FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 62: Summa Theologiae

...

The longboat drifted lazily to the ground, and, as the bottom of the ship encountered the marble of the plaza, it dissolved into gold ether, easing both Servant and Master to the ground without even the slightest jostling. Except, of course, for the jostling of Aaron's sanity as he encountered a familiar face-

"You!?"

"You?"

Yanni Iole and Aaron Sylphus met with mutual bewilderment. Aaron could've never imagined that a man he thought of as being both cowardly and useless was behind the behemoth called Berserker. Though, in retrospect, it made some sense. Standing in front of him in a gaudy toga, all of his suspicions about Yanni being just slightly off his rocker became suddenly and absolutely justified. A man with so little sense as to dress in cosplay in public would certainly have some sort of desire for the Grail to respond to. That was beside the fact of his readily available supply of catalysts, the very reason Aaron had sought him out in the first place, which now felt like so long ago.

With all that in mind, he began to feel that this confrontation was completely inevitable.

Yanni was equally surprised, having all his assumptions shattered by a single reality. These 'sentries' were not solely independent actors, but, like his own 'God', acted with the assistance of a human. What assumption could be made except that those other sentries also possessed similar relationships?

Yanni Iole began to laugh, "Haha! So... you too have a God, then? I never would've thought you and I were so alike."

Aaron's mouth hung open in awe, not expecting something so blatantly insane, "Wh-what? What are you talking about?"

But Yanni wasn't listening, "To think- you and I were on the same page without even knowing! What a strange coincidence- though... What about the others? Could it really be a coincidence?"

Rider's regal voice echoed through Aaron's mind, 'Master, thou art familiar with the Master of Berserker? He doth seem quite ignorant of the Grail War, methinks.'

But Aaron was as curious as his Servant, and so asked Yanni, "Why are you here? The Hell do you want?"

Yanni flinched, almost wounded, "I- I came here to talk to you. But, realizing that it's you, Mr. Sylphus, I think there's more to discuss than I thought. You- you might be the only person who'll listen to me, since, without me, you wouldn't have a God of your own either."

Aaron was a devout Atheist, not so much out of a lack of belief, but a firm conviction that no God worth worshiping could be responsible for the world he lived in: the constant talk of 'God' only made his stomach turn with a mix of confusion and discomfort, as if he were looking in a mirror and seeing something other than himself. Regardless, it was becoming clearer that the man before him was both insane and ignorant: a dangerous combination.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'God'?"

He appeared confused, "That 'Rider' there, he is a god, isn't he? One called from the Reverse Side by the use of a relic, just like mine. Of course, my God is the only one worth worshiping, but, that you, and these others, would have gods of your own... I have to know."

His eyes bugged, glowing with a new kind of fervor, "I have to know what makes you worship your gods so desperately. What makes you think that they're superior to the great and mighty Heracles! If I can do that, maybe... maybe this can be handled without violence. Maybe we could work together- for the sake of all mankind!

"So tell me... why do you worship? Why do you fight us?"

Aaron frowned at the question, not quite sure how to reason with him. One the one hand, Yanni Iole was firmly disconnected from reality, especially the unique realities of the Grail War. It was abundantly clear that Yanni had his own ambitions, and likely didn't understand what was going on except in the vaguest of terms. On the other, it could be rightly said that, in a life-or-death battle between perfect strangers, his questions were precisely the right ones to be asking.