Chapter 5
Part 3
The beast's howl came at them as a wave of pressure, blowing away the magi that it had struck.
But the one who seemed most effected was the one who had caused the shockwave, Granide himself.
"An Angel's Song. Even against someone who has no Magic Crest, a direct hit seems to be fairly effective," my master spoke, brushing his hair from his eyes. "Though it's a bit strange that no one was knocked unconscious this time, don't you think?"
My master struck the nearby wall of the Keep with a hand, which gave off a deep resounding noise. The noise echoed unnaturally, filling the night air around the Castle.
"---It's almost like a kind of tuning fork. Or maybe calling it an amp would be more appropriate. No matter where you are in the Castle, that monster's 'song' can still reach you. That's probably how it was designed from the start, to make the most of your 'song.' That's how, no matter who your opponent, you could always win as long as you were in this Castle. It's a pretty safe assumption that a magus with any considerable degree of skill will start to rely on their Magic Crest, after all."
Magecraft reliant on sound, only possible in this Castle which could amplify and multiply it, refined even further by Ashbourne's secret.
Thinking about it after the fact, the hints were there.
The strangely echoing hall.
The sound of footsteps, causing my master to furrow his brow.
Maybe even Heine had figured all that out before he died.
"Thanks to Miss Luviagelita's efforts, we were able to put a limit on that ability. That beast's 'song' will no longer be amplified by the Castle."
"Hmph. Honestly it had me a bit worried," The boy that was now Orlocke spoke while stroking his chin.
The beast's response was swift. Grabbing Granide in its mouth, it leapt to the top of the Keep.
"So you're going to try and run away?"
As my master watched them bound away, the magi behind him spoke.
"After that first ambush and making those magic circles, I've got nothing left, you know. I'm completely dry."
"I also will be unable to help as long as I am maintaining the spell to suppress the monster's howl."
Flue and Luvia both declared their lack of combat ability.
"Right. Sorry for pushing you two so hard. You can leave the rest to us, now." Saying that, my master turned to me. "Can you do it?"
"Ihihihihi! Maybe I could, or maybe I can't!" The reply came from my right hand.
"Then I'll leave the rest to you, Gray."
"...understood."
I jumped.
With a single leap, I launched myself a few meters into the air, kicking off of the Keep's wall in pursuit of the beast.
Probably because that jump had showed a strength even beyond what would be possible with magical reinforcement, I could faintly hear Luvia's voice below me as I leapt away.
"Is she some sort of homunculus too?"
That was a reasonable assessment. A homunculus would be able to display feats like that without issue. According to rumor, many of the homunculi of the famous Einzbern family were able to boast strengths comparable to that of even phantasmal species.
"No. She's as human as they come," my master replied. Why was it that I was able to hear what they were saying so clearly, even from so far away?
"However, situations like this are kind of her specialty."
********************
For a brief moment, the distinction between Earth and Sky had lost its meaning.
Kicking off from the wall of the Castle, the beast and I clashed repeatedly in a world tilted 90 degrees. Dull sounds echoed out countless times as we struck each other. Having lost momentum from hitting each other so many times, we kicked off the wall one more time and rose up to the spire on top of the Castle.
Even there, there was an angel.
Bravely raising its sword, it looked the same as the statue where we had found Hishiri impaled.
Once again, the beast howled.
If the magecraft behind the Castle of Separation was based on sound, then it might be better to characterize its howl as a wave suffused with magical energy.
A wave of sound inaudible to humans. Even if it was filled with magical energy, it was still a completely unknowable existence to an ordinary human. By changing the magical energy and wavelength of the sound, it could be changed from a wave that disabled Magic Crests to a blast of darkness that destroyed the magus' opponent.
If that was the case,
"...Add!"
"Gotcha!"
How did it look to the beast, I wondered, when my blade sliced its attack right out of the air?
While Add had already begun his transformation, now the cage in which he was held opened even further. With a hazy glow like a Will'O'Wisp, their shape changed dramatically.
A form that anyone would recognize, of a tool used to harvest.
A shape to collect souls.
A Grim Reaper's scythe.
"Ahahahahahaha! What a great feeling! What a great night! It's like an all you can eat buffet!"
Slicing apart the wave of magical energy, the mouth engraved on the scythe laughed wildly.
In the night sky above, the moon was just short of being full. Below, the crescent moon of Add's blade was beautiful, the image of it slicing apart the waves of illusion burning itself into my heart.
A voice beyond human hearing.
An angel's song.
A beast's song.
"...what are you?"
"...just
," I replied. "Granide Ashbourne. I recommend you surrender now."
"Nah. No way."
Suddenly, his previous voice returned.
"...Seigen?"
"Gray, it's me. It's Seigen. Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen, y'know? It's definitely me, but...my heart won't stop. I just...I just want to kill everyone down there. I just can't stop this feeling of wanting to tear everyone apart!" Still being held in the beast's jaws, Seigen grabbed his own head.
His face looked like it was falling apart. Joy, anger, grief, desire, hatred. Though these were the five passions said to take over a human's heart, it was like all five had been sewn together into one expression. In a word, it was chaos. Like every possible emotion was fighting for control of him.
(...Ahh, I understand now.)
It wasn't that Seigen was being possessed. Rather, eighty or ninety percent of Seigen was actually still there.
For example, you could think of it like water in a test tube. While the test tube itself was 'Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen,' just a few drops of poisonous colour were added to the mixture. While that poison had completely changed his fundamental nature, the existence that was 'Seigen' still very much existed.
You could call those few drops of poison whatever you wanted. Call it just an impulse, or the 'whydunnit.' Either way, the corruption brought by a long dead magus was still alive and well.
It made me feel nauseous.
In a way, it was basically-
"Sorry, kid." Even as the tears poured down his face, Seigen spoke. The tears were dyed a distinctly red colour. It was the first time I had ever seen someone cry blood. "I really did like Heine. If only that guy hadn't noticed. If only he hadn't been the first one to find that monster. If only he hadn't made it so close to the heart of the workshop so fast...ah, dammit! There was no way I could ignore a Magic Crest that beautiful. I wanted it so badly. I needed it so badly. I was starving for it so badly. There was nothing else I could do, Gray."
No. As much as it was still Seigen, it was definitely someone else.
The hardware and software were still Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen, but they were completely corrupted by the virus that was Granide Ashbourne.
Then if he wasn't Granide Ashbourne, who was he?
Whoever he was, he screamed.
"Castle of Separation, Adra! Open the gate!"
The door of the keep burst open. Without even seeing them, I could tell exactly what was pouring out from inside it.
And my whole body began to shake.
*********************
Suddenly, the doors of the keep burst open right in front of the magi still on the ground. From the lobby within, and from the statues in the front garden, something invisible came pouring out.
No, as magi, it was something the people gathered there could see.
Spirits.
But they were different from simple souls belonging to ordinary people. It might have been better to describe them as the leftover energy, an old recording of a personality. For example, in Chinese Taoism, the 'soul' was divided into two parts: the 'ethereal soul,' which supported the mind and consciousness, and the 'corporeal soul,' which supported the body and its functions. The spirits now covering the grounds of the Castle could be completely described as the latter.
These spirits were almost entirely corporeal souls.
"Ahh, so that's what they meant by angels," Lord El-Melloi II muttered.
Ever since arriving at the Castle of Separation, all of the magi had felt the sensation of being watched by the angels.
What if that was more than just their imaginations?
The master of the Castle, as the Master of Restoration, had no doubt brought many magi here. Among them, how many had had their Crests repaired, and how many had been harvested for raw materials? There were stories of many who had requested Ashbourne's services, but the procedure had failed. But even before that, would you even need a full hand to count the number of examples of his success?
Either way, the land on which this castle was built had drank in the blood and souls of countless magi. What if these spirits were all just the remains of those failures?
Before coming to the Castle of Separation, Lord El-Melloi II had mentioned it. Angels in Modern Magecraft were just a label given to vague and ambiguous magical energies. The concept of 'Angels' used by the Castle of Separation was bestowed on these spirits in their creation, and then they were used to fuel the construction of the workshop.
Each of those angels was thus a grave marker.
Before that onslaught of vengeful spirits, a single whisper carried through the air.
"Perform a dance."
The words of a single spell.
As if conducting an orchestra, Orlocke waved a single finger in the air. As he did so, a storm of illusionary butterflies filled the darkness, and began entrapping the attacking spirits.
"From the beginning, Papilio Magia's true purpose is the manipulation of things between the certain and uncertain, after all."
"...thank you," Lord El-Melloi II said, bowing his head lightly.
With Flue's catalysts and energy exhausted and Luvia busy maintaining her own spell, the only one left to defend them was the old - well, now young magus.
With that crisis averted, that only left...
"...Gray."
Looking up at the spire above the Keep, Lord El-Melloi II whispered the name of his attendant.
***************
For a third time, the beast howled.
This time Add was unable to stop it, and I could feel the Magic Circuits in my body begin to short out. It was almost impossible to move my hands and feet. It would have been easier to move if I had been wearing clothes made of lead. As the spirits continued to pour out of the Castle, I could feel my mind beginning to crack.
"...ahahaha!"
Seigen laughed.
He had realized what was wrong.
"Really, Gray? You lived in a graveyard before, didn't you? How could you possibly still be afraid of ghosts?"
I couldn't even answer.
I was so afraid I could hear my own teeth chattering.
This was the result just from me feeling the presence of spirits. It was the same feeling as when I had first come to the Castle of Separation. Just by feeling their presence, my body would start to shrink in fear, my legs would grow weak, and I wouldn't be able to move even a single finger freely. As if my guts had flipped themselves inside out, an unpleasant sweat poured out over my entire body.
I was scared.
I was so, so scared.
I was so scared I was going to throw up.
"What a joke. You're afraid of ghosts and you can't even remember the words of a simple prayer. The hell kind of grave keeper are you? You're turning out to be an awful lot like me at this rate!"
Seigen and Granide's voices began to mix together as they mocked me.
I was a joke. That was exactly right. I was joke, full of uncertainty, and hopelessly broken.
So.
Like an avalanche, the spirits of the Castle of Separation surrounded me, crushing me from all sides.
************
Seeing the flow of the battle, Luvia looked up at Gray with chastisement in her eyes.
"What is that girl doing?!"
"Leave her alone."
Even while maintaining her own spell, Luvia pulled out a jewel to force her way into the fight. Before she could, Lord El-Melloi II held her back.
He spoke the name of a certain graveyard.
"And what does that...?"
It was a name Luvia was familiar with. It was one of graveyards with the oldest traditions, unmatched in Britain.
"Really, she is a professional when it comes to dealing with Spiritual Entities. Actually, I was hoping for that, which is why I visited her home in the first place. But in her case, she has some...extenuating circumstances."
"Circumstances?"
"She's actually afraid of spirits."
In response to Luvia's narrowed eyebrows, he responded plainly. It was so plain, so straight, that it made it even harder to believe.
"...is that even possible? She was born there, wasn't she?"
"Are all children born to magi fond of magecraft?" In response to that question, Luvia was at a loss for words. "If we're just talking about ability, then even at that graveyard, she was without peer. But even putting her skill aside, her body is too susceptible to being influenced by spirits. A person can't take that much from someone else, even if they were influences from living people."
At the end of his sentence, his words began to falter.
Faltered at imagining, just for a moment, what that must be like. Being able to see and understand the true nature of any person you saw seemed like a curse enough - but on top of that, what if it was only for people who had already died?
Even magi needed to act with the utmost caution when it came to communing with departed spirits. If it was a corporeal soul that had just been removed from its ethereal counterpart, then all of its lusts and desires would be born out, plain to see. How young was Gray when she was first forced to see that?
"But you're her master, aren't you? Don't you have an obligation to protect her?!"
"No, that's mistaken," Lord El-Melloi II spoke firmly.
"...you don't want to get caught up in what happens next."
***************
The boiling torrent of spirits overwhelmed me.
It was terrifying.
I was so scared I couldn't bear it.
I was so scared I couldn't even breathe.
I was so scared that my mind and body began to shut down.
It was so scary, just...too...scary...
-Having given up on trying to invade my actual body, the spirits returned to their forms as angels, and began pulling on my hair, baring their teeth as if to devour my flesh.
I screamed.
It was scary it was disgusting it was a curse they were corrupted they were thirsty they were starving it was sharp there were too many of them I was going insane it hurt they screamed so much they wanted to throw up we were never buried we were torn apart we were torn to pieces we wanted to be buried we were left to rot we were angry we needed to be destroyed-
A mysterious sound reached my ears.
The sound of metal on metal, loud enough to make one cover their ears.
It was the sound of spirits being eaten. The mouth engraved on my scythe devoured the spirits around me in one fell swoop.
"Ihihihihihi! Delicious! This is too delicious! It's been too long since I've got to eat like this! That El-Melloi guy was right again!"
voice sounded far away.
The only thing I could see was an immense sea of spirits.
Ah, I remembered.
Those who were more dead than the dead.
Those who were more alive than the living.
It was a scene I had seen countless times in my home town. The absurd, irrational, unnatural things that were neither alive nor dead. In my ears, those words I had heard countless times were revived.
---"That is what you must destroy. That. Only that."
"Exactly."
My lips moved.
My will, and a will that was not my own. That function, my true nature, awoke once more. Even that scythe which devoured evil spirits was no more than a stepping stone to reach that end.
"---So, I can't let you exist!"
With a thud, my knees bent, and the scenery around me disappeared.
With sheer explosive power, the girl vanished.
Jumping from the spire to the roof of the Keep didn't even take a second. If that speed wasn't 'vanishing,' then what could you call it?
The girl danced.
The Grim Reaper's Scythe danced.
With the sound of her blade, the angels were sliced to pieces.
All of those who stood before her were shattered like glass.
The girl danced.
Closing in on the beast, her scythe cut halfway through its body.
With the speed they moved, the difference in their size had lost its meaning. Like two shooting stars crashing into each other over and over, the two drew a Möbius Strip in the night air. Every time they met, a tremor like an earthquake struck the Castle. Explosions filled the air as if they were aircraft locked in a dogfight.
*********
"...the hell is going on up there?" Flue groaned in a low voice.
The magi on the ground had already turned their attention away from the spirits pouring out of the Castle. As if to protect their master, the entirety of them were rushing to attack Gray. Even so, the torrent of spirits before her was like frost before the morning sun.
"I told you, didn't I? This is her specialty."
"That doesn't even begin to describe her!" In response to Luvia's shout, Lord El-Melloi II made a bitter expression.
"There is another reason, but its a bit too far-fetched to accept, even for a magus, so I didn't think you'd believe me."
"And what would that be?" Luvia stepped up to him. Even from the short few days he had known her, he understood that at this point, she wouldn't rest until she had her answer.
So, he gave in.
"...thur..."
"What?" Luvia's reply came instantly.
She had heard what he said perfectly well, but the words he had spoken didn't seem to have any connection to the current situation.
******************
The Grim Reaper against a monster.
That one line was the perfect description of the scene occurring above the Castle.
After clashing numerous times, the girl blocked the claws of the beast, holding it still on the roof of the Keep. In a soft voice, she spoke.
"Did you use those claws to kill Heine Istari?"
The beast howled.
In the small space created by the howl, flames span into existence.
"
Earth! Water! Fire! Wind! Sky! Be complete!
A vi ra hum kham svaha!
"
Shugendou.
It was Seigen's magecraft.
It was impossible to tell whether the personality behind it was Seigen's or Granide's, but at the very least he could still use the magecraft learned by Seigen. As long as he had the Castle of Separation as his backup, a long battle would tend toward his favour.
So,
The girl whispered.
Releasing the words that had been decided before hand.
"Gray...Rave...Crave...Deprave..."
Suddenly, something changed.
Or maybe it would be better to say, something was blown away.
Just like the spirits from before, all the mana in the surrounding area was devoured. Being dragged into a space devoid of any magical energy, Ashbourne's monster screamed.
*********
"Wait, hold on. What did you just say?"
"She's King Arthur. The same one that was summoned in the Fourth Holy Grail War, the same one that killed my master - the Heroic Spirit that killed Professor Kayneth." His voice was at the same time tense and bitter as he spoke.
"In the graveyard where she was born, there's a grave to King Arthur. Didn't you know? Well, I suppose its not as famous as Glastonbury, or even Brittany or Cornwall." His lips twisted with irony, as if to say that he didn't really want to say it either.
"Her face is an exact copy of the Servant Saber that I saw."
************
"Engrave...in me..."
As I whispered, I hung my head. My own consciousness was dying.
It had really disappeared a long time ago. That's why this voice wasn't my own. It belonged to another me - one that was hidden deep inside my heart.
Another monster, created by the people in my home town.
"...a grave...for you..."
Oh ancient Mystery, die away.
Oh sweet enigma, return to nothing.
"Pseudo-intelligence disabled. Minimum magical energy levels and collection rate reached. Releasing second stage limiter."
Add's voice, sounding unbelievably mechanical, echoed in the darkness. Like a door flying open as its magical seal came undone, the Mystery in my hands opened.
The scythe that devoured spirits and magical energy alike, conferring inhuman strength on its wielder, was not Add's true form. No, the fake intelligence that was Add only existed as a temporary seal to stop the degredation of the weapon's Mystery in the first place.
A seal...for this spear.
In a way, I was the same way.
The beast howled again.
I had lost track of how many times it had howled like that.
But it didn't matter anymore. Impacting into the wall of concentrated magical energy suffusing the air around me, the attack dissipated of its own accord.
It was basic logic that a Mystery would be erased my another Mystery of greater power. No matter how profound the magecraft that went into creating Ashbourne's monster, it had no way of standing against that spear.
"
Your weapon...
That weapon...
"
Seigen and Granide's overlapping voices sounded so distant.
"Holy Spear, activated."
The Grim Reaper's Scythe had fully deployed.
In a way that didn't seem to be physically possible, the scythe had twisted and changed shape, taking its true form as a spear.
No, that wasn't quite right. The heroic, noble magical energy pouring off of it made it clear that this was not just a spear. It was on a completely different scale. It was like a tower standing at the end of the world, a crystallized Mystery proving that countless legends, countless myths, were true.
It was the end of the story.
The accursed yet divine spear, decorating the end of the legend of King Arthur.
Softly, the true name of that weapon left my lips.
"
The Spear Shining---
Rhongo---
"
The time had come.
The divine spear warped and shuddered.
Unable to resist the vortex of swirling magical energy, the Castle of Separation shook as if in fear. Though it was built only to respond to waves of sound, the sheer amount of magical energy was forcibly drawing a reaction out of it. The manifestation that drew in all mana from the surrounding environment was like disaster incarnate.
The Thirteen Promises hadn't been released yet, so it was still only a small fraction of its full power peeking through. Even so, that small fraction was on the level of Divine Spirits, something magecraft couldn't hope to match.
That level of magical energy, concentrated to the absolute limit, could be felt like an extreme heat. It felt like I was sticking my hand into a volcano.
Ashbourne's beast would not make it in time.
There was no way it could. The manifestation in my hands was a Noble Phantasm exceeded only by
The Sword of Promised Victory
Excalibur
itself. The divine spear wielded by King Arthur against his mortal enemy, Mordred.
"
---At the End of the World!!!
---myniad!!!
"
Who could even see that spiraling light?
Even though it was night, it was as if the Sun had suddenly risen - as if a piece of the Sun had fallen down amongst them, a brilliant crimson spiral. The magical energy, and even the water vapour that hung in the air were burned and boiled away, the flash of light from the Age of Gods riding forth like a mounted tyrant.
Gouging out the spire above, the light pierced through the Castle of Separation's domed roof and castle wall, only stopping when it bit deep into the hillside beyond the castle.
Both Seigen and Ashbourne's monster vanished before that light.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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