Chapter 18 - End of Zero Part 1
Pocket Space of Arturia Morgana Pendragon Fate world 1994 Almost 3 days after last chapter
(Arturia's P.O.V)
"Sakura, it's time to go to sleep…" I say to my dear adopted daughter who has been playing Monopoly on the PS4 with Mordred, Artoria (Saber) and Merlin.
"Aww…Ok Mommy…" Sakura says, reluctantly passing her controller to Artoria (Saber) While I pick her up gently, glancing at Merlin who merely nods and whispers to Mordred and Artoria(Saber) who start to get up and back to their own rooms..
The last 2 days have been particularly hard on all of us, especially on Sakura who didn't manage to talk much to her new Auntie Fu, but despite that we are starting to prepare.
As I bring Sakura to her room, I help her get dressed for bedtime and grab her clothes to put into the laundry for later. As I put her into bed, I gently kiss her on the forehead and tuck her in.
"Goodnight dear, see you in the morning.." I promise to Sakura, watching her smile and snuggle into her bed as I slowly walk out of the room.
Once I get out of the room, I briefly glance at Fu's room in the hallway before I head to the living room table where everyone is already sitting. All of them in full battle gear while I let my own manifest over the Red turtleneck sweater and the tight black cotton pants I was wearing.
"Tonight is the night…" I say, having taken a seat at the head of the table as I usually do, looking over the stoic, solemn or hardened looks I get from everyone here.
"Here is the plan that I've talked over with Artoria(Saber) and Merlin…" I say, bringing out a map of Fuyuki.
"Kiritsugu, who I have recently learned is a woman at that, has already taken out lancer…" I say, briefly looking at everyone to gauge the reactions before continuing with.."And if my understanding of how the war is playing out is anything, Kiritsugu is now focusing his efforts on taking out Berserker…" I finish.
Taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I elaborate on the next point of the briefing starting with.." Kariya has been spotted to be moving about Fuyuki with Aoi and Rin under his protection, doubtless trying to find somewhere safe…" I say, before looking at most of my Retinue and soon say..
"Most of the family will be going to try and extract Aoi Tohsaka and Rin Tohsaka to safety while trying to pinpoint the location of either Kirei Kotomine or Kiritsugu.." I say, with Mordred suddenly slamming her armored fist on the table yelling.."BULLSHIT, I want to take a stab at that golden bastard myself…" She says snarling with rage.
"The reason you're not going to deal with Gilgamesh is exactly because of that hot-headedness…" I say, before elaborating with.." I'll be dealing with Gilgamesh alongside Arcueid who to help ensure that I won't become wrapped in Enkidu's chains.." To which Arcueid merely nods, wanting to take a stab at the blonde demigod herself.
"Not to mention I have ways of evening the odds myself.." I say, simply performing the shadow clone jutsu to make copies of myself appear.
"I will make damn sure he can't spam me this time, plus…" I say, pulling out my company issued phone.
"I've already made damn sure to further increase my chances of success…" I finish, having recently purchased Trace Defense and Information Defense at max in order to ensure Gilgamesh will not be benefitting from his clairvoyance.
I spent the first day after Fu's death scouring the internet for anything I can learn for Gilgamesh. Which led to me discovering his clairvoyance, something that I wanted to strangle my past self for in regards to forgetting that exists, sure it's not so well known compared to his bullshit of spamming weapons galore, but come on!
What really made this worse is the sheer amount of credit rebate for both defenses, barely making a dent in the now 2165 credit budget I have after purchasing both at max. Sighing after remembering all of this, I just shake my head and move forward with the briefing.
"Moving on, we don't know where Gilgamesh is yet but there is reason to believe he will be at Fuyuki bridge if events are yet to go off the rails too much…" I say, Merlin using her scrying to make up for the lack of real-time information through Fu paying dividends for the moment considering the amount of information we have.
"For now though, Merlin will remain here to keep Sakura safe just incase another like Zelretch is somehow here, alongside Medea.." I say, before adding.." Both of them will be scrying and providing information through the rings as best as she can.."
I soon pull out two rings, one for full on capture and another for adoption of a child and place them on the table. Looking at the family carefully I soon say.."The moment you find Aoi and/or Rin, you are to give them the rings for their own protection and start bringing them back to the manor.." Before adding..
"Once they're safe, you have my permission to start hunting for Kirei or searching for Kiritsugu, the grail must not be allowed to fully manifest.." I finish, not wanting to see the Fuyuki fire again.
I dispel the shadow clones and soon stand up, making a portal for all of us to exit out of.
"Before Fu's death, I must admit I thought we could coast through the Fourth Holy grail war without any issues…now though…" I say, letting my godly Ki aura leak out as I briefly flash into Super Saiyan Rose.
"Now I realize that I've been treating this world too much like a side-show to watch and intervene as I please, that ends tonight.." I declare firmly..
Gilgamesh and Kirei won't know the shitstorm that is coming their way, and with any luck..
They'll die tonight.
Later Fuyuki Bridge 1 hour until Midnight 1994
(General P.O.V)
Waver is distraught, still mourning over the death of Rider who has just been killed by Gilgamesh, looking on at the whisps of gold with something akin to respect for the fallen rider.
"Be honored, you were in the retinue of a worthy king, although while not to my grandeur he was still one that, if circumstances were different….I might have even called him a friend…" Gilgamesh admits outwardly, thinking of Enkidu as he talks..
"Now then.." Gilgamesh says as he looks towards the spot he knows that the lesser grail and Kiritsugu is, peering at their location through Sha Naqba Imuru while soon looking at Kariya's location, the two heading into a collision course at one of the spots the grail can manifest, what Irony..
"If you'll excuse me magus, I have a grail too—" To his immense shock, it's not Sha Naqba Imuru that warns him of the incoming attack, but his own combat instincts as he dodges a bright glowing beam of energy that fissles out before hitting a building on the other side of the bridge.
"What is–" He turns to where the beam came from and to his delight, sees her, the new Goddess coming in on a stallion of white. He grins and begins to fire out the chains of his beloved friend Enkidu at her, wanting to claim her for himself before a second blur of blonde comes off from the back of the horse and with bared claws, begins to swat away the chains of Enkidu.
"GILGAMESH!" Arturia says with a rage, firing off another beam of energy from her lance as both Waver and Gilgamesh are forced to dodge, the support structures of the bridge staring to fray from all the intense barrages of energy surging past them.
"Hmph, looks like I will not be taking what is mine without a fight…good" Gilgamesh says, grinning with excitement, especially since he recently came from a fight with a worthy rival of kingship. He looks forward to teaching this new Goddess her place beneath him..
He rushes forward with the Gates of Babylon firing on all cylinders, intending to skewer both Arcueid and Arturia, mostly Acrueid since he wants Arturia..
"Acrueid, back on Dun stallion!" Arturia cries out as she fires more beams from the lance to take out some of the weapons being thrown at the two of them. The Bridge barely managing to stay functional while all this is happening.
Waver for his part can only watch with pure shock and amazement as this newcomer, shows the capabilities of a servant, but that shouldn't be possible in the Modern Era..
Aruceid for her part nods, having for now fulfilled her role in this to prevent Enkidu from landing on Arturia she leaps out of the way of being skewkered by a ton of weapons before landing on the back of Dun stallion.
Arturia rides forward atop of Dun Stallion, the steed finally getting a chance to be used in direct combat with another Servant. Gilgamesh briefly considers bring out Ea but shakes his head, not only his pride preventing that but he truly wishes to have that Goddess under his thumb before the night's end.
So Gilgamesh takes out some blades from his treasury and moves forward to intercept the lance-toting Goddess. Both blades and lance meet in the midde of the collision with the blades breaking under the sheer weight and power of Rhongomyniad.
This forces Gilgamesh to move his head lest he get a large hole through it and goes to try and stab the broken blades into Dun Stallion. Arturia, Having anticipating this as she herself is now using her own Clairvoyance, sends Dun Stallion away while temporarily pudding Arcueid on her back.
With her left hand now no longer holding the reigns, she directly lands a left-handed punch right Into Gilgamesh's face and sending him flying into Fuyuki harbour. Gilgamesh's landing also forces several cargo containers to land on him.
Waver watches as Arturia narrows her eyes as she then looks at Arcueid. "Hold on tight, got it..?" She says to Acrueid, prompting her to nod and maintain a firm grip on Arturia's armor. He then witnesses the two suddenly jump off the side of the bridge and suddenly start flying fast toward the harbor.
Gilgamesh for his part manages to throw off the cargo containers and seeing the incoming duo, begin to array a horde of gates in front of the harbor and begins to effectively dumb-fire to create a blanketing field of fire over the waters.
"Tch, alright then…" Arturia says before closing her eyes, only opening them to reveal the Eternal Mangekyo sharingan then without warning a large amount of smoke bursts forth around her, to reveal a horde of shadow clones.
Her and her shadow clones begin to rush through the required handseals identically before finally going..
"FIRE STYLE: GREAT FIREBALL JUTSU!" which results in a horde of van-sized fireballs rushing forward to intercept the blanket of weapons fired toward her, some of the shadow clones retrieving Arcueid from Arturia's back while she soars ahead of the clones.
The weapons and fireballs clash violently, creating explosions all around her as she continues to confidently soar forward, her pristine lancer armor taking various hits and even one manages to get dangerously close to her head, only causing her to lose her right shoulder pauldron completely.
"HAAAA!" Arturia roars as she manages to get right past the gates and have her lance ready and poised to get a direct chest hint on Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh very quickly is forced to manifest something known as the "Shield of the Gods" From his Gates in order to prevent being killed by a direct hit front Rhongomyniad.
"You are very quickly becoming more trouble than you're worth goddess…" Gilgamesh says, who is becoming quickly frustrated at how both his Clairvoyance is being completely nullified whenever he looks at her and the fact that his treasures are starting to prove to be not enough to deal with this stubborn goddess.
Meanwhile The sight of potential Fuyuki Park 45 Minutes until Midnight
(General P.O.V)
The sounds of gunshots and knives being thrown can be heard as Kiritsugu faces down Kirei Kotomine. The Female Mercenary gritting her teeth while she reloads her guns, showing extreme annoyance at how Kirei got the drop on her while Saber was fighting Berserker in a nearby carpark.
"Come on out Emiya, surely you can't let your dear Einzbern Homculus suffer the pains of being the lesser grail for too much longer…" Kirei calls out, trying to goad Kitisugu to come out to try and give Irisviel time to escape.
Said Albino woman coughing as she's struggling to handle the influx of Prana going through her, having realized that Rider has recently died, Hiding nearby while watching things unfold. Everything has been chaos ever since the Tohsaka estate was so brazenly attacked, the dead of lancer was perhaps the only thing that's been going to plan since then..
She hears gunshots as her beloved Emiya-chan suddenly rushes forward, the black-haired beauty snarling as she fires, Kirei only faintly smiling as he blocks the bullets with his black keys.
"Took you long enough Kiritsugu Emiya…" Kirei says, amused as the Buxom Merc pulls out a grenade and throws it at him, with a simple kick he knocks it away into a nearby building, detonating once it breaks the window.
He rushes forward as Kiritsugu Emiya prepares herself, activating Time Alter once more to fight him in close quarters..
Irisviel watching, only hopes that Saber is having a better time than they are right now..
Meanwhile A nearby carpark in Fuyuki 1994 40 minutes until midnight
(General P.O.V)
The fight between Saber and the now revealed Lancelot in Berserker form is going terribly for Saber, especially since unlike in the original turn of events, Kariya would be struggling with the Crest worms, but without them causing issues..
It's leading to Saber about to be struck down by Berserker..
As Saber is about to be killed by Beserker however…
Two blades block the final strike from Ardonlight, a bustier version of Saber and a particularly busty Mordred. The sight of the two saving her and their appearance utterly shocks the F-Zero version of Artoria..
"W-what…." Is all she can say, her mind barely wrapping itself around the situation, even as the two work to throw Berserker Lancelot back and go into a defensive stance.
"Been awhile hasn't it father..?" Mordred asks, baffling F-Zero Saber before slowly nodding to the question, but before she can question things, the other version of her, clearly looking more older and experienced while sporting a much more voluptuous version of her form soon interjects saying.." We will explain things another time, myself from a prior point of my past…but for now, we need to put Lancelot to rest…" She says with a resolved tone to her voice, the F-Zero saber only able to nod and pick up Excalibur to join the Two Pendragon sabers.
"Aoi and Rin have been found and brought out of the line of fire, Kariya also has a message for you two.." A female voice comes from the rings of the two Pendragon family sabers..
"Put my partner to rest, he deserves it for all the help he has given me to save sakura…" The Female voice quotes, making both Mordred and Artoria (Pendragon Saber) Nods while Artoria looks to her Fate/Zero Counterpart..
"Can you keep up..?" She asks, to which she gets a resolute nod. As the three draw their blades at Lancelot, the berserk knight of the round merely rushes at them, with a single scream..
"ARRRRUTHRRR!"
The battle resumes, promptly..
Three Battles, all across Fuyuki, are happening at the same time…
Meanwhile Pocket Space of Arturia Morgana Pendragon 30 minutes until midnight Fu's room
(General P.O.V)
The room is dead silent, the darkness of the room only faintly illuminated by a yellow light coming from the ring on Fu's corpse. A Timer having been counting down since her death..
All of a sudden the yellow light is replaced by a green light that flashes and suddenly fades, the wounds on the body of Fu disappearing..
And a pair of eyes snap open..
Author's note
I don't intend to do much here in the author's notes until the final part of this three-part section.
So for now, I wil say this. Alot of things are happening simultaneously right now, so until they're all concluded, I can't really say much just yet.
Next time on A Golden Goddess: The battle continues and the grail appears!
See you all again Very soon
