Note:
This story is intended to be a follow-up to the story A Moment of Truth, which itself follows the Good ending of Fate/Stay Night's Unlimited Blade Works story route.
Crystal Valley: Preview
BGM: Trevor Morris - And So It Begins
We had come a long way, Sakura and I.
Across half the world and back again, I found the acrid depths a human mind can stoop to…
…and the soaring heights to which our kind should all aspire.
Together, she and I, with those who comprise our family circle, faced our moments of truth.
At long last, one chapter of our collective lives had come to an end.
And yet…
Despite the glimpses offered, by the one which beckoned us towards a new destiny…
…none of us were prepared for what lay in store.
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The group of adventurers were astounded.
The flight from Sao Paulo into the interior covered such a diverse array of terrain, so many individual glimpses at a country – a continent – in constant flux.
From the urban sprawl of the metropolis the group left behind, the course of the flight gradually took them over wide subtropical forests and immense stretches of savanna, pock-marked to a greater or lesser extent by large stretches of farmland. Much of it had been ‘claimed’ at the expense of a unique ecosystem which lay under increasing siege, despite the efforts of many to steer its fate towards a less destructive path.
And further on, past the myriad works of man, lay the pulsating heart of life itself…
…the Amazon basin.
“It’s hard to get a handle of…” admitted Rin, who had a hand pressed against one of the small plane’s windows, trying not to ‘accidentally’ Reinforce the glass while doing so.
Shirou nodded, putting a hand to the side of his head, as he tried to peek out himself. “It’s usually so cloudy when you fly to London from Japan and back. I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to see the terrain I’ve flown over quite like this.”
Saber, who almost wished she had asked for the chance to fly the group to their destination herself – assuming her Riding skill wouldn’t take too long to adjust – remained silent. Her wide eyes, intently picking up every last scrap of detail it could along the way, said more than mere words could convey, to those who knew what to look for in them.
Meanwhile, Sakura rested her head on Seonac’s shoulder, as the two looked on through their own windowpane. Much as the view had to offer, the two couldn’t help but find their thoughts drawn away from it, and towards a more distant point they would have to try and reach.
“They’re waiting for us,” Seonac ‘whsipered’ into his beloved’s mind.
“Hai,” came the reply.
They had so far left to go… but even so, they were on their way.
------------------------------
As the rain beat down, from clouds which had not been there a few hours ago, the captured man shuddered in reaction to the mysterious, piercing set of green eyes which remained locked upon him.
“Wait…” he said, as he tried to steady himself, “I don’t…”
Something’s not right here, Seonac thought to himself, as he suddenly sensed a shift within the prisoner’s mind. It was almost as if…
“Ah, so you
can notice it,” a new voice spoke, from the prisoner’s mouth. The man smirked, his expression changing in an instant – but Seonac knew that this was not the same man at all. “Interesting.”
Seonac tried to retain the initiative, despite a growing sense that something was about to go very, very wrong. “I don’t suppose you feel like talking about it, then?”
The ‘man’ chuckled, as he stood up, going as far as he could while the bonds remained in place. “No, I’m afraid I don’t have anything to say to you and yours. Well, except for one thing, that is.”
Seonac replied, as he noted Rin, Saber and Shirou approach. “Which is…”
A wider grin, as the final words were spoken. “This one’s usefulness… has just reached its end.”
The five of them could feel the pulse of danger, as Saber’s instincts reacted even as the low whistling sound was immediately followed by the pitiful sight of fear in the man’s eyes as his head burst open to one side.
------------------------------
The way to the village was un-marked by any recognisable trail, though the guide seemed to note every step’s worth with the expertise of one who carried a lifetime’s worth of experience among the rainforest.
Some of the villagers had stepped forward to note the strangers’ presence, while others seemed content to remain at whatever stations they had been busy at before the new arrival.
Seonac was fascinated by the sight of these people, but what was perhaps most striking was how they, or at least those who were most prominently reaching out to his mind, seemed to recognise him.
“So, I don’t suppose you have any idea why they already seem to recognise you?” Rin asked, wondering when any of these locals were actually going to speak. She had a few guesses as to why they had not done so, but none of them meant that she had to like it.
Before Seonac could reply, one of the elders directed them to what looked like a kind of statue…
…but when they came closer, they realised that the effigy was made of a material like no other on Earth.
This would have been the most important part of it, were it not for the person the face of the effigy echoed in astonishing detail.
------------------------------
The five had been given the time they needed to settle in, or at least as much as they could settle for what was, even now, a waypoint on their wider journey.
And yet, even leaving the anthropologist’s treasure trove which this unique culture represented aside, it seemed increasingly obvious that these people were strongly linked to the place where the five were going.
Their story was crucial to understanding what lay beyond.
As the music began, so did the telling.
“What do they want,
itoshii?” Sakura asked, as another of the elders approached them, his hand outstretched.
Seonac stood up, and smiled as he held Sakura’s hand in his own. “They want us to dance.”
She smiled in turn as she followed him up, and the assembled crowd watched the two move together, as if they could hear an echo of the song which played within their entwined minds.
As the dance continued, more and more of the villagers joined in, each following a kind of pattern that seemed to tell a story within a story, all of its own.
As the dance widened, a shared vision flowed into the minds of all assembled – a vision of another time, another place. At the dawn of this people’s world, when they had been the first of their kind, the architects of a realm like no other.
As the cries called out, one after another, each with more sorrow, more depth, more meaning than the last, the tragic tale unfolded.
A burning light in the distant sky.
An unwilling exodus to a foreign land.
A stream of tears and heartache, as friends and loved ones passed beyond the known realm.
A determination to dance, to rejoice, to defy the call into oblivion, to assert the bittersweet mantra what while there is life, there is hope.
A set of new arrivals, each hundreds of moons apart, each reflected in the living metal…
…and each drawn to a fate unknown.
A sense that all of this, somehow, was inexorably building towards something…
…that would change their world yet again.
------------------------------
Like the ringing of a solitary church bell, the pulse of psionic energy emanated across the gathering, as if calling time on one set of events, and calling forth the onset of a new phase.
At the source of the pulse, the eyes of the ‘statue’ flared a bright emerald.
It stepped forth.
It was time.
------------------------------
The five followed the course laid out by the walking simulacrum, its sure and steady stride in stark contrast to the carefully-navigated route the indigenous guide had followed to lead them to the village.
It walked as if even the act itself was a carefully-choreographed form of mimicry, as if it had somehow been trained to move in a fashion alien to it.
Its lips did not move, not even to show any sign of breathing, nor to express any sign of exertion.
And despite the utter silence, both verbally and telepathically, to be found within, the being still emanated an immensely powerful sense of purpose – as if it was fulfilling one small, but crucial, part in a far more intricate plan.
It stopped at what seemed to be a rock face, and turned to face the group as a shimmering vortex of teal and emerald formed behind it.
------------------------------
On the other side, the four humans, one Servant, and one simulacrum stood upon a smooth disc of the same alien material as the silent guide.
As the disc flew along towards its destination, the five were left speechless at the sights they passed through.
Within an immense subterranean cavern, a glowing light seemed to emanate and reflect from a hundred thousand surfaces, from the distant roof to the ground below. They passed through endless rows of petrified – no, crystallized – trees, plants, even animals, left as if frozen in time at the moment of ossification. Thin strands of the alien material, light as the air yet stronger than diamond, was woven into an impossibly intricate pattern, between the trees, along the surface, among the relatively few notable terrain features on the ceiling.
In the centre of the cavern, this immense crystal valley beneath the surface of an otherwise-unheralded patch of the hemisphere, rested the somewhat egg-shaped pods within which two very special forms of life currently resided.
They were too far away to be seen clearly, but Seonac and Sakura rejoiced as they could sense the little ones’ presence.
But there was so much, so very much more than that.
The flying disc approached the centre, and as it did so, the will of the one which had guided its actions lay manifest.
The five looked up, open-mouthed, as they strained their necks in order to try and take in the sheer scope of the Ultimate One before them.
It was hoisted in the centre of the Crystal Valley upon impossibly large, curved legs, which held up a torso mounting innumerable appendages, large and small. Behind its back lay a perfect circle, effortlessly housing a churning matrix of unfathomable power and majesty.
Its three heads – or was it five? Or maybe only the one? - rested upon long neck-like extensions, and even the one, central head seemed to take in all of the arrivals at once.
Saber tried to steel herself in the face of this godlike entity, despite the overwhelming sense of apprehension at their very presence within this un-earthly landscape.
Rin and Shirou held each other’s hand more tightly than either realised, as they thought of the last time they faced something even remotely comparable in terms of power.
Sakura, in contrast, was trying to fight down the intensely strong urge to rush over and embrace the pods containing the little ones – but the sight of how her partner faced the immense being before them gave her pause.
Seonac, however, left no fear or apprehension at all, as his mind opened to the One which had beckoned him forth. Rather, he left that he was on the very cusp of something… magnificent.
“I can see it,” he spoke, as the first tendrils of communication formed. “Its presence, its purpose…”
He could see it all.
Its reason for being on this world.
Its efforts to understand, in extraordinary detail, the kind of life, so different to its own, which awaited it here.
Its revelation that, despite its solitary presence here on Earth…
…that it was not alone.
“Quite the show, isn’t it?”
That voice…
Seonac’s head turned, his eyes looking out into the crystal valley, desperately trying to pick out who had ‘said’ this. “What are you…”
“I’ve waited for far too long,” the voice proclaimed in triumph, loud enough for all of them to hear,
“And at last… vengeance shall be mine!”
All Seonac could do was scream, as the bolt of Gin-soaked energy fired from a hidden vantage point, soaking up the energy permeating the cavern as it smashed into the circle upon the Ultimate One’s back.
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When the new portal opened, wreathed in crimson, I knew that four thousand years’ worth of effort had been left in vain.
As it – as they
– came forth, I knew that the fate of mankind itself now lay in the balance.
As I looked to my friends, my family, we all realised that there was only one, faint chance, before it was too late.
And as I turned to the Ultimate One before me, and took the step towards my true destiny...
...I wondered if it would be enough.