Chapter 22: Reunion

"Yup. I'm the one and only Rin Tohsaka that you met on the first floor." Rin explained, bowing her head. "I'm different from the Ganma this place is full of. Look." She raised her arm, displaying her Proto Mega Ulorder on her wrist. Takeru recalled that she used the black device to transform into a Kamen Rider a few times in the previous floors, but never found the time to ask about it.

"That means you made it to the ladder in time!" Nero exclaimed.

"Yes, basically." Rin affirmed.

"So since you're here, does that mean you're the sixth floor's Floor Master?" Takeru asked.

"Well… you're half right. Both Rani and I are the Floor Master due to… certain circumstances."

"Would you kindly elaborate on these circumstances?" Nero inquired.

Rin shook her head.

"The only other things I can tell you are Rani and I are truly trying to kill you, and you'll be safe if you make it to the dome. And finally…"

She took out her Cu Chulainn Eyecon and activated it, placing it into the Proto Mega Ulorder.

CU CHULAINN

LOADING

As a blue and red Parka Ghost flew out of the Ulorder, a black armour materialized on her body. The Parka Ghost landed on her shoulders, completing her transformation into Kamen Rider Dark Necrom R Cu Chulainn Damashii.

"… my objective is to get you to the dome."

She turned, readying herself to jump off the pillar they were on.

"Hang on, your objective?" Emu interrupted. "Even though we'll be safe if we get there?"

Dark Necrom R looked back at Emu.

"The minute you two made it to the sixth floor, our conditions for victory were met."

She turned back.

"Honestly, I don't really care if you live or die. But the least I can do is take you there."

With that, she leapt off the pillar. Emu, Takeru and Nero followed, the two Kamen Riders transforming into Action Gamer Level 2 and Ore Damashii respectively.

With Rin as Dark Necrom R in their party, the attention of most of the attacking Rani Ganma was drawn to her, allowing the other three to focus on the Cu Chulainn Ganma. As Rin lead the charge towards the dome, the group deftly parried every blow sent their way, quickly cutting through the fighting Ganma. Finally, as they neared the edge of the dome, Rin threw her spear at one final Rani Ganma, piercing it through its heart. It gave a mighty roar and fell to its knees, vanishing while leaving a broken Ganma Eyecon. Rin stopped for a moment, removing her Eyecon from her Ulorder, causing her armour to vanish.

"It's a shame, isn't it, Rani?"

The group approached a large door on the side of the dome, which started to open slowly. They proceeded to make their way inside, but as they were about to pass through the door, Rin stopped.

"Your answers lie past here."

Emu, Takeru and Nero turned to her.

"Huh? Are you not coming with us?" Takeru asked.

"I'm sorry. I can't go any further. Besides…"

Cracks started to form on her face as her body glowed with an orange aura.

"These Ganma Superior Eyecons… last longer than the Assault ones, but… they still don't last very long." Rin said. "Even so… all that fighting on the Fifth Floor and here took a toll on my body."

"Tohsaka!" Emu cried

"It's ok. Please… let me… no, let us be the last ones."

The cracks grew larger as they spread over her body, which also began to flicker between her normal appearance and a silver and light-blue-coloured humanoid figure, that of a Ganma Superior.

"To be honest with you…"

Rin gave one last pained smile.

"It kinda hurts… a lot. We're on the verge… of bursting into tears."

Her form then turned into the Ganma Superior form, before it shattered like the other Ganma, leaving a broken Ganma Eyecon. Her Proto Mega Ulorder fell to the floor with a clatter.

As the trio walked down a long black hallway, with white crosses down the middle, a message began to play. It was the voices of Rin and Rani.

As you listen, please continue walking.

To whatever Master is watching this, welcome to the centre, the heart, of the sixth floor.

The floor was once the floor on which the two of us fought as Masters.

But… neither the Moon Cell nor either of us were able to discern who won.

Neither of us victors, neither of us losers, yet both of us being victors and losers.

Then, we found records of an otherworldly system that allowed us to suspend ourselves in stasis while transferring our souls into duplicate ghost-like bodies fused with our Servants. These bodies were called Ganma.

Realising that this war would last an eternity, we agreed to enter the System and mass produce duplicates to fight in our stead. However, the Holy Grail War was suspended.

At that moment, the Sixth Floor directed its resources towards preservation, trapping us in the System and integrating it into the centre of the floor as supplementation devices. We were both Masters as well as the floor itself.

"It used them as cogs!?" Emu exclaimed.

Our initial goal was to kill our opponent and ascend to the Seventh Floor. Every time we dreamed, we produced a new set of Ganma.

But our battles held no meaning. It took us a century to realise that.

The Moon Cell already determined that the duel was a draw. But we did not stop. We mass-produced Ganma with ever-decreasing quality to continue the slaughter, until our Ganma clones were unable to think of anything else but fighting.

An eternity of limitless slaughter.

An endless parade of ghosts.

"How cruel…" Nero said.

Eventually, as our consciousness neared its last waking hours, we had an idea.

If the Moon Cell would just send down a final verdict, this endless slaughter could finally be put to an end.

In our final conscious thoughts, we created advanced Ganma Superiors that more closely resembled us in thoughts and actions, allowing them to inherit our Master status and Servant Eyecons. We created the Proto Mega Ulorders so that they could fight without Servants, and they were tasked with one mission: to find a Master to reach the Sixth Floor.

That Master is you.

The Master who didn't give up. The Master who never stopped.

Welcome, Master.

By defeating you, one of us could have been freed as the victor. But that did not come to pass.

Instead, by being defeated by you, one of us will be freed as the defeated.

"So that's what Rin was talking about just now!" Takeru commented.

The moment you arrived on the Sixth Floor, our objective was achieved.

Thank you, whoever you might be.

As the message ended, the trio entered a large black room, lit by a grid of lights on the floor. There was a path leading to a console in the centre of the room that stood in front of two white rectangular capsules. As Takeru approached the console, he saw the sleeping faces of Rin and Rani through windows on each of the capsules.

"I knew it… These are Ganma capsules!" Takeru exclaimed, running towards the console. "If we can just deactivate them, then-"

He suddenly hit an invisible wall and flew backwards, landing on his back.

"Takeru!" Nero rushed forwards.

"It can't be… another Bounded Field!?" Takeru groaned as Nero helped him up to his feet.

He walked up to the console, passing through the Bounded Field. As he held his hand over it, it lit up.

Two holograms of Rin and Rani appeared over their respective capsules.

"It's time," both said in unison. "Our fates are yours to decide."

Had this been Emu from the previous floor, he would have had no qualms deciding. After all, Rin had been far more useful as an ally than Rani was. However, now that he knew Alice was alive, it gave him hope.

If you'd only wanted to save yourselves, you could have just stayed here forever. But you both made a decision. For a millennium, you never gave up.

That's something that I can't let go to waste.

As a doctor, I swore an oath to do no harm. To preserve human life. I faltered in that oath before, when my mind was clouded by fear and hate. I killed and killed, leaving a trail of blood behind me. I lost sight of who I was.

I swear to never falter ever again!

He retracted his hand from the console, which caused it to dim. A confident smile formed on Emu's face.

"No. I won't sacrifice one for the other. I'm done with killing. We will find a way to save both!"

He turned around.

"Takeru, is there any way for the two to still be Ganma without the capsules?"

Takeru thought for a moment.

"Well, normally if the body in the capsule dies, no more Ganma can be created…"

He suddenly had a brainwave.

"But after my body was destroyed when I defeated Argos, I still managed to remain a ghost! I believe you appeared as well to help defeat one of his henchmen?"

Emu did recall warping to a mysterious place and defeating a Rider similar to Rin.

"In addition, I wasn't detected as part of the Holy Grail War until I had transformed with Nero's Eyecon, and at that point, the Moon Cell detected us as a single Servant!"

"But if we put both of them into these Eyecons things, then the Moon Cell will still detect it as there being 2 Masters on the Sixth Floor." Nero chimed in. "It would just delay the decision."

Emu paused to think for a moment, until at last he had a brainwave.

"What if we put both of them into a single Eyecon?"

"Eh?"

"Is it possible?"

"Well…"

Then Takeru suddenly remembered something.

"The Tenkatoitsu Eyecon! It houses the power of 3 Heroic Sprits! That means it's possible!"

"Perfect! That means we have a plan!"

Emu took out his Gamer Driver and, equipping it around his waist, he took out his Master Creator VRX Gashat, activating it.

MASTER CREATOR VRX!

He slammed it into his Driver and quickly opened the lever.

GASHATTO! GACHAN! LEVEL UP!

THE POWER OF ALL THE FALLEN!

(GET MAKE!)

THE MASTER OF THE FUTURE!

MASTER CREATOR VRX!

Once again, he had taken on the form of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Master Creator Gamer.

"I'll need your Eyecon."

Takeru obliged. Ex-Aid raised his hand over the Eyecon, drawing out an Appraisal Code Cast to analyse the Eyecon. After the program had finished running, he returned the Eyecon to Takeru.

"In order to make the new Eyecon, we need samples of Ganma Eyecons that have records of their souls in them. However, we need them to be intact, and since all the Ganma outside are degenerate copies, we need multiple of them to make it."

"In that case, I shall take on Rin's Ganma!" Nero proclaimed. "Takeru, can you handle Rani's?"

"I can. And what will you be doing, Emu?"

"I'll be writing a program to momentarily stop the Ganma System, and in doing so, I'll be able to create a pathway to transfer their souls into the finished Eyecon."

Takeru nodded.

"Come on, Nero! Let's go!"

And with that, Nero and Takeru ran out of the room, with Takeru transforming into Kamen Rider Ghost Ore Damashii and Nero igniting her sword.