The awaited final confrontation between Roa and Dantès is here! Ended up longer than I expected, but I'm really proud of the end product. Hope you like it, and if so do consider to leave a review ( that would surely be welcomed)!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail nor Fate/Stay Night.
Arc 1
Chapter 9: Vengeful Demon
Extending a hand, the man touched the barrel. An ancient relic of eons ago, said to contain the ashes of God's Son.
From its black surface a bit of light shone. It kept glowing more and more. As it became brighter and brighter, everything around it started to vanish in a flash of pure white. Reality broke down into pieces, falling like an old house. Cracks formed in the air, like a glass window that shattered into milion fragments.
A new world appeared in front of him, one he could not comprehend. Law and physic had no meaning in there. Emotions and memories were no more. Past and future both connected yet still distant.
A place forgotten by history, unreachable for mankind and beyond the horizon of life and death.
No sound nor smell. No light nor shadows. Neither ground or sky. An emptiness that reached the absolute void. Only him and a black point in the distance.
He walked toward it. No, it could not be called walk since his feet stood on the nothingness. He simply moved. Or was the black object moving toward him? There was no sense of space at all. And not even time. Few seconds? Minutes? Or perhaps hours? He could not tell for sure.
He could not rely on his senses. Nor on his perception. All was weird and distorted. Nothing made sense anymore.
But he kept going on, unconcerned by everything. His heart was still beating. He could feel it despite not being able to hear its beat. He was still alive despite not breathing nor thinking. His soul was still there, and so was his will. He could still walk ahead. He needed to walk ahead. Move. Move. Move forward.
An eternity passed. A blink of eye passed. A thousand miles were travelled. A single step was made. And the two reached each other, as if fate united them.
A black box, its shape constantly changing and never the same. It landed on his hand. Or was it always there to begin with? And then it opened, and Magic leaked out in the form of an angelic figure. A woman with wings. An angel, one of the Gods messenger. Too beatiful to be human, yet it didn't interest him in the least.
Something enter inside him, this he could definitely tell. Powerful. Divine. Hot, so hot. An ardent flame, burning strongly as his desire for vengeance.
The man then clenched his fist, and his vision blacked out.
Waking up again in the temple, he looked up and the barrel was no more. It vanished, never to be found in the world again. But it did left a gift behind.
A black flame now burned in the palm of his hand. A blazing, holy fire of darkness that held no love nor hatred. Only a purpose, that of scorching the wicked and evil.
And a laugh followed. One that came from the heart, and echoed all around the altar on which he was standing.
"Oh ho, look at what we have here. Yet another uninvited guest has joined me tonight. Today really seems like the day of unexpected visits, doesn't it?"
A welcome not so welcome. Glancing with fiery, crimson eyes at the newcomer, Roa gave no sign of apparent interest. Or rather there was, but only in the form of a small hint of annoyance. The Grail should be fully filled by any moment now, and his wish would then become reality, so distractions were certainly not welcomed. The sole idea that someone could interrupt him right on that moment was quite disturbing to say the least. He was not going to allow any affront of sort. The nuisance was going to be eliminate as quickly as possible.
"Existing beyond the horizon of love and hate. The embodiment of vengeance, an eternal flame that will burn every sinful soul of this world, now stands before you. I am Avenger."
In saying this, Avenger's coat flapped up and revealed a suit beneath it. Wearing fully green, with a fedora hat above his silver colored hair, the man presented himself. A calm voice, slightly metallic, that showed no emotions. Yet rage and hatred were evident from his threatening way of speaking and feral gaze.
"Hmph. Like I already said, I have no interest in the name's of mere humans. A multitude of pebbles, one like the other. In my eyes, you are no more than miserable, pathetic creatures that struggles to even exist. Your only use is to serve me as mindless slaves."
A last statement before shutting down any possible discussion that may start in the middle of the battle. He was going to be fast this time. No need to enjoy nor unnecessary waste of time and energy.
"...Oh, but you'll need it."
Sparks cracked between the two.
The tense atmosphere in the room was overwhelming. The two sides were staring at each other, both waiting for the other to make a move. They were in a situation of stall, ready to attack as soon as a chance appeared. And then the stall broke.
The first one to strike was Avenger. With a simple motion of his index finger covered by lightning, he drew an horizontal line in the air. Manipulating the electrical forces between atoms, he tore Roa's body in two with a clean cut. A simple but effective ranged slash that easily bypassed any protection that the Dead Apostole had, directly damaging his body.
But such attacks had little effect on his opponent as his body reattached itself in mere seconds.
Then it was Roa's turn. A single flick of his fingers and nine purple circles materialized behind him. From each of those magical pentagrams emerged a snake shaped thunder bolt whose fangs were ready to bite the target. Like a single synchronized unit, they all attack simultaneously with their jaws all open to feast on the green cloaked mage. But the man didn't move an inch, his body still and his smile unfazed in front of those nine strikes.
"Let's see if the vengeful tiger's fangs can defeat the venomous snake of Hell."
Blue met purple. Lightning met lightning. Nine tiger shaped thunder bolts took form beside Avenger, and leaped forward. All it took was a single instant for the roles to switch, and suddenly the predators became the preys.
The reptiles tried to wrap themselves around the beasts in an attempt to crush them in mortal embraces, but failed and instead got mauled by the ferocious mammals whose sharp claws sinked deep inside their bodies. The attack got disrupted and a flash dazzled the entire room.
Punching the ground, Edmond summoned a stream of lightning that run across the floor. Pillars of energy erupted like geysers and rampaged in all directions, bombarding Roa in consecutive blasts of high voltage.
"I heard rumors about your research on eternal life...I must wonder if you truly believe in such worthless nonsense or you're simply crazy. Either way, that which you wish, the object of your desires, is meaningless. For you, who sought something like that in exchange of so many lives, not even Hell welcomes your wicked soul. But congratulations, sinner, for I have came in the Devil's place to punish you."
Holes filled Roa's body as his flesh got shredded into atoms. Yet it was no cause of concern for one with such level of regeneration. Barely perceivable was the level of pain he felt just now, which amounted to no more than a simple tickling at best. Big talks and no substance, just like any other human being.
A small cloud of smoke gave pause to the noisy sound of destroyed concrete. Then, like a shark pouncing to its food, the undead jumped out with a vicious smile. Collecting the spilled blood in a single scythe shaped weapon, he aimed to mow his enemy and color the floor of a beautiful red.
"You insolent weakling, how dare you talking like that to me? Maybe you're in need of a lesson of humility. I shall show you just how insignificant you are before me. And after the beating you're about to receive, let's see if you'll still be this talkative."
The strength of ten, no more like a hundred people were behind the strike. Too much, even with the use of Reinforcement, to withstand for Dantès. Yet what was supposed to be theoretically impossible was instead happening, and without much effort on top of it. Much to the Dead Apostole's astonishment, the man had not only had the gut to parry his attack but even managed to deflected. What method did he use to being able to perform such act? It didn't seem like he had used any Magic to empower himself, and yet with a single blade of plasma the mage overpowered the vampire.
"W-What?!"
The trick lied behind the edge of the crescent moon shaped blood construct, which was strangely covered in a faint, azure light. A slim layer of electrons was applied on top of it. Same as Dantés own sword. Since the weapon itself was no more than an aggregation of negative subatomic particles, it repelled the scythe without much trouble as if the two were magnets of the same charges.
His right hand, free of any disturbance, was already set in motion to trigger the gunshot. Inch and middle finger touched and parted few times in succession, and flicks of his fingers shook the air. Bullets made out of lightning traveled the distance between the two in a fraction of second, targeting eyes and mouth. The oval shaped blasts passed through those organs as if they were of butter, deforming the face of the target into a complete void.
The sudden and abrupt impacts made Roa's entire upper torso tilt back into a falling motion. But as more of those shots were to follow, violet bolts stormed down from above in response to their creator's command and prevented Edmond to further continue.
"Hahahaha. Is this you're best shot? Hope not because otherwise it would be a really shocking disappointment. After all this was just the appetizer. The main dish has yet to arrive."
As new fibbers took the place of the ones just lost, and new muscle tissues grew on top of the reformed skull, an expression of fury and contempt could be distinguished on his newly made face. Rage was boiling inside the undead, clear from the many engrossed veins on his forehead. With lips separated to show his white teeth gritted with each other, he unleashed a tide of dark matter to engulf the accursed human into a world full of madness and despair.
"Oh ho, feeling a bit mad aren't you? Guess what, so am I!"
That was it. The clown would pay dear for belittling him. Let his soul be trapped in the deep sea of eternal torment, along thousands of corpses, and scream shouts of pain and horror. A condition far worse then death, fitting for a preposterous worm. Only fear would r-
A line of blue energy, or better a column, which output was at least twice higher than any previous attacks, split the tide and hit the Dead Apostole.
"Cough?!"
What happened? What happened!? He could not feel his right arm. Looking at were it was supposed to be, he saw nothing. Where was it? For that matter none of his right side of the body, from his jaw to ankle, was there anymore.
"Hah, I like that shocked expression on your face. Not bad for a weakling, don't you think?"
Hand clenched tightly into a fist, Avenger punched the air and another beam got fired.
"Argh!"
And now the other side. How? Magical attacks of that level were not supposed to penetrate his barriers, much less wounding him to such extent. It pained. It pained. While Roa had high tolerance against pain, and had the part of the brain controlling its perception set to the lowest possible, it had still limits beyond which feedbacks could not be ignored. Had he reached that limit? And the laughs of the jester in front of him just fueled more his already uncontrollable rage. Forget enslaving the mage, he would tear him apart! Destroy him, with every single cells of his body turned to nothingness!
"What is it? Already in pain after just this? Are you sure you're not the one in need to learn some humility? What's next, tears? That would be truly unexpected."
Bobbles appeared across the surface of the matter which had yet to disappear. Some things arose from its inside, emerging as if they were part of it. Emotionless moans of pain came out of those Ghoul. Thousands of mindless puppets collected under a single spell, that was the nature of the black liquid. All moved simultaneously to attack Avenger.
In response a lightning powered dome was built around him, acting not only as barrier but also counter. Expanding quickly, it smashed against most of the walking corpses and vaporized them upon contact. Humans they may had been once, but he needed to destroy them for that was the only solution to bring rest to their souls.
Perhaps due to a mechanism of self preservation, the remaining surfaced Ghoul merged into a huge golem. An abomination with arms and legs coming out from random part of its gigantic mass which was tall four times the mage.
But as in the tale of David and the Golia, a single attack brought its end. Compressing thunders inside a small sphere, he lowered the barrier and threw it to the colossus's core. A castle of cards, big but fragile.
A clash of claws followed, as an enraged Roa leaped once again toward his opponent.
"Take this! And this! Die! Die! DIE!"
Both their fingers were covered by nails of lightning. Hit after hit, exchange after exchange, an endless brawl in which none seemed to prevail over the other. One had the physical advantage, but lacked the composure to deal a decisive strike as his head was filled with wild emotions. One could only dodge and counter, but made use of his extraordinary observational skills combined with a calm mind, clear of any distractions, to make predictions of most of the attacks.
Seeing as it was going nowhere, Dantès retreated back and created a flash of light so bright to blind the vampire for a second. With that providing an instant of opening, he teleported behind the Dead Apostole with a javelin, formed from dozens of bolts, floating on his palm. The next instant said spear was already impaled in the vampire's chest.
"Skewered vampire incoming. Well roasted, just like that huge ego of his."
Small daggers of lightning proceeded to tick out from shoulders, stomach and back, like the quills of a porcupine. But no screams, not even a single moan. The mouth, the lips and the tongue were all immobile, not letting a single sound out of the undead's throat. Strange. Too strange since moments ago he was screaming in agony. And then a sound came, but not from vocal cords. A heart just got pierced.
"Don't mess with me! Shut up and die!"
The once golden pair of jewels were now of a dark shade of yellow, losing their peculiar light as the cold, deathly hand of a demon stole the precious gift of life. The windows that allowed one to gaze at the world were now closed, as all activities of the body which stopped working simultaneously like a machine which lost its fuel from a hole in the tank. But if Dantès was very much dead, the same could not be said for Roa who now was standing behind his kill with a grin of delight. A simple trick that of using a copy to lure in the opponent, and the mage had fallen for it like a complete fool. The thought amused him to no end, and confirmed once more that humans were only big talks and no substance.
Only one thing was ticking him off. The smile which adorned the face of the foolish human had not disappeared even after death, which was both infuriating and strange since unlike himself the mage must have suffered a great deal of pain which usually would cause grimaces of shock the very least. And now that he observed better, where was the bloo-
"Agh! Gah! H-How can it be!? W-What is tHiS fEeLiNg!?"
A sudden roar of pain screeched all the ears in the room. A deafening shout of horror which made every window shatter and the floor vibrate violently. A second passed. Ten seconds passed. But it didn't give sign of stopping, and instead kept increasing in volume. Words could not convey the amount of pain the Dead Apostole was feeling. Unimaginable was not enough for sure. So intolerable that the vampire tried even to rip his own flesh, but to no vail.
An outburst of fire exploded from inside Avenger's corpse. Flames that spread on Roa, and were burning first his hand and then the arm. His whole body followed a moment later. But not common red flames, those which barely posed danger to his regeneration. Black flames, dark as the night, were devouring him nonstop. And it was not only his body, but also soul that was slowly losing vitality. He could feel his entire being fading away like a castle of sand in a windy day. Energy leaving, consciousness disappearing, and the world inevitably turning of a pitch black like the flames.
A shadow suddenly loomed behind him. A glimpse, and he knew immediately that it was Avenger. He had been outplayed by the bastard.
"I'm DiSaPeArInG! HoW DiD yOu BaStArD kIlL KiLl Me mE? cUrSe YoU aVeNgEr CuRsE yOu AvEnGeR! I wOn'T dIsApPeAr! I'lL rEaCh ThE rOoT tHe RoOt aNd BeCoMe EtErN-"
Valdamjong struggled with all his might. Refusing to die, denying the very concept of death, rejecting the fate he could no longer escape anymore. He expected a laugh. A sarcastic remark upon his defeat. A joyous exclamation of happiness. Anything that could give him further reasons to curse his enemy before leaving the world forever. He loathed the green coated bastard so much, so much, so much.
But such phrase never came. Instead something else was worded, a strange question so curious that it made the screams stop seconds before reaching the crescendo of its magnitude.
"Was it worth it?"
Was he talking to Roa? Or perhaps maybe about himself? Did he found fulfillment now that his revenge had been exacted? Looking back at what had been sacrificed to reach that point, had it been really worth it? At the end of the long journey a sense of fulfillment was supposed to fill the heart, yet why there was nothing but void inside him?
Their eyes crossed path yet again, but this time there was no anymosity between the two. Their gazes were directed toward at each other, yet rather than paying attention to the one in front of them it was like they were looking at something distant and afar.
Beasts of the same kind, both so obsessed with their goals and so ignorant of the people and the world around them. Sinful beings that had left behind their humanity, one metaphorically and one physically. Two sides of the same coin, both unable to give up to their wishes till the very end of their existance.
Was it worth discarding his own name and identity for revenge? Was it worth all the lives he ruined to achieve his vengeance? He still remembered the screamings of the people that pleaded to be spared, those who had nothing to do with the cult yet were related somehow to those that did. The amount of corpses he had left behind in his long quest, the sadness and despair he created with those dirty hands of his. Was it worth it?
Was it worth all the years spent in seclusion to research immortality? Was it worth all the people he betrayed and sacrificed to achieve eternity? Now that he thought of it, what was the reason why he started to seek it? Did he started out of personal, scientific interest? Or maybe because he feared death? If so, why did he feared it? Why? Was it worth it?
Perhaps if they had stopped along the way to reflect on it, they would have discovered the futility of their actions.
At the end of the day it was probably not. But even so that was the road he chose to walk. Never stopping for regret and doubts would surely crush him. Hell was the only thing waiting him at the end of his journey. His revenge was done, yet his job wasn't.
That was how his life was going to end, without achieving a single meaningful thing. Maybe it was fate that his dream never came to realization. After all despite clinging so hard to it he could not tell anymore why. And at the end, if his soul was gone forever then he no longer was part of the sad cycle of birth and death. Ironically in a way he had found what he was searching.
One was silent, contemplating the difficulties that awaited him in the future. A silence that symbolized his lone existance as the vengeful demon that would forever be so.
One laughed, reminiscing his own tragic life and ironic end. A desperate and fearful laugh that masqueraded his own weaknesses and miseries. Never he had ever felt so, and now that he did he finally understood that that was which made living beings alive.
As fire ate away the last bit of Roa, the tragedy started years ago had finally reached an end. Perhaps not the ideally one he had wished for in the past, but certainly one which Avenger could laugh of out of joy in the present.
Silence accompanied Edmond's stern look afterward, and then some tilts of the head next. It took a few blinks of eyes to get rid of the philosophical nonsense that was laying in his mind. No sense dwelling further on the past. What was done was done, the future was what really held importance now.
Looking around, the Magic which the walls had been soaked seconds ago were now slowly fading away. It was probably so for all the towers scattered around Fiore. What remained now to do was to fully dismantle the place alongside the prison beneath and it would be truly over. A small smirk formed on his face as he noticed Erza grunting in her sleep. But as he walked to the Holy Grail, flames in hand to burn the holy relic into ashes, the ground shacked.
A golden drill came out from under the floor, followed by a green haired man/woman jumping out of the hole and flipping backward in air while using more chains to take possession of the artifact.
"Seems like Roa has fallen. Fool, to think that I even warned him to not underestimate the enemies and he still got himself killed. Such an unfortunate course of events, but at least he did what he needed to do. The ritual is completed at last. With this, we're one step closer to the realization of our plan."
Dantès immediately sent a bolt to intercept them, but the projectile got sliced in half upon contact with a blade of mana.
"Where do you think you' re going? I don't know who you are, but if you're working for that Dead Apostole then I'll make sure to bury you here and now."
But as another strike was about to hit, a dazzling light came from the Grail. Both the object and its wielder were no longer tangible, slowly turning transparent as a ghost.
"Sorry, but I'm in a bit of hurry so therefor I have no time to play around any longer. Maybe next time."
And with that they got away. But Dantès didn't have the time to concern himself on the runway. He couldn't afford to as his focus was now solely diverted on his surrounding which was quickly crumbling apart.
"Tsk."
Carrying the scarlet headed girl on his arms in princess style, Edmond charged mana in his circuits and prepared to bail out.
"W-What's happening here? The entire place is crumbling!" muttered a now awake Titania, confused and slightly blushing for the awkward position she was in.
"Hmph. You're finally awake. Well, the short version is that without its creator to keep it together, this tower has no meaning to exist anymore and is going down. That means we better leave this place before it falls on our heads."
"Hey hey, everything is falling apart." shouted Gray, his words filled with panic, while nocking more arrows of ice to destroy the crumbled fragments of ceiling that were falling down.
It had been sudden, too sudden. After a violent clash between two attacks, some smoke arose and the next instant the enemy had vanished. A quake then followed moments later, and everything started breaking apart from that instant on probably as a result of it.
"What the hell is going on here? And where did that green bastard go?" growled a confused Natsu while looking around, fire covering his fists as he punched yet another piece of concrete that would otherwise crush them.
The situation had escalated so rapidly that the dragon slayer couldn't follow at all. One second they were battling the weird dude clothed in white and the next instant they were now dodging debris left and right.
"...Let's go. It's too dangerous to stay here."
A suggestion that shocked most of his allies, and even himself a bit to say the truth. Really Jellal was not a man to easily retreat, and would not under normal circumstances. But with the road toward the next floor completely destroyed, there was no way to access the upper level. Not in a short amount of time at least, and he needed to think of the kids and their safety first.
"Wait, are we just going to leave Erza behind and escape on our own?"
"No way we're leaving her behind!"
Both fire and ice Magic users were very against said idea. Unthinkable of any member of Fairy Tail to leave a comrade behind. But the situation really didn't allow for other options. Of this same idea was also Nightingale, who punched a nearby wall and created a hole from which they could escape since all the exits were blocked by rocks and it would take too much time to descend floor by floor anyway.
"Where do you think you're going? You two are leaving with me."
Grabbing both Fullbuster and Dragneel, she jumped out of the structure without hesitation.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
"Wait for me, Natsu." cried out Happy as he followed behind the three.
With all her teammates gone, Lucy was left behind insecure to how to proceed since she could not fly nor did possess a Spirit that could do so.
Just as she was reflecting on what to do next, Mystogun grabbed her and proceed to jump in turn.
"Eh?! W-Wait-"
"Hold tight and don't let go. We're jumping out of here."
"Hey...She's going to be ok, right...?" muttered the Celestian Spirit mage, feeling a little guilty for leaving behind her friend.
"You mean Erza? Don't worry, she's the toughest person I had ever met. She'll manage somehow." replied the cloaked man, his voice brimming with confidence. He was sure that Erza had been successful, that she was probably the reason why the hellish tower was now going down. Such was his trust in the girl he considered his best friend, and maybe one day something more.
Meanwhile outside most of the prisoners were aboard some ships on the dock, ready to leave the island.
Author's note:
We made it lads. We finally reached the end of this first arc which I'm proud of say is better than I thought it would be when I started. And the reception is so surprisely good that I have no words to describe how happy I am. Thank you for the continuous support XD.
Now, first I'll give you an 'answer' regarding the possible relation between Erza and Emiya. Yes, they are connected and there is a valid reason why she can make use of Emiya's Magic and even perceive his inner world. Said reason will be a big part in some future arcs. A big hint was already dropped somewhere on the earlier chapters. Have fun theorizing.
For now Titania doesn't know much of her own powers, even if she can make use of it better than in the past. As she becomes more experienced and acquires more weapons to add to her arsenal, the marble will slowly unlock itself. Her affinity is that of blades, but she can also project armors and shields since she has a large mana pool tho much less quickly.
Now onto this chapter. The first part is a small flashback about how Dantès acquired the black flames. I read somewhere this theory that he actually acquired them in Jesus's tomb or something like that, and thought it would be cool to integrate it here.
For the fight, Dantès literally whipped the floor with Roa. While both had still tricks in their sleeves to play, especially Edmond, at the end it was our favorite edgelord who had the upper hand. Roa lost his coolness in the middle of the fight, both because of the heavy injuries sustained that triggered pain for the first time since decades and also because Avenger's constant tauntings, and this proved fatal. Yeah, I had fun writing Dantès's dialogues. Him trashtalking his opponent is in character I think, especially toward those he really hate. By the way did you know that it is canon that at some point those two fought? The reason was similar to those in this fic in that it was Roa who caused Faria's imprisonment and Edmond went to avenge his mentor. In that case it was human Edmond versus Roa, so things went obviously differently. Consider this a kind of rematch between the two in that sense hahaha.
Enkidu's objective had always been the Grail and now he finally obtained it. The og plan was for Roa to open the door to the Root and acquire eternity while clay boy would obtain the holy artifact as reward for their services. Things ended differently, but they still managed to achieve their goal. For what cause they want the cup you'll find out in the future.
Lastly the last bit is odd in that I needed for Jellal and team Natsu to bail out quickly, but it is not really in character for them to leave Erza to her own device. Hope you'll forgive this oddness (at least you got to see best nurse do some crazy stunt eheh ).
Next chapter is an epilogue. More characters are to appear, one of which I can't wait to introduce in this fic. See you next time.