章 37: Chapter 33
It was a dilemma and a difficult choice to make.
Many had died in the war against the Chaos. Many more will die as the war continues without a clear end.
Even if Adam had already leave his duty and mission behind, he who had witnessed the suffering of humanity, find it difficult to ignore this god sent opportunity to slay a Chaos God which was never possible back in the previous Universe because of how deeply rooted the Chaos Gods with the nature of all sentient life. They are creatures born out of emotions, intense emotions that gave birth to a being to represent those emotions.
The only feasible way to kill a Chaos God for good is to simply wipe out all sentient lifeforms from the face of the universe and starve the Chaos Gods and slay them when they are weakened enough. But such a method was simply impossible to perform as no species were willing to wipe themselves out.
That's why, this opportunity in front of Adam is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Slaanesh is weak, feeble that he could guarantee a victory.
But, if Adam is still the man he is from before, he might have chosen to kill Slaanesh and prioritized the greater goal. But now, he joins Chaos before he lets Alina die!
Not after all they have been through in this new Universe. Not after they had proclaimed their love to one another. Definitely not after he had learned the joy of life and promised to learn and explore it together, side by side.
Adam is no longer the cold and bitter butcher, slaying Daemons for the future of Imperium. He had left that duty behind, passing it down to his and the Emperor's designated successor, Roboute Guiliman.
Making his choice and ignoring the fleeing Slaanesh, he hurried and rushed toward Alina, cradling her as gently as possible while shouting for Malcador for help. He cursed that he didn't have the bright mind to summon an Apothecary Battle-brother before, never thinking they would be necessary.
Adam placed his hand on the bloody gaping hole on Alina's Power Armor while whispering for her to hold on and infused his Psychic power while begging Isha to lend him her blessing, willing to pay any price to see Alina healed.
Hearing the plea of her champion, Adam's Psychic energy turn slight greenish and the hole on Alina's chest slowly start to regenerated back while Adam focus intensely to using his Psychic power to act as temporary seal to prevent further blood loss and resume blood circulation to extend her life a little longer until Malcador could fix her body because Malcador is better than him in medical knowledge with his numerous human experiments done over his lifetime to amassed enough knowledge how to repair a human's body.
While Adam and Malcador tried their best to heal Alina, the other Gray Knights helped the Chaldean to defeat the remaining Daemons swiftly and put an end to the battle.
For the entire time, Adam remained restless as he watched Malcador do his best to fix Alina's pierced heart. But half an hour later, she is fully patched up and regains her consciousness although barely and requires extensive rest.
———
Alina woke up and found herself on a bed inside an unknown room, tucked under a blanket. She immediately turned her head around to reorient herself and found Adam sitting next to the bed, meditating while Sif immediately stood up and excitedly licking her face when she noticed Alina woke up.
Before calling him, she tried to jog her memories and recall how she ended up in this weakened state that a simple gesture as lifting her arm felt difficult. She quickly recalled the battle although the memories were a little foggy. She did recall how she was stabbed and nearly died when trying to stall Slaanesh's escape before passing out.
"I see, so you finally recall your mistake?" Adam suddenly spoked which caused Alina to look at him a little afraid, mainly because of the severe tone he used when he was angry.
She expects to be scolded and was anticipating it after she thought of her action while not in the heat of the moment. She understands her actions are wrong, drived by the hatred for Chaos after being at war with them for ten thousand years. She forgot about it, her promise to him.
Adam however, was silently staring at her with a judging look before he sighed. Alina immediately flinched, expecting the scoldings to come but instead he simply rubbed her head a few times before standing up.
Before Adam turned around and left, he said to her, "I do not fault you for your actions. For so long we have been at war with the Chaos Gods that such opportunity presents itself only once in a lifetime." He walked a little to the door and about to pull the door open and he continued, "But, if I am presented with the same choice of either saving you or killing Slaaanesh, I wouldn't ever hesitate to choose you over killing him. Even if I have let go of the chance to kill Slaanesh once and for all. I can live without his death but I can't live with yours. Not after you gave me the hope and a purpose to live for the future."
Alina is a little shocked and thinks she might be hallucinating. But she swears she saw a glimpse of Adam's face turning slightly red.
Once outside, Adam closed the door shut before composing himself with a few simple inhales and exhales.
"Milord!" The two Gray Knights Paladins outside saluted when Adam emerged from the hallway leading to the room.
"Hmn. Guard the room. Report to me directly if anything happens." He nods and orders the Paladins to move over to the door leading directly to the room Alina was resting.
"We will guard it with our lives!" The Paladins display their fierce loyalty before marching into the hallway while Adam exited from the door in front of him.
With another sigh, Adam walks out into the half destroyed mansion. The only surviving side of the mansion is converted temporarily into the Chaldea's base of operation. Mainly to reassess their losses and recuperate because Ritsuko also got injured but thankfully nothing else happened to her.
"Milord, is she alright?" A concerned Kaldor Draigo stepped forward upon Adam's arrival.
"She is fine. Just needed some rest." Adam nodded while his eyes scanned everyone in the room, busy with their own task. "Where is Janus and the other two Paladin-Brothers?" He asked when he noticed the two were missing along with Sigismund too.
Kaldor turns around to match Adam's stare at the ruined city filled with corrupting energy of the Daemons. If not fixed immediately, this city could be a breeding ground for Lesser Daemons or Warp creatures to spawn.
"They are purging the corruptions from the land." Kaldor points out at a direction in which Adam spread his Psychic sense and felt the four are doing something which is eliminating the corruption that came from the dead Daemon corpses that didn't dissipate upon death and the usage of their power like the mist that Slaanesh created.
"If so, let them be for now." Adam nods.
Adam didn't know what results would occur if he left the corruption as is in the Singularity and neither was he eager to test it out.
Adam then went to the gathering of Servants around Emiya who is preparing a meal using cooking ware he found in the mansion. Everyone is in a sullen mood due to the catastrophic failure of the recent battle. One master, Ritsuko went out of commission and incapacitated, Nero kidnapped and her soldiers slaughtered, the Singularity itself went to shit because Romani analyzed that the Grail is inside Slaanesh and probably what summoned him.
Morale is basically rock bottom right now which is bad for the continuation of their mission.
"Master." Emiya called out when he noticed Adam was approaching and other Servants turned around to look at him for a moment.
"Is she alright?" The concerned Jeanne asked about Alina which Adam gave a nod before taking a seat. "Ah, that's good then. Her wound is terrible…" Jeanne said before trailing off as along with other Servants, looking regretful and disappointed at themselves for the result of the battle.
"You know. I am blaming none of you for the failure." Adam said with a raised tone. "I would be a fool to blame any of you because the opponent you are up against is Slaanesh himself even if he is weakened."
"But… if only I didn't hesitate to use my Noble Phantasm…" Artoria said and fell into it kkksilence as the scene replayed once more in her mind.
Artoria's hesitation stemmed from the fact that if she used her Noble Phantasm, she would kill some of the soldiers too. But on the hind side, the soldiers still died and her hesitation ended up causing the failure, or so that's how she perceived it.
None of the Servants speak up as they understand that because of their inability to do anything. They basically lost all grip on the objectives of their mission. After all, none of this would have happened if one of them could stop Slaanesh when he appeared. Slaanesh is weakened to the extent that the Servants are capable of killing with the aid of Noble Phantasm. Heck, Artoria didn't even need to use her Noble Phantasm, she just needed her Mana Burst skill to kill Slaanesh.
"I'd rather all of you think about the future and how to stop Slaanesh rather than to beat yourself over something in the past." Adam made his thoughts known and heard to the group. "No matter how you brood over it, the past will not change and will only cause you to be stuck there, unable to look into the future."
At least, one of the sensible Servants agreed with Adam. That being Emiya, as always the ever reliable ex Counter Guardian.
While the other Servants are coming to terms with their failure, Emiya finishes cooking a pot of stew with the supplies from Chaldea.
"Let's eat first. Discussing with an empty stomach could upset the mood." Emiya said before starting handing out the stew on bowls.
No one declined the offer. Malcador soon joined the group after smelling the delicious scent of food. But with a glance, Adam can see his fatherly figure look more worn than before and with how grim he looked, Adam can sort of guess bad news is coming. But Malcador opted to eat first before discussing.
Just as Adam was about to deliver a portion of the stew to Alina, Emiya stopped him and said he would do it.
"I need to deliver for Ritsuko too. Let me do this." Emiya said while carrying three bowls on a tray. One for Alina and the other two for Ritsuko and Mash.
Adam didn't decline and sat back down with his bowl, slowly sipping the hot stew since there's nothing else to eat alongside it.
While the atmosphere was initially somber, after being presented with a meal. The atmosphere improved for the better.
———
After the meal, Adam wanted to discuss. But he let Malcador go first with what he found out through his Divination.
At first, Malcador was staring at the pile of empty bowls with a complicated look, trying to arrange the information in his head into a coherent one. After all, to those who are familiar with Divination, the information is always vague yet deep enough not even the Diviner could understand most of the time, like riddles that needed to be solved.
What Malcador stated was a description of a creature he called a 'Beast'. Creature with seven heads like that of a mythical creature, Hydra. On its heads are ten sins of humanity born out of greed as crowns with ten horns that mark its Beasthood.
Slaanesh corrupts and devours the Beast to make it his own power, using the similarities of the Beast's nature as vessel to draw upon the greater source of his power and a true Chaos God once more although incomplete. But still strong, way stronger than what Adam could ever hope to oppose. However, not all hope is lost. Malcador glimpsed upon the future and sees a way for Adam to subjugate the Chaos God Slaanesh with method unknown. But what's for sure is his victory was not achieved with his martial might alone.
—————
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