Intermission
The sudden appearance of sunlight that shuts my eyes comes into existence with all the subtlety of a lightswitch being flipped on. As I squint, the scent of flowers carried by a gentle breeze tickles my nose, and after about a second of annoyance, I find it possible to open my eyes.
An endless field of pink flowers, under a spring sky lightly dotted with fluffy clouds. Somewhere, I can hear a river gently babbling along, and in the distance a strange tower shining with golden light floats at the top of the highest hill. A couple small, golden motes float by, and dance around me with a strange familiarity - no, it's not strange, actually. I met these guys, back in Fuyuki.
"Then, this place is-" I start.
"Avalon," the voice of Merlin wafts with characteristic ease into my ears. "Well, it's a dream visit, in some sense. Your consciousness lapsed when the TATARI collapsed, so I was able to pull you in here for a bit."
A sigh escapes my lips as I glance to the right, towards the fluffy-looking wizard. "If it's collapsed, then does that mean-"
"No, it's not over yet," Tezko's voice comes from my right, and I glance to where she's sitting cross-legged amongst the flowers. "Well, I'm sure you figured things were still messy enough that it wouldn't end cleanly."
I grimace, turning my gaze back towards the tower floating in the distance. "Yeah, there was all sorts of stuff still going on - I guess the first thing to check is, is everyone alright? I'd like to go ahead and reset if-"
"It won't work. Hieda didn't have the means to tell you when it happened, but you spawned a rumor related to your reset points," Merlin says, and my eyes widen with horror. "'The thing which must not be said' - you said it without even noticing, a bit ago."
"Shi- no, if the TATARI collapsed, then-!" I say.
"It was an incomplete collapse. The Logos React Replica, [Quasar] - its pseudo-personality 'died' a few minutes ago, but it looks like Ouroboros was able to inherit its principle and convert into a new TATARI," Tezko says, shaking her head. "It's completely circular and idiotic for something born of the TATARI to generate the TATARI, but that's Ouroboros for you. Ah, as for Quasar, she's got enough of an existence that she could pass into my underworld, but she had nothing to sell me, so I sent her on her way."
"Ah, there was something like that, wasn't there?" Merlin muses. He's stealing my bit? "-Can I buy Hieda's way out of the underworld, then? It'd be easier to understand what happened if he could tell us himself." Wait, Recorder died-!?
"No, he hasn't passed into my underworld to begin with. Either the way he died was exceptional, or he's not actually dead yet - or maybe his denial of the supernatural was so great that he's unable to enter," Tezcatlipoca answers.
"No, hang on a sec, just what…?" I'm still reeling, trying to get my mind around this. That guy who should have been near-immune to all of the TATARI's shenanigans… just like that, without even saying goodbye-!?
"I'm still not too clear on how he died. From my perspective, our contract was just suddenly severed," Merlin says with a grimace. "I feel like something like this has happened before, but I can't even remember when that was…"
An all-too-familiar trauma is resurfacing.
"...Oi, Tezko, you didn't sell that damn witch factor I gave you, did you?" I ask, shooting a glare her way, before I remember - "No, there was the one Da Vinci grabbed. Where the hell did that thing end up!?"
"No, that one's not in play right now," Merlin says. "It got absorbed by someone, but we were able to dump him into the London singularity before things got bad. It'll be a problem later, but for now we can ignore it."
"Who- No, let's back up. What's the status of the people from Chaldea right now?" I change tracks. I just need to get everything clear at this point.
"All members of Chaldea staff were safely returned to Chaldea, and it looks like the new TATARI opened by Ouroboros isn't transforming into any sort of pseudo-singularity," Merlin says - but his delivery of the news sounds far from cheerful. "It might be considered progress at first, but… the way it's played out just means the staff of Chaldea are now at risk of truly dying during this incident."
…Dammit. "In that case, Tezko-"
"Let me stop you right there. You might have gotten the wrong impression since so many high 6value items were flying around - but bringing people back to life is meant to be expensive," the Aztec god interrupts. "There's no single item present in Chaldea that could buy four people's way back from the dead, let alone the hundreds of random schmucks you've got on staff."
"...So there's an item worth three?" I note.
"Well, I'm not buying that ring anyway, the merchandise is way too hot. Best I could offer is two lives for each grail," She answers. "In other words, they better hope that they don't die in the first place."
Nails that were already biting into my arm break skin. My teeth grind together and I feel bile beginning to rise in my throat. Choking it back, I crack my dry lips open again. "So? What can we do now? If Recorder is- if- if he's dead, what chance do we have!? The only other thing that can dispel the TATARI is sunrise, right? Is all I can do, just, scramble around for almost a week until the dawn!?"
"Nah, I can handle that… sorta," Tezcatlipoca answers. "There's a few obstacles we've gotta clear first, but after that I can fling Chaldea forward in time long enough to unwind the Ouroboros. Time'll snap back into place, but just having the real sun up for any length of time should be enough to slice through that snake's contradictions and invalidate his existence."
"Well, with that in mind - let's consider all the enemies and oddities facing Chaldea right now, shall we?" Merlin says.
***
"-Alright, I think I've got them all," I say with a sigh. Four primary obstacles - two from the darkness of the first TATARI, and two from the darkness of Chaldea - along with two more oddities that we can't be sure are enemies just yet, and whatever killed Recorder if it wasn't one of the above. Seriously, why does it always end up in a desperate scramble like this? "But even if we deal with them, what's to stop the TATARI from just spawning more rumors capable of blocking Tezko's Time Travel trick?"
"That's my job," Merlin answers. "Ouroboros isn't conscious now that he's become the TATARI, but he can't completely dissolve either - I'll be using my dream magecraft to drag him deeper into sleep, and that should block any more rumors beyond the initial batch from arising."
Woah, that's really- wait. "Wasn't there something else you were supposed to be keeping asleep?"
"Ahaha… Well, that went out the window a while ago. Like I said, we rayshifted him to London," the Mage of Flowers replies. "In any case, don't you think you should hurry up? Tezcatlipoca's dilated time a bit for this conversation, but we really do need to get things moving to stop things from becoming a massacre."
"-Yeah. Thanks, Merlin, Tezko. I don't think I could've handled being dumped right into it," I say.
"Well, I'm sure it would have worked out somehow," Merlin gives a wry smile that's quick to fall away from his face. "-This will probably be the last time we see each other for a while. Your dreams are usually pretty tough to enter, thanks to that Witch of yours."
"Ah!" I shout. "Wait a minute, if everyone's been freed from their books-!"
"Nah, that was a bluff. She was never trapped to begin with," Tezko reveals, and I turn eyes filled with the promise of pain her way. "She's got [Independent Manifestation], remember? Instant death via a blip in observation wouldn't work on her in the first place. But you brought it up, and it looked like an angle, so- hey, hey, hey shtop! Shtop pulling my sheeks, I'm shorry!"
"-To explain a bit, that [Watcher]'s territory infringement can't actually breach the boundaries of a Reality Marble," Merlin says. "She went on a bit of a rampage tearing up what remained of Fuyuki back then, but ever since that point, she's been pretty patient and waited every time you've gotten sucked into one."
"-The fact it's happened so many times is weird, right? Aren't Reality Marbles supposed to be rare?" I mumble.
"Well, Heroic Spirits are already exceptions, so isn't it fine?" He says lightly. "In any case, you shouldn't have to worry about it, but - try not to sleep while inside a Reality Marble again. Satella's presence blocked it until now, but over the past week, that [Curse of the Evil Eye] Prelati put on you back in France has finally started to settle in. It'll take almost a month to really have any effect, but if these things start adding up-"
"I feel like I should make some retort about how implausible that is, but that would just be raising a flag…" I mumble.
Then, with a single additional round of farewells exchanged, Tezcatlipoca and I turn and walk down the hill of flowers. The breeze picks up into a wind that blows them into my face, obscuring my vision completely, and then-
***
And so, we approach the culmination of this performance. The familiar scenes of Tokyo and the Pleiades Watchtower are cast aside for the just as familiar scenery of Chaldea. Now is the final Act. Now is the moment of the long-awaited catharsis, where all shall spiral into TRAGEDY or else swerve into a ridiculous, hack-ish eucatastrophe.
Forgive a middling playwright for his sins, in adding just two more figures to his already bloated cast - but, ah they are not new, are they!? Nothing less than those first introduced to this tale, if we ignore a certain dog whose absence shall be sorely missed!
THE TRAUMA, WRITTEN ON THE HEARTS OF EVERY PERSON IN CHALDEA!
A wave of explosions rocks the facility; the fragile setup of the improvised generators is even more susceptible than before, and the engineering wing detonates with extreme prejudice. Of ten engineering staff who had survived to this point, seven die instantly. In the Command room, the three staff who returned just in time to witness the death of Hieda-no-Are are vaporized mid-flight by a blast. Elsewhere, a member of the medical staff recoils in horror as the door to a certain room in the medical wing swings open.
LEV LAINUR FLAUROS kills him instantly, giving him no chance to flee.
THE SECRET FEAR, WRITTEN ON THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO REMEMBER THE EARLY DAYS!
MASH KYRIELIGHT, [Red Hilt] drawn, exits the summoning chamber, blood already dripping from her blade.
AND, LET US NOT FORGET, THE SECRET CRAVINGS OF THOSE ALREADY PRESENT!
SCANDINAVIA PEPERONCINO drags a broken-limbed VAN GOGH behind him, advancing with his typical grace towards the Command Room as the path behind him fills with horrors called forth by the [Wooden Halo].
SHIKI NANAYA scurries through the corridors, cutting down everything in his path with a grin on his face as he approaches at last the goal of the task entrusted to him by Tezcatlipoca.
BERYL GUT, realizing that chaos means opportunity, grins as he begins his sprint towards the medical wing.
SAIJYOU MANAKA, giving up on a videogame that has been switched off, rifles through her closet for something nice to wear as she sets some tea to boil.
And so, my dear AUDIENCE, though I am but a rumor of a rumor, born only by the technicality of a new TATARI - let me take up where the first Zepia left off, scattered though his script was, and bring this performance to its fitting conclusion!
LET THE CURTAIN RISE, ON THE FINAL ACT OF THIS BLOODSTAINED NIGHTMARE STAGE!