"Here it comes!"
Walpurgisnacht—symbol of helplessness and the Fool—was rumored among Magical Girls to be an aggregate of multiple Witches, a force that rotated at storm-speed when upright, toppling civilizations and scouring the earth clean.
"This level of despair is even more terrifying than the rumors." Kyoko crushed the lollipop in her mouth, cold sweat drenching her brow.
The observed rain and mist condensed and gathered, and from the Magical Girls' perspective, a circus born from scribbled drawings materialized—elephants and similar shapes drifting past them. Then, at the far edge of the clouds, Walpurgisnacht's true form gradually revealed itself.
Its shape was an enormous doll wearing a black formal gown, appearing in an inverted posture, with massive rotating gears framing the hem of its skirt and triangular pennants hanging downward from its neck and hair.
The instant it manifested, an entire corner of Mitakihara was reduced to rubble. Just looking at it, the thing was plainly impossible to defeat.
"Sneak attack!"
Sayaka suddenly jabbed her scabbard at Kyoko's backside, but luckily, Kyoko—whose nerves had been frayed by these antics over the past few days—dodged the moment she heard the movement.
"Are you out of your mind?! Save that crap for after we win!" Kyoko glared at her furiously.
"What? I thought you were shaking in your boots at the sight of a tough enemy. We haven't even started fighting and you're already scared?"
Sayaka drew her blade. "Though, just now, did you say once we win I could do whatever I—"
"I said nothing of the sort!"
"..."
How had those two ended up like this?
Homura was baffled. In previous timelines, at best Sayaka had started to accept Kyoko and they'd become friends—then Sayaka would die, and Kyoko would cry, "We'd finally become friends."
"Stand back."
Homura stopped time, and arrayed at her feet were over a hundred pre-loaded rocket launchers—all pilfered from the U.S. military during Time Stop.
Time resumed. Hundreds of shells detonated across Walpurgisnacht's surface, yet it drifted through the explosions completely unscathed, letting out an ethereal, piercing laugh.
"What kind of Magical Girl uses rocket launchers?! Let's go!" Sayaka leaped from her position and began her chant: "I am the bone of my sword, my body is all iron and grows no flesh... anyway—Unlimited Blade Works!"
Blades forged from her enormous reserves of magic surged upward—thousands upon thousands, stabbing in dense waves at that colossal body. But Walpurgisnacht displayed an agility that belied its size. Seizing the opening, Homura used magic to guide an oil tanker along with a large number of explosive charges hidden underwater, wrapping them around the target before detonating everything at once.
"Did that work?" Sayaka asked tensely.
"Are you an idiot? Ban that line from your vocabulary immediately!"
The shrill laughter still echoed across Mitakihara as several of the city's landmark buildings collapsed. Walpurgisnacht began to rotate.
"Kyoko!"
"You ugly piece of garbage—it's about time you shut up!" Kyoko, closest to it, summoned her spear's serpent form, concentrating a massive burst of crimson magic at the tip and firing it straight at Walpurgisnacht.
The laughter finally stuttered for an instant. Viewed from directly above, the red flash practically bisected all of Mitakihara, blasting the Witch a full kilometer away and destroying every building in its path—in some floors, carving perfectly circular holes clean through.
How the experts would explain a typhoon causing this kind of damage was anyone's guess.
"That insult just now was directed at Walpurgisnacht, not you," Kyoko clarified to Sayaka after landing.
The dust cleared, and the massive silhouette remained visible. It didn't appear to have sustained any significant damage.
"That was my strongest attack, and it still wasn't enough? Give me two more months to get used to the Soul Gem and I could definitely take this thing down."
Sayaka jabbed: "You've already completed your enhancement and you're still using that same move? Don't you have any new skills?"
Kyoko straightened her spear. "You think I'm a shonen manga protagonist who can just conjure a new ultimate technique in half a month? At least the power's way stronger than before, right?"
"Is that so? I guess I really am a genius." Sayaka looked at the tens of thousands of blades carpeting the ground.
"If you want to shamelessly classify a brute-force magic dump as your own original technique, I've got nothing to say. And your move's name isn't even original, is it? What was the point of chanting that nonsense..."
"What does it matter? Are you telling me you became a Magical Girl and never watched other Magical Girl anime to study up?"
"That's good enough." Homura offered a rare word of encouragement, her gaze fixed on Walpurgisnacht. The Witch that no amount of her time loops had ever been able to defeat—had barely even been able to scratch—had finally lost a fragment from that last strike.
Perhaps it was a negligible wound, but at least it finally showed her a glimmer of hope.
"How many more times can you use that move?"
"It's not about how many times. That single shot burned through about ninety percent of my stored magic. To fully recharge, it'd take at least around ten minutes." Kyoko answered.
Magic regenerated infinitely, but unfortunately, her capacity as a vessel—and its opening—were both rather limited.
One shot to drain her magic dry. For someone as familiar with Magical Girls as Homura, that was a rather unfamiliar concept.
"I see..."
"Get out of the way!"
In the very instant hope had flickered to life, a building tore itself from the ground and hurtled at them like a javelin, arriving in barely a second. The massive impact blasted all three of them cleanly into a hallway of another apartment building a hundred meters away.
Kyoko crawled out of the debris, clutching her bleeding head. Nothing in her combat experience had told her a Witch would weaponize terrain—then again, no previous Witch had been able to manifest outside a Labyrinth.
Before she could recover, a shadow loomed behind her, accompanied by a swirling pull.
"Hehehe..."
At the sound of that laughter up close, Kyoko didn't even need to look to know that the absurdly agile giant monster was right behind her, staring her down. Drenched in cold sweat, the only thing she could manage was to emergency-transfer her soul into her Soul Gem, placing her hopes on the new gem's durability to withstand Walpurgisnacht's attack.
"Ah, I bet this is going to hurt."
"My, what a sorry state."
Golden ribbons coiled around her waist, cinched tight, and yanked her free. Mami caught her in a princess carry and retreated.
"Mami-senpai!" That cry came from Sayaka, naturally.
Mami exhaled in relief. "Looks like I'm not too late."
Kyoko turned her head. "Pretty sure nobody invited you."
"What are you saying? Wasn't I the original guardian of Mitakihara?"
Mami set her down and lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry, Kyoko."
"What are you even sorry for? You don't actually think an apology earns forgiveness, do you?"
"I know. That's why I came."
Kyoko scratched the back of her head. "Fine, let's deal with the enemy first and yell at you later. Don't you dare think this counts as forgiveness—I'll never forget that you tried to kill me."
"Okay."
All the Magical Girls except Madoka were now assembled, and all three of them were considerably stronger than in any previous timeline.
Homura clenched her fist.
There was nothing to be afraid of anymore. This time, they would win.