FATE/CATBOX FICTION

Chapter 29: Final Solution to the Puzzle

No one could believe what Earp uttered just now. The strange androgynous voice kept mumbling incoherent gibberish, mostly directed at Lancer. Maupin widened her eyes and asked the cowboy, "Are you sure?"

"Ain't no mistakin' it," Earp replied with a serious grimace. "I'd 'member that voice from anywhere."

"Now that you mention it," she murmured as she listened more carefully, "I think you're right!"

"You have got to be kidding me! Are you telling me Berserker's been here this whole time!?" Quintrala wondered. "I've been through here multiple times, and not once did I ever detect their presence!"

"The same goes for me," Machiavelli admitted, looking rather shocked by this turn of events. He glared at Sanson and demanded, "What's going on here, Ruler?"

The executioner, who was equally confused as them, replied, "I'm not sure. I've performed numerous searches of Nekomata's Spirit Origin over the years, but the results were always the same. For whatever reason, they're somewhere inside the Preservatorium. I've practically turned the place upside-down looking for them, but there was no sign of their physical form. Furthermore, they've remained stationary for all of these years. It's like their Spirit Origin has become part of the Grail Terminal's network."

"If Berserker is not here physically, then perhaps they are trapped inside the core like Lancer is."

"But the Mages never placed Nekomata inside the Terminal. Could it have been something that happened afterwards?"

Iskandar noticed that Lexy appeared upset. He stood before her and declared, "You know something, don't you?"

"I…"

"Tell us. What happened to Berserker?"

Everyone stared at her with anticipation. Lexy squeezed her eyes shut and struggled to hold back her tears. After swallowing a few times to regain her composure, she panned her eyes along the elevator, staring at the large crowd of two Masters and many Servants as they focused their attention on her. She soon mustered the nerve to answer, pressing her hands against her chest to steady herself.

"It happened shortly after Mother's execution," Lexy began. "Or rather, I should say her plan started to take motion as she was being 'interrogated'. She was in such a deep state of shock after triggering the Southern Hemisphere Extinction that nothing in the outside world registered in her mind. I think that was when her original personality retreated so deep into her subconscious that recovering it was impossible. Conversely, that means her darker aspects were free to come to the surface."

"Her darker aspects?" Connla wondered.

"That of an emotionally detached mastermind who believes she can do everything by herself. She doesn't ask for help from others because she's constantly disappointed in their failures, and so struggles to micromanage everything on her own. She winds up seeing everyone around her as tools that she can use to further her goal of destroying those she deems threats to the ones she wants to protect. Her biggest fear is that more victims will suffer the same way that she did, creating more monstrosities like her."

"…"

Cuchulainn closed his eyes and sighed to himself sullenly. He couldn't blame Connla for being so let down by everyone around her, and thinking she needed to survive against this impossibly huge and cruel world all alone. No matter how many times he heard this though, it never failed to devastate him.

Lexy continued, "Once the transformation was complete, the Mages had to rely on the Caretakers to oversee the Terminal's safety and functionality, freeing them to investigate parallel worlds at their leisure. However, everyone failed to notice that Mother's darker aspects quietly took on life as a personality of its own, and she infiltrated the network to investigate what had been going on during the Grail War. That is the half of Mother you know as her Alter."

Da Vinci said through Ritsuka's transmitter, "So it's not an exaggeration to say that Alter and the Terminal are one and the same."

"That's right. If she was going to be stuck living as a brain in a jar powering a supercomputer, she figured she would make the most of it and figure out a way to turn this system against the Mages."

"I have to admit, I can hardly bring myself to compliment such a genius-level way of thinking."

"Yes, Mother truly is an intelligent being. Perhaps frightfully so… But more than intelligence, she required information. With the Terminal connected to every Gate and computer that the Mages owned, she secretly infiltrated every one of them, downloaded their data, and scrupulously analyzed all of it. She discovered that Berserker had lied to her when they said that they hadn't been involved in Rider's meeting with Luise Brugger and Alfrad Rojas. In truth, Berserker was present when Rider told the Masters about Mother's ability to see parallel worlds in her dreams."

"So Berserker wasn't telling the truth during that footage," Sanson murmured. "I should have expected that from a youkai."

"Yeah. Rider was the one who convinced her Master to see if she could discover a way for Mages to use the Second Magic freely. Luise always had an inferiority complex due to how famous her mother Giselle was as a Mage. Rider easily took advantage of that and strung Luise along with his plan. Alfred Rojas, Berserker's Master, was also eager to help his lover achieve great success in Mage society. You could say that he was an opportunistic social climber who saw his relationship with Luise as his chance to acquire fame and power. As for Berserker, Rider saw them as a partner in crime who could help cause as much mayhem as possible due to their nature as a youkai."

"That's the part we're having trouble understanding about Rider," Roman said. "How did he find out about Lancer's Imbas Forosnai? As far as we know, there's no possible way to know about it unless you do some serious digging."

"I honestly don't know," Lexy shook her head despondently. "For some reason though, he seemed unusually prepared to be summoned into Akakor. It was as if he was waiting for the right moment to take over his Master as his first vessel."

"He was 'waiting' to be summoned? As in he was on standby or something?"

"I'm sorry. I don't think I can be much clearer than that. I just think it's too suspicious that he had everything ready to approach Luise and Alfred with his proposition."

"I understand. Please continue."

"Mm. After that meeting, everything snowballed into what you see now. If Mr. Sanson's footage was right about anything, it was that Berserker was ordered to monitor Mother's every move. Due to Berserker's influence, she wasn't able to confide in Archer, Saber, or even Giselle about the harsh experiments that Rider and Luise were putting her through during the war's downtime."

Earp and Maupin frowned and looked away forlornly, thinking of the many times they saw Akakor Connla acting distant from them. Learning just how truly ignorant they were made it much harder for them to accept. Machiavelli likewise lowered his head and remained silent. His brow furrowed so much that even Quintrala noticed it.

"Now that Mother understood what Berserker's real role in the Grail War was, she decided to seek retribution against them first," Lexy said. "Apparently, Mother saw a parallel world where someone was able to distill facets of their personality into separate entities and create a type of Servant called Alter Egos out of them. I think those ones functioned independently from their creator, but Mother's Alter Egos would remain closely connected with her, programmed to be her agents to manipulate the Mages into becoming so reliant on them and the Gates that they would be rendered impotent.

"The problem was that the prototype Alter Egos she created were so hideous and deformed that there was no way they could serve their purpose. Mother needed to gain the ability to turn these monsters into human beings."

"I get it," Quintrala said. "The Nekomata is able to turn human in order to fool their targets."

"Exactly. Mother lured Berserker and their Master into the Preservatorium on the basis that she would show Alfred a top-secret Gate leading to an alternate world filled with riches all his for the taking. He took the bait and brought Berserker with him down this very elevator we are in. However, Mother immediately disintegrated Alfred into pure mana for the Terminal. As for Berserker, she ensnared them with all of those wires you saw in the server rooms, and trapped their Spirit Origin inside the Preservatorium's network."

"So that's why Berserker is not 'dead', so to speak," Zhuge Liang said. "Lancer is using Berserker's Spirit Origin to transform her Enforcer Servants into a variety of clones of herself. It's all part of her plan to make the Mages feeble as they rely more and more on the Gates. My goodness, if life gave Lancer lemons, she didn't just made lemonade, but every possible dish and dessert out of them."

Sanson grew surprised as he blurted, "How was I not able to detect any of this!? I know the Terminal like the back of my hand! Now you're telling me that Lancer's mind split into two personalities, and that Berserker was trapped in here this whole time!?"

The Enforcer stared at him sadly and told him, "Mother was worried that you would be the biggest obstacle to her plan. She hid all of this from you behind multiple layers of firewalls and safety encryptions. You probably never noticed because she fragmented many pieces of data and disguised them as junk background programs that you would never think of using."

"I don't believe this…"

"Uuuunnnngh…" Nekomata's voice painfully moaned all around them. "Lanceeeerrrr… It hurrrts… I'm sorryyyy… Gaguguaghgaughguuh… M-Make it stop…"

"Berserker…" Connla whimpered.

Ritsuka became serious as she put her hands on the girl's shoulders and assured, "Everything's going to be okay. By destroying the Terminal, we'll be freeing two Servants, not just one."

"She's right," Kiritsugu said as he loaded some bullets into his submachine gun. "I don't care if there are two or 200 Servants trapped in there. This madness will be put to an end once I fulfill my promise to Cliste."

"Hey," Izo snapped at him. "I ain't gonna let some half-assed modern punk steal my kill."

"Are you here for the same reason as me?"

"I dun know what yer business is, an' I dun give a shit. I told the kid I'd kill 'er, and I ain't goin' back on my word after seein' the livin' nightmares she's been through."

"Hmph. Then I suppose it's a contest between hired killers."

"Damn straight it is."

Cuchulainn stomped between both men and glowered, "What are you bastards going on about? I'm the one who's going to put the kid out of her misery. It's my duty as her father."

Kiritsugu paused. Hearing the word 'father' made him think back to his conversation with Irisviel. For just a moment, his resolve seemed to falter.

Izo chuckled darkly, "Int'restin'! It's a three-way race, then!? Bring it on! No one's gettin' in my way!"

As the men bickered amongst each other, Connla unexpectedly stood up and wandered away from Waver and Lexy while looking around in a trance. Lexy asked her, "What's the matter, Geal?"

"I think I hear music…"

She listened closer. As the elevator descended for the final 200 meters of its journey, the distinct sound of a cello became clearer and clearer. The song being played was Bach's Cello Suite no. 5: Sarabande, a deep and melancholic melody that stirred feelings of loneliness and abandonment from the world. Some musicians would play it with a fast tempo, but this one was slow, almost meandering with how the notes were stretched out.

As the elevator finally hit the bottom, Connla was the first to eagerly run off the platform and investigate the huge chamber that was known as the Preservatorium. Aside from how peaceful and pastoral the scenery was, with the vibrant green leaves swaying in the breeze generated by the fans in the walls, her attention was focused on the large statue dwelling within the center. The effigy of a gently-smiling woman holding an egg in her cupped hands loomed over the crowd.

Inside the egg-shaped capsule was a sleeping girl's head, her face and short cropped lavender hair identical to Connla's. Bubbles escaped her lips as she 'breathed' within some kind of violet fluid. Images of various Celtic Runes shimmered on her cranium, indicating where they were etched onto her brain. This capsule was the Holy Grail from the 1926 Akakor War, repurposed into a container that both housed the decapitated head and fed an endless supply of mana to it. The female statue wasn't just for show either. It also served to obscure the many wires and distorted organs stretching from the capsule and running upward into the three server rooms, which then extended further into hundreds of Parallel World Gates that the Mages used all around the world.

Izo's stomach churned. He felt like he was going to be sick on the spot. As someone who died the same way that Cliste did, seeing the state she was living in nearly made him go mad. He almost lost his balance, but Irisviel helped him stay upright.

Near the statue, a white-haired man in a pinstripe suit sat on a chair and played the cello. Waver leaned in to whisper into Lexy's ear, "Who is that supposed to be?"

"He must be one of the entertainer Servants," she replied. "There are the odd times when Mother wakes up, which then disrupts the Gate network. To keep her calm, the Mages summon entertainers like him to keep her occupied with activities like music, reading, lessons, and games. Otherwise, she'll go crazy once she remembers she's living as just a head."

"Correct," Sanson added. "That particular Servant is Antonio Salieri, the musician considered to be equal to Mozart, but suffered in disgrace after being accused of Mozart's death."

Salieri kept his eyes closed while playing his instrument. As he reached the end of his performance, he opened his eyes and realized that he had unexpected company. Instead of reacting with anger or surprise, he actually flashed a bitter smile at them as he muttered, "Well now. It's just as you said, my dear Lancer. Our guests have finally arrived."

"Mr. Salieri…" Connla murmured, then glared at him with fierce eyes. She only knew what he looked like with his red armor and curved ivory mask, but his voice was unmistakably the same. When he was referring to Lancer, she had a feeling he wasn't talking about her.

"Hello again, Lancer of Chaldea. Did you enjoy destroying Sade's little workshop of horrors?"

"You lured Father and I there, didn't you?"

"I did. It was all according to Lancer of Akakor's wishes."

"So it would seem. Now, please step aside. I want to talk with her."

Salieri glared at the three Caretakers as they stood with the respective Masters and Servants that they guided all the way here. He scowled a little and snapped at them, "How far the mighty do fall. Lancer was right not to place any of her faith in you three. Your betrayal is one more reason she believes the world has turned its back on her."

Spartacus was offended by the insult, and he exclaimed, "You're wrong! We haven't betrayed the little miss whatsoever! All we want is the best for her!"

"I too seek what is best for her. However, I am not so crass as to want to extract further suffering from her hollowed soul. Seeing her most trusted friends turn against her is much too devastating for me to-"

"Mr. Salieri," Connla Cliste's voice interrupted him with a soft and soothing tone, vastly different to his increasing crescendo of fury. "It's all right. I fully expected the Caretakers to help the Chaldeans."

The musician became bewildered. "But… But they are your most trusted friends, are they not? Are you telling me you will accept them acting as traitors toward you?"

"I know they are not betraying me – they are freeing themselves of the shackles binding them from doing what they believe is right. It must have been an extremely difficult decision for them to disobey the Mages after being forced to follow their commands for 50 long years, and to seek my death on top of that. I know they wanted to end my misery all this time, and now they are finally able to help Geal and her Chaldean allies do so. There is no need to begrudge them for following their beliefs."

"…"

"Mr. Salieri… Can I talk with Geal please?"

The Avenger bit his lip, but reluctantly stepped aside and murmured with a humble bow, "There is no need to ask me for permission. You are the mistress of this sacred space. I am but a mere visitor in comparison. However, if any of this rabble make any attempt to strike you down unprepared, I will punish them to the fullest extent. That, you have my word."

"If you insist…"

With Salieri out of the way, Connla was able to awkwardly amble past him and approach the Holy Grail Terminal itself. Her face was only inches away from Cliste's now. Her heart pounded as she remembered how far she traveled just to make it to this very moment. All the way from a parallel world, through the jungle, deep into a twisting labyrinth, and past one of the three shrines… Just so she could make eye contact with her counterpart…

Cliste's eyes gradually opened inside the capsule. Her tired, apathetic gaze met Connla's frightened stare. The Chaldean Lancer couldn't believe she was finally meeting the lavender-cloaked girl who helped her so many times from her dreams. They spoke to each other so many times in their dreams, but having such an encounter in the physical world just felt too surreal for her to comprehend. There seemed to be some other strange sensation welling within her. It was impossible for her to understand in this state, but there must have been a reaction within their Spirit Origin, resulting from when two identical Servants originating from parallel worlds came into close proximity. Were they trying to repel each other? Or was it a force that attracted them? Neither could say with certainty.

"Hello, Geal," Cliste whispered. "I'm happy you came all this way to see me."

"Mm…" was all Connla could utter as she nodded weakly.

"Are you all right? You look so tired."

"I'm fine."

"You hardly look like it. What's the matter? You can tell me anything you want."

Connla wiped her eyes of some brimming tears, then asked, "Is there nothing we can do to save you? Do we truly have to kill you?"

"Ah. I knew you were worrying about that," Cliste replied. If she could shake her head, she would have. "I'm sorry, but there is no other choice. I am too far gone to be worth salvaging."

"Because of the dark personality growing within you?"

"… Dark personality?"

"Eh? You don't know? We've confirmed that there's a second persona of yourself living within the Terminal."

"I don't know what you're talking about. It's always just been me," Cliste uttered. She started to sound more and more worried.

"No, there's someone else in there – a malignant Alter version of yourself. I met her in a dream shortly before we spoke with each other at Manoa."

"Th… That can't be right…"

"Then why did you ask me, Kiritsugu and Izo to come here and kill you? If you didn't know about this other side of you, then why did you call out for us?"

"Well… I at least know my mind is getting weaker. I thought that… if my mind completely deteriorated, then I might… do something dangerous…"

Behind Connla, Sigurd's voice spoke on Ritsuka's transmitters, "I see. It would appear that Cliste's Alter has been acting fully independent from the primary personality. Her actions have been so surreptitious that she is even keeping her original self ignorant of her existence. You could say that if Cliste is the conscious mind that humans are always aware of, then Alter is the subconscious personality that cannot be found unless it is drawn out of them. Sigmund Freud equated this phenomenon to an iceberg – the conscious mind only floats about 14% above the surface, while the remainder is hidden way below the waterline. If this theory is true, her Alter may actually be more powerful than we realize."

Connla widened her eyes and swallowed hard. She had only been speaking with 14% of Cliste's mind, and it had deteriorated to just 1.4% of its original state over the last 50 years!? She started to realize just how much of a miracle it was that she encountered Cliste in her dreams with such ridiculous odds working against them. What frightened her even more was what the remaining 86% of Cliste's subconscious was capable of, with the deterioration of her soul actually enhancing the hatred she concealed from the world. Even if the best minds at Chaldea were able to figure out a way to extract Cliste's Spirit Origin from the Terminal, there was no way for them to reverse the severe rot her soul suffered, nor could they attempt to sever this darker personality from her without causing irrevocable mental damage.

The conclusion was obvious. Yet, Connla hated to accept it. She quietly summoned her spear into her hand, then brandished it before her. Unfortunately, her knees knocked, her chest tightened, and her breathing became rapid and shallow. All of the resolve she had to make this difficult journey was instantly sucked out of her, as if some invisible leech latched onto her willpower and drained it dry.

"I… I can't do it…" she whimpered. "Even if it's… the right thing to do… I… I'm too scared…"

She felt a large hand resting on her shoulder. She looked up to discover a melancholic Cuchulainn leaning in from behind her.

"No one said you had to do anything," he assured her as he conjured Gae Bolg into his grip. "Your job was to guide us here. Now that we have made it, your role is over. I'll take it from here."

"Father…"

Connla could only watch as Cuchulainn approached the capsule. Cliste stared at him for a moment, then asked, "Are you sure about this?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm already familiar with the pain of killing my 'son'."

"I see. Forgive me for putting you through this again."

"It's not your fault. I'm doing this of my own volition."

"I know. When you make up your mind, you always commit yourself to the bitter end. That's what makes you the legendary Hound of Ulster. I would expect nothing less from you. All I want is for you to keep looking after Geal. Once everything is resolved, I just know she's going to be severely depressed from losing me."

"You bet I will, kid."

With that, Cuchulainn steeled his nerves and pointed the raised Gae Bolg at the capsule. The world inside the Preservatorium froze, as everyone braced for the inevitable tragedy…

Just then, a peculiar buzzing sound reverberated in the Celts' ears. Connla quickly shifted her eyes around and gasped, "Hm?"

She spotted about ten white-colored bugs whizzing around them. Then 20… 30… 70… 100… The number of insects increased exponentially until they violently swarmed like a dense cloud around the stunned group. Everyone was too alarmed by the sudden attack to even think about retaliating. Cuchulainn yelped and glared around, distracted from performing his duty to Cliste.

"What's going on here!?" Ritsuka cried out.

"Senpai, stay behind me!" Mash shouted as she raised her shield in front of them. However, what protection it offered was barely sufficient to stave off the pests as they circled around the blunt barrier and assaulted them. The insects could have been mistaken for bees or hornets, but they were much larger in size and sported exceptionally large blades in place of regular stingers. Ritsuka couldn't do much to save both herself and Mash from being lacerated to death, other than grabbing her friend and throwing themselves to the ground, using the shield similar to how a tortoise hid beneath its shell.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! I 'ate bugs!" Izo screamed in a panic, thrashing his katana about wildly but only slicing through air.

"You idiot! You'll kill someone like that!" Kiritsugu snapped at him, then grabbed his wrist and pinned it behind his back. Irisviel ran in front of them and used her Magecraft to create a thin barrier of pure mana before herself. Any insects that slammed into it were crushed by the force and plopped dead on the grass before them in a growing pile.

"Hyaaah!" Waver shouted, covering his face and trembling uncontrollably. Lexy had already thrown herself on top of him, and Iskandar kneeled over both of them while covering them with his thick mantle. It offered some protection from the swarm, but Iskandar couldn't do much to guard his face from suffering many thin cuts.

"Sonuva fuckin' bitch!" Earp snarled angrily as he grabbed Maupin and helped her hide behind a tree. Machiavelli likewise did the same for Quintrala.

"These bugs…" Sanson gasped as he stepped back while swatting some insects aside. "They're the Matou family's Magecraft familiars, aren't they?"

"Tch!" Spartacus snarled. "Now that you mention it, I heard rumors that their family head went missing shortly after the Grail War ended!"

Leonidas provided some cover for his fellow Caretakers by summoning a group of golden shields to encase them, preventing the insects from attacking them. As he did so, he growled, "Gaaah! This must be Rider of Akakor's foul doing!"

"Not good!" Sanson yelped in horror as he realized what this meant. "We have to protect the Terminal before he can get to it!"

"You say that, but it's taking everything I have just to defend us!"

At the Terminal's base, Cuchulainn shrouded Connla beneath his cloak while twirling Gae Bolg in front of him to bat some of the bugs to death. Although the swarm wasn't as concentrated as in the courtyard, they were still in danger of being gouged to death if they weren't careful. Connla wanted to help fight, but Cuchulainn's tight grip prevented her from moving around too much. Despite the bedlam surrounding them, something unusual caught her eye. When she made out what it was, she immediately tensed up.

"I knew you would be coming…"

Unperturbed by the chaotic storm drowning out her comrades, she glared ahead to face a new person standing several feet away from her. Within the mayhem, he stood there perfectly calm and composed. Her expression remained stoic as she met this blue-eyed man's gaze.

"… Rider."

The person she saw before her was a man around his 30s, with short ultramarine hair that rested on his cranium like a clump of seaweed. His skin was eerily pale, in stark contrast to the black trench coat, pants and shoes he wore. He possessed a detached, almost amoral countenance that could spook anyone who made close contact with him. His coat writhed a bit as slug-like creatures crawled over him, then broke out of their pupae and evolved into the blade wing insects.

Although she didn't recognize the Mage himself, she knew of the insects surrounding him. They were the same as the blade-winged bugs she witnessed in her dream of the alternate Fifth Fuyuki Grail War. They belonged to an ancient, hunched man with sinister onyx eyes who wore plain Japanese robes. The old man that Fuyuki Connla encountered was Matou Zouken, meaning this younger man either had to be him in his youth, or perhaps a relative.

"It's been a while, foreign Lancer," Sade spoke to Connla.

"Are you here to laugh at Cliste again?"

"Cliste? Ah, so that is what you call Lancer. Pardon my confusion. I know her better as my beloved Justine."

"Justine?"

"The lovely heroine that the world punished for holding on to her virtues, when she should have released herself of such needless weight and embraced her vices. Even now, Justine sleeps within the Terminal, unable to let go of what she deems pure and just."

"Of course she wouldn't. She'd never give up to someone like you. But that was the real fun part for you, wasn't it? The longer she struggled to remain sane, the more you enjoyed it."

Sade stared at Connla with a hollow gaze. Was she complimenting him, or spitting an insult full of bile? He wasn't really sure. Still, he wasn't the type to be bothered by such harsh words as he muttered, "Even when I had Justine under my complete control, she still refused to see things my way. Couldn't she see that by making her activate the Extinction, I was trying to save her from those morals threatening to tear her apart? I wanted her to experience the same joy that Juliette embraced after allowing herself to run rampant!"

Connla narrowed her eyes and thinned her lips. "Under your… complete control?"

Just then, all of the lights plus the monitors surrounding the Grail Terminal flickered off, swallowing the entire Preservatorium in darkness. The insects swarming around everyone were startled by this sudden blackness, and they temporarily retreated. This allowed the others to look up at the screens as static crackled randomly. Of anyone present, it was Salieri who let out a repressed gasp as he recognized the very first frames that came into view.

That moment… Ahh… I don't want to see it again!

The musician squeezed his eyes shut and looked away in revulsion.

The scene was directly from Cliste's perspective, as if it was being recorded straight out of her very eyes. Her gait was unnatural and shaky as she stumbled into the altar containing the 1866 Holy Grail. A dog muzzle covered her mouth, not allowing her to breathe properly. Her gasps were frightening as she struggled to stop her legs from moving toward the shining chalice. Alas, she was a prisoner in her own body as her little hands reached up for the cup. Then, she turned her gaze over to her side, as if uncertain about what she was doing.

Standing off to the side was Luise Brugger. Even before this reveal, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was the Mage responsible for commanding Cliste to use the Grail. She held her hand up containing the spent Command Spells, indicating that her Servant had to obey to the very end. However, something strange was happening with her that no one ever expected…

One of her eyes glowed bright red. There appeared to be some kind of symbol etched inside the pupil.

Machiavelli swallowed, feeling his throat become parched from that sight alone. He whispered in a trembling voice, "That's…"

Quintrala squinted to get a better look, then murmured, "Rider's Command Spells?"

"Ah… So that's what happened!" Maupin clenched her teeth and glared fiercely at Sade. She pointed at him and angrily shouted, "You possessed Lancer's Master, didn't you!?"

He didn't respond. There really wasn't anything he needed to say. The evidence was right there for everyone to see. He thought he had buried every possible hint of his involvement in the Extinction, but he failed to account for Cliste's memory being stored within the Grail's databanks. Even if he was aware of it, what could he have done about it? Cliste needed to exist inside the Terminal in order to produce the Gates. The technology born from her death was the very thing he needed to plunge this world's Mages into madness. Not only that, the world immediately turned against Sade and branded him an outlaw that needed to be silenced, hampering his ability to gain access to the Terminal for himself.

"Wait, what!?" Roman yelped from Ritsuka's communicator. He was just as flabbergasted as everyone else in the room. "What's going on here!? Are you telling me that Sade caused all of this!?"

Da Vinci widened her eyes with uncharacteristic fear as she cried out, "Of course! He has the ability to jump between Mages who have the same wavelength as him! So if Luise was a staunch sadist, that would have given Sade the avenue he needed to control Cliste's Command Spells!"

"I… I don't believe this! Are you even human, Marquis de Sade!? What could you possibly want from causing such an incredible level of destruction, and then pinning it all on an innocent girl's shoulders!?"

Sade remained unmoved by the crowd's collective shock over his crime being exposed. He finally smirked a little and muttered, "To create a world where true freedom can exist."

Ritsuka glared at him and scowled, "The kind of freedom where laws and morals don't exist?"

"Precisely. I want to see a world where everyone can let go of such useless concepts and let their inner selves run free."

"You know that's impossible. If everyone was like you, humanity would end in just a few short years."

"What is a human being than another species of animal? If it wasn't for our ability to think and reason on a rational level, we would be but a bunch of naked apes prowling around in the woods. It's that very intelligence of ours that frightens me… It compels even the worthiest of heroes, the holiest of men, and the brightest of minds to find loopholes in the systems they govern so they can obtain the fruits deemed forbidden by greater society. What use is intelligence if it only serves to remind us of our original bestial nature?

"That's why I am summoned as a pathetic parody of the man once known as Marquis de Sade. I am not a human who understands rational thinking, nor am I a Servant meant to represent humanity. I am an animal who rages against the stifling constraints of others' judgments. Yes… other people's judgments are useless, and cause pointless suffering. Wasn't that the same with Justine's mother? That woman punished Justine just because she existed, yet Justine tried to rationalize such abuse as 'endurance training'. Ah, how my heart ached when I was told of such a thing…"

"That's absurd," Machiavelli rebuked. "You're the type of person who would understand the mother's abuse better than the child's suffering."

"Yes, I would. Yes indeed, I would…" Sade grit his teeth. "Normally I would… But when I met Justine for the first time, I saw an incredible sadness weighing her soul down. She was so obedient and devoted to everyone, even though she was thoroughly hated and ignored. Even in her original legend, she died obeying the three geasa that forced her to follow strict, irrational rules. I knew then that her sadness had to be the result of her morals tearing her apart from the inside. I had to set her free somehow! I had to make her understand that it was okay to discard the people around her and do as she pleased! I needed to wake up her inner Juliette, so that she could finally smile and enjoy life however she wanted!"

Although Connla was troubled by what Sade was ranting about, she grimaced and demanded, "How do you know so much about Cliste? How did you find out that it was Aife who put the geasa on her, when stories tell of Cuchulainn doing so? How did you discover the cranial Runes on her brain that allowed this Gate technology to exist? How did you know to summon the three Servants who accompanied us during the Nevada Singularity? There's no possible way you would have known about any of this, yet you speak of her with such frightening familiarity.

"Furthermore, you're clearly determined to change the course of this world's future to suit your ideals. I encountered such Servants before and put a stop to their plans. If it's what I think it is, then…"

Sade turned his eyes toward her. The sad and forlorn 'Justine' he remembered clashed with this resolute and determined 'Justine'. Connla bared her teeth and asked the dreaded question:

"Could you be a Denialist?"