Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Apocrypha
NOTE: Mordred will be referred to as Falchion. Arturia will be referred to as Saber.
Falchion and I waited in the middle of the empty road, illuminated by the street lights, waiting for our opponent's approach. It's a subtle stalling tactic, as I'm waiting for Saber to come and join us.
"Hey, were you waiting for me?"
A young girl in a purple coat, with white hair and red eyes, walked into the road from an intersection along with a giant Servant that is twice her size. Analyzing the large jagged axe-sword that the giant carries yields little result for the identity of the Servant, as it's just a sharp hunk of rock that doesn't belong to anyone, but from the feeling of madness I get from it I know that the Servant is definitely-
"Berserker." I whisper to Falchion. Her face began to twist into wild smile at this news, and she brought out the invisible Rhongomyniad in its sword form, judging from her stance.
I decide to take a quick glimpse through Saber's eyes to see what is taking her so long to get to me, and I see that she's battling a purple swordsman wielding an oversized katana. I'll worry about it later; I can't distract Saber during her fight.
"Good evening, Onii-chan." The girl said with an innocent smile.
…Now that I think about it, I remember finding out during my attempts at anonymously researching the Holy Grail War that Einzbern homunculi are known to be albinos. This girl would fit that description well, so it would be best to confirm. At worst, I'd offend her for guessing her family name wrong, and I don't really think I can negotiate out of this regardless.
"Good evening, Einzbern. My first name is Shirou and my family name is Emiya." I politely reply.
The girl blinks, before giving a playful laugh and curtsied.
"I am Ilya. Illyasviel von Einzbern. Now I'll kill you. Go ahead, Berserker." She stated in a melodic tone.
"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"
The two Servants rushed at each other and over 40 meters in an instant, and their first clash shattered the ground around them. Every exchange between the two caused a loud explosion as Falchion's prana bursts collided with Berserker's hurricane strikes, yet neither combatant was able to force the other budge an inch.
I could tell that the Berserker surpassed Falchion in raw power, but it appears that it won't be the only determining factor in this fight, as Falchion seems to hold a clear edge over the monster as she dodges, parries, or blocks every attack. But defending is all Falchion can do, as Berserker's range is too long for her to get close to attack. The spear form of Rhongomyniad could possibly compensate for the range disadvantage, but due to torque Berserker could easily knock aside Falchion's attacks if she attempted it. Essentially, it's a stalemate with no end in sight, so it's time to make an opening.
"I have forged over a thousand swords." I chant as I prepare myself to use my materialization gauntlets. A small amount of prana poured into them is enough to bring forth six dao between the fingers of my hands. I crossed my arms and strengthened them with reinforcement, then whipped them around to throw all six swords at Berserker at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Each one passes over Falchion and hits Berserker in his chest, neck, or head…And bounce off harmlessly, as it seems it wasn't even good enough for a distraction. So much for the month of training, I guess.
No, there is something I can do. There's always the strategy of killing the Master in order to avoid dealing with the Servant…But Ilya might be the vessel of the Holy Grail. The idea of just ending the Holy Grail War here and now by killing Ilya and keeping Saber and Falchion around sounds…wrong, actually. I did promise Saber the Holy Grail, and she might just find out given my tendency to project my thoughts, and while I'm sure I could use a command seal to order Falchion to defend me, I'm not sure if using another would be enough to keep her in line, or even if I could bring myself to do such a thing against her will. In addition, I don't want to kill Ilya just because she's my enemy in this war, and I don't know if Falchion would take offense to me cheapening her victory against Berserker.
Suddenly, I felt an increase in the amount of heat my circuits were producing, which snapped me out of my thoughts and back onto the battle.
"Berserker! What are you doing? Break her already!" Shouted Ilya, as her red command spell started to glow all over her body.
"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"
I realize it now. Berserker didn't have the benefits of Mad Enhancement before, so he was being held back. I can feel the change in the air as the giant's strength, endurance, agility, mana, and luck all have increased by a rank, putting Falchion on the defense. With renewed vigor, Berserker knocked Rhongomyniad out of Falchion's hands with a mighty swing, sending it flying into a building. Berserker then launched an overhead strike seeking to cut Falchion in half, but the attack is blocked by a decorated silver sword that Falchion had brought out.
It was Clarent, a sword of peace meant for knighting and ceremonies which was stolen by Mordred and used to kill King Arthur.
"Hah! Is that all, Master of Berserker?" Falchion spoke up for the first time in the battle, and smashed aside Berserker's sword, briefly sending him reeling. A smile of cruelty crossed her face as she then mercilessly pressed her attack.
"No…You're strong, Berserker! How can she be stronger?!" Ilya cried out in frustration.
My circuits continued to burn even hotter, and I could see their green glow on my own body. I realized that Falchion was also holding back before, and was now taking advantage of my ability to supply her with power.
When I initially looked Falchion's parameters, I saw that her strength and mana were A+, and her prana burst was B+. The important things to know are that the '+' means that there is a possibility of the ability or parameter to be boosted if certain conditions are met, and that a single plus indicates that its power can be doubled. For Falchion's strength to be doubled, the prana burst must be doubled. For the prana burst to be doubled, the mana must be doubled. For the mana to be doubled, Falchion must wield Clarent.
Falchion had effectively doubled her strength by letting go of Rhongomyniad and drawing Clarent, while Berserker could only match her strength under rare circumstances. Yet, why did I feel unease?
I saw it, and I understood. It was only a little, but blood was dripping out of Falchion's ginning mouth. Her effectively C-Ranked Battle Continuation may be allowing her to ignore it, but now I recognized the problem. While the conditions that allow Falchion to double her strength, mana, and prana burst are not strict, they do have a cost; Falchion's body can not handle this kind of power without damaging itself.
I try to see how my prana is flowing throughout her body, and I can guess where she's suffered internal damage, so I focus on putting my prana there to manage it, allowing her natural regeneration powers to heal the damage. It seems to work, as-
A single prana burst undoes my work. I fix it again, but an exchange of blows between the two Servants breaks something else. I force myself to increase the amount of power I'm providing to Falchion, but it can't seem to keep up with the damage she is inflicting on herself.
Falchion is now tearing into Berserker, seemingly killing him again and again as she is covered in the monster's blood, but it takes everything I have to help heal her breaking bones, her snapping tendons, her torn muscles-
I collapsed head first onto to the hard concrete of the road. Why? Was I attacked?
No…I'm dead. I used magic beyond my capacity. My circuits produced too much heat for me to handle, and my organs have started to liquefy as I feel my boiling blood flowing out of me.
The next thing I see is Falchion smashing into the concrete in front of me, lying on her back with a deep gash in her stomach. She's still alive, but the internal damage must have finally caught up to her, as she is looking at me, trying to say something, but can do nothing but breathe heavily and cough out her own blood as it splatters into my own pool of it.
…I could have saved Falchion, but I failed.
I would not have survived this battle, but Falchion might have been able to make a contract with Ilya afterwards if she had killed Berserker. If I had lasted a bit longer, or didn't stop to reflect how damaged I was, I could have kept her fighting long enough to win.
"Berserker! That Servant will get a second wind if we kill her…So…Her Master's going to die anyways…So let's just go home…NOW!" Ilya screamed in frustration at her Servant.
I couldn't see Ilya leaving…I can't see anything at all anymore. I can only feel the tremendous heat leaving my body, giving away to the encroaching cold as my mind goes numb…
Servant Class: Berserker
Master: Illyasviel von Einzbern
True Name: Hercules (Well, you guys should know his name even if Shirou doesn't)
Sex: Male
Height / Weight: 253cm / 311kg
Alignment: Chaotic Mad
Strength: A+
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: B
Noble Phantasm: B
Class Skills:
Mad Enhancement: B
Personal skills:
Battle Continuation: A
Bravery: A+
Divinity: A
Eye of the Mind (Fake): B
Noble Phantasms:
God Hand: (Anti-Unit) B
Author's notes: Yes, I just killed Shirou.
Don't worry. If there's one thing any Shirou would be good at, it is not dying when he is killed.
Before anyone asks, I know Assassin is bound to the mountain at Ryuudouji Temple in the original visual novel, but things are going differently this time around. Despite Shirou attempting to remain as low-key as his canon counterpart, he has unintentionally set some things into motion.
Shintouyu – Many thanks for the informative review, one of my biggest worries was if I got Mordred's personality right or not.
As for how Mordred acts right after she is summoned, I think it is justifiable considering that she was summoned to fight other Servants, like the one she just spotted after her summoning, and she would probably consider defeating Arturia as a way of impressing her and/or a way to prove to others that she has what it takes to become a king. After the situation is explained and there is time for hostilities to settle down, I think she would take a different attitude towards the situation. (Do note that this is my opinion on what happened, not an explanation, and is subject to change)
For the memory problems, to be honest I was inspired to do this by the memory problems that canon-Shirou had during the Heaven's Feel route in the visual novel. It is a method to focus the story away from the slice-of-life and more towards the Holy Grail War, and it also changes the way Shirou views his magic. Canon-Shirou wanted to learn magic so he could be come a superhero, this Shirou needed to learn magic in order to function properly…Well, more properly that an amnesiac at least.
The low stats for Arturia compared to Mordred will be explained later on, but I did mention that Shirou summoned Mordred in England for a legend bonus, and that he screwed up when he initially summoned Arturia.
Azonic George – While Falchion could fit into the Lancer class, keep in mind that this Rhongomyniad is more like a sword with a really long grip than a proper spear, and it can switch from a spear to a 'sword' form by dematerializing most of the grip. In addition, Falchion's primary Noble Phantasm is still Clarent, so I feel justified in keeping her in the Saber class.
Edit: BlackWarth – The approach Shirou used to analyze Berserker's axe-sword is not up to the level where he can figure out everything about a weapon by analyzing it. Shirou could figure out the axe-sword's name if it had one, and if Berserker had coherent thoughts he might be able read some of them from the weapon, but since neither is the case he can't figure out Berserker's identity, let alone Nine Lives.
Granted, Shirou did figure out a lot about Rhongomyniad when he first saw it, but that was when he was going over what the weapon could do. Shirou couldn't even figure out the identity of his own summoned Servant based on the spear until Arturia spelled it out to him.
