Armageddon XIV

The End is Near

Note:

To avoid confusion, when I refer to the name Akemi, it's referring to The Demon. When I refer to Homura, I mean the magical girl Homura.

[]

All the stars in the show have finally been reunited. Slowly, the mermaid witch carefully landed Madoka on the concrete – her tiny feet planting themselves on the ash-covered ground. Almost comedically, Oktavia dropped the half-witch Homura, almost angrily.

The Devil tilted her head inhumanely. She watched as Madoka's golden eyes pierced her own violet-red orbs. The pinkette smiled solemnly over the dark incarnation of her best friend. The dark angel smiled back, waving quietly to her one and only friend.

"Homura-chan…" She said, lovingly. Her feet pitter-pattered to The Devil, each step full of anxiety.

The eldritch angel stood still. Her nerves didn't budge an inch, but a drop of sweat betrayed her composed look. Two small hands reached out to her and grasped her cheeks. Madoka looked over her, lovingly.

She smiled bittersweetly.

"Homura-chan, I want to save you."

"Who cares about that," The Demon countered immediately. "I just want you to be happy." Her feathers pushed downward, lifting her feet above the ground, slowly separating from Madoka's loving embrace.

"Homura-"

Everyone – apart from Madoka – readied their weapons, their gaze directly on the fallen angel. Sayaka spawned several swords around her, Kyouko created multiple illusions of herself, Mami surrounded the area with ribbons, Nagisa aimed her trumpet at the enemy, and Yuma held her hammer-like spear against her chest.

They were all nervous.

Kriemhild Gretchen watched as the deity hovered above the magical girls. Akemi had a ghostly smile.

And without warning, The Demon charged and flew straight inside Kriemhild's shadowy form, allowing the Queen of Shadows to consume her.

They were all stunned as they watched Akemi's suicidal stunt. The only reason the human Homura survived was because Kriemhild held warm feelings about her.

This imposter-like creature, how would she fair against a malicious maelstrom of darkness?

"We have to get her out of there!" Madoka screamed. The others stood paralyzed, until Madoka once again yelled out, "HURRY!"

[]

"AAAAGGGGHHHH!" The storm inside Kriemhild shook and sealed The Demon in a never-ending spiral of wind. Tendrils of corrupted light pierced through her stomach. Forms of dark purple light seeped out of her wounds, almost like blood.

"GAAAHHHH!" She sprouted several malformed Clara Dolls from her back, and they moved to shield their master. They placed several shields in front of her, protecting her from both the tendril attacks and the deadly atmosphere.

Taking a deep breath, Akemi curled herself up in a fetal position and closed her eyes. She focused the energy deep within her as the Dark Orb hovered by her, slowly closing her wounds.

The deep energy within both her own body and the Dark Orb started to synchronize, cracking in violet lightning.

Immediately, the mutated Clara Dolls disappeared. Akemi stretched out her body and unleashed a barrage of lightning that spread like wildfire across the dark hurricane. A hew of violet-red started to taint the once-pure black.

She could faintly hear the cry of a drowning beast.

The Demon smiled.

[]

"W-what the hell?" Kyouko watched in disbelief as the Queen of Shadows was starting to shatter like glass.

"Everybody!" Madoka screamed, "Let's get out of here! Quickly!"

Immediately, Sayaka spawned four Oktavias, and ordered them to carry the other magical girls to a safe distance.

As they flew through the air, Madoka started to relay her plan. "I don't have my complete powers yet. I just need some time to break through Homura-cha-"The shield Homura turned when she heard her name. Correcting herself, Madoka coughed awkwardly, "I just need some time to make a small break through the other Homura-chan's universal barrier, so that the other me and I can refuse. I need everyone's help to buy time."

"So where do we hold the fort?" Kyouko asked, a bit fidgety without her pocky.

"I'll have to make my own barrier," Madoka said bluntly. Immediately, Mami interjected.

"Wouldn't that waste some of your magic already? How are you going to buy time if you spend it?" The blonde veteran asked, confused.

"Sometimes you gotta spend time to buy it," Sayaka said. "Without the barrier, Homura-" The shield Homura turned again, awkwardly. Sayaka coughed, "Err…Without the barrier, The Demon will find us much quicker. With the barrier, we can at least set up stronger traps. We might even get a magic boost within it."

"That's so smart!" Nagisa squealed out, but the blue-haired knight face-palmed.

"Nagisa…You should know this by now…"

"Ah…sorry." The white-haired girl said apologetically.

"So uh…when Madoka-oneechan builds the barrier, what do each of us do?" Yuma asked, nervously.

Pridefully, Sayaka pointed directly at the weirdly-silent Homura, who simply gawked, confused. "We get the brains of the group to tell us what to do!"

"….What?"

[]

"GROAAAAAGH!" were Kriemhild Gretchen's final screams, as she was consumed from the inside. Every piece of her moved inside The Demon like a massive tower of shadow forcefully being shoved into a tiny vessel.

There was a strange eerie silence after the Queen Witch was absorbed. The Demon descended gracefully. She felt a strange power surging through her.

Akemi grasped her own Dark Orb, and opened her mouth. Gulping it down, she became a literal being of pure energy.

She took a step forward and almost collapsed from an intense vertigo sensation that hit her from the pit of her stomach up to the dark corners of her brain.

It felt like she was about to explode.

"She's still…alive?" She clearly felt the Queen Witch wriggle around in her stomach, warping her skin as it tried to escape. The Demon clearly saw a hand extend from the inside of her stomach, like a living human being trapped inside her, desperate to escape.

Strangely enough, it didn't scare her.

Her eyes hovered over the area. The entire group was gone.

She couldn't sense them. Then, a revelation occurred. "Ahhh," Akemi muttered, "They built a barrier. A Godly one." The winged creature smiled.

Catching a glimpse of the white incubator, her hands grasped onto the little alien. "You're going to help me, Incubator."

[]

Homura spawned several automated machine-guns. It was a type of futuristic weapon devised by the government. It was a weapon she took great pains to steal.

She then managed to duplicate it by salvaging them all from different time loops.

"Are we almost ready?" Sayaka said, stretching out her arms as she swung her sword as practice.

"Yes, almost," Homura said, robotically.

"Uh…hey, Homura?" Her awkward tone made Homura raise an eyebrow. She heard the bluenette stutter uncharacteristically. Normally she was so sure of everything.

"What is it, Miki-san?"

Scratching her head, Miki stuttered on what to say next. "S-so ya know? Uh, how we never really…uh…"

"Speak clearly, Miki-san. I don't know what you're trying to say if you whisper."

"So…you see, sorry." It was an apology. Homura stared blank-eyed. She didn't know what the blue-haired girl was apologizing for. She never really understood her, or tried, really. "Sorry for being so thick-headed. I get that you had to do some really shady stuff back in your time loops, but thank you for protecting Madoka."

The ravenette looked away, face a bit flustered. "No, I should be the one apologizing. After a certain amount of time, I stopped trying to look at other people, and focused solely on Madoka. To the point where I was ready to kill you. For that, I should apologize."

They both looked away awkwardly.

In the distance, Kyouko jumped in an arc right in front of them, and noticed their weird behavior. "Stop blushing and get in position. Who knows when-"

An earth-shattering quake shook the barrier. Signs of crackling lightning could be seen slowly seeping into the false sky.

In the background, a drop of sweat dropped from Madoka's temple.

A pair of massive hands started to pry open the ginormous doors leading to the outside world. Immediately, Homura aimed the automated turrets to the titanic hands.

Unsteadily, the titan-sized eldritch God peered from the outside, slowly but surely worming her way into the incomplete Deity-class barrier.

"Miki-san!" Homura yelled, "Go! Take Madoka further into the barrier!"

"Right!"

With her inhuman strength, Sayaka leapt toward the pinkette and picked her up like a princess. "Sayaka-chan! We can't leav-"

"Leave it to us, pinky!" Kyouko said, readying her spear.

"Leave it to your senpai, Kaname-san," Tomoe smiled.

"Trust us, Madoka-oneechan!" Nagisa yelled, holding her hands up in determination.

"R-right!" Yuma said, shyly.

Sayaka smiled as Madoka noticed their determination. "We'll just have to trust them, won't we?" She winked.

[]

"Kyouko, Tomoe-san, Nagisa, and Yuma…" The eldritch enemy acknowledged the four of them, and glared at her red-eyed counterpart, "And you."

Without sparing any words, Homura pressed the remote control in the palm of her hand, and every turret placed in the vicinity started firing ferociously, covering The Demon in a mountain of metal.

As the sound of metal ricocheting died down, Kyouko charged forward, spear in hand, and summoned twenty of her own clones to attack. It was a feat she would never be able to do outside the barrier.

Mami raised her arms. On cue, countless yellow ribbons sprouted from beneath her. They wrapped around the black figure that emerged from the smoke, but were repelled by an air quake.

Shadows emerged from beneath the silhouette and intercepted the Kyouko illusions.

Another figure warped right in front of The Demon. Raising her right hand, a dozen red puppet strings formed into a broken scythe and slammed down on the winged creature.

The enemy blocked it with her left wing. Her wings looked frail, but were tougher and sharper than reinforced or stainless steel.

"I see, so you've nearly witchified," Akemi smiled.

"Tsk," Homura clicked her tongue.

The Demon extended her arm toward her more-human counterpart, but then she felt a bit light. Something was missing.

Ahhh… She thought to herself, My arm's gone.

She looked up to the culprit. Kyouko stood between them, spear in hand. There were wounds on her forehead and arms. Her attire had dozens of cuts on it, with blood slowly leaking from her wounds. Little by little, though, the redhead healed herself with magic.

The winged creature felt something gash at her shoulder. Glancing back, she saw a white hammer tear into her shoulder blade. "Mph!"

It was Yuma. She immediately jumped back before Akemi retaliated. No, they all did.

"Hmm?" Confused at the sudden retreat, the violet-eyed angel looked up and saw Nagisa aim her trumpet. She fired.

A massive magic bubble launched straight to Akemi. It was a direct hit. Akemi's senses fell into chaos as the impact exploded.

The explosion sent her flying across the opposite direction and resulted in burns. "Gaaaaahhhh!"

"Everybody! Retreat further into the barrier!" Homura commanded.

They all nodded, and delved deeper into Madoka's castle-like barrier, with Homura being the last one to stay behind.

Before Kyouko left, though, she whispered something to Homura. "We'll be waiting for ya."

After Kyouko's redhead figure disappeared, Homura chuckled. "How sly."

"Gahh…." Akemi pushed herself up, her wings scorched from the blast. "I see…so this place strengthens your abilities to a stupid degree…and ironically weakens mine…" If I hadn't absorbed Kriemhild, would I have had worse injuries?

Homura spawned another detonator from her broken shield. Akemi's violet-red eyes widened. "You little…"

The witch-magical girl activated the detonator. Flames of fire erupted violently from the ground, engulfing them in a sea of flames.

Homura smiled one last time.

CHAPTER END

Author Notes

Finally! Finals are over! I managed to wrap up all the loose ends that were stress-killing me.

So, I'm back. I feel like I rushed this chapter a lot, but to be honest the other chapters have sort of been at a standstill.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.