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
So, I won't bother you with any additional greeting and just get to it!
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.
2 HOURS EARLIER
Mordred was panting heavily as she was on her knees on the ground, yet again. Endlessly and endlessly again has she been killed, revived, then killed again. Nothing made sense to her anymoore, she's been in this cycle for so long. An eternity almost. Her mind in shambles, her thinking so numbed it is almost completely deactivated. No inner voice, no sentient thought. Just pure, basic instinct that was left within the person known as Mordred Pendragon.
"Still not enough..." Roland cursed as she went in for another attack on Mordred.
It was still the same. A lunge, a death, a revive, a retreat, another lunge. No matter what Mordred did, zero progress. Every now and then, she would get a counter-attack in, but that wasn't nearly enough and she would just get killed again.
"Damn it all..." she mumbled to herself as she got up after yet another lethal blow. "Over, and over, and over again..." she continued, stabbed to the ground again by Roland and Hervor, getting up again after they retreated once more. "And again..." She finished while dying from another toxic overdose induced by Locusta's Noble Phantasm.
"Why... is nothing happening...?" Mordred complained to herself. "How many more decades...?"
'Abandon...' suddenly came a voice.
Mordred shot her head up and glanced around franically. She didn't know where it came from, but she knew this voice. She knew EXACTLY who it belonged to, but she didn't want to aknowledge it, why would she have to? Why that voice, of all?
'Abandon...' it came again, and Mordred just started to shake her head, gripping her face with one hand before sighing out. "This must be the decades I spent in this Reality Marble... I am losing it. Focus, Mordred!" She told herself before she leapt into action again, only to die and be revived once more.
'Abandon your heart...' the voice then spoke.
"SHUT UUUUP!" Mordred roared and lashed out into absolutely nothing, causing confusion amongst the other servants. Assassin and Caster specially were looking with curiosity and slight worry at the Knight and exchanged looks to one another before they nodded.
"Alright." Assassin started and pointed at Roland. "Her mind is cracking, her psyche is starting to not be her own anymore. We are close. Push further!"
20 MINUTES EARLIER
"ARGH!" Mordred roared out as she performed a leaping slash with Clarent, trying to bring it up against Hervor, but she was just blocked, kicked back and then backstabbed by Roland. Yet another death.
'Abandon...' The voice kept coming, haunting Mordred for as long as it could, from the sound of it, as it continued to speak in shorter intervalls and it was driving Mordred absolutely insane.
"SHUT UUUUP! LEAVE ME BE!" Mordred continued to roar, less and less sane every minute, lashing out more aggressively against the combatants in the process without even noticing it, too distracted by the voice.
'Abandon...' 'Abandon your heart...' Abandon, Mordred...' 'Abandon...' 'Abandon.' 'ABANDON.'
When it started to self-echo from how short the intervall was between every time the voices spoke, Mordred snapped completely.
She roared. She screamed out of the depth of her lungs, her voice echoing throughout the entire realm of the Reality Marble, stunning everyone and everything. The force and volume of her roar caused everything to shake like a tremor and the four Servants held their ears shut, bleeding out of them in the process and falling to their knees in pain.
"YOU WANT ME TO ABANDON MY HEART!?" Mordred screamed in rage after the roar before she then reached for her Armor and tore it all off. Gauntlets, shoulderpads, chestplate, crotch cover, everything covering her above the waistline, pretty much, tearing at it like an absolute savage and destroying it. Then, she lifted her right hand up, looked at the palm for a moment, then placed it against her chest and dug her fingers in, puncturing her flesh with them, causing the wound to bleed massively and some to trickle down from her mouth.
"FINE!" Mordred then roared before she pulled her hand out, and ripped her own heart out of her chest. She lifted her hand until her heart, glowing a faint red due to it also containing her Spirit Core within it, was just before her face.
Then, she squeezed it with such force that it blew up in her hand, blood spraying everywhere as if shot from a hose, her mouth growling and grunting from pain and anger.
"Mordred..." Assassin spoke, getting back to her senses enough to see what happened. "What have you done...?"
Mordred suddenly felt weakness overcome her and fell to her knees, hands against the ground, her wound bleeding like a waterfall. "I... abandoned my heart...heh." She responded, almost amused at the prospect.
"Mordred? MORDRED!" Assassin then shouted as she saw Mordred beginning to dissolve, turning into the typical blue-ish particles, starting at the tip of her limbs and growing upwards.
"Damn..." She sighed as she saw her body beginning to succumb to the World's Correction, being sent back to Akasha. She closed her eyes to rest and accept it...
And saw a distant memory in the process...
"You went overboard yet again, Child." Morgan spoke as she was treating one of Mordred's sparring wounds, induced by preparing Mordred so that she can be then sent out to join the Knights of Camelot.
"The hell was I supposed to do? That Boar was going to KILL me if I didn't?"
"But to resort to forcing your body to use Mana? That was Reckless, even for you." Morgan scolded with a slightly irate expression before she moved her right hand's palm away from the wounded spot, showing that it healed up.
"But Mom, I-"
"No buts, Mordred." Morgan responded as she got up and walked back to a small table a few steps away and sat down on it, sighing loudly afterwards before picking up a new letter, opening it to read it. "You can't ever resort to using ANY Magecraft or Magic. If you are found out, you will be forced into becoming someone's court mage, which will NOT be Camelot's because they already have Merlin. You will never get to see the King if you are exposed as sensitive to Magic."
"But Mom-"
"I said no Buts, Mordred." Morgan chimed in, interrupting the young Knight in training, which seemed to visibly upset Mordred quite a bit. And so, Morgan sighed out loudly for a moment before she turned to her child. "Fine... you wanna beat a boar, I want you not to use magic. You're already stronger than the Boar without trying, so what holds you back?"
"I..." Mordred started, but looked down in thought, mouth opening and closing repeatedly. "I don't know... I want to be a good knight to a good king. I can't just train by killing everything I come across..."
"oh Mordred..." Morgan sighed, audibly disappointed, leaning back into her seat and putting her hands on her face. "You're holding back because you're sympathetic?"
Mordred hesitated, but she nodded in agreement, keeping her glances away out of a sense of shame to disappoint her mother like this.
Morgan picked that up fast and got up from her seat, walking back to Mordred and kneeling before her, placing both hands against Mordred's chest where her heart is. "You feel this, don't you?"
Mordred just reluctantly nodded again.
"That's not a bad thing. But... it is not how you become a knight, and it is not how you become a King."
"...what do you mean?" Mordred questioned, turning towards her Mother, looking into her blue eyes with her green ones.
"What I mean is that compassion for the individual is nice, but you can't be an effective person or of high rank within knighthood if your compassion blinds you to hold back. A King must ascend his human heart."
Mordred seemed a bit more upset than before, closing her eyes while leaning her head down even lower, if that was possible.
Morgan placed one hand on Mordred's cheek to stroke it slightly. "A King, and a Knight, have their place in things and they have their duties. You can't perform your duty if you are stopped by ethics, and you can't do what is right if you always question it. If you want to go further, impress the king, become a knight, maybe even be chosen as a successor? You have to learn to do what is necessary without feeling guilty about the aftermath."
Mordred opened her eyes and looked once again into Morgan's own, her expression lighting up only a little, but not by much, as she at least knew what her mother was telling her now.
"Mordred..." Morgan then spoke, finalizing her thoughts with this sentence. "You must abandon your human heart..."
Mordred's eyes snapped open after the memory ended and she grit her teeth tightly. "Damnit... why now of all times, Mom?" Mordred growled to her own thoughts, clenching her fists tightly closed while getting up, her arms opened in a rather dramatic pose, as if stretching herself out and releasing energy, if it had to be best described. Once Mordred was on her feet, she clenched her fists tighter.
"What the..." Hervor cursed as she observed the scenario, whereas Roland, Gwydion and Assassin just remained speechless. Then, they all suddenly felt overcome by weakness. Roland fell to her knees, Hervor just faceplanted, Gwydion almost stumbled forward and lost control over the Reality Marble and Assassin went down to one knee.
Mordred's blue-ish particles stopped dissolving and were re-collecting themselves to the spots they had left before, reforming her hands, legs, parts of her torso and her hair. "GOD DAMNIT ALL!" She suddenly roared out and fully extended her hands, causing a very bright light to emerge from where she stood, englufing everyone's field of vision. The Light continued to beam for a while, its intensity beyond blinding and Gwydion had to force himself to close his eyes because he almost went blind just from trying to look at Mordred for a single second. The Light shone for almost a full minute before it started to very slowly subdue itself. And when it completely faded and the last ray died out, everyone got to see Mordred again.
See that she was changed.
Heterochromic eyes, one green and the other golden, a new set of Armor that was just like her old one, but re-coloured, holding two swords in her hands, one Clarent and one Excalibur Morgan.
"Damn... what is... happening." Roland cursed while on both knees, hands against her lap, trying to keep herself upright.
"I apologize for the inconvenience..." Mordred spoke, her voice deeper, more matured, and the tone in which she spoke being drastically changed. "I just... had to take some of your Mana and life force to support my own to finalize transformation... the fusion of Spirit Cores worked. I now have... both my parents' full powers, ontop of my own."
"Yeah... we can see that..." Roland groaned out, still feeling really tired, but at least now knowing why.
"You did well to help me on this endeavor but... for most of you, the deed is done. The Grail War is insignificant and over anyway, you have no business remaining." Mordred explained, earning everyone's curiosity all of a sudden. Then, she swung Excalibur Morgan, only once, but it caused a massive slash across Hervors, Gwydions AND Locustas chest, giving all three of them a mortal wound. Hervor and Gwydion dissolved almost immediately from the extend of the damage, not even taking the usual couple seconds that give them time to speak, just slash then poof.
Locusta of Gaul however remained stubborn for the last few seconds, clinging to her force of will while she fell to ground on her back, getting a glance at Mordred. "Yes... you are ready now... those eyes are... just like hers. Nero... my friend... I am coming back... there is so much to tell you..." Locusta thought to herself as she began to dissolve and return to Akasha as well.
Just as the process began, the Reality Marble started to shatter due to Gwydion's passing...
"Roland." Mordred spoke before taking a few steps forward, positioning herself. "Your time has come. Prepare the Olifant, the others need it."
PRESENT MOMENT
Roland had ran up along the stairs out of the Cave after the Reality Marble broke and ran out of the Castle as fast as she could, making her way to the exit. Just when she got out of the main building, Mordred blasts Nanna through the ground, who flew right past her, followed by her dashing up as well. Roland dodged the newly made hole in the ground and ran out the front gates of the Castle, where she saw everyone being wounded, but seeming alright. Except for three.
Semiramis reached critical condition and was beginning to dissolve into particles, Sieg was visibly struggling with maintaining a pulse due to bleeding out and Luvia is going into shock from all the excessive pain and injuries, ontop of some psychological trauma from having done this by Shirou's body, of all things.
Roland gulped to herself as she saw the scenery and reached into the small pouch she had on her backside and took out her Olifant. "So this is what she meant..." Roland thought to herself before she glanced around for a moment.
"ROLAND, WAIT!" Astolfo suddenly cried as he came down, his Hippogryph flying the paladin towards his captain. When the Gryph landed, Astolfo immediately leapt off of it and ran towards his captain and friend.
"Astolfo..."
"If you use this, you die!"
"And if I don't, three of them are dead."
This argument seemed to get Astolfo to understand the situation.
"Where were you anyway? You should have been here with them."
"I... received specific orders from El-Melloi II... I was following up on them... I didn't know-"
"Doesn't matter... but you need to do something now. I am going to do my thing." Roland said as she aligned the Olifant with her lips and prepared to blow, not even hesitating the slightest bit.
"But Roland-"
The Saber's head immediately turned and she gave Astolfo a very sharp glance, one that shut the pinkette up immediately and for good. "There is no other way. Only I can do this... we all have a part to play in this war. I am playing mine, you should go and play yours."
Astolfo's expression was sorrowful, but he nodded, wiping his tears away before he ran off to get to his Hippogryph again and return to the skies, ascending high up into them.
"What are you going to do?" A seriously injured, but otherwise alright-doing Amakusa asked as he was knelt down next to Semiramis to stay with her for what he assumed to be her last moments.
"What I should have done from the start, my Liege." Roland said and waved the Olifant before her so that Amakusa could see it.
"Roland... you..."
"I made an oath to you because I believe in you. That hasn't changed. I still put utmost of faith in you, my Liege. And as such, I cannot be a good pawn to your destiny if I let you walk this path alone. Thus, allow me to save your newfound friends and your mistress."
If the situation wasn't so dire, Amakusa would blush and Semiramis would bonk him with her chains to hide her embarrassment.
Roland then aligned the Olifant once more with her lips, took a deep breath, and began to blow.
The Blow of the Horn-like instrument immediately began to echo through their side of the Castle, blasting with such high volume that the others had to all cover their ears. Roland didn't, she couldn't, and as a result, her ears suffered the full effect of the power of her olifant-blowing, recreating her death in the process by shattering her skull due to overly extreme amounts of pressure on her Temples, causing her head's skin to rupture and bleed profusedly. Roland continued to blow until she was beyond done, dropping to the ground with a semi-destroyed skull and beginning to dissolve herself.
As she disappeared, everyone else healed. Sieg's wound began to close up, Semiramis' right arm was re-attached and her left one was healed. Luvia's cuts closed, her burn healed and her face was being completely repaired and everyone else's injuries were all being tended by in a matter of seconds.
"The Olifant..." Jeanne began as she watched Roland's last seconds before she disappered. "Roland the Paladin's greatest Noble Phantasm, the final moment of her life when she blew the Olifant to save her men at Roncevaux. The recreation of the great retreat of Charlemagne's Rearguard in which Roland was their sole casuality... The Noble Phantasm that saves all comrades but not ones self, regarded as the forefather to the old saying 'Songs of Victory' as a memento and namesake to her Noble Phantasm, La Chanson de la victoire."
When Roland was completely gone, everyone's healing was finalized as well and they all got up, one by one.
"Roland..." Amakusa sighed before smiling to himself as he helped Semiramis up on her feet.
Nanna and Mordred just continued to stare at one another in silence, observing one another, waiting for any type of reaction to come. Mordred just held her swords, True Clarent and Excalibur Morgan, at the ready, both charging themselves slowly, evident by the mana surrounding them bit by bit, creating a small vortex around the blade's lengths.
"Who would have thought..." Nanna started out before he took a standart two-handed stance with the projected Excalibur. "That this is how Alaya would throw their last ditch at me... allowing a Heroic Spirit to ascend to a Divine Spirit by breaking its own rules. I do keep saying it, I love me a good Irony."
"Shut up, Nanna." Mordred demanded before she took an offensive stance, her left foot forward, her left hand pointing the blade upwards at a 45° angle pointing at her enemy while her right hand pointed the blade almost perfectly horizontally at Nanna, holding the edge just above her head.
"Not a woman of many words anymore, huh? Becoming a Divine Spirit has changed you." Nanna commented as he took one step forward whole clenching the Excalibur-Replica tighter. "Very well. Come, Mordred!"
The two dashed apart from one another and fired their Mana Bursts, Mordred's being a mixture of blood red and corrupted black while Nanna's was the typical bright golden light. The Bursts clashed at the middle of the distance and ended up merging into a catastrophic Nova of energy that destroyed the ground beneath it, creating a meticulously flawless half-circle of a crater. A Fraction of the Nova however hit the two of them in the form of a small energy-stream that hit Nanna's right shoulder and Mordred's left one. Nanna immediately followed by projecting a longbow and firing Excalibur and let it charge mid-flight so it released its power the same way it would as a Noble Phantasm, but as a projectile. Mordred blocked by crossing her swords over each others to guard herself, releasing a Mana Burst with both weapons to counter-act the effects of the replicated Excalibur and came out relatively safe, which couldn't be said for her surroundings.
Nanna continued the attacks by leaping up into the air and materializing a total of 5 Gae Bolg's, firing them one after the other, all charged up to blow up. Mordred leapt up to evade the first two, counter-acted two more incoming with Mana Bursts and used the tip of both blades to catch the last one mid-air by pinching it like with chopsticks and use her own axis of rotation to change its trajectory, hurling it back at Nanna, who blocked using Rho Aias. By the time the Explosion subsided, Mordred was right in Nanna's face and the Deity had to project a piece of Armor on himself to protect against the attack, shaped like an eye due to two half-circles of gold surrounding a smaller circle, three spikes at the end of each of the half-circle pieces, like eyelashes. When Mordred's advance was stopped, Nanna then went on to project Cadalborg II and let it fall from the sky to target Mordred with it at terminal velocity. Mordred saw no choice but to block it and be pushed back to ground by force of impact as a result, cratering the ground even more with her landing.
She spat out some saliva as a taunt before glancing up, seeing that Nanna wasn't coming down like he should. "Now you resort to going for actual Divine Constructs. Those were the Kundala, the Earrings of Surya which he gifted Karna at birth as proof of his fatherhood to Kunti, Karna's mother."
"Seems like your Divinity has come with some gifts. You have advanced set of Knowledge over Noble Phantasms on sight. Then you might also know this one!" Nanna responded before he suddenly projected a massive sword of grey and black with an almost round tip and a very long edge.
"Ig-Alima. You are going to cleave this whole Land just to defeat me?"
"Don't gotta. If I cleave the land then it means I missed. So you better not dodge." Nanna threatened before he let Ig-Alima's tip descend down, creating a rotation along the axis set at the blade's very bottom hilt, causing it to go down with a targeted Slash.
Mordred called the bluff, however, as a projected Ig-Alima lacked the necessary output to cleave a whole country and so she evaded, but only narrowly, leaping along the length of the blade and following it up to the tip. However, Nanna was prepared, and while Mordred's eyes were on the blade, he went down along its edge on the other side, the blade's body covering him from Mordred so she lost him out of her sight. Mordred suddenly turned right and rose Clarent and Excalibur Morgan to cover herself, as Ig-Alima was suddenly struck by harsh force of impact, produced by Nanna drop-licking the blade's body, causing the whole thing to tilt sideways and into Mordred.
While Ig-Alima's weight was pushing Mordred down by its tilting, Nanna materialized a different Longbow, one that had golden handles and ring-like ornaments along its whole body and its string was so thin that it was downright invisible to the naked human eye. Nanna prepared an arrow of pure mana, which was almost 2 meters long and was flaring in an aggressive colour of blue, and fired it. It broke the sound-barrier as soon as he let the string go and punctured Ig-Alima and then hit Mordred's block within less than the blink of an eye in speed, throwing Mordred to ground for the second time now and causing a large explosion that destroyed the ground, the Nova extending so far that Nanna had to fly higher and it reached all the way to the Yggdmillennia Castle, damaging its walls.
When the explosion subsided and the dust settled, Mordred was once more revealed, having a slight bruise on her neck, but was visibly fine other than that. "Fucking Bastard... you used Ig-Alima as a club to hit me with, and now... now you resort to using Vajira, of all things. You're really going to destroy this whole place, aren't you?"
Nanna prepared another projectile, this time however a Brahmastra and readied it at his bow. "Why so concerned for this Land? You may be an Earth Mother Goddess now, but you were made artificially through means I don't understand yet. You are not bound by Gaia's influence, which means your worry for the Earth is not worry for the earth, but for what's on the Earth. Tch, tch, tch. Oh Mordred, so concerned about a few lives on the other end of the Castle." Nanna tauntingly deduced before he pulled the bowstring fully and fired the Brahmastra, which fired itself downwards to the Knight in a flare of Red, the Mana Burst (Flame) Attribute freely flowing, which created a trail of fire behind it.
Mordred just flicked Clarent up into the air at about 10 meters height, then took a step forward and gripped Excalibur Morgan into both hands, charging it to full power. "CLARENT SOUL MORGAN!" Mordred roared, Clarent and Excalibur Morgan both beginning to be engulfed in their respective Mana. Then, when Clarent began to drop, she used Excalibur Morgan like a bat and hit the handle of Clarent, tossing it like a ball towards the oncoming projectile. the two collided and it ended up becoming another massive explosion that washed over the place, destroying and shifting the ground, causing stone to either melt or shoot forward, messing up the entire landscape, potentially forever.
While the explosion was still raging and the fire was spreading, Nanna flew through it to engage Mordred after having projected a new and different sword which at first appeared like a regular blade, but the sword's blade was made entirely out of Ruby, with a diamond tip and a shrunken wolf's skull as the armguard over a handle made out of a black metal. When the Blades clashed, a shockwave was released and Mordred was thrown back by the swing. Soon as she landed on her feet again, she suddenly felt a cut across her arm, through her Armor, wounding her Biceps. She looked at her arm surprisedly and lifted it slightly up and down to check for what functions are impaired or disabled.
"You appear surprised, Mordred. Surely, you recognize this weapon too?" The Deity tauntingly asked as he waved the blade right in front of him.
"I do... Dainsleif. Högni's sword, one of the many weapons forged by Durin and Dvalin. Similarily to Tyrfing, it cannot be broken and must kill when drawn. But it has a difference... whenever it is swung, it cuts, and wounds inflicted by it cannot be healed no matter what." Mordred narrated, to which Nanna seemed to be giving an amused expression. "It is a weapon that inflicts an irresistible curse of the highest rank, a Curse that keeps wounds open forever which cannot be counteracted even by other curses of equal magnitude. One of Dvalin's best weapon enchantments ever made, man-made Magecraft that surpasses even the realm of True Magic and can be compared to an Authority by how absolute it is."
"Durin and Dvalin were unchallenged. Mortal beings, even if Dwarves, who were so skilled with smithery and weaponscraft that one could think they taught the Gods of Smithing across the various mythologies. An exaggerated rumor, and likely wrong, but you can't help but think 'what-if'. Their works are uncomparable to anything else, and they are the only mortals known who could create Divine Constructs without any Divinity or Divine intervention as help."
"However, yours is but a Replica, and even if your divinity helps make Shirou's projections more authentic, it is still lackluster compared to the Original, thus your curse is not nearly as potent as the real deal... Now, you done admiring them?" Mordred spat before she extended her right arm out and Clarent flew back into it, gripping the sword and taking her offensive stance once again.
"Sorry, but even I appreciate some good work."
When Nanna finished speaking, he projected two more swords that hovered over his shoulder, one each, and he dashed towards Mordred, who only stood still to await the conflict. However, one of Nanna's swords suddenly began to move on its own and swung from the left, which Mordred was forced to block. Then Nanna swung at her from below with the tip of Dainsleif, barely missing her head but cutting into her cheek slightly. While Nanna's arm still went upwards, the other sword flew forward from the right, which was narrowly blocked by Mordred rotating Clarent around the axis of her wrist, flicking the weapon away before she lifted her foot to kick Nanna back and dash a distance away.
"Interesting..." Nanna then mused before he projected Vajira again and readied Dainsleif as the next projectile. "Your blocking pattern is very peculiar. You've been able to perfectly defend against every approach I've made so far. I think I figured out your major little power-up bonus." Nanna continued, which made Mordred narrow her eyes slightly at the wording. "When I kicked Ig-Alima towards you, you turned to block it before I even connected to it. When my little weapon just now was going to cut a perfectly open flank, you flicked Clarent up towards it before I even made the move. Your left eye... Golden shining colour is one of the four Colours to define Mystic Eyes, in your case, Mystic Eyes of Premonition."
"You talk too much..." Mordred spoke before she started to flare both her weapons up to prepare a large-scale discharge of Mana, from the feeling of density that Nanna suddenly had.
Nanna leapt high into the air all of a sudden and fired Dainsleif at Mordred, who just sidestepped. Then, Nanna started to focus a lot of mana on his side as well and began projecting another weapon, being about as large as he was, but the sheer amount of power in it choked the air around it. As it was building and charging, the raw energy released started to form heat and the surrounding area beneath Nanna began to melt, forming a pool of lava that was spreading in a matter of seconds, eventually even reaching Mordred's footing, who seemed unaffected by it due to not even bothering to move. She stepped forward with her left leg, both swords overlapping as she readied the swing.
Nanna was finalizing the projection, and the weapon in question turned out to look like a Fan by first glance. Its body was made out of four very lengthily stretched bones forming a spiral, tied at the bottom with raw hair and having handles of leather bound at its length to show where it was meant to be gripped. The top part, where the body ends and the fan's head began, was wild and uncharacteristic. Many, many different forms of feathers were bound flatly against one another to create a stereotypical, flat fan that at no point had a constant due to each feather on it being a different one.
"This is it... all my power, poured into this strike. This weapon shall strike you down. This weapon, Imhullu, the 'wind-based weapon' from the Age of Creation that destroyed Tiamat during the great event of Enuma Elish!"
"Damnit, can you shut up!?" Mordred complained as she took a second step forward and then swung her blades, but no discharge of mana yet, the blades still building up, but the motion seemed to accelerate it as the visible amount became almost double, completely engulfing Mordred's entire surroundings.
"With this breath, I give Freedom-" Nanna prepared with a chant, retracting the weapon to prepare a large swing.
"By my hand, I declare you King-" Mordred chanted as well to prepare the full release of her Noble Phantasms.
"With my hand, I give Guidance-"
"To lead your kind to a gentle future-"
"I thus grant naught but choice! IMHULLU ENUMA ELISH!" Nanna roared, swinging the Fan which created a massive discharge of Mana, the size of the Hanging Gardens, shining in a painful colour scheme of green and purple, descending down towards Mordred.
"Thus, by your firm hand, be Just and witness the brightness of a new age! EXCALIBUR BRITANNIA!" Mordred roared and swung both blades, firing a crossed Mana beam from both weapons, which merged halfway before it met with 'Imhullu Enuma Elish', creating a massive shockwave that pushed both of them back, Mordred a few steps and Nanna a few meters higher in the air.
The collision of the pure force of Mana was enough for the heat energy to destablize atmospheric pressure, and within seconds after the clash, Clouds began to form at almost all possible heights around them, raining and even storming at the higher altitudes. Equally, everyone who was close to those two would experience a massive drop in Oxygen, as those clouds caught fire due to the high temperature lighting up the immediate oxygen in the air around them.
Mordred noticed that and made wide eyes. "Shit... I need to make this blow land, fast. If this continues, the heat-energy released will chain react and ignite the Atmosphere itself. Fuck!" Mordred cursed to herself before she put her entire Mana-reserves into the attack, pressing both blades higher up by extending her arms more, and the amount of force behind her Noble Phantasm Discharge increased tremendously, thunders beginning to sound themselves from the force released steadily clapping against the Sound barrier.
Nanna's Attack seemed to be gradually pushed back, so Nanna swung Imhullu a second time, releasing a second attack ontop of the first one. This caused Mordred's offense to be pushed back significantly and the heat energy to increase quite a bit more, more of the clouds surrounding them catching fire and the Rain stopped making it to the ground because the water turned to dust mid-fall.
"Oh no... I have to drop the attack and take it!" Mordred thought before she prepared to lay off her offense.
"NOT SO FAST!" Astolfo suddenly roared as he flew down with the Hippogryph, descending at a very fast pace and flying directly into the clash of both Divine's attacks, reaching out his tome as he held it open. "MORDRED! I WILL MAKE AN OPENING!"
"Astolfo, wait!" Mordred roared, but it was too late. She observed the pinkette fly smackdab into the center of their attacks, and she couldn't lay it down or else Astolfo would perish without getting a chance to do what he wants.
The Pinkette pat his Hippogryph with his left hand gently. "Seems like... this is it for us, my friend." Astolfo spoke in an uncharacteristically gentle voice before he glared up at Nanna. Then, both of Astolfo's hands went to the book and he opened it. As he did, the pages began to stream out of it while glowing in a golden light, assembling in large numbers before they all flew to form a thin wall right before the Hippogryph. "Casseur de Logistille!" Astolfo roared while flying forward, the Noble Phantasm deflecting the attack from the direction it shielded, but part of the energy was raging around like a torrent and thus hit Astolfo and the Hippogryph from all uncovered sides. But Astolfo kept pushing, creating a puncture-like path straight towards Nanna, roaring out to push through until the path was paved. Then, the energy surrounding Astolfo became too much and he was, almost comically, flicked out of the Nova as a result.
"Heh..." Mordred scoffed before she adjusted her Mana-output to branch off a tiny part of the attack into the pathing that Astolfo made. "He quite literally created an opening." Mordred commented while letting the attack sip through.
It connected with Nanna, causing him to growl and roar out from the pain, which destablized the output on his attack, causing it to crash into itself and release in the so far biggest explosion, forming a gigantic Mushroom cloud that shot several thousands of meters into the sky and spread a few hundred meters at ground-level, engulfing all of Trifas and even some immediate surroundings into it.
The Smoke only began subdueing itself because Mordred decuded to use Clarent like a fan and made a large, high-power swing, forcing an air current to blow just enough away to get a visual on the sky and see if Nanna was still there. When she saw he was, she leapt up and prepared for another attack, getting right ontop of him before she swung down, which Nanna only barely blocked by projecting another Caliburn.
"It's over, Nanna. You're heavily injured, any more and your host body will die, and you along with him!"
"You really think so? Look again!" Nanna said before he released a Mana Burst through Caliburn, and while very small and weak, it separated them, sending him downwards by force, showing that he was no longer flying.
Mordred was confused at first, but then she saw the direction towards which he was crashing down towards. To the Opening in the Yggdmillennia's Castle Grounds, and straight towards the Grail. "OH NO!" Mordred roared and quickly prepared another Mana Burst, but she was drained, and so it failed, causing her great pain in her arms, made audible by a complaining groan.
"I WIN!" Nanna roared out as he stretched his arm out for the Grail after passing through the hole in the cave's ceiling...
And his Hand connected with the Grail.
The moment it did, a strong Light went out, engulfing everything around it. The Castle, the area around the Castle. The Light bathed all of Trifas just like the large mushroom cloud did.
"Where... where am I?" Rin asked, only seeing white everywhere she looked.
"Where are WE?" Luvia interjected, appearing next to Rin.
Bit by bit, more of their group appeared in the same landscape of white nothingness until everyone was present, all 11 people.
"This... doesn't feel like a Reality Marble." Amakusa chimed in as he stepped forward and looked down to his feet, seeing that the ground was seemingly water, but the reflection appeared from a bottomless ground. It was... weird. Standing on air yet seeing a reflection as if one were on clear water.
"Look, it's Sherou!" Luvia suddenly said, pointing towards one direction where they all saw Emiya Shirou, just standing there and looking towards somewhere. "SHEROU! IT'S US! IT'S ME, LUVIA! SHEROU!" Luvia shouted, trying to get his attention. However, upon seeing no reaction, she felt a little saddened, so she began to run towards him. But, this was where things got really weird for the group, because they all started to run after her. However, no matter how long they ran, they never got even an inch closer to Shirou. It was as if the distance remained fixed by space itself.
"We can't reach him..." Mordred suddenly chimed in as she appeared behind everyone. "None of us can. Reason being that the Grail has invited us to watch him."
Caules made a somewhat stupid face at that and blinked once in confusion before he shook his head. "Sorry, I think I misheard you. Did you just say 'The Grail invited us to watch him'?"
"I did." Mordred deadpanned. "Look, there's your proof." She said before pointing at a target direction, showing Nanna standing relatively close to Shirou, in his true form. The way he looked when not possessing Shirou.
"THAT BASTARD!" Rin growled, and where she would usually leap at him, she knew it was useless in here.
"We are inside the Grail. But... Shirou and Nanna get to make the wish." Mordred then explained, much to everyone's shock, and not in a good way. "I failed..."
"Oh no..." Jeanne groaned, the defeat washing over her like a bucket of ice-cold water, causing her to hold herself with both arms. "Then... all is lost..."
"Not all..." Sieg said, coming to Jeanne's comfort, placing one hand on her shoulder while smiling confidently. "We still got Emiya Shirou... by now, he should be more than sick of Nanna's games with his mind. He is our last hope. And if we can't reach him, we will bear witness from afar."
This cheered Jeanne up just enough to nod her head and smile slightly before she turned to the others. "Sieg is right... all we can do is watch and pray, so let us."
"AYE!" Everyone said in unison before they turned their undivided attention to Shirou and Nanna.
Snap
Shirou's head suddenly got up and he glanced around slightly, seeing the same white nothingness, but he didn't see anyone but Nanna standing before him, his expression as smug as ever. "YOU!" Shirou roared as he was about to step forward, but Nanna halted him with a hand gesture.
"Hold it, Shirou. We are in the Grail."
Shirou only grit his teeth tighter as he heard Nanna's words, his fury only rising. "YOU THINK I CARE! I AM DONE BEING YOUR PAWN! YOU SAID YOU WANT TO OFFER ME A CHANCE, BUT ALL YOU DID WAS LET ME CONTINUE SEEING HER DEATH! A DEATH YOU CAUSED!"
"And he should face punishment for it, don't you think?" Came a sudden voice, catching them both by surprise, as well as the other spectators, but they were invisible and muted to the two people in question.
Nanna and Shirou both turned their heads towards the source of the voice and saw a woman approaching them.
She was heavily tan by skin colour and had white hair, which was straightened on her right head's half and curled on her left. The right half's hair length reached all the way down to the ground, barely an inch above the touchable floor, whereas the left side was just long enough to make it past her shoulders. She had red lines follow along her face, symmetric by form, but asymmetric by placement, making looking at them uncomfortable to anyone who had even a slight sense of order in themselves. Her eyes were white without any irises or pupils.
She wore a one-piece red dress that was long enough to leave a slight trail behind her as she walked and the right side was cut open as a line following along her leg, showing off her thigh and shin when she moved the right leg forward. The top side was rather revealing, her cleavage cut being so low that her Solarplexus was visible, her rather small bust however remained well covered. The Dress came with no sleeves, exposing her arms from the shoulders down.
Speaking of her arms, her left one had a circle at the shoulder and traced three lines down to her elbow, which split into five lines after that point, following along to her wrist before these lines split off to trace along her fingers, creating small circles with a hollow center along her knuckles and fingertips. Her right arm had a triangle on her shoulder with two lines going down from the triangle's lower tips to her elbow, which split into 10 lines after that point, five on the outer and five on the inner side of her arm. Past the wrist, they followed along her fingers again, forming, coting them completely red past the knuckles.
"YOU ARE-" Nanna started, but the unknown woman just snapped her fingers and Nanna was suddenly gone, leaving just her and Shirou.
"Emiya Shirou..." the woman spoke, making the redhead eye her suspiciously. "I think we should talk."
Imma put the cut here and let you all imagine how the next chapter goes.
As always, if you have liked the read (or didn't), leave me an R&R with a why so I can continue to improve my writing!
Cheers :D