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Meanwhile, beam after beam of Arts light finally reach the executor.

What's going on? I just saw a bunch of Gendarmerie surrounding Sonata Spire!

Haven't you heard? It's the Witch King's remains! They're hiding among us in the school, researching Arts used to hurt people! It's so scary! How come none of us ever noticed?!

I... I don't believe it. How can you be sure they aren't lying? Their Majesties have long seen the school as a thorn in their side. It's probably an excuse to destroy Ludwigs-Universität—

How dare you doubt Their Majesties?! Oh, I get it. You're under the Witch King's remains' influence yourself, aren't you? No, you might even be the one who led them here in the first place. You're one of them!

How could you slander me like that? We've shared a room ever since we started school! I even took you to my family's villa by the lake every summer!

Hah! And how many of your family's fine possessions in that villa were rewards from the Witch King?

Like that set of Arts crystals in the basement, used to observe Catastrophes! They were refined from the ashes of the Infected, weren't they?

What did you just—Defame me all you like, but don't you dare drag my grandmother into this! She was the greatest Catastrophe scholar in Einwald, and she died for Leithanien on the northern Sturmland battlefield!

My eyes... I'm reporting you and your family to the Gendarmerie and the Empresses' Voice!

You wretched... Witch King's remnant...

What does that make you? An idiot who crawled your way here by clutching the hems of the Twin Empresses' dresses? If your family didn't so happen to have been on the right side, the lot of you would still be boatmen ferrying the nobles!

What do you even know? Did you ever learn to truly respect knowledge? You don't even know which instruments to use for different occasions.

Of course, I always knew you looked down on me! Come on! Fight me!

What are you doing protecting him, Maeyer? Your family used to serve to the nobles too. Aren't you itching to take this chance to beat up these haughty snobs?

The university forbids Originium Arts duels between students.

When a pack of wild beasts gains knowledge, that doesn't mean they've become civilized. All they've learned is how to use it to hide their fangs.

We should be ridding ourselves of this brutish rabble. They'll only tarnish the elegance and values of Ludwigs-Universität!

Shut up.

We worked for centuries to earn the right for commoners and nobles to sit in one classroom together. Neither Ludwigs-Universität or society as a whole should regress.

Out of the way, Maeyer, or you're my enemy too.

Hah, you aren't much better than him, Maeyer! The old fart who raised you has been stinking up this place longer than anyone else, hasn't he?

I heard he's lived for hundreds of years, and he keeps extending his life with the bones of the dead! Maybe he put you together from bones too?

I've also heard rumors. They say even the Twins were molded by Fremont with his witchcraft.

Nonsense! Fremont and the Witch King were the best of friends! I bet he's the leader of the Witch King's remains!

—Both of you should get some rest.

His longsword, wrapped in cloth, blocks the Arts flying toward him from both sides.

Lessing single-handedly stops both of them.

He then lifts his head find even more beams of Arts being flung toward one another.

Firelight, ice crystals, strange energy balls, frenzied flowerbeds, and upside-down fountains. Every spell ever taught in lectures is now interwoven with one another, all at once.

There is a thunderous rumble. A golem running around has knocked over a road sign.

'Ludwigs-Universität.' The shining school crest falls into a cloud of dust.

*pant*... *pant*... I'm really getting on in years. It's only been such a short distance, yet it feels as though I've climbed hundreds of steps.

I think I heard the sounds of a fight aboveground.

Are the Witch King's remains fighting with those from the university?

You're too weak. Leave the war to the others for now.

But suppose this war started because of me. I'd have no reason to hide.

You feel guilty. That's only natural.

Fate chose you over the others to live, and that is not necessarily a mercy. I know better than anyone how that feels.

Have you experienced a similar suffering?

I was gravely injured during the final battle, and spent the better part of a year in a confused state. It was Professor Fremont who spent the time and effort to cure me.

That day, when I finally woke up from my nightmare of being bound to those blood-red steps, the first thought that entered my mind was that... my classmates, friends, and even my lover were all gone.

In my despair, I climbed to the top of Sonata Spire, wishing to leap from it.

He found me up there, and I asked him: Was everything I did for Leithanien truly meaningful?

What happened next? Did you find the meaning you sought?

He gave me a number of books on the Güldenesgesatz. He told me that whenever I can't answer my own questions, history can.

So I started studying the Güldenesgesatz, how Leithanien came to be, and the direction it should go. I researched these topics for twenty years.

And... what answer did you come to?

The problems facing Leithanien have always existed, ever since the birth of the Güldenesgesatz. The cultural differences between tribes, the rift between nobles and commoners, etc. All these have existed for over a thousand years.

History has proven how difficult it is to change Leithanien, to give its citizens new lives, and to end the endless sacrifices.

You must possess both absolute power and unbreakable resolve.

Luckily, such power wasn't completely lost, and we're on our way to find it right now.

So this power you speak of is hidden somewhere on this old campus?

Ja.

And by obtaining it, we'll be able to resolve the predicament before us, eliminate the threat of the Witch King's remains, and... change my fate, all at the same time?

It was only my confidence in it that gave me the courage to go against my teacher.

Come, Franz. It's right up ahead.

Nein.

You again?

Don't follow him any further. You shouldn't go there.

Come back with me.

...So you can strap me to a table again and make me a vessel for summoning the Witch King's legacy? In your dreams.

Let the dregs of the past be buried by time, and vanish from Leithanien entirely.

They will. I'm doing what I can to ensure that happens.

But before that—

There's no 'before' anything. I've thrown away even a guarantee from the Kaiserinnen. Do you really think I'd listen to the promises of a remnant of the Witch King?

All I want is to obtain the Witch King's legacy. The people you're talking about—the ones who want to summon the Witch King—are my enemies too.

...Not this again. Is always denying your involvement really that fun for you people? Or are you fighting over who gets credit for what, all to crawl ever closer to that rotten throne?

I'm sick of all this. Can't you pick some other trophy... and stay away from me?!

Hm—The stairs beneath us are... vanishing?

This school is much older than you can imagine. Don't resist the power of history. Give up.

No—!

Lessing, not even you can fight a transforming staircase on your own. You'll only hurt yourself.

Ugh—Ah!

Are you this cruel to yourself, too?

Look, I don't know what Gerhard told you, but don't listen to him.

Rather than someone who claims to be grateful to the Witch King and wants to lock me away in a lab... I'd rather trust someone who once stood against the Witch King and saved my life.

The advent of the Genesis Horn is extremely unlikely to hurt you in any way. The old man and I triple-checked that.

The process may be painful, but not unbearable.

But you aren't me. What right do you have to make that decision for me?

I don't, but everyone has a responsibility that only they can bear.

Stop running away. If neither the Voice of Mundane nor the Urtica bloodline are things that you can change, then all you can do is accept them.

Accept them?

The ones who killed my parents and forced the Voice of Mundane into me gave me that same excuse.

The ones who almost turned me into a bomb to blow up a city—the ones who killed my brother—said nearly the same thing!

Why do you people always have these self-righteous justifications? Is that really enough for you to ignore all the screams you're creating?!

Ugh...

Verdammt... Still not letting go, even after that blow? Are you really so eager to be torn to pieces by the ancient Arts on these stairs?

I'd rather die than see you fall into their hands.

This has always been about more than just you... More than me, as well.

When Leithanien's future is at stake, any sacrifice is...

Franz, come.

We need to keep going.

This energy enveloping me... Did you save me?

I didn't do it to save you. I just can't stand people like you, obsessed with sacrificing themselves.

Franz...

...Ebenholz.

Don't walk right into a trap.

Come on, Franz.

What is this place...?