Erika Dufresne dashed across the windowed wall of a skyscraper. The glass behind her shattered after every step and rained shards on the populace below, likely fatal to hapless pedestrians imperceptible at such distance. Allowing civilians to die for Madoka's protection probably ran counter to Madoka's philosophy, which seemed to be one of baffling pacifism and (for lack of a better word) niceness. Even for Erika's short time in the ascended realm, she had found her perception of the universe to bend toward that of the Incubators, whose entropic platforms she had never considered before mostly because entropy was to her only a word (and a vaguely-defined one at that). But when you can see the entire scope of human and nonhuman existence, or at least acquire a deeper understanding of where those existences are heading, it becomes difficult not to consider entropy a rather grave issue. And when you can see the whole of human existence, from Mesopotamia to globalization, the importance of a single human life diminishes to the point of mere statistic curiosity.

(Chapter 41)