Chapter 10
Flames collided against the earthen wall that Luvia had hastily erected, boiling the air around her to an almost unbearable heat. She barely had time to catch her breath before she heard a pain-maddened snarl from the other side. She moved back just as Clémence hurled her monstrous bulk through the wall, pushing through rock and clay with sheer muscle power; power far beyond what a human could achieve even with Reinforcement magic.
Luvia threw up another wall to buy time, her mind racing as she considered her options. They weren't promising. Exploratory Gandr shots and elemental blasts had proved unable to pierce through the creature's hide, and her defensive walls did little more than inconvenience it. Even with the power of the renowned Edelfelt crest, backed by her superior array of magic circuits, there was only so long she could hold out against Clémence's furious attacks. Already her limbs were beginning to feel heavier, her head swimming with the aching pain and dizziness that indicated her mana reserves were running low. It didn't help that Luvia had to carefully maneuver to avoid Mikael's sleeping form, lest he be carelessly trampled or burned by her enraged foe.
She would not win a war of attrition against this enemy. She had to finish this now, with a decisive strike, before mana starvation really set in.
Another sudden crash and shower of dry dirt as Clémence burst through the new wall, but Luvia was already running. She risked a look back over her shoulder at her pursuer, forcing herself to search again for weak points. The eye, as protected as it was, still remained her best target. Now she just needed a distraction. The blonde magus' eyes happened to rest on the fountain, with its surrounding pool of adulterated blood. She thought back to the field report, and inspiration struck.
Luvia circled around the far edge of the pool, drawing out her last two gems as she moved. She didn't need to look at them recognize them as two of her finest gems, a brilliant citrine and a deep blue sapphire, both densely packed with mana. Her lips whispered against the yellow stone's surface, warmth radiating from it in response to her muttered incantation as she set a delay on its detonation. Then she let fly another volley of Gandr shots at her opponent to force her back, even as she quietly dropped the citrine into the pool, its fall obscured by the curtain of shimmering blood.
Then she jumped, narrowly avoiding Clémence's frenzied rush. Talons scored the floor where the blonde magus had just been standing. Luvia moved back and raised her hand threateningly as her foe stalked towards her, counting the seconds under her breath.
Three… two… one…
The pool exploded violently behind them, propelling blood outwards to splatter all over the white stone of the floor and walls. Clémence snapped her head towards the unexpected disturbance, momentarily exposing her right eye as it focused on the chaos.
Luvia launched herself forward, slinging the sapphire with unerring precision to hit just under the scaly ridge, directly into that golden orb.
The stone flew straight and true – then collided with a talon, raised with unbelievable speed to block its path. It exploded with a blast of icy cold that engulfed the creature's entire hand in shimmering ice.
Moments later the ice shook apart with loud snaps. A coating of white frost lingered on hideously cracked scales, not quite obscuring the angry red of wounded flesh beneath. But as unpleasant as the injury looked, it was nowhere near as incapacitating as Luvia needed it to be.
Clémence moved her damaged hand this way and that, considering it with an interest that bordered on admiration. Rather like a young man looking at an accidental cut self-inflicted while handling a favourite blade. It was a disarmingly human gesture. Then Clémence raised her head to meet Luvia's gaze, the edge of her lip curling up in something resembling a wry smile.
They stared at each other for a long moment, an unplanned eye in the storm of their battle. Then Clémence doubled over, heaving and gasping as a renewed wave of pain washed through her. When she looked back up, her eyes had glazed over again. The pressure in her frame seemed to concentrate in her torso then bulge in her throat, as a faint whiff of sulphur again filled the air. The precursor to another blast of dragon breath.
Luvia was out of gems and running low on mana, but thanks to Rin, she wasn't entirely out of options. She could only hope the Japanese magus wouldn't be completely insufferable about it when Luvia caught up with her.
A sharp tug readily broke the straps, and the Jewelled Blade was in her hand. It hummed softly in her grip as she let prana flow to loosely connect her magic circuits to it. Looking at the rainbow pattern of its gems, their softly glimmering radiance, she could feel the Kaleidoscope begin to open, the veil between worlds parting ever so slightly. Enough that she could begin to siphon the mana she desperately needed.
But as she began pulling on that energy, the strain on her magic circuits sharpened into excruciating pain. It took every ounce of willpower to keep her grip on the dagger when every nerve in her arm was screaming at her to drop it. Fortunately she managed to swing it down, unleashing a flare of magical power just in time to cut down the raging flames that threatened to consume her.
Luvia took a step back and forced herself to draw from the blade again as Clémence rushed forward with drawn talons. The burst almost dropped the creature to her knees, even as Luvia bit her lip until it bled.
As much as she appreciated the influx of mana, using the blade hurt. Every swing sent cold fire up her arm and through her body. To think that Rin had used this weapon again and again to banish her sister's shadows, borne this pain again and again. Admiration and pride warred within her, both fueling her determination.
"I am heir to the Edelfelt clan! I will not be shown up by Tohsaka Rin!" she declared, if more to herself than her opponent. "And certainly not in front of Marco," she added. Not that his shadows were anything as impressive as her arts, of course, which surely Rin would recognize.
She forced mana from the blade again as she braced herself for another attack. It never came. She looked up in surprise to see Clémence instead shaking her heavy head back and forth. She opened her mouth again, but without the consuming fire that usually followed.
"Maaaargh-oooooh," Clémence rasped, before covering her head with her scaled hands, wounded and healthy alike.
Luvia stared at her, taken aback by the creature actually speaking, before the meaning registered. Even through her impelled madness, she could still recognize the name of her beloved. It was touching and harrowing in equal parts.
Forcing herself to keep a steady tone, she offered her open palm. "Yes, Marco is upstairs. Shall we go see him together?"
But instead of looking interested, Clémence shook her head again, more violently than ever.
"You do not wish him to see you in this state? I do not think -"
A frustrated hiss split the air. Luvia was forced to take a step back as Clémence threw down her talons, cracking the marble at her feet. Then she lifted them again and pantomimed impaling something on them. The magus felt sick to her stomach as understanding set in.
"You are afraid that you will hurt him."
Clémence gave a sharp nod, then lowered her head and tilted it up to directly expose her eye. The invitation was only too clear.
Luvia could understand the reasoning. It was likely that whatever geas was controlling her would only redouble in strength if Rogday's main target arrived on the scene. Not to mention that after repeated exposure to Gorynych's essence over long months, her transformation was likely permanent. It was a mercy kill, really. But even as she raised the dagger for the delivering strike, she found herself hesitating.
Clémence growled in impatience, her body wracked with agony as she struggled to maintain control. She decided to force the issue by throwing herself at Luvia, talons outstretched and fangs snapping furiously. But the movements were slower than before, deliberately sloppy. As she passed, her eye once again opened wide to stare at the blonde.
This time, Luvia found her nerve.
The Jewelled Blade was primarily a ritual tool. It was neither sharp nor easy to wield, but it was still a dagger. Its crystal tip plunged easily into the soft tissue of the eye. Black ichor welled up around it, even as Clémence shrieked in pain. Then a hard pull on Luvia's circuits that sent agony shooting down her arm, and she detonated the core of the blade.
Even with the majority of the explosion hemmed in by Clémence's skull, its power was still enough to send Luvia flying backwards. Her back hit the edge of the fountain's basin, hard and painful, before her body slid down to rest on the floor. But that sensation paled next to the throbbing ache from her right hand and wrist, from which the blade had been violently torn when detonated. The smallest movement, even a small twitch of the fingers, caused acute spasms of pain, as if she were slamming the hand on broken glass.
Luvia forced herself into a sitting position, biting her lip to keep from whimpering as she brought up her wounded arm to cradle it protectively against her. She let her gaze stray to the smoking corpse on the ground, a thin trail of black smoke rising from the crater blasted in the side of the scaled head. Then she turned her head away. It felt somehow obscene to stare at that twisted form, all that was left of a young woman pulled into a conflict beyond her control or understanding. A pawn among countless others in the endless vendettas of the old families.
No time for that now, she reminded herself. The living needed her. She propped herself forward, intending to get to her feet, but renewed flares of pain dissuaded her. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the cool stone of the basin, breathing deeply against her endless aches. She just needed to rest for a moment, to recoup her strength. Just for a moment.
Rin hoped that Marco's stamina had improved since their last mission together, because it looked like he wasn't going to get a moment of respite from the massive beast dogging his heels. Although apparently blind, it could hear very well, and sensed vibrations in the air and ground even better.
It probably would have already caught the Vendramin heir had it been willing to simply impale him on one of its long digging claws. But the beast was careful in its pursuit, swinging at him with controlled blows in attempts to knock him down or hobble him. No doubt so it could bring him alive to Rogday, who would do God knew what to him.
The familiar had displayed no such restraint in relation to Rin when she had gotten in its way, slowing it down with alternating blasts of flames and ice. It had swung viciously at her, the killing intent clear in the savagery of its strikes. Then it seemed to forget all about her again as soon as she backed away, hurling itself through Marco's shadows in its relentless pursuit of him.
As insulting as it was, it did offer her valuable opportunities to observe their enemy. The familiar had few weak points when it was at rest or moving slowly, its armor clamped tightly around its frame for maximum protection. But if it needed to move with speed – even now she saw it lunge towards Marco, thwarted only when one of his shadowy arms snatched him out of the way – it had to spread its segmented legs wider to cover more ground. Which exposed gaps in the armor near their joints, especially from beneath. And with its single-minded focus on its prey…
She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted. "Marco!" It took a few tries before the panting magus turned to look at her, even as he dodged another swing of claws. "Use your shadows to put yourself in the air above it!"
"How will that help?" he gasped out as he narrowly evaded his pursuer. "It's got even more armor on top!"
"Just trust me and do it!" she said, pointing up to direct him towards where she wanted him. She didn't wait to see if he would comply, instead walking as softly as she could towards the side of the beast.
It paid her no mind, instead shifting up to track Marco's ascent into the air atop a column of writhing black tendrils. She could see the tension build in its frame before it leapt up, reaching forward to sink its claws into the shadows and tear them down to get at the magus. Its other legs extended out to plant themselves firmly in the ground, opening up the predicted breaks in their plated scales.
Rin took advantage of the opening, slinging a number of rubies into those gaps with practiced aim. Each stone had been charged with enough mana to overpower a draconic familiar's magic resistance with sheer brute force, and the effects were swiftly seen. The beast's legs exploded at the joints in bursts of heat and light, shocks tearing through unnatural muscles and sinews alike.
The familiar gave a shrill whistle of surprise and pain as several of its legs collapsed from under it. It hauled itself up by its digging claws and turned slowly to face Rin, black blood streaming from mangled stumps. As fiercely as it clacked its jaws, the awkward way it dragged itself forward showed that its mobility had been severely compromised.
Rin allowed herself a small sigh of relief as she backed away from it. Although not down for the count, crippled like this it was far less of an immediate threat. She could leave it to Marco while she went to find Luvia.
She turned towards the opening in the northern wall just in time to see a man emerge from it. Brown hair, grey eyes, right hand loosely gripping a dagger, he was instantly recognizable as Rogday Durnovo. His eager stride suddenly came to a stop when he saw the wounded familiar, still stubbornly dragging itself towards its prey.
Rogday let out a wordless cry somewhere between anger and grief, then broke into run. In her surprise, she let him pass by her as he ran to join his familiar. As he approached it, the beast abandoned its prey to crawl towards him. Then, to her outright astonishment, it nuzzled its massive head against his chest, as if it were a dog greeting its long-absent master. In return, Rogday gently patted its flank as he whispered soothingly to it.
After a moment, Rogday looked up and spotted Marco, who was still panting from his evasive maneuvres. The Durnovo heir's expression immediately darkened, his grip on his dagger tightening until his knuckles turned white.
"Damn you, Marco!" he yelled as he pointed his blade towards the other magus. "What did you do to poor Gregor, you bastard? You and your twisted clan really are hellbent on destroying everything I love."
"You're the one that sicced that thing on us!" shouted Rin, even as she began reaching into her pocket.
"Stay out of this," he snarled, glancing briefly her way. "You're not even really an Edelfelt, let alone a Vendramin. None of this concerns you. If you keep interfering, I'll make sure you regret it."
"You're one to talk about things you love!" interrupted Marco as he approached, his whole body trembling with anger. "How dare you say that, after you took her away." Dark shadows began writhing around him, lashing threateningly in reflection of his fury. "Give Clémence back to me!"
"It was only fair. Your father stole away my mother, I took your bride in return. A wife for a wife."
"You sick bastard- "
"Quiet, you hypocrite!" roared Rogday. "Your father," he spat the word with venom, "tortured her for years on end. Even when we finally managed to shatter the prison, she was never truly free. Can you imagine what it was like, caring for a mother that couldn't even see you, see her family? See the sunlight or the world around her? All she could see, all she could feel, was darkness and cold, no matter what we tried. She wasted away right in front of our eyes."
"That wasn't me!" protested Marco, "I never wanted that!"
"I don't care! I don't even care that you're his son," said Rogday, his voice lowering as hot rage gave way to a colder, more dangerous fury. "But you never tried to help her, not once. Jacopo is a monster, and he does what monsters do. But you knew better. And you let it happen anyway. That's why I'll never forgive you."
"That's not true –"
"Enough with your excuses! I'll avenge her, even if I give up my last breath for it." He smiled, a bitter, broken thing. "Know that Clémence suffers right now. She's suffered for months and she'll die in agony. Die knowing that, Marco."
Rogday rested his hand briefly yet tenderly on the beast's armored carapace, before reaching into under his coat and drawing out a few sheets of folded paper. Even from this distance, Rin could tell they were very old, their spidery script scrawled across faded papyrus. The letters almost seemed to be moving across the page, their curved tips and sharp edges rearranging themselves even as she watched, but that had to be a trick of the light, of her exhaustion.
She was almost relieved when Rogday abruptly crumpled the pages and stuffed them into his mouth, choking them down despite their brittle dryness. But then he began muttering fiercely as he raised his dagger upwards, towards his own neck.
"Don't let him finish!" Taking her own advice, she slung a red spinel towards the enemy magus, hoping its fiery blast would interrupt his spell.
As the stone closed in, the air in front of it suddenly coalesced into a semi-solid figure, a sylph made of the night breeze and starlight. She spread her translucent arms protectively in front of Rogday. The defiant expression on her misty features gave way to a silent scream as the spinel's fiery burst engulfed her. The wind of her body struggled against the flames, pushing them away from her master until both grew weaker and were extinguished together.
The distracting display had given Rogday the time he needed to finish his incantation. There was no hesitation as he plunged his dagger into his own throat. His hand moved jerkily across, dragging the blade with it to open a jagged wound that wept blood, bright red against the white of his shirt.
He staggered and would have fallen had the beast not caught him under the arms and shoulders with its digging claws. It dragged him back into a rough embrace, a bear hugging its trainer. Rogday looked pained but satisfied as he weakly reached up, smearing bloody handprints on his familiar's scaled face.
Then his body began to melt away. There was no other word to describe how the spilled blood began to bubble and froth, eating through flesh and cloth alike until it became a churning mass of gore.
The horror didn't stop there. Not content with having consumed the Durnovo heir in his entirety, the corruption swiftly spread up the beast's arms to cover its bulk, liquefying scaled plates and flesh alike into foul black ichor. The familiar neither screamed nor thrashed, remaining eerily still even as its frame dissolved and contorted into a writhing mass of formless liquid.
Then a thick, powerful tentacle burst through the roiling surface. It was purplish-black in colour, with the smooth slippery skin of a deep sea lurker, and lined with a double row of bristling spines. More appendages erupted from the black ichor to join it, along with gaping maws of serrated fangs arranged in concentric circles reminiscent of a lamprey's mouth.
Soon the mass had fully transformed into a nightmare amalgamation of unnatural limbs and organs. Its towering form blotted out the moon's light as it slowly shifted towards the two magi, as though catching scent of them. It began to crawl towards them, twisting, slithering, its spines rasping audibly against the scarred earth.
Rin found herself unable to look away from the monstrosity as it approached, her blood chilling in her veins. She had already seen countless horrors in her short life, but there was something about those swaying tentacles, those malformed mouths, that pulled at something dark and forgotten in the recesses of her memory -
– Kotone and the other kids were exhausted, but they were safe. The grown-ups would take care of them; that's what grown-ups were did. She could go back home before Mother noticed that she was missing.
She was about to go when the magical compass hung around her neck began moving. Slowly at first, but then more and more violently, lightning pulsing from it as it almost jerked off its chain. Her eyes were drawn irresistibly down the alleyway, and she saw it. Something old and strange and wrong, all squirmy tentacles and big teeth. Something that would eat her up or, she sensed instinctually, something even worse. Her fear was immediate and overwhelming, paralyzing her as it moved forward to engulf her.
But before it did, there was overwhelming pressure all around her. She was surrounded by the deafening sound of countless insects rushing past her, their fragile wings vibrating as they passed. Distantly she felt herself falling forward into darkness as her vision faded –
"Rin, move!" This time it was Marco pulling her out of the way, his hands clamped firmly on the sleeve of her coat. Searching tentacles worried the ground where she had been standing before unfurling towards them, smaller tendrils unwinding from within like blossoming undersea flowers. Their alien grace did nothing to take away from the danger of their wicked spines, their poisonous touch.
Rin shook her head to clear the phantoms from her mind, even as the two magi backed away from this newest threat. While the Durnovos' other beasts had displayed some degree of intelligence, she sensed nothing but blind endless hunger from the thing before them.
They could not let it escape the manor grounds. It would eat, and eat, and keep eating until all of St. Petersburg had been reduced to a graveyard. In his quest for vengeance, Rogday had unthinkingly unleashed exactly the sort of blight that Rin had sworn she would work to prevent. She wondered if fate had somehow taken her resolution as a challenge, with how quickly such a scenario had reared its ugly head.
Why does everything I touch always seem to spiral out of control? Rin asked herself as she reached for her remaining gems.
Luvia woke to pain and dizziness, and the sensation of someone lightly touching her shoulder. She instinctively reached up to push them away, then immediately regretted it when the movement caused the ache in her right hand to sharpen from dull to excruciating.
"It's okay. It's me, Nylund."
Even through her haze, she recognized her retainer's voice. She let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding, then bit back a wince as Nylund gently lifted her forearm to assess the damage.
"Definitely broken," he said. "I'll hold it in place while you fix –"
"No," she sighed. "No, I will need you to splint it." Much as she wished otherwise, she was too drained to repair it through spellcraft.
He looked a little taken aback, and she reflected with grim amusement that this was the first time he had seen her run out of mana and jewels alike. But he didn't argue as he waved across the room at two of his men, where they were trying in vain to revive the sleeping Mikael. A first aid kit was carried over, cardboard splint and tape and bandages rolled out.
Nylund expertly folded the splint, then hesitated before moving to slide it over Luvia's fractured wrist. She took a deep breath then nodded at him, and he got to work.
It hurt, but a magus was born to pain, and trained in enduring it. Instead she forced herself to focus on Nylund's status report, as he described Rin's stubborn order to turn around and return to the manor, their inability to reliably reach the other teams, the monstrous familiar had burst out from under them.
"Did you see Rogday Durnovo?"
"No, we didn't encounter anyone on our way down," commented Nylund as he carefully placed the splinted arm and wrist into a sling, then fastened the sling over her shoulder.
"He must have other ways to the surface. And he must have caught up with them by now." She tested the arm. It hurt, but it would have to do for now. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to her feet and closed her eyes to ride out a momentary wave of dizziness.
Luvia was frustrated with her own weakness, but she had to face the reality of the situation. She would be hard pressed to fight effectively in her current condition. And that was without considering whatever other malevolent tricks Rogday was sure to still have tucked up his sleeve.
She thought for a moment, her eyes resting on the door from which Rogday had emerged. The door that was still intact, which was more than could be said for its shattered counterpart. If this was indeed the Durnovos' workshop and inner sanctum, then…
"Nylund, gather your team and come with me," she said, walking towards the door with renewed confidence. Despite her lingering pain and the sling immobilizing her arm, her pace had regained its regal bearing. "We will need to do this without the equipment, and we need to hurry."
"What are we doing, Miss Luvia?" Her retainer fell into step beside her.
"We are collecting our prize a little early."
Shadowy tendrils lashed against the malformed mass, viscous purple fluid oozing from every cut. Bursts of elemental energies struck it, lighting up the night like dying stars. But as soon as wounds appeared, the dark flesh immediately reknit itself.
Rin cursed under her breath as she was forced to dodge to the left, narrowly avoiding a swinging arm covered in serrated teeth. And she wasn't even suffering the worst of it, as the nightmare focused its attention and its endless array of gnashing maws on Marco. Whatever dark rite Rogday had used to birth this horror, he had imprinted the shadow magus as its first target. That was a blessing in its way, because it had made no move to leave the manor grounds. If it did, she thought grimly to herself, there wasn't much they could do to stop it.
Marco was breathing hard now, his shadows visibly thinner. Rin herself was running out of jewels, not that they had proved to be of much use. Even a concentrated blast using several at once had been unable to inflict lasting damage, although it had taken the thing longer to reform.
She racked her brain as she tried to come up with a strategy that would both contain this horror and let Marco and her both escape with their lives. The regeneration might be overcome with sustained firepower, or failing that, a massive attack that could consume the entire calamity at once. She thought regretfully of the ruby pendant that her father had given her. That would have contained more than enough mana for the task at hand. But she had no pendant now, no Heroic Spirit to save her.
What options did that leave, then? Escape and regroup? There would be untold damage to the city, but they might not have a choice. Could they somehow delay it or contain it? But if ice magic had proved ineffective -
Rin heard someone call her name. Turning around, she was greeted by a vision of blue and blonde, her head lifted proudly despite the sling around her neck, the blood splattered across her clothes.
"Luvia!" Rin ran towards her, anger held momentarily back by a flood of relief. Although the blonde was undeniably in rough shape, her eyes burned with life.
Luvia nodded gravely at her. "Rin. I am glad to see you, although this in no way excuses your insubordination."
"At a time like this? You pig-headed-!"
"We can discuss it later. For the moment, I must apologize to you. It seems as though I will be unable to return the Blade you so kindly lent me." She then smiled as she waved behind her. "Please accept this as a replacement."
Rin followed the gesture to see Nylund's team struggling out of the breach in the wall, carrying something heavy between them on a platform supported by horizontal poles. As they got closer, she saw a great, savage-looking skill with long fanged jaws and massive twisting horns. Its eye sockets, dark and empty as they were, still gave the impression of malignant intelligence, of looking down on the mere humans surrounding it. Gorynych's skull.
Even from here, Rin could sense the fierce aura that flowed from it. It was clear that it would be very dangerous to touch it, or even stay close to it for too long. Hence the need for the palanquin on which it was arranged, so that it could be moved and pivoted with a minimum of risk to the practitioner. But as much as Rin longed to study the wonder before her, the ominous rasping and swaying behind her were a powerful reminder that time was short.
Rin locked eyes with Luvia, then looked back at the skull. "You said it's a source of prana. How is it channeled?"
"I'm not sure," the blonde admitted, "The equipment was lost in my grandfather's time. It had many gems and devices involved from what I can remember. But I am sure that you can think of some other method."
Rin couldn't help but look at her in surprise, even more when she received an expectant gaze in return. Luvia's relying on you, she thought to herself. That's amazing, she never relies on anyone.
The sound of gunshots rang out. She briefly turned to see the rest of Nylund's team firing rounds into the crawling tentacles. They might as well have tried hewing timber with a penknife, for all the effect their bullets had on that slippery purplish skin.
Rin forced herself to look away from the chaos and approached the skull, feeling her stomach slowly turn to ice as that empty gaze stared back at her. The menace radiating from it was palpable, as if the dragon's malice could reach through the centuries to catch her in its jaws. Remnant though it might be, here was magic in its wildest, most untamed form.
She knew that what she was contemplating was insanity, a suicidal notion before which even Emiya might balk. But she had to try. She had saved Kotone, even if their friendship afterwards hadn't survived the combined weight of Rin's grief and the other girl's fear. Rin was older now, better prepared, and here was her chance to again prove that magecraft did not have to be a scourge on the world. That even something like Gorynych's echo could be used to save instead of ruin. She would prove it to Sakura; to Luvia; perhaps most of all, to herself.
"I have an idea," she said to Luvia as she rolled up her sleeves, her Crest blazing blue-green in the night. "Get Marco to lead it this way."
She walked purposefully to take up a position behind the ancient relic, forcing herself to take deep breaths. To even stand a chance, her will had to be iron, be adamant. She had to be utterly self-assured in her path. She had to be Tokiomi's daughter.
Luvia seemed to realize what she intended. Distantly Rin could hear her commanding her to stop, but she ignored it in favour of stretching her hands down. She placed them firmly on the skull, one above each eye socket, and immediately regretted it.
The world was ablaze with pain, white-hot flares of burning agony originating from her palms to run up her arms and through her limbs to consume every bit of her. The pain from Zurab's fist, from the pull of the Jewelled Blade on her circuits, from hours upon hours of having her Crest implanted, nothing had ever prepared her for pain like this. It was all she could do to fight down the animal panic screaming in her brain, to pull back even the barest inch before she lost herself to it entirely.
Between the fires devouring her mind, like glimpses of trees behind choking smoke, she began to feel something. Not so much a voice as a presence, alien thoughts filling her mind with such force that it was difficult to tell where hers ended and these began.
See, mortal. This is fire, this is death, this is my glory. See all tremble and fall before it.
Not all. She was Tohsaka Rin, daughter of magi, forged by love and violence alike. She would win mastery here.
She felt the intruding presence give way the slightest inch. Not a true mind, she realized, but a ghost of the Zmey's will. But although it was but a shadow, it was still a dragon's shadow, full of terrible fury and pride and thirst for vengeance. Even now it threatened to crush her mental walls and reduce her, body and soul, to ashes.
I won't lose. I can't lose, she repeated to herself in a litany, thinking of the tentacled nightmare that even now might be destroying the one she cared for. The image helped to galvanize her resolve. I have to destroy that monster, direct this power towards it. Even if I am consumed by it, the fire must burn.
Another searing rush of flame scored her mind, but this time it was accompanied by a rush of savage joy. Approval, and the overwhelming sensation of something both gloriously resplendent and incredibly petty.
Yes, let the interloper burn, the insects burn! Let those that seek to contain our majesty in tiny shards die in flames!
A rush of power ran from her hands up into the magic circuits situated throughout her body. It felt as if it were burning them all from the inside out as it sped through them and up through her chest, her throat, her jaw. The world exploded into searing white light.
Author's note: Don't ask what Rogday had to do to get his hands on pages from a copy of Prelati's spellbook. It does not bear thinking about.
DschingisKhan: In fairness, magecraft doesn't have to be horrible. It just so often is, despite the canon characters' best efforts.
DessertManiac: glad you enjoyed the chapter. Things pretty much went from bad to worse, but isn't that always the case with the Fate series? Hope the Blade wasn't too much of an anticlimax, but much more usage and, incomplete as this version was, Luvia's circuits would probably have been burned out completely. Blame Rin for rushed workmanship.