Yuuki stared upwards, unblinkingly, as the giant shadow of Cecilia closed in on her, the jaws ready to shut tight around her.

A slash and yell interrupted Cecilia's actions. A bright blue blur suddenly came out, slashing at Cecilia's head. Cecilia winced, looking behind her, unfazed, just slightly annoyed.

Yuuki blinked, in the sudden change of light, she couldn't see the person who saved her. The first thing she saw was the gleaming blade.

Slowly, she traced the blade back to its handle, and her heart stopped. The blade was so familiar, she knew that blade, and she didn't want to see it anymore. She was already hurt by it, already scared of it. Sayaka's wounds would last longer than one would have thought.

Finally, she dared to raise her eyes to the face of the sword owner. She felt relief, but anger, when she saw who it was.

"You!" She hissed, bracing her scythe, prepared to fight off Miku.

Miku barely noticed her, she was too busy struggling to fight Nova and Cecilia. Venus fly traps flocked around her, snapping at her, their feet of roots slapping the ground around her. Miku was slashing and hacking wildly, but the Venus fly traps kept coming.

In a final slash, Miku managed to cut the remaining fly traps, their pieces littering the ground. She stood still, panting slightly, unaware of Yuuki behind her, bringing up her scythe to attack Miku.

"Huh?" Madoka blinked out of her daze. Where was she? Fog loomed eerily around her, sending shivers up her spine. Where was everyone? Clashes and rings of steel against steel floated through the fog towards her. A fight? Following the sounds, she blindly made her way through the fog, to be faced with the sight of Kirka fighting Ophelia and Albertine.To the side, she saw Orko and Homura.

Fear gripped her heart, when she saw Homura lying motionless, on the ground, Oriko sitting next to her. She ran over immediately, not caring about the fight going on, but feeling scared for Homura.

"Homura-chan!" Madoka shook Homura's shoulders gently.

"Don't," Oriko reached a hand out to stop the pink-haired girl, "She needs to rest."

"Rest?" Madoka glanced down at Homura. Seeing the purple diamond glowing slightly through the dark haze covering it, she froze.

"She-she-"

"I know," Oriko replied, "That's why she needs to rest, she can't use any more magic or energy, it'll just speed up the process." Neither of them said what the 'process' was, but they both knew it.

Ophelia stopped. She seemed to be meditating. As she did, the fog around Kirika seemed to close in on her. As it did, Kirika felt it pulling her magic from her. It began to smother her, yanking her magic gently away, no matter how much she tried to resist, tried to pull it back.

She could feel herself getting weaker. She felt so tired. What was going to happen to her? Finally, she slumped forward, her magic drained, the fog holding her limp body up.

Oriko saw what was happening and immediately stood up. Without hesitation, she summoned a couple of glowing orbs, sending them flying towards Ophelia, who seemed to be controlling the fog. She didn't care if it meant her soul gem was even more tainted, she had to stop Ophelia. Ophelia barely seemed to notice, as the orbs struck her. She only turned in the direction of Oriko, before turning back, still staring at the fog surrounding Kirika, controlling it.

"Lyubey, can you go any faster?" Jyuubey inquired. Lyubey shook her head.

"I'm trying, but in order to make these witch merges stronger, they have to have a will of their own, one which can make it a bit more harder to control, but usually it's worth it in the end." Lyubey paused.

"And?" Jyuubey pressed. Lyubey continued.

"Well, this witch merge isn't responding as quickly, since it's quite preoccupied fighting off two magical girls. If it starts to move, it might end up getting killed, and that isn't going to help our situation. If it doesn't start responding to us, we'll still be in the same situation, with Ophelia gathering more magic. Pretty soon, Opheline should be ready to break the barrier." Kyubey looked up from where he was monitoring energy levels.

"Ophelia's starting to drain magic from the magical girls," Kyubey reported, "Are you sure there's no way to stop her from gathering it, or any way at all to ultimately keep them from breaking the barrier?" Lyubey shook her head, then hesitated.

'Well, we could try to contract with Madoka Kaname right now, in order to get the magic we need, so it won't matter if the dome breaks or not." Kyubey's red eyes gleamed.

"Perhaps I could do just that."