*
Relentless beams of light plunged into Demorami's corpse from all directions, blowing away her flesh chunk by chunk. Demorami vanishes, no, she was completely destroyed. But a new Demorami stood before Geravinne Frildelia, she raised her left palm and multiple spikes burst out of Geravinne Frildelia's torso, raising her body in a violent shower of her own blood and wringing her dry of any fluid.
She smiled, with the stakes filling her lungs and torso. Blood dripped down from both ends of her lips, her whole face had gotten paler while her cheeks grew a rose pink blush. Like a flower of blood blooming on a battlefield, an ominous sensation was sent to Demorami just from taking in the view of Geravinne Frildelia. Her head exploded. Without warning, a god crushing pressure took it off. A crimson flower had truly bloomed, it spilled with such force that it resembled petals.
The her liver exploded, it erupted with enough force that her torso was no longer around. Now only her legs were left intact. These legs, separated from the soul no longer held any power, they turned into red mist and dispersed. Finally... Geravinne Frildelia's body was crushed, as if smashed against the floor. Clearly their true bodies weren't here at all. Beyond the absent veil...
"[Fairytale that eludes the world, hark the eventual Extinction]." (Demorami)
To sum it up, to avoid the end of all things to be, she has exit the world and gained authority on par with the one who paints the canvas... The creator.
" Avoidance from destruction of all things... As well as taking authority on par with an omnipotent God...
Well, while the steps to get there are strange, it's ultimately the same. However, the difference is that I haven't used my final skill. This is all still an art of [Dragon God constitution]. " (Geravinne Frildelia)
If the opponent ascended into the next dimension, it might have been a little troublesome. But since Geravinne Frildelia could do it as well there was nothing left to impede her. As a part of the universe itself, Geravinne Frildelia could transcend past space and time into an imaginary realm outside. In normal circumstances this might have been nearly impossible, due to the fact that the realm outside is imaginary. It's a destination that's created by Demorami's authority in a way. Suppose that this realm had always existed, then Demorami would act as the gate rather than the anchor of the realm. In other words, Demorami was the key to entering this place for Geravinne Frildelia.
Without Demorami messing around, Geravinne Frildelia might not have ever seen this place before. A novel experience, the battlefield is foreign to her. She throws her right fist, smashing apart Demorami's cheek. Demorami swings from under at the same time, landing a slamming uppercut.
"Really, what are we doing? It's all so meaningless." (Demorami)
As if to prove a point, she receives the next few attacks without batting an eye. Her gaze was held rock solid as multiple attacks capable of destroying her entire body entered her transcended flesh. They were both outside the normal universe, guided by Demorami's final skill which allowed her to enter the role of 'Author', Geravinne Frildelia also reached this summit and began combat. But logic no longer flowed here like it did in the normal universe.
At the edge of the world, at least casualty was still relatively intact. Swinging a sword would cut open your enemy. Nothing too complicated. However, this place was beyond the edge. All laws exist, at the same time they do not. Functionally, it could be described as every law being in a state of perpetual disrepair. They were in such a state due to the conditions of this realm, a place beyond the edge could be summed up as an imaginary place. A paradise, heaven. Nothing would follow the normal rules here, but what was most significant was being imaginary...
Because that was its inherent trait. A place that exists, yet does not exist. A realm stated to be beyond the edge of the world, yet the edge is the limit and that there is supposed to be nothing beyond it... Did such a place capable of being perceived as heaven... Exist before or after Demorami activated her final skill? Did Demorami's final skill imitate theology and create this place, or was the place preexisting and the skill simply brought her here and gave her the necessary authority to survive here?
Such a distinction... Was ultimately meaningless in the face of magic. Magic is not the how, but rather the why... It casually ignores space and time and any other meaningful law, perhaps everyone was drawing magical energy from the same magical particle this whole time, not that there was any way to verify. After all, what magic tools measure were the amount of magic energy present in a magical girl's possession... There was no actual way to observe and measure the number of particles around...
Their magic brought them here, and the end result was all that mattered. In a way, this realm was similar to how magic behaved. Utterly incomprehensible. No matter how many time Geravinne Frildelia annhiliated Demorami's body into nothingness... It was as if she was completely untouched. She willed a perfectly undamaged body into existence... No she didn't even have to put that much conscious effort into it, it was simply the law in this realm. Everything is rendered meaningless when there are no rules.
No distinction, no official state of existence, no publication of reality. Things were as they were... A soup of chaos and futility.
"That was... From the 'past'. As in, the 'me' before I had ever reached the edge." (Geravinne Frildelia)
"You launched attacks that were that strong... At heaven. Before meeting me?" (Demorami)
Before the fight had even started... Well, she had no idea that she would ever join such a fight in the first place. She was summoned by Ledia's final skill, she herself was taken by surprise... So a preemptive strike like this was rather impossible for her to foresee. Rather, these attacks weren't really aimed at Demorami, they had been prepared from a distant past to hit whoever she encountered as an enemy in the future. A last ditch cry of hers, thrown at the heavens in desperation. An expression of her unbearable indignation at that time.
"Yeah... Yeah, I did. It might be silly, as I couldn't compute if my actions had any meaning then, but get this.
Things are not futile here. There is still a way to end this fight. A path that creates an 'end' for our journey to reach, a resolution forged by my final skill. Fate is distorted and useless in this realm, so... I simply have to create it from scratch. " (Geravinne Frildelia)
She spoke calmly and gracefully, a manner unfitting of those attacks. As if she sourced composure from somewhere else, an endless tranquility swam in her heart like a swan. Though what she spoke of... Was rather impossible. Completely deranged, there was nothing to control here. Only emptiness and futility, all significance had homogenised, more accurately they had been diluted. Physical laws, destiny, desire, everything has been so diluted here that they are rendered inexistent.
"... Our divine abilities only extend to the lesser realm. Our authorities here might as well be nothing, they only go so far as to let us exist for a while! " (Demorami)
She cried aloud, she didn't know if she was trying to convince her opponent or herself. Most of all, she didn't want her opponent having an edge above her... Her enemy's final skill... She hasn't revealed it yet, it's almost as if it was a simple button that granted victory to her enemy... She dreaded it. She didn't want to die. An inescapable web, so little who were watching her, yet their eyes bore so much into her soul...
No, these were just excuses. Being fearful of the other destroyers... Every destroyer had such a situation with the others, being on the constant lookout for surprise attacks for the better part of who knows how many thousand or billion years... All time had already been rendered useless, the number of worlds she had destroyed have already exceeded the point of being measurable... She had a feeling that everyone was fearful of each other and took solace in that, attempted to make her standing within the group higher by destroying more worlds...
But the situation never changed. Rather, it couldn't change as long as Arasovi was at the top. Everyone else was caught in a deadlock, friend or foe, if everyone had a gun pointed at each other no one could realistically relax or live comfortably. Maybe this was for the best... To be taken down by a deity from another world, to be freed from this hell. She destroyed, she sinned, yet she wanted to stay alive. But if this were to be her life for the rest of eternity, maybe it wasn't any different from dying.
Not without going into one last fight.
"... OBLIVION MAGIA!!! GRUDGE BEYOND WORLDS, TRUTH UNDER THE BLESSING HYMN!!!" (Demorami)
An extra dimension, an entire universe forged to her liking. Rather, a magic that actively propagates her own wishes and idiosyncrasies. No longer will the world stand on rules and inherent natures exhibited by the environment. Down to logic, explanation ,and ingenuity. Back to the ancient age of myths where gods reigned unhindered due to the obfuscation of all things natural. An infinite expanse that replicates the ideal environment for one like her to exist, that was it.
The colours in the background shift about radically, a result of unsuppressed chaos as information itself filled the void. This was an imaginary space akin to the realm beyond the edge, a place where abstract concepts reside and take root, gaining significance in the world. It could be described as the 'coding' of the universe, containing ideas and potential concepts. Maybe the secret to magical particles could be found somewhere in here too...
Her mind was assaulted by an infinite amount of concepts, information flooded and overloaded the mind, information so dense they could contain their own universes. Though this was simply the normal state of the realm beyond the edge, to take an infinite amount of imaginary information... To withstand such an environment was the lowest requirement to enter this place. Exposing Geravinne Frildelia to what she had already seen had no effect. In truth, she lied. She had already used her final skill, to come here, to endure this nonsensical affair.
She had completely deceived Demorami, allowing her to believe her primary skill had this much diversity in usage. [Dragon God constitution] had rather simple but effective effects. The creation, usage, gifting and taking of draconic abilities. As for the entire situation with Frildelia being Gaia, it exists outside the vacuum of her skills... In other words, it was a passive skill. [Wreath of mother Life and Creation].
An ability to be one with space and time... And to observe beyond the edge of the world. That was it, observe. She wasn't allowed to move there or anything more than peak at it... All of that, was the ability of her final skill. [Soaring dream of a fallen knight], for the dragon cannot be without the knight that slays it, in all legends a brave individual thrusts their blade into the air as they declare the beginning of their fable.
Overcoming one's limits, to 'save what was in front of her'. That was the skill's effect. That was why... She was already at her limit, simply being here. The magic only gave her just enough to attempt a fight, it did not give her the key to victory like a cheat button... She simply didn't have such a convenient skill. Being able to stand on the same ground as her enemy, that should be enough. It would be all that was necessary.
'The planet you love so... I'll protect it. If fate chose me for this battle, then perhaps that is yet still hope. So I will hold on, clasp my breath, and grit my teeth.' (Geravinne Frildelia)
She can't rely on brute force here. She abandoned her current body and created a new one next to Demorami. The newer body who was 1 metre behind Frildelia was squashed and destroyed. Thankfully, that too was a dummy. She does not need to risk her existence, she can fight from a distance. The dummies replicate themselves into an army, filling the background with their skin and fabric. After which, they fused back into one.
"Coalesce. This 'universe' operates on a specific mechanism called convenience. In other words, any attempt to dodge or mitigate an attack is rendered useless here.
Die." (Demorami)
This was her final card, she had to finish this fight as soon as possible. For all she knew, her opponent still had another move hidden, a way out of everything. She had to eliminate Geravinne Frildelia as quick as possible, before she used her final skill. Geravinne Frildelia's existence is tethered to one spot and exposed, her inner heart, her soul and concept. Eliminating the concept of 'Geravinne Frildelia' is enough, in the first place she was an anomaly. There was no need to remove the Dragon God, it would erase others with the same title in every other universe as well, taking monumentally more effort.
Demorami raises her palm and closes it. The ever fleeting flickering of lights between the gemstone texture of her hair is consumed by an all illuminating glow.