Fate/Academy: Episode 11/12
*Athenox and Connor in the Elite Combat Team's storage shed behind the organization building. It is after school. Scene 1.*
"Hey Connor! It is really hard to believe that you guys keep all of this stuff in here."
"Oh yeah? Well most of it is leftover materials from past seasons. This shed is constantly circulating mana through here for preservation, so none of it ever really dissolves which is good for keeping things intact but it can also be dangerously unstable and cause things to reanimate. It is why we have to use our mystic code armor in here. I once heard a rumor that a corrupted spirit revived itself in this shed and the team spent the majority of a day trying to destroy it and clean up afterwards so that Mrs. never found out. We have used quite a wide variety of essences and scrap weapons and armor that we take off of corrupted spirits. We even had to make our fortress aircraft submersible for an underwater challenge three years ago, so we had to plate the entire exterior with Leviathan scales to withstand that level of water pressurization. It was tedious as could be, but worth it in the end because that was the year we won and first gained our elite title." Connor responds back to me.
Mrs. said that she was unsure of my abilities in their current state and didn't want to risk anything. That meant that I was not allowed to go on the Team field trip to the Holy Council's mana power plant in Avalon City. I also know that this is because I am from Undercity and the Holy Council takes it upon themselves to shove their own personal interests into Avalon City, just as all of the other factions have. It makes sense considering Avalon City was founded by the agreement of all of the other factions after the first Great Mage War that happened so long ago. The corruption that they had all but forgotten about since the founding had seeped its way back into the minds of helpless victims and then spread like wildfire. The factions began disagreeing with each other on whose fault it was and what to do about it. Even to the point of violent battles. That Holy Council of the past was the faction who finally came to their senses and helped everyone remember why they had learned magecraft to fight in the first place and that was to stop the corruption. Once everyone came to remember, they combined forces and repelled the corruption back far enough to make them dormant again. As a reminder they used their combined forces to clear out and build a city that would serve as a beacon of unity and remembrance that they were given their power to stand against the corruption and not each other. All of the factions have similar outposts in Avalon because it is the leading source of pure mana, which is the most efficient magical energy source in the world. Usable in supplement to any mana generated by a human and able to be used more continuously. It will sting on contact though due to its pure balance of every affinity's magic. It is like getting hit by every other type of magic attack at once except your own. Undercity however, no longer has any outposts or refining stations in Avalon City. The Holy Council along with all of the other factions hate Undercity because of events in later wars and refuses to acknowledge their existence. Going so far as to kick them out of the World Council. This hatred has yet to go away. So I am unable to go on the field trip. Apparently there was going to be a lot of ceremonial duels and a celebratory banquet. Connor decided not to go as well. I don't really know why. I really have to wonder if it is because he still feels sorry about our sparring match, as if that three weeks I was knocked out would have been enough preparation for me to have been evenly matched against Jason. Since he saw me land six out of the twelve knockouts, it is possible for him to think that if I had more training then I wouldn't have overloaded my body in the first place. I need to make sure.
"Connor, don't you think that it is a little weird that it is just us two cleaning out the shed. Don't you think it is a little bit too much for Mrs. to ask of us? I would have thought that for an area of this magnitude, you would want somewhere around four or five people, especially since combat could spontaneously break out against anything in here."
"Yeah that is true but you do remember how Mrs. is going to compensate us for this mission. Do you really want to have to split that reward with more people?"
"You are right. That isn't something that you pass up, even if it means running a two man team into such a dangerous place as this."
"Plus we are the only ones who aren't either on the field trip or sick in their dormitories."
He is right yet again. Adam, Macy, and Zachery Blackmore who is Corey's younger brother have all called in sick today. Some really aggressive virus must be going around. Thank goodness that none of the teachers today asked me to bring their homework by for them, because I wouldn't want to take the risk of getting sick from them. I have already missed enough days from my mess-ups with my void mana as it is.
"Well, you aren't sick. So why didn't you want to go on the field trip with everyone else?" I am learning more and more that being straightforward always seems to be the better option for getting information.
"Hmm…Well you see…"
Connor is hesitating?
I have never heard him like this. He is usually always very certain in his words. And I would know because since I got my void abilities, I have been the king of hesitation. I am usually always overthinking my words and actions, so I know what it looks and sounds like. Connor pauses thinking of how to respond. It must be because of me right?
"You could have gone with them Connor. You really didn't have to stay here and feel sorry for me because you didn't go easy on me in training for Blademaster."
"Do I look like the pitying type to you?"
"No, I guess not."
"I had my own reason for not going and trust me when I say that it wasn't because I knocked you in to the ground with extra force. If anything I think it knocked a few magic circuits into the right places." He says as he laughs.
"Consider it a gift, because I don't go anywhere near full force against anyone I don't respect enough. Between the two of us, I think that you are one of my favorite freshmen team members."
Oh yeah, because totally destroying someone is a great way to show someone that they are your favorite. Also, picking favorites on a team is once again, a mistake that can only end badly. This comes from personal experience.
"Tell you what. Why don't we hurry up and get done here so we can claim the reward together."
"That sounds great."
*Athenox and Connor are sitting on the first floor of the Rider Dormitory in the Rider's Pizzeria. The two are sitting across from each other at a table. It is now in the evening just before sunset, so approximately six or seven at night. Scene 2.*
"Hey, is that…?"
"The up and coming Blademaster? Yeah I think you are right. It is"
"I still can't believe how strong that guy is."
"He really dished out a beating to Jason Ainsworth." Whispered voices come from all around the restaurant.
"Hey Connor, I think that they are all talking about you."
"What? No, they are talking about you."
"Why me? I didn't do anything really impressive except for when my body slammed into the arena wall and leave a really big impression from the force of impact. Didn't you defeat Jason and get to the division finals?"
"I am not sure you have that part quite right. Yes, I did through to the final match of the division but not by beating him. The von Einzbern kid that beat Luke was the one who had to take Jason down. His chains and projectile swords proved too much even for Jason's titanic strength."
He is right about that. Brute strength alone isn't effective against Justin.
"Then why are they calling me the Blademaster?"
"If I had to guess, then I would say that it is because of your performance against Jason. You are probably one of only few students who could even get that close to completely knocking him out in a fight. What is more impressive is that you were able to accomplish that feat in just your freshman year. I myself have gone up against Jason before and could not get more than four knockouts on him. The same argument cannot be made for your arch rival von Einzbern because even though he did defeat him, he did not display the same level of sword mastery or technique that you did. And only winning in a competition called Blademaster because of magecraft that borders being defined as what the rules establish to be "low level magecraft" is hardly the same example of a mastered sword technique like yours."
So apparently when I overloaded, I managed to get two more knockouts than Connor. I don't even understand what Overloading does and yet still it must be pretty extraordinary to be able to contest mages who are far more advanced than myself.
"Special order for Athenox Emiya and Connor Kaminski from Mrs. Lanslac." A waiter approaches our table and takes two whole pizzas off of his tray and then places them in front of us.
"Enjoy!" He walks off. My mind goes blank as the invasive aroma of the fresh pizza lunges full force into my nostrils.
"Yeah, Mrs. has some pretty powerful authority in this school in order to get a reward this good made on demand."
"I agree. This is not a reward that you pass up, no matter what the mission is. I was skeptical that anyone in Avalon City would have these quality of ingredients. Let alone that they would use them in such a manner."
My mind struggles to form a real sentence as I examine the beautiful arrangement of ingredients on the table before us. A pizza crafted entirely of Rank A ingredients. Everything from the dough, the cheese, the sauce, and the toppings which in my case are pineapples and ham. The quality on crafted items of food is determined by the quality or power of the corrupted spirit or the locations density of magic power in the case of plants and vegetation. This scale only applies to items from outside the territory walls as anything made by hand or processed through enhancement inside the walls is bland and lacks substance. Many companies try to sell heavily enhanced foods as supplements to the high quality stuff you can only get by hunting it down in the corrupted zone, but they lack the same level of substance and do a minimal job of helping you regenerate your mana. To put it in a clearer perspective, on the commonly used Rank EX through E scale, most widely available processed food and items are barely registered as Rank E, while for a steep premium, a private hunter or company will only find it to be worth the risk of gathering Rank B items for sale. So with this being the second best quality of item in existence and only first to the rarest Rank EX. That being said, this delicious pizza alone could restore the mana pool of an average mage who has about a third to a half of my own, in about 8 hours.
"Hey, are you going to eat it or just stare at it all night?" Connor shakes me back into reality.
"Yeah, I was just admiring it."
"Be honest with me, Athenox, Rank EX detection, who seems to have a certain affinity and experience for gathered and crafted items from the corrupted zone and who was an Undercity war prince who confiscated such contraband from opposing Undercity factions. You were scanning the magic quality and structure of it weren't you?"
If he knows that much then I just hope he doesn't know about THAT particular operation.
"I guess that you caught me Connor. I haven't ever actively tried it on made food, but I have tried it on ingredients."
I grab a slice of my pizza and start eating. The flavor of the pizza is better than I remember it to be from the last time I had it a few years back.
"I honestly do not know if I would define what you got from inside Mr.'s reality marble as "ingredients" or not. However, your set of abilities seems to have once again proved to be better than the challenge set in front of you. I know that now may not be the time to get all sentimental and emotional but I have a lot of confidence in the freshman class this year. The members of your class seem to have a lot more potential than we did when we joined this team. I wouldn't want to sound too sure but I think that if the Team does win The Grail War this year, it will be because of the hard work that you guys have and are going to continue to put in."
As I down my second piece, I can't help but appreciate the level of sentiment in his voice. Even though we are just a month away from the end of the first semester and winter break, he thinks so highly of us. It feels like he just meant us not that long ago and you could already tell that he wouldn't hesitate to help us out in any way that he could. I am probably not someone who should be making these observations but if I had to say, then I would say that he is most likely a good person in every sense of the word. It is an outlandish claim to ever make about anyone but it just seems to match Connor. I can always sense the aura that comes from his mana, and it bears none of the negative emotions that you would expect a person to have in combat. He isn't driven by anger, hate, or sorrow like a great deal of other mages that I have seen.
"What is that?" Connor stands up from the table as a loud crashing roar emits from outside.
Immediately, Connor and I rush outside to the courtyard of the Rider dormitory. The roar is coming from on top of the school. The sky turns into a pitch black nightmare. Through the darkness, flames can be seen erupting from the Caster dormitory with more flames emerging from behind the school building. A large corrupted spirit flies into view as it circles and swipes away at the building.
"How did a corrupted spirit get this far into Avalon City? Wouldn't the magic defense systems prevent them entirely?"
The spirit's shape is long with wings, legs, and a tail. Its specific details are hard to depict because its body is shrouded in thick smoke-like darkness. The magic aura is emitting is massive and imposing. It must have more mana than a company of fifty mages. There are only a few mages that I know that even come close to that amount of power.
"That means that something must have happened to the school's magic core. And if that is the case then…" He gets cut off by the sounds of shouting and loud explosions.
"A Gungnir blast? We need to hurry. If we don't do something fast then everyone here is going to become infected and inevitably succumb to the corruption. From those noises I can already tell that those with lesser resistance and willpower are falling faster and faster and it is only a matter of time before most of the students and faculty become corrupted." A blast from inside the school opens up a hole on the outermost wall of the school building.
"I will go to the top of the school and see if I can hold off that dragon, at least until the school is back to normal and the defense systems come back online or Mrs. and the rest of the team get back from the field trip. Athenox, do you think that you can get down to the school's magic core on the fourth sublevel and see what is wrong with it?" He seems to have been able to figure out the type of spirit beast just by looking at it like he has past experience with dragons or something.
"Yes I will."
"Okay, you are going to need to deploy your mystic code. The students aren't in their right mind to hold back. You are going to need to try and evade and run by as many students as you can to conserve your mana. If one of them gives you too much trouble then you should quickly incapacitate them, and only incapacitate them. This shouldn't be too difficult for you because of your gloves and your counter magic. Keep in mind that they aren't fully corrupted and transformed into a wraith spirit, and they are still in a state where they can be saved. Once you figure out what's wrong with the magic core, then you should report back to me so that you can assist me in trying to take down this dragon and that will be when you will need all of your mana." Connor instructs me.
I didn't expect him to be so prepared against a corrupted spirit attack. He is reacting to all of the known variables of the attack and using everything that he currently has at his disposal. It never crossed my mind that an attack would have even been possible in the middle of Avalon City. As a neutral territory and city for all of the factions, they have possibly the strongest mana powered repulsion systems in existence. I wonder if Connor or Mrs. might have had any kind of suspicion that this attack might occur.
"Got it."
"Oh and one last thing I should mention before you go. The power in the elevators have most likely shut down, so you will need to use the staircase spiraling along the outer wall of the school."
"I understand." I run through the newly made entrance into the building so I can get to the staircase.
*Athenox is running down the stairs to get to the magic core. Currently on Sublevel 1 which is where the student's organizations buildings are. Scene 3.*
The design of the school building is grand, massive, and practical. The large ramp like staircases that run in a spiral pattern along the perimeter of the school however are not practical and were probably nothing more than an afterthought from an older design of the school. Considering going up or down each floor is like running around the school one time and running downwards is even worse since you have to pace yourself or you will trip and fall miserably down the stairs. Connor said that I should conserve my mana but I can't do that. I have to keep a steady burn for an enhancement spell on my lungs so that I don't run out of breath and I have to keep another one active on my legs so that I don't tire out from running. On top of that, I have to empower my gloves anytime a student under the effects of the corruption decides to place themselves in front of me or launch an attack at me. I nearly miss a Lancer mage's strike by sliding under it, and immediately pull the spear forward, which sends his head into my fists. I do this without slowing down so the force of my punch isn't minimized. I have to keep moving. Detection on the move like this isn't desirable because you have limited time to assess something front of you. You would think that the constant turning motion to the right would be a little dizzying at this speed, but at any one point of the stairs it is a gradual enough turn that you won't find yourself grazing against the outer wall of windows. Up ahead in the path just by the entrance into the first sublevel, is a barricade of sword wielding Saber mages, with a rear line of Archer mages behind them. I would count around twenty of them in total. The wall is the entire width of the stairs, so there isn't going to be any real way of sidestepping them like Connor would want me to. I will have to clear a path through them. Even if I were to jump over the wall, then I would have to deal with full on barrage from the Archers. I slide to a stop just about 15 meters in front of the barricade. I will have to find the weak point in the wall to break through. The Archers all seem to be about the same in terms of power and phantasm weapon. The Sabers seem to be less organized. Their phantasm weapons are all skewed from one another in terms of uniqueness and quality. About three of them are using generic Excalibur variant swords at relatively low ranks. Four more are using blades that look incredibly similar to Connor's blade, Balmung at much higher ranks of power. The last three appear to be curved blades similar to Alex's phantasm in sword form with a power level somewhere between the other two styles of phantasm weapons. They are oriented in a pretty even distribution of power. The only thing that concerns me about this is that an organized formation like this would be nearly impossible for a group of students undergoing the effects of corruption to perform. The archers from the rear line notice me and start to open fire. This lessens the amount of time I have to make a decision. I keep evaluating the swordsmen as I pull out Caliburn and dispatch the arrows. Not to mention that the noise coming from their fire is drawing more students from behind me. The pattern has to mean something. The obvious weak points would be where the Sabers are using Excalibur. The Balmung users are on the center and the outer edge eliminate three points in the barricade and that leaves two massive gaps of weaker Sabers to punch through. A zone to the left or a zone to the right. It won't make much difference if this was coincidental and I will have wasted the time and effort in thinking about it. However, if this was a planned obstacle then honestly I will have still wasted my time because there would be no point in setting up a trap like this for someone to just bypass it so easily. Then that means that it doesn't really matter which gap I break through on. I rush in towards the left side and the Sabers start to swing as I get in close. At this moment it is probably beneficial to recall upon my counter magic training. It is more than just emitting mana though my gloves and minimizing the effect of an opponent's spell. It is in fact a method of operation and attack strategy that goes against the procedures of traditional magecraft. For example, the well trained Saber mage using Excalibur in front of me is slamming his sword down in a predictable two handed stance. The force of the strike would be damaging without question but it isn't foolproof because of the interval of time required to recover and launch a follow up attack. In that time, I can grab the blade with my right hand and send my left hand fist first into one of his wrists and temporarily shutting down the mana flow to his hands. I catch another sword on my forearm. The stance is the same as the first which is his fatal flaw. The stance requires you take advantage of your bodies full force to try and overpower in these shoving contests. As a result the shifting of my right arm as I propel my fist into his chest and knock him off of balance which causes him to rush forward into the punch before it even connects, which puts him on the floor. I preemptively evade and then dispatch the wielder of that curved blade before I fall prey to the weapon's speed. The line of Archers have stopped firing while I am this close to them, but I am unsure if they will resume to fire upon me once I am at decent range again. I will have to go through the lengthy process of taking them down one by one but I really don't have that kind of time.
"I would get down if I were you." A voice says from the shadows up ahead of the barricade.
I dive down as beams of light shoot the entire line of students down.
"Well Athenox, I would say that you owe me one but I do not think that was necessary since I was going to do that anyway."
As I get up I see the owner of that voice, Justin von Einzbern. He seems to be unaffected by the corruption, but then again if you knew him then you would know that there isn't much of a soul there to corrupt.
"Were you the one who set up this barricade?"
"Oh come on, Athenox. You should know me better than that. It wouldn't be any fun if they were all just standing in a line." Justin replies back.
"It is a little suspicious considering you don't seem to be affected by the corruption that started infecting students when a corrupted spirit showed up and when something probably happened to the schools magic core."
"Well you don't seem to be infected either." Justin says.
"I noticed that but I just figured that it was only a matter of time." I say back to him.
"So you would have spent your last sane moments trying to save this school?" He asks me.
"If it came down to it then I guess that is about right. Wait… aren't you on the Elite Defense Forces? Wouldn't that make it your job to try and save the school? I mean after all "Defense" is in the title."
"Yeah sure I thought about it, but the rest of my team isn't in a position to know that I am not infected and it is not like I can tell them right now anyway. Besides, I would miss the perfect opportunity to prove my strength by besting all of these low life mongrels who call themselves mages. Plus, I know that you are on your way to take care of whatever the problem is. Why drop two bombs on the same house." His choice of metaphor and sinister tone sends a chill down my spine.
"Before you go, I just want to propose one hypothesis as to why you and I aren't infected from this corruption."
"Yeah and that might be?" He approaches me and looks me dead in the eye before he starts to speak.
"What if the reason that you and I aren't infected by the corruption is because of the fact that you can't corrupt that which has already been corrupted?" He lets out a maniacal laugh.
I ignore his statement and keep on running. It sickens me to even remember my past and then consider that a possibility. As I keep running I hear the sound of Justin's phantasm weapon before it fades amongst the sounds of other explosions happening all over the school. I wasted too much time because of that barricade. I am just going to have to try and push through without hesitation if anymore show up. I imagine Connor is exhausting himself by keeping that dragon from destroying the school. It is already going to take time to get to the fourth subfloor where the magic core is. I keep on running without slowing down.
*Connor is on the roof of the school building, and he is squaring off against the massive corrupted spirit dragon. Scene 4.*
"The age of man is plague on this land that I shall seek to eradicate." The massive dragon bellows from overhead. The dragon continues. It dives down straight for Connor.
"Certainly you wouldn't wish to betray your own kind." Connor rolls out of the way and deflects the talons of the dragon with his sword.
"My own kind? Last time I checked, I was not a scaled monstrosity hell bent on the destruction of the human species." Connor replies.
The dragon is quick to circle back around and spew out a vile black shadowy flame.
"You think that I do not know what you are. The hero who gave up a human mortal life to bath in the blood of the dragons." The dragons roar seems to decipher itself into spoken language in Connor's ear, almost like a whisper. Connor takes the sweeping flame head on and covers his face with his arms as searing fire washes over him.
"Oh please! Those dreams are meaningless nonsense from my weapon when it wants to tell me how to use it. There isn't any historical evidence to prove that any of it actually happened."
He attempts to make a jumping strike at the dragon, but the dragon swipes a talon at his chest, but Connor catches it with one arm and empowers his sword, which propels his blade straight across the dragon's chest. However, the sword is unable to pierce the thick shadow that encases his body like armor. The glowing aura of the blade seems to be reduced to the mere glint of the steel.
"I pity you because every day you wake up and know exactly how you are going to die, and yet there will be nothing that you can do to stop it." The dragon says as he sinks his talons into Connor's abdomen and slams him into the ground. After prying through the mystic code armor, blood starts to spray out from the wounds. The dragon then hovers Connor a meter or two above the ground and starts to fan its wings, which brings a massive wind gust down on Connor and the roof of the building. The wind gusts sends Connor flying back into the ground as the sharp talons tear their way out of his middle section.
*Athenox is stopped by another barrier on the third sublevel. Scene 5.*
This barrier is probably far worse than the other one. It simply consists of fifteen Caster mages with an unknown array of abilities and a lot of power. The phantasm weapons that they carry are a wide array of items from which magic could be casted from like a conduit. If I had a blade that I could use to siphon their energy and project it back at them like a blast then I wouldn't have to waste my own mana supply. Mrs.'s weapon, Arondight has that ability but I can barely manage to summon it as is, let alone with enough structural integrity to activate one of its abilities or use a fully empowered strike. It would probably just explode or shatter in my hands.
"Caliburn, Dark Sword of Determination!"
I call out the full name of the weapon so as to summon the blade with the highest quality that I can achieve. I am taking a risk here because of the fact that the casters will start opening fire at 15 meters, but I need to be at least 10 meters away for Caliburn's strike to hit them. I try my best to maneuver my way through the full barrage of elemental projectiles. Fire, light, shadow, earth, water, air, and nature are all fired in force. I do my best to deflect as much of the deadly torrent as I can but am still shredded as I try to rush forward to lessen the distance between us and empower Caliburn. My mystic code armor seems to be taking most of the burns and cuts as I raise my sword and send a blast wave of dark energy crashing into the wall of casters. As I run past the entrance to the third sublevel, I am crippled by the sudden sensation of sharp burning in my legs, and then I drop to my knees as I desperately attempt to gasp for air. I haven't been careful enough and have exhausted my body and the enhancements that I have put on it. I am lucky that this didn't happen earlier when I was trying to get past those barricades. Even though I am unable to move my legs through the exertion, I don't have time to waste. My best option is to dismiss Caliburn and my Mystic code in order to maintain enough mana to keep my legs and lungs from giving out entirely. This is a reckless move because I will be defenseless if there is another barricade of corrupted students up ahead. This really isn't even an option compared to watching the whole school get destroyed along with all of the students inside. I deactivate them and keep running.
*Athenox reaches the School's magic core. Scene 6.*
I reach the room with where the magic core is. The room is shaped like a large seven sided figure with seven pillars forming a similar pattern around the room. The walls seem to be dark and the air seems to be damp from the underground pressure.
"Drop dead, you corrupted whelp."
One of three figures voice's echoes across as an arc of lightning zaps across the room forcing me to take cover behind the nearest pillar.
"I'm not corrupted." I shout back to try and correct him.
"Oh, so now you are a coward and a liar. I would expect nothing less from a lowly corrupted spirit taking refuge in a human vessel. Why don't you come out and fight me?"
I couldn't even if I wanted to. I don't have the mana left to face him after running down here and with the situation as it is, I would easily get tossed around.
"You can hide from me but luckily for me I am not alone." The voice says as another figure comes out from the shadows of the room and lunges straight for me from my position behind the pillar. I do my best to evade it but a dagger pierces through my arm. Even as my vision blurs from pain, I can identify the figure.
"Macy, why?"
I look in her eyes and notice the traces of yellow in them. They are corrupted. She appears to be in more advanced stage then all of the other students that I have seen so far. They are not acting quite it. Usually for most, your speech and actions start to become more sporadic and unpredictable. They are communicating and coordinating like normal people. This must be the corruption in full force. Maybe that is why the First Mage War was so difficult to fight in. Because it became nearly impossible to tell who was or wasn't infected and panic and fear would cause people to make false accusations. Macy continues her lunge and I am dragged off of my feet. The dagger went right through me and my arm got caught on the chain. She dashes around the cavern before diving straight into the center of the room. As my arm starts to go numb, I try to force my hand shut around the chain and pull back. As she is thrown behind me, we are sent to a violent stop which causes the chain to grind and tear more of my arms flesh even scraping along the bone. A wave of pain strains my nerves. A large section of the chain is coated in my blood. From behind me, the first shadowy figure slams down with his hammer. It is Zachery Blackmore, a Berserker mage from our second group.
"All-Crushing Hammer of Thunder!"
I slide out of the way and the hammer strikes down on the chain wrapped around my arm coming from Macy's dagger. The chain snaps, but a surge of electricity flies down the chain and singes my nerves. The chain is nearly welded around my arm. My body goes numb. I am paralyzed but this time it feels worse. My body aches without even being able to move and shake off the pain. I lie there on the ground and try to move any part of my body, but the amount of effort makes my stomach churn.
"You won't evade my attack again." Zach says as he readies his hammer for another swing.
The light in the room starts to fade out and spin as I start to lose consciousness. At least I won't be able to see myself die, because his swing will most likely shatter me on contact.
"Athenox! Athenox! Can you hear me?" A voice echoes across my head. I try to open my eyes
"Who is this? And also, what is this?"
"This is Aubrey. I am with the rest of the Team and we are on board the ship back from the field trip. I am using the ships magic core to send a telepathic signal to you."
"Telepathy? I don't understand. How is that possible? I thought I was dead."
"No, you seemed to have just fallen unconscious."
"Really? I was under attack by a group of infected students and I thought for sure that the last hit I saw would have killed me."
"Wake up and see for yourself." Aubrey tells me as I open my eyes.
Clara Kaminski is standing in front of me. The three shadowy figures, who were Macy, Adam, and Zach are know all lying unconscious on the floor. She is standing there in her black trench coat with her hands still held in fists. Clara then turns to look at me as she reaches out her hand to help me up.
"How did you get down here if the ship just got here?" I use her hand to pull myself up.
"I jumped from the back of the ship down one of the elevator shafts. More importantly, your arm. Does it hurt?"
Is she actually serious? There is no way that anyone would be able to survive that fall, enhancements or not. Only someone who is a master of enhancement magecraft would even attempt it. I bet if I were to look at the elevator, I would see a relatively large impact crater.
"Thank you, Clara. I am fine for the most part but wait. If you and the rest of the team are here and have seen what is going on, then shouldn't you be on the roof helping Connor?" She lowers her head.
"I know my brother and he can take care of himself right now. Besides, the rest of the team is up in the ship giving him air support." Clara says with the most optimism that she can muster. She knows that even as strong as Connor is… he is still in danger.
"Don't we still need to figure out what is going on with the school's magic core?"
"Yes we do. It is on the other side of the room opposite the entrance."
We approach the core. It looks like a shining object encased in metal machinery and covered by a glass case. A digital screen is on a stand set in front of it. I would guess that it is some kind of control panel for the core. Clara seems to have a better handle on the situation than I do because before I realized it, she is already has her hands on and is operating the control panel to figure out what is wrong with the core. Now that I think about it. Connor's original plan was a little flawed. I mean I have never been down here before, nor have I ever seen or operated the magic core of anything. So what was I really going to do to see what was wrong with it? My usual method of hitting it with a sword until it cooperates probably wouldn't apply very well here.
"What is the status of the core?" Aubrey asks via telepathy.
"So far, nothing major. It just seems like someone tried to tamper with it. Or operated a reboot sequence." Clara replies to Aubrey.
"Can you trace the pattern of the magic that tried to access it?"
"It is a lot of concealed paths and reroutes. You almost wouldn't be able to tell who tampered with it or if they even tampered with it in the first place. It will take a more thorough analysis than this to figure that out. However, there is no possible way that someone could do this by remote access."
"So do you think it was one of the three corrupted students down there?"
"It would have to be, given the information that we currently have. The least we can do now is turn the power back on in the school." She continues to press a sequence of buttons until the rest of the lights in the school come back on.
"Now that the magic core is recovered, the defense systems should start to purge the corruption from the students." Clara says.
"We still have to deal with the corrupted dragon spirit on the roof." Aubrey explains.
"How is Connor holding up out there?"
"We are keeping sustained fire on the dragon to try and distract it and give Connor moments to recover. The dragon doesn't seem to be very… oh no!" Her message cuts out.
"If the dragon downed the ship, then the sudden drop in power would sever the current telepathic connection and minimize the range." Clara says. The rest of the team is still on board. They could end up sustaining serious injury, or even worse…
"Then we need to go help them." I manage to form the words as the anxiety make me choke.
"We will just need to get to the elevators and…"
Her sentence is cut off by the sound of my lower body going numb and me falling to the floor.
"Athenox!" Clara runs over to make sure I am okay.
"I had been overusing leg enhancements to get down her when the power was off, but I didn't think that it was severe enough to cause this. Just go on without me. You need to make sure that Connor and the others are okay." Clara starts to turn and walk away before she stops, picks me up, and throws me over her shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"As much as I would like to say that I would even know how to take down that dragon or even could defeat it, I can't. And besides that, someone has is going to have to help Mrs. to rescue any injured on board. Connor told me about your fight against the other corrupted spirit. He said that you were able to pinpoint its weakness. You are going to need to do that again." The critical difference between that fight and this one is that I even stood a chance of landing enough hits to find that weakness and I only really noticed it by circumstance.
"If you really believe in me that much, then let's go." She runs out of the room towards the elevator.
*Clara and Athenox reach the roof from the special access staircase in the flight deck. Scene 7.*
"Alright, Connor is just up ahead. I am going to go help Mrs. and the rest of the students at the wreckage." She sets me on my feet.
In the time that it took to get up here, I was able to regain control of my legs. A loud roar emits from the dragon that vibrates the air. Clara turns and runs towards the edge of the roof and jumps off. I start off in Connor's direction. He is currently hunched over and leaning on his sword like he is using it to hold himself up.
I am trying to get to him and close the distance.
15 meters. He looks back at me as he starts to try to stand himself back up to face the dragon.
10 meters. The dragon starts to charge in for Connor. Connor attempts to raise his sword to deflect it. Even with the speed and angle that the dragon is flying towards him, it shouldn't be that difficult to block.
I am 6 meters away and Connor lowers his sword and turns to me. What is he doing? He needs to deflect the dragon, or at least get out of its way. The dragon isn't deterred by this movement and almost accelerates towards him. Connor's face and his figure look defeated, which is very unusual for his character. He has always been so tough and determined. The tired look in his eyes. What would make him give up all of a sudden? After he fought this hard just to protect the school from being destroyed, it doesn't make sense.
As I close in at 3 meters, the unthinkable happens. The dragon lunges its claws into the small of Connor's back. The force of the strike is enough to send fragments of his armor flying and the wound gushes out in a violent spray. Like a marbled statue that has been chipped away at until it reaches the point when it finally shatters. The fragmented scales coming off of his armor reinforce this image. I rush over to Connor as he crumples to the ground.
"Connor! Please be okay! Connor! Just hang on and I will get you out of here! We shouldn't have made you wear yourself out like that. Come on!" He opens his eyes after the impact and looks at me.
"It was only a matter of time, so there isn't any need for you to blame yourself or anyone else." He raises his arm up that is currently holding his sword.
"Athenox, please. Take my blade and protect the school. Protect your teammates and protect your friends." He says as the blood stains his pale face.
"Connor, we need to go. I can't just sit here and watch you die."
"There wasn't really anything that could have been done about it. It was… fate." He says as his voice trails off."
"No. No. No. This isn't right! You didn't deserve this at all!" My mind is overwhelmed by shock as my voice raises to a scream.
He can't be dead. Not him. He was probably the nicest and most straightforward of all of the senior members on the team. He only knew how to fight hard and honest but know he lies there in front of me dead because everyone took advantage of that. We didn't think much of it when he offered to keep pushing himself to fight for everyone's safety. If we could have been faster then maybe just maybe we could have saved him from the dragon spirit that still flies above. The anger and guilt turn knots in my stomach and begin to boil my blood. The dragon begins to make a nose dive towards me. I grab Connor's sword in my left hand and leap back before the dragon lands full force on Connor causing more blood to gush out from his dead body. My magic circuits start to glow a vicious red tint as my vision is blurring from my own rage. My ears ring and it becomes nearly impossible to focus on anything else but one thing. Killing the dragon spirit in front of me. The rage is nearly enough to make me blackout, but I don't want to be unconscious for this part. Not like last time when I was fighting Jason Ainsworth. I want to be able to remember the outcome of this fight no matter what. I want revenge. I rush full force to the dragon and start to swing the steel in my hand. Not even stopping when the dragon deflects my strikes. In my angered haste, I didn't notice Mrs. and the other able bodied team mate come up through the roof access entrance.
"Athenox, what…" Upon seeing events that unfolded, Clara drops to her knees. The shock from her grief paralyses her.
"Athenox seems to have been overloaded and is fighting that dragon blind. Eric, Corey, Aubrey, Katlyn, and Luke. Back him up now!"
The five students seem to dash in behind me. Luke and Eric seem to flank the dragon from both of its sides. Aubrey and Eden set up behind them. My legs slip as I evade the jaws of the dragon. Eric dashes to grab me and get out of the way. As soon as he lands I stand back up again and rush forward into the fight. Trying my hardest to cleave through the dragons scales and destroy its existence. The monster knocks me to the side and lets out its breath of shadow and flame that darkens and burns the area. Luke runs in front of me to try and deflect it, but it seems to knock him back and drain all of the light from his sword and shield. Had it not been for Aubrey's and Katlyn's magic defensive spells, then we would have been scorched by the flame from the breath. I manage to stand back up, but Luke has a harder time and can barely move. The force of the flame seems to have crippled his magic. I acted recklessly and got another one of my friends hurt.
"Ah!"
I shout out my rage at the dragon and he makes another advance towards me. I use my anger like a sharpening stone to refine the focus of my blades. A direct approach is out of the question and I wouldn't want another one of my friends to get hurt while saving me. I flood the mana from my blades and start trying to maneuver around the creature to strike the dragon from various angles to find some kind of a weak point. The dragon keeps its attention on me and keeps repositioning itself to block me. I need it to be worried blocking about someone else, otherwise this is going to be impossible to do. I jump around and make the dragon face the school, where Eric and Luke are in front of it and catch the claws from its legs as he tries to slam them down. I am slowly pushed back as I look back at Eric.
"What does he want?" Luke asks Eric.
"If he is overloaded, then he is reacting off of the last sane command or thought he had as if it were instinct, or at least that is what Mrs. has told us." Eric says as he rushes forward towards were I am and changes positions with me.
"So he wants to kill that dragon in whatever way possible, because it killed Connor. If I had to see it, then I don't think that I would be much more operable than Clara, let alone Athenox. However, Athenox's overloading is unlike a typical berserker enhancement in that it seems to make him much more focused and capable. Focused to a point that lets him see past the shock and grief stricken rage to the enemy that is held accountable for the incident that caused his grief. More of a "If you can't get happy, then get even kind of policy"." Eric exclaims as he tries to force the dragon back and land hits on it.
As one of the dragon's claws press against Eric's phantasm weapon they hardly have an easy time holding on to the giant sword, but that was before he empowered it.
"Caladbolg, Rainbow Sword!" As Eric shouts out, the sword in his hands starts to spin and grind against the claw like a drill.
Luke does his best to keep against the other claw and the two hold back the dragon. The dragon roars like it is actually being hurt by Caladbolg. I am not sure how long Eric will be able to keep the empowerment up so I need to move as fast as I can. I try to stab and slice through the shadow covered scales but cannot because they are too thick. The former brilliant light of Balmung seems to have been reduced. Just like when Luke tried to deflect it with its weapons. Whatever this corrupted aura is, it certainly seemed to eat through their light mana. It seems that the dark energy that flows into Caliburn is unaffected. So it seems as if the dark aura is serving as a barrier that destroys light. I just need to… My thought is cut off by the dragon flipping over and then slamming me of the section of the roof where Aubrey is. I pick myself up. Eric is knocked back and looks like he is drained of his mana from empowering for so long against something that was draining his light. Luke was knocked back shortly after.
"Are you okay?" She says to me.
I am of course fine, but wait a minute. If I want to destroy that barrier then I need to find some way to remove it or break it. It is unfazed by light energy. So I have to wonder how effective dark energy would be. I point my sword at the dragon and then look at Aubrey.
"My attacks don't seem to be doing much damage to it. It probably has to be because of those shadowy scales on it." I nod my head yes and keep pointing my sword at it anyway.
"Wouldn't that just be a waste of mana?" She asks me. I nod my head no.
"Hey Katlyn…!" I interrupt her shout across the roof.
"You don't want Katlyn to attack?"
I nod my head no and show her the now dulled Balmung versus the unaffected Caliburn.
"Okay I think I get what you are saying. Since it eats through any holy magic used on it, then you think that if we hit it with dark magic that it will overpower the barrier."
I nod my head yes and jump back in front of the dragon as Aubrey starts to fire a full barrage at the dragon. While the dragon turns away, I try to cut away at the dragon's barrier by using Caliburn only. I look up at Katlyn and nod towards Luke and Eric. She rushes over and starts to try and heal the injuries that they have sustained. After concentrating on one spot, I manage to break through the barrier and start to reach the scales. At this rate, we will be fighting the dragon for weeks. I jump back to gain enough distance to perform a fully empowered strike. I can't really gauge how much mana I have left very well but I hope I have enough. Once the dragon turns to start to focus on Aubrey when her barrage starts to do more damage than me. I raise up my sword and prepare to slam it down on the dragon.
"Caliburn Strike!" I scream as I force the beam of dark energy down onto the dragon.
Its shadowy layer expands before shattering completely. My body starts to feel weak but I charge in once again and open up a flurry of strikes chained together between a series of evasions and blocks. In the midst of blocking I turn around and see Luke and Eric still on the ground. I can tell that they are okay but they will not be able to help me end this fight. So I nod to Katlyn, but she doesn't interpret what that means I want her to do. I then look at Aubrey and nod in Katlyn's direction.
"He wants you to start attacking. Now that the barrier is down, the dragon can be destroyed with light magic." Aubrey says to Katlyn as the three of us keep up a sustained burst attack on the dragon.
They don't seem to be tiring out at all. Then again, they are Senior Caster mages so it must not take much effort for them to perform a simple mana blast projection spell, even if it is on repeat command for an upwards of five minutes. I on the other hand feel my body wanting to start to give out. My right arm is starting to go numb from overuse of mana, which eliminates the possibility that I will be able to fully empower another strike with Caliburn. The dragon seems to be crippled by the damage it is taking from both sides. If I can launch one more really devastating attack on him, then he will be finished. I remember Connor using Balmung fully empowered before, in fact I am pretty sure he used it to knock me out when we were training for Blademaster and it was a massive amount of damage that functions similar to a fully empowered strike from an experienced Excalibur user. He would have killed me ten times over had it not been for the magic field. I take the blade in my left hand and start to chant.
"O great sword of the felling sky demons , Let thee be filled" My shout fills the blade with my mana and the initial orange glow turns darker until it reaches the dark purple color that coats anything that I dump my mana into. I slash upward into the dragon creating arc that carve straight through the dragon spirit. He reaches his limit and shatters into spirit essence and other spirit items. Without a doubt I drained myself, which results in me blacking out and falling to the floor.
*All of Connor's closest family and friends have gathered in the Auditorium of the school for a special funeral assembly. Mrs. Lanslac is giving a speech on the stage. Scene 8.*
"We are gathered here today for an unfortunate event. Yesterday after school, we came under attack by a corrupted spirit and the masses of you don't remember this because you yourselves fell to the corruption. However, it was through the valiant efforts of two students that the school managed to stay intact long enough for the elite combat team to get back from their field trip and provide reinforcements."
Oh please. I wasn't any help in this. The whole plan was Connor's idea and if it wasn't for Clara then I would have failed and been killed by corrupted students. Zachary specifically.
"One Mr. Connor Kaminski and Mr. Athenox Emiya. They both bravely fought for the well being of their peers. We would like to honor them and commemorate Connor for his courageous sacrifice. Giving one's life to help defeat a corrupted spirit isn't a common occurrence in this day and age but that should not lessen its value at all. In fact, we should appreciate this time of rare occurrences for a time with more frequent tragedies is an undesirable outcome that no one would want to hope for. His noble sacrifice saved many, not just in the school but in the city itself." She looks at Clara who is sitting in the front row with her parents.
"And even though it doesn't take away the pain, grief, and sorrow that you feel right now, It shall be said that he will go down as one of Avalon Academy's great heroes and as one of my most respected team members." Mrs. proclaims.
The tears haven't stopped rolling down Clara's face since yesterday and her parents can barely seem to hold it together themselves.
"Through the permission of the Kaminski family, we will now proceed with fulfilling Connor's final wish. Connor had always insisted that he was going to retire from becoming an active combat mage after graduating in his senior year at Avalon Academy."
Seriously? My heart starts to ache. He was just over half a year away from graduating and I couldn't carry myself to the roof any faster to back him up? I couldn't have fixed the school's magic core and saved him. He was almost out of combat forever and I ruined it for him.
"With that known, he had wished to pass on his phantasm weapon core onto another individual who he believed had surprised him and even surpassed his initial expectations from the first time he saw him fight. Someone who he told everyone that they were well deserving and capable of."
He even planned to nobly pass his weapon onto someone on the team? The wrought iron knot in my stomach makes me feel sick with guilt.
"Clara if you could please come up to the stage so that you may properly hand off the weapon to the new recipient." Clara pulls out the sword from under her seat. The slight purple staining is still visible from when I empowered it last night and killed the dragon with. She walks up onto the stage and holds the sword out across her arms.
"Can the new recipient, Athenox Emiya come up on stage?"
I was already feeling bad but now it is much worse. The guilt in my stomach is intensified and the stream of tears starts to flow down my face as I walk up on stage. Because of my nerves, I am very nearly at the point of throwing up from the anxiety.
"Athenox. Please kneel before the temporarily appointed ambassador of the Kaminski family, Clara Kaminski."
I kneel in front of her and she drops the sword into my hands. My pain is beyond containment as I cry out.
"Why me, Clara? Why? Why do I deserve this blade? What did I do to earn it? It isn't like this blade is going to bring him back or anything. Will it?"
In my outburst of despair. Clara does her best to keep it together, especially in front of auditorium full of people.
"Honestly Athenox, I don't know. I know that he didn't intend to give it to you from his coffin but he saw something in you from the moment that we started to examine you for your entry into the team. He was the one who could always keep the seniors unified and on track no matter which one of us disagreed and he did so then also. He was the one who wanted to help Mrs. the most with her research on your rare affinity. He saw so much potential in you but I don't see it. You haven't done anything really successful outside of onetime flukes since before you got your new affinity. If you are an irregular, then I hope that doesn't mean because you are weaker than everyone else. I would like it if you could prove me wrong."
If I wasn't already thinking the same things, then maybe her truthful words might have hurt me more.
"Athenox Emiya, you may now return to your seat."
I pick myself off the floor and walk back to my seat. The sword is still gripped in between my arms.
"At your discretion, you may come up and see the diseased one last time before the Kaminski leaves for their family's funeral procession. Other than that, you are dismissed." Mrs. Lanslac says to the auditorium full of students. I start to get up and walk out of my row of seats but am cut off by the senior members of the team. They slow down to look at me.
"Come on guys! It is time to go to the real funeral, not just the one for public appearance. Besides, after that we can honor his memory by partying. Which is what he would have wanted us to do."
Clara, Aubrey, Katlyn, Corey, and Eric glare at me as they walk by. Their judging looks cut away any form of self-pity I may have built up over the course of time since Connor's death. With that gone another successive burst of saddened guilt eats away at my heart. I try to hold myself together for the rest of the day until I make it home to my dorm room. The emotional weight drops me onto my bed and knocks me unconscious.
*Athenox is having another dream that as usual starts within the same desert that all of his dreams seem to start in. Scene 9.*
I am alone in this desert, as I have been many times before. In a dream that almost seems like a reality. The black night's sky setting the ominous tone for the imagery that is about to occur. Images that don't make sense to me. Images of events that are unfamiliar with only fragments of understanding to go off of.
"Killing at the cost of a life. How does it feel to know that your reckless behavior can only lead you down the path of your own anguish and suffering?" A voice questions and asks about the actions and reasoning of my existence as many voices seem to have done many times before since I started going to school at Avalon Academy.
"I couldn't have made it in time. Connor was already beaten by time I got onto the roof. I saw it in his eyes."
"And maybe in your own twisted reasoning, you could actually believe that lie that others keep telling you. That you were truly helpless to save one of your so few friends. That you were so totally naive to put the pieces together, but I think that you saw ahead and realized the perfect opportunity to selfishly endanger everyone that you cared about for the sake of creating a false image from deep down inside of you. One that would destroy you if everyone really knew. One that you can't even begin to entrust to anybody." The voice continues on.
As the voice continues, two bodies appear amidst the desert sands. The corpses are of the dragon spirit and of Connor Kaminski.
"To show them your hidden reality behind that fake illusionary version of yourself that you use to control the people and maintain their false notions about you, to show them that would be to show them the true unchained monster and murderer that you embody."
"No, that isn't true. I swear." I retort back to the voice.
"Come on now. Look around you."
The scene once again shifts as it had before. Giving way to a bloody scene of an alleyway flooded with corpses that are all too shredded and dismembered to be identified. I freeze and my hands go numb, as I release my grip the metallic clang of a sword as it hits the concrete ground.
"I find your frozen face of agony and shock to be quite amusing as they hide your true emotions, don't they? You think I don't know what you are, Gatekeeper?" As he says those words I sink into the pool of blood as it overflows from the alleyway. I black out, but only temporarily. As when I regain my vision, I am back in that castle that I had been in before, when I was dreaming of using Luke's sword. I am on the floor and I can barely manage to move my body as I try to turn my head and look up. When I finally manage to accomplish the feat, I see before me a courageous knight in full plate armor who is going toe to toe with that shadowy figured dragon. The same one that killed Connor. The same one that I killed in my anger. The knight glimpses at me before turning their attention back to the dragon. Even though the aura of light that the knight is giving off is surely no match for the brooding darkness that pours forth from the dragon, the knight continues to fight anyway. The remaining light from the knight is still brilliant in face of the dragon. It almost makes the knight shine infinitely brighter by comparison.
"Gawain!" A female voice commands from the knight. The knight in question is a female? If I can recall, her body profile looked a little more slender in the armor than I saw in the other knights but I was unsure. That doesn't really matter one way or the other though, except that it seems to make the glowing aura from her a little brighter.
"Yes, my king?" The words flow out of me almost naturally and without much thought or question.
"Can you stand?" Her words have a will with them that seems to make my body agree as I use Excalibur Galantine to put myself upright.
"Yes, your majesty. However, I think that it would be best if we retreat because we have no real chance of winning." I am following along so autonomously that I almost don't notice that
"We can't. This is a threat to the kingdom that we must protect the people from." The selflessness in her voice is apparent. The light from her existence grows.
"But your majesty, I beg of you. Please. If we retreat, then we can regroup and reorganize…"
"Gawain, please!" The strain in her voice becomes amplified as she starts to lose her footing against the creature for a moment and the light nearly flashes out. Somehow the light from her presence compels me to move forward. I rush to her side. I start to draw my sword as I feel the dream start to shift again. Instead of approaching the dragon, I am impaling the blade through the hands of the dragon and into the ground as a bizarre rift opens up from my hands and pulls out a mysterious dark length of metal I then rush to the front of the dragon and toss the spear to that knight king and she propels a giant beam of dark energy through the center mass of the dragon.
"Your efforts are futile and there will be no future for this land. As long as it is run by pathetic humans and a girl who naturally opposed to their existence." The dark voice of the dragon trails off as the beam of dark energy overwhelms the area and causes me to really black out unconscious this time.
*End of Episode 11/12.*
