Chapter 44: ACT.13 "Quickening"

The human race known as the 'mages aiming for the Root' are the same as scientists in the sense that they pursue the truth.

The difference is that their direction is not the future but the past, and they aim for an unreached territory by reproducing the past.

However, because they aim for the past, it was predetermined that magecraft would decline.

If one were to ask whether they united to address this problem—they did not, nor could they.

Even a magus is still human, choosing to confine themselves to the ivory tower and enjoy power struggles over pursuit. Combined with the mages' aristocratic system, this had already become an ordinary phenomenon.

In the midst of this.

About 500 years ago, an alchemist appeared.

The man was a genius alchemist.

He was also serious and an idealist.

That is precisely why he reached one of the three departmental pinnacles of the Magus Association.

However, the man had a worry.

No matter how he calculated, he could not overturn the prediction of humanity's extinction in the future.

This prediction extended beyond the average human lifespan.

It was a prediction far in the future, many generations ahead—parents, children, grandchildren—and the man would die of old age before humanity's extinction, so it had nothing to do with him.

He could have chosen to accept this and move on, but the man was serious and an idealist.

Therefore, the man refused to give up, thinking, thinking, and continuing to think—until he went mad.

He challenged the concept of True Magic but was defeated. His body was destroyed, and he became an existence that drifted as spirit particles. Yet, the man's will persisted, and he continued to wait for the miraculous day to come. In the process, he continued to exist, dismissing the deaths of many people as "trivial events."

But that ends today.

Tonight, the man—no, TATARI—was convinced that he would surely reach the miracle.

This was because the actors on the stage so far were assembling in numbers that exceeded his expectations.

The more magnificent the actors, the more exaggerated the people's rumors, and the more strengthened TATARI's magical formulas would become.

The strengthening of his own abilities.

This act, which might be called the reinforcement of his very existence, is synonymous with approaching the miracle.

“—Zepia broke the taboo of Atlas, conducted research outside, and eventually became a vampire. As a result, the authority of Eltnam fell, and the members of Eltnam were burdened with a sin that would never disappear…”

At that moment, the man's descendant muttered.

In response to this, the man scoffed at her, who still had not faced him.

Since he already grasped every corner of the city, he could hear her words even without being physically present there.

Sion Eltnam Atlasia.

It was calculated that there was no chance of her becoming an obstacle.

As a pitiful spectator of the stage and as the tragic heroine, she would likely lose her life this very night.

“—Are you planning to lose to Wallachia before you even fight?”

The young man accompanying Sion, Shiki Tohno, uttered these words.

At this, the man, despite not being manifested in a human form, experienced a quickening of his heartbeat and an emotional fluctuation.

He then recalled that this series of phenomena was a human-like emotional fluctuation he hadn't felt in a long time—in other words, discomposure.

For a moment, his thoughts stopped at the impossible event since becoming TATARI.

They immediately resumed, but dominated by an inexpressible emotion, the man felt irritation for the first time in ages.

Indeed, if he were to consider a threat, it must be this man and Satsuki Yumizuka, that Dead Apostle mimic.

The man was convinced of this.

They possessed an anomaly and were gifted with talent, but while they knew the first letter of 'magecraft,' their actual ability was amateurish.

Yet, every time he calculated, over and over again, the result was that they, along with the True Ancestor Princess, would stand as the greatest obstacle.

The result of them standing as a threat, surpassing the Burial Agency, the Executors, the Alchemists, and the Oni, caused him to feel a 'sense of incongruity.'

He considered the possibility of a Counter Force, but the one suitable for that was—

“Hmph, Kirei. You’re making quite a good face, aren’t you? Even if it's an illusion, the manifestation of your human desires is truly sweet.”

The Executor who came from Fuyuki was currently confronting the Saber's Master from the Fourth Holy Grail War, whom TATARI had sent to buy time.

The Servant, Archer, who was inexplicably watching the Master/Executor instead of assisting, muttered.

“—If someone is suitable, it would be this Servant.”

The fact that the Servant from the Fourth Holy Grail War was still lingering in the present world and came to Misaki Town at this precise timing proved the backing of the Counter Force's existence.

Furthermore, the Servant's True Name being "The Oldest King of Humanity" further affirmed the existence of the Counter Force.

However, at the same time, no matter how much he was a Heroic Spirit from past human history, a Servant is fundamentally not an existence that escapes the framework of a 'mage's familiar.'

In addition, the Servant's Master is an Executor but is not much of a Magus.

Moreover, the Servant lacks motivation, strolling through the town during the day and, even now, for some reason, not assisting his Master.

He is a powerful existence whose principles of action—what he thinks and what he does—are unclear, but he is certainly unmotivated.

“—Even if he is the Oldest King of Humanity, it is impossible for him to destroy this body, which is merely a phenomenon, and no one can stop this existence.”

TATARI concluded thus,

and turned his attention to his descendant, who was about to emerge from the elevator.

However, TATARI did not realize.

No, he was convinced he couldn't realize.

That the red eyes of the Servant visible in his sight,

the Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh, were fixated on TATARI—

“Do your best, Mongrel.”

—and that he had muttered those words.