Chapter 116: Who is He..?

Depression.

Grief.

Anger.

Those are the few that Shiro saw the moment he stared at this young girl's eyes. If it's an ordinary human, they would've long left this world due to the sheer volume of it. With it, they would've been overwhelmed, which will lead to them giving up. What's more, he even felt that it surpassed the darkness in the so-called Alter Servants—the select Heroic Spirits that are inverse of their original.

However.

This young girl is strong, far too strong. If he can see her Willpower stat, it'll be at max-level just as his. No one could imagine just what she'd went through to have all of this.

Using his [Six Eyes], he determined her rough age. It isn't hard to do so as he only need to see her bone and body structure. Add to that his [Appraisal Magic], a variant of several different magics, he obtained the accurate result.

'She's... 13? Wait... [Time Magic]?'

Judging from the thickness of that [Time Magic] around her, he found out that she's 12 years older—her soul, that is. Then, he decided to deduce more about this mysterious girl.

All of this thoughts took a single second, showing the prowess of his 4,430 Wisdom Stat.

(A/N: His Wisdom stat is originally at 2,140 but it became 4,430 due to the +150 in Magic Circuits and +2,140 due to the two buffs.)

Putting back his blindfold in place, he said:

"I'm lost. Where's the exit?"

"..."

The black-haired girl went silent after hearing this. Though, the other three girls not far away from them heard him.

"...There." The girl pointed at the direction in front of her. Coincidentally, it's also in the location of the three girls.

Looking at it, he saw the glowing "Exit" sign and nodded.

"What's this uneven ground? This is dangerous..."

Tap-!

Shiro jumped down, his black rubber shoes making a very faint sound. With that, the other three saw his appearance in full view. In an instant, they are sent in a daze.

Right now, he's wearing black long sleeves and a pair of belt shoulder straps. In the right holster, a silver pistol is stored. Paired to that his formal black pants, it further accentuated his godly looks.

While his arm doesn't have thick muscles, it looked perfectly built from its outline on the long sleeves.. Coupled to that his extremely attractive face, no one could escape his charm.

Well... except for someone who barely resisted it.

"You better leave here, kids. It's not safe around here, considering these damaged floors." He said, passing them by. Just as Madoka is about to say the syllable "Shi", she received a private message from the Chat Group.

[Private] Shiro: Let's talk about it later.

In the end, she merely looked at him as he went to the Exit. That is, until, someone attacked him.

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Shiro sensed time stopping before nine consecutive bullets went straight into him. They have the speed of normal bullets, but he could only react once they are literally touching his hair.

Fortunately, he's monstrous enough to deploy "Infinity", blocking the bullets with an invisible wall.

Wordlessly, he took out his silver pistol from the holster and held it in his left hand. Then...

Bang-!

[Time Quagmire]!

[Time Accel]! [Time Accel]! [Time Accel]!

The former was deployed on the black-haired girl while the latter is used to speed up the single bullet fired by the pistol. Unlike its previous magic bullets, it used a physical one this time—a physical originum bullet that also has imbued black lightning in it.

Due to him fusing [Intrinsic Reaper] with [AR 3070], [Customized AWM], and ten more guns that are mostly A-rank and two S-Ranks, it became a strong armament. With his 45 [Weapon Upgrade Cards] that he earned in the span of a year, it became horrifying.

The fusion time being 189 days is the proof of it.

[Cosmic Destroyer (SSS)]

Details: A modern armament capable of destroying anything under the cosmos. Fused from 13 special weapons, it possessed each of their abilities in return. Once used on full power, it can destroy the fabric of reality, the cosmos itself. It can switch between five forms, namely: Sniper, Assault Rifle, SMG, Shotgun, and Handgun.

[Overload]: Allows the armament to fire all of its rounds consecutively, with each having an additional 2,500% damage. After use, the Cosmic Destroyer will be in an unusable state for 500 minutes.

[Charged Shot]: Enters a charging time with ten seconds maximum. With each passing second, the power of the armament increases by 250%. After this state, its performance decreases by 20% for 60 minutes. It can be used until the overall performance was decreased by 80%.

[Elemental Compression]: Charges the bullets loaded with pure elemental energies. These energies can be interchanged into all elements available, but it has a switching time of 2 seconds.

...

While he only used a single ability of it, [Elemental Compression], it's still powerful enough against a mortal.

Bzzzt-!

A loud thunderclap was heard. However, the others couldn't react until it destroyed a stone pillar to bits. It went all the way to the ceiling, producing a rumble that threatened to collapse this basement—if not for Shiro acting swiftly while using his [Earth Magic] to stabilize it.

As for the young girl who attacked him?

She's now 5 meters away from her previous position, staring at him with a cold gaze laced with bloodlust.

"You shouldn't attack a stranger that quickly, ojou-chan."

"...Who are you?" The girl said as she disregarded his previous easy-going statement.

Shiro lowered his handgun before placing it to his holster. After that, he said, "A mage. Definitely the one-of-a-kind. Don't worry though, only three of us exist."

"Mage? Magic?" Her cold voice resounded once more, but it sought more answers this time.

"That's right, magic." He smiled and added, "Why act surprised if there are magical girls such as yourself?"

At the same time, Shiro wondered about her peculiarity that he noticed before. Unlike any normal beings... she has no soul. That's why he got bewildered for a moment there!

How can she 'live' while its only her shell moving? Only if he had more information...

Beep-!

[Hidden QUEST activated! Chain QUEST—Truth Seeking is now available to the participants.]

The moment he heard this announcement, he manifested an aurora curtain right in front of him. Before stepping into it, he left seven words to her:

"We'll meet again, Controller of Time."

Soon, he disappeared on the spot, leaving the shocked Homura behind.

'He knows?! Incubators? Kyuubey? He's someone I never met before...'

To her who went through more than 100 iterations, reversing back time every 45 days, it's very shocking to see someone whom you never met before. Not even Kyuubey escaped this, thus her reaction is understandable.

In the end, only a single thought was left in her mind to someone who might hinder her goals:

'Who is he..?'

*****

Fact #68: Madoka is average on her school. She hates English, Science, and Chemistry just like the normal students out there. It is noted that she also has a weak physical ability prior to her as a Magical Girl. Though, she's really strong as one. Even without Homura, it is noted that she's strong enough to take down Walpurgis Night, the Witch that couldn't be taken down by 50+ Magical Girls, at the cost of her life. As for the sacrificial technique that I mentioned, it is shown by Kyoko before, when she finished off Sayaka's Witch Oktavia. She destroyed her Soul Gem herself, thus releasing enough power to one-hit it. It's not shown how Madoka defeated it, but it's most probably through this way.