Everyone joins up again after their respective conversations. Mashu immediately reports on Irene actually being Lilith, a Mesopotamian she-demon of storms and the night, and first wife of Adam. When asked if she's our enemy, Mashu just says that's not exactly the case, but that you have to let her take care of Lilith. Kadoc then tells the others about your new mission to go to Hell to upgrade the Grail Dagger. Lastly, Guda shares what Jeanne told them, at which both Kadoc and Mashu find Metatron's plan of allocating all resources toward building a new mankind rather than saving the current one to sound a lot like what Goetia was doing. Also, Guda mentions there was one more thing, but it's something they have to settle alone as well.
You take another look at the Storm Border in the sky. To think that you forgot all about it for so long. Though, perhaps that was the whole point, considering how much it stresses you out to see it.
Anyway, you apparently got the four additional Grail Drops from Ashoka before even completing his request, so you head to Amakusa to get the dagger strengthed, but he says he's all out of power to do anything more at this point. Thankfully, Jeanne can also handle stuff like that, but she's obviously too lazy to just do things right off the bat like that. If only she had a satsuma, she says. Thankfully, Ashoka gave you one earlier for this specific purpose, so you just hand it over to her. She decides to strengthen it with an upgrade that'll help with the angels hunting you. Whenever you need to rest, just use it, she says, and then promptly falls asleep right on the floor. There's nothing else for you to do today, so you head back to your rooms.
Once again, this scene is slightly different depending on your gender.
If male, Kadoc asks how your nightmares are going, to which you respond that they're pretty much gone for you. If sins are to be punished, then the nightmares must be one part of the punishment, Kadoc thinks, so that must also mean you've already come to grips with yours and gotten over it, basically. Perhaps it's because you experienced something similar already in a Lostbelt? When you try to think about the reason, we see a flash of Santa Nemo across the screen, and then you just say that it's "probably because I wake up just before". Either way, it's a good development for you. Kadoc's dreams are still ongoing, but this isn't something you can help with in any way.
If female, Mashu asks you a similar question, and says it's a good thing you don't remember your dreams here. Because here, dreams are not a means of organizing memories in the brain, but just another punishment. The fact that you don't have them anymore means that at least on the inside you've already resolved your issues. Mashu, however, still have her nightmares, but just as with Kadoc, they're something she has to deal with by her own convictions.
---
We get a monologue from someone else after this.
And so Mash fell asleep, while I could only stare at the starless night sky.
I think about Mash.
I understand why she feels this distress.
It's because the sin planted in her since so long ago has finally emerged in this Singularity.
I can't understand just how heavy that sin is to carry, but I do know that she's suffering.
Giving her advice is simple. I just need to be kind to her and ease her suffering.
But I know that's probably a bad move. You can't merely dodge this issue forever.
Because to do so would mean nothing less than for her to throw away her Shielder nature.
And that would entail a serious decrease in her battle prowess. As the guardian fairy of the Black Barrel...as the Servant assistant to Mash, that I cannot accept.
What I do know is what Mash is about to become...
A continuous boundary record---a Ghost Liner.
Forced to forever roam through the years of 2015 and 2016.
---
Back inside, in Jeanne's room, the voice from the closet isn't letting her sleep. He mentions how it's "part of those left behind" in regards to going to hell, and when Jeanne says he's a Servant so weak he couldn't even fight a ninth-order angel, he says that at least he's first class when it comes to fighting humans. Jeanne asks if he wants to help Chaldea, but he just laughs at the notion. Chaldea's fate has long since been decided, and it's not like someone like him can do anything about anything in the first place. Not even for Mashu, since she has more of an introspective problem.
Jeanne thinks that he sure knows a lot about humans for someone who hates them, but he has to correct her: he doesn't hate them, he loathes them, and he can't just ignore them all the same.
???:
Rancor, wrath, resentment, rage; none of these are born by themselves.
It's because the world is there. Because the world is worthy of being loathed.
Even if it's repulsive, or on the verge of death, so long as it's there, I will continue to resent it.
If you wanna make something nice out of it just because it had such an ugly ending, then what's there left to learn from?
God might be okay with that, but not humans. They've only got one life.
I'm not like that one King. I don't see what value there is to the things humans make.
I just loathe the energy spent by them getting there. I resent the lives burnt away like cheap trash.
Humans are born to sin. They embody the spirit of never giving up despite failing over and over!
What a joke, right?[r]But that's why life has value.
No matter how evil their achievements may be, no matter how grave the punishment that awaits them is, and no matter how pathetic their last moments may be, they'll keep running to the end.
They've seen things come to an end so many times, yet still aim for something new. It's that kinda ugliness that I support.
So, well, long story short, I want the world to stay in good health.
Jeanne thinks that's rather humiliating, but decides to just go back to sleep now. The voice laments that they're still stuck in that closet, which apparently has a really powerful bounded field on it.
---
A dream of a graveyard in the rain. A burial bell tolls, and numerous caskets are filled with corpses. Kadoc knows this is a dream, because he's never been to a graveyard like this, nor would he have any reason to. As he watches the corpses, mutilated and abused, he thinks to himself that the most gruesome of all is the one covered in ice. A vision of CHALDEAS, frozen in deep ice, flashes across his mind. Kadoc's physical body bites down on the medicine he put in his mouth before lying down, which helps relieve some anxiety, but the dream remains all the same. This is consequently a case of him having a lucid dream.
He stares down at the corpses in this place. He recognizes them well: all the Chaldea staff he helped kill. These corpses do not speak to him, do not move; they just exist to make his sins apparent. But these corpses don't make him want to avert his eyes. After all, they were probably more likely killed by the Oprichniki. But the ice-covered corpse in his mind, that one was the direct result of his Caster, Anastasia.
Still, they're all dead because of his actions, whether directly or indirectly. He needs to accept that. And the bells keep tolling, as if to signal that the corpses will keep piling on, and this dream will never end. But still, he feels fine about it. The time to despair over his sins has already passed. Only one thing remains to deal with...a certain girl close to him.
---
Another dream, with Mashu back in Chaldea. It's a scene from after Beryl broke her finger. Romani asks if she's okay mentally, considering what just happened, but Mashu can't seem to understand why she wouldn't be. She imagines Beryl must have had a good reason to do what he did, so she didn't particularly mind. That said, her primary objective is also to stay alive, so she also doesn't mind that he was stopped.
Romani tries to explain to her that having consideration of others' actions and beliefs is good, but not if you get hurt over it. When dealing with humans, it's important to be clear on what's okay and not okay; to have proper dialogue. Maybe even to see others as enemies sometimes. But Mashu doesn't see Beryl as an enemy, only as someone with a different goal than her. Romani sighs. This is to be expected from Mashu, since this is the mindset pushed on her, to avoid labeling people as her enemy, and always be on her literally best behavior. But he must remind her: there will come a point when someone will view her as their enemy. Maybe out of hate, or maybe for some grander reason. Not necessarily because they have different views, but maybe just because they loathe everything about her. And she must remember: when that happens, under no circumstances should she reject her own feelings, even if she's in the wrong.
When I heard those words, I didn't understand all of what he meant.
But at the time, I did feel like it was important--a warning for the future.
Fighting out of misaligned views, out of an uncompromising cause, out of a desire to reclaim the Human Order and Pan-Human History.
I have no objections about such a battle. People fight because they have something they can't give up on.
And so I could never hate someone for that. I've never even thought the thought.
Everyone lives life for all that it's worth, as proof of their struggle.
Visions of all the Lostbelt Kings flash before her.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I really don't, and yet...
"Your sin is purity; that you don't even try to bear the sin at all."
I wanted to say that she was wrong. I wanted to flip it on its head, and argue against it logically.
But all I managed was a feeble gulp, before she started to talk again.
And with that, I gained a new nightmare.
Now, a vision of who must be Marisbury appear before her.
---You're right, Mash.
It is that purity of spirit which allows you to be worthy to summon Heroic Spirits.
Many magi attempted summoning Servants before...
But for most Masters, there are very few Servants who would answer their call.
The talent, compatibility, personality, beliefs and just about everything about the summoner come together to choose a Servant.
And in the same way, does a Servant choose their Master.
But in this equation, the Servant's considerations are more important, as they have to consider many different situations to save mankind.
For that, we have the Round Table Shield. For that, we have Mash Kyrielight.
It is because of your purity that we can employ the shield. It is because of your purity that we can take in so many Heroic Spirits.
So long as you have that shield, we have an infinite possibility of Servants to summon.
All the way from heroes of myth, to humans who have left a great impact on real history.
All Heroic Spirits will surely answer our calls in search of that shield.
As such, we want you to remain pure. As such, we want you to remain naïve.
Isn't that what you want as well? After all...
---Without the shield, you're worthless.
---
The next morning, Mashu and Kadoc are both kinda tired, due to their bad dreams. Irene comes in and tells Mashu to help her set the table, with Mashu glaring uncharacteristically. Kadoc thinks maybe it's no good to let Mashu deal with this unknown Lilith issue herself, but decides it's better to trust her on this. As he's thinking this, he gets hung up on the word "trust", before someone calls him in to eat as well.
You ask Lilith why she went with Irene at first, and she says it was just a spur of the moment decision. Besides, would "Lilith" have been that much more trustworthy? Her sense of fashion hardly agrees with that name either, she thinks, but you assure her you've seen a lot crazier outfits for Servants. This actually makes her a bit upset, if she's on the more normal side clothes-wise, since she feels it's really important to have a gimmick to stand out. You then decide to have everyone brainstorm a new gimmick for her.
Amakusa suggests a verbal tic, at which Lilith starts speaking more like a cat, but Kadoc promptly says that doesn't suit her at all. He then suggests that maybe her thing is being great with kids. As it turns out, that's something she would say she actually is already, and decides to summon some of her children to prove it.
Amakusa asks where they came from, and Lilith just says she made them just now. Jeanne enters the room and wonders who the hell these three are, to which Lilith says their names are A, B, and C. Though, that's a bit sad, so she'll name them Ein, Zwei, and Drei instead. Apparently with enough magical energy she can just summon a bunch of these guys, because of the legend about God killing 100 of her children every day, it would mean that she can also birth 100 of them a day. Still, they're more like familiars, or almost closer to weapons, than they are actual children. Either way, Kadoc thinks this is a bad gimmick for her.
Next suggestion is for her to secretly be like a really deep person, as if despite her looks she's actually like super pure of heart or whatever. Amakusa suggests she might actually secretly be super cold-blooded, but realizes that's not hidden at all. Lilith says she'll kill him, but he kindly asks her not to, because if she kills him he'll die.
Lilith suggests being a hot, popular girl who's nice to all the nerds in Chaldea, and you try to imagine that scenario. You see her running through the Storm Border, grabbing a hold of Meuniere to tell him how totally awesome the manga he lent her was, and how he would promptly fall in love. Lilith seems to think that sounds like a great idea, but ultimately she drops this whole thing because she's fine the way she is. What a waste of time.
Guda, Mashu, and Kadoc then head out for their trip to Hell. Ashoka confronts Lilith, saying she's becoming too obsessed, and he doesn't want to bring unruliness into the Granato. He also says that Lilith appears to harbor some guilt over the way she's acting, but not because of Mashu, but because of Guda. However, Lilith says that her guilt is like low priority and her hatred for Mashu is like high priority, so she doesn't even think about them remotely the same. In that case, Ashoka says, he'll help her out, so the next time she glares at Mashu that same way, he'll give Lilith the same stare back. Lilith flinches at his words. Getting glared at by the Chakravartin might just kill her.
---
You get on the bus for the Greed district, when the bus driver asks if you can clear out some angels on the road, so you have to oblige.
[Battle against <2x Angel (6th rank) & Angel (5th rank)>] (Habetrot cannot be used)
It seems you have less of a problem dealing with slightly higher order angels now. Mashu asks if it seems she's gotten stronger, though you believe she's always been strong, and it's her relibability as a Shielder which really makes her good. Ignoring outlier exceptions like Lostbelt Kings or whatever, you can always rely on Mashu to at least take on enemies head-on, and her big shield helps calm you in battle as well. Mashu smiles at your compliments, and thanks you. As Guda and Kadoc get back on the bus, Mashu seems to hear a voice in her head. She hears Lilith congratulate her on having her strength recognized by others, for them to see how strong she is. However, Lilith's voice also says that it seems Mashu just can't bring herself to put side her shield. At Guda's call, Mashu snaps out of it, and gets on the bus too.
I can't give up my shield. Both their lives depend on it.
I thought I was being protected by Master all this time.
I still think that now.
But that's all the more reason why I must protect them with my life.
Master and Kadoc. Two lives to defend. I have to.
Until the day the color of life in the shield entrusted to me withers.
And that day is absolutely not today.
Getting off the bus, your two clients greet you.
The woman is Cellina, and the man is Staluzio. You ask if they know the way to Hell, since you certainly don't, but weirdly enough they don't either, this just happens to be "the only trip they can make". Regardless, you'll just have to get going and protect them on the way. As you travel, Kadoc asks them why they're heading to Hell in the first place. Cellina says that if she's being honest, they're just so exhausted. Since they're too tired of praying, they figured they don't belong in Purgatory anymore.
Kadoc thinks it would be better to just stay in Purgatory than go to literal Hell though, with which Cellina agrees initially. Going to Hell means letting your life totally fall apart, but remaining in Purgatory would mean living a lie. Staluzio says that even though he's really afraid of going to Hell, he also can't bear the thought of essentially becoming a traitor to God's will. That's something scarier than going to Hell. Mashu can sympathize with the idea of treachery being worse than Hell, but she quickly catches herself saying that and covers her mouth.
Originally Posted by Mcjon01
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