Ptl: indeed, Kimata ignores all non-standard classes (apart from Avenger since it was used during the Third Fuyuki Grail War... I suppose). Why this question? In any case, the invocation system does not allow them to be invoked.
Akasha Bloodriver: Camilla? Yes, excellent suggestion. Kimata is not a Spiritron-Hacker... it's an eldritch witch!
Boyzilla: Tamamo will protect our adorable Hakuno from anything that could harm her virtue (note: except Tamamo herself). Information is dangerous but Moon Cell "babies" made by Kimata and his allies cannot be compared to the original. Each of them is capable of supporting only one servant.
(Un)holy Grail War
The virtual universe of Cyberworld was a kind of 3D maze similar to a wire model. The corridors cut and intersected endlessly, uniting the hundreds of Reality Marbles created by the supercomputers that organized global communications.
In one of these corridors was a teenage girl with long brown hair, wearing a school uniform. She was followed by a pink-haired kitsune.
Both women were fleeing the wrath of one of the Cyberworld masters. And its ire manifested itself by the appearance of Enemy Programs which never ceased to materialize near them.
Tamamo no Mae was powerful but she simply could not hope to overcome the waves of opponents that appeared almost without dead time.
Once again three vortices of data particles formed in front of Hakuno. Tamamo leaped to intervene.
Kishinami Hakuno had met this kind of Enemy Programs several times and identified at a glance their types: two humanoid Cybercops formed of colored prisms for a head, trunk and limbs... floating without touching each other, and a Corkscrew actually resembling this tool with a kind of head and two arms, all jumping on a wide spring. Barely materialized, it was already getting ready to jump... he was going to run a Break!
[Attack]
Hearing the mental order of her Master, Caster swirled over herself with the grace of a ballerina. At the same time, with her hand, she guided her circular mirror:
- Yiehhh!
Struck by the disc used as a weapon, the Corkscrew found itself violently pushed back, reeling. Already, the Cybercops were attacking Caster, one on each flank. Hakuno focused:
- Code Cast: Gain_Con (32).
A column of blue and violet particles bursts under the feet of Tamamo. This Code Cast allowed increasing the resistance of a Servant.
[Guard]
The mirror transformed into a shield, the magical fox-girl intercepted the arm as sharp as a sword of one of the Cybercops before counterattacking with a kick that hit the opponent in the chest, projecting it at a distance:
- Teeee!
[Guard]
The parade of the second attack looked like the first, but Tamamo counterattacked by scratching the opponent at the head:
- Nano!
Their three opponents were already straightening themselves out. All affected, but not enough to stop them...
[Skill]
Caster stretched out her palm arm and a circle of ofudas began to swirl around her hand. It was as if the fox woman had held a flame-thrower. Wrapped in the fire, the two Cybercops collapsed into a cluster of broken prisms before dissolving into purple data particles. The Corkscrew partially blocked the attack by raising a shield formed by translucent octagons forming an iridescent half-sphere.
[Break]
Caster leaps high, falling back on the Enemy Program with both hands attached above the head to form a hammer. The shield flew in a burst, the Corkscrew clad to the ground loosed in turn in data particles.
The fight was over... for now...
With her hands on her thighs, leaning forward, Hakuno gasped. Drops of sweat ran down her nose and hung on her eyelashes. The young Master did not need to consult his Personal Terminal to know that his prana was at a very low level.
She had never been subjected to such a trial in the Seraph. Kishinami finally understood that the Chimeric Lunar Seas were just training for Masters and Servants. Enemy Programs attacked one by one and patrolled a specific location. It was usually easy to avoid them. There, nothing like this... the digital creatures were chasing her. Yes, they were chasing her, because, unlike the Moon Cell programs, they considered her a target, not just attacking Tamamo.
[Goshujin-sama! ]
Caster's mental call forced Hakuno to return to the present... her bad habit of thinking too much risked costing her life. The Cyberworld had become a very dangerous place for her. You shouldn't let your guard down for a moment. Her Servant showed her swirls of data particles forming... a dozen Cybercops materialized!
Hakuno reached out to reveal a sword, a Formal Wear called Shockwave_ (32):
- Code Cast: Release_mgi(a)!
As the Tsukumihara Academy teenage girl in brown uniform shot down the blade, a blue-white fireball popped up to hit the group of enemies. They all found themselves wrapped in yellow lightning and stopped. Simultaneously, Kishinami gave an order to her Servant:
[Skill]
Tamamo no Mae leaped high, her hands clasping a glittering ice ball that she threw to their opponents:
- Gods of Izumo curse the desecraters!
The ice sphere exploded and frozen the entire group of enemies.
[Quickly, Goshujin-sama, we must resume our flight before others arrive!]
Hakuno started running again, following the map from her Portable Terminal.
Taking off the contact helmet, Hakuno stood up to sit on the bed. Her eyes passed through the cache in the basement of the Yamada house. Yeah, she was back in the real world... escaping the Cyberworld after hours of chasing. Kishinami felt completely exhausted... flat. The girl passed her hands over her eyes and then massaged her temples.
- Heaven me! My Perfect-o-meter is broken!
Kishinami looked at her Servant's exaggerated pantomime and frowned. Tamamo had just pulled a strange device from her tail (she seemed able to store a lot of the weirdest objects in her foxtail) and looked at it one hand on the cheek with a theatrical expression of stupor. She then jumped to Hakuno's neck to rub herself against her Master who mechanically closed her arms on her shoulders.
- Goshujin-sama this Tamamo no Mae can no longer count the number of perfect decisions her beloved Master has made in recent battles. Kishinami Hakuno is - after all- The Victor of the Moon, winner of the Seraph Holy Grail War. In war... and in love... no one can overcome her.
Releasing Hakuno, Caster touched her tail to bring out a pendant similar to a silver mask:
- This is a small reward, a sacred Tibetan mask. It is a very old Mythical Code that I acquired in the Yarlung era. It belonged to the king of Tibet Songsten Gampo. It has two permanent capacities. The first is that the wearer cannot be detected. More interestingly, it immunizes against possession and all the control spells... finally... about...
Tamamo pouted before sighing:
- It is a powerful Mythical Code, but it was created by humans. It is totally ineffective against True Magic, or high-level magecraft such as the runes of Cù Chulainn or a spell of a Caster class Servant.
As the kitsune passed her the chain of silver links around her head, Hakuno looked at the tail of the Servant who was pounding with excitement:
- How can you put so much in your tail?
Hakuno remembered what Tamamo told her. When she still had her nine tails, she could raise armies from her tails, or destroy countries from one movement.
Caster took two steps back and swirled on herself before grabbing her foxtail and hugging it against her chest, caressing her with one hand, red mark on her cheeks:
- Heaven me! Goshujin-sama! What an intimate question! There... there are some questions that should not be asked outside the marital bed.
Hakuno tilts her head with a sorry face. The teen girl understood that she had just asked a question... uh... the answer to which had to be censored for the under-eighteen. But didn't understand the connection with... uh... you get it!
However, Hakuno was so adorable when she leaned her head that she almost caused a catastrophe.
- Take back Tamamo... resists... resists...
The fox woman trembled from the feet to the head, the ears quivering and the eyes... were replaced by pink hearts?!
Kishinami looked at her Servant with a little concern, then her Command Spell. If Caster completely lost her mind, only using one of the two remaining a Command Mark could avoid the worst:
- Tamamo?
The kitsune shook her head and slapped each of her cheeks. Then, her eyes returning to normal, she coughed with elegance by masking her mouth with the back of her hand:
- Ufu-ufu... we were talking about my tail... once I had nine. I was a hundred times more powerful than I am now.
- Yes, I remember you telling me.
Caster smiles widely:
- That is the wonderful thing about you, my husband, you listen to everything I say and you never forget anything. Few people can defend themselves from being the object of such complete attention. It's flattering, you know, goshujin-sama.
- Why don't you have your other tails?
- I cut them off so that I could be summoned during the Holy Grail War of the Moon Cell... I saw a soul so beautiful that I instantly fell in love.
The tender gaze that Tamamo addressed to Hakuno left no doubt about the identity of the one of which she spoke. Although the Master was... let's say she still had a lot to learn in the field of feelings and emotions, she nevertheless looked away, very embarrassed but also deeply touched.
Kishinami remained silent for long seconds then...
- Thank you.
Caster had a slight smile:
- No... I thank you. When I made the decision to marry you... I was afraid of making another mistake... and that you can reject this Tamamo... as Emperor Toba did. But you were the best husband. If I had another hundred tails, I would sacrifice them to the last for you.
Hakuno and Tamamo devoted some of their time to being together. In the end, they did not often have the opportunity to think about anything other than their enemies.
But that time ended and Hakuno was concerned about something she had just learned:
- Who are the Old Ones?
Kneeling on one of the beds, in his favorite resting pose, Caster waved a hand as one hunts a troublesome fly:
- I suspect you need to learn more about this, goshujin-sama. After all, it is difficult to defeat an opponent that we do not know. However, I do not answer this question with pleasure. Never forget that knowledge is sometimes dangerous. This is the case here... the Old Ones are monstrosities of outerspace and outertime, hideous contradictions of mad cries and visions of madness, violating all the laws of physics and matter. A mere glance at these non-Euclidean aberrations too foreign to be understood by humans could make you completely and irremediably insane!
In spite of her lack of emotion, Hakuno swallowed. Already, Caster's comments were cause for concern. But in addition, she had never heard so much disgust in the voice of her Servant. Tamamo remained for a moment to rehash dark thoughts and then sigh:
- I don't claim to know much about the Old Ones. They have plagued Earth at a time that corresponds to the first divine generation. All my knowledge comes from Amaterasu. There is an unknown number of Old Ones. These are the most important ones, by hierarchical order...
Caster folded the eyelids and began to recite a sort of list. She lifted the index finger:
- Azathoth: primitive chaos sitting at the center of the infinite; formless and unrecognizable. The animator of darkness; disorder. The thought and form destroyer. The antithesis of creation; the completely negative aspect of the elemental Fire, which comes astrologically from the archaic Lion and, in the terrestrial sphere, from the "Hidden South".
She raised the middle finger:
- Yog-Sothoth: Azathoth's "All-in-One"; vehicle of Chaos. The external manifestation of primitive expression. The door of the void through which must pass "those who come from elsewhere". The outward active intelligence of one who will always remain locked in impenetrable darkness.
Tamamo had a brief smile of excuse for the convoluted formulation:
- I want to talk about Azathoth, of course.
She coughed elegantly and then repeated:
- A positive manifestation of the Fire, marked in the firmament by the sign of the Lion and more particularly by the star known to the ancient Arabs as "Al-Kalb al-Asad" and the Romans as "Cor Leonis"- Lion's Heart- which is in the chest of the heavenly beast. Its terrestrial cardinal point is the immediate south.
Caster raised a new finger:
- Nyarlathotep: The Crawling Chaos, moving, the Ether which serves as a mediator between the different aspects of the Old Ones. It is the receptacle of their combined will, their messenger and their servant- able to exist in any form at any place and at any time. Nyarlathotep is astrologically part of the Milky Way. The ancient Akkadians linked this pale light to their myth of the Great Serpent, the Egyptians called it the Celestial Nile, the Polynesians call it the long cloud-eating blue shark; in India, it bears the name of Nagavithi- the Serpent's trail.
Touching is a little finger, the kitsune continued her enumeration:
- Hastur: Hastur the Unspeakable, the King in Yellow, the Voice of the Old Ones. The Avenger and the Destroyer, the one who walks on the wind and is not to be named. In the sphere of the elements, Hastur corresponds to the Air - element of the Dispute- and among the constellations, is recognized by the sign of Aquarius, asterisk supposed to govern the "Airy Trigon". On Earth, Hastur corresponds to the East.
The thumb:
- Cthulhu: Master of inner depths, initiator of dreams. Among the elements, Cthulhu is represented by the Water and astrologically by the Scorpion known to the Akkadians under the name of Girtab- the one who catches and pricks the one before whom all must bow. Geographically, Cthulhu corresponds to the West- region attributed to death by the ancient Egyptians.
Finally, Caster touched the index finger of her left hand:
- Shub-Niggurath: Great Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young (1). Earthly manifestation of the power of the Old Ones. The Sabbath god of witches. The natural element of Shub-Niggurath is the earth symbolized by the sign of the Bull in the firmament, and by the door of the Northwind on the terrestrial plane.
Tamamo nodded her head:
- Of course, these six Old Ones are only the most prominent of this divine family. It is after all mentioned of thousands of gods "formless and idiots" perpetually dancing around Azathoth.
Hakuno had listened attentively. The brief and convoluted description left her wondering... about creatures made of a single element? Correspondence with the zodiac? Ancient myths?
- And the Elder Gods, those who defeated and locked them up?
Tamamo appeared annoyed:
- Honestly, I hardly know. If the Old Ones are contemporaries of the first divine generation, at the dawn of the Age of the Gods, the Elder Gods are still earlier... and, above all, they come from another world.
This really surprised Hakuno. She blinked her eyes and leaned her head to the side:
- A different world?
Despite the seriousness of the discussion, Caster missed a heartbeat: "Hakuno is so cute!" Then she shook her head to chase away that adorable vision...
- The Betelgeuse star in the constellation of Orion. I know only one of the Elder Gods, Nodens with a hand of silver (2) says Master of the Deep Abysses. According to the Tables Alphonsines or the Libros del saber de Astronomica, the very presence of Nodens on Betelgeuse gave its name to this star in Arabic. In fact, the astronomers of this people call it "Al-Mankib" the shoulder or "Al-Dhira" the arm, or even "Al Yad al-Yamma" the right hand of the Giant. Nodens is a god of the dead, more precisely the psychopomp god who brings the soul of the dead into the realm of the afterlife. Its name means "the one who fishes" or "catches" in the sense of "capturing", a logical name for the one who fishes the souls of the dead to lead them into the other world. Nodens appears in the Arthurian legend under the name of the Fisherman King; there he is considered as the guardian of the Grail.
Tamamo assumed an air of contemplation:
- But you do well to ask questions about the Elder Gods, for all those who oppose the Old Ones they are a powerful recourse.
The kitsune made its mirror appear and murmured a few words before turning it to Hakuno. Instead of seeing her reflection, the teen girl saw the image of a blue stone medallion. Circular, it was engraved with a pentacle resembling a starfish whose arms were strangely twisted to the right. In its center, one saw a schematic eye.
- This is the Elder Sign, engraved in Mnar stone. All the users of magecraft know that the pentacle or "Star of the Magi" is the symbol of the microcosm Man, deity revered in human form. in the perspective of the Magus, man is considered as a creature of the four elements - fire, air, water, and earth- put in motion and balanced by the power of the Spirit - Fifth element or Hidden Element. That is what the five points of the pentagram symbolize. Like man, but on a scale of infinitely superior power, the Elder Gods are a symbiosis of these five elements. While the Old Ones are made of only one element. Also, each of them is therefore very weak faced with the opposite element. Cthulhu, the master of water, is thus vulnerable to fire and Shub-Niggurath is just as vulnerable to air since it embodies (in a sick and unbridled form) the fertility of the land we tread.
- And so an Elder Sign protects from Old Ones.
Tamamo approved with a movement of the chin and sighed, a little disconcerted.
- If only I could make one... Unfortunately, it has to be cut from Mnar's stone.
- Stone of Mnar?
- I suppose this stone comes from Betelgeuse.
- And you don't have an Elder Sign?
Caster's ears went down. With her low tail, she looked at her Master, her eyes wet:
- Goshujin-sama, this Tamamo cannot offer you such a means of protection. She has never even seen an Elder Sign. She has everything and everything in her tail, but not what her beloved Master really needs. This Tamamo is beneath everything and does not deserve to be forgiven.
Hakuno stood up and caressed her servant between her ears, smiling.
- Caster, how could I be mad at you? From the first time we met, you did nothing but save me again and again.
Kimata Ryuchi stood alone in his large office atop a tower overlooking Tokyo. The rainy city stretched as far as the eye could see, a forest of skyscrapers sheltering millions of souls... so many worthless insects in the eyes of the fearsome CEO. For him, they were only pawns to move on the squares of the gigantic chess game which he handed over to his competitors... the only beings who gained the status of persons in his eyes.
A psychiatrist would probably have had a lot to say about the mentality of a man who only recognized the existence of his enemies, but Kimata was far beyond their expertise.
- Everything is ready.
The voice that rose from his work table was nothing human, it came from an old laptop. On the screen in outdated 2D appeared a vortex of darkness and burning eyes.
- All right, Darkener, you can start.
The entity that Kimata had just named "Darkener" intervened in one way or another because a vast magic circle appeared in the middle of the free space in front of his desk, as traced by an invisible hand.
Anyone who knew esotericism would have recognized the signs marking the pentacle as Enochian writing. The famous occultist John Dee (3) had used it in his works. Someone able to read this language would have recognized invocations calling for the Doels and a certain Tindalos... Even more strangely, some complex geometric figures were surrounded by equations that a specialist would have recognized as belonging to Einsteinian physics.
The CEO only took a look at this strange mix of science and esotericism before sitting in one of the deep armchairs in the lounge area. He took a handful of pills from a small refined porcelain box and swallowed them with a glass of water.
It was not a drug delivered by a pharmacy... but a product of ancient Chinese alchemy. The drug Liao had been created by Lao-Tseu, it induced a state of liminal narcosis that allowed getting out of the body while remaining conscious and able to speak. It was under its influence that the famous Chinese philosopher dictated his works to his disciples, as he traveled between the spheres, slipping between the dimensions and the time, these two illusions born of the limited mind of man.
Already, the Liao drug was making its effect and the brilliantly lit room seemed to plunge into the shadows. Without any chronology, the spirit of Kimata traveled through different eras: Nero Claudius Germanicus at the Colosseum of Rome, the First Men discovering the fire, the construction of the Cathedral of Chartres, the dinosaurs, the Wright brothers' plane... and then the primitive mud of the first ages of the world appeared.
Kimata met the Doels, he met Tindalos... and he made a pact with these entities transcending space and time.
In Kimata's office, a whirlwind of steam formed while an extremely pungent and foul smell filled the room.
The Hounds of Tindalos had just reached our Space-time, attracted in this world by the revenge of a witch. Their target? Kishinami Hakuno!
Entities too absurd, too obscene to be described hummed the air, tending long greedy tongues. They looked for Hakuno, but found nothing...
In the hideout of the cellar of the Yamada house, Hakuno held her hand around her neck. The Tibetan mask that Tamamo had just given her reacted strangely. Its weight seemed to increase as the chain links became rigid.
- Caster!
The magical fox-girl was next to her Master in an instant, quickly identifying the problem:
- Goshujin-sama, someone is trying to locate you using a form of magecraft.
Tamamo no Mae made her mirror appear and murmured a short incantation. Immediately, a film of red light covered the walls, forming a barrier... a Bounded Field capable of erasing this room to the senses of their enemies.
Immediately the silver mask returned to its normal state and Caster smiled, her ears quivering with joy:
- The attack was repelled, Master. Nothing can pass a Kekkai raised by your Servant... except perhaps the magecraft of another Caster Servant.
There, in Kimata's office, the Hounds of Tindalos had just received new orders. They disappeared, melting with one of the corners of the room, leaving behind nothing but stinking vapors and bluish mud.
(1) In season 2 of Overlord, Ainz Oal Gown invokes the Shub-Niggurath youngs... just as their invocation requires the sacrifice of thousands of lives. They then massacre an army without much resistance; their size and hideous appearance are enough to terrorize the humans...
(2) The Welsh name of the Irish god Nuada... especially known to F/GO players for his famous Airgetlám arm. By the way, Bedivere's silver arm is not Nodens' real arm.
(3) John Dee is best known as esotericist. However, he was also a mathematician specializing in non-euclidean geometry (he was also a friend of Mercator), a specialist in optics, and... a secret agent (Agent 007... no, it's not even a joke. I always wondered if it was a silly coincidence or if Ian Flemming had purposely assigned this code name to James Bond)! Not to mention that Lovecraft attributed him the Necronomicon translation in English.
