My mind fell apart, of everything I thought this man could have wanted… That was not it. Drawing my breath in painfully, I watched as Caster made his way to leave. Looking at everyone else, frozen in their positions, I alone moved forward. No one else moved even a muscle and I could understand why. Unlike everyone else, I knew what Caster meant, even if I hadn't seen it for myself, I knew. My feet dragged me over to the prone form of my old Master, Caren Hortensia.
Leaning down over her I put my hand on her face, it was still warm.
"Caren? Caren, wake up, come on. Kirei wouldn't forgive you if you stayed down like this, would he?"
"Ah, Assassin… Still useless, I see," she mumbled.
Her eyes flickered randomly and slowly ended up focusing on me. I gave her my trademark smirk and all she could do was glare in return.
"Still trying your best to look out for me though, it seems."
Sighing at her I quickly stood up and turned to the others, who were still shocked from Caster.
"I don't suppose many of you have seen the darker side of magic, have you?"
Their faces of disbelief broadened at my remark, so I continued.
"I also don't suppose any of you even know what the Aylesbury Ritual is, either. Well, let me explain it as simply as I can."
I paused.
"It's the end of the world. Caster was right, there's no way around it. I saw it with my own eyes. It…" My expression turned to a pained one as I relived the memory David showed us. Not a memory; but the future. Turning around again I leant over Caren once more and smiled. She seemed confused, for once, her emotion showed clearly on her face. It was depressing.
"I'm sorry Caren," I whispered.
"Why? Why are you sorry? Because you're worthless?" She jabbed, yet still understanding the significance of my words.
"We'll never meet again, you know, no matter what happens. So if you live through this, through some sheer miracle, live a good life. Oh and if you see Kirei, tell him I'm sorry too."
Grinning foolishly I got up and turned around.
Taking a lazy step forward I swayed slightly to the left, slightly towards Bazett. A dark smile touched my lips.
"You know, my whole life was ruined by magic. I was a Mage, just like most of you there, looking dumbstruck. I thought it was the best thing to ever happen to me. Then it caused the death of the one person who meant everything to me. Then I go out and make my own life all over again, and then what happens? It gets ended by some crazy fuck who decides it would be just great to destroy everything for no reason other than because he wanted to."
Memories flooded through me in a wave, all the pain, fear, anguish… I shook my head rapidly.
"Never again, no person should live through that, and no person should have their lives ruined by magic just because some Magi wants it to be so."
The blade found its way into my hand, my stance changed and my body leapt forward.
Everyone saw what I was doing, but they couldn't react in time.
There was only one target I needed to kill.
"I'm sorry, but his dream, is my dream."
Bazett looked down at her chest, where Libertas had found its mark. She looked down at the blade, a weapon I'd been using to defend her since we'd met. It was sad to have it end this way, we both knew that, but that was how it had to be.
Letting go of the blade and letting her fall back I simply finished with, "Goodbye."
I hear the gasps, and then screams behind me, but I don't even bother to turn. I already know what's happening. Of course, some of the Servants would betray their masters. It's only natural.
"Don't look back, Sakura. Only move forward. From here on, you can never look back, for all those that have been left behind. If you falter, even for a moment, then we are already doomed to failure."
The girl, that had been hesitating, wanting to look back and ease the suffering behind her, closed her eyes and continued walking by my side. A smile curved onto my face, brighter and more genuine than any before it.
Emiya Shirou was the first to come out of his shock.
"Saber, we have to stop-"
The boy's voice was cut off, violently. The Knight stood, aghast at her own actions, as her blade pierced her master all the way through. Rin screamed, Ayako stared, still shellshocked, and Shirou simply looked at his Servant in disbelief, an expression exactly matched by his Servant. Archer, who stood off to the side, merely stared, stone-faced.
"Archer, stop her! Stop Caster! Do something!"
But the Servant simply stood there with his silver, impassive eyes, watching. Rin, frantic, forgot entirely her power of Command Spells. Sasaki, likewise, stood impassively, but in his case, it was from being utterly stunned.
Saber withdrew her blade, her eyes already hardening. "My sincerest apologies, Shirou… But I must do what is necessary for my country. I abandoned my right to feelings a lot time ago."
Saber then withdrew, following after Caster, while Shirou could only stammer useless words. He wouldn't die, at least not yet, but as Saber had suspected, he wouldn't be in his right mind to issue any sort of commands.
Archer followed soon after, and Rin, having no idea what else to do, followed suit, still in total disbelief. Ilya simply sat on the ground, having not really been in her right mind since the death of Berserker, while Ayako collapsed next to Shirou's body, trying desperately to keep him from falling into unconsciousness. Sasaki simply stared grimly, damning his luck as his body began to fade.
I stepped out into the doorway, staring out at the mass of demons that continued trying to break the barriers I had set up. It would take them some time, at least, but they were slowly but steadily gaining ground. I only had a little bit of time to spare.
"Sakura, Rider, please stay here. And remember, never look back. The only thing that you should be headed towards is the future."
I turn, looking at Sakura specifically, and kneel down so that she could look down at me.
"You, my girl, truly are something else. You have gone through so much suffering, and yet, despite that, you have never given up hope. You have done more in this one lifespan than I could manage in thousands. I honestly don't know if I've ever met someone as amazing as you. Perhaps, had I known someone like you before, I would not have been pushed to this point. But, as I said, thinking of the past is useless. I think only of the future, and because of that, I gift this to you."
I put my hand in my pocket, and withdraw something with a familiar weight. Sakura stares down at the item I place in her hands in total confusion. The metal of the pocketwatch gleams brightly in the mess of colors from my wards.
"This saw me through many, many things, many of them horrible, but a few, a precious few, brilliant moments, that I have held onto in my heart for all this time. All of that is now in your hands. What you have there is my soul, Tohsaka Sakura. Please, care for it well. And remember this. You are the key. You, and no one else, will shape the way this world will end. You hold my dream, and the lives of untold billions in your hands, just as you hold my watch. Do as you will with them, but have no regrets. The path you choose must be one you can accept. Hold no doubts. If you can do that… Then you have the power to accomplish anything."
I turn from her, and stride out into the middle of my wards. All around me, demons barge against the barriers, their numbers uncountable. But these things do not matter to me. There are nothing but chaff. Dust in the wind. And I shall make it so.
The True Magic does not call to me. It sings. I do not pull on the strings of this power. I let them loose. Power explodes around me, and the wards dissolve, reduced to their base component of pure mana. It swirls around me endlessly, creating a whirling vortex of magic in its most basic, and most terrifying form. Something no one should be able to comprehend begins to happen. And I can see it all.
The demons pause, suddenly wary. They understand the danger, but cannot bring themselves to move forward, for they know already that their fate is sealed. All efforts end in futility. Two forms move through them. One, a man in golden armor, cuts them to pieces without effort, as though they weren't even there, without even having to raise a finger. The other simply strides in their midst, and none of them move to attack him. For he is kin, one of their own.
Kotomine Kirei walks into the Matou mansion grounds, and simply passes by me without a word. What reason does he have to speak to me? He has only one objective after all, and he cares for nothing else. There is no suffering here, no entertainment for him to seek. Only the silent end.
He passes by Sakura without pausing, and though Rider is wary, he makes no movement to attack.
The smile graces my face again, as Saber, Archer, and the Tohsaka girl come outside. None understand what I'm doing. Not yet. But they well. Oh yes, they will.
The True Magic is screaming at me. The souls of the dead scream at me inside my head. They tell me what I should have done. What I should do. What I will do. What I have done. Some scream at me in anger, others in joy. Some in hatred, some in love. Some in sadness, but mostly, mostly, they just scream in agony. An eternity of memories. An eternity of lives. Truly, wasted on a person such as me.
The colors swirl. The power intensifies. And the world changes, according to my whims. Ah. So this is what it's like to play god.
A priest walks into the home of his most hated enemy, and stares at the form of his daughter. His daughter stares back. Words are not exchanged. Words are not necessary.
A boy, the last of his family, stares into space. His dream is gone. His life, wasted. What is there left, he wonders. What place, left for the one that was thrown away?
A girl, split apart from her sister, stares at the vortex, and wonders. The life of a magus, was it truly incorrect? Had their arrogance led them here? Had her father truly been so wrong? If so, where did that leave her?
A Servant, stuck in the past, with nothing left but the dream of changing it, stares at the vortex and prays, prays as they never had before, that their wish can be granted, and their burden released.
And a man that is a Servant, that is a magician, that is both alive and dead, stares at the world, and smiles.
There was no fanfare, no special effects. One moment, they were surrounded by demons, and then they were not. Everywhere, all across the city, they merely disappeared. Gone, forever, never to return. All the Evils of the World had been taken to a place much better suited for its name.
Sakura stared at the empty courtyard, empty of the demons, yes, but also empty of her Servant. The man that had given her hope. The man that had made a promise. The man that had told her it could all be worth it. And for the first time in a long time, she began to cry. Not for the man, and not even for herself. But for the world she now understood she had the responsibility of ending.
And as she cried, the tips of her hair began to turn white.
Kirei looked around at the scene, not horrified as most would be, but not amused as he should be. Instead, he merely felt empty. His eyes finally found the boy sitting at the table, in the seat Caster had been in only a few moments before. He flicked a lighter on and off. On and off.
"The end of magic, huh? So what was it all for then?" he muttered to himself.
Over and over he muttered. On and off flicked the lighter.
"Caren, go outside and check Caster. Regardless of what's going on, summon Gilgamesh and have him kill everyone there."
His eyes flicked to the Einzbern girl in the corner.
"I'll be along shortly."
The white-haired girl nodded, still stunned and horrified, an emotion Kirei simultaneously wished he could possessed, and desired to see more of.
As she left the room, Kirei grabbed the Matou boy by the shoulder and threw him into a wall. A cold smile came onto his face. At the very least, he could fulfill his desire of ending this wretched family. That might cheer him up.
On and off flicked the lighter.
Kirei drew a Black Key, and took his time placing it over the heart of the Matou boy, hoping to provoke a reaction. He was disappointed when he got nothing but a blank stare.
On and off flicked the lighter.
"Do you have any last words, spawn of Zouken?"
On and off flicked the lighter.
On and off flicked the lighter.
On and off flicked the lighter.
Kirei frowned. The boy had started laughing. He was clearly deranged. Best to put him out of his misery then. No enjoyment could be gained from someone that cannot even understand their own suffering.
"Something to say? Yeah, I have something to say."
Kirei paused.
On and off flicked the lighter.
"I want to see you all burn."
The lighter flicked on.
Caren, just walking out of the Matou mansion, was knocked off her feet and set aflame by the blast. Archer shielded his master, as did Rider, but Saber disappeared before the fire even reached her.
The priestess looked back at the ruins of the Matou mansion, where blue fire still burned, the flames going so high as to almost reach the heavens. It seemed like a scene straight from the apocalypse. A scene her father had just been in.
Caren's mind shut down. He had survived before, right? So he would now, right? So why did she have this horrible feeling…
Rider collapsed, smoking, not having the same degree of magical resistance as Archer did. "Sakura…"
The Matou girl didn't move. Not even her eyes twitched. Only the movement of tears down her face even signified she was alive.
The watch pulsed in her hand.
After all, Caster had had an ace. The pocket watch had always been a curious item. He had always asked Aozaki Aoko where she had gotten in, and not once had he ever received a response. It seemed almost otherworldly, as if it belonged in a different dimension. He speculated once that it had been made by the faeries, but he had no idea how Aozaki would have forced them into such a contract. Interesting, then, than Matou Zouken somehow came across it. Truly fascinating, that.
It had been chance, really. The old devil had been speaking to an acquaintance of his, a mole he had long had planted in to Magi's Association, and he had informed him that he had acquired quite the artifact for his Grail War ambitions. Zouken had been skeptical at first. After all, what kind of Heroic Spirit would be summoned by a pocket watch?
But, as it turns out, a pocket watch can do many things. Few people actually keep them to tell time with, after all, though that is obviously its main function. But they also often contain things. Things like pictures. And pictures, are, of course, by their very nature, memories.
A memory can be many things to many people. To Aozaki Aoko, it was all the answers to the upcoming tests the professors would spring on them, so she could cheat her way to success, despite being an absolute failure as an academic. To Aozaki Touko, it was the events of brighter days, when all had been happy, and she had had a family. To David Quinn, it had been all the things he had experienced that he had long wanted to forget. Every memory that he hated, everything that had driven him to be who he was. Because so long as he had those memories, how could he function? Someone burdened with such things would be nothing more than a shell. A doll. And so he had hidden them away, allowing him to focus on his powers and his plans, and only those relevant things. There would be time for regrets later.
As Sakura's hair turned slowly white, and the Grail fragment inside of her began to pulse, waves of mana began to be unleashed.
Archer turned in horror. Gilgamesh arrived on the scene, summoned by a Command Spell, and opened his Gate of Babylon, ready to kill everything whether the fake priest was there or not. Caren simply wept, not knowing what else to do.
The wave of mana touched a single gear inside the pocket watch, which began to turn. And Caster's final card played its purpose, as every single memory ever contained inside the pocket watch was unleashed all at once.
Sakura screamed.
Her hair turned white, and her eyes turned red.
And the world was covered in darkness.
Gilgamesh didn't even have time to think as he was completely consumed under the shadow. Archer leapt, holding his catatonic master under one arm, but he had nowhere to go. Even with a Reinforced jump, the shadow was racing after him, and he had no way of getting out of range.
"Tch."
Seven Noble Phantasms formed in the air behind him, and shot down into the shadow, stalling it, if not destroying it.
On the ground, the person that had been Sakura looked up in the sky. As the Command Seals on her hand faded, she realized that there was only one Servant she had yet to consume. The death of the Container had released their souls, which she had unconsciously taken even before taking the Grail's power. With the strength of Gilgamesh, she technically didn't need Archer, but… Better to be safe. Besides, watching the look of hopelessness on her sister's face would be glorious.
She slowly walked towards the direction Archer and her sister had headed in, a merry smile on her face.
Archer landed heavily in an empty street, dropping Rin to the ground. He thought frantically, trying to come up with any method at all of stopping this madness. Whether he wanted the world to lack magic or not, he was a Counterguardian first and foremost, and in this situation, where the threat was so blatant, Akasha would not let him ignore his duties. If he didn't do it consciously, he would be superseded. Best to try while he could still think rationally.
If he could Trace Rule Breaker, and hit Sakura with it, that would end the threat. But, by himself, there was no way he could make it close to her with that shadow defending her. Perhaps if he announced to her that he was Emiya Shirou, the shock would leave her open long enough to get inside her guard…
That was probably his only option, sadly.
"You there! What on earth has been going on in this city?"
The Servant turned, and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a Church agent. Perhaps he wouldn't be alone in this after all.
"That man was insane!" Rin said, her eyes twitching and she desperately tried to come to grips with the situation herself by talking. "Caster, he said he wanted to destroy all magic! Or kill Akasha, or something or other like that. He said he would end everyone's suffering, because everyone's suffering comes from magic. And then he used True Magic! I think it was the Second. My god, I just saw True Magic! He destroyed all the demons, or transported them, or something… And then something happened to my sister, and now the world is going to end, and oh my god, this is all my father's fault!"
Ciel stared at the master in red for a moment, and Archer's eyes narrowed. Hadn't he seen this woman before?
"Destroy magic, you say?"
Archer cursed in his head. "Elesia!"
Ciel snapped out three Black Keys, each of which took Rin in a vital spot. Even as Archer moved and cut the woman from head to toe with Kanshou, Rin hit the ground, dead.
"My, my, that was rather melodramatic."
A chill went up Archer's spine, and he didn't even have the time to turn as darkness engulfed him.
I slam to the ground, a familiar atmosphere surrounding me. Around me are piles of corpses, and in front of me, a blonde woman I know very well. What's new are the millions of demons that surround us both, but then, that's exactly what I was expecting to happen.
The True Magic is no longer singing to me. I can no longer hear the screaming. It's over, then. My first legitimate use of my ability was also my last. Fitting, I think.
Crimson Moon frowns, looking at his surroundings.
"What is this nonsense?"
In less than the blink of an eye, every single demon simply ceases to exist. Just like that, without even a hint of effort. Such is the overwhelming, awe-inspiring power of a TYPE.
"You really just don't like staying dead, do you?"
My eyes trace over to the charred corpse behind Crimson Moon. Ah, I see. I came separately. I suppose I must be a paradox, then. A Servant without a master, or even a Grail. Only the absurdity of my existence is stopping Akasha from crushing me, I suppose. That, or its panic at trying to deal with the damage caused by Crimson Moon and the other Apostle Ancestors.
"Yes, I tend to be rather stubborn about dying when I'm killed."
"I can appreciate that," the Apostle Ancestor commented, not missing a beat. "It's even an admirable trait, in my opinion. But only when you can actually win. You're not even an insect to me. To say you're an insect is to say you're actually big enough that I could even notice your existence. Begone, and stay dead this time."
Crimson Moon walks slowly towards, always one so obsessed with drama for something that claims to be above human emotions and concepts, but he's too slow. As he walks towards me, I can already see the world start to unravel. But of course, Crimson Moon, who is above our human emotions and concepts, can't be bothered to see things like an end to the world that he isn't caused.
Good girl. Good girl. Let this world end. Not with a bang. Not with a whimper. Not with anything at all. Just let it…
~End