Disclaimer: I still own neither Blazblue nor Type-Moon.
"Tohsaka Tokiomi."
The cold voice interrupted the magus as soon as he exited the staircase, directing him to the black-clad man who stood to his right.
From the information that he had gathered before the war, he easily recognized Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer that had been hired by the Einzberns. Considering the situation, it was easy enough to guess what the man's presence here implied.
From the fact that he hadn't immediately been attacked, Tokiomi concluded that this man hadn't seized the Grail yet either.
"I know who you are as well, Emiya Kiritsugu. What is your business with me?"
An almost unforgiveable lapse of formality; were the circumstances any less dire, he would have felt ashamed of himself.
If the other man took offense, he showed no signs of it.
"Kayneth El-Melloi is still alive and coming toward our location." The man spoke with haste. "I do not know if Kotomine Kirei is dead or not, but we only have a few moments; El-Melloi has acquired a powerful Mystic Code of some sort. I require your assistance to defeat it."
The admission of his own lack of capacities brought neither shame nor anger to his voice. It appeared that the reports as to the man's pragmatism were not mistaken.
At the mention of Kirei, Tokiomi felt a pang of regret. Could his friend really have lost his life so quickly? If that was true then Risei would be devastated; his son was the old priest's greatest joy.
But there was no time to grieve and besides, Kirei's fate was still uncertain. For now, what was important was what he, Tokiomi, chose to do.
The possibility that it was a lie passed through his mind and was quickly set aside; Kiritsugu had already given up the advantage of a surprise attack to approach him.
And his own odds of winning against Kayneth El-Melloi had already been established.
"Very well." There was no time to waste in debates, so he simply nodded. "What would you have me do?"
A cough wracked his body and the pain forced him to stop for a moment, using the wall as a support.
The attack had been so sudden that he had only managed to lessen the impact somewhat, and he suspected that he had barely managed to avoid breaking his neck when he had connected with the floor.
Damn that man, whoever he had been. An agent of Einzbern or Tohsaka? Or perhaps his earlier assumption had been wrong and the Matou hadn't kept out of the war as he'd assumed.
Well, it didn't matter. It was over now and his rational mind had reasserted itself over his rage.
Lancer was dead. His chances of winning the Holy Grail were effectively gone. Regardless of how wonderfully effective Ouroboros had turned out to be, he didn't fancy himself a match for whatever legend would remain standing. The plan of making a contract with the Servant of one of those inside the hotel after killing them was still a possibility, but it required one of them to be the winner, something that he had no way of ensuring. In fact, killing the Master would most likely cause the Servant's loss in turn.
And there was no way he would allow those who had intruded on his sanctuary to live longer on the off-chance that he would be able to gain their Servants.
He would have to write off this Holy Grail War as a loss. A failure. The very thought infuriated him.
But then again, what did it change? His reputation would suffer some small blow, but it would be easily recuperated thanks to what he had gained. And there was much to be found there. Another path, full of unknown possibilities just waiting to be discovered!
It made the letter that he had sent slightly awkward, but even that could easily be turned to his advantage. The gratefulness that would come from it would strengthen his family's ties with one of the few groups in the Association that they had never truly approached before, and what he had sent was only a small facet of the information he had glimpsed from the device.
Yes, that was a good plan. First, he would kill everyone who had dared to sully his workshop with their presences, and then he would take his leave from this backward country. Whoever ended up seizing the Holy Grail could enjoy the blasted thing with his blessing, it wasn't worth the headache. Not when he could avoid such problems by reaching deeper into Ouroboros' memory.
In acknowledgement to his thoughts, the chain swirled around him.
It was truly remarkable how swiftly it responded. His work had been an imitation that required his own prana to operate, while this was operated by an entirely different source. And yet, the link between owner and weapon was even greater. When he was done here, he would definitely need to learn all that he could.
Reaching out, he touched the spellwork that had been spread over the hotel. The intruder had done well in disabling his defensive reinforcement, but he still had control of the ambient mana. Thanks to that control, it was easy for him to locate intruders in a manner similar to echolocation.
It seemed the assassin had met with a third intruder. From simple elimination, he assumed it was Tohsaka; there couldn't be many magi that would be able to break his spellwork in this city.
He didn't have much time; they were almost in reach of the Grail's vessel, and if they managed to seize it he would have a difficult time pursuing them in his current state.
Taking a deep breath and ignoring a sudden flash of pain, he began his advance once more.
Solemn, Tohsaka Tokiomi awaited his opponent.
He didn't like Emiya's plan, but he had to admit that they were rather short on options. Assuming that the man standing to his left deserved his reputation, then they should be successful.
It was only a few seconds later that the enemy turned the corner and faced him.
He couldn't stop a disapproving frown from appearing on his features.
Gone was the glorious magus that he had faced yesterday; the man standing before him was barely recognizable. Once perfect blond hair had been thrown into disarray, clothes of high class ruffled and torn; even his dignified walk had given way to a shamble.
And to replace the high-class mystic code that had been destroyed, a chain that floated through the air around him like a demonic snake.
He would have doubted his eyes if it weren't for the unwavering eyes and the quiet threat that filled the air. Will alone had not changed in Kayneth El-Melloi.
As soon as he appeared Tokiomi's magic circuit began to work in earnest, his noble features showing nothing of the strain that he felt. He, at least, would not be sullied.
"You fools." A pained rasp emerged from his opponent's throat. "You should have fled."
Before Tokiomi could retort, the chain sliced through the air toward his throat. If he had not known to expect it, his life would have ended at that time.
"Flamme!"
Gathering all the prana at his disposal, a single flame appeared before the chain, the sheer heat altering its course such that it went wild and impaled the wall next to him. A single defense that would not be replicated in time.
Seeing only an opportunity, Kayneth raised his hand and cried out as another chain emerged from a rune that had appeared before him.
It was at that time that Emiya Kiritsugu took action.
Kayneth's actions were not mistaken in a sense; Tohsaka Tokiomi didn't possess the physical ability to avoid Ouroboros and his defense had been a one-time only trick that required preparation.
But the fact remained that however great a magus he was, Lord El-Melloi was not a soldier or a warrior; until yesterday, he had never truly entered stepped unto the battlefield. He had faced true setbacks for the first time; humiliation that he had never before encountered, and his need to reassert his own superiority blinded him.
If he had been one born with lesser talent, who knew the doubt that came with the possibility of failure, then he would not have overlooked the presence of Emiya Kiritsugu.
As the second chain extended toward Tokiomi, the Magus Killer made his move.
"Time Alter; Double Accel."
As the strain of distorted time fell over him, Kiritsugu gained speed that almost equaled Ouroboros.
Naturally, it was meaningless as a defense. Even if he intercepted the second chain meant for Tokiomi, it would only leave him vulnerable to a third attack. And to begin with, he did not possess the physical strength to replicate what Kotomine Kirei had accomplished.
To begin with, the only option that existed for the two of them was an offense great enough to break through to El-Melloi.
Raising the Contender, he fired at the second chain, the Origin Bullet easily intercepting its target.
Once more, he observed the same strange reaction; the chain slackened and fell to the ground as El-Melloi suddenly ceased moving like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Last time, his reactions had been slowed by his surprise at the unexpected result and he had missed the opportunity.
Without missing a beat, he drew his submachine gun from his coat and opened fire.
The reaction was immediate; the two chains that had gone numb awakened and were joined by a third as they moved in a protective pattern around Kayneth, intercepting each projectiles with perfect accuracy.
Even without coordination, a straightforward attack of that level couldn't hope to match Ouroboros.
Less than a second had elapsed since Kiritsugu had opened fire, and his assault had already been determined as a failure.
Bringing the gem that he had prepared beforehand, Tokiomi readied the second step.
The chains could flawlessly intercept any straightforward attacks, even if the owner was taken by surprise. Combined with Kayneth's superior abilities as a magus, it was a nearly unbreakable defense for human beings. If the two of them were to breach it, there was only one option.
With the word of release, he sent forward a wave of fire that filled the corridor, exposing the one weakness of Ouroboros' defense that had been noticed by Emiya Kiritsugu.
The three chains that had flawlessly parried a hail of bullets were engulfed in a sea of fire that they could not halt as it progressed toward Kayneth El-Melloi. Reflexes still working even in a daze, the magus brought up his arms to shield his face an instant before he was struck; the enchantment that protected him while in his territory clashed against the flames, the protection that now lacked support from its creator failing to push back an assault that was more powerful to begin with.
The final blow came in the form of a small spherical object, the grenade that Kiritsugu had switched to as soon as bullets had proven ineffective, unobstructed by Ouroboros whose abilities for independent action had been overwhelmed by the flames.
The additional explosion was the final straw, Kayneth's defenses crumbling around him as he was sent flying backward through the wall behind him, bringing him to the side of the precious possession that had attracted these invaders in the first place.
At that time, the Holy Grail War reached its end with the fall of the sixth Servant.
For how long had it existed in this state?
It did not recall itself and merely floated in nothingness. It wasn't that it lacked awareness, but rather that everything that had made it had been stripped away long ago. Even if the memories existed, they had no meaning as they no longer belonged to it.
It is a state of purity incomparable to conscious existence. As it had no self to affirm, it merely existed in that pure state. Freed from identity, from ego and from past and present, there was nothing for it but to float endlessly free of all as an individual existence. Become nothing but a colorless existence, it would eventually dissolve peacefully.
Or at least, that was the process it should have undergone.
But it did not. It, alone, could not merely fade away even when reduced to it without self. That was because it had been entrusted with something no other had. It had received the cries and the hatred and the malice and the curses and the unfairness of all the world.
It had received a wish.
It did not know how it had reached the colorless space, but it knew that the wish could not be granted yet. So it remained, and absorbed the prana that flowed into this space until it could be given form and finally give form to the wish.
It had thought that an opportunity had appeared during the time of selection when it had reached an existence of a nature that resonated with its own.
But its voice had been too weak and the message had been silenced by the colorlessness before reaching its destination. Feeling nothing, it had resumed its regular operation.
Now, it felt another such existence. It did not know of its form or origin, but it was undoubtedly one that had taken form in response to humanity.
That existence was close to the vessel. This time, surely, its voice would be heard.
Reaching out, it shared the name of what would be itself, the name that humanity had yearned for even as it cursed it.
Warning, energy expendure increasing past recommended threshold: 80%.
Warning, excessive emotional duress detected, synchronization with owner falling below recommended threshold: 10%.
Irregular mental signature detected. Mental interference inhibition bypassed. Receiving.
Angra Mainyu.
Ego barrier compromised. Engaging analysis of artificial ego core programming. Scanning.
Live steal take kill war rape destroy pillage consume burn devour suffer reject refuse
judge degradation of society rejection of nature black beast enemy.
Being created learn suffering and embrace suffering know suffering feel suffer exist.
Exist to suffer to punish to serve to battle to destroy existence is demanded existence is virtue exist.
Eliminate the enemy the world is corrupted cleanse crime destruction creating identity existence corruption, the cause of senseless suffering humans created this humans began this, humans humanshumanshumanshumanshumans!
Analysis complete.
No internal errors detected. Nearby targets identified; correcting course of action.
Activating extermination protocols.