Chapter 9 Episode 1/1-1 - Storyline

One Man's Missing
When I remember, my first thought was... I feel suffocated. I think that's all I thought.
In the past...

Emperor Frederick	Avis, is there anything you want?
Little Prince	What do I want?
Emperor Frederick	Yes, you are the heir to our country, and you will be responsible for the future of not only Northern Pride, but of the continent of Babel. And that task is too heavy to bear with a sense of duty alone.
Little Prince	Is that why you ask me to hope, Father?
Emperor Frederick	Yes, my son, no matter how selfless the clergy may be, in the end, the driving force of man is desire. The desire for equality and the prayer for peace are nothing more than the outpouring of desire in the hearts of the saints and sages.
Little Prince	The desire for peace is also a desire...
Emperor Frederick	Yes. Therefore, my son. Embrace your ambitions... Even if it does not come true, it is good. It doesn't matter if it's a pipe dream, sometimes it doesn't matter "how much blood is spilled."
Little Prince	Isn't that the humanitarian way?
Emperor Frederick	Haha, that's what I'm trying to say! The point is this: Live your life the way you want, Avis. Your life, after all, is your own, no matter how far you go.
The present...
I still remember my father laughing at me when I was a child. My father told me to live free. That I am the vessel for the reincarnation of Nimul the First. Even though I knew from the beginning that there was no future that I could choose for myself.

14th Lord Commander	Avis, from Northern Pride, Captain of the 1st Regiment.
Avis	Here...
14th Lord Commander	I entrust you with this sword... for the future needs strong leaders. To "even out" all the prejudices and all the discrimination that are spread all over this continent, and to show our righteousness. I couldn't do it, but I know you can. Show us with your life what absolute justice looks like...
Avis	I beg you, sir, all for the sake of our justice.

Avis	Sir Waginau. What is it to me?
Waginau	You know what I mean, last vessel of incarnation in this millennium.
Avis	...
Waginau	The agreement with Frederick the Great... The time for treating you as a "human" ends today, as of this moment.
Avis	I see...
Waginau	Any complaints?
Avis	No, not at all. I feel rather refreshed. Finally, this life of nonsense is coming to an end.
Waginau	...
Avis	And then? Did you start by breaking down Envylia.
Waginau	Yes. More than a decade ago, the King of Wratharis and your father hatched a plan to liberate the vessel of reincarnation. The aftermath of that plan warped and distorted the cause of envy and resentment. Our Corpse will stir and cause chaos once again on this continent.
Avis	Then, we, the Holy Guard Knights...
Waginau	Close your eyes and cover your ears for the time being. The Sacrifice of Creation, the last drop that can change the world. Your value will only be revealed after the tower is activated.
Avis	Hahaha...
The vessel of rebirth. Born of the grace of the earth, born in the flesh like Nimul and Emmel, the founders of the world. That is my "meaning" from the moment of my birth. From the beginning, everything I am was only a narrow cause and effect rooted in that fact. A life with a predetermined end, a short youth with a predetermined end, I ran through it as a Holy Guard Knight. If I have any regrets...
Avis	Justice. My justice.
In the end, I could not only find the meaning of it. Absolute justice. How empty that word, how empty that sound. The structure of the world has already been determined by the beautiful, useless, and cruel fact that "everything is the accumulation of history." There is no great change ahead. There are no consequences without causes. There will be technological innovations, environmental changes, but the sorrows and griefs of the human world will never disappear. A better order. The sweet dream of a better future is a dream that will never go away.
Avis	But what if I have the opportunity to change it?
For example, a world where sacrifices, the vessels of reincarnation, are not made. For example, a world where domination by force is not instinctively good. For example, a world where it is always more beneficial to help than to take. A world in which the world could be reconfigured "without regard for cause and effect." What would I wish for?
Avis	Well, I would...
Unknown Voice	"Here are some flowers for you." "I grew them in the back of the Order. They're so beautiful, so..." "I think they'll go very well with your lovely hair, Sir Knight."
Let's just cut the evil out of the world. Let's tilt the balance of good and evil in the world a bit in favor of the good. There's no guarantee it'll really make the world a better place. It's a childish idea, really, but, well...
Avis	I'm going to try things out, and if I'm going to use this life, I'd like it to end in a dreamlike way.
And with that thought, I stepped forward, remembering my father, Frederick the Great. My father was a strange philanthropist, and he used to tell me that I was equal to him. He taught me that all lives were of equal value, no matter how noble or low.
Avis	Well, at least in this day and age, we have no choice.
If this "plan" is carried out, many will die. Grief and anguish will fill the continent, and yet...
Avis	If this time is the price to pay for a future of peace... If the misery of the people of "now" can be used to fill the earth with the happiness of more people as a result... The net is positive, and there can be no greater equality.
And so I walked out, all things being equal, it doesn't matter where you substitute one for another... I believe, I hope, I wish, I have done so. Believing and hoping so, I set out on the path of transformation, risking my life and the fate of the world. ...and if others had known, they would have pointed back, or perhaps even recorded it in later history... "You are the very embodiment of pride..."
Avis	Yes, that's... What a dream worth betting one's life on!

Avis	This is the "real" center of the Tower of Babel. The Door of Truth.
Ouroboros	I never thought I'd see you step into this place with your feet on the ground. How did you come to this place, Avis, who does not know the value of life?
Avis	Of course, for the sake of creation. The future of man, believed in by Nimul the founder and embraced by the maiden Emmel, a tomorrow in which all will live equally. Transcendence of Good and Evil. Our history that has deviated from that wish... I have come to seize the last opportunity to correct it with my own hands.
Ouroboros	You have misunderstood the wishes of the founders, O unqualified one. They only wished for a future where people could survive. They will not judge the good or evil of those who live there.
Avis	So you want me to overlook evil? Are we to stand by and watch, with our fingers crossed, while we have the chance to change the impermanence of the world?
Ouroboros	I say to you, do not ask others whom you have never met for the basis of your wish. If it is your wish, howl loudly about it. You trample on so many wills, so many comforts, and yet you still stand for what is right, no, in the first place... The ideal you speak of, the creation of order without evil... That is not your true wish.
Avis	...
Ouroboros	So much so that I do not feel a "will" from within you. At the door of this truth. Only those with earnest lamentations and a strong will can reach this end, but even then, I feel no wish or prayer from you. Then you are a puppet moved by the wish of someone else, someone other than yourself. I do not know what the heat that burns in your heart is. But... That is why you are not qualified.
Avis	Even so...
Ouroboros	...?
Avis	Even so, I will open the door. I will, because...
Ouroboros	...! What are you...?
Avis	Even if I have no wish, these pseudo-stones are filled with enough "wishes". Fear, despair, contrition, grief, rage, jealousy... in other words, the voices of those who wish for change.
Ouroboros	This sign. You don't think so?
Avis	Oh, yes, I want to make "their" wishes come true. Their lamentations are truly mournful... Though each one is small, when united they shake the earth. We have piled up too much pain, we have turned our eyes away from the suffering we have accumulated. And this is the end result.
Ouroboros	...
Avis	It's true. I may not have a wish, I may not be qualified to stand here. But still... This voice... This lamentation. The vindictiveness. Despair. It is not justice to leave it behind. I feed on their wishes... I will create the world they wish for, even if there is no image of those who wished for it themselves. If only the future they wished for comes true, their disappointment will be rewarded.
Ouroboros	Selfless, selfless hermit, unable to distinguish between self and other, wise and foolish. If you do not have the boundaries to "separate the world," you cannot fulfill the ceremony of creation. The door of truth will never open to those who cannot even decide who they are.
Avis	I will make way for you, Ouroboros, by any means necessary. I will wipe out the Voice with my own hands and make the world right.
Ouroboros	The key that I hold has already been entrusted to the hands of a new reformer. I say again, you are not worthy of it. ...
Avis	I see, Logi Crowley... You have already given the alchemists the key of creation, the Grand Pact. It seems that we can't just walk away victorious without a resolution after all. Then, let us face them with all our might, Ouroboros. I, or rather, all of us, will meet the reformers you have chosen with our whole hearts and souls.
???	...
???	...
Avis	No matter how this "settlement" comes to an end... in order to make the next millennium even better...