Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Chapter 269 – River – Part 4:
Kiara couldn't help but smirk. "The worm has crawled back here with the powers of the goddess Ereshkigal. Fitting for someone that belongs to the dirt." Kiara kept amusing herself with her thoughts of the people below.
The dragon made of fake stars coiled around the throne and then flew its way down towards Mizuki, who had begun her descent up the tower of odd, black flesh.
With gritted teeth, she focused. "Suishiki!" Her eyes went from red to bright blue, her pupils shrunk. As the dragon approached to gobble the Assassin up, Mizuki swung her knife at as many stars as she could, sidestepping the serpentine body in the process. In a few seconds, the two disconnected, and the dragon fell apart into shimmering dust as Mizuki resumed her dash.
Kiara snapped a finger, creating a spike out of a demon pillar to skewer Mizuki's body from underneath. However, thanks to Eye of the Mind, the moment the pillar began to sprout, she side stepped the structure, spinning around with clever foot work. Once it was fully grown, she lightly jumped off the tower with a backflip and landed with both feet on the spike that failed to stab her. She leapt up above as far as she could, managing to reach the zone where the tower bent to form the throne. With a glare of blue, Mizuki moved towards Kiara, ready to slice through the red lines of death.
But regardless of how fast she was, Kiara blocked the swing by crossing wrists with the Assassin, blocking her knife from reaching the body.
"Your gimmick is troublesome, but easy to avoid."
Mizuki growled by instinct and quickly spun her arm around and slice the forearm of the woman in fron of her while hopping backwards to create distance. Kiara's left arm flew off as a result, but the woman didn't look worried.
"Are you going to fight without an arm now?"
"Without an arm? Are you telling me no one has circumvented this problem before? I can't blame them. Most of them don't even have the capacity too. But you'd think at least one or two you've faced before would be able to."
"What are you talking about? You can't heal something that has been cut through by the lines of death!"
"Of course you cannot. It is dead, after all. But one thing you can do is…" Kiara giggle as she showed the arm with the missing portion suddenly grow miniscule demon pillars that swirled around each other. With a glow of gold, they hardened and joined together into the shape of a forearm, hand, and fingers. A perfect replica of what had been cut from her. And then, it became just as real, the disposed arm being consumed by the black flesh of the throne. "…recreate it."
Mizuki staggered back. The comfort that she had in the knowledge that Kiara did indeed have lines to trace vanished when she showed a workaround to it. It most likely consumed Mana, but with her Stat Rank at EX, on top of the possession of the Holy Grail, this probably meant nothing to her. Most likely, the only way to make it effective would be by slicing a line of her head or neck, maybe even her heart. But reaching any of those would be incredibly difficult. A surprise attack, maybe? But how?
Kiara stepped forward with an open palm and struck Mizuki's stomach while releasing a pink burst of energy from it. Mizuki was hurled away, far from the throne with a pain emanating from her stomach.
But this was an opportunity. She flipped over her chest while yelling "Install!" swapping to the Archer, Mizuki took a shot, glaring with the Mystic Eyes of Distortion and launching a spiral of green and red at Kiara to twist her body all around into a quick defeat.
However…
Kiara's hand flicked in front of her face and squatted the spiral aside with the back of her hand. Instead of her limb twisting apart, the spiral was deflected into one of the pillars that constituted the side structure, bending apart and snapping as a result.
Mizuki almost lost her breath at the sight of it.
The lion of stars leapt forward to pounce on the two girls, but both Rumi and Sayuri got out of the. The Saber managed to leap away much farther than the Alter Ego. The light of the stars turned Rumi's stomach, but she made her best to brace herself and shoot out one of her rocket fists that punched the lion's face. As retaliation, the angry beast leapt at the girl. Rumi protected herself with her remaining hand, acting as a shield. However, the sickly sensation kept creeping up. Luckily, her still flying fist jabbed the lion in the stomach, pushing it off of her.
Once the lion hit the floor, Sakura struck the floor with her spear, making multiple cages sprout from beneath the astral animal, making it roar in a twisted pain.
Sayuri quickly dashed and returned with black sparks surrounding her long katana as she sliced through as many of the stars as possible. Once her job was done, the last of the three beasts vanished in a flash.
Sayuri, somewhat by coincidence, looked up, and noticed a certain Archer descending towards them. Putting the weapon aside, Sayuri caught Mizuki in her arms.
"Gotcha!"
"S-Sayuri?" Mizuki was somewhat taken aback.
"Were you seriously just going to fall like that?"
"N-No, it's just…" Mizuki stood back on the floor, Rumi approaching the two. "Neither Mystic Eye really worked against her."
"Wait: she's immune to the lines of death?"
"Not like that. I cut off her arm, but she grew one right back."
Rumi tilted her head. "And the Distortion ones?"
"She simply swatted it like a fly…" Mizuki felt slightly discouraged.
"She can do that?" Rumi was taken aback.
"With the Holy Grail, there's little she can't do." The three turned around, spotting Sakura approaching. "She took the grail from my body and absorbed it into hers. Kiara is using its power to attack and defend from us."
"The Holy Grail?" Sayuri was taken aback. "The literal one?"
"M-More or less, it's hard to explain." Sakura felt embarrassed. "But that doesn't matter. We need to find a way to defeat that woman."
"Then get the hell out of the way! You're in the way!" The four of them turned, spotting a familiar Saber fully clad in bulky armour. The helmet folded into the armour. "Don't make me repeat myself." The smirking Akane's sword became coated in red sparks as it revealed the demonic appearance.
Five Players had the tall throne of pillars in their sight.
In the front was Akane of the Red Oaths. On the lower right…
"Trace on." Shirou opened his hand and strong golden sparks erupted from his palm. A mirage of Calliburn flashed before it solidified into a convincing replica of the sacred sword Excalibur. He took a hold of the projection and took a stance. "What did you name this exactly, Hakuno?"
"Image. I thought it fit best."
"Alright then." Shirou's golden eyes glared at the faraway structure. The sword began to shine brightly with gold.
Lower left.
"Demon pillars aren't my speciality, but" Kuroko's grip on his sword twisted the hilt into revealing the jewel within it. A bright tower of blue raised towards the clouds. "I'm sure I can defeat that thing if I push myself hard enough!"
On the far left.
"Geez. I'd understand a teenager, but an adult?" Sisigo raised his sword, emitting a bright glow as an aura swelled up. "To have someone make this sort of thing? I'd understand an emotional youngling. But someone that has grown should know better. Oh well… I guess that's asking too much of people." He chuckled to himself by taking the stance for his Noble Phantasm.
Far right.
Communication is rather amazing. With a few texts, one was able to contact her and tell her to come to a location to retrieve her Card from three swordsmen.
"Trouble like this…" Ayaka let out a sigh. "I never thought something of this scale would happen. But I did promise" she raised the golden sword alongside her voice. "THAT I WOULD DEFEAT ANYONE THAT ATTEMPTED TO HURT OTHERS WITH THE CARDS THROUGH MALICE!"
From five sides, five swords were swung as words were spoken I unison.
"Clarent Blood Arthur!"
"Balmung!"
"Excalibur Image!"
"EX-CALIBUUUUUUUUR!"
A beam of red, a semi-circle of green, and three rays of gold. The five Noble Phantasms clashed together against the Throne of Pillars, destroying the base and working their way to the top where the true target resided, becoming pillars of light twisting around each other.
In an act based on instinct, the moment the lights shined, Kiara left the structure behind and avoided the attacks, even if the pillars became vaporized as a result. With a quick set of steps and platforms created out of magic circles, the Demonic Bodhisattva still stood above all.
She looked forward again and spotted two people heading in her direction: Sieg and Joana, mounted on a Hippogriff conjured by Sieg's Noble Phantasm.
Kiara joined her hands into pray and a pink glow shined from in between them. Her hands raised and separated. The glow turning into a strange-looking magic circle that fired multiple arrows of mana of the same colour.
Sieg's eyes focused and the moment the arrows came close, him, Joana, and the steed vanished in a golden glow, reappearing a few metres aside a couple seconds later, fully avoiding the attack.
Kiara waved her arm, summoning pillars to be used as tribute for an attack. Twisted into orbs of gold and joined into one. "Amon." The orb was flung forward and changed into a large bird with a row of sharp teeth. It was heading to the targets to pierce them with its fangs.
Joana stood up on the Phantasmal Beast's back and jumped up high towards the bird as the Hippogriff was told to slow down its pace. The Dragon Witch raised her banner. "La Grodement…!" The bird clashed against the pole and the gold began to turn back into an orb as it changed its colour to red. Once the orb was fully formed, nothing was holding Joana up, so she was brought down. Sieg was the next to jump up, but he flipped over his chest so he'd be upside down. Once Joana and Sieg's feet touched and their legs bent, Sieg used all of his strength to launch her upwards again, completing the flip and landing on the Hippogriff's back. "DU HAINE!" Joana drew her sword and aimed it at Kiara. The orb released a torrential fire, raging like an evil dragon.
The Demonic Bodhisattva flinched. But only for a second. She took a meditative stance and the three dots on her forehead shined brightly. The glow spread to the entirety of her body.
Goddess Metamorphosis
The woman's eyes, revealing the bright gold glow. The fire swallowed her whole, but not one bit of her body got burned.
Once the fire ceased and Joana fell back onto the Hippogriff, the glow vanished.
"It did nothing?!"
"Just what kind of skill is that?!"
Kaiara stood back up and almost tripped over. "O-Oh?" She looked down to her right leg and noticed the large gash on it. "Oh my… I suppose a drawback was to be expected." She let out a sigh and created yet another attack. After the pillar appeared, she spoke "Caim." and the black flesh twisted more and more, taking the shape of giant knife above her head. With the snap of her fingers, the silver dagger became coated in shimmering pink, and flew straight ahead towards Sieg and Joana once the woman stretched her arm forward.
Sieg reacted quick. "Joana, hang on!" He turned to his girlfriend, took her into his arms and leapt off the Hippogriff. The knife sliced through the mythical animal and the couple landed on the rooftop of a building. Sieg cushioned the fall with his body, even if it did little difference.
"Sieg, what was that for?!" The still-Avenger Joana asked. "Why didn't you just use the Hippogriff's ability?!"
"I-I got a bad feeling about that knife!" Sieg pointed out as the two stood back up. "I don't know how to describe it, but I had this feeling that if I tried to do that, we would've been sliced either way."
Kiara looked down and noticed the large number of Players approaching. The beams of the swords weren't just an attempt to defeat her: it was also a beacon to call all those wanting to help signalling her position.
Oh boy, here it comes!
In case you are interested, Discord Server Link: discord .gg /e7Qznvb (remove the spaces)
Just as always, if you have questions or requests, be free to ask, preferably through PM.
Until next time!
