Hello! Welcome back to my little story! I hope you have enjoyed the read so far! I really want to thank all of you, my dear readers, for all the loyalty you have displayed so far. It really warms my heart to know you enjoy this poor, deluded noob's story so much :D
I knew good and well that last chapter would rustle some jimmies, and while it may sound a bit unbelievable now, do believe me that I have a Plan. this story is barely halfway through.
Also, I want to celebrate having hit 100 Favorites as of the release of this chapter :D
sumanut: Yes, the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia anime has confirmed that all mesopotamian gods and demigods have the distinction of golden hair and red eyes. Ishtar in the Anime was different because she was possessing a body. Ereshkigal was also blonde with red eyes, for reference.
Disclaimer: All rights go to their respective creators, and even thought some of the new Servants for this story do not exist within the Nasuverse and are my own creative imput, i still reject all rights and grant them to Type-moon.
"Emiya... Shirou?" Leonidas questioned as he slowly got up, wearily due to his injuries suffered at the hands of Heracles just now. He let out a slight grunt of pain for a moment before he slowly approached Amakusa Shirou and Semiramis, who recovered on their own and got up on their feet.
"Ah... how long has it been since I smelled fresh air..." 'Shirou' spoke, his voice's distortion having deeped a bit, as if it was layered on itself. "And now... ah, such a refreshment." He continued, getting up on his feet and waving his hair backwards, forcing it to a similar style as EMIYA's, but with a single strand sticking out forward. Basically EMIYA with an Ahoge.
"Who... no. Not who. What are you?" Amakusa questioned, reaching his arm under Semiramis' to help her stand in the meantime.
"I suppose I should truly, properly introduce myself. I am Nanna, God of Wisdom and the Moon. But you may also call me En-zu. I much prefer it, Nanna sounds way too girly for my liking." 'Shirou', or Nanna now, spoke, a sly grin on his face, his blood-red eyes scanning across the room until they met Mordred's teared up expression. "Ah, the lost Child. Seems like you were here to witness the height of my freedom."
"What did you do to Emiya!?" Leonidas then demanded, his voice loud, almost a scream at that point.
"Straight to the point? As I would expect it from you, Leonidas. The Rebellious Martyr. Emiya Shirou is Gone."
"Gone? What do you-"
"No point in asking, I mean what I said. Emiya Shirou succumbed, his mind in pieces and his conscience under constant self-destruction." Nanna began to explain and walked up towards Heracles, who still remained on his knees. "I have to say... deceiving Emiya Shirou proved easier than I anticipated."
"Deceive him!?" Mordred growled, but she had too little power to stand, so she fell to her knees.
"Considering you cannot win either way, I will humor you with the full details. After all, I am no God of Wisdom if I have no superior intellect to boast about."
Semiramis wiped some of the blood from her face to free the vision in her eyes and glared up at the possessed body. "So you are going to reveal to us your Master Plan out of ego?"
"Quite right. You came from a Sumer age yourself, Semiramis. You should know that this is how we all work, Gods, Kings, even the Mortals."
Amakusa, Semiramis and Leonidas slowly made their way over to Mordred while their eyes remained glued to the new enemy, careful and on the defensive.
"Let me start at the beginning. It's a good place to start." Nanna began as he approached Heracles even more and tapped him on the shoulder to sign him to get up, which he obediently did. "12'000 years ago, when the Outer God Sefar came to this Planet to take it over, killing most of the present deities and destablizing the balance of the Mana, kickstarting the decline of the Age of Gods. It was then already that I knew the Age of Gods could not be saved, it could not be salvaged. So it had to be reborn much the same way it was destroyed. Let the Balance flow fully to one side, then place a weight on the other side and let the scale tip itself back up. And so, I began to prepare for the day when the Age of Gods would end, fragmenting my Divinity and my Soul and storing it within the treasuries of all my temples. Over the course of the many millenia, those Fragments would store their own Mana, slowly but surely build it up while the walls of the Ziggurats prevented the outer world from sensing them until such time when someone capable of hosting a Gods fragmented Soul found them, firing a massive pulse of pure Mana across the globe."
"The Wave 2 weeks ago!" Amakusa concluded. When that Shockwave of Mana blasted across the world, originating from the Ziggurat near Basra which Shirou had entered, Amakusa had felt it as well. Everyone subseptible to Mana, aka everyone with Magic Circuits, did.
"Exactly. But the Mana also served a secondary purpose to allow me to set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the finalization of my plans. It was already after the birth of Gilgamesh that some of us knew that Humans would eventually come across the discovery of the True Magics as well as the Omnipotent Wish-granter, the Holy Grail. I capitalized my plan on that, and so, when Emiya Shirou entered my temple, the shockwave released chain-reaction across the other Ziggurats, releasing a concentrated, focused ripple aimed at the Greater Grail specifically."
Mordred gulped as she heard all of this and glanced over to the Greek Hero next to Nanna. "That is why Heracles and Father remembered Emiya Shirou, isn't it...?"
"Correct. When Servants are summoned, usually they are done so posthumously and as such only retain the memories from their life. Whenever a Grail War ends, the memories they attained from this Grail War are cleaned and they return to only knowing about their own life. Artoria was an exception the last 2 Grail Wars because she wasn't summoned posthumously."
"What? She was summoned to the Grail Wars ALIVE?" Mordred questioned, finding that hard to believe.
"Indeed. Thought, she was technically still dead. When she lay dying from the wound YOU inflicted after Camlann, she set herself to rest and prayed to Alaya, the Will of the World, to give her a chance to undo the selection. And so, Alaya permitted her soul to be summoned despite her body not being deceased, and as such, Artoria Pendragon was summoned as a living human being, in possession of all her mortal needs and the Ability to keep those memories she made in the Holy Grail War. It was only after the end of the 5th Grail War, did she truly die and her Soul was sent to Avalon."
"And Heracles?" Leonidas now questioned, helping Amakusa set down Semiramis to let her rest.
"A little interference on my part. The Mana I fired into the Greater Grail from being released upon this world gave me just enough influence to tamper with the Servant Summoning a little, but enough to re-instate the memories of a second Servant while also embedding control over him, one who does not suffer Artoria's unique condition that helps retain memories by itself. That Servant had to be someone Emiya Shirou could trust just enough to not question it. Someone so mighty and impressionable yet trusted and revered that none would think about it a second time."
"Heracles..." Leonidas concluded.
"Exactly. Held up by such high standarts by gods and mortals alike, no one questioned how he kept his memories of the previous Grail War, all of you either too busy questioning his relationship to Emiya Shirou or being wary of their potential teaming up. Your own admiration for the legend became the black veil that hid the lie until it was already too late and the sleeper-agent that he was could awake and do as commanded."
"Get out of here... I got this." Leonidas then assured, asking Semiramis, Amakusa and Mordred to evacuate. "Roland is still somewhere, find her, and run. You need to find the Black Faction." He told the Trio, who all nodded without complains. Semiramis got up to run on her own whereas Amakusa picked Mordred up over his shoulder. Usually, the Knight of Treachery would vocably and loudly protest this, but she could barely walk as is, so she kept her mouth shut about it.
Leonidas turned his attention back to Nanna. "And taking over Emiya Shirou's body? How did you plan for that?"
"That was the easiest part of it all. Once I was inside Emiya Shirou, I was able to feed my own influence in his mind by resting for a moment, biding my time while leeching off of his Mana bit by bit until my emergence within his consciousness could be retained without Avalon wiping me out on the spot. Each time I emerged, I asked Shirou for a price, masking it as a fair trade, convincing him that rejection would lead to witnessing pain and death to his beloved Artoria. So eager to protect her from any and all harm, he played into my hands like a hungry puppydog. The first time, I gave him that power-boost necessary to defeat you, and as the price, I asked for a piece of his memories, puncturing a hole into his Mind which I filled up with my own influence. The second time, I gave him a healing boost to wake him up, and as a price, I demanded an emotion and gained access to the hole in his Soul. And for the Third time, after provoking Avalon to a lethal, hostile reaction to my presence, I gave him a sure chance to survive, painting Avalon as the enemy and offered him all the power to get to the Grail and make his Wish, and I asked, as my price, for his Body. Thus, in possession to influence in all three aspects of the human being that is Emiya Shirou, his Mind, Body and Soul, all I had to do was shatter his own Mind, Body and Soul so that I can overpower him."
"When he attacked Artoria..." Leonidas concluded, gulpint slightly in the process. "He didn't see her at all... he saw someone else because you meddled with his memory of people's faces and swapped two people out, convincing him that whoever he saw before him in that moment was an enemy."
"Correct. Turns out that nothing can shatter the mind quite like a little Psychotic Break when it is revealed that said Break was the cause of the death of the one woman you held higher than even your ideals. And so, when he saw what he did, it didn't matter that it wasn't his fault, that it was my influence. It was still his hands, it was still his failure, his naivete and his submission to his own anxieties and fears that allowed this to happen and the realization of all of that hit him at once-"
"Breaking his conscious sanity and his heart, or his Mind and Soul, completely..."
"Exactly." Nanna finalized with a devious smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The fears of Emiya Shirou, the inevitability of their rise and his inability to move on and live with them brought upon his downfall. And the best part about it? I never lied to him. Half-truths and technicalities."
"So that is why he never questioned it... he wouldn't have to because you convinced him that the truths you were speaking of were in good faith."
"You catch on quick, Leonidas of Sparta. Indeed, Mesopotamian Deities cannot lie, but they can deceive all the same. And you know what they say... the most painful lie is a truth you cannot accept for what it is. And so Emiya denied himself the simple truth that he was never going to end up ontop of any of this."
Leonidas narrowed his eyes once again, taking in deep and slow breaths, focusing his physique for the ensueing fight. "Why go to such lengths to take over his body?"
"Because of Alaya. Until such time where I can wish upon my own body, I needed someone elses so I could begin my operations in this world. Now, with my soul partially bound to Emiya Shirou's body, we are as one person since birth, and so, the rules of the World cannot reach me anymore."
Leonidas narrowed his eyes and exhaled sharply, the full realization kicking in within his brain now. "So that was his endgame..."
"And now, that I possess a human body, it does not matter that I am a Foreign Entity from the Reverse Side of the World. Human, Mortal body means abiding by the Rules, even if only by another technicality." Nanna spoke, his voice growing louder as he was growing prouder, more arrogant of his success. "I have done what not even Sefar could do. I have beaten the Will of the World! In what shall be known as the greatest Hack in all of history, the Great Holy Grail Hack, I have beaten Alaya!"
Leonidas suddenly thought of something and he ended up making a broad smirk at his adversary, much to Nanna's surprise.
"Why the face of pride? You have lost, Leonidas of Sparta! Humanity has LOST!"
"No... no we have not." Leonidas exclaimed before he materialized spear and shield. "Something about your wording struck me as odd... you said you are only partially inflused with Emiya Shirou, and that your Mind, Body and Soul had to overpower him... this means you don't yet have full ownership of his Body. You need the Holy Grail and make the Wish to exorcise Emiya Shirou's soul out of his body to take complete control." Leonidas exclaimed while smirking much brighter, taunting the Mesopotamian Deity. "I am really glad I learned how to force my enemies to excessively monologue, because you just told us how to beat you! We have to make the same wish to the Holy Grail in reverse, or we have to infiltrate your mindscape and kick you out by force."
"Try as you might. You shall not succeed. I will reach the Grail after I have defeated you all. And when I do, my rule over humanity will be assured." Nanna spoke. As he did so, he extended his right hand and a sphere of pure, concentrated Mana was beginning to build itself up.
"That is where you are wrong, Nanna." Leonidas exclaimed before he took a straight-up stand, spear in one hand and shield at the ready. "MOLON LABE!" He began to chant, and the souls of his many Spartan Warriors suddenly appeared next to him, repeating his words. "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas chanted again, and the others did suit once again. Then, the blue-ish ghosts all took stance to throw their spears, and did just that.
"Deal with them, Heracles."
The Greek Hero roared out loudly and dashed right before Nanna, using his body to block the spears without getting scratched. Then, the Greek Hero stepped aside and Nanna fired the concentrated ball of Mana straight at Leonidas.
"THIS IS... SPARTAAA!" Leonidas roared at full might, scraping his spear across the surface of his shield, causing it to catch fire along its symbols for a moment, and when it did, the shields of his spartan brothers emerged, forming several rows along the width of the room, creating a protective dome that was hit head-on by the Mana Projectile. "THERMOPYLAE ENOMOTIA!"
The Projectile caused a large Nova in collision with the shields, pressing on against them and cracking them, one by one, while Leonidas stared up at it with an unphased expression. He then tapped the ground with the backside of his spear, causing a loud gong-line sound to echo across the room and the Dome expanded, pressing the enemy attack out and away. However, as the collision continued, more and more of Leonidas' shields began to break, and eventually, the power-balance started to reverse and the dome shrank. Leonidas grit his teeth and stepped forth with his left leg, extending his own shield to take the hit directly head on once the last of his other shields broke, the energy from the Attack releasing itself like a nova around the shield and Leonidas, slowly inching towards him from all directions from the outside.
"Just like in Thermopylae. Your shields fall, and you stand as the last man."
"Heh..." Leonidas only scoffed while pressing his shield a bit further. "If you know the legend, then you know what comes next..." Leonidas said and tightened the grip on his spear, pressing its bottom side against the ground for additional support.
"Take the hit, Heracles." Nanna commanded, and the Greek Demigod obeyed with a grunt, standing before the gold-haired possessed body like a meatshield.
"But... do you know a portion of it that people love to forget?" Leonidas then rhetorically asked, causing Nanna's eyebrow to inch up. "When Xerxes monologued about the inevitability of Sparta's demise before my death... I threw my spear at him, from which the counter-attack comes from..." Leonidas grunted and readied himself. "I scraped his ear, cut his lobe into two halves. I sullied the perfection, I damaged the invincible, I touched the untouchable. A mortal man wounded the self-made god..."
Nanna suddenly understood and took a few steps back from Heracles to create a safe distance between the two of them.
"When my shields fall... and I stand last... my retribution may be at its weakest... BUT IT MAY PIERCE EVEN THE INDESTRUCTIBLE!" The Spartan King roared out in full volume before he twirled his spear in his right hand and took a throwing stance, javelin-tossing his spear straight at Heracles, unstopped by the Nova, never slowing down until it collided with Heracles' chest, and punctured it without even slowing down, piercing a hole the size of a head straight through Heracles' heart. The Spear continued to travel past the Greek Hero and narrowly missed Nanna, but it cut the bottom part of his earlobe, creating a small upside down V that was maybe a single inch long at best.
After the throw, the Nova released by the attack from Nanna engulfed Leonidas fully, destroying him on the spot, leaving not a single trace to be picked up.
"Blasphemous until the end..." Nanna spoke. "Let us prepare, Hera-" Nanna then said, but as he turned to Heracles, he saw the Berserker was beginning to dissolve himself into particles. "His throw... killed Heracles over 4 times? Tch." The Mesopotamian Deity cursed. "This is unforseen. But it shall not hinder me. If I have to beat the Black Faction by myself, I will."
"We are almost there..." Semiramis commented and pointed towards what the trio could see to be the edge of the platform they were walking on. As they got there, they saw Saber of Red, supporting herself by her sword and glaring at Amakusa, Semiramis and Mordred.
"Took you long enough..." The Blonde Knight spat while sheating her sword Durindal before she humped towards the edge of the platform with them. "Now, I dearly hope that you have a plan on how we get off this thing?"
"I do" Semiramis shot back while making a somewhat annoyed expression before she waved her hands in a meticulous manner, to which the Hanging Gardens responded by hovering one of its offensive plates, the Fortress's outer defence mechanism that can fire beams against airborne targets or even the ground, if close enough. "I can bring us to ground by hovering us with it, but..."
"That is all you can do with the fortress, is it?" Amakusa rhetorically asked while looking her in the eyes with a weak smile.
"I am afraid so... my magecraft only works as long as I am within it. It is the epitome of my Double Summon that grants me the Abilities and the potential role of a Caster and is the ultimate source of my strength... once I leave it, I am virtually powerless, just a regular, low ranked Assassin who can use poison."
Everyone else silently nodded and waited for the small offensive plate to land close enough so they could climb up on it, with Mordred being put on it first, followed by Roland, then Semiramis and Amakusa last. Once they were all ontop of it, Semiramis moved her hands in an oval manner, a horizontal circle in front of her chest. While she did, the plate began to move away from the large Platform and slowly descended towards the ground.
"Wait, what happens to the Hanging Gardens if you leave it?" Roland then asked while she was checking Mordred for any wounds.
"It will dust. It will crumble, age, and eventually, fall apart." She responded as she leaned herself back, laying against the Saint's shoulder. "Such is the fate of all abandoned ruins. But we do have time until it breaks down and Nanna hits the ground. Unlike with the scenario of my demise, the Hanging Gardens won't immediately break apart, but the damage crawls up over time. I will be optimistic and say Nanna can't come down on his own, as he is still limited by the physique of Emiya Shirou, so he is stuck there until it hits ground in... maybe 3 days."
"phew" the Snow-haired Priest exhaled as he held Semiramis closer to himself and stroked her hair lightly. "Well, the good news is, we finally get some breathing room... we have been at a constant battle for nearly 2 days now."
"A break is good. We can heal, we can gather, we can prepare" Roland added before she let Mordred's right hand go after checking her muscular and nervus responses. "But how do you suggest we kill an actual God? Heroic Spirits with divinity is one thing, but this is a divine spirit in a human body. I doubt that our Abilities are equipped to deal with this."
"No..." Mordred said weakly while looking at the sky with a distant, angry glare. "But I know someone who is..."
Assassin of Black was humming to herself, dancing slightly and making pirouettes while circling around the throne, a very happy tune coming from her throat.
"Is this really the time for us to dance and sing?" Darnic questioned as he was watching Assassin be so happy with herself.
"But of course!" She interjected while she was circling the throne one more time before she sat down. "The Homunculus has allied with Ruler, and they seem to be getting along well, too. Not to mention that his fourth Circuit Implant is ready. Today is a good day, Darnic!"
"I don't thi-"
Suddenly, his eyes shot wide open and he turned his head to instinctively look up against the walls, his eyes fixed at the general direction from where the Hanging Gardens were lcoated.
"I felt it too, Darnic." Assassin said as she leapt from the throne and raced past him. "Locate the other Servants, we make an emergency meeting at the Homunculus laboratory! HURRY!"
Darnic nodded and obeyed the orders immediately, racing a different way than Assassin and going towards the south wing of the Castle, the Yggdmillennia's flower garden, where Gwydion was usually located. Once he arrived, he burst through the doors and, to his positive surprise, saw Gwydion sitting on one of the benches and smelling a rose. "Caster! We-"
"I know." Gwydion interjected and gently laid the rose aside before he sat up. "That just now was what I would call a major complication. Where are the others?"
"Assassin called an emergency meeting, we are assembling at the Homunculus Laboratory!"
"Got it."
With their exchange done, Darnic resumed running to find the others and let them know where they would be meeting. Gwydion in the meantime looked into his right hand, holding a damaged Lily while letting out a deep sigh. "So this is it..." he mumbled to himself before he gently set the Lily down next to a few others and dissolved into flowers, using his ability to travel to a different location.
"Is everyone accounted for?" Assassin asked as she glanced around.
In the following 45 minutes after she gave the order, everyone seemed to have arrived. Sieg, Rider, Berserker, Caster, herself, Darnic, Roche, Caules, Fiore and Celenike as well as Ruler, Jeanne D'Arc.
"Good. I assume you all felt it..."
Everyone showed a different reaction, some worried faces, some nods, and Berserker seeming indifferent, but they all showed their agreement.
"What just happened I can only describe as-"
"The cold of Death, the phenomenon upon overwhelming fear called 'The Chills'." suddenly came a voice, which caused them all to turn their heads and look at the source of the voice.
"Oh no!" Jeanne spoke and immediately rushed in front of the others, Flagpole drawn and ready to fight. "So you came for the Grail after all, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada!"
The white-haired Shirou shook his head slowly and lifted his hands defensively, pointing at the heavily injured Roland, who still hasn't recovered yet, and Mordred, who was at the constant edge of passing out. "No, we are here for the same reason you are. We want to ally ourselves with you to deal with this common threat."
"Why should we trust you?" Jeanne said, changing the combat stance from a defensive to an offensive one in the process.
"Because we know exactly what is coming for us, how long it takes, and what it wants."
Sieg placed a hand on Jeanne's shoulder, causing her to turn towards him. His soft expression immediately got to her, her eyes lessening the hostility and she nodded slightly before setting the flagpole down. Sieg stepped forward past her and stood face to face with Amakusa Shirou. "Then let us hear what you have to say."
Amakusa nodded at the Homunculus before he turned his eyes towards the others. "In an unforseen turn of events, the Red Faction's only remaining Master, Emiya Shirou, has been possessed by an ancient deity, the Mesopotamian god Nanna, or En-zu." As Amakusa spoke, he could see the different reactions to the revelation of this new threat. The Masters particularily seemed terrified, wherein as Berserker seemed ecstatic. The Saint paid no attention after Berserker's reaction and continued. "He has infiltrated the Grail War, having planned his advance for several millenia now and he has succeeded more than halfway by sabotating and breaking the mind of Emiya Shirou... We have temporarily locked him in place by abandoning the Hanging Gardens of Babylon but eventually, it will come down, and Nanna with it..."
Jeanne gulped heavily as she listened. "This Grail War is going south utterly and completely... maybe... maybe this was why I was brought out... to defeat this greater evil."
Sieg continued to look into Amakusa's eyes for an extended period before he spoke. "How much time do we have?"
"Three days, roughly."
Sieg gave one more nod before he stepped back to give Jeanne the word once again. "Ruler..."
Jeanne looked the Homunculus into his eyes once again, a wordless exchange between the two occuring before she nodded. "Alright..." Her eyes then turned to Amakusa Shirou Tokisada and she extended her hand to him. "Then, Ruler to Ruler, I accept this alliance..."
Alright, a slightly shorter and calmer chapter than the usual as far as my writing is concerned. As this has taken a sudden turn, I know that some readers still have questions. Please, do voice them to your hearts content.
I will see you very soon with another chapter. Cheers!