—When all is said and done, there isn't any
of being born.
— There isn't any
for death either.
—Even that distance is without meaning when compared to the world.
—To those who desire the world, is it not the most trivial of choice?
It was quite different compared to the period when he was born. And yet, when he was made aware of her story, he had definitely felt remorse and sympathy.
He had heard their grief. The grief of the people who had believed in God. He had succumbed to the thoughts of being unable to do anything, of being cornered, and made the wrong choice.
Such grave sin. Such foolishness.
What he had wished for was not victory. No matter how much he was filled with suffering and despair, his action should be the proof of the nobility of my choice.
Thus. The ones that must die are not the shogunate, but Amakusa Shirou Tokisada himself.
Now then. Is there any meaning in
their choice?
Are their life, their existence, and their death something that should be discarded for good?
…No. That is wrong. That is definitely wrong. Then, what should he do to prove it?
Would it be acceptable to simply put a target for his hate?
Were he to detest and bring ruin the shogunate, the very reason for which the people take up arms; or those who had approve of it; or perhaps even himself… would
they be saved?
No. They wouldn't. They had simply wished for a peaceful world. For there to be no reason to load their guns. To pick up arms. To hurt others.
But if they don't do that, then the only thing left is for them to be cornered and driven to death.
He felt like it would be much better if he could just hate somebody. If he could just hate the people that had killed them, or the world, he would then die just like that, as a human.
But he understood.
Selfishness. Delusion. Arrogance. All the real nature(s) of humans one just cannot oppose—defeat is only natural. The way to victory is an unusual one.
He wanted to hate.
He had wanted to hate. If he could just have their head, he wonders how much intoxicated he would
be in moments of pleasure—
However, he saw them every time he closed his eyes.
The ordinary ones; the banal existences among them. Even among the summit rulers of Japan, the Tokugawa.
For him to hate them would be no different from hating those who had followed and believed in him—he understands that.
Still, there was hatred inside of him. It whispered to him, to give in to the natural violent emotion of a human.
Should he detest everything? Or should he lament everything instead?
…He had decided.
He would lament everything, and he would love everything. He would continue on believing in humans.
However, he had lost much in his struggle to reach here.
His regret had continued to pile up like a snow. Is there nothing that he could do?
Is there no way to heal the sorrow of the people?
—There is.
Indeed, it would definitely save the people. The one shortcut to arrive at the place that must be reached.
The crystallization of miracle.
Located on the outside of the world, the superior ritual.
The
Heaven's Feel
Cup of Heaven
. Known as the Third Magic itself, capable of "soul materialization".
In this world, the soul is the truly eternal existence. As blueprints stored in the astral plane, a different dimension from the material world, souls never truly meet their end.
However, every living thing will eventually equally meet their demise. And the soul is incapable of acting on its own on the material world.
Whether it's an ethereal body or physical body, the soul is incapable of establishing its action and existence if it is not being linked to a form of existence.
And physical bodies will someday crumble. So will ethereal ones. As a result, the soul will degrade and decay.
Such contradiction. Such hopeless discrepancy. Such disparity is death, death which invites greed, and greed consequently begets evil.
The Third Magic is something that overturns that hopeless inconsistency, that too sorrowful of an inevitability.
Valued as all the good of the world, a beloved ideal world—.
The Greater Grail of Fuyuki; it was a tool of heresy created for the sake of reproducing the Third Magic.
However, the Einzbern's progress was slow. Seeing that they were unable to win the Holy Grail War, they were also unable to fulfill the Third Magic, even in eternity.
Cooperation was also not possible. They had continued on an isolated journey of their own for far too long.
If they wanted to fulfill the Third Magic, what they should do was not to select a magus.
A miracle dangling before his eyes.
A possibility to usher out the sorrow laid down upon the world of men, even just a little bit of it.
He wanted to save them.
Those who are evil, those who are good, those who should be loved, those who should be detested. Each and every one of them.
That was why he would mourn those who should have been hated. He would pour love to those who had killed those who should have been loved.
What he should distort was his own heart. He would hammer down his own ardent heart. He would forcibly restore his distorted heart.
A self-remodelling—for the sake of forgetting his hatred, of converting it.
Even though he was a saint, he had ended up losing his focus—ended up wanting to just slit their throat and then die himself.
He should have not forgotten. Even if he were to crush them to death to the best that he can, it'd be pointless.
Even though he hated them so much.
Even though he wanted to kill them so much.
Even so. Even so. …He swore to save them. Whether he loves them or detests them.
Which is why this is a desperate treason against himself.
Ahh—his hatred disappeared. What was left is only his state of being a human.
However, he left it behind. He sealed it. He turned his back on it. As he shedded tears of blood, Shirou betrayed Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.
To betray himself, and to overcome many sufferings. That is how the current Shirou is.
The inside of the Greater Grail. The Magic Circuit that acts as a visual and speech center—the place that administers the gears, the systems.
Different from its circumference, it was all pure white; in this central part, even if it is filled with prana, he could catch sight of the shining Circuit.
A line of prana was flowing freely all around. Einzbern's prided one and only Greater Grail, brought forth by means of a homunculus; it was truly beautiful even in the inside.
Perhaps this was where he should connect himself. Shirou estimated it and then he kneeled both his knees.
"My right arm devours evil; my left arm connects the heaven."
Both of his arms are the accumulation of the many miracles that Amakusa Shirou Tokisada had performed. It is no more than a combat auxiliary Noble Phantasm when used against enemy Servants. Because at any rate, his opponents would still be famed Heroic Spirits.
He should not have been able to win and advance in the Holy Grail War with that degree of miracle.
But then, what is this "miracle" that Amakusa Shirou Tokisada creates suppose to be to begin with? In the span of 60 years, Shirou had performed a self-analysis and phenomenon clarification. These two arms of his are capable of connecting to any and all magecraft foundation(s).
He can connect to alchemy if the land specializes in alchemy, he can connect to curse magic if the land specializes in curse; he is capable of connecting to the magic foundation engraved on the land unrelated to himself and invoke said
.
That is to say—black magic, alchemy, Kabbalah, necromancy, evocation, and many more; if it exist(s) in this world, he can use any magecraft subconsciously. After analyzing his own Magic Circuit, in normal case he would set in a switch and successively alter the fixated organ of Magic Circuit in mere seconds; sometimes even increasing or decreasing the quantity of the Circuit.
Indeed, were Amakusa Shirou Tokisada to be just a magus—perhaps he would left his name in history as one who invents magecraft with that body of his. Or perhaps he would be "preserved" as a curious, unique variety.
However, Shirou is no magus. He is someone who lives for the sake of saving the world, for the sake of providing salvation to humanity.
The third Holy Grail War. The Greater Grail of "Fuyuki" that had been the reason he existed here and now. Following few informations to their origins, he had thoroughly investigated it and fathomed it. …And so, he had comprehended it.
If the Greater Grail of Fuyuki is but a vast network of Magic Circuit, then both of his arm, capable of continuous alteration, are capable of complete assimilation with the Greater Grail.
Not transplantation;
assimilation. To join his own Magic Circuit with other's Magic Circuit. ….Easily put in words, yet it was a penance beyond the imagination of even any other fellow magus. Even if those from the Red faction are connected by blood, to join their Magic Circuit would be nothing short of madness.
However, the Magic Circuit of Amakusa Shirou Tokisada is an exception. No matter how much of a great magus the target is, or even a ghost liner, a Servant, his Magic Circuit would comply it, just like an ever changing skeleton key.
The consciousness of the
Justicia
Holy Woman of Winter
is already no more.
She is now an enormous
, no more than an administrator of the system.
And so, applying someone else's the will to it will not jumble it up. The moment a Servant is inserted inside, it will stay as pure force that had lost all manners of personality.
If there could be a small chance for it to happen, it would perhaps be possible only for a Heroic Spirit whose very existence itself establishes good and evil. ….That is, if such a being exists in this world to begin with.
However, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was in fact here, without losing his personality.
He was here—and so was his will. The raging will like that of steel that would determine the direction of the unsettling force.
This would be the last battle.
Shirou breathed out without any meaning, then inserted both of his hands into the Greater Grail.
Leaving behind things such as success or failure, concentrating only on the phenomenon before him.
Now—answer my prayers.
