***
In the end it devolved into a 1v1, they were too busy to help each other out and turn it into a 2v2. Constrained with their own enemy, their full concentration was laid onto the enemy in front of their eyes.
Ledia had an unmoving gaze, she was entering a high level of concentration, pricking up her senses to the maximum possible. The slightest movement, the most miniscule adjustment in the environment... It would be detected and responded against. Arasovi had no reservations, she vanished and reappeared right in front of Ledia. Ledia launched a punch in response before vanishing as well, just to throw an additional punch from behind Arasovi. Arasovi releases a burst of destruction magic, knocking Ledia back a few metres.
In a single swift movement, Arasovi spins around and slices through the air with her leg, Ledia ducks under but Arasovi pulls her legs and thrusts it forward, smashing it into Ledia's gut. Enhanced by destruction magic, her ribs were crush once again, causing Ledia to spit out the blood that gathered in her throat from the internal injury. Her eyes bloodshot, keeps Arasovi in her vision.
Ledia than vanishes, and reappears at Arasovi's side. [Heat sets the entropic destiny], advanced technique... Copy and paste. She can use the energy she gains from this skill... To accelerate any process, even the gathering of energy. Accelerating it infinitely to the point that it takes but a single moment... She conjures the same amount of energy needed to forge her atlas armour.
She essentially copies her previous attack, then conjures it again, but instantly. A universe level bomb conjures in her palm, it's colourless, no one can comprehend the mass of energy in her palm. It's as if it had loss any physical texture, a gaping void in reality that refused to enter the minds of individuals and allow comprehension.
It was colourless, yet not transparent. It was akin to a missing texture in a game, or a visualisation of a blind individual's sight... There was nothing that could describe its appearance, there is no appearance in the first place. Just a formless mass of energy that 'existed' in that space, its presence was exceptional and untouchable. At the same time as another high kick launched by Arasovi, Ledia pushes the orb into the kick. Contact made.
Arasovi's destruction magic erases the existence of anything it touches, but there was also too much energy to erase... In other words, there was too much existing in the same space, the rate of existence erasure by [Premonition of destruction] was not catching up. God magical girls can regenerate their flesh at an infinite speed, but there was also a limit to their volume, their quantity.
No matter what, they regenerate the same amount of flesh that a teenage girl would have and nothing above that, they behave accordingly to the owner of the body's specifications. If their weight was 52 kg, it would remain 52 kg after regeneration. Nothing more, nothing less. Arasovi's destruction magic can simply overcome that infinite rate of regeneration by erasing faster, or by erasing 'what is meant to be', leaving the regeneration to recover less than normal.
The orb had infinite mass, it was too heavy too carry unless they used all of their strength. It was much more convenient for Ledia to use her magic to move it, since it's energy, Ledia could simply carry it with her magic and transport it without any difficulty. Now... It erupts in front of Arasovi, covering the world in a blinding white.
"... Was that what you thought? Overcoming the quantifiable mass of an entire universe, I simply didn't rush it, but I could if I wanted to." (Arasovi)
"... Copy and... Paste. " (Ledia)
With a single swing, she conjured a new great sword and sliced the orb out of existence. Another orb is conjured in Ledia's palm, surpassing the previous in energy and destructive power. Universe bomb x2.
" Fighting in quantity... Will not let you win." (Arasovi)
She sliced the other out of existence with her great sword. Her great sword could automatically designate a localised space and eliminate everything in that space, it was undoubtedly a Stick that was unmatched in power, since it could destroy the world if it wanted to. But if she destroyed the world now, HuoLi's anti-world, anti-destroyer magic would activate and nearly kill her. Due to the specifics of HuoLi's magic, it couldn't be nullified but Arasovi didn't need to nullify it. She simply needed to reduce its impact enough to survive it and let the rest of the damage through.
It was always a nuisance to fight someone like HuoLi, who practically incarnated in the perfect time to serve as the world's guardian. It was far more common for the world's guardian to not have incarnated yet, simply letting the destroyers eliminate their worlds. But this time it wasn't so convenient. Furthermore... Ledia's final skill would undoubtedly summon everyone again, even if Arasovi eliminates all of her enemies right now... As long as Ledia is here, her final skill will serve as a nuisance to keeps her in check. That's why... She has to kill Ledia first, and she almost accomplished it too.
Designate space, eliminate. [Premonition of destruction]. She specified the area around Ledia, and activated her great sword's destruction magic.
*Ping!*
Like a glass bottle being tapped... It shattered. Her destruction magic shattered, she would unleash her strongest destruction magic and just like that... It did nothing. This was the moment Ledia finally understood her purpose, her destiny, her reason for being chosen. It wasn't something so grand, such as becoming the destined hero to save the world, it was much simpler than that.
Her magic would be the counter to Arasovi's destruction magic. That was the simple fate that Kaori read, the magical circle specified by Ledia's magic gene, which specifies the effects of her skills. It looked to be the best existing counter magic that exists in her time.
[Heat sets the entropic destiny].... Was ultimately energy manipulation. That includes movement and conversion from different forms. Her level of proficiency over her first skill had finally risen high enough to create an entire virtual world, then it surpassed even that to a higher form of intricacy. The destruction magic was cancelled out by the energy she released, in other words... Creation magic. Her first skill pretty much created energy out of nothing, matched the exact inverse of the destruction magic's frequency and eliminated it promptly and automatically.
That was it, a small and insignificant prediction of her magic type from Kaori's eyes. Whether she would actually become a God magical girl or defeat the enemy... She didn't really know. None of this battle, this secondary time loop set by Himei, none of this was foreseen. Since Kaori killed herself to release Ledia from what was essentially purgatory, none of this had been predicted by her. It meant that she was also betting on chance, on her own fortune, that Ledia would hopefully cope with this dreadful situation and awaken her magic proficiency until it was sufficient.
It was a gamble from the very start, and Ledia struck gold. Setting new law in virtual world, combining virtual world deployment and virtual teleportation.
"Equivalent law of exchange." (Ledia)
Arasovi simply has to overwhelm the rate of countering done by the creation magic. It was at such an illogically high level of power, where magic ends up as concepts and laws to be overcome rather than countered. Simply outputting her own magic even more was the way to go, since there is no limit to magic at this stage. It came down to whose infinity was 'higher'.
Without hesitation, Arasovi shifted through space after her destruction magic failed, and impaled Ledia from the side with her left arm. Her left arm was coated in her purplish black destruction magic, forming a dreary dark metallic claw with a dark purple metallic sheen to some of its edges. Her claw plunges into Ledia's waist, the sharp edges separating whatever came in its way into two. But... Her claw vanished, leaving nothing but a flesh stump at where her left elbow was supposed to be.
The newest technique combining the previous techniques that she had already devised, the law of equivalent exchange was quite simply. An eye for an eye and a limb for a limb, by discarding something of her own... She can take something from the opponent. Naturally she chose a limb first, discarding her left leg she removed Arasovi's left arm. The virtual world showed an illusion of 'what was meant to be', in that Ledia was impaled.
But in the real world, Ledia had exchanged their limbs by simply shifting her leg into the trajectory of Arasovi's attack... Then slicing off Arasovi's arm. This exchange takes place under the virtual world's illusion, it is 'a future that could be' taking the place of 'what was meant to be' via her quantum teleportation imitation. Her mind free of having to clutch at her own armour had more freed up computational power, using infinitely accurate simulation and prediction, it arrives at 'a future that could be' while maintaining 'what was meant to be' with her virtual world.
Basically, it was a fancy light show under the guise of 'equivalent exchange'. The exchange has to be equivalent or the illusion would be easily broken through.
"Haa~ congrats." (Arasovi)
'You forced me to use my other skills.'
The world turned dark at once as a mask of black and dark purple materialises in Arasovi's palm, this would be the ascension change to her combat dress as she releases the limiter on her second skill. The mask was shaped like a traditional eastern demon, similar to an ogre but more gluttonous and vicious. Its eyelids bent into slots, its 2 large tusk like canines stretches across its jaw and below it's chin, its forehead was partially bald with sparse strand of hair. It was an oni mask, but it was hard to make out its features in the dark, considering its pitch black hue that only had a hint of dark purple.
Gradually, smoothly, the mask drifted to her face. The tiny slanted slits it had for eye holes glowed subtly as Arasovi's eyes peer through them, studying her prey.
"... Even with my overwhelming presence, I was never the leader of the destroyers.
Just a little snidbit of our daily lives... You do not want to see Arasovi's second skill. Your partner's dead, and you won't be able to help her with me here. " (Kaori alternative)
Certainly. Ledia felt incredible fear, akin to a gigantic looming presence that would never go away, the difference in strength grips her shoulders with its frigid icy touch. Her back muscles convulse and so do her arms in an attempt to retain her composure. There was nothing else that came to her mind, she truly felt like prey caught in a cage, ready to be eaten.
A foreboding sense of death was threatening to snap her neck and to bring her eternal darkness at any moment, like freezing frosty fingers clasping her her nape ready to exert crushing force before she even noticed. It was as if she was a sitting duck, getting ready to be shot down at any moment without her notice. A death that she cannot predict with her virtual clairvoyance, a gruesome end that cannot be imagined.
5 circles appear behind Arasovi's back, radiating outwards like a rain drop's aftermath. Her body floated effortlessly, but her muscles were all tensed up and ready to deal the finishing blow, that was the impression that Ledia had. It looked ephemeral and majestic, like an angel descending to announce her death. There was no question or doubt about it, her death would be announced and she would die without any uncertainty.
Her heartbeat dropped and her breath was held with bated anxiety. A sliver of cold sweat slid across her temples, holding off for a few moments before sliding down to her cheeks. When it reached her cheek...
"[Absolute adornment of an auxiliary quietus, fula fati miseria]." (Arasovi)
Another flash of her past paints across her mind, a time from a moment long past... To the point that she had no idea when it was that it happened. Bodies line the streets, impaled on fiery pikes. Not a single one was spared, not a single body left untainted. Especially the children... They were no longer recognisable, she could no longer discern who was who... She had only shared a meal with them just the day before.
A world that would allow this... She will sentence its doom through the oppressive strings of fate that bore down on her. Happenstance, coincidences... Miracles... All of it becomes worthless under the crushing oppression of fate. This was the pressure that Ledia felt, a conceptual pain that only the user, Arasovi could ever get used to. There's plenty of time... No need to rush.