Box Seating
Hieda-no-Are breathes a heavy sigh as he allows his Reality Marble to collapse. His fight was interrupted - not by Saber's defeat, but by the Caster's foe being recalled to its master's side. With a grimace, the Servant realigns the flesh of his shoulder with that of his torso before applying his healing spell.
"Saber's blade was inches from my Spirit Origin," He mutters. "There's such a thing as cutting it too close - but then, this was out of character for Miyamoto Iori in the first place. He was not the type to recall his Servant to protect him…"
But, observing Chaldea's instruments through a familiar, Recorder can see Natsuki Subaru and Arima Miyako making their way to the Storm Drain's exit. Whatever else took place, they were able to pass by safely.
The Caster, still standing in the lowered section where the rayshift coffins rest, glances back up towards the command platform for a moment - then shifting to spirit form for a moment, he floats up to retake his position at the bridge. "This attempt on my life was a halfhearted one, so I won't expect a follow-up just yet," He mumbles. "-Even so, the die has been cast. You've already tipped your hand to me, you abominable rumormonger. I've recognized the nature of this farce - and yet I have no choice but to play along with some parts of it until the Watchtower falls. How irritating. But…"
Indeed. His only course at this stage is to ply his Reality Marble to the best of his ability, in a vain attempt to counteract the swirling mass of rumors that is this-!
"-I've re-evaluated my records. This disgusting mass of Mystery that you've slathered over everything like a cheap coat of paint has already worn thin for me!" Recorder says, raising his arms with the sound of a thousand scribbling pens. "That is to say-! I can hear you, you disgusting confidence artist!"
A wave of energy crashes through the Chaldean command room, tearing the smallest of holes in my set.
Ahhh… AHHHH…!
Cut! Cut! Cut, cut, cutcutcutCUTCUUUT!
A black wind tears through the command center. An accursed air of ill omen, the shapeless rumors that have yet to be given form.
End the scene! Cut it here! THE CLIMAX CANNOT COME SO SOON!
But Hieda-no-Are stands impassive, completely placid in the face of all my hatred and fury-! As the evil winds condense and a smile with tears of blood carves itself into the air-
"The origin of this phenomenon, the storm of rumors inhabiting both this farce of a singularity and Chaldea - is a human soul! This phenomenon is none other than a Reality Marble, the holder of which has dissolved his own consciousness into the rumors!" Hieda-No-Are dissects my existence with perfect accuracy. "-From the moment of my summoning, I was given this record - because, I am, after all, a recorder - the pasts of all are revealed to me!"
IMPOSSIBLE! LIAR, LIAR, LIAR - if that were so, you would have already conjured rumors without end-!
But, he simply snorts in response. "-What, is that all? A rumor can only form from miscommunication - that is to say, the number of flaws my records contain is close to none!"
The howling wind, my [Malignant Information], continues to crash against his barrier, and yet, and yet, AND YET AND YET AND YET-!
"-The only flaw, my only misunderstanding of my records - was that I was under the impression that the sadistic playwright and the storm of rumors were one and the same!" He shouts, and I can feel it - my connection, my seat of primacy in my own domain, slipping away. Around the room, familiars unfurl scrolls, awash with purple light. I understand now - he baited me here, forced me to turn my awareness towards him, so that he could drag me into the spotlight-!
-No! No, I will not permit another stage-jacking! This is the limit, I'm using it!
My writer's saving throw, the special rumor I was saving for an unforeseen difficulty like this one. The unspoken fear of Natsuki Subaru, burned into his mind from his last witnessing of the Pleiades Watchtower.
"[Puppet-!" Recorder attempts to invoke his Noble Phantasm, but I am already gone. My awareness has vanished from Chaldea's command room - indeed, it was never there to begin with.
….Ahem.
She will be promptly destroyed, of course. That Caster has an infuriatingly potent Reality Marble, the very purpose of which is to destroy Mystery - that is to say, any form of magic. Alas, dear audience, the majority of our cast members are comprised entirely of the stuff!
But, if I were to imagine their exchange regardless, it might go something like this.
HIEDA: "-Playground]!"
His Reality Marble opens; an empty space, where ankle-deep glassy water reflects a boundless expanse of stars. But already, he can tell that his foe is gone, and he snarls.
HIEDA: "-How did he-!?"
PANDORA, Witch of Vainglory, enters Stage Left.
PANDORA: "I don't believe there was anyone there to begin with. Perhaps your senses deceived you?"
HIEDA: "-Not [Mystery], but [Authority]. Even if that Authority itself is born of Mystery-! How vexing…"
PANDORA dissolves into a sludge of Malignant Information, staining the placid water's surface.
HIEDA, huffing as he closes his Reality Marble once more: "Should I boast to Flugel once or twice…? No, it's best to stay quiet for now."
***
Intermission
Finally, the swirling red sea of paint subsides, and Romani Archman breathes a sigh of relief. "That was way too close!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-!" Van Gogh says over and over again as she bows - and then, glancing up with one eye, she sees the destruction the battle has wrought on the Katsushika Hokusai Museum and lets out a groan of mortified sorrow. "A-all I wanted was to meet Hokusai…"
"Now, now, Goghie, you don't need to get too worried about it," their third companion chimes in. "Romani and I both made our own problems, and you weren't holding it against us, so all's forgiven!"
"B-but… the museum-!" The Foreigner moans.
""Honey, it's going back to the way it was after we're done here," He says, and lets out a barking laugh. "Heck, we should go ahead and steal some of the artwork while we're here, right!? Chaldea could do with some beautifying!"
"-We really don't have time for that, Pepe," Romani mutters. "Just stopping by to make Van Gogh happy was one thing, but-"
"Yeah, I get it," Scandinavia Peperoncino says. "We're nearing the tower's base, and anything we carry will slow us down on the final approach." As he says that, he walks over to the center of the devastation and picks up a certain wooden halo, slipping it into the back of his pants.
***
In the Tokyo sky, a brilliant beam slices through the sky. And then another. And another.
-By this point, the thing they're firing at is clearly no longer a human. So great is its wrath, that its body is detonating over and over, each time its head is removed. But, naturally it regenerates, and then is decapitated again, and then detonates - all the while drawing closer and closer to the source of its repeated deaths.
"I'm." Boom. "Going." Boom. "To freaking." Boom. "Kill you." Boom.
-With a characteristic stubbornness, Akuta Hinako continues her slow and steady march to her destination.
***
Alarms ring out, somewhere no-one cares to hear them. The halls of the imperial palace are completely deserted, save for the clacking steps of a single pair of geta scratching the tatami floors - and then, they ascend stairs some distance away, and then another door is smashed open.
This pattern continues for some time, before Myourenji Arou finally reaches his destination - and then, without a care for the even further number of alarms he will set off, he wrests Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi from its vault and gives the Divine Regalia an experimental swing. And then, satisfied, he approaches a window, and with another clack of a single footstep, he's gone.
***
"Shaula's still going, huh?" A young woman's voice echoes through a vast library, overflowing with billions of books.
"I'm not sure if that means she found something difficult to kill or if she's just smashing buildings for fun now," A boy's voice replies jokingly - then, after a brief pause, he addresses someone not present at all. "-Thanks, Julius. Hey, Sion, this one's yours."
A book is lightly tossed through the air - only to get snagged on something invisible. "How many times do I have to tell you to watch the Etherlite…?" The girl says - and then also addresses someone not present. "-No, I'm sure he remembers! I only tell him every five minutes, he hasn't been reading that many-! Oh, it's Waver Velvet."
"Wasn't he an important one?" The boy asks. "He knows a lot of people, right?"
"Well, our only in was my Grandfather's book, but he should branch out pretty well," the girl says, opening the book and scanning the contents. "-Alright, welcome to the future of humanity!" And then, she discards the book, adding it to a pile on the floor.
"Uwaaah, he looks grossed out," the boy says with a laugh. "Stern teacher types are pretty rough, right guys?"
Again, there's no response to his words, but then suddenly both the boy and girl burst out laughing.
"-I mean, it's not like we had any other option right?" The boy says after a moment.
"This was the only calculation that made sense in the circumstances," The girl affirms, and then, after one more pause, listening to the words of an invisible speaker, the two speak in unison.
"-We are the two-headed bird of Hades. We are the Dying Dust of Osiris, the last of Atlas who will save all of the Primates."
Act 2: End