Falling Lancers
The glow around Shirou and Sakura disappeared along with the glow in the crest. A wave of exhaustion shot through them as they collapsed down on their butts out of breath. Jessica stuck out her hand. "Easy, you two. A takeover takes a lot of energy. It's going to take some time for you two to recover."
Shirou looked up at Jessica. "I'm fine, Artoria feed me some of her mana during our exchange."
Sakura placed her fist on her chest. "Diarmuid did the same."
"It will still take some time to readjust," Jessica told them. "Take the time you need, the others still can fight if it comes to that."
"She's right," Rin told them. "We'll make sure they make it through this."
Sakura and Shirou nodded.
The five heroes made their way up the spiral staircase. They entered the next level with Artoria in the lead. They quickly stopped as soon as they made it into the next room. "What is that?" Medusa questioned.
Before the five heroes was a large purplish-black womb like thing that was bigger and thicker than all five warriors combine with veins popping out of it and an open mouth that glowed red. Cú Chulainn grabbed onto his thread. Hey, Issei does Jessica know anything about this thing?
She states she doesn't recognize it.
Cú Chulainn spun his spear. "Fine, then I guess we'll have to fight it and find out for ourselves." Each of the warriors prepared their weapons for battle.
"Trace on." Emiya created several swords that flew toward the mysterious beast. The beast fired out a red beam from its mouth, knocking the blades aside. The beam ripped through the air, coming for the heroes.
The five heroes leaped out of the way. Medusa spun through the air, throwing her dragger that stabbed into the beast's side.
Artoria and Diarmuid landed on opposite sides of the beam and circled around to get to the beast's sides.
Emiya was coming straight down with his dual swords pointed down.
Lastly, Cú Chulainn skimmed the laser beam and headed straight for the beast.
Emiya stabbed right into the beast's face. Cú Chulainn thrust right into the monster's belly. Artoria and Diarmuid cut through the sides with their sword and spears. As soon as each hero removed their weapons the cuts and stabs healed to their surprise minus the spear strikes.
"Regeneration," Artoria noted.
A black mist expelled from the worm's body, forcing all the heroes to retreat. The mist quickly filled the room, blinding each of the heroes from its presence. Each desperately looked around, trying to figure out where the others were.
Medusa's magical perception was even not working as she tried to sense the others. A red light shined behind her. The beam blasted into her back, slamming her into the wall. Her screams filled the room, getting everyone's attention.
"Medusa," Diarmuid called. Another beam shined through the darkness. Diarmuid turned around. He crossed his spears in front of him to protect himself. The beam blew him back regardless right next to the unconscious Medusa.
" I am the bone of my sword , Steel is my body and fire is my blood, I have created over a thousand blades, Unknown to Death, Nor known to Life, Have withstood pain to create many weapons
Yet, those hands will never hold anything , So as I pray, unlimited blade works." Emiya had evoked his reality marble.
"What is that?" Sakura asked with a heavy breath.
"Emiya's reality marble," Rin answered.
Issei looked over at Rin. "What's a reality marble?"
"The inner world of a person, it's how Emiya sees the world in his mind," Rin responded sadly.
Sakura's eyes trembled with sadness. "That's so sad."
Shirou looked seriously at the sight. "Why is he using that now?"
The dark mist from the monster dissipated, allowing everyone to see the hill of swords. The true inner works of Emiya's mind were revealed as he stood on top of his hill, looking down at his enemy. Artoria stood off to the side along with Cú Chulainn who looked around. "Where are we?"
"Emiya's reality marble." Artoria held a serious look in her eyes.
"What he has a reality marble?" Cú Chulainn questioned.
Medusa and Diarmuid both lied against a sword that was stabbed in the ground. Both were still recovering from the earlier strike.
"We don't have time to waste on this bug. So let's see if it can handle this." Emiya stuck out his hand. Several of his swords shot out of the ground and rained down on the worm monsters. The swords stabbed and sliced the monsters determine to rip it to shreds.
The monster rained down in bits and pieces.
Emiya smugly smiled. However his thought victory quickly turned to shock. His eyes simmered at the sight of the monster reforming again.
"It doesn't matter how many pieces we slice it into as long as even a single piece remains." Artoria brought her sword in front of her. "I'll have to destroy it." Her sword glowed brightly as a strong gust of wind blew away from her.
The king of knights lifted her sword above her head. "Excalibur!" She swung her blade forward with all her might that sent a radiate blast through the courtyard of swords, turning many to dust. The blast engulfed the beast, leaving nothing left.
"Nice work, Saber." Emiya brought them back to the tower, but to their surprise the wall that lead to the next staircase was still close. "What?"
A black portal appeared before them with a crimson red outlining it. The void transformed into the worm that Artoria had just destroyed. Artoria set her blade in front of herself again, taking a step back. "Impossible."
Diarmuid's eyelids trembled as he struggled back into consciousness. Slowly his eyes opened to see the worm they were previous fighting regenerated.
Cú Chulainn stepped up. "Seems even if you destroy it completely it still will find a way to regenerate." The former lancer servant position his spear in front of him. A flaring red light rose from the tip of it. "Then I'll have to strike it with my Gáe Bolg so it won't be able to heal."
The blue beast leaped into the air as he did so Medusa began to come to. He launched his lance through the air. The soaring red weapon ripped right through the recreated worm, creating a massive hole. Cú Chulainn landed and caught his spear that shot back to him. He spun it and placed right beside him.
He smiled. "That seems to have done it."
The worm struggled to move as black liquid spilled out of the top of it and it showed no sign of regenerating. The black liquid soon dried up and it started to move regular again despite the still large hole in the middle of it. Several red beams shot out of its mouth in several directions.
"No way," Cú Chulainn spoke. He ran out of the way of one beam.
"What does it take to destroy this thing?" Artoria ran through the array of beams, swing a few off with her blade.
Emiya was also dodging for his life with his two signature blades in hand. He and the two other heroes that were still standing had all around used their noble phantasms. He bare his teeth. His unlimited blades and Saber's Excalibur had done nothing while Lancer's own power only seemed to made it more angry.
They were down to sixteen minutes and couldn't afford to be stuck on the thirty-ninth floor. Even if he asked for the assistance of their partners their wouldn't be much they could do. Emiya continued to avoid the beams before leaping back out of the field of the attack. Emiya had quickly noticed that the worm was firing at a certain range and decided to fall out of it along with Artora and Cú Chulainn.
Diarmuid, can you hear me?
Yes, Milady. Is something the matter?
Um, what is your noble phantasms?
My Gae Dearg can cancel out all magical defenses when it strikes while my Gae Buidhe's strikes can't be healed as long as it's in this world.
Then do you think we could use them to defeat that thing? The others couldn't.
Diarmuid looked at the sight as the others had formed a semi-circle outside of the blast range. He managed to use the wall as a support to lift himself up. I like to, but if the other noble phantasms were completely useless I don't think I could do anything about it.
Wh-what if we combine our power?
Diarmuid's eyes widen. What do you mean? Even if you boost my power-
That's not what I meant. Our Synchronize Strike.
But we don't even know what our Synchronize Strike even looks like and once it's over we won't be able fight anymore.
Its our only shot, please.
As you wish, Lady Sakura.
"Sakura, what are you doing?" Shirou questioned.
Sakura held her fist to her chest as her eyes were closed. Her hair flared upward as her crest and body glowed in gold. The crest glowed brighter than any other had before. A magical golden circle appeared under her feet.
"She's performing her Synchronize Strike," Jessica said.
"But, isn't it too early to be acting so reckless?" Issei questioned.
"It doesn't matter, nothing can stop it now," Jessica responded. "She can't even hear us because her soul is syncing up with Diarmuid."
Diarmuid stepped forward with both his spears in his hands. A golden magic circle appeared under him as his body glowed. He felt Sakura's presence all around him. Her mind, her heart, body, feelings and soul felt a part of his own. A twisted black and purple energy came over his long lance as a golden black came over the shorter one. More twisted energy flowed out of the magic circle below him while he bent his knees and stretched out his arms out.
The heroes looked back at him. "Diarmuid, what are you doing?" Artoria questioned.
"All of you stay out of the way," they could hear the voices of both Diarmuid and Sakura. "We'll take care of this." Half of the knight's hair turned purple with a few white strains as well. Inside of the share mind of Diarmuid and Sakura came flashed the moment of Diarmuid's death and Sakura's time in the worm pit, feeling dead inside.
Diarmuid crossed his blades in front of him. "Twisted Fate..." The twisted energy that surround the spears and the magic circle shot forward, ripping through the beam display and into the hole of the monster. Red Japanese and Irish curses bond the monster's body, stopping it from moving as the lower half of the room came full of light blackest mist. Diarmuid uncrossed his spears, swinging them out to his sides. "Of the never ending curse!"
The worm turned completely black. It lowered its head as it struggled to survive, but ultimately failed. It turned into black particles that floated away. The wall opened up for the heroes to move forward.
"We did it, Lady Sakura," Diarmuid spoke right before he collapsed. The proud knight instantly fell unconscious as the mist disappeared along with the magic circle. The glow around him also vanished.
Sakura fell unconscious with Shirou catching her. "Sakura."
"She'll be alright, she just needs to rest now," Jessica told him. "But her and Diarmuid won't be able to help any further."
"So what do we do?" Shirou questioned. He looked into the crystal ball that showed Artoria. His and Sakura's balls had been floating on their own since they took over their partners that freed them up to help their heroes as they would need it.
Jessica shook her head. "I don't know."
Emiya walked forward. "Let's go."
"Wait, Archer," Artoria said. "We can't just leave him here."
Emiya looked back at his former servant. "And what would you suggest, Saber? Drag him along. He'll only slow us down at this point." Emiya already knew how Saber and her partner would react to his talk, they were both too naive for their own good. "If you really want to do something then make their sacrifice matter. Diarmuid and Sakura gave everything so we could save the city. We still aren't even halfway up and we only have fifteen more minutes. There is no other enemy on this floor to get him."
Medusa stepped forward. "Very well."
"Rider," Artoria said.
Medusa looked over at Artoria. "I don't want to waste what Sakura has risked. As long as this tower is up she and everyone else are endanger."
Artoria shut her eyes for a moment then opened them. "Alright." She charged forward with the others moving as well. Emiya was in the lead followed by Artoria and the others. They scaled the next set of steps when they made it into the next room.
Once again the heroes are stopped; however this time not by archers or monsters, but barriers. Three green transparent walls stood in front of them with a large black knight behind them who was clearly maintaining them.
Emiya threw his dual blades straight at the first wall. The weapons clashed against it, bouncing off in broken fragments that vanished as soon as they landed.
Next, Artoria charged in and swung her sword as hard as she could against the wall with not even a scratch to show for it. She stumbled back from the attack just barely able to maintain her balance.
Medusa and Cú Chulainn decided to attack together. They slammed their weapons against the wall to be shot back like flies against a fan. They caught themselves, falling on their feet and slid back.
"Trace on." Emiya created and shot several double-edge blades at the wall that hit the wall so hard they scattered. Emiya's eyes widen slightly. "No damage at all."
"Looks like we'll need a noble phantasm to get through them," Medusa stated.
"I only have enough mana to use one more time," Cú Chulainn said.
Artoria readied her blade. "The same here."
"Medusa, do you think you have a noble phantasm that could work?" Emiya questioned.
The purple haired shook her head. "Nothing that would work from this distance."
Emiya focused back on the wall. "From the feel and look of those walls it would properly take a noble phantasm for each wall."
"We can't waste our power like that," Artoria stated.
Emiya shut his eyes. "I know." He reopened them. "One of us needs to use their Synchronization Strike so the rest of us can make it through."
Cú Chulainn looked over at the archer with his lance resting on his shoulders. "Huh? You willing to do it?"
Wait, Cú Chulainn.
Hmm, Issei?
I think we should take this one.
What why?
Your Gáe Bolg's can rip through a lot and I'm not exactly use to this. If the others and their partners can continue going we'll have a better chance of surviving.
Cú Chulainn spun his lance in his hand and pointed it at the walls. "Change in plans, I'll take care of this one." His body glowed in gold as a magic circle appeared under him. The Harmony crest appeared on his left shoulder. The lance alter in the front into that of a Shinto staff. A red energy wrapped around it, shooting back.
The Irish hero felt his being merging with that of the young school boy. In mere moments he understood everything about him and the same way Issei knew him completely. "Shrine Breaker!" He chucked his lance staff forward, scattering one shield after another like glass.
The knight that created the barriers tried to make a barrier between it and the lance however the lance moved far too quickly to counter, cutting right through its being. The staff blew up the wall to the next staircase.
The staff shot back to Cú Chulainn which he easily caught and spun. The lance returned to normal. "Not bad." The energy from the magic circle and the crest faded away. He smiled smugly for a moment before he collapsed.
Medusa and Emiya quickly moved on. Artoria looked down at the fallen lancer. "Thank you." She headed after the remaining heroes that headed for the forty-first floor. They had thirteen minutes left.