Act 5, Scene 5
The cat runs up stair after stair. Despite her small form, her constitution does mean that she doesn't get tired easily, and so winding further and further up the tower is no difficulty, even after spending no small amount of time balancing upon the shoulder of the fish-eyed boy. Of course, if her Master were to see her running alone to the final stage of this conflict, he would be extremely distressed.
But Tohno Shiki isn't here anymore, Len reminds herself.
She crosses through another featureless white room, and a scent catches her nose. Blood. Her whiskers twitch. Cautiously, she advances - and finds a corpse.
Or rather, part of one. The lower half of what is… presumably a woman, considering the skirt- rapidly decaying into a pool of blood. The cat is familiar with this kind of phenomenon - the leftovers of a vampire in mid-regeneration. This portion was considered to be 'not the main body' and as such is being abandoned while some other part re-forms.
Still, no opposition presents itself, and the cat advances further, through a vast library, up a final spiral staircase, leading to an enormous stone door. marked with six gems that shine brightly, and a seventh that remains dull. Even as she approaches, the seventh gem gleams to life, and the door begins to open. Stone grinding against stone, crumbling in places as the dust of fictitious years scatters in the air. The cat gives a small sneeze.
Slowly, the view of what lies beyond, the climax of this Transplanted Tower of Sins, comes to be reflected in her eyes. And that which awaits, is-
***
Act 5, Scene 6
Ouroboros
A storm of blood fills the lowest level of the Pleiades Watchtower. The perfect windstorm of the Oni God, Ram, persists even under my assault - even as darts of blood, and the lightning of the Serpent of Akasha, finds her body, carving out flesh, nerves, and organs.
My shadows, the phantoms of the gods sent to aid me, are halted in their tracks. Shezmu, descending by the stairs, is halted by the unbreakable obstacle of Fujimaru Ritsuka, restrained by the combined skills of Ivan Grozny and Qin Shi Huang, and placed in a frozen stasis by Skadi just as the scorpion Shaula had been. Khonsu, descending the outside of the Tower, is intercepted by Yu Mei-Ren and Xiang Yu, held at bay by a whirling blade and salvo upon salvo of flaming blood. He-upon-the-willows, lying in wait at the point of descent, fails to truly slay Tezcatlipoca, and Grasper-of-the-top-knot, called into being with haste, is dispatched with just as much haste by something scurrying in the shadows at the outskirts of my fight with the movements of a spider.
I see him, falling towards me. His motion flickers forward, accelerating downwards, and I rise to meet him - but again, the winds make themselves my enemy, and before I know it, he is gone.
That's it, then. Natsuki Subaru slipped past my jaws, and has gone on to the seventh trial. Should I begin a new cycle? No, it's impossible at this stage. It was simple within the library, but at this point my body has fully awakened to the nature of a Dead Apostle, and though my [Principle] allows me some sway over the TATARI, I do not have the capacity to alter Return by Death's condition of activation.
In short, it will take too long to kill myself. That cat will have reached the rooftop before I can go back in time.
I have no choice then, but to bear witness to what Zepia's mad gluttony has produced.
Calling every last drop of my reserves, I surge upwards.
That which awaits on the roof is [nothing]. Raw potentiality, a special area of the TATARI unbound even from the formless malice inherent to the curse. It was once Zepia's core, his true body - but with his existence revoked by Hieda-no-Are and his life terminated a second time by Scandinavia Peperoncino, it is nothing more than an empty shell. - or perhaps an unhatched egg.
I, of course, know this due to my own interface with the TATARI. I can observe it - though only indirectly. The true encounter with that egg must take place by a 'witness', not an 'observer'. Only then shall its true nature be known. Only then can it 'move', unmoved by anything else. Its mover, after all 'does not exist'.
Was this Zepia's plan? Of course not. The Sixth Law could never be violated on purpose, even if it has only been violated by the most extreme of technicalities.
I, meanwhile, must prepare. Make ready to snatch up and devour the meal produced. Saijyou Manaka would not have been enough in the first place.
The lights dim. OUROBOROS turns, and addresses the audience.
OUROBOROS: "Why, then, have I pursued the 'meal' of Saijyou Manaka? The answer is, of course, Gluttony. The root of everything, the true 'theme' of the tale thus far. The first sin of mankind, as I learned from those who gave me this form."
Shadows play upon the stage. Six creatures with twisted animal forms, tearing and lapping at scraps of meat. In their midst, the even darker shadow of AHRIMAN gazes at OUROBOROS over his own shoulder, a hand raised to his face in a bizarre, menacing pose.
AHRIMAN: "Your people are starving, I hear. Is this why you have sought this Crimson Moon, Pharaoh Unas?"
OUROBOROS: "I spoke to the son of Khonsu in earnestness. I pleaded with him, that with his power of [Marble Phantasm], he might lift the famine from my lands - or else, with his power that seemed to be that of a god, he might change my people, so that they would never hunger again."
AHRIMAN: "Ho ho. So your sin is the same as that of this Crimson Moon, Pharaoh Unas. Even as you ask the first, you move a step beyond, seeking a way to end your hunger forever. Do you know why this is? It is the very sin that this Crimson Moon bears, the first sin of every sentient being, that is - Gluttony."
AHRIMAN: "What is hunger, in truth? Every living being bears it. Even that 'Spider' far west of here, which even this Crimson Moon has his reservations about facing - when awakened, it consumes without end. Its method is different from that of you or I, but make no mistake, the One Radiance Thing also eats. Beings of information, which have no need of physical sustenance - The White Titan and the Umbral Star - nevertheless, they travel in search of that which they may consume. Because hunger is not a mere physiological reality - hunger is 'incompletion', and the shame that accompanies it. The inescapable dependence of every existence on another existence is 'hunger'."
OUROBOROS: "In that sense, the Sixth Law, that 'There is Nothing New Under the Sun' might be called the law of hunger."
AHRIMAN: "The shame you feel, is also known to This Crimson Moon. Even the shame of a king who cannot feed his people. This Crimson Moon does not feed, but only feeds upon. When his children ask him for bread, this Crimson Moon may only give them a stone; when they ask for fish, this Crimson Moon gives them a serpent."
OUROBOROS: "But a child may yet feast upon a serpent; and a stone has use in the crushing of grain."
AHRIMAN: "Pharaoh Unas, shall you become like this Crimson Moon? Will you, who know life, taste of Living Death? This very search for the thing that completes you - be it through the endless hunt of a Gourmet, the endless frenzy of Binge Eating, even if you reach the momentary glimpse of Satiation - this Gluttony shall not be cured. Even if you consume every last thing in this world, still the shame of hunger shall remain, until the last pathetic display of a serpent devouring its own tail."
OUROBOROS: "Then let my people consume that serpent's corpse."
-To consume all things, even the gods themselves. When all are one, all shall be complete. This was my hunger, this is the Gluttony that led me to seek to devour even Saijyou Manaka. And yet, I know, in every part of my body, that it would not be enough to remove this shame of hunger. Even as I devour myself and die, I shall be incomplete - but if there is 'that thing', the Sixth, that meal which I cannot even imagine, surely 'that thing'-
But that was a foolish hope, because Zepia's wish is not one that I can consume in the first place.
The sight awaiting that Cat, as the door at the Towers pinnacle opens out into open air, above even the clouds, is-
Glittering upon the rooftops of Tokyo, accentuating the wispiness of the few clouds drifting below, a gentle golden sunrise frames itself upon a kind blue sky.
Hieda-no-Are will scramble for a moment, as he tries to ascertain the situation. He was ready to disprove whatever might emerge from that egg of possibility, but that the answer would be 'nothing' was something he had not considered. But in the end, there is nothing for him to panic over - because in spite of every worry of the sunrise spelling the 'end' of the TATARI, and the failure to save the Chaldeans, they shall nonetheless be returned without harm. The TATARI will erase itself, and the curtain will close on a twist Happy Ending, leaving all confused and the audience irritated, until they come to the realization that this tale was in fact a comedy.
Because the Sixth True Magic wished for by Zepia Eltnam Oberon is none other than this - that when all the chaos, madness, and heartbreak have passed, humanity can rise, wipe the sleep from their eyes, and say that it was all a Midsummer Night's Dream. A beautiful wedding follows, and then everyone lives happily ever after.
OUROBOROS: "But I will not allow that. The show must go on!(Tragedy/Eternity). This is our principle, and I shall not allow it to end here!"
So what if this stage shall pass away? We shall migrate to another one. The nature of Reality Marbles is that they are trivial to pass from person to person, so long as the [Principle] is already shared. Let the cycle continue! Devouring itself endlessly, that is the truth of [Ouroboros] - that which is born of me, is myself, and only I propagate, endlessly forever and ever!
Even as the [Quasi-stellar Object(Quasar)] burns out, gutters and dies - I shall pick up the torch, and bear this formless curse(TATARI) myself.
Let this Blood-stained Nightmare Stage continue, even unto eternity-!
"-[Puppet Playground]."
But, even as I begin to dissolve into formless [Malevolent Information], I find myself jolted back into reality, cast upon my hands and knees, into an endless field of ankle-deep water, beneath a starlit sky.
"I shall not allow it," Intones Hieda-no-Are, arms crossed as he gazes disdainfully down upon me. "This self-referential farce has gone on long enough."
No.
No, no, no, this cannot, will not be!
"A one-dimensional twist villain, whose only purpose is to move the plot along and establish the concept of the Sixth Law, heretofore unmentioned - how utterly loathsome. Your very existence is a seal of absolute hackery," The Caster says, shaking his head mockingly. "Go ahead and disappear, and take the rest of this pointless diversion with you. Chaldea has a world to save, it cannot linger upon such side-adventures forever."
No, no, no, NONONONO! This is an outrage! To cut the performance before its final act - what manner of artist are you, Hieda-no-Are!? What will the audience think!?
"Audience? There can't possibly be an audience for something this delusionally idiotic," Hieda-no-Are waves dismissively. "And of course, I'm not an artist. I'm a historian, a simple Recorder."
YOUUUU-!!!
It's too late. My consciousness, already dissolving into the now vanishing TATARI, is all-but gone. Even my [Idea Blood] is ultimately a rumor, born of the Reality Marble. As much as Pharaoh Unas was a real historical existence, as much as the Ouroboros will always arise from those who consume it - I can do nothing to those who will not even glance upon my tale.
Those who refuse to read a tragic tale can never be harmed by its contents.
…
…
…
"…But as for me, I was enjoying the performance," 'The Audience' at last says, as his clawed hand tears out Hieda-no-Are's spirit origin from behind.
The Caster could not have seen him coming. His Records only log those things which 'exist' after all. A [hole] is that which does not exist, a mere gap between those things which do. He simply gasps, collapses, and bleeds out in incomprehension, his blood staining the pristine waters of his internal world.
The fact that Natsuki Subaru never became his master… is something he finds strangely disappointing, he realizes now. But it's too late for him to do anything about that, and soon enough, darkness claims him.
"Waking up is all well and good, but forgetting the dream is wrong. The Midsummer Night's Dream has just as much right to exist as the waking world after it is over," 'The Audience' says, as he adjusts the Mask that he does not wear. "At the very least, you should see it to the end. Let the show go on."
The Self-Evident Non-Existence slips into the margins once again, and the starlit waterscape slowly collapses.
Act 5: End