Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

"Gods? The principles of this world? What are those? How did you arrive at the conclusion that I can't save Xiaoyuan from all of this?"

She tried her best to steady her hands, even though her mind couldn't understand the words the witch Flame was using, the trembling in her body kept reminding her to face reality.

“If you haven’t experienced that period of change that I see as history, but you see as the future, you certainly can’t draw conclusions from my words. However, some evidence speaks for itself without deduction, and I’ll show you that evidence now.”

Suddenly, a girl dressed in gothic clothing, wearing a headscarf, and with her brown hair tied in a bun appeared beside the three. She was holding a hand-cranked projector, and a series of rotating images showed the face of a girl.

I've heard about the goddess. A beautiful and holy goddess. If the goddess were to speak, she would surely love us.

Madoka is following Sayaka, heading towards their location.

Ashflame stared blankly as she reached into the shield, and a soul gem radiating pink light appeared perfectly in her palm.

PS: Yunxi: 744486102 I've suddenly started experiencing writer's block! This is the first time I've ever had writer's block since I started writing! I've clearly figured out how to end this volume, but I just can't seem to write it! (ノへ￣、)

The Twenty-Eight Priests of Destiny and the Magical Girl

【HOMULILLY】

Sayaka is very close to the place that Beibei mentioned, where Ryougi and Homura Akemi clashed.

The airships in the sky began to fall, signifying that the witch no longer needed to control the memories of the people within the barrier. The events seemed to be accelerating; Homura Akemi had realized that she was the witch, while they were not yet fully prepared.

She and Bebe—or should we call her by her full name, Nagisa Hyakue—are priestesses of the Law of Cycles, the magical girls who were once witches, and the forms they took after being saved by the Law of Cycles.

Their purpose in coming here was to save Homura Akemi, who was about to become a witch. Before Kyubey intervened, this was a natural outcome. Homura Akemi would reunite with Madoka Kaname, and Madoka would guide her out of the curse that led from hope to despair, allowing her to complete her life as a magical girl.

Ultimately, it was QB. Its experiment prevented the Law of Cycles from directly contacting Homura. So, the priests took advantage of the opportunity to construct a false Mitakihara while the witch Homura was there. At the same time, they also had considerable bonds with her. Thus, they followed the innocent bystanders captured by the barrier and infiltrated the witch's barrier.

The goddess also found an opportunity to insert her "human" side into this crazy party.

Homura Akemi must be saved, and the Law of Cycles must not be observable by Kyubey. Thus, the meeting between the two, separated by death, is postponed. They must first break Kyubey's "interference shielding field" and remove its monitoring of Homura Akemi's turbid soul gem. Then, the goddess herself must take action and accept Homura Akemi as a member of the divine kingdom.

The pursuit of the truth can have devastating consequences.

Knowing the truth too early makes Homura Akemi's actions increasingly unpredictable, especially since two other unknown factors have been added to the already chaotic situation.

"If Homura Akemi were to run into another Homura Akemi, things would really get out of hand."

In fact, things had already gone awry. Just as she was thinking about all sorts of random things, two figures approached them.

A nun-like girl and a blonde girl with long hair wearing a top hat suddenly jumped down from a large, blue hand covered in colorful spots. They descended from the sky, pulling a piece of gaudy cloth covered with patches, and at the same time covered the little girl following Sayaka with the cloth.

This piece of trash is truly ugly.

[How about cutting the waste into smaller pieces for easier carrying?]

Like a magic trick, the cloth covering the small circle was laid flat on the ground, and the person covered by it completely disappeared.

The priestess then realized that her goddess had disappeared. Before she could do anything to the two familiars, they vanished without a trace, like children who had successfully pulled off a prank, with their hands raised high.

"Oh no! The witch transformation has just begun, and she's already made a move on Madoka? Based on our previous analysis, knowing the truth, she should have insisted on hatching Madoka inside her Soul Gem to prevent her from being captured by Kyubey. So it really is those two unknown factors playing their role?"

Sayaka had no idea where Madoka had been taken. After all, the entire barrier was the witch's domain, and she was able to establish a complete Mitakihara even in her not-yet-completely-corrupted form. If she wanted to hide Madoka now, she wouldn't be able to find her anytime soon.

We can only go to the location provided by Hyakue Nagisa to check it out. We can only hope that the center of that vortex has not yet spawned an unstoppable tsunami.

————————————————————————————————————————

When Beibei found Xingzi, she was eating fries in the restaurant where she had been invited by the witch Yan, looking rather sullen.

Kyoko had been sitting here for a long time. A huge pile of fast food wrappers was on the table in front of her. Some were for her own consumption, while others were left on her table by a few girls who were playing a game of pretending to be waitresses.

[The funeral procession hasn't arrived yet? I've even practiced crying as fast as I can! I can't wait a second longer!]

[The useless master is actually a very remarkable comedian.]

Can I please stop helping this game? Knitting and stuff is such a hassle!

I can't stand having sticky blood stain my shawl.

【…】

Ever since she parted ways with Homura, she had noticed these strangely behaving familiar girls; following Homura's advice, she didn't get into any conflict with them, simply observing their odd behavior with a blank expression. However, no matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't find a single memory that could be associated with words like witch or familiar.

Her enemy has always been the magical beasts, while Flame has always claimed that the witch is responsible for the current situation. She doesn't believe Flame is lying, meaning there's a decisive difference in their intelligence.

She suddenly realized the difference: the blue-haired girl who had always been playfully teasing her, so familiar and so in sync, was, in her true memory, already dead.

She shoved the fries into her mouth and chewed them fiercely. The weight of the truth forced her to relieve the pressure in her most familiar way while waiting for Flame to uncover the truth about the witch, so that together they could completely defeat that nonsensical witch who gave her such happy, false memories.

Unfortunately, Yan will never be able to tell her the truth in person.

Sakura Kyoko, Tomoe Mami, Shizuki Hitomi, Kamijou Kyosuke, their homeroom teacher, Madoka's family, and that unknown boy were all victims of the witch Homura. They were innocent bystanders she pulled into the barrier from the outside world to fill this false Mitakihara.

They knew nothing, understood nothing, and became the witch's target simply because of their fragile connection with Homura Akemi. If this were a world where witches still existed, they would probably be the kind of people who have been kissed by a witch, their minds clouded and disturbed, leading them to commit mass suicide—an act of spreading despair.

They simply lack this awareness and can only foolishly play minor roles in this play, serving as background characters and driving the plot forward.

Kyoko couldn't even feel anger towards the witch; she was just confused and didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, a bunch of black bubbles swept across the roof and appeared in the seat opposite her. There, a small doll was jumping around and talking to her.

"Oh, it's Beibei! Did you sneak out from Mami's place? Want a French fry?"

The magical girl should have been able to understand Bebe's language, but the listless Kyoko didn't bother to understand her words. Instead, she shoved a French fry into Bebe's mouth and lazily poked it at her.

Beibei paused for a moment, then suddenly spat out the huge worm head with a clown mask on it, and swallowed the fast food bag on the table, as well as Xingzi's food, all in one gulp.

"Hey! What are you doing? Even if you don't want to eat it, don't waste food!"

Xingzi was still oblivious and expressed strong indignation that Beibei had ruined her food along with the packaging.

Seeing that she had successfully attracted the attention of the person in front of her, Beibei began to gesticulate wildly as she relayed the message that Sayaka had asked her to bring.

As always, he was ignored by Anzu.

Beibei was unhappy. She spat out a blender and jumped into it.

[Magical Girl's Ingredients: Girl + Soul Gem + Sugar + Tabasco Sauce + Dream + Hope + Innocence (in small amount)]

【sweet】

Please be careful when handling magic.

Then a magical girl jumped out of the pulping machine as it whirred wildly.

The silver-haired girl wore a rag doll hat and had brown eyeshadow. Her fair face bore a resemblance to Beibei's. She pouted and glared angrily at the surprised Xingzi.

"You are……?"

Kyoko finally snapped out of her daze and looked at the magical girl who had suddenly appeared before her with a puzzled expression, then asked a question.

"My name is Nagisa Hyakue. I'm here to convey Sayaka's arrangements. In order to save Homura Akemi, we need your cooperation."

Innocent passersby are told the truth, the last actors are about to go to the stage, the false sky of Mitakihara is about to collapse, and the final performance of the play will end here.

【HOMULILLY】

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【HOMULILLY】

"How could this happen... You actually sought out the curse yourself! What were you thinking? The purification process won't be fast enough at this rate!"

"It's incomprehensible. You should know all the truth by now, right? Why did you still choose to hatch into a witch in the 'interference shielding position'? If you refuse to even break out of the egg and choose to become a witch inside the egg, then you will not even be able to perceive the Law of Circles and will perish. After that, no one can save you from despair."

"So shouldn't the right choice be to awaken Madoka's memories, transform her into a god, and bring you into the Principle of Cycles? Doing this will only make you lose the chance to reunite with Madoka Kaname forever!"

"Seriously, why is human thinking so illogical?"

The old projector was still slowly playing the film, but the protagonist of the film had become a small white beast.

It was captured and placed in a sealed barrier. After witnessing the sudden appearance of the witch Flame, it revealed the experiment it was conducting and made a surprised comment when it discovered that the witch Flame had chosen to fall into witchhood.

Ashflame knew what it was and was very aware of its characteristic of not lying, so the circular principle it repeatedly mentioned seemed to be constantly proving the words of Witch Flame.

The witch, with a mocking smile, silently watched her from in front of the tip of her sword. The projector was shaken in the familiar's hand, and the witch seemed to have turned into a puppet, swaying slightly. Only the ribbon tightly gripping her longsword remained firmly in her grasp.

The illusory Mitakihara began to collapse, and an arc-shaped track rose from the center of the city, slicing through the entire city and lifting the tomb-like cocoon roof into the sky.

The screen continued to play, revealing the truth of this world to the Ashes.

Zhi saw the witch's structure directly and survived the mind-bending crisis, but after seeing the witch's true nature, she was speechless for a long time.

Xiaoyan's hands, which were gripping the sword, were already weak, but she still held the sword tightly. Instead, she relied on the witch's power to support her body and prevent herself from falling.

It seems she no longer has the ability to take Xiaoyuan with her.

PS: Yunxi: How to end 744486102? This is a serious question.

PS1: Thanks to reader [Genius Ship Girl] for the monthly ticket!

The Twenty-Nine Witches of Destiny and the Children of the Fake Street

When Sayaka arrived at the riverbank, this was the scene she saw: the witch smiling eerily at the two ashes.

"Hey, Sayaka, has Madoka really become a...goddess among magical girls?"

The situation was like a sports car with the accelerator floored, roaring through the guardrails of the mountain road and sliding straight down into the abyss at the bottom of the mountain.

Unknown causes lead to unknown consequences. When Xiaoyan's defenses are broken by the facts that have already happened, her and Zhi's actions in this world have already affected all the actors on the stage.

"That's right... Actually, I wanted to explain this to you before, but you ran away again."

Sayaka didn't understand the situation at first, and could only answer Homura's questions while keeping a close eye on the strangely behaving witch.

"How could that be? I clearly held her in my arms!"

Clutching the pink Soul Gem tightly in her hand, Xiao Yan, supporting her longsword, began to shed tears, much to her dismay.

She couldn't describe how she felt, only that an endless sadness welled up from the bottom of her heart, but there was no sign of her going berserk.

The deep purple flames burned slowly, and she gripped the longsword tightly, unwilling to let go.

Perhaps it was because she had suffered repeated blows in this world, and even if her cracked heart was shattered, she would no longer feel pain; perhaps it was because she felt that Madoka had escaped the fate of a magical girl, and although it was full of regret, it was also a kind of liberation; or perhaps it was simply because the long sword in her hand still shimmered with golden flames.

The ashes burn because of what's accumulated in their hearts, and as time goes by, more and more of what can burn in their hearts will settle. It seems that she can burn not just because of that one emotion anymore. Although her initial flame was ignited by that almost twisted obsession, the flame will probably change color as more fuel is added.

The original spark will be hidden deep within the flames, growing ever more profound.

The sadness probably comes from here. Witch Homura was right; she really was denying Homura Akemi's value. The real Homura Akemi should be falling into the abyss of despair because of the cruel reality, and then climbing out of the abyss to find another way to keep Madoka by her side.

But she really couldn't do it now. She could see clearly what kind of flame was burning in Ash's heart. The black flame had just appeared when it was suppressed by the purple flame. She admitted the fact of failure. She didn't want to give up. Looking at the flame in her heart, she overcame the process of falling into the abyss and began to think about other ways to keep Xiaoyuan.