FATE/LÚNASA FÓMHAR

"August Harvest"

Chapter 25: Silencing the Snake

Crom Cruach stared at Connla for a long while. He wasn't sure why she appeared so flabbergasted all of a sudden after presenting such a brilliant deduction. He then raised an eyebrow and wondered, "Ah. So you recognize my vessel."

She swallowed, then nodded.

He said, "Just like how Lugh is using you as his Pseudo-Servant, worship in me has waned so dramatically that I had to resort to finding a human possessing the same wavelength as me in order to materialize in this world."

"That's what I figured. I just never expected you to rely on him, of all people."

"This man was raised to be an assassin with no concept of emotions, isolated from all of society and treated as a tool of murder. I too am a tool of murder that humans use to make their wishes come true – more precisely, a god of sacrifice. Yet when our uses are expended, we are then treated as evil beings that should not exist in this world."

"…"

"But I digress. As a result of me choosing this man, I have thus been bestowed the Servant class of Assassin. While it is not the ideal class for me, it is most suitable for me to adjust to this man's latent combat style."

Connla knew what Crom Cruach meant by this. If he wanted to maintain this sequestered society for as long as possible, then he would certainly want the ability to protect it himself should the need arise… and now, that need did arise once she showed up. Although his expression never changed, his murderous intent was far too evident for her to ignore. Even so, there was one question she couldn't resist asking him:

"About this whole faction-styled society, isolated from the rest of the world… What exactly is your purpose in establishing it?"

"My purpose?" Crom Cruach wondered, then narrowed his eyes. "Why is that important to you?"

"I want to know what you seek to gain from all of this. I know that gods sustain themselves through human worship, yet no one I met ever mentioned your name, nor was anyone actually praying to you. You act fundamentally different from other gods, being content to stay obscured and let things play out for themselves. The only telltale sign that something felt off was how Celtic and Christian Servants wielded more wealth and resources than anyone else. That was probably born out of your grudge against St. Patrick and the people of Ireland for abandoning you."

"Indeed. I would never allow either of those two types of Servants to flourish in my ideal civilization."

"Even so, you don't seem bothered by the lack of actual worship towards you. Were the sacrifices made to the Fomorian idols sufficient enough to sustain you, or is there something else going on?"

Crom Cruach closed his eyes and stood there, as still as one of his own stone statues.

"Sacrifices in the name of Crom Cruach… Perhaps the era of giving up one's loved ones and prized possessions to a pagan deity such as myself is over. The world can only handle so many incidents similar to King Tigernmas before mankind moves in to put a stop to such madness. However, isn't sacrifice itself prevalent in the modern age as a living, breathing concept?"

Connla widened her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Livestock bred solely to be processed into meat for human consumption. Fish suddenly pulled out of the ocean by eager anglers. Mages performing human experimentation to further their own lineages. Crooks embezzling money from others. Criminals murdering witnesses to ensure their silence. Servants given up to my Fomorian idols to maintain a civilization.

"I could go on with so many other examples of such. While direct worship in me is no more, by being conceptualized as a 'god of sacrifice', just the mere existence of humans allows for my existence to be sustained. The same can be said of similar gods representing sacrifice in other cultures."

"In other words," Connla murmured, "you've been secretly living through human history this whole time."

"I may have been pushed into the darkest corners of mankind's collective subconsciousness, but St. Patrick's crozier most certainly did not kill me. Thanks to this oversight, I bided my time while consuming on the 'faith' that such daily sacrifices generate, until I was strong enough to inhabit this man's body as my vessel."

"Bided your time? For what? Revenge?"

Crom Cruach muttered, "That's probably one reason. While I am impartial to many things, the Christian faith is something I have little tolerance for. Quite frankly, their flagrant hypocrisy disgusts me. Once were they a holy organization, but now they have degenerated into murderous elitists who seek to curate human history according to their own whims.

"Unfortunately, the Christian faith comprises a vast portion of humanity's belief systems. If I wished to birth the society I always yearned for, I needed to find a means of first secluding people from Christianity's overbearing influence. To that end, I enlisted the help of another forgotten pagan deity; Cernunnos, the god of beasts and wild places. With his abilities, I was able to summon Aspidochelone from the Reverse Side of the World and put the reigns on it. From there, I'm sure you understand the rest."

She sighed in dismay. "Unbelievable… To think you'd go this far to achieve your dream… All at the expense of so many humans and Servants…"

"I take it you seek to bring me to justice on Lugh's behalf," Crom Cruach said. "Well, it cannot be helped. Lugh and I are rivals after all. He and I always had a competition as to who got to keep each year's bounty every summer."

Right, Connla thought. That's the folklore behind the Lughnasadh festival; Crom Dubh, who is based off of Crom Cruach, would steal the harvest, and then Grandfather would fight him to get it back for humanity. I suppose in a way, the people trapped inside Aspidochelone are considered the 'harvest' that Grandfather wants me to rescue this time around.

Crom Cruach shrugged nonchalantly. "I thought for sure I could escape Lugh's watchful gaze down in the depths of the ocean, but I suppose it was foolish of me to try."

She replied firmly, "You're right. What you're doing is madness. If sustaining yourself through daily sacrifices is enough for you, then there's no need for this demented civilization that revolves around Fomorian idol worship. This is all just your selfish, petty little world where you can gorge on human suffering as much as you like. Well I've had enough. No matter what it takes, I'm going to put a stop to this right now."

"So it would seem," he said, then got into a combat stance. "I suppose I'll have to move into the clean-up phase of this plan."

"Clean-up phase?" she wondered as she brandished her daggers.

"Elimination of evidence and witnesses. Willingly destroying my own statues and unleashing the trapped Fomorians and Shadow Servants should have taken care of things for me, but everyone's collective resilience was far greater than I expected."

"Damn straight. Even if you wind up defeating me, there's no way you can destroy so many Servants at once."

"That's why I have my last resort on standby."

She visibly cringed. She dared not ask what he meant, but he answered for her:

"Much of the faith energy has been gathered into Aspidochelone's body to provide strength for its survival. I will instead convert that energy into raw destruction, and detonate him like a nuclear bomb to wipe Okeanos off the map."

"You can't be serious!"

"My original intention was to do so in the Vatican, but that will have to wait for another time. I may perish, but the sacrifices will be enough to keep me alive as a conceptual god. The same cannot be said for everyone else involved."

In that instant, Connla's rage and desperation skyrocketed. Now that she understood how dangerously high the stakes were, she lost her mind in a frenzied fit and screamed, "As if I'd let you get that far!"

She let out a fierce battle cry, ran at him and summoned her swords into her hands. She slashed and thrust at him multiple times, but he fluidly sidestepped each strike. The blades glowed bright, and she got on the ball of her foot before spinning like a top. Her swords made contact with his energized fists numerous times as he struggled to block the whirling onslaught. When he found an opening, he spun on his heel and tried to strike her with a roundhouse kick. She jerked her head back and backflipped to safety.

Crom Cruach didn't want to give Connla any chances to recover. As she skittered along a long blood vessel, he dashed in low and punched at her so quickly that he resembled a gatling gun. The dark energy surrounding his fists wasn't any different than dealing with a bevvy of flying razors, and her skin was lacerated several times. She held strong and focused on dodging his assault. While he was busy injuring her upper body, he failed to notice one of her legs shoot straight upward in an elegant high kick, striking his chin and making him flip once in midair.

While he was out of commission for those precious milliseconds, she kicked him backwards, then shot a large fireball that rocketed past him and exploded. The shockwave suddenly snapped him forwards, and she struck him with an additional flying kick. He violently bounced off of a vein and tumbled along the ground, but quickly regained his composure and vaulted upward with his hands. She dashed and leapt high above him, then directed her upper body downward to face him. Particles of shining light glittered around her swords, and she blasted down at him as a radiant streak. He raised his arms in an X form and summoned evil energy to surround him in a protective barrier, countering her brightness with pure darkness.

"Ah!?" she cried out as his shield blasted her back. Her swords flew out of her hands and spun too far in the distance for her to reclaim. Crom Cruach lowered the barrier and leapt at her, then slammed both of his fists against her back and made her plummet straight down on a thick vine. The recoil made her gasp in agony. She saw his dark figure falling upon her, and more of the sinister green energy surrounded his arm.

"Don't fret," the unknown man's voice called out in Connla's mind. "Your weapons are not what make you a Saber. Your body and soul are swords unto their own, polished and gleaming in the light."

Those words motivated her to raise her legs directly above her face, and light shone on the soles of her feet. As Crom Cruach unleashed his punch, Connla raised her feet to deliver a rising kick that countered his attack. Light and darkness exploded around them, blowing them apart for a few moments. Connla tumbled several meters along a nerve vessel before coming to a stop, and she glared around to see where her opponent was going to show up this time.

She felt a peculiar breeze rustle her hair. She didn't bother looking to see where he was. Crom Cruach swiped his hand like a high-speed whip, intent on chopping it against the nape of Connla's neck and rendering her unconscious, if not dead. Although he didn't show it, he was rather surprised when he struck a small Shield Rune that she had secretly erected, and it violently deflected his arm away.

"Not this time, buddy," she quipped, which perplexed him.

As the two Pseudo-Servants fought, Connla couldn't forget what happened to her counterpart back in the dream about the alternate Fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War. There, Kuzuki Soichirou had delivered a decisive defeat to that Connla because she did not anticipate him to be reinforced by Medea's magic. Chaldea Connla wouldn't let her counterpart's defeat go to waste this time. Backed with that experience plus Lugh's guidance and power, she was more than ready to deal with whatever Crom Cruach would dish out.

Utilizing Lugh's knowledge of martial arts, Connla grabbed Crom Cruach's arm and made him flip onto his back. She raised her fist and tried to punch him in the face, but he rolled out of the way and whipped his leg against her midsection. She just barely managed to block it with her arms, but the force sent her flying sideways. As she cried out in surprise, he ran at her and punched her multiple times. She couldn't block every blow, but at least she deflected the ones aimed for her vitals. When he tried to blow her heart out of her chest, she deftly whirled about on her heel and hopped, delivering a series of aerial spinning kicks to his cheeks and forehead. He was off-balance, yet he managed to snatch her incoming ankle with an iron grip and toss her at the nearest wall with all his might.

After she made impact, Connla wasted no time reeling in pain as she saw Crom Cruach diving for her with his fist glowing that foreboding dark green color. She lithely flipped onto her hands to dodge his falling punch by millimeters, then spun her legs about like flails to beat up his face. He stumbled on his ankle, and she landed back upright before smacking the side of her hand against his neck as hard as she could. He grimaced, yet refused to show her that he was in pain. At that moment, one of Connla's flying swords spun around in a wide arc and returned to her. She grabbed the hilt and stabbed it through Crom Cruach's shoulder. His eyes widened slightly in surprise. Out of raw desperation, he grabbed her wrist and tossed her away, then leapt after her in pursuit.

Connla quickly grabbed hold of a dangling vein, twirled and shimmied around it like a trapeze artist to correct her momentum, then performed a roundhouse kick that knocked Crom Cruach back. He flipped backwards, vaulted off another vein, then shot back and snatched her head with his legs. He used the velocity to hurl her back against another vein, crashing clean through it and causing black blood to gush everywhere. She recovered quickly and pressed her feet against an intact nerve, then spread her arms out to conjure a series of Runes that blasted dozens of fireballs at him.

Crom Cruach elegantly twisted and turned to avoid each projectile, landing about 100 meters away on a thin stretch of fiber. He charged his legs with demonic energy. To Connla, he appeared as an invisible blue while he advanced for her. She likewise used a Ken Rune to grant herself supersonic speeds, and shot for him like a bullet while stretching her leg forth. Both of their feet made impact, and the shockwave tore through a clean circumference of blood vessels around them.

They flipped back simultaneously and landed about 50 feet apart from each other. Crom Cruach stared at her for a moment. His expression seemed to soften a little as he murmured, "Though we may fight as enemies, I harbor no ill will against you, Child of Cuchulainn. You too were a sacrifice for your mother's plot against your father."

"You… know about me?" she breathed in astonishment.

"Of course I do. No sacrifice in this world goes unnoticed by me. Even now, you stand here as Lugh's proxy, sacrificing your body and life to do battle in his stead. A Celt you may be, but how can I begrudge one who has had to carry so much on her little shoulders?"

"Is there something you're trying to say to me? Like 'join my side' or something to that effect?"

"The sharpness in your words tells me that you would not be interested in such a collaboration. No, I merely acknowledge you. If modern man were to witness the brutality you survived at your mother's hand, I'm certain many would commit suicide out of despair. Though you may not know it, I also observed your battle against Cuchulainn all those years ago. The way that you were so callously disposed of and murdered by your own family did not escape my notice. You loved your parents, but they did not love you in return. Only now as a Servant are you beginning to experience the concept of love, and even then your grandfather is treating you as a tool to fulfill his rivalry with me."

"…"

"I suppose I cannot help but gravitate towards such souls, regardless if they see me as an enemy of humanity. Not only that, my physical vessel is reacting to your presence as well. I cannot speak for his reasons, but he seems to find some sort of kinship with you."

"A kinship…?" Connla murmured.

In the Fuyuki dream, Soichirou did indeed say some parting words to the alternate Connla. He never indicated that he shared some kind of bond with her however. Chaldea Connla wasn't sure what Crom Cruach meant by this. He didn't say anything to her, but he had witnessed Soichirou's life as a boy growing up in an assassin's syndicate. Crom Cruach was far too aware of evil people like Aife, and of evil organizations like the syndicate treating those around them like garbage. The sacrifices that the victims had to endure sustained him as a god, yet at the same time, he did not actually enjoy deriving his power from such tragedies.

Crom Cruach's hatred of the Christian faith wasn't necessarily from when St. Patrick abolished worship in him, though it was certainly a factor. That was probably an inevitable outcome after what happened with King Tigernmas and his kingdom. What he couldn't stand was how Christians lauded themselves as saviors and shepherds, while at the same time relying on evil tactics and clandestine organizations to maintain their power over the 'uncivilized sheep' they called their followers. Crom Cruach had seen it over and over again – people being tortured, abused, and bred into soulless tools for Christianity's sake, only to be discarded to protect the holy image.

He just couldn't understand it. How could a revered holy man like St. Patrick share the same faith as these monsters who wore human skin? How did Crom Cruach lose to a man who believed in such a hypocritical belief system? Did St. Patrick know that the sacrifices that Christianity's upper echelons caused would inadvertently give strength to a pagan god of sacrifice?

Connla noticed how distracted Crom Cruach looked. Something weighed heavily on his mind. She paused for a bit, unsure of what to do. Soon, an epiphany came to her.

Of course… I could do that!

She raised her sword, pointed it at Crom Cruach, and boldly declared, "I have a proposition for you."

"Hm?"

"If you win, then you can do whatever the hell you want. Blow everything up, kill everyone, form a new cult in the future, I really don't care. But if I win, then you have to swear allegiance to my Master, Fujimaru Ritsuka, as one of her Servants."

Although his expression barely changed, she could tell that he was rather intrigued by this. His deep frown creased a bit, and he murmured, "Where did you come upon such a ridiculous idea?"

"Don't mind me. I have to think outside the box all the time if I want to survive my battles."

"Is that so? Even though you admit your weakness, you speak as if you have complete confidence in your victory. Do you even understand how much you're putting at stake with such a fleeting bargain?"

"I do. Yet, just as you acknowledge the sacrifices I made in my life, I likewise acknowledge your strength and believe it could be put to better use than enacting petty schemes."

"Is your Master really going to accept someone like me?"

Connla shrugged. "She summons former enemies in her ranks like it's nothing."

Crom Cruach closed his eyes, then murmured, "Sounds like quite the carefree spirit… All right then. I will accept your condition. Even a god of sacrifice is not exempt from making sacrifices himself. But if you want me to yield, you will have to try much harder than ever before. Can you really pull it off when you're much too immature as Lugh's Pseudo-Servant?"

Once he said that, his entire body was enveloped in a dark green aura, and about a ten-meter radius around him darkened to pitch black. Connla got back into her fighting stance and waited to see what would happen. She could only see the deep viridian haze surrounding his silhouette. Then she heard him chant in an eerie tone, "I, dark crooked lord of the burial mound, rise from the black earth and demand blood of the first-born. Life and death, the everlasting paradox. Magh Slécht." †

A furious wind rushed past Connla, and she gasped in surprise. The pressure was immense. She felt like she was being crushed beneath several tons of rocks while suffering from severe depression simultaneously. Then, Crom Cruach appeared before her. He wasn't there one second, the next he was inches from her face. Before she could react, he relentlessly battered her with numerous energized punches. The final blow sent her tumbling along the vein they stood on. She picked herself up and glared at him.

His Noble Phantasm isn't an attack?

Indeed, Magh Slécht wasn't an offensive Noble Phantasm, but more of a self buff. It symbolized the cult that worshipped him long ago and of the sacrifices they had to make to appease him. Although Crom Cruach was apathetic by nature, no sacrifice ever escaped his notice. Each time a life was proffered to him, he would grow stronger, just as he told Connla earlier. He was simply tapping into hundreds upon hundreds of offerings made all at once so he could fight more effectively. It was sort of similar to her Lancer-class Noble Phantasm, Laoch Gan Finscéal, except that she called upon the souls of forgotten heroes to give her strength.

As Connla was lost in thought, Crom Cruach rushed at her once more. She tried to kick his head, but he grabbed her raised leg and knocked her onto her back, then punched her in the stomach. She quickly rolled aside and attempted to make some distance between them.

"You're not getting away," he taunted coldly.

He raised his fist, and darkness coagulated around it before he punched, launching some kind of inky blob at the retreating girl. She got out of the way, but it made contact with the ground and caused spikes of pure darkness to explode out of the ground like hedgehog spines. Connla quickly used them as leverage to turn around and kick Crom Cruach's blocking arm. He swung his fist around, which she rolled beneath while launching her swords high up. She caught the hilts with her toes and deflected his punches with them while still upside-down. She got back upright and tried to do a jump kick, but he smacked her away with his own kick. She flipped backwards once, landed on a vertical vein, and hopped off while throwing a sword at him.

Faster than a mortal man could perceive, Crom Cruach sidestepped the weapon, grabbed it, and hurled it back at Connla's face. She fetched its hilt to stop it several centimeters from killing her, then reared forward and spun her legs multiple times to pummel his upper body. Her heel viciously dropped on his head, and he bounced off the blood vessel. She got in beneath, reared her torso back, then pushed forth with all her strength to blast him backwards.

Connla's swords glowed bright once again, and she slid along the nerve while leaving a trail of sparkling particles in her wake. She caught up to Crom Cruach as he tumbled and performed a high uppercut with her blade that cut into his abdomen. As she corrected herself in midair, she noticed him rushing straight up a nearby vein to catch up to her, and he launched himself at her. She tried to swipe his shoulder, but he twisted over the attack and landed on her back, then leapt off to force her face-first back to the ground. She quickly looked up to see him energizing his leg with darkness as he performed a dropkick possessing enough power to cleave through a giant. She yelped and clumsily tumbled forward, but her head jerked back against her volition as he caught her long ponytail, preventing her from escaping.

For the next few seconds, each of Crom Cruach's rising kicks struck Connla in multiple areas of her body, throwing her completely off-kilter. He jumped and launched her into the air with some rising kicks, then finished with a potent backflip kick that sent her careening into the abyssal depths of Aspidochelone's cranium.

"Ngh… He's too strong… with his Noble Phantasm… active…" she grunted.

"So it would seem," the unknown man's voice murmured in her head. "Don't forget though. A battle between Servants is actually a battle against Noble Phantasms."

"But I don't know what mine is as a Saber…"

"Have you forgotten already? You possess the Wheel of Light that incinerates even the most bottomless of swamps!"

"Oh!"

Connla gained a new boost in confidence once she understood what he meant. She had been using it! This whole time, she mistakenly thought it was some kind of new weapon in her arsenal, rather than a full-fledged Noble Phantasm. She spread her arms out, and a fiery glow surrounded her as she called out, "Hear my prayer, God of Light! My dance embodies your blessing, and my sword executes your will! Fill me with light, and banish evil from whence it came!"

A surprise torrent of flames engulfed the depths, lighting up the dark caverns and incinerating any nearby blood vessels. Crom Cruach saw a figure swathed in light emerge from the conflagration, and a familiar eight-spoked wheel twirled alongside her as she shouted her Noble Phantasm's name:

"Lúnasa Fómhar!" ††

She was upon him within milliseconds, and they engaged in a fierce duel of punches and kicks that would impress even the most critical of judges in a martial arts tournament. His dark-based attacks were canceled out by her shining swords and flaming kicks, although he was still fleet-footed enough to dodge the more fatal blows. She got in low and struck his face with a rising roundhouse kick, making him stumble back. Suddenly, Lugh's Halo whirled in and struck him in the side, burning his flesh with a blast of fire. He twisted his torso to correct himself moments before Connla dashed in and stabbed her blades at him.

Crom Cruach snatched her wrist and pummeled her backside, then did a blunt kick that shoved her away. She flipped about, coming dangerously close to falling off the edge. Lugh's Halo descended to provide her with a solid platform over the abyss. She got on one hand and enacted a fluid breakdance while spinning on the wheel, bashing her legs against Crom Cruach multiple times to make him trip on his own heel. She finished with a whipping kick that tossed him into the deep crater.

Crom Cruach grimaced, realizing how trouble he was in. Contending with Connla alone was easy enough for him, but adding Lugh's Halo to the equation made things much trickier than he anticipated. He was sure that an immature Heroic Spirit like her would not have the capacity to fight him and control the flaming wheel at the same time – it would take just way too much concentration on her part. He narrowed his eyes as a thought came to him:

Lugh… You're the one controlling the Wheel of Light, aren't you?

To his shock, Connla dove for him at terminal velocity. Before he could do anything, she assaulted the stunned god with numerous punches and kicks that left him disoriented. Lugh's Halo floated behind her to provide her with a platform so she could jump off and rush at Crom Cruach as an imperceptible streak of light. Both Servant and weapon worked in tandem to continue this barrage, finishing with a bum rush tackle that catapulted him toward the large Fomorian idol.

He had to recover, and quickly. The stone statue was keeping all of these thousands of blood vessels intact so he could control Aspidochelone for as long as possible. If it was lost, he wouldn't be able to use the Phantasmal as a living bomb, thereby ruining his ultimate plan. He somersaulted several times and directed his feet at the statue's head, landing safely on it. He looked up and discovered tiny points of light growing to reveal themselves as a storm of fireballs. He raised his arms and conjured a barrier of blackness around the statue's frontside, protecting it from the fiery fusillade.

"There! Aim for the idol! That is the source of his power!" Connla's ally called out to her.

"Got it!"

Lugh's Halo lost its form and transformed into raw flames that surrounded Connla. She streamlined her body and dove upon Crom Cruach with the elegance of a swimming champion. The god threw more inky blobs that burst into deadly bur-like spikes at her, but the fire incinerated each one to allow her to continue falling uninterrupted.

A fleeting image flashed in her mind. The sight of Cuchulainn Riastrad - the true Berserker version of the Child of Light that she and Cuchulainn Alter saw before – resonated within her soul. She remembered how he mercilessly butchered the monsters assailing him. Before, he inspired abject fear in her. Now though, she seemed to feel different about him. She respected his loss of sanity… or rather, the need to let go of rationality in order to defeat something much stronger than her. Fire and rage boiled in her very veins, practically threatening to make her explode unless she did something to release this pent-up energy.

Connla fiercely clenched her teeth. For a moment, Crom Cruach thought that she had gained fangs. Her eyes widened so much that they were bloodshot. She raised her arm and curled her hand into a tight fist. Searing hot smoke whirled around it like a spiral. The knuckles turned bright white. Her face creased with distinct warp spasm lines. Crom Cruach couldn't turn his eyes away from this magnificent sight. Even he couldn't hold back his surprise.

Then Connla, Saber-class Servant and the Scion of Light, unleashed the mightiest scream of her life.

"HEEE~EEE~EEE~EEEYAAA~AAA~AAA~AAA~AAA~AAA~AAA~AAA~AAAHHH!"

"Hm?"

Gilgamesh thought he sensed a strange rush of energy wash through him. From aboard Vimana, he glared down at the limp Aspidochelone. What caught his attention was a singular rush of light coursing through the Phantasmal's nervous system. It only happened for a few brief seconds, but it was certainly an unusual occurrence to merit his attention.

He observed the majestic sight with a stony gaze. Soon though, a smirk crept on his lips. He felt it; her fury, frustration, and determination, all culminating in that final, glorious blow, definitely reached his soul. It was a radiant, and most beautiful light that he wasn't going to be forgetting anytime soon. He acknowledged it all with three simple words:

"… Well done, runt."

A portal opened behind him. A long sword with a golden hilt and a red-and-black, cone-like blade extracted itself, and he stood up to grip it while murmuring, "Leave the rest to me."

Connla kneeled there. She wasn't sure where she was anymore, but she was too exhausted to even move a finger. After breathing hard for a few minutes, she opened her eyes and wearily looked around. The first thing she noticed was that she was back in her child form. Her final attack had expended so much energy that she could no longer maintain her adult persona. That didn't bother her so much, but the sight of the Fomorian idol shattered into millions of pieces made her gasp in both relief and surprise.

Then she searched for Crom Cruach. She couldn't find him anywhere nearby, which meant her decisive punch had to have sent him careening far out of sight. She stumbled to her feet and ambled around aimlessly, hoping to catch even a glimpse of him. If anything, she needed to confirm that he was either still alive or very much dead. Soon, Connla found the Pseudo-Servant crumpled in a heap over a pile of rubble that was once his final stone idol. She tried to approach him, but something felt particularly 'off' about him.

That was when Crom Cruach's head rotated 360 degrees… three times.

His spine crackled and creaked with each rotation. His dead eyes stared at her, not much differently than a dead fish's vapid gaze. Connla gasped with fright. Did she really do that to him? She had been so engrossed in her rage and fury that she didn't pay attention to how much strength she was actually wielding. She felt relieved that he was dead, but since she was dealing with a Pseudo-Servant, she wasn't sure if just killing the human vessel would be enough to silence the god lurking inside.

Just then, a peculiar thread of darkness coiled itself around Connla's wrist and lower arm. She was surprised at first, but it wasn't placed particularly tight on her. It was just set snugly enough so that it wouldn't dislodge from her arm so easily. It looked like a regular black necklace at first glance, but there were twelve miniature bronze effigies of the same Fomorian idols she and all the other Servants wrecked.

"What is this?" she uttered.

Although Kuzuki Soichirou's body was most definitely deceased, she could hear his voice echo all around the cranial cavern as Crom Cruach said, "A catalyst for your Master to summon me. Give it to them, and my part of the deal will be complete."

She became quiet. Even though she didn't feel any magical energy radiating from it, she still hoped it wouldn't be dangerous for her to carry it around for too long.

"My plot is over. You are the victor of this contest. I give you my congratulations."

"Uh…"

As his voice faded, his tone turned dire as he warned, "You had best escape. It will not be long before the fires and winds of Enuma Elish ravage this space."

Connla clenched her teeth in horror. "Enuma Elish… Lord Gilgamesh is about to unleash Ea here!?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE #1:

† - "Plain of Prostration", named for a forested place where a cult dedicated to worshipping Crom Cruach was located. Anglicized as Moyslaught, the actual Magh Slécht is located in the southwest of Ulster province today.

†† - Literally means 'August Harvest', but technically speaking, the celebration of Lúnasa (or Lughnasadh) marks the beginning of the harvest season. The festival is named after the Celtic god Lugh, and there is a story of him defeating the god Crom Dubh to seize the stolen harvest for mankind. Crom Dubh is likewise based off of Crom Cruach, the main antagonist of this story.

AUTHOR'S NOTE #2: Well, how did you guys like that? Normally I would have had a hard time writing an entire chapter dedicated to a fight scene against anyone other than Cu Alter ('cause he's fun to write about). Then I remembered watching the Dead Fantasy series a long time ago and used the first two episodes for choreography ideas. God bless you, Monty Oum. With the hard stuff out of the way, I should be able to finish this as my NaNo 2020 project soon. Then I can dedicate loads of time to grinding the Christmas event in FGO. Evil Bones and QP for days, I tell you…