In the blink of an eye, the battle was over.
"Mami-senpai..." Madoka immediately ran over, anxiously checking on Mami.
"Whew, thank goodness you're alright, Su Mo." Kyubey, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief. It then examined the little white-haired girl and Su Mo with an incredibly intrigued gaze.
"However, what kind of power do you possess to be able to reverse the law of entropy and restore the sanity of a witch who has completely fallen into despair?"
"Su Mo, your power seems even more special than your intellect."
At this point, Kyubey finally realized that Su Mo's existence was far from as simple as it had initially thought. If Su Mo could perform the miracle of entropy reduction with a relatively small cost, then his existence alone could potentially reverse the outcome of heat death entirely.
"Who... are you?" Kyubey posed the question.
Faced with this query, Su Mo shook his head. "Don't get your hopes up. At least for now, my power is not enough to completely erase the apocalypse."
This was by no means a lie.
Whether it was a three-digit or two-digit existence, even if the current Su Mo could shatter a universe with a single punch, or even multiple universes, it was merely an increase in scale.
Having only achieved complete mastery over the second Stellar Particle, he could create universes, adjust timelines, and even cause a universe's state to quantum leap back to the moment of creation.
However, even with all that, he still couldn't completely rewrite the law of entropy.
He was like a film editor.
When the opening and ending themes are already set, no matter how many reverse operations he performs in the middle, he cannot change the fundamental direction of the universe itself.
This was true in any world.
Even in the world of Little Garden, teeming with gods and buddhas, even with the power of the Sun Sovereignties and all the divine groups combined, even with the ability to reboot the entire history of humanity in the multiverse via the Little Garden's central hub, they still could not change the predetermined destruction, could not rewrite the ending known as the "Wind of Decadence."
The gap between the power Kyubey possessed and the mission it carried was simply too vast.
Hearing Su Mo's words, Kyubey wasn't particularly surprised.
Even if Su Mo had displayed immense power, enough to reverse a witch's fate, the scale of it hadn't reached the level of Walpurgisnacht and was not yet sufficient to change an entire planet.
How could he possibly possess the power to reverse entropy?
However...
"You can't completely erase it, which means you can interfere with it?" As an expert in wordplay itself, Kyubey noticed the hidden meaning in Su Mo's statement. It immediately grew more interested.
If Su Mo could truly do that, then his power was no less than that of Walpurgisnacht.
If Su Mo alone held such potential, and if its previously proposed plan to mass-produce Su Mo's genes could be implemented, wouldn't they be able to surpass all the energy accumulated over the past tens of thousands of years in a very short time?
"..."
Hearing this, Su Mo glanced at Kyubey, not intending to answer.
Although he couldn't rewrite the law of entropy, he could indeed use a method similar to borrowing to postpone the end of heat death to a distant, indefinite future, like stretching a film so long that the ending is never seen.
For ordinary intelligent life, a doom that never arrives is no different from one that doesn't exist.
However, for Su Mo, doing so was meaningless.
*BANG!*
Before Kyubey could say anything more, a gunshot rang out, and it lost its head, collapsing on the spot.
"Homura-chan?!" Seeing Homura's sudden attack, Madoka was a little surprised.
By now, she knew that Kyubey was a single soul sharing many bodies, so Homura's action didn't truly kill it. But she still didn't understand why Homura would do such a thing at this moment.
"Big Brother Su Mo clearly doesn't want to continue this topic, does he?" Homura met Madoka's gaze and explained. "I don't know why Big Brother Su Mo is so strong, but Kyubey can't be trusted. We can't let it know anything more about him."
Naturally, she was still thinking from Su Mo's perspective.
"With Big Brother Su Mo's power, you don't really need to worry so much!" Madoka scratched her head, unsure how to explain.
A mere alien, no matter how much it knew, could never threaten Su Mo, who was above even the Aeons.
However, Homura's concern wasn't entirely wrong.
"Ah, let's put that aside for now and take Mami-senpai back!" Seeing Mami's condition, Madoka suggested. "I hope Mami-senpai will be a bit calmer when she wakes up, and at least not do what she did just now."
Remembering the previous scene, Madoka felt a lingering fear. Although Mami's targets had only been Kyubey, her fellow magical girl Homura, and herself, her actions were still far too dangerous.
"Besides, Homura-chan, I have a question for you too," she said. As she and Nagisa Momoe "heave-ho'd" Mami up, Madoka looked at Homura, her eyes incredibly serious.
"..."
Faced with Madoka's gaze, Homura subconsciously looked away, trying to deflect. "There's no need, Madoka. Class is about to start."
Hearing this, Madoka first panicked, then firmed her resolve. "Now is not the time for that!"
Homura was at a loss for words. She looked helplessly at Su Mo, as if seeking his help.
"Don't worry, I'll excuse you both from class."
"Yay!" Madoka immediately sighed in relief, while Homura's gaze towards Su Mo became much more resentful.
But she didn't say anything. With a sigh, she took over from Madoka, easily carrying Mami on her back.
---||---
Half a minute later, the group was back in the activity room where Mami had hosted them. Having lost a body, Kyubey seemed to realize it wasn't welcome and didn't send another one.
The little white-haired girl very carefully placed Mami on the sofa in the activity room and even thoughtfully covered her with a blanket.
Then, as if presenting a treasure, she used her magic to conjure a large pile of snacks on the table and looked at Su Mo, seeking his approval.
"Master, eat."
"Master?" Hearing this title, Homura was a little curious.
"Witches are synonymous with despair. As you've sensed, although I've restored her sanity, I haven't changed her race. She is still a witch who spreads despair," Su Mo explained casually.
"However, just as Kyubey said before, despair is neither created nor destroyed. The despair spread by witches, aside from stemming from their own misfortune, comes more from the accumulation of human society. In a sense, they are the trash cans that feed on human despair."
In the original story, in the timeline where the Law of Cycles ascended and witches no longer existed, magical girls still had an enemy to face: demonic beasts formed from the condensation of human despair.
In other words, whether witches existed or not, despair itself was an objective food source, just manifested in different ways.
"From Kyubey's perspective, what it needs is simply the energy released the moment a magical girl falls into witchhood."
"But from the perspective of human civilization, the duty of a witch is to collect and organize all despair, becoming the epitome of evil. Then, by being defeated by magical girls, they establish the 'goodness' of magical girls."
If magical girls didn't have a clear enemy and could only use their magic to change the world at will, they could hardly be considered a force for good.
The purest good can only be seen most clearly in the face of the purest evil.
"As a typical power of the evil side, the witch's way of life—promoting good through evil—happens to fit the definition of the 'evil' scripture of the Avesta. So, I have taken her in as a familiar of the evil side."
"Whether a demon, an evil god, or a witch, once recorded in the scripture, she is now my property. So you can call her whatever you like."
Just as the Mother of Evil Gods could create the six great demons, taking such an existence under his wing was exceptionally simple for Su Mo.
"Promoting good through evil..." Hearing Su Mo's explanation, Homura was slightly stunned. She had never thought that witches could have such a purpose.
Beside her, Madoka was not surprised by any of Su Mo's actions. Although she was also curious about the witch Nagisa Momoe, right now, she had more important things to do.
After settling Mami down and listening to Su Mo explain Nagisa's current identity, she went directly to face Homura, sat down in seiza, and looked straight into her eyes. "Homura-chan, I have something I want to ask you, and you can't lie to me."
"...Mhm." Faced with Madoka's serious gaze, Homura's aura was unusually suppressed, and she lowered her head.
Seeing this, Madoka took a deep breath and spoke. "Just now, Kyubey said that all magical girls eventually become witches... Homura-chan, you're a magical girl too. Does that mean you're also destined to become a witch?"
This was a question she had wanted to ask since before.
When she heard Kyubey reveal the true nature of magical girls, she had been relieved that she had listened to Homura and not become one, but then it quickly dawned on her.
Homura was so worried about her, but what about Homura herself? From Kyubey's earlier address and Su Mo's attitude, she had to be a magical girl, right?
Did that mean Homura, like all the others, was destined to become a monster like a witch?
From Homura's calm reaction when she heard the truth, it was obvious she had known this fact for a long time, which was why she had warned her so strongly. But no matter how nonchalantly she acted, Madoka could not accept such an outcome.