Chapter 949: To My Beloved Dawn, Part 22

Author's Preface

FGO's Part 2 Final Chapter was good, huh.

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"Hmm, if we keep splitting up like this, we'll just lose combat power before we even enter the boss fight, so sorry to Katzo-kun, but let's have everyone respond to any attacks from now on!"

This was five minutes after OiKatzo had taken on a Poison Maiden of unnatural strength all by himself.

The members of the 'main force' present, including, of course, the members of 【Wolfgang】, nevertheless keenly felt that the heartless decision made by that Arthur Pencilgon, who had smilingly written off OiKatzo's self-sacrifice with the words 'a disposable pawn,' had ultimately not been wrong.

"wHY, whYyY!!"

Not suspicion born of doubting others, but a question that simply, irrationally, asked why her own existence had been made so irrational.

And even as it asked, a disappointment that had abandoned seeking from others an explanation it could accept, instead repeatedly and irrationally taking out its frustration on others over having no answer.

The Fifth, who had smashed open the head of a serpent who had once been her kin, family with whom she shared flesh and blood, declaring, 'If you cannot give me an answer, I have no need of you.'

Because of the word she repeated as though it had soaked into her tongue, the monster in the shape of a girl once called 'Naze' and feared by that name had returned to this world from the poison of memory.[*1]

From behind the bangs concealing her eyes, eyes blazing a venomous purple assailed the members of the 'main force.'

Cursing her circumstances, screaming why she had to have been born this way while making clear that she was not asking to hear an answer, she wielded violence with one hand. Yet that greatsword like a slab of iron had still not crushed a single person.

"Is this the true body of Goldunine the Inexhaustible!?"

"nO......... thIS isn't it!"

To Kyogoku's question, Isuna answered in the negative.

Though fundamentally identical to Goldunine, the individual before them was nevertheless an entirely different concentration from that concentration of loathing and hatred.

The Goldunines, sensing that distinction powerfully, raised their voices: 'She's a different me.'

"Her attacks themselves are simple, but.........!"

Mold groaned as he dodged a sweep of the greatsword like one of Psyger-0's full swings.

Naze's attacks, unknown to everyone present, were simple, and not especially difficult to evade. But.........

"She never stops moving! She never runs out of stamina!"

Mold, whom she was currently targeting, conveyed the threat in the bluntest possible terms.

She was making with one hand a sweep equivalent to a full swing from Psyger-0 using both hands, and even then, she never stopped moving.

Without ever running short of breath, she would pursue her chosen prey as far as it took until she crushed them. Truly a serpent's tenacity; no life exists in this world that cannot be finished off by the poison called exhaustion.

The successive blows of disappointment, thirsting for an answer she could never obtain, steadily drove Mold into a corner.

But the one being driven into a corner was.........

"Now, 【Snaregrass BindingBooby Weed】!"

<<.........Tunnel vision. That is only permissible up to about 1v2.>>

"Ghk!?"

Mold invoked the spell through chant omission.

The weeds that tangled around Naze's ankle threw her off balance for an instant, her build no more than that of an ordinary teenager.

And with timing so perfect it was as though that instant had been written into the script, a scarlet iron fist punched Naze squarely in the face from the side.

<<.........I would prefer her to wear a powered suit around 2〜3 meters tall. She is difficult to punch.>>

"Her horsepower is powered-suit level, so make do with that, Rust........."

Rust, clad in RS:◇Annihilating-Jaw Scarlet SmashSengaku Hisai, let the drive systems roar as she held the follow-through stance of her right straight.

<<.........The impact feedback is harder than her appearance suggests.>>

She had no certainty that the blow had depleted Naze's HP completely. The unexpected resistance drew that muttered assessment from Rust, and at the same moment, as though confirming it, Naze stood back up.

"whYyY.........? wHY, why aRe yoU doiNg thIS to mEeeee.........?"

<<.........Unscathed? .........Impudent.>>

"Same as the one Katzo-kun took on......... no, maybe a higher-tier variant."

The individual OiKatzo had taken on boasted the same inhuman strength as the one before them, but it had still just barely fallen within the category of a 'humanoid Enemy.'

But this individual was different. The fact that the whites of her eyes were stained a poisonous purple was certainly inhuman, but her state of having lost all reason could not exist unless she had possessed reason to lose in the first place.

Pencilgon briefly shifted her gaze toward the allied 'Goldunines,' who were staring at the 'Goldunine' that had effortlessly endured a right straight from a Tactical Mech.

(A Goldunine who sided with the boss......... or the highest-tier version of those poison clones......... ah, I hate this, I hate this, there's absolutely no way this ends with just this one, right?)

As Pencilgon began to glimpse the overall structure of the battle against Goldunine the Inexhaustible, she felt a slight headache.

Because if Pencilgon's prediction was right......... it would be as though Wethermon the Tombguard battles were erupting simultaneously in multiple places.

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───A domain of poison spreads outward from her, staining the earth.

There is no heavy cost or condition attached to wielding it.

───Versions of her identical to her, yet different from her, crawl out of the poison domain.

There is no quantitative limit or restriction on generating them.

───There is no chance, not even by the remotest possibility, that the created versions of 'her' will rebel against the one who is their source.

That is neither coercion nor domination; they are brought forth as beings for whom rebellion simply does not exist.

"....................."

Then why does she look so pained......... so worn down that she seems ready to collapse at any moment?

One of the Nagas, the only one permitted to remain beside her, watched her with concern.

"u, uGh..................!"

She summons those who once 'existed' from within the poison.

In an act equivalent to a miracle, there is no cost, no condition, no limit, no restriction, and no rebellion.

Only, the act itself rots away her convictions, the very foundation that constitutes her......... and that hurts more, torments her more, than being torn apart by the fangs or claws of any beast.

But even so, swallowing a revulsion that feels as though it will wring her soul apart, she continues creating 'herself.'

".................."

A 'Goldunine' that had just crawled from the poison domain cast a sidelong glare at 'Goldunine.'

To a gaze neither hostile nor malicious, yet one that made her profoundly uncomfortable......... even so, she returned a fearless smile.

"you, who were borN earLier thaN anYone else......... does it displease yOu, being worKed mercilessLy bY me, i wOnder?"

".........no? ever since you kiLleD thiS veRy Me on that NiGht......... it seems you stiLl still have not found the ansWeR."

"be quieT......... gO, second."

"................"

The girl obediently fell silent and left......... among the 'Goldunines' born on the Night of Beginning, tearing their way into existence through the entrails of the primordial First, she was the individual born earliest, in other words, the second Goldunine.

Receiving the words of the girl who had once chosen her own name and continued searching for her own way of life......... Goldunine the Inexhaustible looked up.

A shining crescent moon.

She stared at the shape of the moon, the same as that night......... and then looked away.

She had already severed herself from those memories.

Author's Afterword

・The Original Eight

The Progenitor Serpent, the primordial First who received direct 'treatment' from Alice Frontier, was far too successful.

As a result, after repeated replication, proliferation, and division until she swelled and burst, the 'serpents' born from within took on forms close to human and scattered in every direction.

The Original Eight were pure, unmixed copies of the primordial First, and for that reason each possessed a fragmentary, yet deeply concentrated, portion of the primordial 'power that had succeeded too well.'

Most of them were slain and absorbed by Goldunine the Inexhaustible over the course of the long years.

The second Goldunine, Yozora, who used objectivity and yearning as sustenance in her pursuit of the Way, was likewise an individual defeated after a struggle to the death and vanished into the poison.

Translator's Notes

• [1] Naze: Naze means “why” in Japanese, the question she compulsively repeats.