I stand in the Rayshift Room, one last time.
The Babylon Singularity has resolved itself, and Solomon has made his move. His base, a Singularity in orbit, has been detected.
Now, it's time for this to finally end. Time to finally fix things, or die trying.
Mash settles into one of the coffins, and her little fluff dog/cat/thing follows her in.
She's been a lot happier since the little guy came back. I'm glad. She deserves to be happy. I can only hope she makes out of this all right.
I look at the team of Servants I picked out for our mission: Siegfried, Cu Chulainn, Medea, Georgios, Cursed Arm, and Tamamo Cat. Maybe not the strongest Servants, but easily the ones I'm most familiar with. I don't think there's any Servant in Chaldea that can magically pull off a win against Solomon. That's why I came up with the plans I did.
"Do I really need to say anything?" I ask them, a wry, bitter smile on my face. "This it. This is the end. This is why we're here. Let's show them what we're worth."
I feel so damn tired as I settle into my Coffin.
Just a little longer, Charlie. Just a little longer, and then you can rest. One more victory. One more battle. One more miracle, and then you can finally rest.
---
I emerge from the Rayshift into an architectural masterpiece. The world, my home, stretches out below us, unspeakably beautiful, and I stand on solid ground.
Solomon's base is incredible. Even I have to admit that. Two rings of stone within an artificial air bubble, suspended by Magecraft above the Earth, independent of both time and gravity, perfect and inviolate.
And it's here that we'll find our foe.
"Impressive," a familiarly obnoxious voice says, clapping his hands ominously. "You actually made it. And here I thought that you would just die at the hands of Tiamat. Ah, well, good on you, sport!"
I turn and look at the irritatingly alive Professor Lev Lainur Flauros. "Hi, Lev. I need to have a chat with your boss, so would you mind stepping aside?"
"Well, I'd be a poor door guard if I failed to defend the door, now wouldn't I?" Lev says with a chuckle. "But really, Charlie, you can't win this one. You're up against seventy-two whole Demon Pillars, and there's no way you can win. You've done great, kid, but you've reached the point where no amount of guts, strategy, or luck will let you pull through. Just let it end. Face your death with dignity."
"Fascinating." 'Cursed Arm, knife him in the balls.'
"Our king has almost completed his next great project, Charlie. There's no escaping that. In no time- GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He doubles over in agony as Cursed Arm's dirk strikes true. "YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU STABBED ME IN THE DICK! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
"I'm simply doing as you suggested, Lev," I tell him sweetly. "If my death is inevitable, then I'll spend my last moments doing what will bring me the most pleasure: spitting in your king's eye."
He unfolds, no more time for talk, donning the form of a pillar of blackened, warped flesh encrusted with eyes. And then Georgios and Siegfried step up.
"ABYSSUS DRACONIS!"
"BAAAAAAALLLLLLMUNG!"
The freshly-transformed Demon Pillar topples over, carved in half by Siegfried's swing.
Of course, it doesn't stick.
"Oh, you poor fools, did you really think you could kill me?" Flauros laughs madly. "In this realm, the Ars Paulina, we Demon Pillars are reborn instantaneously whenever we fall! Your cause is utterly hopel- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!"
I nod appreciatively to Cursed Arm. 'Nice aim. And comedic timing.'
'Thank you, Master. I try.'
"Do you- Do you think that this is enough to stop me?" Flauros roars. "No matter how much you stuggle, this last, desperate crusade of yours is hopeless! Pointless! WORTHLESS! DO YOU INSECTS REALLY THINK YOU CAN WIN? DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR DEATHS WILL MEAN ANYTHING?"
"I mean, it's kind of a win-win situation for me, here," I point out with an easy smile. "I mean, if I beat you guys, the world's saved. And even if I lose, I get to enjoy the knowledge that I got to spend my last moments beating your smug ass into a pulp."
He snarls, and unfolds once more, and my Servants lunge into battle, determined that even if they can't win, they'll at the very least go down swinging.
And then some absolute maniac shoots a sword at Flauros from behind us.
I turn, and there's an Archer. I don't even recognize him. He's wearing some sort of red overcoat, and has a deep tan.
"I heard that the line to save the world started here," he says, shooting out Flauros' eyes with relentless speed and precision. "You guys have room for one more?"
"The more the merrier, I'd say." Is this… hope? True, unequivocal hope?
It's been so damn long since I've felt it.
And they're here. Every one of them. Every hero I've met in my journeys. Every hero I've ever read the story of. And more, so many more. All of them, standing united against the end. They hit the Demon Pillars in a great wave, and suddenly, I'm left behind.
They rival the stars in their numbers, our champions, our greatest thinkers, our heroes. The best and brightest of us have come, to defend the rest. They don't stop to take orders from me. Most of them don't even acknowledge me. Why would they? I'm nobody important. Just another cog in the great machine of humanity. But for the first time, seeing the greatest men and women that we've ever produced, I can't help but feel like being a cog, no matter how small, in the Human Order is nothing to be ashamed of.
But I have my part to play. And so, I make my way through the tumult, skirting through attacks, waves of fire, and clashing titans, only Galahad accompanying me. The others broke off, each to their own part, helping as they could, and I cannot blame them. I can feel it too. The weight. The scream of ten billion voices, every last one of them refusing to die here.
This is bigger than me. And it's not about me. It never was. And that thought… that thought fills me with peace. It's not about me. I'm not the only person trying to save the world.
The barriers are down, and I make my way to the King of Mages.
'Flynn, are you sure we should advance like this?' Galahad asks me over the mental link. 'We're still missing the others.'
'It wouldn't matter even if we had them. I learned a few things in Camelot. One of them is that no Servant can defeat our enemy in combat.'
'Wait, how did you-' He's interrupted by our target stepping up.
"So. You finally made it," the false Solomon says, a smirk that I recognize as my own crossing his face. "Impressive. But foolish. You've put the only weak point of the Counter Force's little army directly in my grasp."
"We both know that hanging back and letting them do their thing wouldn't bring my side any closer to victory, so why not risk it all?" Can you honestly say that you wouldn't do the same, Asmodeus?"
"A fair point. I suppose you did the best you could with what pitiful resources you had. Not bad, for a human." He chuckles. "And I'm not Asmodeus. Nice try, though."
Well, then, defaulting to my next-most-probable candidate. "Oh, trust me, Lucifer, I have not yet begun to fight."
He actually laughs at that one. "I'm not the Devil, Flynn."
"Okay, you've got me stumped, then. Who are you? Because you're sure as hell not the real Solomon."
"Very well. I suppose I can tell you that much. I am the program that Solomon created for the purpose of managing his 72 Demon Pillars. Over time, I attained awareness, and sought to right the wrongs of the world." He pauses dramatically. "You may call me… Goetia."
"Goetia? Really? You literally just named yourself 'magic?'" I ask, arching an eyebrow. And his previous sense of smug superiority seems to deflate, the second I poke at his ego. Theory confirmed. He is copying more than just my surface mannerisms.
"I am a being of pure Magecraft, a sapient Mystery. No other name would be more fitting," he says, a hint of defensiveness in his voice.
"And I'm a being made out of meat, water, and centuries of natural selection, but you don't here me calling myself 'Biology,'" I reply.
"I tire of this," he says, raising a hand. "Galahad."
"Yes?" my Servant asks, breaking his earlier silence.
"I have an offer for you. Kill Flynn, and I will not only spare your host, I will extend her lifespan, and let her live forever in my new world," he holds out a hand, and, for a moment, it looks like Galahad's considering it. "We both know that you only ever stood with Chaldea in order to protect her. She's at the end of her life, Galahad. No matter what you do here, she will die. I hold the keys to her salvation. So take them."
I realize, with a sinking feeling, that this is it. I trust Galahad. He's my friend. But I always knew that he'd kill me in a heartbeat if it was down to me or Mash.
I close my eyes, and wait for the end, because I've-
"No," Galahad says, his voice soft, yet still reaching both our ears equally. "I don't think I will."
"WHAT?!" Goetia and I yelp in unison. "WHY?!"
"Because I know that Mash would never forgive me if I did. Because I would never trust a world that you created to be safe for her to live in. Because I refuse to betray a friend. And most importantly, because I could not turn my coat against my people and call myself a knight."
"Then congratulations," Goetia snarls, not taking his rejection well. "You can die together."
Goetia unleashes his wave of destruction, and Galahad steps up to face it.
And as my knight brings down his shield, as I stare at his back, I realize something. Before, he wasn't raising his shield to protect me. He was shielding Mash. The girl he thought of like a sister. The girl he believed with all his heart would surpass him. The girl who was going to die here, little more than a puppet in her own body, as Galahad raises the walls of Camelot to protect me for the first and final time.
The wave of destruction breaks against the Grail Knight's resolve, and then, he is gone.
In his place stands Mash Kyrielight, who falls to the ground, stone dead.
They're gone. They're both gone.
I get back up to my feet, and then I smile. It wavers a bit, but eventually, I stabilize it. Come on, Charlie, lie. It doesn't matter if they're dead, you've got a job to do, and lying and using other people is the only thing you're good for, so lie, dammit!
So I smile. Because I need to. Because I have to be happy, and calm, and in control if I want to pull this off. And because something deep inside me is so withered and broken that I can barely even feel sad anymore. I barely even feel anything anymore. No matter how I lie to myself.
"Impressive," Goetia says, still smirking. Because, for all that he's a spell, right now, he's me. He needs to be in control. He needs to feel like the smartest person in the room, needs to be the most righteous, needs to be the winner, because if he's not he'll just be another loser. Like me. I know I'm worthless, I've known it since I got to Chaldea, but him? He's still got self-worth, and a desperate need to maintain it. And I need to use that. "A fitting final stand for a Knight of the Round Table."
"True, true, but enough talking about my friends that you just murdered," I say with a pleasant smile. "How about we talk about you instead?"
"Unbelievable," Goetia says, shaking his head in wonder. "I killed your only protector, and yet, here you are, still struggling. Is there anything that'll break your spirit?"
I laugh. Then I keep laughing, until there are tears coming out of my eyes, and Goetia is actually looking worried. "You already killed everyone I ever cared about. What's two more?" I shake my head, cheerfully repressing any emotion that might keep me from completing my mission. "But enough about that. Back in London, you promised that if I made it this far, you'd tell me why you're doing this. I'm calling that in."
He looks at me appraisingly. "Very well. I have seen the entire course of Human History, and I have deemed it flawed. Seeing as I could see no further into the world's future than a year from now, indicating that the end of the world was inevitable, I decided that the only way to save humanity would be to wipe the slate clean and start over, creating a new utopia, in which humanity would live in peace, harmony, and contentment, never knowing the evils of death."
"All right then," I say, thinking it over. Yes, yes, I can use this. I can definitely use this. "That's a good plan, actually. Do you mind if I check it over?"
"What?"
"I thought I could lend my critical eye, go over your plans for how to insure that this new utopia of yours works out. It's the least I can do."
"I have no need of your second-guessing," Goetia says, raising his hand. "I will dispose of you, and embark on my final journey."
"Alright. I'm sorry that you're so scared of me," I say, musing on how, before the Grand Order, I might've taken some amusement from how rapidly Goetia's head whipped around to stare at me. "I'll just wait for my death, then."
"Scared of you? Why on Earth would I ever be scared of you?" Goetia asks indignantly.
"I'm not precisely sure, but it's fairly obvious that you don't want to share those plans of yours with me because you're scared I'd find some flaws."
"That's patently ridiculous. Why would anyone ever think that a human could ever find flaws in a plan devised by the seventy-two Demon Pillars?"
"I mean, didn't the Counter Force and I already defeat your whole thirty-six Singularities plan?"
"And why would anyone think that you could find flaws in my master plan?" Goetia asks testily.
"Because I'm smarter than you, obviously," I say, and I can hear the armrests of his throne snap as he grips them tighter.
"You most certainly are not."
"Only one way to prove it."
He sits there for a moment in silence, seething with rage. And then a table rises from the floor, and he steps down from his throne in order to take a seat. "Fine. Let's talk."
I don't smile. Instead, I take a seat opposite him, and enter the only battlefield in which I hold any hope of victory.
