Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Aozaki and Tohsaka – The Serpent's Feathers
Chapter 11
"There it is: The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent."
The magi and their Devil Dog escorts made good time during the day as they made their way from the Pyramid of the Mirror of the Sun towards the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent. The Sun shone bright and hot, drying the roads enough to allow the convoy to speed along despite the rough ground, no deadfalls and other such impediments slowing them down along the way.
Eager to keep up the pace, the convoy took their lunch on the move, and as the Sun began to set, setting the sky ablaze with gold and orange, they looked out from a ridgeline onto their final destination in the distance. The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent was built atop a hill, a steep stairway carved into the hillside leading from a ceremonial archway before the pyramid's base down to overgrown ruins below, which must have been a fair-sized city in times past.
As they set their eyes on the pyramid, the three magi felt a strange sense of fulfilment fall over them, and apprehensive anticipation as well. They had reached their goal, and yet…
…would it really be as easy as simply entering the pyramid and claiming their prize? Would there even still be a prize to claim? Was there even a prize in the first place?
As the Sun set and darkness fell over the lowlands, the convoy rumbled to a halt in the middle of a square in the ruins. They were less extensive than initially thought, less a city and more a small town, probably meant service the needs of the priests, warriors, and their families who had once tended and guarded the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent.
Devil Dogs bustled across the ruins, setting up camp and basic fortifications, while the magi looked up at the pyramid looming above, barely visible in the light of the setting Sun. In a few minutes, that too was gone and leaving the pyramid a dark shadow against the starry skies, a sickly-thin Moon unable to cast enough light to illuminate the pyramid.
"Come on," Touko said with a jerk of her head. "Let's go, enough gawking…we'll do more than enough of that when we climb those stairs tomorrow."
Sakura and Benedek grunted in acknowledgement as they followed Touko to the command tent. "So," Alba began. "We're almost at the end of our journey, aren't we?"
"Not quite," Touko disagreed. "We've almost reached our – prospected – prize, but the journey's not over until we get back to where we started."
Alba shrugged and nodded in agreement, before turning his attention back to the maps spread on the table. "…expecting trouble?" Benedek asked as they approached and noticed what it was.
"Yes." Alba admitted without hesitation. "Whether it's bandits, mercenaries working for other people, and – hopefully not but you never know – government troops, I want us ready for if they come to make trouble."
The magi nodded in agreement, all the while studying the map in silence. "That should cover the direct route towards the stairs leading up to the pyramid." Touko said with a nod a few moments later. "Though you'd be vulnerable if our rivals attack while we're gone…nothing a few puppets left behind won't solve…"
Touko trailed off, studying the map of the surrounding area with a tilted head, before running her fingers over the hill's icon. "But," she said. "There's more than one way to reach the pyramid."
"You mean…climb the hillsides?" Sakura asked. "That's…from what I saw earlier, they were very steep."
"And?" Touko asked back. "Would that be enough to stop magi?"
"…no, it wouldn't." Sakura admitted with a slow nod. "Should I send spirits to keep an eye out and take action if it comes to that?"
Touko thought it over for several moments, and then shook her head. "No," she said. "Let them climb up the hillsides if that's what they want."
"Master?"
Touko ignored her apprentice for the moment. "Most likely," she said. "If our rivals arrive before we finish, they'll launch a two-pronged attack. One will be from the front, with their own mercenaries, to draw attention there."
"Basically, a distraction." Alba remarked, and Touko nodded.
"Yes," she said. "While the mercenaries draw all attention their way, our rival magi will either try to slip through the gaps in or around your lines, and taking advantage of the battle's confusion, reach the stairway."
Touko then paused, and turned to Sakura. "Leave spirits to guard the bottom of the stairway, and to support the puppets I'll be leaving behind." She said.
"But not the hillsides?" Sakura asked.
Touko smirked. "If they're crazy enough to try scaling the hillsides," she said. "And are either or both skilled and lucky enough to succeed, then we might as well grace them with a battle between magi. It might also be of…ritual, significance."
"…the battle, and the ones who die in it…sacrifices to Quetzalcoatl?" Sakura breathed.
Touko shrugged. "Quetzalcoatl was only against Human sacrifices." She said. "She still demanded sacrifices from her followers, specifically that of hummingbirds and butterflies."
Sakura's eyes were wide. "Butterflies…?" she echoed.
"Yes, butterflies."
"I…huh…you learn something new every day."
Touko nodded. "That you do." She agreed. "And more to the point, animal sacrifices and opposition to Human sacrifices aside, she wasn't against getting her - or her followers' - hands dirty to achieve her ends. At the end of the day, she was still a Mesoamerican Divine Spirit, and everything that entails. If nothing else, we prove our strength, in more ways than one. That should satisfy ritual requirements as inferred from the general themes of the Mesoamerican mythos."
Alba coughed. "So," he began. "Basically, we keep their hired guns off your backs, while you back us up with those…puppets, and spirits of yours, in case they try to use magic on us. Unless they find another way to go up the hill, in which case, we basically just make sure you have a way to get back to civilization."
"Either way, that's the job we're paying you to do." Touko cheekily replied. "And as you've noticed, it's not like we're leaving you out on your own either."
"Point…on both counts." Alba said, while pulling a cigarette from a pack. Putting it in his mouth, he lit it before taking a drag and then nodded while blowing out a stream of smoke. "Alright then, boss lady. Just leave it to us."
"That I will."
"So…what do you expect we'll find, master?"
Touko glanced at her apprentice, who was preparing for bed in their shared pavilion. "Not a clue," she admitted. "Though I'm hoping after the Mirror of the Sun, we won't have to face anymore so-called trials."
Sakura winced at the phantom pain lancing through her shoulder. "Yeah, no argument there." She muttered, before raising her voice. "But…?"
Touko shrugged. "The trials at the Mirror of the Sun seem to have been under Tezcatlipoca's authority." She said. "Or the echoes of his authority, given the ending of the Age of Gods and all."
Sakura nodded in understanding. "So…we still might end up having to face Quetzalcoatl's trials?" she asked.
"We just might, so don't let your guard down." Touko said, before thoughtfully tilting her head to one side. "And even if there aren't any trials, whatever Quetzalcoatl left behind before she left is certain to have protections on and around it."
"Oh great, booby traps…really wonderful…"
Touko smiled indulgently at her apprentice's grumbling. "Well, no one said this was going to be easy." She pointed out. "And it's unreasonable to assume that Quetzalcoatl would have left the treasures she couldn't bring with her unprotected, not with the bad blood between her and the other gods at the time."
"Point…" Sakura admitted.
"Then again," Touko mused aloud. "Somehow…I just get the feeling…that Quetzalcoatl wouldn't have minded mortals getting their hands on her treasures…so long as they were worthy of it, that is."
"…which brings the argument full-circle," Sakura said with a sigh, before letting herself fall backwards and into her camp bed. "If the mortals who get her treasures have to be worthy…"
"…then there will be trials ahead of us at the pyramid." Touko concluded with a nod. "Oh well…if that's the case, we just have to shoulder on, don't we?"
"Can't be helped…" Sakura said with another sigh. "…unless we turn back now…"
"Hmm…but you don't want that, do you?" Touko knowingly asked.
"I'm not a quitter, master." Sakura said.
"Good," Touko said with a nod. "Because I'm not either."
Silence fell between master and apprentice, Sakura lying on her bed with her arms folded behind her head, Touko seated a few feet away on a camp chair, reading a book on Mesoamerican culture. After several moments though, Touko glanced towards her apprentice at the sound of sheets rustling, and smiled softly at Sakura curling up while rolling on her side to sleep.
"Sleep well, kid." She said.
"Hmm…you too, master." Sakura softly returned.
"…just rest easy." Touko said after a moment. "We managed to get through Tezcatlipoca's trials. And compared to Quetzalcoatl, he's a mean piece of work. So we should all do just fine."
Sakura just hummed in acknowledgement, and after a couple of minutes her breathing evened out, the younger woman slipping into slumber. Touko read on for another half hour before she set her book aside, a marker left to mark the place she stopped reading at. Then slipping into her own camp bed, Touko gestured once to turn the lamp off, and rolling onto her side, closed her eyes to sleep as well.
The Sun shone hot and bright amidst the clear blue sky come the following day. If one were superstitious, and considering the importance of the Sun in the Mesoamerican – and even Japanese, considering two of the magi present were Japanese – mythos, it could be seen as an auspicious sign.
It was as though the gaze of the solar deities were upon them, and perhaps even blessing them with the light to see their journey through.
The three magi were halfway up the stairs when the rumble of explosions echoed through the air. Halting their climb, the three magi turned around, looking down the hillside and over the jungles beyond.
Clouds of smoke had risen above and drifted with the breeze over the canopy, and as they kept watching, more explosions erupted across the jungle.
"Looks like they've set off the minefields." Benedek remarked.
"So it would seem." Touko agreed.
Then the rapid, staccato bursts of gunfire could be heard through the air, moments before a bright red beam seemed to lance down from a point above the ruins. A high-pitched keening rang through the air over the distance, the magi looking as the beam cut a long swath across the jungle.
And again…and again…and again…
"There goes your puppet, master." Sakura remarked.
"What about your spirits?" Touko asked. "Has anything or anyone tried to slip through or go around yet?"
"None so far."
"I see."
Touko nodded, and spared the battle a final glance before turning back up towards the pyramid. "Come on," she said. "Let's get a move on."
Sakura and Benedek didn't say anything and just followed Touko up the stairs. Behind and below, the sounds of battle continued, but the magi shut them out while continuing to climb the stairs towards the pyramid.
It took another hour to reach the summit, where stood a ceremonial arch before a paved path that led to the pyramid's base. The arch may have had gates in times past, but they were gone now, no doubt having been made of wood and long since rotted away.
Stone sculptures of jaguars stood guard before the arch's pillars, and hieroglyphs had been carved on the pillars and arch alike, while a dragon's head snarled in warning at the arch's pinnacle. The magi paid it no mind, and proceeded down the path, past more sculptures this time of dragons on plinths, hieroglyphs carved on the latter.
"Quetzalcoatl?" Sakura asked while regarding the stone dragons. "Or her divine servants?"
"Probably the latter," Touko said. "These dragons have no feathers, while Quetzalcoatl's draconic form should have feathers. Feathered Serpent, remember?"
"Right, right…still, I knew she was the Mesoamerican equivalent to Jesus Christ, but…to actually have dragons as her servants?" Sakura breathed. "Quetzalcoatl must have really been a big deal."
"Considering worship of her was a constant over thousands of years of Mesoamerican civilization," Touko said. "Even long after her exile and the ending of the Age of Gods…I am not surprised."
"…hmm…" Benedek hummed in thought. "…if so powerful then, how could she have been defeated?"
"All the other gods ganged up on her." Touko said with a glance at her colleague. "Even for someone like her, that must have been too much to handle on her own."
"Hmm…makes sense…"
Reaching the end of the path, the magi passed through another arch, this time set against a high stone wall. The wall's façade was bare of ornamentation, though once again jaguars guarded the arch's pillars, which were inscribed with yet more hieroglyphs and again featuring a snarling dragon's head at its peak.
Passing through the arch, they found themselves in a long, rectangular court, pillared galleries running to the left and right, with the stone doors of the pyramid sealed shut at the far end. A towering statue of a coiled serpent rested in the middle of the square, massive wings as though of an eagle folded over its back, stone head looking at the archway as though in thought.
Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent of myth and legend, no doubt, and in her draconic form to boot.
And there, standing before the sealed doors on the far side of the square, were a pair of figures. They stayed silent and still, waiting for the newcomers to close the distance. Touko and Benedek narrowed their eyes as they approached, while Sakura just looked wary.
"Greetings, Grand Magus Aozaki." The corpulent man wearing a pith helmet over stereotypical safari wear said with a theatrical bow. "It is an unexpected pleasure to meet you, an honor even."
"It seems you have us at a disadvantage." Touko replied.
"Ah, my apologies!" the magus said with a nod. "I am Wilhelm, the Third Lord Carter. This is my apprentice, the Lady Isabelle Iceheart."
"Well, you know who I am." Touko said with a nod of her own. "Though I wonder if you know my associates."
"Your apprentice is not known to me," Lord Carter said with a measuring glance at Sakura. "But your associate…I am aware of Benedek Zobor, turncoat and murderer of his own family."
Sakura glanced sharply at Benedek, who looked unaffected. "They turned on me first, my lord." He said. "I merely defended myself, and took compensation for their treachery."
"Humph," Lord Carter snorted. "And you call yourself a magus? To sacrifice everything, even your own life and happiness, for the sake of your family, is an honor, obligation, and privilege all at the same time."
"So my brother said." Benedek snapped. "About five minutes before I tore out a carotid artery. He couldn't say much after that, though I'm not surprised. He bled out in less than a minute."
"…you truly have no shame, do you?" Lord Carter rhetorically asked with evident disgust. "And you, Grand Magus Aozaki…why do you lower yourself and your apprentice, and shame your families by consorting with such a…disgrace?"
"…excuse me?" Touko asked with a dangerous tone.
Sakura just sighed. "Here we go again…" she muttered, before raising her voice. "Master doesn't like her family being brought up, but as for me…"
Sakura paused and shrugged. "…don't have a family." She said.
"Hmm…" Lord Carter hummed in thought. "I find it hard to believe a Grand Magus would take a no-name as her apprentice."
"That is none of your concern." Touko snapped. "Who I keep company and cooperate with in pursuit of my goals is my business, and mine alone. And with your apprentice having previously tried to kill Sakura in Antigua on top of your…prying, I am losing patience with your interference. I suggest you leave while I still have patience to spare."
"No…I do not think I will leave." Lord Carter said with a slow shake of his head. "We stand before one of the greatest remaining caches of relics and artifacts dating back to the Age of Gods. I cannot hardly turn back now, not when I am but a few steps away from taking them into my hands. How could I call myself a magus if I did so? Surely you would do the same in my place."
"Then you will die." Touko said matter-of-fact.
"…must I?" Lord Carter asked after a moment. "Surely we can come to an arrangement, Grand Magus Aozaki?"
"I think not." Touko said, drawing herself up and causing an alarmed Sakura and Benedek to slowly walk away. "Perhaps if it was just your apprentice trying to kill my apprentice, I could have let it go, and come to an arrangement with you. But you…you dare bring up my so-called family? I will kill you and enter the pyramid over your corpse if you do not leave…right now!"
Lord Carter's face was like stone, and he met Touko's gaze evenly. After a moment, he turned away in shame. "What a waste…" he said, while pulling out a mystic code, a hexagonal rod of clear crystal. "…to think that someone like you would be born with the talent of a Grand Magus…truly…it is such a waste…"
Touko cracked her neck, and gestured for Lord Carter with her fingers. "Bring it." She said.
Lord Carter raised his mystic code. "Lateral growth." He said.
In an instant, laterally-inclined nodes sprouted from the side of the crystal facing Touko, and launched out in the form of needle-like rods. They shot through the air in Touko's direction, as though to impale her body.
In the blink of an eye, Touko raised a hand, and snapped her fingers. Small explosions erupted in the air, as the crystals flying towards her were blown apart. "Impressive…your reaction speed is most impressive…" Lord Carter mused. "…most likely the result of reinforcement, but considering your background, self-made modifications to your body could also be a factor."
"This is the part I hate about magi duels." Touko thought as she blew up a second wave of crystals headed her way. "It's not like fighting at all. We take turns taking potshots or defending against each other, and use the time between turns to dissect each other's mysteries."
"How are you able to grow the crystal without any external material input?" she asked aloud.
"Wouldn't you care to know?" Lord Caster asked back with a smug smile, and launched another volley.
"I wonder…a living crystal…?" Touko mused while snapping her fingers to intercept. "If so…where did you get it from?"
Lord Carter continued to smile, but said nothing. "No matter," Touko said. "I'm sure I can figure that out, and how that crystal of yours functions, once I take it off your corpse after this battle."
"Hmm…we shall see."
Touko narrowed her eyes, and rather than intercept, dodged the next volley instead. "My turn." She said, snapping her fingers in Lord Carter's direction.
The resulting explosive plume of fire visibly displaced the surrounding air, and causing a bloom of heat across the whole court. Stone flags and walls hissed and cracked, weeds poking through between the former turning into ash on the wind.
"Taking things up a notch, aren't you, Grand Magus?" Lord Carter asked grimly, as the flames died and showed him unhurt, surrounded by a shimmering globe of magic. "And how very interesting…your control of the fire element isn't simply a matter of using prana as a fuel to generate flames or explosions …you're actually manipulating your target and the environment's molecules. Or am I wrong?"
Touko's answer was another snap of her fingers, and another explosive blast of fire.
Benedek held out a hand, manipulating the moisture into the air to form several razor-edged shards of ice. They hung in the air for a moment, and then lanced out at blinding speed along a general vector but at subtly-different angles and speeds from each other.
The Goshawk familiar dove and banked wildly, dodging and flying around each and every one of the projectiles. They had been fired to take into account a bird's natural command of the air, and its expected ability to alter its flight path at its leisure to avoid incoming projectiles.
Even then, it wasn't enough.
The Goshawk just flew clean past them all, and cried out in triumph.
Only…
…none of them were expected to hit at all.
They were meant to let Benedek get the range in. And now that he had…
…he gestured once more…
…and the Goshawk fell from the sky, encased in ice. It struck and rolled against the ground with a series of thuds, and then was still.
"Do you really think you can take me on?" Benedek asked Lady Iceheart. He gestured, and ice crystals formed and began to spread over the woman's clothes and body. It was slow compared to what happened to the bird, no doubt due to the female magus' magic resistance, but they formed, spread, and merged together into a thickening prison of ice regardless.
And then with a defiant shout, Lady Iceheart poured prana through her circuits, and shattered the ice over her. "It's not going to be that easy, murderer." She spat.
Benedek held out his Azoth Dagger, and the opal at the pommel flashed before ice encased the blade and extended outwards, forming a saber. Then holding the weapon point upwards with his right hand, Benedek made a x-shaped flourish as a salute, before finishing with the weapon held in a relaxed, one-handed low guard.
Lady Iceheart growled low in her throat, and drawing her own saber, held it in a two-handed middle guard.
"Sabers are supposed to be one-handed weapons, you know." Benedek remarked with an air of disappointment.
Lady Iceheart narrowed her eyes at the remark…
…and then lunged forward while switching to a one-handed grip, and delivered a series of slashes that Benedek effortlessly parried. Then riposting, Benedek counterattacked, delivering a trio of cuts at Lady Iceheart's torso.
Lady Iceheart parried them all, only to fall for a feint and only clumsily-succeed in parrying a thrust aimed at her face. Turning the blow aside, she counterattacked, only for Benedek to cleanly back away, head tilted questioningly.
"You bear the title of 'lady' so proudly," he observed. "And yet this murderer you cross blades with isn't even being breaking a sweat."
Lady Iceheart growled while backing away in her turn, as Benedek unhurriedly advanced on her. She kept her sword held out in a middle guard, this time one-handed, before once again switching to a two-handed grip.
Then she lunged, Benedek dodging the thrust aimed at his chest, before swinging at her neck. Lady Iceheart parried, steel grinding against ice, the woman's face twisting in discomfort at the awkward angle she'd parried with.
"Is that the best you can do?" Benedek mocked.
Snarling at the mockery, Lady Iceheart ground her blade free and pressed the offensive, swinging at Benedek's torso. He parried but she pressed the offensive again, cutting at his leg only for Benedek to parry again. A third cut aimed at his head was dodged, leaving her open for a swing to the chest that she avoided only by the narrowest of margins.
Smiling coolly, Benedek advanced and took the offensive. A thrust towards Lady Iceheart's chest was parried…then a swing at her head was parried…then a feint to the right left her open, allowing Benedek to cut into her arm, followed by a swing to cut into her thigh.
Lady Iceheart fell to the ground with a cry, Benedek flourishing a salute before raising his saber to deliver the coup de grace.
Ice cracked and shattered, and with a cry Lady Iceheart's familiar broke free of its prison and threw itself against Benedek. Benedek carved it in half and backed away with an annoyed look on his face, while Lady Iceheart healed her wounds before grabbing her weapon and rising to her feet once more.
"You should have gone for my head." Lady Iceheart spat.
"Apologies then," Benedek returned with a sigh. "I was merely being courteous."
Lady Iceheart snarled, letting her one-handed grip on her saber shift while drawing a parrying dagger with her off hand. "Dual-wielding now?" Benedek remarked with an air of curiosity. "Very well…show me what you've got."
Lady Iceheart yelled while charging forward. Benedek went with the flow, blocking and turning swing after swing, Lady Iceheart focusing her attacks against his center of mass. And then as her offensive was spent, Benedek counterattacked, throwing his first swing against her torso.
She parried with her dagger, but Benedek pressed the offensive, aiming his swings against her lower body, before shifting towards her head. Lady Iceheart parried them all, but the last swing knocked the dagger out of her hand, and forced her to back away, desperately and clumsily parrying a pair of swings aimed at her torso.
Benedek held his ground, looking on as Lady Iceheart again shifted to a two-handed grip, saber held overhead in a high guard. And then lunging forward she attacked again and again, swinging at Benedek's head, torso, and legs at random to throw him off. Benedek parried each and every strike, and then backed away as Lady Iceheart's offensive spent itself.
Lady Iceheart returned to her starting stance, breathing heavily but struggling to bring it back under control. As her breathing evened out, Benedek lunged to attack, focusing his swings against her center of mass, forcing her back with fast and powerful one-handed strikes, and then backing away as his offensive spent itself.
His opponent refused to give him a reprieve, immediately counterattacking and again repeating her pattern of randomly-aimed swings. Benedek parried them all, and then counterattacked as soon as Lady Iceheart's offensive spent itself.
Two swings to the legs…then one at the head…another to the legs…and a feint to draw her in with a thrust to his chest…
…and then sidestepping and swinging down, chopped Lady Iceheart's right arm clean off above the elbow. Her scream of pain was cut short as Benedek sharply gestured with his off hand, and sent a shard of ice about eight inches long through her chest.
The momentum carried her all the way across the court, and nailed her against the wall. Lady Iceheart gasped and gurgled, blood and bile bubbling from her mouth as her hands weakly scrabbled over the shard of frozen liquid going through her body.
Ignoring the sight, Benedek dispelled his blade, the ice sublimating back into water vapor and leaving only the Azoth Dagger in his hand, the metal blade frosted over from the residual cold. Then glancing to where Lady Iceheart was nailed dead against the wall, Benedek tilted his head before giving a quip.
"Hang around for as long as you want."
A/N
We're getting close to the end. Yes, I'm actually going to finish one of my stories. Amazing, isn't it?
Two, maybe three more chapters to go…that said, it wouldn't do for our heroes to reach Quetzalcoatl's hoard without some hindrances along the way. Heh…hoard…Quetzalcoatl has a hoard. I mean, yeah, she's a dragon goddess so it fits, but still…she has a hoard…that cracks me up for some reason.
