My own response is rather similar to RadiantBeam's. Coherent review to follow at some future date when brain is properly functioning. Let's see...Dragon Age, maybe, for Stele's incarnated-magic form?
(Heh, you crossed me up in that fight, too, as I was expecting what Tea was trying to set up was a Starlight Breaker...as in, since Stele was now nothing
but living magic, to try and absorb him outright.
I liked Lulu's final spell, too...it was sort of like
half of a summon.
)
I don't know if this is the same thing Jimmy C was noticing, but I noted that a lot of the telepathic-communication dialogue weren't set off in italics or any other way to distinguish them from standard narration.
Interesting ending...I'm intrigued by where you want to take
the truth, particularly with questions of how advanced Earth's "secret magic projects" may or may not have become and how the Bureau plans to contact Earth's governments without causing global panic or necessitating invasion...lots of fun ahead there.
(You know, it's been really fun reading this story and seeing such a...well-adjusted Shadow!Lutecia, so different from where she's at in the "present" of the 'Verse.
)