III.

Madoka glanced skyward briefly, catching the familiar glowing light beaming to the top of the Uracksheegal's stomach. How odd it must be to have a body this size that entire Forest of Shadows with its own sky and atmosphere inside its stomach, she mused. That creature's voice still echoed grimly in her head as she crashed through yet another greedy root, urging her to go on. How has this Witch, Gechick, become this way? She supposed she will find out soon. Her arms were not tired in the slightest; she was swinging mechanically now at anything daring to cross her path. All this effortless swinging and meaningless destruction brought her no joy at all, since none of the destroyed roots made her feel like she was exhuming the tortured bodies' souls out of the fragments of their gnarled prisons. It was only now that the revelation dawned on her: She was not simply skittering in this hellish forest like prey in a nightmare when she could control her body; she was the nightmare itself.

The opening was in the clear and with it came the rushing Knotting strands, now more vibrant to Madoka's eyes than usual. She had not noticed the changes to her vision since she woke up practically on the run, but after she came into contact with the last one and left that dream's vision her connection with the golden magic seemed to be stronger. Even Audrey's Golden Hand seemed like it was drawing more strands to her on its own. Now the time seemed ripe to use the magic. The roots were coming in waves of tangled and fleshy masses, towering above her. It was almost like the Witch,— wherever she was in this stupid beast,— was trying desperately to block her path. The ground around her got darker as Madoka slid to a stop at the rising shadow that had now completely surrounded her. She felt calm inside the eye of the storm's corruption, and despite the rising tide; she stuck Magnolia into her portal. The final statue was behind this mess and who knows where it would thrust her when she got to it. Best to keep her axe safe and sound. This mere black blob was not worthy of her weapon. Moreover, the golden bolts danced along their jagged surfaces, unaffected and unafraid to shine against the undulating murkiness about to crash into her with their combined, yet meager light.

"Do you not wish to be free of this darkness, Witch?" Madoka asked softly, but she was scanning for those peculiar stone cubes buried within the tangled black mass. "You might be collecting all those eyes, but,—" There! She grabbed a fistful of rebellious Knotting magic spidering up into the sky, igniting their magic into a brilliant and defiant light against the wall; anticipation arcing around inside her heart as the magic swelled. "—You are blind to all the suffering you've caused!"

With that, she threw her hand out as if she was hurling a spear and the Knotting magic responded in kind, following her swinging motion and surging straight towards her target. The javelin pierced the cube's stony surface and the exploding ball of lightning filled the odd patterns etched into its surface. The black tide was stopped in its tracks as if Time itself froze in the collision of brilliant sparks, then the cubes reacted and recited their song to her in a multitude of disembodied and mechanical voices.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE TODAY THE HOLY ONE RETURNS TO US OUR CHORUS WITNESSES THEE THE SYSTEM RESONATES LIKE THUNDER HEAVEN TO EARTH, HEAVEN TO EARTH THY TRUE FORM AWAITS THEE AS WE HAVE SUNG OUR LONGING FOR THEE

Enough of that, Madoka ignored their singing and simply barged through the dissolving wall of roots and broken limbs like a raging beast. She ignored the pain that jolted her body from the curtain of unraveling Knotting strands and finally found what she had been chasing after. The odd statue, an elongated bulbous sphere, with hundreds of limbs outstretched at different angles seemed to be calling for her just like the other statues had before. Through the strange cube's Chorus singing, the chaotic, crackling noise from shattering corruption and her own beating heart— she still could hear the whispers beckoning to her. Her foot nearly tripped on an incline that suddenly opened as the Shadow Forest's grounds growled and the Uracksheegal's heartbeat thundered again. White hot pain shot through it and then traveled all the way through her leg. Something pierced through her ankle! She could not help but scream in pain, but the sharpness woke her up completely. Damn it all, she gritted her teeth. With a final burst of strength, she leapt towards its open arms and nearly scolded it aloud as her pounce led her straight to its oddly shaped body. The pain can wait. You better put me in a good dream this time, or I won't forgive you!

Silence immediately flooded Madoka's senses. Blessed or not, she was not sure yet, but she knew she managed to make it, her hand clawing the top of the statue's smooth stony head desperately. The whispers, the chaos she wrought upon the Shadow Forest, and all those meddlesome noises that came with it attenuated, then cleared immediately. Even her foot stopped feeling the searing heat. When she looked down, she winced. One of the thorns of the roots tore through it like it was a thin leaf.

「Holy One. The Chorus sings within thee. Authenticity accepted. Cleansing of the Heart's corruption is now at 100%… Holy One. The Link has been established. Repeat. Holy One… Link established. Local resonation shall be instilled within thee.」

Her head swam with all those odd words, but she ignored all of it again since the buzzing feeling of traveling to another dream was fast descending upon her brain and forcefully closing her eyes with fingers of black and white static.

"Kate, please," an angelic voice was speaking to her. Her ears had a sensation of dizziness flooding over her. She had never heard anything so otherworldly and impossibly beautiful slip into her mind; the sweet music threatened to slice it into pieces with its gossamer strands. Madoka could hear every note, every oscillation in her tone's pitch as if they were harmonious voices of their own. Then the name hit her. She was in another's body, again, but this time she recognized the name. Then, the disorienting feeling struck her like many blows to her head. Knowledge and memories were compiling themselves forcefully into her mind, as if it was a shelf being weighed down by a continuous, yet growing stockpile of books. Then, the voice fell into a heartbreaking, concerned tone. Madoka was sure that if she heard this voice in her original body, she would fall rapidly, weeping herself into a never-ending despair. "A-Are you alright, Kate?"

"I–" Madoka heard her own voice for the first time in this strange new body. She opened her eyes, but everything was too bright to see clearly. This whole experience was just a dream, but she felt like she was truly involved this time around and worse; she was in the middle of a conspiracy. Every instinct in her told her to lie to the strange being speaking to her, but the regret of hearing her voice in any sort of bad mood burdened Madoka greatly. "I'm calibrating?"

She tried to make up something that seemed plausible; a clumsy lie that bounced off the shielded stalwart glass that shimmered outside against the dark expanse of space and its debris. As expected, the woman's incredulous voice pierced her like a thousand swords. Hearing in this world already nearly knocked her off her feet, but her voice shattered reality. Then, Madoka's eyes adjusted slightly and she finally saw who the voice was attached to. A beauty. Her hair shined in colors her mind could not comprehend and her eyes held galaxies inside of them. No, wait, there was a literal galaxy floating outside of the space station they were apparently in. This goddess had such a powerful presence that made Madoka's heart jump. Standing before her, arms folded, the beauty's shoulders eventually slumped as if she was tired of covering up mistakes for the original Kate. She did not have an Aura like the Nobles and Royals of the Palace, or any sort of magic, but she far surpassed them in terms of beauty and power. Then, the beauty's name flashed inside Madoka's head: Farrah.

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"Ugh, I knew it!" She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. The weak lie she told seemed to set her off and she definitely did not believe Madoka, but seemed plausible enough to not warrant anything other than sheer annoyance. "Do you think I'm an idiot, Kate?"

"Wait," Madoka tried to excuse herself with another lie. Her hands instinctively covered an object she was apparently holding protectively. Then another instinct caused her to blurt out a different phrase in Sixth Form. A strange sphere, glowing with swirling neon colors like a strobe light, rested firmly in her hands. It was something called a Core. "I- I can explain!"

The look on Farrah's face nearly destroyed Madoka, pinning her to a pillar of shame and heartbreak. Somehow, this body she was in could withstand it and furthermore, she even began to suspect the original Kate was used to her poutiness. She apologized in her head to Farrah, but immediately took it back, fearing that the angry woman could somehow read her mind. The beauty simply sighed as if she was used to whatever Kate was up to. Whatever look Madoka gave her seemed to only refuel her anger.

"You were with those… virtual… girls again, weren't you, Kate?" Farrah shrieked. "You know how I feel about you. About us! And— About those… Programs!"

For whatever reason, shame welled up within the knowledge of those programs sliding up and down her brain's neuro-wires. Yours, Kate, not mine, Madoka scolded the original owner. Look at what you've done to this poor girl! Then, she realized that Kate was innocent, whether it was just this one time or any of the potential times she had visited this particular Core. She needed to get out of here. With the sphere immediately, and a rising tension in her chest bloomed.

"I— Farrah. I c-can't do this right now," she stammered, barely able to register that this beautiful voice coming from her throat was her own temporarily. "I need time to think."

"Yeah, Kate? You need time to think?"

Madoka knew that tone of voice Farrah was using. She had sounded the same way when she shut off Audrey's excuses when she spoke about Arudite, though the intensity was dull compared to this beauty's completely rejected voice. The woman was defeated, on the verge of giving up on whatever Kate and Farrah had together.

"How about what I think, Kate? Did you ever think about that, huh? Does that even matter to you? Do I even matter to you anymore?"

Crystalline tears slipped from Farrah's eyes, falling and splashing on her shaking arms like shattered stemware.

"No— it's not—" The shame clogged Madoka's, or Kate's, throat, preventing her from being able to speak. She saw the woman's heartbroken expression reflect in the Observatory window as well as in the rows of Cores that were on racks behind her. For some reason, those also seemed quite important to Kate, but they were of less priority than the one she held right now. Farrah was standing at the door now, the distance between them growing, screaming something about shutting them all down.

"All of them, Kate. I need you to shut them all down. They're ruining you. They're ruining us!"

"I will, Farrah, I will for you," Madoka whispered, but knew full well she was lying. Something in her heart certainly died, whether it was the crumbling partnership between the fleeing gorgeous lady and her or something beyond; she did not know. What she did now was the warmth that this precious and mission critical sphere had comforted her chest thoroughly and she never wanted to let it go. It was something she had to leave this whole station with. Alive or dead.

Then, she looked up at the thousands of Cores resting on displays that spiraled up a wondrous high-vaulted ceiling. She would return and attempt to pull another heist on as many of these as possible. The galaxy swirling outside was potentially lifetimes worth of distance away from where she stood in this infinitesimal station, yet its glory shimmered off the spheres all the same. This world the original Kate lived in was truly breathtaking and for some reason, Madoka approved. She was aware that this was indeed a good, but bittersweet dream for all the wrong reasons.

Madoka jolted awake, this time, wild grass scratched her exposed legs. Sorry, Lady Saze, she apologized in her head as she glanced at her disheveled and torn up clothing. Her head once again felt like it was dunked in cold water then painfully pulled out by the hair, making her gasp and heave for precious air. Her hands scooted along the yellow grass as she retched, bumping into something when she struggled on all fours. After collecting herself, she realized that the thing her hand scratched was a charred, crumbling hand— or what was left of it. To her horror, its elongated sharp fingers were still wriggling even though it was not connected to anything. She also somehow realized that the crawling severed thing was a part of the root that stabbed her ankle.

Instinctively, she glanced down at her foot and to her surprise, there was no wound or sign that she had been harmed at all. That was not all, Madoka stood up shakily. Her skin was not only healed, but glowing as well. It was almost like she was back at the burning Palace where she was brought back to life. Audrey had used all of the talismans on her, but this time… She looked around and felt loneliness nearly crush her. She was on the precipice of a wide open plain overlooking something and behind her was a regular forest and the Princess was nowhere to be seen. This place felt familiar to her, somehow. Above the trees, she saw the large windows of the Uracksheegal more clearly in the daylight and immediately felt discouraged again. Still inside this cursed place, she swore in her heart. These plains stretched around a valley beneath her and the memory struck her. This was where she met Gechick in her dreams!

Or, Madoka held her chest as the conflict in her heart grew. She thought they were dreams and visions. It never occurred to the maid that the place she slept in temporarily for a brief respite was a real place. But it was real. The grass crinkled as wind brushed over it, the weather was balmy yet felt like it was anticipating something, and everything was right before her eyes— tangible like the kind goddess Gechick's lap and the comfort that brought her. The mystery of the white Aura making her skin glow and the plains's seemingly endless reach could wait. She growled before she could stop herself. The false sky, once blue, now turned crimson and bathed the entire place with a blood-red killing intent. She knew exactly what was coming out of it.

"Back for more, huh?" Madoka gritted her teeth as that disgusting portal opened way above her head in the distance.

The black, stretched-out body slipped halfway through the murky portal, then; it thrashed and seemed to seep out like sludge overflowing, slow like an endless drooping string of black syrup. Its body fluttered high up in the sky like a ripped flag. As more of its darkness blotted the atmosphere, it twisted at various angles and coiled as if it was a tornado beginning to form. The sight of it was grotesque and it appeared to be searching for something. Madoka knew she would be the target, but it was painfully more obvious because of her glittering skin, but curiosity had gotten the best of her. What were the plains surrounding? When she approached the edge of the plains she found herself lying on, she gasped at what was in the valley. It was a battlefield, or what was left of one, with massive piles of bones, battlements and broken siege equipment scattered in ruins. The ground that was not covered lay scorched and scarred by time and war. And in the center of the valley was a ring of massive spires. They were roots, reaching towards the heavens. The roots that chased her were mere twigs compared to the gargantuan beasts of darkness below. Through their tangled mess, the ruins of an impossibly tall tower stood amongst the wreckage like the lone survivor. Parts of its stone structure floated in the middle of the air, making her think that it could be a Leyline itself. The black body of the Witch slithered and coiled around it like a demonic dragon guarding its territory, letting out an ear piercing scream. The shockwave after it landed shattered all the distant clutter on the battlefield and swept away the roots. Then, the portal that it came through vanished.

Fortunately, Madoka had a portal of her own. Though her heart raged against her ribs, she summoned her wings and Magnolia through the storage talisman. Its writhing form stiffened and a cloud of purple mist wrapped around its body as She howled again. The creature had spotted her and was clearly awaiting her arrival. The axe nearly burned in her hands, glowing a golden hue. All of the things she had gone through just to face the Witch no longer mattered to her. She held the cruel axe, the corruption's executioner, and pointed it right at the evil beast as she solemnly swore to it.

This ends Today, Witch. My Past, my Todays, my Tomorrows— all of them are mine alone. Not Yours.

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