'Dammit!' Homura yelled, ducking yet another attack from the wraith. 'Why can't we kill it?' She pulled out yet another machine gun from the space behind her shield, and aimed straight at it.
Kyoko threw her gigantic spear at the demon's head again. 'It won't die! No matter what we do, none of our attacks hit it!' she yelled. The spear bounced off harmlessly, the demon appearing to not even notice it.
Mami was having similar troubles. As usual, she had no shortage of magical guns, but less and less bullets were coming out of each one of them.
The three all ducked another attack, and landed next to each other on a building, facing the gigantic wraith. The three had hoped to defeat the wraith quickly, but it appeared that wasn't going to happen.
This wraith was incredibly powerful, even more than Homura had first guessed. She couldn't even imagine how many Grief Cubes it would drop when defeated… possibly a year's supply. Divided into 3, that was a 4 month supply for her, Kyoko, and Mami! 4 months of not having to constantly chase wraiths sure sounded appealing… but first they had to defeat it. And their window of defeating it was closing fast. Homura's Soul Gem was becoming cloudy very quickly, and Kyoko and Mami were in the same situation.
'You two!' Homura said. 'We should combine our powers for one attack!' She pulled out her magical bow, and winced. Memories of Madoka using her bow against Walpurgis came back… but Homura pushed them down.
'Agreed,' Mami said. Her ribbons surrounded a gun, transforming it into her Tiro Finale gun.
Kyoko nodded, and transformed her spear into a giant one. 'On three!' she shouted.
'One!'
'Two!'
'THREE!'
Homura shot an arrow at the wraith's head. Mami used Tiro Finale, aiming at the same spot Homura had. Kyoko's spear shot at the same place as well.
The three combined attacks hit the wraith, and it stumbled backwards, before falling over, seemingly unconscious. They had done it!
'Wooooo!' Kyoko shrieked. She pulled a bag of chips out of her pocket, and started eating them quickly.
'We did it,' Mami sighed, relieved.
Homura leaned against a nearby building, breathing heavily. She hadn't fought that hard since… well, since she and Madoka fought Walpurgis together… Homura shook her head to clear the memories. Now was not the time to think of Madoka.
Kyoko and Mami both noticed her silence. Kyoko frowned, and looked at Mami, who just shrugged. The two were fairly used to Homura's silence after battles.
'So,' Mami said, breaking the silence. 'The wraith should break up into Grief Cubes any time now!'
Kyoko continued ravenously eating her bag of chips. Homura remained silent.
The wraith then began to glow, the sign that it would soon dissolve. The three prepared themselves to collect the cubes and divvy them up. But then, it glowed strangely. Mami, Kyoko, and Homura paused, wondering what was happening.
The wraith then let out a loud, inhuman screech. The three covered their ears, but the noise still got through to their brains. It brought back each of their worst memories; Mami's of the car accident that nearly killed her, Kyoko's of finding out Sayaka had died, and Homura's of having to shoot out Madoka's Soul Gem before it became a Grief Seed in her final timeline with braids and glasses. Each of them felt tears come to their eyes, and felt their will to fight drain away.
Homura could feel her eyes slowly closing, and quickly glanced at Mami and Kyoko, noting that they were doing the same thing. The last thing Homura saw was a bright flash, and then they were sucked into a void.
'Guess we'll meet again… Madoka,' Homura thought, smiling to herself. For most of her life, she had never thought of dying as a happy thing. But now, she was ready to see Madoka again.
Homura closed her eyes, and let herself fall into the void with Mami and Kyoko.