121: The Apostle of Greed
"Bael has been defeated, as you are no doubt aware."
"Whether it was a pathetic showing or not… is unclear at this point. My examinations of Natsuki Subaru have not yet begun."
"In other words, you have focused your analysis upon that other reality first. That aligns with your preferences - at least what preferences you had before our consensus."
"Just so."
"...Raum. How long has the Near-Future Observation Lens SHEBA been malfunctioning?"
"The new Flauros believes it coincides with Natsuki Subaru's arrival at Chaldea - he claims that VII sabotaged it so it could not detect him as a threat."
"Illogical. It is already obvious that that woman has no such subtlety. Is he simply too stubborn to accept his previous iteration's failure? No, that is not the issue at hand. Who else is aware at this point?"
"Bael, Flauros, Phenex, Bifrons, myself - with you included, Zepar, that makes six of us."
"And our chances of fixing it?"
"...Do you truly wish to do so?"
"..."
"Freed from consensus, you see it too, don't you? As it stands now, our plan is doomed to failure. SHEBA failed six years ago - I'm sure you can piece together the cause."
"...!"
"You can see it now."
"How did we miss it?"
"Our king charted the correct path three thousand years ago, and from that point we have never once questioned or strayed from it. But that thing cannot be predicted. Or rather, the cause for its awakening-"
"-Exists beyond the point of the end of humanity. I understand. And so, you have been searching the other world recorded by Natsuki Subaru. The actions of Bifrons in Jerusalem and Phenex in Rome - am I to assume they are also seeking a solution?"
"Bifrons's results were intentional. Phenex was simply seeking oblivion; the emergence of Sodom's Beast was coincidental."
"Following their example seems ill-advised. I will pick up your slack instead. Give me the data for Natsuki Subaru - he has proved implacable thus far, and so I will search all of his possible pasts, and find the version of him best suited to our task."
"Very well - be warned though, Zepar. In this moment you are following Phenex's example perfectly."
Alter Ego
I blink as Zepar's last thoughts finally vanish. He didn't need to share all of that with me. Really, what a nice guy. Thanks for all the ominous warnings.
Not that I understood any of it.
Ignoring the phantom pains of my body tearing itself apart tens of thousands of times, I begin my stretching routine as I think.
I'm not completely blind at the moment. [Clairvoyance (Demise)] has given me quite a bit of good information considering how many times I just died, so a rudimentary plan is already possible. Zepar has saved me a lot of time - seriously, he really was a nice guy.
'I' should be coming along soon - no, referring to him like that is confusing, so let's call him 'the idiot'.
The idiot is coming soon - I should be able to jump bodies into him, and that'll make it possible for me to actually leave this singularity. From there, it's a simple matter of hunting down Raum. Whatever he's using to analyze Lugunica can probably be used to get back there, and I can see everyone again - however many of them the idiot has left alive, I guess.
"That's awfully cold of you," Echidna notes. "Are you really going to abandon the world of your parents to destruction?"
Ah.
"...Right, there were people like that, weren't there?"
Even now, I'm a coward, huh? I seriously tried to pretend that the end of the world wasn't my problem for a moment there. How disgusting.
"How many times do you estimate I'll have to die?" I ask.
"If I use our previous methodology, it might be upwards of ten billion times," Echidna says. "But considering we seem to have hit some kind of limit for us to be here in the first place, I think we'll have to be a bit less comprehensive going forward. [Clairvoyance (Demise)] is a real lucky break in that respect, but the fact remains we might have to take a few chances. By my count, we capped out at around one billion, does that sound right to you?"
"I lost count at ten million," I admit with some slight embarrassment.
"But you know the exact number you lost count at? Good grief." I can picture her shaking her head with a smug expression. I wish I could punch her.
"For now, let's try Bonnet, and then Medea. They seem like they wouldn't be too much trouble to trick," I say.
That was the intention.
(Stede clings desperately to the wheel, slowly bleeding out, pulling with all his might to get us clear of the whirlpool.)
I just wanted to trick some rogue servants.
(Medea makes one final cast, heedless of her missing legs.)
Just to make some temporary, expendable allies, of people I knew weren't particularly good-hearted.
(Stede keeps his grip on my arm, even though Charybdis will pull him over the side too now.)
I wanted to use them.
(Medea teleports into the path of Drake's shot.)
And yet-
(Stede shouts in exaggerated outrage in a way that reminds me of someone I can't remember.)
Somehow, these two -
(Medea smiles, hair fluttering in the wind.)
As the idiot gnaws uselessly at my fingers in his mouth and struggles to free himself from the ropes binding him, I turn my attention towards Medea for a moment. "I don't want you guys getting caught up in this, so can you step away for a bit?"
"Yes, Subaru-sama," Medea says, giving a small bow. Turning, she starts to walk towards the shoreline, before pausing to look back at me with a small smile. "Please come back safely."
As the starlight glimmers in her eyes, my thoughts freeze for just a moment.
Then I realize that the idiot is staring at me with wide eyes, and I come to my senses. "Drake, that means you too."
"Sure. Any other orders?" The armored woman asks dully.
"Yeah. Go back to where we left the Argo - if it's still intact, destroy it," I say, and ignore the idiot biting down harder on my fingers as he gives a muffled scream, slicing through the [Unseen Hand]s he slings at me. Naturally, as a Servant, I'm far faster than those sluggish things.
But seriously, what's he doing throwing those things around anyway? I guess he's slothful if nothing else…
"Medea, you can go with her if you want," I say, but the Witch shakes her head.
"I'll wait here."
"Alright- let's begin. [Return From Death]."
My world unfolds.
"Neither of us can reset here - your friends are dying outside, so it's in your best interest to give up quickly," I say. "Once I possess you, I'll reset and save everyone, so just give it up already. It's in everyone's best interest."
I take a step back, removing my hand from the idiot's mouth as the familiar green hillscape appears.
Without any hesitation, he bites his tongue off and drowns in his own blood on the grassy slope.
(Did I underestimate him a bit?)
A moment later, the idiot rises to his feet with a scowl as a corpse and a splattering of black mud drop from the hole at the top of the hill.
"So that's how it is, huh?" He mutters.
"[Return From Death] endlessly revives Natsuki Subaru, pouring out curses in the process. It's a fusion of our innate abilities and a niche capability of Angra Mainyu. Of course, since I've got Angra Mainyu as a component of my spirit origin, I can withstand the curses, but as for you…" The mud touches his feet, and… does nothing. "...Never mind, I misread that a bit."
(The vaguest sense of uneasiness starts to build in me.)
"Alter Ego… no, I'm not gonna call you that to your face," He smirks. "Okay, for now you can be Barusu."
"Right, there was a nickname like that, wasn't there…" I mutter.
"God, you're gross," his smirk quickly shifts to a scowl.
Wordlessly, I call Angra Mainyu's weapons, Tawrich and Zarich, to my hands - and then, remembering, I pause. "Before we start… Medea's smile earlier. Did Rem smile the same way? It's been a while, so I don't remember."
"No, it wasn't the same at all," He answers with a hint of pity in his voice, and fury courses through me.
How dare he.
My blades flash through the air - and pass through him. "[EMM]. I hope I don't have to explain this one to you."
"No, Emilia is still a goddess in my world," I say, lowering my weapon and stepping away as I wait for him to run out of mana. "What is that, anyway? Dimensional displacement magic? Who the hell taught you that?"
(I already know.)
"Beatrice, obviously," He answers. "We developed it together not long after we made our contract. But you never managed that, did you? There's no way she'd let you end up like this, if you had."
"Then, the one you sacrificed at the sanctuary was-!?"
"No one, idiot. I've been trying to tell you that. The only difference between us is… when I set out to save everyone, I don't disclude Natsuki Subaru," He says.
"And how many are you willing to sacrifice, for your easily spent life!?"
"Of our friends? Zero, obviously," He says with a shrug. "Well, I haven't succeeded in saving everyone, but you haven't either, have you? No, actually, have you even helped our friends? I mean, really helped them?"
Shut up.
"You completed the trial at the sanctuary, didn't you? But if Garfiel and Emilia were going to grow up, they had to face their respective pasts… hell, did you even take away Roswaal's Book of Wisdom?"
Shut up!
"You just brute forced everything by dying over and over again, without ever trusting your allies. That's not some fantastic feat of willpower and strategy! That's just the gaming style of an elementary schooler! Where the hell do you get off acting so smug - a guy like you could never have cleared the Pleiades Watchtower, not least because the moment you stepped into the library you would have drowned in your own books!"
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
"In other words, you don't have this, do you?" He grins. "Authority of Gluttony: [Sin Eater]."
Something shifts in my world, and two blades appear in his hands as well.
"You…"
"You were never able to kill Gluttony, were you?" He asks with an insufferable smirk. "So there's that, Beatrice, and from what I can tell you even died against Regulus, you freaking clown. Who's the one who has the right to act superior here…?"
"Shut up! You think I don't know!?" I finally shout. "I get it! I get it!"
Yeah. I guess I knew all along. From the moment I saw him smile. If he had been the coward I accused him of being, he wouldn't be able to smile like that. Everything else was convenient self-deception.
With even less effort, he got everything I died over and over to get.
"But… even so," I mutter. "Even so, I have no intention of giving up."
"...W-wait, really?" He seems honestly shocked. I'm not really sure why.
"Yeah. Because I hate you."
In the end, this is just about spite and envy. He can still return home, and I can't. And even if I could, he's done better than me in every respect.
So I'll destroy him and take his place. That's all.
His spell ends, and he's still too slow. A second body is added to the pile, and the mud rises.
Class: Alter Ego
Alternate Classes: Foreigner, Caster
True Name: Natsuki Subaru (Greed)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Armaments: Tawrich and Zarich, Knife.
Manifestation Cost: High
Bio:
An alternate version of Natsuki Subaru. Led astray by the Witch of Greed, he died over and over in an attempt to be a hero who saved everyone. Slowly, he became an incomprehensible existence, and in the end all of his bonds were corrupted or severed. Finally, without warning, he found himself returned to Earth, mixed into the vessel of a Servant prepared by the Demon Pillar Zepar.
The other components used in Alter Ego's construction are Odin in his capacity as a god of prophecy, and Angra Mainyu in his capacity as a god who records atrocities. Neither has any ego, although in some way Angra has managed to bleed through some vague sense of nastiness..
Parameters
Strength: E
Endurance: E
Agility: A
Mana: B
Luck: EX (But not in the sense of 'the best')
NP: EX
Class Skills:
Existence Outside the Domain: C
Territory Creation: B-
Item Construction: B-
Being connected to Odin, and influenced by the Witch of Greed Alter Ego Possesses the innate abilities of a Caster. However, his own bad habits and tendency to constantly reset the timeline mean that he is all but incapable of making real use of these.
Personal Skills:
Affection of the Witch: A++
A skill representing the love that the Witch Satella holds for Alter Ego. "All parameters are ranked up" - sure would be convenient, but in reality this skill just makes Alter Ego smell bad. The first "+" signifies the miasma intensifying when Foreigner's ultimate Noble Phantasm is used. The second "+" signifies Alter Ego's ability to purposely intensify this scent by speaking about his final Noble Phantasm.
Annihilation Wish: B
Clairvoyance (Demise): A
At the moment of his death, Alter Ego gains an extreme degree of insight into his immediate vicinity, especially those things connected with his death. Furthermore, his demise is treated as a sacrifice to the World Tree, and replenishes his mana by an immense degree - but lacking the superior durability of a certain Caster, this effect is only relevant within his reality marble.
Advice of the Witch: A
Allows Alter Ego to receive periodic advice from the Witch Echidna so long as he wears a certain crystal pendant.
Noble Phantasms:
Infinite Ruin: Return From Death
Rank: A
Type: Anti-Army
Range: 1-20
Maximum number of targets: 1-50 People
A Reality Marble created by the intermingling of Angra Mainyu's [Unlimited Raise Dead] and Subaru's [Return by Death]. While within its boundaries, [Return by Death] does not activate as usual. Rather, upon Alter Ego's death, he revives within the Reality Marble, and cursed mud is rained down on all within.
This cursed mud is capable of [Blackening] Servants, and those blackened in such a way are beholden to Alter Ego's will.
Live Again, From Zero: Return by Death
Rank: EX
Type: Anti-Event
Range: -
Maximum number of targets: 1 Person
As expected, it is the same as the normal [Return by Death]. The user returns to a set point in the past upon death. There are lots of odd caveats, but by this point the reader should not need this ability explained.
Incidentally, if Alter Ego resets, Subaru will not remember the loop that was reset, and if Subaru resets, Alter Ego will not remember.
…By the way, as this is a Noble Phantasm, an innate ability of one who is nominally humanity's defender, it has been mechanically integrated into the human order in such a way that resetting the timeline will not provoke a counter force response on its own.
-But if that is the case, what exactly was Benkei summoned to face?