Normal POV
"Even with all of my planning, she still died..." the voice of Morgan Le Fay mournfully uttered with both sadness and regret in her voice.
A knight with a yellow cape stood to her right.
Aldebaran held his head low in front of the glass coffin holding the body of the star he had desperately wanted to protect.
He was a failure who could not save Artoria, his only bright star.
In the end he was just a fraud of a fraud, who could not save her.
Only the man who he was made from could only save her.
E҉m҉i҉y҉a҉ ҉S҉h҉i҉r҉o҉u҉
Aldebaran's gauntleted fingers curled into fists at his sides, metal creaking softly as his grip tightened.
He did not look up.
He could not.
If he did, he feared the fragile composure he'd forced upon himself would shatter completely.
He died over a 100 million times trying to reach Artoria but Humanities Will would always deploy a Guardian to go and stop him.
Aldebaran truly hated the entity, the entity who could control the fates of others.
He remembered the first time it happened clearly.
He had been only a few seconds away.
Artoria was alive then bleeding, exhausted, but alive. Her breath had been shallow as she struggled to rise from one of Mordred's blows, stubborn as ever, golden hair matted with dirt and blood.
He had reached out but then the sky split.
A spear of light descended, not aimed at her but at him.
The deployed Counter Guardian that emerged wore no face he recognized from E҉M҉I҉Y҉A҉'s memories, only a blank smile and gray eyes that had no will of their own.
It simply killed him.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Time blurred after that.
A hundred thousand deaths became meaningless.
A million deaths became routine.
Ten million became background noise.
By the time the count reached into the hundreds of millions, Aldebaran had become numb to it.
He simply kept resetting.
Again, and again and again.
He optimized his matrix point multiple times, going through countless thought experiments.
He had even used the aggressor mode of his authority hoping to break ALAYA, but the damn thing had figured out how his domain worked after a couple loops.
One of its Guardians had managed to land a heavy blow that sent him flying back from his domain and forced it to move along with him.
Which meant he could no longer reset back to the exact moment when Artora had been stabbed through the gut by Mordred.
That single deviation was enough.
Enough for the World to win.
Enough for him to lose her.
He remembered rushing back to the scene of the hill only to see Artoria laying crumpled on top of a dead Mordred.
Rhongomyniad fallen from her grasp, fingers slack. Her chest still moved when he reached her barely but the wound in her abdomen was beyond healing.
"A-Artoria" his voice had cracked as he knelt beside her, gauntlets trembling as he pressed his hands against the wound, trying to close it with healing magecraft.
It didn't work the hole was too large for the spell to properly work.
The World had locked this outcome.
Her green eyes found his.
"Sir...Al," she had whispered, lips trembling into the faintest smile "you... finally made it."
That smile had nearly broken him.
"I'm here Artie," he said desperately "I'm here now. I can still save you just give me a second, I can still fix this, I swear-"
She shook her head weakly.
"No," she tiredly murmured "I don't think I shall be surviving from this Al
Her hand lifted, fingers brushing against the cold metal of his gauntlet.
Yet even through the armor he felt it her body warmth, was fading fast.
"You don't have to try anymore."
Those words had hurt worse than any weapon ever could.
"I failed you Artie," Aldebaran whispered "I was supposed to protect you. That was my purpose. That was the only reason I-"
She coughed, blood staining her lips, but she still looked at him gently.
"You protected me and stayed by my side when everyone else left," she said with some tears in her eyes "thank you for being there for me, thank you for being my one of knights, and most of all...thank you for being my friend."
Then the light in her eyes went out.
Just like that the star that Aldebaran had been following had died in his arms.
No Counter Guardian descended.
No correction followed.
The World did not need to interfere anymore.
It had already won.
Aldebaran remembered screaming after that.
"I suppose I will have to implement my back up plan," the Witch of Greed said causing Aldebaran to snap out of his self-spiraling memory of hell.
"Morgan?" he called out voice both rough and raw from grief that had yet to heal.
She stood beside the coffin now, pale fingers resting lightly against the crystal surface that sealed Artoria away from the world.
Then without looking at him, Morgan raised her staff "Ol-Shamak" she chanted and before he could even react a black sphere began to wrap itself around him.
"WAIT MORGAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Aldebaran desperately struggled against the spell.
"Fear not Aldebaran this is not abandonment or betrayal," Morgan said as the shadows fully wrapped around his body "there will come a time," she continued, voice low and deliberate, "when she will return to the world. Not as a king bound by fate, nor as a martyr shackled by Humanity's Will but as a girl who deserves to live freely. To laugh, love, and be happy."
His breath hitched.
"And when that time comes," Morgan said placing her hand over her heart, "she will need someone to be with her so that she is not alone."
Her gaze softened.
"That someone is you. It always has been you who is my perfect creation."
The shadows pulled tighter.
Aldebaran shook his head violently "no-no, you're lying. You're locking me away sending me somewhere I'll never come back from!" his voice broke completely now "you're leaving me alone because I failed!"
Morgan closed her eyes.
For just a moment the Witch of Greed looked like a grieving sister.
"Yes, I admit that you will be alone," she admitted "for a very long time."
"But you will endure," Morgan continued "you will be reborn, and your name will be changed but someday when the time is right you will remember everything when the condition is right."
Tears streamed down his face, streaking across the inside of his helm "no-no I don't want this," he choked out "I don't want to forget her I don't want to forget you."
"I know, but you must," Morgan said with some sadness.
She raised her staff one final time.
"Remember what I said Aldebaran, that someday," she said her voice starting to fade from Aldebaran's ears "you will meet her again and when you do, you will stay with her. You will make sure she lives happily the way she should have."
The spell was finally completed as Aldebaran screamed her name for one last time.
"MORGAN!"
Ol-Shamak was completed.
Aldebaran had now been fully sealed away.
-end of chapter sixteen-
I am working on a part two, to cover some more things before getting back to where we left off at on chapter 15.
Once I get to chapter 20, I want to write out a little self-reflection to give my own thoughts on how the story has been so far.
Leave a positive comment, those usually give me a health dose of motivation.