The elevator stopped a few minutes later. They had to be at least a hundred meters underground. A series of blast doors began to open before them.
"Welcome Anomaly, I am Koine."
She extended an arm and bowed like circus performer. She had black hair with matching cat ears and tail, brown eyes, a bone pale complexion you only get if you haven't been outside in months, and a lab coat over a cheap wife beater and blue jeans.
"And I've been very, very anxious to meet you." She looked at him coldly, as though she regarded him as a mere object.
"Adeat." The jewels and outfit materializing as he said the word.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she tilted her head.
"I am not your lab rat cat girl."
"A cat, girl? Hehe, so is that what the average Earther would call me?" she said playfully, wagging her tail.
"Not sure, but that is what the average otaku would say you are and I have little reason to dispute their classification."
"Very well then, I'm a cat girl," She put her arms around him, his head once more ending up between a pair of boobs. Average size perhaps, but still nice and soft. "and you are the most interesting anomaly I've ever held in my arms." She closed her eyes, "Hmmm, yes. So this is the repulsive instinct you instill in others. It's not as strong as I thought, but maybe that's because you're physically attractive despite your stature and age."
"Stop it." He said bluntly.
It's not like he shouldn't have enjoyed it as he did with Ffion, but despite the fact that he loved what she had done in the past, there was something about her he didn't like.
"Ok." She backed off.
"Koine, it's been awhile. How are things?" Asked Niven.
"Ugh, I'm at an impasse. I need more information on this thing you're so worried about, but you can't give me any!" She threw her arms up, "Do you know how frustrating that is!"
"I have a bit of a lead, you can stop researching the old world."
"Why?"
"It's a bit of a long story. Let's just say a bound demon told me it was here."
"'It can't be here and you know that."
"Ah, but the next clue can."
"What is 'it' anyway?" interjected Cipher.
"A sin beyond comprehension." Responded Niven.
"Not good enough Niven. I almost died back at Stonehenge. I deserve more than that."
"You'll get it, once I'm absolutely certain."
"This mad scientist seems certain enough." he said bluntly.
She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Oh let the baby have its bottle Niven. Listen Anomaly, I've been led to believe you're pretty intelligent, so you should already know the truth. Think really, really hard about it. It's simply the only logical explanation. If the magic found in high fantasy novels really exists, and has existed since time immemorial, how did the world come to be as it is today?"
Alex had been asking himself that question ever since Niven's confession. Since magic is overt, it, like science, had to be common knowledge at some point.
Now, people in all areas of the world can and have forgotten about a great many things. But written records containing some lost knowledge have always managed to survive.
And even if that weren't the case, the masses always knew the most basic of basic things. People (the ones that survived societal collapse, that is) never forgot how to make a fire, grow crops, build a shelter, and so on. Such individuals would never have forgotten a cantrip like "Ardescat" or "Saggita Magica", especially given their undeniable applicability in everyday life or self-defense…unless…
"They cast a forgetfulness spell on every living soul on the planet. Wiping their minds completely clean." Said the anomaly.
"See? I didn't even have to tell him directly. You were right Ianaset, he is smart."
"You'll have to forgive me if I tell you that my answer is impossible."
"Listen Anomaly…" She was instantly interrupted.
"My name is Alexander Cipher." He said.
"Ok ok. As you know, Albert Einstein himself said that if you had infinite energy you could do just about anything. Sadly, obtaining said infinite energy really is impossible. However, it wouldn't take infinite energy to illuminate every corner of the Earth, now would it? That's all you have to do, metaphorically speaking, to wipe every mind on said Earth clean. After that you simply pray that they don't somehow rediscover whatever it was you wanted them to forget. If they do, you just fire again and again until it all finally works out. Eventually they won't rediscover magic on one of your attempts and thus direct their energies towards other things like science or philosophy. Oh if only one as you existed then ano, I mean Alex. The knowledge that may have been retained, ohhhhhh-oh…."Koine was swooning in her own arms, her cheeks bright red.
A sense of existential terror filled Alex's heart. His theory was certainly logical, but his mind refused to accept it. To have actually purged all but a chosen few's memory everything they ever knew, of everyone and everything they ever loved…It was just too terrible, no matter the reasons that popped into his head that could possibly justify such an action.
"Is all of this really possible?" Asked Cipher
"Yes. And not only that, I think it actually happened. On the first itteration no less. Even the Holy Bible has a story that reflects these events almost perfectly. That is the great sin, everyone. The erasure of self, the purging of both sad and happy memory alike. Of all hate, of all love, of all knowledge…"
"The re-setting of humanity." Said Mikoto.
"Sensei, why have you been hiding this from us?" asked Emiya earnestly.
"Oh no, oh no ho no ohnoohnohonooooo!" Said Ffion, shaking her head from side to side.
Jason Sneck pulled out a fifth of 190 proof liquor and started pouring shots. "Oh fuck my session of planning and sobriety, we all need to get shitfaced right fucking now."
"I'm with you Sneck. Hit me up. Hit me up as hard as you can." Said Alexander, Jason poured him two shots in response.
"Remember to tell me my name if it all goes to hell will yah?"
"Gladly, if I survive. I almost lost consciousness in the deepest basement of Mahora's library. A spell of that magnitude might just cause my skull to pop like an overripe cherry."
"That's quite impossible Anomaly. It'll hurt more than the Spanish Inquisition, but you'll definitely survive." Responded Koine.
"Oh great, that's a really comforting thought. 'Sure, you won't die, but you'll wish you had.' Is essentially what you just said. Sound comforting?" Alex said in his standard, emotionless tone.
"It actually is, gotta count the few blessings serfs like us have ya know?" Said a new voice.
"Vajra!" Yelled Koine, her cold voice instantly melting into a tone of warmth and affection.
"I've finally perfected my auto-summoning spell!" She said as she rubbed her head against his
"Easy, easy!"
"I missed you soooo much, hold me tightly…" He did as he was told. wrapping his arms around her tenderly with eyes closed.
"What the hell! Is this even the same person!" thought Alex. Then he recognized his voice, "Wait, you're that guy from the radio, right?"
"Opposites' attract don't they?" Said Vajra as he opened eyes, they were a really bright, almost unnatural, blue. Other than that he looked pretty average, save for his dark tan and facial tatoos. A vertical line through his left eye, and a sun with his right as the core.
"But she's…" he was interrupted.
"The most beautiful, most energetic, most tender and loving individual I've ever met." Responded Vajra.
"No, she's not." He responded bluntly.
"I know she doesn't really show it, but she cares about everybody even remotely close to her. Would I fall for a heartless doll?" Vajra asked.
"Beauty trumps a man's principles 99 times out of a hundred, I have no reason to assume you're any different." Said Alex.
"Hahaha, now that was just plain mean. You're way darker than I thought you'd be. Still, Niven really likes you, so you must be one of the good guys. I'll let it slide. Oh by the way, were you the one in the middle of this photograph?"He tossed him a copy of the photo he spoke of on the radio.
"And what if I was?"
He clapped his hands for a moment, "I love people like you guys. I mean, I loved you all before, but now I really love you guys. No fear, no consent, just doing what you feel is right. Still, all of us in the same place can't be a coincidence. Can you tell me what we're doing?"
"We're going to attempt to destroy that array I told you about..." Koine started to pant as she looked longingly into his eyes. Vajra responded by kissing her deeply. Emiya and Niven started to blush, Jason was giving the thumbs up, Ffion's tails started to wag as she looked on while Inari and Alex turned away.
"Ok, let me try and put this together," said Emiya, "In ancient times all of humanity's memory was erased by a group of extremely powerful mages so everyone but them would forget about magic. Those few created the mundus magicus while they left the rest of humanity to rot. However, those on this side felt sorry for those left behind. So, they started the magister magi system so that they could help the people they left behind and thus assuage their guilt. But the thing they built that allowed them to do this was never destroyed, merely forgotten. Thus, it still exists, and if someone else were ever to find out about it something really extremely super bad could happen…right?"
"See? If people think for themselves every answer they seek will fall into their hands." Said Koine.
"Ah true dat!" said Vajra.
"You are correct my apprentice. Which is why it must be destroyed." Said Hephesanes.
"Ok, so they reset humanity and got what they wanted. Why the hell would anyone want to reset it again?" Said Motoko.
"They, quote unquote, died a long time ago pettaneko." Said Paula, "But the array must have gathered a ginormous amount of magical energy since it was last used. And nobody said that all that power has to be used to wipe everyone's memory."
"With that kind of power, almost anything is possible. You'd essentially be a god." said Alexander.
"Now do you see now why I kept this from you all? If anyone, good or evil, finds the array and uses it before we have a chance to destroy it...they..."
He couldn't adequately describe the visions in his brain, but his words and expressions inspired them in all the others. All the horrible things that may result from the most dire wishes of both good and evil men being forced upon the world. The Law of Unintended Consequences was inescapable unless you had total omniscience, something impossible for those bound to the physical realm. Nothing good could come of its use by mortal men.
But even if it all worked out, even if a truly good person did create a utopia, how could it be anything other than their utopia, the expression of their will, the actualization their dreams, the attainment of their happiness? What of the hopes and dreams of every other soul on the planet? Seen in this light, are not the wishes of both the saint and the sinner one and the same? These thoughts filled their minds, in turn filling them with an absolute fear of what the future may bring.
They all began to began to break down, except for Koine, Paual and Vajra.
"Get over yourselves!" They said in unison as they slapped the others as hard as they could.
"We just need to prepare for what we may have to do in order to accomplish our goals." Said Koine, "First, this anomaly needs to be trained in magic. Also, I'll need his artifact. It just doesn't look complete to me, and I've always wanted to work on a 'death bringer'." Said Koine, smiling.
"My name is Alexander, please try to refer to me as such." he said.
"I'll try."
"Listen, magic is all well and good, but I already know how to fight. Just give me some guns that can handle the pressures generated by magnum load tungsten carbide rounds and I can take care of the rest."
"And if you get disarmed?"
"I've trained in the martial arts, and I have a powerful artifact which is damn near impossible to get off of me in combat."
"You obviously have no idea the kind of forces we may have to fight." Responded Koine indignantly, "In the Mundus Magicus there exist entities that can level entire city blocks and melt mountains with a wave of their proverbial hand. There are beings that have a good chance of surviving a nuclear blast and creatures who dine on steel. I'm not saying you're not good, anomaly, I'm saying you're not nearly as good as you think you are. But you could be."
"And every minute we waste training me up is another minute that array continues to be a threat to everyone in my world!" he chopped the air in front of him, the thought of his son becoming a tabula rasa causing his emotions to show, "We should focus our efforts on finding that thing and destroying it ASAP!"
"What if it has security?" She asked.
"Then we just blast our way through! If brute force doesn't work, you just aren't using enough!" He responded without hesitation
"Ahh yes, brute force. A great solution to most any problem. But you're forgetting something. You see, to use brute force to solve a problem, you must first have enough 'force' to override any amount of 'defense' the opposing entity may possess."
She took a breath, "I'll give you an example you can understand. If you want to brute force your way into a heavily guarded military compound, you're going to need a lot more than just your skilled self. Since we know next to nothing about this array, brute force is all we have. If we all work together in perfect synchronicity we have a good deal, enough to hold off the likes of Nagi for a few minutes according to my calculations. But that's just not good enough. However, if you were fully trained, and the rest of us just a bit stronger, victory against such an opponent becomes a distant possibility. I assure you, if you can beat him, you can beat anything."
"Now now, I doubt we could take down The Thousand Master no matter how hard we tried. I mean, he took out the leader of Cosmo Entelecheia single handedly." Said Vajra as he waved his finger.
"He's not a god Sunny, he can die just like everyone else. Besides, that was a one on one battle. I was talking about all of us ganging up on him. 8 on 1 is very long odds if the 8 are competent." She said coldly.
"He took down an army…" he said before he was interrupted.
"Of weak, incompetent morons who were scared shitless of him!" She interrupted as she slapped him, "Don't be such a fanboy!"
"Alright alright, even Nagi has a limit I get it." Said Vajra in the tone every couple has heard before. She instantly embraced him.
"Good, I hate being like that with you!" She said right before kissed him on the cheek.
"So besides handing my artifact over, what else do you want?" Asked Cipher.
"I need you to master incantation-less casting and sword fighting."
"Sword fighting?" he tilted his head.
"It can't possibly hurt, and we do have a master with us. It'd be a shame to let her talent go to waste."
"You mean Inari?" He guessed.
"Yes. She's actually quite famous, you should be honored to be her apprentice."
He turned to Mikoto, "You're famous?"
"Of Course! I was arena champion a few years back." She said proudly.
"Ahh yes, the 'bilateral bitch'. Most of her opponents needed to get their arms and legs sewn back on after they fought her." Said Vajra.
"I see. You were going for intimidation. A bit of a different approach than Musashi advocated, but I suppose it's still quite effective."
"Musashi?" she asked.
"Miyamoto Musashi. In "A Book of Five Rings' he told readers to go for the face whenever possible so that you would intimidate your opponent and get him to focus on defensive action, thus ceding the momentum of the battle to yourself."
"Was he a great swordsman?"
"Yes. He's considered to be the best that ever lived on my side." He responded.
"Hmph, then I guess what they say is true. Great minds think alike." She said elegantly.
"Then it's decided," said Niven, "We'll all teach him a few of our tricks while Me and Inari do most of the proper training," He took the shot, "agreed?"
"Jusht what I was thinkin'! , *hic*" said Jason. 5 shots of almost pure alcohol back to back will stick it to anybody.
"It is the most logical course of action." Said Koine as she indulged.
"Can't argue with that." Said Vajra as he gulped the shot Jason tossed him.
"About time someone cured him of his love of ballistics." Said Inari, shooting up.
"I don't know much, but I'll try my best." Said Emiya, tossing the shot aside when everyone wasn't looking and acting as though he drank it.
"Yay more time around Cipher more time around Cipher!" Said Ffion as she glomped him. Her breasts once more eveloping his head.
Well, that's the 11th chapter. If you read up to this point, good for you. You have more free time than I do :P