The first thing they did on arriving was puke.
Not even that half gag half cough retch some people do, with a line of spittle trailing down from their lips but a full on heave that emptied their stomachs within a minute of stepping through the archstone.
The smell...
It was rot, poison, bile, feces and...sickness that struck them across the face like a fist.
It assaulted them like a physical force and...
By everything holy what nightmare had they just walked into?
Rin gagged coughing as she raised a hand to cover her nose and mouth. It even tasted foul
"Oh god..." She looked around through tearing eyes. Her head shaking in horrified disbelief. "Wha-what the hell is this?"
Even Saber looked a little green. "What curse fell on this land to make it like this?"
Rin wasn't sure but whatever it was she wanted out. Now. Just being here made her feel sick.
"Lets just get this over with...quickly."
The sky rumbled and all three looked up in time to hear the onrush of rain before it fell over them, the light drizzle becoming a downpour in just a few seconds.
Shirou looked at his hand and swallowed bile as he realized the rain was black with filth.
-0-
"Don't kno why ya say its not done yet."
Ed glanced up from the chess game. "Whassat?"
"Your sword." Boldwin jerked his head. "Its a fine blade. Not sure why ya say its not done. Sharper than most, good balance metals been folded god only knows how many times. So I don't kno' why ya say's not done."
"Because its not" Ed answered with a shrug. "Somethin's missin. Don really kno' what. But only when I find it, or the sword finds it will it be done."
"Suppose you dwarves kno some things about metal others don't. They say yer blades never break."
The sound of footsteps drew their eyes up, finding Ostrava standing at the 'entrance' to their workshops.
"How much do you demand for weapon sharpening?"
"Waste o my time." Ed spat. As far as he was concerned sword sharpening was an apprentices job, or the swords wielder not a dwarven craftsman.
"Not much." Boldwin threw in with a shrug. "Give it here. And we'll see how much ye owe when I'm done and I've taken full stock of how much work I had to do."
The prince nodded, unstrapping the sword from his waist and handing it over. Boldwin looked the runeblade over, frowning in thought before he shrugged. "Come back tomorrow."
With the not so subtle dismissal, Ostrava turned and left. Part of him was angered at it. For all intents and purposes, he was their king, such as it was.
Another, more sensible part, put forward a very compelling counterpoint to that.
So what?
Boletaria was a ghost filled, decaying ruin. His nobility was a platitude at best, a delusion at worst. Even before the encroaching fog, he'd been the fourth born son. The one they didn't know what to do with.
Why should they treat him like a noble, when here, at this stage everyone was a mere survivor?
He watched as Thomas spoke with the sage Umbassa, as Biorr, peeked his head into an alcove to check on Yuria. Sometimes he wondered if the girl would ever pull up the courage to step out of her little hiding place in the far corner.
He thought for a moment about joining them, but soon enough decided against it, marching towards the Archstone chamber for some silence.
He climbed up towards the shattered Giant's stone and set himself down amidst the rubble keeping his thoughts as quiet company.
-0-
The first thing they came across must have been dead for at least a week.
Its skin was the color of leather, carved open with leering red smiles that showed off the muscles beneath its flesh.
Its face was like a birds, with a beak partly opened and a long, brackish black tongue flopping out.
Shirou approached it first, kneeling down beside it, face scrunched up in distaste at the smell of the decomposing corpse. "What do you think it is?"
"Whatever it is its dead so lets just move." Rin shrugged "We've seen octopus headed wizards, giant suits of armor, flying manta rays. A bird beaked humanoid isn't-"
Its limb moved and clamped around her ankle.
There was something very telling about the effect this place was having on them, that Shirou could claim that this moment, that would have been horrifying for most sane people, was met instead with a feeling of morbid surprise and another that wished for him only to begin laughing hysterically.
That last part might have had something to do with the fact that Rin squealed like the schoolgirl she was, pulling back with one foot, kicking and stomping at the thing with the other while conversely jumping up and down like someone who was trying to defy the laws of gravity by leg power alone.
The thing moaned, even as it was kicked in the face and arms. It either released or lost its grip on Rin as the brunette dashed, flailing about and evidently trying to wipe herself clean of whatever imaginary bugs had just crawled all over her with the brief exchange.
When the thing slowly crawled its way up onto its own two feet Shirou finally let the seriousness of the situation reassert itself as he traced the jeweled sword.
The thing stared at them with black orbs. If Shirou would have seen them on any other surface he would simply have thought it to be a smooth, polished Jet, as opposed to an eye. It turned its head to Saber, then to Rin and finally to him, its tongue still hanging from its slack beak-like-mouth.
It stared a little longer.
After a moment Shirou, throwing a curious glance at the others, one of which looked about ready to light the thing on fire, he offered a hesitant- "Hello?"
Its head tilted.
Then it turned and started walking away.
Shirou had little doubt his curious look must have been something reflected in Saber's face...Rin just looked relieved.
"Should we...follow?"
Saber gave an uncharacteristic shrug, thoroughly bemused.
"If it touches me again, its going to burn." Rin promised.
They followed.
The thing shambled forward, stumbling its way down the rotting, moss covered wood, heading closer towards a rickety bridge, evidently intent on crossing it.
It was startling then, to simply see the wood beneath its feet just crack and give way, barely a snap of the structure ringing in their ears to offer warning before the creature fell through the new hole.
Shirou moved to rush forward before Saber's hand snatched his own. "No!" She demanded, knowing he could fall through just as easily.
Shirou paused, then looked down at their own feet, looking no sturdier than the spot their strange acquaintance had just fallen through.
The groans of wood they became suddenly aware of didn't help.
"I'll go first." The servant volunteered.
-0-
Ostrava woke with a startled jerk.
When had he nodded off?
He groaned, rubbing his eyes as he pulled himself up from where he'd been leaning against the archstone. He stood with stiffness, cracking his neck as he stood, marching down the stonework archway.
When he got down to the main floor, he began to wonder just how long he'd been asleep, for there to not be any voices coming from the "common room"
He marched in, and instantly, his confusion turned to concern.
It was empty.
"Biorr?" He called, hearing nothing but the echo of his own voice. "Biorr!"
"Thomas? Yuria!"
Apprehension settled in his gut and immediately he turned to run towards the Blacksmiths where he had left his sword.
The silence was broken by the sound of his footfalls.
He rounded the corner seeing his sword easilly, laying atop Boldwin's table near the grindstone.
He reached out and grasped it.
The second he turned around there was a hand at his chest.
A dark woman stood there.
Not the candle keeper.
This one's robes were more ornate, finely woven with embroidery of gold, silver hair flowed down across her shoulders, the top half of her face was covered by a gold theater mask.
"Calm my little princeling." She whispered, ruby red lips twisting into a cruel smile. "I was under the impression you wished for silence."
He moved to push her away, but the second his hand rose, his body was still, frozen into unwilling stillness.
It was as though he was suddenly ensnared within a perfect, iron mold of himself, held within the immovable shell, utterly statuesque outside of the frantic movements of his eyes and the harsh sound of his own breathing.
"It could be so easy." She hissed, a venomous whisper across the shell of his ear. "So simple." Gold clawed gloves scratched across his neck, like a knife. "But no. Mephistopheles doesn't come to kill you today little princeling. I simply bring you...a gift."
He woke with a start, his entire body jerking with surprise as his heart thundered beneath his ribs the blood rushing through his veins as cold sweat dabbed at his hair and forehead.
He can hear the sound of the others, and turns his head to see through the pillars. Thomas and Biorr speaking, the penitents praying with their saint Urbain, the harsh ringing hammer-blows of Ed or Boldwin at work.
All was well.
Except...there's an unfamiliar book clutched in his white knuckled grip.
-0-
They were filthy now.
The black rain had drenched their hair and heavy clothes, rivulets of filth now trailed down their faces to drip off their features as it stung their eyes.
They wandered through the blackened canyon, a bleak, vomit green sky hanging over their heads as the wind howled and the rain lashed at them like whips of black ice.
They would occasionally see more of the beaked men, beady black eyes staring with open slack mouths/beaks. Chittering, scuttling red insects the size of a large dog crawl along the walls, offering company. The three of them wandered through the labyrinthine walkways and rickety, creaking rope bridges that criss-crossed the canyon heights, descending ever farther into what could have passed in some ancient folk tale as the throat of the underworld.
Torches sputtered and flailed, offering only the dimmest illumination to mark their path. The stink of wet hay was added to the decaying, rotting stench that permeated the air itself. Blood bloated flies and mosquitoes hovered angrily over rotting carcasses
They trudged on and the rain came down harder, the downpour was now a torrent that drenched them to the bone and rattled off the wooden paths with eerie creaks and groans, dripping from overhead tarps with pitter pats and thunks.
"Hey." Shirou called pointing. "Over there."
Rin and Saber turned to look at him, then at the direction he was pointing.
In the distance, they could see the colorless fog.
"Almost there then." Saber muttered.
Almost there turned out to be a continued trek of over three hours, finding their way through the winding paths and overpasses. The eyes of the locals followed, but never did they do more than peek out of their perches and hiding places before ducking back in, letting them pass unhindered.
That was curious. It seemed to him that, unlike the lizard men of stone fang, who did nothing but chip away at their rocks, these things were perfectly aware of the fact that they were there, and...rather than not caring they were simply choosing to let them pass.
Very curious.
Finally, as they descended another ramp, they came upon the colorless fog.
Every time, there was always that feeling of apprehension.
Even after all this.
What new horror would they have to face?
Saber decided to meet it first. She stepped through the fog
They followed.
They entered what may have looked like a pit from the canyon heights.
A massive gorge opened, the walkway corkscrewing down to a greenish black basin covered in what they assumed to be a shallow pool of filthy water. A mass of towering wood at the far end of the gorge dammed up whatever stream or river may have flowed through here once, leaving only a trickle to trail down from the top.
But nothing else.
"Stay on your guard." Saber warned before each began their descent.
The rain hissed angrily.
Finally, they reached the bottom.
The water, thankfully, only reached up to their ankles and it felt to Shirou as though he was wading through the waters of a rock-sand beach, the gritty scrape of a million grains clawing around his ankles with each movement.
He hated this place.
"Where is it?" Rin asked aloud. "I mean- unless I didn't get the memo that changed the status quo the Fog is always the warning sign..."
Saber shrugged. "Never take anything as a given."
"It could already be here." Shirou piped up. "Most of them are big but what if one of them is really small?"
At that, Saber looked down at the water beneath their feet.
She held her sword down, and the typhoon force winds soon howled through the canyon hollow, sweeping the water away from the gale to reveal whatever might have been lurking beneath it.
Leeches.
Millions of leeches.
Rin and Shirou both screamed in alarm as they pulled up the hem of their pants to reveal some of the things had latched onto their flesh.
Saber cursed.
The 'ground' surged upwards, and like the meaty fist of a giant, it lurched up to strike Saber, sending her flying into the canyon wall with a crash and a huff of air.
Shirou traced his sword, and the flames danced along Rin's hands to burn the vermin at her feet.
The things screeched as they died, and Shirou saw them all slithering along the ground as one before the water came rushing back in to hide them from his sight
The thing that had struck Saber was taking full shape now, millions of the creatures crawling up to form a vaguely humanoid mass.
Shirou swung and the jeweled blade cut a bloody scythe through the writhing mass that only seemed to seal up again as more leeches rushed in to fill the void.
One of the masses that made up its 'arms' punched him.
To him it felt like he'd just been hit by a car, flying across the canyon floor to splash on the muddy black water.
He shook his head, clearing the cobwebs as he struggled to pick himself up.
He felt something at his neck.
He reached up, pulling the leech off with a fleshy sound only to notice one of his hands also sported its own uninvited passenger.
There was a surge of light and a screech of a wounded animal and Shirou looked in time to see the leeches that had burst into charred husks from Rin's attack fall off of the body to leave room for more.
Rin's attack seemed to make it angry as it bellowed and began slithering towards her.
"Its weak to fire!" Rin cried with a grin as she moved to retreat to the upper rafters again when she nearly fell flat on her ass.
Her legs wouldn't move.
She looked down, gaping as, from boot to shin her entire leg was covered in writhing leeches that were holding her in place for the slow main body.
She looked up, and one of the things arms, the one it drew back, grew longer as more leeches joined to help its reach.
This is gonna suck.' She thought as she closed her eyes, bracing for the impact.
Its arm was sliced off before it could strike.
Saber was a whirlwind of strikes. Every blow ripping huge chunks of the beast with the sheer speed she was swinging the weapon with, faster than the leeches could assemble to seemingly repair the damage.
Rin charged up another spell, but before she could fire it off, its whole body moved, molding itself into an entirely different shape before lurching forward towards her like a battering ram.
She reached the upper rafters she'd been aiming for with what must have been a broken rib
Saber swung and this time all the leeches simply came apart, the main body coming apart in a million pieces before reforming itself a ways behind the Servant.
Saber moved to strike when she felt resistance around her own legs. But she was far stronger than any normal human, and pulled through what would have been an unbreakable hold with the speed of a man crawling through thickened mud.
There was a discharge of Prana rushing past her and Saber's eyes just managed to glimpse at one of Shirou's arrows before it burst the beasts head apart like a melon.
It reformed, but it was slower that time.
Saber strained the muscles in her legs to jump, powerful enough to close the rest of the distance.
It swung at her, its two meaty limbs, the size of tree trunks, trying to bat her away only for her to duck and weave under them with dextrous, easy movements and delivering her own strikes in return.
It reared its arms up over its head to bring them straight down when she swung, precise and fast, its limbs were once more cleaved from the main body to fall harmlessly behind her.
There was almost a vindictive smile on her beautiful features, illuminated by the fireball that exploded above and behind it, courtesy of the irate Tohsakah.
The thing came apart once more, the leeches fleeing and Saber wondered where it would reform again.
For a few seconds, there was nothing.
Then the thundering crack of wood!
Saber felt her heart fall into her stomach she turned just as Shirou and Rin did and found the mass of wood that served as a cobbled dam.
Leeches crawled all over it.
Before any of them could even think about doing something about it, the cracks were forced open and the tons of water resting behind the surface surged forward in a whitewash flood of green water.
Shirou, closest to the thing, barely had time to brace himself before he was swallowed by the surge.
Saber was consumed a moment later as the flooring beneath Rin's feet collapsed.
The already unstable gangplanks, cracked and split, what little foundation they had in the form of scaffolding that reached the basin floor was swept out from under them Rin managed to suck in a pained breath to scream before she too vanished beneath the tide.
-0-
He came up with a gasp for air, vomiting out putrid green water as he coughed and sputtered, struggling to crawl over towards the tiny spit of wood he could see floating over the marsh.
When he finally reached it, Shirou pulled himself up with a scream of effort, panting and heaving as he looked down towards his leg.
A shrapnel piece of wood was running it straight through.
He cursed, hissing as he reached for it and biting on his lip hard enough to draw blood as he tried to tug it out.
He felt himself growing lightheaded, dizzy and it took a moment of focus for him to fight off the grip of encroaching unconsciousness.
He felt something at his neck.
No.
He reached up, violently yanking off a leech before he pulled up the sleeve of his clothes.
At least a dozen were coiled around his arm.
Frantically he began to yank them off, even as the rest of them drained him of blood.
He mannaged to get half way through the next arm before he lost the fight against the darkness and was swallowed down into the realms of unconsciousness. His lifeblood being sapped out of him, floating on a flimsy piece of debris.
Beady black eyes peered at him through the gloom.
-0-
Whelp here ya go. Hope you all enjoyed it.
Not sure if I'm gonna update this or Legacy next so we'll see what happens.