MC Creative Mode: Wholesale Perpetual Motion Machine

Chapter 252 The Fog of Memory
Rumble…

At the edge of the sky, the raging storm cloud was slowly dissipating, like the receding tide, revealing the hidden and terrifying stage at the center of the cloud.

Below the stage, the enormous puppet, invisible to ordinary people, still hung upside down, emitting a chilling, malicious laugh.

As the clouds receded, the laughter, like the receding tide, gradually weakened and eventually disappeared.

The witch's night seemed to vanish along with the laughter.

But this is not the end; it is only a temporary retreat, like a patiently awaiting destiny. When the next cycle arrives, it will descend again, transforming into endless natural and man-made disasters, ravaging the earth.

The entirety of human civilization, the vast earth itself, seemed to be nothing more than a stage for this colossal witch to spin.

From the moment Homo sapiens defeated Neanderthals, the shadow of that witch had been quietly growing, climbing and expanding like a vine.

In different eras, it wears different masks and takes different forms; sometimes it is a terrifying evil god, sometimes a wandering evil spirit, and sometimes a brutal tyrant...

But no matter how the name changes, its essence remains the same.

If magical girls are the product of encapsulating all of a person's possibilities and allowing those possibilities to flow outward through self-reference and self-selection via their personalities, then witches are the collective form of magical girls who, when on the verge of chaos, have completely fallen into that unknowable and unsolvable abyss.

However, the Witch's Night was not conceived by any magical girl; it is more like a manifestation of the chaotic essence of human collective consciousness.

From different perspectives and within different sets of possibilities, it can transform into a witch, a monster, a magical evil... countless forms, countless facets.

Human civilization itself, in every aspect, is a complex product of self-reference, self-determination of possibilities, and self-selection of how the world exists.

The Witch's Night, much like the turbidity of the Soul Gem in Magical Girl, represents a collection of potential self-destruction within human civilization itself, an inevitable slide into chaos.

Therefore, it has no fixed entity, no clear boundary, or rather, its entity is the possibility of the destruction of all mankind itself, and its boundary is the entire world as perceived by the main body of human civilization.

Therefore, it cannot be completely eradicated.

Even if the projection that appears to be the real entity is dispelled, it is nothing more than a phenomenon like the moon's reflection on the water being disturbed by ripples.

Given enough time, it will reform and continue its endless rampage.

It can transform into a storm, a volcanic eruption, a plague, the smoke of war, a cyber-industrialized, cold society, or any form of natural or man-made disaster.

The Witch's Night, like a distorted mirror of human civilization, will exist eternally until humanity, until every magical girl, is utterly destroyed...

However, in this universe where countless possibilities coexist, humanity may never be completely wiped out, and neither will it completely disappear.

……

On this land ravaged by the storm, the terrifying and unimaginable power of violence destroyed everything in Mitakihara City.

The city, once filled with skyscrapers, was almost completely razed to the ground. Neither the sturdy high-rises nor the hidden underground shelters were spared. Only the seawater, carried by the storm, slowly submerged the ruins.

Almost all the humans in the city were dead. The only two survivors were two girls lying in the floodwater, covered in wounds and exhausted.

One had messy black braids and black-rimmed glasses, the other had pink pigtails.

They are the magical girls Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi. Together, they fought with all their might against Witch's Night, but ultimately failed to protect the city. They themselves reached their limits. Their magical power was excessively depleted, and the impurities within their Soul Gems accumulated to a critical point.

The intense pain and overwhelming despair nearly overwhelmed the two of them.

At that final moment, Homura Akemi held her best friend's hand tightly, waiting for the two of them to transform into witches of the cursed world together.

However, Madoka Kaname placed a seed of sorrow left behind by a former companion onto her best friend's Soul Gem.

As the filth was transferred, Homura Akemi, who should have fallen into despair first, recovered as a result.

But seeing her companion in pain, she lost all will to live, and the soul gem that had just become clear quickly began to turn black again.

She only hoped to accompany her companions to the end.

"Houmura-chan, can't you go back in time? Could you please save the me before I was deceived by Kyubey...?"

Kaname Madoka saw the death wish in her best friend's eyes. She endured the pain that filled her body and mind, and desperately thought of a reason for her best friend to live.

"Yes! Mantouka, I will definitely save you! I definitely will!"

The girl with braided pigtails, crying, tightly gripped her best friend's hand, vowing to save Madoka Kaname and bring her happiness...

But the next moment, Madoka Kaname, whose Soul Gem was about to reach its critical point, felt unprecedented pain.

Struggling, she made one last, desperate wish to her best friend: "Could you please do me one more thing...? I don't want to become a witch..."

Finally, Homura Akemi, on the verge of collapse, shattered her best friend's soul with her own hands amidst her desperate cries...

……

"Was it a dream?" Homura Akemi cried out, kneeling in the floodwater and tightly embracing her best friend's body.

Beside her, another Homura Akemi, dressed in pajamas, stood silently, looking at the corpse of Madoka Kaname in her arms.

Even though the memories of that distant past have faded and become blurred, the unforgettable pain still pierces my heart clearly.

Even knowing it was just a dream, Homura Akemi still clutched her chest tightly, a heart-wrenching pain churning within her.

The next moment, the world changed. The sky, which had been clear after the storm, turned dark and gloomy.

She appeared as if she were pleading for hope, blotting out the sky. Her upper body was that of a witch waving hope and shouting, while her lower body was a radiating skirt.

That colossal object, so enormous that its form could not be fully discerned, expanded at an alarming rate, tearing apart mountains and cities, gradually shredding the entire earth's surface and drawing it into the barrier.

In this dream, she watched as the most painful and desperate scenes of her past played out one after another.

Dressed in her pajamas, she wandered aimlessly through her memories, looking at the scenes of her past failures.

Those painful memories, which were originally blurry and faded like old photographs, slowly became clearer through repeated recollection.

(End of this chapter)