I could not believe what Remilia Scarlet had just told me. I simply refused to. Because if what she said were true, that I had been left to my own devices so that I might be fattened up with devotion for Gensokyo and its inhabitants, like a lamb is made plump for the slaughter, then I could not in good conscience attribute any real meaning to all the experiences I had shared, all the emotions I had felt, and all the times of joy, sorrow, hope, fear, wonder, sentiment, and everything else that I had clung on to in those times when, thanks to the mental chains that remained tightly bound around my recollections, I had nothing else I could truly call my own. All that I had done, all that I had seen and heard and touched and smelt and tasted, had led up to this day where my true identity as a plaything for this detestable being would be revealed, and I would be tossed aside once my usefulness to the whims of one of Gensokyo's most powerful entities came to a pitiful end.

Wherein lies the purpose of a thing, if its foundations are built upon untruth?

"Remilia Scarlet, with all due respect…" Yasaka gritted her teeth as the magical tether coiled around her wrist began to blink and splutter. "I would ask that you make haste; it is growing more difficult by the second to hem them in." And indeed, the transparent bubble which contained the quartet of my acquaintances was beginning to show cracks, its interior now a hazy, chaotic mess of runes, talismans, and frantic sprays of energy.

"The haste is not mine to make." Remilia, who had put on her mask of formality once again, continued to gaze at me as she settled leisurely into her couch. "Storyteller, do not take my threats idly. I could have Yasaka send them to a place from which they would never return, or in which they would not last longer than a moment. And I will, if you do not express your choice soon."

I stared down at the ground, and at my trembling hands, which were clasped so tightly as to completely whiten my knuckles. Why now, when I had been a passenger for so long, content to observe proceedings as they went by without needing – or being able to – exert any overt influence on the way things went, had the destiny of the realm's uncertain future suddenly been thrust upon my weary shoulders? I had come here seeking clarity, yet all I was left with was more questions, more doubts – and now, to top it all off, the fate of all those who lived here, known only this place as their home, resting upon the words I chose to say next.

It did not help that I had no idea what exactly Remilia spoke of when she referred to my "potential". What was it that she thought I could do, and was it any different to what I actually could do? Was she forcing – or expecting – me to attempt something that I had no actual way of carrying out? Could I really do her bidding with the snap of a finger, like the godlike entity she seemingly presumed me to be? And if not, what was it that I ought to do?

No matter what the answers were, I had to make a choice. I could obey, and then try – however pitifully – to manifest her arbitrary wishes in whatever way I knew how, which, at worst, could bring about the end of everything I knew. Or, I could say no, and send everyone to their demises anyway. Whichever way I looked, I saw only death, not only of those whom I had grown fond of, but of any meaning that remained in my, insofar, rather unfortunate life.

But an option had to be taken, nonetheless. And if that was what was asked of me, then I owed it to my friends to do what little I could.

I opened my mouth to speak.

"I-"

"Enough," snapped a voice. "Traveler, do not speak a word. Keep your silence."

All of us, scions of the Mansion included, turned to face the one who had spoken. She had not said a word since I had arrived, instead choosing to watch dispassionately, though appearing somewhat displeased, at the situation as it had unfolded. But now, Suwako Moriya finally felt it necessary to give voice to the thought she harbored, and we would now find out just what it was that had brought her to the edge.

"Yasaka," Moriya continued as she faced the other god in her presence, "you once told me that our partnership with the Scarlet Devil Mansion would be for the good of the Moriya Shrine, and thus of the realm as a whole. Am I wrong?"

"You are not, but I will not have you question my reasons in either case." Yasaka squinted contemptuously at her de facto subordinate. "What is it that you are trying to say?"

"You have heard the purposes for which Remilia Scarlet desires to wield the human traveler's power." Suwako paused and bit her lip. Then, she spoke again, now with a renewed vigor that I had never before witnessed from her. "How can you, in all your wisdom, still agree to assist her when it is clear that all she seeks is mindless, thoughtless destruction? Regardless of your compassion for the people who worship you – for which I know you have none – can you not see that this is a wholly unsatisfactory endeavor? When the people of Gensokyo are dead, magicked out of this mortal plane, who will be left to sing your praises and genuflect before you? When you preside over a kingdom of dust at the end of all this, what good will it do for you? Answer me, Yasaka!"

"Quiet!" Yasaka lashed out and smacked Moriya squarely in the cheek with the back of her hand, causing her to stumble backwards slightly. "All that I do is for the good of myself, and through me, the shrine that I own! You will not defy me again, Moriya, or you will surely regret it!"

Moriya massaged her reddening face and shook her head, staring up at Yasaka with patently visible hatred in her purple irises. "No," she muttered. "I have already regretted enough, and I will not allow myself to regret any more. All this time, I have been yours to torment, to order around like a slave. No longer!"

Without another word, she slammed her palms together and pointed them at the ground. At once, the entire floor buckled and shook, the carpet tearing and shredding to pieces as the earth beneath it heaved and buckled, dislodging lumps of debris from the ceiling and shaving slabs of plaster off the walls. The candles in the chandelier were ejected violently from their prickets and tumbled haphazardly onto the carpet, immediately setting it alight wherever the flame met the fabric. The force of the vibration knocked us off balance, although I managed to stay somewhat on my feet, grabbing onto the armchair for support, my legs jerking to and fro as I navigated the tremor as though I were a sailor on a galleon in a stormy sea, doing my utmost not to be sent sprawling onto the cold wooden deck.

At the same time, a cluster of tall rocky fingers emerged from the ground, coiling around Yasaka and the two denizens of the Mansion, rapidly encasing them in pillars of stone and sediment drawn from the foundations of the Mansion itself. I had an inkling that those pillars would not contain them for long, but at this point, any relief, however brief, was to be accepted gratefully.

So preoccupied was I with observing Moriya's magic that I did not notice a hand reaching out and grabbing my shoulder, pulling me away roughly and beckoning me towards the exit.

"Traveler!" yelled Marisa, who, like the others, had been freed from capture by Moriya's timely intervention. "Let's get out of here!"

I was only too happy to concur, and together with the others, we made our unsteady way across the groaning floorboards. As we reached the doors, which were swinging back and forth with the exertion of the walls to which they were attached, I could just about make out one final voice ringing out from behind me.

"You know where to go, traveler!" called Suwako Moriya as the earth on which she and her erstwhile masters stood began to sink into the ground. "Find the tome! Restore yourself!"

Then, the ceiling fractured, shattering into dozens of large slabs of stone and concrete that collapsed atop her and the others, and she was gone. Yet I had little time to worry for her safety, for although the source of the shaking had ostensibly been stopped, the shaking itself did not cease, having spread throughout the entire Mansion, sending webs of cracks and splinters rippling across the wallpaper, threatening to bring the entirety of the grand old structure to its knees.

There was only one place left for us to go: the library. We had to get there, and fast. Unfortunately, the last vestiges of illumination from inside the room had been snuffed out, leaving us in the rumbling, pitch-black corridors with no way of even identifying where we could walk without running into a wall. Reimu set a couple of her orbs alight again, but they, as with most other light sources in this place, did not allow us to look very far, and amid the impending chaos, we were swiftly running out of options.

"Where's the library?" I asked, having to raise my voice considerably above all the din.

"I thought you would know, traveler!" Miko shouted back. "How are we supposed to find it in all this?!"

"Wait!" For the first time since we had entered the Mansion, the princess of the Moon spoke. "Traveler, are you sure we are close to the library?"

"Absolutely sure."

"Then I can get us there. Draw close to me."

We did as told, huddling together around the diminutive figure and accidentally bumping into each other painfully as we collided, thanks in no small part to the continuing instability of the ground on which we stood. Toyohime, who was busy murmuring something under her breath, ignored us, and it soon dawned on me that she was chanting a spell.

"Hang on tight!" she warned as a blue magic circle comprising a ring of stars and runes blossomed from under our feet. Instinctively, I reached out and clung onto the first things my fingers touched, a mass of cotton from somebody's clothes. I heard a discontented grunt, though whoever it was that I was holding fortunately didn't seem to mind.

The circle suddenly rose from the ground, passing through our bodies as the incantation came to life in the form of a wash of azure and turquoise that seemed to physically permeate through our bodies, sending a numbing, lightening sensation coursing through our limbs, as though my entire body might soon become weightless and float away. It was an altogether familiar feeling, and I quickly realized, to my astonishment, where I had experienced it before.

"You can teleport as well, Watatsuki no Toyohime?" I asked.

"Indeed, but only once every so often. It takes quite a toll on my magic, you see, and such luxuries are ill affordable on the Moon, as you should well know by now." Toyohime closed her eyes and stretched her hand out, groping in the air for something invisible to all except her. "I think I see the place," she muttered. "Is it a cylindrical chamber that opens up into the sky, as though it were the bottom of a well?"

I nodded. "That is so."

"We shall go, then, and pray you are correct." The light intensified until it filled my vision, blinding me and leaving dancing spots of color in my eyes. Then, the world around us vanished, and we were duly whisked away.