"So, what was that guy?" Ayako asked again after they all settled down.
Rin had taken a Magic Potion in order to restore some of her MP, so that she could better help Sakura restore Shirou to health. Madoka also gave him an expensive potion to help as well.
Luckily, the monster only squeezing him did a lot less damage than if it had been bashing his head against the ground, or attacking him with some kind of weapon. His bones had been broken, but they could be healed. After an hour, he was basically good as new.
"Unfortunately, that was my Morale Burst." Rin said as she settled down, accepting a snack provided by her little sister. "It's called Summon Hero, and it apparently does exactly what it says it does. It summons a legendary hero."
"That guy was supposed to be a legendary hero? But he was a raving lunatic." Ayako said in disbelief.
"A hero is only defined as someone who did something to make him famous. Not someone who was a good person." Shinji said, rolling his eyes. "That guy could have been a serial killer for all we know."
"Which is the exact reason I didn't want to use that skill. Powerful as it is, it is too dangerous." Rin said with a sigh. "Unlike the monsters that are basically just weak willed animals whose minds I can dominate, a Hero has free will and its own intelligence. And they aren't usually the kinds of people who like following orders. With me only summoning them for a very short period of time and not having anything to offer them in exchange for their help, I'm not left in a good position for negotiations. Actually, I'm surprised he tried to kill Shirou instead of killing me for the insult of being forced to fight against his will. I was almost sure he would have."
"...Yeah, new rule. You aren't allowed to use that skill anymore." Ayako said flatly.
"If we weren't out of options, I wouldn't have even tried it." Rin readily said. "I was glad to find that I did have three absolute commands that he wasn't supposed to be able to resist, but he started to ignore me half way through the second one."
"Rule Breaker." Shirou said, getting Rin's attention. He was lying against a large pillow, resting his body after the ordeal of having half the bones in it broken, but was somehow still conscious. "The knife he had was called Rule Breaker. It was the knife that Medea used to cut up her brother and children in the Greek telling of Jason and the Argonauts. It had the ability to sever the magic contract between the two of you. As for the twin swords, they were Kanshou and Bakuya, from the legend of the Three Emperors."
"A ritual dagger belonging to the Witch of Betrayal and swords created by a pair of mythical Chinese blacksmiths… who was that guy?" Rin said, with a frown.
Those two things didn't add up at all.
"Do you really not know? He seemed to have recognized you." Sophie said. "He talked like this wasn't your first time summoning him."
"I noticed. But I have never seen him in my life. And he would be someone hard to forget. What with that attitude problem." Rin replied. "This was the first time I ever used that Morale Burst and I've never summoned a Hero before. I only called him Archer because a picture of a bowman appeared on my ID after I summoned him."
Shinji wondered if it was a Servant from the fourth Holy Grail War, since Rin's father had been the one to summon the Archer Servant in that war, but since Servants are shallow copies that's data disappears after they die, he wouldn't have had any recollection of Rin anyways. Or, that was how it was supposed to go.
He had been told about Gilgamesh by his grandfather. Maybe he should mention it to Rin later.
"He also had something against Shirou." Issei said, visibly angry about the near death of his friend. "He had the chance to kill any of us, but he stuck to just knocking us aside instead of killing us. The only one who he was trying to kill was Shirou. But why? What does a so-called Legendary Hero have against Shirou?"
"I don't know." Shirou said, an angry look on his face as he thought about the guy.
"You alright?" Issei asked, relaxing as he saw Shirou's angry expression. "I'm not used to seeing you angry."
"Isn't it normal to be angry at someone who tried to kill you?" Georg pointed out.
"For anyone but Shirou, yeah." Shinji said. "Shirou's never angry. Not even when people take advantage of him or try to harass him."
"Like you." Ayako said coldly. Shinji opened his mouth but then closed it and just sank. He knew he wasn't going to win that argument. He didn't exactly have a good defense. He couldn't tell them that Shirou's obliviousness got on his nerves and that making him do menial tasks was a stress reliever for him.
While Shinji had stood up for Shirou when the idiot wouldn't stand up for himself, he hadn't exactly been the best of friends.
"From the moment I laid eyes on him… I had the impression that I hated that guy. Maybe it was precognition, but…" Shirou's hands tightened. "He called my dream worthless."
"Your dream?" Rin said, curious.
"You mean the one about becoming an Ally of Justice?" Sakura said.
Shirou only nodded. It wasn't like he had any other dreams.
A moment passed and some of the members of Polaris snickered at Shirou, until they saw his expression and realized that he was dead serious about it. The boy fully intended to become a Superhero.
"So what? A Legendary Hero was ticked off that you wanted to become a Superhero?" Shinji said, not quite buying it. Not that they had any other explanation.
"I've got it." Melissa said, walking up to them, her arms covered in blood and a large marble-like jewel in her hand, one that looked like it would fit in the hole in the door.
After retrieving the stone, the young girl and her father had sent the rest of the Named Monster's body to cold storage to await a full dismantling later.
"I'm sorry." Melissa said, after she handed the stone over to Rin. "This was my fault. If Shirou hadn't had to push me out of the way, none of this would have ever happened."
"Don't worry about it." Shirou said, giving her a gentle smile. "I'm just glad you are alright."
Melissa continued to look unsure of herself until Theresa walked up to her and placed a hand over Melissa's heart. "...Thank you." Melissa said, seemingly grateful towards Theresa for whatever comfort she had just given.
"So, what do we do now?" Rin asked the party as she held up the marble sized jewel, which was covered in detailed lines that made up the magic formula that was the key to the door. "Do you all want to keep going forward right away, or do you want to rest up first before heading through the next doorway."
Leaving wasn't an option. Their only option was to press forward. The question was only now or later.
"We won't be able to build up Morale Burst again either way." Ayako said as she flopped back down on her back.
When they were looking up information to do with Morale back in town, they found that it tended to start to drop after a certain period of time without combat. So they wouldn't be able to spend the next 4 hours building it back up again.
"I've done what little equipment maintenance needed to be done already." Shirou admitted.
"In other words, no reason to delay." Rin said before giving Shirou a sharp look. "Are you sure you are okay to continue?"
"You and Sakura did a good job patching me up." Shirou said, reassuring her.
"Alright then. Rin said, looking from the marble in her hand to the whole in the door, which was around twelve feet off the ground. "...Someone not wearing a skirt is going to have to put this into that hole."
Issei quickly volunteered and used his Shadow Track skill in order to jump up into the air in front of the hole and push the marble in.
The formula glowed and light erupted from the marble as it pushed magical energy throughout the door, removing the multitude of protective barriers that would stop someone from forcing their way through. Then, the door slid open by itself, retracting into the wall.
Everyone was immediately on edge as they stared up into the poorly light staircase, an overwhelming presence pressing down on them.
To Shirou, it smelled like iron and engine fluids, reminding him of the gear box they had found the key in. But it was stronger and thicker than any magical scent he had experienced before.
"Oh great." Issei said, sweat forming on the back of his neck. He REALLY regretted taking the sixth sense skill. "It feels like there are ten Rins up ahead."
"...Am I seriously your unit of measurement for how scary something is?" Rin deadpanned, though she could also feel the undeniable power that emanated from ahead of them.
"This is… divine energy." Suzuna said with a bit of reverence. As a real Shrine Maiden, she had sort of felt something like that power during her rituals, but nothing of this magnitude. "There really is a God up ahead."
"...So do you think there is another guardian, or was the eagle dude the last one?" Ayako said, not that anyone could give a solid answer.
"I don't think that there would be a monster in the room holding the God, but keep your guard up just in case." Rin said before walking forward and starting to climb the stairs. "It's not like we can turn back now. We either awaken the God or we get stuck down here forever."
"Well, when you put it like that." Elysha said before starting up after her.
Everyone followed behind and they went up the stairs into the darkness. Each of them starting to really hate the existence of stairs at this point.
Then, they reached the top to find themselves in a giant cylindrical chamber, with no visible features anywhere, save for a pillar of light in the middle of the room, which illuminated a pitch black coffin, and next to the coffin, a plack like pad, with a mark in the same shape as their key on it.
"Looks like this is it." Shinji said as they approached.
"It just had to be a coffin." Sakura said nervously, reaching out and grabbing Shirou's hand for comfort.
"I don't anticipate a fight so… you might want to not look TOO ready for one. We don't want to piss them off." Rin said, and everyone quickly lowered their weapons.
With preparations complete, Rin held the Heart of Ariadne over the plate and a beam of light connected the ruby in its head to the symbol of a key.
Just like with the marble in the door, a powerful stream of magical energy flowed from the key to the coffin, removing the layers of magical protections that held the thing closed.
Steam escaped it, clouding their vision, before the coffin opened up.
Inside of it was what appeared to be a human doll shaped like a woman, with aqua blue hair that reached all the way down past their feet and skin that was pale as chalk. In the center of her chest was a hole that could fit their key.
"Alright. Here goes everything." Rin said, hoping that this 'God' was not going to be one of the ones that demanded human sacrifices.
She pushed the key into the doll's chest, and the entire world lurched for her.
The key in her hands melted and was absorbed into the doll, but Rin could feel her magical power being absorbed as well, and with it, her memories. The doll was forming a bond with her, and using it to access her memories, causing Rin to relive them again.
Her and Sakura as children. Sakura being taken away. Her parents' deaths. Life with Kotomine. The struggles she had to learn magecraft without a proper teacher. Meeting Shirou for the first time. Stalking Sakura in high school.
All of the members zipped by her, and she could feel that those standing closest to her, Shirou and Sakura, who had rushed to support her as her body faltered from the sudden drain on her magic power, were also having their magic power drained as well, and memories read along with it, through her.
She saw a boy walking through a blazing inferno as the dying screamed all around him. She saw a little girl with black hair whose eyes were dead to the world, lying in a pit with bugs crawling all over her. She saw a cozy little kitchen where the two were together in peace.
The memories flowed and then it all came to an abrupt halt, with Shirou, Sakura and Rin stumbling back in a daze, trying to distinguish between what was now and what was memories.
Right in front of them, magical power gathered around the doll, turning her body into real flesh and bone, her skin becoming the color of real human skin as a sort of jump suit formed around its body, a large jewel in the center of her chest, where the keyhole used to be.
All across her body, magic power gathered into glowing blue green circuits, and as she opened her eyes, they too glowed with that same magical light.
Everyone there felt shock and awe, and the overwhelming sense that if this being chose to, it could utterly annihilate them, despite her looking no older than a high school girl herself.
"You, who have opened my ark and awakened me from my slumber, I thank you." The woman said, her voice detached and beautiful. "I am the 117th Hidden God, a replica of the Goddess Ariadne, the Iron Wheel."
A replica of Ariadne? That explained the 'Heart of Ariadne' label on the key.
Ariadne in Greek Mythology, was the princess who helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur and escape the Labyrinth. She was born to a Demigod father and mother, making her half God herself by birth, but in some stories, she was risen to full Godhood after catching the eye of the God of wine and fertility, Dionysus, who in order to ruin the relationship between her and the young King Theseus made her infertile, and incapable of producing him any heirs.
So the Hidden Gods were not true Gods, but replicas made from those who existed on the Throne of Gods, similar to how Servants were copies of Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes.
"Tohsaka Rin, Tohsaka Sakura, Emiya Shirou." Ariadne said as she looked over the three, calling Sakura by her birth name rather than Matou. "It is just a portion, but I have obtained some of your memories and other necessary information. You have all done well to get here, Reincarnators from the World Beyond, whose souls have been tasked to gather the Gods. You have overcome all challenges and unlocked the mysteries of this Labyrinth. You have earned the right to my blessings."
"Ah… wait…" Georg said, a little scared but feeling obligated to speak up.
"...You are Georg. Leader of Polaris. You wish to remain loyal to the idol of your worship in your previous world, correct?" Ariadne said, after searching through the memories she had gained from Rin and the others.
"That's right, ah… Your Holiness?" Georg said, not sure how to address a literal Goddess. His head was bowed low, not able to even make eye contact with her.
"That is fine. You need not fear." Ariadne said, much to the man's visible relief. "I will not force my blessing upon you, and I have no quarrels with Jesus. I bear no grudges and will transport you back to the Labyrinth's entrance whenever you wish."
"Oh. Thank you." Georg said with a sigh of relief.
"As for the rest of you, please, accept my blessings." Ariadne said, her hair flowing like water as her entire body glowed. Rings of magic energy formed around her and flakes of light filled the room… only to stop as the circuits on her body began to spark. A look of sadness crossed Ariadne's face. "...I see. As expected."
"Is something wrong?" Rin asked her.
"Yes." Ariadne said shortly before looking over them. "Hidden Gods exist in order to bestow blessings onto Seekers. We are sealed in various Dungeons throughout this world. …Sadly, I am the least complete of the Hidden Gods. I am… defective."
"Defective?" Misaki squeaked. Wondering how powerful a complete God was if this was the power of a defective one.
"This body of mine has too many broken and missing parts, and my blessings are frail and limited." Ariadne said. "Even if I could be repaired, it is unlikely I would ever be as strong as the others. …I suppose that is why my Creator abandoned me in the first Labyrinth and never bothered to complete me."
The sense of fear that one got when standing in front of the absolute peak of the food chain gave way to sadness and sympathy for the young woman who had been abandoned by what was essentially her father.
It was something that hit home for Rin and brought back bitter memories.
She wondered if being a copy of an individual raised to become a God rather than being a God from the start, made Ariadne flawed.
"Tohsaka Rin. I said that I would grant you my blessings, however I suggest you don't accept them." Ariadne said sadly. "A Seeker can only ever receive the blessings from a single Hidden God. So it would be better if you found yourself one that was better than me."
In the old Legends, Ariadne had begged her own love, Theseus, who she had sacrificed everything for, to abandon her. To discard her and take another as his Queen, because she did not want to interfere with his destiny.
Even if this Ariadne was only a copy of the original, she still had the same mentality.
"There is no value in placing your faith in me. So let me return you to the surface so that you may go and find another." Ariadne said.
"Hold on a second." Rin interrupted her. "While we did come here hoping for some kind of blessing, I desired information even more. Could you please explain to me more about what is going on with Labyrinth City. You said that we were summoned to this world in order to 'Gather the Gods' but to what end? What is the ultimate purpose to all of this?"
"...I do not know." Ariadne admitted. "I know that we Hidden Gods are to give our blessings to whom-so-ever manages to reach us, to gather their faith and lend them our power, but I cannot say what purpose it serves."
Rin was visibly disappointed by the lack of information, but kept trying.
"I see. I've also heard mention about a possibility of fights between those who follow different Gods. What is that about?" Rin asked.
"Some Gods are hostile towards one another, and their Seekers may be made to fight each other." Ariadne explained.
"Are there any Gods that you are hostile to? You have only just awoken, so I can't imagine you have had a chance to be antagonistic towards anyone. Or would you inherit the enemies of the original Ariadne that you are a replica of?" Rin asked her.
"...I may inherit such enemies, but they would be very few in number. The only one I can think of who might bear me ill will is Hera, as my grandfather was Zeus. Though I don't know if Hera is even one of the Hidden Gods and if she was, that she had been awakened." Ariadne said after thinking about it for a few moments. "That said, there are some Gods who were hostile for the sake of being hostile. And if you end up competing with or out performing their Seekers, they could take offense to that and use it as an excuse."
"So if we side with you, more than likely the only people we would be fighting are those who would be antagonistic with us anyways." Rin said, nodding her head. "You also mentioned needing parts to be repaired. How can we obtain such parts?"
Ariadne blinked at her. "You… are planning on accepting my blessing?"
"I don't like the idea of turning down a challenge." Rin huffed, flipping back her hair.
"I agree with Rin." Shirou said with a nod of his head. "I don't abandon people. No matter the reason."
"Right." Sakura said, smiling at the two of them.
"You are making a mistake. You are throwing away your futures for the weakest blessing." Ariadne said softly, trying to turn them away.
"Well, since we are the strongest Seekers, we can get by with any sort of blessing." Rin said, full of arrogance.
"Speaking of, what exactly is your blessing?" Elysha asked.
The entire reason she had come down there was not out of a thrust for knowledge, but because she needed more power to help her rescue her friend. Finding another God in time wasn't an option, so if this one could offer anything, she would take it.
"...Various forms of assistance in battle can be provided, depending on how much faith I have gathered, and if you were to receive a lethal blow, rather than dying, you would be transported here. Though your equipment would be lost." Ariadne said. "The rate at which I can do it is limited though. Due to my weakened state."
Rin had to stop her jaw from dropping.
That blessing alone was more than worth everything that they had gone through in order to get there. Even the members of Polaris suddenly seemed to be reconsidering their stance on Jesus.
"How would we go about helping you repair yourself?" Shirou asked the Goddess.
"...There are things that you can do. Offerings of magical power are one way to help stabilize me and increase your faith in me, but in order to fully repair myself, I will need other artifacts that contain divine power." Ariadne said. "To get those, you will need to hunt down powerful Named Monsters and gather black boxes."
"Same old, same old." Ayako joked.
"I don't know about everyone else, but I'm willing to sign this contract." Rin said, smiling at the Goddess. "Let us have a mutually beneficial relationship together."
"...You are making a mistake." Ariadne said, warning them one last time.
"Maybe so, but it is our mistake to make. And I don't hear any objections." Rin said, looking back at her and Elysha's parties, as well as the owner of the Dismantling Shop and his daughter. All of them nodded in agreement. Only Polaris politely refused, wishing to remain true to their Christian roots and have no other God.
Ariadne's eyes became moist with tears before she began once again to glow with light, all of their IDs began to glow as well as they synchronized with the Goddess, accepting her blessing. "Seekers from Worlds Beyond, accept my blessings… and my gratitude. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
Archer attempting to kill Shirou to create a paradox never made any sense, because the naruverse works off of a multiverse theory and time paradoxes don't exist in those. Stopping Shirou from becoming him wouldn't prevent him from existing because it is just a different timeline.
However, when they are fighting, they do undergo a sort of 'resonance of like souls' since they are the same person.
Some have put forward that killing himself in such a way would cause a rebound that would destroy his soul and free him for his eternal servitude.
...Or that he just REALLY hates himself.
Information dump chapter and them getting their Blessings.
Don't ask for a better explanation about any of this, because so far in the novel, they haven't actually confronted another God's party. I don't even know for sure if what I put here is correct or not.
In the most recent chapters of the WN(chapter 221), they have discovered which party has the second canon God, but they haven't interacted with them on the level of both of them worshipping different Gods. We aren't even told the name of the other God yet or any of its powers.
Though even if the canon had reached the point of giving us more information about how all this worked, I wouldn't give you it at this time in story, since the reader shouldn't know any more details about what is going on than the POV characters in the story (except for because of foreshadowing). To give unnecessary details that the characters would not have known about would be bad writing.
Someone was curious if Elysha's old Alliance was the White Knight Brigade or the White Night Brigade. Problem is, the raw uses the symbols related to the English sounds, rather than something that translates. So there isn't any way of knowing.
There is an early instance in the WN that never got updated which referred to them as the Midnight Light Brigade, which leads me to believe it is supposed to be Night instead of Knight. Even though Knight would usually be seen as making more sense. (A lot of stuff isn't consistent)
Without anything to offer the Servant in exchange for its service, Summon Hero is actually a pretty risky skill. You either get someone like Cu Chulainn or Alexander the Great, who just loves to fight and would be happy to kill whatever is in the way for you, or you get someone like Medea or Gilgamesh, and you are simply dead.
So Rin using her Morale Burst is basically gambling with all of their lives.
Speaking of Medea. Ariadne is Medea's cousin and the niece of Circe. So it is likely that Ariadne was also a witch under the guidance of Hecate. Don't know if that is going to be a thing in the future, but just putting it out there.