CU CHULAINN BEGAN ITS LAST ACT, opening with the Cattle Raid of Cooley. The Men of Ulster are unable to fight but Cu Chulainn, being only seventeen, can and is thus required to fend off the entirety of Medb’s army on his own. He manages to do so by invoking the right of single combat. Afterward, it goes through a montage of him fighting champion after champion over months. He also has a brief feud with Morrigan before they reconcile. After another encounter, he is severely wounded before being healed by Lugh, after which the youth corps take over the fighting and get slaughtered. Cu Chulainn, upon regaining consciousness and hearing of the event, has his most intense ríastrad yet, creating a wall of bodies from Medb’s army. One of his last battles was with his training partner and former best friend, Ferdiad. It starts playfully before gradually getting sour. By the end of the fight, Cu Chulainn is forced to use the Gae Bulg, a spear that, when launched by the foot at the enemy, will create thorns throughout the body and later needs to be cut out. The opera ends with Cu Chulainn going out into his next battle, only for his charioteer and horse to be killed, followed by his death. He chains himself against a large stone so that he may face his enemies on his own two feet after death.
Once the opera concluded, the audience roared with applause for a good seventeen minutes. Yukan left the theatre and Ite closely followed him, dragging Lanya and Musuko with her. She tried to rush the three of them out of the theatre and was only stopped when they left, much to the confusion of all others. One of the members of the Saisei Coalition hit a button on a walkie-talkie and spoke into it.
“Commence phase two,” he said just as the four of them exited the building. What happened next was almost a blur of events that would be difficult to recount in detail, but the general outline goes as follows.
First, four of the five men that accompanied the individual who spoke into the walkie-talkie ran at the car that Zero and the two guards arrived in. They would slash all four of their tires to prevent any meaningful escape. After that, the fifth and sixth person rushed toward the driver’s seat and used two spears to kill the guard driving and destroy the car’s engine. Ite, realizing what was happening, then ran toward the back seat of the car and grabbed the Nukenai Bow from Zero’s hands. Just as she turned around to defend Yukan, she saw a dagger run straight through his chest. Ite let out a scream before seeing the Kaesu Dagger return to the person who threw it. Seeing the target of the dagger, she pulled back the Nukenai Bow and let an arrow fly from it for the first time in eighteen years. She watched as the arrow hit her target in the shoulder.
“Kids, stay with your father,” she said in a hurry, going toward the assassin’s location. “Make sure that nobody tries anything else. Got that?”
Ite did not wait for a response. Instead, she ran toward the Left Highside Tower to find the assassin. Lanya stood beside her father, whose breathing began to weaken the more he bled out. Musuko clung to Zero as he left the car to shoo the assailants away.
“It’s going to be okay Dad,” Lanya said to her father, holding him in her arms and struggling to hold back the tears. “We’re going to get you to the hospital and you’re going to get better.”
“Lanya…” Yukan barely uttered. “I haven’t got much longer. I do sorely wish that I could lead you through the rest of your journey, but I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to.”
“Don’t you say that, Dad!” Lanya yelled out in desperation. “You’re going to survive this! Just like you always have! You can’t die on us!”
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“I figured this would be a way that I go,” Yukan began to speak bluntly. “I should’ve known that some people would disagree with my stances. Yet, let’s not waste our time crying about the inevitable end that is death. Let’s not weep for the uncertainty of my future once I’m gone. Rather, let us prepare for your future. Remember as I have told you, my dear Lanya: the first step to being a great leader is to be good, and you are truly good.” The pyre of life left Yukan’s eyes. Zero grew remorseful as he saw a man once beaming with vigor now reduced to a mere formation of flesh bearing a resemblance to the great warrior king. Lanya cried out into the silent crowd of people outside of the opera house.
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After a few minutes, Ite finally arrives at the Left Highside Tower. Just then, a large man in an amethyst cloak barges through the door and looks around with an arrow stuck in his shoulder. Ite tackled the man and took an arrow out of her quiver holding it over his throat before she removed the three-quarter face mask. Upon realizing who it was, she held the arrow closer to his throat.
“You!” she exclaimed to Shirei. “Yukan gave you a pardon! How could you?! Why would you return the favor by killing him!?”
“I had not yet been pardoned by the true emperor of Aotoshi,” Shirei replied, with the arrow pressed against his throat. “Kunshu would not have forgiven me unless I were to avenge him.”
“How many people do you think would be willing to avenge you, huh?” Ite grew more and more enraged as the conversation continued. “I’m willing to keep this cycle up, so tell me. Who would even bother ensuring that retribution falls upon me after I desecrate your corpse?” A wicked smile grew on Shirei’s face.
“I don’t need retribution,” Shirei told her. “You aren’t going to kill me.”
“Wanna fucking bet?!” Just then, Shirei shoved Ite off of him, stood up, and called the Kaesu Dagger over. Just as it arrived at his head, he threw the headband aside, causing it to plunge into his skull, blood and grey matter splattering upon the pavement. Indeed, Ite did not kill him for it was his weapon and his wish for death that overcame him at that moment.
Searching through his pockets, she found the plans for that night. The plans were very simply laid out, only reading as follows:
OPERATION CODA; JULY 21ST; LEFT HIGHSIDE TOWER, GURENOSON, AOTOSHI; ASSASSIN
At the bottom of the plans was an insignia, an eye with an amethyst in the center. At the bottom, it was labeled “Property of the Saisei Coalition”. The most she could do had been done, so she rushed back to the opera house.
By the time Ite got back to the opera house, it had been eight minutes since the assassination began. Once she stopped, she saw Lanya holding her dead father as she knelt upon the floor and Musuko clinging to a solemn Zero.
“Did anything happen while I was gone?” Ite asked in a hurry.
“He...he saved me,” Lanya was speaking in a broken manner, unable to utter much else. “It all happened so fast. The dagger came toward me and he stepped in front. He saved me.” At that moment, Lanya truly broke down and found herself no longer capable of containing her emotions.
Knowing that the worst had happened, Ite let out a blood-curdling cry. Musuko’s eyes grew damp with tears, as did Zero’s. The prophecy was holding and the king was dead.
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A few days later, Yukan’s funeral was held. It had been requested in Yukan’s will that Siegfried’s Funeral March was to be played during his funeral pyre. Ite requested that Yukan be propped upright in the center of the pyre as a message to the Saisei Coalition. The way Ite read it, this way their way of saying that they were not going to go down without a fight. After his ashes were collected, they were compressed into three small rings on a chain, which Ite, Lanya, and Musuko swore to wear for the remainder of their lives as a show of respect for Yukan and remembering all that he stood for.