Chapter 17

"I have defeated..." The voice of Altria Alter barely cut through the swirling dust and remaining energy, her tone laden with exhaustion and triumph. Her eyes, now softened by the light of victory, captured the spectacle before her: sparkling, brilliant particles danced in the air, originating from where Saber Alter lay defeated, as if they were remnants of a shooting star dissolving in the night sky.

"Yes... Congratulations on your victory," I responded, my words being carried away by the wind like dry leaves. Strength left me, and my knees met the cold floor of the cave with a dull thud. Twelve seconds had passed since the conclusion of that epic battle, each one seeming to last an eternity; twelve years of my life had drained away like sand slipping through fingers, the cost of a borrowed power to reverse misfortune.

"Master, you can stop what you're doing," Altria Alter spoke, her voice a soft murmur, almost like the caress of a breeze over a desolate battlefield.

I lifted my eyes, "I know, I have stopped," I assured her, then feeling her arms enveloping me in an embrace that carried all the weight of her armor and the lightness of her gratitude. "Altria?" My voice wavered, carrying a mix of concern and confusion.

She remained silent, her embrace the only answer I had. The stillness was broken by a new voice, invading the space like an unwanted intruder.

"What is this? A new master? I have never seen you here before," the voice sounded, emanating from near a large machine, whose gears and cables were silent witnesses to our struggle.

"Who are you?" Altria Alter demanded, her posture defensive and her hand still firmly gripping the spear, ready for another fight if necessary.

"You defeated Saber, or another version of yourself. But was this supposed to happen?" the voice, which now I recognized as belonging to Lev, was imbued with doubt and a slight trace of curiosity.

"Altria," I called, looking at her with an expression that mixed sadness and resignation. Something was wrong, I could feel it.

"I have realized it, master. You too," Altria replied, her voice diminishing in volume, as if she were moving away even while being so close.

I looked at my own hands, observing with a mix of horror and fascination as transparency began to take hold of them, my existence seeming to fade like mist at dawn. My gaze rose to Altria Alter, and I saw the same phenomenon happening to her; she was beginning to disappear, her figure becoming ethereal, a ghost of her once imposing form.

"You're fading away... so you are not a master. I don't know what kind of servant you are, but it seems I was concerned for nothing," Lev's voice sounded again, this time tinged with a note of disdain. He watched the phenomenon with clinical interest, as if we were merely providing data for some misshapen experiment.

Lev, with his ever enigmatic presence, cast a critical look over the scene before him, the corners of his lips twisting into an expression of disdain. "Hm, I wasn't expecting you here," he murmured, his voice vibrating with a surprising lack of concern. "But, considering you are not even worth a minute of my time, I will consider this a goodbye." With disturbing ease, he faded away, evaporating into the air as if he had never touched the ground of the cave.

A sigh of relief escaped me, accompanied by a silent sense of gratitude. "Good that he didn't try to do anything," I commented, my voice low, a mix of relief and concern.

The side effect of the battle did not delay in manifesting. "Is this the side effect?" questioned Altria Alter, her voice laden with a confusion softened by the serenity of one who has bravely faced destiny.

"I... I don't know," I admitted, studying my hands with an uneasy fascination, watching them become translucent, as if I were a Servant about to be re-summoned to the Throne of Heroes. "I shouldn't be disappearing like this, but... I am."

A pure and simple gratitude emanated from the altered warrior, "Thank you," she said, her gaze no longer fixed on me, but lost among the rubble and the shadows of the cave that surrounded us, as if searching for something beyond what was visible.

"You're welcome," I replied, the promise I had made still burning in my chest, "My promise stands. I will show you Camelot, even if it is not the same one you knew."

Altria Alter, the shadow of a bygone grandeur, pondered the idea with a heaviness in her gaze that overflowed with ancient sadness. "I understand and thank you. But I do not think I want to see it. I cannot change what happened to it. I had my time of trying, but I failed."

Her words were like the echo of a lament, but I insisted, "But this time you will not fail. You will save thousands of people, only you will have to do something terribly difficult. Not for them, but for yourself."

"If it's for the salvation of the souls of Camelot, perhaps." Altria Alter's voice cut through the atmosphere with a crystalline coldness, resonating with a stern and distant determination. Behind the severity of her words, there was still love for Camelot; yet, it was clear that the events that transformed her into 'Alter' had also carved into her being a cold and merciless resilience.

"No matter the cost or path I must follow, I will show you Camelot," I declared, my voice low and somber as I contemplated my feet, now dissolving into nothingness, reflecting the fate I wished to ignore. "But you will have to rise against a new entity, a forge of unprecedented challenges."

The gaze of Altria Alter, now tinged with poignant curiosity, fixed on me. Her eyes, golden and pale, were gateways to a heart that still pulsed with the urgency to know her next adversary. "Who will this entity be?" she inquired, her voice a whisper of interest and caution, as if each word were a blade prepared for the inevitable conflict.

"You will soon find out," I replied, shrouded in mystery. The truth was that I did not know my own survival in this theater of shadows and light; what a cruel irony it was to offer hope when one's very own was hanging by such a fragile thread. "I don't even know if I'll be here to witness your battle."

"I believe it is time to return to the Throne of Heroes. Farewell, my crown," she spoke, a hint of a smile gently tracing her lips, a rarity that surprised and warmed my heart amidst the cold of my disintegration.

"Alone again, when I'm not alone?" I murmured to myself, a dark irony weaving into my thoughts. I tried to run my hand through my hair, but there were no longer hands to perform such a trivial gesture, to comfort the mind or disguise the restlessness.

"Am I really dying? I don't know... But at least this time, I was useful," I spoke, closing the eyes that had already become translucent, trying to find oblivion for the problems that no longer belonged to me. In that moment of farewell, even as I was vanishing, I felt the bitter satisfaction of having played, perhaps, the most crucial role in my existence.

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