Act 5, Scene 2
"...Shit," I can't help but swear as not-Algol's red eyes meet mine. I hadn't been that stressed about fighting him - I'd already experimented and found that it was possible to conjure the book of 'Natsuki Subaru' with the Mystic Code that Wallachia gave me. All I had to do was chuck that at the guy, and that would probably win the fight. But the moment I met eyes with this guy, I knew that tactic wasn't going to work.
…Come to think of it, I've been feeling way more confident in my fighting intuition since this whole mess started. What's with that? The rumor of [Natsuki Subaru], maybe?
Still, the first thing I should do is- "So, who are you?" He's a vampire, judging by the eyes, but-
"Ouroboros, right?" Tezko asks as she steps out from behind me, pulling her sunglasses off and pocketing them. "Or are you one of the other edge cases? Gogmagog, maybe?"
"You guessed correctly the first time. So it was with knowledge of my existence that you excluded me from those books which you pulled into the underworld?" The guy in front of us - Ouroboros, I guess - asks, sliding into an easygoing pose. A shadowy figure with the head of a bird forms behind him, and another with the head of a lion kneels at his side as he reaches out to brush its mane.
"Of course. I tried to censor basically anyone who could pop up as an outside factor. Those who were Beasts in the past, those who could have become Beasts, Dead Apostle Ancestors, and exceptions like Reid Astrea and Gilgamesh - I didn't want anyone reading their books and turning into something that would give me real trouble," Tezko replies, shaking her head. "But guys like you or Roa had to stay out, since your whole gimmick is indefinite reincarnation. My underworld couldn't hold you in the first place."
"Hm. And Hernan Cortez? He doesn't fall into those categories," Ouroboros asks, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"You seriously scoured every shelf? Can't really say anything exciting, though. Just personal curiosity, really. I didn't understand the guy, so I figured maybe his book would help - but he's still just as incomprehensible to me after reading it," Tezko sighs. "So? What's your game?"
"Uh, while you're at it, can you explain who you are…?" I pipe up. I followed a bit of the conversation, but I'm still not sure how to approach… whatever this is. I mean, my first instinct is to use my last Command Spell to power an emergency Ram summon, but…
"Ouroboros, the second director of the Atlas Institute and former Thirteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor. He's got an annoying trait that lets him possess anyone who 'eats' him, so he pops up more often than you'd think. Since I'm a Grand, I got briefed and was supposed to suppress him along with the rest of those problem children, but… really there wasn't much I could do. I didn't have a physical body until our deal just now," Tezko answers.
"I'm a pointless presence on the stage of that successor of mine, but… well, a good father cleans up the messes of his children," Ouroboros says. Wait, did he just say he's Wallachia's dad…? "As for the method… Saijyou Manaka's book. Hand it over, Black Tezcatlipoca."
Literally who?
"That useless woman? If it wasn't for that unique constitution of hers I'd hand it right over, but at the end of the day she's someone who might have been VI/G. No can do, brat of Ra," Tezko says. I don't really… wait, is that [VI] as in Beast six? Yeah, no, let's skip that!
As she speaks, shadows swirl around her, and a moment later the body of Louis Arneb is clad in a goofy jaguar-themed onesie. No, the adult Tezcatlipoca was wearing something similar, but- "Seriously, pajamas…?"
"It's my ass-kicking outfit, Master of Chaldea," she says, crossing her arms.
"You look like a gag character - no, you are a gag character!" I protest.
"Just summon that Oni already!" She huffs, and for a moment I hesitate, but-
"Khonsu, Shezmu," Ouroboros says, and those shadows surge towards us.
"Ah, save me, Nee-sama!" I shout, my last command spell blazing to life.
***
Act 5, Scene 3
Rem
I wonder, just why was it that I was the one who first came to Subaru's side in this world?
Belief in higher powers isn't common in Lugunica. The types of beings who receive the title of 'god' are plenty, but they're ultimately all physical beings gifted with vast power. There are the nebulous [Observers] seen by Vollachia's [Stargazers], and the prophecy of the Witch Cult's [Gospel], but those aren't quite right either. There's Od Laguna, of course, a blind idiot god who hands out [Divine Protections] according to no discernible standard. But ultimately, as Lord Roswaal always said, 'there are no gods' in the world of my birth.
And yet, I always felt like there was. There was some higher power, with a plan full of kindness that I could not quite see. That was always my belief, even if I couldn't make sense of it, even if it didn't match my experience in life in the slightest. And because I was somehow certain that the mysterious plan-maker was moving for the good, I found myself disinterested in the church of the Dragon God Volcanica.
I couldn't help but feel that praying for a favor was arrogant. Prayer should be for seeking forgiveness.
…In any case, that was my view, so I had to keep wondering. Why me? My strength in combat is middling, and I'm not smart enough to help with the plan-making part of things, especially compared to Subaru-kun. Why wasn't it Emilia-sama, the one Subaru-kun truly loves? Why wasn't it Beatrice-sama, the one Subaru-kun made a contract with? Why wasn't it Nee-sama, whose broken horn Miss Da Vinci surely should have cured with just as much ease as my bodiless state?
What did the 'planner' mean, sending Rem to his side?
In all honesty… I wasn't that sad with how things ended. The fact that Subaru-kun missed me so much, is all the happiness someone like me could ask for from life. It feels wrong to demand anything more. But I'm a gross, shameless woman who'd even steal the appearance of the woman Subaru-kun loves in order to claim him for myself.
Maybe that's why I'm here. Maybe I'm just meant to sway his heart, and drag him away from the pursuit of Emilia-sama which is destined to lead to more and more suffering for him. But I can't believe that. The 'planner' I imagined would never want something so vile. Not this way. Not by these means.
"Still, second wife! I can't believe you'd use a poison like that, my goodness!" Manaka-san had laughed at one point. "Gareth, you should really be taking notes from Rem. No, I should be too! Seducing Rein-sama is going to be a tricky business."
Her evasiveness of how she even learned of that incident, and whatever circumstance led to her bizarre fixation on the sword saint aside, her words were a wake-up call for me.
"No, don't you see? A winning heroine would never suggest something like that, let alone agree to it! Polygamy is the resourcefulness of a losing heroine," she said. "It's a sweet poison to destroy the relationship of the winner and her man. If he ever brings it up, she'll suspect him of infidelity forever, and if he doesn't, he'll always be wondering 'what if'. What a devilish move - and to think you did it by instinct!"
That was the curse that Saijyou Manaka spoke to me, when we first met, after I had explained my situation to her. She was right, of course. I knew all too well that it was my own lack of self-worth that had made taking Subaru-kun for myself impossible. I would never be good enough, really.
So when everything was thrown into chaos in the tower, and Miyako-chan and I began to search for Subaru-kun and couldn't find him, and Recorder finally told us where he was-
"He's been going upstairs every night and attempting the trial alone, foolish as that idea sounds."
-I could only think to myself, "Oh, that makes sense."
As we fought for several minutes against the chittering mob of creatures, we got word that Subaru-kun was advancing further up the tower, to try to reach the top -since if he did that, Recorder could wipe this whole incident away without us having to find a solution to what the Caster was calling the Chaos Tide - and I could only think to myself, "Oh, that makes sense."
Xiang Yu-sama arrived at some point, and as his glaive cleared the path, Miyako-chan and I finally had the chance to breathe. Goghie and Pepe still made no appearance, and as the words from the lower floor, over and over-
"Face, the endless tide of Chaos."
-continued to echo upwards, I began wondering which one of the two had triggered the trial.
***
"It shouldn't be long now," Recorder says, snapping me back to the present moment.
"Su-kun won-?" Miyako-chan starts to ask as she falls back a bit out of the direct fighting.
"No, not that. But he sent the perfect answer to this hackneyed knock-off Chaos Tide," The Caster answers. As expected of Subaru-kun, really. "Not that he planned anything; it was a pure fluke that won the day here." Recorder is still not a believer in Subaru-kun, is he?
"Hey, I'll have you know that this is all going according to Xiang Yu-sama's plan!" Akuta-san interjects as a spray of fiery blood from her hand cuts down another wave of chattering horrors.
"In short, the enemy is a recreation of a certain vampire, refined and granted a possible result of his research. In short, the recollection of she-who-was Beast II brought to the TATARI by Fujimaru Ritsuka melded with the objective of Fabro Rowan - that is, the birth of 'new' life. The [Unimagined], the Sixth True Magic - is not what has taken place. It's still a failure, in the end," The Caster rambles, and I have some suspicion that not a single person knows what he's talking about. "But, this same Dead Apostle met his end six years ago. And although he no longer possesses the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]-"
A dark shape leaps from a balcony further up the tower, and plunges into the churning mass of shadows filling the ground floor.
"-The fact remains that the crystallized legend of NRVNQSR Chaos ends with him meeting his unexpected end in an inexplicable upset, at the hands of Tohno Shiki."
There's an eruption of motion from below - a tall swirling of shadow that rises all the way to the third floor where we stand - and then without even a cry, the seemingly endless swarm of monsters disintegrates into ashes, blown away on some imperceptible wind.
"Onii-" Miyako-chan shouts, rushing to the railing so that she can gaze on the floor below - but I can't hear her even the end of her cry, nor can I pay further attention to her - the sound and spectacle of the ceiling shattering strips all of that away.
Two forms fall like shooting stars. The first is a vast serpent, a crimson beast made of blood and coursing with lightning. The sheer oppressive presence of it would have surpassed anything I've ever seen, if not for Hercules and those enemies we met in the trial upstairs.
And the second is like it, and in some ways worse, because it's familiar. All too familiar. A pink-haired form in a gorgeous dress, holding back the weight of the snake bearing down on her with a hurricane conjured between the two of them.
Despair and guilt. Hope and love. My heart is filled with a storm of emotions just like my eyes are filled with tears as I watch my beloved older sister land with elegance on the ground floor, and dash the great serpent against the wall with the strength that I stole from her. Undoubtedly, this is what Subaru-kun wanted to hide from me. Undoubtedly, Nee-sama agreed with his desire. Undoubtedly, the only reason this tower has not already been conquered, is because I am dragging everyone down.
Oh, that makes sense.