Section 20: End of a Dream

Typhon Ephemeros has stopped moving! Her magical energy has degraded to the point where she's only barely able to maintain her Spirit Origin!

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Ephemeros's signal is leaking out from the torso core!

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I see. When Typhon ate her, she must have reverted to her form that was more like the Chaos Tide.

Why...?

Why won't my wish come true...?

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How can you not be horrified when you look at yourselves?

You humans are slaves to your wishes. As long as luck is on your side, you can grant them.

Even if that wish is to defeat a dragon, of all creatures.

You're right. We ARE horrifying. Of course we're scared of having our wishes come true.

Because the moment they do is also the moment we find out what we're truly made of.

In spite of that, we keep living. We live, we persist, and only after we die do we learn what our lives meant.

I see. You keep living, and you keep persisting...

Well then...

Typhon just unfurled its wings!

It broke through the ceiling!? What are you

Learning from your example!

Now you're trying to escape by evolving, Typhon Ephemeros!?

Hehehe. Ahaha! Ahahahahahahahaha!

Yes, I am! I'm going to live! I'm going to persist! Just like all of you!

I'm going to live my life exactly the way I want!

Emergency alert! Typhon Ephemeros is forming an internal Magical Reactor Core!

A Fafnir!?

Right. Of course. This is the result of an anti-wish granter like Ephemeros having a wish of her own!

But this scale is insane! It's growing even bigger than the original Fafnir!

You're not going anywhere.

Please, give me your last Command Spell, Master.

Hah! You think I'm letting you take all the glory here?

Give it to me, Master!

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Now, now. The important thing is to make sure the enemy doesn't escape.

So I'm hoping you'll form a contract with me and let me use that Command Spell.

Right... That's right! It's okay to just want to live!

How have I never realized this!?

Now, at long last, I'm finally free!

All right, we've secured the vantage point. Are you okay, Master?

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Typhon Ephemeros is moving at incredible speed. We don't have long before it escapes the Singularity.

I see. Only my third Noble Phantasm could reach her from here. It must be feeling like it's home free.

And that isn't even getting into how its very existence is larger than life now. If it has a personal wish on top of all that, we can't possibly win.

Even if we had an attack that could reach it, there'd be no way of getting through all that armor.

Except this time

Yep. This time, we have that to guide us.

It's kind of crazy when you think about it, Ptoley.

You and me are from completely different countries and time periods, but here we are, hunting a dragon together anyway.

It's those differences that make this work so well.

You and I inscribed our names on the pages of history in very different ways.

One day, someone is going to read those names.

It could be in a book, or an image, or another form of media that hasn't even been invented yet.

That sort of absurdity was one of the many things my king loved about this world.

Free! I'm free! This time, I'll finally be truly free!

A dragonkin of Typhon's caliber should have no trouble escaping a Singularity!

Once I've escaped from here, I won't have to rush any longer. I can take all the time I need.

All I'll have to do is keep filling my new Magical Reactor Core with magical energy a little bit at a time.

Then, once my transformation is complete, I'll be able to take revenge on the Master of Chaldea!

Ahh, why didn't I realize this sooner?

You're right, Anti-Holy Grail. You did arrive at this realization a little too late.

What!? That third Noble Phantasm again!? ...No, wait. Is this...!?

Does this mean...you were still alive!?

Don't tell me you forgot? My Noble Phantasm is the thread of fatea thread that will always guide you down the right path.

Ariadne Apolyto Hades.

There, I've marked her!

Understood! We'll take it from here!

This... This can't be! They can't possibly have spotted my core at this distance!

I can't believe it. He's peeling away the armor around it with such precision, even for so prolonged an attack... Still, it's not too late. My core is still intac

Don't you dare miss, Sugitani.

Hahaha, don't worry. Like I told Master...

...I'm never missing again.

No! No, no, no! I finally figured it out!

I can be free now! I have a right to be free!

Even if it means I have to do harm in order to

...Ah.

So, you really did finally figure it out.

That's right, Typhon Ephemeros. This is what it means to live.

Every creature, myself included, must first and foremost focus on living. Even if doing so means making mistakes, flawed and imperfect as we all are.

But we keep living, we keep persisting in spite of it all. We believe that when we reach the end, we'll finally have an answer.

And now, you've just seen what your answer looks like.

But, that's...

That's so...foolish...

...So...

Here you go. This is the final Holy Grail round. It's all yours.

Ah...

Dammit... That one...tore right through my core...

I can feel myself...disappearing...

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You're right. No change in her flight speed. Does this mean Sugitani's Holy Grail round didn't

Don't worry. I definitely got her. She's done. It's over.

That much concentrated magical energy doesn't disappear instantly, even when its source has been snuffed out.

She's a dead dragon flying now. Even though her life is over, she's going to keep soaring onward...

...until she's gone as far as she possibly can...

Ahh. It's over.

That accursed Holy Grail round is erasing me from my core outward. I can feel more and more of myself dissolving with every passing second...

...Ahh...

I see. This really is the end for me.

But that's why I could fight so hard, right up to the end.

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was human...

I wonder. Would anything have been different if I had realized it sooner?

Could that Master and I have been friends, like his Servants...?

Maybe...

Maybe one day, I'll...

It's over.

Yeah, sure looks that way.

I still can't quite believe you survived.

Hah. Well, I'm used to hanging on by a thread, as it were. Though, I have to admit that this time it was an especially fine thread, even for me.

Honestly, if I was still alive, I would have been killed instantly. I think...I have Asterios's magical energy to thank for this.

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Ah, good point. He was the lord of the castle back then, and he still had his Tears of the Holy Grail.

If he had even a shred of will left to help you, he had ample magical energy with which to do so.

Well, don't expect a big thank you from me. This was war, not a trust fall.

That's fine. I wasn't expecting one anyway.

But how did you get here in the firstno, wait, I know. It was Ariadne's Thread, wasn't it?

Yup. I looped some around Ptolemaîos back when we fought, and it dragged me here with him.

From there, I just stayed out of sight of Typhon and its minions and waited for my chance.

Well, I suppose it wasn't actually Typhon, was it? I never would have guessed we were up against the ephemeral fruit this whole time.

Now that I think about it, I expect this Singularity splitting into day and night versions must have had something to do with the ephemeral fruit and the nature of the Holy Grail.

Since the fruit was a kind of Anti-Holy Grail, the Holy Grail from this Singularity must have naturally repelled it.

Oh, yeah, good point.

That would explain why the Holy Grail split into fragments instead of remaining as a single whole.

And that in turn led to an already incomplete Singularity being further fractured into day and night versions.

So we had a day Singularity and a night Singularity, each with their own castles.

Perhaps we could call them the Castle of Shining Dawn, and the Castle of Shadowed Dusk.

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All in all, this was a good war. It's nice having worthy opponents.

And even better, we didn't have to sacrifice any innocent civilians to fight it.

I'm not too big on that Valhalla-minded approach myself.

I feel like Taigong Wang enjoyed this more than I did.

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Oh yes. Whenever the fog let up, my team and I would sometimes get into skirmishes with him and his team while we were out scouting.

I never fought Taigong Wang directly, but I was impressed by the variety and brilliance of his schemes.

Although Koyanskaya certainly didn't look very happy to be a pawn in them.

Definitely not.

I've known people like him. There's nothing they love more than coming up with new strategies and testing them in live combat.

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Boy, were there! There was one scribe in particular who always rubbed me the wrong way!

Haha, I'd love to hear more about that...

...but it looks like my time is up. I don't think I could even lift a finger now.

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Hmm.

I'm pretty sure you and I have only been enemies here... But, I suppose the fact you can say things like that with a straight face is why you're here in the first place.

I only wish I could have said that to Asterios, too. Maybe then, I'd have one less regret to take with me.

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Hahaha, that's good to hear. Maybe that will be enough to drop at least one regret, even if I'm an empty shadow of humanity.

Yes... I think my dreams may be that much better now...

I can confirm that the Singularity has begun to converge. We'll be Rayshifting you home very soon, Senpai.

I'm setting the return parameters now. Don't move from that spot, okay?

Hey now, don't go all weepy on me.

Snipers are supposed to do their job and disappear.

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You bet. If there's ever another target you can't afford to miss, give me a shout.

Oh, yeah. There's still one question I don't have an answer for.

What's that?

Well, I'm just wondering why strangers like us got paired up. I mean, the lords of the other castles all had preexisting bonds with their subordinates, right?

Oh, I think I can answer that one.

I'd guess it's because the general you have the deepest ties to is also someone who isn't exactly your textbook Heroic Spirit.

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...I guess you got a point there.

So, I expect the land summoned me instead to fill in for him in his absence...

...since, among Servants, I was uniquely positioned to fight Typhon Ephemeros.

So our partnership was just a coincidence.

A coincidence, huh.

Indeed. But not a bad one.

I'd agree with that. Well, see you, double Ptoley.

Goodbye. I'll give my older self your regards.

Well, Fujimaru, this has been one of the longest short journeys I've ever been on.

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Haha, who knows? I can't say whether I'll ever be summoned there.

And even if I am, I don't know if it will be me, or my older self.

But...if I am, I'm sure it would be a grand old time.

I certainly wouldn't mind serving the boy again, along with that twisted old mage.

Who else is there? Nameless? My teacher? The boy's own son

I see Typhon's cocoon is disappearing.

The day and night castles are already gone. Even the extensive damage from our battle is vanishing as though it were no more than a dream.

Speaking of dreams, it looks like it's time to wake up from this one.

This really was a good battle...a thrilling expedition that went beyond day and night themselves.

Hey, Fujimaru.

One day, I hope you'll show me your endless sea!