Fate/Geass: The Eden Vital War
Disclaimer: In this particular universe, I do not own or in any way shape or form hold a claim to the Code Geass, Fate/Stay Night or any other modern works that I may reference in this story.
Long ago, there was a war between Code-bearers and their Geass gifted armies over the power of Eden Vital, a war that destroyed the legendary continent of Atlantis and sent mankind back to the Stone Age. To prevent this, direct confrontations between Code-bearers are now forbidden, with disagreements to be resolved in a ritualized war of champions. But when V.V does the unthinkable and violates this tradition, he will soon learn that he is not the only one able to bend the rules for victory.
" " denotes speech
'italics'denotes thought
'bold' denotes location names
'bold italics' denotes skill use
Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement
Crack-a-crack-a-crack!
As V.V. advanced through the halls of the Government Bureau, the assault rifle in his hands barked out a snarling metallic cacophony, hurling lead slugs through the air with vicious recoil that the boy's small frame could hardly handle without going ass over teakettle, mowing down those between him and his objective. With his earlier plan of neatly trapping and erasing the Grey Witch from existence having been ruined by a certain demon born of that woman, the younger immortal found himself forced to take more drastic measures.
'I have successfully completed my operations at Ashford Academy, which should strike a crippling blow to Avenger's emotional state…but to make sure of this, I will simply kidnap Euphemia li Britannia as well, holding her as a hostage,' the little boy thought to himself as he blew away Black Knights, laughing all the while. 'After all, it is no sin to purge a demon and his followers, especially when they are fools that trusted a witch who would dare stand in my way.'
"Ugh! Call for rein—"
Blam! Blam!
A sudden surge of force hurled the young boy to the ground, and V.V. looked down to see a bloody hole in his chest just before all went black as he collapsed with a thump, the assault rifle clattering from his hands.
"What…he's just a—"
Crack!
Unfortunately, not having been briefed as to the nature of this individual, the Black Knight had approached the "corpse" of the boy, only for the immortal to sit up, pull two pistols from its pocket, and proceed to blow the man's brain's out, sneering all the thile.
"That…hurt," the boy snarled, peering down at the bloodstains on his formerly pristine clothes, which had been custom-made for him, as a member of royalty. "So the witch is going to make things difficult is—"
Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
—he was cut off as three kunais came streaking out of nowhere, flying for the immortal blond's face, heart, and gun hand, catching him unawares and embedding themselves in eye, chest, and wrist with a sickening thud as they hit their targets, with the immortal only becoming more enraged at this.
Poof!
To add insult to injury, a smoke bomb detonated in his face, obscuring his vision for a few precious seconds as numerous somethings whistled through the air, most thud thud thudding into the ground around him, though some further sliced his clothes, and a further few stuck into his body so that he resembled a spiky porcupine.
Gritting his teeth, the boy ripped the blood-coated shurikens from his body as he laid down a hail of answering fire, his dual guns blazing crack! Crack! Crack! as they spat lead in the direction from which the attacks had come, only for—
"Guh!"
Smack! Squelch!
—the boy to receive a boot to the face and kunais jammed into his eyes courtesy of a certain ninja maid, with the immortal's assailant forcing his body onto the floor, where his back was perforated by a thousand tiny pains—the shurikens that had "missed" him earlier.
'Who is…is this the one who defeated Assassin?ǃ' V.V. realized, as the blows to face, body and crotch (stomps, kicks, and more) dulled his ability to think, with pain exploding in his head, his ribs, his chest. 'I see…attacking so quickly that he was disabled before he could use his Geass…'
After the triumph of UFN forces in the fierce aerial battle over the Tokyo Settlement and the subsequent surrender of all surviving Britannian forces, Sayoko Shinozaki had landed the Lancelot in the inner courtyard of the Government Bureau, intending to first check on the health of her comrade in arms Cecile Croomy—but had had her attention drawn by an intruder, one she recognized from the description that C.C. had once given of her most hated foe.
'So you are V.V., the enemy of Mistress Zero and Master Lelouch, the most dangerous assassin of Britannia,' thought the deadly maid assassin, as she continued to attack relentlessly. 'For the sake of Japan, and the will of my masters, I will stop you!'
Faced with such an opponent, one that Zero herself had admitted possessed incredible abilities, it was better to strike fast and hard, asking questions only after the opponent had been dispatched. Thus—it was time to bring out the heavy weaponry, as Sayoko doubted that the blond boy would be dispatched so easily—a clear example of someone who would not die when he was killed.
'In that case, if I cannot kill him, I can still stall him by continuing to inflict damage,' the ninja maid thought to herself, reaching into her pockets for…more harmful implements.
Squelch-hop-BOOM!
This time, what was used were three bamboo tubes stabbed into V.V.'s chest, each packed with gunpowder and steel balls—exploding in the chest cavity, cracking bones and rending flesh as shrapnel tore through the boy's form, leaving him battered and broken—but not dead.
"Guarrghhhh," V.V. croaked as blood and entrails splattered the walls of the hallway, with a crimson sigil blazing into existence on his forehead as he had enough, using his Code to inflict shock images, terror, despair, worthless humiliation, darkness, grief, as red expanded within a large scale radius, with people crumpled, helpless before the might of his psychic assault.
More to the point, the wide-range mental attack managed to freeze Sayoko in place, giving V.V. the chance to raise his side arm and shoot her in the midsection with a resounding crack!
'An impressive talent for violence,' V.V. thought to himself, though as he stalked towards the Governor General's office, guns in hand, incapacitating those in his way with a barrage of shock images and unwanted emotions, and gunning them down afterwards. 'Never let it be said that C.C. was not a cunning witch, but this time, I hold all the cards.'
Without further incident, the young immortal arrived at the Governor General's office, opening the door to find a startled Euphemia li Britannia sitting behind her desk alone, watching as surrendered enemies were rounded up, only to look up at the sound of the door—freezing when she saw a figure drenched in blood and gore.
Click!
"Hello, Euphemia li Britannia, my dear niece," greeted the darkly sinister voice of the creepy child V.V., his dual pistols pointed right at the pink haired princess. "I suppose I should not be surprised that you have become a follower of the witch, a hindrance to my plans. After all, you did consort with the demon child back at Aries."
"So, are you here to kill me?" Euphie asked, steeling her voice and forcing her body to show a sense of calm.
"Heh, truly tempting, as I have already killed one princess today," V.V. replied with a sneer. "No, you are much more valuable to me as a hostage."
Then a crimson sigil flared, and the two figures vanished from the room, leaving behind a trail of blood and broken bodies, with a still living Sayoko forcing herself upright to stagger to the nearest guard detachment, which had come running at the sound of gunshots, and had been most lightly affected by the mental agony.
"Contact the base at Shikine Island," the wounded ninja maid gasped out. "Euphemia kidnapped by Britannian agent V.V…Zero must be informed."
Sword of Akasha
Floating in a world of clouds with no land or sky in sight was an immense temple-like megastructure, a system which had been designed as the focal point of the power of the collective unconscious, the heart of the World of C. It was this place that had given rise to the legends of Olympus, the depictions of Heaven, and all those other conceptions of what a home of the gods was supposed to be. It was here that the Twilight Door would open at the end of the Eden Vital War, granting a wish to the last Servant remaining, when all but one of the Seven were dead. And it was here that the immortal Code-bearer V.V. appeared in a flash of light, with an insensate Euphemia li Britannia sprawled out at his feet.
With a simple snap of his fingers, the eternally young boy summoned a black gear into existence under the form of the kidnapped princess, with the mechanism lifting the pink-haired prisoner into the air with strands of wispy smoke, pulling her body into the cage formed by the twisting prongs of the helix-like spear in the center of the temple, where it was unceremoniously dropped into a net of shadow and thoroughly trussed up, alongside a badly wounded orangette.
'Well, now that my insurance policy against Avenger's interference is ready, it is time to put the final plan into operation,' the immortal thought to himself, more than pleased with how he had managed to deal a little retribution for the pain he had suffered at the demon's hands. 'Thankfully, my Servant has control over the Thought Elevator and the systems within…'
First though, V.V. used his control over the World of C to remove the pesky bloodstains from his clothes, returning them to their original unsullied concept of existence, with his appearance shifting to his battle form of white robes embroidered with seven glowing eyes staring at the world. It had been a long time since he had been cloaked in this particular set of garments, with the last notable occasion being the final struggle of the war in which he had won his immortality.
As was proper for a mage, there was a tome of eldritch lore within his hands, a volume with a cover of wrought of snakeskin, with pages of parchment said to be made of razor thin unicorn-skin, serving as a high-level prana core all on its own, enabling the near instantaneous use of powerful ritual magic, a power to summon and bind mythical creatures to one's will.
"Ye first, O beasts of beyond the vale," the Code-bearer intoned, opening the volume as pages flipped and turned in the air, wind rising as the boy read on. "O Illusions born of ephemeral wishes, hear me in the name of the Codes that transcend time. Let the descending winds be as a wall, let the gates in all directions be opened, the threefold connection to the end of land revolve. Chaos and nemesis, beings bound to the fate of Pen Draig, answer my call and awaken!"
A powerful gust of wind howled down from above, as whump-whump-whump, in the distance could be heard the flapping of wings, as glimpses and teases of a serpentine form emerged from the thick clouds around the megastructure, light reflecting off the shimmering scales and teeth of an ancient Phantasmal Beast, one of several that guarded this land, having been summoned by V.V.'s Noble Phantasm De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm), a powerful grimoire remaining from the boy's time as Caster that gave the Code-bearer the ability to conjure and control mythical beasts.
Step step step. Pause. Step step step.
At the heavy beat of footsteps upon stone and the sound of his summoned creatures' wings, V.V.'s lips curled up into a cruel smile, something like what a shark would wear before devouring its prey.
"Charles," the immortal spoke aloud, "Are your preparations complete for the final phase?"
"Indeed," rumbled the deep bass voice of Charles zi Britannia, who looked remarkably unchanged from his usual form. "Our agents have visited the Thought Elevators, and I have spent considerable time within the Sword of Akasha ensuring that they have been synchronized and linked with one another, in preparation for our next move."
"Excellent," V.V. whispered, his fingers weaving out a set of strange patterns in the air as he rose up into the air, body glowing with a soft vermillion red aura. "Then come…let us begin…invoke the challenge to the Servants that remain."
"Very well then, my brother," replied Caster, stepping up to the helical spear forged of shadow wreathed masks as he closed his eyes, stretching out his consciousness to the corners of the world. "By the powers beyond the Twilight Door, I invoke…Ephemeral Masquerade!"
Outside the World of C, the symbol of Geass flared blood-red at the scattered Thought Elevators around the world, with helices of rust-colored phosphorescence shooting up from the ruins into the ionosphere, scattering all around, with a roar like distant thunder as the lands near the ruins quaked and shook, a sickly black mud flowing out as whispers, groans, mental shrieks lashed out from the collective unconsciousness to those who remained alive within the world of lies, showing them things that were, that once had been, that might have been, flickering from possibility to possibility with the condemnation of all-seeing retrospect.
Perhaps a pure and spotless saint could have tuned out this symphony of destruction, but who in a time of chaos could keep oneself clean, when no one was clean to begin with?
'It has begun…the Ragnarok Connection…'
Rider's Quarters, Aerial Battleship Avalon
After her consultation with the Governor General, in which the white-haired man had decided to send the aerial flotilla onward to Pendragon, Servant Rider had returned to her personal quarters on the Avalon to rest, as there was little else to do onboard the ship other than monitor the tactical situation or observe the technicians at work—and considering the strange looks of mingled awe and trepidation that she had been getting while in the guise of Zero, Kallen figured that efficiency would probably improve once she was out of sight.
'Which I suppose is the reason why Zero lets Avenger handle many of the Black Knights' field operations,' the redhead realized as she sat in front of a terminal, accessing the situation data from the relative comfort of her quarters—where at least she could remove the heavy (and rather stuffy) mask. 'Though I still don't know how either of them stand wearing that for too long…especially Zero, since I've never seen her without it.'
According to the tactical map, the fighting over the Tokyo Settlement had ceased, with the only active units remaining being those of the Black Knights and their allies, a sign that brought a tired smile to Kallen's face, as victory was at last theirs.
'Though I wonder how many of our own had to die, how much blood had to be shed to make this a reality?' she thought, winkling her nose at the unpleasant thought. 'Still, it is better than fighting and dying for no reason at all…'
The latest message had been a coded burst from the Government Bureau, registering the surrender of Britannian forces, with the reply including a video of Rider's duel with the Knight of One, spread all throughout the internet, and broadcast all over the news. By all accounts, things had gone well, amazingly well—so why did the Servant have a strange sense of foreboding?
'No reason at all, though I guess I'm just worried that something went wrong,' she mused, grimacing slightly as she considered why that might be. 'I've been spending too much time with Avenger, that's probably it—he's thrown off my mood.'
And then the screens clouded with static, as massive amounts of electromagnetic radiation surged through the air, manifesting in the sky as halos of red lightning with tendrils of red orange and green blue hanging down and arcing towards the sky like intelligent constructs resonating with a tune like whalesong, as sibilant whispers crept into her mind, showing her…
'My brother dying, being shot, being burned, being run over by a tank, being cut in two by a Slash Harken, being torn apart in an explosion. Another world with Zero, where the rebellion failed. A world where Lelouch is Zero and a green-haired girl is his mistress. A world with no Knightmares. A world where Lelouch became a demon emperor. A world…'
A kaleidoscope of infinite temptations and infinite realities, punctuated by—
'Death. Wartime, my death. Death by firing squad, death by being burned alive, death by being run over, death by Slash Harken, death by Refrain overdose, death by radiant wave surger, death by being killed by terrorists, death by knives, death by—'
A thousand deaths, a million deaths, the sensation of—
'Eyes gouged out, eyes popping from radiation, Fatigue, strain, carpal tunnel. Resistance is futile. Overgrowth, parched, drought. Lips, throat, body crumbling. Rumbles empty innards, dark hearth. Ulcer, acid reflux, diarrhea. Captivity, delirium, cognitive dissonance, Stockholm. Waterboarding, struggle, drowning, gurgle. Water cure, water dungeon, Water dropping, festering sores. A drip-drip-drip, drip-drip-drip randomly falling in syncopated patterned staccato. Untouchable, blinded, ripping off the toenails, gouging out organs with fleshy charbroiled fingers. Boiling sulfur, flesh flaying scalped alive, pitchcapping.'
"Auugh!" Servant Rider groaned, as screams flooded through her head, as a crimson disc of light pulsed outwards over the world, and everything went white.
Vermillion Forbidden City in Luoyang
Within the cockpit of his Gekka Pre-Production Test-type, Li Xingke was securing the front lines, his unit's heated chainsword slashing apart any forces still loyal to the High Eunuchs as part of his coup d'état, intending to return the young Empress Tianzi to a position of true power (from her current position as a puppet and figurehead of the government)—with himself acting as Regent while the Tianzi was still relearning the art of statecraft.
'I serve the people of my country—but most of all, I serve my Empress,' the man thought to himself as his sword slashed apart one Gun-Ru after another, intending to prove his loyalty through his prowess in battle. Saber had sworn his life to the young Empress ever since she had spared his life years ago, and now, he was repaying his debt by giving her a chance to shine in her own right—something which seemed much easier now that the High Eunuchs had been summarily executed by the demon that men called Avenger. 'I admit that I don't fully trust him, and that he makes me rather uneasy, with his shroud of blood and shadow, but…'
But Avenger and Zero had let him live, and more, had returned him to his country in order to allow him to save his Empress from the clutches of the Britannians, meaning that Xingke now owed the two masked revolutionaries a great debt as well—and unlike in Britannia, it wasn't considered the height of fashion to off those one owed debts to.
Crack-a-crack-a-crack!
The autocannon embedded in his unit's left arm opened fire, unleashing a torrent of lead as—
"Wauughhh!"
Mingled screams and whimpers came over the radio, as all motion in the city ground to a halt, as the sky was stained a fiery red, with the crimson moon shining down from above and the clouds seeming almost alive as wisps reached out for every mortal being, every living mind, revealing—
'Klaxon, siren, wailing. Dissonance, discord, cacophony. Keening, banshee, screeching. Silence, pause, pause. Metal, din, pots and pans, thunder. Ashes, ashes, soot, grime. Sewage, ooze, toxic waste. Defecate, defecate, release and urinate. Steep, hubris, stench. Tenderize, slit, lacerate, maul. Rub, Blister, raw, lance, boil, pierce. Shudder, jolt, tremble, spasm.'
Death. A world where he had not been spared by the Empress, where he had not been spared by Zero, where he had been assassinated by the High Eunuchs, where he had been stabbed by a young Britannian boy with the power of Geass, where he was a consul in Area 11, where—
Eyes widening as he experienced all these possibilities all at once, his mind overloading with things that had not been, and things that might yet be, Saber brought his hands to his ears in an attempt to stop the whispers, stop the screams, closing his eyes, but to no avail as—
Flash!
—the world faded away into a haze of white.
Bridge, Stealth Battlecruiser Skeith
On the bridge of the Stealth Battlecruiser Skeith, the Grey Witch's eyes widened as she felt a massive quaking in the collective unconscious as the eight Thought Elevators scattered around the world activated all at once, with another all-too familiar power imposing his will upon the World of C, attempting to draw in all that opposed him.
'Charles and V.V. have finally made their move , using the Thought Elevators as I feared they would,' Zero thought to herself, her grip tightening on the arms of her command chair ever so slightly. 'I can hear it, the sound of the unconscious weeping as it is forced to experience possibility upon discarded possibility…almost enough to make one want to surrender.'
Around her, the bridge crew began to shake, to tremble, as shock images invaded their vision, whimpers escaping their mouths as—
'Enough…you will not claim my crew,' C.C. mentally commanded, the crimson sigil on the Grey Witch's head flaring like a miniature sun, madder red light spilling from her body, radius expanding outwards to encompass the entire ship in a field of glowing hexagons, isolating it from destructive mental interference, pitting the power of her Code against a larger power, even at the cost of great strain upon her mind and body. 'I can't hold this shield for too long, so I suppose I must use my last resort, or was it the only resort from the very beginning?'
"Lady Zero, sensors are reporting a massive surge of electromagnetic activity," reported Ichijiku Hinata, analyzing the data at her console as the sheen of sweat shone on her forehead. "It's causing heavy interference with our data links."
"Activity has ceased completely in the city below—no sign of continued fighting, or movement at all," reported Ayame Futaba, not believing what she was seeing. "Zero, what are your orders?"
War. Blood stains. Lines of death. Retribution. Primal suffering screaming screaming screaming. Victims. The last day of Atlantis. War looms, war beckons. A thousand deaths, a thousand years, washed away in time.
Hiss!
The lift hissed open again, as a distraught Avenger stumbled through the doors, supported by Milly Ashford, who seemed rather concerned, and glanced at Zero pleadingly.
"No…no…no," the exiled prince whispered, pale and drawn beneath his mask, as he recalled the brief shock of images he had seen before the connection cut off, with the blonde escorting him to a seat and forcing him to sit down. "Nunnally was…nunnally was…"
"Helm, lay in a course for Lake Cheko, coordinates 60.964°N 101.86°E on the world map," C.C. ordered without delay, waiting for the confirmation nod from Mutsuki Minase, and continuing once she got it. "Proceed at flank speed."
That said, the immortal Witch rose from her seat and walked over to Avenger, hauling him upright and pulling him in the direction of the lift.
"Captain Inoue, the chair is yours," the Grey Witch said, relinquishing the chair. "Ladies, you have your orders. Avenger, come with me."
Without delay, Zero marched her Servant to the lift, proceeding from there to the Witch's personal quarters on board, sealing the doors behind them once they stepped inside, with both of them removing their masks, revealing a slightly strained expression on C.C.'s face, and absolute horror on Lelouch's.
"We have to go back to Area 11," Avenger all but hissed, eyes filled with a mingled grief, rage, and confusion. "Nunnally was, the Student Council was…V.V. he…he's waiting at Kamine Island. I…I have to go. I have to stop him."
If one looked closely, one might almost see shadows beginning to pulse violently around the distraught Servant, who had been exposed all at once to the one weakness in his armor: harm to his friends, harm to…
C.C. grabbed onto Avenger's shoulders, holding him in place before he could do anything rash.
"Listen to me, we can't go back," Zero whispered seriously, her golden eyes boring into royal purple as if seeing into his mind. "That's exactly what he wants us to do."
Avenger quieted under the raw power and force of the immortal's gaze, stilling himself with a deep breath, though inside his thoughts still ran wild.
"That's a start," C.C. continued. "Look, you are aware of what's happening, right? V.V. and Charles have made their move, using an ancient system called a Thought Elevator to extend their influence over the world."
"An Atlantean system?" the Servant asked sharply, as the green-haired Witch could only sigh.
"Unfortunately so," the immortal answered, her lips twisting into a grimace. "But that's not relevant at the moment. What is, is that all of Area 11 is within their reach from the Thought Elevator at Kamine Island, which you may know better as the Devil's Sea."
"…don't tell me there's also one in the Bermuda Triangle?" came the skeptical, almost sarcastic remark.
"…yes, actually," C.C. said wryly, tossing her hair. "You'd be surprised how many of the world's mysteries can be tied back to those ruins, capable of amplifying the thoughts of anyone within, or physically transporting one to the World of C. Just as we will need to physically enter that world in order to stop our enemies."
"I take it that there is one of these Thought Elevators at our destination then?"
"Indeed," Zero explained, keeping a hold on her Servant's, as she radiated calm towards him, soothing his mind as best she could—as only she could, as other Codes didn't affect him much. "It's not the one I have the best connection with, that one being Loe Pool in the British Isles, where I was once called the Lady of the Lake, but it is the next best alternative. Do you remember the Tunguska impact of 1908 ATB?"
A nod and a raised eyebrow from Avenger.
"Do you know why the comet didn't actually hit the ground?" the immortal pressed.
"Do these ruins have a self-defense mechanism of some kind?" Avenger hazarded a guess, to see C.C. smiling approvingly at him.
"That's right," the Grey Witch replied gravely, pulling the Servant close so as to embrace him, comfort him, her hands moving to caress his back as she walked them over to the bed and sat them down. "Now tell me what happened…"
An errant droplet of water issued from one of the corners of his eyes, followed by another, and another as Lelouch recalled the crystal clear images that had been shot into his mind by V.V.'s little mental assault, with the one that reality sank in, with the one that stood out the most an image of Nunnally. Specifically, Nunally's dead body slumped over in her wheelchair, a finger-sized hole between her eyes, and blood spilling all over her form, with the bullet-perforated form of Rivalz in the background, body cooling in a pool of blood. And then had come more images, images of Euphie and Shirley badly wounded, crucified between the prongs of a great helical spear within a temple of some sort, while V.V. stood laughing.
"I…its…how can I…" Lelouch began to babble, weak now that one of his reason for fighting were—"Mmmphhfff!"
But he found his head seized and pulled up, as the Grey Witch's lips came crashing down on the exiled prince's mouth in a rather violent, if passionate, kiss.
"You can fight, and you will, because if you don't, Euphie and Shirley will die by V.V.'s hands," she said fervently, while staring into the prince's eyes. "You will fight because you and I are the only ones who can stop him. And you will fight because you swore an oath that you would stay by my side until the end, warlock. Unless you were lying, of course—"
A long moment of silence as the two just looked at one another, considering.
"…I could never lie to you, witch," Lelouch admitted ruefully. "You know that."
"No, I suppose you couldn't, at that," C.C. replied, with a hint of a devilish smirk as she held him in her arms. "But for now, let me give you what comfort I can, alright, Avenger?"
"…very well, master, as you say," Avenger conceded, allowing himself to rest in her embrace, head cushioned against her soft bosom as he breathed in her unique scent. 'You really are an enigma, Caren Cybele Ortensia…my dear immortal witch…'
Phantasm World of Caster – "Ephemeral Masquerade"
When Kallen next opened her eyes, she found herself in an unknown Phantasm World, one that was akin to a featureless expanse of white, as she was dressed in the skintight red and black tubedress with detachable sleeves that served as her battle costume, chained nail-like daggers already in hand, red hair flowing in waves to her waist, seeming to shift here and there as with a life of its own—hungry for heat, hungry for plundered lifeforce.
Beside her was a man who she recognized as Li Xingke (Or "Saber," as she mentally corrected herself), who was apparently dressed in an ornate white and gold brigandine, covering torso, shoulders and thighs while remaining comfortable and flexible enough to allow movement, posture defiant as he nodded to Rider, then turned to what they both could instinctively feel was this world's source. Mounted to the wrist of his hands were liquid metal whips sharper than a razor, spinning quickly enough that they could barely be discerned as anything other than a mirrored sheen.
'Interesting…almost like a Slash Harken of some sort…one that he can rotate to use as a shield, as well as use to attack.'
And in his hand…
'I can't see what he's holding, though from the stance and name, I would certainly guess that he's a swordsman.'
The swordsman too had studied her, and nodded, giving the other Servant a salute with his invisible weapon, as dark ebullient laughter spilled from a place before them.
Turning to face the source of the sounds, the two warriors were confronted by the sight of Britannian Emperor Charles zi Britannia and a little boy standing on black gears that floated in the air, with the latter in white robes embroidered with seven glowing eyes.
Creepily enough, it was the blond boy who was laughing, as he read from the pages of a book covered with rainbow colored scales, his hands making passes over the tome of eldritch lore.
"Welcome, Rider and Saber to Caster's World," V.V. greeted amusedly, glancing over to his brother as the environment within shifted to a golden field of wheat, with the ominous funnel clouds of tornadoes in the distance and a great helical spear of shadow in the distance, with two human seeming figures writhing in the net in which they were caught. "I'm glad you could join us for the end of the world…and so I make you an offer. Resign yourselves to your defeat, and I will make your ends swift and painless."
"You Britannian bastard, what do you mean by that?" Kallen spat at the two, anger blazing in her eyes. "I've beaten your armies, your Knight of One, your other Champions. You have no idea what this badass mother can do!"
"Huhuhu, really?" V.V. inquired solicitously, as a fierce roar bellowed from the heavens, the whump-whump-whump of wings heralding the descent of an immense Phantasmal beast, easily half a kilometer in length, scales gleaming from its fire red belly, as its eight-forked head roared and its eight forked tail slashed viciously through the air, its eyes glowing red with malevolence. "So tell me, Eleven…can you defeat what my Noble Phantasm has summoned? Can you beat this Yamata no Orochi?"
So he asked before withdrawing from range, as the dragon plummeted past him to attack the intruders in this world.
'Oh hell,' Rider thought, her eyes going wide at the sight of the creature before her, a creature out of myth and legend that had taken a god to defeat. Clearly, her chained daggers would not be enough for this battle, so…
"Mark Nemo!"
A quick slash of her hand to draw blood, and droplets splattered out, floating in midair as they flowed into a magic circle, surrounding Rider's form with a crimson vortex of heat and fire, the summoning circle duplicating itself again and again, blazing with light as a massive shadow erupted from the ground below. A monstrous inhuman weapon standing over 5 meters tall, wrought of congealed shadow and blood like a fallen angel stripped of its wings, armed with a jet black katana and numerous remote rocket anchors called Blonde Knives (similar to Slash Harkens), capable of piercing even the most powerful of armors, this was Rider's greatest Noble Phantasm, the crystallization of the fear of an inhuman enemy.
'And I'm about to use it against something even more inhuman than a Knightmare.'
Without a mount of his own to use, Saber managed as best he could by vaulting onto the shoulder of the Knightmare Frame, invisible sword in hand.
'The Yamata no Orochi…is this the beast from where my Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was drawn?' Saber mused, shaking his head to clear it of idle thought.
"Come, Rider…let us finish this foul beast," intoned Saber, sword at the ready as he stood, perched upon a moving Knightmare Frame.
"Right," Rider replied, raising her unit's Katana and leaping high into the air, blonde Knives whir whir whiring at the enemy, as the dragon rushed at them with blinding speed and V.V. only laughed.
A/N: So the time comes for the final battles in Phantasmagoria, with the world at stake, of course. And V.V. has summoned up a rather nasty creature as a guard, as the Yamata no Orochi is not exactly a joke. Thanks for reading, and reviews are highly appreciated!