Chapter 10 Episode 23: The Battlefield’s Lingering Smoke 2

Narration starts off by talking about the day Tezcatlipoca went together with Quetzalcoatl to fight for the creation of their world. They stood together, sharing the same face and form. They shared the same goals and challenged new heights, and they shared what they could give with their hearts. Yet in the end, Tezcatlipoca was the only one to lose a part of his original body.

 

As he leaned on Quetzalcoatl’s shoulder and saw his sad expression, Tezcatlipoca alone was engulfed in a different kind of exaltation. Having made an irreversible sacrifice, he was the only one to have ever made Quetzalcoatl express that feeling. And so El Dorado was born, based on the idea of sacrifice. The world he made with his brother was irreplaceable to him.

 

The people who witnessed this creation came to have a certain belief. They believed this world was born from war and maintained through sacrifice. This was the reason Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl continued to go to war after the creation of the world. The two suns illuminated the world, chasing and being chased by each other. Their war used all manner of tricks and had to be a battle in which they used all their power. If it weren’t, the belief could not be supported. And so the citizens continued to look up to them and offer them faith.

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca were once both heroes and the ones chased by heroes. Tezcatlipoca, as the preserver of the world and its World Representative, continued to offer his body for that reason.

 

Tezcatlipoca takes over narration saying he was born for the war for the world’s sake and lived in that framework. He never believed he could only live within a war, it just came naturally to him. It is all that his life is, with his existence equaling war itself. He wanted to convey the uplifting feeling of joy in sacrificing something that can’t be taken back to everyone. It couldn’t be in a situation of pre-established harmony; it had to be in a war where anyone stood to lose something.

 

Due to the above, Tezcatlipoca doesn’t know of any other way of living. When the day came that you came to stop the sacrifices, the day he won and you were forever erased from El Dorado, Tezcatlipoca was overcome with surprise. He had no idea what to do with himself.

 

Tezcatlipoca addresses you as the absent one and his former other half. He asks what you were thinking, why you left their world. Some time afterwards while carrying the role of the one who supports the world, he screamed at the sky. He asked why you went so far as to destroy all traces of your life in the world you created with him. Were you trying to say there was something more important than that world?

 

Tezcatlipoca understood nothing, so he made a wish for the war from that day to continue. The rainbow light of summoning shined above his head, which then took his spirit to Tokyo, together with his wish and the contradiction he never noticed.

 

Things tune back to the present with Xolotl finishing up his explanation that after he left El Dorado, Quetzalcoatl has erased all traces of himself from the world and left. This and everything else the Agents has collected has been told to everyone around Xolotl now, meaning Shennong, Yasuyori, and Tiger Man at least.

 

Tiger Man talks about how Tezcatlipoca is a product of his time from the creation war of El Dorado. He sadly comments on him knowing nothing else besides war and how to relate to the world outside of that. Tiger Man’s still lying on the ground for the record, and he’s watching Tezcatlopoca fly in the sky while letting his hidden thoughts spill.

 

Tiger Man says that Tezcatlipoca has never known of anger and resentment towards another until now. He’s never went to war with anyone over such feelings before either. If he were to ever feel such things, Tiger Man supposes it’s from learning while looking at someone who reminds him of himself. In his thoughts, Tiger Man believes that’s when Tezcatlipoca will understand the contradiction within himself. He cries, thinking of Tezcatlipoca’s sadness.

 

Back to your end of things, you and Tezcatlipoca are duking it out until he eventually attempts to provoke you about whether you thought you could beat him with the level you’ve been bringing. He continues attacking, and you swing back with all your strength. You hit the mirror on his arm and break it, but he laughs it off as he dissolves into threads again and flies back into the surrounding mirrors.

 

You react with shock at this, and Tezcatlipoca says he told you he’s a network already. Even if you break one mirror he can move to another. He declares himself the incarnation of endless war before changing it to being a slave to war. After that, Tezcatlipoca commands his war slaves to hear him, and his copies all turn their mirrors towards you. Then he casts his NP to use the war memories to burn the joy of life into you.

 

In practice you are blasted by dark lasers coming from every direction by the mirrors. You do all you can to dodge out of it all, and Tezcatlipoca eventually asks if you aren’t going to do that thing anymore, which he elaborates as the power you called Dual Heaven Dragon. You either ask him if he wants you to use it or silently glare at him.

 

Tezcatlipoca says he’s aware you can only use it at full power once because it would be reckless to extract the Exception from within your body. The first time around, if he didn’t shut off System El Dorado ‘before it was too late’ he supposes you’d be a bloody mess on the ground right now and would never have reached him here. You either react in surprise or ask if he saw through you.

 

Tezcatlipoca suggests that you borrowed someone else with your arm earlier, then had the powers of two different people clash against each other. Since the hierarchies between those powers are undefined, that would cause a rampage to happen with the end result of getting out of the App’s control. It is neither part of already defined rankings or exceptions, but Tezcatlipoca points out that you should know already that the pain of a rampaging power can destroy your mind and body.

 

You think back to the non-Summoner Exception halves and the terrifying power they brought out in their berserk states. It is because of this strength that you came up with Dual Heaven Dragon with Shirou and the others. Tezcatlipoca picks back up by saying you only get one shot with it, but says you have no chance of catching him.

Anger dwells in Tezcatlipoca’s eyes, more intense than he’s ever felt. He declares that despite what he’s just said, you can’t just stop because your war with him will always be with all your strength. He summons his mirrors midair and has them all point at you as he asks if you can dodge them again this time. Then he fires his NP. This time you aren’t able to make it out on your own and freak out that you might die here.

 

But at that moment, Shirou calls out to Yog-Sothoth to combine their powers together, teleporting to you and telling you to grab on for a jump. Shirou covers for your damaged side as he teleports you both away from the sky. Tezcatlipoca’s lasers blast at where you both were, and he reacts in shock to this interference.

 

Shirou apologizes for the wait and asks if you’re okay. Before you can answer, the threat of possession overtakes Shirou for a moment before he shakes it off, leaving him to gasp for breath. You thank Shirou before worrying about him and propping him up. He says it’s not as crazy as what you’re doing, then swears to help you out too.

 

Tezcatlipoca is shocked into stillness watching you and Shirou standing together and supporting each other. A flicker of a memory goes through his head of days he never tried to remember. Some of his mirrors start flickering as he reacts to something happening to him.

 

Scene shifts over to Xolotl leading Shennong and Yasuyori to Tezcatlipoca’s altar wherever it is in the memory world. It is described as the symbol of El Dorado’s gathered faith. That also makes it the key to this world made by System El Dorado. Shennong asks if Yasuyori is ready, so Yasuyori decides to ask him something. He asks if Shennong is doing this because he hates Tezcatlipoca.

 

Shennong admits to not liking Tezcatlipoca, at least over his non-hesitation over hurting himself. That said, he feels it’s self-loathing and having a contradiction within oneself that went unnoticed.

 

Yasuyori looks outside the window to see what looks like two suns fighting it out. He talks about how Tezcatlipoca has talked about wanting a terrible war where anyone could lose. Despite that, he points out Tezcatlipoca also left Jacob alone and even brought him into the mirror despite his memory giving ability. He also remembers that Tezcatlipoca told him that all he wanted was to chase after the friend he lost. Yasuyori suggests that if Tezcatlipoca is acting like so despite knowing this, it must be due to his contradictory wish.

 

Yasuyori remembers the memories he got from Tezcatlipoca, the memories of being an assailant that was shown one-sidedly. He then refers to Tezcatlipoca as commander as he says he’ll return what he was given. Narration says what Yasuyori is giving back is the opposite of what he received. He starts raising his leg for the sumo stomp as he recites his CS line, then calls his NP to use his power and sends it into System El Dorado through the altar. He can’t make people remember things the way Jacob did, but he is able to bring back up memories people have repressed on their own.

 

Things go back to Tezcatlipoca as he reacts to this happening, and his arranged mirrors start showing his memories of his time with Quetzalcoatl. They are memories of the times they laughed together, cried together, and supported each other on one another’s shoulders when they were hurt. These are the times he cannot go back to, the memories of things that can’t be taken back.

 

Tezcatlipoca starts thinking about how this is the contradiction that he mustn’t touch directly. These are memories that he cannot be remembering when he has to prioritize preserving his world as World Representative, and these are memories he runs away from on an instinctive level. He gets compared to an insect that gets caught in a spider’s web, which leads to all but one of the mirrors disappearing.

 

Shirou directs your attention to the remaining mirror, which is cracking up like it will self-destruct as it glows in a sad color. You say you can tell that Tezcatlipoca is in there because your sword says so, and it glows as well. You then tell Shirou it’s time to end this battle, and the episode battle begins. More happens after that.

 

The story picks back up with you calling out to Solomon to use Dual Heaven Dragon again. Solomon appears, but he tries to talk you out of it because of the backlash involved on you. You plead for his help because you need him, which convinces him after a moment to go through with it.

 

As he transforms into another sword, everyone down below is looking up at the battle of the two suns. R-19 points at something, and back to you, you activate the powers of cutting the world and cutting the earth. The impact of contradiction from pushing them together causes a power surge to go rampant through your body, which you desperately try to withstand.

 

Half your body is overloading, and as your swords are shaking badly you are unable to focus on your target. Shirou assures you it’ll be fine since he can handle that for you. Shirou props up your arm with one of his while his other hand is holding up his artifact, then commands the opening of the Ultimate Gate.

 

Narration talks about Shirou’s power being the ability to connect to other spaces, and one opens up in front of your swords. You then call out the combo move you have with Shirou, Cosmic Dragon: Dragon’s Fang and Heavenly Star. What looks like two dragons fly through the Ultimate Gate at the mirror with Tezcatlipoca’s true body.

 

Tezcatlipoca makes no attempt to avoid the attack because he’s been made aware of his contradictory wish now. With the mirror broken, the memory world slowly begins to fade away. Tezcatlipoca starts talking within the void returning to the primal chaos, admitting that he lost.

 

Tezcatlipoca thinks about how he lost to his contradiction. When he made his irreversible sacrifices, he was saddened when Quetzalcoatl did the same. He had said that he was going to use all his efforts, yet a part of him wanted to be exiled from the world. That’s what it meant to chase after Quetzalcoatl to do the same things all over again.

 

Tezcatlipoca starts carefully thinking about Quetzalcoatl’s feelings. He voices out his thoughts that maybe, Quetzalcoatl was saddened by how Tezcatlipoca kept sacrificing bits of himself permanently. He wonders if he did what he did to teach him that.

 

Tezcatlipoca also suggests that maybe it was just retaliation. Quetzalcoatl has his own intensely fierce sides too after all, which he laughs about. As it is, he doesn’t know, and he’ll never be able to ask. He looks at you, the inheritor of his old friend’s brilliance.

 

You call out to Tezcatlipoca or say nothing. He brings his hand up to your face to touch it, but you feel no warmth or sense of contact. It is, after all, a false body made of smoke that he has. And all that is here now is the lingering smoke of the battlefield.

 

Tezcatlipoca starts talking about having lost what can’t be taken back. He watches you standing while leaning on Shirou, yet he is unable to shed any tears. All that flows is the smoke from that day.

 

He starts addressing you as the inheritor of his friend’s light, the one who cut the earth and the one who left the land of El Dorado. He asks if you guys are going somewhere else than where they are. Are you moving beyond the mistakes he and his friend made? Tezcatlipoca says it feels strangely comforting and laughs. This time though, his laughs are like the laughs he used to have way back when. And so the episode ends.