Author's note: I advise you to search on the internet for the music "Cold Song" to listen to it during the fight between King Arthur and the Cold Genius. (Go to your search engine and look for "the Cold Song Henry Purcell" or "the Cold Song Klaus Nomi")
The Cold Song
What power art thou
Who from below
Hast made me rise
Unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow
See'st thou not how stiff
And wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold
I can scarcely move
Or draw my breath
I can scarcely move
Or draw my breath
Let me, let me
Let me, let me
Freeze again
Let me, let me
Freeze again to death
The Cold Song, (Henry Purcell's King Arthur Act III-Scène 2)
Cù Chulainn, the Lancer-class Servant of this Holy Grail War stopped. Half-lying on a broad tree branch, ready to leap, he looked more like a hungry wolf than ever before. His eyes were folded and his tongue was mechanically passed over his lips. He would have liked to believe that what he saw filled him with the desire to fight and the joy that preceded the battle.
Lancer did not spit on a good little fight from time to time. In fact, he preferred a good fight to three hot meals a day.
Nevertheless...
He looked up at the creature that had manifested itself...
A colossus made of materialized energy, almost fifty feet high...
He swallows.
He had about as much desire to confront it as to face An Dagda (1) himself!
On the other side of the town, the cold wind was surrounding the small church on the hill.
Kirei Kotomine walked along the central aisle between the benches, his hands crossed behind his back, his long mantle slamming behind him like the wings of a sinister raven, a scavenger bird who, as we all know, feeding on the remains of the fallen warriors.
He spoke out loud, his breath short, his eyes bright. In spite of the bright cross at his neck and his clergyman attire, he had never looked so little like a priest as at this very moment.
The False Priest told the story of the battle he saw through Lancer's eyes through the Shared Perception Magecraft.
Sitting on a prayer bench, a blond man looked at Kirei with an ironic and contemptuous smile. He wears a white jacket with a fur collar, a black shirt, black pants, and stylish Aviator Sunglasses.
Near his shoulder, the air undulated with golden wrinkles, like the calm water of a lake struck by a stone. A jug and two golden cups fell from the opening into his outstretched hand.
He filled the two cups with red wine and handed one to Kirei:
"Insects go above and beyond, it becomes almost distracting."
Closer to Mount Enzou, in the traditional neighborhood of Miyama Town, Pyrrha Nikos had silently left the room where Sakura and Taiga continued to sleep peacefully.
She was used to fighting... not watching others fight without being able to do anything.
With clenched fists of anger, the Invincible Girl watched as Arthur ran among the trees of the forest surrounding Ryuudou Temple. The translucent screen created by Merlin allowed her to see all the details of the scene.
Saber jumped aside, when a wave of sulfur and flames blew the forest out over 30 feet, shattering the trunks, instantly inflaming the branches and leaves, leaving only ashes and burning coals.
[Well dodged!] Rejoiced Merlin. [Luckily, the Superi are not combatants. This colossus is not particularly fast.]
The Invincible Girl agreed and then headed to her room.
[Where are you going?]
[Getting dressed] replied Pyrrha.
[You're not going to go to the temple? What do you think you can do?!]
[I will always be more useful than sitting here watching Arthur get slaughtered!]
[Pyrrha, sometimes the best thing is to wait and watch others suffer. No one's asking you to like it, but you don't have to carry the world on your own shoulders. It's a burden to share. This is Arthur's fight. Do not think that it would be grateful to you to risk your life for him. You are the Master and he is the Servant. More than that, it was a knight who swore an oath to defend you. If you step in, all you can do with your weak abilities is put him in danger to protect yourself. Of course, that will help him a lot] joked Merlin [More yet, it will come back to tell him: "I don't trust your ability to defeat the enemy." Do you really think he deserves such humiliation?!]
Pyrrha stopped as her fingers touched the fusuma (2) which separated her room from the corridor. She blushed slightly:
[I didn't see it that way.]
[I know,] simply answered the magician. [If you care about Arthur, the best thing you can do is not to give him additional grounds for concern.]
[And especially need you, girls, to stop arguing in my head, I'm fighting, I don't need to be distracted!] Shouted Saber.
Caster wiped the sweat from his forehead and noted his trembling fingers.
His reserves of Mana were dangerously low. Hastening the invocation of the Pennates Superi had cost him a great deal. Thankfully, his Mana parameter was A-Rank. Otherwise, it would have been impossible even for him.
Nevertheless, the mighty creature he had summoned seemed incapable of touching Saber... King Arthur certainly deserved his reputation! In addition, the damage was becoming more and more severe. If the rain had not soaked the ground and the trees, the fireballs and burning sulfur would have burned the forest for a long time.
If it went on like this, the Superi would burn Fuyuki to the ground! Unlike his Master, Paracelsus cared a lot about the innocent inhabitants... after all, he considered himself first and foremost a physician. As a physician, his duty was to protect, heal, help people to live... certainly not to endanger them.
Paracelsus had also perceived the presence of three Servants in the forest. The fact that the Superi only faced one meant that the other two were lurking nearby ready to attack him and his Master. In his present state, Caster had little chance of winning a fight.
He concentrated on his Philosopher's stone, transmitting new orders to his mighty servant.
An energy wave passed through Arthur.
This pulsation was not painful or aggressive but... he felt that his senses were becoming sharper. The world around him now seemed both clearer, almost crystalline... at the same time everything seemed more distant and the colors seemed faded.
[Incredible!]
[Merlin? What happened!?]
There was a pause, and the magician answered with an unbelieving voice:
[You have been projected onto the astral plane.]
[The astral plane?]
Arthur looked around him with a startled look. His eyes revealed things to him that mortals should never normally see. Like the "silver rope" relaying the mind of sleepers to their etheric bodies traveling out of the physical body during dreams, but also the spirits of recently deceased individuals.
[But... I can't astralize!]
[Well, the Pennates Superi managed to force you to dematerialize yourself to enter the astral plane. As you are out of the Primal Material Plane, your attacks will no longer endanger the people of Fuyuki. Caster... or rather Paracelsus, since it is the True Name of this Servant... seems repugnant to shed the blood of the innocent.] Merlin would no doubt have continued to hold forth, she loved to spread her knowledge but the magician interrupted herself to shout a warning: [Beware!]
Surprised by his sudden projection into the astral plane, Saber had almost forgotten that he was in the middle of a battle. He had stopped to look around him, and the Superi took advantage of it to attack. His gigantic fist fell on the insect that fought him.
But a little voice strangely proud resounds:
"Berserker!"
In response, there was an inhuman howl. A wild creature leaped out. The monster inspired fear with his hair similar to a lion's mane, his eyes red and yellow. In his convulsed and dark face, his white teeth were discovered by his wide mouth open to howl over and over again! In his right arm, he held a laughing little girl with adorable features. But in his left hand, Berserker struck repeatedly with a frightful weapon, a kind of serrated stone sword!
Even if Heracles seemed very small compared to the Pennates Superi, it was not the first time that he faced a giant, Zeus having moreover begotten it for this precise purpose!
When Berserker intercepted the fist of the Superi, there was a monumental impact noise and the titan of light stumbled back, while Heracles landed loosely next to Saber.
However, this was not what surprised Merlin the most:
[The Superi even managed to take the Masters into the astral field!]
Indeed, Illya was surrounded by a trembling silver aura but seemed as real - or unreal- as the rest of their environment.
Arthur bowed slightly, one hand over his heart:
"Thank you for your intervention, Master of Berserker."
Illyasviel von Einzbern had a small haughty sniff:
"I can't let this big thing crush the charming prince of Pyrrha-ane!"
Saber refrained from sighing. He had hoped that she would end up saying this. Alas, spend her days reading shoujo mangas had definitely distorted Illya's worldview.
"Damsel von Einzbern, I advise you not to look at this spiritual elemental. The Bible teaches us that it can transform into a statue of salt the mortals who see it!"
"The quality of my Magic Circuits protects me from this attack" replied Illya.
Indeed, whenever the young Master of the Einzbern looked at the immense creature dominating Mount Enzou, a destructive power came upon her threatening to destroy the demi-homunculus. But she always managed to repel this influence by circulating a flow of Prana in her Magic Circuits.
Saber's Macic Resistance, and the divine nature of Berserker, protected them even more effectively.
While another burst of sulfur meteors and flames was dodged by Saber and Berserker, the Pennates Superi taking blows from its two attackers. Arthur Pendragon attacked and retreated, using the trees of the forest as a shield, harassing the titan with his sword of wind while Berserker by hitting the ground under the feet of the colossus.
It was really a battle of mythological proportions.
It was almost a shame that only the participants in this secret war could remember this battle. Think of this: the legendary King Arthur allied with the demigod Heracles facing the scourge sent by God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah!
"You really are a fool, Caster!"
Paracelsus turned to look at Atrum Galliasta, infuriated. His Master seemed about to feel bad from anger and anguish. Even if he would not admit it for the world, Galliasta had, at last, understood that the Servants far exceeded the mortals who had invoked them and that he had mingled in a fight which opposed forces capable of crushing him like a twig.
"I would have been better off invoking Medea as I initially wanted!"
"Oh, excuse me, Master! I thought you were stupid... In fact, you're suicidal!" Joked Paracelsus with an ironic smile.
Galliasta's face turned red:
"What?"
"Well, kill children in front of Medea, you have to want to die. Or have no idea who Medea is."
But Galliasta replied bitterly to his Servant:
"I know who Medea is. She killed her own children, how could she be mad at me for killing unknown children?"
Paracelsus turned away from his Master. So much stupidity disgusted him. In the twenty-first century as in mythological times, misogyny reigned. Atrum Galliastra was no more capable of understanding the torments of Medea than Jason himself (3).
Paracelsus turned to the battle to see the Superi stagger. Saber and Heracles had succeeded each to give it several blows, jumping and withdrawing while the titan waved his hands to drive them away.
Suddenly, King Arthur grabbed his sword with two hands. The wind began to swirl furiously around its blade which radiated blue light filtering through its air sheath:
"Strike Air!"
The raging hurricane struck the titan's chest while Berserker kicks him in the leg with a powerful blow.
The whole hill trembled as the Pennates Superi was kneeling. While trying to get up, he raised a hand, to project a new gust of meteors.
Howling, Heracles struck the projectile rushing towards him and turned him away from his path. As for Saber, he leaps as fast as the wind, dissolving in after-image blurs. The attacks hit the shadows that the King of Knight left behind without touching him.
Caster bit his lip. He had invoked the most powerful being possible to him, and yet the Superi was no match for these two Servants. He had made a huge mistake, thinking only in terms of power... After all the creature he had invoked was only a blacksmith... even divine, a blacksmith was no match against two fighters of this kind. Paracelsus von Hohenheim was now short of Mana... he had only one card left to play.
He quickly drew a circle of invocation and placed in the middle two precious stones, a diamond and a sapphire. These two gems were truly splendid and impregnated with magical energy thanks to the Jewel Magecraft. Having done this, he held out the Azoth knob towards the circle, shortening the Formalcraft ritual:
"Come to me, Cold Genius!"
Immediately the cold fell on the hill the snow began to fall and the frost covered the small lake behind Ryuudou temple. An old doddery man in a long white robe had just emerged from the circle of invocation. His long hair was pale as snow, his flesh seemed carved in ice, and his arms were lean as his legs were. Yet his eyes shone with a formidable and terrible power ready to be unleashed, and on his forehead, he wore a crown of ice. The furious winds wrapped around him and the temperature was dropping more and more.
Arthur gritted his teeth, he had recognized one of his old enemies.
[The Cold Genius] murmured Merlin.
Pyrrha turned away from the screen for a moment to look at the snow that had begun to fall outside. Even if the clash was now taking place on the astral plane, the appearance of this "Cold Genius" was enough to ruin the weaver. Fuyuki was in the south of Japan, even in the middle of winter it almost never snowed!
[Who is this Cold Genius] asked the Invincible Girl.
[Exactly what its name suggests, an ancient and powerful winter spirit. The Saxon king Oswald had declared war on King Arthur of Camelot, to conquer his kingdom and marry his fiancée Emmeline (blind daughter of Duke Conon of Cornwall, a vassal of Arthur). Oswald kidnapped her in his castle, which was attacked by Arthur to save his beloved. To defend the castle Osmond (mage of Oswald) made use of his magical powers, seeking to paralyze the kingdom by "the Cold Genius, the spirit of the winter of Great Britain"]
Pyrrha nodded:
[But Arthur defeated it!]
[No, I invoked Cupid the spirit of love and... love warmed the Cold Genius, turning it into the spirit of spring, making trees bloom, and erasing the snows of winter!]
[So you have to intervene again!]
[Pyrrha, this is impossible for me. I was imprisoned in Avalon precisely because I intervened too often in the destiny of mortals. This time, Arthur will have to cope on his own.]
The Cold Genius began to sing in a low, trembling voice, telling of old age, the coldness and hopelessness of the elderly only waiting for death. The temperature fell again, becoming truly polar. Ice walls rose around the temple of Ryuudou as snow piled up and trees turned into ice sculptures. Soon the snow heaps shook and humanoid silhouettes rose... men cut in the ice, armed with bows as cut in the glass, crystalline' swords, axes, and spears.
This army of creatures shaped in the ice rushed to attack the two Servants. While the Wind King's Sword broke the first group of attackers to pieces, Berserker turned around and held Illya close to his chest, offering his back as a shield to stop a volley of glass arrows.
The Ice Force's assault allowed the Pennates Superi to retreat out of the fray. Of course, the two Servants destroyed the attackers by the dozen but the Cold Genius continued to sing, creating more and more crystalline creatures.
Still on his tree, Lancer had followed the whole fight without intervening... until then. But the ice golems shaped by the spirit of winter spread through the forest. And the first arrows began to whistle around him. Of course, no arrow could touch Cù Chulainn but he was spotted.
He had a smile... the kind of smile a hungry wolf could have had when he discovered a stray rabbit. Well, if the wolves could smile...
His Master had forbidden him to join the fight and to be spotted, not to defend himself if he was attacked.
Jumping among the first group of opponents he waved his spear so quickly that it turned into a red wheel that broke the weapons, repelled the attacks, and then he struck multiple attacks given by the point wrapped in bloody light. Lancer seemed to have ten spears...
Lancer leaped forward eliminating anything that tried to stop his advance.
As he ran Kirei Kotomine spoke to him, giving new instructions. Lancer's smile grew stronger.
Saber jumped aside to dodge the attack of an ice warrior armed with a spear. His invisible sword smashed him in half as he passed him. He only had time to block the attacks of two swordsmen who had just emerged, weaving before him a real wall of steel.
Changing the position of his hands on Excalibur's guard, Arthur suddenly pushed forward, while his Dragon Core fills him with more and more energy. At once, the closest adversaries were repelled by the whirlwinds that blew around his sword as lightning struck them.
Already enemy archers fired. But the arrows did not find their target.
Saber had jumped forward, using Wind's King Slash to lower atmospheric pressure and thus air friction to run faster. King Arthur seemed to appear in several points of the battlefield in a fuzzy form, his sword smashing several dozen golems.
Suddenly a new opponent appeared. Almost twice as high as an ordinary ice golem, it wielded a huge sword.
The monster struck, counting only on his brute strength. But the sword sank deep into the ground, Saber having dodged with his usual vivacity. A foot placed on the immense blade, Arthur immobilized it. The next moment, he swirled with the grace of a dancer... The colossus collapsed into two parts, cut from shoulder to hip.
But the flood of enemies seemed inexhaustible, already new ice golems appeared, born of a simple whirlwind of snow, called by the Cold Song.
Then there was an angry roar which was nothing human, the cry of a scary and wild beast, without the slightest ounce of reason. In counterpoint, Arthur heard a crystal-clear laugher reflecting a childish amusement.
The instant after the new wave of assailants was engulfed in the Berserker rush. Arthur raised his hand to protect himself from the swirl of snow and ice fragments projected away by the attack. When he lowered his arm, Heracles was at the end of a trench. The ground was sunk, cracked, and around lay the broken bodies of about a hundred of ice warriors.
Berserker breathed, inflating the chest as if it were a huge blacksmith bellows, exhaling puffs of steam. He screamed again as Illya - still huddled against him- was tapping into his little hands, stimulated by this surge of irrational violence.
Arthur shivered... the duo formed by Berserker and his Master put him prodigiously uncomfortable. They were so... abnormal!
New ice golems were already appearing. The snow swirls gave birth to them by ten at a time, in a few seconds they swarmed the wood, a small army of several hundred fighters!
"Don't worry, I'll take care of them!"
The mocking voice that had just sounded startled Illya and Arthur.
The next moment, a blue and red fuzzy form began to bounce like a pinball against the ice warriors, drawing paths that crossed in all directions.
When all the golems had exploded, the fuzzy figure stabilized as a smiling man, dressed in blue spandex, holding a red spear carelessly placed on his shoulder. He raised his hand in a nonchalant greeting:
"Yo!"
Arthur glared at lancer with aggravation:
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Er... " Cù Chulainn seemed to think for a moment and then smiled: "... Winter is Coming?"
"What are you doing here, Lancer?"
Cù Chulainn did not cease to smile, even hearing at the hostile tone of Saber:
"What aggressiveness! I believed that the paragon of chivalry that is King Arthur would give a better welcome to the son of one of his old friends. (4)"
It hardly improved Saber's mood to hear his True Name proclaimed to all with such impudence. And as Illya was not deaf, she struck in her hands with jubilation, waving her little feet in the void, always comfortably seated in Berserker's arm:
"I knew it! You are like the Number One Target of an Otome game!"
Arthur's mouth pinched, and his eyes narrowed in anger. After a brief glance at Illya, he focused on Cù Chulainn. The latter spread his arms:
"Oh, oh, oh, calm down... I'm stuck here like you! My Master offers you an alliance. Caster is too dangerous! We have to get rid of him, just to get back to the material plane...and I'm not even talking about getting the grail. Do we stick?"
[Pyrrha] called Arthur.
There was a slight wait before the Invincible Girl replied:
[Okay, but don't trust him. The moment Caster is defeated, he could betray you!]
[Exactly my opinion] replied Arthur.
And then out loud:
"My Master accepts!"
Lancer and Saber turned to Illya. The little girl thought for a moment, then:
"I agree with that. First of all, I think we need to neutralize the Cold Genius, otherwise, we'll have to continue to defend ourselves against an army of ice puppets."
Cù Chulainn and Arthur approved in silence, but a voice was heard:
"You forgot my Pennates Superi?"
The eyes rose on the temple at the top of the mountain. Standing in the palm of the bluish titan, Caster looked at them with amusement.
Paracelsus von Hohenheim concentrated on giving orders to the Superi.
Three swirls of light were formed... and so many people with the same face came out. Cù Chulainn's face and they also shared his ferocious almost animal attitude.
The first man had the same blue Spandex as Lancer, but his version of Gae Bolg was adorned with cruel barbs.
The second appeared younger, he wore sparse and mismatched pieces of armor covering his two shoulders, his ankles, and his left arm. The rest of his garment consisted of white furs, blue fabric, and leather straps. At his neck, one could see a steel pendant representing a dog's head. He held a spear similar to Gae Bolg but of an intermediate color between yellow and green.
The third one was... a monster. Dressed in black, hooded, his eyes were red, his legs resembled those of a dinosaur, and he was waving behind him a long barbed tail. Worse, he seemed as demented as Heracles (5).
As the other two Servants turned to watch Lancer, stunned by surprise, Paracelsus said:
"These are my generals, and now behold my army."
The Pennates Superi held out his hand to the Cold Genius who continued to sing imperturbably. Suddenly, the force of the wind and ice's eddies intensified. Hundreds of new ice golems took shape, some of them taking on the appearance of colossi nearly four meters high.
Then several ice castles formed, floating in the sky. Their ramparts and towers were occupied by numerous archers.
Lancer laughs nervously:
"Well... I was complaining about not being able to fight at my highest level. I'm finally going to have the opportunity to surpass myself, to surpass me three times, even!"
Gilgamesh drank a sip of wine, then rested his golden cup and smiled:
"At least one of those despicable monkeys deserves to have me soil Eä!"
Author's note: before you even start shouting that it is impossible to invoke the same Servant three times... first understand that the Fate System in FGO does it well. Then, it is not a normal invocation, it is the Superi, not the Grail which is at the origin of this invocation. A Pennates Superi is according to Paracelsus, the armorer of God himself. He forges the weapons that enable God to protect Creation. And what is a Heroic Spirit if not a weapon protecting the world from what threatens it?
Then, why the Spiritual Cores of the three Cù Chulainn are not damaged? Normally, that's what happens when two Alter meet... But they're not Alters. They come from different universes (Fate, Extra, and Prototype). So they are different characters. That's why I chose Cù... because it's the only character I know (except Arthur/Artoria) who appears in these three universes.
(1)An Dagda or The (Great God) Dagda or Dagda-Deiwos, the All's Father, father (or grandfather) of all the Celtic gods, both king, and druid. God giver, he possesses the cauldron of abundance and a club that can kill or bring back to life that touches it.
(2) Vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors.
(3) Yes Medea killed her own children, but this murder is rarely understood. After bringing Medea to Argo, Jason gave her two children and then repudiated her to marry a Greek and not a foreign witch. For Medea, who killed her own brother and betrayed her father for him (he is true she was under the influence of the gods), it was a true betrayal. When Jason asks her to leave Argo and abandon their children, her grief is immense. Especially Medea understands that Jason will keep their children near him only as a "spare part" in case his wife does not give him an heir! In that case, they'll be worthless and Jason will banish them. The idea of seeing her poor, selfless little children banished and condemned to some horrible fate drives Medea to despair. She kills her own children in their sleep to spare them this fate. Read the play of Euripides. The moment when Medea stabs her children is very pathetic.
(4) Conchobar Mac Nessa (one of Cù Chulainn's fathers... yes, he has... three fathers (!) was at Arthur's court when Culwch asked him to hunt the sow Twrch Trwyth so that he could marry Olwen. Conchobar took part in this episode of the Arthurian epic (but played only a minor role).
(5) These are of course three alternative versions of Lancer. First, Cù Chulainn in Fate/ Extra, then Cù Chulainn (young) in Fate/ Prototype, and finally Cù Chulainn (Alter) in FGO. They're not Alters but different characters from different and separate universes.