This was the episode where events were supposed to get interesting, and…. I guess they did. Some of this episode’s contents I guessed at, and one scene was definitely a twist I didn’t see coming.
First and foremost, the Elimination Chamber Festival has started. Once Aliceteria and Altair show up, Meteora recites the spell which sets up the boundaries of the birdcage, trapping its occupants inside.
It’s really frustrating watching anyone fight Altair because those damn swords she uses as a barrier make her practically indestructible. Selesia eventually (and correctly) notes that physical attacks have little to no effect on her, whether they’re from her/Rui’s mecha, or from the tanks established 
by one of Meteora’s spells.
Selesia attempts to use a super mega overpowered “gate spell” in an effort to trap Altair in an infinite space, but Altair is able to find an exit within the spell and she reappears right behind Selesia. Altair reveals that she’s known all along about Meteora’s grand plan, and acknowledges the magical contained space that they’re fighting in. Altair even knows that the fight is being broadcast to the public, that people are watching them fight right at that moment. But Altair admits it would be fun for no one if the battle were to end early and thus disappoint the audience, so she encourages Selesia to keep fighting her.
Rui meanwhile is fighting Aliceteria, and neither really has an upper hand over the other. Aliceteria is definitely the more agile of the two, but something’s up with her. At one point she gets right up in front of Rui’s mecha’s face and taps it with her lance, quietly hinting that her actions are perhaps not what they seem. Maybe Aliceteria is going to be a trojan horse for the good guys?
While this grand battle is going on, Souta and the other creators are watching from their respective places in the stadium. Souta has his hands full when Magane finally reappears, and he’s not happy to see her. (I’d been wondering when she’d come back, to be honest.) From up in the MVP box, Marine notices that Shunma Suruga is not watching with their fellow creators; we see that she’s in a locker room somewhere else in the building, having a quiet 
smoke alone.
Suddenly Blitz enters the room and pulls a gun on Shunma, saying he wants to kill her for what she did to his daughter. Shunma points out that if he kills her she’ll take the answers he seeks to her grave, and so Blitz agrees to ask her his questions first. His main query is why she felt she had to kill his daughter, and Shunma admits it was because it made for a better story. This is too much for Blitz and he shoots Shunma in her torso. Blitz says that Shunma is a devil, an evil person for treating her characters so carelessly. Shunma replies that she will write whatever makes her story more interesting and appealing for her readers, even if it means creating a harsher world or tragedies for her characters.
Then armed military soldiers break down the door to the locker room and pull their guns on Blitz. He pauses, knowing that their bullets could seriously hurt or kill him because he doesn’t have magical powers like many of his other fellow creations. From behind the soldiers a little girl emerges, and Blitz is shocked to see who it is – his daughter, alive and well! Shunma laughs despite her injury, saying that he should realize that she truly is his god. This can be interpreted as that despite having killed his daughter in an effort to make her overall story more interesting to readers, she is also not beyond doing kind things for him as well.
So what did I see coming? Everything with Altair and how she figured out Meteora’s plan, including the birdcage. I didn’t think she’d know about being watched by the public. But the scene with Shunma, Blitz and his daughter at the very end? That I didn’t see coming, and I think it’s a really interesting twist for Blitz’s character. If his daughter is alive again, will he make amends with Shunma? And more importantly will he continue to protect Altair?
It was revealed a few eps back that Altair had gotten new prediction powers that allowed her to spy in on Meteora and co to see what they were planning. Alice’s plans to betray Altair were lightly hinted at back then too, although there’s a good chance Altair knows that too…
The game being played now is to see who can sway audience support to their side, hence Altair’s insistence to put on a show for them. If her performance gains public approval, the containment plan will fail and the viewers will bring about their own destruction by proxy.
It also goes back to the meta question of whether an originless fan creation has the same lasting impact as popular characters from an established media line.