Boyzilla: Thank you for your attention and never-ending support, my friend.
SteelRain66: No, I'm not going to choose Merlin. I have a policy of not always use the same Servants and Merlin is already present in Fate/DragonCrown another one of my FanFics. On the other hand, Merlin is not the only magician of the Arthurian legend.
Since we are talking about the Servants of this FanFic, I decided that there would be a lot of Servants summoned by Hakuno... really a lot BUT the Servants with an important role have almost all arrived. You must understand that the more Servants there are, the less room there will be to talk about them. I decided to divide the Servants into two categories: 1°) the PRINCIPAL Servants (like Artoria, Bedivere, Lancelot, Gawain, and Kay). 2) SECONDARY Servants (all others). This does not mean that a secondary Servant will not have the opportunity to shine, simply that he will not do it as often as the mains characters.
So, there will be no Arc dedicated specifically to the vampire counts BUT Mousillon and the vampires of Bretonnia will have an important role in Order ab Chaos.
The True Skull: "the Power level in Warhammer Fantasy"? What are you talking about? Warhammer Total War? The players of the board game (including me) are furious because the Lore has been completely distorted.
"Even the strongest wizard can't destroy a city" wrong, they can I am living proof... my RPG character, in fact (1)... they can do even worse. Have you ever heard of the "Tombs' Kings"? Nekhera was once a great fertile land as large as Earth's North Africa, governed by pharaohs-like priest-kings. Do you know how Nekhera turned into a desert populated by the undead? All it took was a ritual created by the necromancer Nagash! He killed all the living (humans, animals, and plants) with a spell that also brought them back to life in the form of the undead... The equivalent of an Ex-rank anti-country Noble Phantasm! Unfortunately for Nagash, the lich-kings had an iron will... and he failed to control them.
You mustn't forget that the power of the characters in the video game is balanced to allow a classic army to defeat an army led by a hero. Otherwise, the game would be unplayable. The Warhammer Fantasy Lore abounds in feats of Legendary Lords perfectly comparable to those of the Heroes of Fate.
Again, do not confuse the gameplay of Warhammer Total War video game and the Lore of the universe.
Dan 1142000: You too? My favorite scene in Fate/ Zero is the fight between Gilgamesh and Lancelot. You can count on me, I will make sure that there is a scene that allows Berserker Lancelot to show the immense scope of his talent...
Quasi aquam viventem
(Like living water)
"Act according to the circumstances, take an example on the water. But keep this in mind: the one who wins without fighting will be talented. You have the power to avoid pain, but it is also your duty to respect it."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Hakuno Kishinami was a kind of genius of strategy.
No doubt some would dispute this assertion. It is true that the girl did not resemble Napoleon Bonaparte or Julius Caesar. Everyone who met Hakuno Kishinami misjudged her. At first, they thought Hakuno to be some sort of background character because Hakuno looked too plain and too awkward to be an important person.
To look like a genius...
Appearances...
We always imagined geniuses as characters bigger than normal. We imagined that a great plan was necessarily complicated and difficult to understand for ordinary people. But actually, that was genius? A flamboyant behavior? An attitude? Or the result of a never-at-rest imagination?
This is the situation that Hakuno Kishinami discovered through the virtual screens projected by the Regalia: In the temple of Asuryan, the huge statues in the image of elven knights had left their bases when Bedivere had taken the Star-Stone. They were actually metal golems. In accordance with the enchantment that lent them an illusion of life, they converged on Lancer and the Black Knight, determined to take back the ancient relic that they were responsible for protecting.
Simultaneously, the demon prince had reappeared. His tentacles blocked the stairs, cutting off the Servants' retreat. Their Master mechanically agreed that it was not a coincidence. As Liber Malefic asserted, the demon princes of Slanessh were not only powerful, they were also cunning and manipulative. Loose and cautious, the monster that haunted Marienburg had preferred to trap the Servants rather than confront them by himself.
In place of the Sovereign of the Moon, Caesar or Napoleon would probably have lost a few precious seconds to seek a way to defeat the enemy...
But unlike these great conquerors, Hakuno never looked for a way to beat anyone...
Her universe was not made of victories and triumphs, enemies or vanquished... She had not learned strategy in a school or on battlefields. It was a natural gift refined by her participation in the Moon Cell Grail War. She was a Master. Her universe was the Heroic Spirits and how to overcome trials using their faculties, Code Casts, or Command Spell.
She extended her left hand forward:
"Lancer, by my second Seal of Command. I command you to appear beside me."
The second sign forming the red lily tattooed on Hakuno's hand began to radiate before disappearing, leaving only a gray and dull mark. Immediately Bedivere materialized in a swirl of scarlet light, still holding the Star-Stone.
Kishinami had used a Command Mark only because a Servant could not return to his spiritual form by carrying an object that was not part of his legends, such as his armor or weapons.
Looking at the Lancer-Class Servant, Hakuno focused on her mental bond with the Black Knight:
[Berserker, Astralized and come to me!]
The monster in black armor obeys, disappearing into a whirlwind of blue particles. Before he left the temple, the Master still had time to see that the golems had changed direction. The knights who had violated the temple had disappeared, they now turned to the daemon.
It only took one thought to Hakuno to turn the trap against his creator. Yet she would have been the last to believe that her quick and realistic reaction was a stroke of genius.
Why would she fight the Demon Prince in such an unfavorable situation? The Inheritor of the Moon came to the underground only to retrieve the Star-Stone. She never faced an opponent in a decisive battle until she created a situation that maximized her chances of victory. It was the hard lesson learned during the seven weeks of the Moon Cell's Grail War. She had even less reason to want to destroy the golems.
As Bedivere handed her the Star-Stone, Kishinami thanked him. Smiling timidly at his Servant, Hakuno did not realize how impressed he was. The Silver Lance Knight certainly did not have the charisma of Artoria, but he was the architect of most of the victories of the legendary King Arthur.
Excelling in tactics and strategy, Bedivere had perfectly understood that his Master had triumphed in a situation where many older and experienced war chiefs would have been invariably lost.
Hakuno did not react in a stereotypical way or relying solely on brute force. She was like water. Her mind was always moving. As a liquid took the form of its container, Hakuno's imagination adapted to the situation she was facing.
Hearing a roar of rage and pain from the depths, Lancer smiled. The demon busy fighting the golems obviously shared his opinion about the Master... and he was not particularly happy that she turned his trap against him.
Because Bedivere believed that Hakuno had deliberately turned his trap against the Daemon, except she hadn't thought about what the golems would do after the Servants disappeared. It was simply not in the mentality of Hakuno to think about how to do as much harm as possible to others. She cares only to defend herself and her friend.
In the last ten hours, Marienburg had been shaken by several earthquakes... or rather by tremors as violent as earthquakes, except Selar wasn't so naive as to believe the Directorate's pitch. If the bourgeois on the surface wanted to believe that it was a natural phenomenon, then good for them. Until then, these bleak sheep had believed all the lies that their "good" shepherds had told them, they did not begin today to grow a brain.
However, Selar would not have risen to the head of the Griffins if she had taken her desires for realities. Because it was not a natural phenomenon... unless the earthquakes cried out of anger and pain! In the catacombs, one heard the rumors of a fierce fight.
Worried, the gang leader had begun to evacuate her men to the surface and carry the loot to safety. But the ground continues to shake and convulse. Old buildings buried under the cellars of the modern city threatened to collapse while water from the canals and mud invaded the tunnels.
Busy filling a chest with the fruits of her last robbery, Selar sighed. She had moved into this former warehouse ten years earlier and had turned it into a sort of cozy inn, a warm place, which was closest to a house that this stateless woman had ever known. Abandoning this place really pained her.
Plunged into his thoughts, the Wood Elf did not take heed at the opening of the front door. However, as a cultivated voice addressed her, she raised her head.
"Lady Selar, I am glad to find you. My Master feared that you had already left."
Surprise, the thief looked at the tall young knight with wavy dishwater blond hair and aqua eyes with long eyelashes who stood before her. He wears silver armor with floral patterns over his black and dark blue overall.
She remembered seeing him with the girl who had gone down to the catacombs the day before...
"Still alive?"
"To serve you, Lady Selar."
"What about your 'Master'?"
"Lady Hakuno is fine, of course. I wouldn't have let her get in trouble."
The knight had said these last words with a slight tone of reproach and Selar felt... chastised, like a young girl. More troubled than she wanted to show, the Wood Elf turned her eyes away, pretending to devote herself to filling the chest.
"What do you want?"
"In the first place a little of your precious time, Lady Selar"
"Well, I have no time to lose, the tunnels are collapsing, in case you haven't noticed."
The knight bowed, a hand resting on his heart:
"In that case, it would be gallantry to offer you the help of my Master."
Turning back to the open door, the Knight of the Sun made a compelling sign, showing the crates that the thieves were piling up. Obeying his silent command, several crystal creatures entered the H.Q. of the Griffins. Humanoids, they must have been some kind of golem... but their arms and legs weren't connected to the chest, floating a few centimeters away from what should have been the joint. With gestures testifying to their strength, they handled the packages while the blond knight smiled:
"Just tell us where you want us to deposit your... business' goods."
Selar looked at the crystal creatures that kept coming in to take over the furniture, paintings, and rolled rugs.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Have I forgotten to introduce myself, Lady Selar? You see me sorry for my rudeness. I'm Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table, nephew of King Arthur, and Servant of lady Hakuno Kishinami Sovereign of the Moon Cell.
"What about them?"
Selar referred to the "Enemy _Programs" which continued to empty the warehouse. Gawain smiled:
"Them? It's the Moon Cell army."
Selar understood quickly, very quickly... Army... King... Sovereign... No need to explain to her that the arrival of Kishinami was not unrelated to the "earthquakes" and the fighting rumors. She masked with a smile engaging the fear that was beginning to spread in her bones:
"And what can I do for you, Sir Gawain"
"Let's go to Lady Kishinami. My Master will explain herself better than me."
Marienburg shook, shaken to its foundations by the clash between the Servants and the Demon Prince. The splendid ordinance of the houses lined up along the canals had been broken by the unnatural earthquake. Some buildings had sunk and others had long cracks. Marienburg now looked like the chipped smile of an old whore.
In the streets, people driven from their homes ready to collapse were lamenting and gathering more and more furious. They were hungry, cold, and no longer safe. And their anger was increasingly directed against the Directorate.
The Blacks Hats dispersed the first gatherings by beating the poor men with the handle of their halberd. Nevertheless, as soon as the police were away the poor people met again and their cries of anger became more and more vindictive.
Of course, in a city as unhealthy as Marienburg, there was always someone to add fuel to the fire. The President of the Burgerhof (2) Nieut Gyngrijk had evidently appeared. For a demagogue like him, the beginning of insurrection was an opportunity to present himself as the defender of the popular class! In fact, he was nothing but a selfish shark that always pushed the people into quarrel to sell to the Directorate his ability to calm the crowd.
However, things quickly escaped him.
The situation had reached the point of no return. The war had impoverished the guilds. The plague spread by the Skavens had paralyzed small businesses. The pogrom of foreigners had completed disintegrating the small economy. Only the thieves had made it out... until then because the earthquakes had driven them out of the underground.
Even the Directorate was divided. The old nobility behind Clotilde de Roelef, as well as the Dwarves and Halflings of the Fooger house, now opposed Jaan van der Kuypers, the real leader of the city.
This division completely paralyzed the Marienburg government, preventing the militias from organizing the repression of seditious movements.
Marienburg was like a powder keg that could explode at the slightest spark.
Only one leader was needed to unite all the discontented.
Unaware of the explosive character of the situation, Hakuno Kishinami had just recounted in a few short sentences her expedition to the ancient elven city of Sith Rionnacs'namishathir. Her lack of emphasis and her indifferent face made the story even more impressive for Selar. The thief nodded nervously as the Inheritor of the Moon ended the recount:
"I brought the Demon Prince's prisoners to the surface."
The Wood Elf exchanged a glance with the other gang leaders driven from the depths of the city. They had gathered in the Doodkanaal district. Kishinami's "Enemy _Programs" had arrived with them, carrying the poor people she had delivered. Then the strange "golems" sent by the Moon Cell had dissipated in an instant. Even the disappearance of the army of the mysterious "Sovereign" had not calmed the fear of the leaders of the thieves. They understood that she could call them back at any moment... and then Bedivere and Gawain were enough to impress them.
Selar coughed in her fist before speaking:
"And what do you want from us?"
"Treat the wounded."
"Sorry?"
Not understanding the surprise of the Wood Elf, Hakuno repeated:
"Treat the wounded."
"Why us? We're not a charity!"
Hakuno made a head tilt and pointed to Alvarez Carpio:
"He said you were the most honest people in Marienburg."
Busy coughing to hide his discomfort in front of the too cute expression of the strange "Master", Alvarez laughs shaking his head, incredulous... Hakuno should not take what he said at face value. He just wanted to say that in a corrupt environment like Marienburg, thieves remained correct. The big problem is the Estalian Sailor never knew how to explain things to Hakuno. At times, she acted like a genius, surprising everyone by her speed to develop incredibly effective plans... and at other times Hakuno was so naive that she interpreted everything totally literally.
Selar was no less embarrassed but as all the other leaders turned on her to lead the conversation... the elf found herself unable to refuse purely and simply. The magic effect of head tilts, probably... She, therefore, sought an excuse to refuse the task without tarnishing the good reputation of the thieves.
"Okay, but they need doctors and food, it's not free."
Hakuno blinked:
"Money?"
"yes" approved Selar "we need money!"
Hakuno made a new head tilt and looked at the ring in her hand with a thoughtful look. Then crystal cubes and violet particles came out of the Regalia, converging at Selar's feet to form a bag. Kishinami stretched out her finger:
"Money."
Selar swallowed and opened the bag... before uttering a small cry of surprise. Gold... hundreds of gold coins!
"Business was done," she hastened to say.
There was enough gold to feed and care for all the survivors for at least a year and Selar nodded sharply, well aware that a renegotiation would be more likely to result in a decrease in the money than to obtain more.
"We'll get right to work!"
The other leaders had gathered around the sack, their eyes shining. They all approved with one voice... They were thieves, smugglers, and thugs... To obtain such a sum of money, some would not have hesitated to sell their own sister to Araby slave traders. The irony was that they were offered all this gold for a job that was not only legal but that would also earn them the gratitude of the inhabitants of the city.
I mean, they certainly weren't going to complain about it!
Alvarez Carpio was divided between a desire to laugh like an idiot... and utter amazement. Did Hakuno realize that she had taken control of the thieves' guild?
By bringing back the Star-Stone, she had proved her strength in front of the Marienburg mob.
By saving the prisoners from the demon, she had proved her generosity.
And by distributing so much gold, she demonstrated her wealth.
What sane thief would refuse to serve a generous, rich, and powerful master?
And it only took her a day to unify the entire rogue's gang of Marienburg! It was beyond imagination...
The worst was that Alvarez was certain that Hakuno had not premeditated this result. Paradoxically, Hakuno would have been less dangerous if she was always as great as during the underground clash. The mixture of genius and naivety that characterized the "Master" allowed her to perform absolutely unexpected things... After all, overestimating the "Moon's Inheritor" could disturb the enemy as much as underestimating her (3).
Alvarez would not wish to be in the enemy camp. Even Slaneesh's Demon Prince had proved incapable of anticipating Hakuno Kishinami's next action.
The story was too good to be wrong, a teenager had faced the Demon Prince who haunted Marienburg and had taken back under his nose (or the equivalent in a Daemon) the legendary Star-Stone, before releasing the victims of the daemon's curse and take them to the surface! It took only a few hours so that the story was on everyone's lips.
When the thieves began to bring back missing relatives to their families, distributing food and medical care to the survivors, it was necessary to realize the obvious, it was more than a beautiful story.
From the Directors to the beggars of the low canals, all asked themselves now the question: "Who was Master Hakuno Kishinami?"
Unaware of the consequences of her actions, Hakuno had returned to the ruined house of the Doodkanaal where she had settled... like after an ordinary day. Watched by her three Servants, she had slept and got up the next day with a "very simple" goal, to resume her fight against the Prince-Demon.
And for this veteran of the Moon Cell Grail War, it meant going back to the library to find new pieces of information.
But when Hakuno arrived in front of the Verena Cathedral, she discovered that the large library had been ransacked. In front of the large porch, a mound of ash was still smoking. Several priests of the goddess of justice looked at the spectacle with a frightened air, surrounding a pale and trembling old man.
Living in Marienburg for years, Alvarez identified the old man as brother van Eyyck, the Chief Librarian. The monk sobbed like a child:
"Everything is gone! Centuries of knowledge, rare incunabula, unique manuscripts... centuries of knowledge gone up in smoke."
Hakuno approached him and spoke:
"Who did this? Why?"
Brother van Eyyck burst out of laughter close to dementia:
"The Blacks Hats! They came before dawn and broke into the Cathedral of Justice. They claimed that knowledge is the enemy of power and says that foreign writers write lies... What a waste!"
He began to weep. The handsome old man dressed as a monk of the goddess of justice wept before the madness of men.
Hakuno shook her head in spite. She loved books. Books were easier to understand than men. They never asked weird questions, never acted strangely. You never wasted time with a book. Almost as unhappy as the librarian, she turned back after one last look at the heap of ashes.
So much gratuitous violence was beyond her comprehension. Had the Directors lost their minds?
When he returned to the lower quarters, a crowd awaited him. The thieves, the families of the victims that Hakuno had found in the demon's lair, their friends, and thousands of other exalted people. All were armed and eager to fight with the Black Hats. The destruction of the library had triggered the fury of the students and strangely the sailors... their "hereditary enemies"... sailors and students regularly ravaged the taverns of the port.
The thugs of the Doodkanaal and the militiamen of the guilds monitored the demonstration. Soon delegations from a good half of the Marienburg districts had joined them. The Dwarves of Dwergsbezit armed with axes and harquebus formed real battalions. The inhabitants of Kisleviersweg were Kislevites mercenaries and unskilled workers. Coming from Kleinmoot, the Halflings were armed with stone and bows. The persecuted Tileans and Estalians had left their hiding places, armed with knives and sticks, they were ragged, hungry but ready to die standing rather than staying hidden longer. The penniless aristocrats of Oudgelwijk had pistols and rapiers, some wore old family armor. The fishermen of Rijkspoort and Vlakland handled nets, knives, and harpoons.
It was the flock of all the desperate. Some were the victims of the ferocious greed of the Directorate for a too long time. Others, like the Dwarves, had prospered for years until madness seized the city.
But all had taken up arms.
And they cheered Hakuno, asking her to take the lead in the revolt.
The girl did not know what to answer and her silence was taken as assent. Anyway, the crowd only needed a symbol, this revolt was theirs.
They had erected barricades in several neighborhoods. These improvised palisades consisted of chariots, old furniture, and cobblestones torn from the streets as well as beams torn from the ruined houses.
The improvised defense was soon reinforced by Bedivere's advice. The Silver Spear Knight placed also bowmen on the roofs.
Unfortunately, the mercenary garrison remained loyal to Director Jaan van der Kuypers. Thanks to their canons, they shot down the barricades while the pike regiments charged supported by crossbowmen and harquebus.
The clash lasted a good part of the day, but only the presence of the Servants prevented the battle from turning into a rout.
When night fell on the city, the rats filled there in the streets transformed into mass graves by the day's battles. Hakuno's sleep was disturbed by many nightmares... she dreamed of the Demon Prince, his presence was now creeping into all the city's houses.
The whole city was bathed in an atmosphere of insanity. The uprising of the population as the fiercely arched Directors in defense of their privileges was no longer normal behavior... The inhabitants of Marienburg had become so auto-destructive like they had become insane... or possessed.
The violence of the day's clashes had fed the daemon, Hakuno understood.
She could not fight both Jaan van der Kuypers and the abomination sent by Slaanesh. Because violent emotions nourished the Demon Prince.
The Daemon had to be destroyed as soon as possible or Marienburg would end up razed to the ground.
Still exhausted by the night she had lived, Hakuno decided to return to the catacombs to search for the monster.
The remains of the battle of the day before were everywhere visible, the bodies of mutants and Skavens littered the ancient underground ruins. However, it was only in the temple of Asuryan that the Sovereign of the Moon found traces of the daemon. The place had seen an epic clash. The monster had pulverized the golems leaving only pieces of twisted metal and filings! But the monster had not come out unscathed from the fight. The walls were stained with translucent slime.
While Hakuno watched the ruined battlefield, Berserker materialized without order on her part. The giant in black armor leaned over the sword adorned with jewels of one of the animated statues. The weapon was not an ordinary one because it had resisted the fury of a powerful Daemon. Turning to Hakuno, the Servant uttered a strangely soft hum:
"RRRRrrr... Rrr... RRRrrr?!"
The Master smiled and nodded:
"Yes, you can keep the sword."
Hakuno understood that her Servant had a knack for mastering weapons... probably an effect of his Noble Phantasm.
And indeed the colossus took the sword and brandished it with one hand as if it were a light willow's stick... whereas, in fact, the weapon was a claymore-like sword normally used by a golem twice as big as an elf knight!
(1) In a roleplaying game party, the magician of my group (a beginner) practically burns a small town to the ground... losing control of a spell. By channeling the energy of Chaos voluntarily or not (this phenomenon is known as chaotic resonance) a wizard can amplify any spell. Imagine what happens to a fireball! Fortunately, the river was next door...
(2) The lower chamber of the Stadstraad (the parliament), brings together the councilors of the city's districts, the representatives of the minors cities constituting the Vasteland, and the representatives of the commercial guilds.
(3) There is a saying in fencing: " Le meilleur des escrimeurs ne craint pas son lieutenant, il craint le pire des escrimeurs" (The best of fencers does not fear his second, he fears the worst of fencers)... Because a bad fencer is more likely to hurt a good fencer (or himself) by completely screwing up than a good fencer has a chance to beat an even better fencer! Hakuno is even more dangerous. She sometimes fights like the best fencers and sometimes like the worst. And her enemies can't predict whether she's gonna do either. A real nightmare...
Author's note: one more chapter for "Order ab Chaos"... and one chapter I'm quite happy about. I hope you liked it too.
Think of it as my Christmas present.
Joyeux Noël et bonne année.