Fourth Morning (8)
Carefully ensuring that no eyes-magical or otherwise-were watching them Shirou quickly ushered their group inside of the warehouse that contained Illya's backup bodies, securely shutting the door behind them and guiding them further into the depths of the small complex.
"We're here. Caster, begin."
Kuzuki gently set down Sella from where he had been carrying her, the Homunculus's injured leg severe enough to slow them down as Caster materialized with a haze of prana, Illya being carefully lowered to the ground by the redhead, still ensconced in the field of diluted time.
The Incarnation tried not to let his apprehension show as Caster looked visibly exhausted, even their short trip away from Ryuudou's leylines obviously wearing her out.
Not that it seemed to dissuade her curiosity and enthusiasm in the slightest, the Servant running a gloved hand along the glass of the nearest tank, murmuring, "Fascinating...such excellent craftsmanship, this must be the culmination of-"
Shirou swiftly input a passcode into the small keypad located off to the side of the tank and pushed a tiny amount of his little remaining prana into a basin, the tank rumbling briefly before draining the nutrient fluid and allowing the body closest to Illya's in age-the one perhaps a few years older-to gently slide out onto the exit bed.
Normally it wouldn't have mattered which body it was but Caster had stated that given the meager time and resources they had available to them the container closest in natural age progression would be ideal.
Shirou had just gone along with her explanation, not knowing enough of the spiritual arts to say otherwise while Sella had seemed accepting of the rationale.
Following Caster's pointed finger both the Incarnation and Kuzuki set the bodies next to each other, the Servant quickly moving forward and setting her palms across both of their foreheads...before biting her lip.
"Just to be transparent about this...I don't think it's going to work."
Sella almost marched forward but kept herself in check, instead coldly asking, "What makes you so certain of that, Caster? You professed confidence in-"
"What I said was that this transferring of the soul would be difficult because I can't just create a ritual or process that moves it to the next container after death, not with this short a time frame."
The Command Seals dotting Illya's body suddenly flared to life, the energy coursing up Caster's arm as the woman grimaced, snaking lines of power gradually meandering to the other container.
"I have to do this directly...and your precious doll is on the cusp of death when making the journey from one body to the next would be difficult enough if she was in peak mental and physical condition."
Sella tightened her fingers into a fist with helpless anger, Shirou unsettled by the sudden chill that seized his body, a chill that had nothing to do with his temporarily suppressed Vampirism.
"Just...just do what you can, Caster."
The Servant turned to face the redhead and his poorly disguised desperation, clicking her tongue before returning to the daunting task ahead of her.
"Don't ask for a miracle, boy."
…
She'd been here before. The mud clinging to her bare feet, rushing wind that caused her hair to sway in random directions, distant lights that she knew were burning fires...it was the Grail. The corrupted one.
But...why was she here? And why did she feel like she had to keep walking, keep forcing herself onwards towards a distant beacon that shone like a lighthouse at sea, promising a safe haven?
She was just so...tired.
"I know you are, Illya...it's ok, mama is here."
Warm, affectionate arms draped over her bare shoulders, lightly pulling her into a comforting embrace that the Homunculus distantly remembered as that of her mother's, before she had gone off to die…
If only it wasn't for the mud slowly leaking down her body, hot enough to be scalding yet causing her to shiver with discomfort.
And why was the sensation so...invasive? Like a stranger walking unannounced into your home…
"It's fine, Illya, mommy is here for you...just let go, and we'll be together forever, safe and sound in our own little home~!"
A smile graced the girl's features, despite the pain and violation as the mud began to crawl over every inch of her skin...because those arms were loving and soft, and she trusted them-
"The outside world is cruel, and no one there cares for you...only mommy will love you and protect you."
Illya's eyes snapped wide, mind breaking free of the siren's song as a panicked shout left her, burst of energy tearing her smaller frame free of the mud and embrace.
No one in the outside world cared for her?
Bullshit.
Slight chest heaving for air as she whirled around in fear and apprehension her ruby orbs met the eyes of...something wearing the skin of her mother, distraught expression as fake as the love it had offered.
"I know what you are, you're not momma! You're whatever that Avenger was that died during the Third War!"
"...Well aren't you the clever little one, figuring that out on your own?"
As if some switch was flipped Irisviel's false countenance faded away, cruel grin peeling lips from teeth as her eyes took on an unhinged lilt, esoteric lines and scrawls covering her spotless flesh.
"You're time to join us in bringing final extinction to this world is near, little girl."
Fear and fright gave way to defiance and anger, Illya drawing herself up proudly as she spat, "No, it isn't. I have a reason to live, a reason to keep living beyond this pointless war. And you aren't going to stop me."
"Hmm...you're right, you know. I am not going to stop you."
Crimson eyes flew wide as a wave of exhaustion struck, legs collapsing and bringing her to her knees in the mud, body sluggish as even breathing became laborious and difficult.
"You'll do that just fine on your own. You are dying, little girl...and you have not the strength to fight against fate, no matter how much you may wish to do so."
Illya grit her teeth, fighting desperately to keep her eyes open as she felt her arms sink up to the elbow in burning, frozen mud, not willing to go down so easily, not when she finally had people waiting for her-
"Enough. Begone, parasite. I wish to speak with my inheritor."
"YOU?! HOW ARE YOU-"
A flash of white, golden light preceded a horrendous and earsplitting scream of thwarted rage, Illya blinking as she no longer felt so tired, the mud gone and replaced with cool soil and soft grasses.
"...What just...happened?"
"I elected to begin taking an active role in restoring the Einzbern's legacy, considering its dismal and pathetic state."
Finding a modicum of strength returning to her limbs Illya pushed herself upright on unsteady legs, turned towards the cool and authoritative voice-
-and almost collapsed out of shock rather than weakness at the sight that welcomed her.
An ornate and iconic dress that any Einzbern worth the name knew, features that were almost a perfect copy of hers, if not far more mature…
"J-Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern?!"
"I suppose I should be happy that our family has not deteriorated so much that I was no longer recognizable."
The idle musings of the baseline Homunculus for all current models caused Illya to gape, almost choking on her tongue as she belatedly remembered her manners, moving to perform a curtsy...and wincing as she remembered she was completely naked.
"Set aside the pointless formalities, Inheritor of mine...time is not on our side, the corruption can only be held at bay for brief periods. And you are in the process of dying."
Justeaze's calm words snapped Illya out of her trance as she hastily nodded, replying, "Y-yes, as you say..."
A graceful motion of her arm, causing the Dress of Heaven to flow hypnotically.
"Come, sit."
Settling her legs beneath her with liquid grace Illya hurried to match her motion, tucking her own beneath her chin as she waited with bated breath, scarcely able to believe she was speaking with the core of the Greater Grail herself.
A few seconds passed, the ancient Homunculus expressionless and calm...until she abruptly spoke.
"The Holy Grail, the dearest wish of our family and a means to reclaim the lost Third Magic...it needs to be destroyed."
Illyasviel blinked in open shock at the admission. Sure, she hadn't cared much about the Grail, but to hear it from the woman who had sacrificed her existence to begin the entire ritual?
"You are surprised. But you have little reason to be. Tell me, does that look like a workable method to reclaim our lost heritage?"
Following the woman's immaculate finger Illya winced, seeing what she meant.
While the world around her had turned into a calm and peaceful scene of roiling hills, blue skies and drifting clouds...in the distance there licked cursed flames, bubbling mud and bruised horizons, echoing shouts and screams of madness.
"...No."
"Indeed. My foolish descendants thought themselves clever, to cheat the system they helped create and win the war through expedited means."
Placid and composed features morphed into a disappointed scowl as Justeaze glared at the visible corruption.
"As if they could hope to know better than an I, an Archmage, the Wizard Marshall and two other Magi of differing fields of expertise. Idiots."
Illya remained silent, not daring to interrupt the artificial human, especially not once she turned her gaze on the smaller of the pair.
"And of course it would merely be an accident that they provided me with you, a means to salvage the debacle this ritual has turned into."
Blinking in open shock the younger girl asked, "Me? What about me can fix...that?"
There was no hesitation in Justeaze's reply as she pointed at Illya, explaining, "You are a perfect storm of circumstances, as it were. You are a powerful individual, designed to both contain the Lesser Grail and function as an unbeatable Master. Your body plays host to a bevy of Command Seals, tangible connections to the soul and the Grail. Lastly, you are currently on the verge of death, your soul and form returning to the Grail system in order to perform its final function...were it not for outsiders attempting to divert that specific course of events, transferring you to a suitable container."
Illya's eyes widened, lips pulled into a grin.
"That's Onii-chan and Sella!"
Quirking an eyebrow at the younger girl's enthusiasm Justeaze continued with, "It is this convergence of circumstances that afford us an opportunity...Illyasviel von Einzbern? Will you accept becoming the new core of the Greater Grail?"
"..."
"..."
"...I, I did hear that, correct?"
"You did. And allow me to clarify a few things. You will not be restricted to one location as I was. This new body of yours provides us with a unique opportunity, an opportunity to transfer the Greater Grail into a mobile host that can both experiment and defend itself. However...there are two important caveats that come with this decision."
The older Homunculus's gaze turned deadly serious.
"In affording you the powers of the Greater Grail you will have a...limited access to the Third Magic. The ritual itself is already a pale imitation and even that will likely be diluted...but it will be up to you to ascertain your own limits. And unlike the Greater Grail, which is static and subject to other's wishes, you have agency, initiative. You can push your boundaries as far as you desire. As for the other detail..."
This time it was a grim frown that colored the woman's expression.
"The absence of my presence in the Greater Grail also means the corruption will no longer have a check on it, a means of restraining its own agency. It has a significant reservoir of mana built up as well, the disease will surely put it to good use. It will fall to you and whatever resources or allies you can muster to finally dismantle this wayward dream of ours. Do you accept these conditions?"
Illya didn't even have to think twice.
"Yes. If I can return to Onii-chan and Sella...yes."
Satisfaction appeared on Justeaze's fair features, an appreciative nod dipping her slim neck.
"Excellent resolve, Illyasviel von Einzbern...bear in mind, I do not lightly gift you the Einzbern legacy. I expect you to work towards achieving the Third Magic once more, as was our long ago hope."
While she couldn't curtsy Illya nonetheless rose to her feet with newfound strength, bowing deeply and replying, "I will, I promise you that. It was an honor to meet you and speak with you in person, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern."
"The pleasure was mine, Inheritor. Now go, and do the Einzbern family name proud."
Searing, agonizing power flared across Illya's body, her teeth gritting as fiery lines burned themselves into her nerves, body writhing and spasming as knowledge and uncountable secrets spilled into her brain...and through it all she could only wildly grin.
"Hang on, Onii-chan, Sella...I'm coming back."
Oh, Guy 2506, you son of a gun, you.
Not only did you do the one thing that properly offends me-accusations of causing or acting genuinely offensive to people when I'm not-you also caught me when I just downed three jack daniel's and cokes, fresh off of watching The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West.
I am thusly both buzzed and possessing a surplus of non-sensical vocabulary and sentence structure with which to violently debunk your bullshit in a public setting, post to my profile, PM you and just generally throw a prissy pants hissy fit because this is a perfect storm of circumstances. Let's do this bitch sentence by sentence!
"I don't know what to say." - There's a lot of text after this so I guess you found your muse pretty gosh darn quick and then didn't bother to delete this opener.
"This story is awful and toxic on so many levels that it's not even funny." - I dunno man, I just got done watching the most horrendous dub of a Chinese translation of an english and it was fucking hilarious. But that's not what you're saying, so 'awful'. Meaning it's bad, either because the grammar is a mess or the plot is a mess. My grammar when writing fanfics would be a 'C' in terms of quality, since I correct basic errors as best I can and use grammar checks. Awful? Nope. Mediocre? I'd say yah.
The plot is bad? Maybe, you haven't actually given any examples of contrivances or errors aside from one which isn't even a criticism (we'll get to THAT in a moment). But, again, I actually enjoy writing and take pride in standards of logical cohesion. 'That he must the square who study it the square' this is not.
Toxic? Going by the more modern use of the word you're implying that this story is actively encouraging hurt or harm to a certain race or creed of people. Who? Vampires? Magic albino midgets? Or is it the secret subliminal text located in every fourth word reversed that actually spells out the communist manifesto?
Yeah, fuck you.
"Anyways an author can never please every reader so I guess it's alright if you couldn't impress me." - Well you just said my story is bad on an (I'm assuming) objective level and that I'm promoting violence or hate speech against somebody and left a review saying just that...so yeah I don't buy you saying it's alright. Like, at all. Hopeless Situation Warrior.
"Taking any idea to the extreme, which you've done here is never a good idea." - So if I said I was going to halfway cure the world of hunger and disease, taking that idea to the extreme of COMPLETELY curing the world of hunger and disease wouldn't be a good idea? Because that's what you're saying.
Ok, quibbles about word choice aside, what idea, exactly, did I take to the extreme? That Shirou is an emotionless machine? Clearly you didn't read the story or don't spend more than two seconds thinking about the words percolating in your grey matter because in chapters three, four and five (when Shirou reflects on his emotions upon seeing Illya for the first time, when he affirms his desire to protect her with Berserker, when he's worried and curious that he said something strange to his sister-oh look, EXAMPLES) I specifically wrote out scenes in which he is NOT emotionless or inhumane. You're not offering a criticism, you're just plain wrong.
"I hate when people write Shirou as an emotionless machine in human form, which he isn't if you ever bothered to read the VN." - Well I think we can safely say this is the real reason you wrote this joke of a review, you didn't like what I decided to write about and got all pissy about it without putting three seconds of thought into the words on screen. But let's assume this passage didn't exist and continue. I'll do you one better, it's not JUST the VN where Shirou isn't an emotionless machine, it's in ALL of the adaptations. Manga, anime, movies, you name it. Because, contrary to what your delicate sensibilities seem to believe, I am WELL aware that this Shirou is different from canon Shirou...and on THAT note!
"He was full of emotions, just not as much as a normal person and even then his emotions were pointed in a different direction compared to other people. It's just the fact that he got happy when he helped people, he had this never ending, never stopping drive to help people. He was always smiling, not the opposite which most F/SN fanfic writers think." - So technically this is more than one sentence but it's all pertinent so meh. You DO realize this site is one where people are encouraged to write outside of canon or put their own spin on characters and events, right? And who do you think you are, assuming you know what other's are thinking when they write? Because thus far this 'review' has left me with the impression that YOU'RE the one with little in the way of cogent thought. By the way, you REALLY must have not read this story worth a shit. Assuming you stopped on chapter 5 you would have had to actively AVOID reading the sections where I detail this Shirou's past. Because, yes, he IS different than canon Shirou. If I didn't explain WHY he's different you're complaints about me 'not understanding' who he is would be valid, because it would seem like I think he was always that way. Fucking Christ, it's like if any story doesn't actively adhere to canon standards it's worthless. You must be a part of The Big.
"Still you can't redo what you've already done, so I guess good luck to you and your readers." - I could absolutely go back and redo things, the Hell are you talking about? I did just that on one of my other stories because I agreed with what one of my reviewers pointed out. 'So I guess good luck to you and your readers'. This is you trying not to seem like a cunt and failing miserably, since you just accused me of encouraging hate speech or similar stuff against people, proceeded to bitch about things you were just flat out wrong about and-unintentionally or not-implied that anyone who writes outside of canon doesn't know what they're talking about.
…
So out of curiosity I looked at your one story (since you called mine awful I assumed yours was of naturally better quality) and bitch you make just as many grammar and spelling errors as I do, if not more. Missing commas before names, missing periods at the end of sentences and misspellings…oh, silly me. I'm not supposed to think or actually try to think shit through before I say stuff.
Also Illya has limited access to Third Magic. Watch out, world.
