Chapter 86

"You fight like no man or demon I have ever known. Though this is not the end. My hate… never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again! Those like you… Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero… they are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!" - Demise, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

There was a time when humanity was afraid of the dark. When the absence of light brought the entire race humanity down to its knees in utter, joyful, terror. Darkness was where the monsters made their lairs, where they stalked their prey, and where their howls of pain shook others to their core.

There is a beauty in darkness. In the endless expanse of black that has spawned monsters of all shapes, some imagined, others not.

To combat that darkness, and the fear it made, humanity embraced light. They called upon fire to light their homes and to drive off the monsters that came to collect their due.

From fire came light, from light came hope, and from hope came courage. Courage to stand up and face the monsters of the dark.

Emiya

It was a being of darkness. The darkness of the night, the darkness of the void, the darkness hidden within corruptible human hearts.

It was the master of terror, of hate, of blood. It was the deliverer of pain, of death, of despair. To do evil was to worship it. To give pain was to feed it. To end life was to give it strength.

Arturia

But, for the first time, it understood the fear brought by pain. It had been hurt by that wave of light. Not once, but twice. Light was pain to a creature of darkness. Light was death. Light was the enemy.

Tohsaka

It would not survive a third. No. If It was exposed to that light again, It would end. And then, It would have to face a different kind of darkness. A hollow void where even It would have no power. A blank, empty abyss that even It, a master of darkness, did not want to see.

Matou

But there was a way. All It needed was strength. It needed energy, the purest It could find. It just needed enough to break free of the chains that It was now bound to. The strings that had created opportunity after opportunity for It to enact its will were now chains that kept It locked in place.

Barnett

Names burned in its mind, sparks from that hateful light that had turned against It. All It needed was power and then it would come for them. It would come for them all.

Die

There was a way. Something that could give It an edge. After all, the hearts of men were easily swayed, and It had better reason than most to know. After all, It was their darkness. It was the pain, the hate, the fear, and the greed of humankind. Their torment was its body; their hate, its blood; their curses, its soul. It was the end.

Die Die Die

In time, it would be free. In time, it would come for them. Suffering would become their constant companion. They would die, but not before they saw everything they loved brought to ruin and death. Then, and only then, would they cease to exist. Slowly.

Diediediedie

All it needed was a little time. Days, weeks, months, years, decades maybe, but the time would come. After all, what was time to an immortal? What was time to a god? It could wait for an eternity for its time to come, but it would come.

Diediediediediediediediediedie

A great hand of darkness will fall upon the world, renewing mankind's terror of the dark. It would end courage, crush hope, dispel light, and extinguish fire. Darkness would come again. And with that darkness, would come terror, and pain, and death.

Their names burned in Its mind, and It welcomed the pain they brought. The pain gave It focus, a drive. Their time would come.

One way or another, Angra Mainyu would have its revenge.

Author's note: Yes. Yes, this does, in fact, mean what you think it does. At some point while I was working on this story, while I was chatting with my brother, Warden Myst, we came to the realization of just how much potential Fate/Fantasy had as a much larger story. That thought has spawned several ideas which are in various states of developments right now. I love this story, I love the characters that I've brought into the world of Fate/Stay Night and how they've been able to alter the world around them. So, I want to keep going. This epilogue is the first step on one of those projects, but not the next one that I will be posting.

You see, that golden moment of realization showed me something else. Fate/Stay Night is a story made of multiple timelines, and since I just heavily wove two of those timelines together… my brain tells me that I'm allowed to have fun with them. Will stories based exclusively on the timeline's still have my purist streak? Absolutely, but I want to have more fun with them now than I did when I first set out on Fate/Fantasy. My purist impulse has been soothed by the work I've done here so things might look different the next time around. :)

So keep an eye out for the next story in the Fate/Fantasy series. I'll get it up and going as soon as I can, but it's been hard at times.

Thank you all so much. For the viewership, the favorites, and follows, and especially the reviews. Thank you all so much for everything.
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