Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

The gun barrel spun faster and faster, and it looked like it was about to unleash a storm of metal.

Xiaoyan hurried a few steps and caught up with Zhi, who was clearing a path for her. She hugged her from behind and whispered her plan in her ear.

"If Homura Akemi can move within the time that Homura Akemi stops, and if Homura Akemi can freeze Homura Akemi's time reversal, then Homura Akemi must also be able to rewind to Homura Akemi's position."

A faint chuckle flashed where Zhi couldn't see it, and the feeling of being hugged disappeared. The next moment, the preheated gun barrel flew out, and Xiao Yan, who suddenly appeared in front of Yan, cut the roaring weapon in half with a single sword stroke.

"What……!"

The shattered transmission mechanism flung parts out of the chassis, and gears, bullets, and fragments filled the space between the two. Flame, who was heading in the direction of danger, was filled with chaotic thoughts. Before she could understand the situation before her, Ash, who was holding a long sword, rushed in front of her.

The longsword, wreathed in deep purple and golden flames, was thrust straight toward the witch's throat.

Staring blankly at the girl with dark eyes in front of her, how could she be herself who jumped out of the mirror? She was a completely different individual. Homura understood. The person in front of her just happened to be named Akemi Homura. There was only this tiny connection between them.

Why did you come here? This is my world.

A cool, clear voice, devoid of madness and tinged with confusion, reached Ash's ears.

The longsword stopped at her throat. As she asked this complex question, the purple ribbon tied behind Flame suddenly came undone and turned into two abstract hands, which gripped the blade tightly, preventing Flame from advancing any further.

"You just wandered into someone else's world without asking, and you even tried to kidnap the most important person in their life. Everything here is clearly mine."

Her cool voice continued to speak slowly, but in the eyes that met Xiaoyan's gaze, an ominous red devoured her purple pupils, and countless dots and lines wove into a strange grid, like teardrops, flowing from the corners of her eyes.

"There is no place for you here. What exactly did you come here with that wish?"

Flames drew closer, but no matter how the longsword flared with a mixture of deep purple and gold flames, the distance between the sword tip and her neck remained unchanged. The strange hands formed from the ribbons firmly controlled the distance between them.

Xiaoyan was forced to retreat.

"You've already denied Homura Akemi's worth, so why are you still shamelessly trying to take Madoka from me?"

"I……"

"Look at the sword in your hand. The entangled bonds on it are something even I envy. Have you ever thought about how Madoka will feel when she sees you as her new companion?"

The sunlight cleaved through the smoke of battle, and Zhi, who was a step too late due to cutting off the barrage, could no longer maintain her cheerful smile after hearing Yan's question.

"Enough! You're not Xiaoyuan! What right do you have to judge Xiaoyuan's feelings?"

"Qualifications? Ha! You, who just popped up out of nowhere, dare to talk to me about qualifications?"

Zhi's attempt to help was thwarted by a single sentence. She gritted her teeth and raised her katana, but faced with the face looking at her, she couldn't bring herself to strike.

"Are you mistaking me for her? Just because we have the same face?"

"Of course, it's not just that. After all, before I met Zhi, I had roughly the same experience as you. It was at that point in time that I became who I am, while you have always been who you are."

The longsword was thrust back, and Yan turned his head in surprise.

"You actually dare to talk to me? Has this despicable thief decided to kill the owner of this place and then steal all my things?"

"That's right! Because I can save Madoka. As long as I can take her away, I can help her break free from the curse between magical girls and witches and prevent her hope from ultimately turning into despair!"

"Interesting. So, after your possessiveness towards Madoka slowly faded, you started using saving her as an excuse to perpetuate your obsession as Homura Akemi?"

"An obsession? Perhaps. We are all bound by the wish we made when we wished to become magical girls, and that wish has taken root in our hearts, becoming our obsession!"

"So all you can do is be aware of the degree of your obsession."

A mocking smile appeared on Yan's lips. She took two sudden steps forward, but the tip of her longsword still couldn't advance an inch.

"Although I don't know what gives you the right to say you can save Madoka, you haven't even figured out Madoka's current condition before making this guarantee. Don't you think that's a bit too arrogant?"

"Xiaoyuan's current state?... What exactly are you trying to say?"

"You took Madoka's Soul Gem, didn't you? —My familiar told me —So, would you like to check on Madoka's current condition?"

Zhi sensed something and was about to speak when Yan glared at her again. An unbelievable scene rushed into her demonic eyes, causing her to snap out of the demonic state and gag while covering her head.

"This farce I directed and acted in should come to an end. They just happened to gather here. Before the curtain falls, I'll show you one last time how insignificant your wishes are compared to mine."

"You...remembered?"

"Ah, that's right, thanks to you, I've remembered everything. So please allow me to reintroduce myself. I am the witch [HOMULILLY]. Nice to meet you, Homura Akemi. Please take care of me."

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 is earnestly asking for votes~

PS1: Thank you so much to the generous donor [Yuan Shen's Follower - Houmura] for the huge reward! I'm amazed to see so many monthly tickets and donations for the first time ever ≡ω≡

I also want to thank reader [Kagura Alice] for the donation and monthly pass; every bit of your support is the best reward for me!

Destiny Twenty-Seven: Incubators and Gods

Like a cat, and like a rabbit, the little white beast gazes at the world with its crimson eyes. Outside the barrier, it awaits the witch's hatching; inside the barrier, it watches humanity drive itself to despair.

If the witch directed and acted out everything in Mitakihara, then the foundation for the stage was laid by this little white beast.

The magical girls call it QB, but its official name is "Incubator." Before the world welcomes a new god, it is the culprit that constantly sends girls into a cycle of curses, causing them to fall from hope to despair, and then coldly collects the energy it spills out.

It is a product of an emotionless alien civilization. In order to prevent the increase of "entropy" and avoid the "heat death" of the universe, it diligently completes its mission. Until its energy conversion machine malfunctions, one of them, with the unintentional help of the other, completes a counterattack against the machine's supervisor.

It messed up once, and it didn't even realize it had messed up.

Until the witness to that transformation, after being forever separated from his spiritual pillar, God, and unable to bear the loneliness, and with no one to confide in, he occasionally mentioned the world before the transformation to this emotionless creature.

In this transformed world, energy collection has slowed considerably. Only the despair that magical girls gradually accumulate in battle can be effectively gathered. This is because the most immense energy, when hope transforms into despair, is inexplicably intercepted by a certain rule.

The magical girls call that rule the "Law of Cycles," and a certain witness has always called her "Madoka Kaname."

Unaware of the mess it had made, how could it sit idly by and watch that enormous energy vanish in vain? It wanted to thoroughly observe the "law of the circle." As long as it could observe it, it could interfere; as long as it could interfere, it could control it. It would always find a way to use this rule to improve its energy collection mechanism.

Thus, an experiment was launched, with the test subject being the witness to that change. The goal of the experiment was to observe the operating mechanism of the "Law of Cycles," and if possible, to capture and control "Madoka Kaname."

The Witness of Change had already clouded her Soul Gem to its limit in the endless battle. She was obsessed with the idea that since the magical girl had escaped the vortex of the curse, she should fight to the end for the redemption that the girl had sacrificed herself for. Only she knew how many complicated thoughts were mixed in with this belief, just because at the moment she was about to transform into a witch, she would see the person she had been longing for come to greet her.

The "Law of Circles" will surely welcome her in the future, and for this reason, the incubator has set a trap in which the prey will inevitably jump in on its own.

It believed its plan was proceeding smoothly, with the only minor obstacle being the egg itself hatching within its own soul gem.

The experimental device set up by the incubators can prevent all external forces from interfering with the Soul Gem, while allowing the witch incubating to influence the outside world; this is the key to the experiment. If the Law of Cycles still wants to contact Homura Akemi under these circumstances, then she can only become a "sacrifice guided into the barrier".

However, there is a small flaw in this crucial point: the witch captured "Madoka Kaname," but both the capturer and the captured forgot their identities—the witch forgot that she was a witch, and the god forgot that he was a god.

They began to put on a show that seemed heartwarming to the incubator, but the incubator could only let them go in circles until the witch herself pushed herself into the abyss of despair.

This is how its script was written.

It now has to reactivate its new body and find its object of observation again within this barrier.

The little white beast roams through the illusory Mitakihara, a world that even its purely rational mind could hardly find fault with. Yet, it is also restricted. It is estimated that the witch subconsciously believes that a good QB is just a pet and mascot. Therefore, it has lost its ability to communicate and can only silently watch all of this.

At this moment, the restrictions are slowly being lifted, and the two sides, who have forgotten who they are, at least one side has remembered its identity. However, its pure rational thinking prevents it from feeling joy, as it is calculating the variables that will appear in the script it has created.

A desperate girl who should have been absorbed by the Law of Cycles but has appeared here; a snack witch who should have been destroyed by the Law of Cycles but has appeared here; a strange passerby who entered the barrier for no reason, who is not a magical girl but possesses enormous energy.

The desperate girl abruptly killed one of its bodies, which must have had a clear purpose. If her analysis was correct, she must have been preventing it from observing a certain phenomenon.

But it doesn't matter. The witch's restrictions have been lifted, and everything will be brought back under its observation. It will witness the working mechanism of the Law of Circles and come into contact with a new energy generation mechanism. The Incubator's perfect rational thinking allows it to turn all unplanned factors into usable resources.

It continued to follow the script until the witch's barrier separated it from the witch and appeared before it in person.

【HOMULILLY】

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Madoka Kaname was somewhat uneasy tonight; she felt that something was transcending her current understanding.

It all started after I met Homura at the department store.

She suddenly bumped into me, with a familiar face but an unfamiliar aura.

She recounted her dream, a nightmare so vivid in her description that she couldn't offer any words of comfort. All she could do was feel her heart pounding, awkwardly cradling her head and listening intently to her outpouring of emotions.

Perhaps a silent embrace would be the best comfort for Homura, but Madoka is more concerned about the cause of this all-too-real nightmare.

Xiaoyan didn't give her a chance to understand further. She obtained her Soul Gem and confronted Sayaka. The fierce swordsmanship she displayed during the confrontation made Sayaka seem so unfamiliar.

Questions gradually increased. Sayaka must have noticed something she didn't know, but the two of them started fighting on their own and then left on their own, not giving her a chance to ask questions at all.

QB was wrapped in Sayaka's cloak and couldn't open it no matter what she did. She only realized this fact after the two of them disappeared from sight.

Her soul gem was taken away, but she did not lose consciousness due to the separation of her body and soul. Her mind was in a mess, and she felt that this outcome was only natural. She could only distract herself from the excessive concentration caused by the constant stream of questions by chasing after the two people.

She finally caught up with Sayaka in the alley, but Homura, whom she cared about most, wasn't there.

The scene bore the heavy marks of battle; broken weapons and a destroyed factory spoke volumes about the horrific fighting that had taken place there.

Sayaka once again evaded the question, the weapons scattered before her clearly being her own military knife, as well as the old weapons that Homura had previously taken out. She could still tell that the broken and damaged parts of the weapons were obviously the result of mutual attacks between the two; there was no third person on the battlefield, it was indeed a conflict between Sayaka and Homura.

She tried to explain her worries to Sayaka, but her longing was broken in Sayaka's embrace. She promised to tell everything to her goddess, but Madoka knew that this goddess was not her.

Thoughts settle and churn; the happy daily life slowly crumbles, and the harsh reality hidden beneath the false shell erodes all those who gradually discover the truth.

The more you know, the more painful it will be.

The current Madoka Kaname is just Madoka Kaname. She is not the god who sacrificed herself to save all the magical girls. She is just an ordinary girl next door with ordinary girl next door troubles. Becoming a magical girl is probably the thing that makes her happiest, because she is no longer ordinary and has a group of companions who are not so ordinary.

She was also able to do something for the city, saving the entire city from the clutches of the nightmare, which made her feel like the protagonist in a classroom doodle, just looking cool in that gorgeous combat suit.

She hoped this kind of life could continue forever, but she didn't even realize that she, who was gentle and tolerant of every companion, had long since lost all connection with being an ordinary person.

She was not the original Madoka Kaname after all. Even if she was not a god, she still possessed the broad-mindedness of a god.

So she suppressed her doubts about the sudden appearance of Xiaoyan in the garden and Xiaoyan's appearance in front of her.

She simply smiled gently.

She was supposed to go with Sayaka to meet up with Mami-senpai, but in the blink of an eye, all she could see was a white haze of grass.

Words are reminiscences, and a sea of ​​flowers surrounds the deity who is not a god and the witch who remembers that she is a witch.

【HOMULILLY】

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【HOMULILLY】

The yacht that filled the sky above Mitakihara began to fall, its burning frame resembling an ugly smiling face.

The witch Flame is mocking the comedy she directed, and also the clowns who have wandered into the comedy.

The things she had faced a thousand times before were now resurfacing before her eyes. Ashflame's weapon was only a finger's length away from the witch's throat, but she was powerless to push the sword forward. The truth revealed by the witch made her trembling hands almost unable to hold the hilt of the sword.

"You can't save Madoka, and Madoka doesn't need you to save her. On the contrary, all of us magical girls are the ones she saved. She sacrificed herself for her wish, turning herself into a god and becoming the reason of this world."