*
"Why do you resist? Why do you fight? Your power, it's useless against me." (Barius)
She spoke with an emotionless tone, she didn't really care about what she said or if there were any answers to her questions, rather it was all meant to be provocation. What exactly continued to drive Vegaltari despite the bleak odds? Only she could decide that.
A brilliant glow rose from the skin of her fist, a pale blue light flashed brightly like the searchlights of a lighthouse, drawing a wide and bright whitish diamond in the dull grey realm. She wasn't out of moves yet, even if [Cataclysm] doesn't work, she still had 2 more skills. Before she was defeated, killed, as long as she could move or use her magic, then there was hope.
"Second skill. [Fallen star signals the distant end]." (Vegaltari)
Beyond setting up rules, beyond paradoxes or loopholes that break rules, what else could there be left? After extensively setting up the stage so extravagantly, manipulating the universe and bending it to one's own will to the point of complete distortion, is there really anything left to do? This skill isn't a reality altering type of abstract concept, it isn't a narrative focused magic that ensures the future goes however the user wants. It's simple, it's the concept of magic, yet it is also far different from accessing the library of akasha to use any magic in existence.
Make a wish with your will, your heart shatters under the burden like a fragmented mirror. The fragments betray the true image of your hopes. The world of grey shifts under her feet, blending and overlapping itself until it reveals a deep darkness. But this darkness is not caused by a lack of light, it's conjured by the crowding of matter, suffocation of density. Once more, white cracks spread throughout the darkness, like a screen creaking over an endless abyss.
It shatters, bringing into fruition a different world. The smell of wild grass and the fading scent of the sun taints the vast plains under her feet. After manipulating the rules of the universe, the next skill creates an entire universe. Perhaps it was a recreation of what was once destroyed, or perhaps it was a completely new world built from scratch. Barius couldn't verify, though admittedly it didn't matter much to her. What mattered was that the magic was strong enough to bypass her defences and pull her into another dimension.
A magical girl's magic defences is much like a firewall protecting a digital domain from viruses. Her magic defence denoted by her 'Will' statistic similarly protects her body from any magic. Only when the firewall has been overcame that the virus' effect will start affecting the computer. So why was it that her defence was so easily breached? Much less the infinite stats brought by 'perfection'...
A magic that goes above mental magic or enemy targeting magic. These 2 categories can be easily overcome with higher magic defence, simply being more dense with magical particles in their body will shatter these sorts of skills apart, like punching a hard rock with a piece of paper, the paper will tear. Then Vegaltari's skill is easy to understand, it's replacing the very ground that the rock stands on. Nothing is being done to the rock, so there's no need to breach any defences.
An entirely different universe, recreated from scratch. Her 'perfection' could tell her that much, none of these were an illusion. The radiance of the late morning sun, the gentle and slightly scalding breeze. The texture of the dried leaves that were caught by that very breeze. An odd sense of serenity seeps into her mind, she felt like she could start a new life here.
A comfortable tranquility wraps around her body, lulling her into a soothing slumber. None of these were artificial phenomenons recreated by magic, there was no magic producing the chemicals that trigger these emotions in her. They were all done organically, this environment was truly an inviting one. One that gave someone the leeway to forget everything for a moment, relieve all their burdens and seek a new beginning...
"Hahaha... FUHAHAHAHA?! What?! I am 'perfection', how could you have the gall to believe I am not satisfied with my current life? There is no other!" (Barius)
Her arrogance was raised beyond the maximum, she felt on top of the world at this moment. 'Perfection' is a paradox that causes the world itself to creak with vulnerabilities. A paradox that allows any reconciliation. She could see herself as the person with the best life in every world, but also have the empathy to appreciate the life of others... All just to recognise her own inherent superiority. The world itself shatters once more, but it also begins to repair itself. Vegaltari is consciously repairing it.
To put it bluntly, her second skill creates a new world and offers a new possibility... A new beginning. The more someone is dissatisfied with their life, the more they would want to start a new life. It is the sort of transcendental magic that makes the enemy forget their purpose and become a sitting target for elimination. But it didn't seem to work for Barius... At least not mentally.
Her 'perfection' has protected her mind, but physically and magically she has returned to the state of a normal girl. Her stats are still infinite, but when interacting with this world... The world reacts to her actions as if she was an absolutely ordinary individual with no magical properties. In other words, the word itself has infinite stats and is actively cancelling out anything supernatural about her without debuffing her inherent capabilities, rather the world itself is now matching up to her through adjustment. One could fittingly call this place heaven, where even the gods are nothing but the common people.
Vegaltari herself also becomes physically normal. But they're both able to use magic, while only Vegaltari and detect other individuals from afar. Since this was a world she created, she can sense other individuals that are inside her world. All of this amounts to Vegaltari using her magic to launch a sneak attack. Her first skill can create new physical laws, whether it would be turning the grass blades underneath Barius into iron, or to change the soft wind into a destructive explosion.
The wind shifts around and she feels something hot inside her head. When did it happen? A spike made of high pressured water has impaled her skull, and she could firmly tell that Barius has gone behind her. All of it had happened in an instant. Her other 2 skills, other than the 'perfection' she has boasted thus far...
"[Second step to completion], time stop. Essentially it slows down time to an infinite degree, it's useless here but it gave me a sliver of time to look around and find you.
[First step to perfection], I manipulate water. I sense large and perculiarly shaped water content here, it was you. Then I prepared the spike and a body double from the surrounding grass. " (Barius)
Things like magical augmentations that make the body stronger, time stop, spatial manipulation and all the other fancy powers do not work here. But something incredibly simply like 'making water' and 'attacking with water' is completely possible. The theme of Barius' magic is fluidity, with the first skill having the very blatant function of moving and making water. The second concerns the fluidity of time, making it more fluid to move faster or none fluid to stop, regardless it involved editing the world's settings itself so it didn't work here. The time stop lasts for an instant, only enough to grasp Vegaltari's general location.
Her last skill involved the fluidity of concepts, in order for the paradox of 'perfection' to exists, she has to make the universe more fluid and accepting of paradoxes, at least enough to allow herself to exist. The universe's rejection of paradoxes could be described as a rigid cage, so if she made the cage more fluid and flexible she could push it a little and allow her own 'perfection' to exist. This also messed with the world itself, making it useless in Vegaltari's world.
Her first skill does not edit the world. It creates water and is able to do simple instructions like 'move', 'mold', 'break the target' or 'shoot the target'. It was completely uninhibited. Vegaltari could feel it more clearly now, there were 2 presences, both were Barius.
"Too bad. [Mourning blessed the undue, Cataclysm], 'Water cannot hurt me'." (Vegaltari)
The water spike is ejected out of her body, and it was if time had rewound. Her body was now completely fine... Yet they were standing in the same position, revealing that time was in fact not touched at all. Like a rubber band, the skewered bits of her skull fragments and brain ejected and bounced back into her wound, and so did the water bounce out of her wound. The water sword swings once more before reversing her grip to swing backwards and return it to its initial position. A second blade comes rushing from her left hand, it had been conjured while the right was being swung back.
Each clash was met with the roots of a tree nearby, they rise up to form a thick wall before being cut down by each slash. A new wall takes the place of the previous one to continue taking the brunt of Barius' attack. Meanwhile, the real Barius had been running around, getting closer to Vegaltari's location. Vegaltari was occupied by the water clone, but she wasn't too dumb to believe Barius was twiddling her thumbs while she was distracted.
Vegaltari steps closer, a tree root from faraway flies through mid air and intercepts an overhead slash. Vegaltari ducks under the high root and swings her fist to strike Barius' torso. Her torso breaks apart, as it was made of simple water. The clone wasn't really durable unlike the sword it swung, but that was the least of Vegaltari's concern. The clone and the water swords fell apart, becoming sustenance for the surrounding grass. Then 5 more clones came out of the ground around her, each with 2 blades each. They all rush her at once, their speeds haven't dropped.
Everyone moved at normal human speed here, Vegaltari was going to be skewered if she didn't commit anything drastic. So she set natural gases under the ground beneath her and detonated it. She was sent flying with the ground she stood on, the terrain was mauled by the kinetic energy, creating a natural distance between her enemies and herself. She landed by spreading the energy from the fall through bending her knees and rolling. She then jumped back on her feet.
If she turned the air into a blade shaped construct... It would unfortunately go through the water blade and they would both be damaged. The water blade and the air here belong from the same world, naturally they can occupy the same space. There was such a limit to their magic, so she wasn't really able to turn it into an equal battle with the same weapon. One of the Barius clones recover and began to rush at Vegaltari. She raised the ground to slam into her torso, I'm paling the clone and causing it to fall apart. The other 4 took that opportunity to rush her at the same time. She picked another slab of ground to impale the clone.
The problem was that they were all moving and thinking at normal human speeds, she killed another clone but the other 3 were 5 metres away from her. A couple seconds was all it took to reach her. Instead she caused the ground under her to plunge, barely dodging a series of stabs at the same time. One of the clones peaked over the hole, Vegaltari had dug herself down quite deep and impaled another clone on the ground. 2 were left. One of them jumped down and changed shape into a hail of arrows.
In a panic, Vegaltari brought both her arms up in a cross and conjured up a piece of rock to block the centre of her body. The arrows graze the sides of her body, leaving scathing wounds on the extremities such as her thighs and wrists. There was a light gash on her cheek with blood consistently flowing out, the water couldn't penetrate the rock but the rock wasn't large enough to block everything either. Only one clone was left. The real Barius arrived, converting the clone into a tough spear before sliding it into the hole.
Feeling the danger, Vegaltari dodged to the side, and the rock she conjures shattered in half with a cloud of dust spreading out. Sending a few more thrusts to eliminate the space, Vegaltari fell into a deeper hole that she carved out of the ground, the spear strikes her left shoulder before she escapes. Her healing didn't work in this world, a disadvantage meant for her opponent was working against her with how much scraping she was taking...