*
"Oi! Who the hell do you think you are!!" (Lastia)
She regained consciousness, from Sariel's twitching it seemed that she was waking too. It didn't seem like good news for Aster, she couldn't defeat them, not with Arin around. However... Arin always seemed to restrain herself when in front of these 2, she didn't understand Arin's thoughts, but she understood what was thought itself. She recognised that other individuals had different mind sets compared to her, that it was perfectly normal to have differing objectives from others in this world.
"Did you want me to use my second skill?" (Aster)
She whispered to Arin, using vibrations to block the spread of sound. If Sariel used {Swap} she'd be preventing the message from being transmitted to Arin, it was evident if what she spoke was overheard or not. Arin's eyes widened, they didn't seem to glow or have any visual effects, but Aster could tell they wanted her dead.
"... Don't you dare. You'll have no bargaining chips left, I'll take your head from this distance, in one move. " (Arin)
Arin stood in a threatening posture, not unlike those from a certain bizarre show. She faced Aster while her body pointed her left shoulder and hip at Aster. Her right arm is concealed, veins soaring and circulating with ferocity. {Barter} might just be omnipotent with how it seemingly gave her whatever she wished.
With how 2 auras immediately flared up and drowned the atmosphere, Sariel couldn't help but doubt what she knew about Arin. Arin was always an enigmatic figure to her, compared to Lastia who never had history reaching beyond 24 hours. Lastia was simply easier to comprehend and get along with.
Heavy footsteps sink into the concrete before becoming lighter, like the transformation of an elegant swan. Lastia was learning control of her own power that surged into the sky. This couldn't have been accomplished spontaneously. A few highly specific conditions have been achieved, leading up to this.
A certain level of resistance to the curse had to be built up, at least crossing the threshold to remember Arin and Sariel. Second, she had to be knocked out in battle with a high concentration of magical energy beyond her body's biological limit, this was done by using Yggdrasil's simulation to breach the limits of her perimeters.
In a way, one could describe what Yggdrasil had done as hacking. It not only broke down her body's involuntary resistances, it also regulated the magical energy in a way that prevented her body from being degraded.
Having too much magic energy is similar to radiation, excess energy will be released and would damaged her tissues and cells as a side effect. That's why the body of a magical girl has an in built limiter operating on the level of nerves. It would never cross the line without the 'hacking' and the subsequent facilitation that prevented damage.
Lastly this was the third factor. She needed to have seen that memory, to have dipped her toes into the previous era. It's an unanswered question as to why a previous era individual has their memories deposited in Lastia, but... That individual was strong. Her id, her instincts were awakened inside Lastia. An old and familiar sensation of wielding magic, it guided her current self into new heights. Now she was rank A, or Grade C. Her Yggdrasil's capabilities have increased.
With how Traces are limited to rank C to A or Grade E to C, no magical girl in the current era has reached beyond the rank system and into Grade B or A. Hence, the infallible notion that magical girls were all limited to only having a single skill. Aster still has a few more trump cards, even if Arin were to face her down with all her might. In the worse case scenario, it would be an almost equal battle between two A grades. But she kept her composure, and maintained the facade that it was Arin's conscious choice to leave Aster alive.
"This... You got... Stronger?" (Arin)
She sensed something was amiss with Lastia. It wasn't natural, whatever happened while Lastia was knocked out, it wasn't something Arin knew about. A deviation from the set plan.
"Yeah, {Feed} has evolved. Yggdrasil lost the capability to overturn my resistance and break my limits, in exchange my base perimeter are higher and Yggdrasil has more computation power now.
Rather, it's because my limit is now higher and more difficult to breach that the usual method has stopped working. When working with precision, this magnitude of change was too much for Yggdrasil to handle and adapt. " (Lastia)
She gathers dark scarlet light into her fist, gathering it into an orb and clenching her fingers into it. The light split apart and spread over the rest of her body. Base A rank, on the same level as Sariel now. That's why they had awoken around the same time. It wouldn't be fair to say that her perimeter increased because she gained the instincts of another magical girl's life. Her body had to be highly trained and prepped to handle those instincts too, they were more like the final spark of ignition that lead her to barely surpassing the threshold of A rank.
Still, she was 2 grades below Aster. So she needed {Feed} to create a new method of overcoming her natural limits. She won't break down her own body's resistances and leave herself vulnerable. She will add to it, like external modules. Similar to Yggdrasil, she needed to create new spiritual constructs.
She arrives right on top of Aster, her fist swinging at blinding speeds. Her knuckles tear through the air as if resistance didn't exist, and her fingers crush their target into a pulp. In a single punch, Aster was pummeled into the ground with her left arm torn off as the target of the punch.
"....!?" (Arin)
"KAGHH!?!" (Aster)
"Man, this previous era stuff really hits differently.
{Feed}, one that revolts against mystery - Pandora." (Lastia)
"Jeez... Just how am I supposed to catch up now..." (Sariel)
Inquisitiveness that could release the world's evil, yet every living being is naturally curious. Pandora is a manifestation of every living being's inherent evil, the evil of wishing to quench one's thirst with the fruit of wisdom. In other words, awareness. This was still an application of Lastia's only skill, {Feed}. Now that computational capabilities have increased, it operates on the volume of information being transferred.
Converting all forms of energy, from heat, light, gravity, and magical energy, it steals information from its surroundings and feeds it to her. Including information about her enemy's perimeter. The previous limitation of {Feed}'s amplification of her own perimeters is also gone. Pandora is not only a scouting ability but also an enhancement module that ignores that amplification limit that is otherwise adhered to. So this was simple enhancement magic that caused her values to soar.
The simplicity was what caused Aster and Arin's blood to run cold. She's a monster.