Izuna transformed into an aggressive creature in previous episode. As the virtual world uses the player’s actual speed, Sora and Shiro can’t do much because they have the normal speed of humans. Finally, Izuna shoots them both and thinks she already wins. When all hope seems to be lost, Izuna got shot by Stephanie. Elkea wins the game.
That’s a very interesting twist there. Apparently everything was already planned by Sora and Shiro right from the beginning. When Sora used one remaining wish to command Stephanie two episodes ago, it was to prepare for this, for her to close her eyes and shoot. Plus he ordered Stephanie to do the task but to forget about it. Shiro’s long calculus calculation was to predict the movement of an NPC. In a game, NPC usually moves according to a static pattern, and that can be calculated. So the whole plan is to put Stephanie on an NPC with zero heart point, allow the NPC to move around freely and carry Stephanie.
When Sora and Shiro were having on-air battle against Izuna, Jibril pretends to shoot Izuna. It looks like Jibril missed, but her aim was to actually hit Stephanie on the ground while moving around with that NPC. The plan works. The love bullet shot awakens Stephanie. Next Sora and Shiro need to make sure that Izuna moves to the exact location for her to receive Stephanie’s love bullet. All according to that calculation of NPC movement. Sora and Shiro do get shot by Stephanie this time, that makes Izuna to lower her guard, just in time for Stephanie to arrive and win the game.
Now I know why Sora and Shiro bring Stephanie instead of Kurami. Stephanie looks weak right from the start of the game. Well, she looks weak in any game. That makes the opponent underestimates her. So the old man outside the game did not monitor Stephanie’s movement and signaling Izuna. He focused on the other 3 players (Sora, Shiro and Jibril) who appear to have more chances to be a threat. So the weak-and-useless Stephanie is actually their ultimate weapon to win the game.
Elkea wins the game and claims the territories as wager. Next, they learn that all warbeasts’ technology equipments have been removed from those wager territories. Once again it has been predicted by Sora and Shiro. So they come to the great leader of Eastern Federation to finish the game: to get the remaining of Eastern Federation.
The game against “miko” (the great leader of Eastern Federation) is a lot simpler. Coin toss. Sora makes the coin stands on the thin side instead on one face to make the game ends in both sides win. Eastern Federation is absorbed into Elkea, but they can still maintain their own government and Elkea will share resources to them. With this win, Sora and Shiro recruit Izuna, miko and that old man as part of their team.
As a bonus, it is also revealed that Fil’s memory has been altered by Sora (as part of the winning wager of that othello game) to feed false information to the Elven Garde (elf race). Plus Jibril uses her influence to move Avantheim government (flugel race).
Overall, I really enjoy this anime. The story is nowhere near completion, the ending feels like the end of a chapter. So I’m looking forward to watch the second season of this brilliant anime.
