02x12 - Majuuou no Sennen

[bunniefuu]

I'm not cold anymore.

I warmed up long enough.

Hey!

Wait, wait, wait!

She didn't take the easy way out!

She didn't k*ll her father
because he was a fake!

She's accepted herself without doubt!

She picked the right route,
this close to the end?!

I was sure she was going to fail!

Thank you.

And goodbye.

This is impossible!

I'll leave you nothing at all!

The abilities and information you gained,

the memories of reuniting
with your parents,

and of course, your g*dd*mn crest,

I'll erase it all!

Erase... my memories?

Be pierced by countless mirrors...

And this time, die, fake hero!

This is my first time fighting
someone who's equal to me in strength.

Now, let's continue, Vordin.

Are you having that much
fun using all your strength?

I can see the grin on your face.

I'm... grinning?

It's boring, having no enemies.

The only real foe for a Lord of Dark Beasts
is someone with a domain of their own,

or the True Hero, who has
the power to destroy a domain.

You've never met either of those.

So you've never had to
use your full power.

It was the Hero who defeated you.

And it was Vordin
of Scorchfire who defeated them.

Vordin?

I'll come to check on you
once a century.

The form of my priestess
will likely change each time,

but don't let it bother you.

Would you like to fight me?

I'm afraid my power is limited
when I inhabit a priestess.

Zavthier, what does it mean to live?

Life is the process one follows
from one's birth to their death, perhaps.

To give birth to a child and raise it,

who then grows and gives birth
to a child of their own.

I think the answer is to be found there.

So you don't know, then,

despite having been alive
for over 2000 years?

Correct.

Leave, Zavthier.

I'll see you in a century, then.

You needn't return.

You must've been bored
these past thousand years.

Thousand years...?

The only reason you can smile is
because I brought an end to that era!

Because you know nothing of the history,
the tragedy, that took place then!

This place once held
an even older civilization

than what the humans
call "ancient times."

"Toah" is this entire land itself!

The cause of everything is here!

Eleven hundred years and
some decades prior to that,

the domain of humanity
was divided into three layers.

The "Heaven" layer and the "High" layer,
where the people of Toah lived.

And the vast "lower" layer
where the other races lived.

It's nothing but ocean now,

but the center of Toah once lay
to the north of Solsein.

As I thought...

I must expand my domain first.

It was Toah that invaded first.

The memories of blood from tens
of thousands of years ago tell me that.

I acquired a domain
that was separate from Toah,

and pushed them back over the long ages.

But they sent an entirely
new type of soldier.

Unlike their previous armies,
which had simply relied on numbers,

they switched to new tactics that used
spells and magically-enhanced weapons.

More than anything,

the looks of terror and
murderous intent on their faces

were something
the humans had previously lacked.

Hey! Medicine! Now!

Of course, Hero.

"Hero"?

Hey! It's the Lord of Dark Beasts!

A Lord of Dark Beasts!

That makes us lucky, doesn't it?

Form up! Ready a spell!

Send the sl*ves to the front!

Mega Spell!

Darkness Edge Tornado!

Did we get him?!

These are... shed skins?

I must learn more about these "heroes."

I shall use this body for a time.

Just like the more powerful dark beasts,

these heroes can revive anew after death.

That's what makes them reckless and mad.

And their blood eventually
becomes arcanacite,

just like the dark beasts.

Damn Toah...

They've copied us in every way.

I hope I can get all the way there.

But the more powerful one's magic,
the more a domain influences them.

I guess I'll have to take my time
and ask questions to learn.

A hero?

But I feel no hostility, or nervousness.

Hey, you.

What are you doing?

Me?

Who else is here?

No one ever talks to me.

I'm different than everybody else.

Who are you?

Vod.

Vod. That's a nice name.

I'm Write.

I call myself that
because writing is my job.

"Write."

He's the strongest of any
of the heroes I've seen.

I'm traveling the world
to work on my book.

"Book"?

This world has no books
for entertainment.

But I want to write one.

A book that's just for fun,
like the ones in my old world.

Your old world?

Of course, I do the jobs
Toah asks me to do.

But aside from that,

I want to give dreams
to the people on the lower layer,

who are abused by the people of Toah
and used as sl*ves for the heroes.

They don't seem to have any feelings.

So it would be too sad
if I couldn't even do this for them.

Don't you agree?

I do.

You're the first person to say that.

Everyone else is so
focused on their jobs.

What does Toah ask you to do?

They want me to use my skills,
Librarian and

Great Sage, to write magic books
to guide the heroes.

Librarian lets me put
a domain's power into a book.

Great Sage gives me the power to guide.

That is, the power to make
people believe what I write.

When I write a book,

it becomes a story that the people
of this world can make real.

It's an important responsibility.

I understand what it is
that Toah's trying to do.

They summoned the heroes,
but they can't control them,

and they want to change that.

"Defeat the Lords of Dark Beasts
and you can go back to your old world."

From our perspective,
that's nothing but a threat.

There's no way somebody could
seriously fight for that.

Since we can't die, and have nothing else
to do, we do fight, though.

But I feel so bad
for the dark beasts that we k*ll.

The people of Toah
lack emotions and imagination.

I met some of the ones who live in Heaven
when they gave me this job,

but I can't handle those guys.

They don't seem human in the slightest.

And that's why I have to work hard.

If I finish my magic books,
everyone will get stronger.

And the world of man will get better.

This man is too dangerous.

I must neutralize this threat here.

Huh? Why did I tell you all this?

I've never told anyone this...

Hmm...

'Cause I'm talking to you, maybe?

I feel like I could tell you anything.

It's like... the gears meshed, you know?

Hey, Vod. Will you come with me?

Having someone to listen
will make writing much easier.

Is that okay?

Very well.

Hooray!

I can learn more about Toah from him.

There'll be time
to get rid of him after that.

I'm thinking of calling it
"The Hero Legend."

Nice and simple, right?

The heroes are worse than ever, lately.

They've started k*lling each other,

and assaulting the women
on the lower layers.

The people of Toah
are pretending they don't see it.

I don't think guilt is
something they understand, anyway.

Even if they win,
it will only make the world worse.

Is it okay to keep writing this book?

No, Toah prepared this body for me.

I can't say that aloud.

If I go against them,
they might get rid of me.

Even though the book is almost complete.

Hey, Vod.

What?

We've been together for a year.

I want you to be the one
person who believes me.

Is that okay?

Yes.

Good.

Now that I've heard that,
I won't hesitate anymore.

I can finish this.

A book that will make the world better.

Write views Toah as an enemy.

But he's never seen
the dark beasts that way.

I can at least wait
until the book is finished.

But four years later...

Write was nowhere to be found.

They've started to encroach
upon my domain again.

Red blades...

Don't tell me the Hero Legend
is starting to do its work?

I shouldn't have let you live, then.

Write!

Hey, Vod.

You know it's me?

We spent a year together.

I can sense you by your presence.

And I had an idea that you weren't human.

Wasn't the purpose of the Hero Legend
to fix the damage Toah did to the world?

No.

The purpose of that story is to defeat

the Lords of Dark Beasts
and make the world bigger.

I'm sure the heroes will become
strong enough to defeat you.

Write...

Does that anger you, Vod?

Then come with me.

I'll wait for you at the audience chamber.

I designed that place.

You'll have to defeat the heroes
that stand in your way, first.

Teleport.

Gather, all my minions!

We will push our territory forward,
with no thought of retreat!

Annihilate the heroes
and the people of Toah!

The 25th day of our advance...

We've paid a heavy price
to make it this far.

Rathwell and Clevatess
fell too, it seems.

But we, the dark beasts of the North,

have pushed back the heroes
and reached the heart of Toah.

I don't sense a barrier at all.

The Heaven layer.

This should be where
the heart of Toah awaits.

Write.

Oh, sorry. I made it so you
can only enter in human form.

I wanted to talk with you at eye level.

I remember that face well.

It's so much easier
to talk to you this way.

Write, what happened here?

Oh? This?

I k*lled them all.

Huh? You're not happy?

Isn't this what you all wanted?

If you planned to slaughter them all,
why didn't you say so from the start?

My old world had a saying...

"To deceive your enemies,
you must first deceive your friends."

The five chapters of the Hero Legend

I created strengthen
a hero to their limits.

And they gave me the power to make
a holy place for each chapter.

This place, the audience chamber,
is the fourth such holy place.

It's just above the Spring of Toah.

I made it so you could talk to the
Toah people in Heaven and level up here.

I persuaded them that it would
increase a hero's motivation.

And they fell for it.

They probably let their guard down
because it's surrounded

by clouds and only accessible through
the gates in the holy places.

But I banished the clouds
and disabled the barrier.

I left them utterly defenseless
before the heroes.

The people of Toah have no hearts,
so they must have had no idea...

How angry the heroes were
after being forced

to come to this world and die,
over and over.

It was like something out of hell.

The heroes slew the people
of Toah down to the last man,

and then simply stood there...

They stared up into heaven
with bloodstained faces and empty eyes...

I'll never forget those faces.

And they said to me...

"Let us die."

They meant that even if they died,
they didn't want to come back to life.

So I granted their wish.

I'd become one with the system
that revives the hero.

The Book of the Temple.

I stabbed it, and my own heart,
while they watched.

They all k*lled themselves,
just as I have.

Once this blade is removed, I will die.

Write...

I wanted to see you before I died,
so I left the blade inside me.

I wanted you to hear what I had to say...

But this isn't the end, Vod.

The story begins now.

We couldn't finish it on our own.

The story of the destruction
of immortal Toah...

You didn't destroy them already?

This is just the prologue.

I've sown the seeds.

They will sprout when...

I won't let you die, Write!

I'll stem the bleeding with my flames...

My minions below are in danger.

I must go.

The inside of that gate isn't shaking...!

This is the truth of what happened


That's some serious firepower.

Zavthier said that a fully evolved hero
was even stronger than that.

What does that even look like?

Write said that Toah was "immortal."

And it's true that even
after the people of Toah were dead

and their civilization
sank beneath the waves,

their domain did not vanish.

The b*stards hid themselves
even deeper below the waves!

What is Toah?

How am I to defeat it?

How stupid...

How completely stupid...

Now, when Write is about to awaken...

Clevatess, you don't belong here!