Author note: Surprise? Yes, Altera come to the Arpeggioverse. And a lot of BIG FIGHT INCOMING ! This Altera is not exactly the one you know. Her story is a bit different. I don't want to say more, because more surprises are on arrival.
gold crown dragon: To many wives? Certainly, Nero and Tamano don't' agree for a harem ship!
Boyzilla: The head of what?
Leonardo Castro: I'm not very good in English, I'm French.
Gest93 : technically, this submarine is only a copy of the original Surcouf. She's not a French submarine but an extraterrestrial construct with the same exterior.
The Army of the Two Kings
Just an hour ago, the places were peaceful. A simple wooded valley of the Austrian Tyrol but...
We could hear the automatic weapons fire and then an explosion that gave rise to a third column of black smoke. The Austrian soldiers, armed with Steyr Mannlicher assault rifles, fired to keep away an opponent who laughed.
With her hair covered by a white veil, she looked a bit like a bride, even if her... "clothes" didn't cover much more than a bikini, leaving a large part of her skin uncovered. The latter, browned by the sun, was covered with white tattoos.
In one hand, Altera was holding something with a strange guard that could be a sword with a rainbow blade. As a combat robot resembling a large sphere mounted on three legs moved towards Velber's envoy, she faced it without showing any agitation. Her stoic face had never shown any emotion before. She had slaughtered dozens of soldiers without raising an eyebrow.
In the hum of an electric motor, the three-tube auto-cannon, located at the top of the sphere, began to turn. A moment later, a noise of paper torn a thousand times amplified was heard. A veritable shower of shells fell to the ground. Yet, Altera did not make a gesture to defend herself... she simply did not fear non-magic weapons. At least in hands other than a Servant.
Altera just jumped ahead. The Mars Glaive left a brightly colored rainbow in its path... and a sheath of sparks as it passed through the robot. Cut in half as if by the action of a surgeon's scalpel, the mechanics collapsed by spreading around it hydraulic fluid before catching fire and exploding.
A fourth column of black smoke rose to the sky.
Horrified, the Austrian soldiers retreated without ceasing to fire, but Altera had classified them as "bad civilization"... which gave them little chance of surviving.
She again waved the Glaive of Mars, striking above their heads. What followed looked like a horror movie... a tear opened between the dimensions, revealing the cosmos and stars. Torn from the ground by the succession of emptiness, several soldiers disappeared screaming before the breach closed.
The demonstration finished demoralizing the troop in battle-dress. They fled as quickly as they could.
Altera just dropped her sword.
She seemed neither happy nor unhappy that the confrontation was over. The young woman turned to a young archaeologist, fallen to her knees, frozen by terror:
- I search the Inheritor of the Moon, Hakuno Kishinami, the victor of the Moon Cell Grail War. Where is she?
In the entrails of the moon of another dimension, a strange object floated above a platform covered with water. It looked like an incomplete cube showing a golden sphere.
The Main Core of the Moon Cell.
With all the power of a supercomputer made up of thousands of kilometers of photonic crystal circuits, the alien computer filled its timeless programming. He was observing.
He observed simultaneously the birth of empires and the collapse of civilizations, recording all this in his archives already containing the memories of countless parallels Earths. He observed without imagination or feeling, simply performing his ancient role.
For this alien construct, the cell division of protozoa or the assassination of Caesar had little more importance. Emotions and feelings remained unknown to him forever.
However, a variation of the Earth retained its special attention. Not that the conflict between humanity and alien warships controlled by A.I. interests him in itself. But he had chosen to send Hakuno Kishinami there so that she could acquire the body she wanted and see the true sky. It was the Sovereign's wish and the Moon Cell had fulfilled it.
The gigantic computer could not let slip the clues of a sudden activity endangering Hakuno. The lights turned red as a siren sounded:
[Alert: Velber detected on Earth no. 76809909.]
[Search for solution...]
[Initialization of security protocol.]
The boots on the navigation console, Drake was bored. No enemy ships on the horizon... or any merchant ships to loot. In fact, there were no more merchant ships on this world. What was the use of an honest pirate in a world where the merchant navy had ceased to exist? Damn Fog!
Rider was far too selfish to pity the people of this world. Well what?! Cats bite the mice... nobody was going to shed a tear on the rodent. It was the same! The locals were squealing because the bad Fog was giving them a boo-boo? Not her problem! But prevent her from plundering good and fat merchant ships, then no! No and NOOOO!
Drake did not complain particularly about the galleons of war which in their time had protected the trade routes. That was the rule of the game, after all... and then, the Spanish had never caught her. However, a blockade of ALL commercials harbors! For God's sake! That was an insult... a personal insult even!
She was going to charge the Fog and literally. She would sink their ships until these strange A.I. offer her "reasonable" compensation. Rider found a smile, dreaming for a moment of heaps of gold coins: ducats, doubloons, guldens, Louis, Krugerrands, Napoleons, dollars-gold... a real mountain! The ransom of several kings! Enough to be queen herself!
The bubble of her golden dream exploded under a not very comforting thought. It was first necessary to convince her Master.
Turning her chair with a kick, she turned towards Hakuno.
Still dressed in her brown school uniform and black tights, the severity of which was hardly mitigated by the blue ribbon that was part of it, Kishinami held her hands crossed on her knees. With her head bent forward, her face partially masked by his long hair cut in fringe, the winner of the Grail War seemed sad and heartbroken.
Francis Drake had started her career as a sailor aboard a slave ship. She had looted, killed without remorse. However, seeing her Master demoralized made her... strangely... it was like...
Rider scratched her hair violently, refusing to dig deeper into her feelings. And above all to admit - even in the secret of her thoughts- that the mysterious power of her Master, the one that made her attract the affection of Roman tyrants like Japanese monsters, also worked on her. Instead, the pirate woman took the problem head-on:
- Well, what's going on? We won a naval battle, I remind you. We even plundered everything that was valuable. Why are you making that face?
Hakuno raised her head, and Rider received the shock of her huge brown eyes and as if filled with stars:
- Why didn't they listen to me, Rider?
Drake sighed out:
- It's just French; it's not a big loss. I told you to head for England.
- Will they believe me?
The innocent question made the Servant grimace:
- If you suddenly explain the Moon Cell, the Grail War and all of that... probably not.
- But I told the truth, Rider.
- Well... that's kind of the problem, girlie. You're a sweet, innocent little A.I. and the world is filled with selfish, manipulative, treacherous, petty humans. When you tell them what they're not willing to believe, the truth is worse than a lie.
Hakuno tilted her head to the side:
- What should I do?
- Offer them credible lies. For example, you find a purse full of gold on your way. Someone asks you, "This purse is yours, miss?" You have to say, "No, it's my friend Rider's." That's all.
- Except for the owner?
Rider swept away the argument with a gesture of her hand.
- One detail, the important thing is that thanks to a lie you can make a lot of gold very quickly. Trust me. Lying and cheating are natural to me and I'm a very good teacher. Let me tutor you all of this and you won't have any problem having friends. (1)
Drake waited for her Master's answer with a little smile, sure of the result but... the Regalia started to pulsate on Hakuno's finger while a disembodied voice was heard:
"Alert: Velber detected, probable threat on the Moon Cell Sovereign".
Kishinami looked at the ring with perplexity:
- Velber... likes in my dream... the Sovereign?
Rider frowned at me:
- Don't you know what the Moon Cell is talking about?
Hakuno shook her head. Drake retained the urge to bang her head against a wall. Instead, she began to calmly explain that the real purpose of the Holy Grail War was to find someone capable of taking control of the Moon Cell. The Sovereign or Inheritor of the Moon was to defend the Moon Cell Automaton against Velber. A near-nature entity that roamed the cosmos plundering the knowledge of the civilizations encountered.
[Research of an adequate Top Servant]
[Processing...]
[Two Top Servant selected]
[Queuing summon matrix]
[Summon matrix activated]
[Initiating spiritron summon]
Two invocation circles had just appeared in the valley at the foot of the Grössvenediger massif. Feeling the influx of spiritons, Altera turned without showing any emotion. She saw two humanoid forms forming and rapidly becoming dense. A tall man was the first to turn his head to watch dead bodies and destroyed robots. Seeing Altera, he started laughing:
- The King of the Huns? I am very happy to have been summoned by the Moon Cell to test your strength!
He was a gigantic man of two meters tall. Large with a muscular build, his hair and beard was a crimson fire. The mighty warrior wears an antic bronze armor and a red mantle with luxurious golden decoration and a white fluffy fur collar.
Altera responded simply with the recognition of his legend:
- Iskandar, the King of Conquerors.
- I'm not the only one who seeks the glory of your defeat, Altera.
With a movement of his hand, Iskandar named the second warrior who had just appeared in his own invocation circle.
The second Top Servant was an even more impressive warrior than Iskandar himself. Bigger! More muscular! With a face of terrifying calm! His skin was pure ebony but covered with gilded tattoos. His skull and his completely shaved face bore no hair. His clothes were limited to a loincloth decorated with gold, sandals and lot of jewelry, also of gold.
"Darius III" presented Iskandar "It is understandable that I had the reputation of being small because I could not sit on his throne... next to him, anyone would look small. I am pleased to be able to fight alongside him rather than against him. They were a worthy rival and I wish I could have a drink with him when it's all over. Unfortunately... "
Darius III opened his eyes. The peaceful air he had displayed so far gave way to an expression of bloody madness, of irrepressible anger...
He uttered a howl that made the whole valley tremble.
"Unfortunately" resumed Iskandar" it was invoked as Berserker... which shortens the presentations"
The roar of Darius III was a call and he was answered. An army materialized around his lord. The guard of the Immortals, the bodyguards of the Persian King of Kings.
But...
The glory of the Achaemenid dynasty was long forgotten, and the soldier of this empire dead for a long time. The warriors wearing the caps, the rectangular shields, the lances and bows of the Immortals... were cursed and restless undead... skeletons with black bones animated by a sinister eldritch.
Iskandar stroked his beard:
- I do not wish to dishonor myself by holding back my blows while Darius III will face you with all is strength. My soldiers... their bodies may return to ash, but their spirits still hear my call! These men are my legendary heroes – my loyal followers! They're my true friends - breaking the rules of space and time to fight once more at my side. They are my treasure within treasures; they're my right to rule! They make up Iskandar's mightiest Noble Phantasm – Ionian Hetairoi!
Normally, the mighty army can only appear inside a Marble Phantasm... but without master and with the infinite energy off the Moon Cell for sustain is Ultimate Noble Phantasm...
Once again, the army of Iskandar roamed the world to offer victory to its king!
They are thousands of men in phalanx formation, handling the long Macedonian sarisse (a spike eight meters long), the chest protected by linothorax (fabric armor) and the head covered by Phrygian helmets. Eight-row stitch blocks, marching!
It seemed absurd! The coalesced army of the two kings walked on a single frail girl.
But Altera's appearance was deceptive.
At other times she was called Attila... the scourge of God. Her master was Velber, the star of destruction.
She would not fight alone. Around her appeared a convulsed ocean formed of black crystal cubes and purple data particles. They soon gave birth to an army invoked by Velber. Black photonic crystal creatures: "Attack-Type programs": the swarm of soldier-type effigy who can overwhelm the Servants with sheer numbers; they are lead by more powerful commander, the Aggressor that can invoke effigy indefinitely... at least until they are eliminated; and the archer-type effigy; and the colossal gatekeeper with two masses in place of hands, and the winged effigy who attack from the sky by electrical shock; and, finally, the strange Plant, a special attack-program that continually spawn Aggressor.
Two armies commanded by heroes were now facing each other in the valley.
A camp represented destruction, which it triumphs over, and this world could sink under Velber's inextinguishable appetite for knowledge.
The other represented the true heroes of Earth, defenders of the order of the world.
A battle would erupt... worthy of the myths sung by the bardic's poems of the past, worthy of the greatest legends.
Iskandar, mounted on Bucephalus, pointed his sword to the sky: "Ringing mouths and trumpets, today a new legend will be written in blood and violence... if there remains someone to write it after the last arrow shot".
(1) Horror... and it was my idea to entrust Hakuno to this monster (Chaotic Evil)... What did I do, Drake will completely pervert her! Quick, Altera, come save the little squirrel!
Author note : The good thing about writing is that you don't have to pay actors, extras, special effects and stunt artists... because to film the battle you're going to see in the next episode, you would need the budget of the Lord of the Ring. :)
