What if I said that one's entire life had been decided by fate? That every single one of your actions, from the minute to the monumental, stemmed not from your own choices, but had already been decided upon? That life being a journey of limitless possibilities was but an illusion, and no matter how fiercely man struggled, he stood at the mercy of a long-established path? The wealthy shall know their riches. The needy shall starve on the streets. The wicked shall be wicked, the righteous just. The beautiful, the hideous, the strong, the frail, the fortunate, the miserable... and finally, the victors and the defeated. What if I said that all such things had been carved into stone eons ago, allowing for no divergence? If so, sinners have nothing to answer for, nor do saints have any true virtue to their name. What if I said that not a single action is carried out of one's own volition, but had been decided long ago? That we are merely adrift in the current of time? Tell me, would you feel content with such a world? A world in which power is merely given, not earned - would you accept knees bent to a throne build upon such falsities? A universe where the sinless have-nots are oppressed and downtrodden - would you allow such a world to exist?
Never, I say. Never.
„
~ Mercurius
“
Those in possession of such knowledge who can still laugh joyfully, oblivious to what it means to be truly alive, are but slaves, the lowest of the low, hardly deserving to be called human beings. Nothing dampens the spirit like the stale wine of an unearned victory. Nothing is more unbearable than bitter defeat against the chains of destiny. Should ceaselessly repeating this farce - this slander of the highest order - be the fate of mankind, then I will struggle against those chains with all my might. I shall walk this road to its utmost conclusion, and, at the distant place I can call my finale, compose an opera that belongs only to me.
And so, I require your aid, my dear ladies and gentlemen. You, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the massacred - you who where once as brethren. You where born to be defeated, to be massacred till the end of times. Should you curse that fate of yours, come and stand at my side as comrades. If a hundred battles yield no victory, fight a thousand. If a thousand battles yield no victory, fight ten thousand. Vow to struggle for an eternity, ceaselessly, till the light of victory finally shines upon you. Any that has the strength to do this shall be permitted to become a means to that end - a part of the "sorcery". All in order to claim eternal victory. The Mane of the Beast, each an every strand of it, shall be from your flesh and blood. You are blessed to be as such. Although I, you, and he as well... are still bound by that miserable cycle at this moment... let us believe that the decision we are about to make truly holds a meaning... That one day, we can break free from this perpetually repeating cycle.
My dear ladies and gentlemen. Defeated souls of the present age. I await your answer:
Will you rise to battle?
„
~ Mercurius
“
Arte of divinity, extolled genius, alien diction: mankind’s bane, the heart’s lament. A bond from fortune wrought, its core in tragedy tested, chiseled to perfection. Fortune, O mistress ever so fickle: you claim for your own all that was once given. Blind is Fortune, yet blind, too, are those that seek refuge in her light. Reason’s shackles bind you not: quench, at times, your thirst with folly’s pearls. Revel and drink and frolic in life, for Hades holds no circus for the fallen!
Atziluth: Vive Memor Mortis - Acta Est Fabula!
„
~ Mercurius enacting his Law
Background
Mercurius (メルクリウス, Merukuriusu), also known as Karl Ernst Krafft (カール・エルンスト・クラフト, Kāru Erunsuto Kurafuto) is the Fourth Heaven and an antagonist in Dies Irae.
He is a Hadou God who has lived through countless years and timelines. He is obsessed with Marie and finding the unknown, and will not be satisfied with death until he finds it in Marie's arms or at the hands of a factor beyond his ken. To this end, he serves as the closest friend and adviser to his Apoptosis, Reinhard Heydrich, under the alias "Karl Kraft".
As Kral Kraft, he is the Vice Commander of the Longinus Dreizehn Orden and occupies Seat XIII of the Table; despite the fact that he granted them their power, all of the Knights fear and despise him.
The strength of this Law's Craving rejects any ending Mercurius himself does not acknowledge or is satisfied with other than his desired ending, even against his living Apoptosis or a being much stronger than him (however, this will only work after they are weakened and Mercurius emanates his Law through the Throne once more, and even then the possibility of it happening is very low). This Law's renewal even works in reviving back other Gods who have died such as Reinhard, Marie, and Ren after the fight against Hajun in addition to erasing factors that can lead the latter's rising. Below are all side-effects of his Law:
Kamungara: The physical manifestation of a Hadou God's Law, existing as a universe within them. Mercurius' takes the form of a massive Caduceus coiling around all of creation.
Astrology Manipulation: As a result of his Law encompassing All of Creation, Mercurius has complete control over the very World itself. From manipulating the movement and rotations of celestial bodies and the alignment of stars, creating meteor showers and a Great Attractor, even using the very galaxy itself to make anything or anyone to never exist in the first place, the whole of creation is nothing but a script for him to manipulate. Below are the following attacks:
Meteor Shower: Mercurius converts hundreds of millions of souls in the multiverse into meteors and launches all of them at his target, with each and every one of them having the power to match the entirety of Reinhard's Legion.
Sequere Naturam: Mercurius unleashes a Supernovae that consists of thousands upon thousands of stars condensed into a single blast that can atomize Gods from the inside. This move was also powerful enough to have been able to instantly kill Nerose Satanel, a Hadou God equal in power to the likes of Ren and Reinhard during Marie's Route, in one hit.
Dura Lex Sed Lex: Mercurius creates a Great Attractor which draws everything towards it into a singularity.
Aurea Mediocritas: Mercurius aligns the stars into a Grand Cross, causing an astrological energy surge that can incinerate Atziluth Gods from inside-out.
Omnia Fert Aetas: Mercurius makes all of existence into an elementary particle and sends it into the past of the opponent, thus causing a paradox and erasing them from existence.
Disce Libens: Mercurius condenses all the stars in the multiverse into a black hole that destroys everything. This is his strongest attack as it completely erases everything in existence, including the Singularity he and Reinhard fought in and even the Throne itself.
