*
"... Between Kaori and you, who is stronger?" (Vegaltari)
"Hmm? Of course it'll be me. So what if she's fighting your big boss? If it were up to me, I could defeat the both of them!" (Barius)
After all, that is 'perfection'. If 'perfection' could be defeated, then it would no longer be 'perfection'. A stark difference in dispositions with Vegaltari... Regardless, this is not the place for her to fall.
" [Veritas of justitia: PERMANENT JUSTICE OF AN INVIOLABLE BASTION]." (Barius)
She applies her final skill once more, before anyone could blink, her feet had planted firmly into Vegaltari's torso for a frontal kick. As 'perfection', surely she would have attack priority over her opponent? She rained a few fists into her body, then slams a high kick into her head, sending her flying away. Then she opens up her palm, conjuring beams of white that burn through the air and melt everything down. Infinite energy, an unadulterated and raw form of brute force.
Vegaltari steps in mid air and leapts off of it, running off into the distance only to be followed by the white beams. The columns of energy arc through the air and tear apart at the distance. Then... Vegaltari swerves her feet and turns her body, she switches direction. She runs towards Barius.
"No matter what, I wouldn't give up. No matter how many cheats you have!" (Vegaltari)
It felt like the roles were reversed. Vegaltari's leg pressed into the air with all of her weight, before throwing the rest of her body forward. Her fist lands squarely on Barius', she never felt her body output this much force before. She could feel it deep in her body, her mind, the strongest attack she had ever conjured. Mechanism set, 'I am the strongest'. As the mechanism was activated after 'perfection' did, Barius was surpassed and pushed back. Even further, Vegaltari can push even more!
What is it she wished to accomplish? What is it she so desperately yearned for, that she could now throw her life on the line and risk for...? Vegaltari wants to win! She wants to defeat Barius here, get stronger and end Arasovi! And her first obstacle is here. The fire burning in her heart... This time... Surely this time it wouldn't be extinguished immediately... This wasn't the first time she got fired up about fighting Arasovi, it was simply that the other times she always backed off at the last moment out of fear...
She wouldn't deny it and make excuses. She was weak, she was afraid that she would lose to Arasovi. She definitely saw herself as the last remnant of her own world, a single remnant that she didn't want to vanish out of fate... She knows it was hypocritical, considering she led to the destruction of many other worlds... But if she could just be selfish for a little bit... She twisted her body, spinning to slam her leg into Barius from Vegaltari's left, cancelling the clash of their right arms. A small distance was created between them, much less than buying time, both individuals could cross that distance instantly without any difficulty.
Yet they walk. There is no land or sky in this grey realm, but they walk on the border of the universe, the boundary of all things existing and will exist in the future. The edge of the world is not the physical limit of the observable universe, but a subdimensional compression of everything that is and will be. Even physical laws that will only be invented in the future, that will only exist later, are a part of this place. A metaphysical summation of everything.
God magical girls can reach this place by simply walking into it through infinite velocity. They physically arrive here, and now they battle it out. Whatever they used to get here, be it time, space or even reality bending magic... It all becomes meaningless as do the laws of the universe. Even if one were to toy with natural laws like energy and gravity as if they were simple instruments of entertainment... They become equal here. That is... Until they surpass themselves. The first step was to surpass their own limits just as they did with the universe to reach here in the first place.
" ['Perfection'] - violate." (Barius)
"[Cataclysm] - fixate." (Vegaltari)
A black light similar to the violent voltage of electricity arched from Barius' body, before striking forward to form a layered cone shape similar to a Rose's continuous petals. A straight white beam with block like holes and black circles conjured from Vegaltari's palm and shot forward to intercept it. The two opposing forces collide vigorously, pushing each other without end. A fruitless engagement, expending infinite energy without end. But such was a battle between god magical girls, one could say their physical fights were also pointless due to their beyond absurd regeneration, but it was more so a duty of morale.
As such... She wouldn't want to win if it was just a boring battle of energy beams. Her law violating beam pushed against Vegaltari's law repairing beam ever so thoroughly, tearing away at reality relentlessly to gain any possible edge it could. Meanwhile Vegaltari's beam repaired reality and took away any advantage that appeared, taking away the momentum of its enemy. Barius dived into her own energy beam, her fist at the ready. She planned to punch away her problems, maybe she was too influenced by Kaori who stopped using her sword and began using her fist when things got tough.
There wasn't much of a difference in what weapons they used, other than reach and technique. Sharpness or blunt force no longer mattered when both parties were firing attacks that could blow up universe's, the quantity of damage became a meaningless concept. It's only whether the attacks land or not, now. Barius' fist busted through her own black and evil looking beam of energy, inching closer to her target. In an instant, her intervention shattered the white beam and landed on Vegaltari. It landed on her palm, Vegaltari caught the fist and proceeded to land some counters.
Catching the fist with her left palm, she repositioned herself closer and to the side, throwing her right palm at Barius' face. Barius swung her left arm up to block her face, but Vegaltari switched from a palm to a fist, twisting and locking her wrist to drive in some extra momentum to punch the blocking arm. It bruised and shattered the bones inside Barius' arm, and the force sent her flying backwards, but she quickly regained her balance and swung her leg high into the air. Her knee makes contact, Vegaltari rushed at her after sending her into the air with her fist, only to receive a knee to the torso.
"Guhah?!" (Vegaltari)
Without pause, Barius sent a few punches in right after her knee struck Vegaltari, punching away her augmentations and blowing holes in her body. Her left arm and right waist vaporised, then her left hip was also blown off, separating her legs from her torso diagonally. In one swift motion, Vegaltari regrew her legs and swung them to the side, blowing off Barius' head. Of course, even her head was regenerated.
It was an odd comparison, but God magical girls either subconsciously or consciously assimilate with magical particles upon ascension. They become like slime, where any part of their being is homogeneous and can regenerate the rest of their body's contents, but are also spiritual in nature where their soul is formed from magical circuits and are able to survive without a physical body. There is no 'true body' or 'puppet body' that this nature of souls suggests, some are even able to survive without both.
Barius' survival is guaranteed. She has achieved 'perfection', but 'perfection' has always existed as an abstract concept. It could be liken to a mantle, a title without an owner, that was until Barius got ahold of it. But one does not 'gain perfection', they 'become perfection'. In other words, as long as this concept exists, Barius will continue to exist. Similarly to how Hikari's existence will persist as long as the nature of disasters are present in some universe out there. Barius was truly an unmatched monster, she could probably contend with Arasovi if given the chance...
That's why, Vegaltari has to go beyond her own limits, even more so than Barius. She reaches her fingertips as far as she could stretch, extending to a degree beyond common sense and preconceptions. She must surpass Arasovi to defeat Barius and Arasovi. Then, the other destroyers might side with Arasovi as well, she would need power to defeat them too... Every single one of them... All coalescing into a never ending tragedy...
She had it all wrong the whole time. She had been patiently waiting for someone... Someone strong enough to take out Arasovi. And when she finally gained the resolve to fight for herself, she mistakenly believed that it was akin to climbing a ladder, step by step she will overcome stronger enemies until she reached a level high enough to beat Arasovi. Reality was much crueler than that, there was no such convenience. Every single God magical girl is a pain to kill, they either possess absolute power or ridiculous immortality.
The right approach was this... Ascend. Rise, grip her strength with her own fist, get strong enough to defeat Arasovi... Now! Not after defeating Barius, but right now! Her thoughts didn't need much time to settle, for some reason she felt incredibly composed despite the danger of facing Barius. Did she simply trust Barius, her currently opposing mortal enemy... To hold back on her? What was she thinking? Why did she believe so? Even something like that, Vegaltari no longer knew. Perhaps it was simple faith. A deep trust in herself, and her own fate.
Vegaltari slipped close, throwing out punch after punch. Sending a jab in, Barius blocked and countered with a cross, using the distance to gain more momentum while twisting her hips to add her body weight. Vegaltari saw through it and decided to smash her head through it. Her flesh collided against itself, as if rubbing off of her face, lacerations form as her cells were unable to resist the force and separated themselves. There was only so much her body could take when diving head first into an attack, but due to her own charging momentum, a left portion of her head blew out and the right slid in further.
Looking like a zombie, she reached breathing distance to Barius and her own fist reached Barius' face. It landed squarely into her nose, spreading her attack into every bit of her skull. The realm around here was already grey, the concept of time no longer existed, so Barius' time stop was completely useless here. But her water, it was still completely fine. As stated, the edge of the world was point where magical girls had crossed the barrier of infinity... So if they surpassed it... With say, their primary skill, they might be able to conjure a miracle here.
Beyond infinity, beyond 'perfection', a fluid that transcends all. A fundamental of life, another Barius appeared. Replicated by water, she looked nearly identical if not for the glossy reflection in her skin. What if a human was 100% water? What if a magical girl was 100% magically conjured water? The multiple Barius stepped closer before vanishing. They were all closing in on Vegaltari at speeds that transcend visibility, her heart lay still, not letting the unexpected wave of enemies get to her composure.
In the end, they were all physical beings, she could exist even if they completely annihilated her physical body. In other words, it was like a layer of protection that kept her alive, her body could be sacrificed to prolong her soul. She whispered smoothly faster than they moved, her most precious magic. Primary skill, [Cataclysm].
"[Mourning blessed the undue, Cataclysm], Fixate upon the world, your origin, your will." (Vegaltari)
Every destroyer either kept themselves in the hierarchy via nigh immortality or hyper violence. Their defining magic deterred the rest from ambushing them as mutual destruction was in nobody's interest. Vegaltari's style of preserving her significance was the latter method. She designated laws upon the universe, akin to a power of creation as if to be the antithesis to Barius' 'perfection' that violates the world's laws. However that was akin to a side effect, its original effect is not to recreate laws broken by 'perfection', but to create new and unnatural laws that perpetuate her strength and brutality.
'Perfection' would negate any law she set up by virtue of being present, due to its unfair and ludicrous inherent nature. But for a short moment, all the water doubles and the real Barius stopped moving. The law dictated that she received a fist from Vegaltari. Every single one of them ate a punch. Unfortunately they were all durable, but the momentum of the punch blew them backwards and created some distance.