บท 469: C469
As he stood there, the bright moon overhead illuminated Arcueid's graceful figure as she soared away, becoming one with the moonlit night.
"How beautiful..." Some onlookers sighed, struck by the image of a goddess flying to the moon.
It was the stuff of romantic myths, yet beneath this poetic moment was a harsh reality. A friend who'd wanted the best for another had inadvertently ruined that friend's life. A lover of life and the world had come close to destroying both. Someone who was once lively and feared loneliness was now flying toward eternal solitude.
"No... no...!" Crimson Moon yelled, her voice tinged with desperation and fear.
But there was nothing she could do to stop Arcueid now.
Thinking of the pain she'd inflicted on Artoria and Shirou, Arcueid felt her heart wrench. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she made her difficult decision.
Resolute, she left Earth behind, soaring back to the desolate Moon in the far reaches of space.
Walking through a lunar crater, she looked back at Earth, her birthplace and her home, shining blue in the distance.
"So beautiful," she sighed, suddenly aware of just how incredibly lovely the world she had left behind truly was.
"Why... why...!!! Why would you do this!" Crimson Moon's voice was a distorted howl of rage and disbelief. "Why come back to this Godforsaken place? There's nothing for you here, only desolation, only the ruin from foreign invaders! What's the point of being the UO of this lifeless rock? What will you gain? Absolutely nothing!"
"There is no 'why,' Crimson Moon," Arcueid said, smiling faintly.
She plunged the demonic sword into the Moon's surface, beginning to absorb Crimson Moon's power and authority.
"You won't succeed!" Crimson Moon screamed in defiance.
"I don't have to succeed, but I can seal us both away," she calmly responded.
She began walking deeper into the Moon, her stride deliberate and filled with purpose.
There it was—a colossal photon crystal, about three thousand kilometers in size, one of the oldest objects in the solar system.
Long ago, an advanced extraterrestrial civilization paid a visit to this solar system. They left behind an observation device designed to record the diverse forms of life on Earth. In modern terms, it could be called a supercomputer—a treasure trove of past memories and future predictions, boasting computational capabilities rivaling those of a universal computer for the entire solar system.
Crimson Moon had named it the Mooncell Automaton.
To accommodate this massive observation device, the extraterrestrial civilization had hollowed out the Moon itself, installing the device within its barren core. This act was what had driven Crimson Moon to the brink of madness. In the years that followed, a steady stream of extraterrestrial forces continued to make their way into the solar system, each for their own nefarious purposes.
Some of these extraterrestrial beings are what people now call the Greek gods. Interestingly, Attila, known as the Giant God of Destruction, hails from a completely different extraterrestrial faction. However, she's currently trapped in one of Mooncell's chambers. Talk about cosmic drama—these alien forces ended up interfering with each other!
These extraterrestrial forces treated this star system as their own playground, coming and going as they pleased. They went so far as to hollow out the Moon, driving Crimson Moon to madness and motivating her to create the demonic sword.
Arcueid pulled Crimson Moon's consciousness along and discovered a secluded chamber on the Moon. She quickly manifested a web of chains to seal herself in, much like she had done in the Millennium Castle.
"Why? Why? Why?" Crimson Moon's questions came fast and frantic, all while she had to divert some of her focus to fend off Arcueid's devouring.
"Because I don't want to harm my friends anymore," she said tearfully.
"And by running off to this barren rock, you're giving up any chance of ever seeing them again!" Crimson Moon shot back.
"Even if I'm not with them physically, my friends are always with me. They live on in my heart. Every memory, every moment, every laugh and tear keeps them close. So even light-years away, I can still feel them, sense their presence. I want to be the King of the Moon, to become the Crimson Moon, and from here, I'll watch over them."
She closed her eyes, and for a moment, it felt as though she could see that blue planet and her dear friends.
Shirou, Artoria, Scathach, Merlin, Morgan, Sakura, Ritsuka, Miyu, Illya, Chloe, and many other friends, some of whom she'd sometimes bicker with and others she'd simply cherish.
She recognized the wealth of beautiful memories she had already amassed. It was, in a word, wonderful.
With teary eyes, she closed her eyes and sealed herself off, focusing all her energy on devouring Crimson Moon.
Her only regret was that she hadn't finished writing her book, "The Eternal King Can't Possibly Be a True Ancestor Girl."
It was such a shame.
"Damn it... damn it all!" Crimson Moon yelled, her voice tinged with desperation.
She was losing her mind, and the irony wasn't lost on her. What Shirou had used to defeat her before was her own power, and now, the thing that was consuming her was also of her own making.
Why did things have to turn out this way? Her thoughts grew more chaotic by the second, her mental clarity slipping away rapidly.
In that disorienting moment, her mind flashed back to ten years earlier, when she had been lying dormant inside Arcueid's body. She'd watched as Arcueid pursued Shirou all the way to Ryudou Temple.
It was then that the Enlightened One, whom Shirou had used as a shield, spoke some intriguing words to Arcueid.
--- "The one who perceives that all things are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, or a shadow, should thus meditate. See the world as it is, and the giver will be honored."
Those words echoed in her increasingly foggy consciousness.
The phrase, which hadn't made much of an impact on her back then, was now looping through her mind.
So that's how it is...
She realized the message wasn't aimed at Arcueid, it was meant for her!
The Enlightened One had seen right through the situation but left behind such a cryptic message... who could have understood its meaning?
Yet, as she pondered his words, the haze clouding her thoughts started to disappear.
Crimson Moon remembered—she remembered why she had embarked on this journey in the first place. Her body had been hollowed out by an alien civilization, observation devices from that same civilization had been implanted in her, and she had faced invasions time and again...
Yes...
That's it...
Creating the demonic sword, and the urge to control the Invisible Vortex—both stemmed from the same place.
So...
She had simply been afraid.
What an absurd realization.
So that's how it is...
Crimson Moon smiled.
Embarking on this path out of fear, pushed forward by anxiety, only to find that in the end, she wasn't defeated by some alien civilization but rather by her own self.
The irony was almost too much.
Hahaha! Crimson Moon erupted into laughter, mocking the world and, most of all, mocking herself.
"If you really want this damaged shell, if you want this insignificant power... then fine, have it," she conceded.
Crimson Moon stopped resisting and opened the floodgates of her power, letting Arcueid absorb her.
As Arcueid slowly took in Crimson Moon's power and authority, she inched closer to becoming the King of the Moon and the Moon's Ultimate One. But with each passing moment, she herself was falling deeper into a slumber.
Crimson Moon's consciousness grew fainter.
--- "The one who perceives that all things are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, or a shadow, should thus meditate. See the world as it is, and the giver will be honored."
Crimson Moon laughed and then disappeared.
As Arcueid gradually gained control over the Moon's power and authority, she addressed her brothers and sisters with a single sentence.
"The time has not come."
The Great Spider in South America fell back into slumber, and the Ultimate Ones on Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and other planets also retreated into their own slumbers.
"My friends... I will always, always watch over each and every one of you."
And so, an innocent fool on that distant Moon drifted into a lonely, everlasting sleep.
...
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