Time seemed to stop for those who saw the monstrosity burst from the ground. it was a three headed giant serpent with one head of a decaying wolf with one eye, one head of a worm with hundreds of tentacles writhing in the air and hundreds of rows of teeth in it's mouth, and one head was that of a human skull with fire red eyes and a forked tongue. The creature stood fifty feet tall on it's body, but the full length of the creature was unknown as it's long tail was still in the hole.

Shuzen Gyokuro,a vampire hundreds of years old was in shock that she had not sensed such a powerful creature until she was right above it falling towards it's mouth. This thing, this freak was strong, very strong. If she had to guess, it was a phantasm beast. A creature so old that it had lived in the Age of the Gods. Such ancient creatures gained unmatched strength and defenses compared to modern yokai...with the possible exceptions of Dead Apostles.

Gyokuro grabbed one of her subdivision leaders and used him as a shield as dozens of tentacles reached for her. That one's 'sacrifice' gave her enough time to evade the rest of the tentacles and hit the ground running. The subdivision leader screamed once before he was pulled into the worm's mouth and crushed in it's teeth. Blood sprayed everywhere as the creature fed upon the subordinate.

"Huh, the fifth head isn't there." Kiri said aloud. The bull head was missing for some reason. Maybe he had gotten to it fast enough that the next head hadn't developed yet. Kiri mentally sighed with relief, at least he wouldn't have to deal with that problem. But first things first.

"WelCoMe lItTlE wOrMs.' The skull head spoke. "sO gLaD yOu cAmE."

While the others might have been surprised that the skull head spoke, Kiri aimed his left palm at the skull head and fired a bullet. Not just any bullet though, a jewel tipped bullet courtesy of Keiko from his time. That girl could make a bb pellet go off like a stick of dynamite. The jewel tipped bullet, on the other hand, went off like a tank shell destroying the skull's tongue in an instant.

"Now, how long did it take me to figure that out last time? No more spells for you." Kiri said ironically. Seriously, was it truly that hard last time around? Guess this is what happens if you know wait's going to occur before hand. Now the creature would be reduced to pure physical attacks rather than having a bombardment of magic accenting each strike.

Ceil was taken aback at how efficient the black painted Knight was with the creature the whole encounter had been less than a minute, and already the monster was writhing in pain. She didn't have much time to concentrate however as the creature had used it's tail to smash two of her own Knights in an instant. As far as the burial squad member could tell, this monstrosity was strong, but not immortal. Something she was rather grateful for. "Let's go Seven." She yelled pulling off her gun.

"Righto." her gun replied. As the two of them dashed for the body. The were almost at it's chest when she was suddenly tackled by the black knight who yelled, "Wait!". One of her men kept on going past the two and swung his halberd at the body...

Only to run into a mouth at opened from the abdomen. The church Knight had no chance to evade as a massive tongue grabbed him and pulled him inside and the moth closed with a sickening crunch. Ceil watched as two eyes opened above the mouth. Big green slit eyes that belonged on a cat or a snake instead of this thing. These eyes were hypnotic, rather enticing things...

The knight punched her in the face sending her flying and breaking her eye contact with the creature. "Don't look in those eyes, it paralyzes you unless you overload your body with Prana."

"What is it?" Ciel asked. In all her years she had rarely seen anything as mishmash as this thing before her. A part of her wondered if it had anything to do with Nrvnqsr Chaos. The black knight ignored her and continued to shot at it with his built in gun. She watched as a clip ejected from the back of his hand, only for a second clip to be inserted.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The clan watched in fascination as Kiritsugu-jiji charged at the enemy. He leaped under the swing of the tail, dodged the dead wolf's head, and sliced his way through the tentacles heading for one target, the main head.

"Go Nii-san!" Several of the younger ones screamed. Look at him go. Him? Die? No way. Yet, the adults and a few of the older children could tell the truth.

He was tiring. You could see him breathe faster and faster with the steam coming from his helmet. Had he been riding his horse, it wouldn't have been an issue, but he wasn't. True, for a man of his age, he was in marvelous condition, but time had worn him down. Had he been younger...

But no, time does not reverse for anyone.

They watched as he evaded the tongue from the main head in the abdomen and shot several bullets into the creature. Keiko was cheering him on seeing him use tactics she preferred, i.e. shoot everything with lots of explosive rounds. She was still trying to figure out how to make a Bolter from Warhammer 40k.

It was then that Kiritsugu did something different. As he neared the Beast, his left hand pulled back revealing a large opening. From within a large diamond came flying out. Matsu paused and enlarged the image and froze at what she saw. She then looked over at the current monitor and saw a massive explosion rocked the area. Kiritsugu was sent flying...without his left hand.

Matsu quickly sent the image over to Rin who instinctively grasped a pendent under her shirt. A diamond pendant she had been given on her first anniversary of her wedding. A pendant she never took off. How did he get a hold of it? If anyone was to receive it, it would be her daughter, not the son of Saber. Yet, there it was, the exact same pendant. Overloaded and used as a bomb to kill a monster. Rin had a special spot for the pendant and have been putting in any excess prana into it since she received it. To see all that used in such a way hurt her deeply.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Haaaaaah" Kiritsugu roared as he launched the diamond pendant at the monster. He regretted what he was doing. The jewel Keiko had entrusted to him until her granddaughter was ready was about to be no more. The gem was special, first Rin, then Keiko spent decades pouring prana into the stone making it one of the most powerful artifacts in the clan's possession. The worst part was, he was going to have to use the other gift given to him by Keiko in a bit.

"Burst" He roared as the jewel went down the monster's gullet. He knew what it would cost him. He had to have his hand vulnerable to activate the gem. He saw a flash of white and red as the jewel burst. His hand was seared in agony as the artificial hand was blown off and took a bit more of his arm in the process. Well, at least it cauterized the wound in the explosion.

Of course, he was sent flying by the explosion and in serious pain all over, but that's besides the point.

A part of him just wanted to rest, to let it all end. That part, the screaming in agony part kept telling him that it was okay, someone else could finish it off. The rest of him shook off the weakness and forced his body to flip back onto his feet and begin running backwards as fast as he could.

Heh, how precognition changed things. Last time, he had wasted hours killing the four (three in this time line) top heads first then dealt with the main head. Of course, the tops heads were mostly decorative compared to what awaited him.

The body burst open like a Venus flytrap revealing countless heads on tentacles, and they were hungry.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was obvious to anyone, at least in her opinion, that the black knight knew what he was doing. Therefore, as soon as she saw him run backwards as fast as he could, Shuzen Gyokuro did the same. A shame that most of her subordinates didn't. Those ones didn't have much of a chance against the hundreds of teeth feeding upon them. She watched with mild amusement as she saw that most of the church members were fed upon as well.

She, grudgingly, admitted, that the black knight was doing an impressive job holding out against the monster here, but frankly, enough was enough. It was time to get the compass and move out. She had no vested interest in fighting this...thing. In fact, it might be to her interest to let it continue to go on a rampage.

Gyokuro advanced towards the knight, only to stop as the hated burail agent stood in her way.

"I will not let you pass." Ciel stated holding six black keys in her hands.

Gyokuro smiled, looks like she could go all out today.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kiritsugu could hear the two most powerful opponents in the two factions going all out, but honestly, he had no time for either of them. Instead, he had to dive into hell itself. Hundreds upon hundreds of heads flew at him flashing their teeth trying to feed upon him. These were either repelled with his shield or cleaved with his sword at blinding speed.

*huff huff* This was rather tiring, but at least he didn't have to cleave every last head to find the weakness in this form. The one new thing for him was that the three top heads were actually aiding the body as they had not been removed, but they were so far away form him that they were merely incidental to him.

Forward, always forward he moved towards the center of the mass. It was there that he would have to go to unveil the next form

*Huff huff* His body was screaming for a rest. It kept begging for a chance to catch his breath.

He refused, to falter was to die right now. If he should stop, if he should waver, he would be met with death prematurely. Yes, he could rest, he could flee, but how could he look at himself if he did. Yes, Gilgamesh, Tou-san, and Primate Fury could deal with the creature, but he had his reason not to stop. It was his responsibility to deal with, his to destroy.

It was his sin to absolve.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saber clenched Shirou's hand tightly as she saw her son charge into the mass of the enemy heedless of the danger ahead of him. Forward, always forward he moved, never evading, never falling back. She was proud of him, yet scared for him. Her heart felt like it was in a vice grip as she saw him slow down little by little. He had performed a miracle lasting as long as he did at his age, but even miracles run out. His sword was too long to use with a shield effectively, and now, with only one hand fled, he had been forced to switch his sword and shield to different hands and tie the shield to his left hand. It was clear that he was not as used to this combination as he was with a sword in his left hand.

Yet...he was still doing wonders with his limitations. Swing after swing of his sword, Kiritsugu cleaved heads heading for the center of the monster. Shirou winced in pain as Saber clenched his hand harder, feeling his bones creak in pain. He glanced at Saber who was biting her lip till blood flowed from it. He wanted to comfort her, to tell her that it would be all right, but he couldn't lie to her. He could see Kiritsugu's fate as clearly as she could.

Gilgamesh watched on with a hint of reminiscence. Kiritsugu reminded him too much of Enkidu. Both reckless fools charged headlong into impossible odds heedless of the consequences that would occur. But even more so, he saw the traits of a king in the prince. The boy took after his mother too much. Gilgamesh had no doubt, if Kiritsugu had tried, he would have become king over the mongrels leading them to new found glory. Yet, he had refused to take the throne. He cast aside the power available and chose the life of a vagabond. Why? Kings were meant to lead, not to leave the throne unclaimed.

The youngest of the children still cheered Kiritsugu on, but more and more of them could tell that the tide was turning ever so slightly. Kiritsugu had been lightning with his blade, now, he was merely supersonic. His once pristine armor was dented, and before their eyes, the chest plate broke off. It helped Kiritsugu speed up a bit without the weight, but the loss of the armor left him vulnerable.

Matsu, Chisame, and Karin had been forced to give up on the Omega protocol for the Hippalectryon. Even if they cracked it, the plane would still take about two hours to turn around and give Kiritsugu support. At the rate of his exhaustion, Matsu figured that Kiritsugu-jiji would only last another thirty minutes. The three super hackers felt nothing but disgust for themselves at the moment. They had failed, they, the goddesses of the internet, the mistresses of cracking had failed. Never before had they felt this sensation before, and they did not like it. To them, they felt that if/when Kiri fell, it would be their own fault. Karin was hugging her mother crying as she watched through the satellite imaging. Chisame was busy trying to reorient several defense satellites, but the problem was the location. If he had been closer to the Pakistani-Indian border, she could have given him unparallelled cover from their attacks, but because he was so deep in the Himalayas, there was nothing for her to use.

Altourage was busy eating popcorn finding the whole thing more entertaining than a lot of the recent video games. Seriously, if games could capture the style of Kiritsugu, the gaming industry would hit a golden age. Yet, one thing irritated her. She had no idea what that creature was or it's history. For all her years researching ways to kill humanity, she had never heard of such a creature. Therefore, it must be new. Really new.

Lorelei and Jun were busy taking notes from Kiritsugu as he fought waver after wave of attacks. The real time strategies that Kiritsugu used were inventive and useful for any Dead Apostle hunts. Several things were going to be added to the family tactics and strategies once this battle was over. One: Explosive bullets are a must. Two: If it talks, keep it from speaking. Three: Shields are your friend.

Rin and Keiko watched in fascination as Kiritsugu used what was clearly items forged by them to stay alive. Jewel tipped bullets had cleared the way and Rin's pendant had split the monster. A part of them felt vindicated that their studies were not just theory and research, but were useful for battle. Expensive, but useful.

Chiyo watched in horror as a mouth came too close to killing Kiritsugu and ripped off the right part of his helmet. She feared that Kiritsugu would siffer brain damage, but found that no skin had been torn. Just the eye patch. It was then she saw what was over his eye. A pendent. Not just any pendant, but an Avalon pendant, just like the one she hid under her clothes. She narrowed her eyes and zoomed in on it. No, it was the pendant under her shirt. It had the same small notch on the side. Clearly her future self had given it to Kiritsugu, but when, and what did it signify? Had she died? Or was it a gift to a foolish brother?

Riko and Rider watched as the man who would have been at home in the age of the gods fought a beast that belonged to such a dark time. To them, he was everything good about the Age of the Gods. A time when men could not afford to be weak, foolish, or insane. Kiritsugu-jiji fought like a legend, and would go down a legend. If he should fall, they were sure that he would drag the creature down with him.

Ivone found herself feeling a heretical thought for a Fraga. She had a new person to worship. No longer was Cu Cuchulain her idol. It was Kiritsugu. The man had not one drop of blood of the gods in his veins, yet he fought a creature that all but screamed needing divine blood to win against. Kiritsugu was like a god of swords to her. Ivone still worshiped the old gods, but she had found a new being to worship as well.

Musubi and her children stood at the edge of the seats all but holding their breath. This battle was more epic than any they had seen in a long time, if ever.

In her room, Shinra was busy talking to the air. "Kaa-san, I don't think he's interested." She waited a second. "No, he won't be interested. Not even if you bring them to him." Again a paused, "Hmm, well how bout you ask the throne to loan him if you want him that bad." Pause. "Ooooh, Gaia-obaasan wants him too?" Pause "Mama, fight on!" In the green house, Ichigo felt a shiver of tension as she felt two ancient beings face each other off glaring daggers and lasers in preparation of claiming a soul.

Eiko and Reiko kept themselves company as they awaited the inevitable. No matter where they looked, there was no way to save their brother without losing something else as precious instead. Today, a clan member had to die. If they interfered, more than one clan member could be lost.

Of all the clan members, none were as conflicted as the younger Kiritsugu. He could feel his older self's need to destroy the creature. Hell, Kiritsugu knew on some level that he had to kill it. Why? He was not sure, only he knew it had to be done no matter the cost. Yet, the cost would be high. He knew his older self had used two organizations that were threats to the clan as bait, but it still racked his sense of honor. His older self had cautioned that the church was not to be trusted and Fairty Tale were bigger threats than anyone realized, but did it have to come to this.

On the hills surrounding the monster, men and monster fought to the death while their leaders had to survive the gauntlet of head from the beast. No matter what, Fairy Tale would be set back for years, maybe decades while the church would hurt for losing so many of it's Knights.

Did his older self really have to sacrifice all of them to take it down? Could the older one have brought help, like uncle Gil or Primy?

Kiritsugu shoved the thoughts aside as he watched his older self do what needed to be done. His was not to reason why, his was to watch his other self do or die.

In the Hippalectryon, DA Haru and Artemis slumped down in defeat as the Omega Protocol message continued unopposed. Kiritsugu had outmaneuvered them completely. Haku went over to the chess board and picked up the deck of cards left on the board. Haru took a deep breath, then shuffled the cards. He cut the cards then dealt five cards to where Kiritsugu sat and five cards where the opponent would have been on the chess board. Haru stared in resignation at the results he saw. Kiritsugu had four aces. The opponent had a pair of twos.

"Care to gamble, huh?" Haru muttered his brother's words. "You don't gamble brother, never have, never will." He then saw a small note under the edge of the board. He opened it and read the contents. Haru's eyes opened. He stood up and dashed for Artemis.

Artemis went to her room in the plane, locked the door and began crying. She had failed, she the goddess of the hunt had failed to stop him from going to die. The pain was too much for her. Her idol, her light in the dark was fading. To her, there was nothing left. She grabbed the sheets from the bed and made a noose. She grabbed a chair and hung the noose from the ceiling. She inserted her head into the noose. Better to die than to live with this agony. As she prepared to kick the chari, her door was smashed opened revealing an enraged Haru. Fast as lightning, he ripped the noose off of her head and punched her in the gut knocking her unconscious.

"It seems you know her too well brother." Haru muttered looking over the warning Kiritsugu had left behind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kiritsugu-jiji had made it. Here, at the center of it all was a mound the size of a man. With a mighty heave, he slammed his sword into the mass. The heads around him screamed in agony, writhing in pain, then collapsed as It released control over the larger body.

Kiritsugu pulled out his sword and jumped back to wait. The mass wavered and twisted as something fought to free itself. A sword suddenly jutted out of the mass slicing a hole through the mass, then It stepped out.

It was covered from head to toe in thickened bone. The bone looked exactly like Kiritsugu's armor, only white instead of black. The creature held a long flat bone in the shape of a kite shield in the right hand and a long sword in the right.

The thing looked Kiritsugu over then said in perfect English, "Hello Father. It's been some time."