Chapter 20
Homura's Odyssey (Part 2)
"Meltdown!" The Lava Titan belched molten rock into the air, opening the battle with a rain of burning stone.
Homura quickly dodged the deadly rain and retaliated with multiple arrows. The arrows sank into the titan's liquid body and exploded, blasting chunks out of the creature. It didn't seem too fazed by the impact however.
Homura was about to fire again when she felt a sudden drop in temperature. She narrowly slid out of the way of a blast of freezing cold breath that coated the acropolis floor in solid ice. The Ice Titan then staggered towards her, breaking off its feet from where they were frozen to the ground earlier, and extending towards their new location.
Homura dodged out of the way of the stomp, and almost got caught in a freezing shockwave shot from the impact.
The Ice Titan reached down, intending to swipe her with its claws, only for a jet of flame to wash over its hand. It recoiled in pain as Donald continued to spray fire at the creature. When it attempted to reach Homura with its other hand, Hercules hurled a huge chunk of rock into the Titan's face, causing it to stumble back. Homura opened fire, creating several cracks in its ribcage.
There was then a sudden spike in temperature as the Lava Titan surged forth like a living wave of molten death
"Aero!" Donald shouted. A whirlwind formed beneath him and Homura, propelling them both out of the way of the deadly flow firing volleys of projectiles all the while. As they landed, the Titan turned, and hurled more globs of lava at them.
"Haste!" Homura enhanced her speed and avoiding the lava. She was about to shoot at the Titan, when a blast of wind blew her away, sending her shot wild. She hit the ground and tried to run, but she tripped. Looking down, she saw her foot had been frozen over.
"Blizzard!" Said the Ice Titan with a raspy cry. Homura looked up to see large chunks of ice appearing in the air to come streaking towards her.
Homura rolled to her feet and jammed the heel of her shoe into the ice, cracking it, and pushed off of the now tractioned ground to evade the icy projectiles. As she leaped into the air, Sora came running beneath her, charging towards the Ice Titan.
He leaped off an icicle it shot at him, propelling himself directly towards the Titans head. Homura was about to join him, when the sound of howling winds approached her.
Even being hasted didn't give her enough time to react, as the Wind Titans arm extended toward her, opening into a funnel that sucked Homura in. Almost instantly, she was ejected out the top of the vortex, sent hurtling into the sky.
It would have been nice to have her wings back. Up here, Homura was a sitting duck without them, at the mercy of the Titan's attacks and the cruel force known as gravity as well. As she looked down, she saw the Wind Titan drawing in molten globs from the Lava Titan and launching them up at her like a gatling gun.
Not to be outdone, Homura retaliated with shots from her bow, though it was barely enough to keep up with the stream of molten bullets. Small bits splatted onto her, burning holes in her uniform and leaving aggravating burns in their wake. Her arrow shots quickly became ineffective as she reached the apex of her launch.
She felt the dreaded sensation of gravity taking effect as she began to fall. However, before she could gain much speed, there was the sound of a whinny and a blur of motion.
When Homura opened her eyes, she found she was now sitting on the back of Pegasus. She had never ridden a horse (or any animal) before, but she'd have to make the most of this opportunity. "Hyah!"
Pegasus flew through the battlefield, weaving in between the Titan's attacks, while Homura rained down arrows upon them. Massive fists of violently turbulent wind swung at them, but Pegasus was too agile to be hit by such blows, and the Titan's swing left its face vulnerable to shots from Homura's bow. The creature recoiled from the shots, and frantically sucked up sharp pieces of ice to aim at them. Homura raised her shield, and a purple aura extended from it, intercepting the barrage of cold and ice.
As the snowflakes faded, Homura looked up to see that the Wind Titan had shot more lava into the air. Pegasus tried to dodge, with Homura supporting him, but a dual barrage was starting to overwhelm them.
She considered casting Haste but it wouldn't do much when she wasn't moving under her own power. She attempted to cast Slow on the Titan but it didn't seem to have any effect. It clearly had some sort of magic resistance. How convenient.
Pegasus grunted in pain. Even with Homura's help, small bits of lava or shards of ice were getting through. Then an idea overcame her. If she could cast Slow on others, then why not…
"Haste!" Pegasus whinnied triumphantly as his speed and reaction time massively increased. The barrage of fire and ice became nothing as he easily wove his way through the onslaught. Freed from her need to defend, Homura took advantage of every opening, raining down arrows upon the Titan as it attacked futilely, lighting up the sky with a display of purple bursts. The Titan fell back. Even with Homura and Pegasus hasted, the Tornado Titan still had the speed of the wind, and now it was using that speed to put some distance between itself and them.
As the duo came in for another run, things went wrong. First, the Haste spell wore off. Then, they barely managed to dodge a blast of lava, only to run headlong into a massive blast of wind. The wind caught Pegasus' wings, sending him careening through the air, and Homura falling off his back. She was sent spirally through the air, attempting to grab on to anything, but was unable to stop herself from slamming into the ground.
When Homura's head stopped swimming and her eyesight unblurred, the first thing she realized was how absolutely cold she was. The second thing she realized was that she couldn't move. She was encased in ice, at the edge of the acropolis.
With her blurry vision through the frost, she could see the battle still raging.
Then she saw a pair of well shaped legs alight down in front of her. Unlike everything else, they were clear to her vision. The Devil knelt down, her face perfectly visible through the ice.
"Well, I believe the proper term to use here is 'bit off more than she could chew' if I am correct?"
Homura struggled to say something, though the ice was too thick, and she could only shiver slightly.
"'Just like Witches' my ass. Have you forgotten? You never were all that good in a fight without your ability to stop time. I believe fixing the world blurred those memories." The Devil mocked.
Homura grit her teeth trying to reply, but again, she couldn't move.
"So it is only a matter of time. Either you freeze to death, anticlimactically, or a stray shot ends you. And then your grand quest for the sake of dearest Madoka comes to an end. Never to know if she lives or not. What a waste. But what else can you expect?"
Homura snarled at those words. But she was still helpless.
"Oh, so there is still some fire in you!" The Devil smirked. "But not enough. I was the one who finally triumphed. I was the one, who brought low the foul rats. I was the one who freed Madoka from the clutches of the Goddess. I was the one who broke the cursed cycle of the Puella Magi. And so it stands that I must be the one to put an end to this battle."
The Devil placed her hand on Homura's and her vision became filled with violet flames.
"Homura!" When Sora saw her hit the ground, and then become frozen solid by a blast of cold immediately afterwards, his heart sank. He and Goofy rushed towards her, intending to free her, only for the Ice Titan to stomp it's way into their path. "Get out of the way!"
The Titan instead roared. Sora ducked behind Goofy's shield as the Titan exhaled it's frigid breath. When the barrage stopped, now there was a wall of ice cutting him off from Homura.
"No!"
Suddenly, from behind the wall, Sora saw an explosion of violet fire. The Ice Titan turned in confusion, only to get blasted in the face and knocked off its feet.
Sora saw Homura rise into the air, although she was different now. Her outfit had been replaced with a black dress, backless to allow for a pair of black wings that carried her aloft. Violet flames danced all around her as her body seemed to flicker, almost like static on a television. Her bow was still in her hand, though now, violet fire crackled at both ends of the weapon.
The Ice Titan swung its arm and released a barrage of icicles. Deftly dodging the attack, Homura retaliated with another massive blast of flame in the shape of a fist. The Ice Titan attempted to block the attack, but was nearly knocked off its feet by the sheer force of the blow.
As the Ice Titan slid back, Homura was about to go in for the final shot, when the Tornado Titan intervened. A massive cloudy fist struck her in an uppercut, knocking her high into the air again.
The Devil laughed as she soared through the sky, the Tornado Titan in pursuit. She knew from that blow that the Tornado Titan was no match for her; though Homura had been struggled against its hurricane-force wind attacks, they might have been a calm sea breeze to the Devil. The Titan shot rending gusts of wind and hurled chunks of debris at her. They were answered with barrages of burning arrows as the Devil soared through the chaos.
The Titan simply couldn't keep up with her, aided by accelerated time as she was, and each shot blasted off parts of the Titan. Its attacks, which the weakling Homura had barely managed to keep up with, were easy to avoid now. She idly wondered why the others didn't defer to her at all times. After all, they were all failures. The girl, a pathetic coward broken by the world and afraid of her own shadow. The Puella Magi, slavishly devoted to a quest she had no hope of succeeding at. The witch, a pathetic creature unable to do any more than weep at a world she was powerless in. The Devil clearly was the only one who stood a chance of finally ending this sordid saga.
The Tornado Titan pulled out all the stops, as it lifted enormous chunks of the city into the air, hurling the about wildly. When a building was hurled at the Devil, she gestured, and a massive pair of glowing hands emerged, grabbed the building, and hurled it back at the Titan.
Even that wasn't enough to kill it, to her frustration. The Devil dodged her way through another barrage of debris, before flying high into the sky.
"Let us end this!" She said, as she held her hand up into the air, drawing upon the greater magic she had access to now. "Comet!"
A rock burning with violet flames came streaking down from the sky, striking the Wind Titan head on with a deafening impact.
The Titan was smashed into the ground while engulfed in dark flames, momentarily dispersing into a shapeless cloud, before reconstituting into a humanoid shape. As the Devil descended she noted that the others had dealt with the remaining 2 titans, and they were currently sprawled out on the ground.
"Wow! Homura! Is that you?" Sora asked. "You look awesome!"
The Devil ignored him. She was about raise a cry of triumph, of praise to her awesome glory, when the ground shook. She looked over, to see the Rock Titan, of all things, striding towards them. As it approached, the other Titans stirred, rising from where they lay.
The Devil sighed. "I grow weary of this conflict."
"Then let's end this once and for all!" Hercules said. He leaped upon the mound of stone in the center and began to pry it open.
A golden light shone forth from the cracks, and then the top of the pillar exploded, Zeus burst free from his prison.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Hades howled.
"Thank you, my boy!" Zeus said. As he said that, Hephaestus tossed a batch of thunderbolts to the newly liberated King of the Gods. "Now, watch your old man work!"
"Uh oh..." One of the Titans said.
It was a blinding display. A single bolt blasted one of the Rock Titan's heads completely off, with a second taking the other in short order. At this demonstration of power, the Titans began to flee without hesitation.
They didn't get far. Hercules leaped towards the Tornado Titan and grabbed it by the base of the funnel. He swung the creature around, and used it to suck up the other 3 Titans. Then, he hurled all four of them clear out of the atmospher and right into space, where they exploded in a brilliant burst of light.
Outside, the other gods were mopping up the remaining Heartless. The fight was over.
"We did it!" Sora, Donald and Goofy exchanged high fives.
The Devil stood away from the group, observing the proceedings.
"We won! Everyone's safe!" A voice behind her said. She turned to see Akemi, for once smiling. Stupid girl. They didn't matter.
"I won!" The Devil said. "You were useless, as usual. And none of these distractions matter if we do not find out if my lovely Madoka still lives."
Akemi shrunk away at those words, but then said. "They're not distractions!"
"Are they now?" The Devil said. "I would beg to differ!"
"What do you mean?" Said another voice. Homura approached, clambering over a large chunk of stone.
"Why get involved in that whole climactic battle at all? Hades was waiting at the side of the arena the entire time. We could have questioned him at any time and then been on our merry way. But you wanted to play Hero." The Devil snarled. These girls were idiots. Her old selves were weak, beaten down by the world, and to afraid to strike back. "And nearly got killed in the process requiring me to get the job done! Heroics are pointless. You remember Sayaka Miki right? That fool girl blinded by her own ego. You remember how she kept wanting to be a "Hero of Justice" or some sort of nonsense, and then breaks when she realizes how foolish those goals are? Pointless."
"Pointless? The people love Hercules!" Akemi said.
The Devil kicked aside a few stones revealing an action figure of Hercules. She picked up the toy, turning it over in her hands. "These things are everywhere. In houses, on shop stalls, by the side of the road, in garbage piles. They love their celebrity of the moment. Place him on billboards, merchandise, statues. But fame fades, adoration fades. They just want amusement. A toy. Heroics are a fools game. You remember Mami Tomoe right? How she craved admiration and got killed grandstanding. How Madoka kept leading herself to ruin, all playing into the loathsome hands of the Incubator."
"Are you serious?! You're dishonoring her! Forgetting the reason why she-" The Devil slapped Akemi, knocking off her glasses.
"I am saving her! Madoka was too naive. She didn't understand the world. I do! This world does not deserve her kindness! It is rotten to the core and the few good people are dragged down into the mire with it. We must drill that into her head or that gorgeous, ignorant, wonderful, naive, girl will keep tearing herself apart for the benefit of those who will never be grateful for her sacrifice!" The Devil snarled. "Now, I have a mission to complete. As it seems that I am the only one among us capable of remaining on task and not getting waylaid by foolhardy sentiment, as usual I must clean up everyone else's failures. Or have you forgotten what you did to Sora?"
Even Homura flinched at those words, while Akemi sobbed and ran away. Good riddance. The Devil looked at the toy one last time before lighting it on fire. The Devil was about to step forwards to join the others, when a sudden pain shot through her. Her body flickered. "No." The Devil grit her teeth, and forced herself forwards. She still had work to do.
"Are you kidding me?! I put 18 years into that plan, and you've blippin' ruined it!" Hades raged. "I really don't like you!"
"Just give it up!" Sora said. "You'll never beat Herc no matter how many times you try."
"Yeah, stay in the Underworld where you belong!"
"Go have the time of your afterlife!" Donald joked.
"ENOUGH ALREADY! I did not come this far to be ridiculed by Zeusy high and mighty, his little sunspot and a gaggle of clowns!" Hades' flames erupted in a burst of raging orange. "You know what? I'll just go ahead and destroy you!"
"Hades?" Hercules asked calmly.
"What?!" Hades turned, only for Hercules to punch him in the face, sending him sprawling across the ground.
"That's for trying to wreck Thebes."
His flames diminished, before flaring up again. "You'll pay for this! I have a very, very, long memory! I can still dunk your little nut-meg in a river of de-"
Smoke began to surround him, only to be disrupted by a circle of violet fire.
He looked up as the Devil approached him. "And what do you want?"
"Hades." the Devil said imperiously. "You are lord of the underworld, ruler of the dead. You can know if a soul has perished, regardless of world. Tell me, has the one known as Madoka Kaname passed?"
Hades blinked several times, looking a little shocked. His flames reverted to their normal blue color. "Nope, nu-uh, doesn't ring a bell. That check is still in the mail. Are we done here!" With that, he disappeared a puff of smoke and hellfire.
So she's alive. The Devil breathed a sigh of relief.
She turned to Sora who was smiling encouragingly at her, only for her vision to flicker. As she looked at her self her body began to warp. The Devil screamed in pain before collapsing to the ground, her sight fading to black.
So the Olympus Arc is wrapping to a close. It should be finished in the next chapter, and then we can return to Madoka and co.
As always, thanks to The Name Of Love for beta-reading and idea sounding!
~Dragonexx