Raison d'Être ~交差する宿命~ (PV)

The PV title frame, foreshadowing Malchut and L'erisia's final stand

Raison d'Être ~交差する宿命~ is the fifth PV in The Epic of Zektbach by order of release, first appearing in Beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS. It depicts the main events of Chapter 6, namely Malchut's encounter with L'erisia in the Ristaccia ruins and her subsequent entry into a seven hundred year slumber. The song it is set to was composed by Zektbach (a longer version being available on the Masinowa Music CD), with its lyrics and vocals credited to Akiko Shikata, while the animation is from Maya.

Description

As well as L'erisia, Malchut, and figures from Chapter 5, this PV features characters from this Chapter's distant future, that actually appeared in previous chapters.

The first shot we get is that of a typical Ristaccia vortex, with fuschia, hollow hexagons, with a black center, forming a cylinder that reaches far into the background into what seems like an endless corridor. However, this only lasts for a few seconds, and we're soon taken to a different vision. In the background of it is still the pattern of fuschia hexagons ; however, on the foreground, on both the right and left side, are what looks like stone columns with countless high-relief of nearly identical people engraved into them. The two columns do still manage a fair space inbetween them ; and, among the mass of indistiguishable figures, are also sculpted characters from the previous chapters, most of which are not yet born at the time of this one. From top to bottom are Lien, Hannes, Sigma, and Gijiri on the left, with Shamshir, Matin, Nox and Kukaru on the right. They are progressively revealed as the camera travels downwards before the scene changes with no transition.

L'erisia loads herself up

With still the same background, that for the first time gives away the presence of fuschia particles through its black portions, we then get to see the bottom of L'erisia's body, her feet, legs, and lower dress. It appears to be flashing and distorting, as if experiencing static or a bad image quality, or loading up. The latter is made more probable by the fact that her originally white silhouette fills with fuschia from feet to head, at the same speed at which the camera moves up, and in a pixel-by-pixel like fashion. With another complete lack of transition, the stone columns reveal their end, bearing no more high-relief faces, and instead disappearing into the walls to reveal Malchut, standing, or perhaps floating, in the middle of the Ristaccia dimension. Her face looks sad, maybe intrigued or mystified. As the camera returns to L'erisia, we now see her almost completely. Her silhouette is completely fuschia, and her arms are crossed across her chest, each one of them forming a "V" to reach for the other shoulder, as if she were in a defensive position. Despite the fact that the colour has fully "loaded", she continues to flicker and distort. When her image is finally fixated, she becomes fully white again, and a zoom occurs as she suddenly opens her eyes wide and gazes at us in an intense manner.

Malchut surrounded by Ristaccia dust

A three-dimensional traveling then offers a view of the fuschia vortex in several angles, alternating between images of it and fuschia dust, in which it seemingly evaporates. All of a sudden, Malchut is seen again, eyes wide open, and looking upwards, as the dust comes and apparently deposits on her. Flashes of her memories from Chapter 5 then flash up, interrupted by the current events ; first, she is pictured sinking head-first into the Turii-lake. After a brief shot where the camera, located in her back, allows us to see that she's looking up at L'erisia, another memory comes by, this time of Gijiri menacingly and perhaps proudly raising his blade against her. She is then shown from the back, and finally, Kukaru's death comes back to her mind. As these flashbacks end, we can see that Malchut has seemingly closed her eyes, perhaps to see these memories better, and at this moment, the dust becomes a lot more visible around her, as if getting more lively.

However, as soon as the fuschia particles shine up, Malchut screams and looks downwards, grabbing herself as if in pain. We are then shown that small plant shoots are growing around her feet, surrounded by a green aura in which they paint the ground. As that aura reaches up in the air, she closes her eyes, after one of them has let a tear out, bending forward, before suddenly getting back straight up and screaming silently, with a tree appearing to grow from her, surrounded by nine phantasmal figures - probably the Children of the Planet. With the green aura completely invading all of the space around her, L'erisia is flown high upwards and back along with some leaves, seemingly caught off by Malchut's sudden offensive.

Joah gives L'erisia her strength

Just when L'erisia is flown away by the new-grown tree, a completely different sort of place appears. Its background is a gradation of fuschia, light pink, and white. On the foreground is Joah, peacefully smiling, despite visibly suffering the same troubles as she previously did at first. When she sees her creator inside this place, L'erisia shows a suprised expression before calmly closing her eyes, which is followed by an image of her lying in the air, against that same gradation of a background, on which the ever-present dust floats. That background finally fades away, replaced by solid black, and a rather numerous number of dust specks.

Exactly when the gradation has faded away, L'erisia starts moving very fast, flipping around as branches of Malchut's tree intend to grab her. She easily flies away, grazing them without flinching, spinning all around, bringing it to turns they take without ever catching her. Even though they do come close, she breaks free with no apparent trouble, breaking the branches as if they were mere illusions. She finally starts flying upwards and around the tree, completely escaping it. All the while, she has a carefree, maybe even amused smile on her face, looking like she is laughing in some parts. The air is rid of the green aura, the trunk is firmly still, and as it fades off, an image of a distraught Malchut in the lower right corner facing a confident L'erisia in the upper left one appears.

The ten Children of the Planet unite

When it disappears as well, the scene depicts Malchut again. A faceless, darker version of her is seen spinning around, on an axis, while standing up and resting perfectly still. In the background, the green aura appears once again, slowly shining more and more, as the green shoots have grown to become thin branches, and with buds on their ends, all of which is completely covering the back. For the first time, green dust floats up from the aura, and after a very brief shot of the faceless Malchut, turned upwards facing a faceless L'erisia, turned downards, we see all of the Children of the Planet appear behind her, one after another, and seemingly chanting or talking, constantly interrupted by that same brief shot, in the middle of numerous candles and a few tree branches. All that is not part of the background in this scene is pure green and black, clashing wildly with the previous fuschia.

What follows is an extremely fast flashing of detailed - as detailed as Malchut and L'erisia - images of most of the characters that appeared in the stone columns - with the exception of the dead Kukaru - , being gradually revealed by very regularly halted upwards camera movements that still give a very short moment to look at them. Every time one of them slides up, two silhouettes detach from their pictures, one green, and the other one fuschia, and they alternate from the right and left side.First is Lien, on the right, pointing downwards, followed by Sigma, showing something up ahead with a wand. After her comes Matin, looking upwards and raising her sword in the same way, and the Nox, his hand opened before him as if he was releasing something up, with his sword laying downwards and crossing with Matin's sword. Hannes is shown next, swords planted in the non-existent ground. Hannes, unlike the other characters, possess no green silhouette, only a fuschia one. (This seems to foreshadow how she will never be saved from Ristaccia's curse unlike the others, since she was born from pure meme) Followed Hannes is a dancing Shamshir and finally Gijiri who is pictured looking upwards at a rose, which branches had been covering the whole screen during this one scene.

L'erisia shows that she has won

After all of them have shown, Malchut finds herself surrounded, perhaps mentally, by fuschia faces, all with their eyes turned to her, but closed. From left to right are Hannes, Matin, Lien, Nox and Shamshir. Just as they disappear, an extreme close up on L'erisia's mouth occurs, showing her smiling satisfiyingly, or mischieviously, with her outlines being pure fuschia again. Malchut then looks up, only to see a smoother, faster scrolling of the same characters as just before, in the same positions, but without their white images, or their green silhouettes - their depictions being fuschia and black only.

Then starts an alternance of that roll-up of characters, and of Malchut's reaction. First, a piece of the green aura emerges from her chest, with green particles around it. Second, her arms cross in the same shape as Ristaccia's did at the beginning, with the same aura surrounding her hands. The next shot shows that her head is low, and her eyes closed, as if she was sleeping or concentrating ; and she then uncrosses her arms, as her hands are shown "holding" the aura within them. By this point, since the other characters have stopped scrolling before her eyes, nine pure green silhouettes are depicted floating upwards, in the middle of branches and leaves, a halo around their head. Malchut then opens her hands wide, directing them to her front ; the silhouettes are shown to float to a tree's roots. Malchut's final face shows her with eyes wide open, but mouth close, as if silently unleashing the aura.

The conflict will not yet end

Finally, the video's last pictures come directly after Malchut has shown this expression. The first one depicts the showdown that has been going throughout the video. L'erisia is seen on the left, floating, with five angelic wings, and a black crescent moon behind her. Malchut, on the other hand, stands just as straight, but with no wings, and with a massive tree behind her back. After it is gone, the very last shot is that of Ristaccia, shining all of its fuschia dust, and sinking into darkness.

Music Video Text

Original :

• 宿命は交差する 視えざる腕の誘うがままに
• 刻ハ満チ 世界ハ慄ク
  昏キ願イニ 覚醒ハ訪レル
• 全テハ終ワリヘ 全テハ静寂ヘ
  正シク 定メラレタ 理念ノ為ニ
• 踊レ
  息絶エルマデ
  狂オシイ嘆キ
  唄ウハ貴方
• 荘厳なる星よ
  森羅よ
  願わくば
  赦されざる身に
  僅かなる加護を
• 蒼褪めたる しなやかな樹々よ
  猛き鎮と成りて 理を縛めん
• 憎悪
  歓喜
  混沌
  秩序
  類して異なる二つの存在
  交じり合い
  砕け散り
  喘ぎながら哂う
• 抗い 受容し 辿り着く先は
  倒れ臥すだけの 地の果てか
• 再ビ逢ウ日迄 一度ノ眠リヲ
• 知る者も無く
  祈る者も無く
  憐れみ給え
  讃え給え
  荒野の勇者は 芥となりけり
  世の罪纏いて 滅び行く
  孤独な眠りに 幸いあれ

Translated :

• Following the unseen hand's beckoning, fates meet...
• Time has ended, and the world is shaking
  Awakening is coming to reveal dark desires
• Everything headed to the end, everything headed to stillness
  For the sake of the rightfully established Ideal
• Dance !
  Until you die
  Maddening grief
  You are the one who sings
• O, marvelous planet !
  O, you, Great Forest !
  I pray [to you]
  For the unforgivable ones
  That you may grant them a little blessing.
• O, trees that lose their color !
  Become a mighty weight, and weigh down reason itself !
• Hatred
  Delight
  Chaos
  Order
  Two existences, alike and unlike
  That, as they intermingle, destroy each other, and lose breath, faintly smile
• By refusing, and accepting, over and over - is there any other destination
  Than the ends of the Earth, where they will collapse ?
• I grant you an unbroken sleep, until the day we meet again.
• Without anyone to know
  Without anyone to pray
  I beg you, have mercy
  Blessed be [I ?]
  The hero of the desert, turned to waste
  With the sins of the world upon me, I perish
  Blessed be my lonely slumber.