"...You are sick, my Animus." Tsukishiro Yuki's expression darkened.
She lifted a hand wrapped in black silk to press down the brim of her sun hat, obscuring her expression:
"You should withdraw. Do not stand in my way. Let me resolve all of this before I come to call for you."
"I will 'Healing' the stubborn illness that plagues you."
"I swear, after all this ends, what awaits us is a future of absolute happiness."
"————You and I will forever be each other's only one."
Magic derived from Tachibana Sherri—[Monstrous Strength]
It grants the wielder power sufficient to shatter a mountain peak with a single punch.
In nearly the blink of an eye, a sonic boom cloud burst forth from behind Tsukishiro Yuki.
She sprinted toward Suke at a speed difficult for the human eye to track, one hand reaching out as if to seize him and throw him out of the battlefield.
She did not need to worry about her Animus getting hurt, for he, like her, possessed a nearly indestructible physical body.
"Sir!"
"Gege, be careful!"
Witch Emma and Abigail cried out in alarm simultaneously.
Although they were full of trust in Suke, witnessing him about to clash head-on with this Great Witch who possessed the qualities of "The Son" still made them sweat nervously.
"You must win..."
"Mr. Suke can always bring everyone surprises, he can definitely do it..."
The girls prostrated beneath the Tribunal were equally incredibly tense; a battle of this magnitude was absolutely not something their half-baked magic was qualified to participate in.
[Thorns Ring]
[When enemies deal damage to you, they will also take damage equal to the amount not reduced by your defense.]
This was something Suke had specially crafted using Bone Fragments, Stone, and a Gold Bar.
In the original version of Stardew Valley, this ring was rather lackluster, after all, there weren't any particularly powerful monsters.
But placed elsewhere, this was a divine artifact with an extremely high cost-performance ratio.
"?!"
The instant Tsukishiro Yuki made contact with Suke and forcefully pulled at him, a force of equal magnitude rebounded from her point of exertion, sending her entire body flying backward.
"Animus, you really do constantly give me surprises."
A trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. With a movement of Tsukishiro Yuki's will, she "Healing" the injuries caused to her internal organs by this sudden rebound force.
Unfortunately, this body of hers was sculpted from the sacrifice of the Witch Factors of thirteen Witch Candidates; temporarily, she could not reuse the thousands of magics she had learned in the past.
Relying solely on these thirteen types of magic was indeed a bit strenuous.
"Little Yuki, wake up. Stop obsessing over the fairy tale you compiled for yourself!"
"Think about it yourself, why have you always addressed me as 'Animus' but are unwilling to call me by my full name?"
(*Animus: The perfect partner in a female's ideal, also the personification of the male image possessed by the female herself.)
(*In Jungian psychology, humans are composed of both Animus (male) and Anima (female). The personifications only differ in strength; there is no person with only a single personification.)
Suke had been a bit puzzled as early as when he watched the [Death Rewind] of the Witch-transformed Nikaido Hiro.
That silly child kept saying things like she couldn't win, that death was certain.
But Suke thought that shouldn't be the case. He had such a huge trump card as the Statue of Yoba, and also Abigail as external assistance.
So at that time, Suke asked her if Abigail had also been shot down by Old Yuki. She replied with a face full of confusion, asking Suke who Abigail was.
Suke then asked her how he himself had been shot down by Old Yuki, and the child was clueless about everything.
Combined with the scenes seen later in "Viewing All Cause and Effect," Suke finally obtained a definite answer:
The timeline he, Witch Emma, and the others were in had never undergone reincarnation, or rather, it had never changed.
The so-called [Death Rewind] believed by Nikaido Hiro and the Great Witch Tsukishiro Yuki was nothing more than a counterfeit deduced by this world because it could not understand the existence of him and the Stardew Valley behind him, yet needed to satisfy the concept of [Death Rewind].
Tsukishiro Yuki might be a bit more lucid than Nikaido Hiro; after all, in her subconscious, she likely knew this was a counterfeit, whereas the latter—the Eldest Miss—was truly kept in the dark.
To explain it in simpler terms, the Great Witch probably fell in love with him at first sight and generated sexual fantasies about him.
After all, in the so-called false cycle, the logic of Tsukishiro Yuki having Hikami Meruru heal the trauma of the world to trap him in this world was too strange————
Is there something wrong with his brain?
Looking at the "Return Scepter" in his backpack, Suke was somewhat speechless.
If he really encountered something wrong, he could just point this scepter at the sky and say ja ne.
Previously, Suke had asked Little Abi about the space-time authority of this item. Little Abi answered that purely in terms of letting people go home, its authority was even higher than her Silver Key.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be the case that he could teleport freely inside and outside Stardew Valley, while Little Abi still had to rely on walking.
You have to know, to break Hikami Meruru's so-called "blockade" of the world, it only took Abigail three seconds.
Three seconds was still too short for a Witch.
Of course, this could only explain the answer to part of the problem. Actually, there were still two biggest suspicious points Suke hadn't resolved:
First, why would Hikami Meruru have his Phoenix Ring?
Assuming it was like the simulated future seen by Tsukishiro Yuki where he gave it to Tsukishiro Yuki, and then she gave it to Meruru, a thing of a false reincarnation should not be able to arrive in reality no matter what.
Second, why was Tsukishiro Yuki so certain that he was an "outsider," and so stubbornly wanted to keep him to accompany her?
And it was as if she knew he could leave this world at any time, specifically having Hikami Meruru take measures to prevent his escape?
"Enough..."
"Say no more...!"
Tsukishiro Yuki raised her voice sternly. The Island of Witches flying in the sky shook violently, forcing the girls prostrated on the ground to grab the nearest support even more tightly.
"No, I can't hold on...!"
"Grab my hand, Hanna!"
"I can use [Levitation], you brainless gorilla woman! Go help the others!"
"Hiro-chin! An-An and Noah are going to fall, give me a hand...!"
"I know—!"
"Uwaah! I really have no strength left... Aaaah—!"
The floor of the Tribunal swayed violently at an amplitude of nearly 90 degrees.
If they weren't careful for even a moment, there was a possibility the girls would be thrown into mid-air and finally smash against the walls and die.
"Everyone...!"
Seeing this situation, Witch Emma had to temporarily withdraw, using her own ability to catch the girls who were about to fall in mid-air and send them back to the nearest support.
"Imposter..."
"It is all because of you...!"
But just at this moment, Tsukishiro Yuki suddenly shifted her aggro.
Those condensed fireballs, which Suke originally thought were going to be fired at him, whistled past his ears and sped toward Witch Emma!
Because she had to take care of her companions, Witch Emma could not dodge in time.
"Hmph!"
Fortunately, with a cold snort from Abigail, invisible tentacles spawned from the void, slapping all the fireballs into dissipation with a single strike.
"Yuki?"
Witch Emma suddenly turned to look at Tsukishiro Yuki. She could feel Tsukishiro Yuki's sharp gaze specifically targeting her, but she didn't know the meaning of it.
But if one were to shoot the arrow first and then draw the target,
Although "Viewing All Cause and Effect" could only see all information of this current world, combined with her abnormal attitude toward Witch Emma, Suke suddenly had a bold guess————
Wait, this Old Yuki, could she be the Old Yuki who originally followed the first-playthrough Emma?
The second question in Suke's mind was instantly resolved. If following this line of thought, her calling Witch Emma an imposter might have a double meaning!
One is that Witch Emma is not the Emma of this world herself.
The second is... a person who assumed another's name and place!
"...Apologies, I have let you see a joke, Animus. Perhaps this is also my retribution."
"I once toyed with her memories, manipulated her destiny, and now it is my turn to be toyed with by destiny."
Tsukishiro Yuki calmed down. She realized she could not lose her composure; she could not let her beloved feel that she was a jealous woman.
But no matter how many times she recalled it, she would still feel regret.
The Great Witch, whose consciousness was immortal and imperishable, traveling through timelines, actually could not compare to a fifteen-year-old girl.
Tsukishiro Yuki could never forget everything she saw under that bright purple star:
The Great Witch named Tsukishiro Yuki, trapped by vengeance, no longer had any attachments in a world where humans and Witches were all extinct.
Even the girl she watched constantly began to die; the girl who had ended the mission of world destruction was also about to welcome her own finale.
She thought, perhaps she should go to the next world to continue her "revenge."
Although she had begun to feel empty because of "revenge" and began to expect other endings.
'Perhaps it is time to go.' The Great Witch had thought this way. She activated the magic of [Death Rewind], wanting to witness other possibilities.
But just at this moment,
A purple star above the heavens suddenly shone with great radiance.
That star was one the Great Witch had never seen even across many world lines; it aroused her curiosity.
She followed the guidance of the starlight and found an unmanned, old bus at the end of the world, its doors standing wide open.
She curiously looked toward it with the magic of [Hallucination], yet could not see through it in the slightest.
The Great Witch was full of interest and wanted to board the bus————
Only to discover that someone was already sitting inside. That girl she had constantly watched.
The purple star chose her, not herself.
____
New Story: FGO: Building a Lostbelt from Scratch, the Winner is Canon
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