Epic of Remnant II: The Woman of Agartha - Section 16 Summary (Part 1)
Section 16: Woman of Agartha
The Resistance members panic as Laputa rises into the sky. Luckily, Astolfo rallies them and gives them a purpose: to gather as many men as they can rescue from the vicinity, and then assemble at the boat which you arrived in. D'Eon praises Astolfo for his nice idea, to which Astolfo replies that he's the sort that's strong in a pinch. At any rate, any normal human being would panic in this scenario.
Holmes: Let me ask you a question as part of the gallery, Miss Scheherazade. Fall, you said. Do you have the intentions to make it fall? Where?
Scheherazade: As long as it is a large city with many humans, anywhere.
Mashu reports that the flying island is beginning to move along horizontal coordinates. Right now you are above the mountains of Nepal, but even in this remote region there will be witnesses.
Da Vinci: Just these past few minutes would have been enough to drive the people in charge of the Mage's Association mad, as they would be responsible for cleaning up the mess. And yet--- you are going to drop this? On a large city?
It would be a great tragedy. The casualties would number at least in the thousands, if not more. And that is not all - the damage would not just be physical.
Da Vinci: After what happened with the King of Magecraft, the world is still unstable in various ways. How much metaphysical influence would this exert...!!
Scheherazade: That is exactly why. There is meaning in crashing a city from fantasy with a city from reality. In other words... with this, I will destroy the very concept of concealing mystery.
D'Eon: Ah---!?
Scheherazade: Yes... the fantasy city Laputa fell onto a real city. It is certainly there, as it has destroyed streets and killed people, painting its existence into reality and becoming recognized by the inhabitants of the world. With this, the world will be recreated.
Mashu: Please wait! If that's the case, if you do this---!
Scheherazade: Yes--- a mystery that anyone can touch ceases to be a mystery any longer. That is the future I want. For all mysteries to become obsolete, to lose their substance, and for the Servant summoning system itself to vanish, that is my desire.
If she does not do so, she will not be freed from the fear of death. She cannot live with the unreasonable fact that she will inevitably die somewhere, sometime, the moment she is summoned. That is just how much she does not want to die. Fergus does not understand it. She is taking things too far.
Fergus: If you are not fearful of death itself, but of its coming--- that is a problem with how you have lived your life. ...Let us talk about what we could not say that night. At least, it's a story that is completely contradictory to my views of life and death. I am a warrior. I was taught to treat it as an honour from the time I was born. What should be avoided is inviting death from betraying your pride or your geas, not death itself. Death is a natural end, and one's life is but a procession towards death. Instead of fighting against an "ending", should you not battle your own journey that has been stained with fear?
Scheherazade: I am surprised, young Fergus. You have a cooler head than most warriors of your age. You must have grown up to be a splendid warrior, filled with intelligence and gentleness...
D'Eon: Huh.
Astolfo: Huh.
Guda: Huh.
Scheherazade goes on to say that she is not as strong. She is not a warrior, like Fergus. She does not want to die again. That is the only thing she can think of. That is the only thought she can have. She doesn't want to die, be it by beatings, or slashings, or burnings, or stings, or tramplings, or stranglings, or bitings.
Scheherazade: Ah, no matter the ways, I just don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die--- that is the only thing I wished, wished, wished! ...I clung to the stories. I relied on this dangerous, dangerous tightrope that was nothing more than a list of vague and uncertain words coming out of my mouth.
Guda: Wait. But, the Thousand and One Nights are...
Mashu recaps what happened in the One Thousand and One Nights. In that tale, in order to stop the king, who took a virgin as his wife every night and executed her in the morning, Scheherazade volunteered herself out of a sense of justice.
Scheherazade: ...At first, that was so. But... can you understand? The fear of accompanying a brutal king that had despaired of women, night after night after night. Not knowing when these days would end, not having a promise that these days would even end, a terror that extended and repeated itself. Reasoning would not work. Negotiations would not work. He was a king that would kill a woman for no reason at all. Getting killed because the wind was blowing. Getting killed because the rain was falling. Even if something like that happened it would not be strange at all. Of course... I would also be killed should he suddenly lose interest in my stories and decided he did not need to hear another word of it.
Those were days where she seemed to live with a poisonous bug that could kill her with a single stab. That is why, within her, it appeared. The wish not to die. For that, so that she would not die, she spent everything she had. Words. Expressions. Presence. Gazes. Servitude. Attitude. Opinions. Changes. Observation. Stories. Pleasure. Warmth. Needlessness. Usefulness. Compliance. Excitement.
Scheherazade: And then, at the end of those nights I thought would never end. Yes, after overcoming the thousand nights, the king finally regained his sanity! And after that, I, whose life had already ended once--- became a Heroic Spirit.
Being formed from her thoughts of not wanting to die, more than anything else, she has become something destined to disappear.
Fergus says that kings are great but at the same time foolish. It is something evident to anyone that looks at Agartha. In the first place, conflict arises when an individual rules a country. Whether he has failed as a person, or if he has failed as the state; the king must shoulder one of these burdens. Looking in from the outside, it can be seen as foolishness, or being domineering. Someone that cannot abide by this foolishness would abandon the throne, no matter how excellent he is as a warrior. Just like the grown Fergus Mac Roich.
He has no words to say to Scheherazade, who killed her heart with “the king’s foolishness” in surviving the thousand nights, but he cannot overlook her wanting to break the world for the reason that she does not want to die.
Fergus: We Celtic warriors see the world as a battlefield of honour. There is not even a fragment of honour in this story of yours.
Astolfo would be troubled if the Servant system went away. He wouldn’t be able to meet again with someone who he once met in another place, or be able to tell someone “Do your best” while sending them off.
D’Eon: I do not want to make it so that those tears that were shed never happened. I am the Knight of the White Lilies that protects France. Even if indirectly, even in death, I am proud of being able to fulfil my duty. If you would attempt to deprive me of the means to carry out my mission, then you are an enemy of France, and mine.
And, above all, you will not let Scheherazade cause such a catastrophe.
Mashu: Yes, Master! If such a massive flying city falls, the damage would be so enormous that it would seem hopeless. We absolutely must, no matter what, prevent such a thing from happening. Grieve death, eschew life, and destroy everything. Until that point, it may be similar to that King of Magic’s plan. However, she has no plans after that. No intentions to recreate the planet anew, no intentions to start from scratch.
Scheherazade is merely destroying the world because of her personal wishes and small-mindedness. Nothing comes after the destruction. Mashu does not know how much of this is due to the Demon Pillar’s influence, but she calls it extremely twisted. Just because Scheherazade does not want to die a second time, she is attempting to commit suicide and dragging the world along with her.
Scheherazade: Please do not misunderstand me. If it were possible, I, too, would not want to drag the world into this. I heard about this from him. There was just one person, one Heroic Spirit, who vanished from the Throne by his own will. Ah, how enviable. It would be easier if I could do something like that.
Guda: …..
Da Vinci: (Ah… it is the opposite of what you think. You do not understand just how noble and sad an act it was to disappear from the Throne. The possibility granted to you. The responsibilities you have to undertake. No matter what sort of great person you are, only by resolving all of the unfinished work that you “left behind”, can you completely vanish from this universe. There is nothing to reincarnate. There is nothing left to be told. There is nothing more that is needed. Right now you envy him, who could do nothing but to go to that perfect nothingness.)
Mashu: Master, I can understand you even if you don’t say a word. I feel the same. This woman has just now really infuriated us. ---Let’s teach her a lesson. About how mistaken her envy really is.
Guda: If the Doctor were here, this would’ve become a lecture.
Scheherazade repeats that she does not want to die and calls all of you horrible for trying to grant her death. It looks like she has no choice but to fight, even if she does not desire to.
Scheherazade: I am sure that, no matter how beautiful of a dogeza I perform, you will not let me off… but I do not hate you. I envy you, Guda. You are, amongst all else in this place, the only one that I envy. For if you die, you wouldn’t have to die anymore---!
The battle with Scheherazade begins. However, she is more resilient than you expected. Astolfo is having difficulty getting a good hit in on her, as is Fergus. It is not due to her technique or prowess, but Scheherazade just seems to be able to avoid fatal blows. D’Eon, however, has not noticed anything. Scheherazade explains her special nature as a Servant: as she is now, no king can kill her, since as a Heroic Spirit she is known for “never being killed by the king”.
To be more precise, it is a skill where she can move about without being killed by a king, at least. Astolfo figures that he has been subtly influenced by this skill because he’s a prince after all.
Mashu tells you that this means she’s buying time with this ability until Laputa falls.
Da Vinci: That it merged with Scheherazade’s Noble Phantasm and became something akin to “a singularity with physical form”...is something that is easy to deduce. But how was the magical energy gathered for it to take this shape? How was it designed with the flow of resources in mind?
Scheherazade answers, saying that this method was taught by the one that summoned her.
Scheherazade: In a sealed-off underground world, summon Servants and have them fight. In order to allow the battles to arise naturally, it would be better to have them in a distorted form.That is why this time, a single conquistador’s distorted desire was used as the foundation for the design.
D’Eon: It was as Columbus said… Agartha was the world that he desired. Although the patron that fulfilled his wish had an even more terrible objective.
Holmes: The setting of the world is unimportant. The battle between the Servants is itself the real objective--- and that is how it is. That means…
Scheherazade: In addition to the swirling magical energy from the Servants battling, the souls of the vanquished Servants are completely captured due to the sealed off nature of this world. To continuously absorb the magical energy expended as they try to return to the Throne… That is the objective.
And so, with these abundant resources that have been gained, Scheherazade gradually mixed stories in with reality, as if kneading clay.
Holmes: Hm. So it is as if you hung a carrot in front of a horse’s nose, and let it walk in order to turn the gears.
Scheherazade says that this could be considered another type of Holy Grail War. Where existences that are distorted stories do not seek the Grail in their fight, but by the time one realizes it, the Grail of turning fiction into reality has been assembled.
Mashu: Master, be careful! I fear that this dialogue is her attempt at stalling for time. Once this Laputa falls on any large city, it will end with her victory…! Please hurry!
Astolfo: Well--- from here on, I’ll be getting serious… should I be saying such a cliched line?
Scheherazade knows full well how strong you are, having fought alongside your party all this while. Understanding that you have the means to kill her, she decides to leave this to the Demon Pillar, Phenex. There is a flash of light from Scheherazade, and when it dissipates, the Demon Pillar is standing in her place.
Phenex: Thus I proclaim my phoneme is Phenex. Of the “Seventy Two Pillars of the Demon Gods” am I one / truth / fate of reunion.
Da Vinci explains that Phenex can be seen to be the same as the Phoenix of Western myth, a Demon God that governs death and rebirth. It is ranked 37th and has the title of Marquis. Phenex is also said to converse naturally in rhymes.
Holmes: Indeed, a particularly unique way of speech. Let me refrain from commenting on whether or not it has a sense for poetry. In fact, I would like to hear Watson’s evaluation on this. No, he was no poet either. Perhaps this may cause him to take up poetry instead of being a biographer, by giving him the confidence that “I can do something like this too”.
Mashu now finally understands why she could not observe the existence of the Demon Pillar behind Scheherazade. The numerical readings are reversed; essentially, that Pillar is dead. From a numerical perspective. Chaldea did not think to search for something that was already dead. Da Vinci comments that the Pillar could have succeeded in pulling off this trick because it is a demon of death and rebirth.
Phenex continues speaking in rhymes, explaining why it would help Scheherazade.
Phenex: Life and death / unavoidable / in accord. Proposition to self / unavoidable / life and death! Only dying -> rebirth is inappropriate. Vested in us, when we assimilate. Her wish / not to die / not to live! Find it, oh, find it! A solution (quickly)! A solution (quickly)! A solution (quickly)!
Guda: Looks like you found a comrade who shared your thoughts, it seems?
Mashu: Do you understand what that Demon God is saying, Master?
Mashu is impressed with you. D’Eon says that even if you don’t understand its speech, you’ll understand what it plans on doing. Astolfo is all revved up to take it down now that it’s revealed itself.
Astolfo: Master, let’s do it! Show it just how we’ve cut down countless pillars so far!
Setting Phenex as your target, you begin the attack.
As the fight wears on, Fergus takes a hit. But the Pillar is also at the end of its tether.
Phenex: Sorrow / doubt / were we in the wrong. Nay, nay, nay, this is how we are. Thusly are we united / Scheherazade-Phenix! We / are that which does not wish to die when living. We / are that which wishes to live if we die. Forcibly / what we have alone / contradiction within. We hold on to an absolutely impossible wish! We are all equally slaves to our wish! But IF living things / ALL / think that they do not want to die. As long as that is not stripped away / our infinite lives remain. That is not a wish. That is a curse. Should you want to unravel the curse… you must… oh, oooooh….!
The Demon Pillar vanishes.
Astolfo: Did we… do it?
Mashu confirms that the Pillar’s signal is gone. What remains is Scheherazade. But even though she is near death, she begins laughing. Laputa begins to shake. Nothing has changed. It is too late now; even if the Demon Pillar has vanished, even if she dies, Laputa will fall. Not as a story, but as reality.
The injured Fergus rises to his feet. There is not much time, and he wants to speak with Scheherazade for a bit. Although Mashu is concerned, you leave it in Fergus’s hands. Scheherazade calls Fergus an injured young warrior whose role in the story has plummeted to zero. She reiterates that there is no stopping Laputa now even if you kill her.
Fergus: Nay. What I want to kill is your fear towards death, Scheherazade.
He tells Scheherazade that she is a strong woman. Even with the Demon Pillar’s assistance, the design, construction and implementation of this story was all her work. And it is not just her alone; all of the women in Agartha are strong. They may have had weird tastes and strange ways of living, but they were strong nonetheless in their different ways. It helped Fergus realize just how narrow his perspective had been.
Fergus: I was shallow in thinking that women were chaste things only suited for embroidery, and not good opponents to point my sword towards…
Scheherazade: Have you come to think that you can lay your hands on women now that you know they are strong? I’ll say this. Even if you kill me---
Fergus: No. What I mean to say is--- eh. Something that I would come to be aware of in my lifetime. I had met strong women, watched them, talked to them, and fought them. Though it may be vague, there are names that I remember. The Warrior Queen of Connaught, Medb. The Queen of the Country of Shadows that was an incarnation of martial valour, Scathach. The female warrior who would confront even a fierce hound, Aife. The woman who fought strongly against her calamitous fate, Deirdre. And the mother who offered up her own body so that her son would be king, Nessa---
These were the women that young Fergus would meet, but before that, he would have also met other strong women like them. That is how he noticed the way of being for both men and women. Scheherazade calls his ramblings meaningless, but Fergus insists that there is meaning in his words. In order to stop her, he must talk about himself. His overly desirous self.
Astolfo: Overly desirous? I can only see you as an overly serious and stoic training maniac.
Fergus: I was overly desirous as a king. As I desired everything, I had no choice but to train. That is a sign of anxiety and greed.
He asks Mashu if she remembers once saying that each person had their own limits that they would eventually arrive at. She does, vaguely.
Fergus: In other words, it’s that. It’s the same as how I noticed the strength of the women here. What I would eventually come to know with my body, I have experienced while travelling in Agartha. There were those who only loved to plunder, those who were bound by laws, and those who could only follow their leader.
And so they lived in each of their blissful existences. There would always be advantages and disadvantages. Fergus wanted to solve this complexity, and wondered if there was a country that could please everyone. Because he was greedy, he could not stand the fact that there were people who were unhappy. And so he thought long and hard about what he had learnt from Agartha. And finally, he understood.
Guda: What…?
Fergus: Well---- hahahahahahahahaha! I CAN’T BE A KING! THAT’S IT!
He understood when he woke up this morning, that he did not have what it takes to be a king. Fergus says that everyone was just being quiet about it because you are all too gentle to him. You watch him quietly, with serious eyes.
Da Vinci says that Fergus did become king once, in his lifetime, but he let his lover’s son take the throne for a year. However, that son was so well-beloved that the people hoped he would continue to rule. Fergus thinks his older self must have realized that he was not suited for kingship. And since he was so full of desire, he must not chase the position of king out of greed. Instead…
Fergus: Just as a lone man, I should try to fulfill my own desires to the end. In other words, I realized that being a proper man means to place more importance on the things I care about.
Astolfo: Things that you care about?
Fergus: Of course, the answer is this. Fighting and women.
Mashu: (Senpai, senpai. The presence of the usual Fergus-san is here…!)
You hush Mashu and let Fergus continue to speak.
Fergus: In the story told just now, things actually happened the other way around. I wanted Nessa as my lover, so I gave the throne to Conchobar. Selling the throne because I desired a woman’s body, ah, I really am the worst of the worst---
Scheherazade: So… what are you trying to say!? Your story is wandering all over the place!
Fergus: Yeah. I’m not a story-teller but a warrior, so I hope you’ll overlook that, but… it can’t be helped. Let’s talk about the main topic.
Anyway, Fergus now knows of the strength of women. He recognizes that they can be strong opponents. Then, he poses a question to Scheherazade. In Agartha, she has created a world in which women hold the upper hand. Why is that?
Scheherazade: Did I not say it before? This was formed with Columbus’s wish as its core…
Fergus: Is that so? That man’s wish was to “profit hugely from slavery”, so he did not necessarily need it to be women. It was indeed the result that he was pleased with a world full of women. But on the other hand, he would have gladly done the same thing even if it was a world where men were on top.
If it was Columbus’s wish, he would have been fine with a world of men ruled by a repressive king too. But the world that Scheherazade created had oppressive queens instead, and Fergus asks again, why is that the case?
Scheherazade: That is… that’s…?
Fergus: You don’t even know it yourself, so it’s something subconsciously done. I see, it’s as I thought--- That is because you fundamentally fear “men” as existences that “bring death”.
That is the reason why men were managed and treated as pets. Fergus understands that this thought was planted into Scheherazade’s heart because of the king she accompanied for a thousand nights. He calls that king a sinful man, who is disqualified from kingship in a different meaning than Fergus is.
Scheherazade: That it may be… but so what?
Fergus: That is why I will have to shout it out loud! It is different! The Fergus Mac Roich that was aiming to be a good king, and the Fergus Mac Roich that knows how men and women should be. They are both certainly linked--- now that this body of mine has realized it, I need to clearly convey it as best as I can the truth that I have grasped!
Scheherazade: …..
Mashu: …… (gulp)
Guda: ….. (Please, let it be a rational conclusion!)
Fergus: IF THERE ARE MEN AND WOMEN TOGETHER! CHILDREN ARE BORN!
Astolfo: Hah?
D’Eon: …….
Da Vinci: ….. (whistle)
Holmes: An accurate conclusion. What an amazing truth, no, it should surprise no one.
Scheherazade says that it is only obvious, but Fergus says that she does not understand it, even if it is obvious. Sure, men do bring death, but it is stupid to place such a great importance on it. There are more important roles for both men and women. Rather than thinking about killing or being killed, there are more important things to consider.
Scheherazade refuses to understand it.
Scheherazade: In the first place, what I think of death and what I think of men have nothing to do with it. Even if you remove the fear of death from me, Laputa certainly cannot be stopped!
Fergus: That’s…
???: Only natural. Laputa will not stop. It advances only for the sake of collapsing fantasy.
Mashu gasps at the newcomer’s arrival…
Posted Jul 13, 2017, 4:11 PM UTC · edited