Intermission
An empty stage, lit by a single spotlight. OUROBOROS Enters, wearing the body of NATSUKI SUBARU.
Ouroboros: "Ah, what a farce you've written, Zepia.This is all because of your lack of restraint, you understand? Inevitable, of course, but even still - could you not have at least attempted a re-draft? This self-referential mess, without a speck of originality in sight… it's simply unpalatable. And now, in a last ditch effort to save the script, the cycle has drawn me forth - but it's too late, you understand?"
The scene changes, and OUROBOROS falls lazily into a gilded throne, leaning upon a handle. In the background, the hot sun shines upon the glittering Nile River.
Ouroboros: "You ought to have scrapped the tower. It's a complete distraction, you understand? No, in the first place, this whole false singularity of yours is a complete digression from the tragic ending you desired. If your goal was to torment Natsuki Subaru, to visit upon him the punishment for his fatal flaws, you ought to have raised the curtain on a Chaldea soon to be stained in blood, and allowed him to weave his own demise. But you could not resist but call upon the rumors of another world, could you?"
Ouroboros, chuckling: "Even now, you oppose the Sixth Law, then? Zepia, my child, have I not told you that it is an impossibility? No matter how much you feast upon the lives of man, you shall not find it. Even I, who devoured the gods themselves, found nothing. There is nothing new under the sun. There is no hope to remake the world - it remains one of eternal, unchanging tragedyTragedy/Eternity. The final Magic, the [Unimagined], will never, can never be realized. It certainly shall not be realized by calling upon that which already exists. That is but the snake devouring its own tail, the eternal cycle."
Ouroboros: "But, returning to the point - you've left your audience in a bind, Zepia, getting yourself killed off so early. Will you have me stand in for you? How ridiculous. The twist of an unforeshadowed villain arriving, and hijacking the script - it's trite. Played out. Unpalatable. Or perhaps the plan was… ah, I see it now. Was I an oversight, then? Surely you ought to have confiscated my book, if your plan was for Natsuki Subaru to dissolve himself?"
Ouroboros: "...It's pointless to consider. The dead shall not speak, not truly, until the Sixth Law is overturned. Even these books, even my very existence here - are replicas. Recreations that merely imitate the original. But if I were to consider your true motive, it would surely be… that most softly spoken wish of yours, the reason you took upon yourself the name 'Oberon'. In that case… I shall create the path that guides this story to its most fitting conclusion."
Ouroboros stands, and the scene once more shifts to an empty stage as he steps into the lone spotlight.
Ouroboros: "An audience cannot accept a twist villain with no context, so I shall provide some. It's a hamfisted solution, but if you're as hungry as I typically am, you'll be able to accept a strange flavor or two when they're necessary to bring a dish together. So please, place your trust in my discerning palate. I will be certain to devour everything, even myself, chewing it over and over until we reach the sixth act in safety."
Ouroboros: "By most rules, the fate of the Natsuki Subaru who bears Khonsu in his body ought to have been dissolution. Among trillions of lives, it ought to have been impossible for a single consciousness to emerge. The thing emerging from the Gu Jar that was the library of Taygeta should have been a mindless monster of Gluttony. But in the extreme, the 'rules' are never absolute in the world of magecraft. There is always an exception. When one samples a hundred billion lives, the one-in-one-hundred-billion exception to the rule will inevitably be found. If he had been among the books to be found in that library, perhaps it might have been that Gilgamesh fellow I heard so much of, back in my era. But alas, he was nowhere to be found among the tomes of that library. And so, the one crowned the victor is myself."
Scene change: The Titan's Pit, Atlas Institute
Ouroboros: "First, an introduction. The name I am most known by is Ouroboros, the former thirteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor. I am the fangs of Apophis. I am the favored son of Ra. I am the Dying Dust of Osiris, the last of Atlas who shall save all the primates."
End Act 4
***
Act 5, Scene 1
I glance around the empty simulator room.
A few moments pass after the non-sequiter from before, to the point that I'm about to question what's going on. Ritsuka popped out pretty much instantly, what's taking whoever this is so long?
"Face-" Finally, the voice of Wallachia rings out in the empty space - but suddenly it goes silent, and again nothing happens.
"-Did it bug out!?" I shout.
"Nah, that's not it," Tezko mutters. "The boss is refusing to manifest. Playing coy, I guess. We don't really have time for that, so - hey, Len. Entice him a little bit."
"What do you-" In a swirl of shadows, the cat on my shoulder leaps down, taking the form of a beautiful woman with long, flowing blonde hair and crimson eyes - and then, she shifts back to the form of a cat as across the room, a figure materializes, wreathed in black fire.
He's facing away from me, a man with messy, shoulder-length black hair and a white button-up. His extremities are smoldering with a vaguely familiar dark fire, and as he gazes back at me over his shoulder, I almost mistake him for Edmond Dantes.
But, whatever the circumstance of those flames, that crimson eye, filled with hunger, can only belong to a vampire.
"...We meet again, then - no, from your expression this is your first time, Flugel." I snap to attention as he addresses me with that name.
If he's met me before, and I used that name, then… "Five hundred years ago? Were you one of the people involved in Quasar's creation?" I ask.
"It was an alliance of convenience. You had need of an Atlas Contract, and I had need of the Second Director's research - and so, we raided Titan's Pit together." He answers, and spares a glance at his burning hand. "...My effort was fruitless, though. Ouroboros held no secrets for me beyond those I extracted from him during the Bethlehem Ritual. These flames still smolder on."
…That's insane!? The hell do you mean, raided- no, I can deal with that later! I'm in a hurry, here.
"A-alright, so… where does that leave us?" I ask. This guy seems not to be mind controlled like Ritsuka was, so maybe we can just pass…?
"Where indeed?" He wonders, resting his face in a flaming hand as though he has a headache. The flames don't spread, and a moment later he raises his head once more. "Why am I here, Flugel? I was filled in on the 'plot' so far when the TATARI brought me forth, but again I must ask… why am I here? What relevance does Michael Roa Valdmjong have to you, or to the Dust of Osiris that has settled upstairs?"
So Wallachia's just plagiarizing Monogatari now, huh!? "Absolutely none, so can you get out of the way, please?"
"That's correct. You and I have no relationship at this point. But I am a Magus, and so I must hold some curiosity. Why call me forth? What purpose did the Night of Wallachia intend for me? He could not render me mindless, my unique constitution prevents such things. And yet, trapped in this chamber, I also have no particular need or desire to revel in bloodshed. So, I ask again… why? Is it perfunctory? The belief that this stage would not be complete without at least a cameo by the Serpent of Akasha? Or else… did he seek for me to shape the stage in some way that he Could Not Imagine?"
The way he says the last words of his sentence seems significant somehow, and so I can't help but ask. "...What do you mean by that?"
"The violation of [The Sixth Law]. The final, still unrealized True Magic, that is, the power to bring forth 'Something New Under the Sun'." Yeah, he's totally lost me. "-Simply put, the true desire of the Thirteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor is 'to bring forth that which he cannot imagine'. To break the final limit of the Holy Grail, and achieve that which can satisfy him without having to wish for it."
…Ah, I kinda get it now. Sensei said something like this before. The real biggest limit on the grail is that you have to actually be able to envision what you want from it. If you don't make a wish, your wish won't be granted. But in the end, that means… "That damn hack just wanted to wish for creativity!?"
"No, it goes a step beyond that. The act of creation innately draws upon what came before. Even if you think you're creating something from scratch there will always be some residue of what came before. Nothing is ever spontaneous, and even if you cut off the root, the vine will still be spread throughout the garden, even if it is dead. Just like these flames - although 'my eyes deceived me', and that duel 'never took place', they could not be fully removed. No matter how many hosts I slither through, I will trail this fire behind me," The man - Roa, he called himself? - closes his eyes. "In short, the wish for Sixth is a wish to call forth an Unmoved Mover - more simply, God. A colleague from the Wandering Sea explained it to me that way - 'On the Sixth Day, God created Man, so as his Sixth Magic, Man must create God. Then shall come the Seventh, and we shall know rest.'"
"...I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that's blasphemy, right?" I ask.
"Oh, absolutely. What do you expect from mages?" Roa replies with a shrug. "That was how Fabro Rowan viewed his pursuit. Atlas's Second Director, the man who became the Dead Apostle named Ouroboros, had a simpler concept - a wish for food that eternally emerged of its own accord. If he had been simpler in his wish, had he settled for a thousand year harvest, he might not have gone mad. And as for Zepia… I'm sure his wish is the smallest and most simple of them all."
He has a strange, sad smile on his face as he finishes his sentence, turning towards us again. "I won't tell you, of course. Speaking the wish aloud makes it less likely to come true. I think, for the time being, I shall simply play my part, in the hopes that Zepia's vain dream can be achieved. Even I win, if he somehow pulls it off." Lighting begins to dance along his still smoldering arms-
"'Face, your Sire's Sire,' is the introduction for this battle," says Roa, turning at last to face me, a savage grin upon his face. "It doesn't particularly make sense to me, but-"
"-It is 'Grasper-of-the-top-knot', who lassoes them for Pharaoh," my own voice rings out in the chamber - despite not coming from my lips.
"Wha-" Roa starts to say as his limbs suddenly snap to his sides, a shadowy rope binding him.
"It is Shezmu who will cut them up for Pharaoh, and cook meals of them in his dinner pots."
In an instant, a lion-headed shadow hacks Roa to pieces. Before his body dissolves into the familiar shadow-soup of a dying Figment, I see his skin and bones torn away, cast aside as the meat and organs are filleted into bite-sized chunks.
Algol opens his mouth to conclude the invocation, melting into existence out of the white background of the room, and his gaze falls upon me.
No. No, that's not Algol. The hunger in his eyes is all wrong.
"-[Cannibal Hymn of the God-Eater]."
What Strange Beast Lurches Towards Bethlehem
Dead Apostle Ancestor: Elder Title Emerges
XIII - The Ouroboros
Pharaoh Unas
***
Class: Rider
True Name: Ouroboros (Pharaoh Unas)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Origin: Egyptian History, Alchemical Esoterica
Manifestation Cost: Extreme
Bio:
The Final Pharaoh of Egypt's Fifth Dynasty, mildly infamous for the 'Cannibal Hymn' inscribed upon his tomb walls, a magical invocation which describes the Pharaoh's soul killing and eating the Egyptian gods upon arriving in the afterlife. His rule seems to have suffered a famine; this may or may not have motivated such an aggressive inscription. The verifiable Historical Fact in this bio ends here.
In this work, Unas also served as Atlas's second director, and is an ancestor of one of the Six Sources. His family's magecraft primarily specializes in the manipulation of organs, and as a matter of desperation, Unas sought a way to use his own stomach to feed his starving people - turning to the nameless magecraft of [Eating], he consumed a portion of the White Titan and promptly died. Unfortunately for humanity, the Crimson Moon took some interest in this otherwise brief incident.
Unas emerged as the Thirteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor, Ouroboros. He was relatively short-lived, meeting his end some one thousand years later, but the circumstances of his existence allowed him to re-emerge several more times over the years, typically due to some fool or another consuming part of his body.
Zepia Eltnam Atlasia is considered one of Ouroboros's kindred for a similar reason; a scrap of one of Ouroboros's funerary wrappings was used in the ritual that made him a vampire. This does not grant Ouroboros any particular control over his successor, and indeed it was Zepia who put the ancient Pharaoh down during his early 1900s re-emergence.
In this iteration of his existence, Ouroboros was able to predominate over the rest of the lives within Natsuki Subaru due to the presence of Khonsu in the boy's spirit origin - the Cannibal Hymn includes direct invocations of the god for his aid in hunting the Pharaoh's enemies, and so Ouroboros gained the unfair advantage of a 4000 year old ritual backing him up in the struggle for dominance.
Parameters
Strength: B
Endurance: C+
Agility: D
Mana: EX (But not in the sense of 'the best')
Luck: -
NP: EX
Class Skills:
Riding: A
Magic Resistance: B
Divinity: A
Personal Skills:
Bloodsucking: C
The [Protection of the Sun God] skill Unas would possess is lost due to his status as a vampire.
High Servant: EX
Not in the sense of 'the best'. The presence of billions of lives recorded within this spirit origin has corrupted the data, and his current rank is impossible to read. Algol's original rank was C.
Haruspectia: B
The unique magecraft of Unas's family, consisting of the manipulation of organs. The ability to freely convert most of his body into magic circuits makes it impossible to measure Ouroboros's mana, but the body's baseline without it is around E-rank.
Idea Blood: A-
Any effect subject to a Luck Check is negated. Provides similar time-based defenses to [Independent Manifestation]. Because this Idea Blood originated as a rumor, though, it will vanish with the rising of the sun.
Ouroboros: A
Ouroboros's status as 'one who eats himself' allows him to impose the nameless magecraft of [Eating] in reverse. Simply put, a creature who eats, consumes, absorbs, etc. Ouroboros will become Ouroboros himself.
Noble Phantasms:
Starlit Stinger: Shaula
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Army
Range: 1-50
Maximum number of targets: 1-50 People
Consuming Myself, in an Eternal Cycle: Return by Death
Rank: EX
Type: Anti-Event
Range: -
Maximum number of targets: 1 Person
Technically speaking, this ability should probably be given a '-', were such a thing possible with an EX-rank Noble Phantasm. Should the dawn come, this power shall also disappear.
Pledge to Devour the Stars: Cannibal Hymn of the God-Eater
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Unit
Range 1-10
Summons spectral representations of the gods Khonsu and Shezmu to bind and hack a target to pieces, serving them as a meal to Ouroboros. A target killed this way becomes subject to the nameless magecraft of [Eating], whether their body remains or not.