Disclaimer- I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any other related properties. This story is for entertainment purposes only. Please Enjoy!
Chapter 25- Lancer
Lancer observed his former master. There was no concern in those crazed brown eyes. The man held no tension in his shoulders whatsoever. This concerned Lancer. His master usually carried himself in a very tensed manner, always drawing his shoulders back in a proud fashion. But whoever this was, was different. They carried themself loosely and without a care in the world. This man did not fear or respect Lancer in the slightest. In fact, his posture basically said, "come and get me, but it will cost you".
Lancer tried to even his breathing, but something was incredibly off about this man. Aside from the obvious, he practically swirled in a whirlwind of deadly intent. Blake had never even released a fraction of that kind of aura. Negative mana was practically overflowing from the diviner that stood before him.
"What's wrong, Suingi?" Blake laughed. "You look like you're having a hard time getting a read on me." The diviner gave a loud cackle. "Don't worry, my dear servant. I understand performance anxiety. I guess I'll have to start in order to stimulate you into action."
The man pulled a card from a holster at his waist and the card began to glow. Lancer had to snap out of it. If he didn't this thing was going to drag his master's name through the mud. He couldn't stand for that.
"Suit Series: Ace of Wands!" Blake called. A dull black wand with red veins appeared in the man's hand. Lancer stiffened. Blake had never used wand cards before.
Black lightning shot from the wand as the diviner pointed it at his former servant. Lancer finally reacted; moving out of the way and dashing at his former master. Immediately, he slammed into a shield with a pentacle on it. The shield wasn't the glowing white it had been before. It was a pitch black with the pentacle design being red. What was happening? Was this the corruption that Master Rin had been talking about?
"Suit Series: Son of Swords!" The corrupted Blake cackled as he swung a black and red blade at Lancer. Lancer narrowly dodged the slash and rolled away.
He had to get his mind right. If he kept fighting in this distracted state, Blake was going to kill him. He didn't want that to be on his master's conscience when he returned to his right mind. Lancer had to focus.
The servant dashed at the laughing man.
Blake
"It's time, isn't it, White?" Red's voice echoed in Blake's head.
The man sighed. Even after Red had disappeared, his voice still had remained to keep the man company. It hadn't been all bad. If Blake hadn't had Red's voice in his head during his millennium of training, he would have surely lost himself again. But Red's voice, and his resolve to see Rin again, kept him going.
The diviner had discovered quite a few things about his magic that he hadn't been aware of before. The reason why he had kept running out of mana during his training with Rin was because he had been treating the cards in his deck like her gems. Whenever he drew a card he had been passing mana into each one individually before he used it. That was a wrong and wasteful approach to their use. The cards themselves were already humming with mana. All he had to do was put some of his own mana into the deck itself to activate it. The mana then would bounce through the cards and charge itself. Not only did that process save mana, but it allowed for a quicker card activation.
The next thing he had learned was the tarot's biggest strength and yet it's most crucial fall back. Before, he had always been hesitant to use the Higher Arcana cards, but he hadn't been able to place why. When he used Temperance to save Rin, he had begun to understand; if only a little bit. Through his chat with Sage, he had discovered that they shaved years off of his life.
Now, through meditation with his deck, he had learned his lifespan and how many years he had left to spend before he faded away. He originally had had seventy-three years remaining. After using Temperance, that number had decreased to fifty-nine; this decrease was equal to the Higher Arcana number on the card.
He had also discovered that aside from one card, he could use the Higher Arcana cards freely in his inner world. Since they weren't being used to manipulate the physical plane, they had no damaging effects on his life.
"Yeah," Blake acknowledged. "It's time."
That brought Blake to the one card that would affect his lifespan in this world. The Higher Arcana card known as The World. It was the most powerful and potent card in the entire deck, and it was the only way to force a battle with Black that he could win.
Blake sighed. Use of that card would reduce his remaining life-span to thirty-eight. That meant that he would die at the swell age of fifty-eight if he didn't use any more Higher Arcana cards.
"Are you sure about this?" Red asked. "We could search for a way that doesn't involve shaving years off of our life."
Blake chuckled. "If there was another way, we would have found it by now. It's been a thousand years, Red. Trust me, it's the only way."
"You do know that you'll disrupt the flow of time in here when you use it, right?" Red inquired.
"Yeah," The diviner sighed. "Time will slow down in here to match the outer world. So I'll have to defeat Black quickly to prevent him from doing too much damage."
"So you know that even when you bring him here, Black will still be in control of your physical body?" Red asked further.
"Yup. I have to defeat him in order to take back control." Blake responded.
"Alright," Red chuckled. "Then do it. Let's go see Rin."
"Like you needed to tell me." Blake smirked.
The diviner held out his hand in front of him and a card materialized parallel to his outstretched palm. The world around him began to glow with white energy and his body grew hot with the glow of mana.
"Oh great and powerful Higher Arcana," he chanted. "Hear my call and obey my will. Bring forth balance to this land within me. Call forth my demons. Cast away this veil that I have been bound by. And grant me the power of your greatest servant. I hereby call out your name and beg for your assistance. Come forth...Higher Arcana: THE WORLD!"
The inner world that Blake had come to know so well, began to crack. The moon faded out and fell from the sky. Then everything shattered, forcing Blake to close his eyes.
When he opened them again, he found himself on a black and white platform decorated with symbol for light and darkness. Good and evil. Yin and yang.
Blake stood in the black circle on the white side, and another figure stood in the white circle on the black side. The figure looked up and smiled a sadistic smile; a smile that Blake never thought could belong on his face.
"So you're alive after all, White." Black cackled. "I was certain that I had overtaken you, but I guess not."
"I had some things to think over," Blake waved off. "So I let you play villain for a bit." Blake drew his Ace of Swords and the following white blade appeared in his hand. "But you've had your fun." The white diviner pointed the sword at his evil counterpart. "It's about time I took my body back."
Black howled with laughter. "You think you can take me down?" A black and red ace sword appeared in the his hand. "Mistress has been filling our body with negative mana. I'm thousands of times stronger now! There's no way that you'll ever defeat me! You. Are we-"
Black's eyes went wide as Blake disappeared from sight and a small cut opened on his cheek. The black diviner turned his head to see the white diviner with his back to him. Blake flicked the couple of drops of blood off of his sword and faced Black.
"You talk too much," The white diviner said; deadly intent filling his eyes. "That was a freebie." Blake leveled his sword with Black again. "Next time you try and talk my ear off again, I'll make sure that it's yours throat that I cut."
Anger twisted on Black's face and he ran at the white diviner. Their swords met and the evil diviner growled.
The battle had begun.
Lancer
His former master was running low on cards; Lancer had been keeping track. The evil diviner's attacks had become fewer and far between as he approached his limit. If the servant had counted correctly, the evil Blake should only have four cards left. If his opponent ran out of cards, he could win.
Lancer looked down at his own condition. He wasn't doing well. Several deep laceration covered his body, and his clothes had been singed by his former master's flame wands. The strength of a tarot mage was truly terrifying. If Lancer hadn't had his Noble Phantasm, he would have been dead several times over. In fact, he could only use his Absolute Cancel one last time. The remainder of this battle would be a battle of attrition. If Lancer used his Absolute Cancel before Blake ran out of cards it would be over.
"You're not looking too good Suingi?" Blake taunted. "You need a rest? I'll be happy to give you an eternal one! Face Series: Father of Cups!"
A gigantic black chalice appeared over Lancer's head with its brim facing down. The man intended to trap him! Lancer sluggishly rolled out of the way as the chalice slammed down, narrowly avoiding it. When he stood back up he let out a sigh of relief. That left only three more cards.
Evil Blake let out his disgusting cackle again. "You might want to focus more, Lancer! Dodging is fine, but that won't save you!"
Lancer's eyes went wide as he felt something wrap around his leg. He looked over to see that the chalice that the diviner had summoned had turned into black liquid and was now pinning his feet to the ground. This wasn't good. He had been careless to assume that the face cards were the same as the regular suit cards.
"Face series: Father of Swords!" The evil diviner called. Shadows began to condense into a single point until a blade of pure darkness and hatred appeared. "Time to erase you Suingi! Mistress will be pleased with me!"
The evil man dashed at the servant. Lancer only had one chance to block the attack without using his Absolute Cancel, but he'd have to sacrifice his weapon. Dodging was no longer an option, since the black goop had solidified on his legs. That could work to his advantage though. That meant he had a stable point to defend from.
The diviner swung his blade at Lancer with all the force in his body. With a loud boom, Lancer caught the blow in the middle of his spear and twisted his body to deflect some of the force. It was enough, but barely. The deflection had been enough to deflect a lethal blow away from the servant's body, but it hadn't been enough to save his spear. The polearm was shattered down the middle, leaving him with two shorter pieces.
Lancer let mana flow over the back-end of his spear and used it to break away the black that bound his legs. A raging Blake growled from behind him and he turned just in time to catch the evil man's downward swing in the cross of his two spear pieces.
"You know, you're starting to become an annoyance, Suingi!" The evil diviner growled. "You were supposed to use your Absolute Cancel!"
"Then maybe you shouldn't have used such a one dimensional attack." Lancer shot back as he forced his opponent's blade to slam into the ground. The servant then delivered a spinning kick to the man's side. Ribs cracked underneath the force of the kick, and the recipient of the blow flew through the air.
"Face Series: Father of Pentacles!" The diviner gasped out.
A giant black pentacle appeared appeared behind the man and caught him as if it were a spider web. Then the pentacle flipped upward and the diviner stood up to use it as a platform. Blood was dripping from his mouth and he was wheezing.
"That hurt, goddamnit!" Evil Blake laughed. "Holy shit, that hurt! You pack a serious punch, you fucking piece of shit!"
Lancer prepared himself to jump to the platform, but suddenly realized that he couldn't. Was it a spell? No. His body was just so worn out that he couldn't move well any more. That last kick had taken up nearly the rest of his energy. Shit.
"Well now you're going to pay for damaging mistress's property!" Blake yelled. "Face Series: Father of Wands!"
Lancer smiled. He had him.
A black and red wand appeared in the diviner's hand and he began to swirl it around in a circle. Lancer held out his hand. Flame and wind runes began to appear in the circle with a darkness rune in the middle. Mana poured into the magic circle and an enormous blast of black fire exploded forth towards the servant.
"Tarot art: Flame of Engulfing Darkness!" Evil Blake called out.
"Noble Phantasm!" Lancer called forth. "Absolute Cancel!"
The black flames slammed into Lancer's hands, but went no further. Blackness and heat surrounded him, but none touched him. Death moved all around, but could not reach him. That was the power of Absolute Cancel.
When the flames cleared, Lancer watched as Blake's pentacle platform dissipated. The diviner fell to the floor below with a crash, but immediately began to struggle to his feet. The servant limped over to his former master and held the sharp half of his broken spear in the man's face.
"It's over, Blake." Lancer said without emotion. "You've lost."
Blake looked up at Lancer with scared and confused eyes. "Lancer?"
Something was off. The evil Blake wasn't acting like the maniac he had been earlier. Was this his Blake?
"Blake?" Lancer asked cautiously. "Is that you?"
"Lancer? What's going on?" The confused man asked. "Where are we? Why are you all bloody?"
The servant's spear-tip fell as shock took him. Was Blake really back? Had using all of his cards made him revert. Hope gripped at the spearman's heart.
Big mistake.
The sound of metal piercing flesh rang out through the room and Lancer looked down to see the blade of a sword sticking out from his chest. Blood began to flood his airways and the taste of iron filled his mouth. He was in shock. The servan coughed out the the red liquid. His body began to turn into blue light.
Blake began to laugh hysterically as Lancer fell to his knees.
"God you're so gullible!" The evil diviner laughed. "All I had to do was that all along?! Man! Mistress is going to be pissed when she finds out that I had to waste so many cards."
How had the diviner stabbed him with a sword? Lancer was sure he had counted correctly. The man shouldn't have had any more cards.
The servant's eyes went wide. Blake had absorbed the Ace of Swords back into his card before the fight. Lancer had completely looked past that. He failed to observe correctly, and had been easily tricked. Shame washed over the spearman.
"Well, there are still some of my cards I can absorb back," Blake sighed. The man walked by Lancer and twisted the sword that was in the servant's back and pulled it out. "Once you disappear, I'll go and slaughter that pathetic Tohsaka girl and her occultist buddy." The man laughed some more. "I can't wait to tell white what I've done! I'm sure he'll give up the fight once I tell him that I killed his girlfriend! Heroes are so damn pathetic."
Lancer fell forward and could only listen as Blake absorbed some of the items he had used, back into his cards. Finally the man came back around and patted Lancer on the head.
"Be a good boy now and die the pathetic death you deserve." The man taunted one last time. He then began to walk away.
Lancer held out his hand and despaired to see that it was fading away. He still had to stop him. Master Rin needed him to. He couldn't have failed. He was a hero. He was supposed to save his master. Why was this happening? Why…?
Lancer faded away into blue light.
A/N: I'm actually pretty proud of how this turned out. I have to say, I suck at writing fight scenes, but I think this one didn't turn out half bad. Let me know what you think in the review section. Thank you for reading! The next chapter should be released here tomorrow.
-B