This is an unofficial work. Fate belongs to Type-Moon, Kadokawa Shoten, Kinoko Nasu and a whole bunch of other people that I can't be bothered to write here, lest we be here for the rest of time. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by Gen Urobuchi, Neon Alley, Madman Entertainment, and still more people I also can't be bothered to mention. I really need to stop doing this to myself. Please support the official releases!
The end of Mitakihara had come once again, and Homura was alone to stop it. She had managed to convince Madoka to not make her wish yet, even though her friends had died in front of her, and Sayaka had transformed into a literal monster powered by Despair. Now all that remained was to kill Walpurgisnacht.
Unfortunately, every time she'd tried had so far ended in either her own or Madoka's death at the Witch's hands. She'd even tried to trace where it had come from initially, though that didn't really work. The creature seemed to appear and disappear at random, leaving destruction wherever it went. People often attributed the aftereffects of the Witch to massive storms, the last of which had hit the Gulf section of the United States in 2005, killing thousands and probably feeding off of the Souls and collective misery it caused, leaving no one any the wiser.
"You can't stop it, you know." A small, strange combination of a cat and a rabbit said to the girl as she surveyed the beginnings of the monster's rampage.
"I might not be able to Kyubey, but I can still try." Homura responded to the fuzzball. "If only because it's what she would do…" She added silently, thankful that Kyubey could only hear sent messages through telepathy. She leapt off the side of the building she was standing watch on, leaving the alien to watch her battle.
She bounded toward the Abomination as quickly as her legs could carry her, barely alighting on one spot before leaping to the next, stopping time to increase her speed and slow it down. She appeared in front of the monster and stared at it defiantly, then stopped time and pulled out a large variety of rocket launchers, setting them up all around her. It was nowhere near the full strength of her arsenal, as that was set up relatively close by, ready for the initial blast to knock the Witch into optimal firing range. She held onto the last one and pulled the trigger, sending its payload rocketing away towards the target, only to freeze in midair about halfway there. Dropping the now spent weapon, she ran to each one and sent the explosives towards the floating figure, the same happening to each rocket. Once she had used all the ones that she had pulled out of the shield, she turned to face it once more.
"Come and get me, monster." She said quietly to it, then unfroze time, turned around and bolted the other way like a bat out of hell. The rounds shot forward as one, ripping into the creatures' dress before blowing up in a scene of fiery glory. She continued to move forward, dashing to the other side of the harbor. Homura had to get to the battery armaments she had set up, otherwise there was no chance. Maybe, just maybe, she could pump enough lead into it this time. She had more explosives, artillery, and guns than ever before, so it might be the final showdown. She hoped it was, she had lost count of how many times she had relived the same month over and over and over again. She thought of nothing, focusing on keeping the delicate balance of moving too fast to hit, but slow enough that Walpurgisnacht wouldn't lose interest and go after easier targets. She noticed that there was some rubble laying in such a way that it could be seen as a ramp, as well as a fuel truck next to it. She did some quick math, then froze time again as soon as the Witch came into position. Sprinting to the truck, she leapt on top of it and used magic to make it drive up the ramp. The truck sped to the summit and flew into the air, trailer and all. Unfreezing time at the last possible second, Homura did a backflip off of the top of the truck as it slammed into the Witch's legs, exploding with a massive force that would have likely incinerated Homura, should she have been at the center of it.
Smoke cleared away from the Monster, spiralling out of the gusting winds that surrounded her. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be a scratch on her body. She gave a peal of laughter, mocking Homura for the inability to defeat her.
"Dammit! Not again! Something has to be able to-!" She thought, only to be interrupted as the winds generated by the Witch destroyed the building that she was about to land on. She was going too fast, and knew this would hurt. She rolled as she hit the ground to disperse the impact, and it worked to a degree. She felt her left humerus and right leg snap with the force of the strike, but stopped time once more and began to heal her broken body to where it could function again.
"I guess there is one thing to be thankful for when you're a Magical Girl. The ability to turn off the sensation of pain and keep going." She thought wryly, as the shattered bones were knit back together to a degree by the will of her Magic. Realizing her time stop was almost up, she began to jump away again and made it just outside of the range of the tornado that had begun to form around the upside down doll. She jumped over the next few houses and realized that she had made it. She pulled a detonator out of her shield and pushed the button. A smirk spread across her face as Walpurgisnacht screamed as the rounds hit their mark. Never ceasing movement once, she pulled out another detonator, and pushed the button. More cannon fire, drowned out by the howling of rain, wind, and thunder, boomed. It was actually working!
At least it was, until the Monster spun, causing shockwaves of wind to spin out and destroy all her hard work. Even worse, she had been midair while the blast had gone off, and since she was conserving magic, she hadn't activated the tIme stop in order to dodge it. Her body flew and hit against a rather hard wall with a sickening thud, shattering her spine as well as the other leg. Her body then fell down from the place it hit and landed, face first, in the mud.
She slammed her remaining functional arm into the ground, flipping her up into the air quite a ways before coming down to a miraculous landing, face up this time, leaning against one of the few standing walls in the area.
"Damn it all to Hell! Why do I keep losing!? What am I missing?" She said, pounding her functional fist into the wall behind her, leaving a small dent of pulverized stone in the otherwise sturdy wall. Steeling herself, she reached into her shield once more and pulled out a different gun. Pointing it at the monstrosity that was currently moving in this direction, she stopped trying to heal herself and put everything into attacking it. Her will to kill this monster, to save everyone else, even if it cost her life, did not go unanswered.
Elsewhere, a Holy Grail activated. The time had come for a new War. This one was going to be very, very interesting.
Homura stopped charging the attack because she felt a burning on the back of her right hand as three red symbols appeared. It was a single hourglass, with a light area that resembled the pile of sand in the bottom of it, which was towards her wrist. Surrounding the outside of the Hourglass was a diamond that encompassed it. Flowing out from the diamond were lines that curled upwards, towards her fingers. The lines lengthened as they approached the center of the diamond, with only a couple more small lines above it. And then, around all of it, the shape of a gear took form, completing the symbols.
Walpurgis stared down at Homura with its eyeless face, leering at her fallen foe while she continued to spin, still as completely lost-looking as she always had. She opened her mouth and gave an unearthly wail, making the ground tremble as if a giant were walking upon it. Lightning flashed as the Witch raised its arms to bring them down on the ground where Homura lay.
"I will not give up! You hear me! I will see you fall and die one day! It's only a matter of Time!" Homura yelled, expecting to be crushed by the downward swing of the arms. Homura might have stopped charging it, but the attack was still ready to go, and in order to channel into the gun, it flowed through her hand.
The symbols glowed with a searing pain as the purple sparks of magic ran through them and released. A red circle on the floor before Homura lit up, filled with triangles and all manners of shapes surrounding a pair of broken swords that had once been a display piece, before it flashed once again and was gone. In its place, there stood a rather tall silver haired man, with matching eyes, a red trench coat, and black light armor in place of a shirt. He looked at her, then at his surroundings, only to turn around just as the fist of the Walpurgis came down toward them.
WIthout even missing a beat, he turned and scooped Homura up, before stopping several hundred yards away from the impact area. Leaving Walpurgisnacht bewildered as her prey disappeared from right before her "eyes". The sound of crying laughter filled the air once more as Walpurgisnacht continued on her path, ripping the area apart in her rage at being injured.
"Tell me, are you my Master? And if you are, how on Earth did you manage to summon me in your current state? There is no way you should be conscious right now, let alone summoning a Heroic Spirit." He asked the girl that was currently in his arms. She looked at him with disbelief in her violet eyes, almost as if she didn't know what to make of him. Hardly worthy material for his Master, if she was.
"What? Master?" Was all Homura could splutter out. This was certainly unexpected. It had never happened before in the countless timelines that had taken place before this, so what was this?
"Well, seeing as how your brain and your mouth can't seem to communicate with each other. You can just sit back and relax while watching me solve all of our problems. You don't give me orders and I do all the fighting, are we clear?" He said, placing the girl on the ground, and then turned to the still rampaging Witch, a confident smirk on his face.
"You can't beat it alone. I've tried so many times…" Archer heard coming from behind him. The young voice had steel beneath it, the voice of a hardened veteran. Even someone like Archer would have a moment of surprise upon hearing such a thing come from a child. Though it wasn't as odd for a Heroic Spirit, seeing as there were several with the appearance of a child on the Throne of Heroes.
"Of course not, you didn't have my combat abilities. Did you listen to me or not? Sit back and relax, we can figure out if you are my Master after I have dealt with this Thing that you were losing to." He said, a tone of anger and impatience in his voice. Before she could even have time to respond, he turned around fully and bolted for the Monster in question. Turns out she had gone quite a bit further than Archer had dodged. Dashing into the range of his ability, he made ready for battle mentally, the same as he always did.
Archer EMIYA had seen many things throughout his time as a Counter Guardian. This was a new one. Scanning through the area, he knew that if he didn't stop it here, it would continue to rampage and kill everyone and everything in its sight. He would kill it, because that was what a sword did. He knew that this would take a fair amount of magic power, and his master didn't seem to have much left to spare, assuming this was the thing she had been fighting. He needed to do this with one attack.
"I am the Bone of my Sword…" He said, his blue power sparked around him, almost daring the monster to attack him further.
"Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood…" He continued, the world around both him and the Witch changed somewhat, as fog began to roll in and phantom images of swords appeared, sticking up out of the ground. This was new. His power had never done this before, but he had no choice but to continue.
"I have created over a thousand Blades..." The world around them began to solidify more.
"Unknown to Death…" The sky changed color, though the Witch's storm remained, now tinged with the rust colored magic.
"Nor Known to Life…" The ground itself turned to Rust and sand, the smell of Iron and the Forge filled the air.
"Have withstood pain to create many weapons…" The weapons fully materialized, blue sparks of Prana jumped around them as they fully solidified.
"Yet, those hands will never hold anything…" Gears appeared in the backdrop, moving as though keeping pace with an unknowable time.
"So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works!" He finished with an air of finality. The Witch floated around as though disoriented by its new surroundings, madly cackling the entire time.
There was no pity on Archer's face. He was emotionless in this execution. He raised his hand and the weapons answered his call. Aestus Estus. Caliburn. Gae Bolg. Hrunting. These and many more responded. They levitated into the air, spinning in an unfollowable pattern, yet Archer knew each weapon like the back of his hand, knew their names, their histories, and he knew precisely how to use them. A mere twitch of his finger, and the blades shot out at the floating figure from all angles. There was no way it could have dodged. The roaring winds conjured by the Witch knocked some of the projectiles away, but the strongest, the ones that mattered, they flew true. A brilliant flash of white appeared as they struck home, burying themselves deep within the Monster before the entire world faded to white.
He did not know where he was. His Master was walking beside him, wordless through a featureless white plane, save for the black grove of trees they walked through, seemingly going nowhere. He wanted to move his mouth, ask what had happened, yet his mouth did not move.
The next thing he registered was an uncomfortable chair in a hospital room. The young girl who had summoned him laying there, just beginning to stir...
Homura woke up in her bed back at the hospital. She already knew what day it was. It was the 16th of March. Time to begin once again and restock all those weapons that had been wasted. Try once more. She opened her eyes to see her room, the same as it always was at the beginning of the loop, except one thing. Archer was sitting there staring at her, looking rather pissed off.
"Ah, so you're finally awake. You have a lot of explaining to do. Then I have to tell you exactly what variety of Hell you have started."
Author's Notes: You may have noticed that Unlimited Blade Works wasn't functioning quite normally. I'm just going to explain that as his Reality Marble interacting with the pseudo Reality Marble of the Walpurgis' "Labyrinth". I'm not exactly certain what to classify a Labyrinth as, but I'll figure it out.
Things have been rather hectic for me, so I wrote this one night to destress and it became a story. Welcome to this particular brand of insanity. If you can't tell, this will be a rather odd Grail War, especially due to what just happened.
EMIYA won't know what hit him.
I can't promise regular updates due to my schedule, but they will get up when I can put them up. The same goes for any other story I work on, so I apologize to those who like having a schedule for their fanfics.
Now, as for usually having to draw a summoning circle in order to get a Servant… In this story, the owner of that house was going to summon one prior to the arrival of Walpurgisnacht, but had to evacuate in a hurry, leaving the circle and some artifacts of lesser value behind in their rush. They'll probably come up later, so this isn't a plot hole.
Anyway, special thanks to Hakon2Feb and Loa of Salem on the Overlord Fanfiction Server, Sigravig, Bacon Hair, Ryouki Shizuki, Sa'Kage, Sir L Pounce A Lot, ChadComposite, and tired chaos dealer on the ANAI Discord Server, and DrCatfish of the Server for Beta Reading and Lore/Fact checking this.
I hope you enjoy this rapid descent into insanity!
-Inkrael.