Chapter 43

The stars were the first thing Madoka could see when she opened her eyes. She heaved and clutched her heart, sitting up straight. The ground was smooth to the touch. Madoka realized she was dead, gasping and heaving from the revelation. This was merely all a dream before it all fades away, right? However, the stars twinkled oddly and some moved to quickly flashing different colors. Madoka felt the hole in her dress. She was surprised that she still had a physical form. After all, she died and this was the afterlife.
I'm sorry, Princess, Madoka closed her eyes. Perhaps I should have left when you asked me to.
Madoka did not fade away or whatever she envisioned what might happen in the so-called afterlife. Instead, she felt raindrops splash on her nose and her clothes. Was this heaven? She opened her eyes once more and gasped at the sights before her. She was on a balcony of some kind, with symbols floating above its railings. She tried to touch the symbols. She figured she was dead and the risk would not matter anyways. To her surprise, the symbols bent around her fingers and did not seem to harm her.
Beyond the symbols was an endless night surrounded by never ending rows of towering fortresses full of bright colors she has never seen before. The symbols she traced suddenly vanished and a glowing eye appeared in midair staring at her.
Just where was she? She wondered as the eye used some kind of magic to scan her. It did not harm her, like she thought it would. Instead, a strange incorporeal being floated in its place and began to speak to her. Somehow, Madoka realized the stranger was speaking in Noble.
"Welcome to Neocity, stranger!" The being said with a jolly tone in its voice. Madoka instinctively bowed. How could a celestial being address a maid like her? The being seemed to not notice and continued talking. "Please stay here for a moment as custom agents will be arriving shortly to retrieve you."
"Please," Madoka choked. The being ignored her. "Am I dead? Where am I?"
"Welcome to Neocity, stranger!" It repeated.
Madoka scoffed and ignored the strange apparition and looked down the railings. Beneath her, the towering skyscrapers stretched down into the void. Many flying objects whirred by in every direction. She could not tell if they were animals but they looked like metal birds. They emitted a bright light with a roar that seemed to propel them to wherever they wanted to go. The overwhelming sights horrified her and she started to feel dizzy looking downward so she looked up instead.
Above her head was the same. Those towers were lined with similar balconies spidering along many of their odd asymmetrical walls. Large signs with symbols dotted with moving paintings depicting strange beings similar to that apparition that greeted her. Madoka chuckled. Even in the afterlife she could not read. They were walkways like the one she stood on. She was not even sure where the ground was from this tower. Madoka gasped as the place was suddenly illuminated by a great light source.
She saw a whole world looming above in the night sky with a celestial glow. It was a pure and blue moon. Madoka gasped in awe. It must have been the largest moon she could dream up. It did not match the moons back home but it was beautiful. A massive dark storm flashed on the edge of the moon's horizon. Madoka could not fathom the size of a moon like the one above her. The stars she saw before were not stars at all, but more of those metal birds. Their shadows were easy to see with the blue moon's light. Rain soaked her maid dress and she fiddled with the tear in it.
One of the metal birds flew close to the balcony, terrifying Madoka. It was much bigger than she thought and it blotted the view of the world above her. Was this an angel? She cowered behind a large pot that contained a glowing plant. The angel merely floated nearby before it began to emit a beam of light on the ground. It was casting magic of some kind, forming a circle where the beam landed. Madoka had to shield her eyes from how bright it was.
A woman emerged from the beam of light. Madoka resigned herself from thinking too hard about these things. She was dead, after all. The woman wore a tight dress that reflected and emitted magical light on its own in various lines tracing along its seams. Above her head was a glowing halo that seemed to block the rain from her. Madoka looked at the woman's skin and noticed metallic plates covered most of her face. More intriguing to Madoka were her stunning eyes. They matched Elise's eye color.
Just what kind of afterlife did she end up in? Madoka wondered. The woman approached Madoka tentatively but held up with a smile before speaking, curling her hair around her ear. Her ears were pointed at their tips. An odd flashing ring wrapped around her lobe. Everything here made Madoka's head hurt.
"I don't mean any harm. You can understand me because I have this translater. Who are you, stranger?" She asked in reverent Noble. Madoka gasped as she understood the woman and was about to protest when she interrupted the maid. "Oh, forgive me. Here."
She tapped her metal ear and the halo above expanded to cover the both of them. The rain immediately stopped splashing on her soaked skin.
"Are you... an angel?" Madoka stared at the woman blankly. The woman laughed at the question.
"That's surprisingly forward of you. I don't dislike it. I am CZA-6. You can call me Ella," she smiled. "And you, hon, don't seem to be from around here. Can you tell me a little about yourself?"
"I think..." Madoka said simply, feeling the hole where she got stabbed and killed. "I think the prince killed me."
Ella looked at her quizzically.
"So you're not a cosplayer. Murdered, huh?" Ella asked. "Weird. You seem very much alive to me. However, it seems like you don't belong here yet."
"Yet?" Madoka looked at the strange and tall woman. The woman blushed and smiled but did not answer.
"Let's see," Ella pulled out a tablet and began to write things down with her finger. "Amnesia, traumatic stress from a phantom stab wound, speaks unknown language, odd transdimensional signatures, sterile neutrino deficits..."
Between the woman and the neon city beyond the balcony, Madoka could not tell who was more exotic. Strange banners floated in the air displaying bright symbols Madoka could not read. She was overwhelmed by everything. Ella's left armored eye glowed blue like the eye symbol before.
"Huh," Ella remarked after the magic passed through her. The more Madoka became exposed to this magic, the more she hated it. "You're not really supposed to be here. At least I've never seen anything like you here..."
"What?" Madoka could not understand what Ella meant.
"Oh, not in that way," Ella raised a glowing tablet and pointed at it. Madoka just nodded along. "It's just that... you haven't actually died, you know? I called for some experts. Like some real scientists from the Truth Floor. So we just have to sit tight, okay?"
"Okay," Madoka said. She wanted to ask where she was when the ground rumbled.
Suddenly, one of the fortresses behind her burst into multiple explosions. The ground and balconies began to rumble. Ella looked up with a terrified look on her face. The tablet in her hand fell into the abyss below as another large explosion erupted from another tower. Chaos shook Madoka off her feet and the balcony she was on went up in flames. Madoka found herself careening through the air into the abyss. The blue moon above started forming a dark hole in it and began sinking into itself.
What an odd dream, Madoka thought as she closed her eyes. The fall hurt her stomach and the wind cut into her skin. Maybe the actual afterlife is coming next and hopefully was not anything like this one.
"Madoka!" shouted a voice. Madoka realized she must have dozed off. "Work, dammit. Please. Work!"
Madoka? That is me, Madoka thought in her head. Why would anyone in the afterlife shout like that?
"Madoka! I can't do this without you!"
Madoka felt a hypnagogic jerk seize her. She felt like she was dunked and pulled back out of cold water. The voice was familiar. Her senses returned moments later. It was hot and hard to breathe. Smoke billowed and flames towered in the air and wooden debris lay all around her. Snapping wood groaned nearby from something large pushing through it. She was alive? Madoka knew where she was.
"W-What happened? Where am I?" Madoka opened her eyes. Something illuminated her surroundings. It was her own skin. "Why is my skin glowing?"
"Madoka!" Someone hugged her tightly.
Her memories were fuzzy, but instinct told her that she had to get out of here. She felt herself instead. Elise was holding her!
"Elise!" Madoka held her friend. "I-I didn't expect it to be raining showers of flame and wood in the afterlife."
"I'm glad it worked," Elise drew back and looked her maid over. Madoka noticed that the wounds on her princess were gone. Her own body was covered in burns, ash and scars, yet she was glowing a faint light. What happened to her when she was dead? "I'm sorry I was late in saving you."
She did die, right?
The loud groan of wood splintering and shattering came closer. Above Elise something slithered across the ceiling. Madoka could make out the shape of a twistd and thorny branch tearing the place apart as it moved. Elise stood up and looked at it. She had a bitter look in her face. "I-I will explain later, Madoka, but we have to get out of here! Can you stand?"
It was then Madoka noticed something about herself. She felt better than she ever did before. Her dress was torn and she instinctively covered herself and shot a glare at Elise.
"W-What did you do to me?"
"Out of all the things to worry about," Elise said defensively. "I have a solution for your dresses, okay, but step one of my plan now is that we gotta-"
A flaming chandelier crashed nearby, setting the wood near them ablaze. Madoka got up and was surprised that she could after getting stabbed. Elise looked frantically at the flames and the roots spreading above them. Madoka reached for Elise's hand and took off with her.
"W-Wait, Madoka! Slow down!" Elise was nearly tripping over herself. Madoka noticed she was wearing a traveler's cloak with the Prince's crest emblazoned on it. More of the roof was collapsing. No time, Madoka thought. "Madoka?!"
"Just tell me where to go!" Madoka scooped her princess up in her arms and rushed out of the burning hallway. The hallway caved in as they left. That was too close, Madoka thought as she watched the hallway go up in flames. She heard the clashing of swords in the distance. "Fighting?"
"Brother's army started their coup. The King's soldiers are losing and so will we if we don't hurry out of here," Elise said. "Go left. We should avoid most of the fighting by going the longer route."
"Route to where?"
"The hell you mean where? The hell out of here," Elise clutched onto Madoka's glowing arm. She hated this glow. She felt like she could be seen easily. Madoka quickly rounded left and bursted through weak debris out to the main entrance to the throne room. The twin moons revealed the state of the Palace.
The main entrance to the throne room was the first thing one could see the moment they entered through the gates. Both, however, were covered in thick black vines and thorny roots. The halls themselves were also blocked by rubble. A sickening red glow emanated from the cracks in the vines and gates of the throne room.
"Nasty roots, huh," Elise said, tugging Madoka's arms, signaling her to put her down. Madoka set the princess down. She walked up to the throne room entrance and immediately recoiled from what she saw. She went pale.
"Elise?" Madoka went to her princess. Elise shook her head.
"I wouldn't look in there if I were you," Elise gagged. The look on her face horrified Madoka yet something compelled her to glance inside. Roots were expanding within the room but Madoka learned what their thorns were made out of. Crushed, unrecognizable body parts hung from them. Then she saw the gored bodies of servants and soldiers alike impaled along the thorns of those dark, expanding roots.
Madoka dry-heaved as she took in the sight. A bloody circular pattern surrounded the throne through a gap in the thorns. On it was the... No, Madoka thought. It can't be! The King lay dead on the throne. As the roots writhed, more bodies crunched beneath their weight. Blood and body parts bloomed as they fell like crushed roses and tar mixed together. Madoka could not take her eyes off of the ghastly scene.
"What kind of magic is this?" Madoka barely had the strength to say. She doubled over. She should have stayed dead, she thought as she hyperventilated. Such a sight made her wish she still was.
"Madoka!" Elise grabbed Madoka's shoulders and tore her maid's eyes away from the throne room.
"I wish," Madoka breathed heavily. "I didn't look in there. I should have obeyed you."
"Look at me," Elise's voice was also shaking, but Madoka knew she was trying to be strong for her. Therefore, Madoka looked back at Elise's eyes. The twin moons twinkled in their azure oceans. "We have to make it out of here, okay? We can do this!"
"R-Right," Madoka whispered. She was not going to forget about those mangled bodies anytime soon.
"And you are much stronger now, I think," Elise said, searching for a way out. "This kingdom is ruined by Brother's dark magic, as I predicted, so I umm..."
She pulled out a bag with several strange talismans inside of it. Each glowed with a white light that matched the aura around Madoka's skin. It did not take a smart girl to figure out the correlation between the two glowing auras.
"Did you use those on me?" Madoka was horrified. Elise nodded slowly and Madoka frowned.
"Well, I freaked out, okay? You were like, totally stuck inside of that black root and I had to save you somehow!" She said defensively. "I took the liberty by freeing myself and taking the Divine Treasures out from the Treasury. Turns out if I channel my mana into them, they speak to me and respond."
"A Divine Treasure?"
Those treasures were made by the kind gods and bestowed many powers and blessings upon someone affected by them. Elise shook her head.
"No, I used all of them on you," Elise said. Madoka could tell there was a slight mischievousness in her tone. "All of them, Madoka."
Madoka's jaw dropped at the news. No wonder my body felt wondrously light and stronger, Madoka thought. She had the power of many kind gods' blessings within her veins. She could not help but feel like she did not deserve any of this. Why did the princess not use them on her soldiers or anyone better than her?
"Right," Madoka muttered. She knew the reason why. She was the only one who truly cared for the princess. Perhaps that is why the princess gave her a second chance at life. She marched up to the gate, which was covered in branches.
"Madoka?"
Madoka did not care if these thorns were dark magic or not. She will smash it. She channeled all her strength into a Cherish style round kick. When her foot connected with the thorns, Madoka expected her body to fail but instead the wall gave in and shattered. The gate fell down into a pile of rubble for them to climb on. Elise gawked.
"Okay, uh," Elise said. "I can't believe that worked! Good job!"
"Let's get out of here, princess," Madoka said as she climbed the rubble, extending a hand out to her princess. She realized that the aura glowing around her skin disappeared. The aura probably allowed her to break the thorns in the first place. Elise smiled and took the maid's hand without a second glance back.
It was going to be a long night.