*
"Final skill, [I'll gladly take your hand]..." (Yumi)
The summer that never returned... Just what layed across that mystical time? The skills of magical girls always orbitted a theme or a few closely related themes, even if only related loosely there is still a sort of connection between them. It's not uncommon for that connection to be the magical girl themselves, meaning that it might seem quite random but the skill effects actually revolve around their life experiences. Yumi's first skill manipulated life and death, an exceedingly rare and ridiculously powerful effect.
The first thing that came to mind would be the attachment to life, the desire preserve someone's existence. The second skill of hers materialised an entire world related to the caster's vision of tranquility, other than creating an entire world and replacing the previous world, it also corroded at the target's mind with 'tranquility' and killed their aggression. Himei easily halted that mind corrosion process by keeping an eye on the outside of that false world, a tether to actual reality and her purpose. They were undoubtedly at the edge of the world, a place where only gods can come to fight.
A desire for life, and a desire for peace... She could use her first skill to conjure instant death on enemies, but it would require the magic to reach her enemies. There was also the fact that she hasn't used it that way yet. She might be saving it for later, or she might not be able to use it... Properly. The final skill is the crystallisation of one's zenith, the summit of their individuality and ego. In other words, it could have been her answer to the threat that she faced in her world.
*Ping*
Her vision is shrouded in darkness. Originally, Himei was physically blind... She had been using her first skill to look at the world around her, but she had to live with this blindness under her family's care before awakening into a magical girl...
What happened? She lost control over her own magic, so it stopped sending information to her... There's no sense of smell, taste or anything here in the traditional sense, the edge of the world is a sub dimension that physically exists in the main dimension. Spacially, it is a single infinitesimal small point in the universe that has been expanded infinitely to create this realm without a boundary. The usual 5 senses do not work here, though the magical girls that can make it here are god magical girls, so they more than likely have other ways to collect information and simulate their normal senses.
That in itself is cut off for Himei, isolated with nothing left that she can do... Yumi's final skill took control of all magic in the vicinity. Even Himei's augmentations had been arrested from her. This situation was jot unforeseen. To put it bluntly, she 'saw' the future and let it happen. A reality where her magic had been taken away... Her transformation was undone. The transformation could clear away any wounds that had, but she was born blind, her condition was not considered a wound by the magic.
"... Die." (Yumi)
One final glimpse into her past. The window to Yumi's soul shattered open as memories poured into Himei's mind. Himei could see many things. Himei had learnt many things. Secrets passed down only in her family. A generic technique anybody could use, secret blood magic, sparkling life invigoration. Her blood shone a bright pale blue through her skin, like a ferocious fire of full combustion. All Yumi needed to do was to touch her, untransformed, a human was more fragile than sand to a magical girl. But Himei's blood magic had activated, all she needed was to perceive Yumi in this instant.
The blood magic sent the information values of Yumi. She didn't need any help from the blood magic... To transform once more. It was only to compensate her slowed perception of time. Final skill [Perception dances under the sole observer of the universe]. Her magic had been taken away, so she quickly absorbed more magic from the atmosphere, taking control over it and casted her final skill. Yumi's attack stuck, blowing a large hole in the side of her body, leaving nothing but her head, a single arm and leg loosely connected by the flesh of her torso.
"...?!" (Yumi)
She realised it too late, believing in the superiority of her final skill. She had assumed the opponent would give up as long as they were forcefully untransformed. The true effect of the blood magic was compensation, it allowed Himei to perceive time at the same speed as her opponent for an instant. She used that instant to transform, of course there was no time to dodge. In other words, she had planned to persevere through the attack.
The blood rushing from her ruptured organs and flesh spilled out relentlessly, it was harder to find space where there wasn't any blood floating around. The floating blood rushes back into her body, her flesh melded together to form newly created cells. Her body rapidly recovers back into a flawless state without any injuries. She had lost all her magic, but she regained an absurdly small amount and recovered back to normal.
[Perception dances under the sole observer of the universe], while Yumi tries to take control of Himei's magic once more, she puts an entire universe's worth of distance between them. Himei had ascended into a higher level of observation, as if looking through a snow globe to observe Yumi's puny figure. Using her final skill, Yumi destroyed that snow globe, leaving Himei lost on where Yumi was located.
However there was a simple work around to losing a bit of her vision. The areas that she cannot observe would be where Yumi is present. She shoots a single white sphere at the boundary darkness, the space where her vision is encroached and robbed. The white sphere quickly reaches the centre and erupts into an explosion on the level of a big bang. She didn't have to go through any of the amplification that Ledia did, with a single swing of her arm, such an attack had been released. There is no limit to their magic, no need to hesitate on what they can achieve.
Just throw in your all. One burning fist carrying bearing the might of her monumental will, her stars aligned and her breath held and reserved room for her mind. All of her magic converted into raw destructive energy, Yumi's skill forcefully took control over magical particles, she can't control the raw energy as easily. Himei arrived being Yumi, dispelling the encompassing darkness on her vision brought by Yumi's blinding. Combining the sphere attack and her punch at once, it was as if she used the sphere as a smoke screen, a deadly smoke screen with enough destructive energy to warrant caution.
Yumi blocked the sphere and received the punch in her gut, her body disintegrates, leaving her limbs and head resisting with what's left of her regeneration. Yumi used her final skill once more, disabling Himei's magic and transformation once more. Himei, had already converted her magic energy to one last charge of [Perception dances under the sole observer of the universe].
It pops open like an egg, releasing blinding light. She was perceived... As deceased. Her revival magic didn't work because she didn't die, she was already in a state of death. There was no transition from life to death, the only state available was death. Her magic would revive someone if there was an original state of being alive in the first place, but Himei's perception took that away. The original state was rendered non existent, so the skill no longer worked, as if she was considered an inanimate object that the magic would never apply to.
The final glimpse of her life slips into Himei's eye. The girl sat on the bench next to her had blood dripping down her lips. The stench of iron had long permeated their perimeter, Yumi brought her body here. There was no hope for her... Or this world... Rather, it was because the world was gone with the exception of this park, gently, aimlessly wandering the endless depths of space.
Without a world to belong in, without bodies to revive and save, it was an ice cold space that denied any living being. No light, no warmth, no food, no energy, uninhabitable. Her world had been thoroughly destroyed, Yumi couldn't bear to revive her in this doomed world. There was no other choice, it was a far better fate to have remained dead before she witnessed this desolate helpless reality with her own eyes. It was enough for Yumi to bear all of it. They were the only 2 humans left in the universe.
It would have been a dream come through... In one of Yumi's inconsequential fantasies. But this was reality, it was a cold slap to the face that she could never ignore. Her magic doesn't allow her to rewind time and bring everyone back, nor does it allow her to defeat whoever destroyed her world.
'... You're a magical girl...?! Cool!'
'... Wouldn't it be lonely if you were the only one to live forever... Maybe you could make friends with other magical girls! Then you wouldn't be approached by loneliness ever!'
'I wonder how it feels. To be saving others and feeling like you are giving back to society through your own worth...'
'What would be crossing your mind during those times? What ideas would be caressing your thoughts now?'
'When you see someone you save, how do you feel? Is it good? Was it amazing? It must be amazing! You made an irreplaceable impact on someone's life! You would be remembered for the rest of their time on this earth...'
'... If you could save the world at my expense, you should. Compared to the rest of humanity, a single should be easy to trade, right? '
' If you would go on to be famous as a heroic magical girl in the entire world, perhaps it might be best to forget about me.'
... How could Yumi ever forget... It wasn't something she could so easily dispose of... It was nowhere close. She held dearly onto her best friend for her entire life, perhaps she might even have developed feelings for her. In the end, she still could not protect her daily life, her happiness and everything else she held dear to her heart. She had never forgotten, she was always a magical girl stuck in the past. Never advancing, never changing, never growing stronger. She was weak for a destroyer, but strong for a person.
Perhaps that's why she joined the destroyers, so she could find someone. Anyone, who could turn back her time genuinely, back to the good old days before everything started. Her relationship must have gotten strained after awakening as a magical girl, the biggest difference was that she spent less time with her. A regret she could never repent for.
"... You have been delivered from your sorrows. Rest well, magical girl Yumi." (Himei)
***
Yumi of Extermination was defeated. Meanwhile, Huo Li was also finishing up her fight with Neah Ari. Ari was suppressed by the incessant raining of deadly material by Huo Li. Her first skill, Huo Li was able to conjure a material and manipulate it dynamically with her will. The substance is 4th dimensional and can not be destroyed, it can only be superimposed out of existence by ridiculous reality warping magic or simply be wished out of existence by its owner.
Using it liberally, she fires a rainstorm of this substance, nothing short of space magic can stop such destructive power, even then if it imitated a saw like motion it could even cut through spatial barriers. Such a substance was currently raining down from the sky without end, a hellish maelstrom of death and violence permeates the air. Using the rain as a cover, Ari was unable to lock onto Huo Li to steal her skill. She could only try her best with her second skill's effect, value manipulation, to decrease the velocity and lethality of the rain. Her thoughts were dead silent, systematically thinking up ideas to get out of this predicament and preserve her life.
She dodges some of the rain while reducing the danger of the rest, silently and assuredly bringing herself closer to victory. Here, as long as she didn't die she was getting stronger, faster and more adapted to Huo Li's attack. Once she could completely dodge it effortlessly, she would guarantee her own victory by simply dodging anything Huo Li could throw at her. Likewise, Huo Li cannot hit Ari with her second skill to guarantee attack priority. They both inch closer, a vision of the other's death gradually became more vivid in their minds.