Concentrate on defense, only attack as a way to keep him occupied; your goal is survival, don't overextend and use mostly hit and run. Any time he gets to focus on one person, time stop them out of that situation and hit him hard at range. If no gun, throw spears and swords at him. Mix up tactics, bind him with chains and ribbons. Drop bombs at his feet. Move on from one move before he gets a handle on it. Never give him a moment to get his bearings!
After dragging Madoka and Hitomi several hundred metres away, Homura bids them to hide in one of the craters. Then she rushes back as fast as possible. In this moment between moments, as all but her are trapped in monochrome, she sees tiny golden sparks dance across her fellow magical girls. Some flicker around her as well. She grimaces, thinking back to the last time they clashed with this monster. It is clear she can not hold back here.
Once time resumes, the Black Silence steps through the Queen's halves. Yuma fingers her mallet angrily, Sayaka tenses... but Kyoko drags them both away. "Don't be stupid!" she shouts, underlined by the boom of muskets. He almost flows between Mami's barrage while the group scatters. "Like hell we're fighting the Black Silence head-on!"
"The what?" Sayaka shouts, only to watch him engage her senior. Ribbons flutter from Mami's sleeves to bind the man, sliced apart by a pair of twin sabres. She makes to dance around his slash, only to be kicked straight in the chest. Mami goes flying. A moment later, the ground beneath Roland's feet explodes.
"That's what he's called, dumbass! Now stop asking questions and run!"
Homura catches Mami while the Black Silence strides from a cloud of smoke, his suit barely ruffled. The blonde's chest is caved in, half her ribs broken. Time stops, halting his sudden charge halfway to the pair. "Quickly now," she directs. "You need Miki."
"I can fight," Mami denies, though she follows obediently. Then she winces upon the look Homura throws her. Both take a moment to unleash another barrage at the frozen figure, then they rush away. Once the blonde is close to everyone else, time resumes.
As expected, most bullets plink off his suit and mask. A few he slices apart with his sabres. The head rotates to track their retreat and he blurs again, pursuing at incredible speed. Kyoko pushes Yuma and Sayaka to Mami before throwing Homura a nod. Simply running won't work. So instead she races back to meet him, equally fast. His sabres disappear, replaced by steel mace and axe.
The mace catches Kyoko's spear at its tip; the force of their clash throws up a cloud of dust, but for once his charge was halted. Kyoko leaps to dodge the follow-up, a mighty swing that parts the cloud. Her spear segments into chains that whirl around her, too fast and numerous for most to track. But just like Ai told her not long ago, the man she faces today is not most. He survived in what to her is hell, if anything he grew stronger through it. Roland leaps straight through an opening between the chains, his clawed glove closing around her throat.
Kyoko's eyes widen as her windpipe is crushed. His other hand whips around to parry a bullet aimed for the back of his head. A second he parries with Kyoko's back before throwing her perceived corpse away. The memory's titanic strength separated head from body, which rolls away in the sand.
A moment later, Homura deposits the body next to Sayaka, who groans. "I just finished this!" she complains and gets to work. Mami stares in shock at her mutilated friend, then at the nearing man. Her brows furrow.
And then Yuma rushes past her, expression stormy. "How dare you hurt big sis!" she shouts at the nearing omen of death, and he hesitates. Confronted with an actual child, the Black Silence stands indecisive. He leans under her first swing. On the second, a flick of his wrist sends the mallet flying. Yuma throws herself at him with a shriek, only to be thrown over his shoulder and into the sand.
Just that moment, Mami's foot connects with the back of his head, driving the Black Silence into the ground next to her. Yuma follows up with a new mallet, but his arm snaps up to catch it at the handle. She pulls with all her might, but the weapon fails to budge while he slowly rises. Mami cocks another musket, but a pull of his drags Yuma forward with a squeak. Arms like steel close around her, one right under her chin and the other around her waist. The thrashing girl faces Mami, who halts her attack with wide eyes.
Even from behind the mask, Mami knows he is watching her. Learning how to destroy her best. In that moment, she understands that hesitation tells him his hostage has value.
So she mouthes an apology and pulls the trigger. Yuma is shifted to take the bullet with her face, only for Homura to shoot him from behind. The bullet hammers into his head, but fails to exit. Its force pushes him forward, far enough for Mami's shot to pass by Yuma's face. His mask cracks on impact.
He does not care.
Tearing Yuma apart in the middle, he throws the girl's lower half at Homura. Blood arcs along with her legs and viscera, but she is long gone by then. Yuma's upper half is dropped carelessly into the sand; a mallet of his own appears to intercept Kyoko's roaring charge. He hammers her spear away, then switches to his lance and rams it through her abdomen. Kyoko gasps in shock while her body is lifted. A flick throws her off and back toward Sayaka; she barely gets a grip on Yuma's dress, pulling her charge along. Homura delivers the other half for treatment.
While Sayaka gets to work, Mami expresses more muskets and opens fire. Homura joins once more from an angle, only for his greatsword to hit the ground. A thick cloud of sand springs up to cover all three of them. The girls cease fire and retreat. A moment later, two sharp barks of gunfire announce
his position. Sayaka shouts just as they open up again; the blunette's heart and left kidney were perforated. She curses under her breath and sends pulses of healing magic through her own body as fast as she can. The melody grows louder with each bit of power expended, soothing her nerves.
Within the cloud however, Homura makes a crucial error. Instead of retreating, she hopes to pin the Black Silence in place. She only realises her mistake when a katana slices through her entire body at an angle. Her eyes widen as the rush of displaced air blows their cover away entirely, revealing him. He is bloodied, his clothes slightly torn here and there. Three cracks run over the length of his mask. But he is nowhere near defeated.
Ignoring the two halves of a time traveler, Roland turns back to face Mami. He darts forward and through a hail of bullets, ducking beneath the one not deflected by his suit. She sees him coming and slides back on the sand, kicking up new muskets as she goes. His trusted longsword answers, slicing bullets apart by the handful. The distance closes and Mami reverses momentum to catch him off-guard.
Her foot slams into his sternum, but fails to deal more than a bruise. It feels like kicking solid steel, only that would give easier than he! Before Mami can even register her failure, he has her by the ankle. The blonde is violently smashed into the ground, back and forth until the sand chafed off most of her skin. Her broken body goes airborne, burying Sayaka under bloodsoaked cloth and flesh; Kyoko barely ducked underneath as she comes at him for a third time. Yuma follows right behind.
Kyoko's charge he sidesteps, but she slides underneath his swing. The sheer force of it blows Yuma off her feet, only for a shotgun to spread her head onto the sand beneath. The older girl roars in anger and multiplies, surrounding Roland on her own. "I don't care what hot shit you are!" she seethes in six voices, "just die already, you asshole!"
Three of her lunge at once, the two Durandal bisects replaced in a heartbeat. Kyoko dances with Roland for several long seconds, slicing strips off his suit with every attack. For the first time, he is pushed on the defensive.
Until he is not.
Bang bang, go two of her. Ignoring the wrecking ball to his back, he charges forward and impales a third on his spear. With his momentum, he swings his mallet backward, hammering the real Kyoko out of her next strike. Newly forming illusions vanish as he lowers himself, slicing the final two apart with a single swing of his katana. Roland turns on a dime, following Kyoko's descent. The first swipe of his gauntlets rips the spear from her hand, the second tears open her belly. An axe comes down on her; only Kyoko's desperate retreat makes its outward edge barely miss her Soul Gem. She throws up another illusion of her when the mace caves in her skull, dispersing it.
Only Sayaka's mad dash carries her out of the greatsword's swing; its impact sends them flying. Blue and red roll over the ground in a tangle of limbs and gore, black in fast pursuit. Before either can get her bearings, the sabres sliced their legs clean off. Sayaka just manages to turn around, only to stare up the barrel of a shotgun. Bang.
Kyoko summons another spear and manifests dozens of red diamonds between them and the Black Silence, but a single swing of Durandal shatters them. The second takes off Kyoko's arm, and the third... never comes.
Just as he is about the cut her clean in two, a bullet hammers into the back of his head. Roland considers his handiwork and snatches a second one; he throws it away while turning, to find Homura; her upper third is propped up on a small dune, smoking gun aimed straight at him.
All is still for a moment. Madoka and Hitomi stare in disbelief from their hiding spots, both too scared to do anything but watch. Homura can not see Roland's eyes, but she knows he looks straight at her. Then he turns fully and begins to stroll her way. Instinct tells her this is the end of the line.
Unbidden, Homura's lips curl into the faintest smile. The memory stops in front of her, as if to comprehend how she is alive with everything except half her chest and her shield arm missing. The rest of her lies half a metre away, completely soaked in blood. But Homura is fully aware of her limitations as a Magical Girl. Her Soul Gem grows steadily darker, but still she lives. And she smiles.
When the Black Silence looks into her eyes again, a spark of pink reflects back from the darker lilac.
And then the air screams as raw, unadultered
power slams into his back. It carries the Black Silence away and digs a new trench, but does not so much as sting Homura. The pressure alone would take her breath away, had her collapsed lungs not already done so.
Right in front of her eyes, Ai's Arcana Slave slowly winds down. She can not see it, but knows the Black Silence yet lives. Which is why the Queen of Hatred, wound around Ai, unleashes an even more powerful beam right as the other winks out. It slices through Roland's weakened body and tears it apart.
The Black Silence vanishes, his memory vanquished for good.
Woman and monster pant heavily; the beast shrinks and folds back into Ai, almost like smoke. She appears next to Homura and blows her a kiss, then does the same to everyone else.
"That was close," she notes gently while Homura climbs to her feet. "You held out just long enough, any later and he would have killed you."
She is wrong, but also right. "He did not know to destroy our Soul Gems," Homura corrects. "We could have survived for a time." Not that this is true of the two still human girls, both of which come running back now. Moreover, the magic overuse would have ended them more firmly than an actual death ever could. Homura shudders; even though she made up her mind, this was too close for comfort. She can not fall yet.
By the time a crying Madoka glomps onto her, everyone is coming to. "Homura!" the pinkette wails, "I thought you were all going to die!" The magical girl feels her cheeks grow hot from so much physical contact, but she holds on as best as she can. Madoka sniffles weakly, but ultimately moves on to do the same to Sayaka.
Kyoko, Mami, and Yuma formed their own small circle. They do not speak, just silently appreciate their survival. Kyoko holds her younger charge tightly. The darkness pearls from their Soul Gems again, but no more opponents present themselves.
Meanwhile, Hitomi approaches Ai with clear relief. Watery smiles are exchanged, then Ai embraces her friend. "Thank you," she murmurs. "I'm okay now. Thank you."
As if it waited for these words, the endless realm they stand in begins to waver. The constant glow around Madoka finally fades. Ground and sky warp before snapping, depositing the whole group back in the alley they stood before.
It is over, well and truly.
Curtain Call for the Realisation of Ai!
Traits removed:
-Queen of Hatred: Find the Evil. Destroy the Evil!
-Expectation of the Meaning of Existence: Recently, the Magical Girl has begun to question whether the world is truly separated in merely good and evil.
-Agony of an Empty Life: A vestige of Roland's pain and self remained with the Abnormalities he synchronised with. The Magical Girl remembers and yearns to understand why he hates humans so much.
New Trait gained:
-The Knowing Ai: Good and evil are little more than words. They can not be used to define a person in their entirety. The Magical Girl no longer has purpose, and that is okay. Ai may manifest what was once the Queen of Hatred at any time to boost her combat prowess.
