* Yakuza: Like a Dragon – The Only Way Out

* Umineko – The first and the last

* Fata Morgana – The Past (Harp ver.)

Chapter CXXVI: Survive

* Yakuza: Like a Dragon – The Only Way Out

Ewald had to brace up when the Unborn struck the mansion for the second time.

Thankfully, the fact that he was already hooked to the flying structure meant there was more fear than harm. That was still plenty of harm, since his arm was feeling the toll of being his lifeline. But once he knew he wasn't going to be thrown overboard, his mind focused wholly on getting in a better position.

The mansion tilted to the side, dangerously so, and the shivers he felt in his stomach told him they were falling. He silenced his panic – until he saw the ground getting closer, the only danger was to die on this crumbling pathway like a criminal nailed to the gallows.

He had originally planned to use his sealing magecraft in unconventional ways to climb the distance. As it turned out though, from his perspective Boleskine House was tipping forward. In other words, his life-threatening position was gradually turning into a relatively stable vantage point. What had been a vertical wall became ground he could somewhat stand on; he straightened up carefully but refrained from doing more than crouch.

Currently, he was technically standing on the highest point in Boleskine House. A single shake or a strong gale, and he would be like a birdling falling from the nest. On the other hand, there was no better spot to watch this disastrous scene play out. The wind was rushing over his entire body. Or rather, the air resistance was reminding of his place as a land creature.

Yet somehow, it brought back a very familiar feeling.

This sensation of the wind fighting back and embracing at the time while his entire being was at the mercy of the sky... it reminded him of flying with her. But she wasn't here to look after him and soar gracefully. He clenched his hand and dug his nails into his palm – now was not the time for mourning or regrets. He was alive, that was what she had wanted.

And so his thoughts started revolving around the plummeting mansion he was trapped on. He cast a quick glance at the Unborn, in case the latter might hasten their descent. But the colossus was only wavering in place, either reeling from the effort or seeking balance to deliver the next blow. Thus, Ewald turned his gaze back at the ground. Even if the only thing Ewald had to fear was gravity, something didn't feel quite right. He finally put his finger on it as he observed the wasteland below.

"We're falling too slow..." He muttered.

Indeed, the speed at which the mansion was diving felt underwhelming for such a large object. Most likely, that was thanks to its very nature – an airborn building maintained in the air through thaumaturgy. It might be that, even now, it was hitting the brakes to prevent its own fall. That was not exactly a relief: for now it felt as though they were descending slowly, but that was still far from the truth. The landing would still be nasty and he wouldn't escape with his life if all he did was stand here.

The mansion wasn't tilting any further.

Actually, it looked like it was trying to return to a horizontal position. Ewald got to work regardless: he brought his knife to his arm and cut it open. He barely winced while gashing his own flesh, he focused on making a wound that was as minor as possible while still drawing a lot of blood. Then he used the latter like ink to trace some patterns over the ground - a magic circle. It was hasty work and he couldn't draw blood indefinitely, but he worked assiduously to reduce mistakes to a minimum. Even though his footing was getting unstable again, he pushed all notion of imminent death out of his mind to make his hand steady.

Moments before impact, he stood in the middle of his circle and steeled himself.

He didn't see the ground getting close; he had closed his eyes and simply activated his spell.

.

As expected, the mansion crashed down with the violence of an explosion.

.

Although his spell was keeping him stuck against the paved stone, the world around him was shaken like a leaf in a whirlwind. The fact that he was aware of it proved his plan was not in vain: the seal he had applied underneath himself wasn't just meant to save him from being catapulted, it was diverting the brunt of the shock away from him.

The basic purpose of this spell was to keep an important object intact or to buy some time with an obstacle. It couldn't take the damage head on like a proper barrier, and in fact it was pretty frail. What it could do was to displace the damage itself by pretending the object it protected wasn't there. In practice, the sheer force that should have flattened Ewald was applied to his immediate viscinity instead.

Unfortunately, this spell had not been made with such a long fall in mind; nor for human beings. The impact shook him up plenty and his mind went numb. The loud bang the mansion made as it fell against the earth resounded far and long. He didn't move nor open his eyes until the echo had faded.

"Kh..."

Once his head cleared, he realized he was lying on the ground and that he was still breathing.

He stood up slowly and assessed his current state. Pain was coming from three different places. First was his side, though he couldn't tell yet whether it was a bad bruise or if he had cracked a rib. Then there was his head which had been shaken up and down violently. Although he couldn't rule out a concussion, it didn't look like he had hit it against the floor and his thoughts seemed coherent to him. Lastly, there was his arm which was still bleeding. He didn't have bandages on hand, he'd have to take care of it quickly.

However, there was even more urgent.

Before anything else, Ewald took a look around at the aftermath of their crash-landing.

The mansion was still there, at least the shape of it. No matter how much it had tried to cushion the fall, the whole structure had collapsed on itself. Ewald's position was only relatively intact thanks to the seal he had cast to protect himself. The rest of the branch was in pieces, some larger than others, leading up to the centre where the main building had crumbled into a tall hill.

And of course, there was the nightmarish titan towering above this desolation. It was easy to think of it as part of the scenery since it was so large, but the Unborn hadn't stopped moving for so much. Now that its had struck down its target, it was staring down at the result with an almost innocent curiosity. Its eyes were like four black holes ready to devour anything it set sight on.

As frightening as that was, the real danger was elsewhere: black mud was overflowing and surrounded the remains of the mansion. The latter now looked like an isle in the middle of a rotten lake. The tide was probably not that deep but that made virtually no difference: running away was not an option.

Ewald frowned – there were figures wriggling through the mass of curses.

He turned back toward the fallen star and set into motion. The path was severely fragmented with mud running through the gaps, but those weren't so large that he couldn't jump over them. He was more so worried about what might be hiding in between them. Even so, he didn't take his time to carefully observe the mud whenever he took a leap; he didn't want to linger around here if possible.

There were other issues when one was standing in the middle of a pool of poison: when Ewald made his way over the fourth rift along the branch, he had to gain even more momentum to bridge the distance. When he landed roughly and stumbled, the platform under him wobbled before leaning into the mud. Due to the mountainous terrain, it might not be the only platform with a precarious balance. Ewald had to sprint and throw himself toward the next piece of walkway, seconds before the previous one sunk beneath the tide.

Fortunately, his new foothold didn't seem to be in equilibrium.

"..."

He glanced over his shoulder: near the spot where the debris had disappeared, head-like shapes emerged.

He resumed his course across the damaged branch. He wasn't too far from reaching the gateway through which he and Maria had exited the mansion earlier. The gateway in question was only a pile of rocks now though. That didn't bother Ewald too much: hiding inside the maze would not have saved them. If the mud had risen high enough to flow into the hallways, they would have been trapped like rats.

On the other hand, a different concern was growing in his mind – he didn't see Maria and Silvelune.

He had told the raven-haired girl to run, which meant she might have gone inside. If that was the case... they might never even be found. Actually, there was not telling if they had survived the mansion's wreck.

Nevertheless, for some reason Ewald wasn't concerned over their fate. Not because it didn't affect him, but because such distressing thoughts meant nothing until he saw the truth with his own eyes. As long as there was the slightest glimmer of hope, he would follow only that. It surprised him as much as anyone, even though it was his own feelings.

Surprised that it was possible to shove all thoughts and emotion aside even without falling back on calculated pragmatism. Or maybe he had just become enamorated with precious, miraculous possibilities.

He stepped into the ruins of the central area.

From up close, it was more of a mess than he could have imagined. It looked like not every part had collaped equally: the lower floors had crumbled but they didn't offer a smooth slope to walk up. It was reminiscent of the white island's layout, except for the fact that the mansion's pieces were smaller overall. That being said, some hallways had held up better than others and a few seemed to have survived mostly intact, even if cluttered with debris.

When standing in front of the whole though, it was really just a pile of debris with nothing worth salvaging. He couldn't see the top of the hill from here. There were plenty of corners and gaps to search through, more if one was willing to crawl through potentially unstable wreckage.

All in all, it didn't take long for Ewald to find what he was looking for: without venturing far into the ruins, he spotted two girls lying side by side. They weren't moving at all.

He briskly made his way toward them, his eyes searching for visible injuries or worse.

Silvelune looked at him.

It was a weak, forlorn gaze on a face still smeared in blood, but there was no doubt that she had reacted to his presence. The freelance magus looked more intently at the other girl sprawled over the dark grey floor. Her hand looked like it had been grabbing Silvelune, but now it was lying there limply; her face was covered by a mask of disheveled hair.

That display, combined with the pleading look in Silvelune's eyes, made Ewald consider the worst possibility after all. Once he was closer though, he saw Maria's chest heaving up and down, as well as the strands of hair brushed by her ragged breath. The raven-haired girl noticed the sound of his footsteps and stuck out her neck. He could slightly discern her expression; it wasn't relief nor anxiety. A murky glaring aimed at nothing in particular.

"You made it." Ewald stated the obvious for her, since she looked lost in a daze. "You also saved Arbonnaux."

Maria's pants had large tears in it, more than he remembered. Through those he saw her legs change from a deep red hue to their regular fair complexion. He didn't have a clue what that meant for her, but he was starting to get an idea of what she had done. His suspicions were further confirmed when Maria sat up slowly: she tried to move her legs and the latters only responded by trembling.

She proceeded to ignore it and to stood up anyway. To do so, she had to use a vertical chunk of floor next to her; her arms were doing most of the work. When she was standing on two feet again, she collapsed almost immediately.

"Don't move." The freelancer said.

"...I'm fine..."

That was a bare-faced lie. Anyone could see the bruises covering her legs. She was the only one who didn't grasp how far she had pushed herself. She gave it another tried, lifting herself up with shaky limbs, making up for the pain by clenching her teeth.

"If you overexert them, the damage might get irreversible."

"I'm fine... it's fine!" She spat out. The next moment, she slipped again and barely managed to lean on her improvised support. "It's nothing..."

"Look after yourself first then. I'll look after her–"

"I'm telling you it's nothing!"

She wasn't trying to reassure anyone this time: she was shouting with barely-controlled anger.

Ewald stopped and knit his eyebrows together. Then, he realized the raven-haired girl was not talking to him.

"..."

Silvelune was still lying down. She was worst off than her friend, which forbade her from moving altogether. Even so, her mouth was making words too quiet for Ewald to hear. He could make a good guess as to what she was saying though. It looked like Maria could hear her perfectly and it only made her grit her teeth harder.

"I don't care! How many times are you gonna keep repeating that?! You can list out all your flaws and everything you did wrong, I don't need a damn reason! Do you hear me?!" She failed to stay up a third time. She fell to her knees next to the sickly girl but she didn't look at her. "It's not fair! It doesn't matter what I say or do, you're always making the decisions that'll hurt you the most! I don't care about right or wrong, or about time!"

"... ... ... please..." Silvelune grimaced. She could barely squeeze out words. "It's too late... I'm tired... ... so please... ... ... ... ... finish me..."

"First you ask me to abandon you, and now that...?" Maria bit her lips. "Are you kidding me?!"

Her shoulder were shaking. She couldn't express all of her frustration through words alone, and so she raised her fist – and she slammed it down as hard as she could against the cold floor. She raised it again, about ready to give another punch despite how red her hand was. But her fist only wavered in the air. She was still shaking, now from the tears choking her.

"I know it hurts! You're not the only who felt all this pain! How do you think I feel?! Huh?!" Her voice strained from the intensity, yet still she refused to hold back. "We grew up together! I also had to live knowing you'd be gone someday! And I hated it! I wanted to deny it, to ball it up and throw it away, but there was nothing I could change! I did my best to ignore it, while my childhood friend was numbering her days! So don't pretend like it has nothing to do with me!"

"..."

"Say, do you remember the day we met? I do. There's no way I'd forget: it was one of the most important days of my life! I was so lost, you were the first real anchor I found after my life had completely changed! I thought we were the same, and it made me happy! Nothing ever made me happier, because I didn't need to hide when it was just the two of us! I didn't have to feel like everything could fall apart... You were gloomy and withdrawn, and you always had something cynical to say, whatever we talked about. But it never made me wanna stop being your friend. It scared me when I thought we would just part ways as time went on, so I did what I could! I visited you all the time, I tried to include you in everything, I even jeopardized my friendships because you didn't want to get along with anyone else! I didn't think once to walk away and just live my own life...!"

"..." Silvelune shut her eyes, unable to bear her gaze.

"Because you were like me. Because it felt like we shared the same pain, that there was something only we could understand. Because I loved you like a sister..."

Maria's breath couldn't keep up with the flow of recriminations and confessions; she had to slow down and pant for air. The grief and indignation on her face did not diminish one bit however. Even after regaining some control over her nerves, her voice resounded with the same exasperation.

"But you kept your deepest pains to yourself. One day you practically vanished without an explanation, like you were avoiding me. I thought you had grown tired of me first, that it was all going to come apart because I couldn't return your feelings. And when we finally got to catch up again, all of this insanity happened out of the blue. And now... and now..." She took a deep breath. "I've had enough! Do you even realize how frustrating it is?! You made all your decisions on your own, as if I'd be better off for it! So I don't care how absurd it sounds to you! I don't care what anyone might say or what I need to do! Even if we can't go back to how things used to be, there's something that hasn't changed – when you hurt, it hurts me too! When life stacks every card against you, it makes me want to stand up and fight!"

"...Maria..."

That single word was suffused by such emotion, as though it had taken all of Silvelune's strength to pronounce it. The raven-haired girl leaned forward and clung onto her friend with desperate resolve; she tried to lift Silvelune up even though he own legs couldn't carry her.

"So fight! You were determined to go all the way, right? You said you'd do whatever it takes, right?! You want to believe in the future like anyone else, so don't look at me like that! And don't you ask me to end it all ever again! Like hell I'm going to give up!"

Naturally, with how worn down she was, there was no chance Maria could lift up a human being. Looking at her determination, one would almost think she might defeat that logic anyway. But reality belied that devotion; there wasn't much more she could give or do for her friend, even as the latter was lying on the doorstep of death.

Not by herself at least – another pair of arms joined her in her effort and rather easily pulled Silvelune up.

"I told you to be more considerate of your body." Ewald sighed. He tried to hold the sickly girl as properly as feasable while keeping his knife arm free. Considering her condition, no position would be comfortable for her anyway. "There's no time for that now. We have to get a move on."

He had summed up the situation so calmly, it didn't truly translate the danger they were in: the living tide of mud was stirring with a baneful hunger.

* Umineko – The first and the last

He had feared as much when he had been forced to skip across the destroyed branch of the fallen star. The silhouettes who had only been peeking out a moment ago were emerging by the dozen and marched inexorably. On their path, whatever they got their hands on was devoured as well. That included the debris he had used as platforms; they were sinking one by one.

Although the lost souls of Babel were only walking, their sheer number made them the rightful incarnation of the tide which had overtaken this part of Fuyuki.

When they crawled over a large chunk of stone in their way, or when they stepped on each other and melded together, in each and every one of their movements they never took their eyes away from the three humans in their radar. They were no more than effigies given an ephemeral life, but Ewald felt he could at least see the depth of their eyes; there was nothing there aside from an unsatiable desires.

A fact that became all the more obvious as they gained terrain on them.

"I'll carry Arbonnaux. The only thing you have to care about is your life." Ewald gave directives in the shortest and simplest form. "Doesn't look like you can walk, so try leaning on whatever's around. Let's go."

He didn't wait for a reply or even a reaction from Maria. She had already proven she didn't need someone to give her the drive, even if she was stubborn about it. The star branch where they had reunited with Silvelune was completely gone, the shadows were attacking the main structure, only a stone's throw away from them.

Where should they go? Climbing up and getting the high ground would buy them time, but Ewald judged the task would be outright impossible for Maria. The latter wasn't in any condition to advance quickly to begin with, let alone quickly enough to outpace the marching army.

Their options were dwindling – realistically, there was nowhere they could run to.

"Hmph!" Once again, Maria proved Ewald's assessments wrong.

Pouring out her feelings had left more room for determination, something her movements overflowed with. It was obvious from her claudication and the need for a physical support that her legs were not up to the task. That was why she barely made use of them – when it came to trudging through the mansion's ruins, her arms were just as useful by lifting her up. The extra effort was compensated for with some magecraft, as Ewald could tell from the green pigmentation of her hands. That alone was an admission of weakness but the freelance magus said nothing: thanks to her dedication, he didn't need to slow down. If they had been dragging even a little more, they would probably be dead already.

While the three of them clambered their way up the debris hill, the living curses replied with a surge of violence.

They charged like enraged creatures, leaped at the ground sticking out of the mud and crashed onto land like a wave of corrosive poison. Some of them were destroyed from the mere impact of their stampede; in exchange, whatever stood in their way was crushed and swallowed by the mire.

This wasn't only happening behind Ewald and Maria. The freelance magus couldn't spare the time to look, but he could hear the destruction the silent horde was spreading. In several spot, humanoid lumps of calamity were flowing out of the mud to eat through the rim of the wreckage. The place where Ewald had found the two girls had been submerged and digested, their pursuers were already making their way up by waves. They were a difformous mouth, chomping down the rugged path behind the heels of their preys, bringing the line between life and death closer with each bite.

Thankfully, the fugitives were too concerned with advancing to look back and observe that fact.

That wasn't to say they didn't understand how thin the ice was: due to the nature of the terrain, they couldn't simply run in a beeline. The only way they managed to make progress was by keeping their eyes peeled and making decisions on the go without even concerting. Sometimes, instead of going up they had to run across a large piece of rubble acting as a terrace just so they could find a usable path. At those times, the toll of Maria's injuries was particularly obvious.

Although, the occasional slowdown wasn't what they feared the most.

"Ah..." Maria stopped in her tracks and stared wide-eyed ahead of them.

"As expected." Ewald had done the same. "It had to happen eventually."

They had to run into a dead-end.

It wasn't like they were stuck in a tunnel, the rest of the mansion was still as visible as it had been before. But whether they looked left or right, all they could tell was that their improvised road ended here. The debris were too tall, too unstable or were jutting out in dangerous ways, or all of the above. Putting the raven-haired girl aside, Ewald couldn't traverse such rough terrain while lugging someone around.

But neither could he take on an opponent that would scorch him at a touch.

For the first time, the runaway trio was forced to turn around and see the legion of forsaken souls hot on their heel. The flames spreading under those dark hands were not as fearsome as the dedication carved into their melted faces. However, before Maria, Silvelune and Ewald could feel the burn of that resolve, they felt the consequences of the curses' rampage – the artificial hillside lurched before toppling over.

"Hey...!"

"...!"

This fortress of desolation was really just a stack of rubbles. If too many were removed, it had to even out somehow. What that meant for them was that the portion of wall they stood on rocked and slid down in an avalanche of scrapped stone. Maria lost the support she had been leaning all her weight onto and she was sent tumbling.

Ewald dropped his knife; that was the only way he could catch her.

He grabbed her outstretched hand just as she was about to fall over the edge. Instead of being grinded into paste by the rolling debris, she was suspended only to his arm, seeming on the verge of falling anyway. Ironically, if he hadn't rushed to rescue her, Ewald would have also lost his balance and shared a gruesome fate. On the other hand, he only saw the glint of his knife before it was buried or destroyed forever. By some miracle, when their shaky platform came to a brutal stop they were still on top of it, though they were thrown to the ground.

What about the living curses during that time?

The sudden collapse had changed the face of the mansion's ruins, the horde had missed its target. This was no cause for celebration: the trio had escaped with their lives, only to end up in an even worse situation – they had fallen to a lower height, with mud falling in waterfalls around them. They were now standing atop a much smaller pile of debris, at the foot of a tightly-packed cliff. Around them, the tide was rising, stealing what little space they had centimetre by centimetre.

The living curses no longer needed to pursue. They plummetted back into the mud while more of them were born and made their way over.

Yet, that wasn't the most alarming.

As though it had realized the spotlight had been stolen from it, the Unborn rattled and resumed moving. From where Ewald stood, it was impossible not to notice it. If the souls adorned in mud were ravenous, the colossus was a concentrate of that all-consuming yearning. It leaned forward with its arm raised and brought it down on the stranded Boleskine House. Those who weren't quashed to a pulp would be drowned by the Unborn's blood.

As that fact was dawning on everyone looking up, resistance came from an unexpected source – when the Unborn's hand was about to smash their last safe haven, it came to a crashing stop onto a dome of pale blue light.

"That glow..." Ewald raised his gaze higher still.

Up there, like a new moon on sky's canvas, a familiar dot was gleaming. The Moonchild whom they had ignored while driving through the city had deployed her light to defend the ruins. She had left her place above Fuyuki Bridge to fly quietly in their direction. Now she floated above the remaining Servants and Masters, above even the Unborn's crown. The barrier of moonlight had effortlessly withstood the attack. The titan bent backward from the recoil and let out a dissonent gargling despite the lack of a mouth.

The souls threatening Ewald, Maria and Silvelune also witnessed that battle. When their nest was repelled by the Moonchild, so were they made to fall back in confusion. But the trio was not saved: after all, the tide was still here and the living curses regained their bearing fast. It seemed the only opponent she had picked was the Unborn itself.

In other words, they was still trapped with no way to run from the advancing mud.

At that time...

"Here, they're here!"

Something else happened: Ewald head voices overhead. It didn't take long for two figures appear at the top of the cliff barring them the way; Hatsuyo had leaped all the to the edge with Michael in tow.

"How did all of you end up here?!" The middle-aged magus said when he finally caught sight of his daughter and the others.

"Dad! You're okay?!"

"There you go." Hatsuyo said, before turning away. "For the rest, I don't know!"

The samurai girl disappeared from Ewald's view. As for Michael though, he was glancing around in order to grasp what was happening. It was hard to miss the living curses advancing on them.

"As if I'd let you...!"

To reiterate, they were separated by a steep cliff made of layer upon layer of stacked debris. That didn't stop him from jumping down as if it were a gentle slope. Some of the rubbles sticking out could indeed serve as stepping stones, but that was still a precarious, breakneck path that Michael had jumped into without thinking. After a few hazardous steps and a balance constantly about to abandon him, he nonetheless made it to their level.

The souls of Babel were stepping onto dry ground to precede the tide. When Michael stumbled toward them, he wasted no time in raising his rapier: water condensed along the thin blade before being launched as a pressured stream, cutting through the first row of baleful effigies. It was barely more than a rock thrown into the sea, but his entrance at least tipped the scale ever so slightly – they had the most minuscule chance of fighting back.

"I don't suppose you grabbed a rope before trapping yourself with us." Ewald said.

"As if I had something like that on hand...!" Michael didn't take his eyes away from their enemies who were already back for more.

If the curses decided to overwhelm them in a surge as they had done before, there was no way a single panicked man with a sword would stop them. Ewald had already pushed that possibility out of his mind to focus wholly on the one path to save their lives. He put Silvelune down; she showed so little reaction that he had to wonder if her candle hadn't already been snuffed out. Now that his shoulders were lighter, he looked at the mud and then at the cliff behind them.

"Cover us." He told Michael and ran toward the cliff. "Buy as much time as you can!"

"I wish that was a joke..." Michael stepped forward and shot a wide blade of water to deter their fearless opponents. Sweat was pearling on his forehead; while he wielded his rapier in one hand, he retrieved something from his pocket with the other. "I don't know if it'll help but I'll take what I can get."

He pulled out his phone and searched for a certain person's number.

After getting Michael to destination, Hatsuyo rushed back in the opposite direction.

Ewald and the others had looked like they needed help. Unfortunately there was someone else who was missing still and she couldn't ignore that. She was pushing her body in order to move twice as fast, making each step she took a painful experience. The acrobatics she had pulled in order to make it through the crash had taken its toll as well.

Even so, she didn't spare a thought for her condition and leaped from debris to debris at superhuman speed.

Although the Grail's poison was eroding away what was left of Boleskine House, because the latter had completely crumbled it now extended over a certain distance. What had once been the roof had become the top of a wide hill, while the many floors of the mansion either contributed to its elevation or had been reduced to piles of scrap. On some sides, the slope was more gentle but just as dangerous to traverse. Looking at how the fragments layed slanted until they dipped into the black tide, Hatsuyo was reminded of a large-scale landslide.

In the midst of all this, she would find that boy either breathing or with his eyes shut.

"You can't end like this..." She frowned and sweeped her surroundings with her gaze without ever slowing down. "If you die, I will find you in hell and I'll kick your ass!"

The scenery was desolate but she still had a strand of hope to cling onto: while she ran, she came near to the top of the hill despite the danger it presented. From that short glimpse, she saw that the Servants who had been fighting there had not disappeared. In particular, a holy knight was still standing proudly. If the Servant was alive, it had to mean the Master had made it through okay.

But, in that case...

"Where the hell are you?!"

The wreckage was deceptively small but it was still a far cry from the white island. There was only so much distance to cover, even less when taking her endeavor into account. Yet, she couldn't catch a glimpse of Leo wherever she looked. If he had seen her, she wanted to think he would have had the decency to call for her attention. But for now, the image forming at the back of her mind was that of a Leo half-crushed under two tons of stone, slowly reaching his last breath.

"If you're hiding somewhere, come on out already!" It was harder and harder to keep the anger in her voice from breaking into distress. "Don't do something like this to me...!"

And, the farther out she searched, the closer she was getting to the truth that she couldn't save him.

However...

"What is this...?"

While that fact was taking roots in her mind, Hatsuyo finally came to notice – something was off about her surroundings.

It was a very subtle feeling, she could easily have missed it and carried on. Like a slight vertigo, or the shimmer of heat in summer. She was certain to be searching around the mansion's ruins for Leo and, at first sight, the world around her matched that perception. But it became clearer once she stopped running – in every direction, there was nothing but an ocean of burning rubbles. This couldn't be and yet her eyes would find nothing else, all the way to the horizon.

A sickening sensation was churning her stomach, a deep-seated feeling of disorientation.

In spite of it all, she had a firm hunch of what was happening.

But this was different than any illusion that guy had ever pulled off.

So who...?

"Tch!" She couldn't tell where the border between reality and delusion lied. In other words, she was drowning inside the latter. "... ... ... ...Leo!"

She could not see a way out of the dream she had wandered into. However, despite how strange and alarming it was, it also reinforced the feeling that she was closer than ever. Whether she reached her arms and clawed at the air or ran eternally, nothing seemed to disturb this illusion.

So she did the only thing that was still allowed for her: she shouted.

"I don't know where you are right now!" She pushed her voice as far as it could travel. "But if you can hear me – don't you dare look back and give up!"

* Fata Morgana – The Past (Harp ver.)

Anastasia had caught Leo in the middle of his fall.

While he was too stunned by the arrival of someone he had thought gone forever, the mansion plummetted past them. The two of them were also going down but slowly, as though sinking quietly through water. She looked like she was holding him with all she had, a great effort that only translated into a suspended moment. During that time he couldn't take his eyes away from her; all of sudden, he felt the ground under his feet.

They had gently landed in the middle of a demolished landscape, somewhere along the stranded mansion which could barely be recognized as such. As far as Leo was concerned, it could also have been an uncanny garden of stone: elongated greyish chunks wedged vertically instead of trimmed trees, door frames as gateways and smashed rocks one could sit on to admire the view. Around him, two especially long slabs of what could have been the floor or the ceiling were standing in parallel, forming a corridor of their own. If he would take but a few steps, there would be a panning view of the hellish bog girdling the ruins. A closer look at what he had already been observing from the air.

But right now, nothing could have attracted his attention more than the girl before him.

"Phew!" Anastasia let go of his arm and heaved a long-winded sigh.

But she wasn't standing next to him; her feet had never reached the floor.

"You're Ana... right?" Leo asked, as though it could be anyone else.

His confusion must have been plain as day and amusing, for it got a chuckle out of her. Then, she spread her arms and smiled brightly.

"That's me! And you're Leo, aren't you?" When she moved, her hair and dress undulated in a strange, lethargic manner. "I knew it! I thought so from the start but I wasn't sure if I should show myself. But that was really dangerous, what just happened! Are you alright?!"

"I'm... I..." He had trouble forming a coherent phrase, too bewildered by what he was seeing. Eventually though, he had to put that disarray into words. "I'm fine... but... what happened to you?"

It had been less than a full day since he had met Anastasia Angelene for the first and (he had assumed) last time. Despite the larger-than-life events which had followed, he remembered vividly the bedridden girl who had been waiting all alone inside that barren house. Someone so feeble she couldn't really take care of herself or spend time with others. That memory contrasted strongly with what was in front of him though: she looked like Anastasia without a doubt, but the girl who had saved him was floating.

She wasn't frozen in the air, nor was she producing any visible effort to stay up there. Instead she was wafting gently like a jellyfish in the sea, as though gravity itself had forgotten about her. The way she just hovered above him, with one hand over her skirt to hide the underside, it felt like Leo was looking at someone from a different world entirely. There was one more reason to that: something about her was eerily pale.

It wasn't her skin but something more diffuse, a hazy halo that permeated her from head to toe. Even her eyes and the cloth she wore seemed faded and almost translucent. No matter how much Leo loathed the comparison, there was no denying that this Anastasia looked like a ghost. But she had also touched him just a moment ago, a clear and normal sensation that troubled him all the more; his heart couldn't seem to settle on an answer.

Anastasia made a small pout.

"Oh, that..." She looked down at her body. "I died."

"..." She had said it so normally, yet those predictable words still buried a nail in Leo's chest.

"I knew it was going to happen, please don't make that face." She tried cheering him up, though her own expression was rathern forlorn. Nonetheless, she tried to lift the corners of her mouth. "At least we managed to meet again! I thought that was the last time... Actually, why are you here? Did you die too?"

"Huh? No, I'm alive... I think?"

As he said that, a new wave of discomfort washed over him. The curiosity he read on her face was chipping his conviction – was he still alive? The only person he had talked with for a while now was the dead girl he had met while falling to his death. Maybe he hadn't been rescued. Maybe his soul had finally left his body before the mansion had even been brought down. His own hand seemed made of regular flesh and bones, but considering his recent mental state he wasn't sure of anything at this point. Moreover, this desolated world around him was fit to be called a grave, in a way.

His musing slowly degraded into paranoia, until Anastasia clapped her hands.

"Juuuust kidding!" And flashed a big grin while Leo stared back at her with fish eyes. "This is still the living world! I can tell you're not like me!"

"Wh– then why would you ask?!" He should be relieved; instead he broke in a cold sweat thinking how close he had been to believing her. "You scared me for real..."

"I thought it would be funny!" Her cheerfulness dimmed when she saw her joke had fallen flat. "I mean... you look like you need to laugh..."

"..."

Leo didn't know what to answer. All the tension evaporated from his body at once. There was plenty to be fearful about. Part of him knew that, but he wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. The idea of walking more than he had already done sounded unrealistic somehow. And so, he plopped down on a piece of rock with a sigh, looking up at both the ghostly girl and the shifting sky.

"So you're really... dead." He muttered out loud.

"Ah, well, actually..." Anastasia said sheepishly. She paddled with her arms; her body glided silently into a horizontal position from which it kept drifting. It truly looked like she was swimming in the air. "I lied a little about that too. It's true that I really... really died. It happened on that big ship when it was shaking all over."

Leo clenched his lips.

He hadn't witnessed the destruction of the Ark, but to think that her final moments had taken place within that chaos...

"All alone...?"

"No, no, I wasn't alone! Evan was with me, and Berserker was there too!" She waved her hands energetically. As soon as she said that though, a veil of sadness had fallen over her face. "And then, there was nobody. When I woke up, I was in this city. It felt weird: my body was so light, it didn't hurt anywhere and I could go where I wanted. I thought, 'if this is what the afterlife is like, it's not so bad'. But then... I was told that I'm not dead. And, that I'm not alive either."

"What does that mean?" Leo gulped. "You're not haunting me after all?"

"No! But I don't mind haunting you, if you'd like!" She laughed awkwardly. She had regained a bit of her innocent enthusiasm. "It's a bit complicated for me but I think I get it. I mean, I'm like this... We're in the same place, but I'm not even sure if I'm with you. I can go wherever, nothing can hold me down. I'm not stuck inside a bed, stuck inside a body that won't let me live. I'm free. But I'm barely here. Caster said I can only exist inside this city, because that's where Evan is."

"..."

"Don't you think it's weird?" She waved her arms and swam around Leo. "Before, I was both alive and dead. Now I'm neither of those, but I'm still here. So, what does it mean to be 'alive'?"

"That's a bit of a heavy question out of the blue." He smiled bitterly. "I'd say the way I am right now's pretty close. You know, breathing and stuff. But... not so long ago, I thought I wasn't really living. I guess that sounds stupid, since you actually..."

"No, no, not at all! I totally get it!" She flailed her arms with a sympathetic look. "It's like, you wake up every day but you don't get to do anything with it. And when you go to bed, you're not sure you even spent a day."

"It's the worst, isn't it?"

"I hate it!" She pumped her fist in the air. Those were pretty terrible things they were saying, yet she laughed. Some of that nonsensical joy rubbed off on Leo. After getting excited for a bit, Anastasia sighed longly. "I really wanted someone to talk to me. Caster is busy. Evan can't hear me. Everyone else is sleeping. I was so happy I could move, so I took a look around, but I couldn't find anyone to talk with. To laugh with. To cry with. It's... it's really a shame, right? I'm free to do what I like, but I can't leave the city. There's no one who will keep me company. I'm can't eat, I'm not even hungry. I don't feel tired at all. I might still be sleeping... I guess I'm not truly alive."

"You're talking with me. It makes me happy. That's not something you can get out of someone who's dead, right?" He tried to smile.

"Mhmm." She nodded. "I'm also happy, I get to see my first friend again! Maybe it's really because you didn't say 'farewell' back then. I don't know how long it's been. Time's too slow when you're not living."

Nearly out of time, rushing headlong toward one end or another. Barely there, living on borrowed time in a house of mirrors. Those were flimsy, ephemeral moments but they still couldn't escape the winding road traced by stumbling footsteps. Eventually, it was less about running than finding the corner of the page to turn it at last. The finish line was right there, it had to be; he was running along the brink . For now, it still seemed like there was something behind him that wouldn't let go of his legs. The first cloud of his story was still stretching over his head.

But right now, instead of mulling over this, Leo was happy.

It wasn't the murky future or the stalking past. He was holding it in his hand while it lasted, in the same way he had held it on that day, when he had laughed out loud at his own twisted fate. He wanted to think that's what it meant to be alive.

But what would it mean to her if he said it?

"Are you still fighting?"

"Huh?" Leo blinked.

"Yesterday, you told me you don't want to just wait." Anastasia put her head over her arms and looked down at him, as though lying on an invisible ledge. "So, are you?"

"That's... it's hard to call it fighting..." He mumbled while glancing at his feet. "Saber's the one who can stand and fight. I'm making things harder for him. There's less I can do with every hour. Right now, I'm..."

"Then, have you accepted it?"

When he looked back up, he found her staring at him with an earnesty and intensity she had never shown before. It was almost intimidating. He soaked in that expression and gulped. Slowly yet strongly, he shook his head side to side, and he hoped he was returning the same look.

"See?" Anastasia smiled. It wasn't the hesitant comfort or the forced enthusiasm she had put on before. It was a smile filled with warmth and a kind melancholy. "That's amazing. I mean it."

"..."

He said nothing. He wanted to find the words, but nothing came to him. He couldn't extend the same consolation to her. Anastasia lifted her eyes toward the sky, as did he. Up there, among the strange celestial conflict colouring that canvas, there was a star that outshone the rest. The same luminous dot he had seen above Fuyuki, drifting in order to shine above them.

"Maybe I'm still inside that bed." Her smile decayed. "Evan's still here. She's the one keeping me away from death, apparently. I haven't heard her voice since I fell asleep. I tried talking to her but she can't answer me. She looks like she's in pain... she's also imprisoned, but... I don't know what to do. She's always been looking after me and I can't do the same for her."

"She's like a mother for you, isn't she?"

"Yeah..." She hanged her head. "I've been a bother of her, I hurt her a lot even when I didn't want to. Do you think she doesn't want to hear me?"

"No." Images flashed in Leo's head. There was his uncle's face, and that of many other people. "I'm sure she's listening. It's got to make her happy."

He didn't let one hint of doubt seep into his voice. But the floating girl wasn't cheering up, she didn't dare look up at the most important person in her life. That reminded Leo there were other people aside from the two of them; they were out here somewhere, and he didn't even know if they were fine. Just as that thought grazed him, reality chose that moment to come knocking at the door with full force – the air shook.

"...!"

"Ahh...!" Anastasia was joggled around until she managed to stabilize herself.

The origin of this commotion was obvious like a bright red target: a huge barrier of moonlight was encircling the crashed mansion. On the other side, one could make out the gigantic silhouette of the aggressor who had tried to break through it. And even more obvious was the identity of their protector – the Moonchild was glowing brighter than ever. At a second glance, it looked like she hadn't come here just to tower over them but to fend off that unknown threat. Even after repelling it, she kept drifting toward it.

"...!" Anastasia witnessed that spectacle and was seized with visible panic.

She looked like she was about to soar up, but she held back. She looked back and forth between Evangeline Golodïaiev and Leo, torn on the spot while things kept on moving.

"You should go." He told her with a weak smile. "I'll look after myself."

The floating girl gave him a pained look. Ultimately though, she made a quick nod and flew away. Leo watched her rise up through the night, latching onto her presence. Truth be told, a part of him wished he had been more selfish and had asked her to stay. He direly wanted someone to be with him. But he wasn't oblivious either: from what he understood, Anastasia Angelene was maintained in this world by the strange realm made by Aleister. If Leo persisted forward and prevailed, he would be putting an end to that as well. He didn't deserve her company.

"Gotta keep on walking."

He sighed and stood up.

His legs had gotten some time to recover. It still hurt like hell and it felt like he was dragging two balls and chains. Still, he left the cover of the rubbles. Making his way around a rough terrain like this one was even tougher than running in circles. But he did it, one step at a time. In the open air, it was the same smell of sulfur and charcoal, smoke rising around them like the bars of a cage. At the edge of the ground that could be treaded, danger and shadows lurked.

In spite of it all, he tried to hold his head high.

"..."

He walked only for a bit before he came to a stop.

And he closed his eyes.

There was something else in the air, something that didn't belong to the stage.

But it was a very familiar sensation. He knew immediately.

So, he took a deep breath – and opened his eyes.

He looked ahead, at the slope only a small way further.

There stood Inheim Argas.

Thank you for reading.

The time has come.

~Legends Storyteller