67: Observers
It that sees injustice
"Ahhh! Ahhhh! AHHH!" Galahad continues to scream with Mash Kyrielight's mouth, gnashing her teeth, and clawing the dusty ground with such force as to break the girl's fingernails.
It isn't fair. Every fiber of Galahad's being screams that this isn't fair. That Mash Kyrielight should die, while he, her killer, survives. That a simple series of tiny stumbles on his part should claim the life of a girl who never asked to be part of any of this. That of those who worked to inflict such a fate upon this innocent girl, many yet live within Chaldea - and those who perished in the blast at the start of everything shall surely be remembered as heroes, who gave their lives for humanity.
Why is this allowed? Why was the world created in such a way? The innocent suffer, and the villainous prosper - again, and again, the knight has seen it. The promise of Heaven, and the Final Judgment, can only take one so far.
A white-furred creature observes Galahad's despair in silence. It already knows all. From the start, there was disparity. From the start of humanity, all has been injustice.
A blue hologram appears from Mash Kyrielight's wrist communicator. The director of Chaldea shouts for the Grail Knight to come to his senses. A vain thread of hope is offered - an anecdote of how Saint George once raised a dead man to life.
-Unlikely, Cath Palug decides. And even if he should, what would it amount to? A miracle used for this one homunculus girl set to expire within the year. What of the thousands of innocents slain in this singularity who might yet live full happy lives?
Comparison. Comparison. It all comes down to comparison.
How can this fate be made right? How can the scales be balanced in this impossible equation? How can Mash Kyrielight be given a fair life?
Familiar instincts rise to the surface as the Beast of Gaia snarls slightly. Salvation was always found in its claws and fangs. When the village is snuffed out, there are no more poor and hungry. When all mankind rests within its stomach, all shall be equal.
A faint scent curls under the nascent Beast's nose, and it pauses, glancing west. A black shadow rises there, cresting over the hilltops, a noxious envious fog that swallows everything.
Cath Palug blinks once, twice, and retracts its claws.
The imbalance remains. Nothing is put right. But Beast IV reconsiders, turns its back on Paris, and begins to slink away.
"In the end, this is such a small thing - nothing worth becoming such an unsightly creature over." It notes to itself.
She who sees infidelity
All is well. She is here, and he is here, and she is with him.
In a garden of shadows, Satella tenderly embraces her love, and is happy at last. There is nothing else. She needs nothing else. The world can simply disappear, so long as she can be by his side.
There is no need for words. The other onlookers in the shadow garden are quiet, and Satella rests gently in his arms.
And then, the illusion shatters like glass, and the Witch understands the deceit.
It's difficult, for her to truly grasp the exact events unfolding in another universe. That was why such a lie could deceive her. That is why the lie has deceived her no less than twenty four times at this point.
The Witch ought to know better. The Witch ought to be able to see that the same lie used over and over ought to be transparent.
But it is a beautiful lie, and so Satella can't help but fall for it every single time, even as she fell for her love years and years ago.
But now the lie is broken, and the Witch's attention is drawn to-
THEY KNOW. SOMEONE KNOWS.
WHO IS IT WHO IS IT WHO IS IT WHO IS IT
NO ONE ELSE CAN KNOW ONLY ME ONLY US OUR SECRET TOGETHER YOU AND ME AND YOU AND ME ONLY US NO ONE ELSE
Memory recalls, a world Natsuki Subaru has forgotten. A clash at the end of time. A futile battle between a Witch whose grasp was time itself, and a man who believed he had slipped the fetters of time and space. Between the woman once called Satella and the man once called Edmond Dantes.
She had crushed him. Torn the memories from his mind and scattered them in the trash heap of dreams beyond existence. And that insufferable tactician, grinning until the end, even as he was swallowed by her shadow. But there was another, wasn't there? A third man, a third conspirator, who had seen past Envy's Authority. An old whaler, with eyes of fire, who obliterated his body uselessly in a vain attempt to defeat her - but she had not killed him herself, and thus he evaded her.
And, of course, one more familiar stench, like a moldy piece of food that could never quite be dislodged from the trash can.
THEY CAN'T KNOW THEY CAN'T KNOW ONLY ME ONLY HIM ONLY US
She cannot reach easily into that world. Even observing it is terribly difficult. But there is another method. A sort of 'system' built into the foundation of that world.
In the year 2016, panic breaks out in Chaldea as the generators are swallowed by a black shadow.
In the year 1431, upon a patch of blood stained grass outside Paris, a set of dark purple markings manifest on a certain severed hand.
The Beast of Another World reaches down, and lifts the lost limb from its resting place. Gently, the Witch cradles the cold hand against her cheek, and for a time, Satella is satisfied.
He who sees victory
Within the walls of Paris, a Saint and a Sinner stand atop a heap of draconic corpses.
The first, a young man barely older than twenty, stands unscathed among the carnage, and scans the horizon. "That seems to be the last of them - but I saw one or two fly past us. Can you move, Captain?"
"Of course I can. Do not patronize me, boy." The second, an old man, leans upon a bloodstained Harpoon, heaving breath after breath as blood oozes from his injuries. "And do not remove thine eyes from the sky,. The Evil Dragon may yet make his appearance."
At that moment, the conversation is interrupted as a black shadow paints itself across the western sky.
"Hmph. So she be here." Ahab comments, unsurprised.
"Find and kill Francois Prelati in the tunnels beneath Paris. If you do this, victory is assured." The one given those orders had fulfilled them perfectly. And so, just as she did the previous time he was slain, the mysterious Shadow chasing Natsuki Subaru is making her appearance.
"If Natsuki Subaru reaches Paris, victory is assured." - he supposes he can cross that one off the list as well. That just leaves two.
"Let us see, then, thou insufferable tactician - the victory thou didst promise us." Ahab mutters under his breath.
He who sees opportunity
With a roar, the first king of France brings his axe down, and Demon God Amdusias is finally slain.
Chlodovech does not breathe heavily. That would be unbefitting of a king. But he does lean a bit on his axe, and sit still for a few minutes to relax.
Multiple dragons, his allied servants, even his [Quinotaur] - all of them had fallen to the Demon God Pillar. It was only his impregnable defense that had kept him alive throughout the fight. Well, that and-
"-hah! It's… over?" His master asks, rising from a pile of wyvern corpses.
"Oh, so you were still alive, huh? Good for you, brat." Chlodovech says, frowning a bit at his broken train of thought.
"Yeah, I… no, you… killed me, with your axe?" She trails off, face falling into a sort of confused delirium, staggering over to the site where her doppleganger had fallen. "Yeah I.. fell here. Right? Didn't I…"
He doesn't respond, and she isn't really paying attention to him in the first place. She bends down, running her fingers through the bloodstained grass.
If she was given time, Chlodovech is sure she would be able to recover from the confusion. However-
"Honestly, what are they teaching you kids these days?" He asks, strolling towards her. "Shouldn't you know better than to lower your head around me, brat?"
Jeanne Alter's eyes widen as his legend flashes through her mind. But it's already far too late for her to stop him.
"Thus as you did to my people!" Chlodovech roars, and brings his axe down.
A/N:
Sorry for the delays. Good news is, the next chapter is already written and will be posted sometime tomorrow. The chapter after that is mostly done and will probably be posted Tuesday. (I wrote them out of order).