FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 88: The Eye Who Saw Itself

Outside a destroyed chapel,

Shenghuo ran his hands along his unnaturally smooth face. Much of his defining features had been burned away; he was lucky that he still had his sight.

"I can't smell anything."

Archer stood a little ways away, staring at the remains of a shattered gravestone. His Solar Mantle had long ago deactivated, and he had returned to his usual form.

"Should I apologize for that?"

Shenghuo's hand slipped back onto the earth with a thud, and he continued to stare vacantly into the sky while laying on his back in what was left of his armor.

"I just assumed that your Solar Mantle took some influence from the phoenix, or at least the fenghuang. That being the case... I thought it'd be more effective."

"It does take some influence, but the restorative effects only work for my body. For anyone else, it's nothing but regeneration. It can heal, but it can't replace what's been lost."

"Makes sense. But, with luck, and especially if I could get my sister back as a test subject, it shouldn't be something that can't be fixed once the war is over."

Archer chuckled to himself, "And here I once thought you and I were birds of a feather, but you really can't fathom what's been lost tonight, can you?"

"Let's say that I can't. Tell me, Archer, what has been lost tonight?"

He turned on his heel to look down on the man who was once his Master, "What has been lost is the greatest opportunity this war has afforded us so far! There is no reason- none!- that Saber, Lancer, and both of their Masters should not be lying dead at my feet! But here we are, licking our wounds with our collective tail between our legs and why is that!?"

Shenghuo's expression was unchanged, although it was hardly capable of changing at this point, and he coolly rose to his feet, brushing off the dust and grass that had stuck in the chinks of his armor.

"Why indeed? How is it that I ruined your flawless strategy?"

"My strategy? No, no, no. Don't tell me you've already forgotten." He stuck a talon in Shenghuo's chest, "I followed your orders, just as you said. You didn't ruin my strategy, Master, you ruined your own."

Archer shook his head and turned his back, "I was wrong about you- completely wrong. I thought you were a straight-shooter: one who sought his goal single-mindedly and unerringly, but now I know the truth. You're fickle; more so than most. Your personal vendettas and attachments are all that matter to you, and I could tolerate that if they weren't as ever-changing as the moon! You have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the lack of emotion is not the presence of clarity! If anything, it only sets you back, seeing as you could never hope to understand the hearts of your enemies- not to mention your allies. You're a fool. A damned fool pretending to be a stoic."

A whistle was heard as the breeze squeezed its way through the fallen stones that once made the chapel.

"Are you done?"

"...Yes."

His chin lowered, and his eyes sank to the singed grass beneath him, "Well... you're right. Everything you say is correct."

Archer turned a curious glance.

"I've spent most of my life in my workshop. One could say I've been privileged, at least in a certain sense. What's more, my success was always self-sufficient, never dependent on anyone else, be they allies or enemies. There was never anyone to get in my way, nor anyone to get attached to. Looking back now, my emotional response baffles me. I've never experienced anything like it... and yet..."