Fukayami no Celephaïs ~What a Beautiful Apocalypsis~ (End)

The Climax was decided.

(Original story can be found here.)

>Preface by Author

About "Celephaïs of the Deep Darkness".

It is almost the same as thinking about the outline and outcome.


If the amalgamation of bad ends in the Steampunk Series is "Karashrer of Ashes", then Celephaïs is nothing more than the Age of Apocalypse.


The conclusion is self-evident.

The True Great Equation is activated, and the Earth and Kadath in Celephaïs are gone.


On the top of the first large engine tower where no one is moving,

Master Rosenkreuz and Jeanne come close to each other,

Staring at the oncoming light extinction swallowing the entire planet from the end of the horizon,

Thinking about the last child.


This is a piece of the story starting from a few minutes ago.


Celephaïs of the Deep Darkness～What a beautiful apocalypsis～


──It was chaos.


The battlefield of chaos where the colors of glitter and blue intersect. On the top floor of the First Mega Engine Tower built in the Holy City of Rome, the two forces crossed swords.


Many humans had died.
This was because the fiends of the Society slaughtered our regular members of the Fortress of Hope with terrifying power. Even so, the members weren't just being killed either. We have already killed both Majors Astaire and Cornelia. However, we also lost half of ours in turn.


The remaining members are the best of the best. Even the supernatural Engine Arms operated by the Society, such as the Chrome Bodies, were not comparable. But even so, the ones who reigned at the top of the Society were too powerful.


The Cracking Effect unleashed by the Demon Georgius turned several of our members into cinders through their space-fixing magic equation amplified by a Scholar machine. If it weren't for Mr. Kerkan's ice being released, we would have been annihilated twenty seconds ago.


Above all, that man──the Magi──Leonardo da Vinci - was too exceptional.
Every member of the team who had passed through the crowd of Chrome Bodies that blocked their path and made close contact with the enemy was crushed at every turn. Literally. The members he pointed at with his left hand were reduced to simple components, losing their shape and disappearing.

Even so, we didn't give up.
He, Christian Rosenkreuz, the leader of the Fortress of Hope, was our last hope.


At the end of the battle, where the bright and blue colors clashed and continued to shatter each other, Master Rosenkreuz faced the Magi.
The great golden gauntlet worn by Master Rosenkreuz shined its radiance out to the Magi.
The roar of a beast that curses the world rang out.
And I, not missing an opening, unleashed the lightning in this body.


"Now, Machina!"


Guided by the master's voice, I unleashed my greatest electric power with all I had.
Everything was for this day and time.
The lightning, the Steam that rewrites the world pierces through Magi...


We won.
Or so I thought. I had thought so. It was the second time in my life that I had been mistaken as soon after, my body was flying through the air. It was a shockwave. Georgius' destruction of space! I was knocked away. The right half of Master Rosenkreuz's body had vanished.


"There is no problem at all. The proof is here."


The Magi laugh loudly. He was unharmed.
No, it's absurd. I didn't come all this way just to be killed by you, you know...


"You will live, Machina."


Master Rosenkreuz rises with only half his body and clings with the Magi.
Their flesh was instantly shoggothized and "wrapped" around, to be precise.


For a moment, I thought I saw the blue sky.
And a rose in full bloom. An illusion.
The next second I blinked, Master Rosenkreuz immediately contracted, tearing the Magi's body apart while disintegrating himself.


"Father...!"


I tried to scream, but I couldn't speak. My chest was crushed.
In front of me was the figure of the demon Georgius, with his eyes shining brightly.
Too late, he said.


I'm going to die here. No. I can't die yet.
I must not only kill the Magi, but also stop the True Great Equation that has begun to operate, or else the Earth and Kadath will disappear to the end of its light. I reach out my hand. My right hand.


I wasn't sure how far my power could be applied to Georgius' destructive left hand, but I had no choice but to try.
Even if my right hand is shattered, my left hand remains. Yes, that was the moment I made up my mind.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the figure of that man.


The Cross Knight Zarathustra. A man who hid his face with a mask carved with the Elder Sign. That man who had been toying with some profound engine while shouting like a madman in this final phase was activating the engine while shouting "Success". What? What was that man doing? What is that machine which is different from the hint of evil that surrounds the Great Formula? A machine that I can't grasp?


"Don't cry."


Georgius' hand of destruction waved at the irritating cries.
Zarathustra was shattered and so will my whole body.
No, I'm not shattered yet. Someone──Miss Lisa?


"You have to live. Track down Mr. Weishaupt who has crossed over."


Someone was holding me up when I should have fallen.
It was Mr. Athl. With the black blood of Miss Lisa who was torn apart by the demon on his face, he took me towards a Scholar Machine──.
No, I can't... This world.


"You are our last hope. Nothing must ever leave this world."


Mr. Athl worked on the console.
My surroundings begin to emit a faint Cracking light.
This was not good──


†††


(Darkness)


†††


──When I woke up, there was the color of gray in my vision.


A gray sky that should have been familiar to me.
But I understood.
This is different.
It was a different place.
It was a different world.


There is no Mega Engine Clock that pierced the sky, sticking out of the ground, and should be visible anywhere in the world. The Formula of Cracking light that represents the True Great Equation is not floating in the sky either. No, yes, this was another world.
Mr. Weishaupt once told me.
Of another world.
Of the end of distortion.


I burst into tears.
I came here alone, away from the vanishing world...


"Oh...who's there?"


The voice should have been familiar.
Someone is there. Someone lying on the black earth under the gray sky. Someone close to me.


It was me.


The same face.
The same voice.
The same figure.
And slightly different engine frame operation sounds.


"I am Machina..."


"Ha, ha. Really? Then you're me?"


The other me was clearly dying.
Did someone else do this to me or did I do it to myself?
The only thing I know is that the steel and flesh scattered around are probably the Tuned Humans that the other me killed.


"You are Machina as well...?"


There was no reply.
I didn't say anything again.


I stand up. I stare at my other corpse, wondering if I should bury him or not, and then I do so for a moment, still, and then I touch the Machine Belt around my waist.
Then I understand.
What this Machine Belt is.


"I'll be borrowing this."


There is no answer.
I wrap the Machine Belt around my waist.
Then, I started to walk away.


──I look up at the sky and I weep a little.
──And then, with my right hand, I touch the Machine Belt.

（Celephaïs of the Deep Darkness - End）