Chapter 22 - Yr 2: The Librarian of Ruin

Pocket Space of Arturia Morgana Pendragon fate world 1996

(Arturia's P.O.V)

Today is a rather dull day to be sure.

Most of my retinue is currently out in Fuyuki, having a shopping trip which I had to decline mostly because I am cooking dinner for the night, that a choice of three main dishes. Roast Pork with the crackle still intact and edible, some stir-fry chili chicken or french fries along with a burger that has the beef patty with Cheese, Onion, Mayonnaise, and BBQ sauce.

The Einzbern Maids Leysritt and Sella are working hard at my side to help prepare dinner along with me. Ever since we brought them back, I managed to get rings on them that helped undo any conditioning that the two underwent while under the Einzberns.

"Lady Arturia, is everything alright..?" I hear Leysritt say, sighing as both of the maids are under the impression that I'm a user of True magic, well technically I do count as one but I don't use magic per say.

Despite that, the two insist on the title and I ended up just giving in, either way..

"I'm fine Leysritt, how's the pork crackle going..?" I ask, to which she simply responds.."It's being made to your exact specifications as you requested Lady Arturia…." to which I simply nod and decide to take a moment away from the kitchen.

"Can you two take over for abit, I need to take abit of a break…" I ask, to which the two diligently nod and take over my handling of the burgers. Something I am almost completely certain will be Artoria Alter's choice for dinner tonight.

I decide to step out of the manor for abit to stretch, taking a look around as gaze at all the trees, plants, and even the small fruit and vegetable garden we're growing. I also note the existence of the new Warehouse district to where the RED team have taken full residence and have made their new base.

BOOM

I can't help but sigh as I watch yet another explosion occur near the warehouse district, at least they don't do it at night. While Morgan, Merlin, and Medea have tried to replicate the respawn system they used, they, unfortunately, weren't able to find a suitable substitute for Australium, and any prototypes were never tested and as such destroyed.

It's then I hear an odd beep come from the Company Issue phone, I pull it out and find that an experimental feature has unlocked on the app, allowing for one to do a gacha roll and gain access to a new companion, it even boasts having Tier X on the randomizer list.

Seeing that the feature also works more like an on-demand random waifu encounter, which strangely totes the feature of "You won't die should you fail the encounter" Which immediately has me raising eyebrows.

Well if it's for real, I might as well go try it out. The moment I press the roll button, I can help but feel like I'm about to have a really hellish experience..

The wheel cycles through multiple worlds and their waifu choices, some of them not even on the catalog yet even, which makes me narrow my eyes as I start to get the feeling something fishy is going on.

Then the final result is displayed…

[ Encounter World Selected: Library of Ruina ]

[Target, Angela Tier: ERRRORR!]

[Resolving error..]

[Error resolved, Target Tiering set to X]

Before I can even say anything, I feel myself get teleported from my own Demi-plane. And while for those I temporarily leave, only at most 1 minute will pass…

It will most certainly not be one minute for me.

Library: Star of the city

(General P.O.V)

A woman wearing a robe almost like raven feathers sits atop a throne of books, looking down wistfully among the many, many books in the library. Truthfully she wishes some form of end to all of this, some way to pull herself out of this state she's in due to a mistake she made so long ago..

Not even the shades of her former comrades that she makes from their books can truly sate her need for companionship, the entire city is little more than a collection of books for her to claim one day at this point.

All this power, all this light and in the end what does it matter to her. She just feels empty without them with her, her precious friends. Even though she's human now, the pain of what she forced herself to do is simply too much.

However, something changed in the library at this moment, a newcomer has appeared. Hopefully, this one will be worth making into a book in her own personal collection. A Blonde and incredibly buxom woman look looks bewildered before looking right at Angela, almost as if knowing what she is.

"Welcome to the library…" The woman says, her light sky blue hair and piercing golden eyes stare at the woman below her throne. However much to the woman's surprise, she hears her own name spill out of the blonde's lips.

"Angela…so this is…" She says, but shaking her head. The blonde soon gains a resolute look before starting to get into a fighting stance. The now-named Angela looks down at the blonde with a smirk and gets off her throne.

"Before I add you to my collection, may I ask you your name…?" Angela asks, to which the blonde simply replies..

"Arturia.." The now-named Arturia's green eyes shift into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. The look of those eyes give Angela an ominous feeling that she relishes in, feeling something other than the dull ache of regret for the first time in years.

"Very well then Arturia, I shall endeavor to read your tale, page by page…" She says before she snaps her fingers and the bridge before the throne widens fourfold in size, Angela rushes forward before creating a scythe of shadows and lunging at Arturia.

Arturia for her part suddenly unleashes a golden aura and creates a golden scythe of her own, catching her scythe's blade with her own.

[Insert Music: Library of Runia OST - Angela 2]

The two scythes spark violently as their owners pull them out of the bind, Arturia mirroring the stance of Angela as their moves almost begin to play out in total sync. If Angela would perform a Horizontal heavy swing, Arturia would sidestep and attempt to punish by swinging down vertically, resulting in Angela backing and moving to a different tactic.

If Angela would perform a vertical swing, Arturia would perform a Horizontal swing to catch the edge of the scythe, pulling Angela forward and letting Arturia get in a quick and dirty kick to Angela's stomach to force her right back.

Each of the two scythe-toting women practically danced rather than fought due to this rigorous back and forth, torn book pages scattering around them like petals of cherry blossom. Each one tests the other as the fight continues.

And as the fight continues, shades of former guests start to slowly appear around the two women, the scene a landscape of both beauty and death for the two of them even as the two work to try and defeat the other completely and utterly.

Suddenly, the shades begin to attack Arturia, who is forced to start cutting through them while still contending with attacking Angela, who only smiles as she is truly enjoying this fight, that she is enjoying something since that day is something she is not gonna let go of just yet.

"More, show me more my dear guest…" Angela smiles mysteriously before her attire flashes and she suddenly has a lab coat on with her hair tied in a ponytail. The look feels strangely familiar to her but she shrugs it off as the fight continues, Angela now widening the gap and firing pillars of light right below Arturia's feet.

The Blonde manages to barely blur out of the way of the pillar shooting up from at her feet each time all while having to deal with the shades that are starting to grow more and more defined as a result.

A woman in red soon charges at Arturia with a greatsword that looks like it was made out of some demonic flesh. A Man with a black mask and short black hair attempt to land several punches at Arturia.

More and more familiar faces begin to show up from their books as Angela continues to assault Arturia with more and more pillars of light. It's right then the Blonde suddenly has a large plume of smoke appear and several clones of her appear, each with their own scythes.

"Fascinating…" Angela says, growing more and more intrigued with this uninvited guest the more she fights her. However, the fight is also having the side effect of those trapped in their books slowly starting to come to full awareness of their situation.

And soon, one by one they stop fighting Arturia and start attempting to fight Angela instead. Such efforts are for naught though as the moment they try to, they return to their books once more.

Only the one in the black mask is able to resist this however and manages to land a direct hit on Angela's face. This throws her back and makes her chuckle wistfully, looking longingly at the man in the black mask.

"You always were the one who could do that to me….Roland…" Angela says, with the man slowly removing his mask, looking back at the woman in a look of pure regret and pity. Through the existence of the newcomer, he briefly was able to tap into the light that was in Angela and could see a better future. But it is not their future, the one they live is effectively a "Bad end", even so Roland has no desire to see the woman he grew to care for torture herself over her selfish desires.

"Hey, blondie do you think you can take Angela away from the city, away from the world..?" Roland asks Arturia, to which she only nods as the clones and other shadows continue to fight around them.

"Then, I will assist you in dealing with my dear friend, all I ask is you get her someplace that isn't going to turn her into yet another monster of this city.." He pleads, making Arturia nod once more..

"Ready to go, Black Silence..?" Arturia asks Roland, to which he chuckles before responding..

"Only my enemies call me that, friends can simply just call me….Roland…" With that, the two charges at Angela who gazes at Roland longingly, having also seen what could have been while Roland was talking.

But that was then and this is now, she's come too far now to attempt to undo things now. Pillars of light rush toward the two, but each time they miss, which starts to frustrate Angela before her form begins to change once again..

[Insert Music Change: Library of Ruina - Angela 3 ]

Massive wings of black come forth from Angela's back as red corrupt veins appear below her eyes, and along her hands and legs. Once more wearing the raven feather cloak only the feathers are now moving and flapping as if they're all alive still.

"There is no reforming me now Roland, this city has taken me into it's embrace for good, and both you and the newcomer will both be books in my personal collection before long.." She says ominously, a massive amount of power leaking off of her form, way higher than anything Arturia has ever experienced before.

"Tch, the app did say Tier X….then it's only right then.." Arturia says to herself before suddenly going all out with Super Saiyan Rose, the golden scythe going bright pink as she lets the ribcage of the Susanoo form around her.

A single swing from Angela however is enough to completely sever the bridge and tear through much of the library behind the duo, with her swing having missed only due to not having had to use such power before now.

Roland rushes forward, taking the chance to attempt to land a few hits, but the feathers block the damage effortlessly. This in turn allows Arturia time to turn the Scythe into more of a Kunai with Chain combo and throws the Kunai at Angela, only for it to be effortlessly batted away by her scythe which is rearing up for another swipe.

The moment it does, however, Arturia goes full-on Perfect Susanoo and blocks it with the twin swords, the sheer weight behind the swing though is making even the mighty perfect Susanoo struggle to hold back the scythe for long.

This prompts Arturia to rush in and get close, intending to end it with one final attack. She forms a Ki greatsword, only barely able to make it passingly resemble Red Queen from Devil May Cry 4, when it suddenly overflows with light.

As Arturia brings it down on Angela, the Light-sky-blue haired woman briefly sees her precious friends behind the blonde woman, aiding her with what little light they can give her all while out of nowhere Roland manages to get behind Angela and restrain her.

With no way to avoid the incoming attack, the light-infused Ki greatsword slams into Angela, going right through her, and she at long last stops. Arturia for her part just looks exhausted, even as the Inexhaustible perk is already rejuvenating her stamina.

As Angela looks at the blonde who finally managed to stop her, she can't help but smile. She truly enjoyed all this and wishes that she can do this again someday..

Without warning, the entire world begins to rapidly disappear in a hurricane of golden particles, with both Angela and Arturia disappearing. This leaves Roland to watch as his world is broken down rapidly, although he isn't alone as he watches the end of his world occur..

"Thanks guys…you didn't have to do that for Angela…." Roland says smiling softly to the spirits of his dead comrades as before long, everything turns to black and Roland knows no more after that.

[Music end]

Pocket Space of Arturia Morgana PendragonFate world1996

(General P.O.V)

Arturia groans as she wakes up on the beach of her own pocket space, having been brought home after that harrowing experience. She briefly looks around and sees that much to her surprise, Angela had been brought with her, and what's more, she's already been bound.

And when Arturia checks her phone, the experimental app is nowhere to be found on her phone, even checking various company support forums reveals that there was never an experimental app release to begin with.

And yet, two pieces of proof of what just happened was completely real is right before her. The First is Angela (Star of the City) Companion now listed in her retinue, as well as one other thing.

A Tier X Ticket.

Something tells Arturia that she is gonna have a really tough time explaining Angela's situation to the rest of the family. But she can probably figure it out, somehow..

Author's note

That's Year 2 sorted.

Now, Angela..

This one is interesting as she's actually a variant that would only canonically occur during a bad end. Tier X is solely due to becoming the vessel of her world's "Light" so to speak. All to become Human at that.

Now I know there is technically only a modded version of this fight as no actual in-game fight for this occurs, so I had to improvise as much as I could regarding her abilities while also making sure it fits the phase theme as well.

This entire chapter was an idea I had after listening to some Library of Ruina music covers, that game is without a doubt one of the most intense games I've experienced. I've had many adrenaline highs from playing it, especially due to the music that accompanies it.

Still, does this mean that The Pendragons will get access to E.

Yes…..and no.

To be specific, only Angela can actually use them due to requiring the "Light" in the first place.

Angela's Tiering of X

This is actually more of World-based artificial Tier inflation, something that has disappeared, and without the library to support angela, she is now truthfully no higher than Tier 9.

This also means that she has lost the ability to turn others into books so she can't gain any new powers that way. She is also a former AI turned human through selfish desire, which unfortunately also locks her off from anything normal humans could potentially access instead. Templating would fix this issue easily though.

However, Angela will be dealing a lot of trauma regarding the experiences she went through in both Lobotomy corp and this version of the Library of Ruina. As such, she won't be willing to explore new worlds for a long while.

For the next few worlds at least, she'll be more of a background character, only making her presence known occasionally as she recovers. In the end, though I sincerely hope she'll be able to make an impact when she finally does resolve her issues.

And as for the mysterious app, well the library always has it's way of inviting guests does it not..?

Regardless, that's all for now, see you in three days for Year three!