"Do you even know how many people died last night?"
…Starting with the big questions right out the gate. I see…
"No idea" I shrugged, facing off against Johnathan across the table.
Which was likely true. Rider had said 27 people, but Lucas would have been number 28, and I wasn't going to assume that the only other death that night was the death of Lucas.
…Not that I was going to tell Johnathan that I ran into Rider last night, after the battle.
"313 people, according to the latest reports" Johnathan's glare was piercing, but his tone remained neutral.
It was actually rather impressive, seeing the kid have such control over himself.
"Do you even understand? 313 people! Dead! All because of you!"
…Scratch that; there it is…
"I see."
…That was it. That was all I said; all I'd give him. He must have been checking the news reports throughout the day, else I don't see how he'd have such a number. I also doubt he's just making up a number; I found it a common belief among people that lies and false sentiments came out when one was overcome with anger. Of course, that was far from reality: unfiltered truth was what emerged from people overcome with anger. That was why it could hurt; inflict unrivaled pain. Because, when angered, we don't care about who we're lashing out at. Who we hurt. We speak only the truths as we know them, to relieve ourselves of our own pain. Our own grief.
So… 313 people… Or rather, 313 people, so far. Who knows if there are more to be discovered as the police continue their searches and power gets restored throughout the city?
"You… Do you even care?! Do you even care about the pain you've caused?!"
"I suppose that depends on what you mean, and who you're referring to."
"They're all dead, Nathan! Dead! Don't you get it?! There's no coming back from this; no undoing it! They're gone! Forever! Every last one of them! T-They're all… Z-Zach is… is-"
The kid was such an emotional wreck at this point that he was practically choking on his own words just trying to speak. Though, seeing him now, I understood why he was playing games just moments before.
It was his escape. His way of not coping, but escaping. Escaping this nightmare of his, that he was now living. His way of drowning himself with fantasies, so he could push the unwanted truths far, far away. Out of sight. Out of mind.
"I get it. They're dead" I confirmed. "But this is a war, kid. Death was an inevitability; a question of when, not if."
"Not like that… Not like last night, it wasn't! You even said so yourself, that there was no point to fighting Berserker! We told you we weren't going to do it! So why?! Why go and do what you did last night?!"
"I said it was a waste for us to fight Berserker, yes. It's a waste for anyone to fight Berserker, from their own perspective."
"So why?! Why-"
"Because getting Rider and Archer to waste time and energy fighting Berserker is simply optimal play. It weakens them, and even potentially eliminates them, which would have been the best outcome, but I figured it a highly unlikely one. But, it eliminates Berserker, meaning we no longer have to worry about grabbing his attention. It allows us to scout out our future competition better; see how Rider likes to fight, how he likes to operate, and hell, it would have been amazing if he'd been forced into using a Noble Phantasm we hadn't yet seen. That would have been the jackpot. Also, we don't even know who Archer is yet, and while I don't have to deal with that headache inducing skill Archer has when I'm not thinking about Archer, I would like to try and figure out what I'm up against, and get rid of that skill's effect permanently. Another potential jackpot."
"And you thought that was worth it?! Worth all of… all of this?!"
"Look kid" I sighed. "I wasn't delusional enough to think that absolutely no one would die last night. Now, is 313 a higher number than I'd have liked? Yes. Obviously. While the plan, by and large, went to shit, when I take into account what I learned, what I saw, last night… well, overall, 313 lives for that is within an… acceptable margin."
"Acceptable margin?! How is that anywhere near an acceptable margin?!"
"Dude, this isn't like WotH! I'm not working off perfect information here! I don't know the starting positions, because they aren't pre-set! I don't know how fast they can move, because the stats that book shows me are meaningless gibberish! I don't know the exact limits of what every Heroic Spirit playing is capable of, because I can't play with every possible Heroic Spirit and vigorously limit test them all against one another! I don't know what you masters are capable of, because I don't have access to the same tools as you all; I don't know magecraft! How do you expect me to keep causalities at zero when I don't know the game I'm playing, let alone the game's meta?! I'm in the theory crafting phase; there's going to be errors and miscalculations!"
"Errors?! M-Miscalculations?! How do you see this as just a game still?!"
"Because everything is a game! I'm been trying to drill it into you brats since day one of meeting you!"
"That's absurd and you damn well know it!"
His fist slammed the table, but it was neither the table, nor his fist, which shattered. No… what shattered in that moment was the illusion he was trying to project. He'd seen it. The void. He'd seen a truth he can't bring himself to accept, and so he tries to deny it. Deny it unto his very end…
"Heh, you say that" I leaned back with a smirk. "You know I'm right though, deep down."
"Bullshit! Don't speak as if you know me! You don't know me at all!"
"Bullshit I'm the one speaking bullshit" I laughed, standing up. "You know it's true, because of course you do. You're smart enough to understand that it's true. You're just afraid to admit it to me."
"Shut up!"
"Last night proved it too" I proclaimed, turning on the theatrics. "You understand that everything is nothing more than games, within games, within the great game we call life! You juggled the priest like your life depended on it! Because your life did depend on it! Facing death, you could embrace one of the truths of the world! Why try to deny it's existence now?! It was sloppy, sure, but that's only to be expected from a beginner. But the idea, the inspiration, was there! It was no Yaldabaoth's Gou Jia, but you drew from that, clear as the brightest of days! And look at that, it worked! Because of course it worked!"
"I said shut up!"
"In the end, everything, including life itself, is just a ga-"
The point of a sword poking me in the neck swiftly cut me off. Glaring into my eyes now was not Johnathan, but Saber.
"Cease your mad ravings this instant," Saber growled, "before you end up as just a statistic."
"Ah, Saber" I grinned, trying to swallow but having some difficulty with a sword point pressed against my next. "I was wonder when you'd finally reveal yourself. Knew there was no way you'd leave your master alone, but to think it'd take you this long to come out and greet me. Not very hospitable, don't you think?"
"Monsters are undeserving of my hospitality."
"Really? I'm the monster in this room" I flashed a swift grin Saber's way. "You're certain of that?"
"Don't you dare speak as if you're better than Saber" Johnathan spat, pulling my attention to him. "Saber is a thousand times the man you'll ever be."
"Glad you think oh so highly of him" I rolled my eyes. "Though excuse me if I have no desire to be lectured on morality and called a monster by a man who committed acts of cannibalism and sent some 40,000 men to their deaths out of a burning desire for ill-sighted vengeance, ignoring the advice of the strategist who more or less got him his kingdom in the first place!"
I felt the point of the sword press into my neck just a tad more. Not enough to do lasting damage, yet, but enough to break skin. The flash of pain brought my focus back to Saber.
"What" I glared at him. "Do you deny the charges, Saber?"
"…I do not."
"So, even just going by the 40,000 lost at Yiling, that's 40,000 killed by you, to 313 killed by me. Their deaths by your command brought about nothing but your own death shortly after, while the deaths of the 313 people brought about by my plan granted me valuable intelligence."
"…The glint in your eyes betrays your words. What else did condemning 313 people to death grant you?"
"Well…" I couldn't help but smirk slightly as I thought back to all I saw last night. "It let me see things that were truly… beautiful."
The flash of rage the sparked across Saber's face was… beautiful… I couldn't help but wonder, in that moment before death, if that was the same face, the same, deep-seated rage, that overcame him upon hearing the news of what transpired at Fan Castle. Such a sight… it would have been an acceptable final image…
Would have been, were it not for my knight in shining, red armor.
Clang!
Saber was able to deflect the point of the lace away, but had to remove the blade pointing at my throat away to do so. Swiftly following up on his thrust, Lancer kicked Saber in the chest, knocking Saber back into the far wall. It had all happened so fast, I had barely even managed to process it. The same must have been true for Johnathan, for he had yet to even react, let alone try to speak.
"Lancer, you-" Saber was the first to speak, reading his blades and adopting a fighting stance as he recovered from slamming into the wall.
"I don't disagree with your sentiments, Saber" Lancer's tone was neutral as he adopted a fighting stance of his own, cutting Saber off. "But all the same, I can't let you do that."
"Saber, you were-" Johnathan turned to Saber, apparently having finally caught up with events, but stopped speaking before he finished his thought.
…Must have lost his nerve, considering the scene before him. Can't say I blamed him. Well… not fully, at any rate.
"I told you before, Saber, that I hold great respect for you" I continued, though now that Lancer stood between us, I couldn't really see him. "It wasn't a lie, either. I don't fault you for Yiling. It was only a natural reaction, considering the pain to come from such a deep, deep betrayal. Some other people… they call you a con man. A wolf in sheep's clothing. They point at an event like Yiling and say Wu was in the right, for you did not return the Jing province as per the agreement."
"There was never an agreement" Saber growled.
"Of course, there wasn't. I know that there wasn't. After all, Wu was still technically loyal to the Han at the time; they had no legitimate right to expand into the Jing province. You could only do so as you were attempting to return the land to its rightful governance under the Liu clan, under Liu Biao's eldest son, at least officially. I wouldn't dare make any assumptions on your actual reasoning… But point being you couldn't have made a legitimate agreement to hand over the Jing province to Wu, even if you'd wanted to. Which, I mean, why would you even want to? The three-pronged attack against Wei? Both of Shu's assaults either won, or were winning. All Wu had to do was take Hefei, and yet even with 100,000 men, Sun Quan couldn't manage. Even nearly got himself killed in the process! Why would you ever hand over the Jing province to such… incompetence?"
"…"
"So, you see… I understand you, Saber" I peered around Lancer and winked.
Clang!
"Don't you dare claim to understand me" Saber shouted over the sound of metal grinding against medal as Lancer intercepted him, barring his path to me.
"You're right, I am a monster" I grinned. "I won't deny the charge. But don't you see, Saber? We're all monsters! Because of course we are! Because to be man, is to be monster! Because man and monster are synonymous with one another. So don't go trying to lecture me on the morality of my actions, when we have recorded proof of you doing far, far worse; causing far greater losses of life."
"That's enough out of you."
I felt something slam into my gut, sending my skidding backwards, slamming into a wall where my head audibly cracked against it. As I struggled to remain on my feet in the daze, I realized Lancer must have jabbed the butt of his lance into me, knocking me backwards.
"Well now…" I mused, shaking my head in an attempt to clear the black spots dancing in my vision, to no avail. "That wasn't very chivalrous of you, Lancer."
"Neither is you purposely antagonizing Saber" Lancer grunted. "Sorry if I don't feel like putting up with your antics any longer."
"If only all of you would have been so eager to actually listen to me last night and leave Rider to fight Berserker. No plan survives contact with the enemy, but last night you two may as well have been included in that category alongside Rider, Archer and Berserker, considering how much you two contributed to botching it."
"You have no one to blame but yourself for your failures."
…Lancer's rebuke was stiff. …Too stiff…
Blame for failures…? Is that why you fight in this war, Lancer? Because you blame-
"…Ah. I see it clearly now" I let out a satisfied sigh.
"Still look a bit dazed to me."
"My vision may be a bit obscured at the moment, but my mind is crystal clear. Can you say the same, Lancer?"
"I won't play your games."
"You're already playing them, Lancer" I laughed slightly. "But I think I get it now. I get why you agreed to fight in this mess. This mess which seems so far beneath the likes of the knights of the round table. Camelot is still a sore point for you, isn't it? You haven't quite let it go; accepted it."
No verbal response for any of the three in the room, but through my slowly clearing vision, Lancer's eyes narrowed.
"It wasn't your fault, you know" I continued. "But your wish is misplaced, due to a lack of understanding beyond your control."
"…My wish is misplaced? Coming from the one who seeks godhood, I find that hard to believe."
Lancer's tone of voice and neutral expression didn't change, but it didn't need to change.
"What do you even know of me and my wishes?"
"See, when I first learned it was you, Percival, a question began gnawing away, at the back of my mind" I mused.
Nothing about Lancer visibly changed. Clearly, he was unfazed with me going by his name, rather than his class. Actually caught me off guard for a moment, but then I remembered that everyone in the room would of course know who he was, considering he fired off his Noble Phantasm last night.
"Why would you, one of the grail knights, seek out this Holy Grail? Surely you understand that this isn't the same one you sought out in life?"
"I am aware they are different."
"So, then it couldn't be that you were hung up on failing your quest. If that was your only reason, then you would have had no reason to contract with anyone for a Holy Grail War. So then, if it wasn't redemption for failing to obtain the Holy Grail which drove you, then it really could only be one thing, couldn't it?"
"Are you asking me, or telling me?"
"Heh, I suppose I'm telling you" I laughed slightly.
Credit to Lancer, he actually bantered back with me. Was far more fun that talking with Saber...
"It's Camelot" I explained. "Or rather, the fall of Camelot. You seek redemption for Camelot having fallen. You seek to restore Camelot, don't you? That's your wish, isn't it?"
"…"
"…"
"…If I was to play along and say it was, what then?"
"If you were to play along" I laughed. "No need to play along; you've given the game away by saying something as obvious as that. But Lancer, don't you get it? You can't restore Camelot. Nobody and nothing can restore Camelot. Not even the Holy Grail."
"You're so certain of that, how?"
"Because, Lancer, unlike you… I understand what Camelot fundamentally is."
…Ah, the shift of temperament that spread throughout his body, despite his attempt to stop it… Like all panes of glass, no matter how finely crafted they may be… Under the right pressure, they will all shatter.
"Someone like you, who spreads only chaos wherever he goes, understands nothing of Camelot."
"Oh? Then tell me, Lancer: what is Camelot?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…You see, to many people, Camelot is a castle. A place. Where famous knights gathered and a great king ruled. And while all that is true… to an extend, it fails to grasp what Camelot truly is, in essence."
"And what do you believe Camelot is, in essence?"
"It is an ideal, Lancer. A utopia. As Saber would call it, it is a land of benevolence. It is no surprise to me, knowing who the two of you are, that you two get along so well: you witnessed, if only briefly, what Saber long desired to bring to his homeland."
"If that is what you believe Camelot is, then where is the issue? Is that not a land which you would find beautiful?"
"It is" I nodded in confirmation. "That, I can't deny. Were it even possible, I'd fully throw my support behind you. But sadly, Camelot is flawed. Was flawed, from the very beginning. You could win a million of these wars, Lancer, and make a million wishes. Each time you did so would be a waste, for Camelot will always fall."
"There must be a way to make it work" Lancer shook his head dismissively.
…Well… at least he has confirmed that it is indeed his wish…
"…Tell me, Percival… Who do you blame for Camelot's demise?"
"…What?"
"You see, many people like to argue about who caused Camelot's ultimate demise" I mused. "Some blame Lancelot and his forbidden romance with Guinevere. Others still say it wasn't Lancelot who brought about Camelot's end, but rather Merlin, as he foresaw it all and disappeared without a trace, and without saying a word. Then, of course, there's the obvious one: Mordred and his rebellion, which would ultimately lead to the death of King Arthur in the battle of Camlann. Of course, there are other factors some people point to, but by and large, these are the main three. But you, Percival… you were there. You experienced the collapse of it all, first hand. So, I'm curious: what do you point to as the reason behind the fall?"
"…"
"Because all of the others… they're wrong, you see? I know why Camelot fell, but it seems I'm the only one who truly knows why Camelot fell. So, I'm hoping that someone like you, who was there, can finally make me not alone in understanding this truth."
"…Camelot fell… because of us. Because of Merlin, and all of us knights."
"…Hmm… A better answer than most" I admitted. "You, at least, see a bigger picture; see that such a picture starts with Tristan's rebuke of the king. How did it go again…? Ah, yes… 'the king does not understand the human heart', wasn't it…?"
I didn't need to ask, for of course it was. I knew it. Lancer also knew it. The fact I seemed to be asking him though, as if to mock him…
"Anyways, Tristan leaves, and ends up in falling in love with one Iseult, yet married to another! How one ends up in such a predicament, I'll never know, but he dies, filled with sorrow, wishing to see the Iseult he loved just one more time. Of course, unknown to him, the Iseult he was wed to had lied to him, telling him his beloved was not coming out of jealousy. Oh, the tragedy!"
As I spoke, I began to play up the theatrics. So far, he seemed rather resilient to my… provocations… However, I still had plenty to push him over the edge with.
"Shame his departure didn't matter, for his words lingered within the king's court, spreading doubt amongst the remaining knights. Then, of course, there's the mess with Lancelot and Guinevere, which actually would not have been a problem at all, were it not for Agravain revealing the whole thing. Agravain reveals all, and Lancelot kills him in return! But as if Lancelot couldn't make a bigger mess, no, he just had to try and run off with Guinevere back to France, and, well… I'm sure you're very familiar with-"
"Gareth" Lancer's voice was tight. "What is your-"
"Point? …See? I can play the cut off game too! As for my point, though, I'm getting there. But yes, Gareth. Splat, that's four knights down. Really, five though, considering by this point Mordred is already plotting to overthrow King Arthur, his own father!"
"Wait, Mordred was-" Johnathan began to speak.
"Yes, yes, Mordred is an incest baby" I sighed, annoyed at being interrupted yet again. "Because how could we have a story from the Middle Ages without some incest thrown into the mix? Not the point though. Point being the round table is now in shambles! Lancelot's basically exiled in France, with Gawain and Mordred both pushing King Arthur to go to war with him over what transpired. Whether it happened or not, I don't know, and it really doesn't matter. Why, you ask? Because bam: Mordred rebels! Lancelot tries to come back and assist his maybe former, maybe not former, king, but oh no, Gawain isn't having any of that. He still hasn't forgiven Lancelot for Gareth! He makes sure that Lancelot can't come help, so Lancelot returns to France."
"…Enough" Lancer muttered.
"But there's a problem in rejecting Lancelot's aide" I continued. "Because Mordred conducts a night raid, and wouldn't you know it, Gawain is an unstoppable force under the sun, but without it? Well… we can make that 6, and it's not Mordred's head that's rolling!"
"Enough."
"Of course, at some point either during or before, and honestly speaking, it probably was before, Merlin just fucks right off out of Camelot. As for why, who can say? That's what you get when you have your advisor be a legitimate half-demon! If nothing else, King Arthur was an absolute mad lad for that one! As for Camlann itself, well… we should all be able to piece together how that all-"
"I said enough!"
A loud thud echoed in my head, and black spots danced in my eyes. When my vision began to clear, I noticed Lancer had me by my shirt, his lance and shield dispelled. I'd been slammed into the wall.
…I had him.
"Oh, but Percival" I grinned. "We haven't even gotten to the real interesting bit. After all, King Arthur died at Camlann. Bedivere fulfilled his final wish; returned the sword Excalibur to the lake. But… where were you in all of this?"
"…You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I" I sneered. "The grail quest; what you're famous for! How did that turn out again? Bors made it back alive from it. No grail in hand, mind you, but he made it back. Did he die at Camlann? Before? After? I don't know, but that's not really what's important here. The real question is… do you?"
"…Shut up."
"How about Galahad; the poor lad, rhyme intended. The shining star of the round table, set to even surpass his father, Lancelot himself, assuming you don't believe he already had… You reached the grail with him and Bors, but it disappeared before your very eyes. Why? Were you all… unworthy? Did you all ever figure it out?"
"Shut up."
"Was the plan for you to discuss it with King Arthur upon your return? A pity, then, that Galahad never made it back, isn't it? He died on the return journey, never to set foot on the battlefield of Camlann. Maybe he could have been King Arthur's savior. If only, right?"
"Shut. Up!"
"Finally, we arrive at you, Percival. You know what the legends say about you? That after your failure to retrieve the grail, you gave up your knighthood to become a monk, leaving Bors alone to return to Camelot and tell his tale. But that's a lie, isn't it? Not the bit about you abandoning your king and duty, mind-"
Another thud, and my vision blurred. Nevertheless, I continued.
"-you. No, you didn't return, but you didn't become a monk either!"
"Stop it!"
"Tell us, Sir Percival" I laughed. "How did Longinus fall into your hands?! A Saber I could see you being, but a Lancer?! Your early tales are all about you and swords, so how did you come to possess that lance, of all things?!"
"I said-"
"How did you manage to return to Corbenic?! Were you invited to take over for the Fisher King, for King Pellam, or did you actually manage to find a way back yourself?! Why did you-"
"I said shut up!"
The strength of Heroic Spirits wasn't to be underestimated. In the blink of an eye, I was sent flying across the room, slamming into the far wall before collapsing to the ground. My ears rang, my vision was a mess, and I could taste blood in my mouth. Yet, despite all of this, despite all the pain…
I laughed.
I laughed, because I had confirmed the truth.
"You took over the lands of the Fisher King, and thus took possession of the lance. That's why you have it now, isn't it?"
"Is this your point" Lancer seethed. "To remind me of my failures as a knight?! To remind me that I failed my duty to my king?!"
"No…" I laughed slightly, dryly, as Lancer towered over me. "My point, Lancer, is that you see a bigger picture than most, but it's still wrong. It doesn't matter that you ran. That Galahad never returned. That Lancelot killed Gareth and Agravain. That Gawain couldn't forgive, and died in a night raid. That Mordred rebelled. That Merlin disappeared. That Tristan left. None of that matters, because even if none of that happened, Camelot still falls."
"How?! How does none of that matter?! If all of that changes… If I can fix it- fix all of it, from the beginning-"
"It changes nothing, Lancer, because the root issue remains…"
"Then what is the root issue?!"
"King Arthur remains king. That is the root issue. That is why-"
I felt myself get hauled into the air and slammed into the wall again.
"Pick your next words very, very carefully" Lancer's voice was cold as steel. "It is one thing to admonish me and my fellow knights. It is another to insinuate anything about my king."
"It is no insinuation, Lancer. It is truth."
Crack!
…Ah… So that's what it felt like to be thrown through a wall… Just… numbing pain…
"Don't you see the issue, Lancer" I laughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "Tristan was right on the money: King Arthur doesn't understand the human heart."
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
Crack!
"Camelot is an ideal… A utopia… But utopias… Utopias of any kind are beyond us, Lancer. Beyond men. They are-"
Crack!
I felt something break beneath me, though I couldn't say what. At this point, I was just keeping my eyes shut, trying to think past the pain. So I could speak the truth. Force Lancer to face the void.
…And not bite off my tongue in the process…
"Are only achievable by gods! So what did your king do? He rejected his humanity, and embraced godhood!"
"My king was nothing like you! Is nothing like you!"
The sound of shattering glass filled my ears. I could feel shards cut me. Along my back. My arms. My legs. It hurt. It all hurt so, so much. But I had to continue. We were… we were almost there…
"No-Nothing to do with me... He sou- sought perfection" I coughed, doing my best not to move.
Very faintly, through the pain, I could feel grass beneath me. The garden, then, I assume? So that's where I was now…
"Sought p-perfection, so he could creat- create perfection. Though in doing so, he lost the ability to be hum-"
Something slammed into me, causing me to gasp for air. Opening my eyes, my vision was severely blurred, though the giant red mass before me could only be Lancer. I didn't have the blood in me for such a big, red blur, after all. My ears were ringing; if anyone was speaking, I could tell. All I could do was continue.
"P-People believe in go- gods, but people… People won't f-follow one who walks amo- among them… People will only f-follow people, at the end of the day, no matter h-how good the god-"
Another gasp for air. Was it a boot? A fist? Just what was slamming into me?
"H-How could King A-Arthur be human, when he ignores emo- emotion? When he is un- unmoved by that which m-makes us human?! How could anyone f-follow such an e-existence?!"
Coughing up more blood, I thought I could faintly hear a voice. It was calling out, but not to me. No… it was calling out to… to…
"A contradiction" I couldn't even tell if I was laughing or just gurgling the blood in my mouth at this point. "Camelot cannot exist without Arthur, but Camelot cannot survive with-"
…That voice… it was… Sortiara's…? Yes… Sortiara's…
"-Arthur… It's over, Lancer. Camelot is done. You have to move on…"
…Nothing else came… A moment passed.
"-cer! Eno-" a voice broke through the pain, though only in fragments.
Sortiara's voice...
"-ry mast- he- on- oo f-"
The void… he was right there. Lancer was right there. He had to see it. I had to make him see it.
My vision began to clear. The ringing in my ears… disappeared…
"Not like this, Lancer! This isn't right!"
"How can you still defend this monster?!"
"You'll kill him! Lancer, stop!"
Lancer wasn't even looking… Looming over me, he couldn't even see his master, standing in the ruined entranceway for the garden. Couldn't see her raise her hand. Couldn't see the blurry flash. The flash… of red light…
The fist… Lancer's fist… The one that would end my life… It was right… there…
"Sorry master! But after all he's said, and all he's done, this is one order I simply can't follow!"
The fist came downwards…
"I SAID STOP!"
…There it was… a second flash of red light… Lancer's fist was halted mid swing, encased in red, magical energy…
"Master, wh-" Lancer turned to face his master.
His voice died immediately. My vision finally cleared fully.
There she was, standing in the ruined doorway. There she was, tears streaming down her face. There she was, holding her hand skyward, the red light fading. There she was: Sortiara, the master of the Lancer servant.
…With not a trace of a command spell on her hand…
"Lancer... he can't die…" Sortiara's voice was barely audible to me. "Not while that file exists. So please… Please… stop…"
She collapsed to her knees then, sobbing.
Lancer was stunned. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know where to look. His fist returned to his side, slowly. But that was all. That was all…
"…The fool ha-… has forgotten his early lessons" I heard myself laugh again.
It was a weak laugh. Very weak. I wasn't even sure if Lancer could hear me. Sortiara definitely couldn't, but that was fine. This wasn't for her.
"Adults learn by observing…" I broke into a coughing fit as Lancer slowly turned to face me. "Children lear-… learn by asking questions… You were told this once, y-yes?"
Another round of coughing. My vision blurred. I felt weak. Extremely weak. Pain raked my body and mind alike, to the point death was far preferable.
"W-When did you for-… forget this lesson, L-Lancer? W-When did you go so blind to rea-… reali… ty…?"
A/N
Boy... I've been waiting to write this bit for so long.
I know this one is a doozy, and I'm sure there's bound to be tons of... questions, among other things...
For the sake of not making this A/N some absurd length, as I couldn't possibly try to cover every question I can conceive of otherwise, let alone all possible questions, I will await for the questions to show up in the reviews, or any private messages, to attempt to answer them. And yes, I can now see reviews again, yay \o/
I admit, I from the very beginning, I did not know how a scene like this would be received. I'm even less sure now since Percival has an official FATE work appearance, and this is a VERY different Percival from that. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT, think for a second that I consider this version of Percival I have created here to be 'canonic' in any way, shape or form. But I was committed to this from before the release of Lostbelt 6, and I wasn't going to change course when Lostbelt 6 released and the worst possible outcome, though the most suspected outcome, for me occurred.
…If nothing else, liked or disliked, I hope all you who read this find it at least... interesting, as a take on things? Probably the best way I can put it...
As always, Thank you to all those who reach this point, and, hopefully, I'll see you all next post o7
