A-17: What needs to be settled
Presitquite: Unlock A-16 + Potential at least 12
Requirements: Relieve Sophia's second dream (Seen as: Start the last dream) (How: Tap the correct paragraph from A-9) + PM all songs in Black Fate (All difficulties) + Complete the Anomaly
Alternate Requirement: Complete all other Alternate Requirements + PM Malicious Mischance -Always behind you- + PM #1f1e33 (Another long #ant1p01e version) + PM Tempestissmo (In un dolore da record) with Tairitsu (Elegy) (Level 20) (All difficulties) + Complete the Anomaly
Anomaly:
1. There lies at the end of their journey, A mysterious and reflective object that they were looking for.
2. "We cannot reconcile. We never will. This world gave us the illusion that we could, only to destroy ourselves forever."
3. They recall everything that brought them to this place. The battle between beliefs and feelings will either bring salvation or destruction.
4. "But you saw this happen didn't you? Not in this world, but somewhere you thought for it to be a dream"
(A/N: Initially, it has conditions to unlock each part above similar to unlocking Tempestissmo. But I decided to remove it because I didn't like how it ended up. However, if you manage to find my YT channel, you will find that 2 of my Arcaea gameplay videos have 2 of these sentences above.)
There lies the end of their journey, the Beyond is within sight. With very little time left, the last shard starts to merge with the future. Hikari has decided to use the Beyond to destroy the 'future shard'. However, Tairitsu stood in her way with her declaration. How will everything end?
(Background Music: Vindication by Laur)
Hikari and Tairitsu are running out of time,they spent too much time fighting the god. Exhausted, they tried their best to find the "future' shard that will cause Tairitsu's end. Find and destroy the shard before it's too late. But…
Hikari thought about the god's words carefully, why is the god suddenly supporting her? Was this a trap? What does she mean by everything that lies on her?
"The last future shard you seek is merging with Arcaea's future..."
"It's no longer possible to stop this fate…"
Hikari held her head. It was confusing. But it was no use thinking about it.
The sky broke apart, paving the way for the girls to a new path, one that they seek to find. They remembered Alexandar's words as he said. But.. they had another thought...
"It should be at the sky, at 'the end' of the Arcaea would most likely await the shard"
"The Beyond, the ultimate shard of this world located at 'the end' of Arcaea."
They entered, hoping to find 'the end' for the 'future shard'. The entire world of glass. They recalled their time from the moment they first woke into this world. Now reaching the end soon, they nearly have answers to everything. In this senseless world that once tormented them, nearly killed them, was this worth it? They met each other, only nearly foolishly kill each other. Then find the one who wanted them dead. And now…
There lies the end of their journey. The bright, transparent and reflective shard that was seen before the girls. This is The Beyond that the god used to rule this world. It could not only grant control to whoever takes hold of it but to also grant wishes. But… the last future shard was not found.
"The last future shard you seek is merging with Arcaea's future..."
But that would mean…
"I wondered what that god really meant…" Tairitsu said with curiosity. "'The End' of Arcaea lies the Beyond that we see now. The god never summoned The Beyond during our fight, only merely bringing a replica. Now that God no longer has control with it, nothing can stop us from taking rule of this world."
"We can do this by using the Beyond to stop the fusion between the future shard and this world's future. We can finally escape this mess." Hikari optimistically said. However…
"And I will stop you here. I will not let you rule this world. To have the power of The Beyond, one of us has to die for the other to control it." Tairitsu boldly declared as she stood into Hikari's way.
(Music ends)
"I do not intend to rule this world. Once we destroy the future shard, I will destroy The Beyond. No one rules this world. This world is meant to give a second chance to anyone who arrives here, like us."
"How about everyone who died by the hands of that god? What good does it do by destroying The Beyond? This world is meaningless if it's just the two of us. If we reset time, we might not have this chance again, we will be stuck in this hellish alternating time loop. Not to mention, the god will learn her defeat from any shards. A present shard has recorded our battle somewhere will become a future shard."
"Then I will use The Beyond to revive everyone. It shouldn't be-"
"And how exactly can I trust you with it? Do you even know how to use it? And not to mention, even if you do all that… you have to get through me first." Tairitsu started to prepare herself to fight.
"Tairitsu, we can learn how to use it, we do not need to kill each other."
The light shines bright at the end of this world. It was too bright for anyone to see or sense. Shortly after, the girl in black slowly walked towards the girl in light..
"There is a reason why the god separates everyone from each other, including the god herself. This world is a dog-eat-dog world, in pursuit to fulfill one's fantasy. When one meets another, their own deluded fantasies will clash until one falls. The Beyond enforces this as a condition should more than one reach the end, such as us. In the end, one of us has to die for the other to have The Beyond." Tairitsu concluded
"I refuse! I'd rather find another way to live! This is not the only answer we have!" Hikari objectively stood her ground as she denied Tairitsu's conclusion.
"No, this is our ONLY answer. We must accept this answer to cure this damned place. The damned place that only makes us deluded into our fantasies, just like how you mindlessly accepted your own fantasy of happiness inside the church of happiness. Just like how I fell into my own fantasy of this nightmare."
"Tairitsu, I cannot believe you! This isn't what Alexandar wants us to do! Remember that time when Alexandar made us admit to our own mistakes? Did you forget everything? Now this isn't the time to fight, we must-"
"Then you either die here or kill me. There is no other way! This may have gone against the plan we had. But this is impossible! This fate has brought us here to fight again!"
"You are betraying his trust. He trusted us that we will change our fate, change the fate of this world. Not only him, but to the rest of those who had fallen against the god. They are counting on us!"
"I don't care! I will do whatever it takes to end this farce of this world! When we met in this world, I held hope for myself, hope to be not alone. This hope was broken when I saw that future shard. Then I got back my hope when I remembered who we were, only for it to be taken away once again when we found out about the truth. The undeniable truth of this world is to be alone in this alternating loop. We cannot reconcile. We never will. This world gave us the illusion that we could, only to destroy ourselves forever. So we must end this cycle by destroying this world."
Tairitsu closed her eyes as she continued.
"Without The Beyond, the world will be weak enough for me to use my own power of anomaly to destroy this world. There is no other way to escape in this hell. If you are with me, destroy The Beyond now."
"No, I do not want this to end. There is still hope for us! Do not give up on this world. Do not give up on us!"
"Then you leave me with no choice"
Instead of using the parasol as her weapon, Tairitsu formed a black sword using her own shards within seconds. Then she lunged her sword onto Hikari, who blocked the attack with her newly crafted sword she had made just a moment ago. Hikari used her sword to swing Tairitsu's sword off.
"Was it fate that led us to meet again? Or was it our own Power of Anomaly that met us here?" Tairitsu asked Hikari ritorically.
"I do not know… but we knew that if the Anomaly did not happen to us, we wouldn't have met here. However, it wasn't really a 'true' anomaly since it kept occurring at every loop."
"Yes, and when we met, I never expected us to have differing opinions on this world, despite us suffering in this world. Who knew that we were friends in our previous lives?"
"For some reason, I had grown suspicious of you. I never knew why I felt that way to someone that I had just met at the time. Maybe I was affected by that memory of the future shard, or maybe it was because you pushed me off the roadside?"
"Regardless, what happened back then does not matter here. We eventually sealed our fate to this place, only to be affected by our different 'futures' we saw which led us to fight."
Like a barrage of missiles, Hikari summoned an endless number of shards at Tairitsu. The girl in black dodged all of them and counterattacked from Hikari's left. Fortunately for the girl in white, her 'wings' blocked Tairitsu's attack before the former realized it. However, Tairitsu's attacks were stronger which made Hikari fall.
"Thinking about it, when we fought against each other, it wasn't a fair battle. I awakened the power of anomaly before you." Tairitsu chuckled.
"Something broke you back then, you thought you were Pandora, a part of my past life, these memories you saw back then were a mix of yours and my memories, our darkest part of our lives." Hikari responded as she picked herself up.
"I know, that was what Alexandar told us. But it didn't matter. That was what it took for me to awaken my power of anomaly to defeat you. The god's voice motivated me to defeat you at the time. Now tell me, what made you awaken yours?"
"When I saw you fight the god, I wanted to help you fight. With just you against the god, it would only be a matter of time before you were killed."
"In the end, it was useless, Alexandar sacrificed himself to save us!" Tairitsu used her crows to block Hikari's barrage of shards aimed at her before counter attacking. With one swipe, the crows disappeared. However, Hikari finds this move too familiar. She instinctively predicted Tairitsu's movement and parried the attack. She used this change to slash Tairitsu, but after receiving the attack, Tairitsu split herself into crows which then distanced themselves from the girl in light and reformed themselves back into the girl in dark.
Hikari charged forward, finally taking initiative to attack Tairitsu. Tairitsu suddenly smirked, she had laid a trap against the girl in moment she fell into her trap (A/N Hikari stepped on a shard that Tairitsu intentionally dropped), a cage formed around her. However Hikari wasn't deterred.
"Did you remember the time we met? You were the first friend that I have met. I never had anyone before I met Alexandar. He dragged me out of this hell that I was born in."
"I do. At first, I saw a part of me in you. You seem like a naive girl who enjoyed being with Alexandar, just like how I was before I lost my sister...Alice."
"I never expected to become such great friends, I never trusted you like with anyone, except him. Alexandar connected the both of us. He made us meet together for me to connect with you and everyone. His wishes for me went through well. The other Alexandar we met wanted to reconnect us, from our broken friendship back then, he wished that we would finally reunite in this world forever."
"But in the end, both Alexandars have failed! We cannot be friends in both worlds. It was my fault for your death. I was selfish. I only wanted you to stop being an obstacle towards him. But, I don't feel remorse, for my time in the Labyrinth of Despair has taken that part away from me. The Alexandar in this world has failed to make the possibility to alter fate true."
"We have the power of-"
"Stop with this cliche bullshit! I explained before that only one of us can live to use The Beyond!" Tairitsu then charged forward, intending to thrust her sword onto Hikari. But Hikari's appearance glitched out.
Hikari then punches Tairitsu from nowhere, then thrusts her fists onto Tairitsu's chest. Knocked back, Tairitsu distances herself from her.
"If it weren't for him, you would have died. I can destroy this world with little trouble."
"Do you really think it would be this easy? Do you think she would have allowed it? Even if you did, who's to say that it can finally break the 'time loop?'"
Tairitsu responded by throwing shards at Hikari. Tairitsu shot a shard at Hikari but she went on the defensive by using her 'wings' to block an attack while being temporarily blinded. However, Tairitsu dashed forward, intending to break her most defensive tool. But Hikari slashed Tairitsu. Knocked back, Tairitsu recovered her stance as she landed on the ground.
"It's surprising, a few of the people we know ended up in this world. Shirabe and your sister came to this world too. The people who played a part in our lives appeared here. Does this world revolve around us? Is this how we got our power of anomaly?"
"...It may be possible that it was built for us. But for what exactly? To make us suffer?"
"Think about it, why would he assimilate his identity as Alexandar? He may have claimed to be a fake Alexandar, but overtime, he basically became him. He inherited the 'real' Alexandar's wishes for us and made it his own too."
"But in the end, this Alexandar is fake. There is only one Alexandar, and that is him, your step-brother." Tairitsu shouted. "If only someone like him assimilated his identity as Cedric or Tenniel…" Tairitsu mumbled.
"What was that?"
(Background Music: Lost Desire by Powerless feat. Sennzai)
(A/N: Music attempts to be in sync with the story text just below. They are found in the wiki. To differentiate music and story text, music lyrics will be in bold while story text remains in italics)
"Never mind that, we wasted too much time. We must end this now! I call forth the Tempest!" Lightning strikes as dark tornadoes are summoned around the girl in black. One of the dark tornados absorbed her, transforming her into the form that once defeated the girl in white as it disappeared. (A/N: Yes, Tempest Tairitsu is back from her GL form but for the last time.)
"Then, I call upon the heavens. Protect me from disasters that befall on me to protect everything I love!" Hikari floated as a beam of light shone upon her. When she returned back onto the ground, her wings relocated themselves onto Hikari's back. It's the form that she awakened when fighting the god of Arcaea the first time. (A/N: Angelic Priestess Hikari returns from her Fracture form too.)
(Desires conflict each other… Surely. The shape of this world has changed, is it? Violently...)
Winds blew from two opposing sides. They recalled everything that brought them to this place. The battle between beliefs and feelings will either bring salvation or destruction. With this, everything lies on this battle of Light and Conflict once again.
(I looked further to the end and saw an innocent wish from a girl disappearing among the emptiness…)
Tairitsu felt familiar with this moment. Did this moment happen before? Was it really the first time this happened? Rubbing this thought away, she charged her parasol with her power of anomaly before making a strike at Hikari. Noticing such a dangerous attack, Hikari barely backpedaled the attack. However, Tairitsu quickly swung downwards. Noticing that she couldn't dodge the attack on time, she punched the floor, breaking the fragile ground like glass.
(Bloodied Tears are shed as I inspected insecurely)
Falling, the girls attempted to land safely on the ground. Thankfully for them, they managed to float through before they landed harshly onto the ground.
(I would've dreamed of such a world… Ah... if you had grabbed the hand I stretched!)
As soon as the girls recovered from their fall, they pulled out their swords again as they charged against each other. Their swords clashed against each other. They bet their strength into their conflicting attacks against each other.
(Cry out...! Since you intensely burned all of my bitterness…)
Tairitsu was victorious in this stalemate. Hikari's blade breaks as the girl in black knocks Hikari backwards. Tairitsu swiftly threw a shard at Hikari which the latter parried it with her broken sword before throwing it to the former. Tairitsu dodged the ranged attack but...
(with your unreachable hand, cry inside the dark!)
Hikari slowly glitches out as she charges onto Tairitsu. As Tairitsu turned her back to counter her attack, she was shocked as her eyes opened. A red silhouette of Hikari slashes the girl in black.
(Hold my hand from the very end to the light!)
While being knocked back, she realizes that she would soon be defeated by her 'friend', if the latter still considers the former that. The red light shone upon the area without anyone's notice.
(Just let my contradictions fall deep down. Where they will become my lost desire...)
When the red light disappeared, Tairitsu was on the ground. She sighed as she got back on her feet. Staring at her 'friend' or her 'enemy', she knew that she hadn't been wrong in her judgement. But now, she is starting to realize how futile her efforts are in her impossible goal. Soon, in about a few minutes, she will be gone.
"All this time, we journeyed to destroy our ill fated futures… and for what exactly? To have that dashed away? This world has no hope for whatever you had hoped for Hikari."
Words then rung onto Hikari's mind. It spoke of a familiar phase that made her emotionless. Then she spoke.
"We were here because of you. Because of your obsession with Alexandar. But now, you shall be judged by my hand."
"I refuse to let this repeat all over again…! I would rather everything and the world end then this nightmare continue forever."
"But you saw this happen didn't you? Not in this world, but somewhere you thought for it to be a dream. It will happen..."
"...It will happen..."
"...It will happen..."
"...It will happen..."
"No… It will not HAPPEN! I WILL NOT LET IT HAPPEN TO ME AND TO US!"
(Cry out...! Since you intensely burned all of my bitterness…)
Tairitsu desperately summoned tornados against Hikari while the girl in white turning red summoned white and red shards to dispel the attack. Then Hikari raised her hand, summoning a red light beam at Tairitsu.
(with your unreachable hand, cry inside the dark!)
Noticing the attack to be dangerous, she dodged the light. Now relying on the shadows, she attacks at Hikari's blind spot. But yet again, Hikari glitched out and reappeared within a distance away from Tairitsu.
(Hold my hand from the very end to the light!)
The girls then used their strongest attack, one that will decide everything. Hikari and Tairitsu shot white and black lasers at each other which they clashed. They used their entire strength on this very moment.
(Just let my contradictions fall deep down. Where they will become my lost desire...)
After a while that it felt forever for the girls, the white laser overpowered the other and pushed its way onto the girl in black. Tairitsu was knocked back from it's impact to the wall and then laid onto the ground.
Tairitsu tried to pick herself up, to survive and to destroy the world. But she failed. So this is it for her
(Music ends)
"I cannot believe it… even though I had expected myself to not be able to win… I was still defeated…! But I cannot afford to lose to the likes of you…!"
Hikari, expressionless, walks to her. She then responded.
"What made you think you have won in the first place? My defeat against you earlier?"
Tairitsu tried to speak. But she failed. Her voice of defiance against this disaster has left her. She tried to move. That too has failed her. And soon at this moment, she will face judgement as foretold.
"It seems that it is the end." Hikari then raised a shard, intending to end this. A red and white light shone upon the entire place. When it stopped, ...
Act 3: Altering Fate Completed!
Reward: Universe Difficulty unlocked! Universe Difficulty is a difficulty that is harder than Beyond difficulty (12+) which can only be unlocked by PMing it's respective song in all difficulties.
Everything now lies on you. The one who witnessed everything. What fate do you decide upon them?
A/N: This chapter is a 'special' chapter compared to the other chapters. I made it this way since it's the last main chapter of this fic which afterwards, the next and final 2 chapters have different endings which continue from this chapter.
How is this chapter 'special'?
1. This is the only chapter that was titled and not narrated by Alexandar. In A-1, he briefly narrated (which was supposed to be shown as cancelled text) with this line: "No, it wouldn't matter. Ever since they have met, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Back then, the girl in white and the girl in black couldn't reconcile. This is no different…for now" (This was hinted by the first person pronouns and no italic font) Alexandar narrated the entirety of Act 2 and B chapters, A-2, A-4 and "No different from back then". The rest was normally narrated on its own although the writing style changed.
2. This chapter calls back to previous acts of this fanfic in chronological order of publishing, including "No different from back then" ending (although it didn't happen since A-10 diverges from it) and B chapters before Lost Desire was played while battling.
3. The only chapter that attempts to be in sync with the music. This being Lost desire. When Black Fate was out, I enjoyed this song the most. To me, it represents Tairitsu's learning of the truth of Arcaea and her reflections in canon in VS-6. Although it's not one-for-one, the singer is in Tairitsu's perspective. Sennzai did a perfect job with the vocals.
4. This chapter is an anomaly chapter! I know I said in A-11 that this fic won't have anomalies that break the fourth wall since it may break 's TOS. But I found out how to pull it off without breaking TOS. Just make use of my profile by putting quotes.
Not too long ago, I finally unlocked Seclusion. Seclusion is one great song that's made from Laur and Sennzai which became my favourite song of Esoteric order. Seclusion's context is actually very interesting. Based on the MV, I think the girl was stressed over academic studies and expectations which grew into a very unhealthy mindset. If Seclusion was out earlier, I might have added a B chapter for Lagrange which is based on this song. But then again, would it have impacted Hikari/Pandora and Tairitsu/Sophia's story in the past at all? Maybe not.
The WACCA collab was released not too long ago. I have tried playing WACCA before and the gameplay is similar to maimai except that you don't touch the screen but you swipe around the perimeter of the circle. Will I buy the collab? I'm not interested in the collab. But I can tell that it is worth it, limited partner + partner from pack + in-built Beyond song. WACCA fans should buy it!
