Things tune in mid battle with the mobs fusing together in an attempt to stop your progress and force a reset. They form into a giant wave again, and Snow steps forward to face them. Snow says he’ll be presumptuous and clear them out, then tells Echo to get behind everyone. Echo obeys and says she’ll be counting on him.
The mobs yell, and Snow picks up his chakram as he tells them to cross the world and beyond before calling his NP. Snow carves up the approaching waves of chocolate shoggoths, telling them that it’s boorish to stand in the way of love. He then turns to tell you guys to go on ahead without him as he prays for the fortunes of war to favor you all. Echo asks him to be careful before you pull her along, and another wave of slimes coming together attempt to stop you guys.
Snow is about to intervene, but Gyumao gets there first. He laughs and points out that Snow is rather fired up for once, though he also says he’s not trying to poke fun at him. Snow laughs too as he says the passions of love might have affected him too. Gyumao nods as he agrees, mentioning that there’s a burning feeling in his chest he almost can’t stand. Seeing you guys go all in for love means he can’t shrink back himself.
Gyumao laughs some more about how the Flaming Mountains burns in his chest and says he can’t let you guys have all the cool parts. He then activates his NP declaring he’ll help open the path for you guys. He gigantifies himself as his laughs reaches as far as Mt. Olympus itself, and the mobs suddenly switch targets towards him.
Heracles is surprised and says Gyumao is big enough to hold up the sky now, then wonders if this is also the power of a charm. Barguest says Gyumao does this when he gets excited. It’s fine for battles, but it’s a problem when it’s at work. Echo seems shocked at how big he’s gotten, and Barguest urges you two to get going while Snow and Barguest are drawing the enemies away.
Chocolate Aizen slides in yelling about indecency while Chocolate Nomad attempts to run a jazzercise class, which causes Barguest to call them problematic as he clicks his tongue. Aizen starts swinging a whip around, but Barguest promptly uses his own chains to stop it. Nomad and his backup dancers start crowding the way, and Heracles asks what can be done about them as he notes that they’re surrounding you. Echo is flustered into joining the dance routine.
Aizen rants about sensing Valentines chocolate on you before frothing at the mouth some more about how scandalous you are. Barguest yells to you, Echo, and Heracles and says he’ll take care of the two doofuses. He’s in the middle of trying to tell you guys to move on when he trips over the iron ball at the end of his chains. You try to call out to him about the danger, despite it being too late.
Barguest yells out as he loses his balance, but he also says he’s used to this level of bad luck and rolls with it to crash into Aizen. Aizen seems shocked and a bit happy about this as he calls this a shameless, lucky, and indecent turn of events. Barguest picks up on it and calls him a weirdo before telling you guys to go and leave things to him. He and Aizen then continue snowballing as they roll towards the dance crew.
Nomad yells at them to stay away since he can’t stop dancing on a dime like that. Barguest and Aizen crash into him, which then leads to a domino effect knocking down the randos as well. Heracles calls out to you and Echo saying now’s your chance to get to Narcissus. You two nod and start running, and Echo asks Barguest to be careful.
You and Echo are nearly at the end when you start noticing some sort of shaking. Chocolate Ashigara pops up yelling about fundoshi again as he’s flanked by the chocolate shoggoths. He insists that fundoshi is worthwhile as he yells the word a few more times, and the mobs fuse into him to make him a giant.
Gyumao comes in yelling about anger management as he attacks, but Ashigara is able to hold his ground. Gyumao notes that Ashigara has some real power despite being a bootleg of the real person. Ashigara doesn’t understand the engrish coming out of his mouth but seems happy to fight as he starts pushing Gyumao back. Gyumao is surprised by this, and you say there’s only a short distance left but there are cracks forming on the ground now. You also ask if the corrective force is getting stronger.
As Ashigara and Gyumao wrestle it out, more choco mobs appear and fuse together. They start threatening to engulf you guys, and you try to call out to Echo and Heracles and tell them to run, though it looks like you won’t be able to get away. Heracles stares in surprise, then says he now understands why he was summoned to this world. He had always been looking back at that one day with his regrets, and now is the time for him to be punished for it.
Heracles says he’s also glad that he still has things he can do for Echo. He yells out as he starts releasing his power under his own volition. Since he isn’t doing so under his master’s command, pain and madness start wracking him. Lightning seems to flash as a dark burning aura flares up. Barguest asks if a living person can put out this much power and compares it to a disaster.
Snow is surprised at Heracles releasing what looks to be his true strength, then says the sense of danger he felt before was right. He starts saying it’s the given glory by the rulers of Olympus when Heracles springs forward. It’s the moment he knows everything will be finished and the moment he knows he’ll drag you all in with him if it keeps up, so like lightning he slams into the giant mob and drags it with him into the spring. Narration points out that he has chosen without hesitation the path of thorns that anyone would recognize.
Echo calls after Heracles, and just as Heracles falls into the water he
sees his reflection. What he sees is truly the hero picked by the
heavens that everyone in the world would approve of. His actions would
also likely be described as natural for a slave who offers themselves to
their master. Yet for a moment, Heracles looks ready to cry as he says
that in the end, there was nothing he had ever chosen for himself.
Heracles starts sinking into the spring, and you call out to Heracles. The mobs he dragged in with him quickly burn away, and narration notes it was never a match against the glory of Hera. Maybe the world of nymphs awaits him, or maybe it doesn’t. Either way he might not ever get to speak with you guys again.
Heracles starts thinking back on his life. The days he spent doing trials he was given as a hero were easy. The days he spent as a slave fulfilling his orders were also easy. He lived without having to think. He lived without having to hurt anything by his own choice. And now not being able to think of anything after tiring out from surpassing his limits and dwelling on his suffering was also easy.
Heracles thought nothing of sacrificing himself to protect other people like a true hero. To him, having free will was much more terrifying. Heracles then takes over narration and says he feels his distortion can only be his narcissism as a hero. He says the reason he never chased after Hylas back then was because he was afraid of being hurt, because he prioritized himself. Back then he was already a slave to other people’s judgments even before he was given his oracles.
At this point, Heracles hears the sound of something falling from above,
something coming after him. He thinks to himself about how he knew that
you would come after him. He looks up, ready to cry at the one chasing
after him. You call out to Heracles and tell him to grab your hand as
you hold it out.
Heracles thinks to himself that he knew. He knew that you would come, which he says was something you chose to do yourself instead of being told to do so by someone else. The brilliance of it makes him want to shed tears as he compares it to how he acted when he didn’t go after Hylas. He wonders why you’d come for someone like him.
Barguest complains about how everyone is so quick to jump into the fire and how that makes him avoiding people pointless. He sighs as he says he’ll sink into misfortune together with you guys as he calls out his NP. Narration describes it as an artifact with the power to reveal the focal points of other worlds, and Barguest uses it to catch you two as you guys fall towards another world.
Gyumao laughs as he says Heracles doesn’t understand him yet. He tells
Heracles he should know that Gyumao isn’t one to let skilled workers
just leave for another company, then activates his NP to grow big again
to use his strength to pull you guys up with Barguest’s chains. Echo
tries to help pull you two up as well, even though she’s described as
being weak.
Snow addresses Heracles and says he really was called an unparalleled hero in Olympus, and his voice carries over to you guys. Narration says it’s either because of Echo’s artifact, Echo’s curse, or the chains. But anyways, Snow says Heracles’s show of strength and determination earlier were commendable. Even so he doesn’t accept him, and he apologizes for how harsh he’ll sound.
Snow says that Heracles is undoubtedly a slave to others, but this isn’t something that was decided upon by other people. He points out that Heracles isn’t being the master of his own fate, then asks if he lived so far constantly running away from his own voice. Snow declares that as Heracles is now, he’ll never accept that he’s a hero. Echo looks questioningly at Snow unable to articulate her thoughts, but he smiles back as if to say he had a goal in saying all that.
Back to Heracles, he agrees with what Snow said. He admits that he is a coward who was unable to decide to run after the one person who was supposed to be important to him. He kept sitting in his regrets, and was never able to move forward with love. He says people should laugh at him, the coward who would never do anything if he didn’t have being forced into doing something as an excuse.
An echoing voice calls out to Heracles, saying that they’re a coward like he said. The voice resonates through Heracles’ whole body, and he asks who the voice is. The voice says they wouldn’t have ever stepped forward if they were alone and had to decide themselves. They’re a pathetic one, needing help to confess.
Heracles figures out that it’s Echo’s voice but argues that the two of them are different. Echo’s voice asks what difference is there, and Heracles doesn’t seem to have an answer. Echo’s voice names everyone, even Heracles, saying it’s thanks to all of you pushing her from behind that she could move again. She asks him to laugh at her for hesitating so much.
Heracles argues back saying no one would laugh at Echo as he points out she had the strength to keep facing forward even after bearing Hera’s unfair wrath. Even if someone else would laugh at her, Heracles says he knows how strong she is. Echo’s voice thanks him for not laughing at her and repeats this fact to herself. She also repeats back to Heracles what he said about knowing how hard he fought against unfairness.
Heracles nods, and you call out to him and tell him to come with you and/or say he’s supposed to be cheering on love. Narration says you yell for him even as his light starts burning you even stronger. Heracles is touched as he asks if you’d say so to him, and he reaches out to grab onto your hand.
Back to Snow, he addresses you and asks if you remember his lessons. It may have been a short time, but he says intends to beat the main points he can teach into you. Snow also comments that madness’s lightning given to Heracles is about as strong as Olympus’s System. It might be a thing unequaled and unchanging rooted in an unbroken chain of history. It’s something no normal person can hope to stand against.
Snow then mentions a teaching from One of His Home Worlds about the universe. That lesson is that there is no world in the universe that never changes. It also says that the world is a giant void that just looks unchanging, gathered together from many moving and shifting wills. Snow then asks Heracles to think and decide who it is he should actually be cutting off.
Back in the water, Heracles is shocked as he sees you swinging your
sword while burned by lightning as he sees the shadow of a sickle in it.
It belonged to the Eradicator who existed even before the creation of
Olympus. It is the power of Gaia, who birthed the creator of the world
Eurynome and the bloodline of Cronus who conquered things after. It is
the unbreakable thing said to be lent out by Gaia to her beloved
children, the sickle of Adamas the Unconquerable. This is the one blade
that can cut away even the connection of madness to Hera. And at that
point you call out your NP.
Some time later you and Heracles are pulled out of the water, and the party all watches Echo as she looks over by the spring, where her Shadow is. Shadow Echo asks why she’s trying to bring her first love to an end and says she doesn’t understand. Behind her, Narcissus is looking into the water. Echo says that since her Shadow is herself, they can speak freely to one another. She comments on how strange it feels to talk to herself.
Shadow Echo starts talking about how it’s her fault what happened to Narcissus. Narcissus was struck with the curse of narcissism, then fell in love with his reflection in the water. He tried to touch it, and so fell into the spring. Shadow Echo says she shouldn’t have fallen in love and that she shouldn’t have gotten herself hurt. She says she could have just watched him for forever.
Echo asks if she really would have been okay with just watching
Narcissus the whole time. Shadow Echo is confused by this. Echo talks
about how lonely he looked, so she wanted to get closer to him. She was
lonely too after all, and she says that’s not a lie. Whether this would
have made him happy though, she doesn’t know. If nothing else she wanted
to tell him he wasn’t alone. She wanted to let him know he wasn’t the
only one feeling isolated. Echo says it’s fine whether or not she
actually became lovers with Narcissus because she loves him.
Echo smiles as she starts taking steps towards the spring. Shadow Echo starts getting distressed as she asks Echo to not destroy her memories and regrets. Echo says she won’t, and that what she intends to destroy is the shell trapping her. Cracks start forming in the memory world, like an egg about to hatch.
Heracles talks about how he heard from someone that Olympus was born from a cosmic egg. He thought it was strange. Even if this was a memory world, it was so convenient and allowed so many retries after all the failures. But he says that maybe the creators of Olympus are watching over you guys from Somewhere. He also wonders whether the world should be done over. You wish Echo good luck and tell her to send all her feelings as you watch her with a smile.
Echo agrees as she says she’s going, then runs up to Shadow Echo to the latter’s shock. She grabs her hand, and the both of them fly over to Narcissus. The shadow protests and asks her to not advance time forward. Echo however says she won’t stop, and that she’s going to quit staying still in the same place. Shadow Echo begs her to not destroy her first love. Echo says she won’t because she’s here, and because her regrets from that day are here. She declares those reasons are why she can move forward.
Time starts advancing, and Narcissus moves to kiss his reflection. Echo
stands next to him and starts talking to him, even though he doesn’t
even spare her a glance. Echo calls out to him, saying he might not see
her and that he might really believe that no one will love him. Even if
either of those things are true, she says it’s okay as she starts to get
into her feelings.
Heracles comments from where he’s standing about how he, or rather the both of them had love. He cheers her on to voice her private feelings aloud such that it’ll reach them one day. Back to Echo, she takes a breath before she starts up the invocation spiel. Echo’s class is Convict and her concept is Repetition.
Echo says she wants her inner voice to reach Narcissus as she casts her NP. A moment later, Narcissus falls into the water. Maybe it was his conceit, or maybe it was the trickery of the water nymphs. No one knows anymore. He tired of words of shallow love, and eventually he tired of responding to love. Narcissus had given up, believing that no one could truly love him. But as he sinks down, he hears something come after him from above.
A tiny tiny reverberation rings out in the water from a little gift: “...I will always, always be wishing for your happiness...” Narcissus’s eyes, which had always been turned towards himself, makes a small movement to turn towards that voice.
Everyone is transported away, and you ask what happened, where you are, and/or where Echo is. You open your eyes and see you’re back at the botanical garden, though you ask if it’s real or ask where everyone is. But anyways you push your upper half up as you still feel some unease, having almost literally woken up from the ground.
Echo wakes up, then calls to you as she sees you. She notes that you guys seem to have returned to Tokyo. You ask her if she confessed her feelings and got them through. She shyly tells you yes after a while. Barguest calls out to you and Echo and ends up banging his head one more time for good measure as he tries asking if you two are okay.
After Barguest processes the pain, he takes it to mean he’s not dreaming, which then means you guys really did come back. Snow and Gyumao walk over, and the former comments that everyone seems well. Gyumao suggests Barguest go get his head looked at, then has a feeling of deja vu about saying so. You can call out to either Gyumao, Snow, or Barguest.
In A, Gyumao laughs about you all getting back safely and suggests
having a celebration party with everyone together. In B, Snow says he’s
here and says everyone seems alright. In C, Barguest asks if you two are
alright though he admits he’s not the best person to be asking what
with that bump on his head.
In any case, Gyumao notes that you guys are back and starts to ask Echo if she confessed her feelings. Snow stops him partway through saying that would be rude to do. Gyumao agrees and decides all’s well that ends well. As everyone basks in the happiness of returning, Echo eventually asks you where Heracles is. No matter how much you all look, no one can find him anywhere around. To be continued in the Epilogue!
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