time...
"... [mealtimes come when the hen clucks]." (?)
Constriction, her heart and body froze. Her mind would be incapable of thought if not for her armour augmenting her further to withstand the magic, quick, she should use her second skill. [Human ingenuity surpa-
" You have one odd looking... Destiny." (Kaori alternative)
"!?" (Ledia)
Her body vanishes, soul and magic dissolved. She was recognised as a God and hit by their full wrath, a full on assault with all their strength from the get go. They do not underestimate, they do not lack prudence. They swiftly moved into action and subjugated her with sheer competence.
The Kaori here noticed... If she noticed... What happens? Her thoughts sink into the abyss of death as she revives back to the start. Kaori's observational power isn't as accurate or bountiful like Himei's, but it's enough to read the fates of everyone on earth and pinpoint Ledia's potential... This is bad, if she knew then... What if she stopped the loop...
"Hey Himei... I have a question..." (Ledia)
"What is it...?" (Himei)
"The other Kaori read my fate and knew it was weird. It must have been because I forged the Atlas armour and drew her interest enough to read it...
But I have to ponder. Why do their memories not carry over between loops? Your universal superimposition is just that, it's within this universe... How is it working on them...? " (Ledia)
"... I'm not really superimposing over them. They... Exist in a timeless extradimension. Between every loop, an infinite amount of time has passed for them. They exist throughout time, so everytime you enter, it's a completely different instance of them.
It's too weird to comprehend time, but think of it as... Me resetting this universe... But you meeting a new set of destroyers each time, because there's effectively an infinite set of destroyers..." (Himei)
" Then... Are you sure it's still safe? " (Ledia)
"... We can't be 100% sure, if one of their skills involves parallel dimensional communication... Like Myuu's final skill, then we'd be in trouble.
But we still arrived at this point regardless. We can assume they have a sort of trap so... This might be the final confrontation. Assume my revival will no longer work...
I'll come with you this time... " (Himei)
"... I thought you wouldn't, something about being too afraid to fight the bedtime monsters." (Ledia)
She lets out a snide, releasing some of her ridicule. She hadn't count the time from the start, there was no way of knowing how long she had been stuck in these loops nor any assurance that she could return to normal life after this. This whole time she had been left to fend off the destroyers by herself, perhaps there was a little pent up anger in all of that.
Even so, she hadn't ever displayed her dissatisfaction until now. The catalyst was clear, up till now Himei hadn't dared to join in the battle leaving her to die horrible deaths, but now that her safety net was lost Himei would finally assist the battle. It was as if she only helped when it was too late, an issue caused solely by her cowardice.
"... Let's finish this." (Himei)
Not allowing any further interjection, this seemed to be the last test. She ignored the snide comment and resumed a stance....
With her external augmentation, she learnt how it felt like to be in a battle between gods. Now she has to learn how to win. No matter what, there was still a fundamental difference between Ledia and a God magical girl. A God magical girl achieves their ridiculous stats solely from magic augmentation arising from their transformation into a magical girl. On the other hand, Ledia had to transform into a C grade, enhance herself with her first skill to reach S grade, then don her armour to attain SS grade.
It meant that no matter how much she tried her best, Ledia was using her magic to compensate the gap between C and SS. But the opponent is naturally SS grade because of their augmentations working indefinitely to increase their stats. It meant that even if the burden of Ledia's extra manual augmentation was alleviated to an almost completely harmless state, Ledia would still bear that infinitesimally small burden and be dragged behind her opponents pace.
She will always be one pace short, it's the time that it takes her external augmentation to send signals to her real body. With her virtual world deployment, all it did was that it bridged that little gap, leaving her at a standstill.
"What is it you seek to do?" (Himei)
Their figures vanished, for once she predicted Himei's movements perfectly. If her prediction matches the future that Himei's see, then they would both take alternative action to correct that future to their own advantage. Himei will see the future and change her actions, Ledia will read those changed actions and switch up her own approach. Virtual world simulation - Trace the route of chaos and perform perfect prediction, use the external augmentation to access greater computational power and perfect it...
"New refined technique -" (Ledia)
One can discredit her and claim she was copying Himei, though she wouldn't really care. At her base, she would first and foremost always consider herself ordinary. So if copying her impromptu mentor here can increase her chances of survival... Then she wouldn't even hesitate at grasping at the opportunity.
"Virtual contingency simulation." (Ledia)
There wasn't much to her answer, she wants to do what is best for herself. She was ordinary, painfully ordinary, but that was also her strength. She had the average iq, eq, school grades, family, environment and everything. That's why, her empathy, charity and generosity was also an average of humanity, and...
The average was a positive. If given the circumstances, humans would rather be kind to others. Forged by her average and mundane lifestyle, she who stood at the median of humanity's kindness was proof of that. She wasn't kind because she was average, she was kind because she was human. That's why... It's really simple. If something threatened the world and even Himei pleaded for help, she would make the exact same choice everytime... To fight the destroyers for her.
Their predictions clash in a flurry of collisions, their arms graze one another barely missing their targets as they dove side to side then up and down. They fought mid air and moved 3 dimensionally, Ledia swung her leg as it was the longest limb and a weapon with further reach then the arms. Himei couldn't dodge completely, so she slammed her elbow against Ledia's incoming foot, then she threw her right punch as Ledia pulled back her leg.
Himei flew closer, using the momentum of the flight to strike with her left arm. Ledia bent her right leg to intercept with her knee, she would still be taking some damage from that, but the aim was to smash her arm onto Ledia's, with the knee solely utilised to slow Himei's rush. Himei instead used the knee to pivot her entire body, dodged Ledia's arm smash and swung her entire body with her foot swinging from the side. She could ignore gravity because her acceleration when she threw her left fist at Ledia's knees overcame gravity and planted herself firmly on Ledia's knee to use as a pivot.
There was a limit to the prediction. Being able to see and comprehend the future didn't necessarily mean one could react to it. Her right knee and arm was already in motion, but Himei swung her body to Ledia's right around her right limbs. She could raise her right elbow a bit to block, but it would only slow down the attack instead of being an effective block that killed all of Himei's momentum. Rather, Himei's momentum would continue and her attack will plow through Ledia's arm.
Unable to defend, Ledia was sent flying into the sky. With no more holding back, her body instantly shot far into the vacuums of space. A new problem propped up...
This time, Himei instantly struck a punch into her gut, sending her further away before Himei caught up to launch a devastating kick. This time Ledia manages to block with her arms, though they ache tremendously as they receive the hit. It was now far easier for Himei to chain hits... It wasn't an issue before since Ledia could stand her ground...
Her virtual world deployment was localised to a fixed position... So when Himei knocked her out of the virtual world, it's effects of obscuring distance and sight stopped taking effect, allowing Himei to exploit the time lag between the external augmentation and her body. Himei s words echo into her mind once more as the pain takes hold, doubts start being sowed into her flesh as she struggles to shake off the pain. The tears well up at the corner of her eyes, but she keeps a clear mind and sight. Unlike the virtual world, the virtual contingency was fixed to her mind and came with her everywhere she went. She could still see a bit into the future...
Both individuals watch the future as they get infinitely close to it, causing it to become the present. Their vision of what will be is no longer meant to be, preventing each other from actualising their desired scenery.
Their left arms clashed at a distance short enough to bend their elbows, Ledia threw her right palm forward at Himei's face, but it was promptly smacked with what could have been a loud shock wave. Their right fist rush back in and clash head on before pulling and throwing them again. All whole their left arms were trapping each other.
Ledia throws her head, just to meet the exact same headbutt from Himei. Their actions perfectly mirror one another before... Himei eats a punch a headbutt, stunning Ledia with an unexpected action before kicking Ledia's jaw with a high kick, then slamming her fist into her gut once more, sending Ledia crashing back into the earth. For a moment...
Himei felt like she was fighting herself. Ledia had nothing, all she could do was copy Himei, obviously her imitation would be far more rudimentary. Himei could see an alternative future wherein she took another action, Ledia could only see one future because it was a hopeful prediction using her armour as a supercomputer.
Himei arrives back on earth, extending her hand out to Ledia. She now has a grasp over the colour of Ledia's heart, and a picture of her journey's end.