When the Devil Broke the Universe

Kyoko and Nagisa told Neloth everything. At first they'd been hesitant, but his questions were pointed, and while he repeatedly doubted their intelligence and decision-making skills (Kyoko was really starting to dislike the wizard), he never once doubted their honesty. Now dried off thanks to a low-level heat spell and wrapped up together in a blanket, and with Kyoko's leg having been healed by another spell of Neloth's, the two girls huddled together, still outside in the wilderness, as Neloth leaned back in his chair in contemplation. Kyoko's soul gem rested on the table—he'd asked to see one, and Kyoko had flatly refused to allow Nagisa to give hers up. It didn't look like any soul gem he'd ever seen—and the properties were very different. Tamrielic soul gems stored souls yes, but they were permanently divorced from their host bodies, and they provided far less magic then what he felt radiated off these girls' trinkets, which were far more like a permanent phylactery which even by itself was intriguing, as even Neloth didn't know of any way to make a phylactery that wasn't anything more than a temporary vessel for the lichification process. Not that he'd tried of course, lichhood was the rabble's method for immortality. He couldn't wait to test some hypotheses once they were back at the tower, though.

But that wasn't the real prize here, was it?

"… The meteor shower…" he said to himself, rubbing his beard as he leaned back in his seat in contemplation.

"What meteor shower?" Kyoko asked.

"A rather large shower came down over all of Tamriel. It was unusual in both its brightness and intensity, but more-so by the fact that it was entirely unscheduled. It shouldn't have happened. Now I know why".

She caught his meaning, "… Wait, are you saying more of us made it here?" she asked in surprise.

Neloth took a drink from his cup of tea, "That would be the obvious conclusion, yes. The real question is where did you come from? The realms of Oblivion are vast, but the kind of universe you are describing is almost impossibly large in scope. So either your 'Law of Cycles' is an indescribably powerful being even by Daedric standards, or she inherited a system built by a collective of spirits, much like the world you stand on now—and considering how you have described her capabilities and limitations to me, I am much considering the latter. That raises its own questions, however…"

Nagisa didn't much care for the old man's ruminations, she was fully focused on his first statement, "If the others are here then…then we have to go find them!" she said, standing up in excitement.

"What, you're going to go wander off into the wilds alone?" Neloth sneered, "Without provisions, protection, or any idea of where you're headed? Good luck, you'll be dead by tomorrow morning." Nagisa wilted from Neloth's bluntness and sat back down in the dirt, wrapping the blanket back around herself in defeat. Kyoko shot him a glare which he didn't even seem to notice.

"It's exactly that kind of impetuous nonsense that got your world killed," Neloth grumbled, "Whoever thought that handing out powers to petulant children was a good idea was certainly a special kind of insane. You played god like it was a game of dress-up."

"Excuse you!?" Kyoko shot up off the ground in anger and stepped towards the wizard.

Neloth was unimpressed, "Child, you and your friends tore the concept of Hope in two," he said with a frown, "Did you really think there wouldn't be consequences?"

Kyoko wanted to retort, but any would-be comeback died in her throat, and in the end she simply backed off with a grumble, her fists closed tight.

Neloth took another sip, "A long time ago, a group of idiots calling themselves the Alessian Order decided that for whatever reason, they didn't like that another group of people worshiped the same god of time differently from them. To that end, they undertook a forbidden ritual to try and rip out the parts of the god they didn't like".

"… What happened?" Nagisa asked, knowing it wasn't going to end well, but curious all the same.

Neloth scoffed, "What do you think happened? The time god snapped, and we spent the next thousand years giving birth to our own grandparents because time stopped mattering. Reality was unbound, existence was non-linear, and to this day we don't actually know WHAT happened because everyone came out of it with a different story or six".

"… And we unbound hope" Nagisa said, horror sinking into her voice.

"And what's left when hope is gone?" Neloth asked her.

Nagisa's face went pale white as she realized the full implications of Homura's singular act, "Despair."

"I don't claim to be an expert in the dynamics of hope and despair or whatever, but logically I would assume from the moment you tore your goddess in two, everything became futile. You were doomed from that moment on." Neloth said nonchalantly.

Kyoko landed back on her knees, her anger at Neloth vanishing as she unclenched her fists, her gaze aimed at nothing in particular. It had all been for nothing. Again.

Neloth glanced at the sky; night was beginning to fall, "Come," he said, standing up after finishing his drink, "Unless you'd like to be eaten by an ash hopper. Solstheim is even less hospitable at night."

"Why do you care?" Kyoko asked him. They'd spent the last few hours getting berated out in the cold by the man, and he'd shown no interest in whether they lived or died.

"I don't. Go and freeze to death for all I care. But you are interesting, and I would like to squeeze more knowledge out of you before you do. Now come, my tower is just over the next hill".

The two girls looked at each other and Kyoko nodded at Nagisa in approval, albeit reluctantly. They didn't have much choice, did they? It was either the crabby old man or the bug monsters. With that Kyoko swiped her gem off the table and the two began to follow the old wizard.

"… Wait, what about your stuff?" Nagisa asked him, pointing back at the table, chair, and equipment.

Neloth paused to look back at them with a hint of exasperation, "That's what the Help is for. My servants will be out in a bit. Hurry along, now."

The three of them crested the next hill and there, within a forest of giant mushrooms stood a truly magnificent one the size of a moderate skyscraper and covering much of the mushroom forest below. At its base was what the girls could only describe as a village of smaller mushrooms and fungal structures, each one with a door that hinted at rooms within. Banners with strange symbols fluttered in the wind at the entrance, illuminated by ball-shaped lights hung from fungal tentacles which also formed a makeshift barrier around the entire settlement. Strange animals that looked like someone had crossed a fat velociraptor with a frog rested in a pen, and a number of guards wearing full-body armor of a material neither girl could identify stood watch.

"…Woah." Kyoko uttered, despite herself, her eyes wide. Nagisa was similarly struck. It was like something out of a storybook.

Neloth allowed himself the barest of smug grins, "Welcome to Tel Mithryn, last bastion of the true Telvanni…" his expression shifted to disgust as they approached the entrance and his voice lowered as he spoke mostly to himself, "… And my prison in exile…"

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Waking up was painful. For half a second she'd expected to find herself in the hospital for the ninety-seventh time, and that everything she'd witnessed had just been a terrible nightmare. The timeline would repeat once more, as it always had.

Yet Homura found herself not in Mitakihara Hospital, but instead under a rocky outcropping, hidden on the bank of a river in what looked to be some sort of canyon. The raven-haired girl sat up, finding herself in her normal school uniform. It was late; evening at best. Crawling out of the pitiful excuse for a cave, she looked around at the craggy mountains, dull-colored grass, and small scraggly trees that dotted the scenery. A light drizzle blanketed the mist-ridden landscape.

… Where WAS she? Instinctively, she attempted to move herself to the top of the nearest mountain to get a better look, but nothing happened. She'd only taken a normal step forward. Momentary shock and bafflement quickly became panic when she realized she couldn't feel anything except her own body. She couldn't observe distant galaxies, she couldn't sense the underlying fabric of reality.

She was mortal again.

The would-be demon reached for her dark orb—nothing rested on her ear. On her hand though, was a very familiar ring—HER ring, and a quick test brought out her soul gem, as pristine as the day she'd gotten it, as if it had never been converted. As if she'd never ascended.

Impossible.

"… No" she whispered to herself, "No no no no… Madoka?" she called out to her other half, then louder then the pinkette didn't respond, "MADOKA?!"

Silence. Only the call from a bird flying overhead and the faint rustle of wind over grass as light rain pattered down answered the girl who had once commanded the universe's fundamental forces.

She was alone.

She tried to transform. Maybe… maybe she had her old time powers back. It was a fool's hope, she knew, but it was all she had.

… She couldn't transform. It just didn't happen. She willed it like she always had, but it wouldn't come. She was stuck like this.

Homura remembered the last moments of the old world. She remembered reaching for Madoka, and her reaching back, and both of them trying to pull the other apart. The universe had buckled under the assault, and then… and then…

"No," Homura whispered again, this time even more panicked. She put her hands to her temples as she felt her pulse rose, "No, please no," she screamed again, "MADOKA?! WHERE ARE YOU?! PLEASE, ANSWER ME!" Each call came out as more frantic, more desperate. This couldn't be happening, this just…couldn't be happening. She closed her tear-filled eyes, hoping beyond hope she'd wake up in her bed when she opened them again.

"No…"

Denial gave way to abject despair as she realized what she had done.

She'd killed Madoka. She'd torn her apart with her bare hands. And this time, there were no do-overs.

A guttural blood-curdling scream escaped her lips, shouting to an uncaring universe as she dropped to her knees in the muddy grass in a fit of sorrow, and then just stayed there, crying as the rain got heavier. And when her tears were finally gone, she still did not move so much as an inch all through the night.

This is what it meant to be the devil. Not pride, not scorn, not hate, not endless struggle or sin. Not even a refusal of salvation. It simply meant an absence of God.