Fate/Grand Order story · Part 2: Cosmos in the Lostbelt, Lostbelt No.5: Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus
Record's Fragment
Lostbelt No.5: Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus. Hanging Gardens
1 scenes, 159 lines
1. Before the battle
159 linesIf anyone were to ask when my life changed, I know exactly what I would tell them: springtime, when I was fifteen.
That said, this isn't the kind of thing you go around telling people about. By all rights, I should take it to my grave.
Back then, I was enrolled in the Astromancy Department at the Clock Tower, aka the Mage's Association's headquarters.
I was the thirteenth heir to the Wodime legacy the child who had been granted the protection of the stars.
I was said to possess the greatest magical circuits of any Wodime to date...
...and that I was a genius who had already been promised the keys to the Wodime family in a few years' time by the eleventh head of the estate, who led the family even now.
Those were the sort of things everyone else would say about me.
...Me, a genius? Even though I usually spend each day sifting through other departments' files?
That was always the sort of response I gave, but I did so more from conceit than modesty.
I knew I was talented. I was confident I would one day be exactly what everyone expected me to be and more.
I wanted for nothing; not lineage, nor talent, nor affection. With so many things working in my favor, it was easy to push myself to greater heights without leaning on my environment.
Back then, I took pride in my excellence, and would constantly work to further improve myself.
I believed those blessed with natural talent should still continue to apply themselves, should set their sights on even greater stages.
I was completely convinced that there was nothing I could not do, and nothing that was beyond my reach.
...
...
For the past six months, crossing the great bridge to reach the Evocation Department college had become something of a routine of mine.
I noticed what appeared to be beggars by the path at the opposite side, but I never gave them any thought.
At the time, I didn't even see them. It wasn't that I disliked them, or that I was trying to avoid them.
It was that, for me, they may as well not have existed at all.
I was a prodigy, born to carve out a new age of magecraft. I didn't have time to get involved with people like them.
I was born into an environment far better than most could hope for, with talents far greater than most could dream of.
That was why I had a duty to fulfill.
I was going to create something beautiful. I was going to create something wonderful.
It was that ideal, that passion, that made me apply myself to my studies day in and day out.
It was the reason I so frequently visited that college, even when it arguably belonged to an enemy.
I didn't realize how arrogant I was being, how childish.
On that day, I was headed home later than usual. It was the middle of the night, with no one on the bridge, and the stars hidden behind the clouds.
Kirschtaria Wodime.
Everything happened so fast that I failed to react in time. That turned out to be a fatal mistake.
I wasn't surprised that an assassin had been sent to try to kill someone as young as me.
I was surprised because my would-be assassin was a manservant I had frequently seen in my own house.
I counterattacked automatically, before I even thought about what to do, thanks to the spells that had been engraved onto my body.
The assassin never got another chance. Vacuum blades sliced him to bits before he could pull the trigger again.
But, it was enough. He had already critically wounded me, and there was no hope of escape.
He wasn't the only assassin who had been sent to take my life. I knew because...
It's done. Send out more men. Find Kirschtaria's body.
...it was my father, trying to kill his own son.
Ghh...!
He fell into the river! Find him!
Of course, I wasn't the one who had fallen in. It was my ring, after I had cast a weight alteration spell on it.
I knew it wouldn't do more than buy me some time, but at that moment, it was the best move I could make.
After I drew the assassins' attention towards the river, I activated a footstep cancellation spell in my shoes and got as far away from them as I could.
Okay... Now what do I...
My consciousness began to fade away.
I went back to the bridge instead of heading to the city exit, and my strength gave out just as I was making my way to a narrow back alley.
At the time, I didn't yet know that my assailant's weapon wasn't ordinary magecraft...
...Rather, it was a kind of poison just like the sort used by a famous mage killer that was designed to attack magical circuits directly.
...Ghh...
I was in a dimly lit room. Within it was nothing more than the sound of dripping water and the scent of mildew.
I was on a makeshift bed made from an old wooden crate. A bare minimum of bandaging had been applied to my back.
There was no pillow. No blankets. And no restraints on my arms or legs.
I was technically free, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to move so much as a finger. The wound in my chest had yet to close, and I lacked the strength even to stand.
I had been laid down to rest with no more ceremony than a corpse.
Where...am I...
At first, I thought my assassins had captured me...but then I realized they would have no reason to keep me alive.
After all, since it was my own family was trying to kill me, there was little sense in torturing me for information.
I couldn't understand what was going on. My thoughts refused to put themselves in order.
Still just barely conscious, I managed to crane my neck enough to observe the dimly lit room...
Heehee... Heeheehee... ...Heehee... Heehee...
...
Something was in the corner of the room, as if it were trying to hide from what little light there was.
It was then that I noticed something...strange staring directly at me.
(...Seriously?)
(Just when I decide to stop by so it doesn't look like I've been gone for two days straight...)
(...Zzzzzz.)
I can't believe this guy. He's just basking in the sun, snoozing away on a bench without so much as a single guard.
...Hey. Hey, Wodime, don't you think it's time you got up?
You ARE the Crypters' leader, right?
Aren't you the one guy representing humanity in the power struggle between the Olympian gods and humans?
How can you just leave yourself completely defenseless like this!? Come on, wake up already!
...Is that you, Kadoc? Wait... Kadoc...?
What are you doing here? This is my roo
...Never mind. No it isn't. This is the Hanging Gardens of the Great Orbital Shrine Olympia.
Well, that was careless of me. The sunlight was so pleasant that I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep. I was dreaming about something I hadn't thought about in a long time.
I feel very silly. I guess I just get too relaxed without Caenis around to keep me in line.
Anyway, thank you for waking me up before I could waste any more time.
...You don't have to thank me. I only spoke up 'cause it was weird seeing you like that.
Weird? How so?
Well, you're not exactly the sort of guy to just doze off out in public.
You're, like, perfectionism incarnate. You don't get to take naps like a typical college slacker.
...I see. While I do take some issue with the impression you seem to have of me...
...I also understand now why it is you were so surprised. I'll be more careful in future.
Now then, what is it you wished to see me about, Kadoc? Do you have something to report to me?
(Aw crap. I was so shocked seeing him sleeping like that I forgot I didn't actually have anything to tell him...)
(And I can't just fib, or he'll know I've been up to something... Wait, I've got it.)
They got Demeter.
One of the great gods of Olympus, gone just like that. Some perfect being she turned out to be.
Oh, and one more thing. A tan Lancer with white hair was helping them out.
Luckily, it looks like Europa didn't catch that part.
So, how's it feel, Wodime?
How's it feel knowing the loser you thought you'd disposed of is not only alive, but actively working against you now?
That is a surprise. I never would have expected Caenis to go over to Chaldea's side.
And they managed to destroy Demeter's true form? They must have been far better prepared than I thought.
So, a tiny rebel force managed to bring down a powerful authority figure. How very...rock 'n' roll.
No, wait. Heavy metal feels more appropriate, given the composition of the gods' bodies.
Uh... Am I going deaf or did you just make a lame pun about music?
...Apologies. Perhaps I have not quite awakened yet.
At any rate, I'm surprised you knew something even Queen Europa did not.
It almost sounds as though you were there watching things unfold in person, Kadoc. You must have found yourself a very good familiar indeed.
...Well, you know, I can't just sit around here mooching free grub forever.
I'm still a Crypter, after all, so I need to be ready to fight again at least one more time.
I see. Then make sure you take good care of that familiar. An ace up your sleeve can mean the difference between life and death, after all.
Rest assured, you don't need to tell me, the other Crypters, or anyone else in Olympus, what yours is.
That said, if it should come to light that you were using something you shouldn't be...
...then I will unfortunately be forced to respond in whatever way is appropriate. I have my own role to fulfill, after all.
... (Shit. How much does he know...? I'd better change the subject, fast.)
So, uh, by the way, about Demeter...
Chaldea might've been able to beat her, but it still wasn't because they straight up overpowered her.
It looked to me like Demeter was looking for something... No, that's not right. Maybe trying to recover something.
She kept apologizing, over and over.
And not to the Olympians she was killing, but to one person in particular.
That's the only reason they were able to destroy her. Any idea what she was looking for?
...I see. So that did hold her back, as I suspected it might.
...Just like in Proper Human History, this Lostbelt's Demeter once had a daughter she loved dearly.
Her name was Persephone. It's said that Demeter wept long and hard after Hades stole her away to the underworld...
...yet despite that, she never stopped loving her daughter.
But, a few thousand years ago, her daughter died during the fourth machia.
...Hang on, Wodime. That doesn't add up.
I don't know if she was a full god or a demigod or what, but I thought people didn't die in this city.
Not necessarily. Humans are simply incapable of killing other humans.
The immortality humans enjoy in this Lostbelt is not true immortality, but pseudo-immortality.
The gods can easily end their subjects' pseudo-immortal lives if they wish.
So the one who killed Persephone was
One of the gods? You mean, one of the gods from the coexistence faction?
No, it was not one of them.
Then...
Persephone sided with the coexistence faction, so Zeus ordered Demeter to kill her own daughter.
!
...So, she was calling out to the daughter she killed...as if she was still alive, huh.
...Sounds almost human of her.
These gods are machines, right? How can they function properly when they're contradicting themselves like that?
I understand your confusion, but it is precisely their machine nature that means this was no contradiction at all.
Their minds don't work like ours, after all. That's the tragedy of the Twelve Olympian Machine Gods right there.
Whether gods create humans, or humans create gods, both sides usually share a common understanding of the world in which they live.
But the Olympians are different. They weren't gods to begin with. They only came to be defined that way over time.
It was because their functions enabled them to control the weather... Provide endless amounts of food...
Destroy various life-forms' memories... And mass-produce weapons...
That led to the residents of this Lostbelt seeing them as gods.
They then incorporated this definition into their functions in order to operate more smoothly on this planet.
After all, the people of the ancient world wanted superior beings they could pray to, not cold, unfeeling spaceships.
And so, they accepted the new roles they had been given, and became mechanical gods instead of mere machines.
As a result, they ended up making this god play-acting into a new directive, all without ever understanding how the intelligent beings treating them as gods actually felt.
...Cold and unfeeling, huh?
So, is that why Demeter went nuts? Because she ended up with feelings tacked onto herself when she didn't need them?
This was less a matter of contradiction than it was of conflict.
Humans can rationalize acts like that by telling themselves there was nothing else they could have done...
...but she had no choice but to treat the order to kill her own daughter like any other assigned task.
She wasn't crazy. She was just in pain.
That's what it means to be a god in this Lostbelt.
It's also why they were able to realize a real-life utopia, where nobody has to die or grow old.
...And here I thought machines always operated on pure logic.
All right, if that's what the gods are like here, then what's your game, Wodime?
Your goal is to bring about the Age of Gods again, right? Is that really the kind of god you wanna be?
Of course gods should run the world. That being said...
The futurethe answer I seekis a little different from Zeus's.
What I seek, Kadoc, is an even more perfect agean age where there will be neither conflict nor contradiction.
It is my responsibility to see that age come about... and, it is what the Foreign God wishes.
...