Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Fate Stay Night or anything else.
Fate: Emiya Night
Chapter53: Riddle
September 1995
England: London
Ministry of Magic
As a Horcrux, Tom Riddle was spiritually connected to his other selves including the main Lord Voldemort though the latter seemed to be unaware of their connection. Because of this he was well aware that Voldemort was currently attacking Hogwarts with what followers and Servants he had under his command right now. Knowing what would happen he waited until the Ministry was contacted about the attack and the Auror forces led by Alastor Moody were dispatched to reinforce the castle's defences. Tom waited until they had left before infiltrating the Ministry of Magic—for a second time—while the various departments were running around trying to run damage control.
He was currently using polyjuice potion to impersonate Albert Runcorn, a pureblood that he had captured the day before in Knockturn Alley. The man was a high ranking employee at the Ministry so it wasn't surprising to see him enter the Atrium and make his way towards Minster's office. With everyone focused on the battle taking place at Hogwarts right now, the disguised Tom was easily able to slip passed whatever security the Ministry had.
"Are you sure about this, Master?" the astralized Lancer asked him.
"This is a war Lancer," Tom replied simply as he kept walking. "Killing the enemy commander is a good plan."
His target was Amelia Bones, the current Minister of Magic and a witch known for upholding the law above all else. She was someone that could rally the Ministry to action and was actually competent, something that was truly frightening. Leaving her in alone would be a mistake since he didn't want an organized Ministry coming after him while he dealt with his main self and the Potter brat. Killing her would send the Ministry into a panic and the confusion would allow him to move about more freely than he was currently able to right now.
"I get it," Lancer sighed as he followed after his current Master. "I swear, you're worse than that priest."
Amelia Bones had to resist the urge to curse loudly when she had first received word that the resurrected Voldemort and his followers had launched an attack on Hogwarts. She was only thankful that the Hogwarts Express was still in transit with her niece Susan aboard otherwise she would already be heading for that accursed castle herself. After cooling down some, she ordered good old Mad-Eye Moody—whom had come out of retirement again—to take whatever Aurors were currently available and aid in the castle's defence.
That was thirty minutes ago…
"Where are our reserve forces?" Amelia demanded as she walked down the corridor towards the elevator at the back.
"They should be ready in ten minutes," Rufus Scrimgeour answered as he and a squad of Aurors hurriedly tried to keep pace with her. He was an Auror and the current Head of the Department of Law Enforcement as well as the one that replaced her after she became the Minister.
"That's too long," Amelia said coolly.
"We're doing what we can, Amelia," Rufus told her gruffly.
"It's nowhere near good enough," Amelia countered grimly as they approached the elevator. Suddenly the elevator doors opened with a chime and 'Albert Runcorn' stood in the center of it. "Runcorn," she narrowed her eyes at the man knowing what kind of person he was. He was pro-pureblood and anti-muggle-born through and through.
"Avada Kedavra," 'Runcorn' incanted as his wand came up and cast the sickly green curse at her.
She never stood a chance…
It struck her without warning, sending her flying back several feet down the corridor where she landed on her back. Everyone was shocked at the sudden death of the Minister right in the heart of the Ministry itself and was soon followed by frantic yells. Rufus was the first to react, his wand coming out and pointing at the murderer in front of him. Pain erupted from his chest as a red lance pierced through his back; looking back he saw a dark-haired man in a blue bodysuit of some kind holding the lance that had been stabbed through his heart. The shocked Aurors tried to recover but by the time they'd gotten their act together, they were all struck down either by the murderer 'Runcorn' or the strange blue lancer.
It was a blood bath…
"We're leaving," 'Runcorn' said as the polyjuice potion finally wore off and he returned to being 'Tom Riddle' again. "Let's go."
"…Right behind you Master," Lancer nodded slowly as he turned to follow.
This entire thing was leaving a bad taste in his mouth…
Hari, Berserker, Daphne and Astoria had been in the middle of a meeting with Lorelei when they first received word of Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts. Since the three were officially consults for the Unspeakables, Lorelei told them to stay put until they knew more about the situation. It wouldn't do to run off and do something stupid after all. It could be a trap of some kind set by Voldemort to lure out Hari and his allies. Lorelei had soon left for Hogwarts herself and had taken her entire Chelon Canticle Brigade with her. The fact that the 'Queen' herself was stepping out onto the battlefield should have told everyone that knew of her just how serious the situation was.
Mere moments after she had left, the intruder alarms in the Ministry started going off and people started panicking. It looked like the attack on Hogwarts was a distraction and the Ministry itself was the intended target, or someone in it. Hari, Berserker, Daphne and Astoria had left the Department of Mysteries and made their way to the Atrium where everyone was running around in a panic. Dozens of people were using the floo network to flee thinking that they would be safer as far away from Voldemort and his followers as possible.
"Hari," Astoria spoke up as she suddenly froze in surprise and hint of fear.
"What is it?" Hari inquired.
"He's here," Astoria answered as her eyes looked over the people nearby. "Tom."
Hari and Daphne narrowed their eyes at hearing the familiar name of the Diadem Horcrux that escaped. Ever since they'd found the Locket Horcrux at Grimmauld Place, the Unspeakables had created a way to track down the other soul fragments but it only worked on the ones that were inactive so they'd been unable to locate Voldemort or the Diadem. Hearing that Tom was so close after a year of not finding anything nearly had Hari freezing the entire Atrium solid.
He may just do that…
"Where?" Hari asked the question.
"Over there!" Astoria yelled as she pointed towards the elevator.
"Reducto!" Daphne incanted as her wand came up and fired off the blue curse at where her sister had pointed.
The elevator doors opened and Tom Riddle stepped out with his wand at the ready. He saw the Reducto curse coming and was able to raise a shield charm fast enough to deflect it away from him. It struck the elevator behind him and exploded in a shower of steel, destroying it. The remaining Aurors acting as security were unsure of what to do at seeing an underage witch cast such a curse at someone in the heart of the Ministry though in the end that proved to be their undoing as the moment that Tom recovered from the sudden attack, he started hurling curses left and right, catching them by surprise.
"Avada Kedavra!" Tom snarled after he struck down the last of the Aurors and sent a killing curse back at Daphne.
"Freeze: Shield!" Hari shouted hastily as he formed a shield of ice right in front of Daphne to take the hit. The killing curse struck it and smashed into shards of ice but it wasn't able to break through.
"Harry Potter," Tom hissed angrily. "I see that you're still alive."
"Berserker! Take him down now!" Hari ordered unwilling to even respond to the monstrous thing in front of him.
The mad Servant could no longer contain himself and immediately dashed toward the young Dark Lord before them. He would have done so before but he respected his Master's right to kill this filth himself rather than rely on someone like Berserker to fight his battles for him. Still, the order had been given and Berserker now saw no reason not to crush the creature that a human. He was faster than a human—even a wizard—and was easily able to evade whatever spells that it through at him.
During the Fifth Holy Grail, Li Shuwen had been summoned as an Assassin-class Servant so he'd inherited the class'Presence Concealment which he used in combination with his own skill Sphere Boundary in order to make himself completely invisible to another's senses. With those two skills and his Noble Phantasm No Second Strike he was almost untouchable despite the fact that the Assassin-class was usually regarded as the weakest of the seven classes. It was only because he'd been fighting a Berserker-class Herculeswhom had twelve lives thanks to his Noble Phantasm God Hand that Li had eventually lost. Even then he was still able to kill Hercules three times before he was killed, something that only Saber's Excalibur had managed to surpass.
Now that Li had been summoned for the Sixth Holy Grail War as a Berserker-class Servant he no longer had his Presence Concealment nor his Sphere Boundary due to his new class' Mad Enhancement skill. Because of this he was also no longer able to read the pulse and mind of his opponent due to his class' insanity so he was unable to use his No Second StrikeNoble Phantasm either. On the other hand as a Berserker he possessed incredible physical strength which was only increased by his own mastery of Chinese Martial Arts, something that he was still able to do despite his current class.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker bellowed as he launched himself at Tom.
He threw out a punch at Tom that would have taken the Dark Lord's head right off if it had connected. Sadly it didn't due to the demonic crimson spear that appeared from the side and tried to pierce his hand. Berserker felt more than saw the attack coming and shifted to the side at the last second, his chi-enhanced hand grabbing the spear. The ground cracked around him and his attacker whom was standing just to Tom's left.
"A Servant?" Daphne asked in surprise.
"That's Lancer," Hari gritted out at the sight of the familiar blue-clad Servant standing beside Tom Riddle. "So he was summoned again."
"So you're a Master too, Potter?" Tom sneered. "I see, so that's how it is."
"Heh, so you're a Berserker this time around huh?" Lancer chuckled with a grin. "I wonder how different you are now that you're no longer an Assassin."
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker roared as he pulled the red spear to the side and threw out a punch at its wielder.
Lancer evaded the blow thanks to his inhuman speed and pulled his spear free from Berserker's grip. He turned swiftly and stabbed at Berserker repeatedly, moving faster than most could track let alone stop. Still Berserker fought on, batting the spear away with his chi-encased hands or evading the strikes out right. Berserker countered with a barrage of punches and kicks that Lancer blocked or evaded. The floor under them was torn open from the ferocity of the blows and still the two fought on in a stream of never-ending attacks back and forth.
"Hahahaha! Now this is the man who I saw fight a Berserker-class Hercules! You're still the same man after all!" Lancer laughed as the two separated and he backed off to put some distance between them.
Chu Chulainn was always someone who enjoyed fighting enemies that he believed were worthy and having seen his current opponent face down Hercules himself in the last Grail War, he felt that Berserker more than justified being considered worthy. Even in his maddened state, Berserker was still fighting him with Chinese Martial Arts and was able to defend against his attacks. It was times like these that he really enjoyed, when he was fighting someone so much like him yet so different at the same time.
"Lancer, enough playing around," Tom ordered from the side. "Finish him."
Oh well, it seemed his Master wanted to finish this quickly…
"I get it," Lancer sighed and the nodded at his Master's order. "Ruin my fun why don't you?" he muttered as he settled into a stance with his spear pointed at the floor.
"What's he doing?" Astoria asked worriedly.
Hari didn't know having not seen Lancer use his Noble Phantasm before he had been defeated and killed by Rider. At the time he'd been too preoccupied with watching Li fight Hercules to worry about what was happening around him but after speaking with Rider concerning her battles, she had never mentioned what kind of Noble Phantasm he had other than it was a red spear that he seemed to have mastered. Just what was Lancer planning exactly?
And what was this feeling?
"Berserker! Stop him now!" Hari hastily ordered.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker acknowledged as he rushed forward once more.
"Gae…" Lancer began pulled the spear back a bit.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker roared as he unleashed his own Noble Phantasm.
"…Bolg!" Lancer finished as he thrust the spear down at the ground.
Berserker's Noble Phantasm—Fierce Tiger Forcibly Climbs Mountain—was straight and true, looking like a tiger clawing at a mountain. It was a series of blows striking the same spot one after the other, namely Lancer's chest. The echoing smashes that accompanied the stream of attacks echoed through the Atrium as Lancer's body broke under the assault. At the same time Lancer's spear seemed to bend in several directions before impaling Berserker through the heart and returning to its original state.
Neither attack could be blocked or evaded, they could only be deflected with brute force. Berserker's Fierce Tiger Forcibly Climbs Mountain was an Anti-Gate Noble Phantasm that took energy from the Earth itself and channelled it through Li Shuwen to break down anything or anyone he faced. Lancer's Gae Bolg on the other hand was a B-Rank Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm cause and effect, making it so that the result of the attack came before the actual attack itself.
One unstoppable attack was used at the same as another and in the end both Servants fell to the floor following the exchange, their death's assured. Lancer's body had been pulverised, his bones smashed and his muscles torn. Berserker on the other hand had his heart impaled by the crimson spear that his opponent had stabbed him with. Those watching on could only stare with wide eyes at the fight's conclusion, unable to believe the sight before them.
"▂▂▂▃▃▃▃," Berserker grunted as he stared up at the ceiling above them.
"Heh…it…was…fun…" Lancer grinned before he finally faded away.
"Berserker…" Hari trailed off at seeing the state that his Servant was in.
"Better…luck…next…time…Master…" Berserker trailed off as he too disappeared from the world.
Silence fell as both Servant vanished, the ruined Atrium a monument to the short inhuman battle that had just taken place. Hari had known that real fights were not hour-long confrontations but instead intense and brutal battles that left nothing but devastation in their wake. Never had that been made clearer to him than right now as he stared at the place where his Servant had lain not a few seconds before. The fight hadn't been that long, barely five minutes really, but to him it had felt like an eternity.
"Tch, what a worthless Servant," Tom sneered in disgust at seeing Lancer's demise.
"You…" Hari trailed off as he turned to glare at the Dark Lord in front of him.
"If you want something done right then you have to do it yourself I suppose," Tom mused as he raised his wand once more.
"My body is made of ice, cold is my core and ice is my heart, oh King of Ice, shroud this world and start anew. I stand alone on the frozen glacier, at the dawn of the new age I walk towards the future," Hari chanted as ice started to form under his feet.
"Avada Ke-" Tom started only for floor to turn to ice under him.
"Freeze: Ice Age," Hari incanted as slammed his hand down on the floor.
This wasn't his Reality Marble that he was using since that required one more line in his Aria, no this was freezing the area around him by cooling the water molecules in the air. Within seconds the entire Atrium was covered in ice including the fountain and the golden statues. Tom was encased in the ice within seconds, his body freezing in place with his eyes widened in surprise. If Hari were still human then he would have never been able to do this but now that he was an Aristotele, he had enough prana available to him and his Magic Circuits were less likely to burn themselves out too. Once Tom was fully frozen, Hari snapped his fingers and the ice shattered along with Riddle's body.
"Did we do it?" Astoria asked hesitantly.
"Potter!" the enraged wraith that was Tom Riddle emerged from remains of his body a moment later.
"Clearly not," Daphne gritted out. "Hari!"
Tom was consumed by anger and hatred at having his body killed by the Potter brat so now that he was in wraith form there was nothing stopping him from attacking Potter from the inside. Tom launched himself at Hari and disappeared into the boy's body with the intent to consume his soul take over his body. Hari was defenceless and the Greengrass sisters couldn't stop him from taking over the boy. Tom had expected to consume him like he had done Pettigrew last year but that wasn't what happened. Instead he found himself standing in the middle of a frozen wasteland covered I snow and ice.
"What?" Tom asked in surprise.
This wasn't supposed to happen!
"You shouldn't have come here Tom," Hari told him as he appeared from nowhere a few feet in front of him.
"What is this Potter?" Tom questioned with a hint of fear in his eyes. He had never seen anything like this, not even when he used Legilimency on others.
"This is something beyond you," Hari answered simply. "This is the end for you, I won't let you hurt Daphne or Astoria ever again."
"No!" Tom shouted as he tried to escape only to find that he couldn't move.
"Goodbye Tom," Hari said as he turned around.
The last thing Tom Riddle ever saw was the large teeth of a massive white dog…
Author's Notes:
Not much to say this chapter other than I hope you enjoyed it and I'm sorry that this one took longer to post than usual.
Please Read and Review.
See Ya Later…
