Chapter 9: Four Storms of Fate
A/N: Well, the next chapter has arrived and quite quickly too... Hm... Gilgamesh is starting to break his promise...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Upon entering the room, Shiro finds a large throne in front of him. In front, sat a mythical figure. His head was decorated with a large crown of golden feathers. His clothes were all red, but his eyes were azure, blue, reminding him of Tohsaka Rin.
The figure stood up at his arrival, and sighed, "Well, congratulations on coming so far but I am afraid that your journey is over. You will perish here no matter what happens, for I am stronger than you."
Shiro glared at him rather angrily yet nervously. "Well, Suzaku, we won't find out unless we play a little game, don't we?" Suzaku hopped off his throne, neared Shiro in a blink of an eye, which freaked Shiro off, and said, "Hmm... I see why you are here... you want to revive the one who you love, the one who sacrificed for you all. But still, I am not touched. Let us do a duel, shall we, and we will see if you are worth the three magical items..."
'Three magical items? But Yuuri said there was only one... perhaps, the legend has been altered when passed from mouth to mouth...'
Shiro immediately traced two blades, but Suzaku merely waved his finger in disappointment. "Where is the fun of fighting if you fight with weapons? There, there... put those dangerous items down, or I will personally liquidify those things..." he chided. So Shiro had no choice but to drop them before they turn into hot liquid and scald his hand.
"Alright, I have done as you wished, Suzaku, so can we get on with the fight?" Shiro said. But barely a second later, Suzaku immediately appeared behind him and delivered somewhere around 300 punches to his back. In pain, Shiro fell onto the stone floor.
"Come on, Emiya Shiro, you have not used your full strength to fight me yet, how can you expect to win me?" Suzaku shouted, inciting a growl from the collapsed Shiro, who quickly got back to his feet and delivered some array of punches. But Suzaku was skilled in the arts of hand-to-hand combat, and almost instantly after Shiro delivered an unsuccessful attack, a large whirlwind was seen from his arm and he launched it at Shiro, who had no chance at blocking the thing. He was flung to the other side of the room, blood easily flowing from his injured head and back. Slowly, he crept up, but Suzaku was merciless. He dashed over to him and with another powerful punch, landed him back on the ground again.
"Damn..." Shiro muttered as he got up slowly, fighting back the pain that was slowly taking its toll on his body. Suzaku was surprised and wore it on his face. Then, he questioned, "Emiya Shiro, why are you not giving up and accept your fate even though it is proven that I am stronger than you?"
Shiro gave a half-hearted smile and replied, "Well, that is because I have her to save... and if I don't, the rest of them might jolly well be dead."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This day, the Golden King and his last remaining warrior, the King of Whips, entered the arena much earlier than any of the audience. They had a small and private chat.
"King of Whips, did you see to the punishment of Adalbert and Ryougi?"
"Yes. While Adalbert simply faced his punishment calmly, Ryougi nearly managed to cut my whips into pieces. Thankfully, I have a large supply of them, it is only through arming sheer numbers of them that I managed to pull her down to accept her punishment."
"Alright, I want you to pass the order to execute both of them immediately. They are getting on my nerves, especially Ryougi."
"Yes, my King."
And with that, they faced towards the stage and saw Archer, Rider, Yuuri and Sakura coming through. But no sign of Rin though. It was easy to spot the disappearance.
"Where is the black-haired mistress of yours, Archer?" Gilgamesh mocked.
"Injured and in bed, Archer," Archer replied as the crowd settled in.
The two random slots this time were revealed to be that of Rider's and the King of Whip's. Both of them entered the stage promptly. Rider was dressed in her battle suit, while the King of Whips looked a lot like Bombasticator, but he had a large collection of whips instead, unlike the group of mercenary weapons such as bazookas and that sort of stuff. When the Mountain Giant gave the start signal, Rider and the King of Whips both lashed their whips at each other while travelling towards each other at fast speeds. They then, realising that their whips merely clashed, turned around and started to swing their whips at each other like swordsmen. Even though Rider was outnumbered two whips to one, she had a distinct advantage, that her whip was more flexible and harder than any of the King of Whip's. To the audience, it was a spectacular display of fireworks, whip fight and agility all in one. Soon, though, Rider started to remove Breaker Gorgon.
"Darn... the thing's off!" The King of Whips said before he took out a large mirror. So Rider had to unleash Bellorophon first. Pegasus immediately appeared and she immediately climbed onto it. The audience were in awe as Pegasus and Rider sprang into air, but the Mountain Giant suddenly whacked Pegasus and made it disappear.
"No, no, no... you are not allowed to use non-combat weapons, such as modes of transport," he said as Rider fell rather quickly. But Rider took the chance to remove Breaker Gorgon and unleash her power of stone at the unwary King of Whips, whose hand was immediately turned into stone.
"So you want to play cheat, is it? Alright, I will grant you!" He shouted as he started to throw a rain of whips at Rider, who was wondering how come he managed to both throw and create them quickly. She waved her metallic whip at each whip that came flying towards her and shook it aside. And when she could start inching towards him, she did. Then, she immediately released Breaker Gorgon and turned all his blades into heavy chunks of stone, before she waved her whip all at once and cracked all his weapons and suffocated him at the same time.
When the limp body fell to the ground, Rider was victorious, and Gilgamesh was left with himself in his team.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When King of Whips was conversing with Gilgamesh about the execution, Rin was in fact, hiding behind their gates, eavesdropping on their conversation. After collecting the news she much needed, she immediately set out and gestured both Murata and Conrad down urgently.
"Alright, here is the plan, Gilgamesh has already ordered the execution of Adalbert and Shiki-san, we better get to them before the guards do. Right now, I have with me, a map of the dungeon. Very creepy place, I assure you. Murata, here are guard clothes, take the whole set and act as a guard who is supposed to take over the duty of keeping watch. Then, allow us in when no suspicion has been raised. If not, just knock him out, as I have confirmed, the next guard actually comes one hour later, but you can say that it is the King of Whip's orders. Then, Conrad and I can sneak in and do the rest of the job.
"Conrad, you will be fighting the guards inside. As I suspect that they might raise the alarm, we ought to sneak in quietly. I would personally break down the prison door and that is when we scramble into a newly-made portal of mine back to our common room. There, we will make our final plan to fight Gilgamesh."
Both of them listened to their roles attentively and nodded their heads once Rin finished. And so the plan was carried out. Murata got into the body armour and told the guard that it was his shift, under the orders of the King of Whips. Of course, the guard was more than willing to let Murata 'guard' the entrance. And so, Rin and Conrad sneaked inside. A few guards were patrolling the place and Conrad silently silenced them. Slowly, they made their way closer and closer to the cell, and indeed, found them.
She appeared in front of their cell, where she saw that Adalbert was not much awake while Shiki was sleeping as well. Cautiously, she whispered, "Hey, Shiki-san..." As if on cue, Shiki woke up, and immediately understood what was going on. She slowly shook Adalbert awake, while Conrad half-willingly cut open the door and eye Adalbert angrily when he came out. It was then that he noticed that Adalbert was whipped everywhere on his back and it was totally red in colour.
Rin also took a while to realise that Shiki's left arm was no longer there and her blouse's left sleeve was hanging rather freely. She gasped softly, which aroused the attention of Shiki, and then pointed towards the empty sleeve.
"I know, but the King of Whips beat me up real bad last night and to stop the blood from overflowing and killing me, I had to kill my arm. This makes sure I have enough blood left to live until the next whipping," she replied, "And you can take a look at my back, it is very bloody."
Rin only took a glance at it and nearly puked. The blouse was all torn, with fresh red scars forming. In fact, it was so revolting, that Rin could faint anytime now. But she knew she could not and immediately rushed out of the place, killing any guards on the way. Once they rushed out with the prisoners, Murata, by then, had removed his armour and they immediately disappeared into a portal that Rin conjured.
They appeared back in the common room, but were surprised to see someone awake and well.
Rin blurted out, "Saber? Is that you?"
The blonde nodded her head.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Shiro replied, " Well, that is because I have her to save... and if I don't, the rest of them might jolly well be dead. Victor would be left to die in the dungeons, and so would Saber. Without Saber, the rest would not even stand a chance against Gilgamesh. I would like to rest in peace with Saber, but that is certainly not possible with so many people in danger of losing their lives to Gilgamesh."
Suzaku thought a while, then said, "Very well, Shiro Emiya. You have proved yourself to be worthy of the three treasures. Come with me."
Shiro was dumbfounded at first. He finally did it! Saber would be resurrected, and the others would be saved. They could finish off Gilgamesh and go back to their world alive. And so he went inside the last room and went in the portal which he conjured using Rin's handbook of spells.
The first item, the pill of resurrection. Can restore the soul of a person to a body. The second, the orb of portals, instantly teleports a whole party to any location in any world (note, Tohsaka's portal can only teleport around the same world, not different ones). Must be used with a body. The third, the two gifts of heaven. One, the soul splitter. If one happens to be made partly of the soul of another person, both their souls can be separated. Note that this power can be used even if the body of the other soul is gone, this thing will create a new one. The second, the limp replacor. This is a powerful treasure that helps a person regain a lost limp, be it an arm or a leg. Once attached, it can never be removed, but will be around the state before it receives any permanenent damage. It will fuse with the body to be one. Many mages, though, can create a limp similar to this.
And so, Shiro found himself face to face with Saber and Gisela. Gisela gasped at his arrival and quickly questioned, "Have you got the cure? You need to give her quick, or else she will die soon, I cannot maintain her for long!" And so, Shiro administered the pill to her and she slowly awoke.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
That night, the whole gang were celebrating the victory of the revival of Saber, and that of Shiro's too. Rin was chatting with her new found friend, while Sakura and Lady Celi were busy discussing the recipes for cooking. Yuuri and Wolfram were engaged in their usual arguments and Conrad and Adalbert seemed to be making up. Saber and Shiro were both eating food as quickly as they can (they are both starving to death), while Archer was busy talking to Rider for some relief. Murata, however, was not here as he had to find out the location of Victor and Ilya and Greta were playing while eating.
Usually, Sakura would nicely chide Ilya for doing so with Greta, but today, everyone was in a really good mood, and thus no one bothered. They were too ecstatic themselves to even note.
Rin was talking to Shiki about their lives, and they found that there were a lot of similarities between them. Especially on the part that both of them were cold towards enemies. Rin noted that she once attacked her ally for no apparent reason, and Shiki noted that her instinct to kill kept her alive all these while. They both giggled, arousing suspicion from Archer.
Sakura was talking how scrambled eggs would suit green pepper very well. Lady Celi was suggesting that Broccoli would go well with spring onions and tomatoes. At the mention of 'broccoli', Ilya coughed purposedly.
Wolfram was suggesting to Yuuri that they should get married quickly, ending up with Yuuri shouting, "Hey! Not that loudly!" before the whole table chorused with laughter. Then, Yuuri became angry and soon, they started to argue about many different things.
Conrad and Adalbert were reminiscing the good ole days, how they met each other... well, stuff like that.
Archer and Rider were talking about some letters that Sakura and Rin sent to each other. It showed signs of their healing relationship, both of them agreed at last.
And Ilya was talking about the card game that was very popular back in Japan known as Pokémon. Greta sounded interested, and Ilya promised to buy some for her when they meet again.
And when they were nearly finished in their meals, the door was slammed open. Murata came charging in, along with a tired Victor, who was quickly supported by his daughter, and Murata shouted, "Gilgamesh is arriving with his army! Everyone! Get your weapons ready!"
Sakura immediately instructed Ilya to take Greta to a safe place. Seeing the unusually stern face of Sakura, Ilya knew this time it was not for fun. So they ran out of the door quickly, to hide in a remoted closet in the whole castle that they found during their games of hide-and-seek. And the troopers stormed in afterwards, without warning, with the general of the whole army ordering the attack.
But Gilgamesh was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, he was looking for Ilyasviel and Greta, and just managed to track them to the lonely closet.
Ilya told Greta to not make a sound while she distracted him. Bravely, she stepped out and started to use her mage spells against Gilgamesh, who was anything but injured by the spells. Ilya used waves after waves of energy bursts, but it all failed to stop the Golden King. As Gilgamesh started to summon his blades, Ilya ran as fast as she could.
But she was not fast enough to escape the blades. When the blades flew towards her, she closed her eyes, and instead, saw two people protecting her.
The first was Adalbert. He was using his body to block the barrage of blades, and it took his life instantly. He fell down, dead and bloody. But the second was someone she had not seen before, but felt familiar with. He was a giant of a man, appeared to have herculean strength, and yet, was cradling Ilya gently. He then spoke in a familiar low voice, "It is me, Ilyasviel."
Ilya's eyes widened in surprise.
"Heracles?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: Sad, ne? Adalbert has only lived to see Julia in action once (remember that Julia appeared for battle before Adalbert fought). Anyway, the next chapter will be the official last, but more likely, an epilogue will come as well. Things will draw to a close from then on, and here we go into the plot of Fate/Anime War. And something for all of you to cheer for, Gilgamesh will pay! (Ducks rotten eggs from Gilgamesh fans)... oh well, see you people next time, and bye!