*
Destiny itself had been recognised as a gradient back in the battle with Zedicia. This time, instead of designating everything as a gradient to be controlled... She used magic which was way simpler and designated everything as a gradient to be destroyed. She saw her magic get destroyed over and over again, so she thought to physically cut everything of her enemy's apart, including her magic.
She could cease the movement of Arasovi's magic before, but now she can cut it apart in faster time. It was just simple, more primitive and efficient. By applying conflicting gradients, it's existence falls apart instantly. Everything in the universe follows a single gradient, to reach its most stable state. Humans call it as what is most 'natural', which would usually be what is most frequently appearing in the world. What is most frequent would also be what is most stable, in other words the 'norm' identified by humans and labelled as 'natural' is changed by [Hollow calamity], the ability to alter a natural state to something desired.
It matches the [panta rhei] in Kaori's final skill, about the constant flow of all things from one state to another, stating that everything in the universe is one universal constant merely appearing in different states deemed 'most stable'. That's why... Setting conflicting gradients on the same object will corrupt its existence and force it to fall apart and gradually fade out of existence into 2 objects. The effect of her rapier is simple, set 2 opposing gradients so that it could cleanly slice apart anything that remotely approaches the concept of 'existence' in this world.
Arasovi's authority, her changes to history... Anything can be cut apart and rendered in a 'corrupted' state of dysfunction. Even her regeneration. Her wounds do not heal after the second time. In the first time, her regeneration overcame the conflicting gradients, but the attacks would only get stronger. One more slice, Kaori cut Arasovi in half once more and any defence she could possibly conjure. Everything her rapier comes across results in dysfunction and failure. The forth slice expanded her rapier to the size of an average planet and erased everything at once, leaving nothing behind.
"Your grudge against your world... And all injustice... I'll take it away from you.
I cannot change someone else's idealogy, it's like erasing them away as a person. So similarly to Hikari... Rest in peace, magical girl I could not save." (Kaori)
***(Ledia vs Kaori Alternative)
There was a cross of light stuck in Kaori's left waist. It was part of Ledia' s new technique 'resolution spark', which measured the opponent's durability and conjured an equivalent amount of energy to destroy it. In other words, it was a bomb that made sure to finish the kill. But... The cross doesn't erupt...
'[Calamity]'s specialty was movement. Even if a cross somehow didn't get deflected or sliced apart... She can stop it from erupting... How dreadful... For now, summon more crosses and fly back some distance. Even if it' s meaningless, if it made Ledia feel even a tiny bit better then there's some meaning to it. Unlike the other god magical girls, Ledia doesn't exactly have a lifetime's worth of experience, her ego isn't exactly develop to strive and eclipse the opponent. As an ordinary person, abstract conceptual magic was still hard to grasp, not to mention eccentric abilities like Arasovi's authority and the versatility of skills.
Despite how everyone's skills have a 'known effect', they could still be used creatively to exhibit complex techniques that seem far from their initial descriptions. The easiest example would be Ledia's own virtual world deployment, her first skill's official effect is the manipulation of energy which handles conversion between different types of energy and conjuring energy out of nothing but magical energy, which is a conversion in itself. What was different with other types of energy... Was that magical particles hold an infinite amount of energy, but just like other things in reality...
It has a stable and unstable state. It is stable when completely full, like a calm fish tank with a languid turbine. But when some of that energy is used, it becomes less stable and essentially impossible for magical girls to handle, like a half filled fish tank, but now it had a turbine that's able stir the water even faster and cause chaos. That was why magical girls could only use a portion of the energy in magical particles, despite their ostensibly wealth of endless energy. That begs the question, how big is the tank? How much energy does a single magical particle truly have?
It is timeless and massless, it does not occupy time nor space, yet it occupies all of time and space. In a way, the energy drawn from them is akin to drawing energy from the universe itself, the Vermanian Faith would claim that at a single point in time, the universe was empty save for the singularity of the big bang, I the instant inbetween coming into existence and eruption... It was absolute in the universe. It was one true God and also the creator of the universe... That's why the existing world they live in is actually the corpse of God. That would include magical particles, in a way magic was the blessing of the almighty.
Ledia can verify. It was infinite, having no form yet is all form in existence, the magical particles and the big bang are one in the same in that they are absolute... Yet magical particles could be observed to be many discrete units, so there is not only one, but an immeasurable amount of this 'absolute'. But what if everyone was going about it wrong? What if the particles are not quantum spheres imagined similarly to atoms, but are actually a localised volume of space... That acts as a portal to the same source of energy? If the particles are simply portals to the same source of energy, then there is an 'absolute' one instead of an 'absolute' numerous.
'Is there a difference? They function exactly the same even if they are rationalised as portals. As long as I can use them, I'm fine with whatever the hell these things are.' (Ledia)
She crossed her arms and conjure enough crosses to block the sky. Akin to a sea of sharp edges, they all contain enough energy to kill the current Kaori alternative. Even if an 'infinite' stat is merely one that never stops growing in numerical value, the next cross will have enough energy to destroy her. Kaori grips her reddish black rapier even tighter, her body growing a dark crimson as if to radiate the world's collective evils. It might have been an influence of Arasovi, or it might have something to do with what happen in her original world. The changes led the Kaoris to be identical yet different people.
Her swing was invisible to the eye, she was climbing in strength and speed far more rapidly than Ledia was, visually her rapier hadn't moved one bit. But it was easy for Ledia to know that she actually moved... There were 2 slashes lining her face in a cross shape, splitting her skull and its contents into quarters. The crosses explode, filling the realm with enough energy to disintegrate the universe over and over again, homogenising it's entirety to the same level of heat as a quasar and then more.
She reabsorbs all the heat and used it as energy to regenerate her wounded head which had 2 clean slices graze past it. Her body returned to normal in no time and she began conjuring more crosses without hesitation.
"... I thought I was strong, what a monster..." (Kaori alternative)
Nevertheless, she spoke with a smile peaking through her gritted teeth. Watching all the heat straight up get sucked up by Ledia, as if she was a powerful vacuum that could consume all the energy in the universe... Was surreal to say the least. Arasovi was skilled. There was no other way to describe it. No matter what magic Ledia put out, it would get destroyed before it bore any fruits, it was suffocating not being able to even see her own magic take effect in reality. She felt like a normal person again, powerless within all the disasters plaguing her life.
Truthfully, before she got wrapped up in all this troublesome drivel... All she wanted to do was to take the life of those cultist... It seemed the initial attack by the cultists, the attack that took her mother was not orchestrated by Kaori. Facing that absurdly mentally damaging time loop, her first instinct was to pin all of her problems on Kaori and her frivolous time loop. She might not even have known about Ledia's family situation... She certainly knew about her father but not her mother.
Having command over an infinite amount of energy was practically the qualification to be a god magical girl. So she can't rely on quantity too much to fight, even though can abuse it as much as she wanted, it wouldn't ever finish the fight. She had to be innovative, and since she was far lacking in combat experience, she had to be objective. She had to be realistic in how she subjugate her opponent, since she's not winning in a battle of ego and surpassing infinities.
She conjured countless more crosses and shot them all just as they surface into reality. The storm of crosses forced Kaori to run and try to lose them while Ledia steadily caught up to her. In a battle of 2 infinities, one would try to grow as fast as they can and reach a new league of power, power that is substantially higher than the opponent's and enough to easily dispute any contest of power.
However, they also become a reference point of power, a goal for the other side to reach and eclipse in the same instant. Essentially, a battle between infinities is a battle between 2 egos, more fittingly conceptualised as a seesaw. One side will go up, causing the other the go down. The other side will follow suit and go up, causing the initial side to go back down.
Ledia is not suitable to fight on this seesaw normally, she has to use the legs to press against the ground and pull the seesaw and her body up with her arm strength, she has to find a way that objectively guarantees her victory.
Ledia flies after Kaori once more, shorting her crosses like a fighter jet in a dog fight. Finally, a veil of Determinism arrives. Much like the Kaori that Ledia knew, it was jet black pillar of light that came from the sky... Except that this one was the size of the milky way and still expanding. Kaori had been buying time to launch this attack. The last step was to restrain Ledia and prevent her from running out of its range. It was obvious what the most efficient restrain was... Herself.
Using her second skill, she froze Ledia in time before the sheer density of the energy around her... Melted away the magic and the resultant restrains from it... But this was not her only plan. It ultimately hinges on herself, physically blocking her way and impeding her escape. She tries to fly in a single direction, but Kaori appears before her with her blood red rapier held ready.
Every direction she flies towards, Kaori alternative would show up and prevent her from moving any more distance. She caused some crosses to explode, but Kaori slices the smoke apart in half and floods its location away with wind pressure. She swings some of her crosses and rains them wherever she goes, but with a single swing of Kaori's rapier... The crosses erupt into a deluge of chaotic energy. At every opening, Kaori appears with a prepared swing, ready to cut apart Ledia and her energy attacks.
With the flat side of her blade, she readies for the moment Ledia smashes against the flat side in retaliation towards her, but the moment her blade made contact... She launched Ledia towards the Veil of Determinism, the pillar of infinite pressure crashing down on everyone. Ledia sliced at the air with her crosses, in an attempt to disrupt any technique deployed by Kaori alternative, but the Veil comes crashing down and impacts Ledia normally.
Passing through the veil, Kaori alternative watched as her opponent was falling from the heavens like an asteroid entering the earth's atmosphere. It rushed towards the nonexistent ground below them and eroded away at her being. Ledia's combat dress was beginning to dissolve under the sheer pressure as she was continuously pushed into the abyss.