"Still, you are the rightful victor. As such, you may do whatever you want with the Holy Grail," Twice Peaceman articulates like an orator from the towering pile of stone sarcophagi he is standing on, "The only thing I will ask of you to do when you enter Angelica Cage is to input only one command, and then you may use it however you see fit:"
<a href='http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=ZWTO4mk6UrM' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>"Don't stop."</a>
The implications of Twice's request hits me hard. Hard enough to make me remember what just happened before we entered the gateway...
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Our group of three charges down the shimmering hallway - a hallway that seems to stretch for miles into the infinite abyss of the moon. All around us are the sparks and flashes of a plethora of unfamiliar images, with far too many of them for me to even begin counting they are as plentiful and varied in subject matter as there are stars in the night sky.
----I see a group of men encircle a table signing an important-looking piece of parchment.
----Then; hundreds of weary workers trudge to stack thousands of stone blocks on top of each other to form the pyramid they are in the process of building.
----Another scene, this time a man labors to paint a ceiling above him with vibrant, poignant images.
----The local populace of some distant and foreign country fights the army of another foreign and distant in country in what is more akin to a one-sided slaughter than a legitimate battle.
----This time; massive crowd enthusiastically cheers at a rally, though the cause they are pushing for escapes me in a brief moment that I am allowed to ponder the picture.
----A gargantuan hunk of a glacier plunges into the sea with a cataclysmic splash.
----A child wrapped in swaddling clothes breathes in his first breaths of life in the dark shelter of a cave.
...These are all scenes from Earth's distant past, no doubt recorded by the computer we are in the moment they happened.
"Look around," Gilgamesh proudly orders with a compelling voice, "This is this world you have inherited, Master. These are the fruits of your labors. You have been fighting for this, haven't you? The opportunity to change the the world as you see fit according to your will?"
"After all, this is your right as the winner of the Holy Grail War. This is a prize that you have
earned. Embrace this all equally as you have come to embrace yourself," He continues to tell me wisely as we continue our journey down the glowing corridor, "Disregard any aprehension that you might have, even though I am certain that you have expelled all doubts by now. There is nothing objectively wrong with wanting to leave your mark on the world, something that will leave a lasting impression as proof that you once were. That is one of the reasons mankind has an inherent fear of death since the dawn of time, one of the reasons that they futilely sought out immortality as a solution. Though humans cannot help but fear death's inevitability, we should also take care to ultimately relish life."
"...That is the reason I accepted a Contract with you in the first place. Even though you were initially just one in a sea of faceless others and should have been beneath my notice as a higher being -- little more than a many puppet-wielding puppet -- there was something much more in you that surpassed a simple base instinct to live through a fatal turn of events that is instilled in all living things.
There was a spark. A conscious will and desire in a creation of some heavenly body that grew past its original role that wanted more than it was dealt, and that in turn would eventually go on to partake in a journey of self-growth and discovery with a king by their side......it seems quite familiar to me."
"So go on. Hold your head high, Master. Be proud of yourself and what you have accomplished, and remember that you have surpassed all others before you and have won the Holy Grail."
The King of Heroes smiles, but it is not the condescending sort that he reserves for our foes or the perpetually smug grin that he seems so fond of wearing.
No, it is a genuinely proud smile.
"But more importantly than that, you have earned my respect."
The corridor shifts and our journey suddenly has us ascending higher and higher. It goes on for so long and climbs such great heights above the neverending void it suspends over, but in no time at all we can practically reach out and touch the moon above our heads glimmering in the darkness. We go up, up, up; up to our final destination, up the stairway to heaven itself --
the stairway to Heaven's Feel.
Gilgamesh spares some final words of encouragement underlaid with eagerness and hints of nostalgia and finality directly at me. "Let us charge into the Cedar Forest one more time and see what awaits us."
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- ] | [ -
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"This...is what you want?" I reply to Twice's request with an unsteady tone, "
'Don't stop...?' "
"Correct." Twice confirms my question. "Conflict encourages growth and strength of will, and you are the thesis of this belief of mine. You are the living proof that this theory is true."
I...how can I react to that? How am I supposed to react, period?
"You are here in the position you are now as a result of conflict. You surviving -- and thriving -- all the way to this point is the byproduct of violence. You are a winner through and through, and all those who you faced were losers. Week after week you lived, they died, et cetera et cetera. You were literally nothing before, nothing but a menial NPC, but you overcame that role imposed on you by the SE.RA.PH itself and grew into something else entirely. You are the fish that crawled from the digital sea, the thistle that grew from the harshness of the mountain."
...I cannot refute anything he says.
"Your birth is an anomaly not unlike my own. A coincidence. But the fact that you grew and grew while dominating everything else before you finally came here is
not. The strong distinguish themselves from the mindless crowds and graduate from ordinary to extraordinary, and though your origins might be plain you are certainly anything but."
"This is what humanity needs now more than ever. In order to cure ourselves of these stifling times, we need to inflict war so great on Earth that humanity will never heal from the scars. Only something of that scale can save us. In order to overcome this stagnation that is slowly suffocating all of the human race we need to instill conflict. Great conflict. A brutal war to end all wars. A war in which anyone can survive if they are strong enough is the only sort of treatment that I can prescribe for our dying world."
"Endless war...?" Rani says under her breath with concern evident in her voice, her deep-plum eyes lost contemplating the doctor's thought-provoking, dangerous words. The concept seems downright disagreeable to her.
...so why do I have these doubts of my own? Do I still need time to gather my thoughts?
"That is why I want you to tell them all
'Don't stop.' I want you to tell the rest of the world to never stop. Tell them to never stop running on the road of war even if their path ends in ruin."
What do I do in the face of this? What can I say? What Twice says isn't right, not one bit, but I certainly can't say he's wrong either. If fact, I would even have to go so far as to say that Twice understands perfectly what he is talking about. He is not a fanatic who adamantly believes his cause is right and just, he adopts his outlook based on the scientist that he is, viewing this as a necessity with that clinical air of his. Twice is the most reasonable person that I have ever known in my life. Everything he has said to me has merit.
It's true- in order to become a finalist I have had to win battles multiple times, life-or-death battles, too, and each time I won I took a life, crushed a dream -- no, I
denied it -- on my way to the next opponent. At first I had nothing to drive me besides a stubborn survival instinct and a nagging, burning desire to understand just what exactly I was. No matter how much I would want to deny it, the Grail War and everything that makes it what it is was instrumental in my development. This all fits in perfectly with what Twice has been saying all this time.
--------But just because someone is reasonable doesn't mean that they are sane.
There is no way that I can deny the fact that I had to destroy lives to get to my position. It hurt at first. It hurt so terribly much, even with Archer's self-confidence -- although a normal person would describe that as arrogance -- to serve as an emotional crutch. With the Grail War as a backdrop I came to understand myself and the world around me, all the while I had no other choice than to continue to participate.
No- I
did have a choice. Everyone has a choice. And the choice I chose...was to kill.
Still...even though I killed and killed many times, even though I am the perfect textbook example of Twice's theory......I didn't come here to wish for death. As the one who made the conscious decision to snuff out the lives of my opponents, as one who grew uncomfortably used to that prospect, I know more than anyone else that I do not want that.
Rin Tohsaka once said that Twice H. Peaceman and I were similar. She may be right about that. We both understand the necessity of conflict and how it stimulates change in a survival-of-the-fittest sort of way, we both find the entire concept of death furthering progress unappealing, and it is the only option that we have experienced and know of at this time.
...
...
...
But...
"Just because something is an answer doesn't mean it is right. That is the difference between you and me. Unlike you I refuse to let the killing go on any longer. You think that this is the only solution. World War isn't the answer, Twice. I know death is way too prevalent in the world beyond the Moon Cell, and the Holy Grail War only perpetuates this violence. That is why I cannot condone the Holy Grail War. That is why I am going to put a stop to it."
"You also made a glaring mistake." I declare. "A scientist shouldn't cherry pick instances of data in favor of their theory to support their hypothesis while disregarding others,
doctor. You've overlooked the fact that I am not the only result of the Moon Cell's experiment here." I say to Twice, whose eyes seem to widen ever so slightly at my accusation. He is not the only one who does this.
------I walk a few steps to her and point right at Rani.
She gasps when I do so, quite surprised by my actions and sudden initiative. I continue to talk, resuming eye contact with the man in the lab coat.
"This War has also proved that humans can find a way. The fact that this girl is alive and with me today in the face of the Grail War system when she should have died if we went along with it is conclusive that there is something more for humanity, that we shouldn't have to resort to 'war to end all wars.' She became a person as a result of nurturing and mutual compassion, not because she had to carve a swarth through her foes. Without that, she would still be a empty, lost doll who would not know what it's like to
live. It doesn't matter that violence is what caused her to end up in her original position because that aspect of her past is not what defines her."
"Twice H. Peaceman, I'll take my chances with humanity because
she is MY proof."
The doctor-shaped NPC is silent for a moment. But it is only just a moment. "I see that you are adamant in your position against me. I doubt that I will be able to change your mind if you are so steadfast in your stance." Twice admits as he smooths his tie impassively, not once losing his composure. From the way he acts, it is clear that he sees this all as just another outcome of his grand experiment -- undesired, but not unexpected. "Perhaps your companion will be a bit more lenient and understanding of what is at stake. What are your thoughts, Servant? Surely a being as proud as yourself has an opinion on all this?"
Gilgamesh curtly answer's Twice's question. "I am as wise am I am powerful, thus I can appreciate good idealogical discourse as much as the next king. But let us get to get to the heart of the matter... You are clearly an intelligent man who has given careful thought to all of this, and I agree with what you are saying for the most part. If it were up to me to change this far-gone world then I too would probably adopt a strategy similar to your methods in order to cull the weak chaff from the strong wheat to instigate a new age of prosperity."
What Gilgamesh just said can essentially be boiled down to is that he would be in favor of Twice's plan to sow chaos. Even so, there is no need for me to worry because the second this occurs to me I am immediately reassured by Gilgamesh's opinions. Opinions which are not liable to change any time soon.
"What concerns me the most, however, is the fact that
you are telling
us what we should do with
our prize. You're trying to share in the usage of our prize, trying to sneak your way in amongst our victory." The blonde Archer's glare is so disapproving that if looks could kill then Twice would have fallen over dead right there on the spot. "How dare you try to take what does not belong to you."
"The Grail will not be shared with you because a prize as grand as it belongs soley to the King, and whomever he decides to share it with. And I have no intention of sharing it with the likes of you. My Master can do what they please with the Grail. They can do whatever they want with its world-altering powers, even if that decision disregards your own plans for humanity.
"Though I used to be King of all the land I have no interest in the world outside. I am, after all, limited to these digital planes since I am just an incredibly accurate replica of the original who died millenia ago. True resurrection would be pointless in the end with the world in such a despicable state, even with immortality. But in here..."
He grins widely. His grin is wider than any I have ever seen on his face. Gilgamesh's expression is a downright gleeful amalgam of juvenile excitment -- like when a child is presented a fabulous new toy young -- and boundless greed tinged with a palpable hint of bloodlust.
...It's times like these that I'm so glad that he's on my side.
"This is the history of
everything. Everything that ever was and ever will be resides in the depths of the Moon Cell. Nothing is impossible to create in here. This fitting throne will suit me just fine."
"I will oppose you because you don't fool around with a King's property, you conceited mongrel."
"So there is no changing any of your minds, then." In the face of the King of Heroes' bold, declatory threats that I have little doubt he will be able to carry out Twice is unshakable as ever. "Oh course, even if you were sympathetic to my way of thinking there is still the matter of there being
two Masters that remain." He folds his arms and hops from his perch, one step at a time. "Rules are rules and must be followed. Unfortunately for you, not even this one has a loophole that can be exploited to escape one last bout of violence. No matter what any of us thinks, even if we did come to an agreement, someone will still need to die."
Twice seemingly idly pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Come," He blandly intones. <a href='http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=gczEc86tZ4Q' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>"It's time to fight again."</a>
A glowing pillar of searing light explodes outward a few feet from in front of Twice, heralding the arrival of his Servant. The prana spreading out from it like the shockwave of an erupting volcano is immense, overwhelming, and radiantly beautiful like the light of the sun itself and it puts to shame the auras of all other enemies that I have fought up to this point. All I can is brace myself for fight of my life as I await the arrival of this powerful foe.
"Twice...? That's you, isn't it?"
A voice as pure as the spring asks, a voice that sounds incredibly weary, as if a great boulder were slowly crushing her, not enough to kill, but enough to weigh down her very soul.
"Are you still doing this... How long has it been...?"
Her skin is creamy white. Her hair is like a blooming flower in the vibrancy of its color. She is garbed in an absolutely gorgeous long and flowing blue kimono that exudes regality, with her appearance of divine importance accentuated with an elegant headdress sitting atop her head like a luxurious palace in miniature. But her most striking features------are her ears and tail which are covered in luxurious, soft fur.
"How long has it been, Twice...?" The young woman repeats, her wide, tired eyes sparkle with unshed tears, her voice cracks pitifully with pent-up emotions.
"Far too soon to resume the killing, Tamamo."
