Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Chapter 252 – Deadman's Hand - Part 3:
Sieg raised the cannon and aimed it at the two targets: the versatile Caster and the sharpshooting Archer.
The two were admittedly confused at first. The weapon Sieg held didn't look like anything they have ever seen before. It was only when the Alter Ego first fired with fierce eyes that they figured out that it was heavy artillery. A trio of red blazing cannon balls flew across the air towards them.
The two panicked for a second. The fourth shot didn't help.
Ayako leapt away, using the sheep as platforms, while Atrum maneuvered around the projectiles. The three cannonballs flew past them, and both had the same thought: where was the fourth one?
Atrum's eyes widened when Sieg appeared right in front of him and struck him with the top of the cannon into his abdomen, making the Caster gasp.
"Ack-!"
Sieg moved back thanks to the impact. With a turn of the handle, now the end and barrel of the cannon were aimed point blank at Atrum.
The Caster panicked. With an Endurance Rank of D, he wouldn't last long if he were to take the hit. And in a moment of panic and opportunity, he gave out a command. "Angelica! Slice his arm!"
"?!" Sieg feared the worst. Atrum possessed a skill named 'Desire of the Strategist', a skill that allowed one to command Berserkers without fail. And right behind him was the hovering Berserker, with the makeshift buzz-saw above her hand about to be swung down and slice his shoulder in one go. And without one arm, he wouldn't be able to win.
Instead of firing the cannon, he raised it above his head and used its sturdy structure as a shield. The moment the weapons struck, Sieg was sent towards the floor below. The common thing to do for the three grounded fighters would be to rush in and attack him, but taking into account the large weapon in his hands, perhaps that wouldn't be a good idea.
Sieg aimed down towards the ground and fired once, the kickback and impact cushioning his fall and creating a ruckus simultaneously.
Once his two feet connected, he knew he was about to be surrounded by Lancer, Rider and Assassin. Thus, he pulled the trigger, and instead of a cannonball, a blue beam was fired. The first one to take the hit was Kaede, but she summoned a golden shield in an instant, allowing her to protect herself despite being slowly pushed away by the force of it, her feet being dragged through the floor.
Not to allow himself to become a target, Sieg spun over one of his feet, and with it, the beam changed targets. Tsukumo slid underneath the beam, a reckless move to say the least, while Kanata jumped with a backflip, moving away from the beam and with much more space to manoeuvre and play around, the safer choice of the two. Making use of Sieg's attack, he hurled a set of pocket bombs while still in mid-air.
The cannon stopped and Sieg used it as a shield again, the resulting cloud of smoke surrounding the Alter Ego. And he knew for a fact that Tsukumo would use this opportunity to attack.
The cannon vanished from his hands and he summoned a different Noble Phantasm. But it wasn't a weapon.
Tsukumo's plan was rather ludicrous. 'If I run into the cloud of smoke and swing my knife everywhere, I'm bound to slash him!' That was the thought process. And for a moment, it looked like it could work. With the angel hidden, there was no light to give away her location. And eventually, she hit something. But not with her knife. Her forearm was stopped by Sieg's wrist. And then, a kick was brought to her left arm.
It wasn't the strongest strike, she could sustain the damage. But the moment she stepped off to the side as a result for the attack, another kick struck. Amidst the smoke, it was hard to tell, but something about it felt odd. This one struck her right shoulder from behind.
Instead of allowing herself to stagger, she focused her eyes on the black smoke and noticed it moving in such an odd way. Time to resume the plan! Almost like a maiden's dance, Tsukumo slashed around while moving graciously. Her limbs and knife would connect and block attacks coming from Sieg. Hi Noble Phantasm was a multi-hit attack performed with honed footwork of an outlaw who joined the Grand Assembly of the 108 Stars of Destiny. Shi Mian Mai Fu - Wu Ying Zuo Wei. But it was also be known as…
After Tsukumo blocked the tenth overall attack, the shinning angel came out from underneath her skirt and fired a beam of bright light from where she thought the next attack would come from: in front of her.
She wasn't wrong, but the light gave away the trajectory. Sieg simply moved aside, the beam barely missing him. And his right arm began to shine just as brightly. In the perfect pose to emulate the Noble Phantasm, Sieg called out its name.
"Ambushed from Ten Sides – As If There Was No Shadow!" And he moved forward to deliver the last strike of the flurry: an open-palm slam into her sternum.
But Tsukumo didn't fear the damage. With a smirk- no, a smile, she spoke the name of her Noble Phantasm as well.
"Le Rêve Ensoleillé."
Bowing and tipping her hat to hide her eyes with the angle, she leapt forward as well.
Sieg thought he had this brawl won: It didn't matter what kind of Noble Phantasm it was, with his footwork, he could evade the attack the moment he figured out it was. His eyes widened when, for some reason, he couldn't feel any incoming attack. It was like even though Tsukumo approached him, she wasn't going to attack at all.
The smoke suddenly spread and cleared away, revealing the outcome of the attack: Sieg's hand never reached Tsukumo's chest. But her knife didn't reach his heart either. Instead, his hand was stabbed through by the blade.
With a sharp pain, Sieg let out an exhale of disbelief. "I… missed?" Wait, the smoke was cleared! Sieg tightened his grip and pulled Tsukumo in with his hands, one on the knife and the other her arm. The Assassin was too surprised at his sudden movement to react. He foot got planted in her stomach and he rolled before kicking her away towards the Archer, that had already set her sights on him.
"Tch!" Opportunity missed.
Once that was taken care of, Sieg rolled back forward and stood up.
"Gotcha!" Kaede compensated for the lack of opportunity in Ayako's part and rushed in.
Sieg spun around fast, bare handed, and simply swung his arms around. Not to block the incoming spear or something like that, but he made use of his bleeding hand, sending a splatter of dark red right into Kaede's eyes.
"Gah! What the hell?! Not cool!" She protested, her eyes shut out of instinct and unable to proceed for at least a moment as she recovered her footing. The sudden blindness threw her off balance.
He turned back to Kanata, who he knew was readying a weapon to attack him somehow. "Heart of a Hero!" His hands remained empty, but a red aura with the shape of a tiger appeared around his body as he took a stance. "Fierce Tiger Forcibly Climbs a Mountain!" And he dashed in blinding speed! Kanta was taken aback. Despite having both his cutlass and pistol in hand ready to be used, he couldn't use them, for Sieg outsped him with the attack. An Anti-Gate Noble Phantasm, used mainly to destroy gates, walls or other sorts of structures. Once close, the first strike looked like a tiger clawing at a mountain. Then a knee strike, and then a powerful punch driven into Kanata's chest. The Rider was sent flying, only stopping once he hit a faraway wall. The impact made the wall crack and the Rider to become unable to breathe for a moment. Did his bones break?
"Kanata!" The Assassin that had landed on the floor behind just a few seconds prior called out after seeing her friend being attacked in such a way.
Sieg let out a hot breath and a drop of blood from his hand fell onto the floor. He took a stance to repeat the attack, but someone intervened.
"Ascension." Right behind him, Angelica was engulfed in golden flames for a brief second. Her red outfit turned grey, and the blue floating skulls turned golden.
Even though he could knock out Rider if he landed the Noble Phantasm again, he knew Angelica would move in beforehand and severely attack him. So, he turned around. A trio of skulls was already close to him. He performed three strikes that could've come from a Chinese martial artist, and deflected the three skulls away.
Once his foot stomped the floor, he spoke again. No longer barehanded, an odd crossbow appeared in his hands. It was something as cumbersome as Ayako's weapon, but still an odd weapon to see.
Angelica floated back and summoned a set of glass plates into her left hand while the right hurled each one at a time like a disk, all moving towards Sieg in different directions and patterns.
His eyes narrowed and he quickly unloaded a flurry of arrows, each one aimed just in time to shatter the razor-sharp plates. And once that was done, he took aim at Angelica. With the last remaining plate in her hand, she pointed the flat surface at Sieg and a beam was fired.
Sieg's eyes narrowed. "Apfel Schiessen!" The arrow loaded on the crossbow glowed bright red, and the insignia of an apple appeared on Angelica's body. The red arrow passed through the beam that vanished before it could reach Sieg. The plate in Angelica's hand shattered into multiple pieces, revealing the arrow that had gone through her sternum.
"Crap…!" Atrum cursed under his breath.
Ayako leapt off her platform of sheep and rolled over, holding on a cord made of small sheep that ended on a large, concentrated gathering of these odd beings. A hammer, essentially.
Sieg's crossbow vanished from his hands as he leapt back and evaded the heavy strike.
"I see you need my help."
Luvia's voice alarmed him. He turned around and found the shadow of the Pricness of Colchis working her Magecraft to heal Kanata of his wounds. Then back forward and the shadow of the God of Medicine was taking care of the fatal arrow that immobilized Angelica. One final head-whip to spot the Saber, atop a wall with arms crossed, looking down on Sieg.
The Alter Ego greeted his teeth. The final member joined the frey, by the looks of it.
Once the two allies were healed, Sieg retreated to an empty path.
"Angelica, go afte-"
"No need, Atrum." Luvia interrupted the command. And with that, all of her allies knew that that meant she wanted the others to fall back too. Her eyes followed the Alter Ego, who became confused as to why nobody gave chase. And that's when Luvia spoke the name of her Noble Phantasm. "Astrapste Argo."
Suddenly, three shadows appeared in front of her. Without speaking the name, she could only summon two Shadows at once, but once the Noble Phantasm was revealed, the possibility to summon three and above became available. As one would guess, the more one summoned, the more Mana was consumed. Luvia found three to be the ideal number. The Greatest Hero of Greece, the Princess of Colchis and the Chaste Huntress. These three shadows appeared to be more alive than when summoned without the name of the Noble Phantasm. And the three gave chase to the Alter Ego.
Sieg turned around. A giant beast, a flying mage and a swift huntress were ready to attack him.
He turned around and triggered his Noble Phantasm, turning his sword into a spear. "Hazy Inverted Moon - Eleven Styles!" He took a pose, and ten illusionary copies of him surrounded the original for a couple seconds before vanishing. The eleven unofficial techniques devised to make it possible to cope with any and all enemies.
The giant best slammed down its weapon, but Sieg side stepped carefully. The princess fired multiple Mana blasts, but the Alter Ego blocked the with his spear by spinning it like a wheel. The huntress fired multiple green arrows, but the young man pierced and destroyed them with swift thrusts of the weapon.
But this couldn't go on. It pained him to admit: Sieg was low on energy. Physical stamina and Mana weren't far from running out.
As so, he took a giant leap backwards and then a another one, vertical this time, to land atop a wall, with all seven members of the opposing Team in sight.
His spear turned back into the Paladin's Sword. "I… can't lose here."
Luvia overheard him through the shadows. "For someone that's come this far alone, he seems to heavily dislike the idea of losing." She giggled to herself. The behaviour was out of place, in her opinion. After all, he was taking it so seriously.
"I can't lose here… I can't disappear without doing something."
"Eh?" Luvia suddenly became concerned. Her teammates couldn't hear what Sieg was saying, but noticed her sudden shift in expressions.
"I can't…!" Sieg's free hand grasped the left side of his chest as his eyes began to water. "I can't just disappear without doing something with my life." His emotions hurt.
"A hero?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna become a hero when I grow up!"
"Like those ninjas we saw on TV?"
"Maybe! I'll become a hero just as strong as the legendary Siegfried!"
"Siegfried? So…"
"Yup! My parents named me after him! Isn't that amazing, Joana?"
"That's super cool! I bet you'll be the best hero ever!"
A dumb memory, in his opinion. The dreams of little kids. But at this point, was there anything to aim to? To cling to?
He never went much to school. He never achieved much, either for himself, for his family, or society. He had few friends, and only one person that meant more than anything else. And he could disappear in the following days. In a way, that had always been a risk: while most can be sure they'll wake up on the following morning, Sieg couldn't be so sure every time he fell asleep. What if he never woke up ever again?
In his opinion, with how little he had done… it would become a Nameless Death. A person doesn't truly die until they are completely forgotten. But would he have that luck? The luck that just a few days after he disappeared from this world, that he'd just become another nameless corpse? That he'd suffer a Nameless Death?
A stupid dream. No matter how he looked at it, it was the dumbest dream he ever had. And yet, it was his favourite.
I'll become a hero. I'll be remembered. Legends never truly die.
A last-ditch effort. After all, this wasn't the ordeal to become a hero or anything of the sort. But perhaps… it was the closest thing to it. And it was within his reach. A single person defeated seven of the top 21 Players. That would be forever in the history of this Game! A Nameless Death wouldn't happen if over 2000 people remembered this feat. And then that would spread to others. Perhaps… he would be forgotten so easily.
Sieg raised his sword. "Heart of a Hero!" And his sword became the legendary blade of the Dragon Slayer, Balmung. At the top of his lungs, he yelled while gripping the hilt of the sword above his head with both hands. "ASCENSION! TRUE ESSENCE!" A surged of bluish-white mana began to surround his body, followed by green electricity surging all around him.
She has no name.
She has no memories.
She has no needs, no desires, or destiny.
The reason of her destruction was because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
She is without grief.
She is without hatred.
For those emotions were not needed.
Which is why I am sad.
For there are none, even she herself that remembers her name.
Was she truly saved by holding my hand?
Has she truly let go all resentment of this world.
There is no answer... For all eternity.
The sheer force of the swirling mana made his yet to fall tears float away from his eyes, gleaming and reflecting the light of these bright lights. As the hilt of the sword was twisted to trigger its activation, the blade becoming coated in a bright blue and extending towards the sky above, the electricity surged faster and faster, increasing in intensity.
Heart of a Hero. The Noble Phantasm that was granted to the being that received the heart of a hero during his mysterious life. Its versatility comes in the fact that that Hero wasn't the only one whose power went to him. A second hero, during her passing, had her essence and strength transferred to this Heroic Spirit.
Upon Ascension, it would unlock the True Essence. And the True Essence, while it was the moment of a Nameless Death like the one Sieg feared, it let him reenact a moment of the final confrontation this Heroic Spirit had: it was thought for him to have the strength of one, but it was in fact the strength of two.
True Essence would let him use two Noble Phantasms at once.
Rings of green and blue keapt passing through Sieg's body as his determined glare focused on his seven targets. The pillar of electricity around him followed the blade towards the heavens.
Luvia could swear her eyes were tricking her. For a moment, Sieg looked… completely different. The young man, for a brief second, was replaced by a Legendary figure. A Hero, no doubt about it. She of all people would know.
But once that vision was gone and Sieg's body was back to normal, if it had ever changed to begin with, the silhouettes appeared behind him. The Dragon-Blooded Knight and The Ideal Human of Dr. Frankenstein.
With the last of his strength, with the last of his mana, Sieg swung down the sword while speaking the name of the Noble Phantasm.
"BLASTED… BALMUUUUUUUNG!"
Blasted Balmung 'Phantasmal Crucifixion, Felling of the Sky Demon's Lightning'
The twilight, the ether, from the greatsword, and the vast electricity generated from the surrounding air. Sieg swung it down. It was like Yggdrasil, the World Tree itself, was tumbling forward and ready to fall on these targets in front of him. The moment the energy approached the shadows from Luvia's Noble Phantasm, they were completely decimated. The surrounding stone walls kept shattering away.
And it made its way to the EX Rankers.
"Quick! Don't let that reach us! Use everything that you have!"
"To do what exactly?!"
"Create a shield!" Luvia summoned the shadow of the Beast in front of her again. Even if destroyed once before, perhaps it would be super resistant this time around. She leapt back so she would be the last to be swallowed by the attack if it came to that.
Ayako summoned as many sheep as she could with her remaining mana.
Kaede steadied her shield and spear.
Kanata summoned multiple ships that were meant to be used for a bombardment, but this time for defence.
Atrum used most of his Mana to summon a tidal wave to collide with the attack.
The angel of Tsukumo spread its wings and released a brilliant shine.
And Angelica summoned as many plates and skulls she could.
"FAAAAAAAAAALL!" Sieg yelled in sheer emotion as the collision took place.
And a bright flash of white light occurred…
…
…
Sieg fell down to one knee. His breathing was heavy beyond belief. Understandable, to say the least.
His fist struck the floor. Once, twice, thrice. "DAMN IT! DAMN IT, DAMN IT, WHY?!"
Despite all of their injuries, some of them even close to defeat, not a single Member of the Worldly Argonauts had fallen.
The shadow of the God of Medicine that hovered behind Luvia faded away. The shield was not to stop the attack. It was simply a way to make sure that she would have the time to summon the Argonaut famous for creating a medicine that resurrected humans and demi-gods from death. Of course, it was limited. But it served its purpose. Luvia knew that if she tried to take a step forward, or just breathe the wrong way, she would be Uninstalled immediately. The outfit of the Heroic Spirit she used the powers of were in a weird state of flux.
She would usually call out the opponent and ask them to raise their head. To face defeat. She didn't even care if she were to be uninstalled as a result. But she couldn't bring herself to ask that of Sieg. To ask a crying boy that was doing his best to now show his ultimate sorrow to the people watching… That felt wrong. It just felt wrong. She was probably the only one battle to tell what was happening in the far distance.
The one with a skill that denoted one's ability to do whatever necessary to remain alive after battle, Atrum was the least injured of the bunch. The Caster summoned a golden bow and an oddly shaped arrow.
…One small gift. Maybe it would come across as pity, and in fact, it was, in a way. But it was unfair for him to not receive a rightful victory, no matter how little it may be. On top of it being a small victory, she also didn't want to see what was about to happen.
"Atrum, sacrifice Angelica."
"Huh?" Atrum turned around and saw Luvia being knocked out of her Install. She vanished in a second, Teleported away to their reality. He was confused as to why she had to say something that mattered so little, but it was useless to question it. He took aim.
Jǐjiǎo Yīzhèn 'Double-Pronged Formation': Anti-Army C
As Angelica's body shattered into pieces, Atrum fired the golden arrow. It flew like a rocket and struck Sieg. The Alter Ego couldn't even move, but even if his muscles obeyed, he would've accepted this.
Uninstalled and Transported away. Sieg lost the match.
I'd say this battle ended sooner than expected, but I forgot this didn't involve 14 Players for a second there.
In case you are interested, Discord Server Link: discord .gg /e7Qznvb (remove the spaces)
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Until next time!