Chapter 275: Dr. Roman's Future of Survival
Whether Romani Archaman was truly overthinking things or not did not change the fact that Fujimaru Ritsuka had already stepped into Paris.
Or rather, into R'lyeh.
As they passed through the dense mist, it felt as though they had crossed a boundary of time, space, and even the world itself. While walking, Ritsuka instinctively reached out and took Mashu's hand. The girl, already gripping her shield and preparing for anything, paused and turned her head, only to meet Ritsuka's gaze.
"This way, we will not get separated so easily."
The relaxed smile on the red haired girl's face eased some of the strange heaviness pressing down on Mashu's tense mind.
She nodded.
"I will definitely protect you, Senpai."
"I believe you. And I will fight beside you."
"Fou!"
Their voices echoed briefly, but the vast sea of mist soon came to an end. With a faint hum, the moment they crossed the boundary, they were hit by a rush of dense moisture.
What appeared before them was a street that was clean, orderly, and yet deeply distorted.
At first glance it looked proper enough, but the longer one looked, the stronger the sense of wrongness became. Up was down. Left and right seemed inverted. It was like an elegant city seen through the logic of a dream.
Monsters floated in the sky.
Gigantic tentacles writhed above them.
And higher still, brilliant streams of light clashed violently.
A narrow blade slashed across those writhing tentacles. The colossal creature seated upon a spiraling fortress like a throne released an indescribable murmur. At once, Ritsuka and Mashu felt an overwhelming threat. Both covered their ears and staggered back two steps, but it already seemed too late.
The chaotic monster, with octopus like tentacles writhing from its head and fleshy wings extending from its back, opened its abyss like mouth.
The sound that followed was like a drumbeat hammered straight into the soul. Their consciousness shook. For an instant, both of them felt as if they had fallen into an endless cycle of reincarnation.
Dizziness.
Faintness.
Confusion.
Inversion.
Madness.
Then came a violent crash.
A tremendous roar tore through the air and cut across the muttering sound. The gust that followed struck like an enormous fist, blasting open a huge crater in the ground. Amid the rolling dust, Ritsuka and Mashu finally came back to themselves.
And each saw fear reflected in the other's eyes.
What was that?
Neither of them dared look up again. Neither of them dared even think too clearly about the godlike thing above them.
"This trait of the Great Old Ones really is troublesome."
A crisp, clear voice sounded through the dust.
"Even I would not dare look directly at that monster."
Ritsuka followed the voice. Mashu, meanwhile, stepped in front of her and lifted her shield protectively.
Then they saw the figure standing where the dust had settled.
A dignified girl with long purple hair. A pure white ornament rested in her hair. Her chest was partially exposed, revealing fair and full curves that descended smoothly toward a flat abdomen. Loose fabric draped from her slender waist on both sides, while her soft and abundant thighs were partially visible beneath.
Her pretty face was filled with seriousness, and the point of the cross shaped spear in her hand gleamed with a sharp, flowing light.
She slowly lowered her fist.
It seemed the shockwave that had shattered the muttering pressure just now, and interrupted that assault of confusion, collapse, and corruption, had come from that very punch.
Fortunately, the newcomer carried no hostility.
Her aura was sacred and dignified, nothing like that of an evil being. In fact, it felt almost identical to the saintly presence Jeanne d'Arc carried.
"You should count yourselves lucky. If His Eminence had not blocked that thing, the moment you stepped inside, you would have fallen into an endless nightmare."
"Cthulhu, the Sleeper, is the embodiment of the eternal nightmare of the dark side of the universe."
The girl shook her fist lightly. Her beautiful purple eyes remained fixed on the Demi Servant and the Chaldea Master before her.
"Well, it is fine now."
"Just do not look directly at it."
She smiled.
"Then let me introduce myself first, to avoid any misunderstanding."
"My name is Martha. I once served my Lord, His Eminence, the Son."
Martha?
"The Dragon Taming Saint?"
Mashu froze.
Ritsuka had naturally heard that title as well.
A saint active in the earliest years of the Common Era. One closer to the Son than even Jeanne d'Arc. One of the earliest people to receive a revelation from the One God.
She had once tamed the evil dragon Tarasque through the power bestowed by the Son.
And so she had come to be known as the Dragon Taming Saint.
She was also one of the Lord's most devoted followers.
Which meant...
"So you are not an enemy, right?"
Ritsuka stepped around Mashu's defensive stance and gave the worried girl a reassuring glance.
"Of course not."
Martha grinned, and beneath her sacred bearing there was a straightforwardness that felt unexpectedly refreshing.
"I am here to help His Eminence too, just like you."
But once she said that, Martha's expression turned slightly troubled.
After sensing Rowe's presence, and after briefly meeting Atalanta before parting ways with her, Martha had followed the revelation in her heart all the way here, tracing Rowe's trail.
Compared with Atalanta, Martha was very confident that she would find Rowe first.
Although Atalanta had known Rowe longer than she had, Rowe had descended into this world under the identity of the Son. In that form, his link to Martha, the Dragon Taming Saint, was stronger. The direction she sensed was also far more precise.
And that confidence had proved correct.
She had found Rowe before Atalanta.
But she had found him here.
Inside this place.
A thunderous crash rang out in the sky.
The battle between man and outer god had already reached an intense stage. The figure holding the Holy Sword of the Heart moved through the air like a comet. The sword in his hand flashed like starlight racing through the dark universe.
Cthulhu, seated on its throne, spread its writhing tentacles wantonly. Each tentacle was lined with opening eyes, and inside every eye was a world, pure and extreme, and terrifyingly dreamlike.
The Sleeper, master of endless nightmares, the eternal king called Cthulhu, displayed its Authority from the heart of R'lyeh.
What it wanted was not simply to kill the human before it.
The Sleeper did not delight in destruction. It did not enjoy ruin for its own sake. It was not an evil god of annihilation. What it preferred was to drag the strong into the nightmare realm under its rule, wear down their minds, seize their bodies, and turn them into vessels.
To bury them forever inside nightmare.
Of course, only the strong, only those Cthulhu recognized, were worthy of such treatment.
And Rowe clearly qualified.
But what Cthulhu desired was not what Rowe desired.
He had always guarded against the possibility of being intercepted by the Great Old Ones and dragged into becoming one of them, sinking forever into the abyssal dark side of the cosmos.
Now, how could he possibly allow Cthulhu to succeed?
So every swing of his sword cut apart a layer of nightmare.
Every slash tore open a portion of the domain formed by Cthulhu's manifested Authority.
The sky was covered by dense, majestic mist. The Lord of R'lyeh, companion of the waters, was naturally wrapped in waters that symbolized cyclical return.
Cyclical chaos.
Endless repeating dreams.
Yet all of it was broken by the sword in Rowe's hand.
He advanced.
Midair, he pressed down with both feet at once. The tentacles before him shattered beneath the pressure of the holy sword. Then, like an arrow loosed from a drawn bow, he drove himself forward and slammed directly into the interior of R'lyeh, into the megalithic fortress at its core.
A violent roar erupted inside the ancient city of bronze and stone. The central spiral fortress collapsed instantly. Wild wind and mist burst outward. Dust erupted upward like the crown of an enormous tree. The vast throne that Cthulhu had used as its seat trembled and broke apart layer by layer.
Rowe stood atop the collapsing structure and looked up just in time to see Cthulhu spread its fleshy wings and leap skyward.
Then it extended a hand.
A hand made of claws much like those of its Star Spawn. Or perhaps more accurately, it was the Star Spawn that resembled it.
Cthulhu was the source of all its dependents. Its descending claws were like the corruption of the cosmic dark side itself falling upon the present world.
Its body was so vast it seemed capable of covering half the sky. The wings that had looked so small and folded before now stretched outward for thousands of li, like a canopy suspended from the heavens.
Compared to Cthulhu, Rowe looked as small as dust.
But when the claws descended, he merely bent his knees, lowered his body, and tightened every muscle and bone at once. Then he swept the sword upward and locked the blade against the falling claws.
His hands clenched tight.
As if he were bracing a mountain dropping from the sky.
The megalithic fortress beneath his feet collapsed completely in that instant. What Rowe faced now was not only the immense brute force of Cthulhu's colossal size, an impact enough to shake continents and overturn stars, but also the suffocating weight of nightmare itself.
But the weight of nightmare could not overcome the infinite radiance of the Origin Universe.
At the last instant before the platform beneath him gave way completely, Rowe stomped down hard.
Using that final recoil, he forcefully pushed against the descending claws and hurled himself upward. A thunderous detonation followed. The blast shook all of R'lyeh, and even the Star Spawn surrounding Cthulhu were forced back by the shockwave.
Roar.
Cthulhu released another cry.
To ordinary ears, it would only have been an incomprehensible murmur, but what it revealed was the raw subconscious fury of the Sleeper.
Its extended hand had been driven back.
Its descending claws had been stopped and thrown aside by Rowe.
And Rowe, using the last momentum of that leap, swung his sword upward.
The tiny figure of a man rose to meet that titanic god, like an ant spreading wings to challenge an eagle in the highest heavens.
This was strength at its absolute extreme.
This was a scene that should never have existed in any sane mind.
A true forbidden nightmare.
On the ground, Ritsuka, Mashu, and Martha all drew in sharp breaths.
Of course, Cthulhu could not be defeated so easily.
Nor did they know that Rowe's goal was not simply to clash with Cthulhu, but to provoke it further and further, to enrage it until all it wanted was to kill him completely.
But they did know one thing.
Since they had entered this place, they could not just stand there and watch.
"We cannot intervene in a battle on that level."
Martha looked at Ritsuka, her expression grave.
"But I can sense that that monster is relying on this domain, on this city, to bring out its full strength."
That was what the revelation from the Lord told her.
The Great Old Ones were terrifying beings from the dark side of the universe. They were one with it, curled dark nebulae hidden at the highest source of spacetime itself. Their true home was the abyss, and only the eternal darkness of that abyss could sustain them.
R'lyeh was the manifestation of one such fragment of the abyss.
That was why Cthulhu could dwell here.
That was why it could sleep here.
That was why it could fight Rowe here.
But if this domain, if R'lyeh itself, collapsed, then Cthulhu would no longer be able to bring out its full power.
"What do we do?"
Although this was their first meeting, Ritsuka chose to trust Martha at once.
Martha blinked.
She looked at the Master from the future and saw determination in her eyes. Not recklessness. Not blind impulse. Trust chosen after thought.
The Dragon Taming Saint let out a breath.
"This matter is simple. Difficult. And also very easy."
"If you enter Cthulhu's nightmare, and then break through it, you can bring this place down."
R'lyeh had already collapsed once.
Its remnants now existed submerged beneath the sea and also trapped inside the dream spun by Cthulhu.
If someone entered that nightmare on purpose and shattered it from within, then R'lyeh would naturally collapse with it.
But of those standing here, only Ritsuka could do that.
Because only she was still a pure human.
Rowe had descended under the identity of the Son, and in this world his current recognized state was that of a Servant.
Martha was a Servant.
Even Mashu, though alive, was a Demi Servant rather than an ordinary human.
Only Fujimaru Ritsuka was a true living human being.
Only a nightmare broken by a living person would count as truly dispelled.
That sounded simple enough.
But in truth it was an act of almost impossible difficulty.
To willingly walk into a nightmare woven by one of the Great Old Ones, and then walk back out of it...
Even the legendary investigators of other worlds would not have had any confidence.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that no one could have been certain. Not even one chance in a billion.
"Think very carefully."
Martha's eyes were serious.
She tightened her grip on the cross shaped spear in her hand.
"Whatever choice you make, it is yours to make."
"The Lord once said in heaven, The People are all masters of their own hearts."
"You should be as well."
Mashu looked toward Ritsuka.
"Senpai..."
"Fou."
Ritsuka closed her eyes.
Then she opened them again.
She understood the difficulty of this.
She understood perfectly well what kind of abyss waited behind that choice.
And yes, she did hesitate.
But...
"Have you decided?"
Martha had already read the answer in the expression of the girl before her.
Ritsuka smiled.
"Yes."
She had decided to take the step.
To help Rowe?
She had only known him for a few days. It was not as if their bond had reached the point where she would stake everything on him alone.
Romani and Da Vinci had both once remarked on the firmness of her will, but the truth was simply that Ritsuka knew something.
"Do you know why the world you live in is defined as a dead world?"
"Mr. Rowe... why?"
"Because the future of your world is a future where everyone survives."
"A future where Romani Archaman does not need to sacrifice himself to save the world."
Because it was perfect.
So perfect that it formed a closed circle.
And because of that, it lost its capacity to continue forward.
It lost its future.
It was pruned.
It became dead.
"You came to save our world?"
"That is right. My purpose in coming here is to let that perfection continue."
"Then I am willing to help you, Mr. Rowe."
At that moment, Fujimaru Ritsuka remembered the Director.
She remembered the image of that young, proud, difficult, but not truly bad girl dying tragically before her eyes.
She did not want to see familiar people die again.
Even if it was only one person.
Even if, perhaps, that sacrifice was necessary.
"But if someone has to be sacrificed..."
"Then let it be me."
Ritsuka opened her eyes.
She lifted her head and looked straight at that terrifying colossal figure above.
And beyond that, she looked directly at the nightmare in her own heart.